Yesterday a startup asked for advice about putting out news about their recent funding round. I believe PR can be one of the most leveraged marketing activities for a startup, worth doing right. Sharing a thread here, as I see these points are needed again and again.https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👇" title="Rückhand Zeigefinger nach unten" aria-label="Emoji: Rückhand Zeigefinger nach unten"> 1/7

Be clear who your #1 audience is. Other investors? Clients? Industry analysts? Then spend effort writing the main message in one headline until you have that clear. That message can have several components, but needs to be concise and to the point 2/7

Write the first paragraph, where you expand on this in 2-3 sentences. Remember to think about the message from the journalists point of view - what will they think is interesting to their readers? After that you can expand the full text to add more details 3/7

Check for keywords that you want to include, make sure this fits with your SEO strategy. A good news post can generate SEO for years, worth making sure you are consistent in your usage of terms and keywords. Align with other marketing efforts. 4/7

Assemble your list of target media. Sort by news category and journalist type. Some will write long form pieces and require a more sophisticated approach, some will just re-post industry news. Pick targets where you really want the news to appear and work those individually 5/7

Some outlets (e.g. @TechCrunch @tech_eu in tech press in our region) will respect embargoes, so use them. That means a prohibition against publishing until time & date of announcement (in bold at top of document). They prepare a post ahead of time. Give them a week& #39;s notice. 6/7

A good PR firm will help you craft the message and leverage their journalist relationships to get placement. Some of @changeventures portfolio companies have used @truesix_co @BlackUnicornPR @BallouPR. Ideally you want a long term relationship with a firm for best results 7/7