4 Useful PR Tools For Startup Success
Use the tech tools on this list to strengthen your PR efforts and make the most out of any startup budget.
Imagine this. You just landed your dream Public Relations job at a fast-growing startup. Most likely, you will be responsible for the company’s PR strategy in multiple countries. During your first month, you learned all about the company, founders, and product. Now, you are ready to start getting the word out. (I can already sense your excitement!).
Handling PR for a company in multiple countries requires serious planning, desktop research, and networking. You will also need to implement the right PR tools.
The good news is that the PR Software industry is evolving, which will result in having more super helpful options available for reaching out to the Media, monitoring the company’s reputation, creating insightful content, etc.
Here’s a quick list of four PR tools that will help you kick off your Comms strategy.
- Muck Rack: Muck Rack is a paid PR software that helps you find the right journalist to pitch to. Journalist’s contact details are available here, along with their latest articles. You can also use this software to create Media lists, compile pitch emails, and monitor the news for your company and its competitors. Personally, I like to use it for finding journalists. The platform is very user-friendly and the customer support is amazing. Every time that I have had an issue (i.e. I cannot find a journalist or I struggle with a search), the Muck Rack team is there to help. Their lists are updated regularly and they cover many countries. I’ve mainly used Muck Rack for the Canada, US, UAE, and UK markets. Keep in mind that when it comes to smaller countries or non-English speaking ones such as Turkey, search results are limited and will mainly refer to foreign correspondents. For example, if you are looking for local journalists in Turkey you will probably find the Bloomberg correspondents currently stationed there. Fortunately, the Muck Rack team has informed me that they are working on building localized Media lists as well. So, let’s see! Overall, I like this tool, and it’s definitely worth checking out if you are interested in PR for multiple different countries.
- Help A Reporter (HARO): HARO is a free journalist outreach tool — there’s also a paid version but the free one works very well. HARO connects journalists and bloggers seeking specific quotes or information with companies and individuals. Essentially, it offers access to hundreds of PR opportunities every day. How it works: You get three emails a day (5:35 a.m., 12:35 p.m., and 5:35 p.m. ET) with queries from journalists at publications like Forbes, Business Insider, etc. There are smaller, more niche publications available as well. Each journalist includes some topic info and a deadline in their query. If relevant to your company, simply send your pitch and wait for an answer. I think HARO is a great tool but in order to see results from this site, you need to be able to send the perfect pitch and be very quick at the same time. Challenging, right? In any case, I think that it’s worth a try. It’s used by the majority of PR Agencies in the United States and it has worked well for many companies. I suggest signing up so you can start monitoring the daily requests.
- PR Newswire: PR Newswire is a paid press release distribution network. It’s very easy to use. You sign up for their platform, submit your press release, choose the targeted country or city (i.e. across the US) and then you’re ready to go. The pricing plan is pretty straightforward as well. It will vary depending on the number of words and accompanying images/multimedia. PR Newswire covers many countries across the world. I recommend using it if you would like to have some press show up when someone Googles your company or if you would like to boost your SEO efforts (even the PR Newswire website has a very high Domain Authority). This network also helps when you have to share news with multiple countries simultaneously. However, don’t expect to be featured in Forbes or New York Times. Simply put, check out PR Newswire when you don’t have the time or capacity to do targeted pitching, and quickly need quantity. Here you can get a glimpse of the companies that are currently using it.
- Meltwater: Meltwater is a paid PR & Marketing software that monitors media coverage across both news and social media channels. It provides real-time access to insights and data across countries. Their dashboard is fairly user-friendly and it helps monitor your competitors as well as find key influencers in your industry. According to their website, they have some other services such as newswire distribution and access to the Media database. I haven’t used these offerings personally though. Request a demo first to see if it would be a good fit for your startup. Their sales team is very responsive.
These are some of the tools I’m currently using or have used in the past, and I think they’re a good jumping-off point for PR professionals employed at startups. Additionally, another PR tool that I’m currently testing at Dialectica is the free version of Anewstip. It allows you to find relevant media contacts based on what they have written or tweeted. According to the Anewstip website, it indexes more than 200 million news articles and 1 billion tweets from more than 1 million media contacts. So, you simply type what you’re looking for in the search bar (i.e. fintech) and the results will show that topic being covered by journalists and Media outlets. It seems interesting so far. I will let you know once I have a clearer picture of the ROI.
Have you used any other helpful PR tool? Heard of any new ones lately? Comment below 😀
This blog is about PR, Marketing, and Branding within startups and international environments. In each blog post, we’ll be diving into specific topics or tech ecosystems with the help of local experts. My goal is to create a place for discussion and knowledge-sharing with professionals from all over the world. Hopefully, this blog sparks new ideas and topics you could discuss with your colleagues.
I would love to hear your thoughts, feedback, and topic ideas. Feel free to reach out to me at hello@eleniaktypi.com
