All press isn’t good press

Jan

2010

As I wrote before, I am in the process of re-thinking a lot of the things we currently do here at Tatango. To help other entrepreneurs, I’ve been writing about these changes. Below is another post about some of the things I’ve learned along the way and things that are changing at our company.

One of the things we spent an enormous amount of time on at Tatango was generating press. For being a small startup from an even smaller town, we have received more than our fair share of press coverage. We have been covered in TechCrunch, Mashable, Wall Street Journal and a host of other very notable blogs, newspapers and even radio shows. Was this done to satisfy my ego, boost employee moral, generate links, impress investors or have something cool to hang on my wall, most likely. What I’ve realized though is that during the first couple of years, press is only good if it generates revenue. For some websites that may mean traffic (ad-supported), but for Tatango it means generating subscriptions. What’s interesting is that in regards to subscriptions created on Tatango, all the big articles combined, don’t even compare to what a small (17k uniques a month) Christian Youth Ministry blog has generated.

The lesson learned, while resources are scarce and revenue is your main goal during the startup phase, focus only on generating press that generates revenue, leave the rest for the future.

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Office Supplies 3 months ago 1 point
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Thanks for the wonderful post as always Derek. For me, there's a thin line between Sales and Marketing although you can actually use them interchangeably. Your marketing will consists of the techniques you use to reach and persuade your prospects and target markets while sales process mostly consists of interpersonal interactions.

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Kevin Lisota 6 months ago 1 point
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Derek,

I'd have to disagree with you on this approach. We've seen the same phenomena that you describe in our business. The high profile articles don't always translate into paying customers. However, brand building and name recognition is a lengthy and sometimes unmeasurable process, and I wouldn't underestimate its importance to the longer term health of the business. I think you need to balance the approach. Yes, revenue rules the day when resources are scarce, but don't lose sight of your need to build brand recognition in the process.

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TheDerekJohnson 6 months ago 1 point
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So what about this rule of thumb... Unless the press generates revenue,
don't expend resources on it until you become cash-flow positive. Then you
can focus on building name recognition.

* When I say expend resources, it's ok to issue a press release or take
interviews if they come.

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Eric Koester 6 months ago 1 point
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Great post Derek. We built an iPhone app and got it profiled all over the place, but it didn't translate into sales. Ultimately marketing is different than sales -- marketing can help sales, but they aren't linear. Nice work again -- keep it up.

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TheDerekJohnson 6 months ago 1 point
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Link up your iPhone app, would love to check it out.

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Eric Koester 6 months ago 1 point
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Thanks Derek. Hope all is well.

You can check out the app at the link below. App is www.LearnThatName.com that came out of Startup Weekend. We got covered in the WSJ, Engadget, tons of blogs, etc. Great press, but we were only so-so on sales. Really surprised a lot of us, but did teach the lesson about sales vs. marketing (or strategic sales, I suppose).
- Eric

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/...

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TheDerekJohnson 6 months ago 1 point
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Interesting... thanks for sharing. I will definitely check out the app. Good
luck with everything!

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