Last week was full of action as Nurture Talent conducted Startup Yatra — a series of visits for startups to offices of successful entrepreneurs. The most popular among them was on Public Relations, where Kunal Kishore of Value360 PR shared key insights on how he handled accounts of startups. Here are key learnings that entrepreneurs can apply for their business.
Content matters
Many businessmen think that knowing a journalist or media person is required for placing their stories in newspaper or TV. However, if you a good story to tell, then media people are excited to write about it. Snapdeal, a leading deals and offer website when it started, adopted a village and named it Snapdeal.com Nagar — this story was picked up by leading publications even in USA!
Spot trends
Inflation was rising menacingly when Snapdeal started its business to offer discounts to customers - at that time the PR agency came up with the story of how this website was helping customers manage budgets and save money. It is very important to link your business or key achievements to what is happening around the economy.
Don’t get an agency
This point was stated repeatedly by Kunal for six months to one-year-old startup. PR is not a tool for only sales or marketing. It is a way to influence customers and build opinion. PR should not be done before you have your product ready or initial customer feedback is positive. Sometimes, companies have created a buzz and ended up below expectations — Aakash tablet is an example of this. Even Tata Nano was a failure when it launched.
Don’t stop once you start
PR is not a one time activity. Once you start, build momentum and maintain it with regularity. Call journalists and media people and keep sharing new happenings in your company. Send some accessories to them that they can use in their styling section (if you are running an apparel or jewelry business). It is not just about sending an article, but building relationships
— amit.grover@nurturetalent.com