How startups can solve comms with the PESO model

This article was first posted on LinkedIn here.

The PESO model

I'll summarise for healthtech and biotech startups – this is essentially the menu of comms activities that you have to choose from:

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• Paid media = paid ads on social platforms and paid placements in publications (known as 'advertorial'). If you're B2C, organic reach is tough to get on B2C social platforms so you pay to get your posts noticed. If you're B2B and know exactly what your audience reads, you pay to place an article there etc.
• Earned media = getting other people to talk about you on channels that your audience consume, which gives you credibility, authority and reach. You ask a person/company with a platform/following to talk about you. You earn the right to be talked about by pitching a personalised idea that provides value to their audience(s). This is PR and it's a skill. All startups should identify the media their target audiences are consuming (publications, podcasts, events etc) and pitch themselves and their stories in for credibility, authority and reach.
• Shared media = anything that goes on social media. Remember, you're renting it from a big tech company, so you're still at their mercy (hence shared, rather than owned). If you're a healthtech or biotech startup, this is a compulsory component. Develop a content strategy that means you're posting consistent content that adds value to your audiences (more on this later). B2B focused companies should focus on LinkedIn. B2C on pretty much everything else.
• Owned media = creating company-owned assets that drive reach and engagement with your audiences. These take time and resource to do effectively but they pay back in strategically building connections to your exact audiences. At best, they can even create communities. At SomX, for example, we own Healthtech Pigeon, The Healthtech Podcast, Biotech Dodo and we do 'Healthtech Talks' – regular events for the healthtech and biotech community with Google Cloud – as well as many other IRL events for community building.

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The evolution of modern comms

Not too long ago, big companies were the ones who owned access to your audiences. Broadsheets, tabloids and tv/radio interviews were the ways to reach B2C audiences at scale; trade magazines and speaking at industry events were the ways to reach B2B audiences; and you had to earn your place in the media by pitching to journalists, editors and event organisers who were the gatekeepers. You were able to put your own messages on your website and maybe your blog, but when social media exploded, the ability to reach audiences through media became democratised.

Paid ads could be targeted at specific demographics and newsfeeds showed you what your web of connections were up to in real(ish) time. Who you were connected to determined what you saw, and the model, known as the social graph, was incredibly effective in building personal connections. More followers/connections meant more visibility and popularity. (Bear with me, the practical knowledge is coming...)

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How is this relevant to healthtech and biotech?

So, why should you care? Well, the most valuable thing for all of us in communications is knowing how to get the attention of our audiences – if you know how platforms work and how to leverage them, you can use it to your advantage. So, you should understand the current shift from social graphs to interest graphs on all the social media platforms.

Newsfeeds are all changing to show us content around our shared interests rather than just content of people we follow. That is truly enabling social media to be a credible and practical tool for businesses at scale, particularly startups starting from zero, and it actually stands to hurt any brand resting on the laurels of having a big following and impressions (attention) simply because of a following, rather than through creating high-quality, relatable content.

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Of course, it is possible to build audiences for businesses via social graphs. Linkedin still appears to be weighted toward a social graph – you mainly see content from people that you follow and even for posts that go more 'viral,' they seemingly still do so through connections (and sometimes through interest-based hashtags and other indicators from your profile). So a focus there still has to be on increasing followers, which definitely do matter.

However, newer platforms like TikTok heavily weight their FYP (for you page) toward an interest graph, a digital portrayal of individuals’ specific interests. With content simply being analysed and pushed to people most likely to be interested, anyone, even with zero followers, can create a single piece of content that is seen tens of millions of times. The only thing that matters is how engaging it is – that's what drives it to more people.

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What does this mean, practically?

Quality of a post matters on interest graphs, which is where all platforms are going – content might not be seen at all, even by your followers, if it doesn't resonate, which is why being very clear on who your content is for, and not being generic matters. That doesn't mean post sparingly. Ideally post frequently and make it as relatable as possible to a specific audience.

Consistency also matters on social graphs because a larger % of your followers will see your posts.

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Educate, entertain and inspire your audiences to build a community who follow you for a reason.

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Practically-speaking, and of course there's plenty of nuance here and people will disagree, but for the data I currently have, my advice for startups with B2C healthtech audiences is to experiment on interest graph platforms like TikTok and YouTube Shorts – try different styles against a very specific audience you have in mind and double down on what increases views. Don't get disheartened by low views. That doesn't affect the next post.

For B2B healthtech/biotech startups – post regularly on LinkedIn and truly focus on adding value. Educate, entertain and inspire (more on this shortly).

Both B2B and B2C startups should focus on owning a community and that might, for example, be an incredibly niche yet simple newsletter and meet-up combo, but there you have a very highly engaged group that no big tech company can take away from you (a risk for anyone with a significant audience on just one platform).

For those particularly interested in the social to interest graph concept, Gary Vaynerchuck talks about it at length in his book, Day Trading Attention: How to Actually Build Brand and Sales in the New Social Media World (2024), which is where I first came across it.

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Everyone wants to go viral. But how?

The anatomy of what makes a post 'go viral' or simply what makes a good content strategy is another very long essay, but with all this in mind and thinking about how people use social media, as a brand you should always ask yourself: is this content educational, entertaining and/or inspiring? That's both from the company accounts and the personal accounts of the leadership.

Direct selling has its place... I'd argue in roughly 20% of your content. But using platforms for what they're built for and taking advantage of the social and interest graph structure means that if you focus on adding value to people by educating them, entertaining them and/or inspiring them with 80% of what you're saying online, you'll build a community who follow you for a reason. You build trust with that audience, and with the 20% of content that sells directly to them (or has another CTA), you will absolutely get more results than a content strategy that has every post structured as "Great to see <insert company achievement>" or just sounds like a run of ads.

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LinkedIn, like other social platforms, is showing signs of moving to an interest graph and leaning into the 'TikTokification' of content platforms. A vertical scrolling video format is being tested (you can get to it by directly clicking on some videos and scrolling) and some countries now have it as a new tab entirely. It feels like another feature borrowed from the B2C world of content that may or may not work for Linkedin (for those that remember, the 'stories' feature came and went pretty quickly because 99.99% of honest LinkedIn stories would be the same picture of us at our desk) but this is an evolution that could truly democratise audience growth where so many of our healthtech and biotech audiences (customers, partners, investors) are, and the first movers are already trying it out.

If it catches on, it may create an even more open and accessible environment where any company, regardless of size, can grow an audience by tapping into specific interests and creating content that resonates right from day one. Much like B2C startups can do over on TikTok. We're watching this intently at SomX.

I won't bore you with the same story about podcasts, but here's the punchline... with the long tail and discoverability on podcasts as a form of content, why wouldn't you turn your website blog into one at the very least?

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The value of PR in modern comms

Platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, X, TikTok, Youtube and plenty of niche forums allow startups to engage directly with communities passionate about specific topics, but the importance of PR (earned media) should not be underestimated.

Well executed PR (earned media) creates credibility, trust and authority to engage investors, partners, and customers outside your current circle of influence.

Effective PR therefore means building relationships with journalists and influencers, ensuring more favourable coverage and positioning you and your company as thought leaders. PR isn't just press releases. It's managing your reputation at large, helping navigate regulatory challenges or negative coverage and controlling the narrative to maintaining public trust. You certainly won’t need me to tell you how crucial this is in healthcare.

If you're an early stage startup and don't have the resources for a PR agency or team, there's nothing stopping you emailing journalists yourself and starting to build those relationships – in many ways they find that refreshing. As for crisis comms – whatever it is you're worried about going wrong – write the top 5-10 things down, a very granular plan of who would do what in each scenario and write any statements out in full ahead of time – all so that if the time were to come, you can follow a guide rather than have to feel your feelings as well as create a process.

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PR isn't just press releases.

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Finding the right balance of paid, earned, shared and owned media is what truly drives value for a healthtech or biotech startup. Owned and shared media creates and distributes valuable, relevant messages to attract and engage a clearly defined audience; earned media amplifies these efforts and adds credibility and authority; and paid media is your point and shoot audience-grab against a specific call-to-action (CTA). To find that balance, list your audiences and, against each, map where and how they get their information. Then use that to prioritise the order that you do each component of the PESO model.

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Design

Before I pull all this together into some actionable advice, a brief word on design. Design (creative in general) is a massive differentiator out there in the world of shared media and, in my opinion, is an easy area to invest a little in, to stand out a lot.

Canva has done a big democratisation job here. It's raised minimum standards, but people have saddled back onto it and in my view, it's opened up a lot of room for excellence at the top end. In some cases, I genuinely believe that a graphic designer might have the biggest ROI (pound for pound) for marketing metrics in larger teams when you consider the volume of visual assets that they're putting out.

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With websites, why, in a world where everyone looks at your website first, isn't that a worthy investment or a priority? Why is it we're ok to admit that the website is out of date? Same with your deck. We're human and our first impressions are complex. It might not be fair that we're judged on how visually appealing a deck is vs the content, but this is the real world and remember that appreciating the audience and adapting the user journey through a deck is also a design task.

If you listen to the investors on my podcast, rightly or wrongly, some argue that it says something about your standards and attention to detail (don't shoot the messenger – just use a decent template, as a minimum, and a designer if you really want to impress).

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And practically, how does this work?

I'll talk through an example. We've supported Ori Biotech with their communications function for the last few years. In that time, they've gone from seed stage to raising a $100M Series B.

When I first spoke to the team, they wanted a full content and marketing strategy to support their growth and the commercial launch of its advanced manufacturing platform. The goal was to significantly expand Ori's audience, position the company as a thought leader in cell and gene therapy (CGT) manufacturing, and facilitate impactful conversations with industry leaders and partners.

Firstly - being clear on audiences and goals is crucial. There's no point going to the PESO model without being clear on what you want to achieve. At SomX, for example, we spend 6 weeks on messaging and strategy. We produce a key messaging document, an audience map with pain points, value propositions etc. and only then to we outline campaigns that map to the PESO model. In this case, a lot of secret sauce went into creating a strategy to meet those goals whilst having a product in stealth, but here's an overview (TLDR: we prioritised shared and owned media).

Shared media: a focus on LinkedIn to grow audience

• Social Media Growth: Through a strategic content plan, we helped grow Ori’s LinkedIn audience by 884% over three years, reaching 15k followers. We prioritise value-add, educational and inspirational content with bespoke design really helping create a brand with authority. As a result, Ori really stand out in the CGT manufacturing niche and has become a recognisable brand in biotech, globally.
• Videography and Animation: Using a mixture of film and renders, we helped Ori create an engaging product launch video, which was cut into further teaser films and used as part of the pre-launch campaign across social media channels

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Owned media: podcast production to make deep connections with specific audiences

• Ori Spotlight Podcast: We design, develop, record, produce and distribute the Ori Spotlight podcast, which has, so far, garnered 7,000 plays. It's attracted a diverse audience from the US (41%), UK, and other parts of the world, and, crucially, has facilitated in-depth conversations with industry leaders who have appeared as guests. With a listenership amongst their niche, Ori have been able to create brand beyond LinkedIn and provide their audiences with a direct connection to Jason C. Foster, their CEO.
• Website Co-Design: We collaborated on the design and development of Ori Biotech’s new website, ensuring a strong digital presence for the commercial launch of Ori’s product (May 2024) and effective user experiences through the site.
  

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Conclusion

In the current landscape, to build a brand in healthtech and biotech is about prioritising and allocating resource in a way that delivers maximum ROI. And for true ROI, your audiences need to take the actions you want. That means you need visibility, but you also need to create meaningful connections and foster trust.

Start with a strategy. Look at the PESO model, do your research and take a view on the order that you're going to do components of each, based on the behaviour of your key audiences and therefore the ROI.

Broadly, if you're conserving resource, my advice is to start with a mixture of shared and earned media – social media and PR. If you're B2B, that means 3x per week posting on LinkedIn, making sure you're educating, inspiring and entertaining your audiences to build community and trust. For PR, prioritise writing press releases for your milestones that you send to a list of journalists that you've developed based on the publications that your audiences read and/or respect for authority.

Build on that, by allocating more resource in each area: posting more often, adding longer articles to your shorter posts, investing in the design and video components of your posts. And for PR, pitching yourself to events, podcasts and building deeper connections with journalists so they come to you for comments and opinions.

Add an owned media component once you have a following to bring those people into a space you own. Owned assets like a whitepaper or academic research can act as magnets to bring audiences to you, while newsletters through a platform like Substack or a podcast are assets that can also bank that audience, adding extra utility.

Consider paid media early if you're B2C and if you're B2B, deploy it against a specific audience for a specific reason or goal.

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At SomX, we design and execute full-service communications strategies for healthtech, biotech and pharma companies. Our design team can also help with specific website, pitch deck, video and animation projects. Visit our brand new website at somx.health to learn more or fill in a contact form here.

To find more case studies with the likes of Pfizer, Google Cloud, Octopus Ventures & Novartis, visit our work page.