public-relations

Public Relations and Earned Media

PR multiplies distribution you already have, it does not replace it. The story is never your product: it is the trend, the data, the conflict, or the human, and your product is the evidence.

Before starting

If .agents/product-marketing.md or .claude/product-marketing.md exists, read it first. Ask only for what it does not cover.

Skip PR entirely if there is no story beyond "we exist", no exec willing to give quotes, or nobody who can sustain pitching for 4 to 6 weeks. Say so and stop.

Route the request

Press page checklist (owned, one-time)

Cheapest PR asset with the highest return. /press must include: copy-paste company paragraph, founder bios with downloadable headshots, logo pack (SVG + PNG, light + dark), product screenshots, coverage list, founding facts, and a direct press email, never a form. Top line: "For interviews or assets, email <PRESS_EMAIL>. We respond within 24 hours." Then actually respond within 24 hours.

Pitch quality bar

Every answer must be yes before sending:

• Journalist covers this beat (verified in their last 5 articles)
• Clear news hook: something just happened or is about to
• The journalist could write the story from this email alone (data, quote, customer, contact)
• Subject line predicts the headline
• Under 150 words
• Zero hype words: no "revolutionary", "game-changing", "disruptive"
• One explicit ask: interview, embargo, exclusive, or quote

Any no: do not send.

Good vs Bad

Bad pitch: "Hi! I'm the founder of FlowStack, a revolutionary AI-powered workflow platform. We just launched and I'd love to tell you about our journey. Are you free for a call?"

Good pitch: "Subject: 40% of SMB invoices now paid late, new data. Hi <NAME>, you covered the SMB cash-crunch angle last month. We analyzed <N> anonymized invoices across our customer base: late payments jumped 40% year over year, worst in construction. Full dataset, methodology, and our CEO for quotes if useful. Want the data under embargo for Thursday?"

The good one leads with the journalist's beat, offers data they cannot get elsewhere, and makes the ask explicit.

Measurement

Track placements per month, domain rating of placements, referral traffic, brand search lift, AI citation rate (do assistants cite you?), and sales calls that mention coverage. Ignore AVE, it is a vanity metric.

Verification

Before sending any pitch, run the quality bar as a hard gate: read the journalist's last 5 pieces and paste the closest matching headline into your notes. Expect a real match on beat and format. If you cannot find one, you have the wrong journalist, pick another before touching the pitch text.

After a campaign, count replies per 10 pitches sent. Expect at least 1. If below, the angle is weak or the list is wrong: rebuild the list from recent bylines before rewriting copy.

Footguns

• Pitching your product instead of a story. Journalists write about change, not features. Fix: lead with the trend or data, position the product as one piece of evidence.
• Mass-blasting an identical pitch. Reporters compare notes and blacklist blasts. Fix: one journalist per outlet, one specific reference to their work, exclusives offered honestly.
• Newsjacking too late. Day-three commentary on a day-one story is noise. Fix: if you cannot pitch within 24 hours of the story breaking, skip it.
• Press page behind a contact form. Journalists on deadline bounce. Fix: plain email address, assets downloadable without gates.

Completion checklist

• [ ] Product marketing context read or confirmed absent
• [ ] Quality bar passed on every outgoing pitch
• [ ] Each pitch names something specific from that journalist's recent work
• [ ] Ask is explicit and single
• [ ] Press page exists or its absence is flagged to the user

Any box unchecked: not done. Fix or say so.