Last week, General Electric and Microsoft jointly organized the first edition of the Software Academy in Paris. The Software Academy was a One-Day MBA aimed at ISV entrepreneurs (ISV = independent software vendor; or software publisher, be software be in the cloud, on a client, in a robot, appliance, whatever). During that day, a number of speakers came to lecture an audience of 200 entrepreneurs on Series A fundraising, intellectual property, talent acquisition and management, co-marketing scenarios with Microsoft, hosting, the common mistakes of R&D-intensive startup managers, building a channel, invoice finance - asset based landing - cash flow loans, etc.

One of these sessions was about the PR best practices software startups may, or should, embrace. The lecturer was Colette Ballou, cofounder of Ballou PR, a French - American PR consultancy that focuses on high tech companies, be they software (online or not), telco or biotech. Colette, although she spoke for something like 20 minutes only, gave extremely hands-on, practical advice that every single startup, not necessarily in the business of software, will find interest in. In my day-to-day job, I happen to meet, on average, 2 new startup teams everyday and although I come accross really amazing technical innovation and sales know-how, French (European?) startups suck big time in marketing. Most French startups I meet would find huge value in engaging with Silicon Valley-style PR agencies like Ballou PR. Obviously, PR doesn't replace marketing, but it's definitely an affordable way to start building up marketing capabilities if it's not too late. So I felt I compelled, for the sake of the world economy, to write a wrap up of what Colette Ballou said during the Software Academy. My call is that everybody has something to take away from these 7 little pieces of advice, that you should in my humble opinion read twice everyday until you have applied them all.

1. Define clear quantitative objectives, or there's no winning strategy (there's no winning without KPI)
2. Take one or two full days off site to come up with key messages for your 2 or 3 flagship products or services, for your mission statement, and for your overall strategy. That is 5 key messages max. Add to each of these 5 key messages one or two examples or proof points. You're done.
3. Create a PR corner on your corporate website. Its goal is to simplify access to information on your new venture to journalists. This PR corner should include: a concise description of your business; biographies of key people; information on your flagship products or services; a free of rights media repository with corporate and product logos and management team pictures in both web-friendly and Photoshop (.eps) formats.
4. Write 2 Press Releases every month. Even though they won't necessarily all hit CIO News or Financial Times headlines, 2 Press Releases every month remind the world of your existence. Press Releases should be both published on the PR corner of your corporate website and sent to a sample of targeted media. If you're more into blogging than press releases (you can actually do both), then keep in mind that if you start blogging, then you're stuck and should never stop or slow down, or the signal you would send to your readers is that you're not as active as you used to be (which may be wrong, looking from an insider stand point, but from the outside, your blog is your shop window).
5. Be visible in the specialized press. Say one of your colleagues is a star in a specific domain, make sure the journalists know this resource is available to help them fill in an article with a third-party testimonial. It is a good way to be visible in articles that aren't dedicated to your company, and hence build a relationship with these media. Same with vertical press: say you sell software for hospitals, then you should make sure you're targeting both IT magazines and Public Health magazines.
6. Create an award to reward your best clients. A happy client is a very powerful PR relay, that will be glad to give a positive testimonial to a journalist if necessary.
7. Get involved in your professional community. This isn't a CEO- or board- only responsibility. Make sure all the members of your team dedicate some non-for-profit time to business groups. It will be good not only to network, but also to establish your company as a key player in its industry at the regional level.

PS: and just in case you don't know whether you need a PR strategy and partner or not, here are Colette Ballou's 7 bonus reasons you may think of drawing a PR strategy and getting a good PR agency on board.

1. Do your competitors get good press coverage for their products or management team?
2. Did you ever have to repeat the name of your company because it was the first time the person in front of you was hearing it?
3. When you call the press, did anyone ever refuse to talk to you because they had never heard about you?
4. Do you need some outside appraisal to convince the market that your service/product actually solves a serious issue?
5. Are you in the process of expanding your business to a new vertical segment or geographic region?
6. Do you want to increase your valuation?
7. Are you in the middle of a crisis that is likely to be relayed by the media?