#Public relations is a term that covers the wild west of different types of firms doing vastly different things to help their clients. If you are a startup or a growing company, you may wonder if or when you need to use a #PR firm. In this first blog in our #tech PR series, we will discuss what PR means for the tech industry, and how it is different from and connected to marketing.
At the beginning, a tech company is many things. Usually, the beating heart is a technology innovation and a fundamental use case.
Because entrepreneurs see ahead of the market and try to solve tomorrow’s problems, they often fill in the role of biblical prophets, warning of change that will be disruptive, offering a prescription to save the day.
And, as more is learned, the technology changes and more use cases show up. The story is always a narrative that evolves. Once your story has matured, it’s time to hire a PR agency. Are you ready?
The fundamental goal of PR is to draw attention to your company’s story. PR strives to expand awareness of your company, its products, and its use cases.
Marketing and PR are both megaphones for telling the world about your product. Marketing prepares your message, website, content, and the mechanisms of communication to get attention. PR adapts the message to a variety of audiences.
There can be a lot of overlap between what PR agencies do, what other types of content marketing agencies like Evolved Media do, and what internal marketing departments do.
PR is relevant at the end of the marketing process, which is getting the word out. If you don’t have the foundation in place, a PR team goes around effectively begging for coverage. This is a waste of time and money.
PR efforts thrive when:
- The PR team has a background in your type of product or can quickly come up to speed to gain a sophisticated understanding.
- The PR team has excellent contacts in publications that serve the intended audience.
- Your company has thought leaders that will appeal to publications and other channels.
- You have marketing assets that allow editors, reporters, and bloggers to quickly come up to speed about the product and find their own angle.
Now that you understand what PR means for your company, and how it amplifies your marketing program, you can decide what type of tech PR firm is best for you. In the next blog of this series, we take a look at the wild west of PR, and how to decide what type of firm is best for you.
Amplify your b2b marketing efforts with a tech PR play
Check out the whole blog series:
