Wondering how to “get press” for your startup? You’re not alone. We’ve yet to meet a founder who isn’t eager to nab that elusive TechCrunch piece, spark excited Twitter chatter with the launch of their latest product feature, or gather accolades on one of the tech and business media’s many coveted lists. And we get it. Press coverage helps validate your brand, cultivate inbound opportunities, and attract employees, investors, and partners. It’s also just, well, exciting to see the company you’re working so hard to build get recognized.
Today’s webinar covers the changing media landscape, building relationships with journalists, and the importance of story in your company’s PR strategy. As the young company’s first PR lead, Johnny Brackett shaped and executed the PR strategy that helped grow TaskRabbit from its earliest stages into a household brand name. After working in-house at Square and Shyp, he began consulting full-time for organizations and individuals across a variety of sectors - including venture capital, fintech, consumer internet, retail, blockchain, and mental health. In this lively conversation, Jamie and Johnny reunite to talk about the state of play in tech and business media today and walk through tactical tips for founders to amplify their company stories.
As the architect (and executor) of countless PR initiatives with a broad array of formats, audiences, and objectives, Johnny’s uniquely diverse portfolio makes him one of the best minds in the business for doling out relevant advice to early-stage companies. The key takeaways from this conversation will serve any founder well today (and well into the future).
Contextualize funding pitches to rise above the noise.
Venture capital is being invested in startups at unprecedented rates, in higher amounts, and at earlier stages. This creates a problem for young companies hoping to use their financing milestones to generate media buzz. Five years ago it was enough to pitch a funding round, but in today’s hyper-competitive news environment, brands also need to explain why their businesses need to exist. Financing isn’t unique anymore, which means there’s not a reason for reporters to cover it unless a company has some compelling story to offer. For an increased chance at success, proactive funding pitches should now include two essential components: First, details of the financing round and second, the “so what,” which might be relevant and timely data that bolsters a conversation that is organically being had, a news hook, or anything else that demonstrates to a reporter that your pitch offers something more interesting than simply a dollar amount.
Factor non-responses into your outreach strategy.
A perfect storm of factors - consolidation of media properties, newsroom layoffs, a hyper-fast news cycle, among others - have made it so reporters simply don’t have time to respond to every email they receive. This makes it all but inevitable that many (if not most) of your proactive pitches will not get a response. A lack of response doesn’t mean you’ve done your job poorly in 2021. But it means you have to plan for this eventuality. To avoid an endless loop of pitching and waiting, it’s imperative that you assemble a highly targeted, stack-ranked list of reporters that might cover your news, then move down the list to pitch as you receive a “no” or a non-response. You have to decide how long you’re willing to wait, but if you’ve followed up twice on a well-targeted pitch and have a tight deadline, it’s probably time to move on. One exception is if you have an existing relationship with the journalist and genuinely suspect they didn’t see your pitch. If that’s the case, it can be acceptable to follow-up via text or Twitter DM.
Get over your shyness (and your ego).
To succeed in securing coverage, you must shake your shyness and get more comfortable asking people for things. The people successful at getting coverage are the ones that understand shyness, pride, and playing it cool are handicaps when it comes to media relations. Proactively pitching reporters is repetitive, relentless work that forces you to confront rejection over and over again. Getting comfortable with being told “no” and being ignored is important - it’s a lot like dating in that sense. Anyone who does this work needs thick skin.
Play your part.
Once you’ve developed your list of reporters that matter to your company, start reading the stories those people write. Follow them on socials. Pay attention to what they ask for. Connect them with relevant sources, give them positive feedback when you (genuinely) enjoy an article, and find other ways to add value before asking them for coverage. Reading the work of the people you’re pitching also unlocks new opportunities to contextualize your news in a more targeted way. Does one reporter like to include a customer anecdote or piece of data at the start of every story? That’s a signal to provide an anecdote or unique piece of data in your pitch. You have to get to know a reporter before you can offer them something they need, or ask them for something you want. If you’re going to interact with the news industry, you have to be an active participant.
Cultivate relationships with peers.
We all think a lot about mentors and how we can learn from people who’ve been in the trenches before us, but startup comms professionals can advantage themselves tremendously by paying attention to who’s in the trenches right now. Startup comms leads are often teams of one, operating as the lone functional area expert within their companies. As a founder, one of the best things you can do to support their success is to ask your investors to introduce them to all the other comms leads in the portfolio. Peer mentors are incredibly valuable in the earliest days and while scaling. They give crucial visibility into how other companies are navigating communications, offer vital perspectives from people who understand your priorities and challenges, and provide the opportunity for collaboration, connections, and community that can often be a force multiplier for those leading PR efforts.
Always start with objectives.
When a founder tells me they want The Wall Street Journal, my first question to them is always: “Why do you want the WSJ to cover you right now, and why should they want to cover you right now?” Too often, founders think of PR like a project - they raise money or build a feature and think the next step in the process should be an announcement. But that’s not how it works. You first have to ask what your objective is - maybe you want to get in front of future investors, support recruitment efforts, or reach potential customers. Notice how each of those objectives is about different audiences. You have to shape your comms strategy around the audience you want to reach. What are those people reading? WSJ may excite investors, but TechCrunch drives traffic to your jobs page. And chances are your target customers aren’t reading either publication. Shape your strategy based on what you’re hoping to achieve. Press for the sake of press doesn’t work anymore, you need to be highly relevant and timely, and understand your why.
Think about your company as its own media entity.
Given the current state of press, it’s wise for companies to shift their focus to telling their own stories. There are so many ways to tell your story on channels you control - corporate and founder blogs, social media, formal press releases, podcasts, and thought leadership initiatives. You’ll be able to contextualize data, customer stories, and product wins in a way that moves your narrative forward. You’ll also be able to pressure test it to inform your earned (press) strategy. Simply put, getting good at “owned” actually helps you get “earned” editorial down the road. Reporters don’t exist to tell your story exactly as you want it to be told (that’s not their job), so having a thriving owned content operation gives you an important distribution plan when a press announcement doesn’t get picked up. Early-stage companies should think about owned content as an equally important and separate initiative to traditional PR. Simply put, it’s never been more important to own your owned story.
Take advantage of your advocates
When it comes to spreading your story on your own terms, you actually have an army already at your disposal. The investors, partners, and peers surrounding your company make up an advocate network that is too often underutilized. There’s no being bashful when it comes to getting attention on the internet. Ask, but make it an easy ask. Be explicitly clear in your guidance about what to post, when to post it, and where to link. The collective reach of this group across social media is a reliable way to amplify your story. Utilize your team in a similar way - don’t require anyone to post, but don’t be shy about asking. Having your advocates at the ready gives you options when you can’t secure earned press coverage, and they also help boost the signal and contextualize real press hits.
Be patient.
PR is not like a Facebook ad - you don’t just flip a switch and suddenly you’re looking at impressions and performance. It takes time to put a strategy in place, more time to execute it, and even more time to gauge whether it’s working. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to apply lean startup or growth hack mentality to PR. It’s a completely separate beast that takes time.
If you're interested in talking more about a PR strategy for your company, please reach out to me at jamie@fuelcapital.com.