1.
Lessons I learned after helping 200+ startups with PR
Ricky Yean, CEO
ricky@prx.co
http://www.prx.co/

2.
Contents
1. Who am I?
2. What is PR?
3. Do I need PR?
4. PR goals for startups
5. How the media works
6. How do journalists pick stories?
7. How do journalists find stories?
8. What makes for a good story?
9. How can you do your own PR effectively?
10. Example pitch and journalist responses
11. Embargo
12. Exclusive
13. What happens if a journalist is interested in
your story?
14. Timing
15. A note about hardware startups
16. A note about crowdfunding campaigns
17. The truth about press releases
18. How to think about PR for your startup?

3.
Who am I?
- Ricky Yean, Stanford Grad - Go Cardinal!
- Founded startups backed by Y Combinator, StartX,
and 500 Startups
- Grew SaaS business from 0 to 250k users and 0 to
$1M in ARR completely through media coverage
- Founded PRX.co in January 2016, which helped over 200
startups with PR
- Most notable campaign: the “Bible Emoji”, a client
translated the bible into emoji. We helped them
receive coverage from hundreds of media outlets
including the New York Times, CNN, Good Morning
America, BuzzFeed, and NPR

4.
Our Clients

5.
What is PR?
- PR agency services now include:
- Advertising
- Content Marketing
- Social Media Management
- Media Relations
- The “bread-and-butter” of PR service is Media
Relations, or helping clients “pitch” their stories
to members of the media
“Public relations (PR) is
the practice of managing
the spread of information
between an individual or
an organization and the
public”
- Wikipedia

6.
Do I need PR?
- Startups need PR to compete with big companies
because big companies can easily outspend
startups on advertising
- If you are investing in advertising campaigns,
email marketing, blogging and social media tools,
then you should consider PR as alternative
means of reaching your audience
- Keep in mind: PR has potentially greater reach
BUT with significantly less control
You wouldn’t hire a
salesperson to go after
customers if you didn’t
have a product.
Likewise, you shouldn’t
hire PR to go after the
media if you don’t have a
story.

7.
PR Goals for Startups
- Gain Credibility / Awareness
- Establish thought leadership
- Create hype / Strategic for Stakeholders / Recruiting
- Improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Drive traffic, leads, downloads, sign-ups
- Facilitate sales conversations
- Collect media coverage to support native ad
campaign
- Build “Air cover” for other initiatives
- Boost Ego :)

8.
How the media works
- The media’s business model: Make
Content People Want
- “Journalism” in the traditional sense is
only part of media:
- Fox News and MSNBC are not
objective
- BuzzFeed publishes investigative
pieces yet also makes “listicles”

9.
How the media works
- Journalists are working under extreme pressures due to a failing business model
- Business Insider writers produce 5 posts a day and one million unique visitors
a month
- BuzzFeed writers have salary caps of $40K
- The industry churns out massive amounts of content:
- Washington Post: 500 articles/day
- New York Times: 230 articles/day
- BuzzFeed: 222 articles/day

10.
How the media works
- Newsrooms are significantly
down-sizing due to business model
pressures
- In 2014, there were only 32,900
full-time staff journalists, down
from 55,000 in 2006
- Articles are increasingly written by
freelance writers and contributors,
who are either not compensated
or paid a low rate of $20 to $40
per article, sometimes with traffic
incentives

11.
How the media works
- The media is no longer just newspapers, TV, radio, or big online media sites
- Don’t forget blogs, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Twitter, etc.
- Influence is shifting constantly
- Traditional brands don’t always matter
- Remember Gigaom? Do you know MKBHD?

12.
Factors that influence what stories a journalist (or the editor) decides to cover:
How journalists pick stories
- News cycle/what’s going on in the
world that need to be prioritized
- Editor’s assignment/newsroom
priorities
- Timeliness of your story
- Personal interest or expertise
- Assigned “beat”/coverage domain
- Viral potential of your story
- Holidays/seasons/memes
- If you’re an early-stage company worth
knowing for access to even better
stories in the future
- How fast/easy is it to write a good
article about you
- Does it help the journalist’s career
trajectory?

13.
- Sources include:
- Twitter
- Niche community sites (e.g. reddit/Hacker News/Product Hunt)
- RSS reader of niche blogs/sites
- Relationships with industry sources, PR agents, etc.
- Other journalists
- Personal ideas
- Editor’s assignment
- Email inbox
How journalist find stories

14.
What makes a good story?
- Timeliness: Why now?
- Prominence: Does it involve anyone that matters to me?
- Impact/Consequence: Why does it matter to me?
- Surprising: Tell me something I don’t know
- Proximity: Is it near me?
- Conflict: Does it take a stand on an issue?
- Human Interest: Will people want to read it?

15.
What’s “good” is in the eye of the beholder

16.
What’s “good” is in the eye of the beholder

17.
1) Have a good story
- Ask impartial friends if they would click on your potential headline
2) Set reasonable expectations based on the quality of your story
3) Research and identify the right journalists to pitch:
- Read what they write
- Follow them on Twitter
- Look at their job titles and bios
- Know their work and education history
4) See if you know anyone journalists trust
- For example, partners at Y Combinator and 500 Startups serve as reliable
filters for tech reporters
How can you do your own PR effectively?

18.
5) Send a short pitch email
- Write a catchy, descriptive subject line, but don’t embellish - stay credible
- Outline your story in 3 to 5 sentences using simple language
- Include well-known stakeholders, metrics, and data to show credibility
- Personalize the email, explaining why it’s relevant to the journalist
- Let them know the nature of the pitch - if it’s an “embargo” or an
“exclusive”, be clear about what is “under embargo” and what specifically is
“exclusive”
6) Follow up twice
- Journalists get hundreds of emails a day
- You’re more likely to get a response if you follow up
- At PRX, we recommend two follow-ups
How can you do your own PR effectively?

19.
7) Make life easier for journalists
- Make a media brief / kit so they have all the information they need should
they choose to work on your story
- Answer questions promptly, making yourself available to do phone
interviews or visit journalists with your product
- Because journalists pursue multiple story leads simultaneously, keep
pushing for your idea to make your story fresh on their minds and increase
your chances at turning interest into published articles
- Journalists need your help too - help them stand out from their peers by
providing an infographic or interesting photo for them to include in the
article
How can you do your own PR effectively?

20.
8) Manage your expectations
- Even if a journalist arranges an in-person interview with you, there is no guarantee
that the article will be written at your preferred time frame, or even written at all
- At PRX, we’ve seen some articles published the same day but also as long as 6
months after its interview
How can you do your own PR effectively?

21.
Example of a pitch

22.
What to expect from pitch: Nothing or email to pass

23.
What to expect from pitch: Interview request

24.
What to expect from pitch: Questions

25.
What to expect from pitch: Fit with something else

26.
Embargoes
- Embargoes are a “gentleman’s agreement” to not publish your story until an
agreed time
- Journalists generally don’t like it and may not a lot of spend time on it
because their article is not going to be differentiated from other outlets’
- Embargoes are appropriate if you have:
- A high-value story where multiple journalist will want to be “first” to publish it
- A real deadline, such as an app launch date or a surprise performance
- Note that an embargo DOES NOT mean:
- The journalist will like or publish your story
- The journalist will “play ball” - Michael Arrington doesn’t honor embargoes
and some break embargoes in order to get a jump on others to get more
traffic - always ask for their agreement first!

27.
Exclusives
- Exclusives means you are only offering your story to one journalist
- Journalists love exclusives - it’s their chance to stand out or get their big “break”
- Exclusives are appropriate if you want:
- to increase the perceived value of your story
- a particular journalist to write your story
- the journalist to spend extra time on your story and do a good job
- How to execute an exclusive:
- Form a list of writers sorted by preference
- Go down the list, contacting them one-by-one, giving each a deadline to agree to
work on your exclusive - you can always grant a time extension
- At PRX, we give them 24 hours

28.
Exclusives
- Things to prepare for:
- Journalists might be skeptical - if your story is so good, why are you only offering it
to me?
- Be clear about which information is exclusive and which isn’t
- Communicate if and when you will be publishing a blog post, press release or
pitching other people
- Your fate will still be tied to the journalist’s schedule - even with an exclusive, the
journalist may hold the story for a long time or never publish it

29.
What happens if a journalist is interested in your story?
- Interest does not necessarily mean coverage - sometimes journalists are just curious
- To increase your chance at closing journalists, offer them something to help them stand
out from their competition by offering them exclusive angles.
Journalist Josh Constine Business Insider
Journalist
SF Chronicle
Journalist
BuzzFeed
Journalist
Exclusive angle
to help close
Offer a quote or
an interview with
your VC investor
Personal story
about how we
lived in a van to
save money
during 500
Offer data about
SF bike traffic
collected by our
product
Offer an
explainer video
and an animated
GIF

30.
Timing
- Unless you’ve arranged an embargo with journalists, it’s difficult to guarantee
media interest at the time you want it
- In our experience, the time between initial pitch to a published article usually
takes 1 to 3 weeks after pitching to see coverage, but we’ve seen it take as long
as 6 months!
- Don’t engage a journalist too early - start pitching 1 to 2 weeks before your ideal
coverage date
- Journalists don’t work with long time horizons unless they’re working on a long
investigative or analytical piece

31.
A note about hardware startups
- If your product is physical in nature, journalists would want time to try and play
with it. Add 2–4 weeks of shipping and trial time to your plans.
- If you don’t have units available for shipping, consider scheduling a trip with your
prototype or hosting an event for local reporters.

32.
A note about crowdfunding campaigns
- If you are planning to pitch a crowdfunding campaign, many media outlets have
policies are in place to NOT cover crowdfunding campaigns
- Many media outlets have experienced being “burned” in the past when
campaigns flame out or when products don’t ship
- Still try - there are always exceptions, especially if you have already blown
through your funding goal or have a campaign video containing meme or viral
potential

33.
Press Releases
- Truths
- Makes your announcement look “official”
- It satisfies regulations of the SEC
- For public companies, Regulation FD requires a certain level of public
disclosure and a press release technically makes you compliant

34.
Press Releases
- Myths
- It has SEO value
- Google Panda 4.0 significantly reduced the SEO value in 2014
- Press releases are required to have a “rel=nofollow”, including the
ones that get syndicated to sites like Yahoo Finance
- You will receive media coverage
- Most journalists don’t read press releases unless they’re from big
important companies
- For everyone else, the only gating factor for distributing a press
release is $$, which is not a strong signal for quality

35.
Press Releases
- Myths
- You get syndicated to major media outlets
- This is mostly a scam
- Here’s one founder’s account after paying for the highest tier to
distribute a press release through PRWeb
- Here is a report from PRNewswire you can download to see that you
don’t really get syndicated and really no one reads them

36.
Paid Contributor Posts
- There is a market of contributors who have access to the CMS of various
publications and offer to write about you or post your story for a price
- PRX is not affiliated with this marketplace and does NOT help with this, but I’ve
attached a sample email and price list for you to get a sense of the market rate

37.
How to think about PR for your startup?
“PR is responsible for outcomes beyond its control”
- Chris Nicholson
Co-Founder of Skymind
10+ years as Reporter at Bloomberg, New
York Times, etc
Former PR @ FutureAdvisor

38.
How to think about PR for your startup?
- Don’t spend too much time on media outreach yourself because the outcome is
hard to predict
- Getting to know journalists feels gratifying, especially when you get some
coverage from it, but it’s more transactional than you’d like think
- If you don’t have a great story, the best relationships won’t get you anywhere
- Focus your time on making your company consistently story-worthy
- Don’t pay excessive amount of $$ for outside PR help
- PR agencies charge $5 to 35k/month with a 4 to 12-month commitment
- If you are paying <$20k a month, you are still the smallest client on their
roster, and they may spend as little time with you as possible

39.
How to think about PR for your startup?
- Don’t fall for the relationships trap - most agencies claim to have “relationships”
with the media after just one email exchange with a writer
- Seasoned PR partners are more likely to have strong relationships, but you have
to make sure they are comfortable selling your story and using their “social
capital” because the relationships they have are built on their ability to act as
reliable quality filters
- Agencies tend to oversell their ability to get you media coverage by citing past
successes
- Every story is different, so past success does not predict future performance
- Instead, look for honest effort, transparency, and accountability instead and
be as helpful as you can in making your story more appealing

40.
- Don’t rely on PR to save your company
- With a process in place, you can make PR more predictable
- Even if you successfully get coverage, depending on how the article is written,
whether or not a link is prominent, and how well the audience resonates with the
article, the impact will vary
- You should also evaluate PR’s ROI in terms of giving you credibility, SEO, sales
lift, and how it could dovetail with your content marketing, sales, hiring and
fundraising strategy
- Be clear about your goals: if you want credibility, don’t be disappointed when
TechCrunch or the NYTimes fails to drive traffic
How to think about PR for your startup?

41.
What journalists think about PRX

42.
Contact me
- Feel free to contact me with any questions about PR at ricky@prx.co
- If you’re planning to DYI or go the agency route for your startup’s PR campaigns,
consider PRX.co as an affordable, accountable alternative

43.
Thanks!
Ricky Yean
ricky@prx.co
http://www.prx.co/