Top three ways to create demand for security solutions using PR

Lauren By Lauren

Apart from scaring the life out of most people [One of my New Year’s resolutions is now sorted!], Mat Honan’s article for Wired illustrates why internet security cannot be addressed by any one product or even a host of products. End-user behaviour plays too big a role. Technology PR teams therefore have to be on their guard against being too product centric.

While every successful PR programme is generally based on providing insight into the challenges faced by potential purchasers; it is particularly important that security companies prioritise problem solving over product pushing.  Invariably their product is only one element of dealing with the problem .

After all, a security solutions vendor may be able to provide world leading products but those solutions are potentially useless if users hand over their identity and ‘leave the keys in the door.’   So rather than pushing product stories, effective PR programmes have to engage customers in discussions around how to deal with the challenges that they face.

You only have to look at the time and effort that companies such as Sophos, Bitdefender and Kaspersky put into creating content that talks to potential customers about the issues that are keeping them awake at night to see that this approach works.  While many of the smaller players in the security sector don’t have the money to hire a dedicated team to create similar volumes of content they can take still the same approach.  The top three tactics that we find work particularly well for our security clients are:

  • News hijacking – For example a large proportion of our work for ViaSat focuses on lost laptops.  Highlighting the problem of careless end-users gives us the opportunity to talk about the importance of encryption

  • Reports & surveys – providing customers with insight into what will happen and why when they fail to employ correct security measures

  • Vertically-focused content – The number one concern of one vertical sector, and the threats it faces are often completely different to the issues keeping another vertical sector buyer awake at night.  A story that talks about their challenges is the only way to engage them

So when planning your 2013 PR programme think about the above - after you have updated your passwords and feel a little less worried about identity theft!