True thought leadership aims to engage your audience by providing valuable information and points of view in your field of expertise. A company’s thought leadership is more reliable than its marketing materials because an effective thought leadership approach has the power to affect consumer perception and purchasing decisions. 

With effective and valuable thought leadership content, a brand becomes recognized as an authority in its field. Decision-makers are inspired to buy from a brand through thought leadership content.

More than 54% of B2B decision-makers claim to have bought a product because of engaging with thought leadership. Thought leadership marketing has been a staple of many B2B marketing strategies due to how much of an impact it has on marketing efforts. 

So, without further ado, let us dive into the fundamentals of developing a thought leadership strategy and the five most favorable PR tactics for your startup.

Developing Thought Leadership Marketing Strategy

Interested in discovering how to create a thought leadership strategy? The following five steps will help you create an effective thought leadership strategy that stimulates growth.

Identify And Comprehend Your Target Market.

Identifying your target audience is the wiser course of action in this situation. Choose the industry, size of the business, group of firms, demographics, and job roles to which your material should be targeted. Make buyer personas comprehend their objectives, difficulties, and pain points. The more you understand them, the clearer your insights become.

Promote Ideas Rather Than Products.

You might be inclined to speak from the perspective of a business owner when you’re providing data and concepts from your industry. But you need to change the conversation from your company to your audience’s problems if you want them to respond to and interact with your thought leadership. For instance, you might sell ideas, advantages, and outcomes through your content rather than goods and services.

Make Your Content Available On A Variety Of Platforms

Use a range of content-sharing formats and channels to broaden the audience for your brand. Your success will depend on how you distribute your content and who sees it. For a wider audience, use innovative media formats and make your thought leadership content available on various channels by diversifying your thought leadership assets. 

Set Your Objectives

Your thought leadership is merely instructional information without a marketing objective. You must integrate it with your business objectives to make it work with your marketing strategy. Thought leadership is effective at generating demand and nurturing leads. 

High-Quality Content

Your content quality is perhaps the most important thing that helps you establish yourself as a thought leader. While guest articles, podcasts, and digital PR will increase website traffic, your content will convert those visitors into subscribers, fans, and paying clients.

5 Effective Thought Leadership PR Tactics

You should strategically increase your influence through digital PR to increase your impact and position in front of those who can provide you with great exposure and authority.

Regularly Communicate with Your Audience

Your social media interactions are crucial in helping others recognize you as a thought leader. All your social media posts should have value sharing as their primary goal. 

Your social media marketing should focus on imparting knowledge, offering advice, and demonstrating your achievement through observable outcomes. If you continuously do this, you’ll develop a devoted following that wants to learn from you. 

To build strong and effective communication with your audience and position your business as an authority and achieve measurable marketing results, include the following five thought leadership techniques in your PR strategy:

Twitter Threads

Twitter is an effective tool for marketing. It’s a forum where you effectively interact with your clients and followers and a channel for sharing updates. 

Twitter threads are fantastic for interacting with your audience in a meaningful way. They enable you to discuss your ideas in greater detail and respond to audience inquiries. 

Your objective should be to make this an engaging experience so that your audience wants to remark and share their thoughts. This can put your thread in a position to go viral, claiming increased visibility and exposure for you and your business while, more crucially, giving you the potential to benefit many readers.

Participate In Podcasts And Guest Blog Interviews

By participating in podcasts, you will produce top-notch material as a guest blogger and distribute it for free to the leading websites in your area. Connecting your name with a reputable newspaper can reach a wider audience and improve your credibility.

Joining blog interviews as a guest or creating your interview show is also a fantastic tactic. It comprises all the elements of a powerful modern PR. You’ll be able to build strong connections in the media group while attracting more potential customers and strengthening your brand image. The success of your show can also lead to new deals, partners, sponsorships, and much more. 

Holding No-Cost Workshops

Some other effective ways to build credibility, superiority, and prestige in your field include arranging free, no-cost workshops, counseling sessions, and account reviews. With these tactics, you can directly engage with your target market and provide value upfront to the target audience.

Ownership In Prestigious And Renowned Publications

The most well-known thought leadership tactic is probably getting bylines in prestigious journals. To accomplish this effectively, you must ensure that the articles you produce in your area of expertise are highly valuable and original. Your post will often perform better with readers if it is deeper and richer. The media outlet also becomes pleased to receive a well-written, unique article.

Live Broadcasting

Another fantastic interactive technique to establish a connection with your audience is live streaming. Deep relationships can develop because listeners can join streams, ask questions, and provide their views, all of which help the dialogue flow.

Endnote

Thought leadership is a long-term strategy that necessitates consistency and dedication. Although the market is crowded, you will stand out from your rivals by implementing a thought leadership strategy filled with insight-led material delivered in an interesting way! So try out these strategies to boost your start-up’s engagements quickly!

Public relations (PR) refers to building a beneficial relationship between an organization and the public. The strategy is to use media channels to gain a positive perception of your business from the public. Also, it includes managing and disseminating communication for the organization in order to protect the image.

PR is somehow related to branding; however, the key difference is that while a brand mainly focuses on certain visual elements, such as websites, marketing, and logos, PR deals with communication and the organization’s reputation. 

Why Is PR Important?

Investing time and money in PR is always a wise move in the intriguing world of modern business. However, it must be done in the right way, regardless of the size or industry. PR professionals are excellent storytellers who know how to reach out to the public and present your organization to build trust. 

Developing public relations can help your business in many ways.

Reach Potential Customers

Employing a good media strategy can help you reach new potential clients. You can get familiar with the problems they are experiencing and devise a solution, presenting the notion that your company is the best solution.

Build Trust

PR is all about manifesting a reputation and trust among the clients. A successful PR strategy helps you gain the confidence of the public by showcasing your strengths and leads in sales. 

Trust plays an important role in the success of a business, regardless of its size. This trust gap can be bridged through effective PR strategies like leadership pieces, networking, and influencer connections. 

Raise Capital

The proper use of unique PR practices can help you raise more capital. A reputable business with good statistics is likely to have many new customers find their way to its door. PR improves the communication between an organization and client by crafting a message that resonates with the thought of their target customers. 

Gives Consistency

While investing all your fortune into a new startup is easy, you wouldn’t want it to descend into silence. PR prevents this by keeping your name popped up for potential clients and investors. Since everyone is digitally connected nowadays, a strong online presence can keep your business the talk of the town. 

PR agencies use influencers and other channels to convey your business idea to the target customers and maximize their reach. This can prove helpful in strengthening the brand’s image as well as profitability. 

Maintains A Good Reputation 

The best and worst part of the online world is that people can say whatever they want to about a business. There are chances of getting a bad reputation even without doing anything to deserve it. That is where PR agencies come into play. They build and support a positive image of your business and drive campaigns to maintain it. 

According to research, 75% of adult US citizens believe the information comes from an objective source compared to paid-for advertising. PR uses its connections with influencers to gain trust in your business. 

When Is A Good Time To Hire A PR Agency?

As it is said that there is always a time and place for everything, you should know what’s the right time to start with PR. You wouldn’t want to be too early when there is no story to tell and also not too late when the damage is done.

Here are some points when you should consider getting a reliable PR.

• Once your customer number starts going up, you think it’s time to reach a broader audience.
• When you start noticing the competition in the industry and that your clients are reading about your competitors, they need to know that you still exist and are the best in the league. 
• Some well-capitalized companies are likely to outspend you when it comes to advertising. You should think of other ways to get in touch with new clients and communicate your message to the public.
• Once your business gets on the radar and is a part of the conversation in the industry, it’s time to get a PR agency in order to build a strong and positive image for your brand. 

In simple words, an excellent time to get a PR is when your business’s vision, mission, and target customer are decided. Starting too soon while your business is in the phase of deciding its vision and product would do more harm than benefit. Similarly, hiring PR too late will have you miss months and years of beneficial media coverage. 

It is suggested to monitor the media landscape a while before hiring a PR agency. Get acquainted with editors, how the journals write, and how the industry works, so you will know when it’s time to disseminate your message. 

Best PR Strategies And Tactics

Let’s look at some of the effective PR strategies that can be used to promote your idea and manage the reputation of your business.

Business Events

A great platform to gain exposure for your business could be a business event. It gives you a chance to meet potential customers and boost brand awareness.

Community Relations

This term refers to building positive and beneficial relationships with the community around your business. It may include charity events, discounts, and donations to build a positive brand image and strengthen your relationship with the public. 

Influencer Relations

As mentioned above, influencers have a key role in PR and marketing in recent times. PR agencies manage relationships with these influencers and get the results they want from this authority.

Media Relations

Media relations involve building good relationships with editors, journalists, and publication authorities. It gives exposure to your business while giving it the image you desire. 

Bottom Line

Understating public relations (PR) is essential for the success of any business. Startups with a reliable PR firm have built better media coverage and reputation. Hopefully, this guide has shown you how important PR is and how it can help increase your visibility and business development. 

Given how fierce the competition is in every industry, expanding brand reach and building a reputation is a challenge for a new business owner. You can find many ideas on Google to gain momentum in a field. However, it will not be easy for you to implement those ideas while also focusing on other startup-related tasks.

Instead, you should hire a PR agency for this job. A PR company’s expertise can market your product or service in front of far more people than you can do on your own.

A PR firm will help increase your brand awareness by utilizing all influential platforms. Also, it will help develop and maintain trust relations between your brand and clients/customers.

Many inefficient PR agencies also exist that do not have knowledgeable staff or multiple public connections. If you want to make the best of PR services, select a genuine and reliable PR firm. If you have no clue which PR firm to pick, keep the following considerations in mind to make the right choice for your startup. 

Goals Give You The Right Direction

Before starting your search for a PR firm, you must prioritize your PR goals. Be clear about how much media coverage will be needed. For example, if your business needs extensive media interaction, opting for an agency that enjoys deep-rooted connections in the media industry would be wise.

Additionally, define your objectives for the markets you want to reach. Once you are sure about the target audience and market, you will choose the firm with the most experience in that field. Rely on the agency whose team is skilled at effectively communicating with people in that industry.

It would be best if you also focused on your expectations. Think about the outcome you expect from PR services and align them with different PR firms’ success stories to make a choice less confusing.

If you have any additional specific objectives to achieve, keep them in mind when searching for a PR firm. When you approach with precise and defined goals, you are more likely to select a solid PR firm.

A Suitable PR Budget Unlocks Quality Services

PR packages come at different prices, depending on the number and significance of the services included. During the research, you will find that many PR agencies offer affordable and costly packages.

So, it is very important to determine a budget you are willing to spend on PR services. A better idea is to decide on a price range instead of a fixed budget. Sometimes, you have to adjust your budget when the services you want cost slightly more than expected.

Some agencies offer flexible payment options, like pay-on-performance or project-wise payment. Since spending hefty amounts of money on PR firms might be daunting for new business owners, they can consider such options until their business attains a stable position. And if you are confident in a PR firm’s credibility, choose a flat-fee structure to hire their services.

Deep Research Is the Key to Finding the Best PR Firm

When searching for PR firms online, go to their websites and check out their offers and services. Acknowledge their PR strategic plans and accomplishments.

Some agencies also reveal their regular high-profile clients on their websites to gain the trust of potential customers. This approach will give you an idea about the agency’s performance and success rate. Also, visit the reviews section to analyze the agency from people’s points of view.

To avoid scams and fraud, seek recommendations from your acquaintances. Ask them to share their experience with PR agencies and what they found good and bad about the agency they worked with. Direct feedback or recommendation is the most reliable approach to evaluating the credibility of an agency before working with it personally.

You can also take leads from the agencies mentioned in press releases and social media posts of other successful brands. Since those agencies have a good track record for other businesses, your brand will also benefit from their services.

Big Is Not Always Better

Some PR agencies are small, while some work on a large scale. Most people prefer working with big agencies thinking they would have more connections and qualified staff. However, many big agencies initially introduce their experts and seniors to their clients. Later, they assign those clients to their newly employed team members and interns.

Whereas small agencies have small teams, they are more likely to assign your projects to their skilled members. Moreover, small-scale agencies value customers more than big agencies to earn a good reputation. Their teams focus more on your business goals and stay in touch with you to maintain their services.

This does not mean that big firms are a big no for startups. When approaching a big firm, ask them to explain their team structure and who will work for your brand’s PR. You need to be well aware of their working strategies.

Good Results Come From Knowledge And Experience

Ensure the PR firm you intend to hire has qualified PR agents with deep knowledge of PR-related tactics, must-haves, and no-go zones. They should be able to devise the most effective PR strategy for your business. The copywriters should be proficient at writing impactful and SEO-friendly blogs and speeches.

Also, ensure the PR specialists maintain good public connections with digital influencers and media persons. These connections are essential for arranging press releases and branding businesses on social media platforms.

Final Thoughts

Choosing the best PR firm without any clue is not only tough but risky as well. It is, therefore, better to decide your priorities and preferences when looking for a PR firm for your business.

Find a PR firm carefully after thoroughly researching its team, strategies, and achievements. Choose the agency that ensures maximum media interaction and well-established public ties. Whether the firm is small or big depends on its credibility. So, keep these points in mind when hiring a PR firm for your business.

Are you wondering how to recruit investors to your startup? Or, despite your excellent products/services, you’re not receiving enough customers? If so, all you require is a PR plan. 

Public relations will not only increase the visibility of your company but also help it grow in ways you never thought were possible. 

Read this article for all the necessary information you need about public relations!

What Is Meant By PR?

Public relations (PR) is the process of maintaining healthy and positive communications with the public, which also includes the media. It creates a favorable external perception of your brand or business. It is a crucial component of a business that wants to develop and succeed. PR refers to building relationships with the following:

• Employees.
• Influencers.
• Customers.
• Vendors.
• Investors and much more. 

Combined with proper and effective strategies, it may help a business expand significantly and overcome obstacles.

What Is A PR Strategy?

A PR strategy supports a business or, more specifically, a startup’s rapid growth, expansion, and success. 

It is distinct from marketing since marketing refers to promoting a firm’s goods and services. In contrast, PR strategy is concentrated on creating a favorable perception of a company and interacting with its clients.

Why Is A PR Strategy Important For A Startup?

Helps Attract Investors 

The success and survival of your newly launched firm depend on investors. Without investors, startups are useless, and businesses cannot thrive without them. Investors will review all the information and business ideas you provide. Moreover, investors believe in your word and are more interested in your story than the products and goods you sell. With a solid PR plan, you can win over investors’ trust, and the more investors you have, the more quickly your business will prosper.

Enhance The Company’s Reputation

As we all know, no one wants to buy from a company with a terrible reputation; even if the customer hasn’t had a bad experience, they don’t want to take the risk. Simply put, the client doesn’t feel connected to that particular organization. For this reason, PR assures customers and other investors that investing with them is wise. 

Builds Brand Recognition

Startups are at a disadvantage when competing with highly established firms. And it is understandable why customers would pick a well-known business over a startup because it took them years or even decades to earn the public’s respect and loyalty. A PR plan is essential since it will aid in spreading awareness of your company’s identity and objectives.

Assists In Preventing Inaccurate Accusations Against The Business

Since everyone wants their firm to expand, there are many rivals in the market for all types of business. Competitors won’t hold back in spreading false rumors and inaccurate information to harm the business’s reputation in the marketplace—public relations aid in disproving these false claims and preserving the company’s reputation.

PR Tactics And Strategies

Startups implement the following PR strategies to kick-start their businesses:

Social Media Campaigning

In today’s world, more and more people are using social media. Social media benefits individuals in many ways, and startups may utilize it effectively to promote their products. But for a company to flourish, one must interact with its followers, publish in-depth descriptions of its goods and services, respond to all of its followers’ queries, and much more. 

Social media is used for more than just socializing and conversing with loved ones. Thanks to the power of the internet, people have created and grown their businesses. Similarly, PR strategies are employed on social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to draw attention to your business and get people talking about it.

Arranging Interviews With Local TV Stations And News Channels 

Information passed on through interviews and radios is much more appreciated than paid advertisements. Appearing on local television channels is highly impactful as it’s watched by the people nearby or in the same city. One should always start with minor steps to promote their business and gradually build from there. If what you have to say is intriguing, it’ll gain the attention of the national press in no time.

Sponsorship

This PR technique is growing in popularity. It means to pay to have your company’s name associated with different things such as social or sports events, educational or informational sessions, or any venue where there’s some gathering. It assists in brand promotion and name recognition.

Partnering Up With Influencers

By building strong relationships with bloggers and other powerful individuals, you may ask them to endorse your items and help your business become more well-known. Instead of only viewing business commercials, individuals are more likely to believe the advice of their favorite influencers or recommendations from other people. Over a million individuals follow popular influencers, bloggers, and celebrities; associating with any of them might significantly increase your business’s number of clients. 

Final Thoughts

A company is not just about selling its products and services; it’s about knowing your trusted customers’ needs and connecting with them. PR is important because it can distinguish between a mere dead firm and a brand that engages with its audience. PR makes it happen by establishing communication channels, producing and sharing good material, ensuring that it reaches the target audience, and assuring them of your brand’s values. With PR as its foundation, a firm will succeed in many areas. 

PRs are a startup’s initial yet crucial step to grow, develop, and succeed. Effective PR strategies can go a long way. 

However, coming up with an effective PR strategy is not an easy task. It takes thorough planning and elaborate preparation to meet the customers’ requirements, needs, and interests. The company’s growth is highly likely if the right steps are taken to carry out these effective PR strategies. The results won’t be produced overnight. It can take months or even years. It needs consistency, patience, and constant hard work, but in the end, when you get the desired result, it will all be worth it! 

The business world is built on cooperation. This might not be obvious to the general audience, as famous entrepreneurs are often presented as if they are completely standalone personalities. But in reality, I’ve found everybody in business is constantly looking for reliable long-term partnerships with clients, contractors, partners, employees, colleagues, bosses or investors.

Building a network of professionals who are easy to work with and who make any communication feel rewarding is essential for the growth and smooth operating of a company. However, it’s likely that most business leaders have experienced at least one person or company that was unreliable. We all have been there and perhaps lost money, time and maybe even composure in such situations.

Sustainable partnerships are precious diamonds. If you’ve found a reliable partner, hold onto them. They can help you save and amplify the resources you have. And if your business is a service, strive to be the ideal partner to your customers.

In my public relations agency, I strive to be a good partner to my clients. Being a communications expert, I’m ready to share a few tips for gaining a reputation as a sustainable partner through communication tactics.

1. Be transparent. Ensure you’re open and honest in all of your communications, starting from day one. Be open and share the information that impacts your partners in any way. This helps to build trust and halt misunderstandings. Don’t hesitate to let them know if you experience any problems that might affect your ability to fulfill your duties. Doing so will be appreciated. Don’t wait too long to discuss any sensitive issues that might crop up.

2. Clarify what you hear by asking questions when confused. Miscommunication has ruined many partnerships. That’s why it’s OK—and even welcomed—to request more information when you need it. This is key to reaching your goals for the partnership without false expectations. Clarifying areas of uncertainty nourishes long-term relationships because, otherwise, you’re relying only on your ideas and perceptions about your partner, which might be incorrect.

3. Personalize the communication. We live in a world of diversity and should strive to respect one another’s differences. Tailoring your communication to every individual partner makes your interactions more effective. It demonstrates that you are capable of being empathetic and can be trusted.

4. Be an active listener. Let’s admit that for every entrepreneur and their executives, business is always about their interests. But you can’t build strong relationships if you talk and think exclusively about your profit and benefit. Ensure you’re listening to what the other party has to say. Then, respond thoughtfully to demonstrate that you have considered their thoughts. After all, no partnership can consist of only one side.

5. Keep it simple, and make your points understandable. Excessively ornate and complex explanations mixed with high-brow terminology do not make anybody look like more of an expert. Your goal should be to be understandable and relatable. Respect that others might have no knowledge of the field of your expertise.

6. Have a friendly and respectful attitude. This applies to both the way you communicate and your attitude toward the other party’s time. Be polite, don’t neglect small talk and make conversations feel effortless. However, don’t be too much of a people pleaser.

7. Use positive and confident language. You need to show you are an expert and a professional right from the start. It would sound strange and discouraging to your partner if you talk as if you’re unsure about your own field of knowledge. You know what to do and should translate that into communication. If the other party tries to explain to you how to do your job and gives you any unsolicited advice on this topic, you can politely cut these attempts short. Remember, though, that while being tough and firm and protecting your boundaries, you also need to stay positive and respectful.

8. Have a long-term mentality. Sustainable partnerships are neither momentary nor temporary. Approach them while remembering that these connections are important and precious, and you want to keep them for as long as possible. With such a mentality, you are more likely to look for solutions or ways to overcome any challenges or obstacles. But most importantly, you are more likely to have long-standing partnerships with people you can rely on.

Reliable partnerships can make your life easier and bring a lot of joyful moments. They contribute to the thriving of both parties. If you already have such partnerships, cherish and nourish them. Be a credible partner yourself, and never hesitate to end all the dubious business relationships where you are let down and your boundaries are disrespected.

The article was originally published in Forbes.

The term PR refers to a company’s public relations. But the field of PR involves much more than just public relations. It includes everything between the company and its customers or clients. 

Emerging tech companies must adopt effective PR strategies to ensure a smooth business flow. This article will discuss all there is to know about PR in tech companies and why it is so important. 

What is Tech PR?

Tech PR is an important part of startup life. It is a way to raise your visibility and, more importantly, attract more investors. Therefore it is important that startups know the importance of tech PR and understand how to get it right.

According to Statista, 14% of startups fail due to poor marketing. Marketing is an important part of a tech startup because it allows the startup to scale its product offering and increase its market share. It also helps in attracting more customers and users of their products.

While the main focus of tech companies is innovation, an increase in innovation has generated a greater need for personalized branding, messaging, and storytelling. 

Tech PR is important today as it enables tech startups/companies to reach the right audience. Emerging tech companies have to be aware that their PRs must be able to align with their branding and positioning. And that this can only happen when the right tech bloggers, entrepreneurs, and journalists are working hand in hand with them.

Why Is Tech PR So Important?

Tech PR is the best way to generate interest in your products and services. It is also a way to increase the chances of getting your product or service into the hands of customers.

Technology has been the driving force behind the growth of many startups, and it is only natural that they would need a PR firm to help them in their quest to build a brand. Tech PR plays a key role in branding. It brings forward how you present your company, the companies you deal with, and the products you deliver to create a purposeful brand. 

Tech startups differ from other companies because they have a minimal established brand identity. This makes it hard for them to get solid press coverage when they are just starting. 

They need to get their name out there and achieve visibility so potential investors will be drawn toward them. They also need a strong online presence, which means they also need PR firms to help them with this.

Tech startups often use technical terminology that the general public won’t be accustomed to. How you communicate with experts should be different from your average consumer. Your brand won’t be able to communicate your business’s true value and meaning with technical jargon, as potential consumers might be unable to relate to it. 

The tech industry is becoming more and more competitive. The number of startups is growing rapidly, and many people are trying to get noticed in this industry. If you want to be successful, you need the right people’s attention. Tech PR enables you to reach your right audience and communicate with them appropriately. 

How PR Plays A Role In Supporting Customer Acquisition?

PR is a vital component in the customer acquisition process. It can increase brand awareness, generate leads, and drive sales. You can even target specific customer segments like those who speak a certain language. 

There are many ways in which tech companies can leverage the content that PR creates. For example, one of the important aspects of buying from a digital platform is to review the buyer’s journey. 

Potential consumers now research the product they are willing to purchase before deciding to purchase it. That is why meaningful, valuable content has become more critical than ever. Hence, tech PR is key in prioritizing your company’s content. 

How PR Solves Some Common Problems In Tech Startups?

There is no doubt that the tech startup business is a highly competitive one. So, serious problems like raising capital may arise during the startup process. Angel funding, IPOs, or any other financial investment is most successful if the company has visibility, efficient communication procedures, and branding. 

PR experts have expertise in working with innovators and founders. They can communicate the mission and value of your company to your stakeholders. Growing tech companies are always in dire need of skilled employees. 

PR helps your company find the best and the most talented candidates for recruitment. People love working in great and well-known brands, and PR helps make your brand well-known and great by delivering valuable content. 

Primary Benefits Of Tech PR

To summarize, technology PR can bring you some of the following benefits such as:

Build Recognition And Credibility

People begin trusting you when they get to know your brand through multiple mediums. Brand trust and credibility are two of the most important factors in a company’s success. And it is not just about the content that people read. 

It is also about how well the company does what it says on the tin. If a company wants to demonstrate itself as trustworthy and credible, it needs to show that it has a good grasp of what is happening in its industry and its customers’ needs.

The best way for brands to do this is through their content which should be relevant to their target audience and reflect their values, vision, and mission statement.

Increase Website’s Organic Traffic

One of the roles of tech PR is regularly updating your communication mediums with valuable content. This increases your website’s organic traffic and, ultimately, conversions. 

Promote A Positive Brand Image

The PR campaign is the most important part of any brand’s marketing strategy. The purpose of it is to create awareness about the brand and its services and products. PR will ensure your brand has a positive image to the world by conveying that you aren’t just here to make money but to solve people’s problems. 

Reach the Right Audiences

Regular content and effective tech PR ensure that your target audience increases. The need for PR has been growing since the introduction of the Internet in the 1990s. Today, PR agencies are responsible for creating content and promoting it on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. 

Key Takeaways

Tech PR plays a vital part in your company’s strategy. It will help you to create a brand image, get more business and increase sales. Tech companies are technical and specialized in nature. Tech jargon may sound like gibberish to the average consumer.

PR helps bridge the gap and deliver meaningful content to the target audience. Think of tech PR as interpreters for tech companies’ stakeholders. They help in connecting you to your audience. Thus, expanding your reach and bringing credibility to your brand. 

Public relations or PR is an important tool for tech companies. Several problems can be solved and many benefits can be availed if a proper PR strategy is applied.

If you are a tech company looking for more information on how you can use PR to your advantage, you are at the right place. Today we shall be looking at useful tips and unique ways to help your business succeed. Let’s get started!

Overview

Tech companies are those that work with programmers, scientists, or engineers. These people use existing knowledge/facts to bring about innovation.

Since one great idea can change the world, tech companies operating under this motto are surely aiming for the stars.

However, since there is massive competition with businesses starting up every other day, a PR strategy is required to attract potential stakeholders while keeping current ones.

Many people might think that PR and tech are two different subjects but the truth is that PR is truly changing the professional approach. Effective strategies can help create brand awareness and bring in leads.

• Startups offer the most vacancies for new employees.
• Startups are crucial in supporting the economy.
• New startups every day mean that gaining the attention of media and potential leads is crucial.

What Is PR?

PR simply means creating or working on portraying a positive image for the public to see.

Public relations mainly work around information that needs to be communicated to stakeholders. How this information is conveyed and how well it can attract clients, investors, partners, consumers, and employees ultimately decides how successful your business will be.

• PR is necessary for media coverage and brand awareness.
• It helps portray a positive image and tell a captivating brand story.
• Brand awareness strengthens credibility and authority.
• PR helps combine all communication channels to create a widespread positive brand image.

PR Vs. Human Relations

• PR is meant to create a favorable image of a brand in the public’s eyes.
• Human relations helps create long-term relationships that are meaningful and based on social interaction.

What Is Tech PR?

A tech company or business provides digital products, services, hardware, or platforms. It is their main source of effective revenue and they rely heavily upon it.

Some companies even purposely label themselves as a tech startup or business for added PR points.

However, technological PR is the method of creating a positive image for a business that solely sells tech services or products.

Tech PR Vs. Regular PR

• Tech companies may offer digital solutions that most people are not very well aware of. Communicating what the business is about and what they sell will attract a wider audience.
• Messages and information should be simplistic and easily understandable for the regular consumer.
• The tech industry is fast-paced and constant competition means you need a PR game that can beat new companies, innovations, and funding campaigns.
• The PR strategy needs to be evolved, should be relevant, and attractive.
• Tech PR allows companies to evolve at high speed to make it difficult for competitors to keep up.

Common Issues Faced By Tech Startups

Not only can PR help drive a company towards success, but it is also beneficial in helping solve many common problems.

Proper communication boosts visibility and helps the brand gain credibility. PR drives more sales while ensuring clients and stakeholders start trusting the brand.

Common troubles faced by tech companies include:

• Difficulty in gathering funds.
• Trouble in recruiting skilled talent.
• Customer base growth.
• Business scaling.

These issues can be resolved by the application of tech PR and the development of channels for proper communication with the audience.

Is PR Beneficial For Smaller Tech Companies?

Similar to the benefits PR can bring for large-scale setups, it can profit small tech companies too.

• Small companies can gain brand credibility faster through quicker news cycling.
• No approval waits.
• PR can be more creative and initiated with a small budget.
• Promotes innovation. 
• Trial and error margin.

An important thing to note is that smaller tech companies should not implement similar strategies to larger ones. Strategic relationships, SEO ranking, and better brand visibility can be achieved through small scale efforts too. Remember that limitations ultimately boost creativity and originality.

Advantages Of Tech PR

To believe that tech PR is truly effective, it is necessary to know the benefits it can bring. Only after learning these, you can move forward towards learning effective PR strategies. Let’s take a look below:

Added Credibility And Client Trust

Awareness is directly proportional to credibility. The more you appear in news and on social media, and the more people are aware of your presence, the more credible you will seem.

Plus, credibility also helps clients and stakeholders develop trust in your brand faster. People automatically assume that a well-known brand is worth investing in and must be present at all popular events and engagements.

Marks A Leader

PR involves posting regular updates on social media and other communication channels. Regular content with proper backlinking allows your company website to gather more leads and organic traffic. Being featured on other websites makes you seem like a leader and helps bring in new conversions.

Creates A Magnificent Brand Image

Tech PR is meant to tell a story to create a positive and attractive brand image. Doing so allows people to understand your motto, what you are selling, and the principles your company lives by. It also helps people realize that your product/service is the solution to their problem and that you are not just in the game to make a few bucks.

Reach Expansion In Target Market 

The main aim of PR is to help a brand broaden its reach in its target market. Accurate strategies can help a company get hold of new stakeholders while making sure the existing ones are not corroded. Through PR, a company gains credibility and slowly becomes the go-to for stakeholders due to the added awareness.

Strategies For Tech PR

Along with getting news plus media coverage for your brand, tech PR is also necessary to boost overall marketing efforts.

So what are some strategies that can be used to enable efficient PR for tech? Let’s take a look:

Thought Leadership

Thought leadership is one of the most essential components of marketing. To build a brand reputation and emerge as the expert that others look up to in your field, it is necessary to create a strong presence.

As a representative of a certain niche/industry, there are certain benchmarks you must meet and certain efforts that you must input to do justice to the responsibility on your shoulders.

As an opinion leader, you must have sufficient knowledge of your business as well as the industry you work in to allow a wide audience to be attracted. This helps expand your reach within your marketplace.

Nearly 83% of people believe that thought leadership promotes brand trust so this strategy can prove very helpful in building a brand reputation. 

Not only will other brands look up to you for inspiration and insights, but you will also become the go-to option for potential clients.

SEO

SEO is something you must not ignore especially as a tech company. SEO helps bring in organic traffic to your website which further produces leads.

To increase the quantity and quality of traffic brought to your website, promote brand reach and make your site more visible, target keywords are a must to use.

• SEO helps search engines promote your website in search results more often.
• Allows the site to be indexed.
• The website becomes a part of the search engine algorithm which brings in authentic traffic.
• You can increase reach by posting authentic and informational blogs on your website.

Make sure your website is stable, loads up fast, and is secure to keep visitors safe. Use backlinking to link to other websites and promote yourself as a feature on other blogs.

Also make sure to use sufficient backlinks without overdoing them.

Slowly as your website gains credibility, you may even start getting collab offers from top publishers, media, and news channels. All this means more sales.

Social Media

Social media is rapidly evolving and the sudden growth in the past decade or so makes it obvious that this is a strategy you definitely would not want to look over.

It is a good idea to make use of multiple platforms and promote your content using various channels. This doubles your reach and also lets you tap into the global market.

A constant presence on social media platforms allows customers to stay in touch, provide feedback and let you know of any complaints. This allows the brand to refine its services and build a company that caters to customers better.

• Social media can help a brand understand its target audience and view insights.
• Followers allow a brand to know what content they like to see so posts can be made more timely and engaging.
• Helps the brand understand consumer desires.
• A good presence helps differentiate and distinguish the brand from competitors. 
• Helps the company find answers to common issues in the tech niche.

Market Your Content

If you wish to keep clients hooked, you need to publish content that is high quality consistently.

Technology should be your focal point and you should explain how your product/service is relevant to the niche and how it can help. Make sure your audience understands that the product can be useful to them and is not just a tactic to grab money.

You need to input thorough and proper research to produce content that holds value in the eyes of the reader. Creating awareness allows consumers to see why your company is different from others and why they should invest.

• Make use of target keywords in written content to drive organic traffic.
• Hire a website designer to build a professional-looking website.
• Use SEO to boost site performance. 
• Post blogs, tutorials, videos, and FAQs to keep the website engaging.
• Use ad tools to promote your website and reach a wider audience by paying a small fee.

Growth Hacking And Internal Communications 

This one is quite a new strategy but has earned a lot of applause from around the globe. Growth hacking is often used up by startups which allows the company to gain a lot of followers in a significantly short period.

Even companies with a tight budget implement this hack. A company starts testing several ideas to see which works for them, has little to no red tape, and is very low risk.

Internal communications work on the brand’s reputation within the company. It helps employees realize the company has values and use these as inspiration to drive towards a purpose and produce better results.

These employees slowly become excellent brand ambassadors and are likely to bring in more leads than usual. Working together and being on the same page sets any business up for success.

Final Thoughts

Being aware of the existence of tech PR, strategies that can be used, and the benefits it can bring in can help a company create a successful strategy.

Since almost all companies today are making use of PR techniques to bring themselves to light, you will only linger behind if you fail to follow in their footsteps. Good luck!

A few dos and dont’s when it comes to pitching to journalists.

Tech companies need mass media coverage to win new customers and grow loyalty of their current client base, attract investors, partners, and talent. But pitching to journalists isn’t an easy job even though some founders think so. Honestly, it’s more of a hot race with hundreds of startups bombarding journos’ emails on a daily basis. That’s why it’s important to do it with surgical precision to get through.

I follow many tech reporters on social media and I often see them complaining about absurd pitches they get from desperate PR people or even from founders themselves. Sometimes I have to deal with the results of these failed efforts myself when there’s a new client who had been attempting to do PR before and got disappointed because it led to no success. The fiasco very often comes from doing pitching wrong. The worst thing is that journalists remember failed pitches better than the proper ones and it takes time and pain to fix a company’s reputation among reporters.

How to make sure that your pitch will fail

There are a few tactics that will lead you to success if your goal is to scare the knights of the pen away:

Don’t read the media you are planning to pitch to. If they write about tech, no need to go into detail. It doesn’t matter if your product is medtech and their features are exclusively about fintech. No need to know what type of articles they prefer and who their usual newsmakers are. 

Don’t research the journalist you are going to pitch. All reporters are the same, they can and love to cover any topic there is. They generally have no specific interests and expertise, and are able to write about nuclear science today and about some social media crisis tomorrow.

If you don’t believe me, believe the actual Techcrunch reporter.

No need to be personal. Again, all media and journos are the same, so simply write one pitch for everyone, then copy and paste it. You’ll need this energy later when there’s time for the follow-up. Don’t even bother to learn the names of your addressees.

Consider everything to be newsworthy not to lose a chance. My unfriendly advice would be: new icons in your app must be on the news. The more you email reporters, the better they remember you. One day they’ll give up and publish something about your company.  

Keep sending follow-ups everyday until there’s an answer. If they can’t reply to the hundred emails they get in one working day straight away, they are unprofessional.  

Surprise them with an email on Sunday, so that an article about your company might come out on Monday. Personal time? Never heard of that. h

What are the ‘do’s of pitching then?

It seems cruel to give only bad advice and leave no useful tips, so here are a few ‘do’s for successful pitching: 

Do your research. Read the outlet you want to be published in and try to understand how you can fit in among their features and newsmakers. If it’s an independent reporter, look through all their writing and social media to understand if it’s a match for your pitch. People will work with you eagerly if you consider their interests and perceive them as individuals, not functions.

Provide the explanation as to why your pitch is relevant. Journos may have no idea about your company and have very little time to dive in, so you need to explain to them why and how your pitch is newsworthy and relevant to their audience and interests. Rely on the research that you’ve carried out in step one.

Respect their time and don’t bother them in the evenings and on days-off. Also, considering time, always write to the point and don’t make them read immoderately wordy pitches.

Connect via work email or LinkedIn. Respect boundaries and never reach out to journalists via DMs in their personal social media, like Facebook or Instagram, unless they’ve invited you to do so themselves. Use only emails they share for work enquiries or LinkedIn. 

Give exclusive stories because journalists highly appreciate them. If you have something truly interesting, don’t rush things by sending it out to a dozen reporters. Choose the most preferable one and pitch to that person. Actually, you are less likely to get coverage in any publications if you send mass emails to all the journos from your contact list.   

Follow-up twice or thrice (and no more) with a gap of 2-3 working days as reporters need time to process the information and make a decision about whether they want to write an article or not.  

PR is not as easy as it seems from a distance, it requires tons of effort. But it feels utterly rewarding to be featured in publications you can be proud of while building amiable connections with journalists.

The article was originally published on PRWeek

If you are interested in becoming a thought leader, you have to put the effort in. Here are some tips you can use to attain thought leadership in your industry.

A thought leader is an individual who can guide, influence and inspire their peers based on their expertise, experience and unique perspective. Thought leadership is natural to many entrepreneurs, because it’s a part of their lifestyle. As thought leaders, they constantly develop new ideas and strategies to leverage and improve their industries, and they share these new concepts with others.

However, a person doesn’t attain thought leadership by simply possessing the basic qualities of a thought leader, such as deep expertise and the ability to find new approaches. To become a thought leader, one needs to consistently demonstrate and prove these characteristics to others. If there are only a few people who are aware of your bright ideas and excellent knowledge of the industry, you are not yet a thought leader. Additionally, the qualities of a true thought leader can and should be shaped and strengthened by practice.

If you are interested in becoming a thought leader, you have to put the effort in. Here are some tips you can use to attain thought leadership in your industry:

Become a mentor

Become a thought leader for at least one person with less experience. Entrepreneurship is not an easy road, so your advice will be highly appreciated by those who have just started their journey. You can find your first mentees among your friends or friends of your friends. Sometimes all it takes is to make a post on social media, but don’t simply stop at posting to your own feed; there are a lot of professional communities on LinkedIn and Facebook where you can offer your guidance.

Moreover, today there are online services that match mentees to mentors, and you can make a profile on one of those sites. Also, if you know somebody from a startup accelerator, you may ask them if they are looking for a mentor, and offer your candidacy.

Do online reputation management

Your online reputation determines how others see you through the lens of the internet. On a basic level, managing your online reputation may be as simple as having a thoughtful attitude toward your social media. Use these platforms as a tool to show your professional expertise, experience and opinions. In addition to writing your own posts, you may participate in discussions started by other users.

A broader approach to online reputation management may include creating a personal website, a YouTube blog and an audit. The latter means checking people’s perceptions of your personality based on your online presence. To conduct an audit, you may ask friends for help or hire a professional. An online reputation management consultant can save you a lot of time and effort and can prevent you from making mistakes.

Write guest posts

Becoming a columnist for a popular media outlet in your field of expertise is now easier than ever. Online magazines and blogs are always looking for high-quality content and will be grateful to you if you can provide some. It’s better to become a guest writer for the outlets you truly like and enjoy reading, but keep in mind that you may not be aware of many respectable media platforms, so do your research. Also, remember that such websites usually have a page with guidelines for guest posts that you need to follow for your contribution to be accepted.

Participate in fee-based entrepreneurial digital communities

Don’t hesitate to join fee-based digital communities for entrepreneurs, because they have a lot of opportunities for a person who is striving to become a thought leader. These are platforms where you can share your expert opinion and find an audience, and in such communities, you have the possibility to find your future mentees. Furthermore, in these communities, you can watch other entrepreneurs trying their hand at thought leadership, and learn a few things from them.

Participate in expert roundups

An expert roundup is a blog post or a feature in a mass media publication that gathers opinions on a particular topic from a number of experts. For instance, ten financial experts share their views on the future of fintech. The main profit that an entrepreneur can get from this is exposure. Imagine that there are eight people, including you, who are participating in an expert roundup, and each person shares the post on their social media. Sounds like a great outcome, and it will give you the chance to be noticed and improve your online reputation score. You can find calls for participants for such roundups on social media and platforms that connect journalists to newsmakers.

Try joining podcasts within your niche market

A recent podcast industry report from Insider Intelligence predicts that in 2024, there will be 504.9 million podcast listeners worldwide, compared to the current number of 464.7 million listeners in 2022. Podcasts have gained such popularity because they are a convenient way to learn new things while doing something else. Today, there are thousands of podcasts, and many of them are devoted to a particular topic. There’s definitely at least one podcast that suits the niche of your expertise, and its host is very likely interested in having new guests. Don’t wait for an invitation, and get in contact with them.

Pay attention to SEO

Whether you exclusively use social media or you also have a personal website, both are subject to search engine indexing. Honestly, SEO is not an easy thing to do on your own, so you probably should hire a consultant who can explain it to you, do some research and provide you with recommendations. People constantly use search engines, and it would be a win for you if they could see your posts or website when looking for information about your industry and your niche of expertise. One day, it may even be a journalist from a respectable magazine or an analyst of a venture fund who will find you by googling your field.

It’s important for entrepreneurs to establish themselves as thought leaders, because founders are expected to lead people, be it their teams or entire industries. However, having expertise and experience is just one part of what it takes to become a thought leader, because these people cannot be accurately defined as thought leaders if they are not noticed by their audience. Don’t neglect opportunities to showcase your knowledge, and create opportunities for yourself to attain thought leadership and receive all the benefits that come with it.

The article was published on Entrepreneur

You’ve heard the story again and again. Artificial intelligence (AI) will replace journalists. AI will replace authors. And now, AI will eventually replace PR agencies. But how close are we to a world where automated services can replace everything a PR agency does? Is that even possible?

PR services come down to several elements. Proper PR is about understanding the client and its products and services, working out which piece of news is impactful enough to make a journalist take notice, and writing a compelling pitch and press release. Most importantly, PR is about having a good relationship with those journalists.

It’s true. AI has come a long way when it comes to writing copy. In concert with camera and sensor tracking data, it is already being used to write live sports commentaries that are even peppered with humour and sports clichés. However, this feat is relatively easy for AI to achieve, given it only needs to write a short sentence for each significant activity.

Now and then, there is news about a computer being able to pass The Turing Test. According to Wikipedia, The Turing Test is a “machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human.” But such news has been faked until now. Some have come close, but nothing quite beats the human touch. Computers still make mistakes in language and logic.

In 2016 an AI programme at the Nikkei Shinichi Hoshi Literary Award, a literary competition in Japan, wrote a short story that passed the first round of judging. The shortlisted tale called ‘The Day A Computer Writes A Novel’ wasn’t entirely written by AI; humans had a hand in it too. A team of researchers from the Future University Hakodate gave the program certain words, phrases, and an overall framework for the story.

It proves that such an AI programme is yet not capable of writing stories 100% by itself. Besides, successful stories require much more than just sticking words together.

Even now, tools like Copy.ai, Writer, Conversion.ai, and Sapling.ai exist to help a writer produce copy, not create it for them. The idea that a computer can look at a client’s website or white paper and write a press release—let alone understand what angle might excite journalists that receive anything from 100-400 pitches a day—is still science fiction.

And while tools like JustReachOut exist, the reality is that they are not designed to help you tell your startup launch, funding, milestone, or exciting background story to get written up. They automate the process of getting backlinks to your website.

Indeed, in 2013, Oxford University scientists published a research paper on the future of employment. They researched how susceptible jobs are to computerisation. According to it, PR professionals have only an 18% chance of machines replacing them in the next 20 years. But it isn’t only this research that suggests PR is safe from automation and computerisation for a long time to come.

Of course, several modern marketing automation tools can assist in the process of PR. Prowly bills itself as a “PR CRM” that helps manage the vast number of journalists, publications, clients, stories, pitches, and press releases any sizeable agency needs to stay on top of. Mediatoolkit allows an agency to monitor the results of its work, deal with crises, manage brand reputation, and double down on good press.

Other approaches have included cutting out the PR agency by helping startups hone their pitch and then present them as a web page for journalists to pull from directly. Upbeat, PressFriendly, and Publicize have all entered the fray, each with its way of tackling the problem of “email pitch overload.” Of these, Upbeat hasn’t tweeted since 2018, only a year after it raised $1.5m in funding. There are no details of why it met its demise. While these solutions are interesting, a good PR agency won’t overload journalists with off-topic pitches or stories they know won’t resonate.

None of these tools can automate PR, and here’s why.

Social skills and empathy

While computers can crunch massive amounts of data, they still can’t engage in a proper one-on-one conversation. Anyone who’s ever received an automated reply from a Twitter bot can testify to that. Language is not just exchanging information with the other side. There is a specific dose of empathy involved, along with context, common social background, tone of voice, and implied (connotative) meaning. This is incredibly easy for humans to grasp and yet incredibly hard for computers.

The foundation of human trust

As PR professionals, it is our responsibility to hold to the fundamentals on which our profession is built: trust and storytelling. Marketing and advertising typically assert a brand’s message by explicitly detailing its authentic product and service advantages. Most times, consumers are aware that advertising is a hard sell. But as we know, PR doesn’t apply this same approach; selling an ‘idea’ or ‘story’ is about establishing trust in the very beginning.

Storytelling and emotional intelligence

Trust and storytelling are PR’s two key, fundamental elements that cannot be questioned or overlooked because our client and media relationships depend on them. Sure, AI and automation have undoubtedly made our lives easier and will continue to revolutionise our profession. But at the center of it all, computers cannot automate trust and tell a unique story; it requires a human touch.

Creativity

PR is not only about distribution. It’s also about creative thinking. It takes imagination to find interesting angles on events or clients, more than it takes to write facts and fill out press release templates. Good PR professionals will emphasise some parts of the story and withhold those that might be less critical or harm their client’s reputation.

Instead of replacing humans, AI will continue to make the boring parts of our day less so and give us more time to focus on the essential aspects of our work: connecting with fellow humans and exercising our creativity.

The article was published on PRWeek

Startups should definitely do PR, but doing it themselves may be a bad idea.

A startup, just like any other company, should do PR — it can pay off big by attracting new customers, partners, investors and talents. In general, founders realize the impact of communications on their businesses, but some of them still consider being their own publicists.

Indeed, some entrepreneurs are capable of doing public relations themselves because they understand how communications and mass media work, but they are honestly a rare find. 

Eagerness to implement do-it-yourself PR often rests upon the desire to save a limited budget, mixed with beliefs that “PR is easy” and founders understand how to represent their company better than anyone else. Unfortunately, the outcomes of DIY PR may contradict these best intentions. There are many nuances about approaching journalists that startup founders just don’t conceive of, let alone the fact that PR work takes them off things they really should be doing — operating the business.

What can go wrong

Misunderstanding the way PR works leads to mistakes and unjustified loss of time. The most common problems here are:

• Entrepreneurs don’t understand what’s newsworthy and what’s not. As a result, they spam journalists with information that has no value and zero chances to get published. One should understand the news to be in the news, and it requires research, experience and effort.
• They are unaware of how journalists work. Reporters aren’t a ruck of people who do the same things. They are individuals who are interested in particular topics and angles ⁠— even in a narrow field ⁠— and require a thoughtful and personal approach. It’s necessary to take time and familiarize yourself with all the journalists who may be interested in your story and find the right ones among them.
• Founders have no idea how to pitch correctly. Consequently, theymass email random journalists with hastily written letters and obscure subject headlines. Being brief, clear and to the point is a must for those who want to get noticed by reporters.
• They aggressively demand publications to be exactly as they want them to be. Sometimes founders mistakenly see news outlets as advertising platforms and insist on adding links to the company’s website, including marketing information and usage of certain words. Not only does it not help to get it published, but it may also spoil an entrepreneur’s reputation among journalists for good.
• They don’t take time to prepare for interviews if they manage to land one. Consequently, entrepreneurs don’t give journalists what they want and fetch up no publication, or give reporters wrong ideas about the business and its founder and end up with disastrous feature material.
• They don’t think about the audience of the media outlets. Founders may want to speak about their product only, when in reality it’s necessary to talk about the product in connection with the audience’s needs, worries and problems. You have to adapt to the readership of each media outlet you want to be in. Frankly, PR requires a lot of research, empathy and ingenuity.

The disappointing results and how to avoid them

PR can help a startup grow, bring in more revenue and establish a strong HR brand. But with DIY PR, these benefits are hard to achieve. By becoming their own publicist, founders waste enormous amounts of time and energy while focusing less on their own company. The truth is, no work can be properly done by someone who keeps several plates spinning at once. 

Sooner or later, entrepreneurs become disappointed in the results of DIY PR and turn to PR firms and consultants or hire an in-house PR manager. Good if it happens before the company’s or its founder’s reputation is blown away, because even a highly-skilled public relations expert may not be able to persuade journalists to publish a story about someone they don’t take seriously.

PR is a lot of work. In this field, one should constantly be in the news flow and in contact with reporters, watch out for trends, generate ideas and be alert in case of journalists’ inquiries. By delegating this job, founders are much more likely to get the outcome they want without the probability to lose focus on what they are indispensably competent at — running a company.

The article was published on Entrepreneur