Founders--10 steps to get good at PR

I am not going to convince you that you should care about PR. It's going to be forced on you by everyone who gets what you do totally wrong in public. Or by all the articles, blog posts, and think pieces that reference your competitors instead of you. Or by the leads that don't convert because they've never heard of you. Etc.

Here's a ten step program to going from nothing to something good. :)

1. Know your audience

You have to know what investors want to invest in, how their goals are served by investing in you. You have to know what customers are trying to accomplish, what's their pain that you will ease. You have to know what employees are looking for in their career, how you can make that a reality. The media is no different.

You have to know what journalists care about, how your story will serve them as much as you. For the person on the other side of your pitch, you're not the first person with a groundbreaking product or top VCs or a huge market. You're not even the first today. So why should they take you seriously? How will you help them tell a better story? What are your unique points of view? Why will your story generate more interest (and eyeballs) than then another?

Are you advancing their cause? If not, why do you expect them to advance yours?

2. Help them win

Journalists win when they’re first with a story. Or the only one with a story. Or both.

Most tech press want to be smarter about whatever topic they’re writing about. They’re interested and enjoy learning about technology, decoding the industry, etc. They want to provide more than just facts; going to a level of depth and analysis that make their readers smarter.

All under severe time pressure.

So, help make it happen.

3. Build a list

Figure out who the specific, important press and outlets are for you. Which ones cover your space? Which ones have the attention of the same people you want attention from?

Read their work, learn their beat. Find mutual ground. Target your pitches, briefings, and commentary to their areas of interest specifically.

Build relationships. Be intentional. Treat them like people.

4. Know your story

You would be surprised at how many founders, marketers, and people who speak on behalf of a startup, including investors, don't have a firm grasp of their own story.

• What led you to see the problem in the world you wanted to solve?
• Who are the people you're helping?
• How does their day to day life or work change after they start using your product?
• What are the big things happening in the world, in the industry, and in the specific work lives of your customers that make this the right time for change?
• How are you unique, different?
• Why should anyone take you seriously?
• What are you going to do next?
• If you vision becomes a reality, how will the world look different?

If you want to dig into how to tell your story, read: 10 questions that tell your startup story and turn it into great messaging. Can you answer them?

5. Have an agenda

Attention spans being what they are, there’s a limit to how much depth a journalist can write with. Long winded stories, nuanced narratives, and subtle differences that only experts will understand... are not useful.

Unless you’re already a name brand [hi Elon!], you're going to have seconds-to-minutes to make a meaningful impact. Only one or two things you say will end up in a story. That's it.

So, never walk into a discussion without a specific agenda you want to communicate.

• Have 1–3 points, maximum, you want to get across
• Always bring the conversations back to your points
• Don’t derail or ignore the questions--find the connections
• Be open about not being able to answer a question, if you can’t (or won’t)
• Don't make baseless claims, unless your intent is controversy
• If it’s clearly a pitch/briefing meeting, state your points at the outset, then repeat them at the end, and send a follow up email with them
• If you’re cited or quoted in a way that’s not accurate, send polite clarifications

6. Come with data

Bring supporting evidence.

• Real life stories of your product solving that problem
• Names of customers who will vouch for you
• Names of investors who will vouch for you
• Growth numbers or percentages
• Market size and how you figured it

7. Use others' words

Don't make people take your word for it.

• Our founder says..
• Customer X said..
• Analyst firm says..
• Thoughtlord Influencer says..
• Famous VC says..

8. Make yourself useful

Make yourself available to provide background info and color commentary for their articles, even if they have nothing to do with you and even if you aren’t cited.

Point to useful resources like industry reports, analysts, and other people who might provide insight.

Pass along leads to stories to them. For example, notice something obscure or buried change on someone’s website which suggests they’ve had a legal event of some kind? Point it out. But don’t break any laws.

9. Stay in touch

If they write about you, or you have a good conversation, stay in touch.

Write once a month.

• Keep it brief
• Tell them something useful, some big change you see in the industry, or some insight about something they wrote about
• Remind them about what you do, in one sentence
• Tell them what your company has achieved since the last time you wrote and what you're doing to do in the next month
• Make yourself available to chat, with a phone number and not just your email

10. Don't waste time

Not your's. Not the journalist's.

If you don't have a story, don't pretend to have one.

But when you do, should it from the rooftops.

P.S. about agencies

PR firms tend to suck. They promise more than they can deliver and say they have connections they don't. Good agencies are hard to find and getting good work out of them requires work out of you.

The best agencies have this:

• Relationships with the press you care about and press you wish you could get in front of but are way above your pay grade
• Relationships to media, companies, and people who are particularly influential in your space
• Ability to articulate your story as well as, or better than, you can
• Ability to translate your story into a journalist’s agenda
• Ability to create opportunities—placements, bylines, content, speaking slots, and more

Look at their past work. Talk to their customers. Get concrete examples of what you want to achieve having been achieved with a company similar to yours before.

P.P.S. maybe not yet

If adoption is purely bottoms up, viral, peer to peer and you're in early stages where you don't need to break into a new market or segment.. you might not need to care about PR yet.

--

Good luck!