📣How to Make PR Work for You...
5 strategic nuances of startup PR were shared by Nicole Mirkin of Omnia Strategic Counsel & Communications. She introduced Strategic Comms, emphasizing targeted messaging and stakeholder engagement. Nicole provided five key questions for evaluating PR partners.
In last week’s Open Letter, we mentioned how startups can potentially waste money on PR. While that might be true in some cases, one of our readers, Nicole Mirkin, reached out to tell us it’s a little more nuanced than that…
Disclaimer: Nicole owns and runs the firm, Omnia Strategic Counsel & Communications, but what she had to say was good and important enough to relay here.
PR 2.0 is Here
“You were referring to old-school PR,” Nicole says, “and yeah, even I’ll agree that doesn’t always work in the tech space. Let me show you what does…”
What Nicole introduced us to instead is what she calls Strategic Comms. And here’s the diff:
- It’s not about just blasting a message to add to the noise, it’s about delivering the message behind your product to where your niche market and investors live.
- It includes a lot more stakeholder engagement and sometimes even government lobbying – to counter those regulations that threaten nearly all evolving tech spaces.
- And turning what seems like bad press for your industry into opportunities to be a shining light.
Nicole also told us how to identify a worthwhile PR partner if you’re a startup.
5 Questions to ask your PR firm (before you start)
- Could you describe your experience working with startups and how it compares to your work with established businesses? Because you want a partner that knows how to work with startups.
- What is your pricing structure and how do you tailor your services to meet the unique goals of each client? You want a partner that has a special rate for startups. And then you want to know if they can align with your development goals (not standard PR goals).
- Could you explain your strategy for maximizing the effectiveness of media coverage? Because it’s not just about the reach, you want to know that your message is landing in the right kind of publications. A million impressions in the wrong publication is a waste of time.
- What kind of lasting value do you aim to provide to your clients beyond the duration of your formal working relationship? You want a partner that draws up a solid development-based plan that you can build on for the future public-facing side of your company post-engagement with the partner.
- Can you tell me about the support you offer clients in terms of crisis communications and handling industry issues? You basically want to hear them say they’ll assign a dedicated person to you 24/7 to help you be able to quickly turn any industry news into an opportunity – apparently, this is a very important one.
And, just so we could check for ourselves, she gave the names of a few Cape Town startups that have benefitted from strategic comms: Momint, Maholla and Ion Capital Partners. Nice coverage.
Got a strat comms question? Hit reply and let us know – ‘cos, you know, we know people…