How we increased one startup’s media coverage by 450%

For the past year or so, A.WordSmith has been busy at work for an innovative, U.S.-based technology startup. The client’s business is not only fascinating, but its products are quite literally revolutionizing an entire industry.

In support of the startup’s goal to build brand equity and increase awareness for its new products, A.WordSmith worked closely with executives to increase the frequency and quality of public relations activities. After much hard work, the results are in … and they are phenomenal. In only a year, A.WordSmith has helped the startup achieve a 450-percent increase in valuable media coverage.

While we can’t guarantee the same results for everyone, here are a few of the ways we did it:

• We sent succinct, factual press releases to industry and regional reporters every time the startup opened a new office, hired a high-profile employee, finalized a new contract or partnership, and had a success story. When a key reporter didn’t pick up the piece, we called them personally to check in. This was often enough to remind them to run the story.
• We built relationships with influential reporters. That means we sent emails introducing ourselves and the startup, picking up the phone to have a conversation, sharing advanced copies of stories to select media partners and being responsive to their needs. Being a good resource for reporters pays dividends in the form of future coverage.
• We wrote valuable content and pitched it. That’s right; we did their work for them. We wrote stories that we knew would be interesting to their audiences (the startup’s customers) and then we gave the pieces away as editorial content. More often than not, the stories were published for free.
• We ramped up our social media content. You already know your customers are on social media. No surprise, so are reporters (especially on Twitter and LinkedIn). Get busy pushing your company’s stories and use strategic hashtags to deliver messages to the right conversations.
• We gave our time to big stories. When a major national outlet wanted to interrupt operations for two full days to film a documentary, we obliged. In return, we got 200,000 YouTube views on the story (and counting).

Interested in other ways of improving your company’s public relations results? Contact A.WordSmith for a consultation.