There's a good reason for it. It is often the most cost effective tactic you can use to generate leads, build the image of the company, and create credibility that helps you close more sales. Best of all, it's possible to do it on a shoestring budget, if you're a capital--challenged startup company.
Not For Every Situation

But of course, an active PR campaign isn't appropriate for every company, at every point in time. It's very important to make sure that the company has its "house in order" prior to starting a PR campaign. This cautionary note fits into the category of you "only get one chance to make a first impression." So let's start by outlining when it's NOT a good time to start a PR campaign:

1) The Product isn't finished
2) The Product is buggy
3) No good public spokesman in the company, or one hasn't been decided on yet
4) No website
5) No marketing literature
6) No users yet (not even beta users)

The basic message here is that PR shouldn't be started until the company and product are ready. Once you go out for PR, there's no looking back. You can't undo it. Maybe you've heard the old saying "There's no such thing as bad PR". Don't believe it--it's a lie! The only kind of PR that will help boost your business is good PR. Bad PR, and even so--so coverage, is to be avoided.
It's the News----Not the Product

In addition, it's not really possible to do a "small PR campaign". You can't test PR like many other marketing programs. It isn't advisable to go out to a couple of publications with a press release to "test the water", and see if you get some positive coverage. The problem is that once you do that, your important announcement is no longer "news" to other publications that may have provided coverage. You see, the "product" that publications are interesting in getting from you is THE NEWS ITSELF. Once it's published in another publication, it's no longer newsworthy to others. Press Releases are as fragile an asset to your company, as a seat on a particular flight is to an airline. They aren't static assets, but time--sensitive opportunities to promote your company.

So when you decide to go out with news, you need to go out big. Go out as big as you can afford to, anyway. News needs to be timed to hit all relevant publications at the same time. This is a bit challenging, since you may have relevant publications that are weeklies, monthlies and even websites where the news might posted near real--time. The technique you use to ensure it hits all at the same time is to send your release to the long lead--time pubs first, but "embargo" the release until the general release date. If you are dealing with legitimate journals, they will respect the embargo and won't publish the news until your official release date.
When PR Makes Sense

So when should you use PR as part of your marketing mix?

1) When announcing the formation of a new company
2) New Product Announcement, assuming the product is "fully cooked"
3) Major new customer acquisitions (assuming it doesn't need to be secret for some reason)
4) Senior Employees joining the company (new CEO, VP Marketing, etc)
5) New Partnership or Alliance

These are the major reasons that you would put out a press release for marketing reasons, although I'm sure you can think of more. Public companies will often have a greater flow of releases, because they are dealing with a dual purpose of marketing and investor relations. This can often be problematic, but that's a subject for another day.
One Size Doesn't Fit All

Other questions relate to the mechanics of producing and placing news with the media. Should you hire a PR firm? Should your marketing department handle it internally? Should you hire a dedicate resource to handle the PR function?

There are lots of ways to handle PR and still do it successfully. One size doesn't fit all--it really depends upon the situation.

The first aspect to look at is your level of resources. PR is one of my preferred marketing activities, so I recommend that you don't skimp in this area. But there are still situations where the money just isn't available, for whatever reason. An outside PR firm can always be helpful, particularly if you've never been involved in a PR campaign before. But if you're in a thinly funded startup company, don't be deterred. To be successful in PR, it's far more important to have REAL NEWS than it is to have a lot of money. (Of course, money doesn't hurt!) So if you just can't afford an outside or experienced PR assistance--do it yourself.

The second thing to consider, from a campaign implementation perspective, is "how big is your news". If it's solid, worthy of publication, but not earth shattering--maybe you can handle it internally. At most, maybe you need someone to help with the writing of the release itself, but the potential ink isn't big enough to spend a lot of dollars attempting to place it. If on the other hand the news is big stuff (with a corresponding large potential payoff), it's really a good idea to hire an outside firm or an experienced inside resource, to maximize the potential.

Next, how big is your market? If you are in a large, horizontal market, with a large number of bigger publications--that points to the need for a more professional effort. Contacts with the editors are critical in this instance, and an experienced PR professional can be worth their cost many times over. If on the other hand your market is a small vertical niche, a PR professional may not be money well spent, particularly if you have a limited marketing budget. In this case you should be able to build and maintain good relationships with the limited number of editors and writers, who are working for the fewer trade journals covering your industry.

Another question, will the PR opportunity be ongoing? If you're going to put out 2 press releases a year, how you go about staffing the function is very different, than if there are going to be 2 blockbuster releases each month. So the stage of growth of your company should also help guide your tactical PR implementation.

Lastly, what's your business culture and style? Do you like to get the best outside experts and use them when you need them, or do you prefer to hire people with expertise as permanent members of your staff? Conversely, do you enjoy learning the specifics of the task personally so you can apply the knowledge yourself? If you choose to learn yourself, make sure you get someone with PR experience to guide you, and serve as a sounding board.
PR is for Almost Everyone

Conducting extremely successful PR campaigns involves many fine points and vagaries, which can't be addressed in a short article such as this. But I believe anyone should be able a good solid job, if they take the time, and put forth the effort. It's not a mystery, and for most technology companies PR should play a very prominent role in there promotional strategy.

I'd love to hear about your own PR experiences.