Consumer Tech

8 Essential PR Components for a Successful IPO

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I was on a webinar presented by Morgan Stanley and PwC about preparing for an IPO – and something struck me – there was optimism, and the organizations were signaling their faith in the return of IPOs, soon. 2023 has been an IPO graveyard, but as one host said, “One thing we know is markets change, and so it will also be for the low point of IPOs.” Their advice? Prepare now. Preparing for an IPO is a daunting task for any startup, and the focus is often on due diligence. Yet communications and PR are critical to public offering preparedness. What do pre-IPO companies need to do from a communication standpoint? 

 

Reputation Building 

Investors know that when you pitch them for your IPO, the company has a verified financial model and total addressable market (TAM). And founders know investors are looking for the next $1 billion brand. This makes your company’s reputation extremely relevant. So when you’re looking to stand out to investors, nothing shows social proof quite as well as media coverage. Media coverage can go on the road with you and helps you stand out to investors. Confident, media savvy CEOs give investors confidence; it shows you can handle a very different role as CEO of a public company. 

Thought leadership is vital to reputation building. During this growth stage, executive visibility is more relevant than ever. Since a solid thought leadership program takes time and strategy, we recommend starting a thought leadership program at least 24 months before a desired IPO. 

Create a Compelling Narrative

Many founders mistake the pitch to investors as the corporate narrative. The two are cousins, but different. The narrative should resonate with key stakeholders, investors, and the public, highlighting the company’s mission, accomplishments, and long-term vision.

Know the Difference Between IR and PR

IR (investor relations) and PR (public relations) have important but slightly different roles in a company’s growth pre-IPO phase. Investor relations focuses almost solely on analysts covering topics your potential investors care about. Meanwhile, PR is targeted towards a broader set of journalists, and the public at large. They can and should work together. For example, both should play a role in any press releases. IR will ensure due diligence is met and ensure the investor messaging is correct, while PR will want to ensure the brand message is consistent and the media targets get the information they need. 

Crisis Planning 

The best time to manage a crisis is before a crisis. Before you go public, and get caught up in all the details of going public, plan for a crisis. How you handle a crisis will affect your brand, and god forbid you to have a crisis during your roadshow or quiet period. Your crisis planning should include many scenarios, from the employee, to property, to product, and, yes, cyber security. Every one of these scenarios could require different stakeholder involvement and point persons. Your crisis planning should include table top exercises and the executive team should review crisis PR plans at least once yearly. 

ESG Planning 

 Investors want to be part of companies with the broadest investor audience, and ESG (environmental, social and governance) is part of that, especially since some brokerage firms and mutual funds are offering investment products that employ ESG strategies. Larry Fink, Blackrock CEO, and co-founder, said ESG is “capitalism, driven by mutually beneficial relationships between you, the employees, customers, suppliers, and communities your company relies on to prosper,”.

From a PR perspective, ESG and even purpose-driven brands have special sensitivities, and it’s important to have a coherent plan and PR strategy for these talking points for all your stakeholders, from investors to customers. ESG is not just for the “woke” – investors see the writing on the wall and have for some time. Also, buyers beyond GenZ see the importance of ESG. 

Audit Your External Communications 

Ensure your website and any owned media meet all regulatory requirements – including executive bios, blog posts, and social media. Look at this moment as your last chance to shower before prom. Your website and social media should also be robust and brand consistent. You want everyone to see you in your best possible light, and the most accessible way for new friends to get to know you is your website. 

Media Training 

The press is not the enemy, but they aren’t here to be your BFF either. Talking to the press live and learning to work with the media under various conditions, including in person with lights and mics, is a skill. While you may have undergone media preparedness before interviews, now is the time to take on a full media training program for your executives and spokespersons, including anyone who attends public events (like trade shows) on your behalf. 

Expect media training to take several days of intense hands-on training and review. Since all relevant stakeholders will be together, it is also a good time to review and practice your crisis plan too. Since media training is a skill, conducting this exercise well before IPO is recommended. 

The Big Show

Your company will never again go public. This is one of the few indisputably great news moments.  Someone (not the CEO) must ensure the moment is documented and promoted. Do not miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It’s true – not every company makes the front page of the Wall Street Journal when they go public, but it is news – and someone will care. Using this opportunity to connect with journalists is key; it’s a great time to fill up the trust bucket in the eyes of journalists. 

Prepare for the moment with some notable key messages and brand-worthy must-airs. Run through your must airs and make sure you are prepared to answer questions that might come your way. Have your day meticulously planned with your communications in mind and watch the accolades roll in. 

Effective pre-IPO PR planning is crucial for companies aiming to go public. By crafting an interesting narrative, engaging media and influencers, developing investor communication strategies, building a strong online presence, managing crises, leveraging thought leadership opportunities, and engaging internal stakeholders, companies can establish a positive brand image, attract investors, and generate enthusiasm around their IPO. 

This article has also been submitted by the author to Entrepreneur.com

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Top 5 PR Strategies for HealthTech Communicators

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In the fast-paced world of HealthTech, effective communication and healthtech PR plays a vital role in shaping the success and reputation of a company. Chief Marketing Executives (CMEs) and founders must comprehend the significance of strategic public relations (PR) within their marketing strategy. PR Strategies for healthtech is important to brand message and establishing trustworthiness in the market.

HealthTech communicators need to employ healthcare PR strategies to increase their brand visibility, build trust, and grow. This blog post will discuss the top five strategies they should use.

Develop a Strong Thought Leadership Program

A robust healthtech thought leadership program is essential to establish credibility and position your healthtech company as a leader in the industry.

Identify these critical spokespeople within your organization. These could be executives or subject matter experts. Contributing valuable insights and expertise to industry publications, conferences, and media outlets is a reputational requirement for industry leaders.

Publish well-researched articles regularly. Participate in industry discussions. Speak at conferences. Position your company as a trusted source of knowledge. Gain visibility among industry stakeholders and potential customers.

Leverage Data and Case Studies

In the healthcare sector, data and case studies hold immense value. Especially if your company is in the pre-IPO phase, leveraging data from your products or services can significantly strengthen your PR efforts. Collect and analyze relevant data to identify trends, insights, and success stories that showcase the impact of your healthtech solutions.

Use these findings to create compelling case studies and whitepapers highlighting your technology’s tangible benefits to patients, healthcare providers, and the overall industry. Sharing resources can help generate media interest and show the effectiveness of your offerings. This can be done through press releases, media pitches, and your company’s website.

Establish Partnerships with Key Influencers

For B2C healthtech brands, influencer marketing is a powerful tool to help healthtech companies reach a wider audience and build consumer trust. Identify key influencers in the health and technology sectors who align with your brand values and target audience. Collaborate with these influencers to create engaging content, host webinars or podcasts, or take part in social media campaigns.

A well-known individual’s endorsement and association of your brand can increase your reach and credibility. Their followers will view your healthtech company as a reliable and respected part of the industry.

For B2B healthtech brands, the role of media relations could not be more critical. Establishing a reputation with the media will build your reputation and improve your business outcomes overtime.

Optimize Digital Presence and SEO

In today’s digital age, a strong online presence is crucial for effective PR in the healthtech industry. Ensure your company’s website is visually appealing and optimized for search engines (SEO). Conduct keyword research to identify the terms and phrases your target audience is searching for, and incorporate them strategically into your website’s content.

Create content optimized for different channels, such as social media, blogs, and press releases. Focus on creating content that educates, informs, and inspires potential customers, and leverage the influencers to help spread your message. Additionally, create an email list and use this to send out newsletters, updates on new products, and news related to your HealthTech company.

Utilize SEO tools like Google Analytics and Google AdWords to track and analyze your website’s performance and optimize content accordingly. Publish blogs and articles regularly. Ensure they are high-quality and SEO-optimized.

These pieces should address the pain points of your target audience. Show thought leadership and provide valuable insights. By implementing these strategies, your website will rank higher in search engine results, driving organic traffic and enhancing your brand’s visibility.

Engage with the Media

Engaging with the media is a fundamental healthtech PR strategy for healthtech companies. Establish relationships with journalists, reporters, and editors who cover the healthcare and technology sectors. Invite them to cover your company’s launch, product launches, and other newsworthy events. Offer them interviews with the people behind your company, such as founders, CEOs, and other executives.

Utilize PR networks to reach out to influencers, bloggers, and other key players in the industry. Leverage these contacts to spread the word about your company and products.

Use social media to engage with customers and build relationships with industry partners. Post relevant content, such as tutorials, articles, and industry news, to bring attention to your brand. Share your company’s mission and progress to attract potential investors. These are just a few strategies that you can use to build a successful HealthTech PR strategy.

Regularly share company news, product updates, and industry insights through press releases, media pitches, and media alerts. Offer your executives or subject matter experts for interviews or commentary on relevant industry topics. Engage with the media proactively. This will help you secure media coverage, increase brand visibility, and make your HealthTech company an authoritative voice in the industry.

Conclusion

In the competitive world of healthtech, effective PR strategies are paramount to success. Chief Marketing Executives and founders can improve their brand’s visibility, establish thought leadership, and build trust among their target audience. This can be achieved by implementing the top five strategies outlined in this blog post. By developing a strong thought leadership program, leveraging data and case studies, and establishing authority through PR strategies for healthtech companies.

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The Definitive Pre IPO PR Roadmap for Consumer Brands

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Unleashing the Potential of PR Service Bundles for Consumer Products

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In the fast-paced world of consumer products, standing out from the competition and capturing the attention of target audiences is paramount. Public relations (PR) plays a crucial role in creating brand awareness, establishing credibility, increasing revenue, and generating consumer excitement. When looking to hire a PR firm, you may be taking one of two strategies. The first would be to maximize the impact of PR strategies; consumer product companies often rely on the expertise of PR firms that offer tailored packages designed specifically for their needs. The second strategy, for consumer product startups could be to dip their feet into the PR agency relationship with a PR service bundle that is specific in scope. Hence, the fees are lower, and the brand can learn more about a particular PR firm.  This blog post will explore the differences between PR service bundles for consumer products and how they can help businesses thrive in an ever-evolving marketplace.

  1. Crafting a Compelling Brand Story

Consumer products are not just items on a shelf; they are part of people’s lives, offering solutions, experiences, and emotions. If you’re a consumer product startup, your PR firm offering may need to include branding initiatives and research to craft a compelling brand story that resonates with target audiences.

By understanding the product’s unique value proposition, PR professionals can develop narratives that captivate consumers, evoke emotions, and create a lasting connection. These packages often include

  • message development,
  • storytelling techniques
  • content creation
  • brand image: ensure a consistent and compelling brand image across various channels

  1. Influencer Partnerships and Product Placements

Influencer marketing has become a powerful tool for consumer product promotion. PR  packages for influencers or journalists leverage influencer partnerships to amplify brand reach and credibility. By identifying and collaborating with influential individuals in relevant niches, PR professionals can generate authentic product endorsements, unboxing videos, and positive reviews. Additionally, these PR service bundles often include earned media opportunities, product placement opportunities, and securing features in TV shows, movies, or popular media outlets, allowing for increased visibility and exposure.

  1. Media Relations and Product Launches

A successful product launch can significantly impact consumer perception and sales. PR firm packages for consumer products include strategic media relations to generate buzz and coverage surrounding new product releases. With these PR packages – Avaans calls these PR Sprints-, PR professionals work closely with media outlets, journalists, and bloggers to secure product reviews, and feature articles; sometimes with an eye on digital PR for premium SEO links. Through these efforts, businesses can build anticipation, create excitement, and gain valuable media exposure, ultimately driving consumer interest and sales.

  1. Social Media Engagement and Influencer Events

Social media has transformed the way consumers engage with brands. Social media targeted PR firm packages recognize the importance of a strong social media presence for consumer products. These packages include social media management, content creation, and community engagement strategies. PR professionals leverage social media platforms to share product updates, engage with consumers, and foster brand loyalty. They may also organize influencer events or collaborations, providing opportunities for influencers to experience the product firsthand and share their authentic experiences with their followers.

    1. Crisis Management and Reputation Protection

In the consumer product industry, maintaining a positive reputation is crucial. PR firm packages are designed to handle potential crises and protect brand reputation in the face of challenges. These packages include proactive crisis management strategies, such as preparing crisis communication plans and monitoring online conversations. In times of crisis, PR professionals act swiftly, ensuring transparent and timely communication to address concerns and mitigate any potential damage to the brand’s reputation.

    1. Content Packages in Digital PR World

As media continues to evolve, building content is vital to building awareness and consumer affinity. From contributed content to blog posts to videos content is still king. Moreover, content offers many ways to repurpose and reuse, from social media to email marketing to investor presentations.

Ensuring your content aligns with your overall goals and brand messaging is squarely in the capabilities of a full-service PR firm. But even if you choose not to use your PR firm to build the content, part of a full-service PR option should include collaboration with your content producers to ensure message consistency.

 

Conclusion

For consumer product companies, PR firm packages offer a powerful toolkit to elevate brand visibility, establish credibility, and drive consumer excitement. You may be able to reduce PR costs by sticking with a specific PR package with a limited scope, like some of the PR service bundles recommended above, or you may wish to have a more tailored PR strategy with a bespoke PR plan.

These packages are tailored to the unique needs of consumer product businesses, providing strategic guidance, media relations, social media engagement, crisis management, and more. By harnessing the expertise of executive level PR professionals, consumer product companies can create compelling brand stories, leverage influencer partnerships, execute successful product launches, and protect their brand reputation. Embracing the services provided by PR firm packages is a strategic investment that can fuel consumer interest, foster brand loyalty, and propel consumer product businesses to new heights of success.

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How Small Independent CPG Brands Use PR to Compete

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If you’re a smaller consumer brand, it might feel impossible to compete with the big guys. But according to Nielsen, in the United States “manufacturers outside of the top 100 have contributed to 52% of their region’s annual fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) growth,” that’s an incredibly promising trend for any consumer product, from skincare to cannabis. But the challenges to increasing market share aren’t imagined. In some categories, especially consumables, over 50% of consumers have no brand preference. This underscores the importance of small, independent CPG brands to invest in branding with awareness and loyalty strategies. Neilsen IQ has done some fantastic research for small, independent DTC and CPG brands.

Nielsen Chart for Consumer Product Brand Loyalty

 

 

 

 

 

69% of consumers are actively looking for new and trendy CPG products. Tapping into current trends is a key way to appeal to this audience.  Whether the brand is launching, or already launched, there are always PR opportunities to increase sales by driving awareness and loyalty. The key takeaway on all the most recent Neilsen data: premiumization is absolutely key for small, independent CPG brands. 

Driving Awareness for Small Consumer Brands

When Snapple tea was a small independent brand, it relied on PR, including crazy stunts with two ambitions in mind: acquisition and sales. When they were acquired by Quaker Oats, the PR stunts stopped and sales decreased. In fact, PR is often responsible for trends that drive consumers. Before CBD, a wellness ingredient that almost everyone now knows was allowed to advertise, it relied on firms like Avaans Media to create PR campaigns that educated consumers and created awareness for their brands. PR is almost single-handedly responsible for launching CBD into the public’s general knowledge. Other wellness products have benefited from PR, including melatonin.

Independent brands often turn to PR because while PR is an investment, it’s still more affordable than many other branding initiatives such as advertising, especially when you include videography costs. Facebook is famous for launching thousands of new DTC brands, but of late, many independent CPG brands are finding Facebook’s advertising to be less effective. Ambitious consumer product brands are turning to PR in ever greater numbers to reach consumers, and stay in front of buyers. A PR campaign can reach hundreds of billions of annual impressions. Is it any wonder that everyone from new consumer products to old standbys is moving dollars to PR?

New CPG brands can use PR to validate the brand. An upfront burst of PR is a powerful trust indicator. Many consumer brand startups showcase PR wins on their website and in advertising as a way to increase consumer trust. Independent boutique products use PR to nail their launch because they need to appeal directly and immediately to their consumer. As Nielsen notes in small brand, “There is little room for error in small launches. Nailing your activation requires planning and strategic execution. Whatever your differentiation—hitting your target, justifying your premium or communicating a new usage occasion—it must land, and land well,”

 

Driving Loyalty for Independent CPG Brands

If your consumer brand isn’t exactly new, but also isn’t a household name, then using PR to increase loyalty and awareness is effective. 25% of consumers are mainstream followers who sometimes try new products, but don’t seek them. This is a critical audience to penetrate. If you’re broadening your audience to this important but slightly elusive group, you want to make sure your customer product reviews are solid, and that your early PR had at least 1-2 tier 1 press hits so you can use the ever-so-important social proof to lure this audience in.  Good PR also allows existing customers to have their choice validated and is a great opportunity for them to sing your praises to their friends.

But that’s not the only way PR helps early and mid-stage CPG brands. PR helps your customers see you understand who they really are. Bob’s Red Mill used PR to improve its already stellar reputation through purpose-driven storytelling. Not only does PR help new consumers find your product, but it also reinforces the good choice your current customers have made. A good PR firm will help you identify ways to differentiate and to secure brand-improving earned media.

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