Promote Early, Forcefully, And Fast

The first news cycle is critical. The more people who hear about your startup — and the earlier they hear about it — the better for you. The best way to ensure that your company gets attention is through a strong public relations strategy that promotes your brand early and often. Here are five ways you can use PR to put your startup in front of the right people:

The first news cycle is critical

The first news cycle is critical. The first story can make or break a company, career, or relationship. If you’re in the middle of a crisis and need to get ahead of it before it spirals out of control — and who doesn’t? — then it’s essential that you learn how to promote yourself effectively during this first news cycle.

Develop as many relationships as you can with reporters.

Develop as many relationships as you can with reporters.

• Know who to talk to. You can find out by reading the newspaper or magazine’s website, or by looking at its masthead (the list of staff members). If you don’t know how to identify a reporter’s beat, look for clues in their stories: Is it sports? Entertainment? Fashion? If a story mentions celebrities, then that person probably covers celebrity news.
• Know what they write about and what they like/dislike covering. For example, if someone writes about politics all day long and hates talking about fashion trends then send them something on politics instead!
• Know how to pitch them an idea for an article that would be perfect for their publication — and make sure it actually is perfect! This means knowing exactly what kind of tone works best within each publication’s editorial voice; this way when pitching ideas you’ll feel confident knowing exactly where they fit into the spectrum between serious vs funny/lighthearted etc.

Make it easy for reporters to access you and your story.

• Provide a contact list
• Have a media kit and bio
• Have a website with information about your business, policies and practices, along with the latest news. This should be easily accessible from the home page or by clicking on “About Us” or “Press Room.”
• Provide a press release for each new product or service launch, along with images and video if possible six weeks before the event, then e-mail or call the media during the following week and every week thereafter. If you don’t have time to write your own press releases (or can’t afford someone else to do it), use online tools like PRWeb or Press Release Express that automatically format them for distribution via email or social media channels like Twitter & Facebook — no technical knowledge required!

Build a media kit and update it regularly.

A media kit is a collection of information about you and your company that you can send to reporters, editors and others who may be interested in writing about you. It should include:

• The story behind your company/product/service
• Your background as an entrepreneur (if relevant)
• A description of what makes your business unique or different from others in the same industry.

You should update this document regularly so it’s always fresh when someone needs information on short notice.

Aim for a variety of outlets, but focus on quality over quantity.

It’s important to make sure your story is relevant, interesting and unique. It should be well-written, accurate and have a good photo.

If you’re applying to multiple outlets at once, it’s best to use a pitch template that incorporates all of the above criteria — for example:

I’m writing this email because I want [insert outlet name] readers/viewers/listeners know about [insert event]. The event happens on [date] at [location]. If they’re interested in learning more about it or attending themselves, please let me know!

Early, forceful and fast PR helps get more attention for your startup

• Early, forceful and fast PR helps get more attention for your startup
• Timing is everything. News cycles are short, so you want to make sure you’re in the first wave of stories about your company. If there’s already a lot of buzz around your industry or topic, then there’s no point in pitching until things die down (although sometimes this can be difficult).
• Develop relationships with reporters before you need them — and make it easy for them to access your story when they do need it!

Conclusion

If you want your startup to get more attention, you need to promote it early, forcefully and fast. That means developing relationships with reporters and building a media kit that they can access easily, as well as developing a strategy for how many outlets you want to target and what kind of content they will need from you. Don’t forget about social media too! It’s an invaluable tool for getting people interested in what you’re doing before they even hear about it from traditional sources like news outlets or blogs.

Jill Lublin — Short Bio

(Pronounced Loob-Lynn)

Jill Lublin is an international speaker on the topics of Publicity, Networking, Kindness and Referrals. She is the author of 4 Best Selling books including Get Noticed…Get Referrals (McGraw Hill) and co-author of Guerrilla Publicity and Networking Magic. Her latest book, Profit of Kindness went #1 in four categories. Jill is a master strategist on how to position your business for more profitability and more visibility in the marketplace. She is CEO of a strategic consulting firm and has over 25 years experience working with over 100,000 people plus national and international media. Jill teaches a virtual Publicity Crash Course and consults and speaks all over the world. She has spoken on many stages with luminaries such as Tony Robbins. Jill also leads an intentional kindness community. Visit publicitycrashcourse.com/freegift and jilllublin.com