Why Startups Need PR Before Marketing: Building Reputation

Most startups at the initial stage will run into marketing at the first chance they get. Advertisements, marketing, social network promotion, the entire process. The motive is quite understandable: “Let us have customers quick.

Here is where most of them are wrong though, individuals do not trust a brand because it advertises itself. They have confidence in a brand when they know who is behind it, what it represents, and why it is. That is where PR fits in – long before marketing.

This is the reason why PR is important in the first place. It determines the voice that you have to say before you begin screaming about your message in ads.

Startups possess a narrative – PR provides form to it.

Underestimating the power of their origin story is one of the aspects that virtually every founder does. You do not have years of revenue or massive user base. What you have is your adventure–and that is quite a lot stronger.

Why did you build the product?
What was the problem that annoyed you to this level of solving it?
Why is your vision different than other twenty players in the same industry?
These are the questions that marketing can hardly answer. PR does. And it makes them likable to people.

Being visible without trust is not of much help.

Thousands of views can be earned on a campaign but that does not guarantee that they will hang around. Audiences are acute especially in 2025. They are able to sense when a brand is over-selling. Clarity and honesty is what they react to. Companies that establish their reputations early on, regardless of their small features on the media, have an easier time expanding in the future since people already know them.

PR allows access where marketing does not.

One more unappreciated aspect is that PR opens opportunities. Genuine opportunities. A start-up can receive:

media mentions
founder interviews
news quotes by experts.
panel invitations
industry recognition
credibility with investors
Ads cannot purchase these things. They are gained by narrative, consistency and presence.

Communication is as much looked at by investors as numbers.

Funding is not only related to pitch decks and valuations. Shareholders desire to have confidence in the staff. They consider the way founders talk in front of people, in an interview, social media, and even at hard times. Investors become nervous when a company fails to communicate itself. PR strengthens clarity. It also informs founders on how to say the right words and the right time, overdoing them or concealing it. That skill is gold.

Everyone is struck by crisis PR makes you ready in advance.

Startups hit rough patches. Developer bugs, lag, unsatisfied customers, missed deadlines, it is the nature of things. Nevertheless, even minor problems can quickly become a mess without PR guidance on the start. PR attitude assists teams to think:

“how do we get this across within the company?
“what shall we do about this externally?
“now what is to be said, and what not?

Crisis communication cannot be improved. You prepare for it early.

Final thought

Marketing can wait a bit. PR shouldn’t. One builds noise. The other builds reputation. And reputation is the only thing that makes a startup stand on its feet at times when all things seem unpredictable.