Table of contents

01

A brief history of the development of Pluto Pillow

02

PR (public relations) efforts

03

Ways to Find Media Reporters

04

concise and attractive emails

05

Continue to recommend emails widely

06

Pluto Pillow concise advertising slogan

foreword

In February 2022, Pluto Pillow appeared on the TV screen for the first time and appeared on the famous NBC program The Today Show in the United States . This media exposure made Pluto Pillow independent station complete thousands of pillow sales.

1. A brief history of the development of Pluto Pillow

Susana Sae Liu and her co-founder Kevin Li take sleep quality very seriously. In 2018, they launched Pluto Pillow, a personalised sleep pillow that customizes your pillow based on your body statistics, sleep patterns and preferences. Pluto Pillow combines carefully designed physical products with a wealth of data to develop an algorithm that, based on scientific analysis, can customize the right pillow for each person. Pluto Pillow currently has 35 different styles of pillows - from extra soft to extra firm. Their pillows are made with high-performance, high-grade and breathable foam.

While Susana and Kevin spent ten months developing a quality sleep pillow and building a nice and simple stand-alone site on Shopify, their business didn't get off to a good start. Once, they only bought one pillow in a three-week period. They decided from the beginning that they were self-reliant and could not and would not spend thousands of dollars on Instagram or Facebook to advertise, so they looked for an effective but free promotion channel: PR (Public Relations).

2. PR (public relations) efforts

Pluto Pillow's first successful PR story came from a news feature on their Business Insider website, which brought their independent station hundreds of visits in a short period of time, far exceeding their previous traffic. Pluto Pillow has since continued to receive media attention in publications such as Fast Company, Mashable, The Wall Street Journal, Men's Health, Essence, Cosmopolitan, Refinery29 and more. In February 2022, Pluto Pillow appeared on TV for the first time, appearing on NBC's famous The Today Show, and this media exposure allowed Pluto Pillow to complete thousands of pillow sales.

Entrepreneurs often think PR (public relations) is too expensive because often they need to hire an outside PR firm to build relationships with the media on their behalf. But Susana took a completely different route and developed a well-targeted internal PR strategy, all on her own, so of course for free. The rest of this article will describe how Susana used the power of PR to promote their business, brand and product without the support of an expensive PR firm.

Long before Pluto Pillow hit TV shows with millions of viewers, Susana was actually doing the mundane behind-the-scenes work that laid the foundation for her later success: finding the right journalists, writing high-quality Electronic PR emails, take the trouble to send emails and wait for a reply.

"My initial consideration was to find a way to reach more media...because I think it's a very efficient way to build a brand," Susana said. "I really want to build a strong brand that doesn't Relying on periodic advertising to drive growth, let the authoritative media accept it, promote the brand, and attract more customers continuously.”

This strategy has helped Pluto Pillow attract the attention of a broad audience and readers from online sites, print magazines and television. Susana used Pluto Pillow's constant media exposure to build her brand's presence, cement her image as a trusted and recommended brand, and send cold emails to pitch again and again.

The following introduces the specific operation method of PR (public relations).

3. Methods of finding media reporters

The key to finding journalists, but one that is often overlooked: find the right journalist for you. In most online and print publications, journalists have their own habits and areas they often cover. It doesn't make sense if you recommend a story about cosmetics to a journalist who usually reviews and writes about tech products.

01 Find a journalist who fits your product niche

Susana initially set out to find journalists covering topics related to sleep, pillows and mattresses. The process, which she dubs "stalking reporters," essentially involves keeping tabs on online articles about sleep, pillows and mattresses, then reaching out to the journalists who wrote the articles to promote Pluto Pillow's products and stories.

02 Break free from the limitations of media choices

Susana also reaches out to reporters broadly associated with Pluto Pillow — emailing reporters covering DTC brands, as well as any reporter covering bespoke products. For example, she reached out to reporters covering the brand Curology, a customizable skincare brand.

03 Understand the naming conventions of email addresses

There's no point in narrowing down reporters if you can't actually get in touch with them. Susana spends time learning and testing different email naming conventions in various publications such as firstname@company.com vs firstname.lastname@company.com. This ensures her emails reach reporters' inboxes. Online tools like RocketReach, Hunter, Lusha, Apollo, and ZoomInfo are also great tools for finding specific email addresses.

4. Concise and attractive emails

Journalists receive hundreds of emails every day from PR agencies and company representatives scrambling to recommend stories about their clients or companies. To stand out, you need to craft a compelling and concise testimonial. Emails are your opportunity to tell reporters why your company matters and why readers care about your business — all in a few short paragraphs.

Here are specific tips for writing promotional emails:

01 Personalize your emails

Avoid sending the exact same email to every reporter. Instead, personalize your email by pointing out the reporter's name, pointing out stories you've read about them before, and why they might be interested in your company and products. Prove that you follow them and read their articles.

02 Keep it simple

With inboxes crammed with countless emails, journalists like straight-to-the-point referrals. The content can include the relevant background of the company, but do not describe your entire business history in lengthy text.

03 Tell a compelling story

Don't simply ask journalists to recommend and cover your company. Instead, write some interesting stories in the company's business process, or some positive feedback and comments from customers on your products, or add some data that may arouse the interest of journalists.

04 Use the founder's own email account

One way to stand out in a crowded inbox is for the founders themselves to reach out to reporters directly and develop direct relationships with the publication’s writers — rather than relying on PR firms or company representatives. “By the way, journalists actually prefer founders to reach out to them directly, rather than a PR agency,” Suzanne said. "They love founders telling these stories."

05 Persistence and iterative emails

Some reporters will respond to your emails, others will not respond to your emails at all. But only by continually improving your email campaigns and content, and iterating on them when they don't work, will increase the chances of your corporate brand, product, and story being picked up by journalists.

Using the media to help tell your company's story can be an effective strategy for getting your business noticed and helping you turn readers into customers.

5. Continue to recommend emails widely

PR requires long-term persistence in order to be effective. If you don't get a response from a reporter, it's best to follow up. As a rule of thumb, you can email the same reporter up to two times. In the early days of Pluto Pillow, Susana spent a lot of time every day connecting with reporters.

" I spend about three hours a day recommending Pluto Pillow to the media and sending as many emails as possible, " says Susana . "I condense the company's brand and product in the same email, and then target different reporters before sending it out. Make personalized changes. Using this approach, we get about 30 to 35 percent of our reporters’ responses.”

Successful coverage doesn't always lead to sales traffic for your business. But broad publicity, combined with quality and quantity, can help businesses understand which publications are right for you and which ones are just average. In some cases, a niche publication with a highly active readership may be more influential than a large publication with a broad audience.

“Some articles work well. We’ve had great success with Real Simple magazine, and we’ve had 100 orders from just one article,” Susana says, “but sometimes PR articles from other big publications may not sell well. Good. Either way, companies should put out as many PR articles as possible.”

After years of successful in-house PR operations, Susana entrusted their PR strategy to a PR firm. But Pluto Pillow's first few years of successful PR operations allowed their business to grow sustainably without relying on advertising spend on social media.

“Conversion rates are actually very high when customers click from a media article,” says Susana. “Sometimes, when readers really like the publication, especially when it’s relevant to your field, your business brand and product will Get a good promotion and marketing effect.”

6. Pluto Pillow concise advertising slogan

Pluto Pillow features breathability, temperature regulation and elasticity.

Pluto Pillow is customized based on your body data, sleep patterns, and your preferences.

Pluto Pillow is individualized for each customer to optimize support and comfort.

Pluto Pillow allows customers to try out the pillow for 110 nights and provide a full refund if they are not satisfied.