how to #makenews

and lead your industry

tested PR strategies for

early stage companies

Anna Ruth Williams, Founder + CEO @annaruth

Evan Goldberg, Director @EVgoldberg

@ar_ _ pr #makenews

what’s your dream headline?

the value of PR

@ar_ _pr

#makenews

The 8 reasons Mark says early stage

companies should invest

in PR.

1.Recruiting 2.Business

Development 3.Fund Raising 4.Staff

Morale 5.Enterprise Sales 6.Future

PR 7.M&A 8.Customer Acquisition

PR is an insanely valuable

activity in early-stage

companies.

The benefits of PR are exactly

that: Immeasurable. They are

silent. They don’t show up in a

calculation that says I spent

$7,000 and I got X-thousands

inches of press. It doesn’t work

that way.- Mark Suster

2x entrepreneur turned

venture capitalist

getting your

feet wet

do your marketing research

start with your personal brand…

80% of a new company’s value is

its CEO.

Make sure you are active and

authentic on Twitter, LinkedIn,

angel.co, etc.

Draft compelling leadership bios and

snap on-brand headshots.

Begin planning how to showcase

yourself as a thought leader (speaking

opps, blog posts, etc.)

craft tight messaging

• Consider your tag line as it

relates to your brand name and

positioning.

• A value proposition is a

promise of value to be

delivered and a belief from the

target audience that value will

be experienced.

• Reasons to believe are

supporting statements that

back-up your value proposition.

• Have industry and brand-specific

data points on hand (ideally 5 of

each).

• If you have multiple products (or

plan to) craft product-specific

messaging that aligns with your

product roadmap.

know your SEO

• Research the keywords that

your customers would use to

organically find your

company/product.

• Google keyword tool -

www.google.com/sktool/

• Ultimately, you’ll integrate your

top keywords in ALL of your

content marketing efforts (web

copy, case studies, social

content, press releases, etc.)

secure your IP

Don’t even think about making news or sharing your

product until your intellectual property is secured.

This includes brand trademarks.

now you’re pretty much a pro.

time to create an annual

PR campaign.

prepare.

plan. repeat.

define your

business

objectives

@ar_ _pr

#makenews

Example Questions to Ask:

• What is our annual revenue goal?

• What major technology/product updates will we

be building?

• How much market share do we want to own?

• How do we want the industry (& our competitors!) to perceive us?

• How many top-of-funnel leads do we need? How many deals do we need

to close?

• Are we trying to secure venture funding?

set marketing goals

& objectives

@ar_ _pr

#makenews

• First, what’s my marketing budget for 2015?

• Based on that #, what can I reasonably achieve?• How many media placements do I want? What do I want them to be about

(product, individuals, thought leadership, etc.)?

• How many awards do we need to win? What types of awards/categories

will give us the most credibility?

• What tradeshows should we attend/exhibit? Can our leadership speak at

these events?

• What social media channels are most important and how many

followers/interactions do we need each month?

• What advertising channels should we consider?

• What collateral (print + digital) does our sales team need?

• Do I have the resources (people, time & tools) to execute

internally, or do I need agency partners/consultants/freelancers?

bring marketers &

engineers to the

SAME table

@ar_ _pr

#makenews

Product Updates Product Updates

Product Line

prepare.

plan. repeat.

find opportunities

@ar_ _pr

#makenews

Editorial

Calendars

Tradeshows

Award

Opportunities

Holidays/

Observances

Speaking

Opportunities

plot it out

@ar_ _pr

#makenews

content calendar

brainstorming

@ar_ _pr

#makenews

CHANNEL JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH

Topic: CES Topic: Android

Launch

Topic:

2M Downloads

Blog X (live blog from

Vegas)

X X

Social Media X X X (contest!)

Press Release X (Feature

Update)

X (Google Play

Announcement)

X

Case Study X

White Paper X (to distribute

in our CES

booth)

prepare.

plan. repeat.

media relations

strategies

start with a media database

• Your media list should

include:– Reporter email addresses

– Reporter Twitter handles

– Media outlet Twitter handles

– Reporter LinkedIn URL’s

• Start your engagement with a personal touch– Follow target reporters and media outlets on Twitter

– Connect with target journalists on LinkedIn and send a quick,

personal note

• Distribute releases via a wire

service (e.g., PRWeb).

• Include keywords in the heading

and subtitle that are relevant to

your business.

• Keep your headline at ~100

characters.

• Bring out the underlying value of

your announcement with your title.

• Link to everything! Your website,

social media accounts and other

pages that boost the

“newsworthiness” of your

announcement.

search-friendly press releases

search-friendly press releases

• 80% of Internet browsers prefer videos over

images and text in press releases.

• Including photos in your press release

increases engagement by about 18% and

video by 55%.

• Images expand your audience up to 180%

and a custom mix of photos, videos and

multimedia content increases it up to 970%.

have a kick ass videoand always share it with reporters

Media outlets are looking to

engage readers and keep them

on their sites for longer periods of

time to increase ad revenue.

As a result, they’ll often place

YOUR video on THEIR site

alongside editorial content.

make PR reach further

• Cross-post press releases and media placements on

your social media, blog & website

• Tag outlets/reporters on social media

• Share news stories in your email marketing

• Ask employees to share news articles to LinkedIn

and Twitter networks

• Hang media placements in your office

social media

strategies

building your follower base

Include social icons EVERYWHERE

• Email Signatures

• Marketing Materials

• Email Blasts / newsletters

Your customers, professional

networks, partners and friends are

most likely on social media already,

so just ASK them to follow your

brand.

identifying & engaging key

influencers

• Use Klout to identify top influencers

for certain keywords (e.g.

ecommerce, retail, makeup etc.)

• Find the Twitter handles for your key

media outlets and bloggers

• Search hashtags of keywords your

potential audience may use & follow

those users

• Create lists to organize and

showcase influencers

• Engage with the people on those

lists: reply, retweet & share

creating strategic content

• Create Content Categories

• This will help you identify what users are

responding to

• Percentage of each category will vary

from network to network

• Establish a Content Calendar

• Helps you PLAN AHEAD

• Think about holidays, awareness months

etc.

• Can be weekly, bi-monthly or monthly or

whatever works best for you.

• Tie in real time postings as well

third party platforms

• Hootsuite

• TweetDeck

• LaterBro

• SocialOomp

h

• SproutSocial

• Argyle

Social

• Buffer

• Spredfast

These sites make managing multiple social

media accounts a breeze. Schedule tweets

in advance, monitor your engagement and

more. Plus, they’re user friendly!

optimal times to post

• Twitter: engagement rates are actually 17% higher

on Saturday and Sunday than on weekdays.

• Facebook: 6 – 8 a.m. during and 2 – 5 p.m. during

weekdays.

• LinkedIn: People don’t typically use this network

during work hours, but rather right before and after

work from 7-9 a.m. and 5-6 p.m.

• Google +: 9 – 11 a.m. is typically the best range,

but on Google+, it comes down to your audience.

Timing+ is a tool that analyzes your brand’s last

100 posts and helps you identify the times that

earned your content thee most traffic

don’t forget along the

way…

monitor &

measure

@ar_ _pr

#makenews

• Measure media impressions, social media growth,

etc. monthly & quarterly to evaluate trends and ROI.

• Reassess your annual plan each quarter and examine

how its helping achieve your company’s overall

business objectives.

• Don’t be afraid to reallocate resources and pivot to

achieve the best results (just be mindful of burn rate!).

showcase

wins

@ar_ _pr

#makenews

• Impress your potential investors

with the success you’ve

achieved through your PR-

Marketing Efforts

• Be sure to explain how these

efforts have lead to your desired

overall business objective (i.e.

increased lead generation,

downloads, sales)

questions?

Contact:Offices in Atlanta Tech Village

andLaunch Pad New Orleans

855.300.8209 | arpr.coannaruth@arpr.co and blair@arpr.co

linkedin.com/company/arpr

facebook.com/annaruthpr

@ar__pr @ar__pr