5 Startup PR Fails - And How to Avoid Them
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Jonathan Greechan describes various startup PR failures, explaining what can go wrong and how to fix it. He speaks from his vast experience in the startup world and provides key knowledge from which any new founder would benefit. To learn more from the Founder Institute, check out this awesome new blog post on generating startup PR traction: http://fi.co/posts/21501
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5 Startup PR Fails - And How to Avoid Them
- 1. http://fi.co | @founding 5 Startup PR Fails Jonathan Greechan, Co-Founder, Founder Institute
- 2. http://fi.co | @founding .. and how to fix them! Jonathan Greechan, Co-Founder, Founder Institute
- 3. http://fi.co | @founding Who am I? v.01: Intern --> Marketing Lead, Game Trust • 10mm+ players, Billboard Award Winning Game Producer • Raised $16mm, Acquired by RealNetworks (2007) v.02: Co-Led Product on Real’s Community Game Platform v.03: Launched TheFunded.com, Founder Showcase – < $1,000 paid marketing v.04: Co-Founder, Founder Institute
- 4. http://fi.co | @founding Before we get started… What is the most important thing for startup founders to focus on?
- 5. http://fi.co | @founding Avoid the “Product Fallacy” Product is not king. TRACTION IS.
- 6. http://fi.co | @founding Don’t be this guy
- 7. http://fi.co | @founding Try lots of different things
- 8. http://fi.co | @founding 5 Startup PR Fails 1. “I’ll just Outsource It” 2. Neglect the Basics 3. Start PR Too Late 4. No Story 5. No Strategy
- 9. http://fi.co | @founding Fail #1: “I’ll Outsource PR” • No seed-stage startup should ever outsource PR • >$5k/mo, 6/mo min • No reduction in the Founder’s
- 10. http://fi.co | @founding 1.1: “I’ll Do it Myself”* • Early PR needs to be Founder/ CEO driven • Early PR firms are only efficient when you have inbound/ need training
- 11. http://fi.co | @founding Fail #2: Neglect the Basics Stop making it so hard to promote you!
- 12. http://fi.co | @founding 2.1: Help Them Help You* Easily found on your site: 1.1 Sentence Description 2.Clear positioning in your competitive landscape Required Reading: FI.co/posts/504
- 13. http://fi.co | @founding Fail #3: Start Too Late “Hello, my name is… we launch on Monday.”
- 14. http://fi.co | @founding 3.1. PR is NOT a “One-Off” Get Started Today: 1.Find the storytellers 2.Learn the narrative 3. Contribute to the narrative
- 15. http://fi.co | @founding 3.2: Find the Storytellers • You don’t pitch publications - you pitch people • Who are the storytellers? • Learn about them on Twitter • Start engaging!
- 16. http://fi.co | @founding 3.3: Tools to Find Them
- 17. http://fi.co | @founding 3.4: Tools to Find Them (& Engage)
- 18. http://fi.co | @founding 3.5: Contribute to the Narrative
- 19. http://fi.co | @founding 3.5: No Niche is Too Small! • Devote a few hours a week to documenting your learnings • Be opinionative • Every subject has an expert
- 20. http://fi.co | @founding 3.6: Share Data
- 21. http://fi.co | @founding 3.7: Curate
- 22. http://fi.co | @founding 3.8: Be Opportunistic*
- 23. http://fi.co | @founding Fail #4: No Basic Planning • Launching in the press is not a rite of passage • Press is not a tool for idea validation, MVP testing, or product feedback
- 24. http://fi.co | @founding 4. Basic Planning* • What is your goal? – “Announcing our X”, “Spreading the word” are NOT GOALS. – Goals: Early adopters? Investment? Recruitment? Mainstream adoption? • Who is your target? • What is your story?
- 25. http://fi.co | @founding Fail #5: No Story • You launching is not a story • ANAS (Advertisement, Not a Story)
- 26. http://fi.co | @founding Don’t Drink Your Own Kool Aid • Your baby is not special • How do you make other people care? • Build a story.
- 27. http://fi.co | @founding 5.1. Build a Meaningful Story Build a (1)meaningful story where your company (2)plays an important role.
- 28. http://fi.co | @founding 5.1. Build a Meaningful Story Build a (1)meaningful story where your company (2)plays an important role.
- 29. http://fi.co | @founding Six Story Types 1. Drama 2. A Trend 3. People 4. Purpose 5. Traction 6. Unique Insight
- 30. http://fi.co | @founding Story Type 1: Drama We like Drama 1. Good vs. Evil 2. David vs. Goliath 3. Evolution (X for Y) 4. Controversy
- 31. http://fi.co | @founding Story Type 2: A Trend Pitch a trend, not a company – Don’t start with “I”, “my”, “we”, “our” – Start with “the”, “today”, “there”
- 32. http://fi.co | @founding Story Type 3: People People (the “who”) are more interesting than companies (the “what”) – Your story – Your customer’s
- 33. http://fi.co | @founding Story Type 4: Purpose The mission (the “why”) is more interesting than the company (the “what”) – The motivation – The societal benefit
- 34. http://fi.co | @founding Story Type 5: Validation/ Traction Enough Said…
- 35. http://fi.co | @founding Story Type 6: Unique Insight Create Relevancy – Data, Data, Data – Counterpoint – Controversy wins EM
- 36. http://fi.co | @founding But Wait! Gut Check • Journalists wade through BS all day • Don’t get caught manufacturing news
- 37. http://fi.co | @founding Appendix: The Pitch REQUIRED READING: FI.co/guides/93 • Keep it simple - just a few sentences • Offer an exclusive • Take it step by step • Get them on the phone
- 38. http://fi.co | @founding “If I leave you with ONE thing…” Advertising is bought. PR IS EARNED. You need to start EARNING it NOW.
- 39. http://fi.co | @founding Jonathan Greechan Co-Founder, Founder Institute Producer, Founder Showcase Twitter/ Insta: @jonnystartup FB/ Linked: jonathan.greechan Thanks!
- 40. http://fi.co | @founding PR 101 Workshop Everyone has an angle, let’s find yours! 1. Define Your Goal 2. Identify Your Targets 3. Craft a Story
Editor's Notes
- Moral of the story is, I am a scrappy marketer, and I have found inbound marketing, content marketing, and press to be the most effective methods. Today I will speak to you about press
- Product, product, product Just build a great product and people will come But, if you think about it, how many mediocre or crappy products do you use every day? (for example, Skype, Twitter) Now I’m not saying you should create crappy products. Product is extremely important. What I am saying it that you need to understand that…
- Product does not trump everything else. Traction does. And a great product does not guarantee you traction. Being successful requires a balance between building a great product and figuring out ways to generate traction and get the word out, or your product will be a ghosttown There are many different ways to do it
- “The number one reason we pass on entrepreneurs we’d otherwise back is their focusing on product to the exclusion of everything else” – Mark Andreessen
- Try a lot of things – NOT THE OBVIOUS ONES Law of shitty click-throughs - you need to do a LOT of testing PR is one way that *might* work for you
- A seed-stage startup cannot outsource PR, period Don Draper will cost you at least $5k per month, it’ll take 3 months before he’s useful, and even then press will want to talk to the founder When your company is small, they are gonna want to talk to the founder anyway
- As a founder you are the company, you need to be intimately involved in PR, it can come to shape how people see your company Unless you are flooded with press requests, or you are in a position where PR firms are recruiting you, then you don’t need a PR firm Intern – to build lists, track social media, etc, can be useful – but not for outreach
- My marketing team is highly incentivized to find interesting grads and promote them, but it is very hard Most startups make it incredibly hard to promote them (without knowing it) Here’s why – your website says things like, “We’re democratizing X”, “changing the shape of Y” When somebody wants to just look at your site quickly and see who you are, they can’t
- For example, FI: The Founder Institute is the world’s largest entrepreneur training & startup launch program, Pinterest is a website that makes it easy for people to share and collect stories on the topics they love - If you don’t do it, they will do it for you, and you might not like what they create! 2. Positioning We don’t like things we don’t understand Provide context/ name your competitor Or make it clear (Unlike others, who A, B, C, we X, Y, Z) 3. Logo & Art Package Most of the time our team has to do a Google image search High res, transparent pngs Headshots, screenshots of coolest features
- PR is not a one-off exercise. It starts NOW. Oh, well we set an internal goal of Monday and the press release is launching on Monday…
- Get started TODAY by..
- You don’t pitch TechCrunch – you pitch a journalist at TechCrunch Journalists are all about their personal brands They are frequently switching publications, and guest contributing to multiple publications, and their Twitter following is their currency You have access to them on Twitter like never before You can see what they’re interested in
- You can “Google News” searches for keywords and competitors Search those keywords on the search boxes of your target publications Use Followerwonk, a free tool
- Hootsuite is the best free product my team uses outside of Gmail Create “streams” based on journalists, keywords, etc. Once you can understand the narrative..
- No more gatekeepers Everyone is a publisher The TMZ-ification of online media This is an unprecedented opportunity to publish and gain thought leadership!
- and that subject can always expand Subermetrics – baseball – talking about how scouting reports are being stolen, the CEO of a security company
- First way to create great content Data or unique insights based on your research is often a good place to get started Canva, Upwork
- Second way is curation - On Hootsuite we saw a never ending stream of questions about “what the startup events in Bangalore”, “who are the startup lawyers here”, etc etc. So we created the Startup Ecosystem Canvas About $50 to an Upwork outsourcer, 2-3 hours of marketing time
- Need more examples
- Getting the word out
- - Who is your target should depend on what you’re goal is – if you’re looking for funding, maybe Venturebeat or something like that, but if you’re looking for traction, maybe it’s Buzzfeed or Mashable..
- The order here is very intentional..
- The order here is very intentional..
- Don’t say “My company…”, “We are building something”.. Say “Today there are a lot of …, but we think…” The Oracle – notoriety for many journalists comes from being the first to cover a company, a story, or a trend – help them see how covering you will do that!
- - Helping people is a universal story
- - Helping people is a universal story
- The goal of each email is to get another email Tweet them after sending the email (when they’re active) Goal is to get them on the phone (they’re nice people – get that connection!)