Page 89 - The 7 Day Startup: You Don’t Learn Until You Launch - PDFDrive.com

Forbes, inc.com, and Fox News. My team got a lot out of those mentions
including direct signups, logos for our homepage, a lot of social media activity,
and attention from others in the industry.

I didn’t have the money to pay a PR agency, so my team and I had to tackle it
ourselves. Here are some of the things the team has done to get press coverage:

1. Pulled lists of relevant journalists to contact about running stories.
2. Chased our entrepreneurial friends, who had been featured and looked for

intros to the journalist who covered them.
3. Paid attention to parts of our business that could be newsworthy and looked

for stories. For example, I’d spent 12 months building a business that was
losing money and then within 23 days had made WP Curve profitable. I
pitched this idea to Startup Daily, who published an article about the
story49.
4. Dropped everything for opportunities to be featured in the media. When
Clayton Morris mentioned to Alex that he could potentially chat to him
about Wordpress, he jumped to action. Alex booked flights to New York,
crammed a TV presenters’ course in, bought a new jacket (for $700, mind
you), and a week later he was on Fox TV50.
5. Talked about ourselves a lot. It’s uncomfortable at times, particularly when
putting all of our revenue numbers up on our blog51. But this gets people
talking and interesting stories emerge.
6. Sent some of our best articles to other websites, to help with those
relationships.

I’ve stayed away from crazy marketing stunts, but no doubt that can be effective
as well. In the end they are looking for a story—journalists don’t want to feature
you for the sake of it. Look for stories in everything you are doing and maintain
good relationships with journalists and influencers.

This does take time, but if you can promote unique stories around your launch,