Imagine you’re at the helm of a thriving tech company. The competition is fierce, and the need to stand out is paramount. This is where the story of your marketing strategy begins.
In a landscape where one tweet can eclipse a front-page advertisement, the art of balancing traditional PR with social media and influencer partnerships becomes crucial. This is not just a strategy; it’s a narrative about connecting with your audience in the most impactful way.
We sat down with marketing executives in the Powderkeg community to learn about how they balance their PR strategy. Keep reading to learn real-life best practices on how tech execs are amplifying their reach.
Start By Defining Your Target Audience and Desired Outcomes
Define your target audience and your desired outcomes first. Then build your plan to balance your strategy to align to your audience and to your outcomes. PR, media and influencer partnerships come at a costly price if you don’t know what you’re trying to achieve. Different channels work for different audiences in different contexts. Who and what’s “cool” isn’t always the most effective. Pilot. A/B test. And then adjust accordingly.
Karen Mangia, President & Chief Strategy Officer at The Engineered Innovation Group
Differentiate Your Company’s Milestones With Good Storytelling
The first step is to come to the realization that no one cares about your company’s milestones unless they are truly remarkable. Product releases, collaborations, and funding announcements are a dime a dozen – instead, tell a story. Editors and producers are looking for the best content that will delight their audiences, and boring content won’t do that. Find your differentiators, lean into your brand authenticity, tell a compelling story.
Megan Noel, Director of Marketing at Trava
Provide Ready-to-Use Social Graphics and Templates to Simplify Social Sharing
Approach the promotion of your content and webinar programs via influencers as part of your PR. For example, if you host webinars with industry thought leaders/influencers, establish a webinar hub equipped with ready-to-use social graphics and templates to simplify content sharing. This makes it more likely that they’ll share with their networks, significantly enhancing your visibility.
Dawn Lego, Director of Brand Engagement & Channel Marketing at OneCause
Start With a Traditional PR Foundation
One way to balance traditional PR with newer methods is to start with a solid traditional PR foundation, like press releases or media relations. Then, amplify the message using social media for real-time engagement and influencers for targeted reach. For instance, following a major announcement via a press release, engage influencers to create relatable content on the topic and use social channels for interactive discussions, ensuring wide yet cohesive brand visibility.
Emily Finkelstein, CEO at VentureXpert Advisors
Create a PR-Driven Marketing Flywheel
PR is now a part of the marketing flywheel, where all parts work together to create a greater sum. Traditional PR efforts can be multiplied when cross-promoted with social media and influencer marketing. For example, our agency reaches out to media outlets, letting them know about our recent client case studies. Then, when we get mentions, we turn around and create social media content from these mentions. But we are not finished yet; then we will tag the media outlet, knowing full well that other media outlets will take notice. Every business has the ability to create a PR-driven marketing flywheel; you just have to find ways to connect the parts.
Jason Vaught, Director of Content, SmashBrand
Experiment with Targeted PR Approaches
Always niche down your campaigns. Be as specific as you can in setting your metrics, so that it will be easy to measure success and see what works and what doesn’t. Tap social media influencers who are well-known and respected by the specific target audience you intend to reach and engage. Don’t simply go for influencers who have the highest following count but don’t fit into your niche because there won’t be alignment in your partnership.
When mixing traditional and modern PR approaches, my tip is to try one new thing at a time. Then analyze the results of each campaign, so you can accurately infer the implications of each new approach. Experimenting with too many things all at once can lead to murky, inconclusive results.
Meg Hellerstedt, President, Sylvane
Coordinate Traditional and Digital PR
Utilizing both traditional and digital PR in a coordinated way can lead to amplified results. For example, secure magazine features and news mentions of product launches, then promote that earned media coverage through social channels. Repurpose media interview soundbites into social videos. Build relationships with micro-influencers in your tech niche to expand your brand’s visibility to relevant audiences. Ensure influencer content aligns with your PR messaging. Don’t overlook the power of employee advocacy—leverage their networks by making it easy to share company news. Think multi-channel by turning PR wins into social content, but maintain a unified brand voice across efforts. A strategic mix of traditional and digital PR can help companies extend media impressions while humanizing their brand, maximizing reach and impact.
Vikrant Shaurya, CEO, Authors On Mission
Maintain Consistent Messaging
Ensure consistency in messaging and language across all platforms. Traditional PR and its newer variations can work harmoniously when they are seamless across activations. Utilize PR as the foundation, providing messaging and language guidelines to maintain consistency when adapting to other channels and partnerships. By approaching it this way, you can ensure that influencers, community interactions, and content all fall within the right boundaries.
Chelsea Evans-Flower, Owner, Scott Social
Leverage Podcasts for Thought Leadership
A great tip I have for successfully balancing traditional public relations with newer approaches is to consider investing in podcast partnerships for thought leadership. Having a presence on podcasts allows you the unique opportunity to share the stories behind your services, as well as express your thoughts on key industry topics, without having to spend any money on ads or marketing efforts.
Through this platform, you can provide an interesting perspective that will help build credibility, create trust, and form relationships. Becoming a regular guest host or featured contributor on established podcasts related to your field of work allows you to target audiences who are actively interested in learning more about what you do.
Justin Cole, President and SEO Strategist, Tested Media
Enhance Strategy with Social Listening
I recommend using social listening tools to monitor conversations about our tech company and industry trends. This data can inform our PR strategy and help us engage with our audience more effectively. By actively listening to our online community, we can identify emerging topics and address them proactively.
Phil Strazzulla, Founder, SelectSoftware Reviews
Broaden PR for Wider Media Reach
Broaden your PR efforts to gain further traction in a wider swath of the media. Historically, tech companies have mainly wanted targeted coverage of their specific technology, product, or industry. Yet, with social media, you have more opportunity than ever to control your niche message and turn specific ideas into hashtags.
With more competition than ever in the media ecosystem, now is the time to broaden your approach. Essentially, get published wherever you can on any topic that’s relevant. Save your narrower coverage for your owned channels.
Mark Varnas, Principal SQL Server DBA and Consultant, Red9
Unified Branding in Communications
One tip I have for effectively balancing traditional PR with newer methods like social media and influencer partnerships to amplify your technology company’s reach is to create an integrated communications strategy that maintains one brand identity, values, mission, and style. By aligning messaging, tone, and visuals across various communication channels, you can strengthen your brand and make it recognizable on the busy internet. Whether it’s a press release, a social media post, or an influencer partnership, the overarching brand identity should remain consistent to reinforce the message, trust, and recognition among the audience. By creating an integrated communication strategy, a company can amplify its reach, engaging diverse audiences through different mediums while ensuring that the brand’s essence remains intact.
Nicole Moughrabi, Marketing Coordinator, Achievable
Innovate with Multimedia Press Releases
When it comes to balancing traditional PR with newer approaches like social media and influencer partnerships, the key is to focus on using interactive multimedia press releases.
Interactive multimedia press releases are a great way to combine old-school PR strategies, such as sending out press releases, with newer ones, such as utilizing the power of video, images, social media campaigns, and really anything digital that can catch someone’s attention. These types of press releases allow you to send a message in an engaging way that stands out from traditional methods.
Micajah McGregor, Chief Editor and Managing Partner, Fan Fest News
Refine Strategy with Data Insights
Utilizing data-driven insights to inform our PR decisions is crucial. Analyzing metrics from social media engagement, influencer partnerships, and traditional media coverage can help refine our strategy for maximum impact. These insights enable us to make informed adjustments, ensuring our PR efforts align with our objectives.
Ian Sells, CEO, Million Dollar Sellers
Tailor PR to Audience Types
The important thing is to understand the audience in either case. In the life science business, we work with a number of more traditional entities in healthcare, pharma, and food safety. Conversely, we work with newer businesses in biotech and genetics research. Newer businesses will tend to respond better to newer forms of engagement. Classic PR strategies have more reach with traditional businesses. We let the market decide and provide us with the expected balance in either case.
Trevor Ewen, COO, QBench
Balancing traditional PR with innovative social media and influencer strategies is not just a tactical choice; it’s a strategic necessity for tech companies aiming to thrive in the digital age. By incorporating these actionable tips and leveraging resources like Powderkeg, marketing executives can craft a narrative that resonates with their audience and propels their brand forward in the ever-evolving tech landscape.
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