Growing a Million Dollar Business With Public Relations | Mickie Kennedy

Mickie joins the guys to talk about using public relations in your advertising strategy. The trick is to write something that is compelling; then it can be picked up by the wire, gets distributed to a wide audience, and can be used as content for other writers to cite as an industry expert. It's not as easy as it might sound, but Mickie has figured out how to navigate the distribution methods. Listen now to see how you can implement some of these PR strategies in your own business! Did you know our amazing voices can go beyond just the microphone? Yes, we have video! Subscribe to our YouTube channel here!

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GOLD NUGGETS:

(00:00) - The Small Business Safari

(04:28) - Importance of PR in Modern Journalism

(11:25) - Best Times to Release PR Materials

(14:27) - Press Release and Publicity Strategies

(28:26) - Utilizing PR for Small Businesses

(33:12) - The Power of Press Releases

(45:10) - Public Relations With eReleases.com

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Mickie’s Links:

Website | https://www.ereleases.com/
Twitter | https://twitter.com/ereleases 

Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/ereleases.press.release.distribution 

Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/ereleasespr/ 

LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/publicity/ 

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Previous guests on The Small Business Safari include Dale Cardwell, Amy Lyle, Ben Alexander, Joseph Sission, Jonathan Ellis, Brad Dell, Chris Hanks, C.T. Emerson, Chad Brown, Tracy Moore, Wayne Sherger, David Raymond, Paul Redman, Gabby Meteor, Ryan Dement, Barbara Heil Sonneck, Bryan John, Tom Defore, Rusty Clifton, Duane Johns, Jason Sleeman, Andy Suggs, Chris Michel, Jon Ostenson, Tommy Breedlove, Rocky Lalvani, Amanda Griffey, Spencer Powell, Joe Perrone, David Lupberger, Duane C. Barney, Dave Moerman, Jim Ryerson, Al Mishkoff, Scott Specker, Mike Claudio and more!

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If You Loved This Episode Try These!

• Turning 23 Years of McDonald's Franchise Ownership to an Entrepreneurial Lifestyle

• Attracting High-Value Clients with Irresistible Marketing Messages | Daniel Den

• Attracting the RIGHT Clients to Your Offering | Lisa McGuire

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Have any questions or comments? Connect with me here!

Transcript

Alan Wyatt: 0:00

I have my physical yesterday and the doctor kind of and I've had her for 25 years and she goes so do you spend much time thinking or worrying about death? Whoa, dead air. And it's. And my wife was so mad she's like is there something she's not telling us? And my sister says you need a new doctor. I'm like, oh, my God, what do you do that? I mean, like I said, these questions. Yeah, you wake up every night?

Chris Lalomia: 0:24

Yeah, and a new doctor. I'm like, oh my God, what do you do that? I mean, I said these questions. Yeah, you wake up every night? Yeah, and a dead sweat. Of course, are you always thinking about your, about what's going to happen next? Yep, do you have this uncomfortable that things aren't going to go right? Yes, I run my own business man, what do you want?

Chris Lalomia: 0:49

I'm trying to remember what it was and now I've noticed I'm like, yeah, you know what actually that does hurt. Welcome to the small business safari, where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls and dangers that lurk when navigating the wild world of small business ownership. I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your ascent to that mountaintop of success. It's a jungle out there and I want to help you traverse through the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from hitting your own personal and professional goals. So strap in adventure team and let's take a ride through the safari and get you to the mountaintop. Let's get ready to rock and roll. Everybody, I am Magnum PR. You like how I did that one? Huh, you are so full of bad puns lately. I am, I am, I am punalicious man. I mean, we're talking PR today.

Alan Wyatt: 1:45

I'm going to talk to your doctor and you need to dial one of the meds down just a little bit just a little bit.

Chris Lalomia: 1:49

So when you're working with the cocktail that I've got right now, uh, there's a lot of, there's a lot of different medications that happen. I mean, I've been running my business for 16 years. I mean depression, sure, man, right, whatever. Hey, do you find yourself in fact, I had to fill this survey out for the uh, for the doc, the other day um, do you find yourself waking up in the middle of the night, depressed? Yes, um, do you find yourself continually depressed? Yes, do you find yourself thinking about committing suicide? No, uh, do you find yourself, uh, waking up in the middle of the night and with uncontrollable anxiety? Yes, so he's reading through all this. He goes what's going on? I said, well, I own my own business, entrepreneur, I business Entrepreneur. I mean, what'd you think I was going to say, oh, it's all rosy, I'm at the golf course all day long, because that's what everybody looked like they were doing before I started my flipping business. But it didn't happen like that, did it?

Alan Wyatt: 2:33

Did you tell your doctor that you wash your pills down with bourbon?

Chris Lalomia: 2:40

So, funny enough, he says um, you know, and a drink is considered one and a half ounces of liquor. I said that's, that's just how I get started, my friend. Uh, that's just the warm-up, that's like the mouthwash you should me. And then he goes and it's five ounces for wine. I said, yeah, so it's two to three. He goes, all right, great, two to three a week. I'm like, oh, a week. I said I meant that to be a day, sorry. He goes. Oh, well know. And he goes into this long diatribe about how alcohol is bad for you. I'm like, you know, blah, blah, blah.

Alan Wyatt: 3:08

The French and Italian have wine every night with dinner.

Chris Lalomia: 3:12

He did say we have, as a society said, it's okay to drink with dinner. I'm like perfect. So I just started a little earlier.

Alan Wyatt: 3:25

So you just got to eat more, more. Is that what you're finding? Yeah, I do that too. Here goes the count light. So yeah, by the way, I got one and I know we have a guest waiting. But you want to know when you're old, hit me, I have my physical yesterday and the doctor kind of and I've had her for 25 years and she goes. So do you spend much time thinking or worrying about death? Whoa, dead air, and it's dessert. And my wife was so mad. She's like is there something she's not telling us? And my sister says you need a new doctor. I'm like oh my god, what do you do that?

Chris Lalomia: 3:56

I mean, like I said, these questions yeah, you wake up every night, yeah, in a dead sweat, of course. Uh, are you always thinking about your, uh, about what's going to happen next? Yep, do you have this uncomfortable that things aren't going to go right?

Alan Wyatt: 4:07

yes, I run my own business man what do you want? I'm pretty good and you asked me that question and now I've been brooding on it for two days.

Chris Lalomia: 4:13

You know, I love it when they do that too good. I don't think they realize what they do to our psyche, like, um, uh, he said something to me. I'm trying to remember what it was and now I've noticed I'm like, yeah, you know what actually that does hurt. You know it wasn't hurt before he said something, doc. So, speaking of people who need better pr, let's talk about doctors. All right, mickey kennedy is joining us today. Everybody pr is. It is a is an old phrase for old people that is not really understood very well for young people just think hey, just go on tiktok, go to youtube digital. Yeah, just do that. Yeah, who needs pierre? I don't even know what pierre is. Okay, but mickey's here and mickey's going to talk to us more about what pr is and what can be for you. Mickey, thanks for joining the show well, thanks for having me.

Alan Wyatt: 4:58

I hope you're going to tell chris that uh, tiktok is not pr or well, maybe you, maybe you.

Mickie Kennedy: 5:06

I mean there's elements of social media that you can use for public relations and PR, but traditionally I look at using the Wire, using press releases, getting that out to the media, of which there are influencers on TikTok. Using press releases, um, getting that out to the media, of which you know there are influencers on Tik TOK who use press releases. Um, there's uh I follow snack later which is a guy that does a weekly roundup of new snacks hitting grocery shelves, and all the photos that he uses are, um, you know, product photos that are accompanying press releases that uh get issued on the wire. Um, so you, you know it. Can, you know, trickle over to social media, because there's an argument to be made that you know the new media are influencers on social media.

Alan Wyatt: 5:57

But there's still a little more gravitas when it comes to something being picked up off the wire, don't you think, coming from still the more known to be traditional media sources.

Mickie Kennedy: 6:10

Correct. I mean, yeah, you know, if you're looking to get like in New York Times, Wall Street Journal, you know major publications, even industry trade publications, you know most of those journalists go to the wire to look for releases and in the US it's basically a duopoly of press release news wires. It's PR Newswire who we work with at eReleases and Business Wire. There's a lot of other players out there with wire in their name, but most of them aren't wires. There's a lot of those that just specialize in syndicating press releases and that just means that your press release is replicated on a bunch of websites. That happens with PR Newswire and Business Wire.

Mickie Kennedy: 6:54

But the ultimate goal is to have a journalist look at the press release and turn it into an article. And it doesn't happen if you're with these players that are just, you know, 100% syndicators, because there's no journalists that are reading them. But at the Wire there is and the goal is to have them, you know, look at that release and go, wow, my audience would really love to hear about this. Let me put that together in an article. And, you know, hit, send and we call that earned media when a journalist, you know, writes an article about you.

Chris Lalomia: 7:25

Earned media Love that phrase.

Alan Wyatt: 7:28

So help me with something here, because we've established I'm old and apparently near death and I should be worrying about it. But when I think about the wire, I'm imagining okay, you've got the New York Times, and then there's the little machine over in the corner that's just spitting out pieces of paper that are rolling up on the floor, and then, hopefully, your press release is the one that they. I mean, what does it look like today? Obviously, it's all digital. But are there different? Are there categories? Or is it just this endless stream that somebody is assigned to just looking at every single thing that comes through and then, oh, that one looks interesting.

Mickie Kennedy: 8:07

Right.

Mickie Kennedy: 8:07

So most of the time it's an individual journalist logging into PR Newswire's journalist section and what it looks like is yeah, they can see all of the feeds there, but most of them have feeds that are specific to them the beats that they cover. But most of them have feeds that are specific to them, the beats that they cover. So all of the wires are, you know, they can be segmented by industry. They can also be segmented by industry and location. They can also be segmented by keywords, and so you can create and say, hey, you know, I want to see the automotive feed when I come in, and say, hey, you know, I want to see the automotive feed when I come in, but you know I don't want anything that mentions, you know, electric cars, or you know keywords to block, or you know Tesla and a few others. So you can really sort of tailor the feed to be specific to what you cover. So if you're a you know, a telecom reporter, you might look at the telecom feed, but maybe you put keywords in there to exclude stuff that you don't cover. Like, maybe you're not interested in data but you're only covering voice telecom traffic, so you start putting keywords in there. So what happens is, when you log in, you can look at a very customized feed that's really tailored for you. And that's the real value of a wire so that you'll still see headlines after headlines, but they're really relevant, or they should be really relevant to the beat that you cover.

Mickie Kennedy: 9:35

And that's what makes the wire so valuable for journalists. You know they can really just log in and see stuff that is a higher caliber of news content than logging into their email inbox and just seeing a plethora of releases, like you know, or email messages and pitches that might be telecom, telecom, golf clubs, and there's so much off target email that journalists are getting that, you know most of them really do rely on the wire. What happened over the last 15 to 20 years is there's all these media databases that are available and you could just buy the database of journalists and you know, for a guy that paid a few thousand dollars for access to this database, they're just like, yeah, we can, you know, take our message and pitch it to really tailored journalists, but we paid for the whole database. Why not send it to everybody? And so they're sending, you know, golf club releases to.

Mickie Kennedy: 10:38

You know people who cover banking, e-commerce, you know specific stuff and so off. Targeting email is is just not good right now. It's like a wasteland for most journalists and I think that that's why the wire has become, you know, so important to journalists and why they rely on it so much so, chris, two years of podcasting, the first use of the word plethora, yeah you know what I think he's so much smarter than all of us he is well, if you see his glasses, you'd know why those are cool so it obviously it pays to have a good pr person who actually understands how that it's not.

Alan Wyatt: 11:19

It's not good enough to just write a good article, but you have to have it tailored correctly. You have to have the headline correct. My guess is there's probably a cadence as to when you you actually release it, like there's certain times or or date days of the week that are better.

Chris Lalomia: 11:35

So, mickey, that's a 25 part question. Um, so, feel free, I landed, the plane is on the ground. All right, mickey, continue the answer, because I want to know the answers too.

Alan Wyatt: 11:42

But I was was like, oh my God, that's a long day Just because I use more than two or three words once in a while. Chris, I mean, you know, Take a walk in my shoes.

Chris Lalomia: 11:52

You know what I just did. I don't like it. Give me my shoes back, all right. All right, mickey, answer that question.

Mickie Kennedy: 11:59

So when it comes to yes, there's lots of different aspects of PR. It used to be Monday was like one of the better days to send a release, and then everybody sort of said Monday is the day to do it. So people started moving to Tuesday. Tuesday is now the day that most releases get sent and for that reason I tell people it's no longer the best day You're going to be competing against so many more. The volume is up probably double on Tuesday than most other days of the week and for that reason Tuesdays aren't great days anymore. So maybe Monday. Monday is still a high day, but I think Wednesdays are really good. You know, thursdays are fine. There are people who avoid Fridays and they believe that nobody's paying attention on Fridays. You avoid every Friday don't you, Chris?

Chris Lalomia: 12:56

If it's talking about work, yeah, of course.

Mickie Kennedy: 12:59

Despite that, when publicly traded companies have bad news, they issue it Friday after the close of the market. Genius, and guess what's always there on the headlines Monday morning what they announced. They never sneak it through. So I don't think there's necessarily a terrible day. I think journalists are paying attention all the time, but I do think that Tuesdays have become burdened with so much content that it really is probably best to avoid it, unless you have to. I mean, if you've got a recall or something that's really important and just has to go out, then it has to go out when it does. But I necessarily wouldn't schedule stuff on a Tuesday, all right, so now we got to talk about this.

Chris Lalomia: 13:40

So I've always thought too is that we talked about social media, but right now I could go out there on twitter and say that chris lalamia has just been drafted by the atlanta falcons. There you go, but there's no draft, and I'm completely wrong. And, by the way, nobody's going to draft this little fat. Very slow it might create a little bit of a buzz though, but but it's incorrect. Right, it's completely erroneous information. I always felt like the wire was held to a different standard.

Chris Lalomia: 14:07

You're talking about integrity of journalism at this point, exactly right, which, of course, has come under a lot of scrutiny because of everything that's happening and everything breaks. We're just trying to break something, so tell us a little bit more about what is the wire's integrity standard. Is it harder? Is it got to be right? I mean, it's got to be right, right or does it matter, I don't know.

Mickie Kennedy: 14:27

So the wire does not fact check. That being said, they won't send something that uh is just materially known, you know, as false. Uh, what they do verify are the people releasing the, the press release that they are, who they say they are, and, if they're with the company that they have authorization to issue the press release. If they're publicly traded, there's additional follow-ups to verify that. When you send a release over, they'll actually call the person on record and say, hey, you sent us a release right, like, yep, I just uploaded it and I said, perfect, we're just checking. They read the headline everything's good. They really aren't getting into. What you're releasing is factual. But, that being said, if you submit something that's erroneous, they will pull it, if it's brought to their attention and they will block you from issuing subsequent releases.

Mickie Kennedy: 15:27

They do try to maintain quality over the wire.

Mickie Kennedy: 15:32

So you know, if you're just out there and you're, you know, releasing opinions about other companies, you know they're very watchful of that and so anytime that you're mentioning something that is material, especially if it's material about a publicly traded company, you know they are going to ask often for verification or proof that what you're saying is true especially if it has the chances of moving the needle of a publicly traded company.

Mickie Kennedy: 16:03

And for that reason you know you can't do that through my company, ereleases. You would have to have a direct relationship with the wire and they would have to vet you based on your experience with the wire. So if you're a client that moves 30 releases like this a year and you've been working with them for seven years, they'll probably be fine with that release. After talking to you and saying, you know, are you sure that this is the position you want to take, you're clear. They're publicly like yep and so then they'll hit, send, but they really don't get into, you know, verifying stuff outside of perhaps litigation, which again, we don't handle as well outside of perhaps litigation, which, again, we don't handle as well.

Chris Lalomia: 16:46

Well, I just got blocked, so obviously it works. Yep, so that that you won't find that. You will not find that press release, you won't find that bit of information anywhere.

Alan Wyatt: 16:58

I have not been picked up by the Falcons, so you've got a little pressure on you. You know you're working with a company and you're going to. You're going to put together a press release and whether or not it's picked up and by how many outlets it's picked up by, is how you're measured. Correct, correct?

Mickie Kennedy: 18:40

Exactly. I mean, at the end of the day, we're sending these releases out, we're indicating the industry categories that we want that are appropriate, we're blasting it out. Know two or three publications pick it up. Sometimes it's just like it seems like an endless number of people will pick something up On my website.

Mickie Kennedy: 19:00

We have our top case study was basically an organization that was set up early in the pandemic called the Dining Bond Initiative. It was meant just to help restaurants that were closed early in the pandemic and we sent out a release for them at no charge because they were doing good. So we just felt like we'd support that and we quit counting. After 150 articles, all the major publications picked it up and probably another 150 to 200 local papers picked it up, so we just stopped counting at 150. It resonated, it went nationwide, it actually went international as well. It did extremely well and the reason for it was here you have the wire. It can seed to so many places.

Mickie Kennedy: 19:50

We were all sent home for two weeks to flatten the curve and there was a lot of uncertainty and you know a lot of unknowns and you know here was some positive news and you know you could nominate your favorite local restaurant and if this organization, the volunteers, got in touch with them, you could give money that would go directly to them and it'd be secured through a dining bond, basically a gift certificate type thing.

Mickie Kennedy: 20:17

And over $11 million was generated by just hitting a button and hitting send on press release on the wire. So that's like a wild, you know extreme of what can happen if your messaging is completely right on and in that case it was, and so it did extremely well. You know what would have cost $350 generated over $11 million in revenue. That went and helped and you know that is an extreme example. You know what normally happens is you have something that goes out and you just get a few publications that cover you and they are often meaningful. They can generate many tens of thousands and I've even heard of hundreds of thousands, but in this case, 11 million, that's a lot and that is an extreme example. And again, I think it just did so well because it took advantage of the fact that a wire is a leverage opportunity and in this case it just went really far.

Chris Lalomia: 21:16

So I love that for the dining folks and this is where I want to get now is who should use your service and what should you expect? And I got a remodeling and handyman company here in Atlanta. Press releases don't work, but I did publish a book. I thought about doing a press release. We have the podcast here. Who should use yours and what should we?

Mickie Kennedy: 21:33

expect. So I really think that press releases should be used by small businesses, entrepreneurs, startups, in some cases, authors. It works. It can work well for, basically, nonfiction authors. Fiction authors is difficult because, you know, one of the great things about fiction is the style of writing and so many other elements that you just really can't capture in a press release.

Mickie Kennedy: 22:01

But I really think that, you know, small companies have an advantage when it comes to PR, and so many people believe it's just the opposite. They feel like, oh, you know, and so many people believe it's just the opposite. They feel like, oh, you know, pr is for well-funded, you know, large companies and the thing is, you know most journalists know that those companies can afford to advertise and so you know they will cover important news. You know, everybody has to cover the Googles and Microsofts of the world, microsofts of the world. But you know, journalists get their most accolades and recognition from their audience when they bring up or put the spotlight on a new tool or something that's cool and trending, basically something that the audience doesn't know, and for that reason it often is a small business, a new startup, even a mom and pop company, and so for that reason, often the smaller you are, the more likely you can generate PR. But you have to be doing something that's newsworthy and moving the needle or you have to really dig in and sort of create something that's newsworthy by being a bit more strategic. You know, when I say that what do I mean? I mean, like, you know what is your unique selling proposition, you know what defines you and makes you completely different than everybody else in your marketplace. And you know, or, what is your story, you know what is it about, you know how your business was created or the product was created that is interesting or inspirational or fun. You know there's a reason that most people who appear on Shark Tank often began with their story, and it's because you know it humanizes them and it is a human interest element. And those work so uh well with PR. Because journalists like to tell stories, they like to follow a story arc and you know, um, sort of taking a business and, uh, talking about it from the framework of where it began, and you know those types of elements really draws people in. Uh, you know, we we had a client that shared an embarrassing story and I said let's put that in the press release. And you know it wasn't the lead, but it was in there and that became the lead in a two page Inc magazine article about them. And you know it was something that people can relate to. People have embarrassing things that they happen to happen in business and other business owners relate to it and it was just a great introduction into that company. And you know, I think that's one of the reasons that it did well.

Mickie Kennedy: 24:46

You know data. You know journalists love data and numbers and numbers. So if you have a product launch press release which we get a lot of them, you know they're usually we have a new product and here's a you know bullet list of features and here's a page about it and you can buy it. It's that's hard for a journalist who's a storyteller to do much with. So, you know, go back to it, put a use case study in there, a client who tested it out, what was their experience, ideally. You know if there's some numbers there, a quote by them, and you know, maybe to introduce it, you could even talk about publicly available numbers that are just out there about your industry.

Mickie Kennedy: 25:26

You know if you have logistics solutions and you have some numbers that say, hey, 67% of new companies in this space fail within the first five years and often it's because of problems like logistics. In fact, logistics accounts for X amount of expenses and all of a sudden you introduce your solution. Those really anchor the story. Those really anchor the story and they help draw people in and really show, I guess, the stakes of importance of a product or solution that you have. So incorporating those numbers and data are really great. One thing that I do when I have clients who come to me and they're like tried PR, it didn't work for me, I always say, well, I have one press release that's never failed, it's always worked, always generated earned media. And it's a little involved, but it's not as difficult as it sounds. And that is to do your own industry survey. Put together a survey. I walk people through it all the time with Hang on you said industry survey.

Chris Lalomia: 26:36

Back me up, right. Small business guy, home services, remodeling Tell me the first step I got to do because I was trying to write this down. So industry survey.

Mickie Kennedy: 26:45

An industry survey. So if you're a home remodeler, you're going to do a survey that's going to go out to other home remodelers. Do you want it to be state?

Chris Lalomia: 26:59

regional, nationwide, you pick, and what you're going to do Well, I wish nationwide, but right now I'm just here in Atlanta.

Mickie Kennedy: 27:02

No, it's too small for that. Yeah, the survey has nothing to do with your location. You can make it regional, you can make it statewide or you can make it national. What you're doing is you're just putting yourself out there as the expert talking about it, and so I recommend go national and then build a survey. Ask 16 meaningful questions that are relevant today Not necessarily evergreen questions that you can always ask but what's going on right now? What are the things in your industry trade publications that are trending and a lot of people have been talking about?

Chris Lalomia: 27:41

All right, so do I put that survey out through you, or is this my own survey? No, no, no, this is your own survey.

Mickie Kennedy: 27:46

You're going to go in a survey, monkey, and you're going to create 16 questions. Well, how do I get a?

Alan Wyatt: 27:50

nationwide audience. No, no, he's saying that if you are being obtuse. He's saying that there's one thing that you can do as a small business owner that will get picked up on the wire is when you do an industry specific survey oh okay, right, and I'm going to tell you how you're going to send it out to the audience.

Mickie Kennedy: 28:12

And it's not a lot of work. You don't need to have your own Rolodex of every home improvement or home remodeler across the US. There are hundreds, maybe even sometimes thousands, of trade associations in every industry In the PR world. I looked once and counted over 600. And there probably were more. So you're not going to go to the big trade association that's probably out there, but you're going to peruse some. They might be regional, they might just be like sometimes they're based around demographics or lots of different things.

Mickie Kennedy: 28:53

Um, I, I, you know I did one for auto repair shop in Pennsylvania and, uh, we found an independent auto repair shop trade association. Uh, I think that they had like 1900 members. Um, you're, you're just going to find one and you're going to take that uh link, uh in survey monkey, uh, from your questionnaire and you're going to reach out to them and say, hey, I'm doing a survey of the auto repair industry and I would love for you to send this link to your members and in exchange for that, I will mention you in the press release I'll be issuing over the wire and the reason this works so well with the smaller trade associations is they get no media attention. It's the big trade association that everybody recognizes and knows, so often they'll see this as a win-win for them to get some media attention as well.

Mickie Kennedy: 29:42

Some of the smarter ones have pushed back and said could we co-brand the survey so that it's from you and me? I don't see a problem with that. It gives a little more credibility to the survey. But often you know they'll then take that link. They'll send it to their members, often through email, sometimes through social media. Often you can get them to do it through both, especially if you come back and say hey, I hadn't quite gotten enough people to complete the survey. You're really looking for 100 or more to complete the survey. The more you get over 100, the more journalists seem to be fine with it and that's it. And when you're doing the survey.

Chris Lalomia: 30:21

So I do the survey, I get it out and I get back and I go back to you.

Mickie Kennedy: 30:25

So I'm trying to figure out how I oh don't go back to me unless you want to pay me. But what I recommend is you look at the results from the survey. You look at it and say, wow, that's surprising. Question number five that's really cool. You want to build a story around no more than two or three of the questions and responses. Gotcha, I recommend that you build out a page on your website where you put all 16 questions and their responses and the results all 16 questions and their responses and the results and you're going to include that in the press release, because journalists are smarter than me and they're probably smarter than the client and often they'll go there and they'll be able to pull up two or three more stories that you didn't even think about, based on the survey results. And you're still going to get credit for it mentioned because it's your survey.

Mickie Kennedy: 31:12

So you're going to take and focus on two or three of the questions and responses that you got from the questions, what I call the big aha moments from the survey, the big surprises. You're going to put a quote in there as to why you felt the numbers skewed a particular way. You're providing analysis now, your opinion, because you're the expert, and once you have that all together. You're going to then come to me, you know, and we'll look at the release, make sure it's in great shape, and we'll schedule it and get it out there on the wire. Whenever I've coached a client through this, it's always generated between, on average, 8 to 14 articles of earned media. The least we've ever done is four, and it was. I think that one was for I forget the name of it, but it was something to do with security and it was a specific aspect, and so they were quite pleased getting four, and so they were quite pleased getting four.

Alan Wyatt: 32:13

But again, I was hoping this is super powerful because when you think about you know our average listener is a small business owner or somebody thinking about small business and we've talked about marketing a ton and I don't think we've ever discussed PR as being part of your marketing package. But when you think about the client, you almost spend your life trying to avoid being marketed to because you're just tired of the texts and the emails and the commercials and all that. But you see an article about your business that is massively powerful. So I'm assuming some guy who's got a plumbing operation or a I don't know a handyman business or something like that, you can. You can geo target the uh, the release, yeah, as opposed to you know, it doesn't matter if you send it out internationally because somebody in Portugal you could go out nationally.

Mickie Kennedy: 33:09

You could do local saturation where it goes to a state or a metro, exactly. I mean, it's really an opportunity for you to go to who matters as well, but it should be.

Alan Wyatt: 33:23

I mean this, should just. I mean everybody listening should be thinking about PR as part of my overall marketing package. I've got my traditional advertising, I've got my social media and I have my PR. It's like a three-legged stool, or something right, Chris?

Chris Lalomia: 33:38

Well, there's a lot of stools in there, a lot of legs, but you're right.

Chris Lalomia: 33:43

Nobody in my world of home services and I just got done talking to a number of them. I was in a networking event on Tuesday and I just got done talking to a number of them. I was in a networking event on Tuesday, was on a radio show earlier today. Nobody talks about PR and how it helps benefit your company, and I think that's the thing we need to understand a little bit better. How does that help me? Because I'll do it Just explain it.

Alan Wyatt: 34:02

And it's such a differentiator. All right, so how do I do it? He just said how to do it.

Chris Lalomia: 34:08

well, I don't but now I got to do all the work. I want him to do that much, bourbon, have you had to? I have not enough, uh, but all right, so I gotta do. I gotta do a survey, I take the two to three aha questions and then I get. I gotta start paying you at some time, man, because I can't do all this shit myself, because if I did I would have done it myself, right I'm?

Chris Lalomia: 34:25

I'm a small business owner. I can't do all this stuff and I don't see the benefit. Because does an article make my phone ring?

Alan Wyatt: 34:30

Yes, but it's not a call to action thing I mean. To me, if I saw an article about a business, I'm like wow, they must be legit, they're big enough to get picked up by the paper or whatever.

Mickie Kennedy: 34:43

All right Prove me right, it's huge credibility. All right, prove me right, it's huge credibility. It acts as like social proof or almost an implied endorsement when a journalist writes about you. The blinders that come up whenever we see ads and that's the one thing that advertising has trained the US market is it doesn't matter if we see it on TikTok or a billboard or a TV or radio, we just tune it out for the most part. Sometimes we'll share a funny ad that we saw, but rarely does it get us to immediately go and buy something. And, however, with an article, it can have the exact opposite approach.

Mickie Kennedy: 35:21

I do have clients who are in the consumer market and they sell stuff that's really affordable and they'll say hey, we saw that we got 400 visitors from this article and it looks like 200 of them bought. Is that even possible? 50% conversion rate? And the first thing I say is we don't know how many people actually viewed this. The article could be, you know, 5,000.

Mickie Kennedy: 35:45

But you know of the people who did click through and see it. They saw the product. It's not crazy expensive. You know they're coming with these warm feelings of wow. You know there's this signal of trust. This person wrote about this really cool product and, yeah, they'll just click and buy. That's not unusual. Yeah, they'll just click and buy. That's not unusual. And the same opportunity that was created through that with a new customer. You can then take that article or the link to it and share it with your own audience. So share it on social media and hopefully people who read it will get the same warm and fuzzies and want to do business with you. Send it to your customers, because there's churn and there's always customers who say I need to try out another company just to make sure I've been working with the right one and to them I say I'll slash your tires.

Chris Lalomia: 36:36

I mean so.

Mickie Kennedy: 36:38

So they'll see that and often say I don't need to shop this year, we're the right company.

Chris Lalomia: 36:43

And then leads all right, I'll give you what goodness for you your tires stay alive.

Alan Wyatt: 36:47

There you go, hey. So, mickey, can a small business owner call you or somebody like you and just say I don't know if I have a story, but I believe in PR. I understand the value of it. It's so much more powerful than just sending out a million ads and can you help them? Can you interview them and then help them come up with a story that that sounds like this might actually work?

Mickie Kennedy: 37:11

Sure, so I have a free masterclass where I go through all the strategic types of press releases that work and I think that's a good place for anybody to start and then, once they're done with that, then they can come to us, they can chat or call or email and ask questions and we'll review anything that they have. How did they find the masterclass? So it's at ereleasescom slash plan P-L-A-N and it's completely free. It's about hour long video masterclass and it goes through the types of releases that get picked up.

Mickie Kennedy: 37:44

So many people look at what their competitors send out as a press release or other people in the industry and they send those out and I'm telling you, 95% of press releases don't get any pickup. There are people doing personnel changes and it's not a new executive and it's not like an industry veteran. Nobody cares. Send it to your local newspaper and maybe a trade publication and they might put it on the move section and that's it. Save your money. Don't pay to go over the wire with a personnel press release. Uh do meaningful press releases that uh have a higher likelihood of getting pickup all right.

Chris Lalomia: 38:24

So you actually offered up the free. Uh, it's e-releasescom plan. I'll put that in the notes. I think that would be well worth a watch. Yeah, 100% right. It's an hour of your time for free, for nothing, right To?

Alan Wyatt: 38:34

learn about. You know, we always talk about the fact that we have to learn lessons the hard way and it always costs us money and it's painful.

Chris Lalomia: 38:45

Here's a way to learn all you need to know about press releases. But that's going to cut into my march madness basketball watching you can still drink while you watch the master class, okay, thank you oh my god, it's best.

Chris Lalomia: 38:51

All right, uh, but let's talk about that. So let's say I've done the survey. I went to your master class, I got it figured out, I know what I want to do. Oh, I don't know how to do it. I want to get with you guys and I want to have mickey and his team and he releases what are your like starting packages? What should I expect to spend? Because if you don't have an advertising budget, guys, if you're a corporate guy thinking about starting a thing, I just got done interviewing somebody who said you know what? I'm going to bootleg my way all the way up and they're already at $12 million in revenue. And you're like listen person. And I just have to say it because I just got done talking to an advertising guy today. I'm like at that point, you got to be thinking money because you need to spend money to make money, baby. So where do we start at?

Mickie Kennedy: 39:37

Right, so I would recommend that you, you know, contact us. We have a new customer special. You can get a release out for like $350.

Chris Lalomia: 39:48

Stop right there. That's it. He just said 350. I would have expected exactly I know right.

Alan Wyatt: 39:53

I mean, we're starting to sound like like an infomercial, but this is, this is new stuff. Oh, but wait, there's more.

Chris Lalomia: 39:58

Yeah, that's right, but steak knives. But that's the point I think. A lot of times people say, well, press releases, well, it doesn't move the needle, oh okay, so go out there and do your five grand, do your 10 grand a month on valpak and money mailers who says a press release doesn't move me.

Alan Wyatt: 40:14

Oh, and if it's a, it's a new hire. Yeah, I get that, but if somebody's writing an article about your business, you don't think that's going to make the phone ring in b2c?

Chris Lalomia: 40:22

no, I don't think so. I think a lot of home services companies don't think it's going to be a win in my sphere that I'm in now. They think press releases are for exactly what Mickey just said. Oh look, Chris has just been promoted to SVP. Hey, do you want to buy product now from SunTrust because Chris got promoted to SVP? No, nobody give a shit. That's what we thought press releases are. I mean, that's the mode I came from.

Alan Wyatt: 40:43

Right, so you did not know.

Mickie Kennedy: 40:45

So so you did not know. So you know a lot of press releases don't move the needle, so you have to focus on the types of releases that will, and you know that masterclass goes through a great exercise for a lot of them. One of them is research your industry for blind spots or gaps, and I have a client that's like a perfect example for that. There was a carpet company in New Jersey that approached us and said we have a budget to do a press release a month and you guys write it. We offer writing for additional 300. So the 350 plus 300. And they said here you go, and I'm just like I don't know. You know I will try, but I don't think this is going to work after our initial talk, because they weren't doing anything different than any other local carpet company in any city across the US. So we took their money, we did four releases over four months and nothing happened. And at that point I'm like we need to talk.

Mickie Kennedy: 41:45

And so we talked, went through an exercise of asking questions. I asked who's your biggest enemy? And I expected him to say oh, it's Al, across the street with his little rug emporium. But he said no, it's the big box home improvement stores and then they just went into a litany of how bad Home Depot and Lowe's is for the carpet industry, the padding that they use.

Mickie Kennedy: 42:07

But even more importantly is the people who install the carpet. They do not call a list of carpet installers when they are out trying to get a job. They pick up the phone and they have a list of everybody who has a home improvement license in the state and they just start calling and they say hey, we have a job tomorrow for 2200 square feet of carpet to be installed at 11 am at this place. Can you do it? And if you just called a roofer who has a home improvement license, he's got no work the next day he's going to YouTube and trying to figure out how to do carpet and he'll be the person installing the next day person installing the next day, and the only reason he'll do it is because he doesn't really realize the going rate.

Chris Lalomia: 42:49

Because, uh, those stores that you mentioned, which I can't, uh, say here, because there'll probably be a hit put out in my life because home depot is here oh, did I say that? Oh shit, um, but you do it at half rate, that's the deal, because they got to make a profit too, right? So if you're going to do it at half tomorrow, you can do the job. Um, is that the guy you really want? Is that the team you really want touching your house? Hell, no. So back to your press release. That's what you said, the balance.

Mickie Kennedy: 43:13

So so we did a david versus goliath approach with our press release and just sort of attacked how you know, uh, how we have to. You know small, small independent carpet companies have to compete against these big box home improvement stores and how bad they are for the industry. We sent that out and it went viral in the floor trade world as much as viral can be in the floor trade world, like floor trade weekly, this floor publication picked it up. Over a dozen a floor trade publications picked it up and they were ecstatic, my clients and they're like this is what we need. And so I was like none of your customers read these. These are other carpet companies Like yours reading these industry publications. They said, nope, this is great, we want more of this.

Mickie Kennedy: 44:02

So we were able to tweak that messaging and continue to send out releases over the 12-month period and at the end of it we had about 30 clips. Most of them were for trade publications. We did get them in their local newspaper and New Jersey Magazine, which is a really big coup for them, Though they said New Jersey Magazine started calling a lot saying would you like to advertise?

Chris Lalomia: 44:28

Of course.

Alan Wyatt: 44:29

Of course.

Mickie Kennedy: 44:31

But the thing that they did and showed that they were better marketers than I was is they put together a brag book with all these clippings that they printed out and every time they went and gave someone a quote for a new carpet install, they said hey look, we may not come in the cheapest, but we've been doing this for X amount of years. Said hey look, we may not come in the cheapest, but we've been doing this for X amount of years. We really stand by our work. You know you'll never have to call us back to restretch a carpet or to fix a seam. That is just visible. And we've been picked up in floor trade weekly. We've been picked up here. We've been picked up in local paper.

Mickie Kennedy: 44:59

They just sort of go through the book with them and just based on adding that to the conversation, it really is an extra maybe minute or two minutes. Super powerful 17% improvement in conversion rates. They started converting 17% more of every consultation. So almost one out of every five homes they went into that used to say no now is saying yes and that was just like really moved the needle for them. They had to hire more people and they really grew throughout that and that's just like shows how you can. You know that's going to.

Mickie Kennedy: 45:36

That book is still alive and still working for them and I think it's been like four years now. And that's the real value of something like that, because if you're a homeowner you're you know you're wanting to trust who's coming in and for a lot of people they seem all very similar and it comes down to price. But you have someone who comes to you and they've been recognized nationally in the industry that you're hiring them for. You know you're not going to have a bad experience, you feel comfortable and you know what's that worth? An extra two or $300? You know most people are like, yeah, you know what's that worth An extra two or $300.

Chris Lalomia: 46:10

You know most people are like, yeah, I would gladly pay that. This has been awesome, Mickey Kennedy and eReleasescom. Mickey, you guys are doing great work. I love that eReleasescom forward slash plan. I would love to say longer. Unfortunately, big daddy's going to go out and do some networking. I didn't realize we're running up against a bumper. So, Mickey. Lastly, eReleasescom, is there any other way that people get ahold of you?

Mickie Kennedy: 46:30

Yeah, all my social media is on the lower right of eReleasescom. The only one I understand is LinkedIn.

Mickie Kennedy: 46:36

but I've got people who handle the rest. And again, feel free to reach out to my staff. I only hire editors. There's no salespeople, no quotas, no commissions, and if we feel we can't help you, we're, you know, we're empowered to, everybody's empowered to, to tell you that and sometimes we can't help you, but we, we are very creative and we find lots of ways to you know, make sure you stand out and that's a subtle great sell right there.

Chris Lalomia: 47:00

That's a humble brag sell right there, and I love that move. Yeah, that beats the sandwich clothes, maybe the raccoon clothes. He's got the e humble. So, mickey kennedy, thank you for enlightening us on what pr is all about, because I am magnum pr. Baby, I am going to get on this stuff. I just doubled down I did I.

Chris Lalomia: 47:16

Hey, you said you liked it. I just go back for it. Look, guys, you got to go out there. You've been riding with us, hopefully in the windshield, hopefully keeping your eyes on the road. Don't hit that guy in front of you unless he has that thing that says I student driver driver for stickers, you may take his bumper right off.

Chris Lalomia: 47:31

For me you can't. No, I'm kidding, I didn't say that you can't put that on me. Don't ever sue me on that one, because I can't take that lawsuit. Because all news and all pr is not good pr. You gotta have good pr. Mickey kennedy, e-releasescom. Go find him, go make it happen. Let's go up that mountain. Cheers everybody.