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Nonprofits have two goals: to win supporters to their cause, and to convert those supporters to donors or members to support their work. To achieve both in 2016, marketers will need to become more savvy than ever. 

But where should you start? The first step is to take a look at the marketing landscape at large to see where it’s moving—and what obstacles could be a roadblock to your success. Here are a few trends that could make life challenging for nonprofits in 2016, along with some strategies that can ensure you end the year better than you started.

In 2016, Nonprofits Will Square Off Against…

1)The Slow End of Print

Media-watchers have bemoaned the end of print and paper for more than a decade. While the internet hasn’t completely put an end to the old ways, paper-based media and marketing is facing a host of modern issues. Direct mail still makes money, but most donors that respond to these efforts are over 55. There are still plenty of years ahead for this group to donate, but demographic trends clearly suggest that direct mail shouldn’t be your only strategy.

Additionally, print marketing collateral offers far less tracking capabilities than it’s digital counterparts. How many people opened and read that mailer you just sent out? You may never know.

So What Do You Do?

The simple answer is move online. M+R’s 2015 Benchmarks found that online revenue was up 13 percent between 2013 and 2014. Much of that growth was driven by online monthly giving, which was up 32 percent (compared to 9 percent for one-time gifts). Demographics are only going to accelerate these trends. Millennials became the largest generation in the workforce this year, and these money-makers are more willing and likely to give via text or online than Gen Xer’s or Baby Boomers.

The even better answer is think comprehensively. You may recruit a potential donor online, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t incorporate them into your direct mail campaigns, and vice versa. The key is to increase the number of touches and give people plenty of opportunities to donate. Then, you want to track how they gave to see how your specific donor base responds to the ask medium.

2) Proliferation of Social Media

The sheer number of apps and platforms out there can be daunting for even the savviest of social media users. Beyond the basics—Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter—you’ve got Tumblr, Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest and more that are vying for ad dollars and marketing efforts from organizations and companies looking to spread their message.

To complicate this, exposure on social media is increasingly becoming a pay-to-play game where reach extends only as far as your ad spend. This means that your investments in 2016 aren’t just in staff or volunteer time, but in cold, hard cash. For nonprofits mindful of their Charity Navigator ratings, high spending on marketing campaigns without much return can be damaging.

There’s also an optics concern. The last thing you want to do is create a presence on a social media platform and let it die. If a potential donor or supporter Googles your nonprofit, only to find a Facebook page where the latest post is from 2012, it doesn’t inspire confidence in the organization. That said, you also don’t want to miss the boat on new technology that can help you reach a new audience or engage your supporters in a new way. Instagram wasn’t even on the radar five years ago, but is now one of  the most influential platforms for nonprofits, ranking amongst Facebook and Twitter.

So What Do You Do?

The most important thing is to understand who your audience is, then figure out where they are. For organizations with a younger target audience, Instagram and Pinterest might be worth consideration. Organizations with a more mature audience on the other hand, should look to more established platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Figure out the platforms that are best at reaching your audience, and go from there. 

During this planning process, you should also formalize your social media strategy. This doesn’t have to mean hiring a dedicated social media staffer (though if you have the funds, go for it!). Rather, incorporate social media interaction into your existing staff’s duties. That could mean following up every email blast with a tweet, or assigning each staff person a day to post to Facebook or a specific platform to manage by building out a robust social media calendar ahead of time.

The more accountability you create, the better chance you have of keeping your social media current, relevant and enticing to potential donors and supporters. 

3) The Move to Mobile

The growth of mobile usage isn’t a new story, but this trend isn’t just here to stay—it’s accelerating. Earlier in 2015, comScore released a report showing mobile usage has increased by an eye-popping 394 percent since 2010. The Pew Research Center found that beyond this increase in mobile usage, smartphones are the main or only point of entry for a significant number of Americans. Ten percent of Americans do not have home broadband, and 15 percent say that they lack options to access the Internet other than through their smartphones.

This has implications for nonprofits both in reaching potential supporters and donors, but also in providing assistance and furthering their mission. A local organization focused on poverty may have a snappy, flash-based website to help low-income families find access to social services, but its target audience may not have a device that can read it. This also presents a tricky problem for nonprofits without the financial cushion to redesign existing resources.

So What Do You Do?

Think mobile first. This doesn’t mean you need to pay a software engineer thousands of dollars to design your organization a custom app, but it does mean taking a hard look at what you already have and seeing where you can make adjustments for a smaller screen. Make sure your website is on a mobile-friendly platform that optimizes the look, feel, and user experience of the site for any mobile device. 

If this sounds overwhelming, start where it counts most: your donation or member registration page. Start by shortening your forms so they renders better on small screens, or taking advantage of auto-filling information stored on mobile devices. This can make the donation process easier and smoother for your supporters, allowing them to make the transition to donors or members.

Don’t forget to leverage others’ investments in mobile by promoting more content on Facebook, Twitter or other social media platforms that are already spending the money to make their mobile experience great.

People Aren’t Willing to Part with Their Money

Here are some hard, disheartening facts that every donation-based nonprofit (and for profit) is up against:

• Millennials today make $2,000 less (adjusted for inflation) than their parents did at the same age.
• Researchers have predicted that today’s millennials are nearly 10 times less likely to become millionaires than baby boomers.
• Real and perceived economic trends really do affect spending: Millennials have stingy spending habits similar to their depression-era grandparents.
• While a majority of millennials do make charitable contributions, they’re total gifts only comprise one-tenth of charitable giving.
• People still think we’re in a recession. This varies a lot by geography and political persuasion, but as recently as October 2015—six full years after the Great Recession ended, according to economists—a Fox News poll found that 78 percent of voters don’t buy it.
• It’s not just millennials. Gallup found that while baby boomers overall are spending more than they did a year ago, that’s less true for the younger boomers.

So What Do I Do?

Converting donors is less about persuasion and more about relationship building—much like dating. You wouldn’t whip out an engagement ring or ask someone to move in on the first date would you? You’re at the get-to-know-you stage, where you’re both learning about who the other is and whether you want to take further steps.

The same principles apply to the organization/supporter relationship. Rather than asking for money right away, create other methods of engagement or “conversations” that give supporters a chance to get to know your organization and build an emotional attachment to your work and mission. Then, by the time you’re asking for cash, it isn’t such a hard sell. 

There are lots of ways to execute this. Supporters can be asked to download pamphlets or issue guides, sign up for newsletters, or share stories and information about your work among their networks. Petition campaigns and other advocacy opportunities are a particularly great way to spread your message and prime potential donors. Signing a petition moves folks from passive to active supporters of your cause, deepening their attachment to it and you. A recent white paper found that fundraising as much as doubled when attached to an advocacy ask.

Bring on 2016

Sure, the coming year is going to be a challenging one. But nonprofit marketers who are prepared for the oncoming hurdles will be able to not just leap them with ease, but continue their sprint toward growing awareness, donations, and members. 

Although we hear about the health benefits of regular exercise all the time, hectic schedules can make it seem impossible to fit workouts in. The prospect of packing a gym bag, trudging to your local gym, working out, showering, changing, and trudging back to where you came from takes an awful lot of time.

But you aren’t doing yourself any favors by disregarding your health. When you neglect exercise, you’re putting both your physical and your mental health at risk, which can negatively impact your productivity and effectiveness at work.

One great solution? Work physical activity into your everyday routine. In fact, researchers found that people who exercise during the workday are actually more productive at work, even though they technically logged fewer hours.

An office workout can vary widely in type and intensity — from swapping your desk chair out for a stability ball to going for a run during your lunch break. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

10 Little Ways to Sneak in Exercise at Work

1) Turn your commute into a workout.

The time you spend commuting is already time you’re logging each and every day. So why not turn that time into a workout?

There are ways to incorporate exercise into every type and length of commute. If you live fairly closeby, try speed walking, jogging, or cycling to work instead of driving or taking public transportation. Be sure to check for the best and safest routes in your location. 

If that distance is too daunting, try parking some distance away from work or getting off the bus or subway a few stops earlier than normal to walk or jog the rest of the way. 

Doing exercise during your commute instead of just sitting there will make you feel good while helping you keep fit, even in winter. You just have to dress properly for it.

2) Work out during lunch.

In a recent post on how effective managers organize their time, HubSpot Marketing Director for Asia Pacific and Japan Ryan Bonnici let me in on his daily lunchtime routine: Every day, he blocks off 12:00–1:00 P.M. for a run, a swim, or catching up with a friend. Not only does this benefit him physically, but he says it’s also necessary for productivity and happiness.

If you can’t work out before or after work, lunchtime is your next best bet for fitting in a real workout into your busy schedule. If your office has a gym, you have a lot of workout options. If not, you might opt to go for a half-hour run or a speed walk around your neighborhood or in a nearby mall. It’ll take a little planning ahead — like packing a gym bag — but it can easily be done. Just don’t skip lunch altogether, as your body does need to be refueled.

3) Replace your desk chair with a stability ball.

Ever seen someone in an office environment sitting on what looks like an exercise ball in lieu of a chair? It’s not for comfort or looking cool — there are actually a lot of health benefits that come with sitting on stability balls at work.

For one, it helps you practice better posture by forcing proper spine alignment. Why? Because your body is constantly trying to balance itself on the ball, and a seated position with proper spine alignment is the easiest to balance with.

Sitting on a stability ball also strengthens your abdominal muscles because those are the muscles your body uses to compensate for changes in balance. Basically, you’re getting a low-intensity abdominal workout every time you sit down — and those hours add up.

Finally, one study found that children’s attention increases when they sit on stability balls. While no studies have been done on how stability balls affect adults’ attention, it’s possible we’d feel the same effects.

4) Take short “active breaks” during the workday.

On really busy days, you can still work out in short breaks by getting up, stretching your legs, and walking around. It’s all about making movement a natural part of your day.

Taking short breaks to be active, even if you’re just walking, will help you shed extra calories and help you concentrate during the time when you are working. Mental concentration is like a muscle, according to John P. Trougakos, an assistant management professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough and the Rotman School of Management. After sustained use, it needs a rest — just like someone lifting weights at the gym needs rest before doing a second round of repetitions.

When you reach a breaking point, make a point of moving around — like a 10-minute walk around your building, or up and down the stairs — instead of sitting at your desk checking email. This can have both long- and short-term positive effects on your mood: One study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports found that people who take walking breaks during work feel more enthusiastic, less tense, and generally more relaxed and able to cope than when they don’t take walk breaks.

5) Pace while you’re on the phone.

Chances are, you spend most of your day sitting down. Unless you need to be on your computer at the same time, you might as well take advantage of the opportunity to stand up and move around while you’re on a call. Every extra step counts, and it’ll be a welcome break for your back and your muscles.

Remember: Physical activity doesn’t have to be formal exercise to have its benefits: Even simple, unconscious fidgeting is good for your muscles and can burn some calories. Plus, you may find that the movement helps keep you focused and alert.

6) Speed walk your errands.

In the spirit of turning activities you’re going to do anyway into little exercise routines, try speed walking your errands. This is an easy way to make movement a natural part of your day, and it means having a lot of errands to run won’t cause you to miss a workout.

And, while you’re at it, don’t use a shopping cart. Human beings are designed to lift and carry things. Remember: Beneficial exercise happens in more places than the gym.

7) Go the long way.

Here’s another way to add movement to your day: Take the long way when you have a few moments to spare. This might mean taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking farther away from your office, or going to the bathroom that’s across the building instead of right by your desk. After all, studies show that regular, low-intensity exercise such as walking can help boost energy levels — especially in people who suffer from fatigue, as counterintuitive as that sounds. Plus, think about how all of those extra steps add up after months and even years.

8) Start or join a sports or fitness club at work.

When it comes to workouts, sometimes one really is the loneliest number. But chances are you aren’t the only one at your office trying to fit exercise into a busy workday. Why not seek out others who want to work out with you and start some sort of sports or fitness club?

It could be as simple as a push-up club that meets before lunch three days a week, or a running club that does an after-work run. Or, you could take it a step further and rally your coworkers to join a local intramural league. For adult amateur leagues, try typing something like “adult basketball leagues [your city here]” into Google. (Read this blog post for more Google search tips.)

If you’re not sure what your coworkers are into, try creating a survey using SurveyMonkey or Google Forms and emailing it to them to gauge interest. Ask them whether they’d join some sort of fitness club, what sports or fitness activities they’re interested in, and when they’re most likely to be available.

9) Stretch at regular intervals.

The prospect of stretching at your work desk might seem really awkward, but we’re not suggesting you do squats at your desk, here. There are plenty of stretches you can do either sitting down or standing up that can help ward off pain and stiffness while boosting your energy and alertness.

Work some stretches in at regular intervals throughout the day — even if they’re just for a minute. The folks at WebMD suggest torso twists, leg extensions, standing up and sitting down several times without using your hands, shrugging your shoulders to release tension in your neck and shoulders, and circling your wrists and hands in air circles.

10) Do (subtle) workouts at your desk.

I know, I know. If you thought stretching at your desk was awkward, what do desk workouts look like? But researchers have found that even one-minute spurts of activity throughout the day can be beneficial. Here are some ideas for subtle workouts at your desk from Fitness Magazine:

• Flex or tighten your abs and hold for 30 seconds. Release, and repeat 10 times.
• Squeeze your glutes and hold for 30 seconds. Release, and repeat 10 times.
• Buy a hand gripper and use it at your desk to work out your forearms and hands. (Here are some exercises you can do with a hand gripper.)
• If you’re at a standing desk, do calf raises for one full minute.

How do you sneak in exercise at work? Share with us in the comments.

This post originally appeared on HubSpot’s Sales Blog. To read more content like this,subscribe to Sales.

What if I told you that the key to increasing revenue, employee productivity, and lead flow was as simple as sending a tweet? 

The modern buyer is changing and starting to rely on social media for input and information on products and services. In order to keep up, sales reps need to adjust accordingly and meet buyers online to build a relationship and convert them into customers.

Bearing buyers’ behavioral changes in mind, social media has become an incredibly powerful tool for sales. For example, did you know 40% of salespeople close two to five deals per year as a result of social selling? Or that companies that invest in social selling have seen their revenue growth double?

But the numbers don’t stop there. For more information on social selling and the “why” behind it, check out the following infographic from PostBeyond.com.

This post originally appeared on Agency Post. To read more content like this, subscribe to Agency Post.

We all want to be more creative — to be able to produce insightful, novel ideas whenever we need to.

Yet too often, we sit down with the goal of coming up with an interesting idea only to find ourselves overwhelmed by the activity. Our brains feel as if all the matter has turned to slush. We chastise ourselves for our lack of original thought.

Most people think they know how to “think” — it seems like it would be a natural skill. But actually, the art of thinking with the goal of coming up with ideas is a specific and trainable skill. 

Creativity 101 put together the below SlideShare on how to generate more ideas using a few proven techniques. Check it out to learn more about how to produce more ideas:

We all have different personalities, different wants and needs, different experiences that shape us, and different ways of dealing with things.

If a coworker interrupts someone in a meeting to share her exciting idea, one person might respond by shrugging it off, while another person might lash out. Still another might stay silent, but let it ruin their whole day.

That’s where emotional intelligence becomes so important.

Each emotion a person feels contains valuable information about that person’s preferences, needs, and experiences. But all too often, these emotions are hidden or overlooked — or both.

In a world that frequently favors speaking over listening and thinking about oneself over others, it’s really hard to pay attention to our own emotions, let alone the emotions of others. But if you don’t, you’ll miss out on the valuable information emotions can teach us, and the meaningful relationships you can build as a result.

What is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional intelligence is a form of social intelligence. Someone who has high emotional intelligence is able to recognize and monitor their own and others’ feelings and emotions, to engage with and navigate them, and then to use that emotional information to guide their own thinking and action.

I like to think of emotionally intelligent people kind of like detectives. Every time they interact with someone, they’re able to uncover the emotional pieces that are missing from what a person actually says out loud. Then, they’re also able to use that emotional information in an effective way, like to become a better manager, a better teammate, or a better friend.

A Harvard-trained psychologist named Daniel Goleman expanded the definition of emotional intelligence into a set of 19 competencies that signal whether someone is emotionally intelligent. These signs are broken into four categories:

1. Self-Awareness
2. Self-Management
3. Social Awareness
4. Effective Relationship Management

(You can read more about the signs of emotional intelligence here.)

There are many, long-lasting benefits to making efforts to increase your emotional intelligence. For one, studies have shown that emotional intelligence can be more important than raw skill in many cases. Perhaps most importantly, having high emotional intelligence can help you create and maintain more meaningful relationships — both at work and in your personal life.

The good news is, no matter your personality and emotional tendencies, there are things you can do to increase your emotional intelligence. To help you understand how, check out the tips below.

9 Tips for Becoming More Emotionally Intelligent

1) Observe your own emotional tendencies.

Not only can emotionally intelligent people sense the emotional needs of others, but they also know themselves very well because they’re able to understand, manage, and effectively express their own feelings. You can only learn to manage your own emotions if you learn to recognize them in the first place.

This is easier said than done, of course. Start by going about your day and paying attention to how you feel, and what specific situations make you feel that way. What’s your emotional state when you wake up in the morning? How about when that guy cut you off at an intersection on your way to work? Or when your coworker brought you a coffee — and even remembered how you like it? How about when your boss rejected your idea in front of your coworkers?

Next, ask yourself how all these feelings connect with your behavior. Throughout the day, did they impact your communication with others, your productivity, or your overall sense of well-being? The better you become at recognizing and understanding your emotions and behavioral impulses, the better you’ll be at managing them.

2) Don’t judge yourself.

As you become more and more aware of your emotions, you might find you’re judging yourself for them — especially when experiencing a negative emotion, such as anger or sadness. But remember: Every emotion you have, positive and negative, is a useful piece of information that can teach you something about your own needs and preferences.

If you’re quick to judge how you’re feeling, you’ll have a lot of trouble being honest with yourself about how you feel, which is totally counterproductive. Allow yourself to feel those emotions in the first place — that way, you’ll be able to better manage them and recognize them in others.

3) Learn to control your negative emotions.

Managing your emotions effectively is a big part of increasing your emotional intelligence. The hardest part of this tends to be managing your negative emotions. But doing so is important, as it helps you avoid letting negative feelings cloud your judgment. This will make you a better decision-maker because you’ll be able to look at a problem and find a resolution in a calm and rational way. It’ll also help you become more receptive to feedback and able to use criticism to improve your performance. 

The key is to let yourself feel those negative emotions, but practice deciding how to behave once you feel them. For example, let’s say you’re driving and someone cuts you off at an intersection. Your initial reaction may be surprise, followed by anger. But you have a choice here: You could lay on the horn and yell out the window, “Who do you think you are?,” or you could shrug it off — because, let’s be honest, the ten seconds it added to your commute didn’t really affect your day.

Remember: How you react to things is your own responsibility. If someone hurts your feelings and you react by yelling at them, then that’s your own doing. They didn’t “make” you yell at them — it’s you who can choose whether to control your emotions, not them.

The next time you feel a negative emotion strongly, take a few moments to experience that feeling and let it wash over you. Then, take a deep breath and make a conscious decision about how you want to behave in response.

4) Learn to express difficult emotions when necessary (and appropriate).

Part of being emotionally intelligent is knowing when to share your emotions with others. After all, being honest with others about how you feel encourages trust and helps people feel comfortable opening up to you. It’s all about choosing your moments; namely, sharing how you’re feeling without hurting anyone.

So, when is it appropriate to set our boundaries and let people know where we stand? According to Preston Ni in Psychology Today, these moments “can include exercising our right to disagree (without being disagreeable), saying ‘no’ without feeling guilty, setting our own priorities, getting what we paid for, and protecting ourselves from duress and harm.”

5) Take a genuine interest in what people are saying.

As you consciously observe how you’re feeling, begin practicing recognizing and acknowledging how other people are feeling. In other words, practice empathy. Empathizing with others is one of the most powerful parts of being emotionally intelligent, and it’ll help you get closer to others, gain their support when you need it, and have an easier time smoothing over conflicts.

The best way to uncover how someone else is feeling is to become an active listener. This means really, truly paying attention to what people are saying. This is really difficult for a lot of people — especially those who’ve been taught that listening and deferring to others is a sign of weakness, and that speaking is better than listening.

The first step to take an honest look at your listening skills. Are you a naturally good listener? Or do you tend to spend most of the time someone else is talking thinking about what you’re going to say next? A lot of people don’t even know they aren’t good listeners until they make a conscious effort. Then, make the decision to listen closely and carefully in every conversation.

6) Ask relevant questions.

Sometimes, all you have to do is ask. While you shouldn’t jump in with questions every time your conversation partner stops talking, you should ask relevant and clarifying questions to demonstrate you’ve been paying attention, to show the person you’re interested in the conversation, and to dig deeper into what they’re telling you.

To dig deeper, you might use a questioning technique called funneling. Funneling means asking a series of questions that become more restrictive at each step. Here’s an example:

• “Tell me about your last week at work.”
• “Which projects have you spent the most time on?”
• “Did you run into any challenges on those projects?”
• “What have you done so far to mitigate that challenge?”
• “How can I help you get closer to overcoming it?”

The first questions are open and allow for broad answers, and at each step the questions become narrower and more focused. This is a great technique for gathering a lot of information about a situation so you can put the puzzle pieces together.

7) Pay attention to body language.

Body language is another clue to uncovering how someone is feeling. Everyone communicates in ways that are nonverbal, like posture, facial expressions, and body movements. When you’re conversing with someone, take note of how they use their body when they speak — and treat it like the useful information it is. You might even acknowledge it by saying, “I get the sense that this makes you unhappy. What’s causing that?”

You’d also do well to observe how your own emotions manifest themselves in physical ways. For example, that tightening in stomach might be caused by stress or anxiety. Those high energy levels might be an indication that you’re really excited about something. (Read this blog post to learn more about master body language.)

8) Take responsibility for your actions.

Humility, like empathy, is a powerful part of being emotionally intelligent — and one key way to be humble is to take responsibility when you screw up or hurt someone’s feelings.

Some people might think acknowledging when you did something wrong is a sign of weakness or lack of self-confidence, especially when you didn’t mean to. But taking responsibility for your actions shows people you’re self-aware, honest, and committed to being a team player. Plus, people are a lot more willing to forgive and forget if you make an honest go at making things right. In the end, this’ll have a positive impact in all areas of your life.

To increase your social intelligence, you’ll need to practice becoming more self-aware, transparent, adaptable, socially aware, empathetic … the list goes on. There are plenty of other ways to improve that aren’t on this list, but it’s a start — and something you’ll want to continue working on for the rest of your life. The more you practice, the more you’ll reap the benefits.

9) Practice open-mindedness.

In general, being narrow-minded is an indication of lower emotional intelligence. Think about it: Open-minded people are more willing to listen to other people’s points of view and try to understand them by putting themselves in the other’s shoes. As a result, people are more willing to trust them with true thoughts and feelings because they aren’t worried about being judged. Open-minded people also have a strong sense of self because they don’t confine themselves by their own beliefs.

One way of practicing open-mindedness is to observe how others react to situations and compare it to how you would react in that same situation. If they react differently than you would, think about why this is — and try to see it from their point of view.

As you become better and better at this, you’ll likely find that challenging your beliefs and allowing yourself to explore new ideas will benefit you both professionally and personally. 

What tips do you have for becoming more emotionally intelligent? Share with us in the comments.

“Is that guy wearing leggings?”

“We should start a business selling male leggings.”

That’s all it took. One week later my business partners and I stood freezing in London’s Brick Lane Market with 22 pairs of female leggings “branded” with our male leggings brand.

But after eight hours in the cold, we saw zero sales. 

Fast forward two years, and sTitch Leggings was being prominently featured on the Daily Mail — an article from which we’re still converting traffic.

So how do you build press for a startup when you have no connections? 

I’ll walk you through some tips and examples below to help you learn how to get started and earn some recognition for your product or service. 

How To Get Free Press For Your Startup When You Have No Connections

1) Be remarkable.

We’ve all heard people use the word “remarkable” before, but what does it really mean? According to Merriam-Webster, being remarkable means being “unusual or surprising” or “likely to be noticed.”

In modern day society, male leggings are remarkable.

The man who sold his life on eBay is remarkable:

The Ryanair CEO announcing that they will introduce standing seats to charge for toilets is remarkable:

“But what if my startup is inherently unremarkable?”

Great question. And a question that we were forced to ask ourselves in preparation for the upcoming launch of a startup that we are working on.

While preparing for the launch of Virtual Valley, software that connects entrepreneurs with virtual team members such as assistants, we found ourselves struggling to differentiate it from Upwork — a freelancing platform that operates very similarly.

Considering sources such as TechCrunch are unlikely to cover your startup launch if you don’t have some new, exciting technology (or one million dollars in funding), the odds that Virtual Valley would get featured were slim.

Sometimes, being remarkable doesn’t mean your product or service has to be truly unique. You can leverage remarkability to receive press by doing something remarkable. 

This could mean experimenting with a bold design on your website, developing a witty personality for your brand on Twitter, taking risks with your website copy, etc. These “outside-of-the-box” efforts might be received really well … or they might not. Either way, you’re getting people talking about your product or service. 

So what approach did I take to help Virtual Valley stand out? Well, that takes us to our next tip.

2) Piggyback on popular trends. 

Trends emerge is every industry that can help propel your search for free press without connections. Trouble is, you have to jump on them at the right time.

Fortunately for us, men wearing leggings had actually been covered by a number of popular sites — The Telegraph, Fashionista, etc. — prior to the launch of our company. 

When it came time to pitch journalists, we could reinforce the fact that “men wearing leggings” was newsworthy, as the topic had already been covered by other reputable sources.

So when deciding on an angle to pitch the press for our new startup Virtual Valley, we spent some time reviewing popular blogs in the startup world to spot any current trends.

One of which that really stood out was transparency:

• SumAll was publishing their salaries.
• Hubstaff was sharing their financial stats on a live dashboard.
• Buffer was publishing brutally honest blog posts.

During this time, we were also defining our company goals for the next two years, one of which being a seven-figure exit.

Would announcing this to the press be remarkable and connected to a recent trend? Would this story have a better chance of being published in TechCrunch than just writing a dull press release on the features of our product?

I guess we’ll find out …

3) Consider different perspectives.

When approaching anyone that has something you want — in this case, a potential audience — you need to understand their perspective and incentives. This will help increase your chances of them actually taking the action that you want them to take. 

In the two sections above we have already been thinking from the perspective of the reporter. (Reporters are interested in remarkable stories connected to a relevant industry trend, right?) Now, you need to communicate your story in a way that speaks directly to the incentives of the reporter.

Here’s an example of an email I sent to The Daily Express, which ultimately lead to the Daily Mail article referenced above:

Why did this approach work?

• It mentions a recent trend: “Meggings into the Mainstream”
• It provides social proof by mentioning the publications that had already covered the topic, as well as the number of times the Daily Mail article had been shared.
• It adds a personal touch by noting that the other articles touch on a Chicago-based male leggings company, and suggests they feature a brand “a little closer to home.”
• It states that I’m happy to do the heavy lifting/content creation at the end.

With all of that in mind, it is not surprising that the reporter took on the story.

A relevant model on human behaviour which supports this theory is the Fogg Behavioural Model:

Image Source: Behavior Model 

In order to increase the chances of a reporter taking on your story, we must consider the following three factors: 

• Motivation. What is the reason that a reporter would publish your story? Will make them look good in front of their boss? Will it help them get promoted? Will it perform well in terms of views, comments, and shares? Once you understand their potential motivation, you will find it easier to communicate this to them.
• Trigger. Triggers aim to capture a person’s attention. For example, Facebook uses notifications that trigger us to come back to the platform — whether it be to see that picture we have just been tagged in or what our friend just posted. In this case, the email being sent to the reporter serves as a trigger to incite action.
• Ability. People are less likely to complete an action if the ability to take that action has been placed behind a barrier. In other words, you need to lower the effort barrier as much as possible to increase your chances of receiving press. (This is why I offered to create the content at the end of my email.)

4) Target specific publications.

Remember the motivation trigger above?

Well, there are certain journalists that will be more motivated to cover your story than others. This often falls back on their personal interests or responsibility for their media organisation. And these are the people to want to target. 

To find them, head to Google, Twitter, and LinkedIn to conduct some research. The key is to become more aware of each and every publication and journalist that covers your niche.

Record every potential publication and reporter in a Google Sheet that includes their average article social share counts and followers on Twitter, as this will help you prioritise.

Once you have a list of 20 potential reporters, follow each one on Twitter and engage with their content to get on their radar. 

5) Prepare necessary press assets in advance.

When your targeted reporter opens your pitch and scans your email you have one chance, as this is probably the 50th pitch he/she has read that day.

This reporter needs to access all the information they require to make a decision … or they may just move on to the next email.

To increase the reporters ability to make a decision in your favor, consider attaching these assets in an email or creating a dedicated press page on your website. 

Regardless of which option you choose, you will need to include the following:

• Contact information
• Company overview
• Media mentions
• New and existing press releases
• Media assets — logos, screenshots, headshots, etc.

For more on how to put together an effective press page, check out this post. And to help you get started with creating an actual press release, use this template.

6) Be persistent. 

Here’s the thing about hunting for free press: you are going to get ignored, and you are going to get rejected.

What you do not see in the section above is the list of emails to every fashion reporter for national publications in the UK in my sent items that got rejected or no response:

Rather than let it discourage you, set realistic expectations. You might only get one response for every 20 emails you send. That’s okay. Keep hustling. 

Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, uses a concept called “the Flywheel Effect” to describe the effort it takes to build momentum for something. While the wheel is heavy and difficult to push, once you get it going, it will begin to turn itself. 

In terms of press, each feature that you receive will build the likelihood that you will receive more features in the future.

At sTitch Leggings, we would not have been featured in the Daily Mail if we did not land the feature in the Daily Express. And it’s likely that we wouldn’t have appeared on the UK television series, Dragons’ Den, unless we had been featured in the Daily Mail. And after being featured on the Dragons’ Den, we decided it was time to try to earn a spot on the HubSpot blog. And here we are.

Every press opportunity must be sought out through hustle, and celebrated once achieved. As the more press you receive, the more likely you will be to receive additional press, etc.

Still feeling unsure of how to get started with building free press for your business? Tell me about your product or service in the comments section below and I’ll see if I can help.