Why High-Tech PR is Such a Disappointment

Why High-Tech PR is Such a Disappointment

The scenario was one that I had come to expect. I was having lunch with a colleague who is VP of sales for a high-tech company. He was grousing about what their ‘name’ public relations firm was doing (or not doing). He shoved a document across the table and said "They're getting $4K a month for this." What he gave me was an academic exercise in positioning and tag lines, meanwhile, the company’s lead-generation program had been a disaster, and his sales people where engaged in the brutal hand-to-hand combat of cold-call telemarketing to get sales for the company’s new Internet product. In another example, I saw some press on a fairly trivial topic from a software development company where I knew the VP of marketing. The coverage was too organized to be serendipitous. I called him and found out that he had a ‘name’ high-tech public relations firm on retainer for 18 months, and the ‘cutesy’ press coverage was all that they had obtained in that time period. Finally, I came across an article by a marketing director at a high-tech firm that described how to use public relations for high-tech. The article was somewhat basic and superficial, but I was curious as to how much of it had been put to use. I did an on-line search and found that there had been no editorial coverage or press releases on that company for several years!

What gives? Why is high-tech public relations such a disappointment and cause of frustration for most high-tech executives?

Quite frankly, it is because hi-tech public relations is not clearly understood by most high-tech executives. There is no ‘mission statement’ for what they want their public relations to do, and it is not tied closely enough to their sales and marketing, where the results are quantifiable and measurable. Often, the public relations program has nebulous objectives of ‘awareness’ or ‘influence the influencers’ - which is curious, since I haven't come across a high-tech company yet who met their revenue goals by selling to industry analysts.

What steps can a high-tech executive take to get the most from their public relations effort and advisors, and make it part of their competitive advantage? Here are some pointers that will help to identify the program objectives and capabilities that you need to effectively employ high-tech public relations:

Keep the public relations effort closely tied to the sales and marketing effort. Have 12-month goals and three month milestones of tangible industry visibility (editorial features) of your customer applications. Also, instead of the typical, boring product announcements that quote your own executives and the ‘usual suspects’ of industry analysts - try showcasing the value-added of your beta applications.

When evaluating public relations advisors, make sure that they understand your technology and vision. Prior to the first meeting, send them your material or tell themto visit your web site, and then spend most of the first meeting having them sell your vision back to you - just as they would to an editor. Don’t expect quite your own level of expertise, but suppress the natural desire to ‘help out’ and just listen. Do they grasp the major concepts and can they sell (not just ‘pitch’ - but proactively sell) your vision and technology to someone else? If you’re not sure, have your top sales person sit in on the meeting as a cross check. They know selling skills when they see them. If you are not convinced - neither will be an editor. Look for industry awareness and positioning with respect to other technology and industry developments - the same acumen that your sales people (hopefully) have.

Don’t be seduced by the line that ‘we have contacts’ or visions of the Wall Street Journal (at least not initially.) Have the advisory candidates draw up a list of key trade publications in your major markets, and have them walk you through a media penetration strategy - how they would research and approach the publications, and why.

Customer applications are the most effective way to sell technology. (Customer applications differ from the more common ‘happy talk’ success stories in that they walk the reader through the business problem, the value-add of the technology, and the customer’s buying-cycle issues. Their development requires a keen understanding of how technology is bought - which is why you seldom see application profiles - but mostly ‘success stories’.) To confirm the capability of a public relations advisor to develop and employ these applications, have them provide you with three representative customer application profiles that they developed for their clients, and the resultant editorial coverage. Read through the applications. Do you understand the technology and vision, or do they just use the right words, but have a shallow grasp of the technical and business value-add? What are the quality of the editorial placements? Significant or puff pieces? Again, what you see is what you get.

Lastly - ask a public relations advisor for their definition of high-tech public relations and listen carefully. The more nebulous the answer - the more nebulous will be the services you get. Perhaps not surprisingly, a lot of public relations providers really don’t have a clear understanding of high-tech public relations, much less how it can support high-tech sales and marketing. They can get away with being retained by high-tech companies, for among other reasons, because they are almost never questioned on their understanding of high-tech public relations. This is because the high-tech client often has no clear goals or objectives for the public relations program - but allows that criteria to be given to them (directly or by default) by the advisor. If you hear the line ‘you just don’t understand public relations’ - it’s a smokescreen, chances are they don’t either. This is one case where you get what you specify - not necessarily what you pay for.

High-tech public relations, when used effectively, can help to create competitive advantage and more importantly, help to shorten the technology sales cycle. However, the effective use of public relations services requires that the high-tech executive be somewhat of an ‘expert’ buyer of those services. They have to know what capabilities they are looking for to helpthem use public relations as an effective sales and marketing tool, and should be prepared to provide both direction and identify measurable goals for the effort.

Related articles:

Articles Master Index Page for One Stop Browsing

Think Twice About that Press Release - You May Have Entered The Google Zone

Broadcast PR: Working with Community Access Television

‘60-Second' Elevator PR

Are You Sure You are "On-message"? (Sales Messaging)

Can Your PR Program Crossover to the Mainstream Business Media?

Developing a Thematic Release^SM Program for Channel Marketing

How to Build a Sales Public Relations Program

Marketing ROI Part I: Estimating Your ‘Reachable' Market Potential

Losing the Battle for Mindshare: A Guide to Ineffective PR

It's Your Website, Stupid!