Today’s Webcast Why So Many Tech

Companies Fail at

Reaching the Business Press,

and How You Can Avoid Being

One of Them

Hugh Burnham • CEO, Gutenberg

Communications

• Over 20 years

experience with

tech, financial and

health sciences

communications

• Frequent industry

speaker on public

relations trends

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Today’s Speakers

Liana Hawes • Vice President,

Media Strategy,

Gutenberg

Communications

• Has publicized for

brands including

MasterCard,

Logitech, AT&T Labs

& Archives; PopCap

Games

• Tech’s Historical Approach to PR

• Windows of Opportunity

• The Who is as Important as The What

and The When

• Great, You Got Coverage. Now What?

• 5 Things to Remember

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Today’s Agenda

All too often, technology companies fail

to elevate (some would say ‘translate’)

their message to the business press and

are relegated to fighting it out within the

trade press.

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The Challenge

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Why is this True?

Limited targets

Incredibly Competitive

Often Lacks

Context

© Jessica Hagy

Tech co’s often founded by engineers

– Speeds, feeds, technical features dominate the conversation

Communication was centered on product itself

Great for self-referencing markets, not so great

when attempting to elevate the message to a

business context 6

Tech’s Historical Approach

All initial marketing efforts are poured into selling

the product

• 99% of materials (datasheets, copy, web, pitches) oriented

toward the tactical end user

• It’s what’s needed at the time, but too many companies stop

there

Product-centric communications do not always

translate into thought leadership

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First Product, Then Sales

Product

• Technical features

Sales/Marketing

• Features

• End User Benefits

• Differentiators

Thought Leadership

• Market Trends

• Business acceleration

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The Window of Opportunity

Online

Trade Press

Biz Media

• Nano-second news cycles

• Breaking news

• Lots of space to fill

• 24/7

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The Window of Opportunity

Online

Trade Press

Biz Media

• Very talented writers, reporters, producers

• Incredibly competitive for placements; even more so to become a resource

• Trend-oriented

• Varying deadlines across print, online and broadcast

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A Timely Example

Where can you add value on a topic being

covered?

• IT security & compliance, for example:

What trends are your customers exhibiting

that might be precursor to a larger industry

shift?

• Are they securing assets differently than

they were 2-3 years ago? What is helping

shape that decision?

• It’s just as important to discuss what

they’ve stopped doing, as what new tactics

they’re employing.

How are you are helping your customers

advance in the market, and why is that

newsworthy at this time?

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Laying Out The Story

Business Press Checklist

Expert Spokesperson

Unique, timely story angle

Unique data or research

Supporting resources:

• Research

• Customers Timely availability

• Your contributor needs

to have perspective

• Can provide a view on

your subject that no one

else have provided

• Must help the reporter

and readers bridge the

chasm: “What you do

(product, service)” and

“Why it’s important to

this story”

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The Who* is as important as

the what and the when

Has experience in the target audience’s role – context

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Client Example

Can be relied upon for accurate, relevant contributions.

Is comfortable fronting a diverging angle on a popular subject.

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Has first hand industry experience. Can offer context and meaning from having been there, done that.

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Becoming a Resource

“…our product would have

stopped Snowden from walking

with all of those documents”

“…our CEO can speak about

how this is great for the

compliance market”

“..we’ve never been accused of

employee issues like these, we

can speak to how important

contractor oversight is”

Not

Helpful

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Becoming a Resource

Adds value, new information, insights

“we recently conducted a survey on

insider threat, we’d be happy to

share our findings with analysis”

“many of our customers have faced

this challenge with access to

sensitive data and we can arrange

for you to speak with them about

how they did it”

“the technology exists to stop this

kind of breach. It’s often the lack of

context that stops organizations

from noticing issues. We can

discuss that”

Client

• BeyondTrust

Market

• Security software

The Who

• Marc Maiffret, CTO

Coverage Secured

• Opening of European markets on CNBC, ahead of InfoSec EMEA Conference

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Client Example

Client • ResearchGate

Market • Social Media networks for

scientists. Seismic shift in industry /academia to ‘open science’

The Who • Dr. Ijad Madisch, CEO

Coverage Secured • New York Times feature profile

“Cracking Open the Scientific Process”

• Forbes “Research Gate Wants to Be Facebook for Scientists”

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Client Example

How do you capitalize on this big win?

• Your new #1 content marketing asset

Merchandising and ‘Weaponizing’

• Merchandising doesn’t stop with the story creation; how do

you package this coverage for your sales channels?

• Where does this new sales tool fit in your sales funnel?

• What stage of the sales cycle is it most useful for?

• Credibility setting early; thought leadership differentiation

later; value-adding at renewal time

What other groups can benefit?

• CFO, valuation, funding

• HR, recruitment

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You Got Coverage! Now What?

Was the exercise worthwhile?

• No doubt multiple stakeholders involved in getting the

coverage

• How do you demonstrate the effort was worth the outcome?

Manage expectations through measurement

• Inbound traffic from source (fight for the inbound links where

possible!)

• Search/Traffic spikes related to broadcast airings

• Cross linking to original media source

• Going outbound with targeted mailings to base, pipeline or

retired leads, measuring engagement

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You Got Coverage! Now What?

Your pitches for the trade press will not be successful with the

business press.

Be a resource. You’re not selling a story, you’re helping your

target buy a concept.

Invest in your spokesperson/subject matter expert.

Merchandising is key.

If you’re not going to measure the impact of you’re the

coverage, don’t even bother undertaking the exercise to begin

with.

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5 Things to Remember

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Questions?

If you’d like to continue the

conversation, please reach out to

us at info@gutenbergpr.com

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