It can be challenging to stand out as a cybersecurity company since the market is so crowded. The good news is that the demand for cybersecurity services has increased. In fact, Gartner recently reported that investment in cybersecurity has increased. Since people are paying more for cybersecurity, the only challenge is getting their attention. Cybersecurity firms are having to be more creative about how they capture public attention and promote themselves. Furthermore, as competition heats up, the ability to build a good public relations strategy will only become more critical for cybersecurity enterprises.
What cybersecurity PR strategies should you use?
Most cybersecurity business founders assume that once they’ve invested in quality services these services will sell themselves. When they fail to attract attention, these entrepreneurs assume that the problem is the features they’re offering. Their solution is to go back to the drawing board and introduce new product categories that their competitors are not offering. On the contrary, you need to do a little more than that if you want to stand out from all the cybersecurity solutions in the market.
We’ve compiled data from successful cybersecurity PR campaigns at Pressfarm. What these campaigns did well boils down to the following two points:
1) Always highlight your area of expertise
Consistent positioning and communication tactics may help to draw attention to your product’s distinct selling points. Don’t run to the drawing board to add new features every other week. Always rushing to keep up with what your competitors are offering rather than focusing on perfecting what you’re offering will be counterproductive. Instead of doing this, build your solution and make sure it performs the core function you’ve built it to perform very well. If you focus on your area of specialty both during product development and during product promotion, then you will also build a more memorable brand image. When people are clear about what your brand does, it’s easier to remain top of mind. Once you pick an area of specialty, stick to it. You’ll have a much easier time promoting your solution.
2) Make sure your brand message is as concise as possible
In general, public relations experts thrive in this area. Partnering with a skilled PR professional can help you craft a brand message that is both concise and memorable. A good PR expert can also position your brand as a thought leader in the industry.
A public relations agency like Pressfarm can also help your business stand out from the crowd by building a relatable and unforgettable brand message for you. Pressfarm comes armed with PR specialists, expert writers, and certified designers who can create quality content that helps your brand stand out and capture media attention. By creating a professional press release, some fascinating guest posts, and an eye-catching media kit for your brand, the experts at Pressfarm can help you make an unforgettable impression in the industry.
The Pressfarm team can go one step further to distribute this content widely and put it in front of your audience. By submitting your content to the right media outlets, startup directories, and professional networks, Pressfarm boosts your online visibility. This distribution strategy has been designed to ensure that your target audience finds you more easily through organic searches on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing!
Once you sign up, Pressfarm’s account executive also builds custom media lists for you, containing the best contacts in your niche. In addition, as a client, you get access to a comprehensive media database of 1 million+ journalists, bloggers, and influencers in your niche. With all these media contacts, you can do extended media outreach for your brand for up to a year.
Sign up with Pressfarm today for a personalized PR campaign that will help you earn public trust and excite your target audience.
The components of a successful cybersecurity PR campaign
Build a reputation as a thought leader
The first stage in developing an effective cybersecurity public relations strategy is establishing yourself as an industry thought leader. If you consistently disseminate consistent content in reputable outlets, both you and your organization will earn public trust and become the go-to for people who need cybersecurity advice and tools. Once people trust you to educate and help them, it’s easier to convert them into paying customers. Consider positioning the CEO as a valuable go-to resource by sharing sound-bites and quotes from them. This will not only position your brand as a thought leader but also humanize it, thus making it more attractive to potential consumers.
Stay active on social media
It’s also important to maintain an active social media presence. Twitter is especially popular in the cybersecurity space because this is where people go to talk about the latest data breach or vulnerabilities. You can also connect with cybersecurity journalists on Twitter to help you reach a wider audience.
Get social proof
Furthermore, it’s important to get third-party validation via industry awards, analyst reports, customer/partner ties, and customer reviews. Winning industry awards may help you build a reputation for your knowledge, skill, and authority. This will make potential customers more confident about spending their money on the solution you’re selling.
Work with members of the media
You shouldn’t wait until it’s time to pitch your brand to start connecting with your media contacts. In reality, you’ll be more successful with your media outreach if you’ve taken the time to build relationships with the journalists you’re pitching beforehand. We know you won’t always have time to do this while you’re focusing on perfecting your product. This is yet another reason to partner with a PR agency that has already established those relationships.
When it’s actually time to pitch the media, you need to create a win-win partnership by balancing the needs and ambitions of journalists with the media strategy goals you’ve set up. By highlighting how your story benefits each media contact, you’ll increase the chances of them featuring this story. Ultimately, featuring in the publications that your target audience reads will help guide potential buyers down the sales funnel.
How to make a name for yourself in the cybersecurity field with PR
The cost of security goods and services has expected to surpass $1 trillion by 2021. On the other hand, the industry’s rapid expansion makes it more difficult for businesses to distinguish themselves. You must be informed, creative, and tactical if you want your cybersecurity brand to be recognized by its target audience.
Here are six tactics you can use to stand out in the industry:
Stay up to date on industry trends
Cybersecurity, like advertising technology, has a myriad of features and jargon, making it a highly competitive market. To distinguish your company, you must first understand the company’s surroundings. Find out everything you can about the latest consumer-oriented antivirus and firewall software available, as well as commercial and enterprise-oriented security information and event management (SIEM) software packages. Once you’ve educated yourself, then you will be better equipped to educate your audience and earn their trust.
Take action in response to breaking news stories
As a cybersecurity brand, it’s incredibly easy to plug your brand message into trending news stories. After all, we hear stories about data breaches so often that you shouldn’t have a hard time building a newsjacking strategy. Even so, you must always be prepared since breaking news generally only has a four-hour window that you can capitalize on. The number of headlines covering anything from big data breaches and ransomware attacks to election security issues and data privacy concerns requires constant news monitoring. Once you identify an appropriate story, you can comment on it without directly selling your brand. By commenting on enough of these stories, you can build on your reputation as a thought leader. In order to stay up to date on changing trends and news in the cybersecurity sphere, you can subscribe to popular publications such as Politico’s Morning Cybersecurity and the Washington Post’s Cybersecurity 202.
Use a tailored approach
Plunging headlong into each news story is unproductive. You should bear in mind that it is difficult to be featured in every news story. When you’re reacting to breaking news, it’s important to tailor your approach to the situation and the company’s history. A corporation specializing in corporate IT security commenting on the ramifications of government contact monitoring on data privacy will come off as inauthentic. It’s important to maintain your brand voice in all the content you put out. Moreover, you should only comment on stories that align with your brand.
Determine whom you want to contact in the media
When you’re pitching members of the media, you must be well-versed in the complexities of each person’s niche. The Wall Street Journal, for example, contains multiple mentions of cybersecurity resources. Trying to pitch an idea to anyone from WSJ without first understanding what aspect of cybersecurity they’re interested in would result in a complete rejection. Planning ahead of time is essential. Read trade journals, follow prominent reporters on social media, and understand the difference between contacts who cover data breaches or ransomware attacks and those who cover IT security management practices, white hacks, and research papers. Only by understanding these distinctions can you target your outreach efforts more precisely, thus increasing your visibility in the media. Knowing more about the people you’re contacting can also help you craft the perfect press release to generate the right amount of interest.
Vertically expand your company choices
In a highly competitive market like cybersecurity, you’re competing for thought leadership space with hundreds, if not thousands, of other organizations and CEOs. Obtaining publicity may be challenging depending on the story being told. Given the pervasiveness of general cybersecurity concerns, you may find it advantageous to broaden your outreach to include smaller, more niche outlets. Keep in mind that the more niche an outlet is, the more specialized its audience is, and the easier it will be to reach an audience that is interested in what you have to say. Don’t just rely on big media outlets to cover your brand. If you do this, you will have a hard time reaching more distinct audiences. Reaching out to more specialized outlets can boost your organization’s exposure and generate client leads. This also exposes you to new audiences and extends your coverage opportunities in industry trade publications.
To break through the noise, use research and facts
From the standpoint of the media, the odds may be stacked against us due to the large number of competitors striving for market supremacy in our field. Journalists love to hear about new unpublished research. For this reason, data and research may help your company stand out. Using an in-house research team or contracting research from a third-party white-label vendor may give you a competitive advantage when you’re vying for media attention. When journalists employ data-driven reporting, they are better able to keep up with evolving cybersecurity data. Cybersecurity organizations may dramatically enhance awareness and brand recognition by publishing research on a current business subject.
While generating publicity for your cybersecurity company will be challenging, it’s not impossible. With a well-thought-out strategy, you can build a memorable brand image. Beyond that, you can send a message that will earn the trust of the public and capture the attention of your target audience.