PR Fundamentals 101: Hot Tips Every Founder Should Know

 PR Basics For Founders

PR is not the most immediate marketing channel, and the effort it can take to cultivate relationships and see results can cause people to mentally check out or “not see the value”. Because of this, early-stage founders are quick to dismiss PR or have very particular opinions on what and why they need it. So much so that I’ve identified 3 overarching personality types across the founder landscape.

Personality 1: The “We Don’t Need It” Founder

Inevitably, there will always be a founder that believes PR will not play an important role in their strategy. There can be many reasons for this… all of which are wrong. I’m kidding. Maybe.

A common misconception I’ve heard is that due to a specific GTM or Industry, PR is not relevant for lead gen or user acquisition. This is especially true for B2B SaaS platforms and Hardware. But, honey just no! Think about big brands like Salesforce or Lemonade, on the surface CRM management and Insurance are not sexy. But, there is a reason we know who these brands are, and that’s because they made noise and got amazing media coverage.

Most likely an Aries.

Personality 2: The “Jack of All Traits” Founder

If you think convincing a Founder they need PR is hard, imagine convincing them that they can’t do it themselves.

This is a founder who believes they can wear every hat in the organization; CEO, CMO, Creative Director, even plan office happy hours. So, when it comes to PR their approach is, “I’ll just email a journalist, what’s the big deal.”

To put things in context, I once thought cutting my friend’s hair before we went out one night “wasn’t a big deal.” I was wrong. There is a reason you pay professionals to do a specific job unless you want a poorly executed outcome.

Most likely a Gemini.

Personality 3: The “Just Show Me After” Founder

This founder is capital B, BUSY. I mean, who isn’t, but this founder in particular is like, very busy. They just want to hop on a Zoom call every month to see the final results of your PR work and expect several tier-1 publications.

This founder has accepted that PR is essential but doesn't want to be involved in the nitty gritty. They expect good results, but they can be hard to satisfy. Sure meetings with PR professionals are a bit… exhausting. We are a lot. But, if you’re not all aligned, it can be hard for people to understand your expectations.

Most likely a Capricorn.

Why You Need PR…and How To Do It Right

Obviously, these three personas don’t represent all founders, or even most, but they do represent barriers founders have that don’t always allow them to utilize PR. The truth is PR is really scary, but unfortunately, it’s a necessary evil and an essential part of a successful early-stage strategy.

I get it, PR is expensive. So maybe you know you need it but you aren’t ready to pay for an agency. Successful PR is not simply “emailing a journalist”, it is a holistic approach that will promote your brand and build lasting media relationships.

In this guide, we will review the PR essentials that will help you manage your PR strategy with confidence. From crafting a winning pitch that will grab journalists’ attention, to identifying the correct journalists to engage with, this is a guide every founder needs.

1. Media Coverage & Pitching

What is Media Coverage?

Media coverage simply put is mentions of your brand in public media. This could be passive or active.

Passive Media Coverage = is something you received organically without any pitching. This could be an article that references your brand to reference a greater story, take a quote from a past article, or cite some research.

Active Media Coverage = is coverage based on your output, i.e. pitching.

What is pitching?

A media pitch is a short, concise email to a journalist or influencer. The pitch is similar to an elevator pitch in length, but the message of the pitch is altered from general to more specific to the journalist or influencer’s interests.

The subject line of your email should be the hook and descriptor of the pitch, and the email body should make it easy for the recipient to understand the story you’re pitching and the value you offer towards the story (i.e. data, an interview, thought leadership content, a quote).

Successfully Pitch Example: Moooove over: How single-celled yeasts are doing the work of 1,500-pound cows

Why It’s Great: This article was obviously pitched by Perfect Day to offer an inside look at a company, a quote from the CEO, corporate pictures, and important industry data. To ensure that it isn’t too biased, the journalist also mentioned a few other companies like ReMilk, which is passive media coverage. #fabulouscoverage

How To Pitch

Realistically, a PR professional should be doing your media pitching. Crafting a winning pitch is an art, even for native English speakers with experience, it’s not always easy. It requires taking time to craft a targeting list of journalists and create a pitch that will appeal to them.

But, if you’re up to the challenge, here is a useful guide on media pitching to help get you started.

How to measure media coverage

Media coverage or “hits” as it is referred to are usually measured by mentions in a story. Tools like Mention are great for monitoring your media coverage. PR execs usually rank mentions based on outlet tier and coverage type. For example, an ideal hit is if a company executive is quoted in a Tier 1 publication with a hyperlink. While a brand mention in a Tier 2 publication with no link is less than ideal. In PR links are everything.

2. Journalist Identification

What is journalist Identification?

Journalist identification is the process of identifying relevant journalists that cover your space. You should keep constant watch of these journalists to know what they are covering, which of your competitors are getting press mentions,

How to identify a relevant journalist

There are several ways to identify relevant journalists;

• Google search: search a general topic that relates to your industry (i.e “cowless cheese”)
• Google alerts: set google alerts for your competitors and industry

Media Lists

A Media List is a curated list of relevant journalists that you should be pitching to. It is imperative to keep your lists updated on a weekly basis, and confirm that the journalists on your list are still working at a certain outlet (they change jobs a lot).

What should be included in a Media List?

It’s important that your Media List has everything you need to stay on top of your contacts and to communicate seamlessly. I recommend keeping your contacts in a Google Doc, that way if you send out a pitch to a large group you can do an easy mail merge.

A media list should have:

First Name

Last Name

Email Address

Outlet (i.e. NY Times)

Title (i.e. reporter)

Focus (i.e. Food Tech)

Some media lists can be up to 400 people long, this is usually for a mass pitch that will be used for a funding announcement or a general story. For targeted pitching, this is a pitch based off of a niche hook, the list can be much shorter (20–50 contacts).

It’s good to incorporate both approaches into your strategy. To make a long list you can use PR software such as Gorkana, Muckrack, or Meltwater. These tools let you search for relevant media professionals based on topic, location, publication type, and more. Using software can make the process of list building much easier. Also, if you identify a relevant journalist they don’t always list their contact details, and this software will have the relevant data.

3. PR Content

What content is PR worthy?

Often there is a misconception that any and all content created can work for PR.

This is not true. I repeat this is not true.

In fact, pitching irrelevant content can ruin your reputation and hurt your relationships with journalists. It’s critical, especially as a founder, to remember that just because you find something cool or interesting it doesn’t mean a journalist will, and they most likely won’t understand it unless you dumb it down for them.

Example of PR Worthy Content:

Why we built the ChatGPT app for Slack — Slack

This is content about the brand, and by the brand (living on the company blog) that has a relevant hook. It can easily be pitched to a number of journalists from AI to silicon valley, and easily enters the cultural zeitgeist.

Unlocking creative independence in the Age of Algorithms — Patreon

This article has something journalists love, data. Journalists love data because it’s the meat for their story, and requires them to do very little work. If you’re able to create an article based on research with INTERESTING data, journalists will eat it up.

It’s important to understand that data needs to be interesting and digestible for the average reader. You shouldn’t need a PhD to understand it.

Content that is not good for PR:

This article. Why would a journalist care? They wouldn’t. It’s evergreen, super niche, does not have data, and it is not sharing any earth-shattering revelations. Minus my zodiac/founder pairings.

The most important thing about PR-worthy content is that it has to be interesting for people outside of the product, and it needs to feel authentic.

4. Press Releases

What is a Press Release For?

A press release is an official statement delivered to members of the news media for the purpose of providing information. Press releases are also considered primary sources, meaning they are original informants for information.

It’s important to understand that a Press Release is an official/formal statement. It is not a pitch, it is an announcement that provides official information about your brand.

Relevant topics for a Press Release are:

Funding Announcement

C-Suite Hire

Product Release (significant)

Layoffs

Rebranding

*Tip: Press Releases are a little boring. So, if you think the topic you are pitching is important but a little boring, then a press release is perfect.

What to do with a Press Release?

The best way to distribute a press release is through NewsWire. It’s an online platform for press release distribution, most journalists are subscribed and your PR will be distributed and republished for you.

It has also become common practice to make a Press Release as a blog post and place it on a company blog. This is not a bad strategy if your blog has a large audience, if not the press release will fall on deaf ears.

What should a press release include?

Think of a press release as a CV for your announcement. If you received a CV that was more than one page and filled with irrelevant, hard-to-understand information, you would most likely dismiss it. The same is true for press releases.

Please Remember:

!A PRESS RELEASE SHOULD BE MAXIMUM 1 PAGE AND INCLUDE THE DATE AND LOCATION!

Business Boilerplate

At the end of the press release will be a business boilerplate. This is the section below the content of the press release that says About [company]. This part is very important and it will summarize your brand to the reader.

Your boilerplate will be used repeatedly on multiple press releases and other About sections, it is important that it is conscious, informative, and impactful.