11 instruments and PR websites to get your begin off the bottom
What's the use of starting a new business if nobody knows about it? Millions of new businesses are launched every month, so differentiating yourself from the competition can be a big undertaking.
If you don't take the right approach to PR, marketing, and advertising, it won't be long before you have to close your doors.
Fortunately, these PR sites will help you prevent that from happening.
We handpicked the best tools and services to generate excitement for your new business. With your PR covered, you can focus on other important aspects of your business start-up.
1. Decision
Are you in the market for powerful public relations software that gets serious results?
If you want to go all out with your PR push, check out Cision. It has everything you need for an effective PR campaign.
Cision maintains a database of around 1.4 million journalists, editors and influencers. With Cision you can not only communicate with the journalists and influencers in your database. You can also connect with your audience.
That's not all Cision has to offer. Other functions are:
- Extended distribution of your press releases
- Performance tracking tools
- Tools to track mentions
Whether you're trying to connect with influencers or looking for new ways to tell your story, Cision has a tool that will suit your needs.
Cision has tools to monitor all of the following functions:
- social media
- Broadcast and video
- Print media
- online media
- daily news briefings
Knowing who is mentioning your brand can help you turn them into relationships that will benefit your business over the long term.
2. PRWeb
What better way to get PR for your startup than sending out a press release?
There are two keys to success with this approach:
- Creating a unique point of view that journalists and bloggers will find interesting
- Use a service that will distribute your version to a large number of media contacts
It is your responsibility to create a unique point of view by focusing on a topic that gives others a reason to share your story.
From there, you can rest assured that PRWeb, a division of Cision, will push your publication to the search engine masses as your own PR firm. The way it works is simple:
- Create your press release
- Distribute your messages
- Track your messages
With such a simple approach, getting started with PRWeb is easy. While I am pleased with the fact that it is easy to massively distribute a publication about the service, it is the "Follow Your Messages" feature that I really love. Understanding the attention your press release is getting is just as important as how it is being sent.
With it you can answer questions like:
- How many times has your publication been read?
- How many headline impressions does your publication get every day?
- Which media received the publication?
It also gives you keyword and search engine data to see how your target audience found out about you.
The only downside to PRWeb is the pricing. The basic package starts at $ 99 and the premium package starts at $ 389.
While this is a bigger investment than planned, remember, PRWeb does all of the work for you. This saves you a lot of time with every media campaign.
Pro tip: There are tons of add-ons out there that can add even more punch to your release.
3. Respona
Respona is a state-of-the-art PR tool that uses AI to analyze content created by influencers in your field and help you personalize your PR pitches accordingly.
Respona has three main features: link building, digital PR, and blogger reach.
Each feature consists of several components. For example, for link building and contacting bloggers, Respona can find the latest email addresses for your goals using GDPR compliant sources. For reaching out to bloggers, Respona will personalize your pitch by adding details from the social media channels associated with your goals.
In addition, Respona has its own search engine that uses a proprietary algorithm that gives you real-time access to opportunities and information about your PR campaigns.
To get the most out of Respona, integrate it with your other tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz.
4th Business Wire
With Business Wire, you can take advantage of modern PR and digital content capabilities while accessing the network the company has built over the past 60 years.
Some of their main features are:
- Distribution of press releases: Distribute PR publications to their news network, newsrooms, and industry influencers; Web formatting; Adding links to social media
- Intelligent press release: Create shareable, optimized photos and videos that may appear on other websites
- Event services: Promote your trade shows / conferences
5. Help a reporter (HARO)
Wouldn't it be great if you could give journalists expert information on your industry?
Instead of sitting back and hoping that these people will find you – which they probably won't – you can use HARO.
Once you sign up as a source, you will receive three emails a day with opportunities based on your knowledge and experience.
Here is an example of what an email from HARO looks like:
If you see something on the list that matches your expertise, just click through and follow the directions. It really is that simple. If a journalist likes what you have to say, you can get in touch and provide the necessary information.
This is not a press release, but it is of value to your small business.
The benefit of this media relations strategy is that your name and company will be listed in the article created by your contact. Even better, the article will likely link back to your website. This is all good for search engine optimization.
Pro tip: With nearly 500,000 members, you need to perfect your pitch. This increases your chance of getting a response from the journalist.
6. Muck rack
What is your process for finding and contacting journalists?
As with many startups, you may not think about it much. Instead, just send email and hope for the best. While this can open up some opportunities, it is occasionally hit or missed.
Muck Rack can take all the guesswork out of the process. This tool is one of the best for not only finding journalists, but also getting in touch with those who might be interested in your company.
Here are some of the many things to expect:
- the ability to find the right journalists by searching for company names, keywords, media types and more
- Email notifications when someone links to an article or posts a tweet that matches your search term
- using analytics tools to see who is sharing your content on social media
7. Meltwater
As one of the most advanced tools on this list, don't be surprised if you spend hours familiarizing yourself with Meltwater and the many features it offers.
It's a media relations hub for any small business tracking the search engine buzz and trending social network data.
From a PR perspective, you should pay close attention to media monitoring tools. With the ability to stay up to date with "billions of editorial, blog, and social media conversations in real time," it's easy to join the conversation when it makes most sense.
You can also use these tools to identify journalists covering your industry. From there, you'll have a better idea of who you can reach in the future and develop the social media relationships that will help your small business grow.
8. Cover book
How do you go about preparing PR reports?
This may not be something you have pondered in the past, but you should consider embarking on a solid strategy soon.
With the Coverage Book, PR reporting is no longer a time-consuming and complex process. Instead, you can generate high quality reports in minutes. These can be used in a variety of ways, e.g. B. to share it with your team and provide potential customers with more information about your company.
Some of the key features of the Coverage Book are:
- automated screenshots of all reporting
- Ability to customize the look and feel of any book you create
- automated metrics, including data from Moz and SimilarWeb, among others
- Opportunity to keep all of your coverage in one place
On the surface, the coverage book doesn't seem like much when it comes to getting a press release or media coverage for your startup. However, once you learn more, you will find that the data you have collected will give you a better idea of how to get more results in the future without the need for an expensive public relations firm.
Pro tip: Check your coverage regularly, paying close attention to the types of journalists and sources who are most interested in your startup. You can then use this data to perfect future pitches.
9. New
How do you go about finding relevant media contacts?
Even with the help of the internet, it can be difficult to compile a list of media contacts relevant to your industry.
Fortunately, a tool like Anewstip can step in and give you the speed and efficiency you need.
With this tool by your side, you can quickly search for journalists and bloggers based on what they have posted or tweeted. By indexing “200 million+ news articles and 1 billion tweets from 1 million+ media contacts,” you know you always have access to the best information.
Best of all, though, this is one of the easiest PR tools you will ever come across.
When you're ready to get started, enter your brand, competitor, or keyword in the search box.
You can break the data down to another level by searching on the following criteria:
- Tweets
- Newspaper articles
- Journalist profiles
- Outlet profile
Here is an example of a news article search for the keyword "content marketing". Finding the top search engine experts in your industry is the beginning of developing long-term media channels.
When the search results are in front of you, it's time to take action. When you find a journalist you want to contact, click "Pitch by Email" or "View Email Address".
Professional tip: Use the advanced search functions, e.g. B. the ability to sort by date, time, language and country.
10. Google Alerts
There are plenty of free tools out there that can help your new small business generate more advertising.
Google Alerts deserves your attention, and not just because it's free. You should use it too as it will seamlessly produce great results.
Google defines this tool as follows:
By creating a Google Alert, you can always receive email notifications whenever Google finds new results on a topic that interests you.
When it comes to PR for your site, there are a few types of warnings you might want to set up:
- Notifications for your company name
- Notifications for your main competitors
- Notifications for your top keywords
For example, you can set up an alert for a product or service that is similar to yours. That way you will get an email notification every time it is mentioned. From there, you can review the article and see if there is a way to get the same type of coverage for your startup.
You can enter any keyword you can think of on the Google Alerts page. This will bring up a preview that looks like this:
If you like what you see in the preview list, click Create Alert and wait for the results to come in.
Pro tip: Don't bother with too many Google Alerts. Instead, stick to the ones that matter most to your small business.
11. Mention
Who is talking about your brand? Who is talking about your name? Who is talking about your competitors? Mention is a media monitoring tool that answers these questions.
Use mention to:
In addition, Mention offers the opportunity to track and analyze your performance.
You can track mentions by source type, time, place, language, and more. There is also a breakdown of your most influential sources.
Conclusion
PR websites can be used to announce the start of your new business, share company news, and create your audience's impression of your brand.
Remember, your PR publications are useless without a solid digital and content marketing plan. If you need help building your strategy, let us know.
Do you have any experience with these? What were the results of your efforts? Do share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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