By Richard Berman (founder of Verbfactory, an early stage PR firm)

Back during the dot-com boom, emerging technology and e-commerce companies paid tens of thousands of dollars a month to public relations agencies in the hopes that they would receive positive press coverage. Today’s PR budgets are a fraction of what they were in the heyday of Kozmo.com, Webvan and Pets.com, and reporters are a lot more cynical about anyone claiming to be the “next big thing,” but that doesn’t mean that early-stage companies need to slog away in obscurity. By minding a few basic Ps and Qs, savvy entrepreneurs can maximize the value – and success – of their PR campaigns.

1 – Target audience

Know exactly whom you need to reach, and then figure out how PR can help you get your message to the right people. If your company is an e-commerce portal that sells women’s clothing, publications such as Cosmopolitan are probably where you should focus your pitch, and it’s probably not worth calling Guns & Ammo. This may sound self-explanatory, but a lot of companies use a “scattergun” approach of blasting pitches out to a huge list of periodicals to see what sticks. Make sure that your communications team – whether you’re working with an agency or an in-house group – is spending its time getting coverage in outlets that will help you meet your business objectives.

2 – Key messages

You wouldn’t enter a sales call unprepared, and you should take the same care in your approach to interviews. Before you pick up the phone to let reporters know about your company, make sure that you have your messaging down. This doesn’t mean that you need to memorize pithy sound bites or spend weeks creating a comprehensive Q&A document. Instead, come up with a short description of what your company does (two to three sentences should be fine), why it’s important, and why you’re different than anyone else in the market. It’s also important to be able to provide hard facts, so have as much data as possible at your fingertips so you can back up what you’re telling the press. For example, saying, “we reach a large number of houses” probably won’t excite a reporter, but “more than 25 million people see our site every month” gives some context to your story.

3 – References

With few exceptions, periodicals and Web sites do not cover technology – they cover the application of technology. It’s a subtle but important distinction, and in practical terms it means that you need to be able to provide the reporter with a real-world user of your product or service who can speak positively about your company and back up your pitch. One of the best ways to do this is to work with a friendly beta tester or early adopter to create a one-page case study that outlines the situation, solution and results that he or she has experienced. This can be tricky for early-stage companies, but in most cases it’s the difference between getting a story written and having the interview go nowhere. Don’t assume that your customers – even good ones – will be references for the press, because a lot of companies have policies against providing endorsements for third-party vendors. If you want a user to talk to the press on your behalf, try to build it into the contract so they will be obligated to work with you.

4 – Press releases

Reporters don’t like getting tons of irrelevant press releases, but that doesn’t stop companies from generating a phenomenal amount of useless junk and sending it out to the media. While issuing a flurry of news might make you feel like your PR team is earning its keep, the reality is that very few reporters are going to care that you are attending a trade show, signing a sales deal, hiring a new VP, or opening a sales office in Rancho Cucamonga. So what should you announce? The short answer is that you should announce only what reporters are going to care about. Funding announcements tend to get a lot of play (and can be good hooks for feature stories), and it can be useful to announce new products – IF you have customers who are willing to talk about how they’re using them.

5 – Research analysts

If you’re involved with a start-up venture, it’s pretty likely that you’re not going to be able to afford to plunk down $25,000 to purchase research services from a firm such as Forrester, Gartner or Yankee Group. That doesn’t mean that you should ignore them. Most of the top analyst firms accept briefing requests from companies, even if they’re not customers, and it’s almost always a good bet to pursue these opportunities. Why? Because the analysts get paid to follow industry trends and many of them will provide third-party opinions about your company to the press, even if you’re not a paying client. That’s good news – if they like what you have to say!

6 – The Story

Newspaper and magazine writers are under constant pressure to come up with interesting, insightful stories on a regular basis. It’s a tough job to begin with, but when you factor in the huge number of companies that are trying to get their attention with endless steams of emails, phone calls and even faxes, you can see why many reporters have a pretty low B.S. tolerance. That’s why you should always have all the pieces for a story in mind before you contact them. For starters, read their previous stories so you can get a sense of what they’re looking for so that you can hone your pitch. For example, if a writer primarily focuses on new products, don’t call him or her about something that’s been on the market for six months. You also need to be able to provide as much information as possible right away, including customer references, analyst contacts and technical data.

Richard Berman is the founder of VerbFactory (www.verbfactory.com), a strategic communications firm that represents technology and financial services companies. He is also a frequent contributor to publications including the San Francisco Chronicle and the Toronto Star.

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