PR strategies are at the very centre of every successful startup. Although some rare business concepts might succeed without PR, the chances of this happening are slim to none. It’s true, you might jump straight into these PR efforts with one or two of the following strategies. But the truth is, you will need very specific and sustained PR Strategies to succeed in a noisy and busy market.
We’ve developed a list of 5 new PR strategies that should help founders and creators achieve more success with launching a startup in 2023:
5 New PR Strategies to Follow when Launching a Startup in 2023
1. Using Podcasts and Audio for PR
Podcasts continue to rise in popularity and this trend is likely to continue for a while. As people’s lives become more hectic, podcasts get more popular since you can consume podcast content when you’re on the move. Most podcast listeners listen to their favorite podcasts while commuting to work, doing house chores, walking their dogs or getting ready in the morning. What’s more, Alexa and Siri are firmly established and recent studies indicate more than half of all online searches will come through audio within the next two years.
But what does this mean for PR?
Well, it means that podcasts will be hugely influential for getting the word out about products and brands. It also means that it’s only a matter of time until audio features become a standard part of website chatbots.
Either way, the adoption of podcast and audio features will help growing brands capture a bigger share of the market. With audio searches on the rise, it makes sense to identify and take advantage of podcasts and other audio-based platforms.
2. Embracing Chatbots and Artificial Intelligence
The truth is, AI is still in its infancy and most products or artificial software is simply not ready for deployment. At the same time, there are still some ways in which AI is improving the PR process. For this reason, more PR specialists plan to use AI in 2023.
For example, chatbots are used to automate client communication which then frees up time that can be used on other parts of the PR strategy. As you know, this side of communication is extremely time-consuming. Nevertheless, bots are just one of the many ways to use AI to enhance PR.
It’s normal to be concerned that chatbots will take the personalisation out of a process that clients expect to be more personalised than ever before. After all, several industry reports have found that clients prefer personalised communication. However, they also appreciate prompt communication. AI is a good way to give them the best of both worlds since AI-based systems record behavioural patterns and collect other valuable data that brands can leverage to personalise their responses. For this reason, if chatbots are used the right way, they should have no negative impact on the process. In fact, most people are happy to interact with chatbots if it means they can get answers to their questions and solutions to their problems faster. As long as the information they receive is accurate and helpful, they don’t mind the absence of a human.
Either way, most experts cite artificial intelligence as the next big shift in PR. Every company should keep its finger on the pulse to identify ways in which it can use AI as part of its PR strategy.
3. Collaborating with Authentic Bloggers
Aside from doing outreach to mainstream media, reaching out to reputable bloggers is now the best way to promote and create awareness for brands. In fact, with more than 30% of online users deploying ad blockers, traditional advertising is unlikely to be anywhere near as effective in 2023.
For this reason, editorials and review articles are expected to be much more beneficial for a PR strategy. As such, there’s every reason to believe that respected bloggers will reign supreme. In addition, in the recent Medic Update by Google, a greater emphasis seems to be placed on bloggers who create “How to” content and educational information as opposed to story-driven content.
Now, that’s not to say that brands should abandon advertisements entirely. Rather, it is to point out the need for a clear transition of attention from contrived content to authentic content. In other words, online users are now leaning heavily toward real people with genuine advice and further away from branded content.
Similar trends are taking place with adverts. Many professionals are achieving more success when they collaborate with bloggers as opposed to placing adverts.
4. Measuring Influencer Metrics
As you may know, the past few years have been dominated by influencer marketing with endless brands and PR pros looking to collaborate with top influencers. However, many brands have made the mistake of simply paying these influencers for uncertain or inadequate results with no real way of measuring the rate of success.
At the same time, it’s pretty obvious by now that many of these collaborations were next to worthless. Even so, most brands still automatically assume that the number of followers is all that should guide your choice of influencer. In reality, engagement matters much more than follower count. For improved results, PR strategies are expected to focus on conversion-related metrics in the year ahead. Having said that, PR strategies should research the rate of interaction of certain influencers before investing any capital into a potential collaboration.
Now, this does not mean the end of influencer marketing. Rather, it means that PR professionals will be more careful about measuring the value of these influencer collaborations. Moreover, they will pay according to this value, not according to follower count.
5. Focusing Less on Views and More on Engagement
As we’ve already mentioned, brands have spent an unnecessary amount of time obsessing over follower count. Likewise, views have been another misleading metric for social media and branded blogs, not to mention the people who read them! However, as time passes, more and more PR professionals are starting to realize the irrelevance of these numbers in comparison with actual interaction.
It also makes perfect sense. After all, when content receives attention without engagement, this suggests that the content is ineffective. Needless to say, PR requires impressions to receive interaction in the first place. However, after years of views without engagement, PR pros are now focusing more on the kind of content that provokes a reaction from their followers.
In the new year, it’s fully expected that the best PR strategists will start to employ PR tools and software to measure the level of interaction they receive online. What’s more, social media views or followers will become less and less relevant as PR specialists demand actual results instead of what they now deem to be misleading metrics.
While PR strategies for launching a startup continue to evolve, the above methods and techniques are those that seem to be working best for successful startups. Whether you opt to embrace them or not, keep in mind that the success of your brand is likely to correlate with the strategies you adopt.