The Truth Behind Doing Press Stuff
In StartupLand, Marketing is all about Growth Hacking, Branding, CRM or Content Marketing, forgetting about one key aspect: Public Relations. I get founders point of view: “isn’t press mostly about vanity? Does it really bring value to my business?” Really?
Yes. It does. In the long run. It increases brand awareness, facilitates inbound and outbound marketing efforts and validates that you’re active in the industry. First, ask yourself why you want to do PR and what it can bring to you. Then, don’t hesitate to spend time on it. Communication isn’t magic and you should take the time and be quiet until you exactly know what you want. They are gatekeepers: meeting with PR agencies means meeting the journalists.
PRESS ISN’T FREE, AND IT’S WORTH IT
Sometimes working with an agency is not option. A serial-entrepreneur, who founded a startup who got recently acquired is now building a bank, talks about his new startup: “As we are launching our product, we needed to adjust our communication and have external experts giving us the network for press coverage. We couldn’t do it by ourselves since we’re really focused on our business at the moment”. When communication is really strategic for your business, you cannot afford to test and learn.
Most entrepreneurs aren’t like him. Press agencies seem expensive (starting from €10k for a French launching), mostly obsolete, within big networks and far away from startup needs. But the press scene is improving as startup founders emerge with a strong need of building a press strategy to stand out.
You might feel that it’s too expensive or not adapted to your market, but agencies are evolving within startups. Press agencies are focusing on building strong relationships in order to be the point of contact for every subject, and eventually, every client. It’s a win-win relation between the journalists, willing to make money from advertising and good content and PR agencies, making money from good press coverage. And there’s a hidden truth that I’ve been told: advertising helps newspaper to survive, and that’s why it’s hard to stay independent.
Having this network in-house is almost impossible unless you’re the “big fish” in town.
CHOOSE YOUR PR AGENCY WELL, AND TAKE YOUR TIME…
When I arrived at daphni, in charge of Communication, I was asked to recommend good press agencies to the startups of our portfolio. There was a time when agencies had a sort of a monopoly for speaking, event management, and all press/media releases. But now the scene is reshaping I was incapable to recommend one specific agency. Because PR is all about passion and you can’t outsource your passion.
I’ve been asking a lot of questions to journalists on this topic. A French journalist hosting one weekly tech show, underlines the importance of passion in journalists/startup relationships “I prefer to be in direct contact with startups because press agencies are often sending mass releases without context or real angle. When founders come to me, they know my work, my way of dealing with tech subjects”. There are plenty of press agencies, but there are only a few shows or newspapers you need to be featured in.
Nevertheless, it’s not an open gate to everything: journalists can’t talk to founders or startup representatives all day long, they have an investigation job to do, and you definitely want them to find you without you asking for coverage.
If you want good media coverage, agencies should help you target shows and media formats that fit your strategy. Their key role is to call the right journalist they know on a specific matter. Do not ask for CNN if you have a SaaS company. Let them counsel the right media or format.
WITHOUT SECRET SAUCE, THERE’S NO GOOD PR
Journalists want your secret sauce and they want to have it from you and not through a press release. Fair enough. PR Agencies are having calls, emails, events with journalists all the time and you should give them content. There is nothing more helpful than sharing your “secret sauce” with your partner-in-communication-crime. It’s the way you’ll be in the spotlight.
… and since I’m pretty bullish since the beginning about PR and the key role of Press Agencies, here are some reasons NOT to hire a PR firm:
- When you are in beta version of your product, the last thing you want is to get media attention, or pay an agency who’s gonna talk about you all around the world (that’s their job :p).
- When you’re not ready to set the roles: who is speaking up, who is in charge of tech topics, who is in charge of internal communication…
- When you don’t have a decent budget. Don’t hesitate to make some tenders to make sure it’s the right budget, that’s the game.
- If you don’t have enough network to make some due diligence about the agency. Ask your investors, other co-founders, a CMO you know… Better be alone than in bad company!
- It’s not a question of channel or format but of having good and interesting content. You should give them more than a product release.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Don’t even try to harass them (through your agency or… by yourself), journalists are attracted to great content. Writing press releases is often useless (or you should be in a very old industry), don’t ask your press agency to make quantified results (such as number of media occurrences), build a press kit in which you keep record of your milestones/founders pictures/vision in case you need to… By organizing events, writing articles, producing in-house content, you should get media attention and make journalists come to you.
In a nutshell, to get press coverage you need to do exactly what you would do to find a job: build human connections and understand others’ needs (Check Willy Braun’s slideshare on this topic). Remember that journalists also have deadlines, managers, roadmaps…
At the end of the day, never forget that you have to make your business grow and agencies or communication guys have to keep good relationship with journalists. Agencies value their relationships with medias far more than any single client. They will not jeopardize a relationship with a key influencer, key journalist or blogger, just because of you. They are your strategic partner and they souldn’t listen to every wish you have.
>> Oh, and by the way, we organize an event for our portfolio founders only on 15/01 in Paris. We open the event to a few members of the community. Feel free to ask me for an invitation.<<
