Presentation given at SVE and GSVLabs.

1. How to Get Reporters to
Cover Your Startup
Andrea Sharfin Friedenson
@asharfin

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About Me

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Myth #1
PR comes from above for no
discernable reason

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Myth #2
Someone else needs to punch your
ticket. Press can be scary! But you don’
t need to pay to play.

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Reality
It’s not about divine intervention, or
how much you spend. You can do a lot
of this with a solid framework and a lot
of heavy lifting.

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You GOT this.
Purpose: Why are you considering outreach?
Audience: Who are you targeting?
Content: What is your story?
Execution: Which reporters, when and how?

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Purpose
What is the purpose of your marketing
activities? The purpose of marketing is
to influence perception and action.
There are cases where PR is not the
best tool to do that. But let’s talk about
the cases where PR can be the best
tool.

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What Are You Trying to Achieve?
Press is good for things that require a “broad and shallow” approach:
● raising money
● establishing cred among sales prospects and talent you want to
recruit (first thing they do is google you)
● creating awareness among an audience who you may not want to
take immediate action.
PR is NOT good for closing deals, when a very small number of people
need a lot of information about you. Use other channels (sales materials,
etc.) for that!

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Audience
Segment your audience! It’s unlikely that any one PR story is going to hit
every single person you want to reach.
Your effort and time are finite resources that are much better spent on
defining and prioritizing who are you need to get in front of first.
For instance, if you want to raise a round soon, talking about your
momentum in TechCrunch is a great positive signal for an investor.

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Content
Two aspects to creating PR content:
● Groundwork
● Tactical stories

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Figure Out The Components of Your Brand Story
Created by Caryn Marooney, Head of Tech Communications, Facebook

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Then Communicate Them in Creative Ways
Tagline Stunt “Vungle and Kamcord
announce partnership for
mobile video ad platform”
Attributes Trend “Video ad platform Vungle
offers Bitcoin payment option”
Differentiators
In Action Flag-waving & Funding “Vungle reaches 2 billion video
views milestone; raises $6.5
MM Series A to help apps
monetize beautifully”

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Story Time!
You don’t want to be in the news just once, so put together a publicity calendar.
Line your stories up with other news that might be happening at the same time,
to make sure writers will have the time to cover you.
DO NOT ANNOUNCE during otherwise big news days: WWDC, GOOGLE I/O,
FB/GOOGLE/ANYONE’S EARNINGS

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Execution
Everything previously has been very strategic. We’re about
to get SUPER tactical.

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A Dead-Simple Workback Plan
-3 Weeks Write press release
Identify reporters and connections
Create and gather assets
Ask for customer quotes
Put holds on calendars
Write pitch emails
Write talking points (3)
-2 Weeks Send pitch emails
Schedule briefings
Write social media content
-1 Week Hold briefings
Follow up
Launch Day Monitor stories
Put release on your blog
Have everyone tweet/share
Day After Sleep in
Send nice thank-yous
Exhale
Get ready to do it again!

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What If I Don’t Know Anyone?
Go to events where reporters are
likely to congregate.
TC Disrupt, big industry events like
GDC, etc. Journalists will be
anywhere large companies are

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In Conclusion...
Purpose: Why are you considering outreach?
Audience: Who are you targeting?
Content: What is your story?
Execution: Which reporters, when and how?

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Thank you!
Email: andreafriedenson@gmail.com
Twitter: @asharfin

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Resources

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Books/Articles
● Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others
Die
● The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
● Influence (Collins Business Essentials)
● The Best PR Advice You’ve Never Heard

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Samples
● Publicity Calendar
● Pitch Email
● Press Release