With the technology industry becoming increasingly competitive, start-ups in the space need to push their message to the relevant audience to succeed. Just because you have a fantastic new product or service don’t assume that you’ll have buyers queuing. You may be very lucky, but for the most part you will need to tell the market you exist: without that, how will your audience know about you? Public relations and marketing can help you do this, while highlighting the company’s USPs, establishing credibility, and communicating to the market that you know what you’re doing. This is important for companies trying to break into the market, whether it is with a new service or product or an improvement on what’s already out there:

• Company/product messaging – the messaging is the basis of all communications. For a tech start-up, it is important to find the niche USPs that will set you apart from the competition, and to distill how you want to be seen by the world.
• Building brand awareness – tech start-ups will often have products or services that are unknown to the public. Communications help to build brand awareness and get the word out about the start-up's offering.
• Attracting investors – external communications help tech start-ups to attract investors by creating a positive image of the company, demonstrating its potential for growth.
• Establishing credibility – tech start-ups need to establish credibility and build trust with their target audience, including prospective customers, investors, partners and potential employees.

An experienced communications agency will know how to take your company from the initial phase of creating the messaging to targeting relevant media outlets and getting your story out there. You will also be able to take advantage of tried and tested ideas that can shorten your prospective customers’decision-making path.

Don't diffuse your messaging

 It is important for any company to keep a clear and focused brand message, but more so for start-ups. In essence, a company’s message will move through these stages:

1. Clarify messaging and tailor it to your target audience– the start of a successful media and industry presence is the messaging.
2. Build brand visibility – this can will be done through a combination of social media, website, PR and marketing efforts.
3. Build brand credibility – once people have heard your name, you need to cement your position in the industry and clearly explain your USPs and demonstrate how your company/products/services bring value.
4. Become a thought leader – show your audience that your company has something to say, that it understands and addresses their pain-points.
5. Be recognised as an industry leader – your company is known in the market, your opinions valued, and prospects are actively reaching out to you.

 A clear and focused message will help your company communicate with potential clients and investors, helping them understand your brand’s purpose and uniqueness. In a highly competitive market, you need to differentiate your business clearly. These are some examples of USPs:

• Speed – service or product that either replaces manual processes or is significantly quicker than its competitors.
• Access – enabling users to have unprecedented access to valuable information, be it raw data, exchanges, or network of companies.
• Quality – a solution that benefits the user through the unmatched quality of offering.
• Cost and time savings – increase efficiency or give the users insight into more profitable ways of performing certain tasks.

Save your time

The reality is that, depending on which market you’re targeting,the messaging might need to be much more intricate and nuanced. We have worked with many companies that serve across different verticals within an industry, meaning they have to communicate different USPs and benefits to match each target audience.

This could feel overwhelming and wasteful for someone who does not deal daily with a wide range of campaigns at once, and having communications professionals guide you through this process will make the journey easier. Your communications agency should be able to distill order out of “chaos”, create campaigns and drive new ideas into your plan. As tech start-ups are usually small in size, it also means your people can focus on their expertise and achieve great results.

In essence, technology start-ups can benefit greatly from on boarding a communications agency at the beginning of the process. This would allow the company to have a clear brand from the beginning, bringing clarity to the message seen by the wider industry. The agency will be able to put in place a plan for growing visibility, helping it to becoming a leader in its field.

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