PR, Publicity, and Media Coverage for Entrepreneurs and Podcasters (with Mickie Kennedy)

Sarah St John [00:00:00]:

Welcome to the frugalpreneur podcast. I am your host, Sarah St. John, and my guest today is an expert at helping small businesses, authors, and startups increase their visibility and credibility through tier 1 press release distribution through his company, Ereleases. Welcome to the show, Mickey Kennedy.

Mickie Kennedy [00:00:19]:

Hi. Thanks for having me.

Sarah St John [00:00:21]:

Well, you're one of the few people that I think actually only 1 of 2 or 3 people that have been on my show more than once. How did you get into PR?

Mickie Kennedy [00:00:31]:

So I just stumbled into it. I, was finishing up a poetry degree, a masters of fine arts and creative writing, I guess around 27 years ago. And my game plan was I'm going to wait tables and write poetry and read. And I did that for a summer after graduating. And I tell you, it was not sunshine. It was like aching back flat feet on concrete for 8 hours, 10 hour shifts. And I just realized I could not do this. I was so psychologically zapped at the end of a shift that all I could do is go home and decompress.

Mickie Kennedy [00:01:06]:

I wasn't reading or writing. So I was like, I need to find a safe office job. So, I sent my resume out to places and I got hired at a telecom research startup as employee number 3 in Washington, DC. And because I had a background in writing, they said, write press releases and send them out to the media. And I did that and I'd send them out by fax. And not much happened. And I felt like, I don't think I know what I'm doing. So I, I kept looking at what we were sending out and what journalists were writing about.

Mickie Kennedy [00:01:38]:

And the one thing I noticed is the journalists write almost anything, even small pieces. They like to navigate through a story arc. And we were just publishing data, just pushing the data out. And so I was like, I took the latest release that we did, which was like the inbound and outbound international telecom traffic from the United States to several Caribbean countries. Where's the story here? And I noticed that one country had way more traffic than any of the others. I I mean, it was like probably multiples of other countries. And so I didn't know why, but I asked around and discovered that that country at the time was like the center for, 1900 call centers. And so at the time you could call, 1900 something and you could get your horoscope read live by, someone or get a psychic reading for a dollar a minute, or talk to someone about your love life or get basically consultation about your pets.

Mickie Kennedy [00:02:38]:

So, and, you know, even dating and other kinds of advice. So I thought that was interesting. And so I wrote an article about that more of a story arc where the data was there, but it, the story was the show, the spotlight. Woah, what a difference that made. I sent that out and immediately got picked up by the economists, the financial times, the wall street journal, Washington post, and 3 telecom trade publications. And I was like, okay, I, I might have figured this out. And so I did subsequent press releases. And, again, lot of successes.

Mickie Kennedy [00:03:12]:

I remember one thing that we discovered going back, looking at the data was like countries that all of a sudden got on fire, like in South America, Latin America, and Asia, just economies had just started to pick up and grow like crazy. We looked back at their telecom traffic to and from industrialized countries preceding that. And we saw a double digit growth about 2 to 5 years before major economic growth. And so when we reported that all of a sudden we started getting orders from non telecom people because before this, we only sold to telecom companies and telecom analysts and telecom attorneys. All of a sudden hedge funds and investment bankers and wall street types started ordering our research. So, it opened us up to a whole new avenue. And again, this was all just free. It was just a matter of faxing this out.

Mickie Kennedy [00:04:06]:

Around the same time, I started getting phone calls saying, Hey, instead of faxing in the future, could you just email it to us? So, I started building a little Rolodex of, mostly telecom journalists or reporters and people who covered the telecom industry. But it gave me the idea that I could do this for others. I could build a little Rolodex and send releases for people. And so I spent about a year at that company in my spare time, which wasn't substantial because you're working for a startup. But I would just network with journalists on message boards and bulletin boards, which were really one of the main avenues for people, pre social media. I just asked if I could get their email address and send them releases in the future. And most of them said yes, because email was kind of novel and, they're like, this will be targeted to my industry. And I was like, yeah.

Mickie Kennedy [00:04:55]:

And so they were very receptive to it. So I launched in October of 1998. I think my old employer telegeography was the first client when we did a release for them. And, I did that for a few years and then PR Newswire approached us and said, Hey, we really like what you're doing, helping small businesses and entrepreneurs, people that are salespeople wouldn't be interested in because they're looking for the big fish that's spending 30 to $80,000 a year in, newswires, translations, multimedia newsrooms, those types of things. And they were like asking if maybe I'd want to add a city or state distribution over the wire to what I was doing for my clients. And I really pushed and said, my clients really deserve national media attention, as well as specific trade publications and industry specific journalists. And they didn't run away, but they really recognized how little I was charging. And finally, I think that I went to meet them and discovered that they have an overnight editorial team in the US that doesn't do very much, but they have to be there in case there's breaking news or someone needs to get something out to the Asian markets, but many hours of idle time.

Mickie Kennedy [00:06:04]:

And so what I suggested is I start taking my releases and rather than sending them as soon as someone places an order is scheduling them for the next business day or in the future so that they could set up the releases overnight on the wire and it wouldn't cost them any additional labor. And at that point, they finally agreed to give me a national distribution at a rate that I could afford to give to my clients. And, today it would cost you $1600 to move a 600 word press release. And we're probably like a third to 40% of that for the same exact thing. So, it is a huge savings for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Sarah St John [00:06:40]:

Mhmm. Yeah. And where do you send press releases out to?

Mickie Kennedy [00:06:44]:

So it goes out over the wire. So it is through their system. Journalists have a login access. They, the great thing about it is they log in. It's their feeds that they create. It could just be telecom industry feed. But most of them will create a customized feed based on keywords that they're not interested in keywords that they really want to make sure that are there. So it's a very specific feed to them.

Mickie Kennedy [00:07:09]:

At the same time, my original solution of emailing is kind of out of favor because over the last 25 years, what has become commonplace are media databases. And so people are offering media databases for anywhere from 5,000 to $20,000 a year for license. And, but you're selling golf clubs and you just paid $10,000 for a media database. And then you realize there's only 2,400 journalists in there that are interested in golf clubs. You kind of feel like you talk yourselves into saying, Hey, we could also send it to banking and financial journalists because bankers and business people like to play golf. And they don't realize that you're never going to get a financial analyst to write about golf clubs. Their beat is banking and business. They're not going to talk about golf clubs, even though it's true that their readers might be interested in playing golf.

Mickie Kennedy [00:08:03]:

And so what's happened is so many people talk themselves into other markets because they've paid a substantial amount for these databases that they're just sometimes just spamming everybody. The result is that inboxes of most journalists are chaos. A lot of PR firms who do email pitches, it's requirement that they have to call and say, Hey, did you get my pitch? And the journalist is like, let me see if I can find you amidst all of this garbage that I have in my inbox. And so the great thing about the Newswire is it's a safe place where a journalist can log in and see very specific feeds that they've curated and, and get to look at and they know that it's relevant to them. In the US there's 2 Newswires. There's PR Newswire, who I work with and Business Wire is the other one. You don't need to be in both. No one does that.

Mickie Kennedy [00:08:57]:

It's cost prohibitive, but most journalists go to both. There've been a lot of people who've tried to build the 3rd newswire in the US. There was a little bit of activity, I guess, 15 years ago, but not anymore. Journalists are now expected to do double the amount of work that they were 15 years ago. And so the idea of them having to fish in a 3rd pond when they're fishing in 2 ponds, they don't have the time or energy for it. So they don't support the 3rd Newswire. And it is basically pivoted to trying to seek out publicly traded companies who really don't want journalists reading their content because they're just looking for SEC compliance, getting their news out, making sure it shows up under, you know, when you look up their stock tickers, that the press releases appear there, but they really don't want journalists looking too carefully at their financials and their information. So that has just reinforced this, this duopoly that we have in the United States.

Mickie Kennedy [00:09:53]:

A lot of people probably are familiar with other types of wires, AP Associated Press, Reuters, UPI, Dow Jones. They're different in that they don't run press releases over their network. They write articles. They have their staff that write articles, and then they license those articles to other outlets like newspapers. So, if my backyard, we have the Baltimore sun. If the Supreme court came out with breaking news today, and that editor is busy working on a story, they could just decide, Hey, we'll pull that article off the associated press. And they have an arrangement where they pay a fee to the associated press. You'll see in the newspaper, it'll often have at the beginning of the article or associated press.

Mickie Kennedy [00:10:36]:

So, you know, that it wasn't written in house, but it was, AP material and it's very well written. It's high caliber writing. They're known for being extremely factual. It's something that they can count on. And so for press releases, it's basically, if you're looking to reach a journalist, it's PR Newswire or Business Wire. Unfortunately, there's still probably about 50 other companies out there that exist in the marketplace. Often many of them with wire in their names, and they're not real wires. They reach journalists.

Mickie Kennedy [00:11:06]:

Most of them are involved in syndication where your press release appears on a few websites. They're usually sub domains or locations on their websites where if you did a search on their website, it wouldn't even show up. Very few people see it. It's mostly done for people to put some logos on their website of like, Hey, here's this Fox affiliate or a Forbes logo or something like that, but you would never find it in a Forbes magazine. And, again, a lot of times when you do searches on Forbes for these articles, you won't find them. And so, I tell people that that's kind of a diversion. It doesn't really help you considerably much when you get real natural earned media. Like I did at telegeography, the phones ring, you get customers.

Mickie Kennedy [00:11:50]:

A lot of people are seeing it. There's lots of eyeballs. None of that happens in the syndication market. For 1, a lot of them know that it's paid placement among the marketers. A lot of them are now saying, if I see a Forbes logo on someone's website, I completely discount them because I know it's a paid article. And so, it's, it doesn't mean anything anymore. And so, I think that, a sophisticated user will often see through that, but even more importantly, you're missing the opportunity to earn media creates by getting you in front of people who see your article and get this, good feeling. This credibility that happens with journalists writes about you.

Mickie Kennedy [00:12:31]:

It's a big authority. It's a signal of trust. I personally have read lots of blog posts and articles over the years where I read about a Kickstarter campaign and it's like, gosh, I have no need for this, but all of a sudden I'm like right there rooting for this guy who found this little thing that wasn't being served in their marketplace and, was getting it created. And now they just wanted someone to help back them to get them over the edge. And it's like $29 and I'm like, well, I can support this guy. He seems great. Yeah. That doesn't happen with ads.

Mickie Kennedy [00:13:02]:

Doesn't really happen with paid placement. It's one of those things that just happens naturally with earned media. You have this emotional response when you read something that someone else has written and curated, and that's a huge win for people. And, not only do you get customers from earned media, but you could then take that earned media, the link to it. If it's a website or the article scanned, if it's print and you can send it out to your existing leads and your existing customers. What people don't realize is that there is a predictable churn rate in most markets where a certain number of your customers are gonna leave you because they feel like we haven't tried anyone else and maybe we should give someone else a shot this year to make sure we're using the best company. And if they read an article and they get that emotional response, that's huge signal of trust. When a journalist decides to write about you, it's almost like social proof.

Mickie Kennedy [00:13:57]:

They feel really strongly about we're with the right person or company. We don't need to try someone else this year. So it's gonna reduce your churn. And with leads, I don't know what people's conversion rates are, but they're usually not substantial. So if you have a 20% conversion rate of your average lead, if you put this article in front of them, you might find that you convert 25 to 30% of your leads because they get that same signal trust, that emotional response. And again, they want to do business with you because that's what an article in earned media does to people. Ads never do that with people. Often when we click through with an ad, we're just like, give me a reason to hit that back button.

Mickie Kennedy [00:14:37]:

Give me a reason to hit that back button. And it also seems like there's a lot of, testimonial fatigue out there. So, I think that when it comes to earned media, it still wins. It still works very effectively. And again, these are things that you can put on your website, the actual article so that people can read it, not just a Forbes logo and a Fox logo and an ABC logo from a syndication ploy that you did, but the actual article written by a journalist and having, that sort of same prominence and authority that we get when we recognize a real person has has written, about someone.

Sarah St John [00:15:17]:

Yeah. Yeah. And what kinda tips do you have for writing a press release? I mean, first of all, do you write your own or would you hire someone to do that? I know there's a bunch of templates online you can use.

Mickie Kennedy [00:15:32]:

But, yeah. So press releases are not difficult to write. We have a lot of templates on the year releases.com, but I would caution people that the writing of it is probably the least important. The biggest difference is what you're writing about. And one of the things that I have heard for over 25 years, since I started my business, people say press releases don't work. Press releases just never move the needle. And I would say for 97% of people that issue press releases over a wire. So they're doing the right thing.

Mickie Kennedy [00:16:09]:

They're going over PR Newswire or Business Wire 90 7% of them probably do not generate earned media. So they are failures. And so with those kinds of odds against you, why would you do it? And the great thing is that, there are patterns within the 3% of press releases that get picked up that you can copy and work from. And so if you build a PR campaign of 6 to 8 releases, which is why I always tell people, if you're going to try PR specifically press releases, you want to do a proper campaign. You want to measure it 6 to 8 releases the same way you wouldn't do a Google ads campaign and then say, Hey, we had it up for a week. We got 47 clicks. I don't think it's going to work for us because no one's converted yet. You really have to play with it.

Mickie Kennedy [00:16:57]:

You have to tweak it. You have to sort of work strategically and try different approaches and attempts. And so, do commit to a proper PR campaign of 6 to 8 releases. So, strategic types of releases. What are those? And so, there is owning your own story. What is it about you and your journey that makes you unique? And if you watch Shark Tank, and I, I talk about them because they do a lot of press releases with us. The producers recommend that they do a press release before their episode airs. And many of them come to us because people have had good experiences with us.

Mickie Kennedy [00:17:34]:

And so, they do really well. But one of the things I've noticed is in their press releases and on the, on the show, they open by sharing their story. Often they're very vulnerable. They share perhaps a setback, like they got laid off or they had a divorce or they lost a spouse or a parent and they had this hobby or that is inspiration. It's something that's very unique to almost all of them, but they all talk about their personal journey and their experience. And I think that first thing that does is it immediately gives you empathy and humanizes them. And it's a strong human interest element. It works really well with the introductory press release where you're introducing a business.

Mickie Kennedy [00:18:21]:

And I think that's where that could work really well. Let's say it's not a new business. And so, it's probably less likely you would lead with that, but you could still incorporate that into the press release, but focus on something else. Like maybe you hit a major milestone, like maybe it's your 5th year on business and you can sort of share what those 5 years were like and who you were at the beginning of it when you just created the company. And those work really well because again, people love stories. I, I had one business that had an embarrassing story where they kind of canceled Thanksgiving and get the whole extended family putting packages together so that when Monday open, they'd be able to get all of this out the door because they were going to be slammed. They thought that they weren't going to be able to make the numbers work and, and their delivery orders get caught up. And so, I told them that you're no longer that business, but I think we should share that story.

Mickie Kennedy [00:19:14]:

And they were just like, like many small businesses. No, I wanna appear bigger than I am. I wanna appear very professional and corporate and no sharp edges. Everything's sanded down and perfect. And they reluctantly did a release where we, talked about that and that got picked up in ink magazine and they led their 2 page article in ink magazine with the story about them having to basically cancel Thanksgiving and set up the whole family, putting together packages and getting them out the door. And they were just shocked and said, I don't know why ink magazine was so attracted to that. And I just like, well, it's something that other entrepreneurs can identify with. It is an obstacle.

Mickie Kennedy [00:19:57]:

It's one of these things where sometimes you have to get the family together and dig in and, really, make it happen. And I think that a lot of people, whether they've had that exact experience, probably not, but they've had something similar to it. And it's something that entrepreneurs can immediately identify with. Other types of strategic types of releases are focusing on what you do that's unique and different from everybody else. I think startups do really well with PR because one of the things that they know right off the bat is what they do that's different than everybody else in the marketplace. They have a unique selling proposition, something that makes them stand out as completely different than everyone else. They can often just give their elevator pitch of 2 sentences of what that is. And so, knowing that they can talk into that space and really get you to understand that with them, it is completely unique in the marketplace.

Mickie Kennedy [00:20:58]:

And again, that energizes people. And it also makes people want to share about you like, oh, have you heard about this company? They do this. There's lots of companies that have that energy when they first start because people don't realize and know about them. Look at how Amazon is just trusted now with delivery and they're on your doorsteps in a couple of days or less. And, you know, that was very novel in the beginning of you are gonna solve this logistics nightmare and get packages to people really quickly, really fast. And they've done a phenomenal job with that. Other types of things are data. One of the things that I tell people is if you want to do one press release that will always work.

Mickie Kennedy [00:21:38]:

A 100% of the time, I've never had it fail is do a survey of your industry, ask 12 to 16 meaningful questions that are timely, specific to right now. What's going on in your industry? Are people having difficulties with the work culture, people not wanting to work in the office or you're facing the potential layoffs or trouble hiring people? Whatever it is, ask several different questions and a variety of them. Think about if you were at a conference or a trade show, what would you ask other colleagues like, Hey, have you noticed that net 30 is turning into net 90? Everybody's slow paying right now. That could be a sign that money is drying up either within your industry or perhaps, nationally. And so think about those types of questions. What's trending right now. What's really hot. If you could build questions around that.

Mickie Kennedy [00:22:28]:

AI is really big. You could ask questions about, do you feel threatened by AI? Are you addressing AI in your industry? Really speak to specific types of questions like that. I like 12 to 16. I do 4 questions per page and a survey monkey. You then get a link and you take that link and you don't send it to your contacts because most people do not have a large, database of their competitors or other people in their marketplace. But there are lots of trade associations that are out there. Stay away from the large and well known ones. You're going to want to seek out the smaller trade associations that people probably don't even realize that are out there, but there are so many of them.

Mickie Kennedy [00:23:10]:

I talked with someone on a podcast once and she said, well, Mickey, this wouldn't work for us because there's only public relations society of America. And I said, well, in the US there's over 470 trade associations for PR people. And she was shocked. And I said, some of them are like specific, like Florida or the mid Atlantic, but some of them are just like PR shops of 20, employees and less. And I was like, that's probably 90% of the market, because the big giant ones, they're out there, but they, they don't control the marketplace. It's still a lot of smaller PR firms. So, pick an association that works pretty well with you and your marketplace and, reach out to them, give them the link and say, Hey, I'm looking to get at least a hundred responses for this. So to be statistically relevant.

Mickie Kennedy [00:23:59]:

And if you send this out to your members, I will mention you in a press release. I'll be issuing over PR Newswire because so many of these smaller and independent trade associations get nobody attention. And most people do not even know that they exist. They will often see this as a win win and about 2 thirds of the time. The, the, the first time you approach them, they'll immediately say yes, sometimes they might come back and say, Hey, we were thinking, is there a way we could get a little more media attention? Like maybe co branding the survey? And I, I don't have a problem with that is unless they want to get in there and start really defining what questions you ask and other kinds of things, because you don't wanna get in a bureaucracy of, of approvals and things like that. But I have no problem with that. I think it can actually even enhance your credibility. You're then going to send it out, get your a hundred responses.

Mickie Kennedy [00:24:49]:

And if you don't, you've already told them you're looking for a hundred responses or more. If you go back to them and say, Hey, we didn't get a 100 responses. Could you do a push through social media or another email send? They're gonna do it because they don't wanna lose the opportunity. Because you've made it clear that if you don't get a 100 responses with them, you're probably gonna have to go to someone else. And so, once you get a 100 or as close to it as you can, you're going to look at all the numbers and the results, and you're going to build out a page on your website with every question and response. And you can put your analysis of quotes on there of how you feel your responses to, you know, not every question, but maybe some of them. But the press release you're going to focus on predominantly just 1 or at most 2 of those questions. And you're going to pick the one that you feel was the most surprising or the industry will be most interested in hearing about.

Mickie Kennedy [00:25:43]:

And you are gonna include the link to all of them. So, really good editor or journalist is going to see the press release they'll click through and maybe they'll, find another story, in those other questions. But in the press release, you're going to talk about why you felt the numbers skewed that way. You're going to provide the analysis. You're the author of the survey. And so, you're gonna have a really great quote in there talking about exactly your perspective on what the results show. So, let's say 82% of people felt that they believe AI is gonna replace them in 5 years. You could say something like, oh, I agree.

Mickie Kennedy [00:26:15]:

This is a concern or it could be, I don't believe that that many people are going to lose their job over AI. But I do believe that those in 5 years who don't know how to use AI and incorporate it into their workflow are going to be at a serious disadvantage and they may potentially find themselves without a job. And so, again, you're, you're really providing a little bit of analysis and professionalism and a really great quote. And, and then you put that together and you send it out. Every time I've coached someone through that process, they generally gotten between 8 14 articles. The least we've ever had is 4 articles. And so, it is a way to get a huge win. It's a little bit of work, but it's a strategic release that has a lot of teeth and things to it.

Mickie Kennedy [00:27:05]:

And you'll have people linking to that page on your website. You'll be getting a lot of attention within your industry. And when you do a survey, it makes you look as if you're on a pedestal because you've authored a survey and it really propels you as a thought leader within your industry. And it's one of the great things to stand out. So, 97% of press releases may fail, but if you focus on the 3% that work and do those types of releases, you will have incredible successes and, incredible amount of wins. And for anybody who wants to learn more about that, I have a free masterclass. It's an hour long video that goes through these strategic types of releases. And it's at ereleases.com/plan, plan, and it's completely free.

Mickie Kennedy [00:27:53]:

Cause I know that if I get my clients and other people to do more strategic releases, they'll see the wins more often than the losses. They'll commit more to PR because they see how it can work. If you avoid the 97% of releases that everybody else is doing. Yeah.

Sarah St John [00:28:09]:

Those are good tips. I hadn't even thought of that before. And I, I see a lot of companies doing surveys and that's interesting. And I work with a lot of podcasters. I'm curious. Do you have any like tips for PR for podcasters specifically?

Mickie Kennedy [00:28:24]:

Yes. So this doesn't work with the big giant news outlets. So you're not gonna get the wall street journal or the New York times with this, but you would be surprised how many websites, smaller newspapers, perhaps some blogs and magazines you can get picked up by putting together a top 10 or top 20 list of podcasts in your genre. And you're going to put the ones that are really big in your, in your genre or category. And maybe number 7, you put you. And you would be surprised how many journalists just copy and paste all 10. They recognize, oh yeah, I've heard of this. And I've heard of this.

Mickie Kennedy [00:29:03]:

This looks like a good curated list. And they just copy and paste it and put it on their website as content. It's a little bit different than a press release because it's more of a feature article where you prepared something that can be copy and paste it and incorporated on different websites. You would never see like the big guys doing that. With the exception of USA Today, I've, I've had them do, top ten lists and other types of things for like one of our clients that used to do bed and breakfasts, like top 10 bed and breakfasts in New England to stay at during the Halloween season that they would mostly copy and paste of what we had. But a lot of your major publications don't just copy and paste, but some of the smaller ones in the newspapers do. And I find that a top ten list of podcasts in your industry or top 20 really works very well because if it's a very good curated list, you can just sort of secretly put yourself in there. And I've had this work with podcasts that are new, so it's brand new and they have no track record, but because they surrounded themselves with so many great other podcasts, they wrote a really thoughtful description of each podcast.

Mickie Kennedy [00:30:10]:

They didn't copy and paste the description on that podcast website. They wrote their own original content. So it's a real feature piece. People recognize that, and it's a great way to sort of get buried in there and, and sort of stand out. Other things about podcasts, I, I think that work really well are, getting perspectives on like predictions, like beginning of the year, maybe in your marketplace, getting that out and talking about your podcast. Unfortunately, what I find doesn't work very well is you have a great guest, someone who's really widely recognized. And I've seen a lot of people do press releases like that. And for whatever reason, it just doesn't really excite people.

Mickie Kennedy [00:30:51]:

The exception being, I think the, former lawyer for Trump has a podcast and he did a reunion with Stormy Daniels and that got picked up everywhere. People magazine picked it up and lots. I mean, probably 100 of places picked it up. I saw dozens. But, that was started as a press release. They just issued it over PR Newswire and, all of that sort of happened. But I think that that's probably an exception to the rule. I think that being a little, to the top ten list, top twenty list, I think is a, is one of the ways.

Mickie Kennedy [00:31:22]:

Predictions do really well. I mean, start getting those out the beginning of December, mid December at the latest or beginning of the year where you see the industry. Sometimes if you have a good group of people on your podcast, you can actually get them involved and build out a really good press release with several people's perspectives on the industry and predictions. And again, you've curated all of this, and I think that that could also potentially work really well.

Sarah St John [00:31:52]:

Oh, yeah. That's awesome. I've thought about the whole listicle thing for, like, blogs and newsletters and stuff, but hadn't really thought about it in terms of, like, newspapers or Mhmm. Maybe local media outlets or something like that.

Mickie Kennedy [00:32:05]:

And that they do read off, they do pull stuff off the Newswire. We did a release during the pandemic. As a matter of fact, it's our top case study on our website for the dining bond initiative that was set up as a short lived thing to help restaurants that were closed during the pandemic. And we quit counting after a 100 places picked it up, but it was like small paper after small paper, after small paper, as well as all the big giants that you recognize picked it up. I think it did so well because it was, a time where there was a lot of uncertainty and negative news. And here was some positive news of this initiative to help your, your local restaurant that was closed. You would basically nominate your favorite local restaurant or one that you wanted to help. And if the volunteers got in touch with them, you could give money that went immediately directly to that restaurant.

Mickie Kennedy [00:32:55]:

And it'd be secured by basically a gift certificate. They called it a dining bond because they were sort of borrowing it after the the war bond initiative from prior years. It, it resonated really well created, I think, in excess of $10,000,000 in revenue to help restaurants. And like I said, over a 100 articles and a lot of them were small papers. And so don't discount them. They're very powerful.

Sarah St John [00:33:18]:

So with ereleases, like you obviously help submit press releases, but do you also help people get coverage with articles and things like that as well or features?

Mickie Kennedy [00:33:29]:

Right. So we do move features over our same network. We don't get involved with those as often because a lot of people don't understand the difference in how they work and what they are. But every once in a while, I will have someone that either I know I used to do coaching in the past, but I'm working on a book. So I haven't really been available. But you know, when I see someone with a need, I will suggest a type of feature that they could do, and, and potentially get out there. But, it is the same network and you can move a feature as well as you can move a press release. It just really is trying to be strategic.

Mickie Kennedy [00:34:06]:

And so many people look at their competitors and say, oh, they hired a new secretary. And so they did a press release about this new hire. And all of a sudden they're doing a press release and your competitor got no media pickup. You've got no media pickup, but you feel like you're doing it right. Because you're doing what everybody else is doing. Don't do that. I mean, most press releases aren't effective. A new hire press release is one of the worst press releases for getting media attention with the exception of an executive, a new president or, or board member that's really important or someone that just is really industry wide recognized.

Mickie Kennedy [00:34:41]:

Maybe you brought in a salesperson that is just has a huge track record and everybody knows that person's a rock star outside of that. Get the email address of the trade publication. They usually have on the move section with its separate little email address. That's available. Send the picture, a couple of sentences about the person, their bio, same thing with your local paper and call it a day because you really don't wanna waste newswire fees and the cost of that to send that type of press release.

Sarah St John [00:35:10]:

Yeah. So what are some examples then of, times that you would want a press release aside from, announcing a new hire? What are other examples?

Mickie Kennedy [00:35:19]:

So a new product, and it's probably one of the more common types of press releases that we get. The new hire and the new product or new service type press release are, are 2 of the most common releases we get. The problem with the new product and new service one is a lot of people write it as here's a new product. Here's a list of features. Sometimes it is bullets, but not always, but it's, it's usually here's the new product. Here's a list of features and here's a page to learn more or to buy it. It's hard for a journalist, which I mentioned likes a story arc to build a story with that. So one of the things that I suggest to people is go back and put a use case study in there.

Mickie Kennedy [00:36:00]:

It's very unlikely you brought this product or service on the market without people testing it and trying it out. So what was a really positive experience that someone had using it? Well, what were they experiencing beforehand? You know, like company X was losing 7% net a year because of they couldn't get their costs under control. Using our logistics software solution, they were at 90 days able to achieve a net positive of 3%. And then you put a quote by them saying, we were just shocked that something so small could really streamline things and get us to see and incorporate cost savings to the point that we can potentially see our 1st year of considerable profit. And that's powerful. And so when a journalist is talking about a new product or service, and there's a story like that in there, and there's a quote that they know is going to satisfy their audience because a journalist's job is 1st and foremost to put content that is either going to entertain or educate their readers or listeners. And ideally both, you know, you wanna entertain and educate them. And so, if you're not doing that, then it's very unlikely they're going to move forward.

Mickie Kennedy [00:37:14]:

So anything that you can add to a story that, would make it more interesting for an audience is going to help you. For example, that same product, that logistics software solution, maybe before you talk about it, you introduced a publicly available stat in the transportation industry. It's well known that 63% of new companies fell in their 1st 5 years because they just are unable to achieve profitability. All of a sudden that shows the stakes of why your solution is so important in the marketplace. And then you talk about the product. And so that really shows the stakes and a journalist recognizes that's a compelling little story element that, is probably going to make their audience go, oh, wow. Let's pay attention to this. And so think about those, think about ways in which you can incorporate more into a press release to satisfy the need of a journalist to sort of craft a little story arc.

Mickie Kennedy [00:38:12]:

Mhmm.

Sarah St John [00:38:13]:

Yeah. Those are good tips. So when someone does pick up your press release or your feature, are you notified that that's.

Mickie Kennedy [00:38:22]:

No, we wish I would say probably about 5% of the time a journalist will send a link and let you know that they wrote about you, especially if they interviewed you or called you. But journalists don't like to interview or call people. They like for everything in the press release and your website to satisfy what they're looking for because they hate phone tag. And they're not even certain that they're going to end up writing the article until they get back hearing from you. So, they really like everything being there. I don't know why more of them don't, but they just run article and they move on to the next one. It used to be that a journalist had a week to do 1 or 2 articles. And today, it's not unusual for them to be expected to churn 1 to 2 articles out a day.

Mickie Kennedy [00:39:09]:

And so, you have less of the articles that are winning the the Pulitzer's and all the awards, the big giant companies like the Washington post, the New York times can still afford to have particular writers on staff who say, yeah, you have 6 months to work on this really important article because we want to win that award. But most news outlets, they don't have that, that luxury anymore. And so, because of that, they're just really just creating articles and, and churning them out. However, if you go to Google news and to Google web, and you can still do this now, I do foresee a time where you may not be able to, but if you do a search for your business or, you know, if it's a product launch, you know, they're gonna mention the product name. So pick something that you know, would have to be an article about you could be the company name, could be your name, could be the product name and do a search. Maybe put it in quotes. It pulls up too much, but more importantly is you can toggle advanced search where you pick the dates. So start the date of when you issued the press release and go to today.

Mickie Kennedy [00:40:19]:

So everything that shows up there basically existed on the day that you issued the release or now. And so that will winnow down places where you can then look at it and say, oh, here's a blog article about us looking at it. Does it seem like the information was gleaned from the press release? Why? Sure it does. And I recommend that you do both the Google news search and a Google web search. A lot of news outlets don't like Google news. And as a result, they've opted out. But guess what? They still appear in Google web. And so by doing Google news search and Google web search and doing that little date hack, I think you're probably gonna pick up like 95% of stuff that's out there.

Mickie Kennedy [00:41:01]:

There's always stuff that has a paywalls around it and it just doesn't get picked up by Google. So, I always tell people when you get a lot of calls and you get a lot of email inquiries, ask where people found out about you. And the one thing I can't stand is where there's a list of places to where they learned about you and there's no ability for them to write it in. Just put other or news article. That doesn't help you. It's like, other, can you be more specific and go, oh yes, New York Times article or, something like that. So, I find that those could really help as well as looking at your analytics, your traffic, and seeing where people are coming from. But all of that combined does a really good job.

Mickie Kennedy [00:41:40]:

What I don't recommend are clipping services, because with my service, you can build a campaign of 6 to 8 releases, get the new customer special and build out 6 to 8 releases at that rate and be under $3,500 And if you then go and add a clipping service, you can spend $1500 a month clipping. And, if you get picked up in trade magazines and monthlies, you really need to monitor for 6 to 8 months. And so you can easily spend $25,000 to monitor campaigns that you spent under $3,500 for it's just not cost effective. So, I think the little hacks I have for Google net news and Google web is probably gonna pick up most of the stuff that's out there. Also check your analytics, traffic, where it's coming from. And as you have conversations with people or get email inquiries, follow-up and just ask where they found out about you. And generally, you'll notice you get a lot more calls on a day that you get earned media. So just be alert and say, oh, by the way, where did you hear about us? They say, oh, just on Google, just say, oh, was it just a search or was it an actual article? Try to get a little bit more information and most people are willing.

Mickie Kennedy [00:42:52]:

They usually have it right in front of them. And so they can tell you exactly where it is. So just be a little mindful and a little curious as to where exactly they saw you. One of the things where I'd mentioned 6 to 8 releases. I'm not expecting anybody to do that in 6 to 8 weeks. I'm not even expecting people to do that in 6 to 8 months. You know, the cadence of a small business may be that doing a press release every other month or a press release every 3 months works best for you. And so, to do 6 to 8 releases might take you a year and a half, but really do commit to do a campaign, a PR of 6 to 8 releases before you then decide whether it works or doesn't.

Mickie Kennedy [00:43:34]:

And, make sure that you definitely do that survey one, because that definitely gets the phone ringing and definitely gets people linking to you, talking about you and getting a lot of authority.

Sarah St John [00:43:45]:

Isn't there a way to set up a Google alert or something? I thought like anytime your name or your business is mentioned somewhere online.

Mickie Kennedy [00:43:54]:

Yeah. Google alerts are, are great. I just not sure what they're gleaning from, whether it's only Google news or whatever. I find it still going and doing that search that I mentioned and putting the date parameters is a lot more effective because sometimes the Google alert almost always is you are the focus or what the keyword search is. Because I have one for my business. I have a separate one for me by name. And I find that there's a lot more out there about me, but I'm not in the headline of those articles or my business is the focus or talked about in the article, but my business wasn't the headline. And for whatever reason, Google alerts tends to not pick those up.

Mickie Kennedy [00:44:37]:

But when I do the Google web and the Google news search, I often find those types of articles.

Sarah St John [00:44:42]:

Well, awesome. So people can learn more and watch that free hour class at ereleases.comforward/plan. Is that correct?

Mickie Kennedy [00:44:50]:

That's correct. On the footer of our website is my social media. And there's also a link to our new customer special. You can buy one release at that rate and if you like it within 45 days, you can come back and get a package at that discounted rate. I think you save about a 3rd and you really can build a campaign of 6 to 8 releases and not spend more than $3,500 So it is really cost effective, especially when a PR firm will charge you as much as $40,000 and they may not even do 8 releases that they issue over the wire. I mean, for one thing, they would have to pay closer to the $1600 for each of those releases. And then secondly, it's very unlikely that they're doing a survey or a release that's likely to generate the media pickup that that type of press release would.

Sarah St John [00:45:41]:

Yeah. Well, awesome. I appreciate your time today and your insights and all of that. And I'm gonna, start working on a survey or my wheels are turning now. So.

Mickie Kennedy [00:45:50]:

Perfect.