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GUERILLA MARKETING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS FOR STARTUPS “How Reach.ly got into TechCrunch” Andris Berzins Andris Berzins - @akberzins Monday, 2 April 12
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Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

Sep 06, 2014

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Andra K.Bērziņa prezentācija par mārketingu un PR uzsācējbiznesam, Biznesa inkubatoru konference, Liepāja, 29.03.2012.
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Page 1: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

GUERILLA MARKETING AND PUBLIC

RELATIONS FOR STARTUPS

“How Reach.ly got into TechCrunch”

Andris Berzins

Andris Berzins - @akberzins

Monday, 2 April 12

Page 2: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

Andris Berzins - @akberzins

WHAT TO REMEMBER

PR is the most cost-effective marketing

News needs to be newsworthy

Keep it simple, stupid

Find the customer and where they hang out

Set a news deadline

Companies and products are boring. People are interesting

Figure out how to leverage big partner PR muscle & spend

Build relationships with journalists

Hard work pays off

Monday, 2 April 12

Page 3: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

PR IS THE MOST COST-EFFECTIVE MARKETING

Andris Berzins - @akberzins

Monday, 2 April 12

Page 4: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

Andris Berzins - @akberzins

PR COSTS LESS

For startups, PR is absolutely the best investment

Many classic marketing tools are more suitable for mature companies or later-stage startups

Trade shows, print advertising, TV etc.These tools are great for scaling when you have a clearly defined and established set of potential customers and a mature product

Email, web presence, social and all those things are the basics to do

But for most startups the key is to get noticed

Great PR can cost only your own time. Valuable, but better than cash.

Monday, 2 April 12

Page 5: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

A WORD ON TRADE SHOWS

For startups, the best investment is simply to attend

Exhibiting costs much more than you expect

Not just the booth, also flights, hotels, expenses, give-aways, internet access etc.

Remember need enough staff to always man booth

Monday, 2 April 12

Page 6: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS

Some goods are experiential....

Monday, 2 April 12

Page 7: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

NEWS NEEDS TO BE NEWSWORTHY

Andris Berzins - @akberzins

Monday, 2 April 12

Page 8: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

Andris Berzins - @akberzins

WHAT IS NEWSWORTHINESS?

DIFFERENT

UNCOMMON

BIGGEST

BEST

TRENDS & DATA

CELEBRITY

Monday, 2 April 12

Page 9: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

SALESFORCE.COM EXAMPLES

Provocative “No software” logo

Fake demonstration at Siebel user conference

Monday, 2 April 12

Page 10: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID

Monday, 2 April 12

Page 11: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

Andris Berzins - @akberzins

ONE-LINE PITCH EXAMPLES: FROM RECENT ANGELPAD

PipeDrive wants to simplify business software, by creating a simple way for a company to manage its sales pipeline

IDoneThis is a motivational email service that asks you, via email, “What’d you get done today?” and expects an email response in list form, every day

A “Dropbox for videos”, LikeAndy is a mobile app video that lets people distribute their videos across multiple devices

Monday, 2 April 12

Page 12: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

FIND THE CUSTOMER AND WHERE THEY HANG OUT

Monday, 2 April 12

Page 13: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

Andris Berzins - @akberzins

GO FIND THE CUSTOMER

Steve Blank: “Get out of the building”

Find the right mediums: those who want to communicate to your target customers (TechCrunch might not be right!)

Startups need to focus on niches and find cost-effective ways of targeting them

If B2B, ask yourself who is the decision-maker

Remember to ask customers how they get their information about new products/services - you might be surprised at the answers

Monday, 2 April 12

Page 14: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

Andris Berzins - @akberzins

REACH.LY EXAMPLE

Key media partners

Bigger is not better

Invest in content

Keep in touch

Use graphics

Monday, 2 April 12

Page 15: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

SET A DEADLINE

Monday, 2 April 12

Page 16: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

JOURNALISTS WORK FOR DEADLINES

Find out when deadlines are

Often much further out than you think

Reach.ly worked on launch announcement for over a month

Last-minute work causes problems for journalists

Use the deadline to force a decision

Use embargoes and exclusives

Monday, 2 April 12

Page 17: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

COMPANIES AND PRODUCTS ARE BORING

Monday, 2 April 12

Page 18: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

SPICE IT UP

Who wants to read about the nth techie product launch? Weave your pitch into a broader story

e.g. Livebookings Pocket Diner

Add the personal element - founders are especially evocative

Bundle stories together

e.g. Reach.ly funding and launch

Add data & use infographics

Monday, 2 April 12

Page 19: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

LEVERAGE THE BIG GUYSMonday, 2 April 12

Page 20: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

BIG COMPANIES CAN HELP

They have much bigger PR budgets

Analysts and industry pundits follow them

If you can hang onto their coat-tails, it can be a good ride

But beware of the time it takes and the lack of control

Consider press to be one of the tools in a sales negotiation - and make it explicit, usually written

Monday, 2 April 12

Page 21: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

Andris Berzins - @akberzins

AEROSCOUT EXAMPLE

Re-publishing of press release (leverages distribution)

Monday, 2 April 12

Page 22: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

Andris Berzins - @akberzins

AEROSCOUT EXAMPLE

Joint partner press opportunity

Also great example of leveraging customers

Monday, 2 April 12

Page 23: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

BUILD LONG TERM RELATIONSHIPS WITH KEY JOURNALISTS

Monday, 2 April 12

Page 24: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

Andris Berzins - @akberzins

JOURNALISTS ARE PEOPLE TOO

Spend time building relationships with journalists

Follow them on Twitter, include their @twitter handle when retweeting a story

Try to help them out with a story, even when it does not necessarily benefit you directly. Cultivate favors.

Don’t treat them like a transaction

If you have quality opinions on key topics, they will start to come to you for industry comment

Remember: NOTHING you say is confidential. If you don’t want it in the news, don’t say it!

Monday, 2 April 12

Page 25: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

HARD WORK AND PERSISTENCE PAY OFF

Monday, 2 April 12

Page 26: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

KEEP AT IT, DON’T GIVE UP

NO SPELLING OR GRAMMATICAL MISTAKES IN A PRESS RELEASE!

Create a long list of targets and work through it

Don’t give up until you get a flat out “NO”

Use the phone, email alone won’t do it

Reference their other work in your communication to show you know what the journalist writes

For Reach.ly, it took four days of repeated communication to get the TechCrunch article sold, and they finally agreed only at the last minute

Monday, 2 April 12

Page 27: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

Andris Berzins - @akberzins

WHAT TO REMEMBER

PR is the most cost-effective marketing

News needs to be newsworthy

Keep it simple, stupid

Find the customer and where they hang out

Set a news deadline

Companies and products are boring. People are interesting

Figure out how to leverage big partner PR muscle & spend

Build relationships with journalists

Hard work pays off

Monday, 2 April 12

Page 28: Andris K.Bērziņs, Marketing and PR

Andris Berzins - @akberzins

QUESTIONS?

Andris Bērziņš[email protected]@akberzins

Monday, 2 April 12