A free press is a game changer for all startups, and fortunately the social media has really made connecting with journalists a whole lot easier. When I launched by $5 food app, I got a ton of press. It may seem random or maybe you think I got lucky? Actually it was neither. I used several growth hacks to increase the odds of getting free press in my favor. Here is one hack that worked really well.
Step 1: I set up Google alerts on keywords like “food app”, “food delivery” and “food startups”. I wanted to get in touch with news journalists who were writing about food apps.
Step 2: I noticed this article published about a LASH delivery app. I was like, “If they wrote about LASH delivery, maybe they want to write about FiveOH too”
Step 3: After putting my “spy” hat on, I found an email address on their website. It took me probably 10min.
Step 4: I sent them this simple email. BTW notice how I used some of my recent wins as a leverage 🙂
Step 5: After a couple of emails back and forth, they featured this article about FiveOH.
If you want to use the same growth hack to get some press for your startup, here are the steps I would recommend
- Set up Google alerts for your keywords
- Check your email daily for new alerts
- If you see a relevant article, reach out to the new journalist via email or twitter
- Keep your “pitch email” simple (You can use my email from above as a template)
- Have you pitch ready in a word document.
Repeat the above process with at least 5 news journalists. If this growth hack does not work for you, drop me an email at [email protected]. I will buy you coffee and then share some advance tactics from my recently launched Udemy course – Social Media Marketing For Startups: How to Get Free Press. BTW I will pick the star bucks 🙂