A PR campaign can be a really effective way of raising awareness of your growth plans and attracting both interest and investment from VCs. But your strategy has to be spot on to maximise the opportunity. Here are our five top tips, with examples from our own work, to bear in mind.
Key messages
Potential investors ultimately want to know why your business is worth their money. And they don’t have time to try and work it out themselves.
You must have clear messages at the heart of your PR campaign. What is your USP? How are you disrupting your industry? Why should someone part with their money to be part of your journey?
These messages should be consistent across all PR stories and come through whether it’s via a written interview, TV appearance or by-lined article.
There is always an opportunity to portray these messages but knowing how to weave them in without simply plugging your service is key.
A PR strategy and calendar over a number of months will enable you to ensure these messages are clear across all channels; print, online and broadcast.
Perceived value
Attracting investment is all about the perception of your business and the value you can bring to investors. Often you want to seem bigger than you are.
Investors want to know that they will see a return on their investment.
You need prominence in the most well-respected business press and national business pages to reach your target audience of key decision makers; this can be achieved through a combination of interviews, company news (such as new hires) and thought leadership opinion pieces to position you as a leading authority for the sector.
When talking about your business, you can heighten its perceived value by explaining how you are disrupting the industry and being clear on figures such as turnover and profit.
We have represented music tech scale-up Audoo since the early days of their launch back in 2018, supporting them with a consistent flow of investment announcements and business growth stories to this day, with a key objective of demonstrating momentum and reaching future prospective partners and investor audiences. Through interviews with founder and CEO Ryan Edwards designed to communicate Audoo’s vision and mission, to key moments in their growth including a Seed round, Series A which included ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus, and pre-Series B round, we have helped to establish the Audoo brand and its reputation not just in the music industry but further afield across the British and international tech scene.
Growth potential
Part of a company’s perceived value is growth over time – both previous and projected.
It’s important to demonstrate, through correct messaging in the right set piece interviews, tangible evidence of how your business has grown since birth and how it’s projected to grow even further.
You can actually choose certain publications and interview slots within these – which give you the opportunity to talk about these figures – through the right contacts.
Our work with loyalty e-wallet, Swapi, has involved raising the B2B and industry profile (with over 20 pieces of press coverage) of the digital wallet that lets consumers earn and swap loyalty rewards between brands, to support its highly successful pre-seed funding round (over £860k) which we announced at the end of 2021. As the business scaled, our focus in 2022 was to raise consumer awareness of Swapi following its app launch in January – we kicked this off with over 60 pieces of consumer coverage in January by announcing a deal with Greggs.
Success stories
Potential investors want to see that you are delivering on the real everyday problems you claim to be solving. Does your offering have the longevity they’re looking for?
A great way of demonstrating this is through success stories in the mainstream media. These can range from money-saving examples to life-changing stories, and everything in between.
For proptech client StepLadder, which allows people to team up with other aspiring first-time buyers to afford their first home deposit faster, we told the story in The Guardian of Adebiyi Olusola, a self-employed consultant project manager who received £10,000 through the platform having previously struggled to save up a large enough sum for a deposit.
Multi-channel approach
Getting your key messages across – USP, company value, potential growth and success stories – is at the heart of a successful PR campaign, but how can you ensure they are seen by the right audience and ultimately help to attract investment?
Knowing the media landscape and the right publications and set pieces which allow you to portray these key messages is vital. This includes securing coverage across print, online, broadcast and even maximising this across your social channels.
We announced to The Times in January 2022 that our visual intelligence client Spinview was working with Transport for London to build a 3D visualisation of the Piccadilly Line to help the collection and monitoring of data and reducing maintenance costs and time. This was supported by over 20 pieces of press coverage elsewhere and amplified across Spinview’s social channels, targeting decision makers and influential industry players.
In conclusion
Ultimately, building a portfolio of targeted press coverage in the right publications over time will build your brand’s credibility and make you an attractive proposition for potential investors.
If you would like to learn more about how a PR campaign could help to attract investment, speak to a member of our team today.