Mark… really?!

In response to Mark Cuban’s recent article claiming that Start-ups shouldn’t enlist the help of PR agencies, Bob Dearsley, our Chief Exec, had a few thoughts in response…

Conserving cash, Mark Cuban seems to suggest, is the best way to ensure that a start-up keeps running. By all means, conserve away. But how are you going to get from burn to earn if you can’t find some punters for your great new mousetrap?

How about trying a different perspective?

Growing your business requires early adopters and how are they going to hear about your revolutionary product? Most likely answer: by reading about it!

Advertising? No chance, you’re a start-up, you can’t afford it!

Most readers – online or paper – are willing and even eager to read about what one of their competitors, or a company they recognise, is doing about a problem they had. Its odds on they will suffer with that issue too sometime – whatever it is! So the publication or website can explain what you did for your customer. And they will want to understand your business proposition; to read about how the service you’re advocating has solved problems for others.

It’s the best way to shorten the sales cycle and get those early adopters hitting your website and tuning in to your product or service. “I’ve got that problem too! I need one of those!”

Now, presumably Mark recognises the vital role of the website acting as the shop window for your company, and the importance of impressing future customers through it. They’re going to need to know what your new start-up does and everything about your` product, and they want to download content, and you want to have a mechanism in place for spotting them doing it. Is this crucial content going to be scripted by him (‘sucking’ valuable time) or outsourced to an agency?!

As for the trade-related media (and he seems to include local media which I would be less likely to prioritise) who are just waiting to write your story… Has he actually tried that recently? Does he know what he needs to say to get the attention of that particular overworked hack on the phone to yet another call from an enthusiastic marketing manager explaining how great his new start-up is? Consider for a moment the time needed to be spent with the founders of many start-ups who are trying to get their messaging straight and define their USPs – people who are typically in need of assistance in effectively articulating what they are often very close to, but unable to describe without 40 or more Powerpoint slides!

But for argument’s sake let’s say that, contrary to expectations, you’ve called or emailed the editor and he hasn’t told you to shove it or ignored you because it was poorly written, full of jargon or vague. Who’s now going to write the 800 word article he’s agreed to run – before the tight editorial deadline – about the issues facing your potential customers and how your mousetrap solves them? Can you write the case study about your first customer that will get you your next five customers? Probably not. However, if you do, what else could (or should) you have been doing while you were doing it?

What it comes down to is prioritisation. You are trying to attract early adopters (time to re-read that excellent old tome Crossing the Chasm again). You are probably going to have to spend some time doing some sort of PR, but if you are going to succeed and use this time most effectively, make sure you get some expert advice on how to go about it. Try and find a PR who has a start-up team that can help you to build up the business. And don’t do yourself the disservice of writing them off as too expensive before you’ve even listened to their ideas. Enlist the help of a team of experienced technology PR specialists and pick their brains on how they have helped others to success. You won’t regret it.

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