In short, PR is about getting your company mentioned by third parties. Media outlets, influencers etc.
Yes, you need PR. Why?
- Credibility. When people Google you, they will find articles about you from reputable media outlets.
- Visibility. It does get you visibility. From my experience, it will generate an inbound flow of talent, potential clients, investors and.. more media opportunities!
- Backlinks. You get backlinks from high-authority domains. This will help you with SEO.
- Cost-effective. If you don't hire a PR agency, your only cost is email hosting (which you probably already have).
- Wikipedia. If you want to create a Wikipedia page for your business, you will need citations from reputable third parties to back up your claim.
Here is a three-step approach to nail PR as a startup.
- Narrative. You need a story to tell.
- Outreach. You need people to tell your story.
- Leverage. You need to leverage your new, shiny media mention.
Here is a brief overview of what the process looks like:
- You write a story about your brand
- You build a list of journalists to pitch it to
- You pitch it through cold emails or DMs
- Some of them will cover it. Success!
- You leverage your new media mention to achieve whatever goals you have set.
Let's dive into the details.
Narrative
You start by creating a story about your brand. There are many angles you can choose from to create a successful one.
Like in all marketing, the most important thing in PR is empathy. You need to put yourself in the shoes of a journalist. What they need is content that their audience will like. If your provide them with it, you'll be successful.
Here are some story angles you could use for your climate startup:
- Innovation & technology. How your startup is harnessing cutting-edge technology to solve a problem. Pro tip: you can do this every time you develop new technology.
Example: "How [Startup Name] is Leveraging AI and Drones to Tackle Reforestation."
- Impact stories. Real-life instances where your solution has brought about tangible benefits or changed the lives of individuals/communities.
Example: "From Deserts to Forests: [Startup Name]'s Reforestation Impact."
- Behind-the-scenes. The challenges and victories in building a climate-focused startup, offering a human side to your business story.
Example: “Cleaning Up the Oceans: Challenges & Triumphs”
- Local to global. How a local or regional climate issue inspired the inception of your startup and how you're scaling to address global challenges.
Example: “Inspired Locally, Impacting Globally: [Startup Name]’s Mission To Secure Water Access Worldwide."
- Partnerships. Collaborations or partnerships with other eco-focused entities (like NGOs, governmental bodies, or other startups) and how they’re multiplying impact.
Example: "[Startup Name] and [Organizazion] Team Up to [Goal]".
- Founder’s tale. Personal anecdotes of the founders, their motivations, and why they're passionate about the climate cause.
Example: "A Personal Quest: How [Founder's Name] Turned Climate Concerns into [Startup Name]"
- Data-driven change: Presenting data-backed evidence of the change your startup is bringing.
Example: "[Startup Name] Increased Wheat Crop Yield By 70%"
- Customer journeys: Sharing testimonials or stories from clients or customers who've adopted your solution and the impact it's had on their life or business.
Example: "From Programmer To Urban Farmer: [Name]'s Journey"
These are just examples, look inside your business for interesting stories to tell, I'm sure there are plenty.
Press Kit
Once you have your story, create a press kit. A press kit (or media kit) is a package containing informational material about your company / story. The goal of a press kit is to make it easier for journalists, influencers, and other interested parties to understand and report on the subject.
Here is what to include in a press kit:
- Company information and facts. Company size, history, key products, etc
- Biographies. Short bios of key people in the organization. This should include their professional background, notable achievements, etc.
- Images. Might include product shots, headshots of key team members, logos in different formats (e.g., PNG, JPG, EPS), event photos or other relevant media.
- Videos (if applicable). Product demonstrations, interviews, promotional videos, etc.
- Product info sheet. Detailed information about products, services, or initiatives. Include technical info for tech products.
This is not law. You can include whatever you deem appropriate to know in order to write a story about you.
In terms of how to it, you have two options:
- Google Drive Folder. I wrote Google Drive but it can be Dropbox or whatever other service you use. You could also send the folder as an email attachment, of course. For simplicity, I like to have one file for each media type (text, images, video).
- PDF containing all written information.
- Folder containing all images
- Folder containing all videos - Link (to a page on your website). This could be a more sophisticated solution, although it does require a bit of work. You essentially include all of the relevant information and downloadable content in a page on your website.
Now you are ready to contact people.
Outreach
It’s now time to pitch your story / company to journalists and influencers. Two straightforward steps:
- Build a list of prospects
- Reach out
Building a list of prospects
There is no “rule” for how big of a list you should build, but I suggest having at least 50-100 targeted contacts to reach out to.
To find their contact info, you can either use tools like RocketReach, BuzzSumo and Hunter.io or look for it manually.
Here are a few methods to quickly find journalists / influencers that could talk about your company:
Google News (free) - Find journalists
Go on Google News, type a keyword related to your industry or a competitor's name. Look for pertinent articles and add the author to your list of contacts. It is a manual process, but it’s free and straightforward.
You can also play with search settings (the little downwards arrow in the search bar) to adjust your query.
Find relevant articles in Google News
Youtube (free) - Find video creators
You can do exactly the same thing, but on YouTube.
BuzzSumo and similar (paid) - Find journalists and influencers
You can also use a paid tool like BuzzSumo if you want to speed up the process. They have a database of influencers and journalists that is quite accurate. It also has other tools to improve your content creation process. Pricing is a bit steep, but they have a generous 30-day trial.
Reaching out
You can either reach out via email or via DM on Twitter / Linkedin. Journalists hang out on Twitter.
In both cases, keep the pitch short and to the point. No need to include the cheesy sentence to show you’ve done your research. “I loved reading your recent article about [topic] on [media outlet], [insert comment that shows you’ve actually read it]”. It certainly doesn’t hurt if done right and you manage to avoid sounding like a robot, but it’s not necessary. Pitching your story to the right person will be enough for them to know you did your research.
Here is a format I like to use, we will use underground farming as an example:
DM
“Hey [name], my company is developing sustainable underground farming systems that can be installed below buildings. Would you like more info to potentially cover it on TechCrunch?”
Email
Subject: Underground farming on TechCrunch?
Body: “Hey [name], my company is developing sustainable underground farming systems that can be installed below buildings. Would you like me to send you more info?”
It’s short, to the point, and respectful of their time. If they are interested, they will reply asking for more information. At this point, you can share your press kit.
The key is that, just like in sales, the desired outcome of the cold approach is to get them interested enough to require more information. Do not ask for a feature straight away, they don’t know yet if they want to cover your story.
Leverage
Congrats! Your pitch was successful and your favorite media outlet published a story about your company. Now what?
You need to leverage your brand new media mention to the max. Here are a few things you can do:
Website media section
After you have a handful, you can add media mentions to your website. It’s a very common practice that helps with social proof and credibility.
Amplify the reach
You can obviously share the story on your social media to get a few more eyeballs, but here are a few additional tactics with more leverage potential:
Share on Reddit. Reddit can be a phenomenal tool for sheer reach. Every piece of content can gather thousands of views, irrespectively of the author. I won’t go in the depth of how to play the Reddit game, but here is a quick game plan:
- Find a few subreddits that could be interested in the topic. You need to be strict with your selection criteria, posting in the wrong subreddit will just get your post deleted.
- Check if the piece hasn’t already been shared in that subreddit.
- Share the piece in that subreddit. AVOID SELF-PROMOTION. Your goal should be to start a conversation around the topic.
Don’t get emotional about nasty feedback, Reddit users are very unfiltered. Instead, look for negative comments and see them as content creation opportunities. You can create content to address those issues. Next time they arise, link to it.
Share on FB Groups. What!? FB groups in 2023? Correct. The concept is the same as Reddit, find groups where the topic would be relevant and post your mention to spark a conversation. You will get eyeballs, feedback and, who knows, potential clients.
Any other community relevant to your industry. If there are communities relevant to your industry, share it there as well.
Pro tip: when posting in communities, share it with your personal profile. It helps you look more genuine.
That’s it for this post. If you think I should cover additional topics, email me at nicola@climatecmo.xyz and I will add them to this post.
