4 tech PR tips for sharing your news with the world

Your audience can be your best advocates or biggest detractors, depending on how, when, and where you communicate your tech startup’s news. Having a newsworthy story and a well-thought-out tech PR strategy is only the start. Next, you have to target the right media verticals and get in front of the right journalists – known as media relations. After all, your message is strengthened when your audiences’ favorite publications are headlining your latest ventures. 

The key to media relations is not expecting it to happen overnight, but instead, sow relationships with journalists as you would tend to your garden. Instead of firing off pitches and seeing what sticks, establish reasonable goals, starting with finding the right publications and reporters to cover your news story.

Be selective with the publications you target Identify target publications that you respect and that appeal to your target audience, starting with the top-tier ones in your industry. These outlets have a lot of influence and can often lead to other outlets – big and small – picking up the story and spreading the word themselves. After all, coverage leads to coverage.

Don’t dismiss niche outlets if it aligns with your goals. For example, you may want to share your news with Food Navigator if you’re an AI tech company in the retail industry or a publication like VentureBeat if your electric vehicle application leans heavily on data-driven insights. Hone in on the aspects of your news that matter to the publication's readers and make sure it’s front and center.  On the other hand, you could opt for popular mainstream outlets with extensive reach if your news will affect or intrigue a large community. For instance, crypto news can be shared in mainstream media if it has a larger impact beyond just the crypto community. Just keep in mind that this approach works best when your news is backed by a credible third-party source or has a shock element. For example, if your crypto-based gaming platform just collaborated with a famous mainstream celebrity to bring awareness to your game, highlight this partnership.

Connect with journalists that reach your ideal customers 

Journalists aren’t just covering their own beats; they’re serving their audience's interests. Identify audiences who would be interested in what you have and then target journalists who reach those audiences. 

One of the biggest mistakes within tech PR for startups is thinking that every demographic aligns with their customer profile. This stems from only determining who your audience is after building your product as opposed to building a tech solution for a specific audience experiencing that pain point. Then you have a bigger problem on your hands. 

Once you know who your customers are, think about what publications they are reading and how to connect with them. Don’t leave any stone unturned. Do your research and find the specific journalists covering your niche. If it's a large mainstream publication, the journalist covering consumer tech will be different from the journalist covering sustainable tech. Remember that the readers you’re trying to reach aren’t only the ones who plan to purchase your product or service. For example, there are environmental advocates who want to hear about tech startups going green, taking a stance on preserving the earth, and showing others how to walk in their small ecological footprint.

Hand-pick the right journalists

Tons of irrelevant pitches have led journalists to believe that we have no clue who they are and what is in their wheelhouse. You need to find out what is meaningful to them and the audiences they are reaching if you’re hoping to get any interest, let alone a response, an interview, or a feature.

Be strategic by focusing on the most influential journalists in your space. In other words, don’t pitch someone who once wrote a piece about 100% cruelty-free living four months back. Look at who is covering conscious consumerism right now and is continuously returning to this discussion. Then, niche down from there. Be picky. You want to target journalists who are experts in your industry, have credibility, and have good reach. Focus your efforts on pitching the strongest top twenty percent of journalists on your list. That may sound narrow, but it’s not only about getting coverage but working with the journalists who are going to tell the right story and perhaps even follow your progress. One targeted pitch is stronger than 100 mass pitches.

Step one to building out a list of reporters is gathering nuggets of information about them across all their profiles, such as Muck Rack, the publication they write for, Twitter, and Google. But because many reporters have flexibility in what they cover – the only way to respond to their interests is to actually engage with their work.

Snap out of robotic mode – journalists are people, too. Your goal in getting coverage for your tech startup shouldn’t be a once-off thing but part of a larger effort to build a relationship with journalists and establish trust. 

Put down the template and the monotonous language and tap into journalists’ interests by asking them a question or responding to something they’ve written. You could even provide valuable stats or information that could assist them in writing a trend piece in the future. This is where the art of pitch customization comes into play. 

Journalists get hundreds if not thousands of pitches daily, so make it clear from the opening sentence how your company fits with their past work and resonates with their audience. However, claiming that your acquisition story is perfect for them because they cover mergers and acquisitions is not specific enough. Instead, highlight how your news corroborates or even challenges an argument they’re making. Better yet, propel their piece further by offering them sources and resources that could lead to a follow-up story.

Be helpful to journalists and go for quality over quantity

At the end of the day, every publication and journalist is different, and there isn’t one right way to connect with them all. Only by taking an interest in what matters to journalists will you know whether a dad joke in your opening line will encourage them to read on. Only by accepting that you’re not the first to do something will you realize that investigating which publications are covering your competitors is a smart way to see what kinds of messages are making the cut. And only by understanding that you need to share your news in a way that connects with your audience’s current questions and concerns, will you master the art of media relations.