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Ask HN: How should I announce a new service with broad appeal?

5 points by JFitzDela ↗ HN
Hello, all. I'm preparing to announce a web-based home safety service that I believe will have very broad general appeal (perhaps more-so among the more tech savvy folk, but we'll see), and I'm looking for advice on how best to approach the announcement, itself.

Edit: As mitali and nyellin pointed out, I was pretty vague about my audience and goals, so here's a bit more. The service is a simple app requiring (for most people) no additional equipment above a standard internet capable computer that supports Flash and should appeal to anyone from home owners to loft apartment dwellers. The price-point I'm looking at is up to $9.99 for 30 days of access to the service, so I don't believe it's going to exclude many people based on cost (this is not to say that people will find my service WORTH $9.99, but rather to point out that it's not an exorbitant price to pay). My goal for the announcement is fairly strictly aligned to gathering customers -- it's a bootstrapped product with manageable costs, so no need for investment at this time.

If I had to pick a specific community that I think this would appeal to, I'd say Lifehacker would be a good bet. Having said that....

Getting "TechCrunched" is certainly a desirable goal, but there's also a slimmer chance, I should think, that they'll see my submission among the hundreds they get. I wonder, then, if picking a smaller target that will then be observed by the bigger publications wouldn't be a better way to go. The disadvantage there, of course, is that the bigger pub loses the advantage of an exclusive release.

So what are your thoughts? Should I just "Show HN" and hope for the best (I plan to do so anyway), or should I submit to TC? Direct to Lifehacker? Blast 'em all?

I appreciate your feedback, folks!

- John

P.S. -- I realize this is unrelated, but I am looking for a few (10-20 at most) savvy folks to try my service out. If you're interested and wouldn't mind keeping quiet about it for a few days, shoot me an email at john -at- whiteraventechnology.com

3 comments

[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 16.2 ms ] thread
nyellin
Try emailing popular blogs that are related to your service, and not just startups in general. It's hard to suggest anything specific without more details.
mitali
John, launch announcements and any PR needs to be carefully planned. There are many factors, but at the very least before you start contacting media outlets you need to be super-clear on 2 things: 1. Your target audience - be as specific as possible. You say that your service is regarding home-safety. Does this require a significant $$ or time investment on the part of a homeowner to install and manage? Do you have to own your home to be able to take advantage of it? Does this appeal to more affluent people? With children? etc. Get very specific. You can then see how your target intersects with the demo of specific media outlets. 2. Purpose of your PR. what do you want to get out of this announcement? Do you need funding? Do you want to attract actual end users? Do you want to create buzz so that retailers will contact you to carry your product? These goals require extremely different tactics and usually very different media outlets. In general, end user acquisition for a mass market product is rarely accomplished from PR unless you get into NY Times/ USA Today/ Oprah. If user acquisition is your goal, I would suggest not spending much on the announcement at all (announce wherever) and instead get really awesome at SEO, and contact mass-market blogs (like the kind Yahoo / AOL / MSN feature) and even niche home-owners blogs etc. to get written up.
JFitzDela
Excellent suggestions, and I should have been more specific. I'll edit the post to better address the specific situation, but I appreciate your advice!

- John