# Revenue-driven PR: Integrating Comms into your web3 growth strategy - Martyna Borys-Liszka

- Channel: [ETH Warsaw](https://streameth.org/eth-warsaw)
- Date: 2025-10-07
- Duration: 35:15
- Watch: https://streameth.org/watch/yt-zIXtxvja2OM
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIXtxvja2OM

## Description

In this talk, I will share actionable insights on how to transform PR into a revenue-generating tool that can be utilsed by sales, marketing and BD teams. This session is designed to help companies shift the way they think about PR—from being just a tool for visibility to a key driver of revenue. We’ll explore how PR integrates with other revenue-generating activities and how you can leverage it to maximise your company’s bottom line.


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## Transcript

hey guys um my name is Martina I am a PR director at seratonin I also look after um comps for e foro um but I spent um around eight years in PR um I've been working at different agencies different sizes um before web free I was actually looking after Tech clients and fintech um so that gave me a lot of exposure into different businesses different setups um and I have always been in PR but I've been working with companies who would um have um their PR function plugged into different departments um I would work with CMOS and CEOs sometimes you know PR would be directly responding to a CMO sometimes marketing lead so that kind of gave me a perspective into how those different departments can be structured what they care about um and um how I can kind of be more creative in terms of what I can do as a PR person to really supercharge the the bottom line of the of the business so um hence why the presentation today I wanted to make it something that you know no matter of your setup no matter how big is your team if you're trying to do some PR there is a different ways you can kind of um make sure that it actually um generates revenue and and have a real impact on your business um so here's quick agenda um this is what we're going to go through um what is PR good for anyway who like why do we actually need it and and what's kind of um uh what is how it can be um use within the organization um then craft crafting effective brand messaging uh I want to talk about that because I think it's like a foundational thing that you should do um at your company just really get serious about your brand and then integrating PR with other Revenue generating activities uh where does it see it um and actually question how many of you guys are in marketing okay most of you good uh Business Development any BD people here one person good and sales you could say so right that's the thing as well like marketing BD sales like very often those r kind of blend within the organization I think that's what we want as well right um and then I want to quickly touch on measuring PR impact uh and uh we're going to just wrap up by um just kind of concluding points um so what is PR goes for anyway um I think there are four key areas that PR is like really invaluable Tool uh in terms of getting visibility we know that um if you visibility can be like a real growth killer um I think when it comes to PR and marketing is really that's really like a matching exercise right like people would buy your product only if they knew about you um so we often say that well once once they know about us once they see us they actually would love what we do right and sometimes marketing does a really good job in like um creating all this collateral or creating on this content and kind of bringing people board um but the visibility so kind of uh cutting through the noise is the is the tricky part um so that's what you can address with uh with PR second is credibility and I think in a web free space that's super important because I think all of us have been burned by just um this idea of you know key influencers who've been paid to say certain things and then we are like oh no they lied to us um so it's really nice to have like a third party that's credible vouching for us so we have like a you know as a marketing people we are like look we are great this is our product look how great it is um and then we have evidence elsewhere so for example well coin this also thinks that and this reporter from this publication writes about us so it's like a gives you like this third party um credibility which um which is really important um then reputation that's another one I think people ask me like oh well like how PR like we need we need new business and we need to make money and we don't want to spend on PR and I'm like well reputation and issues crisis management is really important actually because that's kind of protects your revenue streams right um so you want to make sure that you have that in place and this could be set up by marketing from smaller teams but it would be nice to have a com person kind of help you with your initial strategy and when the time comes that you're prepared and you make sure that um your response to a crisis doesn't cost you a business or doesn't take your kind of prospects into from warm to being cold again right so I think that's really important when we when we talk about the revenue um and the last is branding last but not least and again um people think when they when they say branding they think about the look of the brand um and I think there's much more than that um and it's just it's not just a buzz word although I know we've been around for uh for a few cycles and um it could be perceived as a BW word but it isn't it's real kind of tool for growth if you know how to use it um oh yeah I did that we're going to focus on those three things today so that's because reputation and crisis management like trust me that's another kind of whole presentation we don't want to go there um so those three things will be what I'm going to talk to you about um crafting effective brand messaging um yeah yeah that's something I want to talk about before we kind of break it down to our different departments and talk about how kind of PR can help you with BD sales marketing um so I said brand messaging because I don't want to call it um PR messaging I also don't want to call it key messages key PR messages which probably you guys seen from being thrown around a little bit um it's hello guys no is um yeah it's brand because your messaging shouldn't be it's not for PR to use it's for the whole company to use it's rules that you want to leave and brief um into the whole organization and I think that's also what's really important right like once you narrow down what's your key messages are you want the whole brand to kind of be singing the same song be unified on that front right um strong consistent messaging is a glue that ties all of your efforts together and I really do believe that this is this is true um so here are a couple of things uh when it comes to craft effective brand messaging um and I don't know if this this going to resonate with you guys but I think Clarity and consistency is really really important and as a marketers we all know like it's about repetition uh and after a while kind of repetition is what makes the brand identity really kind of strong uh people associate you with certain words with certain looks and stuff like that so I think like it's really important to focus on th those things um and kind of the biggest challenge I see when I work with um especially learch companies is that um they really struggle with narrowing down the USBs um so it's hard for them to prioritize and you guys know like when you meet someone or when you um use a new product or a new feature the chances are that you only going to remember one thing about that person or about that product um it's really hard to remember three things right um so it's the same um and I think people make assumption that when we think about oh what do our customers want like you probably have an answer within yourself like what is appealing to me like what I like what language do I speak like how I kind of what resonates with me um and I think that kind of prioritization and then making sure that your Peach is really kind of clear and simple is is really important one exercise I I like to do with uh with my clients I ask them to like you know try to pitch me something and then uh or try to pitch something to to their like member of Family and ask them to rephrase it and the member of family probably who doesn't know about the business much they will pick up like one or two things that they've kind of took away from this um and that's a really kind of sense check in terms of like oh is that how I wanted is that how I came like is that how my pitch um came across like maybe I should use different words different associations maybe that's not quite right or maybe you're like oh yeah that's exactly it that's that's really cool interesting that you pick out on this and not on that um so that's kind of really helps with like narrowing down what you was important for you um as a brand um and then really in terms of tips like it's really um what it bring it's not how it works but what it does um so what benefit how it benefits um your customers right so I think focus on on benefits and outcomes of your product not just the technical details which I know is very uh it's sometimes very hard because we're passionate about technology we uh we build the technology we know it's great it's been proof checked and Community checked and vetted and it's really all exciting but I think for when you want to um really nail down and have a knife edge message you need to um you to strip it down to simple language um and yeah lastly I think on that point is um make sure you use it across once you have those key messages I said that before um make sure everyone kind of knows it and and you guys use it across the whole in whole organ organization um and everyone feels kind of comfortable with it because um again you want to sing the same song you want to you want to kind of uh you know once you introduce your brand you want people to already have ideas and if you you know if you're salesperson introduce brands in one way and BD in another way and then your PR like try to do some like you know talk to Media about your branding again different way that's quite really like becoming really hard to pin down okay what so what is the one thing uh or voice that you do um so I think that's that's also really important um and this one I get uh asked about this a lot and uh it's It's Tricky and I I don't want you to think of PR as a just as a department uh I think it's it's more of a floating function especially if you're at the beginning of your journey uh if you're at the small company um maybe you just bootstrapping um maybe a startup and maybe you don't have a enough departments to actually even place it somewhere right so it's a floating function and can help you with different um uh with different activities with different uh campaigns at different points you know when we talked about crisis briefly obviously that's like where you probably your PR person would be um speaking to coo um directly when we talk about like product campaigns that's probably closer to marketing or sales people right when we talk about doing um some kind of approach for prospects that's where PR sits with BD and kind of try to um find the creative ways of engaging those Partners so it's not it's um try to sprinkle PR you know where where you can and and get creative in terms of like oh would my coms person be able to help with this and I I can talk to you um about how in a in a second but yeah it's like a dynamic Force as opposed to just a department that sits somewhere in Silo um user acquisition funnel you guys probably seen this 8 million times it's very nothing nothing new here U but I wanted to kind of um touch on touch on this because um you know it always looks pretty much the same potential users attract engage convert and then we have new users so we can't really skip any of those stages um and that's how kind of um those different departments usually influence those customer Journeys and that's like an Ideal World will be a customer Journey you know we do some PR and marketing we attract them and then from there marketing does that they ma do they magic and they engage them and then pass it over to sales and sales convert them and we have new users obviously that's um a lot can happen between kind of attract and engage and engage and conver so it's never a straight line and I I I do understand that and I want to kind of show you that PR can actually doesn't have to always sit here although this is where it naturally fits but it actually can help along the lines and actually can can can be instrumental to closing the deals if we if we use it right um awesome so this is the part when I'm going to kind of talk about different disciplines in a more specific way um PR goal in a kind of in a Nal in a wide sense is that you know by the time prospects engage with your marketing materials OBD Sal seem they've likely uh already been influenced by your PR efforts that's in ID World um and I think first up is BD uh so yeah you know those oh I've heard of you moments at the conferences that means we are doing our job really well um and that's that's that's what we need right and that's what we want uh PR people can help BD people with kind of laying that laying out that foundation for business um and initiate initiate relationships um by involving potential Partners uh uh in in their media outreach for example so couple of tips here um this should be a first one actually share sh your prospect list with PR for targeted media engagement um we we call this um account based PR where we would um basically sit with BD and be like what is the you know our Dream partner what is the customer that we dreaming to get um and then if we can align prbd goals we can really kind of help um uh with overall business strategy and um I give you example as a PR people coms people we do a lot of media relations so we would talk to press on the daily basis um and very often we get approach and you know coin would come to me and be like hey Martin I'm writing about this I think it's a really interesting issue do you know someone who can help me with a perspective or a comment um and if I have that Prospect list handy um then I can be like look I know you have warm relationship with those guys that would be a good way to kind of uh you know uh keep that lead warm and offer them this as a as a favor and be like hey you guys um I know you specialize in this area I've seen you talk on at the conference about this um our PR team is speaking to Coes do you um do you want to be connected we can we can help arrange that we really respect what you do isn't that like a nice way of like initiating relationship and like you know kind of strengthening that Bond uh one thing I would say about that is like you really need to make sure that the media opportunity is good um that the journalist isn't like having like a you know um a hidden agenda uh so I always do this with um journalists that I know really well that I know theyve um they friendly they kind of say what they mean and stuff like that is not putting um potentially anyone in a tricky situation um and yeah and the relationship between BD and that kind of form it needs to be like adequate as well right we don't want to be so like randomly being like hey I've got Med opportunities for you um but if we are friendly and kind of need that we need that extra nudge this is how you can um how you can do it in a Smart Way um and you can also kind of flip it on this head and think about marketing campaigns that you can do with your potential Partners I think that's also one that people um don't tend to utilize uh but it could be it could be really nice let's say you your company some of your proposition is about rewards assets bringing assets on chain and you want to partner with this um reward asset um uh company or facilitator or or whatever you can think about we can sit with your marketing team and think about the ways we can kind of align and plug those offer those Partners opportunity to plug into our campaign and that's then can be used by PR uh in kind of in um media outreach and that kind of shows your potential partners that you care about similar issues that they do that you understand the space they operate in so and sometimes aligning on those marketing goals and like running maybe couple of Market strategic marketing campaigns um can then lead to a um to a business and similar to this um if there is a media opportunity and say my client is perfectly positioned to uh respond to that media request I would always ask them like is there a partner anyone else that we could offer as well alongside us so it would be my client commenting and then potential someone that we want to extend the favor to um and then you can send it to your prospect later or you've you are seen kind of perceived as like oh those two being quoted together wonder if they work together or that could be an interesting partnership um so I think that's how BD can um can utilize PR and I I would invite like anyone in VD to just um involve PR a little bit more like bring them com those comes people into those conversations and be like hey are we really trying to get that company um PRS are also like ears and eyes of of your company they would um flick through coverage see what's going on see what people are saying say and that kind of gives you that that extra Insight can help your your BD efforts as well um so I would say yeah try and collaborate with with PRS um and invite them to your meetings to your um when you discuss those um kind of your your business goals um marketing uh there are three key things storytelling with content with own content um here I would say you know PR people are Communications experts um and marketers are amazing in writing content and they they they really good with that and but you might utilize your coms experts as well to be like hey can you check this uh in terms of try to edit it and like add some uh waving our key messages is this consistent with like what you see media talk about is the is this language like friendly in terms of like how coindesk would describe this issue or how the blog would like cover those topics can we like maybe spin a little narrative so there is like more if we if we tweet it then we get more attention because of like those cosmetic changes um so I would say yeah just turn to PRS for for those type of things um campaign prep I see this a lot I I think marketers are really good with like involving PR people in their campaign campaigns effort um you know first of all to determine a launch um timing so we don't want to launch something where um there's potentially another big announcement going on or like big companies planning something or uh you know there is like a big National event like just to make sure that our campaign uh kind of drops where can get all possible attention um but also like for campaigns if you involve your PR team early they can literally just make some strategic placement here and there in in media uh to make sure that you kind of set the scene um so we we like to call it like um you know making the market aware of the problem that they have and then showing them that we happen to have a solution so before you actually launch your your product like people are actually um kind of warmed up into the idea that like oh yeah like I yeah this is really this is really an issue like wonder who's going to solve it and guess what three months later we drop a product that directly respond to those to those issues so it's like a set the scene and then content distribution uh yeah your PRS are like your distribution Partners um marketers you guys are like developing a lot of content and you don't want this to see it on the website and be seen only when like someone happens to end up on your website but you want those those uh things to be distributed widely PR can slice and dice your content and use it in different media outreach in creative ways so always include them and I would say for big pieces of contents like reports or research you probably want include them um a little bit earlier um just to make sure that you know the content that you have in mind um can be then you know effectively used or sold to um to Media publication so um yeah think about that when you when you're creating something big that's kind of you know that you put a lot of budget behind um just so it's it isn't just a hit hit and miss um and then sales um simly to BD I would say I put credibility here because it's nice to be like uh you know we have a proof elsewhere that we are that great or that our product is that great um we talked about visibility I think that's B for BD like a crucial thing but for sales when it's like this last step just to close the door close this deal is like are they credible is is anyone else Ving for them um and PR is the top of the sales funer right so we also need to understand that um with sales I would also say uh you know again you want to be on the same page with the key messages uh you want involve PR in terms of like we're trying to push this product um are there narratives um that we can create to to build uh to build something that makes this product more relevant and stuff like this and then remember that you know this consistency I talked about very often it's um you know the initial interest sparked by PR can be lost through that sales funnel um that we talked about uh because we kind of we're not consistent in terms of what we are saying so I read something in coin desk and I'm like oh this is interesting let me check them out go to a website and then on website I'm looking for that confirmation so I want to see what created that initial spark does it corresponds with the website and on the website I see oh yeah that's actually yeah yeah there's more information about the what they were saying in that said article and from there hopefully um they engage with your sales team and your salesperson present a perfect Beach that's also kind of brings us back to whatever was this first initial spark um and then I think for sales really important to make sure that you use uh all the hard work that PR does right um and uh include that uh in in your sales speeches in your email distributions in your conversations right you talk to a prospect and you're like yeah that's interesting you say that actually our our um CEO was on the stage talking about similar issues we were at toen 2049 Singapore and he he was um a keynote there that's like PR work right we put him on stage and you want to drop that in conversations um and you also want to make sure that you incorporate and links to articles clippings and and um you kind of uh you know you have your self speech um and and your prospect can see like oh yeah we've been oh they've been featured here and there but you can easily drop this in conversations as well um and be like oh yeah our head of product was actually on the interview earlier today with the blog talking about blah like that's a a really a powerful thing to do and I think um yeah we easily forget about those things I'm very conscious of time um measuring PR impact um this is tricky as well um it's often challenging but incredibly important that um we measure um impact of PR and kind of effectively attribute Revenue to those efforts common mistakes is actually measuring activities so the number of media placement rather than the outcomes so while tracking this activities seeing like oh we got 50 mentions versus 20 mentions is is is helpful um what we really want to do is um seeing what impact those activities have on our bottom line because I can tell you with seen um some we've seen many times that one by line or one longer lead one feature has been a gift that was keep on giving and we've been seeing our um clients sending them screenshots of like LinkedIn messages being like hey I've read this I love this can we talk versus we issued a press release got 100 uh press clippings and guess what nothing happened on the back of that right because yes we did um get some like maybe Co work done but to be fair does it spiked in sales not really so it's important to like see okay we got 50 engagements from this and 20 engagements from this but like what really what you really want to see is like how does it contributed to um to sales and like did it help with um with with actually selling something opening some doors initiating some relationships um couple of ways you can do that um you guys probably all know this but your UTM links um whatever that marketing dashboards you use you probably want to uh use UTM links to see um to see how PR Drive traffics and and leads directly uh and sometimes you can see the um yeah how the content um how people respond to your content um look Beyond first touch uh so use multitouch attribution models to see where PR influences decision making um if it's not the initial contact it could be that uh you know Evergreen content it could be uh an an interview that you did that kind of was like oh yeah wait I've I've read I've seen this person at the event and I did this and now I'm hearing this podcast let me check their website or let me actually tell my boss about whatever so um it's not always that that first touch um so I want you to kind of remember that and long uh and track long-term impact so not just immediate spikes in the traffic or leads but how PR activities influence brand perception and cells over time and the last one is the hardest um to look at but there are a couple of and you can guys just like take a screenshot maybe of this with this lovely meme I think it's very true painful it breaks my heart [Music] um but yeah those are good questions to ask uh when you to help you guide your um assignment of PR's long-term impact and ensure that you're looking at the kind of right indication and indicators for um kind of sustainable growth um so I think this this this is is is pretty helpful um and yeah we in web free as well right so uh our analytics our dashboards whatever like uh I think in traditional marketing on like traditional Industries they would do like customer service but we have communities right and we have uh Community managers who are really really good creators of uh kind of being eyes and ears and um getting feedback from your communities in terms of like does it resonate is it good how do people was it like sharable was it well received had have people like seen PR efforts um is how messaging resonating and stuff like that um cool and then um a couple of like I guess key takeaways um PR is the welcome committee uh Frontline of your sales funnel setting the stage for future interactions um yeah use them use use your comes people uh remember there coms experts they can help you with language they can help you with uh making sure that they focusing they not working isolation and sometimes PR can be very like Vanity Vanity driven where we are like look we are at the front page of this and sales people are like it doesn't mention the product so we don't want that right so we want to like be aligned and be like okay um can you PR people please focus on something that will help us sell set product because that's our kind of we getting in trouble if we don't this quarter so your um yeah your kind of quarterly targets should kind of align with like hey PR can you I know like it's product and it's another web free wallet but can we find a ways to like um get some get get creative um about this so that it actually helps me uh brand message Clarity I think we've said enough about this but just get serious about like over overall brand message um and make sure people know it and people resonate with it and uh you know whether that's see on a stage at e foro or whether you are meeting someone you've never seen before um you kind of you should be introducing company in a very similar way um collaboration is a key uh you guys should be closely connected with sales sales BD marketing and PR should be closely connected and you can have specific departments you can you can have no departments you can be just like one person as well I know teams like that that those um superheroes that those that that are all those roles um but yeah make sure whatever your setup is you you closely connected and then focus on outcomes um outcomes not activities uh but review activities to to understand what works right so we want to know like oh is it worth it to pay like this amount of money for um you know setting press on a wire or do we are we better off um working on a longer feature and maybe have three pieces of coverage per quarter but they are super impactful versus you know heuring press Rel every time we did something and then not seeing um any tangible results on the back of that so um yeah I think that's that's me done for today thank you so much m Round of Applause from Martina um we have time for one question if you guys want to ask a question just while Mar's getting set up who has a question here I know you do thank you so in terms of media in web 2 PR is more earned but I find that in web 3 most media coverage for upcoming or developing companies is paid they can Outland it by themselves and that it's very hard to pitch the journalist for free in that way so I'm wondering if there's any way to do unpaid press coverage for a growing project with Real Results or is it worth trying to land unpaid coverage if it's not a big company is it worth putting that PR effort into into it or just something else I think it's um it's hard right like when you're just starting out and um uh potentially media this the first time you media heard of you in your page right but I I don't think it's impossible and I've been working with a lot of startups and I think it's down to your page and the story that you're trying to say that's what LS you coverage it's not um I I wouldn't say that web 2 uh versus web 3 is different in terms of like earning the coverage I think we have a lot of great Publications that are you know unbiased and they would take a good story without um kind of asking you for for money for it right um and if um the St is not big enough and they off like offer you a paid content that will always be like a kind of you know a disclaimer that this was paid for um but we've seen a lot of like companies who um been new to the market and and and coverage so I think it's definitely worth doing um but you really need to have a good story to tell