Lessons learned
There are a lot of articles and documentation about how to reach a great PR strategy, but it can get very frustrating to just get general advice with no concrete actions to set up.
Following that observation, I’ve decided to write down 10 tips & tricks based on what I’ve learned so far as start-up founder, hence facing the two main PR questions of every founder :
- How do I implement my PR strategy, concretely ?
- How do I find the time and, most of all, the right timing for it ?
After two years of work and more than 100 mentions in the press, I realized that having a good PR strategy is not that complicated: it usually just requires discipline and common sense. The goal here is hence to help you develop a process that is easy to implement, efficient and that gives actual results.
1. Target and segment your PR contacts.
Start by analyzing your market segments: what kind of press covers those segments, who are the most relevant journalists and influencers there? Make a list for each segment and use those lists according to what you need to communicate. This is the very first thing to do in order to create a database of impactful press contacts and segment your content strategy accordingly.
In order to do that, read the relevant press for your business, take notes of the journalists mentioned and always work on “press intelligence” by following everything related to your market, both online and offline.
2. Don’t be shy !
It may sound a little simple or naïve, but just reach out to journalists and influencers: go drink a beer with them, go talk to them during events, and above all never forget that it’s a two-way road: don’t ask if you’re not planning to give anything in return.
Keep in mind that journalists and bloggers always need content, so if you have some interesting news or info for them, you won’t bother them.
Once you've reached out to a journalist, start by listening to what they have to say, let them express their needs before shooting everything you have to say about your company.
3. Define goals.
Think about who you want to address your message to (potential customers, investors, partners, …) and search for the best journalists and bloggers who are speaking to those groups of people to be sure to obtain the results wanted.
Even if in the end the journalist decides which content to cover, the impact is found through the people who are reading, watching or listening to your content. Define your business goals and use PR to achieve them.
4. Take advantage of “easy” content.
Still wondering what content you should be writing about to catch the eye of the press? There are a few easy and trendy topics that are pretty much always covered:
- the launch of a new product/company,
- a big round of funding,
- expansion to other countries,
- awards won.
Startups are a hot topic right now, take advantage of that! However, stay careful; some topics are hot only to you.
5. Be smart with context.
When you have none of those topics in the pipe, try thinking about what the press is going to talk about anyway, then find a way your company’s activities could be relevant in that frame and offer the journalists a different point of view.
For example, my company is active in the market of local service and puts the emphasis on proximity, therefore we had some press releases for the “Neighbor’s Day” at end of May 2014 to talk about the importance of social bounds between neighbors, according to us.
6. Sell a unique story.
When you talk to journalists or bloggers, provide them with something useful for their readers by giving different point of views, according to the journalist, on the same story. Journalists are just like you, they want to increase their reach and they can only achieve that by staying up to date with good content and fresh information.
Note that some journalists will prefer to talk about your story, others will write about you and your team, sometimes they will prefer testimonials, some fun facts, some figures, … Giving them a nice story to cover is thus essential. In other words, adapt and create uniqueness by providing specific content for the press.
7. Don’t focus on press releases.
Don’t get me wrong, do write press releases, they are essential to increase the impact of your message. I always use press releases (related to the topic I want to talk about) to give a description of my company, some examples of content, or a different point of view the journalist can use for the article.
However, a press release stays a “support document”, it doesn't’ replace the contact you are making with a journalist, whether it’s for the first time or not. Always prefer a real-life interview to a simple “copy paste” of your press release and let the journalists bring their personal touch to the information, they know their audience better than you.
8. Create resonance.
When you launch a communication / PR campaign, always think about the resonance you can create with it. If a journalist covers your topic, there is a great chance others will read about it and also want to cover it.
The more people are talking about you, the more journalists are eager to cover you; the aim here is always to develop velocity.
Exclusivity can also be part of the PR campaign launching process by creating “a bubble” around your content before actually launching your mass communication strategy.
9. Follow up.
When you get an article from a journalist, become a follow-up maniac: say thank you, it’s easy and always welcome. Also, don’t stop talking to journalists when you have nothing special to communicate, exchange with them regularly. In the end, it all comes down to the human relationship.
For example, to manage the follow up and the exchanges we have with the press and influencers, we use a specific tool that allows us to segment our list of press and contacts, but also to keep track of every exchange(even if it’s just a phone call to say hi). It helps us to remember what was the last thing we exchanged with him/her them at any time.
10. Don’t give up.
If writing content is your worst nightmare, don’t let that get in your way! Don’t spend too much time on writing the content but be creative about the different ideas and fresh content you can provide.
There are alternatives such as reaching out to a copywriter: you can find very good ones on the internet that will produce great content from your ideas. You’ll most probably pay between $50 to $500 for a one-page article (depending on the quality of the copywriter required).
Hope you enjoyed reading these tips! If so, don’t hesitate to share! However if any question remains, feel free to reach out. You can find me on Twitter, LinkedIn or through a good old email. A huge “thank you” to Charlotte Deprez who took time to help me draft this article !
