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5 Reasons to Invest in Your Future, Despite the Scary Past

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Welcome to Q3, 2020. What does that mean for how public relations and marketing departments will invest in their futures?

Q4 will be the time to finalize budgets for 2021. After a tumultuous year including a pandemic, record unemployment, civil unrest and a to-be-determined presidential election, not to mention murder hornets and whatever else the universe chooses to throw against us this year, 2021 may be a welcome sight. But with the roller coaster year we’ve had, faith in budgets may not be so faithful.

Investors will tell you that when the stock market plummets, don’t stress out thinking you’ve lost a fortune. Instead, remind yourself that stocks are now on sale. Buy while prices are at their lowest.

Channeling money back into your business is solid advice any time but especially after a difficult year. Here are five reasons why hiring a public relations firm could be the wisest decision to help you make up for lost revenue.

  1. Pay the pros, not the employees. Even in the healthcare world during a pandemic, health-related jobs are not secure. If your company had to reduce its staff, it’s likely support personnel including social media teams and internal communications managers may have been the first people to go. Hiring a PR firm, however, comes with all these specialists, and so many more. Fully staffed agencies have writers, SEO and content marketing pros, just to name a few, and you won’t have to pay for their unemployment insurance, 401K contributions, or health insurance premiums.
  1. Investors aren’t. This June article from MobiHealthNews points out that in these uncertain times, investors aren’t investing, especially in startups. Smaller companies must find other ways to get their message out, and their brand recognized until they can score a big influx of cash. An agency with a proven track record is the safest option for small companies with limited resources.
  1. The press release is still king. In this blog recently contributed by my colleague, Brandon Glenn, most journalists (36%) still receive their news from the good old press release. A PR firm will staff writers to get your message out there, and better still, leverage it to your target audience. And what about news wire prices? Agencies negotiate rock-bottom deals because of the number of releases they send each year, which means that’s one less contract you have to maintain. The perfect agency will also understand your niche market, so its messaging is on-point, saving you valuable time on revisions and re-reads.
  1. Full service or customized options. The perfect agency is also one that is full service, meaning it’s a one-stop-shop for everything from social media to revamping your website. However, if you don’t have the budget or need for all services, ask for customized options to fill the gaps in your internal marketing department. Perhaps you have a great handle on social media, but your website or collateral material is outdated. Or maybe you want to launch a new product. A great PR firm will offer guidance on how to best utilize the money in your budget.
  1. Uncertainty of in-person events. If there’s one thing 2020 taught us, it’s not to count on a sure thing. For the first time in 58 years, the HIMSS Annual Conference was canceled. Much to the dismay of exhibitors, HIMSS didn’t handle the monetary situation very well. Many exhibitors slated for 2020 are trying to decide if they are going to boycott in 2021. No matter your opinion on this topic, the fact is in-person events may not be happening, at least with the same attendance levels, as they have in past years. While ROI on virtual events is showing improvement, it’s even more important to consider all your options when trying to fill your sales pipeline. Having a good, established agency that specializes in your market, and who has a lot of experience and many solutions, will be important for moving forward post-COVID-19.

We may all be happy to see 2020 in the rearview mirror. But let’s not be afraid of 2021 and the opportunities it has to offer.

My brother, who is a locksmith, knows one simple truth; the months he advertises are the months his phone rings. A full-service public relations agency will know how to guide you, and help you get the most bang for your buck. Invest in your future!

So You Just Landed a Venture Capital Investment and Want Some Media Coverage

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Closing a venture capital (VC) investment is a big deal for any young company.

After all, less than 1 percent of all U.S. companies receive VC money. A VC investment represents market validation. An experienced group of industry veterans has decided that your company holds the promise and potential to make them (and maybe even yourself and a few of your employees) rich. They think you have an innovative idea, and their cash will serve as the catalyst sparking that growth.

Sounds great and it is. Landing VC money is a huge accomplishment for any company that is able to make it through what is generally an ultra-competitive process.

It’s also a great opportunity to generate some media coverage, which for many young companies, will represent their first introduction to the market and first occasion to share their stories with potential customers, partners, acquirers and other investors.

The only problem? Announcements of VC investments happen all the time, so the media is not lacking in coverage options. To make sure your announcement about obtaining a venture capital investment gets noticed, keep these four integral principles in mind.

Do not withhold the dollar amount: If you’re looking to create media interest at all, I cannot stress enough the importance of including the dollar amount of the investment. This is a very important point for reporters who need some way of assessing the gravity of all the funding announcements they see. Obviously, $50 million will look better in headlines than $5 million, but $1 million looks a lot better than nothing. In my reporter days, when I saw a funding announcement without a dollar amount, it immediately went to the bottom of my queue of potential upcoming stories. Don’t fumble away this valuable opportunity by failing to get approval from your investors to include the dollar amount.

Describe how you’ll use the investment: All reporters expect that you’ll use your recent cash infusion to drive “growth,” but they’ll want more specifics than that. What are your key measures of growth? If it’s customer acquisition, what type of customers are you looking to acquire? If it’s employee headcount, how many are you looking to hire? (BONUS: Including potential jobs numbers in an area can help you get into local media AND aid in your recruiting efforts.) If it’s revenue, by what percentage are you hoping to grow revenue in the next year? Obviously, you don’t want to reveal any secret strategies to competitors, but your investment announcement provides an opening to begin shaping your company’s story and the way it’s publicly perceived. Do that by articulating a clear vision for the future that describes exactly what “growth” means to you.

Make sure executives are available for interviews on the day of the announcement: For the chance to pose questions like those mentioned above  plus plenty more reporters will be interested in speaking with a top company executive, preferably the CEO. After coordinating key talking points with the CEO, be sure to coordinate schedules. As important as a funding announcement is, it’s not realistic to expect an executive to block off her entire day for interviews. But one or two decent chunks of time on the day of the announcement isn’t too much to ask.

Be sure to include investor and customer quotes: A VC investment serves as an important representation of market validation, and the funding announcement is a chance to shout that validation from the rooftops. A quote from the investor is a must, explaining why the VC firm thinks this company is one to take a risk on, why the market will ultimately choose their technology as a winner and what type of growth potential exists in this particular market niche. For bonus points, include a customer quote explaining (preferably with quantifiable outcomes) exactly how your technology helped them address a significant business problem.

Yes, it can be difficult to gain media coverage for venture capital announcements due to all the stiff competition out there. But it is possible to get journalists’ attention.

Drafting an announcement that follows the key principles above will help your announcement stand out while giving journalists what they want and need – a good, complete story to tell. And the same story that helped you win the investment in the first place.