Using Effective Storytelling

to Hack PR and Media Coverage

www.storytellingforstartups.ca

My new book that gives entrepreneurs strategic and

tactical guidance to embrace the power of story-driven marketing

Four-Step Process

Hunt & Gather

Building Relationships

Pitch

Track

Reporters/Bloggers

• Overworked: articles, blogs, podcasts, video, social media

• Overflowing inboxes

• Inundated with startup pitches

Identifying Your Audience

Creating a Target List

• Reporters

• Bloggers

• Influencers

• Analysts

• Consultants

Creating a Target List

• Name

• Publication

• Website

• Interests

• Email

• Articles

• Contact history

Lior Degani

Lior Degani’s List Building RecipeFind niche influencers and put them into a spreadsheet

• Article URL• Who is the writer?• Where was it posted? • Post type (review/list/thought leadership, etc.)• What’s the post about?• How popular was the post/article?• Writer’s email address/Twitter handle

• Reach out (be pro-active)• Include a CTA (try it for free)• Find influencers who already use the app (Intercom)

Leverage Connections

Mike Katchen,WealthSimple

CEO

Contacts

Uses LinkedIn to get intros to reporters.

In e-mail, tells reporters WealthSimple; asks for acoffee meeting to get their advice (aka “TrojanHorse” pitch)

Result: media coverage

Discovering Media, Bloggers

Finding Email Address

• http://bit.ly/name2email (Google Doc spreadsheet)

Enter an email address into Gmail; When you get a match, FullContact displays their profile

Create a Media Kit

Social Media

• Follow journalists & bloggers

• Retweet• Favourite• Answer questions• Engage

Create a Twitter List

Tools:- Electoralhq.com- Tweetbe.at- Twitlistmanager.com- Tweetdeck- HootSuite- Twitter.com

The Power of Blogging

Capitalize on Guest Blogging

High-Profile Places to Guest Post

The Pitch

Six Storytelling Themes

Success

Raising Money

Innovative/New

Different/Weird

Hijacking the News

Relationships

Success(and some good luck)

Wave launches on Chrome store thesame day as Angry Birds;

attracts thousands of customers

Hijacking the News(aka Jumping on the Bandwagon)

Weird/Strange

Next Millennium FarmsThe only farm in North America selling insects as food

Off-Beat

Entrepreneur “retires” at 27

Create the News

The Perfect PitchHi [First Name],

I’m [full name], founder of a startup called [name +link to website], and I think you may be interested innew software that turns Gmail into a powerfulCRM.

Since a “soft” launch last month, we’ve attracted15,000 users.

I have attached screenshots of the app, and a link toa video that shows how it works.

We’re going live next week, so happy to providemore information before the launch.

Thanks,

Name Position Telephone number Twitter Handle

Quick snapshot of what your startup does

Provide context/sizzle

Easy way to learn more

Create a sense of urgency/timing

Pitching Tools

pitchpigeon.com

Think Like a Reporter,Not Like a Publisher

Develops first basketball app for

Apple Watch

240K

Startup uses Pinterest to

attract 240,000 followers

Early-Stage Startup Story Arc

Stories about how you started

Stories about your growth

Stories your industry/trends

Stories about your customers

“Low hanging” fruit when your startup has no/low profile or few

customers

100 Story Ideas

See what story ideas are attracting the most

attention, and who’s writing about them

Tracking InterestEmail tracking tools to see who’s openingyour email, how often, location and linksopened

Tracking Interest

Tools to Track the Competition

Coffee: Powerful Analog Media Hacking

Thanks!

www.markevans.ca

@markevans

mark@markevans.ca

http://bit.ly/startupscana

da

www.storytellingforstartups.ca