Marketing + PR for Startups: for General Assembly London October 2014

Courtney Boyd Myers
Founder, audience.io
MARKETING & PR
FOR STARTUPS

INTRODUCTION
‣ Working with Summit Series, Fueled, Geckoboard, Gordon & Eden
‣ Director of Audience Development at General Assembly London
‣ Member of #10’s Tech City Advisory Group
‣ Writer at Wired UK, The Daily Beast & The Next Web
‣ Mentor at BBC WorldWideLabs, Seedcamp, Ignite100
‣ Community Member of HQ, Summit Series & ICE
COURTNEY BOYD MYERS (@CBM)
FOUNDER, AUDIENCE.IO & 3460 MILES

AGENDA
‣ Marketing
‣ PR
‣ Q & A

4
FIRST RULE OF MARKETING
!
MARKETING & PR FOR STARTUPS

5
FIRST RULE OF MARKETING:
!
DON’T MARKET A SHIT PRODUCT

‣ Vision: The company’s long-term,
aspirational business goals. What's the
change you want to make in the world?
!
‣ Mission: The company’s purpose and reason
for being. What are the big first steps to
make that change?
!
‣ Values: How will you make those choices,
changes and first steps?
MISSION, VISION + VALUES

VISION: To become the
world’s largest community for
dreamers.
!
MISSION: To create the
world’s best app that helps
people remember and record
their dreams.
!
VALUES: Curious, Data-
Driven, Exploratory, and
Secure

MESSAGING
Text
It’s is the one thing you want to tell people about your
startup.
!
-It needs to be compelling (NO BS!) and different from
your competition.
Source

MESSAGING
Text
It’s is the one thing you want to tell people about your
startup.
!
-It needs to be compelling (NO BS!) and different from
your competition.
!
!
Text
A fun online world where kids can adopt their very
own monster, go on adventures, play games, solve
puzzles, be creative, and communicate with their
friends.

TextText

MESSAGING FOR A TWO-SIDED MARKET

MARKETING & PR FOR STARTUPS & PR FOR STARTUPS
STARTUP MARKETING INCLUDES…
‣ Creating quarterly marketing campaigns that tie together
multiple distribution platforms and partnerships
‣ Writing blog posts or sending out newsletter campaigns
‣ Tracking social media growth metrics
‣ Creating flyers for a guerrilla street marketing campaign
‣ Writing press releases or wooing journalists over dinner
‣ Creating 7 ad variations for a Google Adwords campaign
‣ A/B testing sign-up buttons or copy or working with
developers to “growth hack” your product and make it
more “viral”
‣ Having dinner with your CEO and the VP of Marketing of
a large consumer company to discuss a two-year strategy
roadmap

EVENT MARKETING

STUNT MARKETING

SIDE NOTE MARKETING

USING SOCIAL GOOD AS MARKETING
Your
actions
speak
louder than
words.

EMAIL MARKETING
How do I get users to sign up for my mailing list?
!
•Start by scraping you inbox. Your friends will forgive
you + they can always unsubscribe.
•Grow your user base through strategic partnerships,
events and sweepstakes!
!
What kind of content should I send?
!
• Don’t always sell, sell, sell; also send emails that are
100% value-add
•Repurposed content from your blog or exclusive content

CONTENT MARKETING
• Content marketing is a cost
effective, smart and
scalable way to acquire
customers
• Content should include
educational, analytical
industry-related blog posts
mixed with fun, viral content
like infographics
• Content marketing should be
authentic and show your
company’s culture (culture
marketing)

CONTENT MARKETING!
!
• Remember to
capture as many
email addresses as
possible!
!
!
• Be educational. Tie it
back to your product
but don’t oversell

CONTENT MARKETING
• Content marketing can be
easily enhanced with
social media marketing
and syndication to
larger news sites
!
• Your content marketing
should support your
company’s SEO efforts

GROWTH HACKING
Source
“When women do it, it’s
marketing. When men do it,
it’s growth hacking.” -
@Shanley

PRODUCT AS MARKETING!
• Hotmail’s growth was almost entirely due to a “Get your free email at Hotmail”
sentence at the bottom of every email.
!
• Airbnb reverse-engineered Craigslist to let users post listings automatically despite
no public Craigslist API.
!
• Allowing users to embed videos was key to the success of YouTube and Vimeo.
!
• Slideshare included a plain-text link in their embed code, driving traffic back to
their site to get an SEO boost to boot.
!
• Dropbox incentivized referrals by giving free extra storage space – a strategy they
claim accounted for 60% of their growth.
Source

MARKETING & PR FOR STARTUPS & PR FOR STARTUPS
COLLECT THE DATA
‣ L
•Do people even want your product?
•What do they think of your product?
•How are they using your product?
•Are they referring their friends?
•Who are your top users? Where do they
live? How many Twitter followers do they
have?
•How can you incentivize your power
users to share the service?
•How will you communicate with your
customers?

24
TOOLS OF THE TRADE
!
•Market Research: Typeform
!
•Database Analytics: Wrangler
!
•Customer Support: Intercom
!
•Email marketing: Mailchimp
!
•Analytics: Google Analytics,
MixPanel, SocialRank

SOCIAL MEDIA BEST PRACTICES
•Improve your inbound
!
•Make more original content
!
•ENGAGE!- Like, Share, RT; Answer
questions, tweets, comments, etc.
!
•Be opinionated
!
•Throw a Party (Get to know people IRL first)
!
•Make your details public + up to date
!

PINTEREST - THE LONDONER
Great for:
• showing off products
• categorizing content
• building your brand
visually

INSTAGRAM
Great for:
• showing off company
culture
• show-casing products
in-action
• building your brand
visually

YOUTUBE
!
!
!
•Viewed more than 12.5 million times
•Instantly went viral + jointly conveyed the brand personality and the
benefits of the service deftly.

PRESS!

WHY DO YOU NEED PRESS?
1. Users
2. SEO
3. Building Credibility + Trust
4. Raising Money
5. Testing Out a New Idea
6. Recruitment
Source

I NEED USERS!
‣ Common but often misguided
‣ Entrepreneurs tend to set expectations too high
‣ Viral and WOM marketing are usually more
powerful channels for startups, but press is a
great way to get the loop going.
‣ Target: Whatever your perspective customers
or users read. A tool for small business might
pitch Inc., while a sports app could target
ESPN.
Source

SEO
‣ Getting wide press coverage across a variety of press outlets w/ PR 5+ scores is a great way
to boost your SEO
Source‣ Target: Low-hanging fruit; smaller blogs, sometimes the ones no one has heard of! And PR newswires.

BUILDING CREDIBILITY
Source
‣ Target: Go for big names!

RAISING MONEY
‣ This is repeatedly the number
one benefit of getting press that
startups mention to me
‣ To aim your story at investors
mention impressive usage
metrics or key hires
Source
‣ Target: TechCrunch, The Next Web, GigaOm and the Wall Street Journal.

TESTING OUT A NEW IDEA
‣ Without more than 100 users, how can
you know if your MVP is right for the
market?
!
‣ It’s very tempting to use press to test
an MVP but if it’s a total flop it will be
burned permanently on the Internet
Source

RECRUITING
‣ Attract new hires by showing off
your company’s culture or office
space
‣ ZenDesk, GitHub, Evernote, and
Fueled have all done this really
well
Source
‣ Target: Where your potential hires read! e.g. If you’re hiring developers,
try to get posted on Hacker News, Reddit, or Product Hunt

BEFORE PRESS
‣Your product has been
thoroughly alpha tested with not
only friends, family but a wide
group of users so you know it
works
‣mTurk.com,
followerwonk.com,
usertesting.com, betali.st
‣You’re familiar with the media
landscape and can name at least
three journalists...

MARKETING & PR FOR STARTUPS 38
UK + EUROPE TECH MEDIA
@TheNextWeb
• @MartinSFP
• @TheNextWoods
!
@TechCrunch
• @MikeButcher
• @IngridLunden
!
@TechCityNews
@AlexWoodCreates
!
@Informlio
• @BenJRooney
@DailyMirror
• @Olivia_Solon
!
@tech_eu
• @RobinWauters
!
@TheRudeBaguette
• @LiamBoogar
!
@GuardianTech
• @CharlesArthur
!
!

BRILLIANT PR ON A STARTUP BUDGET
NETWORKING: A NECESSARY EVIL
“The single most effective way to get an
article on any publication is to know
someone at the publication.”
- @DavidSpinks

TOOLS OF THE TRADE
HARO: “Help a Reporter Out”
Help A Reporter connects news
sources with journalists looking for
their expertise.
!
MuckRack: Track Journalists and
key words on Twitter, Facebook
and Linkedin
!
Twitter

CROSSING THE POND
READ!
41
Blogs
‣Fred Wilson (A VC) — http://avc.com
‣Chris Dixon — http://cdixon.org
‣Paul Graham’s Essays — http://paulgraham.com
‣Hacker News — http://news.ycombinator.com
‣The Full Start - http://fullstart.com
!
!Newsletters
‣The Fetch http://thefetch.com
‣3460 Miles http://3460miles.com
‣Startup Digest http://startupdigest.com

PR AGENCY COSTS
‣ $3K - $30K per month
‣ Try negotiating a "success-based" PR package
that gives you the security of knowing that you
will only pay for PR if certain pre-determined
goals for coverage are met.
‣ If those goals are not met, you wont have to
pay. If the goals are reached, you will be happy
to pay, because you’re paying for actual results.

GETTING PRESS
‣ Tell a Story
‣ Be technically prepared
‣ Choosing Outlets
‣ Tech Press first?
‣ Think non-traditional

WHAT’S THE STORY?
•“We’ve launched”
•Funding
•Trend Stories
•We’ve hit X # of users
•New features
•Acquiring
•Big, new hire
•Future plans

PRESS GETS YOU MORE PRESS
‣ Journalists read other publications to find
ideas for articles
!
‣ Getting a good article on the right
publications will lead to more press. For
example, Feast, a SF based startup, landed
an article in Greatist, which led to articles
in Men’s Fitness and The Bold Italic.

FINDING THE JOURNALIST
1. Do your homework
!
2. STALK
!
3. Get an introduction!
!
4. Invite them to a party!
!
5. Cocktail party rules apply
!
6. Give them a scoop!

WRITING THE PITCH
1. Be brief.
2. Craft an eye-catching subject line.
3. Don’t copy paste! Oh Hey Caroline at The Next Crunch..
!
4. Give a reasonable time frame.
5. Say why it's DIFFERENT
6. Avoid jargon like DISRUPTIVE, CURATED, HYBRID,
INNOVATIVE, GAME-CHANGING etc.
!
7. Give an offer if you can: Beta invites. App Codes. Exclusive
details, etc.

Courtney B of the deep blue sea, 
Would you could you should you if
you please 
When you’ve got a moment so free 
Let known when you could lend
your ear to me?

Subject: Exclusive for TC: Launching XXX- make any blog look like a sexy iPad app
!
Hey Mike,
!
I’m George, the founder of XXX.
!
Launching XXX next week, on Thursday at noon EST and TC gets free reign on an exclusive before then. XXX makes any blog look and
behave like a native iPad app. We’re talking accelerometer aware column resizing, swipe to advance articles, touch navigation, home screen
icon support, and more. We’ve built somecool tech to make this happen smoothly, and it works with your existing layout...
!
PS- Would also be happy to do giveaways to TC readers. Thanks again and feel free to reach out if you have anymore questions
(skype,phone,etc. listed below).
!
Video Demo: http://vimeo.com/13487300 
Live demo site (if you’re on an iPad): jasonlbaptiste.com 
Feature overviews: http://padpressed.com/features 
My contact info: George@xxx.com , Phone:xxx.xxx.xxxx, Twitter: @xxx, Skype: xxx
!
-George 
#xxx.xxx.xxxx 
You Should Check Out xxx.com

GIVE WRITERS EVERYTHING THEY NEED
Provide external links (not
attachments) to:
•Awesome Videos
•Beautiful, High-Res Photos
•Company Facts: Founded Date,
Funding Details, # of employees,
Founder’s Names, etc.
Be Available!
!

AFTER THE PITCH
1. Follow up! - Appropriate time on this?
One week? 3-4 days?
!
2. Handling multiple outlets. Tell Multiple
Stories. And Don't be misleading.
!
3. Don't break your own embargo.
!

TIPS FOR YOU
-Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Is this on or off the record? What’s the story angle?
Do they require exclusivity?
!
-Don’t say “we have no competitors” -- choose your competitors are or the media will
choose for you.
!
- Put yourself in the mindset of the journalist. How will this story get them on
Techmeme or featured by their editors? Is it like stories the journalist has
written before?
!
-Be good to the journalist. Don’t just hit them up when you need them. They want
your scoops, tips, etc. since you’re on the ground in the midst of it all.

WAKEFIELD’S PAPER NAPKIN PITCH
‣ The Paper Napkin Pitch started because TechCrunch said they’d
write about one of Wakefield’s events but needed a new angle other
than just an event cover.
‣ So the Founders came up with the idea of having attendees write
ideas on napkins and win prizes: “The Paper Napkin Pitch”.
‣ They submitted it to TechCrunch, but didn't hear a damn thing so
they put it on the back burner.
‣ Then day of their event came around and TechCrunch published the
article so they had to cobble it together with last-minute prizes.
‣ But now the Paper Napkin Pitch is their most desirable sponsorship
picking up brands like American Airlines and SXSW.

BABELVERSE
‣ In 2012, Babelverse live translated the US
president Barack Obama’s 2012 State of the
Nation address into up to 6,796 languages (ie all
of them)
!
‣ The press releases duly went out and TechCrunch
and CNN were among those to pick the story up.
!
‣ Meanwhile, Dunne, de Bornial and their designer
did an all-nighter to pull it off. “We were like –
‘make it live, make it live!” Dunne recalls.

SHUTL
‣ Shutl, a venture capital-backed UK startup
that delivers goods purchased online with
haste, has sent a letter to Usain Bolt, whom I
trust does not need an introduction.
!
‣ In it, the company promises the man 1
percent equity in the venture and “all the
McNuggets” he needs. In return, Bolt has to
spare up to 2 hours of time to help Shutl set
the world record for fastest delivery – again.

SLIDEBEAN
‣ Scored blog posts on TechCrunch and The Next Web
‣ Took 3 months to plan in advance
‣ Took Time to Develop Relationships
‣ Followed + interacted w/ journalists on social
networks
‣ Took photos personalized for journalist in their
travels around the world
‣ Kept pitch email short + sweet
‣ Submitted through Tips to TechCrunch
Source

IF ALL ELSE FAILS, GET NAKED

TAKE NOTES FROM

RELATIONSHIPS, RELATIONSHIPS, RELATIONSHIPS
Get Involved

Get Involved
!
Make Friends with Founders, Investors, Journalists, Startup
Wannabes, Coworking Space Heads, the Cleaning Ladies and
everyone in between

Get Involved
!
everyone in between
!
READ, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD READ.
!

Get Involved
!
everyone in between
!
!
Tweet.

Get Involved
!
everyone in between
!
!
Tweet.
!
Write.

Get Involved
!
everyone in between
!
!
Tweet.
!
Write.
!
Be happy. But know it’s OK and TOTALLY NORMAL to be sad,
angry, frustrated, disappointed and insanely crazy too.

Marketing + PR for Startups: for General Assembly London October 2014

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Marketing + PR for Startups: for General Assembly London October 2014