Startup Press Releases Don’t Have to Suck
To us, their top benefit is optics – however silly it sounds, the fact that you pay to put a release out on a wire service implies that your news is significant. But these services have little use as a tool to get reporters to write about you or to improve SEO.
The fact is, reporters are not sitting around scanning the feed from press release services[5]. They get plenty of story ideas by generating their own or by evaluating incoming email pitches. And on SEO, all of your links will be no-follows[6], meaning that Google doesn’t index them. You may get a quick boost in a Google News search, but it’s not going to get your site to page one.
Also, for all you B2B startups out there, you can save money on press releases by refraining from the default national distribution. Just use the wire service’s local or state distribution, and then select the industry verticals you want it to reach – those verticals are typically available at no additional cost. This can cut your press release costs by half.
Don’t stop with the press release
If it’s big enough news for your startup that you want to do a press release, why stop there? Here are a variety of additional tactics you can use to get the word out – and the more you use the more significant the news will seem:
- Share on social: Talk up the news, linking to the release and any coverage that results from your outreach. These can be short tweets (and don’t just stop with one – keep them going for at least a few weeks) or longer LinkedIn posts shared on your company page and your team’s individual feeds. (Pro tip: If sharing an article a reporter wrote, be sure to include their handle so they see you shared it.)
- Blog about it: Press releases are great at getting the facts out, but the inside story – what went into getting to this point – is often more interesting. A blog lets you dive deeper into a subject, and if published simultaneously with the release, it can be an additional resource to share with a reporter, making their job easier.
- Do a webinar: Not all news is webinar-relevant, but you should at least consider it. If it’s a new product, the webinar could dive into the reasons for it, the options that were available to customers before, and how your new offering addresses those challenges. And if you have a customer who has tried the new product or an influencer who can talk about the issue, invite them to be a part of it.
- Contribute an article related to the news: No media outlet wants a contributed article about your startup’s new product, but they would be interested to know what you know about your space. For example, if you’re launching an online tool to streamline onerous regulatory processes, you could write an article offering best practices for streamlining compliance. You’re not saying anything about your product, but because you’re talking about this issue, the implication is clear – you are the expert here, and you can solve this problem.