310 – Are Press Releases Still Relevant and How Can they Help your Handmade Biz? with Mickie Kennedy of eReleases

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it's that worth it.

Our topic today is around that ever present conversation about how

to get more people to know about you and your business.

We have to stop thinking that finally,

launching the website is enough or spending hours on making the

best images or posting on social media is enough or even

exhibiting at a Saturday afternoon.

Craft show is enough.

Yes, all of these are part of the puzzle yet.

There's one piece of the puzzle that most of us leave

out. And quite honestly,

it's an easier piece to fit in than many of the

others. Let's dive into this week's show where we are going

to talk about this missing piece and learn how it all

fits together Today.

It is my pleasure to introduce you to Mickey Kennedy of

he releases.

Mickey is an expert at helping small businesses,

authors and startups increase their visibility and credibility.

He founded,

he releases 22 years ago after realizing that small businesses desperately

needed a press release service that they could afford when that

gives them access to the media and to a nationwide Newswire,

but all with a personal touch,

Nikki lives in Baltimore County with his family and two feuding

cats. He enjoys British science fiction and acknowledges an unhealthy addiction

to diet soda.

He holds an MFA in creative writing with an emphasis in

poetry and still writes poetry most Monday nights virtually right now

with a group of fellow misfits in Maryland.

Mickey, welcome to the gift is unwrapped podcast.

Well, thank you.

I'm so happy to be here.

First question,

diet, soda,

Coke or Pepsi.

Whatever's on sale though.

I prefer Coke zero.

Oh you do.

I used to be a Coke girl.

And then in my corporate days I was working with pizza

hut. So I had to flip to Pepsi.

I had no choice,

right? I want to start off this conversation in a little

bit of a different way for you,

but very traditional for us here on the show.

And that is by having you tell us a little bit

more about yourself through a motivational candle.

So if you were to imagine in your mind's eye,

what a candle would look like that would resonate with you

by color and quote,

what would it be?

And the quote would be follow your inner Moonlight.

Don't hide the madness from Alan Ginsberg.

Oh. Cause all of us have a little bit of madness

inside. And I think that your audience being very creative and

stuff like that.

I think that there's a lot of people who feel like

they need to be in touch with all the emotions.

And sometimes the creativity comes out in sort of a maddening

way. Me being a poet.

That's how it works for me.

Oh, got it.

And so would you usually be doing face-to-face poetry except for

the times right now,

or is it always virtual?

We would meet in person in someone's kitchen that we'd been

meeting for off and on like 30 some years.

And he moved out to Western,

Maryland. He was originally from around the DC area and I

make the trip it's about an hour and a half each

way once a week until the pandemic.

And do you guys think you'll re Institute that later when

can, it's Interesting because over time we've gotten the whole gang

back together.

So we have one person who's in Nepal who used to

be part of our group in DC and now he's doing

it virtually it's very early in the morning for him there.

And then we have someone who moved to Charlottesville,

Virginia, and now being virtual,

we're able to integrate them.

So I'm thinking that we might maintain virtual going forward and

maybe do something separate for those who can actually meet around

the kitchen table when the time comes.

That sounds fabulous.

I love hearing good stories coming out of what we've had

this last 12 months.

Yeah. It's been a big reunion in a way,

because we've all gone our separate ways.

And with the zoom,

we just started saying,

Hey, I think it's a crazy chance,

but let's ask James and Nepal if he'd like to join

and sure enough,

he did.

And the same thing happened with another member who had moved

to Virginia.

It's different,

but it's a good kind of different.

Yeah, for sure.

So there's nothing beats the face-to-face,

but like you said,

if you guys can get together those local in addition,

it's fabulous.

I love it.

Yeah. And that shows again,

another commonality you have with the community here because although poetry,

isn't a product it's still what I will term handmade handwritten.

Right. So there you go.

Yes. So I love a releases.

It has been really nice to connect with you before,

even this podcast.

So I have some experience with your organization and I've found

it to be very professional,

very well thought out,

very easy to do covers all the bases.

So I love that.

So I just have to start off with that.

But you talk about in your intro that you didn't see

any services like this for small businesses,

which is why you started,

he re-releases.

Were you working before with someone larger or how did you

gravitate into this?

I was working for a company in the DC area and

we were getting calls from people.

I remember one in particular was a HVAC or plumbing person.

I don't remember exactly who had won a national award in

their industry.

And he wanted to send a release out to local media.

And I told them that we work retainer only.

I think at the time he was like a $20,000

minimum. And he was like,

no, no,

no. I just want a press release written and I couldn't

help him.

And I remembered I was going to look over lunch and

see if I could find something online for him.

And there really wasn't anything out there at the time.

Things have changed quite a bit since then,

but it was very difficult for small businesses in particular,

to have access to the media,

how to draft a release that's professional and get that to

the right media.

Yeah. Cause it's a very different animal than writing a newspaper

article, right?

Yes, it is.

Share with us a little bit about the difference between the

two, just so we all get on the same playing field

here, Right?

I mean,

generally a press release is written in a third person.

It's kind of objective style.

If there's something that flowery language or very powerful,

it's usually put in a quote from a company spokesperson or

president or principal of the company.

And it's very readable and it's usually the most pertinent information

at the beginning and they call it the inverted pyramid style

of writing.

And it's got a media contact for more information.

And basically what you're trying to get across is something that

you feel is newsworthy,

that the media would be receptive to turning into an article

or a story and share with their readers.

Yeah, because we've talked about this a little bit before we

have a common friend,

Amanda Berlin gift biz listeners.

She's been on the podcast before.

So I'll hook up her episode in the show notes.

But I think a lot of us feel we have to

be waiting for the media to come to us.

If we're lucky enough for them to want to do an

article on us,

we've hit the jackpot.

Right. But the concept and I bring this up just kind

of as a baseline for everyone who's listening is the fact

is that a lot of media,

even your local newspapers appreciate if you come to them because

they're always looking for stories and especially local stories,

right? Mickey That's true.

And for local coverage,

you don't need a service like your releases or anything like

that. I always advise people who call in and say,

I'm really just looking for some local media pickup.

I tell them,

well, you're in for a treat cause you don't have to

pay anything for this.

And it's so easy in your local area.

There's usually less than 10 people that would write about you.

There's usually a local newspaper,

a local business paper.

You might have a secondary paper or a regional paper.

And then you've got maybe a radio or TV program that

interviews businesses like yours.

So it's a small group of people.

You just figure out who it is that normally writes about

that. And then you reach out to them and send them

an email.

It's just like how you would establish a connection with someone

you just say,

Hey, I've seen you write about X,

Y, Z.

I loved your recent piece on such and such.

And I just wanted to introduce myself and let you know

about my company.

If you're ever interested in writing a story or something like

that along these ideas.

And you can give them bullets of some possible ideas.

They love it because it's content for them.

It gets them thinking about another person that they can tap.

If they're doing a story down the road.

And it's one of those things that if you do it

really well,

you can reach out to them four or five times a

year and sort of sometimes mention your company and sometimes mention

just a good idea for them that has nothing to do

with your company.

You're just being a good resource and a good friend to

the local media.

They'll remember you when they are working on a story for

which you would be a great company to plug in.

So it sounds like relationship building.

Exactly. Yeah.

So that's a good action step,

right? There is just identify who in your community are those

people and reach out and just say,

Hey, hi,

I'm out here.

As you were saying,

Mickey, and then share a couple of thoughts or ideas of

story topics where you could be helpful and then keep in

touch with them just as the starting point.

Yes. And I think that for anybody who's making something,

I would include images and photos are so powerful.

The media loves them.

And a lot of times an image will really convey a

lot as to what you're about and what it is that

you make.

And you're trying to promote.

And all of this is for potential for them to run

like a feature story for you.

Exactly. I mean,

that's the goal.

Sometimes it may not work out exactly that way.

It might be that you get mentioned in a Roundup of

local businesses for Valentine's day.

If you make something that might be appropriate there.

So we all would love to have the features,

but sometimes they might see an immediate need to just plug

you into a hole with something else.

And that's fine.

I mean,

there's no such thing as bad news coverage.

Most of us say,

Right, you get your name in somewhere and that's good exposure

of all those types.

So how do you know if you should go after and

pitch something that would be more of a feature article or

if you so should submit a press release.

Are there any guidelines there?

I think it has to come down with your comfort level.

If you're really good and comfortable at pitching a feature,

there's no reason you can't expand it beyond local and reach

out to some key publications that you feel you stand a

good chance at getting.

And the relationship building that I pointed out for the local

media works nationwide.

I mean,

that's what a good PR firm does is they're constantly fostering

these relationships and putting their clients in front of the media.

That being said,

there's an expertise that comes with relationship building that everyone is

comfortable with.

And a lot of people that side of the business,

isn't something that excites them.

And in that case,

I feel like a press release would be completely appropriate and

a good fit to sort of try that and see if

that works.

We've had pretty good results with makers and people selling stuff,

whether it be Etsy or their own website.

And it's exciting when you see the media respond to that,

which they often do because stuff that's usually handmade or has

artisan elements to it.

It stands out because it's unique.

And that's the biggest identifier of something that the media will

turn into an article.

Is there a unique or original story here that I can

put in front of my readers that they would respond to?

And I do find that stuff that's handmade or handcrafted or

anything involving arts painting.

The list is endless.

A lot of that stuff does really well with PR and

press releases because it is something that's different than someone who's

just selling a widget or the latest trend item or product.

Right. I'm also thinking that a lot of the audience can

relate to it because let's face it.

All of us in grade school got that blank piece of

paper and paint in front of us in art class.

Right. Right.

Yeah, absolutely.

So No matter what you're doing as a handmade maker,

there's a whole audience that can relate even if they don't

make relate,

buy or know your product.

So that in turn would be enticing and interesting for someone

to write about.

So I'm just going to make one comment here,

Mickey, and then I want to dive into press releases specifically.

But I remember within my chamber of commerce,

I was friends with both a husband and wife who both

worked for a local newspaper here.

So it was really easy to talk with them when we

were at chamber meetings or I saw them at after hours

or something like that to just develop a friendship.

And then things just naturally came to me because they saw

me at networking meetings.

So when it came to,

well, what businesses should we highlight this month?

Oh, let's go talk with Sue.

Right? Right.

So some of that can just come naturally,

but you need to know who the players are to start

forming friendships and relationships with them.

And then with that one,

which was really interesting.

I don't know if this is normally what they do.

They had me write the article and then send it to

them. And I thought,

Oh, well,

they're just doing that because then they'll take it and tweak

it and adjust it.

No, they wrote it verbatim.

Just my whole article.

I was like,

that's weird,

but it's in the paper.

So I don't care.

That does happen at the local level.

You do see that where they're just making basically space available

for them and you're helping them out with content.

So that does happen.

Yeah. And I love that you say you're helping them out

because that's the mentality we have to have is that they

need us as much as we would like them.

Right. With the stories.

So, all right.

So press releases.

There are a lot of us within this community who will

do events.

Like I'm thinking about someone gentleman's name is Nick from Lucas

candies. And he,

over the holidays,

they make the old fashion,

handmade candy canes from scratch,

which is crazy difficult.

And then they twist it so that the red and the

white merges and all of that,

they make it into the hook.

And then it has to dry and everything.

It's a whole big deal.

And so it's an event that leading up to the holidays,

they promote in their shops so people can come and actually

watch it all being done.

So that's an event.

Grand openings could be an event,

a new seasonal array of items coming into the shop could

be an event.

Yeah. Like things like that are those good press,

worthy topics They can be.

If it's grand opening is definitely a relevance to the local

media. Maybe not nationally,

if you're launching a new brand online or a new product

online, that's definitely relevant to a national audience.

Sometimes certain trends and statistics and things like that can really

well sometimes aligning yourself with others.

I've seen a lot of people in certain spaces do really

well collaborating with competitors.

For example,

a few people getting together and putting a list together of

top five regional candies in the area and list the major

candy companies,

highlighting certain ones that are of local interests and that people

know and have a long tradition and things like that.

So collaboration works really well.

Sometimes. Like I said,

if you might consider someone your competitor,

there might be synergy working together to sort of get your

interests across and to sort of elevate things.

The holidays are great.

Valentine's day works really well for candies and gift ideas and

things like that.

But a mother's day father's day,

all these different holidays,

a lot of people will produce gift guides and they're always

looking for something,

a little unique and a relevant.

And so this is where I think that you could just

be plugged in there as an additional product that would be

available and newsworthy.

So again,

a really great image is going to be really important.

A photo that you could see being put in paper or

magazine or even online or a blog,

because a lot of that stuff ends up online as well.

And these are worthy of creating a press release to get

the word out about it.

Yes they are.

And it also depends on your budget.

Now, what I say to someone who's a business that might

be doing say $500,000

a year in revenue,

or more is a little bit different than someone who's bootstrapping.

If you're bootstrapping,

I would say my press releases for the most newsworthy thing,

because you may only have a budget of doing two or

three a year.

And so you want to make sure you get your biggest

bang for your buck.

But if you do have a marketing budget that allows you

to do press releases,

as there are events,

and as there are opportunities like maybe 10 to 20 a

year, then I would say,

yeah, definitely take advantage of every one and learn over time.

You'll get a feel for what's working and what's not working

within your industry.

It is a bit of trial and error,

but there are ways of sort of putting strategy into your

press release and making it a bit more strategic.

Sometimes it's looking at trends and commenting on them in a

way that's maybe contrarian or counter to what other people are

saying. Sometimes it's working with numbers and statistics that work can

work really well with media and it,

they don't have to be your numbers for statistics.

It might be just as Halloween is approaching X,

millions of tons of candy corner sold each year and peers,

a company that produces Halloween candy locally,

or there's an angle there.

So a lot of these different hooks can get the media

interested. And you really want to just sort of try to

step up your game,

amp up your writing and try to present something that's captivating

and interesting.

Yeah. I liked your Halloween example,

like a candy company who could also merged With like a

dentist. Exactly.

But you know,

it could be enjoy your candy.

And then here are the tips to make sure your teeth

stay healthy with all the sugar,

your intake.

I don't know what,

but that could be like an event,

like a guide that they put together.

Absolutely. Who knows,

like you guys can be creative with that,

for sure.

But do you have to have a budget behind a press

release? Like,

let's talk about someone who's just starting out.

And one of the challenges the handmade community has is as

you're starting your business,

you're having to invest in the ingredients that make up your

product too.

Right? So there's a lot of extra costs in addition to

what some other businesses would have.

So we've talked a little bit about the types of events

you might have.

And I think if we're really smart,

even as starting businesses,

we could think of some events.

And I want to fact check my hearing and subsequent thinking

here, Mickey,

you were saying,

make sure to think about what the events are that you

might be pitching,

whether you're having someone do it for you,

or you're doing it yourself,

because you want them all to be things that people would

really be interested in because could you get the reputation like,

Oh, here's this company pitching again?

And they don't even look at it because you're not pitching

good things.

Yeah. I mean,

that does happen.

But that being said,

I think that the squeaky wheel does get the oil at

the end of the day.

I think that you don't want to get blocked in someone's

email filter.

So if you're emailing your local media,

I would say,

I wouldn't do it more than eight times,

10 times a year,

sending them individually an email.

I just think that beyond that,

you do run the risk of being a pest.

But that being said,

if you balance really well,

providing them good tips and leads and things like that,

then they probably won't see you that way.

One of the things that a lot of local companies have

is they understand their industry very well.

And so when they see trends,

oftentimes they can pass those trends along to their local media,

which may not be aware of that trend yet.

And there'll be very appreciative whether your company is relevant to

it or not.

And again,

that's just another way of establishing good rapport.

Right. That makes sense.

And honestly,

eight to 10,

I see most people saying,

Oh my gosh,

that's already a lot.

So it doesn't sound like we are at risk of bombarding

the media.

I think we're good.

And I say,

break it down to something that works for you.

If a goal of once a quarter is something that you

can attain four,

then set that as your goal.

Okay. All right.

So we've got a topic.

Let's just call it a grand opening.

Cause that's easy.

Everyone knows what that is.

And that's something everybody could do.

So let's say it's a grand opening and we want to

write a press release.

You got into it a little bit earlier,

but can you give us some direction about what the structure

should look like?

Or any tips is we're looking at a blank sheet of

paper or a clicking cursor on a computer screen,

Right? I'd say the three most important elements is the headline

and you don't want it to be like a New York

post pun.

You want it to be relevant because a lot of journalists

will look at a press release or the,

or email,

or if it is on a Newswire the headline.

And if they can't tell who you are and what you're

about from the headline,

because it's a clever pun,

they're probably not going to drill down and read further.

The New York post is great at these headlines that are

just puns and they interest you.

And they're whimsical.

You can be whimsical,

but you have to be relevant and have some context.

When you do your headline,

the opening paragraph specifically the opening sentence is extremely important.

If it's a grand opening,

you want to make sure that that first sentence discusses the

who, what,

when, where of this grand opening and starts to explain it

from there,

the third,

most important part of a press release.

And the one that I think it's short-changed a lot is

a quote.

A quote is a really great way to amp up your

writing, have something set in a way that can't be paraphrased

generally can be very powerful or emotionally moving,

or sometimes controversial.

I mentioned being contrarion earlier.

If you can get a quote in an article,

even if the article gets minimized and it's not about your

company as a feature,

having that quote is really good because it's going to be

grounded who said it and who they are.

And so it'll mention your company.

And so it's a great end for maintaining you within an

article I've seen where someone launches a press release,

and it might mention like a strange holiday,

like the,

we sell mugs for a veterinary assistance and you do a

press release because there's a veterinarian assistant day.

I've seen where that press release gets someone saying,

Oh, this is interesting,

right about the holiday.

And never mentioned the company that makes the mug and sent

the press release out,

inspired the article,

but it never got mentioned if they had a really great

quote in that article,

I would bet that that quote would have survived in that

article. And that company would have been able to preserve a

mention in an article that otherwise they weren't able to.

That is such a good point.

The example really nailed it for me.

You're right.

Because the article could be so good.

The topic could be so good and like how devastating if

they don't mention it.

And you're the one who brought the idea and all the

information I've seen that happen so many times and often it's

not the journalist or writers fault.

It's the managing editor who looks at it and says,

Oh, why is this little company I've never heard of?

Why is that mentioned here?

But if that company's mentioned,

and there's an amazing quote,

the managing editor is going to go,

Oh, I can see why it's in here.

That's a great quote.

And they won't challenge it.

Yeah. Yeah.

Well, and I think also,

and this,

I learned from Amanda and I'm sure you're going to agree

with me,

but I just have to point it out.

Tell me if I'm wrong.

But the headline that you said,

this mug sells products for whatever,

whatever is very self-serving to that company.

Right. Where I think the focus of an article always has

to be the interest of the reader first.

So a quote,

like you're saying brings back attention to the company,

but it's not totally focusing on the company.

Exactly. Okay.

That makes sense.

So I love that you talk about the headline is important.

Don't be creative,

crazy. So people like it's all flowery words,

but nobody has any idea what you're talking about.

The opening sentence needs to give all the details.

So you were talking about the inverted pyramid here.

I have a little advantage because I'm a journalism major,

but I know press releases a little bit,

but what you're talking about here is instead of like,

as a story you read up to the conclusion you want

to put the conclusion up top,

right? Absolutely.

Yes. Okay.

So right away from,

and it almost sounds like it's anti-climatic however you say that,

but the point is,

everyone needs to know that all the details upfront or the

specifics upfront,

and then you can go into some conversation about it afterwards.

So for anyone who hasn't done,

press releases,

it sounds wrong.

It sounds like it should be flipped,

but it's really the right way for press releases,

Right? Because journalists are browsing a lot and if you've buried

the lead,

they may not get down to that section.

And so you really want your most newsworthy elements to be

right there,

front and center.

Okay. And should the quote then be pretty close up to

the top too?

It doesn't have to be,

I've seen it appropriate.

And then the second paragraph all the way through,

towards the end,

I prefer it sooner rather than later.

So I would try to incorporate in the second or third

paragraph. Okay.

Which leads to another question.

How long should this press release be?

Well, you want to be concise and most press releases are

under 500 words.

I've seen press releases that are 800,

900 words.

And they're the appropriate length because they're conveying a lot of

information. Sometimes you can certainly link to information.

If you have additional resources on your website and a journalist

who does want to learn a little bit more about particular

thing, you can link off to that information.

But at the end of the day,

for the average person,

I think under 500 words under 550 words would be appropriate.

Okay. And then at the very bottom,

I know this from us doing business together,

there are certain things that you want to add,

right? Contact information,

correct? Yeah.

What are those things again?

Well, you want to have a media contact.

That's usually a person's name and telephone number is what the

Newswire requires.

And the reason is because the last thing that journalists under

deadline wants is trying to get a response through an email.

So they do want to have a phone number that they

can call and escalate if they're like going to press and

they need something answered.

An email address is great to have there.

We do some obfuscation to prevent spam because it is one

of those things that gets harvested out there online.

That's pretty much it,

there is usually towards the end of many press releases,

what they call a boiler plate,

which is usually like an about section.

So it might be about company.

And then it's a paragraph that generally survives all your press

releases. It might get updated from time to time,

but it just very succinctly tells your story and tells it

very well.

Be kind of like if you had a book,

it would be like that about the author,

little inside the flap or something.

That kind of an idea.

Yes, definitely.

Okay. All right.

Good. Is there anywhere if someone's interested in doing a press

release anywhere online,

you would direct them to go to look at one as

a model.

Yeah. If you visit your releases.com

and I am going to try to get you there.

If you go to our site,

Oh, actually at the bottom of the footer is a section

called press release samples.

And we have lots of industry samples and resources,

and you can get lost in there.

There's lots of links to samples and examples of press releases

to look at.

They're also in that footer.

I did want to point out that I have a PR

strategy training,

which is a free video presentation of the strategies involved in

press releases.

And I point that out only because so many people look

at what a press release is.

It's generally very simplistic.

It's not complicated writing and they immediately start writing a press

release and then they send it out and it doesn't do

very much.

And unfortunately you can't fault the press release,

but it's the strategy behind it.

Strategically was this the most newsworthy thing that you could have

written about?

And the PR strategy training that I have on the website

really goes into detail of all the strategies that work very

well for people who do press releases.

And there are certain types of press releases that get picked

up a lot,

as opposed to those that don't.

So someone who has a higher in the company like a

new hire,

those types of press releases don't get picked up very well.

But if you do a survey or study that does generally

get picked up very well,

and it's easy to do your own study.

I mean,

you yourself can reach out to your customers or your leads

and just provide a study about maybe handcrafted gifts and get

their responses to it.

And craft a press release around that.

You mentioned your company contextually end there,

and the media will often find that interesting as well as

the type of questions that you ask,

because there's a way to put a couple of interesting questions

in there that really elevates the journalist interest to say,

wow, my customers would really want to know the answer to

this question.

So sometimes before you do the survey,

you want to have some really captivating questions where it doesn't

matter what the answer is.

It's just people,

once they hear the question,

they want to know what people.

Yeah. Okay.

So I'm thinking of two ideas here for everybody.

One could be,

what is the favorite scent of,

and then it could be your hometown depending on where your

audiences are from.

So the favorite candle scent of Northbrook,

Illinois, let's say,

which is a town I grew up in.

And then you could have done a survey from all the

customers. If you have a pretty,

relatively big customer base,

not like five people,

but within that community.

So that could be an interesting thing.

But then the other thing I'm thinking is what if someone

did a battle of samples and they had a bake shop

and it's like,

okay, who's going to win out the peanut butter cookies or

the oatmeal raisin,

Comcast, your vote,

open house,

this date.

So then it turns into an event,

right, right.

Open house.

This date,

come cast your vote.

We're doing sampling.

You pick your favorite Results to calm.

Yeah. And you can also get survey results through social media.

The local paper may even send your link out to their

readers or share it online through their Facebook group,

et cetera,

and give you people's weighing in on what they want.

And so that you don't necessarily have to have a huge

customer base.

That's sort of a modifying something that people do with trade

associations, trade associations are always surveying their members.

And if you have some interesting questions,

you can always offer those to the trade association.

Sometimes they'll want to just absorb it and take credit for

the study.

But sometimes they're willing to share a co-brand elements of a

survey. And that helps you with the media when you do

a press release,

because now it's not just you,

who did the survey,

you did the survey in association with a trade group.

And that looks real.

That's a great point,

Mickey. Yeah,

really smart.

Okay. So I'm feeling empowered and I'm feeling like we could

do this.

We could dip our foot in and create,

find a topic and create a press release ourselves,

especially if we want localized coming on it.

So we develop a relationship.

We write a press release because we've gone through your strategic

training. So we are putting the odds in our favor that

we've got a good topic.

We follow your guidelines,

write the press release,

and then we just submit it forward.

And then what happens?

How do we know if it got picked up or not?

We'll get the answer to this question and more talk about

press releases right after a quick break.

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Generally they'll contact you if they have a question,

but often if they're just writing an article about you,

they don't contact you.

So it's always a good idea.

If you're actively doing media to ask,

how did you hear about us check your incoming traffic,

usually your logs,

or if you have Google analytics will show the links that

people came into your website,

and then also do a Google news search and a Google

web search.

And this is weird,

but some news articles are only in Google news and some

are only in Google web.

And I think that some media properties opt out of being

in Google news,

but they're still are spidered and are in Google web,

but I've learned this trick of trying to find mentions of

my customers.

And so,

you know,

if they have a very unique product or company name,

I'll use that for the search.

If not,

I can contextually maybe use the company name and their city

or something like that and do searches in Google news and

then do the same thing in Google web.

And in Google web search,

you can also look at your searches by dates.

So if you did a press release on February 1st,

you would only want to show the Google web results from

say February 1st to now.

And so that's a great way of sort of isolating.

I find that picks up most everything.

There are clipping services out there that specialize in producing clips

for people,

but they're really for people who are heavy hitters and people

who are comfortable spending two to $4,000

a month just for the clipping service.

And I'm like,

even if you had somehow a budget for that,

I would say spend the two or $4,000

on something like producing a survey or study doing more press

releases. And I would just go to the Google news and

Google web searches and try to pick up as much as

I can from there.

Yeah. And that's exactly what you told me when we had

that conversation in December.

Don't spend your money there.

Okay. So if you have a product that has more nationwide

appeal like Mickey,

I'm thinking of some of the people who were listening here

who do have national products.

Well, everybody can sell nationally now,

of course,

but people who are making edible products,

candies, and anything,

I guess,

but it let's say there's somebody who's introducing a new product

who really wants to go bigger and get national attention.

This would be a time when we would want to use

IE releases and your services.

Exactly. Yeah.

We're really good at that.

I feel like the local angle is much better done yourself

and making those original connections.

But when it comes to national,

you really don't know what's out there until you do a

national release and you see what gets picked up and what

doesn't work it's picked up.

It's always surprising the little places that come out of the

woodwork that you learn about.

If you do a newsworthy release,

it does get some Seriously.

That's true.

So I did my release with you for the national bakers,

crafters makers day.

And the first thing I have to say to you,

Mickey, and then everyone listening of course,

is I had such a smile on my face just with

the release you guys created.

And I know I could have created the release and just

handed it to you,

but I'm like,

Nope, I'm doing this the right way.

I don't have any time.

And there's no way I would have taken the approach that

you guys did.

So that was fabulous.

So just getting the release done,

and I'm just telling everybody,

you don't actually have to write your release either other services

and Mickey's for sure could do the press release for you.

And then you had me pick categories as I recall.

So it narrowed in,

so I wasn't going into like an automotive publication or something

that was totally like left field from what I was targeting.

So that's another advantage too,

is you've got lists of people,

probably a reputation already,

for sure.

A system of getting these releases out to people.

And then based on what I was choosing as my audience,

that's how they got dispersed.

And there's not a chance that I would have known all

of those contacts.

So that's a huge benefit of using your services.

But if there was someone else out there too,

that's what you would do,

right. Is your,

get it out to the right places.

Right. And it's grown over the last few years.

The newswires at first didn't include bloggers,

but now they embrace bloggers and influencers as well.

I've seen some people get picked up on Instagram by influencers,

just because they're on the Newswire feed.

They're looking at stuff as well.

So it really is changing and evolving.

I know that a lot of the print stuff is slowly

migrating online,

but that makes it more democratic in a way that's a

lot more accessible to people.

I can check my local hometown newspaper from North Carolina,

even though I live in Maryland by being online.

So it's really great.

It's being able to get your roots out to so many

different places.

And that saturation is so broad that you really have to

use a service to get it out there and to really

saturate it to all the different media.

Yeah. I mean,

I was completely impressed by where we got picked up.

I mean little radio stations,

other newspapers,

like all different types of places,

picked it up and pretty quickly too,

which was really good.

That's kudos to the press release content.

I'm sure.

So you're right.

And this was one of the questions I was going to

ask you,

Mickey is how things have changed over the course of time.

But let's talk about one that you were just mentioning,

which is so many print newspapers or any magazines.

Anyone who's been print has either transitioned a hundred percent to

online or a good portion is online.

When you submit a press release,

you just submit it to that company.

They choose where it's going to go,

right? Yes.

Ultimately they decided,

and it might be both.

It might be wine.

It might be another,

right? Yeah.

And you just don't know you're at their mercy,

but who cares?

I mean,

you want it somewhere.

Exactly. It's basically like when you send out a press release,

it's like,

here is copy for you to use basically any capacity,

want to use it.

We see it with publicly traded companies that they'll issue a

release. And they'll say,

I remember years ago when Microsoft said we're getting rid of

bullets and boards to help children to have internet safety or

something like that.

And a journalist wrote about it and said,

the reason that they're closed,

it was because it wasn't being monetized.

And it's all great lip service that Microsoft says one thing,

but the journalist ultimately decides what will get reported and what

they believe the truth to be.

Got it.

And so going back to my experience,

my entire release was pretty much picked up in total and

then just repost it everywhere.

That's mostly how it works.

Well, that's how the syndication aspect of it.

It is usually the same release verbatim gets reposted to some

syndicated sites,

which is great.

But we also hope that some of the journalists will actually

turn it into original content by writing an article or something

that is unique.

And that does happen.

It does involve a little bit of trial and error and

finding what works in your industry.

It all tends to be industry specific.

So at the end of the day,

you want to be really good at analyzing your industry.

What is it that they're talking about?

What is it that they're not talking about?

Sometimes they don't talk about something for a reason,

but sometimes it's just a blind spot and it's a great

opportunity for you to get in there and own that conversation

and get that forward.

I think another thing,

and this is from experience is also consider if you have

flexibility with,

when you're going to submit your article or what day your

event is going to be,

if it's state specific is to look at what else is

going on in the world.

Because for me and my national day,

it was the day after the changing of presidents,

you know,

the inauguration.

So not the best time,

because a lot of the news was focused on that,

even though it's not my community,

but it still got picked up.

But I think if you have the opportunity,

at least consider that in timing,

Absolutely. You never know what's going to happen with breaking news

and things like that.

So sometimes it's just,

the release goes out and it wasn't the best day because

something else happened nationally,

that just sort of distracted a lot of people.

But that being said,

you hope that people are receptive to stuff every day.

And publicly traded companies released bad news every Friday after the

close of the market.

And guess what?

They still write about it on Monday morning and Tuesday.

So you're always looking.

So they're always receptive and open to seeing stuff.

Okay. All right.

And I don't know,

this just comes to mind.

I'm not even sure why it's important,

but I'm going to ask it anyway,

who owns the content after a press release comes out,

It's basically copyright free.

So anybody generally,

most anyone can use it.

That being said the Newswire does preserve original copyright so that

they can force someone to take it down.

If it's like on a really bad site that you feel

might hurt you having a press release there,

but Google,

it doesn't really penalize people for that.

Because if that was the case,

people would just pay to have all their competitors and enemies,

press releases put on that website.

So Google is aware of that,

but that being said,

the content is out there.

It can be utilized by people that you may not want

a particular blog that doesn't look very professional,

reposting your release.

It may not fit what you want,

but that's the nature of it.

And sometimes I have had people who've come and said,

ah, this person wrote about the release.

And I don't really like them because it looks like someone's

grandmother designs,

a website or something.

And I'm just like,

Hey, you don't know what the audience that person has.

And just because it doesn't fit your aesthetic,

it's not a reputable site.

And I certainly don't think it's going to hurt you,

but potentially it does have an opportunity to actually open some

doors and some availability from that audience to yours.

Yeah. I mean,

like I said,

I can't imagine a situation where there'd be that concern,

but I came to mind.

So I wanted to say it.

And then how long a lifespan does a press-release have,

like if it's not date specific,

like a grand opening would be,

for example,

would it be possible that a press release that I submitted

today would show up six months from now Possible?

And we've had people who've gotten media coverage over a year

after release.

What happens is these press releases on the Newswire get archived

permanently and journalists have their own login to the Newswire either

through the intranet at their newsroom or specifically in the case

of peer news,

Newswire they have a journalist log in at pier Newswire.

They can do research and they can just filter.

And let's say,

they're doing a story on a particular style of craft or

carving or something like that.

And they type that search into peer news,

wires, archives,

and they pull up a press release.

You did from a year ago.

Well, they really don't care because they're doing the story.

Now it's on this style of carving or sculpting or something,

and they pulled up your press release.

They're going to reach out to you.

They're not going to say,

Oh, let me try to find somebody with a more recent

press release because some subjects aren't time sensitive.

And if you're involved in a type of craft or style

of something,

then that's what we call sort of evergreen.

And so that does happen.

And it happens a lot in technology sectors as well,

but anywhere where journalists might be trying to find someone,

they like press releases for research,

because there's usually a phone number.

Cause I mentioned to you that the Newswire really wants that

phone number to be in the press release where if they're

under their gun,

they can call you well,

they'll generally email and call when they're working on a story

and they really need a source.

Whether it's for a quote,

sometimes they need someone to better break something down,

help them understand something that they're having an issue with.

But it's a great opportunity for you to get in that

article that they're developing.

Interesting. So that sounds like a potential strategy for press releases

a year of non date,

specific content to kind of seed yourself out there.

Absolutely. And like I said,

make sure you have a great quote in it,

make sure that you're doing all the right things that way.

Even if you don't get the immediate coverage that you were

hoping for,

you've learned something.

You've learned that this story didn't resonate with my industry at

this time,

but also it is something that's going to be sitting there

in the Newswire for future availability.

And another thing that I didn't mention is this is valuable

content that you should put on your website.

I always recommend that you have some people call it a

newsroom. It can be an about you section.

It could even be your personal blog,

how you label it or organize it.

Isn't important,

but just get this content on your website because it is

a way in which the search engines can find you because

your keywords and the way that you speak and the way

you talk should be the way people are searching and ultimately

want to find you.

So these are additional avenues for them into your website,

into learning about you.

So what would you do put the press release on the

website? Oh,

absolutely. Yeah.

I mean,

if you go to any like Ford motor company or Coca-Cola,

they've all got like a press room or newsroom and all

of their press releases,

are there a lot of times,

if you do searches,

I do searches for esoteric things.

And a lot of times I will actually pull up a

press release and that's my entry into a company is by

finding a search,

it happened to be a press release and all of a

sudden I'm on their website.

Oh, okay.

That's giving me some thought.

So you see people who do like the,

in the news,

that type of thing.

Yeah. It can't be,

it can be as formal as like a newsroom or press

room or it could just be,

I tell people this and what I've found is a lot

of small businesses just never get to developing out a newsroom

and a proper place,

but they have our regular blog.

I would rather,

they post it to their blog then nowhere because you want

it to live on your site somewhere.

So anywhere,

it makes sense for you to incorporate it.

Go ahead and start doing that.

That sounds fabulous.

So Mickey,

this has been so interesting.

It makes me think about press releases in an entirely different

way now,

because this really is a strategy that you can integrate into

your business as an expense or not,

but just to get more visibility in a different way.

So any final comments for our listeners on this?

I would say when you get to a point that you

want to try it,

try it for free,

doing it yourself and explore local media.

You don't even need a Finnish press release for local media.

Sometimes it's just the idea or seed of a story that

you're pitching to them through email,

and that's completely fine and relevant.

But when you are able to incorporate PR into your business,

do commit to a proper PR campaign.

Because the one thing that is disappointing is to see a

small business,

try one,

press release and say,

ah, press releases.

Don't work for us.

And sometimes you might do a PR campaign.

It's usually six releases.

Sometimes you might have to do a few before you find

what your industry is receptive to.

And that training that I have on the website about strategy

will definitely leapfrog you as to having all your ducks in

a row and leading with your most newsworthy aspects.

Perfect. And one more time,

where should they go to find all that?

If you go to dot com slash plan P L a

N, that's the PR strategy video training that I mentioned completely

free. I want as many small businesses as possible to learn

that and whether they do it themselves,

or they use a service like he releases,

it's really valuable.

It's what I've learned over the last 20 years.

And my goal is for small businesses to succeed.

I love small businesses.

Your audience seems right there with my idea of helping and

community and me being a poet.

I feel a real synergy there.

I love that part.

That's a great way to end it,

circling it,

tying it all back together like that with your poetry.

For sure.

So Mickey,

this has been so informative,

so interesting.

I'm pretty sure the majority of people who are listening have

never really considered press releases.

So you've opened our eyes to a whole new world.

So for that,

thank you so much for being with me today.

Thank you.

The most important thing I want you to remember from this

show, apart from all the fabulous,

how two tips that Mickey gave us is that the media

wants your story.

As much as you want the opportunity,

there is no way for them to know about you,

unless you tell them through press releases.

And when you match your story up with what they're looking

for, this can be an easy win,

identify who your local contacts are and write that first press

release. What do you have to lose?

There's definitely a lot to win my teaser for next week.

I am so excited for you to meet one of my

rockstar maker,

MBA students.

She has an upscale product and an inspiring business growth story.

Make sure to tune in next Week to hear all about

it. I also want to remind you that we're open for

booth registration at the virtual at home craft and gift show

happening April 14th through 30th,

reach and sell to a national audience all from the comfort

of your own home or studio to learn more about it

and register for a booth head over to gift biz,

unwrapped.com forward slash at home booth and make sure to enter

the code gift biz 10,

to get 10% off as a first time exhibitor.

If you have any questions about the show,

feel free to reach out to me.

Just send me an email sue@sumoheight.com.

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Thank you for spending time with me today.

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