HEY STARTUPS: WHY SHOULD JOURNALISTS CARE ABOUT YOUR STORY?

Communications and PR are among the core activities that make a business thrive. That’s a given fact that every entrepreneur is aware of. But, what distinguishes general communications from an effective strategy to spread the word? That’s the tricky point.

Luckily, our startups can count on the advice from experts in the field. Our mentors Sachar Klein, Chief Attention Officer at Hypr Agency, and Stefan Keuchel, Senior Communications Manager at Tesla Germany, shared with our teams tips on how they can develop a successful communication strategy.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO COMMUNICATE?

Communications and PR are topics closely related, but if you want to sell your story to a publisher you need to know what you want to communicate. For that is crucial to identify a good and clingy story.

1. Create a story is easy. You just need to understand what you have and what can you tell. You don’t need to have a finished product to communicate your vision. Don’t wait until the product is finished, this will never happen. Document your journey (Choose 1 to 3 important aspects of your company and build the story around them).

2. We believe in traditional media. Focus on journalists and influencers to build the reputation of the brand.

3. Build trust. Share competitor’s news — if they are cool. People will see you are not just selling but you also care about the market.

4. Care about the market. Not always is the best just to tell your story, sometimes to provoke is a good way to catch the attention if the market where you are playing is a red ocean.

WHO IS INTERESTED IN YOUR STORY?

Now you know what you want to communicate but to whom tell/sell your story?

1. Who are the most important people you want to contact? Define them by asking yourself: Who is the person/journalist I have to contact and why he/she is going to care about my startup?.

*One tip: Try to identify the top ten journalists to sell your story.

2. Build a relationship with the journalist. Answer their tweets, posts, follow them on social media so that they will notice you and can become interested in listening to your story.

Journalists have a lot of people going after them. Make your talk easy and original. Send them a unique approach, understand what are they doing and why is your story interesting for them. BUT don’t contact them if your story isn’t strong enough.

3. Talk to them. Personal presence is always better, ask for a 15 minutes coffee. When talking with a journalist listen always first, ask what they do and what they like. It doesn’t matter if is not related to your topic. Keep in mind and continue talking with them to share good information that you’ve read and may be interesting for them. They will see that you care and It makes a difference. Approach them saying I have a new interesting product and you will be the first one in the world to test it.

Extra Tips:

• Timing is everything in PR. Journalists care about time. Why should we care now and not tomorrow?
• Journalists need good pictures with your story.
• Make new content every day and keep in mind the old content.