A Very Simplified + Formulaic Way To Get Press For Your New Startup

I wrote a post last week that had some legs called “A Very Simplified + Formulaic Way To Raise Your Seed Round.” This week I caught up with a friend who is launching her startup soon and looking to learn the dark arts of getting press in the tech world. Having been around the block with various companies and my own, I’ve learned a thing or two about how to do this effectively.

Before we begin, a few disclaimers:

Getting Press Will Not Solve Your Problems

If you think that getting covered on TechCrunch and other outlets is going to “make” your company, you are wrong. At most it will give you your first 10,000 users (probably even less these days). Getting press definitely has its benefits but if you think it is a silver bullet, guess again. If your only customer or user acquisition strategy is to get more and more press, you will find out early on that this is not a sound strategy to build your business.

It Takes Time

Getting the right story to the right reporter is a full-time job. And it isn’t an easy one. Building relationships with reporters and being someone who they respond to, out of the thousands of pitches they receive a week, takes time. Not only that but you need to give them enough time before you actually have the news coming out to get on their calendar, get on the phone, or sit down in person to write the story. If you plan to announce your company on Wednesday and the first time you hit a reporter is Monday afternoon, and it isn’t breaking news, you’ve already lost.

Existing Is Not News

Don’t try to sell the idea of your company’s existence as news. Unless you are a previously successful entrepreneur who is starting a new company, you need to actually be launching your product to get real coverage.

Now that we’ve covered these things, let’s get to how you go about getting press for your startup.

Getting press is not that different from raising money or getting customers. You need to pitch yourself to reporters. The difference is that they care about much different things than investors or prospective customers. Investors care about how this is going to be big and grow and what the next 10 years will look like (the vision). Customers care about how this can help them, right now. Reporters care about whether the people reading their publication, blog, beat, will find this newsworthy. Newsworthy can be all encompassing of what an investor, customer cares about but it can also be something else you didn’t anticipate. Press is tricky and potentially perilous but I’m here to help you figure out how to make it work for you.

Step #0: Build Relationships With Reporters

Just as you need to build relationships with investors over time — to raise money — you need to start way before you are actually trying to get press to build relationships with reporters. You can do this by meetings them at industry events, being helpful by sending them cool companies to cover, helping them prove out leads (i.e. they heard this person left company X and joined company Y and you help them find something publicly that proves that this did or did not happen), and more.

If you become someone that a reporter comes to for help or at least views favorably, chances are when you are ready to release your company they will at a minimum take a call/meeting.

This process can take YEARS and it needs to be authentic; you need to want to help. I know I’ve been doing it since 2010 when I was starting at Aviary and I still have tons to learn and lots of people to meet.

Step #1: Figure Out What You Are Releasing And What The Stories Are

Let’s say you have some relationships already or at least have an investor or teammate that has done Step #0. The first real step is where you need to figure out two things: a) what your company is releasing, and b) what the stories are.

What Your Company Is Releasing

Okay, your startup exists; that is not news. What is it that your startup does? Why is it important? What have you built so far? Are you ready for people outside of employees, friends, and family to use the product? What parts of your product are you ready to release publicly?

Answer these questions and you’ll have a good grasp on what you plan on releasing.

The Stories

If you read any well-executed company announcement in the press they have multiple stories and angles being written. This isn’t by accident. There is the core story (i.e. Company X launches to do Y) that is the most popular picked up piece of the news. But then there are the amplification stories. Sometimes it focuses on the founder(s), if there is a unique story. Other times it focuses on the industry, if there is something notable about it. When thinking about the stories, you need to think about who you are hoping will see the announcement.

I think stories equate goals you have with getting press. The goals can be getting new users/customers, attracting investors, attracting talent (and on the flip side — retaining talent — whether you want to believe it or not your employees will see favorable coverage in the news and feel good about working there), or something else. Granted, there are better ways to accomplish these goals but press definitely can help if done correctly.

I like to do an exercise of writing up 5–10 possible stories for launches (this works for first launch as well as subsequent announcements). Once you have this and know what your company is releasing you are ready to rock and roll.

Step #2: Embargo Or Exclusive

The next question you need to ask yourself is if your announcement is better as an embargo or an exclusive. Reporters don’t like embargoes. They like to be the only person with the news. If you were a reporter you’d probably feel the same way. As a founder you want your company’s announcement to reach any and every one who is part of your target market. Exclusives can hinder that. So what can a founder do?

First off, exclusives aren’t as bad as you think. Actually — to rephrase — exclusives aren’t as bad as you think if they are done correctly. If you are going to give an exclusive you better make sure the reporter knows this and doesn’t write a throw-away article (i.e. very little substance and no feels). If you are giving an exclusive, you NEED to do everything you can to get them to do an in-depth article about you. I’m talking 500–750 words minimum. Screenshots, taking to industry folks, etc.

Second off, the best thing you can do is get your story embargoed to the few places that matter to your business and have the articles be in-depth. This will have the best results. To do this there are a few ways to go about it.

Make sure you are upfront to the reporters about it and be okay if some pass because of this. Don’t be annoying and in the first email say this is an embargo and I won’t talk to you until you agree to it. Most reporters are busy and just have a brain filter to ignore these type of emails. Unless you are breaking news, you aren’t important enough yet to be asking for embargo before talking. You will basically shoot yourself in the foot before you even begin.

The best thing you can do is just go through the process of pitching your product/company and then at the end of the conversation (phone/in-person) you give a date/time you plan to announce and they agree to that. That is basically the equivalent of an embargo. If it was an exclusive they would be more involved with choosing the date/time. If they ask for an exclusive at this point just be upfront and say this release is your first company announcement and you are looking for as much coverage as possible. Ask if they are still willing to cover it and if they aren’t, offer them an exclusive on something that is sure to come in the first 3 months.

Step #3: Figure Out The Outlet(s) That You Are Shooting To Be Covered In And Play Matchmaker

Now that you’ve figured out what you are releasing and the stories you will be pitching, it is time to figure out which publications you would like to be covered in and play matchmaker. On one side of the whiteboard put the 5–10 stories you’ve come up with, on the other side of the whiteboard put the outlets you’d like to be covered in. Then start matching them up. For example, the main story you’d like to give to TechCrunch, the profile on the founders you’d like to give to Inc, the fund-raising story you’d like to give to WSJ, the industry think-piece you’d like to pitch to Fast Company, and so on.

I like to put 1st, 2nd, and 3rd option for each outlet/story match. If you strike out with your first choice, move on to the second and then third. This gives an easy-to-follow structure and lets you track which stories are going where.

Step #4: Reach Out To Reporters And Get On The Phone Or Sit Down With Them

You’ve got all the pre-reach-out things done, it is now time to have some conversations. I like to give at least 2–3 weeks of time before a release when I begin to do reach-out or try to get proper introductions. That may seem like a lot of time but it is purposeful to give buffer room on missteps and striking out with your first choices.

So if you are ready with everything now ( i.e. October 27th) and hitting up people this week, the earliest you should launch is November 9th, 10th, or 11th.

In terms of the actual reach-out, it should be short, sweet, and pique the interest of the reporter. I would keep it to 3–5 sentences max. Ideal situation is you are already friendly with them from mastering Step #0. But if you aren’t, the next best thing is getting a warm intro from a friend or investor that is already friendly with them. Last case scenario, you reach out blindly. In all scenarios communication is short and effective.

When I say pique their interest — the goal is to get a conversation with them. This is a phone call or sit down that lets you talk about and demo your product/offering. You need to tell them what you are launching (or the story you are pitching them), why it is a big deal, and why their readership will care.

By the end of the conversation you should have a good idea whether they will cover you. If you don’t have any hunch — ask!

Step #5: Unpublished Blog Post + The Days Up To Launch

Press releases are dead. Long live the company blog post. This is more personal and helps explain what it is you are doing and why.

A good plan on getting the proper message across and actually being covered is by telling the reporter that you’ll send them the unpublished blog post, so they can use that to jolt their memory when writing about you. Reporters that cover beats often have a lot on their plate, they can’t remember everything. Even taking notes — it is difficult. Having your blog post handy helps them fill in the details as they write about it.

I like to follow up and include the unpublished blog post after the phone call or meeting. It is a good next step on the road to getting covered. If you don’t hear back after sending, it is totally okay to follow up a few days later (if you send early in the week, follow up late in the week, if you send late in the week, follow up early the following week).

Step #6: Day Of Launch

The big day is here. You’ve lined up 3–5 outlets to cover. Checking in the day of, sending logos, screenshots, links they should include, is totally appropriate. This also lets you see if they have everything they need and check to see if they’ve written the piece yet (ideally they have so it isn’t just a hatchet job of your blog post and has some personal touch to it). It is also good to have the reporters on Gchat, text, Skype, FB messenger, or following you on Twitter so if something happens last minute (i.e. your site crashes 5 minutes before launch) you can coordinate with them on what to do about it (i.e. push off 10 minutes so you can fix).

You told them you were pushing out the blog post and the launch was happening at a certain time so make sure you publish a minute or two before (in case of an issue). Tweet out a link to your blog post from your company Twitter account (i.e. this one from my company when we launched). Make sure to share all articles about you and your team on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ (good for SEO), and more.

Some Final Thoughts

Getting tech press is just one outlet for helping people discover you. There are tons of other outlets that are equally as good, if not better. Those are everything from Product Hunt, Hacker News, niche Subreddits, and more. A good list of various outlets can be found on PromoteHour.

Some reporters may not end up covering you for completely innocent reasons. Don’t get too down. Try to give them some sort of exclusive on something you held back (every good company holds back something at their first launch). Keep developing the relationship and you’ll get it the next time.

Like everything — have fun. Life is short, love what you do and know that getting press will not make your company. You and your team will.