Guide to Startup PR 2025: How To Increase Media Attention?

50 mins read

Every startup faces this problem, right after launch: how to promote itself to save money and get maximum exposure? In fact, promoting on low budget should be a go-to strategy for a startup since they need to focus more on development and service to offer customers a high-end product.

One of the main things here is paying close attention to marketing trends and the latest strategies most companies use. Thus a startup owner can escape many mistakes and direct the necessary effort to implement the best strategies for startup promotion. Since startups cannot afford to spend million-dollar budgets on traditional marketing channels, they should focus on unbiased and creative ways of promotion.

What Makes PR Essential For Startups?

The world of startups is highly competitive on all levels. Not only should you always pitch your exclusivity to investors but also stir up interest in media. Once you are in, fighting for publicity becomes fierce competition.

Before diving into practical steps, let’s examine the current advertising landscape. The world of advertising is becoming increasingly sophisticated and challenging. People no longer see glossy ads on their screens as authentic or compelling enough to drive them to purchase. Intrusive ads on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram are often skipped deliberately, leaving users with negative impressions.

While targeted advertising can occasionally work in your favor, most consumers place greater trust in user-generated content rather than branded campaigns. PR plays a crucial role here, leveraging user-generated content, product reviews, and informational placements on various platforms to build credibility and trust.

The Key Benefits of PR for Startups:

  • Establishing brand trustworthiness
  • Boosting investor confidence and facilitating fundraising initiatives
  • Attracting and retaining top-tier talent
  • Enhancing omnichannel online presence
  • Increasing customer acquisition and retention rates

Another important advantage is that, as the founder of your startup, you have complete control over how your brand is perceived. You define how current and future customers see you as a cohesive and trustworthy brand. This is why crafting and promoting your brand story is essential – it helps prevent misinformation or speculation that could harm your reputation.

By delivering clear messages, setting firm boundaries, and embracing sincerity and openness, you allow your audience to understand truly who you are. Think of this as your stage, where you control the narrative – own it with confidence.

The “first contact” with media will largely determine the way your product will be covered by media outlets in the future.

If you claim your product is a breakthrough, the interest goes up. On the other hand, you are putting high stakes on the image of your startup in the public eye. In case your statements do not meet reality, be prepared for a huge kick in your media reputation. Journalists would not miss a chance to criticize statements that ended up inconsistent with reality. They will likely criticize even the tiniest bugs, errors, and failures.

From here we may conclude the following:

Launching a successful PR campaign requires a lot of backstage work, from examining your target audience to building an effective team, and finding your first investors.

To prepare your project for a successful PR campaign, make sure:

  • You can define your target audience.
  • Your product provides a solution to a certain issue.
  • You have a complete understanding of how the product works.
  • You can define the benefits & weaknesses of your major competitors.
  • You define your market volume.
  • You have a plan for scaling up (locally, across the country, or on the international level).

Successful PR for Startup in Media

The first “touch” with media is scary. Not only do you introduce your startup to a wide circle of readers but also acquire a reputation in the world of media. Whether you hire a PR specialist or do it yourself, the task will be to find and engage the right people while telling your story through the most effective media channels. 

It’s worth noting that paying for publications is a common practice. Yet, you can always find free opportunities that can work as effectively as the resources you paid for. 

Below I am describing 5 major steps that stand behind a successful media PR for a startup, whether the placement is free or paid.

Step 1: Target Audience

As a startup founder, you should already have an idea of your target audience. Who are those people and what do you want to tell them? 

In the media prospect, your target audience is not only end-users but also investors, business partners, media representatives, officials, and even future employees. 

For each group of your target audience, you need to: 

  • select the most efficient promo channel (or channels) for each audience group.
  • decide on the main message that you will broadcast through a particular channel to a particular audience group.

Promo channels are media outlets that help you reach the target audience. For effective media PR, you must know the audience’s interests and preferences. What do they read and what websites do they visit? Do they watch TV or prefer reading news through social media platforms? Be prepared to answer dozens of questions like that.

Step 2: Clear Objectives Only

Stop, without clear goals, do not move anywhere! 

Just like planning a weekly menu and shopping for specific dishes, your PR strategy needs clear direction. How can you bake a cake if you don’t know that’s your goal, rather than roasting meat? Without the right ingredients, you’ll end up with something entirely different. The same applies when planning your PR strategy – you need to know your ultimate goal before you start.

When preparing a banquet, we gradually cook one dish at a time and eventually have a full, satisfying meal. Similarly, in PR, you need to set smaller sub-goals to create a complete, successful strategy. Focus on what you want to achieve and build from there. Here are some tips:

  • Stay in regular contact with your team: and ask for honest feedback on how they perceive the progress and outcome.
  • Engage in ‘Why’s therapy’: ask yourself why you’re doing this, what your core purpose is, how you plan to manage the process, and what the ultimate benefits of your work will be.
  • Visualize Success: мisualize what achieving your goal will look like. What steps do you need to take? This will help you visualize what exactly needs to be done.
  • Formulation of SMART goals: refer to this popular method, your goals should be: S -Specific, M – Measurable, A – Achievable, R – Relevant, and T – Time-bound.
  • Ask the best for their opinions: only experienced people can give you quality advice, so reach out to possible acquaintances, or don’t be afraid to reach out and contact someone powerful.

For example, suppose your goal is to generate attention for the launch of a new product. In that case, you need to create a cohesive PR plan with a clear value proposition –  why your product is valuable to your target audience, what innovations it brings, and what key features it offers. Define your target audience to ensure quicker acceptance and engagement.

Step 3: Strategy Development

Here’s what you need to know about PR strategy for startups. Based on your data about the target audience and startup principles, you write down an approximate PR plan. A startup PR plan will include a list of promo activities (presentations & other events) and a list of media resources that may potentially publish your news.

Now, you may ask yourself: “How exactly do I reach out to the wished media outlets?” 

With PRNEWS.IO, you don’t have to think about it anymore. Why? We are the world’s first content store to create & distribute brand content across online media.

All you have to do is to register an account and choose the number of publishes from the list of our collaborations (local & international). Either you submit your own text, or our copywriters create this content for you. 

Articles for Talent Visa

Let’s enter the world of media together!

The main message of your post should depend on the audience group that will read about you in the particular media outlet. This means each message will have a different emphasis on things that matter most to a particular audience. 

For example, publishers from the official city media would like to write about the startup benefits in regard to the city. When it comes to resources specializing in investment news, you better focus on the startup’s profitability and prospects. And for the tech news resources, it’s important to present a startup from the side of its tech innovation. 

Try to convey the main message the way it sounds understandable to everyone despite their knowledge and interests.

Step 4: Maximize launch impact on Product Hunt with PRNEWS.IO services

With so many paid platforms available for launching a startup, it might seem like free options are limited. But ProductHunt proves otherwise. Offering free and paid plans, you can launch your product with a free personal account and an internet connection. Share your product, engage with the community, and even get featured as ‘Product of the Day’ – all without spending a dime. “Sometimes, relying solely on the free version isn’t enough to fully boost your startup’s PR efforts. So, what can you do next?

PRNEWS.IO is a versatile platform designed to boost your business through articles featured on world-renowned websites. We tailor a PR strategy to your goals, target audience, and location. With coverage in prestigious publications like Forbes, Reuters, The Guardian, and The Times, your business gains credibility and showcases the quality of your services. Our approach combines high engagement with tangible results, all at affordable prices, ensuring that our services provide excellent value for your startup.

Step 5: News Generation

Many startups inundate reporters with a startup story of success. It remains unchanged from one media outlet to another and will likely stay the same in future releases. While founders crave to share information on their startup path, journalists crave to share the news.

How to turn your story into the “news”? In short, every news has an expiration date. Media shares news immediately, or else, it’s no longer relevant. Journalists hunt for news because they always grab more attention than other kinds of posts.

Read more: What Makes a Story Newsworthy? Pick Up the Most Newsworthy Topic for Your Press Release

4 Ideas for Generating Startup News

  1. Startup release/ improvement/rebranding. The fact that you’ve just released your project is potentially interesting as news. It has a date, place, action, and circumstance. Another occasion to generate news about your startup is when you are changing (major updates or rebranding). Use them to include background information about your startup, while keeping the main focus on the news.
  2. Progress pace. Do you have any progress to share so far? Perhaps, you already reached one million visitors per day or gathered $100 thousand of revenue after 1 month of release.  The media loves figures, especially if numbers are significantly higher than the starting mark. For a “wow” effect, I advise you to wait until you receive at least 25% of what was planned in the big run.
  3. Product recognition & collaboration with serious players. Your startup may and should gain recognition from other companies. To support progressive startup innovations, some companies test those developments in their business. Some of them may offer a partnership or other types of collaboration. The more well-known brands you can mention in the news – the more likely it will go viral.
  4. Big investments. People speak about money more than anything. If your project receives big funding from investors, do not miss highlighting this news across media. This is just another chance to raise your reputation among readers and publishers.

Modern users are different from those who “ruled the web” a decade ago. Millennials give way to Generation Z. These customers are pickier when it comes to purchasing and rarely follow direct advertising when deciding to buy. More and more modern customers wish the companies to speak to them and provide their ideas instead of flogging the goods.

So you have to create your brand narrative to tell your existing and potential customers who you are, what are your goals, message, and values, and what makes you so special. Whatever you’re selling to the audience, you should be able to show up what sets you apart from competitors and why people should choose your product instead of others.

Gone are those days when you could blindly dropping some mediocre content across a bunch of platforms for maximum exposure. Google now closely follows the quality of content and treats spammy links more roughly.

Go for quality and don’t chase after posting frequency – it’s not essential anymore. Post regularly but post wisely! Create engaging content that people would love to share and read. Inspect your niche keywords and create content that people search for. There is nothing as just ‘good unique content’ anymore, Rand Fishkin said. You should create great content that is 10x times better than anyone’s and answers all user’s questions in one place.

Build high-quality backlinks to your website with media and blogger outreach. This is one of the best ways of getting attention to your brand and its products. Thus, you kill two birds with one stone: you get good visibility in search since Google treats backlinks as one of Google’s ranking factors, and you establish good brand awareness among your target audience with placement of linked content across the right media. You can check out what media is right for you at the PRNEWS.IO marketplace and start building your media promotion right away.

Step 6: Establish Yourself as a Leader in Your Industry

A leader is not just someone who guides others or is chosen by a group; a leader is someone whose opinion is valued and who is listened to. Today, influencers like bloggers, singers, and activists are often considered as leaders, as they promote ideologies or support movements. A leader demonstrates their values and inspires others to do the same.

How can this help in PR strategy? Much like the school team’s captain, leaders gain popularity, and the products they endorse sell out faster. For example, a football team captain might wear a specific brand of sneakers, creating a trend that attracts more attention to the product. The same applies to your startup: leadership sets you apart from other businesses in your industry.

Some tips on your way to leadership:

  • Be an expert: people won’t listen to just anyone – study new trends, analyze the market, read relevant research, and share your knowledge with others. You must understand deeply your industry and constantly improve your knowledge.
  • Inspire: Creativity is the key to the audience’s heart. Inspire people to new achievements, engage them in charity, and encourage them to flourish, grow, and succeed.
  • Build your network and engage with other thought leaders: Organize joint projects, discussions, or interviews to raise mutual awareness.
  • Communicate: Engage your audience in discussions, ask questions, and solicit feedback. Create a unique communication style (tone, style, approach to presenting material) – this will help you become a recognizable thought leader.

You can boost overall brand awareness by leveraging thought leadership, enhanced media exposure, and content engagement. These activities also allow businesses to position themselves as experts or leaders, attracting new customers who recognize the value of that expertise. 

If you’re new to startups, don’t despair – start by building your reputation and recruiting an audience – it’s a good foundation for becoming a leader.

Step 7: Consistency

A common PR approach states the number of mentions in the press is a critical indicator. It comes down to publishing a larger number of press releases with the same content.

Does it really work? Hardly…

When it comes to PR strategy for a newly-released project, generating a newsfeed and contacting media outlets is a consistent process. As stated earlier, startups can generate news on various occasions, whether it’s a financial achievement or a signed contract with a big brand.

It’s important to remind everyone working in the startup of your milestones and decide if it’s worth being shared in the news. Having a few announcements in reserve will get you covered within the next few months in case some media outlet asks you to make an urgent announcement.

Step 8: Opt for user-generated content

It’s a fast and cheap way of building trust in your startup as well as creating a nice community. It’s a perfect way to our emotions and let your customers play a vital role in your business. It provides them with their own sense of worth. And you will show that you value your users and trust their opinions.

Another great side of UGC is the fact that it saves you from a routine of generating tons f content yourself. Of course, it doesn’t mean you may take UGC as is and post it everywhere. But it requires less effort and time investment than content creation from scratch. UGC is not only testimonials and user reviews about the product. It can also be interviews with those who already tried the product and wishes to share their thoughts (opinion leaders will be a perfect fit). Videos are also an amazing way of creating virality and offering great content to others. Photos that users post online can also be added to your website. But don’t grab those shoots without permission – ask first!

Step 9: Leverage Social Media

Social media is one of the best free ways to promote your startup. With a wide variety of platforms available, each offering unique promotional features, businesses can connect with their target audience, gather valuable feedback, and build trust. The ease of sharing content on social media helps startups reach a broader audience than expected and attract the right stakeholders. With millions of active users on each platform, social media provides an unparalleled opportunity to increase brand awareness and gain free PR.

Here are some tips for better social media use:

Not just Facebook

Facebook’s strength as a more professional platform for promotion can also be its limitation, as standing out often requires greater effort and resources. To enhance recognition, it’s essential to diversify your promotional strategy across multiple platforms. Among the newer options is Threads, which allows businesses to rapidly build an audience, receive feedback, and engage in conversations. Since Threads is not yet oversaturated with influencers and established brands, it provides an excellent opportunity to connect directly with your target audience and establish a strong presence.

TikTok’s Impact

At first glance, TikTok seems like a platform for teenagers, but it’s not. These days, TikTok has become the primary platform where people discover and share content, with many now attributing their discoveries to something they saw on TikTok. While short 15-second videos were once the norm, today the platform supports content up to 10 minutes long. The average TikTok viewer wants to get all the information faster, so it is necessary to attract the user’s attention in 2 seconds. The benefits of TikTok for businesses are substantial: you can offer industry-specific advice, showcase a typical workday, share your success journey, collaborate with influencers, and create user-generated content (UGC). This makes TikTok a dynamic tool for building your brand and connecting with a wider audience.

Data analysis and content adaptation

Different countries and cultures have unique preferences and behaviors, which directly affect how they perceive content and PR. For instance, in most parts of the world, people buy decorations and prepare their homes for Christmas, while in predominantly Muslim regions, where other religious values prevail, this practice is uncommon. Similarly, those living near the sea are more likely to demand swimsuits, flip-flops, or protective slippers for sea urchins compared to residents of northern regions. Therefore, it is important to use social media analytics to track the effectiveness of your content and audience behavior. Based on this information, adapt your content strategy to make it more relevant, attractive, and successful.

Step 10: Cross-channel marketing campaigns

It’s impossible to boil the ocean, so you shouldn’t try to present your startup across all existing marketing channels. However, getting exposure to most of them would be great. Marketing is a complex measure and the most successful gain is those startups who manage to implement content and email marketing along with social media scope, SEO, crowdsourcing, etc.

In this light, startups should also pay attention to offline marketing and various activities that can be promoted with the use of various channels. This could be local networking events, conference backstage, and after-party, where startup owners may establish new connections and hand out business cards.

Step 11: Relationship Building

Who else but marketers and journalists are engaged in proper PR and promotion of startups? With whom else but them should we build trusting relationships? The questions are rhetorical. 

Interpersonal relationships have a direct connection to your startup’s PR efforts. Establishing relationships with journalists well before the launch of your startup is a strategic move that can significantly enhance your visibility and credibility. Journalists wield considerable influence in the media space, and having them as allies can amplify your message to a broader audience. Building such relationships is not only essential for every business but can also serve as a cost-effective promotion strategy. Engage with journalists by sharing valuable insights, exclusive updates, or early access to your product – this fosters mutual trust and increases the likelihood of positive coverage when your startup launches. 

How to win the trust of journalists:

Start from afar

Start by subscribing from your profile on Twitter to journalists whose work aligns with your industry or who might be interested in your startup. Follow their updates, read their threads, and engage authentically by responding to tweets, sharing your perspectives, or asking thoughtful questions. Your goal is to build genuine connections rather than simply seeking coverage. This initial interaction establishes a foundation for communication and positions you as an active and engaged participant in the conversation. Over time, these connections can evolve into valuable relationships that support your PR strategy.

Initiate Genuine Connections

Engage with the discussions and updates posted by journalists in your field. Their posts can be a catalyst for you to respond – don’t hesitate to give advice, help and express your opinion. However, your contributions mustn’t be a self-promotion or an attempt to advertise yourself on someone else’s platform. Focus on providing genuine, thoughtful input that adds value to the conversation, rather than pushing your agenda.

Take all the connections possible

Perhaps you have a friend or an acquaintance who has a familiar journalist – don’t hesitate to ask for an introduction. A personal connection can provide a stronger foundation for building a professional relationship, as shared background and mutual trust can ease the way into meaningful collaboration. Leveraging your existing network can help you expand your connections within the journalism world and increase the likelihood of successful media coverage for your startup.

Step 12: Participation in charitable and public events

Even at charity events, brands from various industries, such as car manufacturers or hygiene product companies are listed as sponsors. This strategy is deliberate: it helps increase brand visibility by associating with causes like cancer research or animal welfare. By supporting these events, you’re not only contributing to a worthy cause but also boosting your brand’s recognition. It’s a win-win situation – you do good and get noticed. Here are some additional advice to become noticed:

Create stronger brand associations with additional attributes

If you’re a hygiene products company, consider providing items like wipes, shower gels, baby diapers, pads, and toilet paper, along with branded notebooks and pens for all event participants. If you own a clothing brand, offer 10% discount certificates for those who join the animal aid campaign. For a chocolate factory, provide sweets at the event and set up a branded table for attendees to sample your products. These thoughtful contributions may seem small, but they have a big impact – people will remember your brand for its support and generosity.

Share on Social Media

Share the progress and insights from your charity event, highlighting the efforts and actions that made it possible. Focus on the impact of your contributions and how your followers can join in to support a great cause. By involving your community, you not only raise awareness but also inspire others to take part in making a positive difference.

Give interviews to local reporters

If you’re supporting an organization in a specific region, reach out to journalists and offer interviews about your contribution to the local community. Sharing the reasons behind your efforts helps people understand your commitment, making them more likely to connect with your brand. This visibility not only enhances your reputation but also strengthens your relationship with the community you’re helping.

6 Questions To Ask Yourself Before News Release:

Before spreading any kind of news across media outlets, ask yourself these questions:

  1. Why do you think this news is worth sharing at the current time?
  2. Why is this news worth reading? How does it concern readers personally?
  3. What’s so cool and unusual about this newsbreak?
  4. How important is it for the market (at the local or even international level)?
  5. Were there any comments from famous opinion-makers?
  6. Should you expect any vital consequences after the new release?

Make sure you can cover all six questions from this list. Journalists will most likely look for these answers while reading your news. Failing to answer at least one of these questions will reduce the chance to get the news approved.

How Startups Can Be Interesting To Media

Here is a great way to surprise journalists with your story. Knowing answers to the next 6 driver questions will help your story sound intriguing to both media and article readers:

  1. What famous startups do you resemble?

Are you something like Uber or more like Amazon? What is the actual resemblance? By comparing yourself to big brands that everybody knows, your project will likely get into people’s minds more easily. Also, comparing your startup to the world’s major players makes it easier to describe the specifics of your project.

  1. Who are you disrupting?

Don’t be afraid to mention projects that are your direct competitors on the market. Who are you threatening to oust and how exactly?

  1. Are there any well-known (or exceptional people) standing behind your project?

Are you well-known for something besides your startup? Or maybe, you have a famous investor that cheers up for your project? Even if there’s no huge story behind anyone involved in your startup, be creative and find something from your background to bring it up! Humans will likely remember facts about humans.

  1. Can your startup associate with a big number?

Journalists know that “big numbers” catch attraction. They would love to write about startups that “can save a billion lives” or “received a total of $2 million investments”. Of course, not every startup can boast of big numbers from the very beginning of its path, but if you feel like you can, go ahead and bring it upfront. 

  1. What is so special about your target audience?

Can you call your target audience distinctive? If yes, try to address this fact while generating news for media channels. People will likely read about unusual and unique facts, so your reference to a specific group of the audience should sound intriguing. Also, mention how exactly this audience group may benefit from your startup. Journalists will likely highlight those benefits that have to do with “hot” social issues (pandemic, LGBTQ rights, racism, etc).

  1. What is so special about your product?

Startups enter the market as quickly, as they disappear. If you are craving to stay in the niche, make sure you differentiate yourself from competitors. We know a lot of examples when startups suggested a new approach to a regular product/service, and then they turned into world-known companies. For example, Uber outclassed all taxi services with a convenient ordering system operated through the Internet. The startup’s idea became an inspiration to hundreds of other online taxi apps, yet none of them could ever repeat the success of Uber.

Startup PR: Common Mistakes

A huge misconception is when founders rely on PR as a way to solve all of their issues. As stated earlier, raising awareness about a project with potential bugs and poor quality will only cause a wave of negativity. 

Another common mistake is when founders try to overestimate achievements or, even worse, emphasize their weaknesses. Both self-praise and belittling yourself are likely to push away clients and investors.

To avoid overestimation, make sure that each publication mentions a few perks of your startup, not all of them. If this channel reaches out to a certain type of target audience, think about which perks of your startup may raise their interest, and keep your main focus on them.

Oftentimes, founders lose sight of the main goal during their active collaboration with the media. Instead of reaching their target audience and gaining credibility from top outlets, they publish more content for the sake of publication.

The truth is, you don’t need thousands of mentions for a successful PR campaign. What really matters is the credibility of the media source and its attempts to reach out to the right audience with the right content.

The last but not the least dilemma for startups is whether to hire a PR agency or make it through yourself. At some point, hiring a PR specialist will be financially harmful to the project, especially if it’s super tight on budget. Unfortunately, many young projects decide to pay for the PR service but then, have no money for more significant startup investments.

My advice is, to prioritize product improvement over PR or other expenses in case your budget is tight. At the end of the day, a good product promotes itself.

In conclusion, public perception is crucial in shaping effective PR strategies for your startup. Keep our tips in mind and apply them consistently. We wish you widespread coverage and the best of luck on your PR journey!

Expert Сomments about Startup PR

Brandon Adcock, the CEO of Nugenix

The first thing you need to do is develop a media kit: a collection of information about your company that you can provide to reporters and journalists that will make presenting your pitches less time-consuming. 

It includes basic information about your company such as your company name, website address, and contact information, as well as information about your product or service and why it’s unique and exciting. 

As a start-up, you can’t rely on brand awareness, so be sure to include recent news about your company, testimonials from customers, and any other information that might be interesting to reporters.

Once you’ve created a basic template for PR outreach, you’ll have more time to focus on perfecting your pitch for each outlet, increasing the chances your story will get picked up.

Rob Barratt, Co-Founder of The Industry Leaders

There are a few simple, low-cost ways to get pr for your startup, here are two of the best:
Use Social Media The Right Way
The single best piece of advice you’ll get from anyone who knows the true value of social media is: forget mindless posting and instead BUILD RELATIONSHIPS. But not with anyone. Find people who are further ahead in the journey, people who are where you want to be in the future. Engage thoughtfully with their content, DM them, help them in any way that you can (without charge), and ask them questions that get them talking about themselves. In other words: build relationships with influencers. Relationships with an influencer in your niche are worth 10-100x more than making friends with a follower. That’s because, when you have influential people in your social network, they’re likely to engage with your content (which puts you in front of their followers on platforms like LinkedIn) and you’ve got more chance of getting introductions to other influential people in their circle. The keys to this strategy are offering value and being consistent. It’s a virtuous cycle that takes time but the ROI can be infinite.

Get Booked Onto Industry Podcasts
Podcast hosts are always looking for guests and it’s easier than you might think to get booked on one that your potential customers are listening to. All it takes is a little work. The most basic way of finding podcasters looking for guests is to do some research on Google, making a list of podcasts that your potential customers are likely to be interested in. For example, maybe you’re an executive coach and have a hunch that C-Suite professionals are likely to be interested in podcasts about leadership. That one finding gives you more podcasts to pitch to than simply getting booked onto Coach-focused podcasts. There are also a few ways that you can get booked onto podcasts for a small fee, saving time in the process. Places like Fiverr and People Per Hour are good places to start looking for a Virtual Assistant (VA) who can help with the process of research, outreach and even pitching to podcasters. There are also sites like The Industry Leaders.org and matchmaker.fm which are specialists in getting people booked onto podcasts.

Chelsea Cohen, Co-Founder of SoStocked, an Amazon inventory management SaaS startup. 

One of the best ways to get PR for your startup is to focus on your first employees and make them become influencers of your product. Startups like to focus on external PR opportunities such as journalist outreach, but they often forget to tap into their customer base and use it to achieve their PR goals. Customers, and especially satisfied customers, can get your PR like nothing else if you decide to invest in this strategy. All startups should look to build a good product that satisfies their customers and offer them an opportunity to act as influencers for their products.

Will Goldman, senior community outreach coordinator in charge of handling Digital Public Relations at BluShark Digital

Generating PR for startups all begins with defining core values and ideas for how to communicate those topics to various publics. Startups should think about what not only resonates with their preferred target demographic but also with their employees. Ultimately, the employees will need to embody those core values as representatives of the company, so this must be a collaborative effort.

A start-up should first focus on creating a culture and truly embodying it before working on storytelling. With enough time embodying an idea and various efforts to exhibit a commitment to core values, a start-up has the chance to build a presence in a certain sphere, generate press mentions and create visibility. Over time, employees can commit to the established core values and bring outside ideas that help shape, reinforce and build upon that company’s ability to generate PR surrounding their values.

Example:
BluShark Digital ‘adopted’ a real-life shark to benefit a shark protection and research program at the University of Miami. An employee brought this idea up to management and the company asked employees to submit ideas for naming the shark. In doing so, each member held a stake in this fun project and the company embodied its core value of “community” in a novel way that is also visible outside the company.

VERY Important Final Words…

PR is a very small part of what a good startup needs to take care of. DO NOT treat PR as a magic wand. It will not turn your small startup project into a successful company with millions of users and tons of investment proposals. 

The fact is, Public Relations works for the future. Persistence and patience will get you to the long-awaited result. 

But first, follow our guideline tips 🙂

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