In nature, the species who are better at adapting are the ones who survive. Because people mirror ideas like this in other areas of life, like businesses, companies think adapting means creating amazing new products. Readiness to adapt is the underlying DNA of successful brands, but products alone don’t cut it. Humans are social creatures, and the ability to communicate your product, no matter how great, to the rest of the tribe will determine its success.
Now, back when tribes were the largest institution known to humanity, communicating success wasn’t really hard—hunting a wild boar and bringing it back to feed your fellow tribesmen was enough to prove you bring value to the pack, and that translated into perks. When your target audience is a niche, or an entire industry, or an entire country, however, things get a little more complicated.
Too many startup founders and CEOs think in these simplistic terms. “My product is good, and therefore it will get coverage.” It’s the job of the tech public relations agency to explain to their clients the fatal flaw in that logic, that the crypto, or even broader tech, industry isn’t a tribe of 50 people. Their audience numbers are hundreds of thousands at the fewest, and more often millions. Founders should listen.
So how do startups reach their audience? Step 1 is to assume no one will care about their announcement whatsoever unless it’s sold properly. Reporters will need context. Don’t tell them your cutting-edge SaaS solution is, well, cutting-edge or revolutionary. Tell them why it’s revolutionary. Tell them your story the way they’ll tell it to their audience—that means making it sound like objective news, not an advertisement. The successful tech public relations agency will know exactly how to sell your announcement without using marketerial, boastful or grandiose language.
A big part of selling a story to reporters is having good emotional intelligence and understanding the basics of human psychology. Reporters are people—and people with very short attention-spans at that. So while your tech public relations agency might not staff a team of psychologists, they are trained to understand what makes reporters see, open, and read an email. They are trained to understand what they like to cover, and they’ll spoon-feed the story to them.
On top of that, PR people have connections—it’s what the industry is built on. While you can and should leverage that connection you have through a cousin who works at The Financial Times, be sure to let your PR people take over strategy and pitching. They have a plan, and if you have a good story, usually it will work.
Speak Strategically or Be Forgotten
Markets don’t just grow or dwindle; they evolve. What made a tech product relevant to a market last week won’t be what makes it relevant next month. Although animals in their ecosystems just react in herds to their immediate survival needs, companies must behave strategically and act ahead to be positioned according to the coming changes. However, also don’t abandon the herd either because no one can hear you from far away.
For example; If you spoke about an ICO in 2010, very few people would care. If you speak about an ICO in 2021, many people would think it’s a scam. However, if you speak about an innovative product to a relevant journalist and mention it is leveraged by underlying blockchain technology, then you start to have a chance to enter the debate’s ecosystem. Brilliant brands must communicate the reason why they are brilliant in an honest and transparent way to those who will care enough about it to publish it with a relevant community.
ReBlonde is an awarded tech PR agency with an in-house team of experts to create contextually relevant content, to reach out strategic media channels and creators – all while being in touch with your company in order to design the best way for you to be a part of the tech debate. Schedule a call with us so we can position your brand according to upcoming trends that make-or-break even the most innovative tech.
