Guide · 5 min read
The main use cases of PR, from launches and funding to hiring, sales and crisis protection, and what it cannot do.
Ask ten founders why they would use PR and you will hear ten different answers. That is because PR is not one thing with one result. It is a way of earning trust, and trust shows up in different parts of the business depending on what you need this year. This guide goes through the main reasons businesses use PR and what each looks like in practice.
When a company says it is the best at something, readers discount it. When a respected publication says so, or an independent expert quotes the founder, the same claim carries weight. PR is the discipline of earning that second kind of statement.
That credibility also lasts. An advert stops working the day the budget ends. An article stays on the internet, gets found in search, and gets read by a prospective customer, investor or employee months later.
A launch is easier when the right people hear about it from a source they trust. PR helps place the story with journalists who cover your category and prepares the founder to explain it simply.
Investors look you up. What they find shapes how seriously they take you. Months of credible coverage and a visible founder make the announcement land on prepared ground. The piece on PR before a funding round shows how this works in mobility.
Founder-led PR builds authority around a person who journalists want to quote. See what founder-led PR is for two real examples.
Buyers research before they talk to you. Independent coverage on the first page of their search shortens the conversation because some of the trust is already there. Sales teams also use articles as proof in proposals and follow-ups.
Strong candidates check how a company is perceived. A visible company with a credible leadership story attracts more applications from people who already understand what it does.
A company that is unknown in a new market has no reputation to lean on. Media coverage and local expert voices help it borrow credibility while it builds its own.
Some companies want to be the name people think of for one specific problem. That takes repeated, consistent storytelling across many outlets. The Hoopr Smash case study is an example in music licensing.
Companies with a record of honest communication get more benefit of the doubt when something goes wrong. Having a plan ready makes the first day calmer. See crisis communications for startups.
Independent coverage creates links to your site and mentions of your name on trusted pages. Those are things search engines and AI assistants pay attention to. The article on PR and SEO goes into it.
Sometimes the business has outgrown its old image. Rebrands, repositioning and leadership changes all need a story that people can follow. MSYS Technologies' move to the name Aziro, covered in the MSYS case study, is one example.
Knowing these limits is part of using it well.
Start with the business goal, not with the tactic. Do you need more qualified enquiries, an easier funding conversation, better candidates, or protection from a risk? Pick one or two. Then ask what a stranger would need to read or hear to believe your claim, and work backwards to the stories and sources that would give them that.
If you want to see how this is planned in practice, the public relations service page sets out the process, and you can book a strategy call to talk about your own goal.
Because it builds trust through independent sources, and trust helps with selling, hiring, fundraising and recovering from problems. Coverage also lasts and can be found by customers and investors long after it runs.
Product and company launches, funding announcements, founder visibility, supporting sales, hiring, entering new markets, owning a category, crisis protection, search and AI visibility, and repositioning a brand.
It can, but indirectly. Credible coverage makes buyers more willing to trust and shortlist you, and gives your sales team proof. It rarely produces an instant spike.
It can be when there is real news or a founder with expertise to share and a clear goal. Without a goal or a story, the effort is hard to justify.
Advertising is paid and you control the message. PR is earned and independent, which makes it more believable but less controllable.
Trust from independent sources, reach beyond your own audience, coverage that lasts and keeps being found, support for sales, hiring and fundraising, and readiness for a crisis.
Anjali Sehwwag
Founder, Benedicct PR & Brand Building
15+ years in PR & communications · Journalism graduate · Sheffield Hallam University, England. More about Anjali · LinkedIn
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