1 00:00:00,269 --> 00:00:04,529 Robert Plank: Okay, welcome back to the podcast. We're here with 2 00:00:04,529 --> 00:00:07,469 Mickey Kennedy from e releases.com. Now, Mickey 3 00:00:07,469 --> 00:00:11,309 Kennedy is an expert at helping small businesses, authors and 4 00:00:11,309 --> 00:00:14,699 startups increase their visibility and credibility. And 5 00:00:14,699 --> 00:00:16,979 we were going to be talking today about doing that with 6 00:00:17,009 --> 00:00:21,329 press releases. Now Mickey founded EA releases 22 plus 7 00:00:21,329 --> 00:00:23,909 years ago. Now, why the heck would he do that? Well, because 8 00:00:23,909 --> 00:00:27,539 he realized that small businesses desperately need a 9 00:00:27,539 --> 00:00:30,389 press release service they can actually afford. And that 10 00:00:30,389 --> 00:00:33,359 includes you right here right now listening or watching this 11 00:00:33,359 --> 00:00:37,079 podcast. And so making you can give you access to the media, 12 00:00:37,349 --> 00:00:41,249 and to a national news wire with a personal touch. So Mickey glad 13 00:00:41,249 --> 00:00:42,089 to be talking to you. 14 00:00:42,480 --> 00:00:44,190 Unknown: Oh, same here. Great to be here. 15 00:00:44,760 --> 00:00:47,610 Robert Plank: It is great to have you. And you know, even 16 00:00:47,640 --> 00:00:50,970 even just you being here on the podcast shows that we all need 17 00:00:50,970 --> 00:00:53,940 to be putting our best foot forward and be getting ourselves 18 00:00:53,940 --> 00:00:57,240 out there and in marketing and spreading our message because no 19 00:00:57,240 --> 00:01:00,990 one will do it for us, it won't happen automatically. And I've 20 00:01:00,990 --> 00:01:03,600 heard of this thing called press releases, I think that we've all 21 00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:06,540 at least heard of it or or seen it. And we always hear about 22 00:01:06,540 --> 00:01:10,290 this, this thing where it seems to have somewhat of a format or 23 00:01:10,290 --> 00:01:12,900 a template, but I'm always thinking like, well, I don't 24 00:01:12,900 --> 00:01:16,590 really know how to how to put my message into that template. And 25 00:01:16,590 --> 00:01:19,860 then you hear about how that like, you can send this one 26 00:01:19,860 --> 00:01:22,260 thing out and pay a little bit of money and it gets sent all 27 00:01:22,260 --> 00:01:24,900 over the place. And then you always hear about these success 28 00:01:24,900 --> 00:01:28,170 stories here. And there, people put out a press release and the 29 00:01:28,170 --> 00:01:32,280 right person saw it, they got it on the right media outlet or the 30 00:01:32,280 --> 00:01:36,210 right, you know, it went viral or something like that. And so 31 00:01:36,210 --> 00:01:38,520 can you tell us about press releases, because as you can 32 00:01:38,520 --> 00:01:40,920 tell, I just have little bits and pieces of just what I've 33 00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:43,320 heard and picked up and I'd rather hear from the expert, I'd 34 00:01:43,320 --> 00:01:46,110 rather get the kind of foundational fundamental 35 00:01:46,110 --> 00:01:48,750 knowledge so press releases Tell me. So 36 00:01:48,930 --> 00:01:52,140 Unknown: basically, a press release is an announcement by a 37 00:01:52,140 --> 00:01:55,200 company or person, it's usually written into the third person, 38 00:01:55,230 --> 00:01:58,110 there might be a first person quote, and a good tip is to 39 00:01:58,110 --> 00:02:01,350 always have a really captivating quote, because sometimes, if the 40 00:02:01,350 --> 00:02:04,740 story's mediocre, but the quote is outstanding, a journalist 41 00:02:04,740 --> 00:02:07,920 will write an article around it, you want to have a really 42 00:02:08,430 --> 00:02:14,040 tantalizing headline, you don't want it to be punny, or sort of 43 00:02:14,070 --> 00:02:18,870 quizzical or, or funny like a New York Post style, where you 44 00:02:18,870 --> 00:02:20,970 might use a pawn or something like that, you want to stick to 45 00:02:20,970 --> 00:02:23,400 the facts, you want to make it easy for journalists who are 46 00:02:23,400 --> 00:02:26,460 streaming headlines to see that this is something that would be 47 00:02:26,460 --> 00:02:30,420 relevant to them. A lot of people get tripped up over the 48 00:02:30,420 --> 00:02:34,860 style or the template of a press release. But they're pretty 49 00:02:34,860 --> 00:02:38,460 simple. If you go to E releases.com. My website and at 50 00:02:38,460 --> 00:02:40,740 the footer, click on press release samples, you'll see a 51 00:02:40,740 --> 00:02:44,340 lot there. And almost anyone can write a release, because it's 52 00:02:44,340 --> 00:02:47,310 not really like high level writing. It's not creative 53 00:02:47,310 --> 00:02:51,210 writing outside of maybe what you might put in a quote. But 54 00:02:51,270 --> 00:02:54,600 the real power of the press release that a lot of people 55 00:02:54,600 --> 00:02:58,230 don't recognize is what it is, you're choosing to announce 56 00:02:58,230 --> 00:03:01,680 strategically, what is it that you've decided is important 57 00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:05,040 enough that you want to send it to the media. And so many people 58 00:03:05,040 --> 00:03:09,300 choose press releases that are a personnel change, or a website's 59 00:03:09,300 --> 00:03:13,320 now Mobley responsive, or other things that no one really cares 60 00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:16,080 about, you know, it's probably important that your website's 61 00:03:16,080 --> 00:03:19,260 mobile responsive, but no one's going to write an article about 62 00:03:19,260 --> 00:03:25,830 it. You know, you know, David, and HR move from associate to 63 00:03:25,830 --> 00:03:28,950 assistant HR assistant or something like that. Nobody 64 00:03:28,950 --> 00:03:32,640 cares about those either. So, you know, focus on things that 65 00:03:32,640 --> 00:03:35,520 are a lot more strategic, and a lot of people who feel like, 66 00:03:35,520 --> 00:03:37,710 well, I don't have anything strategic, because I'm not 67 00:03:37,710 --> 00:03:40,860 important. I'm not really doing anything, I'm selling a 68 00:03:40,860 --> 00:03:44,790 commodity, there's very little that I do that differentiates 69 00:03:44,790 --> 00:03:48,450 myself, I would say you have to dig down deep and try and 70 00:03:48,450 --> 00:03:52,620 determine what will be your USP. There's a lot of people who sell 71 00:03:52,710 --> 00:03:57,210 Apple computers, Apple doesn't let people sell it for you know, 72 00:03:57,210 --> 00:04:00,060 I think within 5% of the suggested retail price, they 73 00:04:00,060 --> 00:04:03,090 control that. So the lot of people have to compete on other 74 00:04:03,090 --> 00:04:06,270 factors. Some people bundle it with software, some people 75 00:04:06,270 --> 00:04:10,620 bundle it with accessories, or free Apple Watch or something 76 00:04:10,620 --> 00:04:15,300 like that, that they throw into it. But everybody has a USP that 77 00:04:15,300 --> 00:04:19,140 sells it and even BestBuy does promotions where you get a $25 78 00:04:19,140 --> 00:04:21,990 gift card if you buy your Apple computer through them. So 79 00:04:21,990 --> 00:04:24,480 they're all doing something a little bit different than 80 00:04:24,480 --> 00:04:27,540 everyone else. Find out what yours is, if you don't have one, 81 00:04:27,690 --> 00:04:30,660 you really need to create one because you don't want to be in 82 00:04:30,660 --> 00:04:33,840 the position of being a commodity business without 83 00:04:33,840 --> 00:04:36,570 something that differentiates you from everyone else, even if 84 00:04:36,570 --> 00:04:39,600 it's just customer service or something that's very hard to 85 00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:42,480 identify. There's something about your culture and your 86 00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:45,780 business that makes you unique. Other things that you can do is 87 00:04:45,810 --> 00:04:49,800 make your own news. I do this all the time with clients. I've 88 00:04:49,800 --> 00:04:53,040 done it with a local auto repair shop in Pennsylvania. I've done 89 00:04:53,040 --> 00:04:56,100 it with some other companies, and it's basically you author a 90 00:04:56,100 --> 00:04:59,460 survey or study in your industry, and you put it out 91 00:04:59,460 --> 00:05:03,270 there And in the case of the auto repair shop in 92 00:05:03,270 --> 00:05:06,030 Pennsylvania, they got like about a dozen auto trade 93 00:05:06,030 --> 00:05:09,360 publications picked it up, many numerous newspapers picked it 94 00:05:09,360 --> 00:05:12,060 up, including their local newspaper. And it did 95 00:05:12,060 --> 00:05:15,270 phenomenally well. And they're not experts in the auto 96 00:05:15,270 --> 00:05:18,540 industry. But they are the expert of that survey, they put 97 00:05:18,540 --> 00:05:21,930 together the questions, I gave some input, I told him to put a 98 00:05:21,930 --> 00:05:24,630 couple of crazy questions in there, I'll always recommend 99 00:05:24,630 --> 00:05:26,940 that, you know, put your standard questions that people 100 00:05:26,940 --> 00:05:30,540 would like to know right now. But also throw in one or two odd 101 00:05:30,540 --> 00:05:33,510 balls, and the one we put in that one that did really well 102 00:05:33,510 --> 00:05:36,630 was What's the strangest thing and customer left in their car 103 00:05:36,690 --> 00:05:39,330 while being repaired. And we just left it where people could 104 00:05:39,330 --> 00:05:43,470 put about two sentences. And we got lots of crazy anecdotes. And 105 00:05:43,470 --> 00:05:46,650 that was what went viral people really resonated with these 106 00:05:46,650 --> 00:05:50,280 crazy stories of boa constrictors, Grandma being left 107 00:05:50,280 --> 00:05:54,840 in an urn, all of these little things, and, you know, we we, as 108 00:05:54,870 --> 00:05:58,440 readers, and an audience, you know, those stories are cool, 109 00:05:58,440 --> 00:06:02,610 they're interesting, and that is newsworthy, and you can, you 110 00:06:02,610 --> 00:06:06,120 know, author that study, you don't even have to have, you 111 00:06:06,120 --> 00:06:09,000 know, leads in this case, they didn't know who to send it to, 112 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:13,440 we knew we wanted to get auto, other auto trade companies 113 00:06:13,470 --> 00:06:17,130 involved repair centers involved. And so we just reached 114 00:06:17,130 --> 00:06:19,980 out to an independent trade association and said, Could you 115 00:06:19,980 --> 00:06:22,980 send a survey to your members will mention you in the press 116 00:06:22,980 --> 00:06:26,190 release. And they said, Sure, you know, the smaller and more 117 00:06:26,190 --> 00:06:29,730 independent trade associations are much more receptive to that, 118 00:06:29,730 --> 00:06:33,120 because all the large trade associations get all the love 119 00:06:33,120 --> 00:06:36,210 and the media hype out there. So if you're willing to promote 120 00:06:36,210 --> 00:06:40,080 them a little bit, you know, go for it. In some cases, you may 121 00:06:40,080 --> 00:06:43,260 want to even consider co branding, the survey between you 122 00:06:43,260 --> 00:06:46,470 and the trade association. So just try to look for win wins 123 00:06:46,470 --> 00:06:50,760 like that places where you could be more strategic, if you have a 124 00:06:50,760 --> 00:06:55,950 viewpoint that is contrarian, or you can rationally come across 125 00:06:55,950 --> 00:06:59,550 with a contrarian viewpoint on an industry hot button, you 126 00:06:59,550 --> 00:07:02,940 stand a much higher chance of getting media pickup, whenever 127 00:07:02,940 --> 00:07:06,240 anyone your industry talks about it, because so many people tend 128 00:07:06,240 --> 00:07:09,120 to go with the prevailing thoughts, and what the trends 129 00:07:09,120 --> 00:07:12,990 are. And if everybody's moving forward, in the auto industry, 130 00:07:12,990 --> 00:07:15,630 there, everybody's moving pro electric car. But if you're the 131 00:07:15,630 --> 00:07:18,540 rational person saying, you know, not so fast, you know, 132 00:07:18,540 --> 00:07:21,450 there's a lot of things that have to be solved. We don't know 133 00:07:21,450 --> 00:07:23,520 what we're going to do with these batteries at the end of 134 00:07:23,520 --> 00:07:26,550 their life. From an environmental standpoint, and 135 00:07:26,550 --> 00:07:29,520 recycling standpoint, there's the minerals that make up these 136 00:07:29,520 --> 00:07:33,780 batteries, the labor practices and the environmental hazards of 137 00:07:33,840 --> 00:07:37,530 mining, these are very difficult questions that we kind of need 138 00:07:37,530 --> 00:07:40,920 to solve first. And you don't come across as crazy. But it's a 139 00:07:40,920 --> 00:07:44,130 viewpoint that will every time a journalist covers a subject, and 140 00:07:44,130 --> 00:07:48,090 they should be objective, and cover all sides, they have a go 141 00:07:48,090 --> 00:07:51,360 to, for the con side, the person who's pointing out the negative. 142 00:07:51,420 --> 00:07:54,570 And that could be you. And you could get a lot a lot of 143 00:07:54,570 --> 00:07:57,480 coverage out of that as compared to one of the people who just 144 00:07:57,480 --> 00:08:00,330 going along and rubber stamping what everyone else is saying. 145 00:08:01,260 --> 00:08:01,590 And 146 00:08:01,589 --> 00:08:04,229 Robert Plank: that's a lot to think about just in the the 147 00:08:04,259 --> 00:08:07,409 first half of our discussion here. And I can, this seems like 148 00:08:07,409 --> 00:08:09,959 a lot of fun. And I can tell that you have a lot of fun to 149 00:08:09,959 --> 00:08:13,229 kind of being creative and thinking outside the box. So 150 00:08:13,229 --> 00:08:17,639 you're saying that, that we can write our press release 151 00:08:17,639 --> 00:08:20,639 ourselves, that's kind of the easy part. And that he 152 00:08:20,639 --> 00:08:23,579 releases.com is the place to go there and look at some of the 153 00:08:23,579 --> 00:08:27,749 samples. And you're saying that we should be kind of thinking 154 00:08:27,779 --> 00:08:30,809 are paying attention to like things that are like kind of 155 00:08:30,809 --> 00:08:34,469 sort of newsworthy, so not just an internal organizational 156 00:08:34,469 --> 00:08:38,789 change. No one cares about that. But if there is something like 157 00:08:38,789 --> 00:08:41,549 fun and interesting and exciting, and something that's 158 00:08:41,549 --> 00:08:45,089 maybe a little weird, or maybe a little funny, or something that 159 00:08:45,119 --> 00:08:49,199 you could see appearing on the local news or being mentioned, 160 00:08:49,199 --> 00:08:52,109 maybe something of that nature, that's kind of the vibe I got, 161 00:08:52,139 --> 00:08:55,109 like when you said that there's that survey, they're up what are 162 00:08:55,109 --> 00:08:57,899 the weirdest things people left in their car, that seems like 163 00:08:57,899 --> 00:09:00,779 kind of like a like a local news thing that they might put neck 164 00:09:00,779 --> 00:09:04,679 near near the end of the of the program, as far as like what's 165 00:09:04,679 --> 00:09:08,339 happened in this mindset of what goes viral? And what would 166 00:09:08,759 --> 00:09:12,659 people be be like? What would the masses be sharing, who maybe 167 00:09:12,749 --> 00:09:17,249 are themselves not, not, at the very moment interested in 168 00:09:17,279 --> 00:09:19,709 getting their car service, but could share it and then it could 169 00:09:19,709 --> 00:09:23,969 get kind of the wider audience there. And so so this is all 170 00:09:23,969 --> 00:09:26,429 really fun to think about, and especially kind of how you kind 171 00:09:26,429 --> 00:09:29,879 of have this than multi part strategy of sometimes even 172 00:09:29,879 --> 00:09:33,359 saying, Well, I want to do that this survey, and I don't maybe 173 00:09:33,359 --> 00:09:36,959 even have enough of a traffic or audience or a list to do the 174 00:09:36,959 --> 00:09:40,409 sugar myself, but I can kind of partner with someone else and 175 00:09:40,409 --> 00:09:43,679 tap into their audience, talk to this association, and then use 176 00:09:43,679 --> 00:09:46,259 them and then and it works in so many ways, right? Because you 177 00:09:46,259 --> 00:09:49,619 kind of use the association to get your your news or your press 178 00:09:49,619 --> 00:09:52,799 release figured out and you mentioned them plus you get this 179 00:09:52,799 --> 00:09:55,289 sort of connection figured out and in a way you mean you've 180 00:09:55,289 --> 00:09:57,389 helped them too. So that's something else to circle back 181 00:09:57,389 --> 00:10:01,019 around. And I love stuff like that. I love how and especially 182 00:10:01,019 --> 00:10:05,069 with the PR guys like you, you kind of have like a multi step 183 00:10:05,069 --> 00:10:07,889 strategy like I heard one. So and I don't even know what it 184 00:10:07,889 --> 00:10:10,199 means, but it stuck with him for all these years of this guy 185 00:10:10,199 --> 00:10:13,829 saying, Well, if you're going to be doing this thing, then put 186 00:10:13,829 --> 00:10:17,789 out a press release announcing that thing. But then a month 187 00:10:17,789 --> 00:10:20,069 before that put out a press release announcing the 188 00:10:20,069 --> 00:10:22,829 announcement, like I love things like that, where it's like, kind 189 00:10:22,829 --> 00:10:26,909 of almost gimmicky, but it serves a purpose of getting 190 00:10:26,909 --> 00:10:30,329 people's attention waking people up, like you said, they're being 191 00:10:30,359 --> 00:10:33,929 contrarian in some ways. And like following the news and 192 00:10:33,929 --> 00:10:37,679 following the trends, but not being being a me too kind of 193 00:10:37,679 --> 00:10:39,779 person as well, just saying, like, well, here's the thing 194 00:10:39,779 --> 00:10:42,959 everyone's talking about, but let me be like the little pebble 195 00:10:42,959 --> 00:10:46,589 in the road, let me be someone that is like kind of bringing, 196 00:10:46,979 --> 00:10:51,689 bringing attention to a minor issue that is relating to the 197 00:10:51,689 --> 00:10:54,629 trend that not everyone is talking about. It's really 198 00:10:54,629 --> 00:10:58,229 interesting to to think about. And so to help us kind of still 199 00:10:58,229 --> 00:11:00,779 understand the roadmap. So there's the there's like that 200 00:11:00,779 --> 00:11:05,159 press release, kind of sort of format that we can look at and 201 00:11:05,159 --> 00:11:08,129 see what works and see what it is. And then you hear a lot 202 00:11:08,129 --> 00:11:10,949 about like press release distribution, and like that 203 00:11:10,949 --> 00:11:15,179 itself is a mystery to me as well, because I sometimes see 204 00:11:15,239 --> 00:11:17,999 like different websites that do it. And I'm thinking like, Well, 205 00:11:18,149 --> 00:11:21,509 does any website work for this? And like, where does it go? Does 206 00:11:21,509 --> 00:11:24,419 it end up like this, the Associated Press get it? And 207 00:11:24,419 --> 00:11:27,509 then you also see different kind of price ranges? So can you help 208 00:11:27,509 --> 00:11:30,719 us like kind of decode that part of it? Like, where is the 209 00:11:30,899 --> 00:11:33,779 Where's the place to submit our press release? Are they all the 210 00:11:33,779 --> 00:11:36,329 same? Or some better than others? And what sort of the 211 00:11:36,329 --> 00:11:37,799 price range and what does that mean? 212 00:11:38,220 --> 00:11:42,570 Unknown: Right so in, in the US, we have three major news wires 213 00:11:42,570 --> 00:11:45,870 or press releases, it's globe news wires, the smallest 214 00:11:46,170 --> 00:11:50,250 business wires, middle of the road. And then PR Newswire, 215 00:11:50,400 --> 00:11:53,460 which is owned by scission is the oldest and largest newswire 216 00:11:53,460 --> 00:11:56,520 press releases. All of the releases that EA releases go 217 00:11:56,520 --> 00:12:01,110 through PR Newswire, the retail for the average customer to do a 218 00:12:01,110 --> 00:12:05,760 national release through PR Newswire is $1,000 for a 500 600 219 00:12:05,760 --> 00:12:10,320 word press release through E releases, because we sort of act 220 00:12:10,320 --> 00:12:13,470 as a co op for small businesses, we've developed a custom 221 00:12:13,470 --> 00:12:17,430 national distribution with PR Newswire sort of takes into 222 00:12:17,430 --> 00:12:19,950 account some of the sources we already have in our database. 223 00:12:20,460 --> 00:12:25,920 But our prices are like 269, for a new customer coming in 200 to 224 00:12:25,920 --> 00:12:30,000 400 is usually the level for distribution through us. There 225 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:34,560 are a lot of lower price people out there, they tend to do web 226 00:12:34,560 --> 00:12:39,180 only or syndicated runs. So you'll get your press release 227 00:12:39,210 --> 00:12:42,870 syndicated with a bunch of your URLs showing your press release 228 00:12:42,870 --> 00:12:46,680 on these little websites. It can be valuable from a branding 229 00:12:46,680 --> 00:12:50,370 standpoint, we could put as featured on these little ABC, 230 00:12:50,370 --> 00:12:56,190 FOX, CBS, little local stations, but no journalist saw it, nobody 231 00:12:56,190 --> 00:12:58,830 wrote anything about it. And it's not going to drive traffic 232 00:12:58,830 --> 00:13:03,870 or sales to your business. The only way for PR to do that is to 233 00:13:03,900 --> 00:13:07,200 get it to actual media and journalists. And you're going to 234 00:13:07,200 --> 00:13:12,510 have to use a service that that costs money. And you know, I 235 00:13:12,510 --> 00:13:16,920 think that globe news wires around 650 to $700. Business 236 00:13:16,920 --> 00:13:20,040 wires closer to PR Newswire in price, so it can be 237 00:13:20,040 --> 00:13:23,460 considerable. But you know, if you're a small business, or 238 00:13:23,460 --> 00:13:26,310 you're doing, you know, just a few releases a year of service, 239 00:13:26,310 --> 00:13:29,850 like E releases is is a really good fit. And there's really no 240 00:13:29,850 --> 00:13:33,420 one cheaper than us that's providing a real newswire 241 00:13:33,420 --> 00:13:37,170 distribution nationally out there, as well as the email 242 00:13:37,170 --> 00:13:39,990 distribution that we provide to journalists that are in our 243 00:13:40,020 --> 00:13:43,590 database. But if there is confusion, we have people who 244 00:13:43,590 --> 00:13:48,450 say I paid you know, $59 to go over this x xx wire or something 245 00:13:48,450 --> 00:13:52,830 like that. And it's not it never reached a journalist. And, you 246 00:13:52,830 --> 00:13:55,590 know, there were a few links that they saw where their 247 00:13:55,590 --> 00:13:59,820 release was on a few websites, but it nothing generally comes 248 00:13:59,820 --> 00:14:02,730 from that. Just to give you the flip side last year, we did a 249 00:14:02,730 --> 00:14:05,910 press release for the dining bond initiative, which was 250 00:14:05,910 --> 00:14:08,850 modeled after the war bonds where they were trying to help 251 00:14:08,880 --> 00:14:13,530 local businesses, predominantly restaurants in this case, and 252 00:14:13,770 --> 00:14:16,350 basically you would nominate your local restaurant if they 253 00:14:16,350 --> 00:14:20,760 accepted. You would basically make a donation it would go 254 00:14:20,760 --> 00:14:24,870 directly to the restaurant immediately. And you would be 255 00:14:24,870 --> 00:14:28,710 secured through dining bond or gift certificate type strategy. 256 00:14:29,880 --> 00:14:35,670 One press release it got over 150 articles New York Times 257 00:14:35,670 --> 00:14:40,740 Washington Post, all your major food, travel, magazines and 258 00:14:40,740 --> 00:14:45,420 publications picked it up. We quit counting at 150 we just 259 00:14:45,870 --> 00:14:48,660 there's a lot of little minor newspapers and other places have 260 00:14:48,660 --> 00:14:51,810 picked it up that we didn't even bother recording because you 261 00:14:51,810 --> 00:14:55,590 just had so many clips as a result of it generated millions 262 00:14:55,590 --> 00:14:58,680 of dollars in revenue to help these local businesses. One 263 00:14:58,680 --> 00:15:03,060 press release you know of what normally would have cost 269. We 264 00:15:03,060 --> 00:15:08,160 did it for free. But you know, you, that's the kind of leverage 265 00:15:08,160 --> 00:15:12,210 that is possible with PR, it's unlikely you'll ever get, you 266 00:15:12,210 --> 00:15:15,480 know, 10 plus millions of dollars from one press release. 267 00:15:15,840 --> 00:15:18,990 But it's not unusual for my clients to do a press release 268 00:15:19,080 --> 00:15:22,410 that gets favorable articles, and it drives traffic, and they 269 00:15:22,410 --> 00:15:26,610 get 10s of 1000s of dollars in sales or even more. And so you 270 00:15:26,610 --> 00:15:29,820 know, this, this leverage opportunity is where PR can 271 00:15:29,820 --> 00:15:34,200 really work. But so many people go into it, and they test one 272 00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:37,170 press release, which is not a PR campaign, you generally want to 273 00:15:37,170 --> 00:15:40,530 do between four to eight releases on different strategic 274 00:15:40,530 --> 00:15:43,680 hooks to get a feel for what works in your industry. And you 275 00:15:43,680 --> 00:15:46,290 learn from each one. And sometimes if one does really 276 00:15:46,290 --> 00:15:49,530 well, maybe you could tweak it and make it slightly different. 277 00:15:50,160 --> 00:15:53,400 In the case of the survey, I have a client, that survey 278 00:15:53,400 --> 00:15:56,730 worked really well for him. So now they do 40 surveys a year. 279 00:15:56,790 --> 00:15:59,670 Now, they're fortunate that they cover lots of little verticals, 280 00:15:59,760 --> 00:16:03,150 so they could do a survey on each little vertical as they go. 281 00:16:03,270 --> 00:16:06,840 But each one, they get between eight and 14 articles on 282 00:16:06,840 --> 00:16:10,740 average, as a result of each press release. And these are 283 00:16:10,770 --> 00:16:14,700 industry specific, their customers specific and it 284 00:16:14,700 --> 00:16:18,540 drives, you know, for them, millions of dollars in revenue, 285 00:16:19,260 --> 00:16:23,460 you know, because of their ability to recognize what good 286 00:16:23,460 --> 00:16:27,540 surveys are. And you know, right now is a right time for anybody 287 00:16:27,540 --> 00:16:30,990 to do a survey, because we've got a lot of unknowns in our 288 00:16:30,990 --> 00:16:34,440 future. So a lot of people are wondering, are things you know, 289 00:16:34,440 --> 00:16:39,060 going to go back to a lockdown? Is the economy going to slow 290 00:16:39,060 --> 00:16:43,350 down? Or is it the the worst behind us? And if you were to 291 00:16:43,350 --> 00:16:46,320 take your industries temperature right now and say, you know, 292 00:16:46,650 --> 00:16:50,280 what's your outlook? What's your spending? As far as are you 293 00:16:50,310 --> 00:16:53,520 contracting? Are you spending more? Or are you spending about 294 00:16:53,520 --> 00:16:56,310 the same? That's really useful information that people in your 295 00:16:56,310 --> 00:16:59,400 industry would want to know? So if you published a survey right 296 00:16:59,400 --> 00:17:02,280 now, and you included questions like that taking their 297 00:17:02,280 --> 00:17:05,520 temperature, do you would probably do very well. So 298 00:17:05,610 --> 00:17:09,630 anytime that there's something going on, or just, you know, 299 00:17:09,630 --> 00:17:12,810 some unknown or something within the industry, if you could take 300 00:17:12,810 --> 00:17:15,690 their temperature and their feelings about it. And you know, 301 00:17:15,690 --> 00:17:18,690 evaluate it from several different questions from several 302 00:17:18,690 --> 00:17:21,540 different perspectives, ones, maybe being financial, one being 303 00:17:21,540 --> 00:17:25,500 more emotional or psychological. And, you know, also, you could 304 00:17:25,500 --> 00:17:28,890 look at HR and hiring do you plan on hiring more, you know, 305 00:17:28,890 --> 00:17:32,730 is hiring difficult for you? We know that hiring is really 306 00:17:32,730 --> 00:17:35,700 problematic for a lot of industries right now. So again, 307 00:17:35,850 --> 00:17:38,280 you know, incorporating things like that in your questionnaire 308 00:17:38,280 --> 00:17:41,640 would probably make it something that a lot of industry trade 309 00:17:41,640 --> 00:17:45,810 publications would write about, including perhaps newspapers as 310 00:17:45,810 --> 00:17:46,980 well, that might cover that. 311 00:17:48,180 --> 00:17:50,790 Robert Plank: Yeah, and this is really cool to think about, this 312 00:17:50,790 --> 00:17:54,450 is a lot of like an outside the box kind of strategy. So it 313 00:17:54,450 --> 00:17:57,720 seems like, well, you touch on something a few minutes ago, 314 00:17:57,720 --> 00:18:00,600 which is I've been hearing that a lot more often of someone 315 00:18:00,600 --> 00:18:04,920 saying, well, x strategy didn't work. And then when you find out 316 00:18:04,920 --> 00:18:07,590 what they did was they just tried it one time, kind of like 317 00:18:07,590 --> 00:18:10,020 you said, you know, I put out a press release once and it didn't 318 00:18:10,020 --> 00:18:13,680 work. So I'll just write off all of anything PR and then and then 319 00:18:13,680 --> 00:18:16,320 someone like you would say, Well, you did it, you did it one 320 00:18:16,320 --> 00:18:20,160 time. And you were maybe even were expecting it to fail. And 321 00:18:20,160 --> 00:18:23,670 you weren't going into it with maybe a mindset of well, let me 322 00:18:23,670 --> 00:18:26,730 maybe, like tweak it later. Or let me try it four times, or 323 00:18:26,730 --> 00:18:29,700 eight times. Or let me try attacking it from from different 324 00:18:29,700 --> 00:18:32,940 angles. You just tried it once and said okay, at least I can 325 00:18:32,970 --> 00:18:35,520 check out off the bucket list and don't ever have to revisit 326 00:18:35,520 --> 00:18:38,340 it. And it's like, and you hear that with just so many different 327 00:18:38,340 --> 00:18:41,760 like traffic's kind of sources, right? Like, I tried paid ads 328 00:18:41,760 --> 00:18:44,370 didn't work, I tried SEO, it didn't work. And it's like, are 329 00:18:44,370 --> 00:18:47,400 you really gonna write off this whole, this whole mess, this 330 00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:50,700 whole tried and true industry, just because you personally 331 00:18:50,730 --> 00:18:54,120 tried it one time and didn't work. So I'm getting that kind 332 00:18:54,120 --> 00:18:57,270 of that kind of vibe from you as far as like, well, this is maybe 333 00:18:57,270 --> 00:19:01,080 something to do long term. And you might have to like, you 334 00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:03,510 know, tweak things, you might have to see something might fall 335 00:19:03,510 --> 00:19:06,690 flat, something might work. And then you can revisit that reuse 336 00:19:06,690 --> 00:19:09,630 that in a different way later. But then you're also saying that 337 00:19:09,630 --> 00:19:12,930 this is more of like a long game where don't just expect to 338 00:19:12,990 --> 00:19:15,900 launch this one and then have 10s of millions of dollars. It 339 00:19:15,900 --> 00:19:19,170 might be something that you do every few months as you as you 340 00:19:19,170 --> 00:19:21,990 kind of can chase the news, or you can figure out what kind of 341 00:19:21,990 --> 00:19:24,720 new things are happening. And and I find it interesting that 342 00:19:25,110 --> 00:19:28,020 you're kind of go to at least with some of these examples is 343 00:19:28,140 --> 00:19:31,080 the survey. And that's really cool to think about because it 344 00:19:31,080 --> 00:19:32,940 seems it seems like in especially this last couple of 345 00:19:32,940 --> 00:19:35,310 years, there's like this disconnect of it's either one 346 00:19:35,310 --> 00:19:38,610 extreme or the other. It's either Well, I heard I got this 347 00:19:38,610 --> 00:19:42,450 friend of a friend who said this about this medical issue or 348 00:19:42,450 --> 00:19:44,910 about this legal issue. And it's like, well, you're just taking 349 00:19:44,910 --> 00:19:48,270 one tiny little anecdotal story. But then the other extreme 350 00:19:48,270 --> 00:19:51,630 event, as you see, well, there's all all these, this data and all 351 00:19:51,630 --> 00:19:54,000 these things to pour over and you're thinking well, that's 352 00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:57,210 like that's equally unhelpful. So this is cool how you say 353 00:19:57,210 --> 00:20:00,930 well, by kind of meeting people in the middle Having this this 354 00:20:00,930 --> 00:20:06,300 kind of news PR kind of a splash in the water is you have the 355 00:20:06,300 --> 00:20:09,570 survey and you figure out well, am I going to talk to this 356 00:20:09,570 --> 00:20:13,530 industry, or these experts in this industry or this particular 357 00:20:13,530 --> 00:20:17,640 job type like HR people, or just like, like, you know, retail 358 00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:21,150 businesses or whoever, like, what kind of person am I going 359 00:20:21,150 --> 00:20:24,900 to contact and with the survey questions, and have some of the 360 00:20:24,900 --> 00:20:27,030 basic things and take your temperature and know what 361 00:20:27,030 --> 00:20:30,210 everyone's thinking, but then also throw in kind of the fun 362 00:20:30,210 --> 00:20:35,100 questions, too. To have the viral aspect of it, it's really 363 00:20:35,100 --> 00:20:37,860 cool to think about that there's sure there's like things, 364 00:20:37,890 --> 00:20:40,350 there's problems to be solved. And there's kind of a little bit 365 00:20:40,350 --> 00:20:43,260 of the creativity and thinking outside the box. But you've 366 00:20:43,260 --> 00:20:46,830 given us a lot of the starting points, as far as the press 367 00:20:46,830 --> 00:20:50,850 release template, and the the survey idea, like there's kind 368 00:20:50,850 --> 00:20:54,360 of a jumping off point to start off from and then we can apply 369 00:20:54,360 --> 00:20:57,870 our own magic. It's cool to think about and so in these last 370 00:20:57,870 --> 00:21:00,630 few minutes, as we're kind of getting closer to the tail end 371 00:21:00,630 --> 00:21:03,960 of our conversation here, Mickey, where do you see people 372 00:21:03,990 --> 00:21:06,390 failing with press releases, like we've covered a couple of 373 00:21:06,390 --> 00:21:09,240 bases. But if there's something where, you know, someone said, 374 00:21:09,330 --> 00:21:12,060 I've tried it before, and I failed, or I'm for I'm afraid to 375 00:21:12,060 --> 00:21:14,970 even try, because I'm worried about all the things I don't 376 00:21:14,970 --> 00:21:18,630 know, what is an easy thing to avoid failing at with press 377 00:21:18,630 --> 00:21:19,350 releases, 378 00:21:19,710 --> 00:21:23,520 Unknown: I think it's changed your perspective, the press 379 00:21:23,520 --> 00:21:26,700 release should not be self serving, while you do want to 380 00:21:26,700 --> 00:21:31,470 promote yourself, the goal of your announcement should serve 381 00:21:31,710 --> 00:21:35,250 the journalist, the journalist, again acts as a gatekeeper. And 382 00:21:35,250 --> 00:21:38,310 if you can envision that they're deciding and looking at all this 383 00:21:38,310 --> 00:21:42,390 content and saying, What would my audience be interested in? 384 00:21:42,690 --> 00:21:46,590 And if you can sort of, you know, realize that and say, 385 00:21:46,740 --> 00:21:51,600 Well, I'm announcing a new reboot of my product version 1.5 386 00:21:51,600 --> 00:21:55,800 or something, you know, that's very self serving? Is there 387 00:21:55,800 --> 00:21:59,160 something that I could put in here that would make this stand 388 00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:02,430 out and make it more, you know, resonate better with an 389 00:22:02,430 --> 00:22:07,710 audience? Is there features or highlights that I could bring in 390 00:22:07,710 --> 00:22:11,250 here to light that would make it really interesting to that 391 00:22:11,250 --> 00:22:16,800 audience? Is there a case study or a use study of something like 392 00:22:16,800 --> 00:22:19,800 this, that would really help. And therefore journalists would 393 00:22:19,800 --> 00:22:23,160 say all people in my audience would really, you know, be 394 00:22:23,160 --> 00:22:26,550 interested in something like that. So I think if you keep 395 00:22:27,630 --> 00:22:31,590 looking at the press release, as not just serving you buy this as 396 00:22:31,590 --> 00:22:34,830 news, I want to get out. But it's like news, I want to get 397 00:22:34,860 --> 00:22:38,340 out. But I have to do it through the lens of a journalist. And so 398 00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:42,360 I kind of have to reverse engineer some of what I'm 399 00:22:42,360 --> 00:22:45,630 writing to take that into account. And where are the 400 00:22:45,630 --> 00:22:48,690 opportunities in this press release to make it not serve me, 401 00:22:48,810 --> 00:22:51,360 but the journalist who really wants to provide captivating 402 00:22:51,390 --> 00:22:55,200 content to to their audience? Fantastic. 403 00:22:55,200 --> 00:22:57,630 Robert Plank: That's interesting to think about that. Is this 404 00:22:57,660 --> 00:23:00,630 this reverse engineer mentality? And it's easy, like you said, to 405 00:23:00,630 --> 00:23:05,820 just either try the strategy in quotes of throwing things to the 406 00:23:05,820 --> 00:23:08,910 wall, seeing what sticks, talking about myself, and all 407 00:23:08,910 --> 00:23:11,550 those things seemed like recipes for failure. But if you say, 408 00:23:11,550 --> 00:23:15,540 Well, what, what ended up getting the virality? What press 409 00:23:15,540 --> 00:23:18,840 releases impress me, or what press releases found their way 410 00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:22,770 to me, and then reverse engineer with that that attitude of okay, 411 00:23:22,770 --> 00:23:26,820 well, this, like you said, like the point is to get it in front 412 00:23:26,820 --> 00:23:30,120 of journalists. And sure, you could get it, get it out in the 413 00:23:30,120 --> 00:23:33,180 newswire and get it in the back pages and be able to have the 414 00:23:33,180 --> 00:23:36,210 logos of saying it was on this NBC affiliate or whatever. But 415 00:23:36,210 --> 00:23:38,700 as far as the actual goal, which is getting it in front of 416 00:23:38,700 --> 00:23:42,900 journalists, these journalists are thinking every day about the 417 00:23:42,900 --> 00:23:45,120 audience that they want to serve, they say what is my 418 00:23:45,120 --> 00:23:48,600 audience interested in? So what a concept, why not give it to 419 00:23:48,600 --> 00:23:52,110 them? And so So that's this is really cool stuff to think 420 00:23:52,110 --> 00:23:55,290 about. And we said that EA releases.com is where there are 421 00:23:55,290 --> 00:23:59,400 those press release samples. And if someone has got the itch now 422 00:23:59,400 --> 00:24:03,750 for for press releases for PR for pursuing some of this and 423 00:24:03,750 --> 00:24:06,810 actually giving it a real shot and not just saying, Let me try 424 00:24:06,810 --> 00:24:09,690 it. And then and then give up later, if someone really was 425 00:24:09,690 --> 00:24:13,170 serious about using this as a traffic tool to get more 426 00:24:13,170 --> 00:24:16,050 attention in their business of whatever kind. What's the next 427 00:24:16,050 --> 00:24:18,510 step here? Where should they go? What should they do, right? So 428 00:24:18,510 --> 00:24:21,270 Unknown: I'm gonna recommend that they go to E releases.com, 429 00:24:21,270 --> 00:24:25,920 forward slash plan PLA n. And that's a free video masterclass, 430 00:24:25,920 --> 00:24:28,740 I've got it's less than an hour, but it just goes through about 431 00:24:28,770 --> 00:24:32,400 eight strategies like the survey, like the contrarian 432 00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:35,820 approach, but their tried and true strategies that work time 433 00:24:35,820 --> 00:24:40,020 and time again. And if they were to watch that hour thinking 434 00:24:40,020 --> 00:24:44,370 about their business, and not have at least six to 12 ideas 435 00:24:44,370 --> 00:24:48,420 for their next PR campaign, then it probably is going to work for 436 00:24:48,420 --> 00:24:52,710 them. Because, you know, I've laid out what strategies work 437 00:24:52,800 --> 00:24:56,130 and if you were to look at that through you know, your business 438 00:24:56,220 --> 00:24:58,650 and how your business would apply to that. I'm sure you're 439 00:24:58,650 --> 00:25:01,680 gonna come up with brainstorm of what lots of ideas. And that's 440 00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:05,400 where I would go first, you know, come up with these great 441 00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:08,820 ideas. And if you can come up with strategic ideas, then you 442 00:25:08,820 --> 00:25:11,730 can build a PR campaign of, you know, six to eight press 443 00:25:11,730 --> 00:25:15,750 releases and see if PR works for you. And I, you know, just let 444 00:25:15,750 --> 00:25:19,260 you know, I haven't had anyone follow the model have those 445 00:25:19,260 --> 00:25:23,430 eight strategies, and not get media success with a PR campaign 446 00:25:23,430 --> 00:25:27,870 of six releases. So, and generally, the least anyone's 447 00:25:27,870 --> 00:25:32,250 ever gotten from a survey or study is four articles. And 448 00:25:32,250 --> 00:25:34,890 that's still a pretty decent amount, especially if it's a 449 00:25:34,890 --> 00:25:37,740 really good trade association. But on average, it's anywhere 450 00:25:37,740 --> 00:25:42,270 from eight to 16 is usually the average for a survey or study, 451 00:25:42,420 --> 00:25:45,390 press release that you get out there. Super 452 00:25:45,390 --> 00:25:47,880 Robert Plank: great. Well, you hear Mr. Mickey, the place to go 453 00:25:47,880 --> 00:25:51,930 is ear laces.com/plan. It's only an hour what else you're going 454 00:25:51,930 --> 00:25:54,780 to do with an hour of your life. And as Mickey said, you watch 455 00:25:54,780 --> 00:25:57,090 the video, you take it seriously, you get these eight 456 00:25:57,090 --> 00:26:00,810 strategies. And if you honestly, watch this one hour video, and 457 00:26:00,810 --> 00:26:03,300 you get nothing from it, then you're in the wrong business, 458 00:26:03,300 --> 00:26:05,910 then you should go go and work at McDonald's or something. And 459 00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:08,580 if you watch this one hour video, and you get these eight 460 00:26:08,580 --> 00:26:11,760 strategies, and you apply it, and they don't work, then give 461 00:26:11,760 --> 00:26:13,980 up on your business completely, then throw your business, your 462 00:26:13,980 --> 00:26:16,290 computer out the window, obviously, we're just kidding. 463 00:26:16,290 --> 00:26:20,520 But this press release thing, it might not seem exciting on the 464 00:26:20,520 --> 00:26:24,270 surface, but then when you dive into it, I get excited about it. 465 00:26:24,270 --> 00:26:26,640 And it's something that can be exciting. And it seems like it's 466 00:26:26,640 --> 00:26:30,060 kind of a blend between the old and the new, right? There's 467 00:26:30,060 --> 00:26:33,060 still be these huge news corporations, they're still 468 00:26:33,060 --> 00:26:35,940 these journalists. And then the press releases have also 469 00:26:35,940 --> 00:26:40,440 embraced the just the duplicate ability of virality of the 470 00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:44,220 internet. So why not use this this technique that is 471 00:26:44,310 --> 00:26:47,790 thankfully not overcrowded, but it's also proven from all these 472 00:26:47,790 --> 00:26:51,030 decades of journalism. And why not use it to get extra 473 00:26:51,030 --> 00:26:54,960 attention on your website, on your brick and mortar service on 474 00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:58,620 whatever new new hot trend you want people to be aware of. And 475 00:26:58,620 --> 00:27:01,680 it could be a fun outside the box way for you to get more 476 00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:05,310 attention on you and what you do. So run, don't walk, go right 477 00:27:05,310 --> 00:27:09,060 now. It's e releases.com. Forward slash plan, watch the 478 00:27:09,060 --> 00:27:12,090 video, get the eight strategies, you're gonna love it. And then 479 00:27:12,090 --> 00:27:15,780 you'll get the PR press release ish. And then you'll want to 480 00:27:15,780 --> 00:27:19,200 contact Mickey and his team afterwards to move things in the 481 00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:22,410 next direction and use press releases as not something you 482 00:27:22,410 --> 00:27:25,680 thought about once you tried once, but something that is a 483 00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:28,740 vital valuable part of your business moving forward, ie 484 00:27:28,740 --> 00:27:32,460 releases.com/plan. Anything else to say Mickey as we wrap up, 485 00:27:32,460 --> 00:27:34,350 wind down our conversation? No, 486 00:27:34,350 --> 00:27:36,990 Unknown: I think that's pretty much it. You know, I would just 487 00:27:36,990 --> 00:27:41,880 say PR has so much leverage capability where for a little 488 00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:45,300 bit of effort and time and a little bit of money, you can you 489 00:27:45,300 --> 00:27:50,220 know, get a factor of you know, 20 4200 times what you spend is 490 00:27:50,220 --> 00:27:55,140 possible and I see it every day and I just it just excites me 491 00:27:55,140 --> 00:27:58,440 especially when you can put the creative brainstorm together and 492 00:27:58,440 --> 00:28:00,600 come up with these great strategies that will work for 493 00:28:00,600 --> 00:28:00,870 you