5 ms·

How to get press for a startup (2015)

103 points by austenallred 9y ago

Xeoncross 9y ago
I guess with all the scrapper APIs one should expect a site that scrapes pages just to find contact data and then provides you with a form to mass email them all. I'd use it.
- ErikVandeWater 9y ago
  As mentioned in the article, Buzzstream seems to have that feature (called outreach): http://www.buzzstream.com/tour/research http://www.buzzstream.com/tour/research
- austenallred 9y ago
  I actually think they are mediocre at best a lot of the time, though Buzzstream is the best and is building out a solid database. I usually personally use Mechanical Turk to find the real email addresses, but some human rights group got bothered that I would recommend a service that doesn't provide a living wage and gave me hell for two years. So I took that part out publicly, but it's still in the book version.
Everula 9y ago
Though the article is 2 years all, it is still relevant good thorough read and a great piece of knowledge, thank you for sharing. Having a talk with our PR manager recently about newsworthy events interesting for media like launch, update, new cool features etc and what to do between them to stay on top, we came to confusion (again) that content like research, analytics, tests, content cards etc should cover those gaps and the questions we still have is whether to pitch it to media as an exclusive content for them or put in on your blog, create dedicated landing page designed for this content and share it with media? I know that it works both ways for different companies, but as a marketer I am more interested in the second option, while PR likes the exclusivity of course. What are your best practices to stay on top while there are no real product news in-between?
- austenallred 9y ago
  These are different things in my mind. Content marketing is much more sustainable and is a slow-moving day-to-day process, while getting press is a quick hit and big boost that dies very quickly.
austenallred 9y ago
Oh wow, didn't expect to see this on the front page. If you enjoyed this I have a bit more content on user acquisition that is a similar actionable, step-by-step style. SEO: https://medium.com/startup-grind/seo-is-not-hard-a-step-by-step-seo-tutorial-for-beginners-that-will-get-you-ranked-every-single-1b903b3ab6bb https://medium.com/startup-grind/seo-is-not-hard-a-step-by-s... Instagram: https://austenallred.com/the-growth-hackers-guide-to-instagram-3f084d7d2d0a https://austenallred.com/the-growth-hackers-guide-to-instagr... Pinterest: https://austenallred.com/how-to-growth-hack-pinterest-699d295909b1#.pi1xj8dig?utm_campaign=Submission&utm_medium=Community&utm_source=GrowthHackers.com https://austenallred.com/how-to-growth-hack-pinterest-699d29...
waderyan 9y ago
If you like this article, check out the book Secret Sauce: https://www.secretsaucenow.com https://www.secretsaucenow.com. Same author. Expanded content.
wnm 9y ago
> The Press Kit, basically a .zip file of all of the content for the reporter to use Don't do that. As a reporter, would you want a .zip file dropped into your inbox everytime someone pitches their company? Build a simple website, use dropbox, or one of the many saas that make it simple to build a professional press kit, e.g. my own https://presskithero.com https://presskithero.com
- austenallred 9y ago
  You only send that after they request it

103 points by austenallred 9y ago

I guess with all the scrapper APIs one should expect a site that scrapes pages just to find contact data and then provides you with a form to mass email them all. I'd use it.

ErikVandeWater 9y ago
As mentioned in the article, Buzzstream seems to have that feature (called outreach): http://www.buzzstream.com/tour/research http://www.buzzstream.com/tour/research
austenallred 9y ago
I actually think they are mediocre at best a lot of the time, though Buzzstream is the best and is building out a solid database. I usually personally use Mechanical Turk to find the real email addresses, but some human rights group got bothered that I would recommend a service that doesn't provide a living wage and gave me hell for two years. So I took that part out publicly, but it's still in the book version.

Everula 9y ago

Though the article is 2 years all, it is still relevant good thorough read and a great piece of knowledge, thank you for sharing. Having a talk with our PR manager recently about newsworthy events interesting for media like launch, update, new cool features etc and what to do between them to stay on top, we came to confusion (again) that content like research, analytics, tests, content cards etc should cover those gaps and the questions we still have is whether to pitch it to media as an exclusive content for them or put in on your blog, create dedicated landing page designed for this content and share it with media? I know that it works both ways for different companies, but as a marketer I am more interested in the second option, while PR likes the exclusivity of course. What are your best practices to stay on top while there are no real product news in-between?

austenallred 9y ago
These are different things in my mind. Content marketing is much more sustainable and is a slow-moving day-to-day process, while getting press is a quick hit and big boost that dies very quickly.

austenallred 9y ago

Oh wow, didn't expect to see this on the front page. If you enjoyed this I have a bit more content on user acquisition that is a similar actionable, step-by-step style. SEO: https://medium.com/startup-grind/seo-is-not-hard-a-step-by-step-seo-tutorial-for-beginners-that-will-get-you-ranked-every-single-1b903b3ab6bb https://medium.com/startup-grind/seo-is-not-hard-a-step-by-s... Instagram: https://austenallred.com/the-growth-hackers-guide-to-instagram-3f084d7d2d0a https://austenallred.com/the-growth-hackers-guide-to-instagr... Pinterest: https://austenallred.com/how-to-growth-hack-pinterest-699d295909b1#.pi1xj8dig?utm_campaign=Submission&utm_medium=Community&utm_source=GrowthHackers.com https://austenallred.com/how-to-growth-hack-pinterest-699d29...

waderyan 9y ago

If you like this article, check out the book Secret Sauce: https://www.secretsaucenow.com https://www.secretsaucenow.com. Same author. Expanded content.

wnm 9y ago

> The Press Kit, basically a .zip file of all of the content for the reporter to use Don't do that. As a reporter, would you want a .zip file dropped into your inbox everytime someone pitches their company? Build a simple website, use dropbox, or one of the many saas that make it simple to build a professional press kit, e.g. my own https://presskithero.com https://presskithero.com

austenallred 9y ago
You only send that after they request it