This guide is everything a startup founder wants to know about Public Relations but is too afraid to ask. How much should you spend on public relations? How should you measure PR? Is a retainer the right choice?

1. Building Brands and Going Fast
The Startup’s Guide to Public Relations

2. What Is Public Relations?
When most people refer to public relations, they’re referring to getting your name or story into the news.
Public relations can also include working on press releases, speech writing, pitching journalists, executing
special events, conducting market research on messaging, writing / blogging, creating crisis strategies,
social media promotions, and managing responses to negative opinions.
Public relations (PR) is the practice of deliberately managing the spread of information between an individual or an
organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) and the public.
Wikipedia

3. Public Relations Is Not Advertising
Advertising
Paid media that sells to people.
Public Relations
Earned media that informs people.
Designed to build trust
Offers 3rd party validation
Never guaranteed
Journalists/editors control the final message
$/impression is very low – great for exposure
Designed to build leads
Audience is often more skeptical
Guaranteed placement
Your message, exactly
$$$/impression – conversion oriented

4. How To Set Your Expectations
Most Agencies
• Hide behind bogus “reach” statistics
• Over promise, under deliver
• Will promise the world – as long as
it’s not in the contract
• Won’t tell you the variables up front
• Every story is different
• Reporters have unknown workloads
• We are fighting politics, weather, and everything else that vies for attention
• We will never compromise on your brand story for a cool placement
• There are good stories in bad publications
• There are bad stories in good publications
• Every reporter is a complex person
• The birth of a royal baby will kill your story
• Yes, this has happened
• Someone in your company will hate the news story
• There’s almost always a surprise
• No story is perfect
You Are Entering a World of Nearly Infinite Variables

5. Public Relations Snowball Effect
Unlike most advertising, public relations can have a
cumulative effect.
News, social shares, and speaking engagements
all drive each other with only two inputs:
• Newsworthy announcements
• Time/money

6. PR Input #1: Newsworthy Announcements
We’ve all been there. A client has the most amazing news to
share and simply cannot wait to have you write a news
release and put the “news” on the wire.
Cringe. Sigh. All the journalists wait expectantly at the
delete button.
• World firsts
• Industry firsts
• Company firsts
• New products
• Breakthrough technology development
• Study with new information
• New accounts with major significance
• Availability in a new region
• National consumer sweepstakes
“
”- PRDaily.com
• Partnerships
• Acquisitions
• New CEO
• Strategic announcements
• Awards
• Region-specific news
• Lead trade show sponsorship
• Industry requirements
• New office / location
When should you be making news?

7. PR Input #2: Time
1) Story Development & Research
2) Writing Releases
3) Pitching Journalists
4) News Evaluation
HUMAN TIME INPUT
Many founders start out doing these things themselves. This isn’t incorrect. In
some case, it teases out latent capabilities to deal with the media that will be very
handy later in a company’s lifecycle. However, it’s time consuming and it’s often
better to delegate most of the process. Over time, a founder’s involvement should
draw down to a low-hum rather than be a constant time-sink.

8. The Cost of Delegating Public Relations
Retainers
Hourly rates
Project-based fees
Payment-by-results
A la carte pricing
A monthly amount which typically has a set of potential
actions or hours defined in the contract. Typical minimum
retainer contract length is 6 months.
A low retainer doesn’t necessarily mean a good deal. It
often means the support you get will be minimal (reactive)
press support. A very low retainer may not cover pitching
new stories or come with a very restrictive number of
hours.
2k - 30k / mo
The “sweet spot” is generally 5-10k
to use a small boutique firm

9. The Cost of Delegating Public Relations
Retainers
Hourly rates
Project-based fees
Payment-by-results
A la carte pricing
On the low end, you’re hiring an IC straight out of college.
On the high end, you’re hiring an executive with TV
connections.
Regardless of whether you choose a retainer or hourly
rate, the firm will nearly always try to push the work
towards the lowest paid person on their team to maximize
their revenue. If the person you’re working with does a
good job, they’ll likely be promoted and someone else will
start working on your account.
$20 - $500 / hr
The average is ~ $125 to $190/hr depending
on region. US West is most expensive.

10. The Cost of Delegating Public Relations
Retainers
Hourly rates
Project-based fees
Payment-by-results
A la carte pricing
If you have a large announcement outside your normal
public relations, this is the ideal method.
Examples include:
• Large product launches
• Parties
• Demo days
• Press galas & dinners
• Conference planning
• Grand openings
• Sales promotions
The cost will vary greatly depending on the project and
whether it needs on-site support or celebrity participation.

11. The Cost of Delegating Public Relations
Retainers
Hourly rates
Project-based fees
Payment-by-results
A la carte pricing
Paying per performance means that they share the risk
with you. Pricing in this model can vary wildly, but it comes
down to what you’re both comfortable with. The largest
downside is that it becomes easy to “optimize for the
wrong metric”.
Startup A hires Agency X to do public relations on a
payment-by-results basis. They’ve chosen a sliding scale
based on the public “reach” of the publication. The bigger
the publication, the bigger the payment.
Startup B hires Agency X to do public relations on a
payment-by-results basis. The metric they’ve chosen is
number of stories in the press. The more stories, the
bigger the payment.

12. The Cost of Delegating Public Relations
Retainers
Hourly rates
Project-based fees
Payment-by-results
A la carte pricing
Think about “a la carte” as the gig economy brought to PR.
It works great for a task that could almost be automated.
Many firms offer simple services via a published pricing
menu. If your story or product is complex or you’re looking
for a big impact, consider looking elsewhere.
Top reasons to use:
• Creating a simple press release
• Creating some basic graphics or a infographic
• Writing social media posts

13. Measuring Impact
RITE: the acronym to live by when measuring PR impact:
• Reputation is the measuring stick
• Include all results
• Targeting is tunable
• Expect the unexpected
* Remember: Conversions are the goal of advertising
1) Look back at the process. Did you meet the deadlines you set?
2) Did you meet the pre-defined definition of success?
3) Did the story (or stories) produced positively impact reputation?
4) Choosing a single variable, what would you change for next time?
Questions to ask yourself and the team:

14. Choosing The Right Partner
Find the person or agency that makes your feel most comfortable, yet challenges you to think differently.
This person or people will impact your company’s
public image. That’s no small thing.
Vet Their Hiring Process
Meet as many low level employees as possible. With most agencies,
you will get very few hours with anyone outside of your short-lived
account representatives.
Don’t Believe The Hype
Journalists are gate keepers. No public relations wizard exists that can
get bad stories into the New York Times. Take any name or outlet
drops with a heap of salt.
Big Fish / Small Pond
It may seem attractive to use the same firm as your favorite movie
studio, but your budget will pale in comparison and you will be
competing with bigger fish for time and attention.
Consider In-House
Don’t completely rule out handing PR in-house. Agencies never
understand your business as well as you and agency turnover means
constant retraining. In-house may increase effectiveness.

15. Is Pistondrift The Right Partner?
The Pistondrift PR Process

16. Pistondrift PR Process – High Level
Kickoff Define Success Deliver Results
Gather information
Capture excitement
Analyze opportunity
Analyze risks
Clear deliverables
Proposed timeline
Finishing release
Outreach to press
Qualitatively & quantitively measure results
Iterate process based on results

17. Pistondrift PR Process – Detail
Kickoff
Gather information - Capture excitement - Analyze opportunity & risks
1) Start Shared Document – this will eventually become the release
2) List 6 key bullet points that answer some of the following:
• What should every reader take away about your company?
• What makes this news exciting?
• What makes this news unique?
• Is this a world first?
• Is this an industry first?
• Is this a company first?
• Is this a new technology?
• What makes it important?
• Is this a new customer?
• What makes this important for the customer?
• How will this affect other companies in the industry?
• What impact does this have on the average person?
• How does represent a shift in thinking?
• What is the economic benefit?
• What motivated this news?
3) List any risks or no-go areas – is there anything we don’t want a reporter to
ask about?

18. Pistondrift PR Process – Detail
Kickoff
Gather information - Capture excitement - Analyze opportunity & risks
1) Set rough delivery date for news (typically about 14 days out +/- 5 days)
2) Set rough press target (i.e.: local, trade, technology, top-tier, radio, tv, etc)
Also consider what an acceptable fallback target will be.
Define Success
Clear deliverables - Proposed timeline

19. Pistondrift PR Process – Detail
Kickoff
Gather information - Capture excitement - Analyze opportunity & risks
Define Success
Clear deliverables - Proposed timeline
1) Journalist targets set & pitching begins
2) If an interview is requested, a spokesperson interview prep-sheet is created
3) Story placed
3) Post-story summary provided with any follow-on press, republishing, or
online comments
Deliver Results
Finishing release - Outreach to press - Measure results

20. What Is Pistondrift?
Track record of providing Tier-1 press, coordinating 80+
conferences/year, managing multiple agencies, and tuned into
the latest in marketing technology.
Placed press in nearly every major outlet in 2018/2019.
Pistondrift's mission is to bring positive brand impact through experiential marketing.

21. Pistondrift Leadership
Pistondrift is the brain-baby of Nick Allain.
Nick is a brand designer and entrepreneur who, after growing the Spire
brand from an unknown to a leader in aerospace, decided to combine his
two largest passions: building brands and going fast.
Fun Fact:
Those red shoe laces
were on-brand.
Loren Grush
The Verge
Nick Allain
Pistondrift

22. Let’s Work Together
& Enjoy the Journey
Nick Allain
nick@pistondrift.com
(774) 922-2894 (direct cell)
I am always open to meeting great people, exploring ideas, and
sharing a pot of coffee. Don’t hesitate to reach out.