PR for startups - 10 steps to success

As a startup, you probably have lots of things to tell the world and PR is a great way to get the word out there. But, it's equally true that you'll need to control your marketing spend carefully, so here are our 10 top pieces of PR advice to get you on the right track:

1. Do it yourself?

Doing the PR job yourself is certainly possible, especially if you've had some previous marketing/PR experience or have a friend who can give you some sound advice. The biggest obstacle might be the amount of time it might take out of your day. If you've no budget at all for professional help, approach your PR with bags on enthusiasm and self belief.

2. Or get some help

PR freelancers are a good option if you need some experienced advice and help, but without the outlay of an agency contract. They usually work well under agency rates and should be very flexible on contract term. Specialist agencies are also a very good bet - if I were looking for a PR supplier, I'd want lots of relevant experience in my market to be top of the list of requirements.

3. Are you interesting?

Many small businesses waste a lot of PR effort pushing news and announcements that are of little interest to editors or their readers. Be really honest about whether your news is significant enough to deserve a press release - search through your target media, and if you don't find stories which are similar in nature, chances are it's not interesting enough for coverage. And if you're paying for a PR professional to advise you on what's interesting to the press, listen to what they have to say.

4. Create case studies

Generally speaking, the media will will be very keen to hear what your clients and customers have to say, rather than you talking about how great you are. They want to talk to the people who have spent the money. So, create case studies that work on two levels - fully written-up articles, telling the before, during and after story, and also make sure there are a few clients/customers who will talk to the media direct.

5. Research stories create 67% of headlines

OK, I just made that up - but look at any newspaper, magazine or website and you'll see how important original research is to the media. Your own knowledge and experience can give you the basis for a research project, and once you have some data there's the chance of some great headlines.

6. Your opinion is in demand

There are loads of great publications and websites who want your expert opinion for their readers. Getting your viewpoints into print should be a big part of your strategy, especially in the B2B or trade context. So, get talking about issues which are important in your industry.

7. Tailor & personalise

Always, always work with your target audience and media channel in mind. You'll give yourself a much better chance with editors and their readers if the PR output you are offering is precisely adapted for their needs. It might seem obvious, but even the PR professionals are guilty of a 'one size fits all' attitude to their work.

8. Commit to a blog

Anyone can be a publisher, but if you are going to blog about your business make a firm commitment to do it properly. Define your readership, keep the content interesting and relevant, and make sure you keep at it. There's nothing worse than finding a blog which hasn't been updated for months - it looks like you don't care.

9. Maintain momentum

Once you've got your PR up and running, keep going. Even if you vary the way you go about your PR work, a stop/start approach risks wasting the benefit you get from new media contacts and regular coverage.

10. Try to measure value

Measuring the value of PR is a headache the industry has never really solved. That's not much practical help to you, but the best advice I can give is to look at output (the effort going into the campaign) and results. Where is coverage appearing? Where are you getting web traffic from? Can you track orders/new business directly from your PR? If you don't try, you won't be able to measure.

Good luck!