PR for Startups: The 10 Step Process I Use to Get Press (2018 Update)
Each and every entrepreneur should find journalists who are interested in their story, on their own, instead of hiring expensive PR firms.
In this article I show you how to do your own PR for your own startup without having to use any tools except Google.
Ready? Let’s roll.
This article will give you the info you need to do PR outreach and get press for your startup. The process is manual and takes a lot of effort and time (just like anything good in life!)
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1. Nail Your One Sentence Value Prop
If you’re learning how to build a strategy for your startup[7], your first step should be to figure out your value proposition.
What’s that? A value prop is what you do that sets you apart from competing products. You should be able to answer what you do in 1 sentence. Use this template below:
My Company <name> is developing <offering> to help <target audience> <solve a problem> with <a secret sauce>.
Courtesy of Adeo Rossi of Founder Institute[8] this template is pure gold. I’ve been using it for years. Just fill in the blanks and keep all the jargon away. Let’s look at a few examples of one sentence pitches utilizing this template:
Soylent: Never cook another meal or buy groceries again.
Airbnb: Stay in other people’s houses and apartments when traveling.
In both of these cases, you instantly understand what they do without having to think too hard.
Now let’s look at the following:
We are a web analytics platform designed to give you business intelligence to close your next deal.
Umm, huh? What do they do?
When you are working on your one sentence pitch think about how a journalist is going to imagine themselves in the scenario you present with your pitch. Do they cook their food a lot? Can they imagine themselves never cooking again? How would they react to this? If you were in their shoes what would you say?