How To Choose the Right PR Agency for your Startup Business

However, about 70-90% of startups across all industries fail within their first 5 years. This is especially true for SaaS startups that do not have the necessary system to trace their market share and assess their financial data. 
This failure can allude to the lack of market research, strategic marketing, and effective creation of brand awareness campaigns, all of which are included in the primary services offered by PR agencies.
To scale up and sustain the stability of startups, the services of PR experts should be employed. This involves considering the customized approaches this PR agency will adopt in meeting your startup's needs because it will influence what PR agency you choose. 
Let's evaluate some of the factors you should look out for when choosing the right PR agency for your startup business. 

Clarity of company goals
The creation of a positive image and brand awareness for your startup will be impossible if your company's goals are not clearly defined. This is essential in industries that are highly competitive.

Moreover, you have to be asking the right questions before hiring a PR agency.  What is SaaS PR? How can they be of help to your business? Owing to the relatively unique services of SaaS startups, the right PR agency will have to understand what is required of them. 
Understanding the clearly defined company goals, both long-term and short-term goals, will ease the process of choosing a PR agency and help the agency have a template to fall back on when reviewing and aligning their job roles with your goals. 

Scale
You must consider the size and stage of growth of the PR agency you choose in comparison to that of your startup business.  This is important if you want to enhance the scalability of your startup business. 

Smaller-scaled PR agencies tend to be more responsive and sensitive to your startup challenges. As a similarly growing agency, they are more attuned to these pitfalls and have handy strategies to help your business tackle them. Also, there is less time wasted on pursuing bureaucratic processes. 
Likewise, if your startup is large, you should consider hiring a bigger PR agency that will have the capacity and resources to take up the tasks that come with managing your startup business. 

Seamless communication 
When evaluating the communication of a PR agency, you should consider the following:

1. Team communication 
Teamwork is important in any organization. This is even more crucial for startup businesses. The synergy between your startup employees and the PR team is necessary for effective collaboration. 

So, you should obtain honest feedback from your employees on what they think of any potential collaboration with a PR agency before you close the hiring deal.

2. PR communication style:
A PR agency should be professional in the way they tell a brand's story. This is important because the communication style can help to reinforce brand trust and of course, avert possible detrimental consequences during periods of crisis. 

3. Expertise and experience 
It is easy for a SaaS startup company, for instance, to miscommunicate when the PR agency that handles its media activities specializes in the entertainment industry. This is a disaster as the brand voice may be lost. 

Choose a PR agency with relevant experience and expertise in your startup area. This is important because they have an extensive network base that can be tapped into to help your startup gain visibility and growth. 

You can also contact past clients to learn about the PR agency's areas of specialization and areas they need to improve. 

Cost/Budget
Considering the cost of hiring a PR agency for your startup is a prudent decision. It is not new knowledge that startups run on limited resources and this also accounts for why startups fail. You do not want to run your business into a deficit while trying to grow by hiring professional services.
Allotting a budget to each project and market positioning campaign is a necessary expedient solution to that challenge. You can also compare the cost of hiring different PR agencies that offer similar quality services and go for the more affordable option. 
However, this does not mean you cannot make your budget slightly flexible to accommodate costs a little over your budget for quality PR services that meet your startup's needs. 

Final Words
The business world is highly competitive. And when your business is hosted in the digital space, there are volumes of data on how you can propel your startup business to unicorn-level success. This can prove to be a difficult task. 
PR agencies will help you narrow these data, review them and design tailored strategies for easy scalability.

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