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Data Driven PR for Startups
(Part I) PR Basics

By Adriana Herrera @adriana_herrera · On January 2, 2014

In a former life I worked in public relations. Over the past year I contributed a blog/ column in The New York Times about building my startup, FashioningChange.com. Every time, I’d publish a story I’d receive hundreds of story pitches. The most poorly written and off topic pitches were always from PR firms.

I find that colleagues in the startup world often ask me “How do I get press?” or “How do I hire a PR firm?” My answers are always the same…

“If you have raised money (or are trying to raise money) you can do your own PR.”

“If you hire a PR firm you’re going to get ripped off.”

This month my series Data Driven PR for Startups, PR Basics, Tactics, and Tools will breakdown the process to garner media, detail why PR firms will generally rip you off, and give you tools to quantify the value of your public relations efforts.

Before diving into the PR process below are the PR basics…

Top Five Reasons to do Public Relations

  1. Attract Customers
  2. Attract Potential Partners (Business or Investment)
  3. Establish Trust and Credibility in the Market
  4. Recruit Talent
  5. Crisis Communications

Types of Media

  1. Online
    Placements generate immediate and long-tail results (results are better for web than mobile)
    Good for new customers, credibility, and partnerships
  2. Print
    Placements generate long-tail results
    Good for credibility and partnerships
  3. Broadcast
    Placements generally generate long-tail results, national placements like the Today Show are exceptions
    Good for credibility and partnerships, national placements are also good for new customers

  Types of Stories 

  1. Hard News, a story that uses facts to cover a serious topic or event, not opinion based
  2. Feature News, a story on person, place, or event, often opinion based and tells an intriguing story
    Almost every story pitched by a startup will be a ‘Feature News’ story

Lead Times

  1. Online
    Any news site, if a story is hot a story can break instantly
    Industry blogs with editorial calendars, 4 – 6 weeks
  2. Print
    Newspaper feature story,  4 – 6 weeks
    Magazine feature story, 3 – 6 months (on the extreme end 12 months)
  3. Broadcast
    Feature story, 4 – 6 weeks

 Checklist to Help Assess if You’re Ready for PR

  1. You know what your PR goals are
  2. You’ve targeted the right media to achieve your goals
  3. You have the right pitch timeline
  4. You’ve established your pitch process
  5. You’ve finalized your press materials
  6. You’ve optimized landing pages, funnels, and feedback/ follow-up loops for each type of media hit
    (You know every thing is sticky because you’ve done a couple of test runs on smaller “look-a-like” media outlets.)
  7. You’ve made ROI assumptions to measure against
  8. You have a process and  tools to measure ROI assumptions and quantify the value of PR efforts
    Example: Data Driven Public Relations Template for Startups
    (I’ll breakdown how to develop and use this spreadsheet as part of this month’s series on Data Driven Public Relations.)

——-

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Adriana Herrera

Adriana Herrera is a tech entrepreneur, tree hugger, and geek in stilettos. She spends her time building EpicHint.com, surfing, and cooking with family.

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About

Adriana Herrera
Hi my name is Adriana Herrera. I'm an entrepreneur. I've founded companies in tech and outside of tech. I taught myself to code while drinking wine one summer. I wear stilettos and have a closet full of dresses I love! I've written columns in publications like The New York Times. I was named a Top 20 Latino Innovator by NBC/ NBC Latino. Yup, I'm Mexican. I'm very proud of my heritage and the amazing cooking skills passed down to me by my mother and abuelita.

I love reading blogs. I've found that most of the blogs I read are written by men so I thought I'd start my own, Open Bubbles. I write about what I know...building a startup, PR, marketing, data, and developing product. I like conversation and new friends. So feel free to comment, 'Connect', and follow.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Adriana Herrera
adriana@openbubbles.com

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