Press is one part of your overall marketing strategy. Getting Press Coverage has a few benefits:
Direct Customer Acquisition
Find out which publications your customer prospects read. Ask them during customer discovery meetings what top publications they read. Getting articles in these publications are a free path to customer acquisition.
SEO & Indirect Customer Acquisition
Press coverage can drive SEO, and increase your page rank, especially early on.
Once the article is written, you can reference the article in your pursuit of other customers to build credibility. Link it to the bottom of your email signature. It adds instant credibility to cite that your company was covered by the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, etc.
Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. also allow you to promote ads to specific individuals in their feed. You can post the article as an ad in the feeds of your top 200 customer prospects. It creates the illusion of ubiquity -- that your brand is everywhere. And it’s highly cost effective. A great way to be punching above your weight.
Investor / Acquirer Interest
Having consistent press coverage can significantly boost the brand of your company. In the short term, the buzz of coverage can contribute urgency to getting VC’s to move / act. And if / as you are approached for M&A, having a strong brand will *significantly* impact your exit if done right.
As an example, I (Ravi) was one of the first investors in Justin.TV (which became Twitch and ultimately acquired by Amazon for $970m). Justin.TV at the time I funded it had only raised a fraction of the capital that its competitor ustream had raised. But Justin.TV had stronger buzz and brand awareness. This was partly due to the press coverage we received. And at the time, we were aiming for just 2 publications in TechCrunch or comparable journals per month to maintain the buzz. Just that level of consistent coverage can have a big impact.