It’s no surprise that Timisoara born & raised startups are catching foreigners’ eyes. Press, investment, tech related ranking-there has been a name from Timisoara there more than once. Getting featured in publications such as Forbes or The Next Web is no little thing. And it surely takes more than just a good pitch to get there.

Before immersing into case studies, a startup that yearns for relevant international media coverage has primarily assess the motivation behind the act. What is actually to be gained from such a PR effort? Dharmesh Shah, co-founder and CTO of HubSpot has an answer:

‘I believe, getting your startup covered, is one of the most important things you can do to get your product out there. It can help with and did so for us with a lot of things, such as new signups, getting investment, partnerships and biz dev deals.’

Apparently, all the things you need to nurture your startup at least till it blossoms. His complete guide has generated appreciation and even more questions among startup founders eager to find the success recipe.

In the same line, publisher Austen Allred in his ‘Hacker’s Guide to User Aquisition’ underlines the importance of press coverage as in positively affecting traffic and users/customers acquisition, social validation and legitimacy.

This was theory, now let’s get to facts. 123ContactForm has been featured twice in Forbes as a part of one of the
hottest startup scenes in Europe.

According to Laura Moisei, 123ContactForm Marketing & PR manager, the secret of getting international press coverage ‘is not even a secret’.

`Get far by doing what you’re doing best’, Laura says. Helping users from over 180 countries to easily create various types of forms has gained this startup a reputation: 123ContactForm is top 5 form builders worldwide.

‘This status has lead to an enough interesting business growth for the press to grasp for. This is where we have sent an article proposal to draw attention upon the Romanian startup scene from which we are a part, too.’

Lesson no 1: build a reputation.

Another startup from Timisoara, Style Jukebox, has been featured in The Next Web. When asked about his approach, founder Ionut Antiu has shared with us his success recipe:

`What worked well for us so far and got us coverage both in The Next Web and TechCrunch is a combination of knowing the following:

• What does the publication cover and who is its target audience?
• What does the editor like to write about and what is his/her area of expertise?
• What is news? Don’t fake it and sell an embellished PR story because big outlets will figure it out.

In addition, you definitely have to have a great product and take time to prepare your pitch.`

Common (PR) sense so far.

`We put a personal touch in all the emails we sent to editors, so that they would know that the email was intended only for them. Research in writing the best email subject line was important too and it was the best thing we could do to increase the open rate of our emails. Add some luck to the mix and you can get a lot of people flooding to your website.`, says Ionut.

Lesson no 2: put the media before your startup.

From media’s point of view, a healthy approach is to give them the place they deserve. Mashable even shares the way they wish to be approached.

Lesson no 3: offer exclusivity.

For those who do not afford working with PR pros or agencies, there’s, apparently, a startup for this, too.
Publicize, a platform founded by two former tech journalists to offer startups affordable PR services as a product, ultimately ‘changing the way startups approach PR’, or so they say.

Lesson no 4: call for specialized help.

And ultimately,  as stated on Quora, having at least one unique selling proposition.

Lesson no 5: giving press something worth writing about.

What are you waiting for? Take your startup’s name on their lips! In the next article we’ll find out whether getting international press coverage for your startup can really bring more than just fame.