Here at CRC, we’ve been known to get quite excited when we get a great piece of coverage for our clients. Last week was no exception, when I slammed my desk while shouting ‘yesssss!’ when I spotted that a tech startup we’re working with had been featured in City AM. There were a few reasons for my excitement:
1) They’re a new client – three weeks in, so we’ve been keen to get off to a good start.
2) It’s City AM.
3) Tech is an incredibly competitive area right now, getting cut through in the media is tough.
4) The coverage came from a reactive comment. We’d spotted the opportunity, drafted the comment, had it approved, and sent it to relevant journalists within around two hours, giving ourselves the best chance of success. But as is often the way, you’re reliant on the journalist a) being interested in the story itself and b) spotting your email in their very busy inbox.
5) This was excellent exposure for a client which hasn’t officially launched its product yet.
And that last point got me thinking – in an increasingly crowded tech space where AI products and platforms are being launched almost daily, our client has been incredibly smart by investing in PR early.
I think many startups and small companies can make the mistake of thinking that PR is only for the big guns in their sector. That they don’t have anything to say, and that if they did no one in the media would listen, or certainly that they can’t achieve top tier coverage. But that’s simply not true. By framing the messaging in the right way, targeting the right journalists and finding opportunities to get their message out there, startups can achieve great media coverage and build their credibility early on. Indeed, startups are often best placed to maximise those chances – they’re often willing to be punchy in their commentary, messaging doesn’t get watered down by multiple approvals, and they can react quickly when we spot a potential opportunity (as this example demonstrates).
In this instance, before the product has even gone to market, this client has a raft of press coverage in reputable publications. This means that their stealing a march on their competitors because they’ve got credibility from the get-go. When you hear about a new product, what’s the first thing you do? You run a search on it or put it in ChatGPT (or an alternative). Seeing press coverage and commentary in a range of reputable publications, I’d argue, is going to give you a pretty good impression of that product and the team behind it. And having that coverage means the product has a much better chance of being included more frequently in the online search and being featured at all in AI summaries (we know that ChatGPT et al favour companies that have numerous, high quality, reputable sources – see my previous blog on this here). Having more than just the company’s website as a reference point increases visibility and builds credibility. This applies not just to potential customers who are of course important, but imagine that that person searching is an investor looking for their next venture? Not only that, but in building momentum early we’re making connections with journalists that we can build upon and continue to leverage later.
We’re always grateful to our clients for putting their faith in us. For startups in particular where balancing the books is so important; we know investing in PR and marketing isn’t a given. In this instance, it certainly helps that one of the founders has worked with us before – he understands what we do and how we do it and trusts us to deliver the goods.
But more need to follow his lead. Founders of startups by their very nature need to be bold innovators. Being bold with their PR strategy needs to be part of that too.
