How To Get Media & PR Coverage For Your SaaS Startup
Today’s world runs on good first impressions.
A product or service needs to be marketed in the right way to garner a favorable public opinion.
Top companies worldwide like Starbucks and Nike have successfully used creative PR campaign strategies to project their brand image attractively.
In particular, startups have developed innovative ways to market their apps to their target customer base.
Suppose you consider the examples of successful startups like Airbnb, BookMyShow, or InShorts. In that case, you will notice that all these companies have conducted genius campaigns for launching and maintaining their business apps.
Off late, businesses have come up with unique marketing ideas such as promoting app downloads with Gamification, developing socially shareable content, enabling download buttons on social media, et cetera.
PR or Public Relations campaigns is a highly used SaaS marketing strategy. But, first, let us understand why a well-crafted PR campaign is so crucial for your Tech Startup.
As a SaaS startup, one of your ultimate goals is to get media and PR coverage that will help you reach a wider audience. But how do you go about getting that coverage?
Let's find out.
Before Creating Your PR Campaigns:
Here are a few tips you should follow before creating your first PR campaigns for your Tech Startup.
1. Have a Clear Marketing Message.
Your story needs to be clear and concise. You need to be able to articulate what your SaaS startup does in a way that is easy for others to understand.
What can you do?
Step 1: Know your audience.
It’s important to know who you’re trying to reach with your story. Are you trying to get potential customers? The media? Investors? Make sure you tailor your message accordingly.
Step 2: Create a “short marketing message”
A marketing message has two significant components.
What You Do
How Your Products / Services Helps the Customers.
E.g., “We help customized diet routine for pregnant women so that they can nurture a healthy baby.”
Step 3: Use Business Storytelling:
Create a Brand Story and use storytelling in your marketing videos, brochures, ads, and campaigns. Here are the four critical parts of business storytelling:
Product-market fit: What problem(s) does your product solve?
Target audience: Who is experiencing the problem that your product solves? How much are they willing to pay for a solution? What are the pain points and frustrations that you can alleviate?
Solution: What are my product and solution, and what offer can I give
Transformation: What transformation or positive change my product and solutions will bring to my customer’s life.
Here is an excellent example of a crisp “Business Story”:
“Corporates want to increase employee engagement, but it’s been hard to make progress. It can be tough to get employees excited about their work when they don’t feel heard or valued. Woliba Wellbeing Solution is the answer! Our solution includes a wellness program that supports employees and drives progress, with comprehensive innovative wellbeing solutions in place companies help reduce stress, connect teams, and increase engagement.”
Now, let’s break it down:
Target Audience: Corporate
Product-market fit: Corporates want to increase employee engagement, but it’s been hard to make progress.
Solution: Woliba Wellbeing Solution is the answer! Our solution includes a wellness program that supports employees and drives progress.
Transformation: with comprehensive innovative wellbeing solutions in place companies help reduce stress, connect teams, and increase engagement.
Step 4: Unify the message throughout the company
Use it on all marketing creatives like brochures, websites, etc., and ask the entire team to memorize it.
If needed, create a separate marketing message for your products/services and use it in marketing campaigns.
If you want to read more on this, there is an excellent book on it “Story Brand” by Donald Miller.
2. Make sure you have a newsworthy story.
It would help if you had something newsworthy to say to get media and PR coverage. Ask yourself: what makes your SaaS startup different or unique? What are you doing that is newsworthy?
3. Build relationships with the media.
If you want to get media coverage, you need to build relationships with the people who work in the media. Attend industry events, read trade publications, and pitch your story idea to journalists.
5. Have a solid online presence.
Make sure your website is up-to-date and that you have an active social media presence. This will make it easier for journalists to find you and your story.
Why use a PR campaign for your SaaS Startup?
Building and launching an app in today’s technologically saturated market can be very challenging.
Since hundreds of new apps are being launched every day, carving your niche in the market is essential.
By incorporating a sound PR strategy into your app launch campaign, you can derive the following advantages:
a) Generates mass awareness: If you want your app to create a buzz in the market before being launched, a PR campaign can be the best strategy.
It can act as the perfect supporting pillar for your direct marketing or advertising strategies.
Further, you have an improved Google rank via successful PR campaigns. This makes it easier for prospective customers to locate you.
Consequently, your company will have a better brand recall and get more traffic via direct search.
b) Attracts investors: For your app to have a long-term presence in the market and improved sustainability, it is essential that you attract a substantial amount of investments.
PR campaign strategies are designed specifically to communicate your app’s viability to possible investors so that they can fund your venture.
c) Find the right employees: A PR campaign for your application sends out a clear image of your brand, your objectives, and your general ethos as a company.
This can help attract the right kind of employees who can fit into your organization.
Thus, it saves you a considerable amount of recruitment hassle by attracting the right talent.
10 Public relations (PR) Strategies to Promote SaaS Startup
When it comes to promoting your SaaS startup, there are a lot of different strategies that you can use to get the word out there. However, it can be tough to know where to start with many options. To help you get started, we’ve compiled a list of 10 PR strategies that you can use to promote your SaaS startup.
1. Create a Compelling Press Kit
One of the best ways to promote your SaaS startup is to create a press kit that journalists and other media members can use when writing about your company. A press kit should include all of the essential information about your company, such as your mission statement, a list of your key personnel, and a fact sheet.
2. Write a Compelling Press Release
Another great way to get media coverage for your SaaS startup is to write a compelling press release. A well-written press release can generate interest in your company, leading to media coverage. When writing a press release, include all of the essential information about your company and make it newsworthy.
3. Get Listed in Industry Directories
Several different industry directories list information about SaaS startups. Getting listed in these directories can help to increase your visibility and generate interest in your company. Some of the most popular directories include Crunchbase, G2 Crowd, and Capterra.
4. Speak at Industry Events
Another great way to promote your SaaS startup is to speak at industry events. This can help you get exposure for your company while also establishing yourself as a thought leader in the industry. When selecting events to speak at, choose those relevant to your target market.
5. Write Guest Blog Posts
One of the best ways to generate exposure for your SaaS startup is to write guest blog posts for popular industry publications. This can help you reach a new audience and get your company’s name. When writing guest blog posts, focus on topics relevant to your target market.
6. Participate in Podcasts
Podcasts are becoming increasingly popular, making them an excellent platform for promoting your SaaS startup. This is an incredibly effective strategy if you can secure a spot on a popular podcast relevant to your target market. When participating in podcasts, focus on providing value and avoid hard-selling your company.
7. Get Featured in the Media
One of the best ways to promote your SaaS startup is to get featured in the media. This can help you reach a broad audience and generate interest in your company. To increase your chances of getting featured in the media, be sure to pitch stories that are newsworthy and relevant to the publication’s audience.
8. Create Infographics
Infographics are a great way to promote your SaaS startup because they are visually appealing and easy to share. When creating infographics, focus on topics relevant to your target market and make sure that the information is accurate.
9. Conduct an Email Campaign
An email campaign can be a great way to promote your SaaS startup because it allows you to reach many people with your message. When conducting an email campaign, focus on providing value and avoiding spammy tactics.
10. Use Social Media
Social media is an excellent platform for promoting your SaaS startup because it allows you to reach a large audience with your message. When using social media, focus on providing value and avoid hard-selling your company.
How to conduct and maintain a successful PR campaign?
It is crucial to understand that simply designing a mobile app campaign strategy for your brand is not enough.
Implementing it properly and addressing the right crowd is crucial for its success.
Here is a detailed step-by-step approach of launching and running your very own PR campaign:
1. Set out clear objectives:
A PR strategy can have a variety of goals.
It may be creating a good brand reputation, revamping the existing brand image, reaching out to new customers, or raking in more sales.
So, before you start strategizing, you must set clear-cut goals to be achieved by your PR strategy and a realistic time-bound to the plan.
2. Select the platform of communication:
Today, PR campaigns need not necessarily be conducted in press conferences held in large banquet halls.
You can choose television, radio broadcast, social media, or press releases to get the word out about your app.
So you have to identify your target customer base and zero in on the platform of communication they are most comfortable with.
For example, the famous mobile company Virgin launched a unique PR campaign in Australia via both the online website and the physical stores.
The campaign invited users to face off against each other via interactive games in exchange for lucrative cash prizes.
At the end of the campaign, it was noted that the brand had over 40,000 active users.
3. Design creatively:
Once you know your goals and your prospective audience, it is time to unleash your creative genes.
You can either design your app launch campaign yourself or hire a professional PR company to do it for you.
Being innovative in your PR approach helps viewers connect to your vision and remember your app for an extended period of time.
4. Draft an impactful press release:
It is always necessary to let the world know what you are doing.
The best way to grab people’s attention is to draft a strong press release.
The use of catchy phrases, audio-visual aids, and an appealing message in a press release can help you garner more buzz for your app.
5. Choose the right media agency for release:
You must decide on the circulation of your PR campaign in the market.
Choosing the appropriate agencies to release your campaign, building a good rapport with journalists, ensuring that everyone relevant in your industry views the PR campaign, and delivering the app launch campaign with panache can come in very handy.
For example, the Travel Time Report from the office commute app MoveInSync was picked up by the right publications.
This mobile app campaign strategy helped in the proper marketing of the report, which attracted a lot of buzz around the app.
6. Promote sharing:
Once your PR release is out for the world to see, you have to keep it in the public eye for as long as possible.
This will generate more interest and ensure that your app doesn’t just fizzle out.
Sharing via word-of-mouth and social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and LinkedIn can go a long way in building a brilliant brand image for your app.
Make sure to use efficient PR campaign strategies for presenting your mobile app to the masses so that you can become the world’s latest and most remarkable success story.
By following these tips, you can increase your chances of getting media and PR coverage for your SaaS startup.
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