
Show HN: Publicize – PR for Startups - egusa
http://publicize.co
======
minimaxir
If your startup is targeting influencers at blogs, why do you have pictures of
Michael Arrington at TechCrunch and Arianna Huffington at Huffington Post,
both of which have had nothing to do with their respective blogs for some
time?

I also found it suspicious that you have reference to "as featured in" but
it's an image and not a link, so I did a little digging. For your _The Next
Web_ feature, all Publicize has is participation in a pitching contest
([http://thenextweb.com/voice/2015/04/14/all-75-startups-
that-...](http://thenextweb.com/voice/2015/04/14/all-75-startups-that-will-
pitch-on-stage-at-tnw-conference-the-votes-are-in/)) and an guest posts
written by the CEO ([http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2014/11/22/tech-
reporter-...](http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2014/11/22/tech-reporter-
will-create-next-great-startup/) and
[http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2014/12/13/5-common-
mista...](http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2014/12/13/5-common-mistakes-
guaranteed-screw-pr-strategy/)). Neither would count as a feature.

Additionally, why do you have a Y Combinator logo under "our successes?"
Having success with batch companies is a bit different than having success
with the parent entity.

~~~
egusa
author here. the reason we used michael arrington, ariana huffington and matt
marshall is because they are the founders of the respective publications (not
because of their current involvement).

for the featured in, you are right (it actually goes back to when we were
expecting publicize to be featured in a tnw article as our design was being
implemented and this was pushed back). because we've only been included &
written guest articles, we will change this to as seen in.

update: we've fixed this to "as seen in".

~~~
egusa
about your comment on the y combinator logo, i do see your point. the aim
wasn't to be deceptive, the reason we included the logos of some of the
accelerators is because for the founder institute we've worked with a bunch of
fi founders + multiple publicize team members are mentors there, with 500
startups i'm a global mentor there + having worked with companies, and for yc
we've worked with a number of its companies. however if this comes off as
misleading that we work directly with y combinator / others, then it should be
removed.

update: we just removed that bar at the bottom (so the logos are no longer
there). thanks for the feedback.

------
rhaps0dy
Here's what the page looked like before I had any chance to read what is the
service.

[https://i.imgur.com/g7dLXCZ.png](https://i.imgur.com/g7dLXCZ.png)

0/10

~~~
egusa
author here. thank you, i will fix this today.

~~~
bryans
For clarification: Your website is an advertisement for your business. You
don't need an ad for your business obscuring your ad for your business. It
reeks of desperation, and the vast majority of people visiting your page right
now who are seeing that modal pop up, will promptly forget you exist.

I shouldn't need to explain why that is that case, of course, because public
relations and marketing and UX are based entirely on the same psychological
principles. And therein lies the problem. You're a public relations company
displaying the inability to relate to the public.

Don't fix this "today", fix it right now. It should be your top priority.

~~~
egusa
bryans, we'd fixed this earlier (with the pop-up, moving it back to a later
time). i'd meant to write this earlier.

~~~
bryans
I don't think you quite understood my point. There should not be a pop-up at
all. Ever. Period. You have calls-to-action all over the site. Having one more
pop up while the user is trying to read or navigate your site will do nothing
but alienate them.

Like I said, it reeks of desperation. Every time something pops up over the
actual content of your site, you might as well just replace the text in that
pop-up with "please, please, we beg you to give us your business!" Because
that is all anybody sees. I assure you.

Source: Web developer of 18 years, watched companies literally go out of
business based on similarly poor user experiences that I could not talk them
out of.

~~~
danenania
While I agree that this popup is poorly timed, and also agree that they are
pretty annoying in general, there are plenty of case studies out there about
people getting big conversion boosts with these kinds of things when
implemented correctly.

That doesn't necessarily make them a good idea, since annoying many of your
users or going against your principles may not be worth the boost, but you
should be careful about assuming your own ux preferences will lead to the best
conversion rate--unfortunately, the data will often prove you wrong.

~~~
minimaxir
Most websites to the promotion-model when reading unrelated content, like a
blog post from the company.

Doing a promotion-model on a page _that already is promoting the product_ is
"yo dawg" levels of silliness.

~~~
danenania
Agree completely in this case... just pointing out that for better or worse,
there are situations where they can be effective.

~~~
bryans
I'm pretty late in responding to your comments, but I feel the need to point
something out.

If an annoying UX element actually increases conversions, it is purely a sign
that your overall UX or UI or marketing verbiage is failing. Conversions will
increase significantly more if you fix the core issue, because not only will a
proper UX/UI still elicit the conversions from users who might have been
pressured by desperate tactics, it prevents alienating those users who are
_not_ susceptible to those tactics.

I have never once come across a situation for which this was not the case.

Edit: I think the perfect example of this is your own website. And I don't
mean to insult you, I'm just giving you my take as a visitor and an
experienced developer.

I was entirely turned off by the pop-up, which puts me firmly in the
insusceptible category. Then after closing that pop-up to explore your actual
marketing message, I was overwhelmed. Not just by the meaningless industry
jargon, but by the sheer amount of dissimilar and unorganized content on a
single page.

I can guarantee, without any shadow of a doubt, that a more succinct and
meaningful message will increase your conversions more than the three
desperate elements currently on the page ever will.

~~~
danenania
You are certainly entitled to your philosophy... but I don't get the sense
you've validated it with data. When you hold yourself to account in this way,
your level of certainty about what works and what doesn't decreases
dramatically.

Completely agree that our site and message can be improved. It's a continual
work in progress. That said, the exit intent popup has been a large driver of
leads for us. There are doubtlessly better ways to get leads, but given
limited time to seek perfection, for now I'd rather have the clients this gets
us than the approval of a purist who offers no data, just personal opinions.

------
craigkerstiens
Hi, I wrote a guide just a week ago that may have quite a bit of relevant
information for your target customer -
[http://www.craigkerstiens.com/2015/07/21/An-intro-PR-
guide-f...](http://www.craigkerstiens.com/2015/07/21/An-intro-PR-guide-for-
startups/).

I love that there's a few people starting to innovate in this space, but I'm
having a pretty hard time from the outside getting an idea of what your
product actually is. Are you strictly focused on outreach to outlets, or is
there more to it. Is it even a product, or how are you different from other PR
firms? Would love to be able to get more clarity on that without having to
create an account.

~~~
egusa
thanks craig. publicize is different from traditional pr firms because as
opposed to charging 6 month retainers for $10,000/month (a $60,000 total
commitment), we provide a month-to-month PR service for $400/month ($320 if
purchased longer-term). we're 100% transparent, listing out the journalists we
plan to contact, and we also create all of the editorial as well. we follow a
specific process, which we list out in a client's dashboard, and look to pass
on savings to clients.

~~~
craigkerstiens
So if I understand correctly, essentially trying to better scale the model,
and provide some nice dashboard for the company getting insight, but it's not
so much a product as it is making the model a bit more approachable?

~~~
egusa
yes, you are right that it's not a pure product. publicize actually does the
media outreach, and we're 100% transparent so companies can see what we'll
send, who we'll contact, and more. i think the problem we tried to solve is
that historically startups could either pay traditional pr firms $10,000+ a
month (many which can't afford it), or founders can do PR themselves (many
which don't have experience in this area or the time). i think the current PR
industry model works well for larger companies that aren't price-sensitive,
but we wanted to create a PR service that minimized risk (we provide a 2 week
money-back guarantee and prices are as low as $320/month) and maximized ROI
for a market (early-stage startups) that I think historically was underserved.

------
kylequest
Don't worry about being rough around the edges (and the problems other posters
are criticizing here). All those minor things are easily fixable and they
don't take away anything from the value you provide :) Congrats!

------
rickr
You've got a weird issue with your text/register button:

[http://imgur.com/zbhpFY3](http://imgur.com/zbhpFY3)

(FF 39 on a MBP)

~~~
egusa
many thanks, i will fix this today.

------
rebekah-aimee
If I were you, I'd show off the gem that is your pricing system on the front
page. There are a lot of PR firms; show right away what makes yours different.

Couch it in friendly language, like: "We'd love to help you X! For $400 a
month, we'll Y to help you get there--or check out our other pricing plans
[here]."

When people see "Sign up for free!" on a web site, they're used to having it
mean, "Give us your email and we'll send you a ton of ads for free until you
hit unsubscribe!" So, not a great tactic. Being up-front with your deal in
that space instead will make you seem a lot more legitimate.

I'm a pretty good writer. If you don't mind, I'd like to give a little free
nitpicking--er, editing advice about your front page.

>"Publicize is a next-generation PR company.

>"We help leading technology startups grow faster."

"Next-generation" is a pretty meaningless phrase. It may have been meaningful
at one point and I can see where you're getting it, but it's become an
overused buzzword. Avoid. Plus, you're using two sentences to say not very
much. It's just clutter.

How about: "Publicize is a PR company tailored to the needs of lean, fast-
growing technology startups. Here are some of the services we offer:" and then
list your services so it doesn't seem like they're just randomly stuck there.

>"I had a great time working with publicize"

Did you mean to capitalize "Publicize"? From what I can see, it's not one of
those always-lowercase names. Be careful about how you represent the writing
on your web site, especially if you're offering a service that manages press
releases! Capitalizing your company name is like fixing a spelling error; it
doesn't invalidate the quote as long as you're not intentionally trying to
warp what he said.

Greg Laughlin's review sounds genuine and earnest, but it has a problem: its
sentence structure doesn't quite flow. I suggest basically keeping it how it
is to preserve the quote, but maybe make Alan Grant's review the one that
shows by default instead. It has a more professional feel, better punctuation,
and better flow.

Just suggestions! It looks like you've gotten a lot of good feedback already
on this, but a little bit of polish on the writing on your site would really
make it shine. When you're a PR firm, you have to really make sure your own
marketing is stellar. If you can't market yourself really well, customers will
assume you won't do any better for them.

------
wineisfine
So many basic webdev mistakes here, that you all are fixing on the fly here,
wonder how solid the service will be.

~~~
egusa
founder here: i'm 100% confident in Publicize. we always offer a 2 week money-
back guarantee, but if you write info@publicize.co this month we'll provide
you with 2 free weeks of pr service so you can see yourself (there are no
strings attached). you can see some of our client results on our site as well.

------
mattnish
I love how startup-friendly this product is. Instead of having to give a
$5,000-$10,000 retainer to traditional firms, it's just a few hundred dollars
a month. I definitely plan to use these guys in the coming months for my new
startup in SF.

------
egusa
author here. i'm conrad egusa, i'm available to answer questions and really
appreciate the feedback.

