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• 🙃 Rest Assured: OpenAI's CFO reassured staff about high investor interest in their funding round following the sudden departures of key execs, including CTO Mira Murati. CEO Sam Altman expressed confidence in the company's future during a staff meeting. The board is considering a shift towards a for-profit model and potentially granting significant equity to Altman.

• 🤖 No fooling twice: AI is a notorious liar, but Microsoft now says it has a fix. Microsoft revealed Correction, a service that revises factually inaccurate AI-generated text. Correction first flags text that may be erroneous — say a summary of a company’s quarterly earnings call that possibly has misattributed quotes — then fact-checks it by comparing the text with a source of truth (e.g. uploaded transcripts).

• 💥 Higher Power: Constellation Energy Corp. is set to invest $1.6 billion to revive the Three Mile Island nuclear plant by 2028, with Microsoft purchasing all its output for two decades. This reflects a growing trend toward nuclear energy to meet the high power demands of AI and data centres. Unlike other projects seeking government funding, Constellation will finance this independently

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Strategies | Tools | Marketing Tips

Tight Budget? Ditch PR & Self Promote

When Sarah and Emily Mack launched their small business, Vinat, to make buying wine online accessible, they had no big spend for engaging with PR firms to give their unique business idea a shout-out. 

But despite this setback, something amazing panned out. 

With a modest $125, they generated a 220% increase in web traffic, an overwhelming amount of attention for any new business. 

HOW? THROUGH SELF-PROMOTION 👏 

Through a few connections, Sarah and Emily pitched their press release about the beginnings of Vinat to The Associated Press. Their thoughtful reflections and vision caught the agency’s eye. It ended up being republished by many others.

That’s not all—there were inbound requests from journalists who wanted to write about them, brands seeking partnership, and attention from curious investors. 

Sarah says this promotion was one-third the cost she anticipated for influencer marketing. The Vinat founders now generate substantial traffic each month publishing one press release.

Their story compelled us to curate some GREAT insights on the subtle art of self-promotion.

 LET’S DIVE IN  ⏬ 

#1 | BE NEWSWORTHY

Your company’s X or LinkedIn posts with rehashed emojis and generic hashtags do little to promote a product or service. Amidst a sea of promotional tweets and posts, industry insights and viewpoints are valuable.

You’ll rarely see Tim Soulo, CMO at Ahrefs (a popular SEO tool and resource for businesses looking to grow search traffic) talking about Ahref’s latest SEO tools.

Soulo loves sharing knowledge (articles, blog posts, snippets from his podcast) to build his authority.

He often writes about unconventional practices at Ahrefs to grab focus. Consider one of his recent posts:

No board meetings at Ahrefs < generation of interest in company < curiosity around company services.

Something about his marketing strategy clicks.

• Solo marketer to $100 million ARR: When he joined Ahrefs 9 years ago, Tim was the only marketer in a team of 16. Despite this, he helped Ahrefs achieve this crazy revenue growth.

• No analytics, just results: Soulo eschewed traditional analytics in favour of consistent content creation, believing it's the best way to know what his audience wants.

• Proven success: Ahrefs' popularity among top companies like Uber, Adidas, and IBM, and its reliance by 44% of Fortune 500 companies, validates Soulo's strategy.

#2 | PITCH YOUR STORY WELL

If you, like Sarah and Emily, are hoping to get some press coverage, know that convincing journalists about your story is a tough nut to crack. But it’s worth the effort.

🌟IT BEGINS WITH A SHOWSTOPPER HEADLINE 🌟 

A well-crafted press release headline has one job: letting journalists know everything about your brand. 

• Ask yourself “Why should anyone care ?” until you have a solid answer. 

• Feel free to skip ‘a’s, ‘the’s and other flyaway words if the headline reads ok. 

• Stick to <70 characters

• Open with a wow-factor statistic 

• Leading with example: Apple’s walking audio program is written in a way that makes it easy for journalists to pull facts, details, and quotes for their stories.

  

Many people working for the news are overwhelmed with PR emails. Things that catch the eye but are likely to land in their spam bin include: 

• CAPS-LOCK SUBJECT LINES 

• $$$ or similar dodgy characters 

• More punctuation than needed 

#3 | EMBED SOCIAL PROOF

Testimonials are more than a few good words about your company or service. A lot hinges on them as they build trust with potential clients.

Here’s a primer on using them effectively:

• Dedicated section: Give testimonials enough real estate on your website, separate from other content.

• Place wisely: Include testimonials on pages like your pricing guide and proposals to reinforce your value proposition.

• Email integration: Add testimonials to your email signature and set up autoresponders to share them with clients who book consultations.

#4 | RELY ON RELEVANT DATA

Data to back your claims reflects genuineness. Use statistics where they shine: case studies, ‘About Us’ sections, or LinkedIn posts.

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