If you keep up with tech news, you can see that startups often rely on venture capital to scale up their operations. One of the ways to do that is by getting the attention of investors via positive news in the media.
To attract the attention of even more investors, tech startups can announce their latest funding news. Funding-focused PR has always served as a reliable weapon to get business media coverage. This is especially true when it comes to getting attention from regional tech media such as Tech in Asia, e27, DailySocial, and DealStreetAsia.
Through media coverage, your startup can earn much-needed brand recognition from the public. This can also help to increase your brand’s credibility. Media mentions can also attract talented jobseekers to your company.
So what can be done to make sure that your funding news is attractive to relevant journalists? Here are a few things to consider:
First, you need to share details about the total amount of funding secured to date. In this case, outline what your business does, how much the latest round was worth, what stage the investment was, and who the investor is. While disclosing the round size is optional, if you do share it, the release will be taken more seriously by the right journalists.
Second, you will likely need to explain the nature of this new partnership. This includes an explanation about why they decided to give your startup money and why your company thought it made strategic sense to partner up as well.
Third, explain what makes the business important. In this part, make sure to clearly state the purpose of your startup. What problem does it solve? Why is it unique compared to the competitors? How big is the market for this? Including information about your relevant business metrics will also make funding news more attractive.
Fourth, feel free to share information about the startup’s co-founders and their backstories. Adding this information is optional, but if you decide to include it, readers will become more familiar with the journey of the person behind the curtain. It may sound counterintuitive, but adding this human element can help increase public confidence in the brand.
Case Study: Helpster’s Funding News
At the end of 2017, Content Collision (C2) worked with Helpster to announce the pre-series A funding round it received from Mojo Partners and Wavemaker Partners.
In the announcement, we included all of the information needed to make the journalists interested and willing to cover the story. The release included the amount and the stage of the round, who the investors were, why Helpster and the investors decided to work together, what problems were being solved, and more.
However, sometimes relying on content alone is not enough. To get a satisfactory number of media pickups, you need to contact the journalists directly — preferably via e-mail and WhatsApp. Occasionally, though, even that isn’t enough. To increase the possibility of wider coverage, savvy PR professionals know they need to build ongoing personal relationships. Journalists are usually inundated with hundreds of emails and press releases each week. If your brand is an ‘unknown’ in their eyes, there’s a chance you might get ignored or skipped over.
Be advised, the relationships you build with journalists will not automatically make them want to cover your news either. The release will still need to have a compelling story to tell.
In the case of Helpster, the brand turned out to be fairly well-recognized in the tech industry. This helped C2 reach 100% of the targeted media coverage. Some of the media that ran the story included Tech in Asia International, DailySocial, e27, TechCrunch, DealStreetAsia, and Digital News Asia.
Dos and Don’ts
Do
- Discuss the release content with investors and co-founders prior to distribution.
- Make sure the content is approved by all parties to avoid internal conflicts.
- Include direct quotes from stakeholders in the release to strengthen the content.
Don’t
- Announce funding news when the money is not yet in the bank.
- Assume the deal is closed just because a term sheet has been signed.
- Assume that investors cannot back out of the deal just because you’ve pushed PR.
- Lie about the size of your funding round. This can also be a thing that triggers suspicion from tax officials.
- Rely on the content itself. It may not spread widely enough if you do nothing more than click send.
For these reasons and more, many businesses choose to partner up with performance-based PR agencies like C2. If you’d like to discuss further about what we can do for your startup, contact us through this link.
