What is the perfect PR budget for Startups?

Although PR might not be the first thing Startups spend their budgets on, it is a necessary step in growing out the business.

One of the biggest issues Startups have is creating and nurturing a brand from scratch. When no one knows you, no one trusts you, which means they’re certainly not going to buy from you anytime soon.

Which is why engaging with PR in your initial growth stage is a worthwhile investment. By organically placing content in high-level, well-trusted news outlets, Startups can quickly grow their presence for their brand, which fosters credibility and builds trust with potential and future customers.

More importantly, it doesn’t have to cost the Earth. Although PR might have a reputation for being an expensive luxury for large corporations, with the right agency, Startups can start small and build out campaigns at the same time as they grow their businesses.

What is a good budget for startup PR?

There’s no such thing as the perfect PR budget for Startups, but it helps to start thinking about what it is you’re looking to achieve and how fast you’re looking to achieve it. But, typically, we’d say to set aside upto £3,500 per month aside for a Startup PR campaign. Any more would be too much at this stage of your journey, any less would restrict success.

For example, if you’re looking to launch a new product on the market, you might want to set a larger PR budget aside for a more widespread, creative campaign. Because it will specifically target your potential customers, it’s likely that this method will cost you a little bit more than the average campaign that is a little less targeted.

On the other hand, you might be more interested in a more long-term PR campaign that focuses on building brand awareness and trust. To do this, you’ll need to set a monthly retainer with the PR agency as well as think about content creation such as press releases, thought leadership articles, and even market research.

The first example here would be more expensive because it would be a short-term campaign that is highly targeted towards a certain type of audience. That means potentially paying for sponsored content and even advertising, as marketing messages that promote products don’t tend to go down too well with journalists and editors.

The second option, a thought leadership campaign, would be a more cost effective yet long-term option. Building trust in a new brand takes time, patience, and the right PR agency able to place news stories that promote you as an industry expert.

Can you do PR on a budget?

Although some high-end PR agencies might tell you that they won’t go lower than their minimum spend, it’s absolutely possible for Startups to do PR on a budget. As PR can cover a wide variety of options, industries, and target media, it should be up to you as to how much you want to spend.

What we find best is to provide a range of different options that show PR campaigns on different scales - for example the popular Bronze, Silver, and Gold sliding scale. By presenting what can be achieved at the lower end of a budget as well as what could be achieved if money was no option, it can help frame the options and how to get the best results from your budget.

Again, Startups first have to work out what they want to get out of their investments. PR campaigns can range in price, length, and activity, so be sure to come armed with a list of questions when engaging with agencies, such as:

• Have you worked with Startups/businesses in my industry before?
• What sort of results should I expect to see from this level of engagement?
• How do you measure the effectiveness of the PR campaign?
• What are the key media publications/journalists we should be targeting?

The most important thing though is to not feel pressured into spending a budget that you’re not comfortable with. It’s fine to think that PR isn’t right for you today, because you might need some more time to build out your sales and marketing channels first or build a website.

PR campaigns can scale up as your business grows. By engaging with the right agency, you can quickly raise your brand awareness and become the go-to brand in your industry.

Once you’ve edited this filter and changed the search time to either the last 24 hours, week or month, what you’ll see is a list of questions that people have been asking – you can click onto each of these to see responses and other comments that people have made. But as I go back to the previous statement, if people are using this forum to ask the questions, chances are that your potential customers and audience have similar questions that need answering.