The Ultimate Guide to Tech PR

1. What is Tech PR?

2. Do tech companies need PR?

3. Why use a specialist tech PR agency?

4. The benefits of employing tech PR services

5. What does a Tech PR strategy look like?

Tech PR is a service used by technology companies to communicate with specific audiences relevant to their business, with the aim to increase brand recognition, build trust in their brand and, ultimately, increase enquiries, prospects and sales.

There are several ways you can communicate with each target audience using PR, but the most successful is by engaging with a tech PR agency that can position you as the go-to brand in your industry and the minds of your target audience(s).

This can be through Earned, Owned, Paid, and Shared (PESO) media tactics:

• Earned media - such as press releases, thought leadership articles and other news-based stories
• Paid media - such as advertorials, sponsored contributions, speaker slots or events
• Shared media - such as your social media channels and the use of influencers. 
• Owned media - such as using your website or blogs as a place to publish unique knowledge and insight.

PR becomes an important consideration when tech companies are looking to take their business to the next level of their growth stage. The highly competitive nature of the tech industry means that more content is being created by more companies than ever before, and it’s only increasing by each passing day.

To be heard above a crowded noise of competitors, you need to be different. Journalists love stories and opinions that help them break or drive insight on the latest news stories, and this is exactly where PR can help. 

By getting involved in current conversations and placing your business in front of potential customers, you have a much higher chance of being considered when it comes to buyers deciding on which company to shortlist for future suppliers.

But why PR and not just stick to marketing and paid advertising? Well, while marketing and advertising are beneficial in the fact you control the message and can be uber targeted as to where it appears, nothing can rival PR when it comes to building trust in new and existing customers. 

Put it this way - you’re highly unlikely to buy a product or service from a company you’ve never heard of, but you would if you’ve read recommendations from credible third-party sources who have helped to validate their products or services. 

And that’s what PR is - a validator. Earning media coverage in high-level and well-respected media outlets gives your tech company authority to say that it is one of the industry leaders that has a point of view worth listening to. 

Over time, a strategic PR campaign that focuses on building trust can lead to increased web traffic, increased brand searches in Google, higher domain authority of your own website and increased search engine ranking. Being ‘above the fold’ on Google means more website visits, more enquiries, more leads and if your sales process is in tune - more business.

In the digital age, this means focusing on online publications rather than the traditional print and broadcast media. As PR was, and arguably still is, regarded as a bit of a dark art, it had to change itself to become more aligned with the metrics, KPIs, and goals of the marketing department. 

Which is why you’re just as likely to see PR pros using Google Analytics and other SEO platforms just as much as hunting for journalists these days. The game has changed and the PR industry has evolved. Why place or spend money on an article in a print newspaper when you can’t see who’s read it or if they’ve interacted with your brand afterwards? 

With tech PR, you can gain valuable insight into audience metrics, referral traffic of readers who travelled to your website, and even gain valuable backlinks that help increase the likelihood of someone finding you through Google.

PR isn’t just about brand awareness - it’s a key component in the entire communications, marketing, and sales strategy of a business.

Although PR isn’t a necessity for tech businesses, there’s no doubt that it is one of, if not the best way to manage and boost the brand reputation within targeted audiences.  

One of the most common ways of thinking is that tech companies need PR for crisis management, but that’s actually just a tiny fraction of what PR encompasses. 

Ideally, it always helps to get in front of any negative press, which is why it’s important to engage PR before this ever becomes a possibility.

The reason for a tech business to engage PR is simple enough. There are a huge number of competitors that might not have the better products or services, but they are actively engaging their audiences to make sure they see their brand as a leader.

There are several scenarios when a tech business might look to need PR services:

1. Investment round: As this is one of the most important aspects to any company’s growth and development it’s important to shout about it. Journalists in the tech industry love to cover which companies have secured new investment, as it shows these are the ones to look out for in the future. By working with a PR agency, you can make sure your news is covered in outlets read by parties who may well be interested in acquiring your services.
   
   
2. New customer/partnership: Announcing the news of a high-profile customer or partner shows that the company is growing and a serious player in the market, so it’s important to speak to journalists about this. Plus, by showing over time that you’re regularly onboarding new customers and partners, it shows that businesses trust doing business with you, which will only encourage even more to do so.
   
   
3. New product/service: Although most product and new service stories are best left to advertising, there is potential to place stories that are truly unique. But remember - journalists are there to cover stories that interest their readers, not just to promote how brilliant you are. Make the story relevant to industry readers and you can boost your business’ reputation without being promotional.

Although you might want an in-house team or a more broad-reaching PR consultancy to manage your campaign, it pays to go niche. Tech PR agencies specialise in that area - and that area only - so it’s safe to say they’re pretty good at what they do everyday.

But, as we know, even tech is a broad subject. The Cloud, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain, Digital Twins, Cyber Security…the list goes on. New technologies and acronyms are being created on an almost daily basis. 

That’s why it pays to have a dedicated team that can give you the expertise, experience, and time to run a tech PR campaign. Plus, you receive an outside opinion on what exactly interests the readers you’re looking to target, as well as how to write and frame stories that succeed in getting placed in the media

PR pros are known as all-rounders - able to work across ‘traditional’ PR (Print, Online, and Broadcast media), but also Marketing, SEO, Advertising and Events. PR pros also have first-hand experience talking with C-level executives and seeing how multi-million pound tech businesses are run - so add Internal Communications into the mix.

It makes sense to utilise PR to manage and boost your media reputation, and there are four specific reasons to use a specialist agency for tech companies:

1. Tech and PR expertise: Since PR agencies work across multiple clients and therefore different technologies and sectors every day, they are able to offer a much more objective perspective as to which campaigns and stories will do well. Plus, with multiple team members with varying degrees of expertise, you won’t have to spend too much time bringing them up to speed - just on your story and what makes your company unique.
   
   
2. Tech journalist contacts: PR agencies rely on their database of contacts to keep their client’s campaigns running successfully. With hundreds if not thousands of journalists working across the tech scene, they can tell you exactly who it is you should be speaking to in order to get your story covered. They are also likely to have long-standing relationships with key members of the tech press which you can use to your advantage.
   
   
3. Cost effective: Despite being a ‘niche’, tech PR consultancies are typically more cost effective than other larger, non-specific agencies. This is because they utilise their resources better and offer more nimble teams who are able to jump on a story immediately. Campaigns are also much more modular in their approach, meaning you can tailor each one to what you want the success to be.

Used effectively, PR can be of great benefit for tech businesses, helping enhance its reputation as a true leader in a competitive market.

Plus, it doesn’t have to cost the Earth. Choosing the right agency means tailoring the PR campaign to the organisational goals/ impact you want to achieve. As long as there’s enough activity and momentum to measure success, you can create a cost-effective programme that achieves your goals.

There are four main benefits of hiring a tech PR agency:

1. Reach new audiences: The main and obvious benefit of PR is that it can get more eyeballs on your business and raise its brand awareness. From creating newsworthy comments to placing thought leadership articles, every single media placement you earn is another opportunity to get your name in front of people that might one day become a customer. PR is especially important if you’re releasing a new product, entering a new geography or expanding into a new vertical market.
   
   
2. Increase trust: If you’re trying to persuade new customers to buy your product or service, they’re unlikely to do so if they don’t trust you. It takes time to build trust, but it also takes more than just one voice to do it. By gaining coverage in highly respected media publications, you can gain third-party endorsement in your business. Investing in a long-term PR strategy can pay off in the long run as you build your way up to becoming a trusted source of expertise. Speaking of which…
   
   
3. Show off your expertise: When building trust, you first have to demonstrate that you have expert credentials in your chosen field or industry. This starts with sharing opinions and comments on industry hot topics as well as guidance and tips on key market challenges and trends. Thought leadership opinion articles are a popular method of placing content while proving to readers that you are an industry champion.
   
   
4. Boost your SEO/Marketing efforts: PR has much wider benefits that go beyond just placing articles in the media. For example, PR pros are natural storytellers, which means they can be hired to craft anything from a press release to website copy and even some marketing and advertising material. PR campaigns are also one of the best ways in building backlinks to your website from highly powered media publications, which increases the chances of more people finding you on Google.

We love it when a plan comes together, but when putting a PR strategy in place it’s often hard to know where to start. Tech companies have a lot of competition and with everyone aiming for the same goal, getting your voice heard above others isn’t easy.

Which is why investing in a tech PR partner is often viewed as an expensive luxury. PR isn’t easy and is often ranked as one of the top 10 most stressful jobs. Not only do you have the pressure from trying to constantly gain coverage in a highly competitive space, you’re also having to deal with managing journalists and deadlines which can crop up at any time of the day or night.

When building a PR strategy, think backwards to what the ultimate goal of the campaign is for the organisation. Then move onto what the communication objective is in order to help you achieve that organisational goal.

It could be to raise brand awareness of the company, increase leads and sales opportunities, grow the business in a certain country, or get your product or service out to a larger audience. The question you’ve got to ask yourself for each of these is why?

The communication goal isn’t just to raise brand awareness, it’s to communicate why your product/ service is better than your competitors.

Then you have the conundrum of how you measure this impact?  

There are five steps to build out a strategic PR plan not just for tech companies, but all businesses of all sizes:

1. Timeline: Building a timeline will help frame the entire PR campaign from start to finish. Why is this important? You have to keep the goalposts the same when trying to compare results, so by keeping the same timeline you can analyse results year-on-year to see exactly how the programme has performed, where the best successes were and, more importantly, where things need to be improved on. 

The timeline is completely up to you - either a short three-month campaign to launch a new product, or a year to build up brand awareness. Just remember that as the B2B sales cycle tends to be a lot lengthier than in the consumer world, tech PR campaigns that run for less than a year won’t give you much return in the long run.

2. Goals and objectives: Although you might think these are one and the same, when building a PR strategy it helps to differentiate the two. An objective are small targets that can be measured on a daily basis to help you reach your goal - which might be to raise the brand awareness of the business, win a certain award, or be listed as a key player by a reputable publication.

When setting the goals of the campaign, first set a realistic target that you feel could be achieved by the campaign as well as a stretch goal that is a little more ambitious. For example, a realistic goal could be to earn four or five placements per month in target media throughout the programme, while an ambitious target could be to win a certain amount of backlinks from those placements. By doing this, you can aim for one reachable goal while pushing the agency to achieve more.

3. Target media: One of the most important aspects when building a PR campaign is who you are looking to target. If you have buyer personas built out as part of a marketing campaign then these can help here. If not, have a think about the people who are likely to be interested in your product or services, and who the sales team are speaking to on an almost daily basis. Think of the challenges your business helps solve and who would benefit most from this.

Specifying your target media will also help to establish your goals and objectives for the campaign, as well as the types of content and stories that you’ll produce to meet those targets. It’s also why working with a tech PR agency is so important. They have the contacts and the relationships with your key targets, or a database of new ones to build trust with, so you can get results, fast.

4. Content creation: This is what fuels the PR campaign, as without any content you’ll have nothing to create a conversation with. For example, a press release launching the brand, entering a new territory, or announcing a new product/service can be a great introduction to journalists that you want to build a working relationship with. It also doesn’t matter if you don’t have a pipeline of relevant news, as you can be proactive and create your own stories.

One of the best ways to do this is to write thought leadership opinion articles on a recent news topic that has sparked discussion within the industry, and use that to provide a unique angle or helpful tips that proves you’re an expert. Another way is to work on a market research report that looks into challenges and trends within the industry, or you could even use your own data to pick out findings that could help build a story for the media.

5. Measurement: This is arguably the most important of the bunch, as you’ll have no idea how successful or unsuccessful the campaign has been until you have the proper measurement tools in place. Measurement must link with the goals and objectives identified at the start of the programme, as if you’re not tracking this then you’re going to lose sight of what it is you set out to achieve.

There are many ways to measure a tech PR campaign, but if you’re looking for a starting point then there are seven factors to consider:

This is the ultimate question. When reviewing proposals received from PR agencies, those in charge of making the decision will skip right to the part where the financials are to find out what the campaign is going to cost them, rather than what the goals are, what it actually involves and how it will be measured.

It’s important to first say that PR certainly isn’t cheap, but that’s because it’s incredibly difficult to do right. Gaining coverage in any trade, tech, or national media outlet means competing and beating hundreds or of other agencies and companies just like yourself.

It’s also stressful, time-consuming, takes a lot of creativity and tenacity. Just like journalists, PR pros have to work around the clock in order to get their story placed, typically working towards incredibly tight deadlines while also working with client spokespeople to book interviews or get comments over the finishing line.

But it’s also worth noting that good PR doesn’t have to bankrupt you. Tech PR campaigns should be based around the business challenge you’re looking to solve and not an ego-driven programme to put a CEO on the front page of a national newspaper. For example, if your sales team is telling you that they’re having a hard time getting their foot in the door with prospective businesses because no one has heard of your company, then it might be time to engage with PR services.

There’s no maximum for what you can invest in a PR campaign, but as a minimum you should expect to invest around £3,000 a month. The more you spend, the more impact you can create, but your PR budget should always relate to the goals and objectives you’ve set out. If you don’t feel you’ve got a return for your investment you’re unlikely to view it as a success. 

When researching tech PR services, it helps to speak with several different agencies to get a good understanding of what each one can provide, the difference between them, as well as the levels of investment to expect. The bigger the agency, the more they’ll charge, but you can usually find a good middle-ground with tech PR agencies that can give you a dedicated team as well as the expertise to drive results.

This also helps if you don’t have a budget in mind, especially if this is the first time you’re engaging with PR services or thinking about hiring an international agency. Only by getting a full view of the picture can you then decide what your budget is and how much you’re willing to spend.

At some point during its growth, a company will need PR support. It might be that it has a brand awareness problem, or that it’s simply to expand into new audiences and potential customers. PR can help with specific problems related to the reputation, trust, and awareness of a brand, but it’s important to engage only when the time is right.

Before engaging with a tech PR agency, you have to make sure that your best salesperson is set up correctly - the website. For PR to be truly effective, you need a fully functioning website that is able to be found in Google search pages, track the number of visitors and engage contacts and leads by offering downloadable material in exchange for contact information. 

Without this, there’s almost zero sense in creating a PR programme. Think of it this way - if you don’t have an optimised website, someone wanting to find out more information after reading about your brand in a media outlet has nowhere to go. That will only lead to frustration and potentially damaging consequences for the brand.

An example of when it’s the right time to hire a tech PR agency is when the business wants to grow its presence and demonstrate to prospects, customers and its own employees that it is a highly reputable and trustworthy business. This isn’t something that can be solved through marketing or advertising campaigns, so if you’ve identified this as a long-term objective then it’s highly likely that you’re ready for PR.

Another reason might be that you’re looking to raise the profile of an executive spokesperson to become a thought leader. They might already be getting a lot of engagement through posting their opinions on LinkedIn, so a natural next step would be to amplify that content even more by writing more detailed viewpoints that can be pitched to the press.

You might be in need of creating regular content, in which case PR might be the perfect solution. PR professionals are experienced storytellers, able to craft a narrative that cuts through the cliches and jargon to drive home a clear message and USP. This can be in the form of a blog for the website or even for an account-based marketing campaign where you need to dive into the specific challenges of your target audience.

Whilst there is a right time to engage a PR partner, it’s not always the solution. In these scenarios, what you need to avoid is spending thousands of pounds for a few media placements, but have almost no way of showing the true value and impact of them. This leads to the relationship with the agency deteriorating and both parties leave feeling unhappy.

Ultimately, the perfect time to hire a PR agency is when you are ready for it. PR is a two-way street and it doesn’t mean that all of your time is going to be freed up by engaging with an agency. In fact, it’s completely the opposite. You need to be able to dedicate time and energy to reviewing press releases, comments, quotes, articles, and other material.

You also need to be fast. With journalists on tight deadlines and looking to print stories as fast as possible, successful PR campaigns have to combine a mixture of quality-led content with speed. This means you need to be flexible, making time for any newsjacking or reactive comment opportunities at any moment of the day.

Choosing your new tech PR partner isn’t easy. Just like puppies, PR agencies aren’t just for Christmas, and you ideally want to select one that is the right fit for your business culturally, as well as one that will form a long-term working relationship.

A good way to find this out is to reach out to several agencies and meet them face-to-face or over a conference call to discuss your requirements and get a ‘feel’ for the people working at the agency. 

Choosing a PR agency is a big decision and you want to make sure that they don’t just talk the talk, but they also walk the walk. A tell-tale sign that they are commercially driven is if they try and get you to sign up as soon as possible without hearing what your aims are.

When engaging with a tech PR agency, it helps to come armed with a list of questions to make sure you select the perfect one for you. These can vary depending on the situation and challenge you’re looking to overcome, but here are some key ones to ask:

One thing not to ask is what journalist contacts the PR agency has. If you’re a tech company, chances are they already have a good relationship with these journalists from working with other clients. But it also doesn’t matter - journalists don’t owe PR people any favours and no matter how good our relationship is, we can’t convince them to publish a story if it simply isn’t of interest to their readers.

What matters more is to ask, “What kind of stories do you think you can create for us?” Being able to tell a story well is one of the most important skills that a PR professional can have as journalists are always on the lookout for creative ideas and angles that they can pitch to their editors.

This is ten times more important than any previous relationship or contacts database that the PR agency has. It doesn’t matter who they know, if they can’t craft a story that a journalist and their readers can understand, as it will lead to zero placements and a strained relationship.

PR measurement has been one of the biggest hurdles for the industry. For a long time, PR was measured on its deliverables and outputs rather than its outcomes and impact, which left people feeling confused, frustrated, unconvinced as to the value of PR and ultimately wanting to never engage with PR again.

The problem that has dogged the industry since the explosion of mass media in the 1960s is that there was no set way in measuring PR. Even today there is no set way of presenting the success of a PR campaign, and although you can point towards certain aspects and best practices, PR measurement can vary depending on the agency, campaign, and what the client wants. 

For example, one PR agency might choose to focus on measuring the impact of campaigns through the number of coverage achieved every month. While this is certainly a good sign of momentum being built, it does nothing to show how many readers interacted with the business - for example, searching the brand name in Google or downloading a resource from the website.

You might find an agency that measures campaigns through Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE) - an old-fashioned and defunct method of measuring the space taken up by earned media coverage and working out how much it would have cost to advertise in the equalivanet space.

Thankfully, this is a widely derided method of measuring PR and so is a red flag if any potential PR partner is using this metric.

There are also a tonne of metrics that, although might give a solid picture of how successful the campaign has been when combined together, provide little value when isolated. For example, measuring the audience figures and circulation of a media publication only gives a rough estimate of how many people might have read your news story, but it’s never going to be an exact figure.

It’s the reason why PR campaigns have shifted almost completely to focus on digital media. Much like with putting up a billboard on Time Square, it’s almost impossible to derive the value of a paid media placement in a newspaper. Because what you really want to know is how many people read the story then went on to interact with your brand.

As a result, tech PR campaigns have evolved to become a lot more data-driven. Utilising a mixture of PR, marketing, and SEO tools, campaigns can now prove direct correlations between activity and outcomes as well as provide benefits that go beyond just brand awareness.

For example, by placing an article on an online media publication, you can monitor any spikes in direct and organic traffic that happened on the same day from people who wanted to find out more about the business. If you manage to place a backlink in the piece, you can even take this one step further to track referral traffic and observe an increase in your own website’s Domain Authority.

PR measurement should always refer back to the original communication objectives/goals of a campaign, as this is what you use to determine impact and benchmark against future campaigns. Determining success depends on having clear objectives, such as gaining a certain amount of coverage or backlinks, and it’s impossible to view something as a success if neither party knows what they’re expected to work towards.

“The ITPR team have an excellent understanding of digital media and know how to create a plan that has the right mix of coverage, content, commentary and speaking opportunities so that it’s a total thought leadership approach – where each lever drives success.”

JASON GRUNBERG

Vice President of Marketing | Sailthru

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When you reach out to us to schedule a time to learn more about our services, you won’t be inundated with endless phone calls and emails from eager sales reps. Instead, you’ll talk to David, one of our PR Directors.

You'll chat briefly about your business, your goals and your challenges - and we'll arrange a further call if you think we might be a good fit for you. It’s your call!