We’ve worked with hundreds of startups over the years and one of the main objectives in those early days of working together is to build a media ‘boast bar’ full of titles to make even the most established businesses jealous.
On the face of it, this is a vanity KPI so founders have something to show their mums (no shade; we’re all human after all!) however that boast bar is a vital piece of website real estate when it comes to building trust in a new brand. While good PR can’t overcome a bad product, having a good product isn’t enough to build a brand with – it’s never as simple as ‘build it and they will come’.
The brief
One new brand that wanted to build an enviable boast bar, alongside strategic comms, digital PR, and brand consulting launched in November 2022 with no website and no product. People often ask if there’s such a thing as ‘too early’ when it comes to PR, however if you’re up front about what can be achieved in the early stages of a business the pre-launch can be valuable from a planning and strategy perspective – which is exactly what we used them for.
What we did
We got to know the business, the product, and its experts inside out – interviewing them on evengreen topics to create a bank of expert pre-approved comments we could pitch to press. We also reached out to our contacts covering health and wellness to let them know we’d soon have interesting things to share with them from the client and offer them samples to try.
Even though this phase of activity is not digital PR focused, we didn’t want to secure coverage without the website being live to link to. Any ecommerce business starting from scratch should bank as many relevant and high quality links as possible, as early as possible, so it’s important that building links is part of the overall strategy.
Once we had that, all the prep work came into play and we were off and running! A mix of proactive media relations on key topic areas mixed with reactive media relations newsjacking on trends and celebrity news in the health and wellness space.
The results to date
In the 10 weeks since the product and site launched we’ve achieved:
- 45 pieces of coverage
- 41 backlinks
- Average DA 75
- A boast bar featuring Daily Express, Pick Me Up, Yahoo!, SheerLuxe, Stylist, Daily Star, Huffpost, Daily Mirror, The Sun, Chat, and MSN to name just a few!
But most importantly, our client is now associated with quality, relevant advice and insight which is a direct reflection of its product and helps build consumer trust when they come to make a purchase. Not a bad start!
Want to find out how we can help your business? Get in touch!