Securing Press Mentions For Startup Funding Announcements

Case Study

Dec 9

Announcing startup funding or any open funding for your business is a big deal. First, it signals to stakeholders that your business is secure and ready for the future and, second, it’s an opportunity to get in front of customers. In this article, we will share the importance of timing, embargos, newswires and pitching.

Set a go-live date

The best way to organize a timeline for the announcement is to start backwards from the decided ‘go-live’ date. When it comes to funding, your go-live date needs to be on or before the SEC filing so that you have control of the narrative. Sending a press release out a week after the official filing makes the news...old news.

As with any marketing strategy, it is important to have all internal resources ready. Specifically, for a startup funding announcement, consider what materials you want to share with the media. For all our clients, we recommend maintaining current headshots and product images. These assets will need to be ready before the go-live date.

Working with our partners, we aim to have the first draft of the release to the client within a week of our start date. It is key to set a deadline for final changes so that the project can continue the momentum. Working through edits and feedback in a timely manner is imperative. Ideally, the press release and media list are finalized and approved by all parties a minimum of two weeks before the go-live date.

Pitch journalists via an embargo

Once the media list is ready to go, we set out on embargo pitch efforts with key journalists. An embargo allows us to pitch your story with an agreed future release date. An embargo also gives the journalist time to research the story and conduct interviews ahead of the go-live date. Embargoes are essential for funding stories and allow your team time to follow up and answer questions before the go-live date. Before the embargo is agreed upon, we only share information that you are OK with the journalists releasing. We need to entice them, but not give away too much. You don’t want to break the news inadvertently. Once the embargo had been agreed, we share nitty-gritty details. However, an embargo does not guarantee that the story will gain coverage. It’s important for startups to also leverage their investors to help secure high-profile placements, too. If you have a notable investor, they likely have media contacts. Ask them to introduce you and your publicist to their best contacts once the press release is finalized.

Schedule a newswire distribution

In addition to embargo pitching, it is important to use newswire services like PRWeb to broaden the reach of the release and as an ingredient for a strong SEO strategy. A newswire distribution will strengthen the SEO of the company, and the results of the press release, due to syndication. Using a wire service is an additional fee, but the return on investment will be apparent from the increased visibility.

Go-live date pitching

On the go-live date, the newswire is scheduled to run and the embargo pitching efforts are complete. Now is the time to pitch to the remaining journalists on the media list. A typical news cycle for a funding announcement is 1-2 weeks, which means that from the day the funding news is public, you can anticipate seeing press mentions for about 1-2 weeks.

Earlier this year we gained stellar results for two of our clients, AnthillAi and Cabinet, utilizing this strategy.

AnthillAi case study

AnthillAi is a talent management platform for deskless workers that is based in Chicago. We were able to get their seed funding news covered in Chicago’s prominent startup publications in addition to distributing the press release on the newswire via PRWeb. To ensure an accurate depiction of our client, we worked with the co-founders to arrange their photoshoot, which included individual and small group shots. We curated a shot list that complimented the press release and enhanced the overall narrative. Our strategy resulted in top-tier coverage from Fortune to Chicago Inno.

Cabinet case study

We recently worked with Cabinet, an executive assistant software, to announce their seed funding. They were fortunate to have a high-profile investor with a strong TechCrunch relationship. This resulted in a profile interview and splashy press mention. With the CEO based in Colorado, we were able to secure Colorado startup and business press coverage in prominent outlets. In addition to the newswire, we were also able to get Cabinet mentioned on Fortune’s Term Sheet and in HR-related outlets.