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PR Primer For Startups
PR Primer For Startups
Ricky Yean
ricky@prx.co
http://www.prx.co/
Table of Contents
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There are only 32,900 full-time staff journalists according to the latest census.
Newsrooms are significantly down-sizing due to business model pressures.
That means the articles you read will increasingly be written by freelance
writers and contributors, etc.
The media is not just newspapers, TV, radio, or big online media sites. Its
also blogs, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, etc. Influence is always shifting.
Traditional brands dont always matter. Remember Gigaom? Do you know
MKBHD?
You may have a great story, but a journalist (or the editor) still has to decide
to cover your story based on some of the following factors:
-
Twitter
Niche community sites (e.g. reddit/Hacker News/Product Hunt)
RSS reader of niche blogs/sites
Relationships with industry sources, PR agents, etc.
Other journalists (they frequently forward story tips to each other)
Personal ideas
Editors assignment
Email inbox
Make sure you have a good story. Ask an impartial friend if shed click on your
potential headline.
Set reasonable expectations based on the quality of your story
Research and identify the right journalists to pitch your story to
a)
b)
c)
d)
4)
Write a catchy, descriptive subject line, but dont embellish too much. Stay credible.
b)
3-5 sentences outlining the story you have in mind in simple language. Include well-known
stakeholders, metrics, and unique data to show credibility.
Personalize the email and connect to why its relevant
Let them know the nature of the pitch if its an embargo or an exclusive.
c)
d)
6)
Follow up
a)
7)
Journalists get hundreds of emails a day. Youre more likely to get a response if you follow up.
Make a media brief / kit so they have all the information they need should they choose to work
on your story.
b)
Answer questions promptly, make yourself available to do phone interviews, visit journalists
with your product. Journalists pursue multiple story leads simultaneously, so keep working..
c)
Help journalists stand out from their peers. For example, giving a writer you like an infographic
Embargo
-
Embargoes are appropriate if you have a high-value story or if you have a real
deadline.
Embargo
-
This means you are asking journalists to enter a gentlemans agreement to not publish your
story until an agreed upon time.
Journalists dont have to play ball. Michael Arrington doesnt honor embargoes. Some will
break embargoes in order to get a jump on others to get more traffic.
Embargoes are great if your story is very good and you dont want to offer it to just one
person. A way to make everyone first is to ask them all to agree to an embargo. Your story
has to be good enough that theyre probably going to have to cover it anyway for them to
agree to this arrangement.
Embargoes are also great if you have a real deadline. For example, if your app is not going
live in the App Store until Tuesday, then you can ask journalists to wait until Tuesday for the
Exclusive
-
Exclusives are appropriate if you want to increase the value of your story or if
you want a particular journalist to spend more time and do a good job.
Exclusive
-
This means you are only offering your story to one journalist.
To execute this, you can pick 5 writers and go down the list, giving each person 24 hours to
agree to work on your exclusive.
Journalists love exclusives because it helps them stand out and it could be a chance for them
to break out.
Interest does not necessarily mean coverage. Sometimes journalists are just
looking to learn, and its good to educate them for future media opportunities.
To increase your chance at closing a journalist, you can offer her something
to help her stand out from her competition. You can do this by offering them
exclusive angles.
Journalist
Josh Constine
Anyone at
Business Insider
Anyone at SF
Chronicle
Anyone at
BuzzFeed
Exclusive angle
/ offer to help
close
Offer a quote or
an interview with
your VC investor
Personal story
about how we
lived in a van to
save money
during YC
Offer an
explainer video
and an animated
GIF
Timing
-
Unless you are asking for an embargo or giving an exclusive and the
journalists have agreed to the arrangement, its difficult to guarantee media
interest at the time you want it. In our experience, the time between initial
pitch to a published article could be as long as 6 months! Most of the time, it
takes 13 weeks after pitching for you to see coverage.
Dont engage a journalist too early. Start pitching 12 weeks before your ideal
coverage date. Journalists dont work with long time horizons unless theyre
working on a long investigative or analytical piece.
Hardware
-
If your product is physical in nature, journalists would want time to try and play
with it. Add 23 weeks of shipping and trial time to your plans.
If you dont have units available for shipping, consider scheduling a trip with
your prototype or hosting an event for local reporters.
If you are doing a Kickstarter, policies are in place at various media outlets to
NOT cover Kickstarter campaigns because theyve been burned in the past
when campaigns flame out or when products dont ship. There are always
exceptions. For example, if youve blown through your funding goal or if your
video has meme or viral potential, you might get a look.
Truths
-
Myths
-
Google Panda 4.0 significantly reduced the SEO value in 2014. Today, SE
Most journalists dont read press releases unless youre a big company they follow. The
only gating factor for distributing a press release is $$, which is not a strong signal for
quality. Some media outlets have an arrangement to syndicate press releases just to
Dont spend too much time on media outreach yourself. Getting to know
journalists feels gratifying, especially when you get some coverage from it, but
its more transactional than youd like think. If you dont have a great story, the
best relationships wont get you anywhere. Focus on making your company
consistently story-worthy.
Dont pay excessive amount of $$ for outside PR help. PR agencies charge
$535k/month and ask for 412-month commitments. If you are paying <$20k
a month, you are still likely the smallest client on their roster, and they will
have to spend as little time with you as possible.
Dont fall for the relationships trap. Most agencies claim to have
relationships with the media after just one email exchange with a writer.
Seasoned PR partners are more likely to have strong relationships, but you
have to make sure they are comfortable selling your story because the
relationships they have are built on their ability to act as reliable quality filters.
Agencies tend to oversell their ability to get you media coverage by citing past
successes. Every story is different, so past success does not predict future
performance. Instead, look for honest effort, transparency, and accountability
instead and be as helpful as you can in making your story more appealing.
Dont rely on PR to save your company. It is largely outside your control. With
a process in place, you can make it more predictable, but dont expect magic.
Even if you successfully get coverage, depending on how the article is written,
whether or not a link is prominently displayed, and how well the audience
resonates with the article, the impact in terms of traffic will vary. You should
also evaluate PRs ROI in terms of giving you credibility, SEO, sales lift, and
how it could dovetail with your content marketing, sales, hiring and fundraising
strategy.
Be clear about your goals. If you want credibility, dont be disappointed when
TechCrunch or the NYTimes fails to drive traffic.
Final thoughts
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