Getting Your Startup in the Headlines

Follow the Gradient’s first podcast featured Amy Lewin, journalist and editor at Sifted (a media platform for European startups backed by the Financial Times) provided expert guidance on getting headlines.  She shared her thoughts on media coverage, journalist relationships and communications planning.  It’s well worth a listen – 33min podcast on Spotify, Apple, YouTube.

Public Relations (PR) is earned media coverage – not paid – and is designed to build trust and provide third-party validation.  

“A public relations specialist is an image shaper. Their job is to generate positive publicity for their client and enhance their reputation” – Princeton Review

PR should not be confused with Influencer Marketing.  While PR departments once handled influencer collaborations, today Influencer Marketing is primarily paid contracts for branded content, distinguishing it from PR.

Essential PR Strategies for Startups: Key Takeaways from the Podcast

From the podcast discussion, the Follow the Gradient team highlighted key PR points for startups:

• Know WHY you want media coverage:  Are you trying to attract investors? Build your employer brand? Drive customer growth? Know your goal and use it to guide your outreach.
• Journalists are your long-term partners:  Build genuine relationships. What do you have in common with the relevant journalists? How can you help each other? Be human, share your story, ups and downs included.
• Accept that you can’t control the media: Journalists’ job is to present what is relevant to their readers. You can’t dictate the narrative, but you can control how you communicate. Keep reporters in the loop, share milestones, and give them reasons to follow your journey. 
• Press releases aren’t dead: They’re still useful for factual, newsworthy events (such as funding rounds), but they work best when part of a broader media strategy. Use them to inform journalists and provide key figures.

Creating a PR/Communications Plan: Expert Advice for Small Startups

Do you need to hire a PR agency or communications specialist? Amy suggested probably not if you’re small, but you do need to have a PR/communications plan.  Amy provided practical advice for that plan:

• Craft your story and key message(s): How would you explain your technology and what it does for people to someone at a bus stop?  Have a clear message and highlight points of difference which give you a better chance of standing out, e.g. top-tier investors, a female CEO or co-founder (still the exception in Europe).  
• Expose your story and message – wherever you can on social media, speaking opportunities, etc.
• Build relationships with important journalists and publications – identify them and find an opportunity to get in touch with them: subscribe to their newsletter, follow them, respond directly about an article.  You want to become someone they know, might write about, might ask for an opinion from.
• Have a crisis plan – depending on your business risks, this could be a priority and where you need professional help.  If a crisis happens, don’t put your head in the sand.  Respond to journalists, have a statement and spokespeople ready, post your statement on social channels.  

For a local perspective, I checked in with Simon Harvey, MD of Demodia – an SSA marketing partner specializing in go-to-market services for B2B startups: from creating memorable stories and messages through to connecting with buyers and closing deals.  

Simon believes PR is about to go through a renaissance.  As we are overwhelmed with content, people are looking for ways to access quality, curated information and reviews, filtered for what is most important to know – and that’s what respected journalists and publications deliver. 

He added that PR is all about telling a story.  Getting PR coverage requires thinking not just about the reading/viewing audience (your potential customers) but also about the journalists’ perspectives.  What’s in it for them?  Journalists – and Simon included industry analysts here – are looking to help their audience solve problems by providing information, advice, reviews, white papers, etc. Can you offer insights, data or expert opinions that help them do that? 

Amy suggested that startups are extremely interesting, with technologies that might change the world, establishing a business or running a startup and all the headaches that come with that.  You should have a good story to tell!

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