Monday, 30 July 2018

Why Startups need to make early investments in PR services?

Getting Public Relations (PR) done for their businesses is preferably the last task that the startup owners have on their bucket list. In those tough, early days of the business, it’s all about products or services, employee/customer acquisition and managing the HR & sales department lies on the entrepreneur's head. So, why communication & PR activities are undervalued in the startup environment? This is because many of the startups rely on the old funnel marketing approach and believe every lead, online advertisement and campaign are for more revenue generation. This would only lead to a few benefits but an early investment in communication and PR could result in a plethora of opportunities for the company to utilize even in the long run. 

Following are the advantages of having communication services from PR agencies:

Expert PR professionals help in shaping the brand story
Most of the startups prefer a Band-aid approach to leverage their communication with customers and emphasize in recreating and reinventing their website, investor pitches and other marketing collateral from time to time. But, it isn’t of much help to match the market competition. To make a mark, it’s essential to know the taste of the audience and having communication with them accordingly. For this, PR firms in India and around the world connect their clients with media. Once a startup gets to interact with the media, it should better know the needs & demands of the target audience which will further help the brand in building relationships with all stakeholders, especially customers. Media pitching and published stories can prove to be a communication goldmine for the startups which can significantly bring the brand closer to its prospects. The expert PR team ensures that the brand story is tailored as per the target audience’s interests and ethos.

The media coverage serves as the best testimonials
A good brand can’t survive on self-promotion alone, it needs other credible sources to tell the stories with authentic endorsements. The main purpose of the PR experts in getting media coverage isn’t only about sales, but about ensuring that the brand awareness and image is created. The strong media presence of a startup arranged by its PR agency leads to instant brand recall and interest from top talent in the industry. Valuable media coverage gained from trusted medium and platforms could inspire a great number of customers to follow you.

Media gives your startup an edge over the competition
Media validate the authenticity and reliability of brands before featuring them in their stories only to ensure that no fraudulence or suspicions are involved. While making a choice of startup businesses to highlight or articles to publish, media firms are validating the startup's ideas and indirectly endorsing them. If your brand’s name isn’t in the news, and your competitors are, then you are certainly way behind and need to wake up before it’s too late. Simply doing SEO won’t help your startup’s website won’t help you to rank up on google results for long but some authentic media links will ensure the same. Be it investors or the customers will themselves show interest in your startup once the PR pitches of your business get space in the related media space. Even a small interview and quote on latest technologies related to your business in a good publication or channel can deliver a timely push to your brand over the competition.

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