Enrollments for our next cohort are now open!
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PROGRAM OVERVIEW
The Art of Startup PR
A masterclass designed for startup founders, investors, and marketers.
Dear founder, Head of Comms, & VC Investor –
Yes! There’s a way to do startup PR. It is an art and science of storytelling that is different from other methods of doing PR for established companies and brands, and one that is typically not handled well by larger agencies.
Early on, I realized that large agencies weren’t serving startup founders well. Often, startups didn’t have the budget to command the attention of the most senior staff at agencies, so they would get the most junior person on the team to work on their account. And often, that junior account person would be working on 9-12 accounts at any one time.
Startups move fast, they pivot, and their business can change overnight. I’ve met countless founders who had been impacted by agencies and couldn’t understand why. I knew that I had created a 1:1 PR method that works.
I’ve created a 5-week course with the fundamentals of how to do startup PR so that hopefully, you can implement a successful PR strategy with your team or marketing lead. After 5 weeks, you walk away with a playbook that I’ve spent years refining to secure headlines in TechCrunch, the WSJ, NYT, Fast Company, Bloomberg, and more each and every week.
It is with great pleasure and complete honor to guide you, teach you, support you, and help you raise your profile to share your voice and your company’s important work in the world. After working with so many founders and investors, side-by-side, I know that you have something unique and powerful to say about what you are building. I know that you will start this masterclass at one point and end up somewhere totally different - magical, successful, and potentially life-changing.
So, shall we begin?
Kathy, Founder & PR Consultant at Kamel PR
What to expect from this Masterclass
You will receive hands-on, practical insight into how PR works for early-stage startups and venture capital firms. If you’re an investor, founder, or head of marketing or communications – you’ll understand why a B2B2C or VC PR plan can be an effective top-of-funnel strategy that can help your direct marketing funnel.
The course is not intended to drive coverage results. Public Relations is built on building valuable human relationships with the press and sharing your message and story with the right audience. This course will provide you with a big picture of the Public Relations process, and the important roles of strategy and tactics in the process.
What you’ll leave with:
How to build your individual platform
How to identify the right reporter and master building media relationships for your company
How to build your story and company message
How to formulate a PR strategy for each stage of growth, from seed to Series A
When to hire a PR agency versus a consultant
Each week, your classroom looks like this.
Week 1: Intro to PR & Building Your Message
In our first workshop, we will share a brief overview of what to expect throughout the next 5 weeks. Whether you are a B2B startup, D2C brand, venture capital firm, or investor, we’ll discuss why the only way to do PR today is truly a B2B2C approach. We will dive into building your personal message, identifying 10 reporters that you want to build relationships with for yourself and your business, and close with a live Q&A.
Week 2: Winning PR Strategies & Elegant Execution
We’ll dive into 3 important steps for consideration when hiring PR at any stage and the nuts and bolts of these PR strategies. Whether it’s for a product, partnership, new hires, or funding announcements, we’ll dive into what the execution side looks like for these types of announcements and pitches. The last hour of this masterclass will be interactive with hands-on guidance from Julie and Kathy as we do a live Q&A and review introductory pitches and a list of reporters for your company.
Week 3: Reporters, Press Audiences, and a Case Study Presentation
This week, we’ll show you how to identify the right reporters outside of traditional online news. By this week, we’ve built an initial list of reporters for introductory outreach, however, trade reporters, podcasts, and even freelance reporters and contributors are important to consider. We will dedicate the last hour of this workshop to going through three case studies and a live Q&A.
Week 4: Meet the press
We’re inviting 2 reporters to our workshop for a 40-minute discussion on what they look for in a pitch, how they work best, and additional insight into stories they like to write or sources they want to connect with. Time will be left at the end for questions from the class and/or the opportunity to pitch them directly!
Week 5: Final Class
In our final week together, we will look back on everything that we learned and apply the learnings to refine a practical PR strategy that you can apply to your company. We will go through additional case studies, host a live Q&A and make sure that you have the next steps to build your platform!