PR opportunity - what should I do?
A PR opportunity came up last week when Edwin Dosey from the Bear Cave wrote about how Airbnb's biggest competitors are actually it's own superhosts, that are now incentivizing people to book direct. (https://thebearcave.substack.com/p/problems-at-airbnb-abnb)
It got picked up by many news outlets as well.
Because my chrome extension Directo is in that exact space (it looks for the direct website while you browse Airbnb or Booking.com) I think it is a great opportunity to jump in.
I wrote a press release summarizing the situation + explaining what the extension does + data about the sector.
I searched for all the journalist that wrote about the topic for the past few days
My question is, should I contact each of them one at a time? Or pitch to them all with the same press release? I'm unsure about how to go about it.
Any other advice on this is appreciated!! Thaks : )
Well, I personally don't see anything big happening with a press release unless you have a very different point of view, some unique data, etc. Especially since it was last week and you practically missed the news cycle. But since you have already written the PR, I am guessing you can't lose anything for just sending it out.
I assume you have no existing relationships with the journalists, if that's the case, send the PR to them all at the same time. BUT make sure their email addresses are in the BCC.
That said, if your list is light (like less than 20 names), you can technically send personally. OR if your list is long, you can target the top 5 ones (according to your target market/publics) and pitch them personally, with specifically referring to their coverage too.
good points! Will take it all into account. Thanks!!
I think one-on-one communication is always more effective and allows you to connect more with them.
yeah, I think you are right!
This sounds like a great opportunity. You don't necessarily need them to put something into print about your extension, a few tweets would probably be nice. They could also potentially amend the article to include a link to your extension.
I'd say do it in 5 steps: 20 journalists per go, in BCC like @ozantoptas suggests. Then you can adjust wording on each step and get some extra practice in.
I'd say it's gonna be your full time job for the next week or so to track all of this down. But worth it for exposure.
Thank you for your input! Yep, I agree, it's worth a try. I'll get to it.