How can you use PR to differentiate your innovative product from competitors?

1 Why PR matters for innovation

PR is not just about getting media coverage or sending press releases. It's about creating a compelling story that showcases your product's benefits, features, and uniqueness. PR can help you establish your credibility, authority, and thought leadership in your industry or niche. It can also help you connect with your target audience, influencers, and potential partners. PR can help you generate buzz, word-of-mouth, and referrals for your product. PR can also help you manage your reputation and respond to any challenges, crises, or feedback that might arise.

2 How to define your PR goals and strategy

Before you launch any PR campaign, you need to define your goals and strategy. What do you want to achieve with PR? Do you want to increase awareness, engagement, conversion, or retention? Do you want to educate, inspire, persuade, or entertain? Do you want to reach a specific segment, market, or region? How will you measure your success? Once you have your goals, you need to align them with your overall business objectives and marketing plan. Then, you need to craft your PR strategy. How will you deliver your message? What channels, platforms, or media outlets will you use? What tactics, tools, or techniques will you employ? How will you budget, schedule, and execute your PR activities?

3 How to identify your PR angles and hooks

One of the most important aspects of PR is finding your PR angles and hooks. These are the elements that make your product story interesting, relevant, and newsworthy. They are the reasons why journalists, bloggers, podcasters, or influencers would want to cover your product or feature you as a guest. Your PR angles and hooks should highlight your product's innovation, differentiation, and value. For example, you can focus on how your product solves a problem, fills a gap, or creates an opportunity. You can also showcase how your product uses cutting-edge technology, design, or research. You can also share how your product impacts society, culture, or the environment.

5 How to build your PR relationships and network

Building PR relationships and network is an essential part of PR. These people or organizations should be relevant, credible, and influential. Additionally, they should be nurtured, engaged, and appreciated. Researching who covers your industry or niche, their audience, and interests can help you build your PR relationships and network. Contact them with a personalized and respectful pitch offering something of value such as an exclusive story or demo. Make sure to provide them with the information they need, answer their questions, respect their deadlines, and meet their expectations. After they cover your product, thank them for their coverage and share their content. Give them feedback and maintain communication and the relationship.

6 How to optimize your PR results and outcomes

The final step of PR is optimizing your PR results and outcomes. This involves analyzing and evaluating the performance and impact of your PR campaign, and using the insights and learnings to improve future efforts. To optimize your PR results, you can track metrics such as impressions, views, clicks, shares, comments, leads, sales or referrals generated by your campaign. Additionally, testing different PR angles, hooks, materials, channels or timings can help you determine which ones are more effective. Finally, adjusting your PR goals, strategy, message or tactics based on feedback and data can help you refine your campaign.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?