A VC in Vacationland

In my previous four Blogs on start up marketing, The Basics, Capabilities & Technology, Content Development and Content Placement, we covered the fundamentals of developing a world-class marketing program for your start up. It occurred to me after I finished the last installment, and promised you that it was the last for a while on this subject, that I missed an important part of any marketing program–public relations.

The role of public relations in a start up is as critical as having good product or service offerings. What type of public relations you need is the first question to answer.  The PR nirvana for start ups is mention in the top business press, such as Tumri’s recent mention in Business Week’s article on Widgets. Associating your start up with a hot business or technology trend will get you quickly noticed by venture guys, analysts and potential customers.  Absent such opportunities, getting the word out to media about important happenings at your company is an ongoing task that should be managed, not done as an afterthought.

Let’s start with the basics.  First, realize that most people really don’t care if you have hired a bunch of people, moved, brought out a marginally better version of your software or other such irrelevant stuff.  Put it on your website, but please spare all of us the news release.  Second, carefully determine and rank key media outlets for your technology, including business press, industry-specific publications/web sites, Blogs and technology-focused media. Third, limit general media releases to important announcements, such as innovative products and services, new white papers discussing hot topics among your customers or industry awards–as long as you did not pay to play. Finally, save your best media outlets for making a big deal about new customer acquisitions. Do people really care about P&G or H-P signing up for your software?  Absolutely.  Make sure you get customer quotes in the releases, assuming they are willing. 

Notice that I have not said anything about hiring a PR person or technology yet.  Before you decide on who or how you will manage PR material flow, you should do your homework, as outlined in the steps above. Only then should you begin researching the "channels" to be used to get your messages into the media. Channel options range from expensive, fee-based, full-service PR firms, to local "single-shingle" PR consultants, to do-it-yourself web-based PR technologies. Wait a minute, you say, what happened to all that permission-based marketing stuff Dave pitched in earlier Blogs?  The simple answer is that the permission-based marketing tools are highly focused on professionals who have opted-in to specific information streams from your company.  PR is all about fishing for and educating new prospects, analysts and influencer’s in the world beyond permission-based marketing.

A full-service PR firm can easily run you $50,000 per year.  These firms take your content, manufacture press releases, distribute them to appropriate media outlets and provide your with a monthly placement report.  You will want a firm with experience in and key media contacts in your industry.  Media outlets, whether print or web based, get thousands of press releases a day.  If you are paying the big bucks for placement, then you need to be sure that your PR firm will get your releases noticed and published. But you are wondering, is this worth $50K per year?  How do I know if I am getting my monies worth?  Here is where your permission-based marketing technology comes in.  You can ask visitors to your web site where they heard about you in the opt-in survey questions, or do the same thing if you get an email or phone call inquiring about your products and services.  Return on PR investment is easy to calculate in the permission-based environment.

A local, one-person or small PR firm is more cost effective, but may not have the industry experience or contacts to get you noticed.  The smaller the firm, the more input you need to have to the PR process, such as introducing the principals to the right media/analyst people, assuming that you know them. Ask fellow start ups in your area if they have any recommendations or experiences with using local PR firms.

For the techie who wants a virtual business model, there are a number of web-based PR sources that can be cobbled together to produce a virtual PR machine.  You will have to do all the basic content preparation work yourself, as these technologies are primarily distribution channels for press releases.  PRweb, vocus, MyPRGenie, and dna13, to name a very few, are all web-based technologies that will send your content to relevant(read:industry specific, but not targeted) Internet media outlets, print/Blog journalists and optimized search engines.  None of my portfolio companies have used these services, so I cannot report back on the success of the offerings.  They are very popular with web-based product businesses who are trying to drive consumer eyeballs to their sites.  Prices range from $50 to over $500 per release, depending on the complexity (video attachments, etc) of the release. Other, more exotic fee-based plans are also available. In addition, some of these services also allow you to track mentions of your company in the print and on-line media, as well as let you configure Internet feeds providing you with news on industry trends and competitor releases. 

Finally, for the complete novice in marketing and PR, many people recommend John Janstch’s book, Duct Tape Marketing.  The book provides a complete roadmap for setting up a marketing program.  I personally found it boring and simplistic, as did some other reviewers.  But John has his loyal followers, so you may want to spend the $13 on Amazon to find out for yourself.  His Blog is more informative, but the book lays out the complete marketing program process for the neophytes.