The way tech companies approach marketing and communication is evolving. In the face of increasing competition, it has become more and more challenging to reach the target audience through traditional channels.
No matter if your products and services change lives for the better, if the positive impact is not linked to the challenges your customers face, it won’t be long before the sales funnel dries up. More often than not, the importance of PR is understated in such instances.
So, what can a tech company do?
Organizations employing a technology PR agency should leverage their marketing initiatives to demonstrate their expertise in solving the core problems of their audience. Once you have established your thought leadership in the market, positive ROI and brand recognition always follow.
Hence, we have come up with 5 PR strategies that will help you transform how your people perceive your company.
1. Tap on the current and trending news
With each year, technology interlaces with our lives even more. The annual tech events are the biggest example of how even the most prominent products become outdated in no time. While this may be a challenge for your production and R&D departments, it poses an opportunity for PR.
The media’s interest in reporting trends is always on the rise. You can pitch stories and ideas that sit well with these narratives, effectively relating your product and service to the news. The strategy is known as newsjacking and is quite effective, considering how a broader perspective lent to the original development.
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2. Keep your messaging simple
Yes, technology is exciting and innovative in all the good ways, but it is also incomprehensible and perplexing for your audience. Most tech companies forget the fact that their target buyers are not engineers or rocket scientists. They are simply looking for direct answers to their day-to-day questions.
The same applies to the reporters and journalists in the industry. If your content throws around unnecessary jargon, it will alienate even the best publications.
Your goal should be to provide valuable information that shall help your people make the best decisions for themselves. That’s how you place yourself as a market leader and gain those extra points from the journalists.
3. Tell better stories
The key to tech PR is to tell better stories than your competitors. Think of it as a three-piece puzzle – the challenge, the approach, and the solution. It would help if you took the time to understand what your audience is looking for and deliver a unique story that resonates with their expectations. Remember that helping your audience shall drive more value to your PR than anything else.
To give you an example, MNCs like Apple drive the conversation around what’s relevant by taking the initiative to induce a positive change. Take Apple’s venture into the healthcare sector, for instance.
Their press release named “A new type of healing, supported by Apple” revolves around a diabetic patient named Lauro Salvador who was helped through their investments in Biotechnology.
Rethink how you can tell your brand stories as a documentary of the customer’s journey. It can be an interview, a day-in-the-life, or a significant change brought about by the company.
4. Use influencer marketing to fill in the gaps
PR is not as straightforward as it used to be. The media relations funnel is shrinking at best. With a line of developments happening every day, grabbing the attention of a reporter or journalist in time is a rare phenomenon. Therefore, companies with smart communicators should use their internal resources to get the word out.
You see, the main goal of PR is to inform the audiences and amplify the reach. But, who says that your own team cannot do the same? This is where employee advocacy and activation come into play. Employees are inherently the trusted voices of a brand.
They reflect the culture and values that your company stands for. With tech PR, you should be considering creating brand fans that push out your messages to the relevant audience.
An admirable place to start is by sharing sneak peeks of the current innovations within the organization followed by the positive policy changes that put you in the best light.
5. Start live event integration
For early-stage startups and small to mid-sized companies, the biggest issue in PR is not getting noticed. This can also be accounted for to the point that there are more pretenders in the market than contenders. So, how do you differentiate yourself?
By giving them a taste of what’s on the table.
Depending upon your solution and organization, creating focused live events can help bring a certain level of tangibility to your marketing and communication activities.
Live events give you the space to showcase your brand differentiators and the company’s core value propositions. Once the word out about your potential, prospects shall find their way to you automatically.
With tech PR, four aspects should be considered while planning your event – brand awareness, lead generation, customer engagement, and product education.
Make sure to stay active on other channels of your marketing mix as well to maximize the outreach and amplification.
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Last Thoughts
Blindly sending in the pitches to every reporter in the tech industry does not cut it anymore. To be socially relevant in the current market landscape, you need to have a unique approach to PR. The key is knowing your audience (and media) and how well-versed they are with your niche.
Yes, communicating the direct benefits of tech-driven products can be challenging, but you can build a positive brand image for your company with simple and outcome-based messages.