@CraigVodnik@CraigVodnik

Building an Effective PR Strategy through Relationships

How to make friends with journalists so that everyone wins

Craig Vodnik - June 18, 2015

@CraigVodnik

Objective

Share my experience in learning how to build relationships to earn press.

(10 years in the making, lots of money spent trying to find the answer to the question of why won’t journalists write about me, lots of arguments over why a pr agency isn’t achieving the desired results, discussions over the value of pr, etc…)

@CraigVodnik

About me

From Bensenville (Victory Auto Wreckers!)UIUC Nuclear Engineering grad ‘92First web page in 1995Webmaster for Chicago Tribune in 1995E-commerce since 1999Founded e-commerce company cleverbridge in 2005Bootstrapped to $40 mil revenue in 2014

@CraigVodnik

@CraigVodnik

@CraigVodnik

Not just traditional journalists

Includes○ Bloggers○ Podcasts○ Industry Analysts○ Tech Conferences○ Companies○ Service providers○ Anyone that you can influence

@CraigVodnik

Examples - Service Provider

@CraigVodnik

Examples - Industry Analyst

@CraigVodnik

Examples - Journalist

@CraigVodnik

PR Agency - year 3

East Coast top tech PR firmAssigned one mid-level employeeDevoted about 80 hours a month to usWe paid $10k per monthReceived several ancillary mentions in second and third tier publicationsDid teach us about analyst relations

@CraigVodnik

In-house Part-Time - year 5

Former journalistManaging our small marketing teamWrote press releasesSome mentions, interviews, whitepapersBetter awareness and some more meaningful interviewsHad more of a story to leverage

@CraigVodnik

In-house Full-Time - year 8

SaaS experienced PR veteranFocused exclusively on telling our storyWrites press releases, engages with journalists, understands where our story meets journalist’s need for information100+ mentions a year, interviews, even contributes whitepapers and other content

@CraigVodnik

Email ExampleI hope you’ve been well. I wanted to gauge your interest in a tech/business story angle – “Chicago: The (Rising) E-Commerce Capital of the U.

S.” Long known as a retail hub, Chicago e-commerce has been spurred by Braintree’s (owned by eBay) continued growth, GrubHub’s IPO,

Groupon’s move into e-commerce, and numerous other rising companies such as cleverbridge and WeDeliver. There has also been a rise of e-

commerce companies that have decided to establish satellite offices in Chicago, such as German’s hybris and Sweden’s inRiver, along with e-

commerce service integrators and consulting firms such as Acquity Group (part of Accenture Interactive) and Razorfish. This doesn’t even

mention that Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition (IRCE), one of the largest e-commerce shows in the world, and North American Bitcoin

Conference (NABC), the world's largest Bitcoin conference, are both hosted in Chicago every year.

However, as interesting as the current Chicago e-commerce hotbed, is the "PayPal Mafia"-esque wave that will spawn from the success of the

current companies. As these e-commerce companies continue to grow, along with industry veterans such as Orbitz, there will ultimately be

more companies founded in the space. For instance, Groupon co-founders Brad Keywell and Eric Lefkofsky help to run venture capital firm

Lightbank, founded in 2010 and based on Chicago.

Any interest in this story? I’d love to schedule some time to chat again with our co-founder Craig Vodnik regarding the hotbed, the major

players and the potential future in Chicago.

@CraigVodnik

Twitter Example

@CraigVodnik

Insight about Journalists

They are people tooHave deadlines Lots of noise to wade throughWant stuff served on a platter

“cleverbridge was the first company to pitch an idea that was talking about the industry instead of themselves.” http://2xmedia.co/podcast/ep14/

@CraigVodnik

What can you do?Focus on 5 to 10 relevant journalistsDedicate regular weekly time (Once a month, proactive ideas)

Follow the thread (like buying a house)Engage onlineBe thoughtful, helpfulShare story ideas that aren’t self-promotionalTalk about trends in the industryBuild relationships

@CraigVodnik

To Do List1. Name 5 publications that you want to be in2. Find the person that typically writes about your

industry/topic3. Follow those people on twitter4. Share articles on twitter by those people, including the

person’s twitter account (like @CraigVodnik)5. Comment on that person’s articles6. Spend 15 minutes repeating steps 4 and 5

@CraigVodnik

Thank you for your attention, now let’s take some questions!

@CraigVodnik@CraigVodnik

AppendixAdditional Examples

@CraigVodnik

ExampleI want to touch base and offer a unique user/business shift story. Founded in 2008, Malwarebytes built a successful software business on the

back of its flagship product, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Pro, which is the #1 anti-malware with over 300 million downloads. However, as

Malwarebytes continued to grow, it proved increasingly difficult to increase revenue, provide sustainable support and acquire customers

while only offering a $25 lifetime perpetual license for its popular software product. On March 24, 2014, in a major shift for its business and

its customers, the company switched to a subscription business model – a move that took a lot of deliberation, planning and development.

Making the switch presented distinct challenges from a business and marketing perspective, including the issue of retaining customers

already acclimated to the perpetual licensing model. According to Marcin Kleczynski, CEO, Malwarebytes, “We didn’t want to alienate an

extremely loyal user base, who had been accustomed to our lifetime licenses for Malwarebytes Anti-Malware PRO, by switching them to a

yearly subscription. When making the switch, we wanted to add extra value for users having a subscription versus the perpetual license.”

Any interest in receiving the full user story or speaking with Malwarebytes and/or cleverbridge about the business model switch and what

it took from a business, marketing and e-commerce perspective? Thanks!

Actual article: https://www.internetretailer.com/2014/09/22/software-manufacturer-builds-revenue-through-subsriptions

@CraigVodnik

ExampleEvery day we see another company raising $10M or $50M of outside capital, which makes sense as the dollar figures can be eye-popping,

there's a concrete event to write about, and the ever-present controversy: how can this brand-new business be worth so much? However, we

hardly ever hear about the startups that become big, valuable companies without taking outside capital. Some may have started by founders

who had money to burn from earlier ventures, while others had really scrappy entrepreneurs who figured out how to make ends meet.

cleverbridge, a global e-commerce provider, is one of those bootstrapping success stories - growing the company from the four original

founders in 2005 to more than 250 employees worldwide today - with 300 international clients, including Avira, Corel, Dell, Malwarebytes

and Parallels, and global sales of nearly $450 million in 2013.

What’s even more unique about co-founders Christian Blume and Craig Vodnik, who took the risk of leaving safe employment, steady income

and working 2 years without a salary, living off of savings to bootstrap the company, is the rare approach they took when starting the

company. While most companies start in the U.S. or Europe and then try to expand into the other market (many times unsuccessfully), they

decided to begin as a global company (Germany & US) and make it work to their advantage. While not easy with three co-founders in

Germany and one in Chicago, the company used it to their advantage, especially now today as they help companies all over the world break

into the global market – understanding local taxation, e-commerce and pricing strategies, buying behaviors, etc.

I’d love to schedule a quick 20-minute call with you and Christian and/or Craig to chat about how companies can achieve financial viability

without external funding and entrepreneurism – do you have a few minutes? Amongst other things he can discuss: how they secured the

initial cash to start the company, tactics they used to save their limited cash in the beginning, finding/hiring talent on a limited budget, etc.

@CraigVodnik

Outline - Continued(2)

1. Shared experiencea. Mention in social media (retweets)b. Blogging

i. Clint Wilsonii. v.i. Labs

c. James Janega, BlueSky emailsd. E-commerce in Chicago

i. http://www.chicagotribune.com/bluesky/originals/chi-cleverbridge-2checkout-rippleshot-ecommerce-bsi-story.html

ii. https://twitter.com/CraigVodnik/status/511598808837652480

e. Award submissions