PR Pitfalls that you need to avoid as a start-up

1. PR Pitfalls that you need to avoid as a start-up There are many bright individuals in this world who have brilliant business ideas. But as innovative as the idea might be, it wouldn’t do you any good if you don’t know how to sell it. Many innovators and inventors have entered the market in the past with their revolutionary ideas and have vanished without a trace. It is therefore, very important to know how to market an idea and when it comes to marketing an idea and explaining its worth to the common populace, there is no better option than PR. But before you go knocking at the doors of PR agencies in Delhi, here are some pitfalls you should know about. Not going for PR at all! The worst PR pitfall is to avoid PR altogether. Many start-ups in their initial phases especially, think they can handle their PR on their own. Taking things in your own hands may, at first, seem like a good option, but if you stay in that phase long enough, you’d feel like a deer caught in the headlights. There is tremendous pressure on a young startup to generate ROI and to stay afloat. When you’re managing a million things, you shouldn’t burden yourself with the hassling involved in the PR process. Since the media companies don’t know you, they wouldn’t be keen on accepting your invites or publishing your stories. But if you hire one of the PR firms in Delhi, they can get you the desired coverage as they have quite a wide network. Thinking that PR is a “one-time-thing” Many business owners are under the impression that PR is a one-time-thing. They believe that once they have established their market presence, they’re set for a lifetime. What they forget though, is that every other business owner out there is trying to beat the market and in time, if you do not keep up with them, they’ll beat you in terms of outreach and succeed. This is why, once you have tied up with a good startup firm in Delhi or any other metro city in the country, you shouldn’t let go of it. PR is something that requires nurturing from time to time – sometimes to acknowledge people about the launch of a new product or service, sometimes about your philanthropic efforts for the society and sometimes to rebuild a tarnished image. One thing that cannot be neglected, however, is that it is a continuing process. Confidence and overconfidence No one can deny that an owner knows his company the best and can perhaps tell the stories on a much deeper level. But here’s the problem – the media companies do not care how good your individual story is; they care whether or not that is relevant to their own audience. So the start-up brands that try to micromanage everything and want to pitch their own stories in their own manner are going to have a problem getting the coverage they want because the media portals wouldn’t necessarily find those stories worth pitching to their audiences. Therefore, one should be confident in one’s abilities; but overconfidence may end up ruining everything. Wanting instant success

2. There’s an old adage, “Rome was not built in a day.” Old as it is, it’s still very relevant. To build anything great takes time. No brand worth its salt has become an overnight success. If you want to get to the top and stay there, you need to develop patience. Of course, you must be careful about choosing the PR agency, but once you’ve made your decision, you need to stand by it and show some faith. If an agency has an extensive list of successful clients, it isn’t a mere coincidence; it means they are good at what they do and you should let them do it. Once your PR campaign reaches a certain point and you break the threshold, there is an exponential rise in placements, but until then, you need to be patient and help out your agency in crafting the most wonderful stories that can get you the coverage you so desire.