As your company grows, PR (also known as public relations) represents an increasingly important opportunity to forge a lasting impression of your brand. Early on in the startup lifecycle, you can focus on building relationships with investors and potential customers-—and you may shoulder much of that work personally as a founder as you work to create a close connection with them. At some point in that journey, however, you will not be able to build close personal relationships with every single potential customer, investor or other key stakeholder. When you reach that point, it’s critical to bring in a PR specialist who can help you position your business to build positive impressions with stakeholders beyond your close personal circles. No matter where you are on your growth journey, there are some common key signs that it’s time to call in PR support.
1. You Need More Hands to Take on Your Marketing and PR
If you’ve noticed that you no longer have the time or energy to take on all the PR tasks on your list, chances are, it’s time to bring in a specialist to take care of those essential tasks for you. You may notice that you’re:
- Putting marketing or PR on the back burner
- Deprioritizing once-critical marketing tasks
- Experiencing an overall decline in new or converted leads due to inability to manage essential PR and marketing efforts
If you’ve found yourself struggling to stay on top of your company’s communications channels, it may be time to call on a specialist who can help you stay on top of your critical goals.
2. You Have a Story That Needs to Be Told
When you launch a PR plan with a specialist, you should be ready to walk through the kind of brand narrative you’ve created, the story you want to telland how that story will land with your target customer. In order to earn consistent, high-level media coverage for your brand, you need to offer a substantial angle for why your business is interesting to the public beyond your existing customers.. While there are many paths to media relations success, you may be able to earn coverage by:
- Launching a new line or product;
- Contributing to charitable and community-building causes;
- Showcasing a unique value differentiation for your customers; or
- Build something different from your competitors (market-leading sustainability or team-building initiatives, for example)
Of course, negative stories can also be a strong driver of public attention. When you find yourself or your company under the microscope, bringing in a PR specialist who specializes in crisis communications can help you weather the storm and maintain a positive impression of your company with the stakeholders who matter most to you. It’s usually not possible to stop a story that’s already in the works, but a seasoned PR pro can help you keep your brand’s reputation intact in the long term and work to keep incorrect information out of the narrative.
Before you launch your PR campaign, however, you should have a story for journalists and media relations to tell. Without a compelling headline that can help draw people in, you’ll lack the pizzazz needed to draw media attention that leads to positive, brand-building earned media coverage.
3. You’re Ready to Fund Your PR Efforts
Like with any element of your business, you need a budget that will sustainably support PR and marketing efforts—and for more than the next few weeks. You don’t have to have an enormous PR budget to get started, but you should have funds in place to bring in professional help and keep them there, either internally or externally. Make sure you include budget items for your professional PR and marketing team, as well as allocated funds for social media content, digital advertising and other forms of communications content.
4. You’re Prepared to Scale Your Business If Needed
An increase in media attention can have a number of positive benefits, including a substantial increase in interested customers and web traffic. While these are clear positive signs about the strength of your message, an influx can have real downsides—particularly if your business hasn’t been set up to scale effectively. If you aren’t ready for an increase in traffic—including having the necessary personnel, resources and product—you may not be ready to launch a huge PR campaign. If this describes your company, invest your time and resources first in creating the necessary infrastructure, then double down on your public outreach.
5. You Know Your Competition (And What Stories They’re Telling)
Every brand has competitors: other businesses in your industry that offer the same (or similar enough) products or services. Those competitors will each have their own unique stories, and media connections—and if you want to establish your place in the industry (above them), you need to know what those stories are. A critical element of your brand’s story is what sets you apart from your competitors. You might be more deeply enmeshed in green initiatives, or offer better solutions to your customers’ needs, or have a deeper connection within your local community. Whatever your critical differentiator looks like, make sure you know your competition and have done the market research necessary to understand where your brand fits into the industry narrative.
6. You Have Consistent Branding (or Wish You Did)
If you feel like you’re ready for media attention—and the benefits that come with it—it’s important to have clear and consistent branding that your customers and the media can count on. If you’re constantly changing your branding or messaging, your customers and competitors may perceive instability, even if your company is performing well. Once you’re ready to commit to a consistent brand identity that will speak to your core customers, you can begin the process of engaging with the public and the media in a more substantial way.
Are You Ready for PR?
Have you been thinking about how you can leverage the power of PR to level up your brand? Are you seeing the signs laid out in this article? If so, it may be time to get serious and invest in your company’s PR and marketing efforts. At Red Fan Communications, an Austin, Texas based Public Relations agency, we help companies like yours manage their public image, control the narrative about their companies and reach the stakeholders, investors and customers who are critical to future health and success.
