We work with many start-ups and scale-ups and often are part of the journey from one stage to the next. It’s an exciting time for the business as early success starts to reap benefits and it is great to be part of that team, but it does also come with some risks. Matching the enthusiasm with a real-world understanding of how its world has changed will mean that a business can soar into the next phase, confident and prepared.
How the business adapts during this period of change extends to how it communicates as a brand. At this critical point, we’ve moved beyond the initial introduction to the world and a focus on a product or service. Getting visibility and building early confidence has moved into managing a company reputation and showing authority in the market.
The lens of scrutiny has widened to a greater set of audiences and with that a hike in expectations to maintain and build the business further. What PR works for a start-up in the early stages is no longer as effective once the business starts to scale.
How you tell the story
At the start, the narrative is all about the founder’s journey, the embryonic foundations of the business, its mission, and the problem the brand can solve. It is also about getting the eyes and ears of potential investors and endorsement from those first customers to start to build credibility. Media coverage will likely focus on the founder and there are plenty of profile opportunities across business media that will respond well with an interesting back story or a novel business model or product.
As the business grows, the emphasis shifts to a broader narrative played out in the media. We don’t lose the founder story, the mission, or the product, but context becomes king. We need to show the company’s impact on the industry, how it’s tackling emerging challenges, and how it differentiates itself from competitors. The growth narrative moves front and centre and the vision that will drive that scale up.
This is the time to review the company messaging and start to break down the messaging into different categories and audiences. These include investors, customers and partners, employees and also consider business practice around ESG, people and culture etc. For a deeper look at how strategic storytelling can shape those narratives, it’s worth thinking about the frameworks that work best at scale.
Who are we?
Now is also the time to be introducing other key members of the team into the narrative. You want to show that you have a robust team that can reliably meet the growth plan with the diversity of skills needed. Putting other executives forward for media opportunities that demonstrate their expertise and contribution to the business, will let people know the size of the business and that it is attracting high quality candidates that believe in it. Don’t forget to prepare them for interviews with media training, for those that are new to speaking to journalists.
What PR should we be doing?
Think more broadly about the media and channels you are targeting, engaging with specialist media and mainstream business press. Don’t forget the regional media to demonstrate your value as a local enterprise.
Similarly, broaden the types of announcements and outputs to the media. To achieve that healthy drumbeat of awareness – alongside business updates, growth milestones and team changes – regular thought leadership on timely industry issues and developments will build the credibility in the brand. Fresh and original commentary on industry trends will go a long way and build good reciprocal relationships with journalists.
Invest in your owned media, as their will be far more eyeballs on the company. This means have a strong content strategy for blogs, podcasts, newsletters and social media platforms like LinkedIn. Make those assets work harder for you, so think about how you can use content across both earned and owned channels. An example could be celebrating a quality piece of earned media coverage on LinkedIn or signposting the website on the LinkedIn page via a SEO optimised web blog.
Last but certainly not least, now is the time to think about some crisis comms or issues planning. Greater visibility attracts greater scrutiny. By investing time and energy into having some protocols in place, you can save time further down the line when an issue arises and most importantly protect that hard earned reputation.
