At a time when the world is grappling with a pandemic, how do you promote your products or services without coming across as opportunistic? This is a question many companies are struggling with, and especially the startups in India. Imagine yourself to be an early-stage startup. The pandemic is hitting your operations and cash-flow. You need to put yourself out there, talking about your product. How do you market yourself positively? The answer to this is through public relations (PR) for startups. A good startup PR strategy takes into account the fact that a strong narrative has the potential to become the backbone of any effective marketing effort. Public relations (PR) for startups needs to focus on creative storytelling and building a positive reputation for your business.

Here are a few ways in which good storytelling can prove to be an asset for any business:

• Build a strong connection with the audience you wish to influence: While every business has a story to tell, not many are able to hold the interest of their audience through thought-provoking, captivating and clear content. In this dynamically changing environment, customers now want to be associated with a brand that embodies a purpose. Therefore, creative messaging that instils a sense of purpose and meaning and is in sync with the business’ overarching vision will have a better connection with the audience.

• A competitive edge to your business: Every industry, every sector has selected a few market leaders. They dominate the market space not just because of their superior quality products but can also because they understand the power of good storytelling to influence their audience. A good story can help raise a brand’s perceived value and thereby create a niche for itself as opposed to its competitors.

• Turn a brand into a legacy: As important as it is to share a success story, it is equally important for businesses to open up about their struggle, setbacks, and learnings. This can help the audience recognize the effort that went into building the brand from scratch. For other upcoming brands, it can serve as a guide that can help them overcome similar obstacles.

While conveying a compelling story is important, so is the medium used to project that story. From sharing long format content on media to a shorter, crisper, easily consumable content on social media, a good public relations consultancy will help you navigate the most effective medium so that your story can be heard by the right people at the right time.