Nine digital PR tips for startups

We get it. When you’re a startup, especially in those all-important early stages, budgets are often tight, and every penny counts. So, it’s no surprise that many startups choose to prioritise digital marketing activities with immediate returns, or stick to traditional forms of paid media and advertising, while overlooking the long term benefits of digital PR. Some might even believe PR isn’t necessary or struggle to see its value for a small business.

But here’s the truth: PR is valuable for ALL businesses – and startups, in particular, stand to gain a lot. Whether it’s building brand awareness, enhancing your online presence, or connecting with your loyal customer base, digital PR can help set your business apart. As a smaller brand, you’re uniquely positioned to engage with your customers more directly and meaningfully, which helps to build a foundation for long term growth. It’s also worth adding that 92% of consumers trust earned media over traditional ads – and PR = earned media!

We’ve worked with countless startups and bootstrapped businesses to help them raise their profile, showcase their brand, products, and services to new customers, and improve their SEO performance – so we know what works. While we believe that, like most things, the best results come from leaving it to the professionals (that’s us!), we understand you might still be unsure if digital PR is the right fit for your business and want to test the waters yourself first. There are plenty of tools and tactics we use to make the process easier, but if you’re keen to try your hand at running a few DIY campaigns, here are some pointers to help you get started.

What’s in this article:

• How can startups and small businesses benefit from digital PR?
• Nine digital PR tips for startups and small businesses
• Key takeaways

How can startups and small businesses benefit from digital PR?

Digital PR isn’t just for the big players. We believe it can benefit businesses of all sizes and sectors – because we’ve seen it firsthand! If you’re serious about making a mark in your industry, building your brand, and growing your business, a long term PR plan can make all the difference.

Here are eight ways startups and small businesses can benefit from digital PR.

1. Build brand awareness

Digital PR helps startups and small businesses get their name out there. Securing media coverage, mentions and links in high quality and relevant publications puts your brand in front of people, boosting recognition and credibility.

2. Drive website traffic

By earning backlinks from authoritative sites and increasing your brand’s visibility in search engines, digital PR can drive high quality traffic to your website. This is especially valuable for startups looking to attract customers and build a loyal customer base. 

3. Improve SEO performance

Digital PR supports SEO by building valuable backlinks, improving your website’s domain authority, and helping your business rank higher in search results. Higher rankings mean more visibility and potential customers finding you organically.

4. Position yourselves as industry experts

Sharing thought leadership content or securing expert interviews with reputable publications helps position your business as an authority in your niche. This builds trust with potential customers and sets you apart from competitors.

5. Product placement opportunities

Digital PR can help e-Commerce startups secure product features in popular media, like gift guides, product round-ups, and reviews. These placements increase brand visibility, build credibility, and drive targeted traffic to your online store, ultimately leading to more sales.

6. Cost effective marketing

For startups and small businesses with limited budgets, digital PR offers a cost effective alternative to traditional advertising. It focuses on earned media rather than paid placements, often delivering better ROI in the long term.

7. Reputation management

Another key area where PR is invaluable for startups is reputation management. Digital PR allows startups to proactively shape their brand image by promoting positive stories, addressing negative press, and building trust with their audience. No matter the size of your business, things can go wrong – and having a plan in place to handle a crisis is essential. For startups in particular, managing crises effectively is crucial because their reputation is often one of their most valuable yet fragile assets. 

8. Build relationships and partnerships

Through a robust digital PR strategy, businesses can connect with journalists, bloggers, and influencers in their niche. These relationships can lead to valuable collaborations, partnerships, or further media opportunities down the line. 

Nine digital PR tips for startups and small businesses

1. Set goals

Before diving in, it’s important to take a moment to consider what you want to achieve with your PR activity. Are you aiming for a brand mention or a link from a specific publication? Are there key influencers in your industry you’d like to collaborate with? A particular product you’re launching and want to promote? And then looking at the digital picture, do you want to improve your website’s domain authority (DA) over the next year? Or perhaps increase organic traffic month on month? Setting goals beforehand is crucial because it provides direction, focus, and measurable outcomes for your efforts. 

2. Take a look at your competitors

Analysing your competitors’ PR activity can provide valuable insights and inspiration for your own strategy. Identify which publications feature them regularly, what PR tactics they’re using, and what kind of stories they’re sharing. This competitor research can help you spot opportunities they might have missed or identify tactics that are working well in your industry. While it’s important to stand out and develop your own unique voice, keeping an eye on the competition ensures you stay informed – and competitive.

3. Take a look at the news

Once you’ve analysed your competitors, take some time to explore what’s making headlines – both in your industry and more generally. Staying up to date with current events can help you identify opportunities to tie your brand or product into trending topics, seasonal themes, or industry developments. Newsworthy angles are key to grabbing attention, so keeping your finger on the pulse of the news can inspire timely and relevant PR campaigns. It’s also essential if you’re aiming to tie newsjacking or reactive PR into your strategy. 

4. Identify useful journalists

If you’ve followed the steps above, you should now have a clear understanding of your goals, competitors, and the current news landscape. The next step is to identify journalists who cover your niche or related topics. Look for writers at industry-specific publications, authoritative national outlets, or blogs that align with your expertise and audience. Focus on those who have published stories relevant to your business or who might be interested in what you have to offer. For example, if you’re a motoring business, it’s worth identifying motoring journalists at regional and national publications, as well as those writing for motoring-specific publications. Building relationships with the right journalists will increase your chances of getting coverage in the places that matter most to your audience. Once you’ve identified who you should be talking to, pull their details into a media list. 

5. Introduce yourself

Once you’ve identified the right journalists to reach out to, it’s time to introduce yourself. Start by crafting a personalised, concise pitch that highlights who you are, what your business does, and why your story or product would interest them. If you’re able to, offer them product samples to try for themselves, and be sure to highlight your expertise and the topics you can comment on or offer thought leadership for – journalists are always looking for industry experts to bolster and strengthen the stories and features they write. 

Show you’ve done your research by referencing their past work or the themes they’ve covered. This will show that your email is thoughtful rather than the equivalent of a cold call. Remember that building genuine media relationships takes time, so avoid generic pitches and focus on creating a meaningful first impression. Also keep in mind that journalists receive countless pitches daily, so ensure yours is relevant, timely, and tailored specifically to their interests.

6. Come up with some ideas

News sites and social platforms are bursting to the seams with great content, so getting your PR campaigns noticed can feel like an uphill battle. To cut through the noise and secure coverage, your digital PR ideas need to stand out – and that starts with a bulletproof concept.

The best PR ideas spark an emotional response, whether it’s shock, curiosity, humour, nostalgia, or even outrage. They also offer something fresh and unique, giving journalists and readers a reason to pay attention. While it’s not always necessary for your idea to be directly tied to your brand’s core offering, the strongest campaigns often strike a balance between being relevant to your business and tapping into wider trends or issues that matter today.

But how do you generate these show stopping ideas? There are a few tools you can use to get the creative juices flowing, like Answer the Public, Google Trends/Glimpse, and Reddit. 

Ultimately, the key to developing great digital PR ideas is creativity combined with strategy. Don’t just think about what’s trending – think about how you can contribute to the conversation in a way that’s authentic to your brand AND valuable to your audience. If you’d like more tips on finding great ideas, read this blog. 

7. Create a PR plan

Throwing stories at the press and hoping something sticks rarely yields meaningful results. That’s why having a well thought out PR plan is essential. Map out the campaigns you want to run by starting with a manageable three month plan. This approach helps you stay organised, focused, and strategic. However, it’s important to keep your plan flexible so you can adapt to the constantly changing news cycle and seize timely opportunities as and when they arise. 

Your PR plan should work a bit like a calendar. For each month, outline the campaigns, stories, or press releases you plan to launch, and specify the publications, journalists, or influencers you want to pitch them to. Include key dates that are important to your business, such as product launches, anniversaries, or events, as well as relevant dates for your industry, like trade shows or awareness weeks. If you’re a consumer brand, it could even be worth making a note of notable pop culture events, as they often present good newsjacking opportunities. Don’t forget to also consider seasonal trends and holidays (Christmas, Bank Holidays, Halloween etc.) that could align with your brand. This structure will help you stay on track, ensure your efforts are timely, and maximise your chances of securing coverage.

8. Master the press release

Mastering the press release is something of a fine art. It can take months or even years of practice to perfect, but when done well, a press release isn’t just a way to share news – it’s a strategic tool for positioning your business as a trusted, newsworthy source. A well crafted release helps you build relationships with journalists and secure the media coverage your brand deserves.

In practical terms, a press release should be concise (ideally 500 - 600 words), written in a journalistic tone, and structured to answer the key questions: who, what, where, why, when, and how. It’s vital to include all the necessary details without overwhelming the reader. A clear, factual, and informative press release makes it easier for journalists to pick it up and turn it into a ready-to-publish story – saving them time while showcasing your brand. Win win!

A successful press release goes beyond simply announcing what your company is doing or offering an opinion on a topic, it addresses the media’s need for a compelling story. This means including a strong hook that grabs a journalist’s attention. Whether it’s a timely response to an industry trend, exclusive research, or a unique take on a current issue, the press release must provide real value to both the journalist and their audience.

If you’d like more guidance on crafting press releases, we have a comprehensive blog on the process available here.

9. Set up media monitoring

Keeping track of where and when your brand is mentioned is an essential part of any PR strategy. It’s the first step to monitoring results and tracking them against your goals, after all! While there are plenty of paid-for media monitoring solutions available, such as Vuelio, Meltwater, and Gorkana, you can opt for free alternatives to keep costs low. Tools like Google Alerts and TalkWalker Alerts allow you to monitor your brand’s online mentions easily and effectively.

To get the most out of media monitoring, set up alerts not just for your brand name but also for the names of any key spokespeople regularly featured in your press releases and campaigns. It’s also a good idea to monitor mentions of your website’s domain name (e.g. ‘MotivePR.co.uk’) to ensure you catch all relevant references. Regularly reviewing these alerts can help you track the success of your campaigns, measure brand visibility, and stay informed about how your business is being discussed online.

Key takeaways

• Digital PR benefits all businesses: Digital PR is invaluable for startups, helping boost brand awareness, improve SEO, and position your business as an industry authority. Despite small budgets, startups can achieve long term growth by focusing on earned media instead of traditional advertising.
• Build credibility through media coverage: Securing media coverage, backlinks, and product placements in relevant publications helps drive website traffic and positions your brand in front of larger, more targeted audiences.
• Cost-effective marketing: For startups with limited budgets, digital PR offers a cost-effective alternative to traditional ads, focusing on earned media for higher ROI and lasting results.
• Reputation management and crisis control: Digital PR enables startups to shape their brand image proactively, address negative press, and manage their reputation – crucial for maintaining trust and credibility in a competitive market.
• Strategic planning is key: Startups should set clear PR goals, stay updated with industry trends, and track competitor strategies. Crafting a well planned but adaptable PR strategy ensures a more organised and effective approach to building media relationships and securing coverage.

Get in touch with us today to find out how PR can support your business. 

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