Hyper-growth brands

Cybersecurity and ESG in the Pre-IPO PR Roadmap for Startups

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It’s impossible to ignore the dismal status of IPOs right now. But investor advisors from PwC to Morgan Stanley are reminding startups – this will eventually change and startups need to use this time strategically. As startups embark on their journey toward an initial public offering (IPO), they face many challenges and considerations.  Investors want to know that companies are reaching the widest possible audience and protecting their reputations, making cybersecurity and ESG  indispensable imperatives in the Pre-IPO PR roadmap.

While fundraising, growth strategies, and market positioning often take center stage, it is critical not to overlook two essential communication and PR components today’s investors are emphasizing their significance in building trust, mitigating risks, and ensuring long-term success.

Safeguarding Valuable Assets: Cybersecurity

In today’s interconnected world, cybersecurity is no longer an optional investment but a fundamental requirement for startups. As businesses increasingly rely on digital infrastructure, the risks associated with cyber threats have intensified. Investors, stakeholders, and customers are acutely aware of the potential damage from a data breach or a cyberattack. Therefore, startups must prioritize cybersecurity as an integral part of their pre-IPO roadmap, including the crisis communication plan.

Implementing robust cybersecurity measures shows a company’s commitment to safeguarding valuable assets, including intellectual property, customer data, and sensitive financial information. By conducting regular risk assessments, developing comprehensive incident response plans, and adopting cutting-edge security technologies, startups can instill confidence in their investors and inspire customer trust. A strong cybersecurity posture can serve as a competitive advantage, differentiating the startup from competitors and reassuring potential investors about the company’s ability to protect its digital infrastructure.

ESG: A Paradigm Shift in Investor Expectations

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors have emerged as a defining criterion for investors, signaling a significant shift in market dynamics. Startups must recognize the growing importance of ESG considerations and integrate them into their pre-IPO PR roadmap to attract sustainable and responsible investment.Communicating ESG can be volatile, so it’s imperative to incorporate seasoned Pre-IPO PR pros.

Environmental Responsibility: Startups must demonstrate their commitment to minimizing their environmental footprint. Adopting eco-friendly practices, promoting energy efficiency, and embracing sustainable business models are crucial in aligning with investor expectations and addressing climate change concerns.

Social Impact: Investors increasingly demand that companies prioritize social impact and contribute positively to their communities. Startups can emphasize diversity and inclusion programs, ethical supply chain management, and social responsibility projects to showcase their commitment to social values.

Governance: Good corporate governance practices are essential for startups as they navigate the path to IPO. Establishing a robust governance framework, including transparent decision-making processes, strong internal controls, and effective risk management, not only safeguards the interests of shareholders but also signals a commitment to ethical business practices.

By embracing ESG principles, startups can attract socially responsible investors who value sustainable growth and positive impact. Integration of ESG considerations also mitigates potential risks, enhances the startup’s reputation, and fosters long-term resilience.

Regulatory Compliance and Risk Mitigation

In the pre-IPO phase, startups must proactively address regulatory compliance and risk management to instill confidence in potential investors and avoid legal pitfalls. Regulatory frameworks surrounding cybersecurity and data privacy constantly evolve, necessitating startups to stay abreast of legal requirements and industry best practices.

Compliance with regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is crucial to avoid costly penalties and reputational damage. Startups must implement robust data protection measures, including encryption, access controls, and regular audits, to ensure the security and privacy of customer data.

Startups must conduct thorough risk assessments to identify potential vulnerabilities and implement risk mitigation controls. By proactively addressing cybersecurity and ESG-related risks, startups can protect their reputation, foster trust with investors, and secure their future as successful public companies.

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The Definitive Pre IPO PR Roadmap for Consumer Brands

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3 Things Startups Focus On as VC Funding Shifts

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As uncertainty rises, funding falls. At least that’s what the news would have you believe. But according to Inc. magazine, seed and angel deals are still trending upward, and early-stage companies with proven product are still getting most of the deals. In fact, 64% of venture funding is early stage, and seed deals through Q2 of 2022 were on par with the entirety of 2019 (Q2 NVCA/PitchBook). That means for hyper-growth or ambitious companies and challenger brands, there is still an opportunity for you. So what should you do when VC funding is down and inflation is still driving uncertainty? I’ve been through every recession since 9/11 and I’ve been working with ambitious brands and companies since then as well. So I’ve seen what successful businesses do during recessions to position themselves for competitive advantage, survival and growth, despite the economic hurdles. Over the years I’ve noticed, startups who focus on looking ahead while being laser-focused, and tend to survive tumultuous times, regardless of whether your a consumer brand or a B2B company.

Focus Your Energies and Budget

“Everything you do, do exceptionally well, and if you aren’t exceptional at it, then get rid of it or outsource it.”

Look at everything you’re doing and cut out the things you aren’t doing well. For example, let’s say your internal biz development team is excellent, but your event marketing isn’t producing the results you’d hoped for, take that event marketing budget and focus it on one thing your biz dev team says they need to get to the next level.

Everything you do, do exceptionally well, and if you aren’t exceptional at it, then get rid of it or outsource it. Outsourcing is just more nimble. What you outsource, be exceptionally clear about your goals, so you can maximize your reduced budget. Focusing your time and budget has the additional advantage of clearing out the cobwebs and giving you new insight into operational efficiencies too. Who knows? You might decide that outsourcing certain strategies, like PR, simply works better than doing it in-house, anyway.

Startups should also focus on the long term. Think about ways you can increase efficiencies with agency partners, and where you can maximize the partners you have on board.

 

Bullish on the Future

“Deals are still happening, but they’re more happening on industries and trends which are moving ahead full steam, no matter what happens to the economy,”

What should a startup focus on when thinking about funding? No matter what happens to the economy, innovation rolls forward, and VCs know this. The money isn’t on solving today’s problems, it’s on solving tomorrow’s problems. According to Pitchbook, in Q1 of 2022, VC’s raised more money than in the entirety of 2019. So are coming down? Oh, absolutely, but VC’s know – the future is now.

Even when funding is down, deals are still happening, but they’re more happening on industries and trends which are moving ahead full steam. So do your homework on where your product fits into the biggest challenges or opportunities in the next 5, 10, 15 years. Look at all the challenges the pandemic brought to light – those challenges are still top of mind, and the companies solving those problems will have a head start. Your corporate storytelling should also lean into the future and purpose driven initiatives. These two aspects will allow you to lead against your peers.

FinTech is another area where the gloom and doom may be over-reported – through Q2, FinTech funding was still more than in 2019, but it’s definitely not as frothy as 2021. FinTech founders may wish to focus on thought leadership and tie it into purpose-driven points of view in order to tap into future trends.

And although the cannabis industry has been experiencing its share of disruptions as of late, no one thinks that industry is disappearing, the growth is only projected to increase as more states move to legalize cannabis, and states create interstate sales as California has, and many expect the east coast to do. Experts predict the cannabis industry will be $100 billion by the end of the decade. You can learn a lot about the future of cannabis by reviewing the pitch decks from startups that recently secured funding.

Plan For Success

“Companies that survive this time focus… on problem-solving,”

Now is the time to think out loud and do your due diligence for tomorrow. Companies that survive this time focus their operations team on problem-solving. For example, if  VC funding doesn’t seem likely for you right now, turn your attention to policy initiatives at the federal and local levels. For example, the last infrastructure project had a lot of opportunities for climate-related startups. And the 2021 infrastructure package held lots of tidbits for infrastructure tech programs, that emerging industries like drones and UOV could take advantage of.

Consumer tech VC funding has taken a sharp nose-dive. Storytelling PR campaigns may not be as attractive as they once were for consumer tech. Now is the time to look at product-based programs which increase awareness but not the budget.

Mental health is still top of mind, that’s part of the reason emerging industries like healthtech, cannabis, and psychedelic treatments remain in the sights of investors. But these industries are not without their challenges and competitors. So brands in these emerging industries need to double down on trust to build more acceptance for the communities they serve.

Direct to Consumer (DTC) funding has radically pulled back, because simply having a DTC company isn’t in itself enough to attract investment – today, a DTC strategy is an expectation. But startups can take this time to develop something that can’t easily be replicated, like technology. Or, as investor Caitlin Strandberg said, don’t even ask for investment unless you have an Amazon strategy, because social media isn’t where they see buyers, “if you’re going to be where people buy—people are buying more and more on Amazon—you can expect they’ll search your brand name on Amazon, and you want to be on that search page,” so be looking your sales channels along with SEO and digital PR so your startup is poised for growth.

One of the best ways to stay focused on success is to lay the groundwork for a successful IPO. There is a lot to do, both internally and externally, and getting started earlier will save you money and time as the exit gets closer.

You should take this opportunity to do some scenario planning as well. Now is a great time to plan for a crisis, and create plans for things like cyber breaches ,which will help you secure your future.

 

Tomorrow’s greatest companies and emerging industries aren’t going to allow this uncertainty to derail them. This is where the rubber meets the road, and strategy makes a difference.

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Content Marketing for PR

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Content marketing involves sharing any material online, such as videos, infographics, and social media posts, that don’t directly promote a brand but create awareness and enhance visibility regarding the products and services of a company, also known as owned content.

Using content marketing for PR is a modern way of owning your reputation and it is an important strategy to attract and engage a targeted audience by making a brand seem more relevant through articles, blogs, podcasts, videos, and other media. Content marketing ensures that a company establishes its expertise and credibility while also promoting awareness about the brand so that when a potential consumer wants to buy a specific service or product, that particular company is at the forefront of their mind.

Owned content is a key strategy for fast-growing brands. No matter how small or large scaled a company is, or whether a consumer brand or a B2B company, keeping its content marketing game updated and effective is the key to attracting and engaging more customers for their business. In this beginner’s guide, you will learn how to create a compelling and successful content marketing strategy for your brand to reach your targeted audience and boost your sales.

What Do You Mean by Content Marketing?

Content marketing focuses on boosting trust in companies’ relationships with their followers. By distributing various content creatively, content marketing ensures that a company attracts more customers, retains the existing ones, and builds loyalty and trust among its audience so that a brand can appear authoritative and influential.

So what exactly is content marketing? It produces and distributes valuable and relevant content like articles, blogs, social media posts, emails, newsletters, videos, and other media forms to attract existing and new customers.

When a company has mastered its game of content marketing, there’s no stopping it from generating profits from positive customer actions.

Content marketing is composed of two elements. First is content creation; pieces of written, spoken, or visually described materials that are engaging and convey a company’s goals to the right people. The second is content distribution. This part of content marketing concerns sharing strategic content through websites, emails, and social media.

Different companies have different content marketing strategies. Some famous companies like Spotify, Airbnb, Slack, and Wendy’s have social media teams that plan strategically to promote their content to customers and interact with them. Other organizations, like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, LinkedIn, etc., use B2B white papers for marketing purposes.

New industry and technology trends also influence content marketing plans. But as long as a company knows its core messages and ideas and how to create material that people will receive positively, it can adapt and evolve its marketing strategies accordingly.

In short, here are some ways in which successful content marketing can help a company or business;

  • Improves your reputation in a consistent manner.
  • Increases brand visibility and allows the company message to reach the right audience.
  • Promotes a brand organically and naturally.
  • Attracts potential new customers and engages existing customers.
  • Increase conversions and boost revenues,
  • Establishes a company as an industry leader.

What Are the Benefits of Content Marketing for PR?

PR is the management of your reputation, and owned content is your calling card. Consistent and high-quality content marketing is essential for companies to connect with their audience and to develop trust and reliability in their relationship.

Future Market Insights expects the US’s content creation market to grow with a CAGR of approximately 11.9%. Content creation and distribution have now become a top priority of the marketing department of every company and business, as there are many reasons why a consistent and engaging content marketing strategy can enhance the growth and success of a business.

Creates a Positive User Experience

Successful content marketing ensures that new and existing customers are satisfied with the ideas and messages promoted by a company. If they find your content engaging, unique, positive, and beneficial for them, they will come back for more as your customers will start trusting your brand and find it reliable and authentic. This approach is again helpful to the company as it retains the old customers and approaches new customers with a positive brand impression.

Helps Brands Gain Popularity on Social Media

According to the Pew Research Center, around seven in ten people in America use social media to engage with news, share information and connect, and for entertainment purposes. Creating trendy content on social media will not only garner more brand awareness but also help increase conversions and promote the products and services of a company in a natural way.

Content Marketing Creates Trust Within the Audience

When a company answers a complaint or query presented by its customers, they create value and change the public’s perception of the brand. Best content marketing strategies ensure that the relevant content shows up at the right time and place, thus interacting positively with the customers who will realize that your company’s advice and recommendations are reliable and accurate.

Content Marketing Improves Conversions

Using blogs, videos, or newsletters to bring in traffic, including a CTA, which can guide the audience regarding their actions, are examples of different content marketing plans. When your audience receives the correct answer to their question, their positive response will influence your conversions. When people view your content, it is more likely that they will purchase a product or service from your website, thus generating better leads for a company’s sales team.

Content Marketing and SEO

The consistency and high quality of content marketing also ensure better search engine optimization for your company’s websites. Suppose your content is helping your business gain more brand awareness and build trust with its audience. In that case, the content will rank higher on search engine results, thus positioning the company as authoritative and reliable from the public’s viewpoint.

What Are the Different Kinds of Content Marketing?

Content marketing sometimes uses outbound and inbound marketing strategies to present their content to the target audience.

Inbound marketing feels more organic and natural as the content creates a narrative or tells a story that is relevant and engaging to the audience. Outbound marketing is less effective in creating a positive user experience than the audience usually likes a link that interrupts their content.

So what are the different types of content marketing?

 

1. Social Media Owned Media

Everyone should know the importance of the power of social media, especially when technology has become cheaper than ever and accessing news is faster and easier. Social media is essential in content marketing because it allows companies to reach a greater audience in less time and provides multiple opportunities to present content in various ways, like live streams, stories, photos, and videos. Many businesses invest lots of money to promote their brands through content creation on Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms.

2. Website Content Marketing

Website content marketing refers to the content you publish via web pages. Website content marketing is one of the best content marketing strategies as it can create a strong brand presence online, thus allowing it to rank higher in search engine results. This approach enhances brand visibility, ensuring that your company’s website and content pop up in the right places and in front of the right audience, thus generating better leads and conversions.

3. Blogging in Owned Media

Blog content marketing uses blogs to engage potential customers by sharing a creative and relevant narrative that can achieve customer trust and loyalty. Blogs are regularly updated web pages on a website that contains content written in a conversational or informal style. Blogs can also include inbound or outbound links and social share buttons that can further contribute to promoting a website.

4. Digital Marketing / Infographic Content Marketing

Infographics are content that presents information or data through visual representations like charts or diagrams. Infographics display this information in a format that is easy to understand and uses short statements and words, clear images, and simple context to communicate a company’s message clearly and effectively. Infographics are a great form of content marketing to tone down a complex, research-intensive, or educational topic so that more audience members can understand it.

5. Podcasts as Content Marketing Strategy

Podcasts are digital audio files available as series, episodes, or installments so subscribers can listen to each audio when the host releases it.

The number of podcast listeners worldwide is increasing yearly, so many companies and businesses are now sharing their podcasts to share a topic of their choice with their desired audience. With the right creativity and content marketing strategies, podcasts can help brands communicate their expertise and thought leadership regarding a specific topic.

6. Paid Ad Promotion

Paid ad content allows companies to reach a broad audience and place themselves on social media, banners, loading pages, and sponsored content where they want to be seen by their customers. Another method of content marketing is a paid ad promotion, in which specific content is created and distributed for the advertising and advertisement of a brand. This method uses PPC ads, paid social content marketing campaigns, and sponsored placement of these ads.

7. Video Content Marketing

Videos are also important content to raise a brand’s profile online. Companies usually post videos on YouTube or social media platforms, but companies can also publish in the form of courses, webinars, or live videos.

Video content marketing helps companies boost conversions as audiences find videos more reliable and authentic. It means that if a company promotes its products and services through a tutorial and promotional videos, they allow its audience to learn more about its brand in depth.

What Are Some Impressive Examples of Content Marketing?

1. Alo

Alo is a luxury activewear brand that uses social media marketing strategies to generate sales and revenue for its products. When you look at their Instagram account, not only will you see the different Yoga products that the brand presents, but you will also notice that the brand tries to resonate with its audience by letting them know that they can not only wear their clothes in a gym studio but also while going for a walk in the park. They use top models like Gigi Hadid or Kendall Jenner to showcase their clothes while staying genuine and authentic by creating awareness about physical activeness and a Yoga community online.

2. Taco Bell

Taco Bell also uses clever social media content marketing strategies to target teenagers and adults aged 18 to 34. Their best content marketing approach is to reply with witty remarks and comebacks in response to customers’ feedback, especially on Twitter.

Taco Bell uses fun and engaging, and sometimes bold ideas to capture the attention of its new and existing customers. In this way, people are encouraged to try out their products and then leave feedback on their social media platforms, thus generating more visibility for the brand.

3. Spotify

Spotify uses data generated by millions of listeners on their apps to create their annual “wrapped” content marketing campaigns. It is a brilliant idea to use in-depth analysis of the songs and music that shape the lives of their consumers and then create a playlist for them that displays the most played songs of the year. This strategy is fun and engaging for Spotify’s users and gives artists a statistical examination of their year’s top songs.

Conclusion

Creating clever and unique content marketing campaigns can take time and effort, even for experienced digital marketers. However, with practice and creativity, any company can achieve successful content marketing and reach its targeted audience through different digital media channels.

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3 Reasons Every CEO Needs a Ghostwriter

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What do Jack Welch, Stephen R. Covey, and Richard Branson all have in common? Well, besides being some of the best-known business leaders in the world, they’ve all used ghostwriters. Hmmm…could there be a connection between those two things? Almost certainly. Why? Because executives have a lot on their plate, and to stay ahead and run competitive companies, they need to stay at the 100,000-foot level. This elevated perspective often makes executives great thinkers but poor writers. And that’s OK. In fact, it’s expected. As many as 60% of nonfiction books are supported by ghostwriters. Ghostwriters articulate the grand ideas of thought leaders. So what does a ghostwriter do for you and how can executives use a ghostwriter? Consider these 3 reasons every CEO needs a ghostwriter.

CEOs: Publish or Perish

It used to be that only academics were expected to publish ideas, and CEOs were exempt from that expectation; today, CEOs truly need a ghostwriter to fulfill content expectations.

Despite the dearth of content out there, stakeholders from your board, investors, and even customers expect CEOs to lead, and part of leadership today is sharing original thoughts. Now, notice this does not mean that you must post on Instagram every day, and it doesn’t even mean you need to post on LinkedIn every day. It does mean that you must create thoughtful, original content regularly. Good news, a ghostwriter can help you with that. Ghostwriters have two very particular skills: listening and extracting. For ghostwriters to be successful, they sometimes need to ask probing questions and articulate the idea in the originator’s voice. So help your ghostwriter help you. Sit down with them and share ideas, let them see inside your point of view, and your ghostwriter will come up with a consistent stream of ideas from a few hours together.

Watch What You Say: Platform and PR

As a thought leader, publish your ideas consistently. Sometimes that may be on a platform you can control – like your corporate website or even Medium. Which platform you choose will depend on your thought leadership strategy. For example, if the CEO’s job is to secure investment, then Medium.com is a great place to publish, it’s still a Silicon Valley content darling, even after all these years. But if the executive wants to be seen as hip but accessible, perhaps as part of a larger corporate branding initiative, then a Substack newsletter might be more appropriate. If the CEO is creating commentary on something currently in the news, then a contribution to an industry vertical or a national newspaper could be in order. It’s important that the platform strategy be part of the ghostwriter’s process so they can take into account not only the CEO’s voice, but the culturally accepted tone within the platform or outlet.

A ghostwriter can help a CEO decide on platform and tone – just another reason every CEO needs a ghostwriter.

 

Fill Up the Trust Bucket

It’s no secret that CEOs have a spotlight on them like never, as do their companies, this a truly compelling reason why an executive should use a ghostwriter. Over the years, we’ve seen thousands of CEO apologies on almost as many platforms. Not all apologies are created equally and not all crisis responses are the same, each situation is truly different. But, for a CEO who is comfortable with a ghostwriter, an apology can be a much easier, and faster process. Like anything, when there is a relationship, the ghostwriter can be a critical partner to the CEO, and the PR agency tasked with developing a response or apology. Having a trusted ghostwriter not only helps in a crisis, but they may also help reduced the severity of the crisis because the CEO’s thought leadership has lead to increased trust in the CEO and the brand. And nowhere is trust more important than an unpredicted crisis.

 

At Avaans PR, we offer thought leadership programs as part of our bespoke PR programs, but also as a stand-alone option with our thought leadership PR program. We offer this as a stand-alone program because we know every CEO needs a ghostwriter and a strong PR strategy for thought leadership.

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