Marketing & PR for Startups

MARKETING & PR
FOR STARTUPS
Courtney Boyd Myers
Director of Audience Development, General Assembly

Tuesday, April 16, 13

INTRODUCTION 2

COURTNEY BOYD MYERS
DIRECTOR OF AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT,
GENERAL ASSEMBLY EUROPE
‣ Member of #10’s Tech City Advisory Group
‣ Mentor at BBC WorldWideLabs, Ignite100
‣ Recovering Technology Journalist
‣ The Next Web, The Huffington Post, Forbes
‣ Community Member of Sandbox, Summit Series & ICE
‣ @CBM


AGENDA 3

‣ Mission, Vision + Values
‣ Branding, Design + Messaging
‣ Traditional vs. Inside Out Marketing
‣ Social Media
‣ Analytics + Tools
‣ PR

‣ Relationships, Relationships, Relationships
‣Q &A


MARKETING & PR FOR STARTUPS 4

MISSION, VISION + VALUES
‣Vision: The company’s long-term, aspirational business goals. What's
the change you want to make in the world?

‣Mission: The company’s purpose and reason for being. What are the
big ﬁrst steps to make that change?

‣Values: How will you make those choices, changes and ﬁrst steps?

Source


MISSION VS. VISION EXAMPLES
‣Fitocracy

‣ Vision: create a world where ﬁtness is possible for anyone
‣ Mission: empower everyone to reach their next level of health & ﬁtness

‣One Fine Stay
‣ Vision: Become the world’s largest network of “unhotels”
‣ Mission: Provide quality sensitive travelers with a “live like a local”
experience while taking care of the home for homeowners.


GA’S MISSION
We empower individuals to ﬁnd purpose and meaning in their work in the context
of a global community inspired by the entrepreneurial experience.

We provide direct instruction from top practitioners and engender a culture of
collaboration and mutual support.

We provide multiple touch points to engage with our content and community—
which in aggregate form an iconic and aspirational brand.

We offer robust educational programs to build competency in Technology, Design,
and Entrepreneurship.



“Many companies try to dive into driving
awareness for their product or service
before they ﬁgure out who they are, what
they stand for, and what they are driving
for. At Eventbrite, we set out 6 years ago
to democratize the ticketing industry
through innovative products and top
notch support. The great news is that
through all the growth we’ve had – in
customers and in company size – these
are still our primary areas of focus.”
-JULIA HARTZ, CO-FOUNDER OF
EVENTBRITE



BRANDING EXAMPLES



BRANDING
EXAMPLES



MESSAGING
It’s is the one thing you want to tell people about your
startup.

-It needs to be compelling (NO BS!)Text different from
and
your competition.

Source


MESSAGING
It’s is the one thing you want to tell people about your
startup.

-It needs to be compelling (NO BS!)Text different from
and
Text
your competition.

A fun online world where kids can adopt their very
own monster, go on adventures, play games, solve
puzzles, be creative, and communicate with their
friends.

Source


Text
Text

Source


MESSAGING FOR A TWO-SIDED MARKET



WHY MESSAGING?
‣ According to the NY
Times, people are
exposed to 5,000+
marketing messages each
day. With new platforms
and screens in front of
our faces, our attention
spans are only getting
worse.


MARKETING & PR FOR STARTUPS & PR FOR STARTUPS 15

STARTUP MARKETING
If you are a marketer working at a startup, today you might
be strategizing about a new campaign, and tomorrow you’ll
have to go open Adobe Illustrator and change the copy on a
ﬂyer that you’ll send to be printed at Staples later. In the
‣L
morning of the next day you might be trying get ahold of the
editor of the lifestyle section of the Seattle Times and in the
afternoon you are creating 7 ad variations for a Google
Adwords campaign, and that same night you and the CEO will
be having dinner with the VP of Marketing of a large
consumer company and you’ll be discussing a two-year
strategy roadmap and bringing product vision ideas back to
the team the next morning.

-Marcelo Calbucci, the co-founder & CTO of EveryMove

MARKETING & PR FOR STARTUPS & PR FOR STARTUPS 16

“TRADITIONAL” MARKETING

‣L



INSIDE-OUT MARKETING EXAMPLES
‣Your

actions
speak
louder than
words.



PARTNER MARKETING
>Tactics

•Findnon-competitive partners with large
complementary audiences

•Establish what a mutual win will look like

>Methods

•”Swaps” - Dedicated Email Campaigns
•Partner Events - Breakfasts, Happy hours,
sweepstakes



PRODUCT AS MARKETING
• Hotmail’s growth was almost entirely due to a “Get your free email at
Hotmail” sentence at the bottom of every email.

• Airbnb reverse-engineered Craigslist to let users post listings
automatically despite no public Craigslist API.

• Allowing users to embed videos was key to the success of YouTube
and Vimeo.

• Slideshare included a plain-text link in their embed code, driving traffic
back to their site to get an SEO boost to boot.

• Dropbox incentivized referrals by giving free extra storage space – a
strategy they claim accounted for 60% of their growth. Source


GROWTH HACKING

Source


CONTENT MARKETING
• Content marketing is a cost effective, smart and scalable way
to acquire customers
• Content should include educational, analytical industry-related
blog posts mixed with fun, viral content like infographics
• Content marketing can be easily enhanced with organic search
traffic and social media marketing
• Remember to capture as many email addresses as possible!

• Don’t have time? Try Contently, Elance and Interns!
• Got a budget? Try NewsCred



SOCIAL MEDIA
>Facebook
>Twitter
>Pinterest
>Tumblr
>LinkedIn
>Foursquare
>YouTube
>Instagram...and more.


BEST PRACTICES
> Improve your inbound
>Make more original content
>Curate other people’s content - Like, Share and RT
>ENGAGE!- Answer questions, tweets, comments, etc.
>Be opinionated
>Throw a Party (Get to know people IRL ﬁrst)

>Make your details public + up to date

>Get off social media!



PINTEREST - GUESS WHOSE PAGE THIS IS?



INSTAGRAM



YOUTUBE

-Viewed more than 7 million times
-instantly went viral + jointly conveyed the brand personality and the beneﬁts of the service deﬅly.



ANALYTICS + OTHER TOOLS
>Google Analytics,
Google AdWords

>Wufoo, PunchTab

>Shopify, Goodsie

>Hootsuite, Buffer

LAUNCHROCK


PUNCHTAB



PRESS - ARE YOU READY?
“Patience is important. Media coverage is easier and more
effective once you have a killer product. If you’re trying to
create buzz too early, you’re doing it wrong.

In terms of a great tip that companies don’t do enough:

Create content early. Build an audience by writing interesting
content, even if it isn’t about your company or product. If you
establish yourself as an expert on a speciﬁc industry,
programming language or topic, then you’ll have an easier
time hiring and building a reputation for your product once
you’re ready to scale.”

-MICHELLE ZATLYN, CO-FOUNDER OF CLOUDFLARE



BEFORE PRESS
‣ Your product has been thoroughly alpha tested with not only
friends, family but a wide group of users so you know it works
‣ mTurk.com, followerwonk.com, usertesting.com
‣ You’re familiar with the media landscape and can name at least
three journalists
‣ Best ways to prep?
‣ Content is King
‣ Also, Hacker News
‣ MuckRack


GETTING PRESS
‣ Tell a Story
‣ Be technically prepared!
‣ Choosing Outlets
‣ Tech Press ﬁrst?
‣ Think non-traditional



WHAT’S THE STORY?
-”We’ve launched”
-Funding
-Trend Stories
-We’ve hit X # of users
-New features
-Acquiring
-Big, new hire
-Future plans



FINDING THE JOURNALIST
1. Do your homework

2. STALK

3. Get an introduction!

5. Cocktail party rules apply

5. Talk like a human

6. Give them a scoop!



UK/EUROPE TECH MEDIA
@TheNextWeb @WiredUK
• @Jemimah_Knight • @Olivia_Solon
• @RobinWauters
• @MartinSFP @FinancialTimes
• @Tim
@TechCrunch
• @MikeButcher
@Telegraph
• @IngridLunden
• @Kate_Day
@TechCityNews
@AlexWoodCreates @GuardianTech
• @CharlesArthur
@WSJEurope
• @BenJRooney



WRITING THE PITCH
1. Be brief.
2. Craft an eye-catching subject line.
3. Don’t copy paste! Oh Hey Caroline at The Next
Crunch..

4. Give us a reasonable time frame.
5. Say why it's DIFFERENT
6. Avoid jargon like DISRUPTIVE, CURATED, HYBRID,
INNOVATIVE, GAME-CHANGING etc.

7. Give an offer if you can: Beta invites. App Codes.
Exclusive details, etc.



THE PITCH
“Great products and companies do 1 of 3
things: Get you laid (Sex), get you paid
(Money), get you made (Power). “How does
your solution tap into the emotional,
powerful, evolutionary needs that we as
humans have?”

-Dave McClure, 500 Startups



Courtney B of the deep blue sea,
Would you could you should you if
you please
When you’ve got a moment so free
Let known when you could lend
your ear to me?


Subject: Exclusive for TC: Launching XXX- make any blog look like a sexy iPad app

Hey Mike,

I’m George, the founder of XXX.

Launching XXX next week, on Thursday at noon EST and TC gets free reign on an exclusive before then. XXX makes
any blog look and behave like a native iPad app. We’re talking accelerometer aware column resizing, swipe to advance
articles, touch navigation, home screen icon support, and more. We’ve built somecool tech to make this happen smoothly, and
it works with your existing layout...

PS- Would also be happy to do giveaways to TC readers. Thanks again and feel free to reach out if you have anymore
questions (skype,phone,etc. listed below).

Video Demo: http://vimeo.com/13487300
Live demo site (if you’re on an iPad): jasonlbaptiste.com
Feature overviews: http://padpressed.com/features
My contact info: George@xxx.com , Phone:xxx.xxx.xxxx, Twitter: @xxx, Skype: xxx

-George
#xxx.xxx.xxxx


GIVE WRITERS EVERYTHING THEY NEED
Provide external links (not
attachments) to:
-Awesome Videos
-Beautiful, High-Res Photos
-Company Facts - Founded
Date, Funding Details, # of
employees, Founder’s Names,
etc.
Be Available!



AFTER THE PITCH
1. Follow up! - Appropriate time on
this? One week? 3-4 days?

2. Handling multiple outlets. Tell
Multiple Stories. And Don't be
misleading.

3. Don't break your own embargo.



TIPS FOR YOU
-Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Is this on or off the record? What’s the
story angle? Do they require exclusivity?

-Don’t say you “have no competitors” -- choose your competitors are or the
media will choose for you.

- Put yourself in the mindset of the journalist. How will this story get them
on Techmeme or featured by their editors? Is it like stories the journalist
has written before?

-Be good to the journalist. Don’t just hit them up when you need them. They
want your scoops, tips, etc. since you’re on the ground in the midst of it all.


TAKE NOTES



SHOULD YOU HIRE A PR AGENCY?

‣ Internal vs Agency
‣ Doing it on your own



RELATIONSHIPS, RELATIONSHIPS, RELATIONSHIPS
>Get Involved



>Get Involved

>Make Friends with Founders, Investors, Journalists, Startup
Wannabes, Coworking Space Heads, the Cleaning Ladies and
everyone in between



>Get Involved

everyone in between

> READ, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD READ.



>Get Involved

everyone in between


> Tweet.



>Get Involved

everyone in between


> Tweet.

> Write.



>Get Involved

everyone in between


> Tweet.

> Write.

> Be happy. But know it’s OK and TOTALLY NORMAL to be sad,
angry, frustrated, disappointed and insanely crazy too.

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