Laura K. Inamedinova on Building PR for Emerging Brands

Public relations is the gateway to build your public perception and sentiment. Today, more and more businesses turn to a public relations agency to create a regular rhythm of PR activities that elevate their brand and increase return on investment.

Enter Laura K. Inamedinova, 27, the Founder & CEO of LKI Consulting. Laura and her Marketing Agency help Clients to find the best PR solutions that work for B2B companies, crypto projects, VCs & funds, and CEO’s personal brands.

Hi, Laura, we are thrilled to have an interview with you on our media outlet. As a PR expert, is any PR actually good PR? In your opinion, what makes an effective public relations strategy?

If you’re an influencer who strives to be a celebrity at any costs, then any PR is good PR. You don’t care about the brand reputation that much and just think about building your own name. But when it comes to the tech companies or the businesses in the B2B sector, in general, the role of PR is slightly different. In this case, PR needs to have a structure and a process: what features you’ll give, what interviews you’ll do, and what content angles you’ll provide to the journalists. All of these things help you protect your reputation.

The companies think that if they are building something nice, everyone will care about it. Actually, the journalists get so many press-releases and article requests every day that they can ignore them just because they are not interested in your subject line. The goal of the PR strategy is to make you stand out in the eyes of the journalists to get coverage.

When journalists decide what kind of content to write, they usually think about a few things:

1. Would it be interesting enough to raise traffic, and would it resonate with the audience?

2. What kind of content generates interest and can affect a lot of people, appeal to big companies, or talk about money?

If your content ticks at least one of those boxes, you have more chances of getting published in the big media outlet. Otherwise, it’s going to be hard for you to get coverage in Top-tier publications. It’s possible, but you need to put in extra effort.

Why do you think PR is a must for crypto projects?

Early-stage blockchain projects can face a lot of challenges due to legal regulations. High-quality PR helps crypto companies build their credibility in the space and get early traction. Whether you are gearing up for the launch of an ICO, IDO, or IEO, you’ll need various PR strategies to attract media attention and earn public trust. Professional press-release, editorial features, and a branded media kit are a must to start attracting first community members.

• Is there any secret formula an early-stage project can use to get coverage in top publications?

There’s no secret formula but one thing I definitely recommend investing time in is building relationships with the right journalists. Don’t expect that the journalist will publish any article that comes their way. Always ask yourself what additional leverage you can give to the journalist. Sometimes your mentions might not be interesting for the top media, but it might be exciting for the local outlets. Build your way up to get to the top publications.

Another important tactic is conducting research to get coverage. Your product might not qualify to be featured in a big media outlet just yet. So, instead, you can carry out a survey, find some interesting insights and use that data to score a publication at an early stage. 

One more opportunity to get coverage in top publications is to leverage relationships you’ve built with investors and partners.

• What is LKI Consulting’s approach to dealing with public relations? Any special methods you rely on? 

At LKI, we look at marketing holistically and always ask a question – why is this important for your audience? Some Clients don’t need PR at all so we recommend them to allocate the budget on other things with higher ROI.

In terms of the process, first, we do a deep dive with our Clients and, then, build a strategy. At this stage, we’re likely to know if it’s their ego talking or they can actually get a lot of value from the coverage. Oftentimes, work with KOLs or speaking engagements bring better results than an article in the top industry outlet.

How can social media activities bring tangible results to businesses? Do you have any examples from your Clients?

If done right, social media can help you build a strong engaged community who’ll later convert into loyal users of your product. Just one example from our Agency’s portfolio – we helped an Ethereum Layer 2 project conduct a series of guest interview videos on YouTube and later repurpose them for other social media channels. Our focus was on creating content that plays to the strengths of different channels that are tied together by one compelling idea. As a result, the project had more than 15 repurposed videos, 370, 000 Twitter accounts reached, 1,400,000 new Twitter followers gained, and 5 times increase in likes per Twitter post-growth.

You started your career as a journalist. How did it shape your vision for the marketing agency and how do you work with journalists now?

When I just began my career as a journalist, I needed access to the platform where I could share my insights on the industry. Now, that gives me an understanding of how valuable context is for the success of the publication. Journalists can get very annoyed with the number of pitches that end up in their mailbox – especially if they are sent aimlessly.

The biggest advantage we have as an agency is that we pick journalists depending on the content angle, target audience, and business lane. We don’t push the articles left and right because PR is cool. We give journalists content with actual value and receive high-quality features in return.

PR is important as ever. Thank you, Laura, for providing so many insights into Public Relations from your experience. Your comments were invaluable, and we appreciate you taking the time to speak with us.