It seems that most biotechs are seriously behind the curve when it comes to considering publicity as part of their aim to raise customer and investor awareness. They often gauge their level of PR investment purely by the number of press releases they send out a month.
Directors will ask for evidence that their PR effort is working by the number of online news services or trade journals that have picked up their piece. Perhaps they’ll check out their website visitor stats during a PR push. New tools such as Twitter Trending seem far out in the distance.
The issue is: have you really got an interesting story to tell, one that your customers or potential investors might actually want to read (and pass on)?
Before you start, maybe you should consider this piece of wisdom. For a small start-up or biotech writing a press release, sending it to the newswires and selling it in to the editors takes time, money, effort that could be used elsewhere.
Good timing doesn’t cost anything but can make a massive difference
Last week’s proposed shake-up of the banking system by President Obama came on the same day that Goldman Sachs announced it had made $13bn (£8bn) in profits and that its staff would enjoy average pay packets of $498,000. A coincidence? Unlikely.
The clever timing added weight to the surprise punch. The result: populist approval following the Massachusetts battering and the UK government clambering to catch up now that its own remedies were looking decidedly weedy in comparison.
Not just a press release – a story
Let’s say you’re a small tech start-up and you’ve got another round of investment following commercial validation of your technology. You want to raise your profile amongst future customers and investors. You might think that your service offering or technology is “cutting edge” or “innovative” (see here for words to avoid) but your aim here is to get the story printed or circulated online. For that you need a newsworthy “hook” and good timing.
It helps to put your announcement in context – tie it to a global conference or emerging issue, regulatory change, competitive landscape, or common problem. Spell out why your news should matter.
Starting out? Some useful resources:
Communications Agencies Specializing in Lifescience/Biotech/Pharma :
Online PR submissions:
Biotech online news release service
PRweb.com online distribution service
It’s worth noting that all the biotech trade press and news services are on Twitter these days, so it’s worth tweeting your press release with a grabby headline.
For a handy list of things that you should consider when writing a press release, see here.
