Okay, okay, we know this title might be controversial, so we’d like to preface this blog with one note; KPIs in startup PR is a different beast.
And yes, we said startup PR, meaning PR at a company that is new, has perhaps not even thought about PR before, and may have not a single person with marketing experience in the team.
Some of the following points may be upsetting, hopefully informative, and some of them may have you questioning everything you thought you knew about PR – good!
C’mon. You didn’t really want us to tell you something you already know, did you?!
Too often, we hear from new clients that they have been disappointed by their previous agencies, that the delivery didn’t live up to their promises, and that they’ve lost faith in PR. “We’re not sure if PR actually works” has become all too familiar.
Of course, we will argue that PR works. And of course, we have to admit that some PR agencies might not be executing well or overpromising. But what is becoming clearer is that many startup founders have the wrong perception of what PR can do for them, especially in the early days. Many PR agencies are too scared to demystify how it really works, and they make promises they won’t be able to fulfil.
If you are obsessed with KPIs, that’s great. That means you are constantly measuring cost-benefit ratios and your campaigns’ and spend effectiveness. This will lead you to make more informed decisions.
But if you think KPIs in performance marketing and PR are one and the same, we have an issue. How do you measure third-party validation that stakeholders might encounter in the future? And what value do you attribute to image, relationships, and trust created over time? Is it even measurable?
First off, some PR truths
Truth bomb #1: it’s important to understand that PR is not directly tied to sales; there’s no guarantee that anyone reading an article will become a hot lead. Sure, great PR can generate awareness and eventually feed into your sales funnel, but this responsibility falls on advertising, performance marketing, and sales. If you rely solely on PR to feed your funnel, this spells trouble. It’s really important to understand your startup objectives to get the best out of your PR team. Is it to appeal to investors for your next round? Is it to win clients? Are you looking to hire the brightest tech talent but need to make your company look cooler? Do you need third-party validation in authoritative publications for sophisticated stakeholders that need to cover their asses when making purchasing decisions?
#2: PR cannot guarantee a certain amount of media coverage per month. The truth is that PR depends on the newsworthiness of your company and the exciting things happening within your industry. Timeliness, impact, and proximity are all key factors that determine newsworthiness. PR agencies can’t guarantee constant media coverage, especially in the startup world where there are ups and downs. If you have exciting news every month, raise funds regularly, launch meaningful products, and establish meaningful partnerships, chances are your PR will get you more wins. PR reflects your startup journey, so make sure there is one. You might have great ideas, but if they don’t come to life, chances are no one will care. Didn’t we all wish we could hail taxis from an app before Uber and think of such a business? What made it into the news was Uber actually doing it.
#3: PR is about more than just landing in desired media outlets to show a bigger number in an ever-growing spreadsheet for a superior to analyse. PR agencies focus on difficult (if not impossible) things to measure. We’re talking about reputation, building thought-leadership and founder PR, media training, developing a PR infrastructure to improve ‘the PR funnel,’ appearing friendly to journalists in the first place, and preparing for crisis management – both big and small.
Now, let’s bust some PR myths!
Journos are not obligated to include a link to your company’s website; in fact, it might be against their editorial guidelines unless for specific, informational purposes. And if there’s no link in an article, don’t go back to the journalist asking to add one – this is the stuff of journo nightmares, people! Seriously, you will get plenty of opportunities to enhance your domain authority, but fewer to improve journo relations. Don’t just take our word for it; you’ll see this complaint feature one too many times in our journalists’ pet peeves series!
Contrary to popular belief, we can’t control what journalists write. Once a pitch is made, that’s it, the journalist has complete autonomy, and little can be done to change the tone or sentiment of an article. However, if there are factual errors, the journalist should be contacted and the error corrected.
Let’s talk about advertorials. You do not have to pay to be featured in the news (but you can). PR is predominantly earned media, not advertising. If you’re paying, you’re not (really) dealing with journalists, and the content will be clearly labelled as “sponsored/bought by.” This isn’t about moola; to be featured in desired Tier 1 publications, you must have a strong story and pitch it to the right journalist. But please, don’t offer money to them.
If you really want to pay, consider advertorials instead. You could approach a publication and ask for a media pack and an overview of what benefits to expect. The pros: you will get more say over the messaging, guaranteed links, and other attention from your ‘provider,’ like inclusions in certain newsletters. The cons: the advertorial label might create the impression you are not as newsworthy and unable to achieve organic media placements. Plus, it’s usually prohibitively expensive where it’s worth it, especially for some international startups needing to pay media organisations in the UK. However, there are arguments to be made, and advertorials may be an effective complement to earned media.
Let’s talk numbers. What kind of numbers are out there that some PR professionals tend to include in their reports?
PR has imperfect metrics, but to give you an idea:
You can check publications for ‘media packs’ for their reach numbers, audience composition, and other information. That way, you can start making sense of who is reading that publication, and the kind of impact your placements can make there. Consider the level of trust and prestige the publication has, especially for your target audience. Will being there change how they perceive your company? If you are often in your trade media, will that help you when you go out and seek to develop relationships with partners and clients?
Two typical metrics that are included in the reporting tools of platforms like Muck Rack are UVM (unique viewers monthly) and domain authority (DA) which indicate readership size and content quality of a site, respectively. But be careful – these numbers can be meaningless without interpretation. You could land a small mention in a huge site that has millions of visitors and a high domain authority but not necessarily get clickthroughs or sales leads. But it could mean a lot that you made it there. Another situation – you could get a piece with the right message on a more niche publication, that doesn’t seem super prestigious at first sight, but where the readership is relevant. Excelling in the PR game in your niche and trade media, compounded over time, can lead to great results.
There is another, even more controversial number, that is included in many reports. Advertising Value Equivalent (AVE) metric – it shows how much you’d pay for ad space in that particular publication. But take it with a (huge) pinch of salt! In our humble opinion, it’s a far-fetched way of justifying an expense for those that don’t understand the inherent value of PR; some may call this ‘covering your ass’ ;).
Finally, ROI. Well, ROI in the world of PR is much less predictable than in performance marketing. Take social media advertising, for example. Everything can be measured, and the bang for your buck understood until the last penny. In PR, some campaigns might go much worse (or better) than you expected depending on a number of external factors. You can do your best to prepare, but those external dependencies mean that, ultimately, you don’t have full control. If ROI for PR is difficult to measure after a campaign, imagine trying to estimate it before the campaign. It’s important for startups to consider that ROI and KPIs work differently when it comes to PR.
At Black Unicorn PR, we believe in quality over quantity. That means, no ‘spray and pray’ pitching, no obsessing over ‘numbers of hits’. Instead, it’s more important to understand what the right publications are and what the right messages are for them. What do we want to achieve? And what is the best course of action to get there? Once we’ve understood that, we can also begin to understand how to achieve some of the more nitty-gritty – play the volume game, get on high DA publications, and start employing different tactics as the company’s size, budget and newsworthiness allows. Over the long term this will pay way more dividends than to bet on quick wins without trying to do the homework, such as sending irrelevant press releases or sending out a “wire”.
Wrapping it all up
If you are an early stage startup, PR is aaallllll about image-building. Trust is key in the customer / investor / partner / talent journey, and a strong reputation will help lubricate that funnel. Over time, and with a good, consistent level of PR activity, you will find that suddenly most in your industry will be aware of your company. An overnight success, right? No, it’s compound interest magic applied to PR.
If you worry too early on about awareness and give up on PR, you might not see these benefits later. If you worry too much about KPIs and give up on PR as an image-building tool, you might lose out on some opportunities where sophisticated stakeholders demand more than just hearing it from you – they might need differentiation in the form of PR.
Yes, at a later stage KPIs will become more relevant. Your company might become so influential, so large, that activities such as advertising campaigns, marketing activations, product launches and others (even charitable activities) all become frequent and consistent. That means you can measure their results and compare them to previous instances, always looking to perform better and better.
So, in summary, if you are a startup, go out and start building your image, and worry about KPIs and numbers later down the road.
If all of this was news to you and you’re feeling all kinds of confused by the crazy world of Startup PR, chat with us or sign up for one of our workshops hosted by our co-founder, Julija Jegorova!
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