4 Simple Tips for Landing Press

Every startup seems to spend massive amounts of time and money on marketing, but few give PR the attention it deserves.

Marketing is absolutely invaluable but in today’s society consumers see hundreds, perhaps thousands, of marketing campaigns everyday and unless you have the budget of Google, it’s really hard to stand out. Press on the other hand comes from an independent source that people trust, thus they are more likely to believe it. Of course there are PR companies out they like Fifth Avenue Brands or publicize.co that can help you get press with a high price tag, but there are also some steps that you can take to get press even without an extensive network of media contacts and reporters.

Here are four simple steps to get Press for your startup:

Do your research

Reporters are busy people. They are all balancing dozens of leads, trying to find the next story. Not everybody is a good fit to write about your business. That’s why it is important for you to do your research, and find reporters who are good fits for you.

Don’t just email every single reporter you can find, be discerning, only give the story to someone who might actually write about it. This will save you time, because you won’t have so many contacts to follow up with, and more importantly you won’t be wasting the reporters time! This will make sure you have the highest chance of getting your press release in the hands of the right person.

Keep it short

The first time I tried to get press for a company I was working with, I crafted a beautiful 2 page press release with intricate designs and formatting and sent it off to the reporters I thought would pick it up. Needless to say, this didn’t get me anywhere.

Like I said before, reporters are busy people. That is why it is important to keep your press release short and concise. No more than two paragraphs and put it in the body of the email, don’t attach it.

A good press release should tell the reporter, who you are, what you are doing, and why they should care, and where to get more information.

It should be nice and short, just to pique their interest, and then link them to the press page on your website for all the info they need. The email is simply an elevator page, you’re job is to get their attention and start the conversation.

Follow up

If you haven’t noticed by now, the theme of this article is that reporters are busy; so busy, that a lot of the time they are not going to respond to your first email. This doesn’t mean they aren’t interested, it just means that you have to follow up and bump your message to the top of their inbox.

A simple message like, “ I just wanted to bump this to the top of your inbox” or something like, “I just wanted to follow up about XYZ” is perfect. Just something to keep yourself relevant. A huge portion of getting press is persistence, you just need to keep at it and stay relevant.

Not every story or scoop that you have is going to make front page news, especially in a busy news week you might get overshadowed by something Donald Trump says or another major event. Don’t be afraid to give the reporters a new story every couple weeks, keeping them up to date on new developments and constantly relating these developments to trends in the industry or other major themes that could get their attention.

Start local

Obviously everyone wants to get featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, or the Wall Street Journal, but very few people start in these kinds of publications. You have to start small, the more small time press you get, the easier it is to get into larger publications.

Often times your local paper is starved for excitement, and really interested in the next big thing coming out of your hometown. This is the ideal place to start, reporters often have fewer leads and are more interested in what you have to tell them.