ATDC Pr strategy 3-15-15

1. 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

2. what’s your dream headline?

3. 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

4. getting your
feet wet

5. do your marketing research

6. 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.)

7. 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.

8. 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.)

9. secure your IP
Don’t even think about making news or sharing your
product until your intellectual property is secured.
This includes brand trademarks.

10. now you’re pretty much a pro.
time to create an annual
PR campaign.

11. prepare.
plan. repeat.

12. 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?

13. 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?

14. bring marketers &
engineers to the
SAME table
@ar_ _pr
#makenews
Product Updates Product Updates
Product Line

15. prepare.
plan. repeat.

16. find opportunities
@ar_ _pr
#makenews
Editorial
Calendars
Tradeshows
Award
Opportunities
Holidays/
Observances
Speaking
Opportunities

17. plot it out
@ar_ _pr
#makenews

18. 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)

19. prepare.
plan. repeat.

20. media relations
strategies

21. 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

22. • 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

23. 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%.

24. have a kick ass video
and 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.

25. 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

26. social media
strategies

27. 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.

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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!

31. 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

32. don’t forget along the
way…

33. 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!).

34. 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)

35. questions?

36. Contact:
Offices in Atlanta Tech Village
and
Launch Pad New Orleans
855.300.8209 | arpr.co
annaruth@arpr.co and blair@arpr.co
linkedin.com/company/arpr
facebook.com/annaruthpr
@ar__pr @ar__pr