PR HackingHow to Build a Relationship

that Converts to Sales

Agenda

• Why do PR • Strategy for your PR • How to hack your PR

@shiraabel

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Why do we need PR?

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Do you have a product to sell?

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For your product to sell people need to know it exists

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PR builds awareness in a wide audience quickly

Hi, I’m Shira (@shiraabel)

@hunterandbard

I’ve been doing marketing in tech companies for a long time

@hunterandbard

I’m a mentor at 500 Startups, & was a Founding Mentor at Google Campus, and Microsoft Ventures Accelerator

@hunterandbard

And I have an MBA from Kellogg School of Management

@hunterandbard

PURPOSE OF PRWhy are you doing PR?

Why Do PR?

• Looking to raise money • Hiring • Creating awareness in the

market • Downloads of your app / Sales • Signalling to competitors

@shiraabel

What is Earned Media & PR• Blog posts that you write and submit for

publishing (how-to’s are great for this) • Coverage from any media (radio interview,

blog post, news article, etc) • Mentions from others that you didn’t pitch • Evangelists who are well known (imagine

Oprah mentioning you to her minions)

@shiraabel

Why Earned Media & PR• Exposes you to big numbers all at once • Gives a spike of traffic • May be strategic instead of pure growth

(e.g. TechCrunch might not be the target market, but it’s what VCs read)

• Has a strong trust rate

@shiraabel

The Holy Trinity of Marketing Online

GREAT

PRODUCT

Earned Media / PR

Relationship Marketing

SEO / Ads / Affiliate

@shiraabel

PR STRATEGYWhat is your goal?

Performance Measurement• Is your objective SMART: specific, measurable, achievable,

realistic & time specific? • What are your strategic initiatives?

– Build awareness – Expand distribution (i.e. increase downloads) – Get more funding – Hire great people

• How will you measure (KPIs)? – Traffic – Sales – Applications – Interest from VCs

@shiraabel

Your Goal Determines Strategy

If you want to raise money, pitching to mommy bloggers won’t help. Unless one of them just raised a fund.

@shiraabel

HOW TO DO PRLet’s get to the nitty gritty

Your List is Gold

•Journalists •Analysts •Influencers

@shiraabel

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How to Do Earned Media & PR• Get to know media & bloggers on Twitter long

before launch • Give • 2 weeks before launch ask if they would be willing

to check out your product (consider an embargo) • I’ve heard of success from mass emails (luckiest

woman I’ve ever met – only case of success I know)

• KEEP YOUR ASK SHORT

@shiraabel

Sample Email

Tools You Need• Google Alerts:

✴Who is covering your competition? ✴Who owns your keywords?

• SimilarWeb ✴What are your keywords? ✴What is your competition focusing on

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Content is Media• Guest blogging is one of the best ways to do

this • Webinars / Presentations with bigger partners

that give helpful industry related information (think Crunched and its Growth Hacker series)

• Create an infographic for others to share

@shiraabel

Writing - What Do You Read?• No one cares about your company • People are busy • They care about what they need for

work or life • Don’t waste their time • Speak to the journalist with respect

@shiraabel

Get Emotional• Fear – Insurance • Guilt – Mother’s Day • Trust – Financial

institutions • Value – Matching prices • Belonging – Part of our

community • Competition – Doing

better than the Jones’s

• Instant Gratification – I want it now

• Leadership – Early adopter & evangelist

• Trendsetting – What are the leaders doing?

• Time – Save time

@shiraabel

International Markets• Americans spell correctly. However, the British

disagree. There are more Americans than British ☺ (localize your English – even when it’s for Australians)

• Spelling and grammar count – mistakes lower trust levels in all languages and cultures

• Find someone from the culture you’re aiming to sell to, who knows marketing – to do your marketing. OR – go there & live for a bit. Understanding culture is critical.

@shiraabel

Boomerang in Gmail@shiraabel

This helps you remember to send that follow up email.

Sidekick by Hubspot@shiraabel

Find out when the email you sent was opened by the recipient.

Connect!• @shiraabel • http://www.linkedin.com/in/shiraabel • http://www.facebook.com/shiraabel • https://plus.google.com/u/0/+ShiraAbel/

posts • http://www.instagram.com/shiraabel • http://www.pinterest.com/shira_abel

Hat tip:

References & Reads• All of the stock photos are taken from http://thestocks.im/ • THANK YOU’S: Heather Meeker from http://meekerquinn.com/ • http://uxmovement.com/forms/why-users-fill-out-less-if-you-mark-required-fields/ • http://dancounsell.com/articles/prompting-for-app-reviews • http://agevik.se/post/72876032312/20-lessons-about-making-viral-apps-i-learned-the-hard • http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/09/web-content-conversions/ • http://www.slideshare.net/startuplessonslearned/eric-ries-the-lean-startup-google-tech-talk • http://www.slideshare.net/gzicherm/nir-eyal-hookedatgsummit • http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas • http://www.briansolis.com/2008/08/socialization-of-your-personal-brand_28/ • http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2004/03/its_a_small_wor.html • http://www.quora.com/Udemy/How-did-Udemy-get-11-000-courses-online-so-quickly • http://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Three-Wolf-Short-Sleeve/product-reviews/B002HJ377A • http://www.amazon.com/BIC-Cristal-1-0mm-Black-MSLP16-Blk/dp/B004F9QBE6 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QmCUDHpNzE • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUG9qYTJMsI • http://www.macadamia-apps.com/app-launch-7-mistakes-to-learn-from/   • http://flowingdata.com/2011/09/18/yoda-pie-chart/ • http://blog.bitly.com/post/9887686919/you-just-shared-a-link-how-long-will-people-pay • http://www.briansolis.com/2011/09/whats-the-r-o-i-a-framework-for-social-analytics/ • http://www.slideshare.net/setlinger/altimeter-social-analytics081011final • Breakthrough Marketing Plans • http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tracking-the-roi-of-social-media • http://ideas.deloitte.ca/blog/2011/09/social-media-going-beyond-roi/ • http://www.jeffbullas.com/2011/09/20/the-10-key-mistakes-many-bloggers-and-writers-make/ • http://www.jeffbullas.com/2011/03/01/the-10-best-facebook-campaigns/ • http://www.facebook-studio.com/ • http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tracking-the-roi-of-social-media • http://marketingfortomorrow.com/tag/marketing-tone/

@shiraabel

Thank you!