Why Every Tech Startup Needs a Tech PR Agency

Is a Tech PR Agency the Right Move for Your Startup?

23:24 12 October 2023

Nearly every tech startup can benefit from having a dedicated tech PR agency. But what exactly does a tech PR agency do? Why is this so beneficial, and arguably necessary in the modern era? And how can you choose the tech PR agency that's the best fit for your brand and your PR goals?

The Basics of PR

Public relations, or PR, is the practice of managing your reputation online. For most brands, this means promoting brand visibility, building trust with customers, investors, and prospective partners, and generally demonstrating expertise or authority in a competitively advantageous way.

In the modern, digital era, PR usually manifests as an omnichannel strategy. In other words, you need to take advantage of many different channels and communication mediums to reach your target audience in many different ways. Search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, publisher relationships, press releases, content marketing, customer communications, and more channels all play a role.

Why You Need PR

Why does your tech startup need a PR strategy?

• The “tree falling in the forest” problem. If a tree falls in the forest, and no one's around to hear it, does it make a sound? Philosophers still debate this classic idea, but it raises an important point; events and actions only gain significance when there is an observer. You may have the coolest, most advanced tech product in the world, but if you don't invest any effort in promoting your brand, no one will realize it. In this context, PR becomes a practical necessity for almost any conceivable business.
• Reputation awareness and management. PR is also about reputation awareness and management. It's tempting to think that everyone is going to love your company and its products, but this isn't necessarily the case, especially if you don't proactively try to control these consumer sentiments. Through PR, you can promote good feelings about your brand and mitigate or address concerns about it.
• Brand awareness and trust. Similarly, PR allows you to increase brand awareness and trust. After several months of consistent effort, thousands to millions of people will hear about your brand – and everyone from total newcomers to brand loyalists are going to trust you more.
• Cross-channel visibility. Omnichannel marketing has become the default selection for most modern brands, since it allows you to reach more people in more diverse ways. With the right PR strategy, you can gain more cross-channel visibility and engage with everyone in your target demographics.
• Audience engagement. Some PR campaigns rely heavily on ongoing audience engagement. It's not enough to merely post on social media; you have to interact with your audience directly if you want to build better relationships and entrench yourself as a trusted thought leader.
• Ongoing returns. PR is an investment that pays dividends for months, and sometimes years after your initial efforts. As long as you continue to put in some effort to adhere to your brand standards, the followers you attract will stay with you, your reputation as a thought leader will remain intact, and the content you develop will continue providing you with value.

Why You Can’t Do It All Yourself

At this point, you may be convinced that PR is important, but why should you hire a tech PR agency? Why can't you just do all the work yourself?

• Strategic objectives. Without PR expertise, it's hard to set reasonable strategic objectives. And without those strategic objectives to anchor your PR campaigns, your work isn't going to be effective. You might be able to publish content and post on social media, but those efforts will be fruitless without competent strategic grounding.
• Industry experience. Tech PR agencies specialize in helping tech startups get off the ground. They know this business. They’ve achieved great results for businesses like yours in the past. It’s hard to rival that level of expertise on your own, even if you hire PR experts to help you.
• Sheer volume of work. A good PR strategy is a marathon, not a sprint, and it demands your attention across multiple channels simultaneously. This is way too much work for a single person, or even a small team to accomplish; hiring an agency relieves the pressure.

The reality is that most tech startups can strongly benefit from hiring a tech PR agency, and they can benefit to such an extent that you can almost consider a tech PR agency to be a practical necessity. Considering most of your competitors are probably already working with tech PR agencies, there's competitive pressure on you as well. Once you understand this, and once you have a grasp on the critical PR problems you have to solve, you'll be in a prime position to choose an agency that can help you achieve your goals.