Outshine incumbents
(and win their customers)

Trust beats technology. PR and content marketing help you make an airtight case for your brand before your sales team ever makes contact.

That’s essential in a world where 70% of the B2B buying journey happens before a buyer talks to a salesperson.

For B2B tech startups, the secret to success is investing in trust-building efforts in parallel to the tech.

Build trust with VCs long before you pitch

VCs are like customers: they want to pick a winner. One sign that’s you? Your pitch isn’t the first time they hear about you.

The more a VC knows about you before you ask for money, the better. Make it happen via SME bylines, milestone announcements, testimonials, and active socials.

In a crowded field, these signals add a layer of trust that no amount of financial projections can compete with.

Become a résumé-defining company

Build your reputation right, and you can be the kind of B2B tech startup whose employees brag about their hire number and the kind that workers long to have on their résumé.

Get there by applying for “great workplaces” awards, showcasing your team’s innovative problem solving, and positioning employees as thought leaders.

Eventually, you create a virtuous loop: as you attract top talent, more top performers want to join.

Become
inevitable

When you’re running a B2B tech startup, a lot can go wrong – and just as much can go right. Comms can help you seem inevitable in a way that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Build trust at every turn, and everything else gets easier.

The Best Time to Start a Comms Program

TL;DR:

1. Start now, even if you don’t feel ready

2. Consistent efforts compound over time

3. As you get your message in the world, leads will come in warmer

Like planting a tree, the best time to start a comms program was years ago. The second best time is now. Early on, you’ll mostly feel the impact of individual wins: a media placement here, a high-engagement LinkedIn post there.

But over time, consistent comms efforts compound.

Here’s how one of our B2B tech startup clients described their experience: after a year of consistently publishing blog posts and landing media placements, the CEO returned from a conference and marched over to the CMO’s desk.

“That was the first time I didn’t have to explain what we did,” she said. “Everyone knows us now.”

It felt like a sudden change. In reality, she experienced the moment when a gradual buildup of messaging in the market hit a critical mass: boom. Everyone knows us.

One of the most noticeable changes back at the office was the way sales conversations shifted. Instead of starting calls with an overview of their software and how it worked, salespeople were able to get right to prospects’ questions about specific functionalities and integrations.

Thanks to the comms program, leads came in warmer and sales cycles tightened.

Can’t Afford a Comms Program? Start Anyway

At Propllr, we firmly believe that every B2B tech startup should have a comms program – but not every B2B tech startup is ready to pay for it yet.

If you’re bootstrapped, pre-Seed, or you’ve raised a modest Seed round, the best use of your funds may be technical or sales talent. But that doesn’t mean you can’t start building toward the critical mass that will make you a go-to brand in your space.

If that’s you, here’s how we recommend getting started:

1. Focus on demonstrating four things: authority for your founder or key people, credibility for your brand, a network of people in your space, and momentum for your narrative. These are the four components of trust.

2. Start before you’re ready. Sure, your positioning or messaging may change in six months. That’s okay! There’s a much bigger risk in waiting too long to spread the word than there is in starting too soon.

3. Don’t overthink it. Just as you won’t get the alpha version of your product perfect, you won’t get V1 of your messaging right, either. But you’ll learn a lot. And it’s much easier to learn that stuff now, while your audience is (probably) small and there aren’t a bunch of investors breathing down your neck.

4. Aim for consistency. Get on LinkedIn and comment on posts every day. Post pictures of your team and your work in progress. Share lessons you learn, interesting nuggets from team meetings, insights from customer calls. Don’t worry about posting exactly the right stuff; just the act of putting yourself out there and engaging with your network will benefit you. People buy from brands they know, like, and trust. Comms is how strangers get to know, like, and trust you.

5. Get back on the wagon. Communications work is like exercising. The biggest benefits come from consistency over time. But even inconsistent efforts have real benefits. You’re busy and you won’t do comms “perfectly.” But don’t let that stop you from picking up where you left off after a fallow period. Nobody will notice it more than you.

If you’re still reading, we’re basically friends at this point, feel free to reach out to Josh (@propllr.com) or Brenna (@propllr.com) with any specific questions you have. We could talk for hours about this stuff, so we’d love to hear what’s on your mind.

And if you’re hungry for more tips on how to navigate our brave new world of communications, sign up for our monthly newsletter. We stay on top of what’s changing in the space so you don’t have to.