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PR 101: Getting Started

Posted on 05. Jun, 2009 by Andrew Dumont in Public Relations

When working in a startup, you learn very quickly just how scarce cash is. Every decision you make, from furniture to salaries, has to cycle through the thought process of ROI, and public relations is no exception. After chatting with several different pr firms, we discovered that the average cost per month for the services of a professional firm ranged anywhere between 8-15 thousand. Because of the cost, both Derek and I could not justify allocating that much capital towards a public relations campaign, at least not at the current stage of our company. So, we did what every great startup does, we winged it.

Having no prior training or experience in public relations, I had to learn the ropes of the industry very quickly in preparation for the launch of Tatango. Since that day of realizing that we could not afford an agency, we’ve earned ink in the Wall Street Journal, Seattle Times, CNN, PC World, TechCrunch and others.

With that being said, I am far from a pr pro, but I did learn some very valuable lessons and tips during my crash course in public relations. Whether you’re in the same position I was or just working independently, I’ve laid out some steps below to help you get started.

1) Ask Questions - This is the best piece of advice I can offer and it applies to every aspect of business, ask questions. Although public relations was completely new to me, there were thousands of professionals that live and breath public relations, all of which have massive amounts of experience in the field. They’ve most likely lived through any issues you’re facing, so pick their brain. When I first started with our pr efforts, I sent out emails to several of the top marketing/pr pros in the Seattle area, simply explaining my situation and asking if I could chat with them about some “best practices” of the industry. Here’s the email I sent, to give you an idea of how to format the note. This proved to be very successful, I was lucky enough to meet with Scott Willoughby of SEOmoz, Eric Berto of Etelos, Jeff Precor of Yapta and Doug Alley of Jott, all of whom were extremely helpful (thanks again guys).

2) Start Building Lists - The key to a successful public relations campaign is having the right contacts. Although building a list of editors is somewhat mundane, it’s crucial to landing some big articles, no more blind email blasts to info@nameofpublication.com. When you begin building your list of editors, relevance is the most important thing to take into account. First, build a list of your desired publications, then visit those publications and search for terms related to your company or pitch. For example, when I was pitching for the launch of Tatango I searched SMS, text messaging, group communication, etc. I then added those editors that had written about the related terms to my press list, with a link to their article. This helps to target your pitch to editors that will find your content relevant… there’s nothing worse than pitching to an editor that won’t find the content relevant, this is the express lane to blacklisted emails.

3) Formulate a Pitch - Once you’ve built your list of press contacts, pitching is the next step. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, using a previous article as a reference is crucial. I usually like to start of my pitch as follows, “I ran across your recent article on the recent jump in text message usage and thought your readers would also be interested in Tatango…”  This is a great way to segue into your pitch, while proving the relevance of your pitch to the writer. Although this is a somewhat time-consuming approach to PR, you’ll soon realize – it’s much more productive than being thoughtless and spamming reporters with the same pitch. After you’ve made the connection and added a personal piece to your note, the next step is pitching the news. Write a catchy subject head (perhaps incorporating the name of the writer’s column… i.e. “TechCrunch: Tatango exits private beta with 400,000 users”), a short email pitch (3-4 lines max) that summarizes why your news is relevant to their readers/viewers, and paste your press release in the body of the email.  Do not attach your press release.  Your email is guaranteed to never be opened if you do.  Again, try and personalize your pitch wherever possible.  A reporter likes to know that you read their stuff and understand their publication.

4) Skip the Newswire – Again, these tips are given with a “pr on a budget” mentality, with that in mind, skip the newswire. There are plenty of free and very effective resources for getting your news dispersed, I’m a big fan of pitchengine along with others. Mashable wrote a great article awhile back that laid out some of the top free newswire sites, you can check out the article here. That being said, if you’ve got the cash, using a newswire like Marketwire can’t hurt.

5) Be Real - Many editors get thousands of faceless pitches each day, so what can you do to stand out? It’s easy, just be real. As I mentioned in my previous post, it’s all about transparency. Connect with the people you’re pitching on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, you need to put a face behind your pitch. Personally, I like to connect with all of the editors that I’ll be contacting prior to pitching, this helps add  familiarity when your name shows up in their inbox.

6) Hustle – When you get into public relations, you lean very quickly that it’s A LOT of work. Yeah, the professional firms charge thousands of dollars a month, but they deserve every dollar of it. Be aware, landing articles in some of the top publications in the world is not easy, you have to work your ass off. Some of the longest days I’ve ever put in at the office were during the times that I was doing a press push. Keep precision in the contacts you build, the pitch you create and the articles that result. Keep in mind, when you’re pitching, you’re selling. The logistics of press are very simple: editors write about content that will bring the largest readership, so you have to sell the editor on why the readers of their publication will be interested in your news.

Although many would classify these methods unconventional, they are what I’ve found successful in my efforts. That being said, the steps I’ve laid out only scratch the surface of how to be effective in the world of public relations. If you have any additional tips, make note of them in the comment section. Also, if you’re still not sure where to start or have questions on any of the points I made, feel free to contact me (adumont [at] tatango.com or 360.319.1387), I’m more than happy to chat.

Tags: getting started, pr 101, Public Relations