December 10, 2025 • 37 mins
Looking for proof that traditional media still moves the needle? We go straight to the source with Mickie Kennedy, founder of eReleases, to unpack how press releases win coverage in a world where TikTok clips sit beside front-page headlines. Mickie shares the inside mechanics of newswires, why bloggers and influencers now receive journalist-level access, and how small brands can punch above their weight without burning their budgets.
We break down the anatomy of a high-performing press release: a sharp headline, a tight 500-word body, a quote that actually says something, and links that carry specs and visuals without clogging the story. Mickie explains why the best product announcements include a simple use case with outcomes and data, how to elevate your narrative with credible industry stats, and when to route technical details to a clean landing page. If press releases feel mysterious or outdated, this conversation resets the frame: journalists still fish in two main ponds, and your job is to show up with bait they can use.
We also dig into process. Learn how to build a small, local media Rolodex and become the expert reporters call on deadline. Get a step-by-step approach to using AI as a drafting assistant—structure first, iterate paragraph by paragraph, and spend extra time on quotes and headlines. Then steal Mickie's most reliable tactic: an industry survey release that consistently produces multiple articles and valuable backlinks. The payoff is real: earned media drives credibility, lifts conversions, and reduces churn when you share placements with leads and customers.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carl (00:04):
Welcome to Communication Connection Community, the
Podcasters Podcast.
This podcast takes a deep diveinto modern-day communication
strategies in the podcastingspace.
We chat with interesting peoplewho make the podcasting and
speaking spaces exciting andvibrant.
We also dive into thepodcasting community with news,
(00:24):
updates, latest trends andtopics from this ever-evolving
space.
Let's dive into today'sepisode.
And my guest today is MickieKennedy, an expert at helping
small businesses, authors, andstartups increase their
(00:46):
visibility and credibilitythrough tier one press release
distribution.
Mickie founded e-Releases 25plus years ago.
After realizing that smallbusinesses desperately need a
press release service, they canactually afford giving them
access to the media and to anational newswire, all with a
(01:06):
personal touch.
Mickie lives in BaltimoreCounty with his family and two
feuding cats.
He enjoys British sciencefiction.
Ooh, cool.
And acknowledges an unhealthyaddiction to diet soda.
Okay, we won't go down thatroad.
And he's also a sought-afterpodcast guest, and we're so glad
we're talking to him today.
We eat, sleep, and breathe,similar things.
(01:26):
I'm glad he's here today.
Mickie, welcome to the podcast.
Mickie (01:30):
Thanks for having me.
Glad to be here.
Carl (01:32):
So podcasting.
We're talking aboutconventional media today because
sometimes we forget thatconventional media is still
relevant in 2024 at therecording of this interview.
What brought you to podcasting?
What brought you to this spaceto talk about conventional
media?
Mickie (01:48):
Loneliness.
It was during the pandemic.
I was looking for something todo that would involve me taking
advantage of Zoom and the factthat so many people were stuck
at home.
And someone had suggested, hey,you should consider doing
podcasts.
And I was like, oh, I've neverreally done many of those.
I've I've been asked to do acouple before that.
So I sort of jumped into thatand loved the ability to just
(02:12):
talk to another human being at atime where I felt so socially
isolated.
And uh, you know, we were senthome for two weeks to flatten
the curve, and we know that thatturned into a lot more.
And I think a lot of peoplewere stuck at home.
And for me, it was uh mostly asocial outlet.
Carl (02:28):
Well, and it's certainly, I think, as you said, was that
for a lot of people, it was alsoan opportunity for people to
not knee-jerk react, but uhpivot.
It was an opportunity forpeople to pivot if for no other
reason they had to.
They had to pivot in theirbusinesses and do something
different.
And a podcast certainly,whether it be as a guest or
whether it be as a host,certainly made sense.
Obviously, you dove into theguesting seat, which is
(02:51):
phenomenal.
It's a great place.
I always say, as a guy who runsa podcasting agency, if you
don't want to hold your ownshow, at least go get on some
because it's an opportunity toget the word out there, elevate
your credibility, build yourbrand, build your business in a
platform that's still rapidlyexpanding.
So I'm glad you're here and I'mglad you're a sought-after
guest.
It's not only providingcompanionship, but your
(03:12):
messaging within this space, Ithink is so very relevant
because I don't know how youfeel, but I feel, having worked
in the media, that we'resometimes forgetting about it.
Actually, let me rephrase that.
We're not sometimes forgettingabout it.
I think more and moreconventional media is being put
out to pasture.
Whether it's fair or not, itstill has a lot of relevance.
Mickie (03:35):
Absolutely.
I feel that traditional mediais also evolving.
A lot of your newspapers havegone online, they are on the
social media platforms thatwe're using.
I see, you know, official 60minutes and lots of other places
on TikTok, and they're outthere posting their clips.
I watch more Saturday at NightLive on TikTok, and I'm
(03:56):
surprised that many of them areofficial, you know, NBC and SNL
clips.
And so I think that as long asthe media is adapting and
pivoting into these new places,I think they're gonna be okay.
I worry about the ones that theowner doesn't really understand
online and says, oh, well,we're still gonna just stick to
print only.
(04:16):
And I think that those are thepeople that are gonna find uh a
very difficult situation in thecoming years because uh if you
don't adapt and move along,you're really going to be at a
disadvantage.
I actually recall talking withPR Newswire, that's our Newswire
partner, many years ago,because I had a blogger come to
me and say, Is there any way youcould talk to PR Newswire?
(04:38):
They will not give mejournalist access to their press
releases.
And uh, you know, pressreleases are publicly available
on PR Newswire, but thejournalist access gives you the
ability to customize your feedand you can really tailor it to
exactly what you want, keywordsto exclude, keywords to include.
So it's very specific to you.
And that's the value of it.
(04:59):
And they were like, so Mickie,why should we do this?
I said, well, for one, thisperson interacts with an
audience that's bigger than theleading trade publication in
that industry.
And they're like, where do youget those numbers?
I'm like, they're right here.
I'm looking at, you know, acouple of these data points.
And when I exposed that tothem, they were really shocked
and they went back and said,You're right, we're going to
(05:19):
finally start being moreinclusive of bloggers.
And so I was pleasantlysurprised that uh they had told
me recently, I was like, Oh,yeah, we have probably more
Instagram influencers who coverfashion than regular fashion
magazines and tradepublications.
And for them, it gives themaccess to images, photos, as
(05:39):
well as uh videos of breakingfashion news.
You know, as soon as a fashionbrand sends it out, it's
available on the wire and it's avery specific place that people
aren't browsing.
And so these influencers getthat the moment it breaks and
they report it.
And, you know, probably beforemany of the trade publications,
you know, they're a little uhslow at the switch.
(06:00):
And so it really gives them ahuge advantage.
I follow someone on uh TikTokcalled SnackLator, who does a
weekly roundup new snackshitting grocery store shelves,
and he solely gets hisinformation from press releases,
and the images and photos arefrom those that are included
with the press releases.
So social media is a new mediaplatform for press releases in
(06:22):
PR.
And I think it's really amazingthat they recognize the value
of the newswire.
In the United States, we have aduopoly of press release
newswires.
It's uh Businesswire and PRNewswire.
And so journalists are fishingbasically in two ponds.
Third player, Globe Newswirewas doing well, but I think the
last 10 years hasn't been kindto journalists, and so many of
(06:44):
them are less likely to go to athird place to look for stories.
And so that they've pivoted tosay, hey, uh, if you're a
publicly traded company lookingto meet disclosure, and you
really don't want a journalistlooking too deeply into your
financials, just stick with us,you'll save a lot of money.
And that's been a nice pivotfor them.
But I think that for anybodyelse, you know, you really want
(07:04):
to be in one of those twoplaces.
And with eReleases, you get onPR Newswire and it's
substantially cheaper.
Uh they approached me probably15 years ago and said, We like
what you're doing.
I was emailing press releasesdirectly to journalists and they
said, We'd like to support you.
How about we offer you adiscounted local or you know,
city or state distribution?
And I said, No, no, thanks.
(07:26):
My customers want nationalmedia attention.
And uh, you know, they charge$1,600 for a 600-word press
release, and uh, I was charginglike $300 at the time.
And so we were so far apartthat even if they gave me a big
discount, it didn't seem like itwould work.
But uh one thing that I noticedin my talks with them is they
had mentioned they have anovernight editorial team that
(07:46):
has to be there in case there'sbreaking news or they need to
get something out to Asianmarkets.
But they said that 80, 90% ofthe time they're doing nothing.
And so I said, why don't Istart scheduling my releases for
the next business day?
And your overnight team can setthem up and format them and put
them on the wire overnight andget them prepared for release in
the morning.
(08:06):
And that way there's noadditional labor involved with
handling my releases.
And at that point, they werelike, they finally took it
seriously and gave me a pricethat I was able to do.
And so today you can do arelease through eReleases, all
of our releases go outnationally through PR Newswire,
appropriate industry and targetsand things like that.
But you're gonna pay probablyabout a third of the actual
(08:28):
retail price that you woulddirectly through the wire.
So it's a huge savings for youknow entrepreneurs, small
business owners, mom and pops,people even doing side
businesses as well as authorsand things like that.
So it's really been a greatopportunity to work with them.
And we've been a good partnerbecause we're doing 10,000 plus
releases a year, a lot ofbusiness, even though the actual
(08:49):
price point is really low as towhat we pay them.
Carl (08:52):
So they're quite happy you're providing that for them.
And they're more than happy tomeet you halfway or or meet you
somewhere in the middle.
So that I think that's onething that you one thing that
you mentioned is to somebusiness owners, to the small,
as you said, the mom and pops orthe the folks running a side
hustle or the folks who are justsmall independent businesses,
solopreneurs, they don't havedeep pockets, number one.
(09:14):
And number two is they probablyperceive the large, especially
the larger media, right?
The national uh media to be outof reach.
It's just it's not withinreach.
Why would I even considersending something unless they
absolutely have to?
And then that's where it'salmost like a again, it's a
stumbling block because theperception is it's out of reach.
(09:37):
So I'm just going to I'm justgoing to leverage my Facebook or
LinkedIn communities.
And maybe if I'm publishing abook, for example, I'll get on
some podcasts.
There's nothing wrong withthat.
I totally approve of that.
But then there are other waysto, again, like you said, get
the word out.
It's not as far away as weperceive it to be.
Mickie (09:58):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think that if you break itdown, you know, media starts
locally.
And so you're you're luckyenough to have a functioning
local paper, maybe a businessmagazine or business newspaper.
You know, there's opportunitieseven in your local market.
And when it comes to local, Ido tell people that this is some
of the easiest media for you toget.
And if you think about it, youreally are tasked with building
(10:21):
a local Rolodex.
It's probably less than 10people.
Find out who at your localpaper writes and covers your
industry.
Ask for their email address ifit's not available online or you
can't find it.
A lot of people think these arecelebrities and you can't just
ask for their email address.
No, they're members of thecommunity.
And if you approach them andsay, hey, I want to occasionally
send pictures to them, I'm alocal business, they should
(10:42):
gladly give you that emailaddress.
Same thing with the businessmagazine or business newspaper.
And uh, you know, if you're aconsumer product, maybe a
consumer magazine, we haveBaltimore magazine here, DC has
I think Washingtonian.
So just find out uh what placeslocally to you would cover you.
Even TV and radio.
If you have a product orservice that would uh you know
(11:04):
hear well or see well, maybedoing a chiropractor thing for a
fitness week or something likethat would be interesting to
crack and pop on film.
You know, reach out to the TV,ask for the producer or booker
of uh those types of segments.
And the same thing with radio.
And like I said, it's less than10 people and then just reach
out to them on a regular basis.
(11:25):
You may find that nothing muchhappens the first six to nine
months.
You doing this maybe every twoor three months, reaching out.
But after a while, you'll findthey reach out to you because
they'll work on a story andthey'll say, it would be nice to
plug in a local business here.
And I remember thischiropractor kept emailing me.
Let me go find their email andreach out to them.
And so it really is once youget hooked, you they find they
(11:48):
can get an amazing quote fromyou.
And that's one thing.
Always spend a little extratime on the quote.
And if they put you on the spotfor a quote, say, hey, give me
a little time, I can put uhsomething in writing and send it
over to you that's just gonnapop and you know, make it as
concise and as powerful as youcan.
So that quote sort of sings.
You don't have to be awordsmith, but just really
concise and powerful.
(12:09):
Say something in a sentencethat just nails it.
And uh they will appreciatethat every time because they
know if they have an amazingquote, they can build a good
article around it.
If there's a terrible quote,they can build a good article
around it, but still gonna be atthe heart of it a quote that's
just flat.
And so, you know, when I pitchpeople locally, you don't have
to send them a press release,just a few sentences of what it
(12:30):
is that you feel is importantand newsworthy at the moment,
and just maybe add a quote thereand make that quote sing
because like they if they seethat quote in a mediocre pitch,
they'll they'll gravitate todoing that if they get another
mediocre pitch with no quote ora weak quote.
So quotes are your secret.
I tell people it's like the thepill in the cheese that you
(12:52):
give the dog that it's one ofthe ways to really break
through.
And I think so few peoplerealize how powerful the quote
really is.
Carl (13:00):
Phenomenal advice and and tips on how to do that.
And I like how you'reemphasizing, yes, okay, it's
good to think on a nationallevel, think big for sure.
You know, there's a saying whenit comes to goal setting, shoot
for the moon.
Because if you miss, at leastyou're among the stars, or
there's some variation of that.
But still don't underestimatethe power of what's in your own
(13:21):
backyard, your local media,those local publications, be
they the newspaper, if yourcommunity still has a local
paper, some have closed up andthey're not as local as they
used to be.
But find out what those localpublications are.
Or, like you said, if you havea local television station or a
local radio station, I know herein Canada, they're under
mandate that they have to haveas a promise of performance to
(13:43):
have so much local content.
It can't just be, you know,music that's from all over the
place.
They have to provide so muchlocal content, be that news, be
that interviews, whatever it is.
So don't hesitate to do it.
And the worst that'll happen isyou'll get a no.
So you move on to somebodyelse.
And then the other thing I likethat you said was yes, we're
(14:04):
celebrities if we're in themedia, but we are just normal
people, especially in smallercommunities.
I, you know, when I was workingin radio, I shopped at the
grocery store that my listenersshopped at, you know what I
mean?
So we are just people, wereally are just people.
So don't hesitate to do that.
There was something else thatyou hit on, and I'm trying to
(14:25):
remember what it was.
So I'll come back to it.
But one of the questions Iwanted to ask you was you're
working a lot, you're down inthe United States, I'm in
Canada.
Do you can you serve people onboth sides of the border, or is
what you do mostly relevant topeople who are south of the
border?
Mickie (14:40):
Right.
So we do offer the ability toadd on international
distributions.
So if you were Canadian and youwanted to reach the US market,
but also reach the Canadianmarket, you could do our
distribution through us and addCanada as an international
distribution, which I know is alittle backwards if you're from
Canada.
But that's one of the ways inwhich we can serve both markets.
I will say, however, that youmay want to personally see if
(15:04):
there's a Canadian wire that'sbetter served your Canada's main
goal.
Because that for us, it is anadd-on, and it's I would say
it's lesser than like the PRNewswire distribution that we do
for that's so US centric.
But I think there was oneCanada wire or something like
that that I've heard good stuffabout.
I would probably start there ifyou're predominantly just
(15:25):
looking in the Canadian market.
Carl (15:27):
I asked that question because there are a number of
people in the entrepreneurialworld who their business knows
no boundaries.
That's the nice thing aboutwhat we discovered during COVID
is business is say universal,but business is global, right?
Depending on your business, ofcourse.
Some businesses you it's inyour own backyard.
Like if you build houses, okay,you're building them, likely in
your community and surroundingarea.
(15:49):
But I have a business that'sinternational, I have clients
all over the world.
So it would only make sensethat if I have something that
I'm promoting, that I have thatopportunity to do that.
So that's why I asked thatquestion.
Is it easy for say anindividual like me to get a hold
of you, Mickie, and say, hey,I've got this great thing I'm
doing, or it's uh this pastweek, for example, at the
(16:10):
recording of this interview wasuh International Podcast Day.
And there's probably multiplepress releases about that,
anyways.
But I just want to putsomething out there.
There is that possibility, Iguess is what I'm saying.
Mickie (16:20):
Yeah, absolutely.
And we work with a lot ofdifferent clients.
I'd say about 5% of thereleases that we do are
basically internationalcompanies that do work in the US
market and they use us uh, youknow, disseminate their news and
predominantly in the US marketbecause it's just uh, you know,
so much affordable than goingdirectly to the wire.
Carl (16:41):
I want to get down to some of the nitty-gritty because I
having worked in the media, Iknow what a press release is.
I think the average person hasan idea, but maybe there are
folks out there who aren't surethe world of press releases.
So just give me the skinny onuh what is a press release and
how do they work?
Mickie (16:58):
So a press release is just an announcement to the
media.
It's written in the thirdperson.
It's usually just the buildingblocks for a journalist to write
an article.
So you're not writing thearticle and hoping the
journalist copies and pastes it.
You're giving them thenewsworthy elements and they
will turn it into the actualarticle.
And you know, there is usuallya quote.
That's the one place where youcan write in the first person.
(17:20):
Usually it's going to bewritten in the third person, the
entirety of the press release.
It's usually signified with aheadline and a date line that
usually includes the city andstate or province of where
you're uh located, as well as uhthe actual date of
distribution.
And that's one of the biggestthings that people mess up on is
they'll put the wrong date.
And it's no problem becausewhen it goes over the wire, they
(17:43):
always, you know, we alwayschange it to the date of
distribution.
So if you're a publicly triedgiant company and you're trying
to backdate a press release, thewire's not going to let you do
that.
It always shows the date ofdistribution.
The towards the end of therelease, there's usually a
boilerplate uh section we you'llrecognize as it'll usually say
about the person or aboutcompany.
And it'll be like sort of likethe elevator pitch, the two to
(18:05):
six sentences that sort ofsummarize your business.
And uh it's a good place for ajournalist.
Let their eye linger and say,What exactly does this company
do?
Oh, okay, I get it.
This is what they do, and yeah,this is their product that
they're going in a differentmarket.
So that makes sense.
And so it really just has allthe building blocks.
Definitely want to incorporatelinks, especially if you have
pages with more information onit, like a product description
(18:28):
page or something along thoselines, as well as your website
and uh a media contact.
So a way for a journalist onunder deadline to reach you in
case they have a clarifyingquestion or they just want to
get more information aboutsomething.
Carl (18:41):
I've seen hundreds of them in in my career as a
broadcaster.
Different styles, differentlengths.
What are some tips that youwould recommend for writing a
press release that's going to beread?
I guess is because that's thething.
We we want the media to pick upthe press release and read it,
not just put it in a recyclingbin, be that virtual or
(19:04):
physical, but actually bereading it and get the
information they need from it.
So, what are some of thosequick tips that you would advise
to folks who are looking atdoing this?
Mickie (19:13):
Stay under 500 words.
I think that's appropriate foreverybody.
There are always exceptions.
I did one release that had fourfounders, and each of them had
the zaniest, most weird originstory of how they got involved
in this.
And I was like, well, here's anexception where we're going
over 500 words because I couldjust see the media being really
(19:33):
delighted with these little uhsections about each of them, how
they all ended up in this onelittle business that you would
think is not relevant to any ofthem.
But that it was one of theplaces that I felt earned more
words in that instance.
Really going to focus on thetop-down, most important
information from the top.
If you remember, you know,journalism or maybe even English
(19:54):
class, you know, try to satisfythe who, what, when, where,
how, and why of theannouncement.
So make sure you're coveringall the basis.
And, you know, try to bestrategic.
Journalists work in theirwriting a story art, they
naturally want to cover a story.
And what does that mean?
It just means that it rises andthen it falls.
(20:16):
There's a conclusion.
And uh, you know, it's it'ssomething we've learned from
being read stories in bed whenwe were little toddlers.
You instinctively know what astory is, and you also know if
someone builds up a story, maybeuh a dinner or something like
that, and then they getdistracted and don't get to
finish, you feel a let down.
And so a journalist's job is tosort of satisfy their readers
(20:38):
or viewers and uh you know, sortof talk about a product or
service and then talk about inconclusion.
Uh, if you want to learn more,you can go to this website or uh
you can find it, and you know,things like that.
That's the sort of like thetail end of their thing.
So make sure that when you aregiving them this information,
there's the building blocks fora story.
Uh, the most common pressrelease that we get at eReleases
(21:00):
is a product launch pressrelease.
And it's usually here's aproduct and here's a list of
features, here's a page to learnmore.
Not a lot for them to build astory.
One of the easiest ways topunch that up is to put a use
case story in there.
You know, if someone who's betatested it or someone that you
had try the product or servicebefore it launched, you know,
what did it look like beforethey went into it?
(21:21):
What was the outcome?
Ideally, if you have some datapoints, you know, like, hey,
this company that was strugglingafter 90 days was able to
forecast a 9% net profit.
And for them, that's you know,really big.
And here's a quote by themtalking about how easy it was to
implement or something alongthe lines of how good your
product is.
And that can really punch it upand create more the meat for
(21:45):
them to have a story to buildinto their article.
And uh also, you know, takepublicly available data points
that are out there.
Like not only does this companystruggle, the truth is 73% of
all new businesses in thissector fail within the first
five years because they can'tget these costs under control.
So that just shows the stakesof why your product or solution
(22:07):
is so important.
So think about, yeah, you'retrying to satisfy your need to
promote and get more customersand leads, but you kind of have
to also recognize thejournalist's goal of just
finding information that's goingto either educate or entertain,
or ideally both for theiraudience.
And you have to sometimes goback to your release and redraft
(22:28):
parts of it or incorporatestuff that is going to give them
more for them to be able tosay, yeah, this would be really
compelling.
I would want to share this withmy audience.
Carl (22:39):
I've found too, and thank you so much for sharing that
detailed information as to howto make a winning, how to craft
an a winning press release, onethat will get read.
I also found sometimes twothings not enough information or
not enough relevant informationto create a story about or even
even talk about as abroadcaster, you know, on the
(22:59):
air, not just in news, but justtalk about it on the air.
Great new product out.
That's all I have.
But the other thing I found wastoo much information, too much
detail, almost like it's atechnical journal type press
release that's 76 pages long.
And truncate the informationfor me.
Does that happen sometimes too,that you find there's too much
information?
Mickie (23:20):
Especially with electronics.
A lot of people want to put allthe specs and everything into
the press release.
That is quite appropriate tosend them to a product page
where all that information isavailable.
And you can clearly make youknow make that uh known in the
press release for complete specsand you know, breakdown,
including components of thisproduct.
Please visit and send them thejournalist there.
(23:42):
A journalist is not going to beoffended that they have to
click on a link for the fewpeople for whom that information
would be useful.
But for the overwhelmingmajority of people, that's going
to be a big distraction if youwere to include all of that in
that actual press release.
Carl (23:55):
Phenomenal.
I'm glad you shared that.
I'm glad it just wasn't just methat on the other side of the
desk reading them sometimes, andit would be can't believe
there's this much informationhere.
Okay.
We're in an AI-generated world.
It's very easy now for folks tojust go to Chat GPT and say,
hey, ChatGPT, write me a pressrelease for X, Y, Z.
(24:16):
So, what are some helpful tipsto leverage AI appropriately
without having it damage theintegrity of not only my
business and my brand, but eventhe press release I'm putting
out there?
Mickie (24:28):
So, number one, anything that AI writes for you, read it
and fact-check it.
Don't assume that it's allgoing to be correct.
But the big thing is becausewe're writing a press release
for the media and it's not theend product, the end product is
a journalist writing an article.
I feel AI is completelyappropriate.
Now, if I don't feelappropriate putting AI written
blog posts on my website,because you know, Google's
(24:50):
pretty smart and they can tellit's written by AI.
And Google hasn't reallydecided yet what they feel about
AI content.
You know, I think that they'relooking for is this content
engaging for visitors to awebsite before they make that
decision.
But for me personally, I justdon't want to take the chance.
Everything that I post iswritten by people.
But for the press release, it'snot the end product.
(25:10):
So I feel like, yeah, AI iscompletely appropriate.
And if you're not really goodat writing, feel free to use it
as a tool.
That being said, one of thebiggest criticisms of PR and
press releases specifically isthey don't work.
And I would be one of the firstto tell you that 97% of the
press releases that get issuedout there do not generate earned
media.
(25:30):
And so, you know, my my take onthat is focus on the 3% of
press releases that do getpicked up because there are a
lot of patterns in there, andthose are the types or believe
you should do.
For that reason, I would neverask AI to write a press release
and give it full reign of whatit's going to write about.
Always approach AI knowingspecifically what you want the
(25:51):
press release to be about andpick a strategic type of press
release.
You know, we talked about theproduct launch, but making sure
that there's a use case study,maybe some public data numbers
that you get incorporated inthere.
And there are many otherstrategic types of releases.
One of the ones that has neverfailed anybody that I've worked
with is to do an industrysurvey.
Your industry, your community,other businesses like you, and
(26:14):
then report that in a pressrelease.
The press release we usuallyfocus on one of the questions,
the biggest surprise from thesurvey, what would really just,
you know, like really rattlesome cages or really interest
people in your industry, andlink to all of the questions and
answers on a page on yourwebsite, build that out as a
resource, and you'll find that alot of places will link to you
(26:36):
and a lot of journalists will goto these other questions and
find stories there and writeabout it.
Generally, when you do that,you know, we usually see between
eight and 14 articles from thatone press release almost every
single time.
Uh, the least a customer thatI've coached has ever gotten is
four, and they were in abiometrics industry.
So they were very happy withfour.
And they said there's not a lotof people at the time that was
(26:56):
covering biometrics, at least asspecific as of a product that
they had.
And so, you know, focus on areally strategic release and
then approach the AI saying,hey, I want you to write a
release about this specifictopic.
That is the most importantthing.
Because AI has been trained onall the bad releases out there,
and so it's going to write a badand mediocre press release
(27:18):
among the 97% that don't getpicked up.
Just like poetry.
Backstory.
I was trained as a poet incollege and graduate school.
I went to a creative writingprogram uh specializing in
poetry.
And I've looked at AI andpoetry, and it writes the worst
poetry.
Even when you tell it not torhyme and use free verse, AI is
horrible at it because it's beentrained on the 97% of poems out
(27:40):
there on the internet.
Actually, I'd probably say 99%of the poems that are on the
internet are mostly justuser-submitted stuff and they're
not good.
And even when I tell it toinvoke a style of really
well-known poets with a legacyof a lot of content that's on
the internet, it's still notvery good.
But that being said, tell theAI what the subject of the press
(28:00):
release is and then say, howwould you structure a press
release like this?
Have it then organize thestructure and what should be
covered with each.
Then have it build that pieceby piece.
Say, okay, now give me 10headline options for this press
release.
And if you're happy with one ofthose, you can then move on.
If not, say, hey, the closestthat you got was this one.
(28:22):
Rewrite 10 headlines or fiveheadlines similar to this, but
give me different options.
And then break it to now writethe first paragraph, the opening
paragraph of this pressrelease.
And if there's something youfeel like should have been in
that first paragraph, becausewe're going to work top down,
most important thing first thatthey didn't cover.
Hey, you didn't really includethis, give me that.
(28:43):
And then when it gives youthat, say, okay, now give me
three versions of that sameparagraph.
But you know, pause betweeneach paragraph and say, what
could I do or leverage here thatwould make this next paragraph
even stronger or more invitingor intriguing for a journalist?
When you ask AI to slow downand pause and think with an
(29:05):
actual activity betweenversions, you really get good
stuff.
If you just say, give me threeversions of that paragraph,
it'll spit out three versions.
They're all going to be verysimilar.
But when you tell it to pauseand actually try to improve upon
what they just did, I find theresults are so much better.
And then just approach thatparagraph by paragraph and spend
a little time on the quote.
(29:25):
You may find that you may haveto get in there and really juice
up the quote a little bitbecause again, I've mentioned
the quote is one of thestrongest things that can really
make your press release or evena pitch stand out.
So spend a little time withthat.
Spend a little time with yourheadline.
And uh at the end of it, Ithink you can end up with a
really good thing.
I've talked about how I do it,and it seems like oh, that's a
(29:46):
lot of work.
I do these on average between12 and 20 minutes.
I'll take example pressreleases where I had a customer,
you know, tell us what theywant announced and been able to
build it out.
And it the most I've ever takenis 22 minutes, and it was The
one company had four foundersand they each had like really,
really interesting stories.
Like it was a tech business,but one was a journalist.
(30:07):
I think one was a clown, aprofessional clown.
But they were all just reallyweird how they all ended up
bringing a little bit of theirexperience and uh creativity and
polish.
And it just worked seamlesslyto build out an amazing little
product.
And uh so I felt like we had tospend a little time there on
each of their stories because itI felt like that would be
(30:28):
really a great entry for mediaoutlet to cover.
And uh so I say AI is good,lean on it, ask it to pause and
give it an activity, like youknow, how can you improve on the
next version that you give meis is a good enough activity for
it to pause and consider.
And uh, I think you can reallyfind that if you beat it up a
little bit, AI can really comeup with a great press release
(30:50):
for you.
Carl (30:51):
Wow.
Oh my goodness, some amazinginsights, Mickie, on the world
of press releases and theirvalue, certainly ways to go
about it, not just doing it, butsome tips for doing it right,
leveraging AI.
I've got a very gooddescription there.
And and I like how youreinforce this doesn't need to
take hours upon hours.
It it can take, as you said, 22minutes, 30 minutes, whatever.
(31:13):
It shouldn't consume your wholelife, but definitely do take
the time to do that.
So, oh my goodness, we couldprobably chat all day about this
because as I said, havingworked in the media, I've seen
several of them.
I could show you battle scarsfrom some of the ones I haven't
recovered from, and you probablyhave stories too, but we'll
save that for another day.
How can people reach out toyou?
How can they get a hold of you?
(31:33):
What's the how can you supportthem on their journey?
What's the sure?
Mickie (31:38):
So our website is ereleases.com.
All of my social media is onthe lower right.
We're accessible by email,chat, and by phone.
And it's only editors, you'renever gonna deal with
salespeople at eReleases.
Uh, and they're all, you know,empowered to tell you if we
don't feel like we would be agood fit working for you.
But we help people with theirfirst press release, their first
(31:59):
PR campaign every day.
And to that end, uh speaking offirst uh PR campaigns, I always
tell people if you're gonnajudge PR, don't judge it by one
press release.
You want to do a PR campaign ofsix to eight releases, and that
way you're trying differentapproaches and trying to figure
out what the media will engagewith, because the media is not
going to engage with every pressrelease.
But if you try differentstrategic approaches, and to
(32:21):
that aim, I have a masterclassthat's completely free on the
strategic types of releases thatdo get picked up.
So I'm talking about the 3% ofreleases that do get picked up
time and time again.
There are many patterns withinthem.
I mentioned briefly the survey,but there's several others that
uh you can look at, and that'sat ereleases.com/plan. P.L.A.N.
(32:42):
And again, completely free.
And it's uh a video that's lessthan an hour because I think I
had signed up for a class twoyears ago, and when I got it, it
was 60 hours of video.
And I just like I don't havethe time or bandwidth for this.
And so I knew that if I didthis masterclass, I have to
realize I'm competing againstpeople who are used to you know
watching stuff on TikTok andInstagram reels and things like
(33:05):
that.
So I made it very accessible.
It's less than an hour-longvideo, and you should be able to
walk away with at least half adozen strategic ideas of press
releases you could be doing foryou and your business.
And uh I look forward to peoplegiving PR a try because when
you do get picked up with earnedmedia, it's like credibility
through the roof.
(33:26):
People really see you aselevated and they want to work
with you and support you.
You know, it's not unusual formy customers to get traffic that
converts from these articles at50%.
And you know, I know mostpeople who have landing pages
that don't even do 5% conversionrates.
So there is something magicalthat happens when a journalist
writes about you.
(33:47):
It does create this sort oflike radius of trust.
And uh that's very valuable andsomething that uh works with
the leads and customers thatcome from the article.
But then if you take that linkand share it with your own
leads, you're gonna convert morepeople than you normally do.
You take that link and youshare it with your customers,
you're gonna reduce your churnrate because people who are
always like, I've liked workingwith this company, but maybe we
(34:08):
should consider someone elsejust to shop around this year,
they're gonna say, nah, we'rewith the right company if they
read that article and uh getthat sort of emotional response
to it.
Carl (34:18):
And of course, if you do have questions or challenges or
you need to tap into Mickie'sservices, don't hesitate to
reach out to him.
But thank you.
That masterclass uh is aphenomenal opportunity there.
And I like how you said thatthere are others that are going
for like it's almost like a warin peace version of a
masterclass.
So thank you for keeping itnice and simple for our
(34:39):
listeners.
So I really, really appreciatethat.
And I'm glad we've spent thistime together.
It's been an amazingconversation.
Mickie Kennedy, before I turnyou lease, dive into press
releases.
I'll give you the finalthought.
Mickie (34:51):
I would just say when it comes to PR, there's a lot of
people that just feel I'm notready yet.
I'm not big enough, a largeenough company to matter.
And the truth is thejournalists don't like covering
very well-funded largecompanies.
They have to, especially ifyou're Google and Microsoft, but
they don't get a lot of sharesof their articles when they
cover those companies, and theydon't get a lot of accolades.
(35:12):
But when they cover orhighlight, spotlight small
business that no one knows aboutthat has a really valuable tool
that's relevant for theindustry that they report on,
they do get lots of shares andthey get lots of people saying,
I'd never heard of this company.
And many of these companies arejust, you know, one person
running it, or it's a very smallbusiness.
Sometimes it's just a sidehustle for someone hoping they
(35:33):
can turn it into a real company.
And so don't feel that beingtoo small is a disadvantage when
it comes to PR, it is actuallya superpower and actually is one
of the reasons that journalistsoften gravitate towards these
small, new, unknown businessesand solopreneurs.
Carl (35:50):
And we'll leave it right there.
Mickie Kennedy, thank you somuch for being my guest today.
Mickie (35:55):
Oh, you're very welcome.
Thank you.
Carl (35:58):
And hey, thank you for being a part of the show today.
So glad you could join us.
Believe it or not, I can't workthis magic by myself.
So thanks to my amazing team,our audio engineer Dom Carilo,
our sonic writing genius KentonDobrowolski, and the person who
works the arms, all of our armsactually, our project manager
and my trusty assistant,Julovell Tiongco, known to us
(36:18):
here simply as July.
If you like what you heardtoday, let us know.
You can leave us a comment orreview or even send us a voice
note.
And if you really liked it, wehope you'll share it with your
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If you don't like what youheard today, well, please feel
free to share it with yourenemies.
And if you know of someone whowould make a great guest on the
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You can get in touch with us bygoing to our show notes where
(36:41):
all of our connection points arethere, including the links to
our website, LinkedIn, andFacebook as well.
And if you're ready to be aguest on podcasts, or even start
your own show, let's have aconversation.
We'll show you the simplest wayto get into the podcasting
space and rock it.
Because after all, we'rePodcast Solutions Made Simple.
Catch again next time.
Welcome to Communication Connection Community, the
Podcasters Podcast.
This podcast takes a deep diveinto modern-day communication
strategies in the podcastingspace.
We chat with interesting peoplewho make the podcasting and
speaking spaces exciting andvibrant.
We also dive into thepodcasting community with news,
(00:24):
updates, latest trends andtopics from this ever-evolving
space.
Let's dive into today'sepisode.
And my guest today is MickieKennedy, an expert at helping
small businesses, authors, andstartups increase their
(00:46):
visibility and credibilitythrough tier one press release
distribution.
Mickie founded e-Releases 25plus years ago.
After realizing that smallbusinesses desperately need a
press release service, they canactually afford giving them
access to the media and to anational newswire, all with a
(01:06):
personal touch.
Mickie lives in BaltimoreCounty with his family and two
feuding cats.
He enjoys British sciencefiction.
Ooh, cool.
And acknowledges an unhealthyaddiction to diet soda.
Okay, we won't go down thatroad.
And he's also a sought-afterpodcast guest, and we're so glad
we're talking to him today.
We eat, sleep, and breathe,similar things.
(01:26):
I'm glad he's here today.
Mickie, welcome to the podcast.
Mickie (01:30):
Thanks for having me.
Glad to be here.
Carl (01:32):
So podcasting.
We're talking aboutconventional media today because
sometimes we forget thatconventional media is still
relevant in 2024 at therecording of this interview.
What brought you to podcasting?
What brought you to this spaceto talk about conventional
media?
Mickie (01:48):
Loneliness.
It was during the pandemic.
I was looking for something todo that would involve me taking
advantage of Zoom and the factthat so many people were stuck
at home.
And someone had suggested, hey,you should consider doing
podcasts.
And I was like, oh, I've neverreally done many of those.
I've I've been asked to do acouple before that.
So I sort of jumped into thatand loved the ability to just
(02:12):
talk to another human being at atime where I felt so socially
isolated.
And uh, you know, we were senthome for two weeks to flatten
the curve, and we know that thatturned into a lot more.
And I think a lot of peoplewere stuck at home.
And for me, it was uh mostly asocial outlet.
Carl (02:28):
Well, and it's certainly, I think, as you said, was that
for a lot of people, it was alsoan opportunity for people to
not knee-jerk react, but uhpivot.
It was an opportunity forpeople to pivot if for no other
reason they had to.
They had to pivot in theirbusinesses and do something
different.
And a podcast certainly,whether it be as a guest or
whether it be as a host,certainly made sense.
Obviously, you dove into theguesting seat, which is
(02:51):
phenomenal.
It's a great place.
I always say, as a guy who runsa podcasting agency, if you
don't want to hold your ownshow, at least go get on some
because it's an opportunity toget the word out there, elevate
your credibility, build yourbrand, build your business in a
platform that's still rapidlyexpanding.
So I'm glad you're here and I'mglad you're a sought-after
guest.
It's not only providingcompanionship, but your
(03:12):
messaging within this space, Ithink is so very relevant
because I don't know how youfeel, but I feel, having worked
in the media, that we'resometimes forgetting about it.
Actually, let me rephrase that.
We're not sometimes forgettingabout it.
I think more and moreconventional media is being put
out to pasture.
Whether it's fair or not, itstill has a lot of relevance.
Mickie (03:35):
Absolutely.
I feel that traditional mediais also evolving.
A lot of your newspapers havegone online, they are on the
social media platforms thatwe're using.
I see, you know, official 60minutes and lots of other places
on TikTok, and they're outthere posting their clips.
I watch more Saturday at NightLive on TikTok, and I'm
(03:56):
surprised that many of them areofficial, you know, NBC and SNL
clips.
And so I think that as long asthe media is adapting and
pivoting into these new places,I think they're gonna be okay.
I worry about the ones that theowner doesn't really understand
online and says, oh, well,we're still gonna just stick to
print only.
(04:16):
And I think that those are thepeople that are gonna find uh a
very difficult situation in thecoming years because uh if you
don't adapt and move along,you're really going to be at a
disadvantage.
I actually recall talking withPR Newswire, that's our Newswire
partner, many years ago,because I had a blogger come to
me and say, Is there any way youcould talk to PR Newswire?
(04:38):
They will not give mejournalist access to their press
releases.
And uh, you know, pressreleases are publicly available
on PR Newswire, but thejournalist access gives you the
ability to customize your feedand you can really tailor it to
exactly what you want, keywordsto exclude, keywords to include.
So it's very specific to you.
And that's the value of it.
(04:59):
And they were like, so Mickie,why should we do this?
I said, well, for one, thisperson interacts with an
audience that's bigger than theleading trade publication in
that industry.
And they're like, where do youget those numbers?
I'm like, they're right here.
I'm looking at, you know, acouple of these data points.
And when I exposed that tothem, they were really shocked
and they went back and said,You're right, we're going to
(05:19):
finally start being moreinclusive of bloggers.
And so I was pleasantlysurprised that uh they had told
me recently, I was like, Oh,yeah, we have probably more
Instagram influencers who coverfashion than regular fashion
magazines and tradepublications.
And for them, it gives themaccess to images, photos, as
(05:39):
well as uh videos of breakingfashion news.
You know, as soon as a fashionbrand sends it out, it's
available on the wire and it's avery specific place that people
aren't browsing.
And so these influencers getthat the moment it breaks and
they report it.
And, you know, probably beforemany of the trade publications,
you know, they're a little uhslow at the switch.
(06:00):
And so it really gives them ahuge advantage.
I follow someone on uh TikTokcalled SnackLator, who does a
weekly roundup new snackshitting grocery store shelves,
and he solely gets hisinformation from press releases,
and the images and photos arefrom those that are included
with the press releases.
So social media is a new mediaplatform for press releases in
(06:22):
PR.
And I think it's really amazingthat they recognize the value
of the newswire.
In the United States, we have aduopoly of press release
newswires.
It's uh Businesswire and PRNewswire.
And so journalists are fishingbasically in two ponds.
Third player, Globe Newswirewas doing well, but I think the
last 10 years hasn't been kindto journalists, and so many of
(06:44):
them are less likely to go to athird place to look for stories.
And so that they've pivoted tosay, hey, uh, if you're a
publicly traded company lookingto meet disclosure, and you
really don't want a journalistlooking too deeply into your
financials, just stick with us,you'll save a lot of money.
And that's been a nice pivotfor them.
But I think that for anybodyelse, you know, you really want
(07:04):
to be in one of those twoplaces.
And with eReleases, you get onPR Newswire and it's
substantially cheaper.
Uh they approached me probably15 years ago and said, We like
what you're doing.
I was emailing press releasesdirectly to journalists and they
said, We'd like to support you.
How about we offer you adiscounted local or you know,
city or state distribution?
And I said, No, no, thanks.
(07:26):
My customers want nationalmedia attention.
And uh, you know, they charge$1,600 for a 600-word press
release, and uh, I was charginglike $300 at the time.
And so we were so far apartthat even if they gave me a big
discount, it didn't seem like itwould work.
But uh one thing that I noticedin my talks with them is they
had mentioned they have anovernight editorial team that
(07:46):
has to be there in case there'sbreaking news or they need to
get something out to Asianmarkets.
But they said that 80, 90% ofthe time they're doing nothing.
And so I said, why don't Istart scheduling my releases for
the next business day?
And your overnight team can setthem up and format them and put
them on the wire overnight andget them prepared for release in
the morning.
(08:06):
And that way there's noadditional labor involved with
handling my releases.
And at that point, they werelike, they finally took it
seriously and gave me a pricethat I was able to do.
And so today you can do arelease through eReleases, all
of our releases go outnationally through PR Newswire,
appropriate industry and targetsand things like that.
But you're gonna pay probablyabout a third of the actual
(08:28):
retail price that you woulddirectly through the wire.
So it's a huge savings for youknow entrepreneurs, small
business owners, mom and pops,people even doing side
businesses as well as authorsand things like that.
So it's really been a greatopportunity to work with them.
And we've been a good partnerbecause we're doing 10,000 plus
releases a year, a lot ofbusiness, even though the actual
(08:49):
price point is really low as towhat we pay them.
Carl (08:52):
So they're quite happy you're providing that for them.
And they're more than happy tomeet you halfway or or meet you
somewhere in the middle.
So that I think that's onething that you one thing that
you mentioned is to somebusiness owners, to the small,
as you said, the mom and pops orthe the folks running a side
hustle or the folks who are justsmall independent businesses,
solopreneurs, they don't havedeep pockets, number one.
(09:14):
And number two is they probablyperceive the large, especially
the larger media, right?
The national uh media to be outof reach.
It's just it's not withinreach.
Why would I even considersending something unless they
absolutely have to?
And then that's where it'salmost like a again, it's a
stumbling block because theperception is it's out of reach.
(09:37):
So I'm just going to I'm justgoing to leverage my Facebook or
LinkedIn communities.
And maybe if I'm publishing abook, for example, I'll get on
some podcasts.
There's nothing wrong withthat.
I totally approve of that.
But then there are other waysto, again, like you said, get
the word out.
It's not as far away as weperceive it to be.
Mickie (09:58):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think that if you break itdown, you know, media starts
locally.
And so you're you're luckyenough to have a functioning
local paper, maybe a businessmagazine or business newspaper.
You know, there's opportunitieseven in your local market.
And when it comes to local, Ido tell people that this is some
of the easiest media for you toget.
And if you think about it, youreally are tasked with building
(10:21):
a local Rolodex.
It's probably less than 10people.
Find out who at your localpaper writes and covers your
industry.
Ask for their email address ifit's not available online or you
can't find it.
A lot of people think these arecelebrities and you can't just
ask for their email address.
No, they're members of thecommunity.
And if you approach them andsay, hey, I want to occasionally
send pictures to them, I'm alocal business, they should
(10:42):
gladly give you that emailaddress.
Same thing with the businessmagazine or business newspaper.
And uh, you know, if you're aconsumer product, maybe a
consumer magazine, we haveBaltimore magazine here, DC has
I think Washingtonian.
So just find out uh what placeslocally to you would cover you.
Even TV and radio.
If you have a product orservice that would uh you know
(11:04):
hear well or see well, maybedoing a chiropractor thing for a
fitness week or something likethat would be interesting to
crack and pop on film.
You know, reach out to the TV,ask for the producer or booker
of uh those types of segments.
And the same thing with radio.
And like I said, it's less than10 people and then just reach
out to them on a regular basis.
(11:25):
You may find that nothing muchhappens the first six to nine
months.
You doing this maybe every twoor three months, reaching out.
But after a while, you'll findthey reach out to you because
they'll work on a story andthey'll say, it would be nice to
plug in a local business here.
And I remember thischiropractor kept emailing me.
Let me go find their email andreach out to them.
And so it really is once youget hooked, you they find they
(11:48):
can get an amazing quote fromyou.
And that's one thing.
Always spend a little extratime on the quote.
And if they put you on the spotfor a quote, say, hey, give me
a little time, I can put uhsomething in writing and send it
over to you that's just gonnapop and you know, make it as
concise and as powerful as youcan.
So that quote sort of sings.
You don't have to be awordsmith, but just really
concise and powerful.
(12:09):
Say something in a sentencethat just nails it.
And uh they will appreciatethat every time because they
know if they have an amazingquote, they can build a good
article around it.
If there's a terrible quote,they can build a good article
around it, but still gonna be atthe heart of it a quote that's
just flat.
And so, you know, when I pitchpeople locally, you don't have
to send them a press release,just a few sentences of what it
(12:30):
is that you feel is importantand newsworthy at the moment,
and just maybe add a quote thereand make that quote sing
because like they if they seethat quote in a mediocre pitch,
they'll they'll gravitate todoing that if they get another
mediocre pitch with no quote ora weak quote.
So quotes are your secret.
I tell people it's like the thepill in the cheese that you
(12:52):
give the dog that it's one ofthe ways to really break
through.
And I think so few peoplerealize how powerful the quote
really is.
Carl (13:00):
Phenomenal advice and and tips on how to do that.
And I like how you'reemphasizing, yes, okay, it's
good to think on a nationallevel, think big for sure.
You know, there's a saying whenit comes to goal setting, shoot
for the moon.
Because if you miss, at leastyou're among the stars, or
there's some variation of that.
But still don't underestimatethe power of what's in your own
(13:21):
backyard, your local media,those local publications, be
they the newspaper, if yourcommunity still has a local
paper, some have closed up andthey're not as local as they
used to be.
But find out what those localpublications are.
Or, like you said, if you havea local television station or a
local radio station, I know herein Canada, they're under
mandate that they have to haveas a promise of performance to
(13:43):
have so much local content.
It can't just be, you know,music that's from all over the
place.
They have to provide so muchlocal content, be that news, be
that interviews, whatever it is.
So don't hesitate to do it.
And the worst that'll happen isyou'll get a no.
So you move on to somebodyelse.
And then the other thing I likethat you said was yes, we're
(14:04):
celebrities if we're in themedia, but we are just normal
people, especially in smallercommunities.
I, you know, when I was workingin radio, I shopped at the
grocery store that my listenersshopped at, you know what I
mean?
So we are just people, wereally are just people.
So don't hesitate to do that.
There was something else thatyou hit on, and I'm trying to
(14:25):
remember what it was.
So I'll come back to it.
But one of the questions Iwanted to ask you was you're
working a lot, you're down inthe United States, I'm in
Canada.
Do you can you serve people onboth sides of the border, or is
what you do mostly relevant topeople who are south of the
border?
Mickie (14:40):
Right.
So we do offer the ability toadd on international
distributions.
So if you were Canadian and youwanted to reach the US market,
but also reach the Canadianmarket, you could do our
distribution through us and addCanada as an international
distribution, which I know is alittle backwards if you're from
Canada.
But that's one of the ways inwhich we can serve both markets.
I will say, however, that youmay want to personally see if
(15:04):
there's a Canadian wire that'sbetter served your Canada's main
goal.
Because that for us, it is anadd-on, and it's I would say
it's lesser than like the PRNewswire distribution that we do
for that's so US centric.
But I think there was oneCanada wire or something like
that that I've heard good stuffabout.
I would probably start there ifyou're predominantly just
(15:25):
looking in the Canadian market.
Carl (15:27):
I asked that question because there are a number of
people in the entrepreneurialworld who their business knows
no boundaries.
That's the nice thing aboutwhat we discovered during COVID
is business is say universal,but business is global, right?
Depending on your business, ofcourse.
Some businesses you it's inyour own backyard.
Like if you build houses, okay,you're building them, likely in
your community and surroundingarea.
(15:49):
But I have a business that'sinternational, I have clients
all over the world.
So it would only make sensethat if I have something that
I'm promoting, that I have thatopportunity to do that.
So that's why I asked thatquestion.
Is it easy for say anindividual like me to get a hold
of you, Mickie, and say, hey,I've got this great thing I'm
doing, or it's uh this pastweek, for example, at the
(16:10):
recording of this interview wasuh International Podcast Day.
And there's probably multiplepress releases about that,
anyways.
But I just want to putsomething out there.
There is that possibility, Iguess is what I'm saying.
Mickie (16:20):
Yeah, absolutely.
And we work with a lot ofdifferent clients.
I'd say about 5% of thereleases that we do are
basically internationalcompanies that do work in the US
market and they use us uh, youknow, disseminate their news and
predominantly in the US marketbecause it's just uh, you know,
so much affordable than goingdirectly to the wire.
Carl (16:41):
I want to get down to some of the nitty-gritty because I
having worked in the media, Iknow what a press release is.
I think the average person hasan idea, but maybe there are
folks out there who aren't surethe world of press releases.
So just give me the skinny onuh what is a press release and
how do they work?
Mickie (16:58):
So a press release is just an announcement to the
media.
It's written in the thirdperson.
It's usually just the buildingblocks for a journalist to write
an article.
So you're not writing thearticle and hoping the
journalist copies and pastes it.
You're giving them thenewsworthy elements and they
will turn it into the actualarticle.
And you know, there is usuallya quote.
That's the one place where youcan write in the first person.
(17:20):
Usually it's going to bewritten in the third person, the
entirety of the press release.
It's usually signified with aheadline and a date line that
usually includes the city andstate or province of where
you're uh located, as well as uhthe actual date of
distribution.
And that's one of the biggestthings that people mess up on is
they'll put the wrong date.
And it's no problem becausewhen it goes over the wire, they
(17:43):
always, you know, we alwayschange it to the date of
distribution.
So if you're a publicly triedgiant company and you're trying
to backdate a press release, thewire's not going to let you do
that.
It always shows the date ofdistribution.
The towards the end of therelease, there's usually a
boilerplate uh section we you'llrecognize as it'll usually say
about the person or aboutcompany.
And it'll be like sort of likethe elevator pitch, the two to
(18:05):
six sentences that sort ofsummarize your business.
And uh it's a good place for ajournalist.
Let their eye linger and say,What exactly does this company
do?
Oh, okay, I get it.
This is what they do, and yeah,this is their product that
they're going in a differentmarket.
So that makes sense.
And so it really just has allthe building blocks.
Definitely want to incorporatelinks, especially if you have
pages with more information onit, like a product description
(18:28):
page or something along thoselines, as well as your website
and uh a media contact.
So a way for a journalist onunder deadline to reach you in
case they have a clarifyingquestion or they just want to
get more information aboutsomething.
Carl (18:41):
I've seen hundreds of them in in my career as a
broadcaster.
Different styles, differentlengths.
What are some tips that youwould recommend for writing a
press release that's going to beread?
I guess is because that's thething.
We we want the media to pick upthe press release and read it,
not just put it in a recyclingbin, be that virtual or
(19:04):
physical, but actually bereading it and get the
information they need from it.
So, what are some of thosequick tips that you would advise
to folks who are looking atdoing this?
Mickie (19:13):
Stay under 500 words.
I think that's appropriate foreverybody.
There are always exceptions.
I did one release that had fourfounders, and each of them had
the zaniest, most weird originstory of how they got involved
in this.
And I was like, well, here's anexception where we're going
over 500 words because I couldjust see the media being really
(19:33):
delighted with these little uhsections about each of them, how
they all ended up in this onelittle business that you would
think is not relevant to any ofthem.
But that it was one of theplaces that I felt earned more
words in that instance.
Really going to focus on thetop-down, most important
information from the top.
If you remember, you know,journalism or maybe even English
(19:54):
class, you know, try to satisfythe who, what, when, where,
how, and why of theannouncement.
So make sure you're coveringall the basis.
And, you know, try to bestrategic.
Journalists work in theirwriting a story art, they
naturally want to cover a story.
And what does that mean?
It just means that it rises andthen it falls.
(20:16):
There's a conclusion.
And uh, you know, it's it'ssomething we've learned from
being read stories in bed whenwe were little toddlers.
You instinctively know what astory is, and you also know if
someone builds up a story, maybeuh a dinner or something like
that, and then they getdistracted and don't get to
finish, you feel a let down.
And so a journalist's job is tosort of satisfy their readers
(20:38):
or viewers and uh you know, sortof talk about a product or
service and then talk about inconclusion.
Uh, if you want to learn more,you can go to this website or uh
you can find it, and you know,things like that.
That's the sort of like thetail end of their thing.
So make sure that when you aregiving them this information,
there's the building blocks fora story.
Uh, the most common pressrelease that we get at eReleases
(21:00):
is a product launch pressrelease.
And it's usually here's aproduct and here's a list of
features, here's a page to learnmore.
Not a lot for them to build astory.
One of the easiest ways topunch that up is to put a use
case story in there.
You know, if someone who's betatested it or someone that you
had try the product or servicebefore it launched, you know,
what did it look like beforethey went into it?
(21:21):
What was the outcome?
Ideally, if you have some datapoints, you know, like, hey,
this company that was strugglingafter 90 days was able to
forecast a 9% net profit.
And for them, that's you know,really big.
And here's a quote by themtalking about how easy it was to
implement or something alongthe lines of how good your
product is.
And that can really punch it upand create more the meat for
(21:45):
them to have a story to buildinto their article.
And uh also, you know, takepublicly available data points
that are out there.
Like not only does this companystruggle, the truth is 73% of
all new businesses in thissector fail within the first
five years because they can'tget these costs under control.
So that just shows the stakesof why your product or solution
(22:07):
is so important.
So think about, yeah, you'retrying to satisfy your need to
promote and get more customersand leads, but you kind of have
to also recognize thejournalist's goal of just
finding information that's goingto either educate or entertain,
or ideally both for theiraudience.
And you have to sometimes goback to your release and redraft
(22:28):
parts of it or incorporatestuff that is going to give them
more for them to be able tosay, yeah, this would be really
compelling.
I would want to share this withmy audience.
Carl (22:39):
I've found too, and thank you so much for sharing that
detailed information as to howto make a winning, how to craft
an a winning press release, onethat will get read.
I also found sometimes twothings not enough information or
not enough relevant informationto create a story about or even
even talk about as abroadcaster, you know, on the
(22:59):
air, not just in news, but justtalk about it on the air.
Great new product out.
That's all I have.
But the other thing I found wastoo much information, too much
detail, almost like it's atechnical journal type press
release that's 76 pages long.
And truncate the informationfor me.
Does that happen sometimes too,that you find there's too much
information?
Mickie (23:20):
Especially with electronics.
A lot of people want to put allthe specs and everything into
the press release.
That is quite appropriate tosend them to a product page
where all that information isavailable.
And you can clearly make youknow make that uh known in the
press release for complete specsand you know, breakdown,
including components of thisproduct.
Please visit and send them thejournalist there.
(23:42):
A journalist is not going to beoffended that they have to
click on a link for the fewpeople for whom that information
would be useful.
But for the overwhelmingmajority of people, that's going
to be a big distraction if youwere to include all of that in
that actual press release.
Carl (23:55):
Phenomenal.
I'm glad you shared that.
I'm glad it just wasn't just methat on the other side of the
desk reading them sometimes, andit would be can't believe
there's this much informationhere.
Okay.
We're in an AI-generated world.
It's very easy now for folks tojust go to Chat GPT and say,
hey, ChatGPT, write me a pressrelease for X, Y, Z.
(24:16):
So, what are some helpful tipsto leverage AI appropriately
without having it damage theintegrity of not only my
business and my brand, but eventhe press release I'm putting
out there?
Mickie (24:28):
So, number one, anything that AI writes for you, read it
and fact-check it.
Don't assume that it's allgoing to be correct.
But the big thing is becausewe're writing a press release
for the media and it's not theend product, the end product is
a journalist writing an article.
I feel AI is completelyappropriate.
Now, if I don't feelappropriate putting AI written
blog posts on my website,because you know, Google's
(24:50):
pretty smart and they can tellit's written by AI.
And Google hasn't reallydecided yet what they feel about
AI content.
You know, I think that they'relooking for is this content
engaging for visitors to awebsite before they make that
decision.
But for me personally, I justdon't want to take the chance.
Everything that I post iswritten by people.
But for the press release, it'snot the end product.
(25:10):
So I feel like, yeah, AI iscompletely appropriate.
And if you're not really goodat writing, feel free to use it
as a tool.
That being said, one of thebiggest criticisms of PR and
press releases specifically isthey don't work.
And I would be one of the firstto tell you that 97% of the
press releases that get issuedout there do not generate earned
media.
(25:30):
And so, you know, my my take onthat is focus on the 3% of
press releases that do getpicked up because there are a
lot of patterns in there, andthose are the types or believe
you should do.
For that reason, I would neverask AI to write a press release
and give it full reign of whatit's going to write about.
Always approach AI knowingspecifically what you want the
(25:51):
press release to be about andpick a strategic type of press
release.
You know, we talked about theproduct launch, but making sure
that there's a use case study,maybe some public data numbers
that you get incorporated inthere.
And there are many otherstrategic types of releases.
One of the ones that has neverfailed anybody that I've worked
with is to do an industrysurvey.
Your industry, your community,other businesses like you, and
(26:14):
then report that in a pressrelease.
The press release we usuallyfocus on one of the questions,
the biggest surprise from thesurvey, what would really just,
you know, like really rattlesome cages or really interest
people in your industry, andlink to all of the questions and
answers on a page on yourwebsite, build that out as a
resource, and you'll find that alot of places will link to you
(26:36):
and a lot of journalists will goto these other questions and
find stories there and writeabout it.
Generally, when you do that,you know, we usually see between
eight and 14 articles from thatone press release almost every
single time.
Uh, the least a customer thatI've coached has ever gotten is
four, and they were in abiometrics industry.
So they were very happy withfour.
And they said there's not a lotof people at the time that was
(26:56):
covering biometrics, at least asspecific as of a product that
they had.
And so, you know, focus on areally strategic release and
then approach the AI saying,hey, I want you to write a
release about this specifictopic.
That is the most importantthing.
Because AI has been trained onall the bad releases out there,
and so it's going to write a badand mediocre press release
(27:18):
among the 97% that don't getpicked up.
Just like poetry.
Backstory.
I was trained as a poet incollege and graduate school.
I went to a creative writingprogram uh specializing in
poetry.
And I've looked at AI andpoetry, and it writes the worst
poetry.
Even when you tell it not torhyme and use free verse, AI is
horrible at it because it's beentrained on the 97% of poems out
(27:40):
there on the internet.
Actually, I'd probably say 99%of the poems that are on the
internet are mostly justuser-submitted stuff and they're
not good.
And even when I tell it toinvoke a style of really
well-known poets with a legacyof a lot of content that's on
the internet, it's still notvery good.
But that being said, tell theAI what the subject of the press
(28:00):
release is and then say, howwould you structure a press
release like this?
Have it then organize thestructure and what should be
covered with each.
Then have it build that pieceby piece.
Say, okay, now give me 10headline options for this press
release.
And if you're happy with one ofthose, you can then move on.
If not, say, hey, the closestthat you got was this one.
(28:22):
Rewrite 10 headlines or fiveheadlines similar to this, but
give me different options.
And then break it to now writethe first paragraph, the opening
paragraph of this pressrelease.
And if there's something youfeel like should have been in
that first paragraph, becausewe're going to work top down,
most important thing first thatthey didn't cover.
Hey, you didn't really includethis, give me that.
(28:43):
And then when it gives youthat, say, okay, now give me
three versions of that sameparagraph.
But you know, pause betweeneach paragraph and say, what
could I do or leverage here thatwould make this next paragraph
even stronger or more invitingor intriguing for a journalist?
When you ask AI to slow downand pause and think with an
(29:05):
actual activity betweenversions, you really get good
stuff.
If you just say, give me threeversions of that paragraph,
it'll spit out three versions.
They're all going to be verysimilar.
But when you tell it to pauseand actually try to improve upon
what they just did, I find theresults are so much better.
And then just approach thatparagraph by paragraph and spend
a little time on the quote.
(29:25):
You may find that you may haveto get in there and really juice
up the quote a little bitbecause again, I've mentioned
the quote is one of thestrongest things that can really
make your press release or evena pitch stand out.
So spend a little time withthat.
Spend a little time with yourheadline.
And uh at the end of it, Ithink you can end up with a
really good thing.
I've talked about how I do it,and it seems like oh, that's a
(29:46):
lot of work.
I do these on average between12 and 20 minutes.
I'll take example pressreleases where I had a customer,
you know, tell us what theywant announced and been able to
build it out.
And it the most I've ever takenis 22 minutes, and it was The
one company had four foundersand they each had like really,
really interesting stories.
Like it was a tech business,but one was a journalist.
(30:07):
I think one was a clown, aprofessional clown.
But they were all just reallyweird how they all ended up
bringing a little bit of theirexperience and uh creativity and
polish.
And it just worked seamlesslyto build out an amazing little
product.
And uh so I felt like we had tospend a little time there on
each of their stories because itI felt like that would be
(30:28):
really a great entry for mediaoutlet to cover.
And uh so I say AI is good,lean on it, ask it to pause and
give it an activity, like youknow, how can you improve on the
next version that you give meis is a good enough activity for
it to pause and consider.
And uh, I think you can reallyfind that if you beat it up a
little bit, AI can really comeup with a great press release
(30:50):
for you.
Carl (30:51):
Wow.
Oh my goodness, some amazinginsights, Mickie, on the world
of press releases and theirvalue, certainly ways to go
about it, not just doing it, butsome tips for doing it right,
leveraging AI.
I've got a very gooddescription there.
And and I like how youreinforce this doesn't need to
take hours upon hours.
It it can take, as you said, 22minutes, 30 minutes, whatever.
(31:13):
It shouldn't consume your wholelife, but definitely do take
the time to do that.
So, oh my goodness, we couldprobably chat all day about this
because as I said, havingworked in the media, I've seen
several of them.
I could show you battle scarsfrom some of the ones I haven't
recovered from, and you probablyhave stories too, but we'll
save that for another day.
How can people reach out toyou?
How can they get a hold of you?
(31:33):
What's the how can you supportthem on their journey?
What's the sure?
Mickie (31:38):
So our website is ereleases.com.
All of my social media is onthe lower right.
We're accessible by email,chat, and by phone.
And it's only editors, you'renever gonna deal with
salespeople at eReleases.
Uh, and they're all, you know,empowered to tell you if we
don't feel like we would be agood fit working for you.
But we help people with theirfirst press release, their first
(31:59):
PR campaign every day.
And to that end, uh speaking offirst uh PR campaigns, I always
tell people if you're gonnajudge PR, don't judge it by one
press release.
You want to do a PR campaign ofsix to eight releases, and that
way you're trying differentapproaches and trying to figure
out what the media will engagewith, because the media is not
going to engage with every pressrelease.
But if you try differentstrategic approaches, and to
(32:21):
that aim, I have a masterclassthat's completely free on the
strategic types of releases thatdo get picked up.
So I'm talking about the 3% ofreleases that do get picked up
time and time again.
There are many patterns withinthem.
I mentioned briefly the survey,but there's several others that
uh you can look at, and that'sat ereleases.com/plan. P.L.A.N.
(32:42):
And again, completely free.
And it's uh a video that's lessthan an hour because I think I
had signed up for a class twoyears ago, and when I got it, it
was 60 hours of video.
And I just like I don't havethe time or bandwidth for this.
And so I knew that if I didthis masterclass, I have to
realize I'm competing againstpeople who are used to you know
watching stuff on TikTok andInstagram reels and things like
(33:05):
that.
So I made it very accessible.
It's less than an hour-longvideo, and you should be able to
walk away with at least half adozen strategic ideas of press
releases you could be doing foryou and your business.
And uh I look forward to peoplegiving PR a try because when
you do get picked up with earnedmedia, it's like credibility
through the roof.
(33:26):
People really see you aselevated and they want to work
with you and support you.
You know, it's not unusual formy customers to get traffic that
converts from these articles at50%.
And you know, I know mostpeople who have landing pages
that don't even do 5% conversionrates.
So there is something magicalthat happens when a journalist
writes about you.
(33:47):
It does create this sort oflike radius of trust.
And uh that's very valuable andsomething that uh works with
the leads and customers thatcome from the article.
But then if you take that linkand share it with your own
leads, you're gonna convert morepeople than you normally do.
You take that link and youshare it with your customers,
you're gonna reduce your churnrate because people who are
always like, I've liked workingwith this company, but maybe we
(34:08):
should consider someone elsejust to shop around this year,
they're gonna say, nah, we'rewith the right company if they
read that article and uh getthat sort of emotional response
to it.
Carl (34:18):
And of course, if you do have questions or challenges or
you need to tap into Mickie'sservices, don't hesitate to
reach out to him.
But thank you.
That masterclass uh is aphenomenal opportunity there.
And I like how you said thatthere are others that are going
for like it's almost like a warin peace version of a
masterclass.
So thank you for keeping itnice and simple for our
(34:39):
listeners.
So I really, really appreciatethat.
And I'm glad we've spent thistime together.
It's been an amazingconversation.
Mickie Kennedy, before I turnyou lease, dive into press
releases.
I'll give you the finalthought.
Mickie (34:51):
I would just say when it comes to PR, there's a lot of
people that just feel I'm notready yet.
I'm not big enough, a largeenough company to matter.
And the truth is thejournalists don't like covering
very well-funded largecompanies.
They have to, especially ifyou're Google and Microsoft, but
they don't get a lot of sharesof their articles when they
cover those companies, and theydon't get a lot of accolades.
(35:12):
But when they cover orhighlight, spotlight small
business that no one knows aboutthat has a really valuable tool
that's relevant for theindustry that they report on,
they do get lots of shares andthey get lots of people saying,
I'd never heard of this company.
And many of these companies arejust, you know, one person
running it, or it's a very smallbusiness.
Sometimes it's just a sidehustle for someone hoping they
(35:33):
can turn it into a real company.
And so don't feel that beingtoo small is a disadvantage when
it comes to PR, it is actuallya superpower and actually is one
of the reasons that journalistsoften gravitate towards these
small, new, unknown businessesand solopreneurs.
Carl (35:50):
And we'll leave it right there.
Mickie Kennedy, thank you somuch for being my guest today.
Mickie (35:55):
Oh, you're very welcome.
Thank you.
Carl (35:58):
And hey, thank you for being a part of the show today.
So glad you could join us.
Believe it or not, I can't workthis magic by myself.
So thanks to my amazing team,our audio engineer Dom Carilo,
our sonic writing genius KentonDobrowolski, and the person who
works the arms, all of our armsactually, our project manager
and my trusty assistant,Julovell Tiongco, known to us
(36:18):
here simply as July.
If you like what you heardtoday, let us know.
You can leave us a comment orreview or even send us a voice
note.
And if you really liked it, wehope you'll share it with your
friends and your colleagues.
If you don't like what youheard today, well, please feel
free to share it with yourenemies.
And if you know of someone whowould make a great guest on the
show, let us know about it.
You can get in touch with us bygoing to our show notes where
(36:41):
all of our connection points arethere, including the links to
our website, LinkedIn, andFacebook as well.
And if you're ready to be aguest on podcasts, or even start
your own show, let's have aconversation.
We'll show you the simplest wayto get into the podcasting
space and rock it.
Because after all, we'rePodcast Solutions Made Simple.
Catch again next time.
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My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.