As a fledgling startup, spreading the word is perhaps always on top of your mind. Your friends and well-wishers, acquaintances in the industry are your first carriers who take your message to the world. But how do you go beyond that?

They call it Public Relations (PR) – a science and art of consciously engaging with your relevant stakeholders in meaningful ways, such that this relationship is a stable one. PR is about creating a resonance in the minds of people who you want to engage with – could be your potential customers, investors, employees, and others. It is always much more than a traditional press release sent out to the media.

Let us look at a few things you could do to activate your brand’s PR.

Tell Powerful Stories

Human beings, across the spectrum, enjoy soul stirring, mind boggling, heart-rendering stories. Begin with your story – what inspired you to set up your own business, how do you want to contribute to people’s lives and how do you want to spread the light and joy! Over time, you can tell stories of your customers and how your work impacted them, of your employees or others. Uplifting stories are what we love, so keep the tone positive and joyful. Leverage social media – posts, videos, blogs etc.

Make New Friends

Remember prosperity and trust grows in circles. Look for people who are directly or indirectly related to your business. They could be either small businesses like yours, individuals, organizations, social media influencers and so on. Instead of just pitching your product/service to them, think of ways how you can collaborate with them either on social media or offline to help each other spread the word and grow.

Share Your Wisdom

Over time, you will have learnt a lot about your space. Educate your audience (followers, customers, well-wishers), spread awareness about things you have learnt. Share nuggets of information that can help them make their lives better in any way. A vegan food brand, for example, could share how it could directly impact people’s health. A shoe brand could talk about the different materials used in a shoe and how it impacts the comfort of the foot.

Spur New Conversations

Once you have set up your basic operations and have a little more bandwidth, think how you could influence the community at large. Ask yourself, how can I truly add value beyond my product/ service. A wellness brand, for example, could host webinars or interviews with holistic wellness experts and have a series of conversations on this topic. Or, you could conduct a survey on an area that needs work and publish knowledge papers on it. Such tools take you both deeper and wider into your audience’s mind.

Celebrate your Wins

People want to know the ‘real’ you or ‘real’ stories of people who have been in your field of influence. Case studies of real impact stories, experiences of your customers, small awards that you have won or talks that you have given, all are little drops of glory that will add to make your mighty brand. So, keep sharing these achievements with gratitude to your audience. They go deeper than your eyes can see!

And if this sounds overwhelming to you, know that there’s always help available. There are specialists available who can help you put these ideas into practice in a way that work for you. Reach out to us at GroCurv!