Boostrapped startups need to be creative when it comes to public relations and media coverage. There are numerous benefits when it comes to getting your startup covered or mentioned in high-authority articles and publications, including:
- Brand visibility and reputation: Your business gets recognized by a wider range of audience. You are projected as a major player or a thought leader when you get covered consistently over a period of time.
- Customer acquisition: Getting your brand mentioned by media outlets can lead to more traffic to your website and social media accounts, boosting your customer acquisition strategy.
- Investor and partnering opportunities: Coverage in high profile publications helps attract partners, vendors and investors to your company, without having to hunt them yourself.
- Recruitment: Successful teams create successful startups, and media exposure attracts more talent.
Use these four public relations tips to amp up your startup’s exposure in the media.
#1. Identify media outlets and journalists covering stories similar to yours
Writing a well-thought out pitch takes time. As a founder or a core team member, there are a gazillion things that need your attention.
Instead of pitching to anyone and everyone, identify the outlets that are your top choices. Only go after those publications you really want to get featured in.
Nobody ever made it to the top by being in second place.
Take out time to identify the journalists or contributors who write for these outlets: read their articles, follow them on social media and engage with their work.
This exercise helps to identify the person most likely to be interested in your pitch. Write a pitch specifically targeted to them. If you are submitting the pitch through the general tips section, be sure to direct your pitch to the specific individual.
Also, proofread the pitch before shooting it across. If you send a request to someone at Tech Crunch saying how much you love reading Venture Beat, you are blacklisting yourself.
Related: Get Press for Your Startup with These 7 Bulletproof Steps
#2. Use content and visuals as a bait
Journalists get hundreds of pitches daily. Unfortunately, every startup getting covered is impossible.
To increase your chances of standing out, a better idea is to have a well-thought out piece of content prepared as a pitch. For example, an infographic. You’ll be able to gain much more attention if you could tell your story visually instead of just through text.
Have the founders worked at the best companies? Did you prepare an industry report? Did you raise funds through a great crowdfunding campaign? Tell your story visually as an infographic and attach it with your pitch. If the journalist covers your story, this will introduce your startup to a much wider audience because visual content is more engaging than plain text.
#3. Craft a newsworthy and interesting pitch
Before sharing the pitch with a journalist, ask yourself, is your angle interesting? Craft it in a way it relates to the news normally published by the website.
For example, if you are a graphic design marketplace and you are targeting a media outlet which normally covers social media news, you could reach out to them explaining how you used social media to acquire your first 2,000 paid users.
To get featured in practically any publication, all you require is a little creativity.
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#4. Include statistics and data
Take a look at these statements:
- We just launched our content curation platform as an app for users to browse through the products on the go.
- Our newly launched content curation app received 3,155,404 downloads in just five days.
- After a successful crowdfunding campaign, we are finally bringing our product to the market.
- After raising $1.5 million through a very successful crowdfunding campaign, 3X times our initial goal – we are bringing our product to the market.
The ones containing hard data command attention.
If your pitch merely sounds like a press release, don’t expect a response from anyone. Short, packed with attention grabbing insights gain attention, always. If you can explain your startup and grab the writer’s attention in a few seconds, chances of them replying back are greatly increased.
How did you generate PR for your startup? Please share your strategies in the comments section below.
