Take your first steps to media coverage for your startup

Several priorities come to mind as you’re in the early stages of your startup’s development.

• Product market fit
• Fundraising rounds
• A small but dedicated team

However, public relations (PR) and marketing too often take a backseat as startups grow their business, which can result in poor engagement or haphazard campaigns to market the company. HSBC Innovation Banking hosted a PR masterclass event with ‘The Ultimate Door Opener’, Amanda FitzGerald, who has developed a seven-step process for winning media coverage in the early development of your company. Here’s some key takeaways:

1. Distil your PR goals

When planning a PR campaign, you should ask yourself: what am I looking to achieve? Create a goal on where you want your story or angle to appear. Is it:

• Local TV and radio
• Industry press
• National or international press and television
• Podcasts

Wherever you’re targeting, FitzGerald says that any startup founder needs to ‘stop thinking no one wants to hear from you’ and swap that to ‘journalists need you’. Much of today’s media output consists of the content of press releases from all sizes of companies – including yours.

2. Create your backstory

All businesses need to have a backstory that is compelling to whoever you’re sharing it with. Here’s some thoughts to get you started:

• Why did you start the business?
• What was your eureka moment?
• Did you start as a side hustle?

3. Your business on a page: press kits

Many of our clients operate in highly technical, abstract industries which may be difficult to understand. Press kits help increase understanding by providing key facts on your business that any person can interpret. Include information such as:

• Contact bio: Include a picture and details of the company primary contact so journalists know who they’re talking to
• Social handles: Add all relevant active social media usernames for recipients to look at your presence
• Testimonials or praise: Add reviews that help enhance the reputation of your company – but keep it short.
• Summary of your business: In a few paragraphs, summarise the core business offering and what you’re doing different to the competition.
• Pictures of your product or service: While this will be easier for companies producing physical products, adding this can help journalists to understand what your company is doing easier.

Limit yourself to one side of A4 to reduce the amount of ‘fluff’ and industry jargon by instead keeping it concise and simple. Providing this to a journalist while distributing a press release gives additional context to why you matter in a noisy marketplace.

4. Set aside seven minutes a day for PR

A primary strategy of FitzGerald’s PR Masterclass is setting aside time every day for PR, as little as seven minutes. While this may seem impossibly short, start by creating a recurring time each day, block off any distractions then get searching. Start by looking at your favourite journalist in your industry and scope them out over several days. Begin by dropping a message through social and, once you’ve built a rapport, pitch your news to them. Creating opportunities for ‘little and often’ PR ensures that you provide it the focus that your business needs – even if you don’t have a dedicated marketing or PR manager.

5. Reel in the journos – and free coverage

Paid marketing is great, but organic (i.e. free) coverage is better. Providing a ‘hook’ for your pitch or a newsworthy angle will help to increase the chances of securing coverage of your business which may appeal to journalists including:

• Awareness days: identify days which are relevant to your business to release news, e.g. International Day of Happiness for a company focussed on mental health, or International Women’s Day or Pride month to share company social or community initiatives.
• Expert commentary and reacting to ‘big’ news: offering your views to journalists as an industry expert can help cement your presence in media publications. Doing so can provide an effective link to promote your business further.
• Social media trends (especially on TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts for consumer channels; LinkedIn for B2B organisations)
• Book launches

When pitching to journalists, focus on the subject line or message being punchy (like a headline) and make your business relevant by positioning it back to one of these topics. You can also find journalists looking for contributors by searching on social media, including X (formerly Twitter) or LinkedIn, for #journorequest along with your industry name. Your unique angle can provide a journalist a new take on a wider trend or story.

While the unique angle will differ between all businesses, think about the problem that your business is solving or its mission statement. This will add much needed context and understanding for the journalist.

6. Rinse and repeat: maximise your reach

When you begin to receive some media pickup, don’t leave it at the initial article. Utilise your social channels to consistently reshare those articles with different takes. While you may be concerned that people will get bored, increased exposure grows your presence without costly campaigns and burning funds on ads.

Final takeaway: small steps in PR help grow your business

If there’s one thing you can take from this article, it’s that any business – regardless of size or scale – can help grow their presence by allocating even a short amount of time each day to PR. While it may take a long time to gain traction, seven minutes PR focus per day, combined with developing your backstory and press kit, can have a snowball effect. It is the lifeblood of growth in industries where competition is fiercer than ever.