Startups face challenges in an increasingly competitive landscape, making the role of PR more crucial.
Unlike large and established companies with a strong reputation, startups need a variety of creative and consistent PR efforts to build their brand.
Strong PR for startups can help increase visibility, earn public trust, and position your business at the forefront of your industry.
RadVoice Indonesia has summarized why PR becomes more important for startups.
The Importance of PR for Startups
Startups often run with limited resources, making it difficult to stand out in a competitive market.
PR will offer ways to strengthen your brand, build credibility, and establish long-term relationships with customers, investors, and the media at an affordable cost.
Therefore, PR should be a key focus for your startup at every stage of development.
Here are some benefits of PR for startups:
Helping to Secure Funding or Investment
When potential investors don’t understand your business, they won’t invest their capital in it.
Investors are also more likely to consider startups with a good reputation and professional image.
According to PR Lab, having PR for your startup will help increase your chances of securing investment by showing investors that your startup is among the best in the industry.
PR also helps startups communicate effectively about their vision, mission, and business values.
Reaching New Audiences
After successfully securing funding, you want to expand your reach.
Meanwhile, new audience or markets may not understand your startup’s purpose.
Having good PR for startups can help you reach new audiences while you stay focused on the startup’s performance.
At the same time, PR helps maintain strong relationships with your existing audience by showcasing your successes and keeping them informed.
Building Relationships with the Media
PR will help your startup build and maintain relationships with the media.
Having a PR support for your startup helps you identify which media outlets are relevant to your industry, ensuring that the information you share reaches the right audience.
PR also helps create a media kit that contains key details about your startup, such as product launches and funding updates.
For example, here’s how we did it when supporting Amartha, an Indonesian financial technology startup to secure international media coverage at their forum in Bali.
Read more: How to Get Media Coverage in Indonesia: A Practical Guide for Businesses
Competing with Other Startups
PR will help differentiate your startup from competitors.
This can be done by highlighting products or services that are different from competitors.
Not only with fellow startups, PR will also help you compete with more established companies to get the right market.
This gives you a better chance to reach your target market effectively and build brand awareness.
When is the Right Time to Hire a PR Team?
When managing media relations and communications becomes too much to handle, it’s time to consider hiring a PR professional or agency
You can use a PR agency to maximize responsibilities related to PR.
Need support to build valuable media connections and take your startup to the next level? RadVoice is here to help.
Building relationship with PR agencies during your company’s development will also help reduce negative media coverage and better manage potential crises.
You can schedule weekly or monthly meetings with your PR team to plan and review various activities such as upcoming events, press releases, or new approaches to engaging with the media.
Conclusion
Having PR support is highly valuable for startups that are still developing.
Besides strengthening brand awareness, PR also helps increase the chances of securing funding, reaching new target audiences, building relationships with the media, and competing with other startups.
To ease your workload and grow your brand effectively, you can partner with a PR agency to maximize your PR activities and events.
This article was first published in Indonesian on 14 January 2025.
