February 26, 2025 • 25 mins
Brett Deister and PR whiz Mickey Kennedy kick things off by diving straight into the nitty-gritty of press release marketing, highlighting its crucial role in boosting visibility and credibility for small businesses. Mickey, with a whopping 25 years in the game, spills the tea on how earned media can be a game-changer, especially for startups looking to make a mark without breaking the bank. He emphasizes the power of storytelling and strategic content—turning press releases into a goldmine of opportunities, not just a one-and-done deal. Mickey's insights reveal that the secret sauce lies in crafting relatable narratives that resonate with journalists and audiences alike. This episode is packed with practical tips and tricks that'll have entrepreneurs eager to leverage press releases like pros, ultimately transforming their PR game from zero to hero.
Takeaways:
- Mickey emphasizes that regardless of size, small businesses can snag earned media, catching journalists' attention by focusing on unique stories rather than just corporate achievements.
- He highlights the importance of storytelling in press releases, stating that a compelling narrative can greatly increase media coverage and help businesses stand out in a crowded market.
- Mickey suggests leveraging press releases as ongoing marketing tools by sharing earned media across social media and websites, transforming them into assets that enhance credibility and visibility.
- The episode discusses how small businesses should focus on strategic press releases, aiming for quality over quantity, and ideally producing six to eight per campaign for effective PR efforts.
- Mickey insists on the necessity of understanding what journalists seek: engaging narratives that resonate with their audience, which is crucial for successful press release marketing.
- Lastly, he notes that small businesses shouldn't shy away from PR, as their fresh perspectives and stories can often be more appealing to journalists than established corporations.
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Microsoft
- E Releases
- PR Newswire
- Business Wire
Links referenced in this episode:
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Book.
They called it a brag book.
They had 30 clippings theytake into people's homes when they
give a quote and they're like,hey, we probably won't come in the
cheapest, but you're not goingto have to take all your furniture
out of the room in three yearsand have the carpet restretched because
we do it right.
The truth is we don't careabout corporations, we don't care
about Microsoft or Google, butwe care about the people behind it.
(00:23):
It usually results in 8 to 14articles every single time.
But I guarantee you that daywas a record day for sales because
it drove a lot of people toopen a browser and do a search for
you and find you and want todo business with you.
We have some people who get anarticle and it results in a $70,000
a week for them.
(00:56):
Mm, that's good.
And welcome to a new episodeof the Digital Coffee Marketing Brew.
And I'm your host, Brett Dyster.
And if you please subscribe tothis podcast and all your favorite
podcasting apps and leave areview, it really does help.
But this week we're going tobe talking about press release marketing.
I'm a PR person or I got adegree in pr, so I know the press
release stuff, but I've neverheard about this press release marketing.
(01:19):
So I'm actually excited tohear what this is all about.
But with me is Mickey, and heis an expert in helping small business
owners, businesses, authorsand startups increase their visibility
and credibility through thetier one press release distribution.
Mickey founded an e releasecompany 25 years ago after realizing
that small businessesdesperately needed a press release
(01:40):
service they can actuallyafford, giving them access to the
media and to Nation Newswire,all with a personal touch.
But welcome to the show, Mickey.
Oh, thanks for having me.
Yes.
The first question is all myguest is, are you a coffee or tea
drinker?
Coffee.
Coffee.
Anything specific or you justwant it?
Whatever, just give it to me.
(02:01):
Yeah, I like cream, but nofrills, no flavors, or, I don't know,
tian blends or anything like that.
I'm fine with just regular coffee.
Just not a coffee snob at all.
Just give it to me with some sugar.
Yeah, exactly.
All right.
And I gave a brief summary ofyour expertise.
Can you give our listeners alittle bit more about what you do?
(02:22):
I started ereleases a littleover 25 years ago.
Largely I saw at the place Iwas working at, I was doing press
releases and faxing and all ofa sudden journalists started calling
and Saying, could you justemail in the future?
And so I was just like, whoa,email is something that you could
do and scale.
So I reached out tojournalists for about a year and
(02:44):
compiled a list of about10,000 journalists and launched in
October of 1998.
And I was just a matchmakersending press releases to these journalists.
And the journalists loved it.
And the market has certainlychanged because their inboxes now
are just, they're tox.
Fortunately, A little over 10years ago, PR Newswire reached out
to us and said they liked whatwe were doing and they wanted to
(03:06):
find a way in which maybe theycould offer a distribution that all
of my releases would go over.
And they had suggested a cityor state distribution for each.
And I was just like, no, mycustomers are looking for a national
distribution and I wouldn'tfeel comfortable giving them a city
or state newswire distribution.
We played a dance back and forth.
(03:28):
I know that they charged$1,600 to move a 600 word press release.
I was charging my clients, Ithink $299 at the time, so I didn't
think much would come of it.
But I think the bigbreakthrough was when I was visiting
them, they had mentioned theyhad their editorial team there 24
hours a day.
And they said that overnightthey had to be there in case there
(03:48):
was breaking news or a recallor they needed to get something to
the Asian markets so theyneeded to coordinate with their Asian
counterparts.
And they just said that theyjust sit there.
And so I was just like, hey, Icould schedule all of my releases
for next business day by default.
And therefore you could setthem up overnight and wouldn't cost
you any additional labor.
(04:09):
And I think when they startedto think about that, they're just
like, yeah, we can somehowmake this work.
And so today, and since then,all the releases that go out through
ereleases go out nationallyover PR Newswire and you don't have
to pay $1,600.
It's probably like a third ofthe price of what you would pay there.
The caveat is that you can'tbe a publicly traded company or some
stinking large corpor.
(04:30):
If someone comes to us likethat, we, you know, just hand them
off to someone.
At PR Newswire, we're reallythere to help the small businesses,
entrepreneurs, authors, smallstartups and people like that.
It's been a very beneficial relationship.
And I do realize thatsometimes customers grow and graduate
(04:51):
and they want more servicesthan we offer.
And so again, I pass themalong to Peer Newswire directly.
It is A rewarding experience.
And it's very fortunatebecause, like I said, if I was still
sitting by email as the bulkof what I did, it would be very hard
to get through.
Because what has happened inthe 25 years since I launched is
(05:11):
media databases.
They're not cheap.
They're usually 10,000 to$25,000 a year.
And if you have a golf clubbusiness and you subscribe to the
database and you're paying 20grand a year, you might look at it
and say, there's half amillion journalists in here, but
there's only like 2,500 thatare interested in golf news.
(05:34):
And then they start talkingthemselves into.
We could send it to thebanking and business people.
Banking and business peopleplay golf.
But the truth is, a financialanalyst is never going to write an
article about golf clubs.
And so all of these pressreleases start to go off target.
And it's like that in every industry.
(05:56):
You have a consumerelectronic, and the next thing you
know, you're sending thepeople who cover audio products and
stereo, and you just justifyit because just like this thing's
so expensive and our.
Who we need to send to is sosmall, and there's no downside.
You know, it's not like you'regonna get punished for sending stuff
off target.
At most they'll unsubscribefrom you.
(06:18):
And.
And the way that works is theydon't unsubscribe from the entire
database platform.
It's just your use of the platform.
This audio company hits theunsubscribe button and.
And that's it.
It's a terrible situationwhere journalists are just.
Their inboxes are no longeruseful to them.
It's hard for PR firms to getthrough because of that.
So most PR firms are againpicking up the phone and saying,
(06:40):
hey, I sent you a pitch.
I don't know if you had achance to look at it.
And then they're like, doing asearch, probably in their spam, to
try and find it.
So it is difficult to reach journalists.
And the great thing about anewswire is it is a place where they
log in and they look at theirindustry feed, which they can customize,
depending on the wire, toexclude stuff I might cover.
(07:02):
Let's just pick a fashionindustry, but I'm not interested
in Ready to Wear or thingsthat are at Target or JCPenney or
things like that.
So I can just set exclusionsfor certain company brands or a certain
language so that I'm lookingat a feed that's pretty tailored
to My beat.
And that's why the newswire isset so good.
(07:22):
Because unlike their inbox,which is filled with so much stuff
that doesn't relate to them,this is very clean and pure.
And the newswire does a reallygood job of ensuring that people
aren't sending stuff to offtarget industries.
It has to be appropriate.
And in the US there's twonewswires that pretty much control
the market.
(07:43):
I would say like 95% ofreleases go through there.
It's been a duopoly for areally long time and probably will
continue to be.
It's Business Wire and PRNewswire with PR Newswire being the
oldest and largest.
And some people are like, doyou need to send to both?
Absolutely not.
Because the same journalist isgoing to go from one to the other
so that they know that they'vecovered all of the news.
(08:04):
95% of the press releases arecovered by that.
All right, what is like pressrelease marketing?
Is that what you just said?
Because I know about pressreleases, I know about the whole
thing of sending them off toPR Newswire, sending it off to journalists,
if you think you can actuallyget to the journalist.
But what specifically is pressrelease marketing?
(08:25):
So press release marketing isthe whole thing.
So there are people that willsend out their release, they'll get
some earned media and that's it.
They don't take the link andshare it on social media.
They don't put that article ontheir website, they don't put it
in their newsletters and shareit with customers.
They don't put it on theirlanding pages.
And these are just all places.
(08:46):
They don't put it in a brag book.
And so it's taking that earnedmedia and letting it bring new customers
and leads in, but also takingthat earned media and getting it
in front of your leads andgetting it in front of your customers,
putting on your website,building this asset of a brand.
We work with a lot of startupsand the one thing I'll say is a lot
(09:08):
of startups go really strongwith primary and they just drive
a lot of PR over a six monthperiod and then they stop and they,
they've usually established 12to 20 articles at that point and
then they start the ad spendand they don't need it anymore.
They've got this asset thatthey've created and they put the
(09:30):
logos on their website,they've got the articles that they
put on their, their website,their blogs, their newsroom.
They, they put it right infront of their customers and they
know that now they havesomething that gives them an edge,
that improves conversions andreally shows that, hey, you don't
know this company, but I'vejust established that they're credible.
You don't have to worry thatthey're like a fly by night place.
(09:52):
You feel comfortable pullingout your credit card and spending
money with them.
They know the value of earnedmedia and also they get articles
written about them where a lotof small businesses don't.
A lot of small businesses cando the same amount of press releases.
Maybe not in the same timeperiod, but maybe over two years.
They do 15 releases, but theydon't get the amount of pickup that
(10:13):
the startup does.
And why?
It's because startups are verygood about telling their journey,
their story.
If you watch Shark Tank, theone of the first things they do is
they come on and they tell youthis story.
Sometimes it's them being vulnerable.
They lost their job and theyhad this hobby and they were wondering
if I could turn it into acareer or they lost a spouse or a
(10:35):
father or just something couldbe a health thing.
There's, it's usually thembeing vulnerable, but sharing something
that's just very authenticwith them.
And the reason they all dothat is it immediately humanizes
them.
It gives a human interestelement that creates this immediate
empathy.
The truth is we don't careabout corporations, we don't care
about Microsoft or Google, butwe care about the people behind it
(11:00):
and the culture that's createdand projected.
And with small businesses,being able to immediately tell your
story and get people to careabout you is a secret weapon.
Everybody, even if they don'tget funding on Shark Tank, they get
an enormous amount of salesand the people will open their browser,
(11:21):
go and buy that product.
They don't open another windowand say, can I get something similar
on Amazon or some other place.
They're not price shopping.
They want to support thisperson because they are invested
and they feel for them.
And that's something that,that startups are really good at
doing and something that smallbusinesses aren't.
I've had small businesses Iwork with who, who have.
(11:43):
It's almost like the reverseof an imposter syndrome where they
want to appear as supercorporate and that they aren't vulnerable
and that there aren't humansat that business.
They want to just appearlarger than they are.
They're like, I don't want tobe the media contact because I'm
also the president of thecompany, but really the company's
just me.
So let's make up someone'sname for the media contact.
(12:04):
And I'm just like, you don'thave to.
Journalists have nothingagainst small businesses.
Actually, the smaller you areis an advantage.
Journalists do not getaccolades from their audience.
And that's who they're writingfor is, you know, they have to decide,
is this press release going toresult in an article that's going
to highly entertain or highlyeducate my audience?
(12:25):
Because if it doesn't, I don'twant to write it.
And by getting through all ofthat and really understanding what
they're looking for andappealing to them, you're going to
make it easier for them tochoose you.
And one of the things istelling your story as well as your
unique selling proposition.
That's another thing thatstartups know very well.
(12:45):
They can tell you in onesentence who they are and why they're
different than every othercompany that exists in that marketplace
because they have carved outsomething that's distinct.
And again, a lot of smallbusinesses, they don't do that.
I've had a lot of people justsay, oh, we're just like a commodity
business.
There's like a couple hundredof us scattered across the US And
I'm just like, you reallyshould have a unique edge, something
(13:07):
you do different thaneverybody else.
And one of them said, no.
The only thing I can think ofis we do really good onboarding.
We have 500 hours of tutorialsand things that we don't expect people
to watch.
But every time someone gets ina corner, they're like, how do I
figure this out?
We've got a video for it.
And I'm just like, that's aunique selling proposition.
Nobody else in the marketplacehas it.
(13:28):
And they go, no, we've beendoing this for seven years.
It would take them 10 yearsprobably to compete.
The library of resources andtools we have, I'm like, do you share
this with people before they buy?
No, we just reveal it to themafter the sale.
And I'm like, you're losing alot of sales because there's people
who are looking at you andlooking at someone else.
And I don't know, it could behow far you are from them or the
(13:52):
color of your website thatthey ultimately decide with the other
person.
But if you let them know thatyou have this, this incredible onboarding
library of videos that theycan always turn to when they're stuck,
that, that, that's a huge advantage.
And startups do really wellbecause they know what that is and
a lot of small businesses don't.
And I also talked aboutJournalists having a story.
(14:14):
Journalists like to write in astory arc and a lot of startups know
that.
And so they come prepared with things.
When they do a product launchpress release they're not doing,
here's a product, here's alist of features, and here's a page
to learn more and buy.
That is what most smallbusinesses send to E Releases.
(14:34):
But a startup will put a usecase study in there, hey, here's
this company.
They were losing money becausethey couldn't get their logistics
cost under control.
They used our logisticssoftware solution and at the end
of it they achieved aprofitability of 13%.
And the fact is that 47% ofpeople in our industry fell in the
(14:56):
first five years, oftenbecause they don't get these things
under control.
And we have the solution.
And then here's a quote bythat customer talking about how easy
it was to use and how itempowered them and made them feel
great.
That's a story arc that ajournalist can write an article about.
Journalists.
I can't recall a productarticle where a journalist says here's
a product and here's somefeatures and that's it.
(15:18):
But here's a product, here's acompany that used it, the result
that they achieved, here's aquote by them and here's some features.
That is a more rounded articleand it's what we see.
And I think a lot of people,when they approach press releases,
they write it from, we want tosell this product, let's put down
some features and that's it.
But what you have to realizeis you got to help the journalists
(15:41):
do their job of determining isthis going to be entertaining enough
or educational enough fortheir audience.
And the great thing is you canalways go back into the release,
sort of put some of that stuffin there.
And that's really importantand probably why a lot of people
feel that press releases don't work.
And the truth is probably 98%of press releases probably don't
(16:02):
result in any earned media.
But despite that, there areprobably several types of releases
that do get picked up againand again.
And I do education and that'sa big thing at E Releases for me
is to try to educate mycustomers to do these more strategic
types of releases that matterand get results.
(16:22):
And I have a free masterclass.
It's less than an hour longvideo that goes through the types
of strategic releases that aremeaningful and work.
And if anybody listens tothis, wants to check it out, it's@ereleases.com
Plan Like I said, I designedit to be something that people could
watch and listen to.
(16:43):
I sign up for these coursesand I realize it's 30 hours of videos.
I never finish it.
So this is an hour commitment.
And I guarantee if you go anddo that, you will brainstorm at least
half a dozen good strategicideas that your business could do.
So you're not doing the.
The product launch releasethat is just features.
(17:04):
You're not doing a new hirefor some associate HR person that
no one cares about.
We all love her.
But let's be honest, outsideof the on the move section in your
local paper and maybe a tradepublication, no one's going to write
an article about them.
Take your cash and spend it wisely.
And don't pay to go on a wirewith a message that's not going to
(17:26):
resonate and be newsworthy enough.
And the types of strategicreleases that I have are the ones
that are like, where you talkabout your journey, you talk about
your usp, and you inject datainto your release.
It doesn't have to be yourdata, publicly available data, like
the failure rate in yourindustry in the first five years,
that can really show thestakes of why your product is important.
(17:48):
But you can also produce yourown data.
And that is the one pressrelease I always tell people, if
you're looking for a winner,it's going to take a little bit of
work, but it will be a winner.
Is to do a survey or study inyour industry and you're going to
ask a few questions, like 12or 16.
I like four questions per pagein SurveyMonkey.
(18:09):
Ask things that are reallytrending right now, but also like
things that if you were at aconference or a trade show, you'd
ask a colleague, have youreally noticed lately that Everybody's
like taking 90 days to paydespite it being net 30?
Like, yeah, and it seems likethe money's just drying up.
That could be an indicator of something.
And if you get a survey ofseveral people that agree with, that's
(18:30):
a really strong leading indicator.
So ask meaningful questions.
Take that link.
And you do not need a Rolodexof your industry.
Just reach out to a small orindependent trade association in
your industry.
Stay away from the big ones.
They get all the mediaattention, the small and independent
ones don't.
And they exist in every industry.
(18:51):
I had PR professional tell mein a podcast, this wouldn't work
in our industry becausethere's only Public Relations Society
of America.
And I looked her in the eyeand I said, There's 470 other trade
associations for PR firms inthe United States.
And she didn't know it.
And the truth is it's likethat in every industry because these
smaller associations get nomedia attention.
(19:13):
A lot of them aren't going tobe relevant because they're very
esoteric New England PR firmsor Italian American founded PR firms.
But there's a lot of them thatare just like Public Relations Society
of America where it's like PRfirms of a hundred employees or less.
That's most of the industry.
And so you just find one thatyou feel sense you in the industry
(19:35):
and has like at least 500members in the association and approach
them and say, hey, could youtake this link, send it to your members,
I'll put you in a pressrelease I'll be issuing over a wire.
And they will say, whoa, wecan get a little media attention.
We never get that.
So they'll see it as a win, win.
And about two thirds of thetime the first person you ask will
say yes.
And I think only once have weever had to go to a third association.
(19:59):
But they will, they often willsay yes and they'll send it out.
You get the results.
The press release is onlygoing to focus on one or two of those
questions.
So you're going to look at theresults and say what's most surprising
in the survey, what's the bigaha moment?
And then make that the, thefocus of the press release and tell
a story, provide someanalysis, a quote by you of why you
(20:23):
felt the, the results turnedout this way.
And then when you put togetherthat press release and send it to
the media, it usually resultsin 8 to 14 articles every single
time.
The least we've ever had is four.
And it was for the biometricsindustry, which is very small.
And so there probably was justless people interested in writing
about it because there's lesstrade publications in that space.
(20:46):
Again, it, it's a, you've justcreated a lot of authority in the
marketplace.
You've gotten all of thesearticles, you can then take those
links and share them withpeople and create this huge asset
that really, you know,improves conversions, brings you
new customers, brings youpeople who are looking for exactly
what you sell and you areelevated as an industry leader, a
(21:09):
thought leader in the spaceand all by just doing a little bit
of work.
And so my follow up questionwith that is, how do you convince
maybe the PR person trying toconvince the marketer or the marketer
trying to convince the bosshow to do this and how Many press
releases should they write?
Because I know some bosses arelike, we want to wrap price press
release every week.
And even I was like, that'snot possible.
(21:31):
And you should really not do that.
So I've had some clients domonthly and it's because they're,
they've got three or fourproducts out and they've got lots
of little milestones thatthey're doing and that's completely
fine.
But for most small businesses,it's like, you're going to have to
buckle down to be able to doevery other month.
And maybe it works out to beonce a quarter.
I think that it has to be anatural fit.
(21:54):
Don't do a press release forthe sake of doing a press release.
Don't do it because you're ona schedule.
Do it because you have donethe research, you've got a milestone
or you've got somethingactionable and newsworthy that you're
getting out.
And then try it.
I always tell people, six toeight releases is a PR campaign.
And in the same way that Iwouldn't judge Google on 30 clicks,
(22:15):
and whether those 30 clicksconvert or not, I'll stop advertising
on Google.
I wouldn't judge a singlepress release.
I would do a proper PRcampaign of six to eight different
strategic releases.
I've had people who try tojust do the same release over and
over with a different headlineand it never worked.
And I'm just like.
And they're like, I did six releases.
They're like, no, you did thesame release six times with a different
(22:39):
headline.
You really have to trydifferent strategic approaches.
And I think that Masterclassis a great place to start because
every one of those ideas areones that when my customers do those,
they have better wins than losses.
And with a failure rate ashigh as it is in the PR press release
world, you really should besticking to what people respond to
(23:00):
and what's working.
And so I think that's a greatplace for someone to start.
And so someone's listening tothis and they're wondering, where
else can they find you onlinebesides what you just shared with
us?
My social media is on thelower right of my website, ereleases.com
Facebook and Instagram and allthat good stuff.
It's my personal LinkedIn.
(23:21):
That's a great place to reachout to me personally.
If you have any questions oryou just want to talk to someone
or you've written somethingand you'd like us to take a look
at it, feel free to just emailor chat or or call the number on
the website.
We have no salespeople,there's no commissions.
And everybody is empowered tosay, I don't think you're a good
candidate.
(23:41):
Because the last thing we wantto do is take a small business's
money when we don't feel likeit's going to work for you.
And we really are abouttelling people what is working in
the hopes that they're doingbetter and trying to give them a
leg up and an advantage.
When you send that releaseover to us to look at, we'll try
to give you actionableimprovements, tell you where it's
(24:03):
not working, and try to giveyou some ideas of how to make it
even better.
All right, any final thoughtsfor listeners?
I think the biggest thing isthat a lot of people feel like they're
too small to matter when itcomes to pr.
And what you have to realizeis journalists don't get accolades
for covering Google andMicrosoft, but when they pull out
a tool or a company that'sdoing something new in a new, fresh
(24:26):
space, they do get peoplesaying, I really appreciate that.
I'd never heard of them before.
And often it's because they'resmall, they're new, they're a mom
and pop business.
They could even be a sidebusiness that someone has.
And people feel like, oh, Ihave to wait until I'm bigger to
do pr.
And really being small andunknown is an advantage because journalists
love to put the spotlight onnew companies that haven't been covered
(24:50):
and that makes you really atarget for getting media coverage.
All right, thank you, Mickey,for joining Digital Coffee Marketing
Brew and sharing yourknowledge on press release marketing
and PR in general.
You're welcome and thank youfor listening.
As always, please subscribe tothis podcast on all your favorite
podcasting.
Absolutely.
A five star review really doeshelp with the rankings.
(25:10):
And let me know how I'm doingand join me next week as I talk to
another great thought leaderin the PR and marketing industry.
All right, guys, stay safe,get to understanding your PR and
try out that press releasemarketing and do better PR as well
because it really does help.
And see you next week later.
Book.
They called it a brag book.
They had 30 clippings theytake into people's homes when they
give a quote and they're like,hey, we probably won't come in the
cheapest, but you're not goingto have to take all your furniture
out of the room in three yearsand have the carpet restretched because
we do it right.
The truth is we don't careabout corporations, we don't care
about Microsoft or Google, butwe care about the people behind it.
(00:23):
It usually results in 8 to 14articles every single time.
But I guarantee you that daywas a record day for sales because
it drove a lot of people toopen a browser and do a search for
you and find you and want todo business with you.
We have some people who get anarticle and it results in a $70,000
a week for them.
(00:56):
Mm, that's good.
And welcome to a new episodeof the Digital Coffee Marketing Brew.
And I'm your host, Brett Dyster.
And if you please subscribe tothis podcast and all your favorite
podcasting apps and leave areview, it really does help.
But this week we're going tobe talking about press release marketing.
I'm a PR person or I got adegree in pr, so I know the press
release stuff, but I've neverheard about this press release marketing.
(01:19):
So I'm actually excited tohear what this is all about.
But with me is Mickey, and heis an expert in helping small business
owners, businesses, authorsand startups increase their visibility
and credibility through thetier one press release distribution.
Mickey founded an e releasecompany 25 years ago after realizing
that small businessesdesperately needed a press release
(01:40):
service they can actuallyafford, giving them access to the
media and to Nation Newswire,all with a personal touch.
But welcome to the show, Mickey.
Oh, thanks for having me.
Yes.
The first question is all myguest is, are you a coffee or tea
drinker?
Coffee.
Coffee.
Anything specific or you justwant it?
Whatever, just give it to me.
(02:01):
Yeah, I like cream, but nofrills, no flavors, or, I don't know,
tian blends or anything like that.
I'm fine with just regular coffee.
Just not a coffee snob at all.
Just give it to me with some sugar.
Yeah, exactly.
All right.
And I gave a brief summary ofyour expertise.
Can you give our listeners alittle bit more about what you do?
(02:22):
I started ereleases a littleover 25 years ago.
Largely I saw at the place Iwas working at, I was doing press
releases and faxing and all ofa sudden journalists started calling
and Saying, could you justemail in the future?
And so I was just like, whoa,email is something that you could
do and scale.
So I reached out tojournalists for about a year and
(02:44):
compiled a list of about10,000 journalists and launched in
October of 1998.
And I was just a matchmakersending press releases to these journalists.
And the journalists loved it.
And the market has certainlychanged because their inboxes now
are just, they're tox.
Fortunately, A little over 10years ago, PR Newswire reached out
to us and said they liked whatwe were doing and they wanted to
(03:06):
find a way in which maybe theycould offer a distribution that all
of my releases would go over.
And they had suggested a cityor state distribution for each.
And I was just like, no, mycustomers are looking for a national
distribution and I wouldn'tfeel comfortable giving them a city
or state newswire distribution.
We played a dance back and forth.
(03:28):
I know that they charged$1,600 to move a 600 word press release.
I was charging my clients, Ithink $299 at the time, so I didn't
think much would come of it.
But I think the bigbreakthrough was when I was visiting
them, they had mentioned theyhad their editorial team there 24
hours a day.
And they said that overnightthey had to be there in case there
(03:48):
was breaking news or a recallor they needed to get something to
the Asian markets so theyneeded to coordinate with their Asian
counterparts.
And they just said that theyjust sit there.
And so I was just like, hey, Icould schedule all of my releases
for next business day by default.
And therefore you could setthem up overnight and wouldn't cost
you any additional labor.
(04:09):
And I think when they startedto think about that, they're just
like, yeah, we can somehowmake this work.
And so today, and since then,all the releases that go out through
ereleases go out nationallyover PR Newswire and you don't have
to pay $1,600.
It's probably like a third ofthe price of what you would pay there.
The caveat is that you can'tbe a publicly traded company or some
stinking large corpor.
(04:30):
If someone comes to us likethat, we, you know, just hand them
off to someone.
At PR Newswire, we're reallythere to help the small businesses,
entrepreneurs, authors, smallstartups and people like that.
It's been a very beneficial relationship.
And I do realize thatsometimes customers grow and graduate
(04:51):
and they want more servicesthan we offer.
And so again, I pass themalong to Peer Newswire directly.
It is A rewarding experience.
And it's very fortunatebecause, like I said, if I was still
sitting by email as the bulkof what I did, it would be very hard
to get through.
Because what has happened inthe 25 years since I launched is
(05:11):
media databases.
They're not cheap.
They're usually 10,000 to$25,000 a year.
And if you have a golf clubbusiness and you subscribe to the
database and you're paying 20grand a year, you might look at it
and say, there's half amillion journalists in here, but
there's only like 2,500 thatare interested in golf news.
(05:34):
And then they start talkingthemselves into.
We could send it to thebanking and business people.
Banking and business peopleplay golf.
But the truth is, a financialanalyst is never going to write an
article about golf clubs.
And so all of these pressreleases start to go off target.
And it's like that in every industry.
(05:56):
You have a consumerelectronic, and the next thing you
know, you're sending thepeople who cover audio products and
stereo, and you just justifyit because just like this thing's
so expensive and our.
Who we need to send to is sosmall, and there's no downside.
You know, it's not like you'regonna get punished for sending stuff
off target.
At most they'll unsubscribefrom you.
(06:18):
And.
And the way that works is theydon't unsubscribe from the entire
database platform.
It's just your use of the platform.
This audio company hits theunsubscribe button and.
And that's it.
It's a terrible situationwhere journalists are just.
Their inboxes are no longeruseful to them.
It's hard for PR firms to getthrough because of that.
So most PR firms are againpicking up the phone and saying,
(06:40):
hey, I sent you a pitch.
I don't know if you had achance to look at it.
And then they're like, doing asearch, probably in their spam, to
try and find it.
So it is difficult to reach journalists.
And the great thing about anewswire is it is a place where they
log in and they look at theirindustry feed, which they can customize,
depending on the wire, toexclude stuff I might cover.
(07:02):
Let's just pick a fashionindustry, but I'm not interested
in Ready to Wear or thingsthat are at Target or JCPenney or
things like that.
So I can just set exclusionsfor certain company brands or a certain
language so that I'm lookingat a feed that's pretty tailored
to My beat.
And that's why the newswire isset so good.
(07:22):
Because unlike their inbox,which is filled with so much stuff
that doesn't relate to them,this is very clean and pure.
And the newswire does a reallygood job of ensuring that people
aren't sending stuff to offtarget industries.
It has to be appropriate.
And in the US there's twonewswires that pretty much control
the market.
(07:43):
I would say like 95% ofreleases go through there.
It's been a duopoly for areally long time and probably will
continue to be.
It's Business Wire and PRNewswire with PR Newswire being the
oldest and largest.
And some people are like, doyou need to send to both?
Absolutely not.
Because the same journalist isgoing to go from one to the other
so that they know that they'vecovered all of the news.
(08:04):
95% of the press releases arecovered by that.
All right, what is like pressrelease marketing?
Is that what you just said?
Because I know about pressreleases, I know about the whole
thing of sending them off toPR Newswire, sending it off to journalists,
if you think you can actuallyget to the journalist.
But what specifically is pressrelease marketing?
(08:25):
So press release marketing isthe whole thing.
So there are people that willsend out their release, they'll get
some earned media and that's it.
They don't take the link andshare it on social media.
They don't put that article ontheir website, they don't put it
in their newsletters and shareit with customers.
They don't put it on theirlanding pages.
And these are just all places.
(08:46):
They don't put it in a brag book.
And so it's taking that earnedmedia and letting it bring new customers
and leads in, but also takingthat earned media and getting it
in front of your leads andgetting it in front of your customers,
putting on your website,building this asset of a brand.
We work with a lot of startupsand the one thing I'll say is a lot
(09:08):
of startups go really strongwith primary and they just drive
a lot of PR over a six monthperiod and then they stop and they,
they've usually established 12to 20 articles at that point and
then they start the ad spendand they don't need it anymore.
They've got this asset thatthey've created and they put the
(09:30):
logos on their website,they've got the articles that they
put on their, their website,their blogs, their newsroom.
They, they put it right infront of their customers and they
know that now they havesomething that gives them an edge,
that improves conversions andreally shows that, hey, you don't
know this company, but I'vejust established that they're credible.
You don't have to worry thatthey're like a fly by night place.
(09:52):
You feel comfortable pullingout your credit card and spending
money with them.
They know the value of earnedmedia and also they get articles
written about them where a lotof small businesses don't.
A lot of small businesses cando the same amount of press releases.
Maybe not in the same timeperiod, but maybe over two years.
They do 15 releases, but theydon't get the amount of pickup that
(10:13):
the startup does.
And why?
It's because startups are verygood about telling their journey,
their story.
If you watch Shark Tank, theone of the first things they do is
they come on and they tell youthis story.
Sometimes it's them being vulnerable.
They lost their job and theyhad this hobby and they were wondering
if I could turn it into acareer or they lost a spouse or a
(10:35):
father or just something couldbe a health thing.
There's, it's usually thembeing vulnerable, but sharing something
that's just very authenticwith them.
And the reason they all dothat is it immediately humanizes
them.
It gives a human interestelement that creates this immediate
empathy.
The truth is we don't careabout corporations, we don't care
about Microsoft or Google, butwe care about the people behind it
(11:00):
and the culture that's createdand projected.
And with small businesses,being able to immediately tell your
story and get people to careabout you is a secret weapon.
Everybody, even if they don'tget funding on Shark Tank, they get
an enormous amount of salesand the people will open their browser,
(11:21):
go and buy that product.
They don't open another windowand say, can I get something similar
on Amazon or some other place.
They're not price shopping.
They want to support thisperson because they are invested
and they feel for them.
And that's something that,that startups are really good at
doing and something that smallbusinesses aren't.
I've had small businesses Iwork with who, who have.
(11:43):
It's almost like the reverseof an imposter syndrome where they
want to appear as supercorporate and that they aren't vulnerable
and that there aren't humansat that business.
They want to just appearlarger than they are.
They're like, I don't want tobe the media contact because I'm
also the president of thecompany, but really the company's
just me.
So let's make up someone'sname for the media contact.
(12:04):
And I'm just like, you don'thave to.
Journalists have nothingagainst small businesses.
Actually, the smaller you areis an advantage.
Journalists do not getaccolades from their audience.
And that's who they're writingfor is, you know, they have to decide,
is this press release going toresult in an article that's going
to highly entertain or highlyeducate my audience?
(12:25):
Because if it doesn't, I don'twant to write it.
And by getting through all ofthat and really understanding what
they're looking for andappealing to them, you're going to
make it easier for them tochoose you.
And one of the things istelling your story as well as your
unique selling proposition.
That's another thing thatstartups know very well.
(12:45):
They can tell you in onesentence who they are and why they're
different than every othercompany that exists in that marketplace
because they have carved outsomething that's distinct.
And again, a lot of smallbusinesses, they don't do that.
I've had a lot of people justsay, oh, we're just like a commodity
business.
There's like a couple hundredof us scattered across the US And
I'm just like, you reallyshould have a unique edge, something
(13:07):
you do different thaneverybody else.
And one of them said, no.
The only thing I can think ofis we do really good onboarding.
We have 500 hours of tutorialsand things that we don't expect people
to watch.
But every time someone gets ina corner, they're like, how do I
figure this out?
We've got a video for it.
And I'm just like, that's aunique selling proposition.
Nobody else in the marketplacehas it.
(13:28):
And they go, no, we've beendoing this for seven years.
It would take them 10 yearsprobably to compete.
The library of resources andtools we have, I'm like, do you share
this with people before they buy?
No, we just reveal it to themafter the sale.
And I'm like, you're losing alot of sales because there's people
who are looking at you andlooking at someone else.
And I don't know, it could behow far you are from them or the
(13:52):
color of your website thatthey ultimately decide with the other
person.
But if you let them know thatyou have this, this incredible onboarding
library of videos that theycan always turn to when they're stuck,
that, that, that's a huge advantage.
And startups do really wellbecause they know what that is and
a lot of small businesses don't.
And I also talked aboutJournalists having a story.
(14:14):
Journalists like to write in astory arc and a lot of startups know
that.
And so they come prepared with things.
When they do a product launchpress release they're not doing,
here's a product, here's alist of features, and here's a page
to learn more and buy.
That is what most smallbusinesses send to E Releases.
(14:34):
But a startup will put a usecase study in there, hey, here's
this company.
They were losing money becausethey couldn't get their logistics
cost under control.
They used our logisticssoftware solution and at the end
of it they achieved aprofitability of 13%.
And the fact is that 47% ofpeople in our industry fell in the
(14:56):
first five years, oftenbecause they don't get these things
under control.
And we have the solution.
And then here's a quote bythat customer talking about how easy
it was to use and how itempowered them and made them feel
great.
That's a story arc that ajournalist can write an article about.
Journalists.
I can't recall a productarticle where a journalist says here's
a product and here's somefeatures and that's it.
(15:18):
But here's a product, here's acompany that used it, the result
that they achieved, here's aquote by them and here's some features.
That is a more rounded articleand it's what we see.
And I think a lot of people,when they approach press releases,
they write it from, we want tosell this product, let's put down
some features and that's it.
But what you have to realizeis you got to help the journalists
(15:41):
do their job of determining isthis going to be entertaining enough
or educational enough fortheir audience.
And the great thing is you canalways go back into the release,
sort of put some of that stuffin there.
And that's really importantand probably why a lot of people
feel that press releases don't work.
And the truth is probably 98%of press releases probably don't
(16:02):
result in any earned media.
But despite that, there areprobably several types of releases
that do get picked up againand again.
And I do education and that'sa big thing at E Releases for me
is to try to educate mycustomers to do these more strategic
types of releases that matterand get results.
(16:22):
And I have a free masterclass.
It's less than an hour longvideo that goes through the types
of strategic releases that aremeaningful and work.
And if anybody listens tothis, wants to check it out, it's@ereleases.com
Plan Like I said, I designedit to be something that people could
watch and listen to.
(16:43):
I sign up for these coursesand I realize it's 30 hours of videos.
I never finish it.
So this is an hour commitment.
And I guarantee if you go anddo that, you will brainstorm at least
half a dozen good strategicideas that your business could do.
So you're not doing the.
The product launch releasethat is just features.
(17:04):
You're not doing a new hirefor some associate HR person that
no one cares about.
We all love her.
But let's be honest, outsideof the on the move section in your
local paper and maybe a tradepublication, no one's going to write
an article about them.
Take your cash and spend it wisely.
And don't pay to go on a wirewith a message that's not going to
(17:26):
resonate and be newsworthy enough.
And the types of strategicreleases that I have are the ones
that are like, where you talkabout your journey, you talk about
your usp, and you inject datainto your release.
It doesn't have to be yourdata, publicly available data, like
the failure rate in yourindustry in the first five years,
that can really show thestakes of why your product is important.
(17:48):
But you can also produce yourown data.
And that is the one pressrelease I always tell people, if
you're looking for a winner,it's going to take a little bit of
work, but it will be a winner.
Is to do a survey or study inyour industry and you're going to
ask a few questions, like 12or 16.
I like four questions per pagein SurveyMonkey.
(18:09):
Ask things that are reallytrending right now, but also like
things that if you were at aconference or a trade show, you'd
ask a colleague, have youreally noticed lately that Everybody's
like taking 90 days to paydespite it being net 30?
Like, yeah, and it seems likethe money's just drying up.
That could be an indicator of something.
And if you get a survey ofseveral people that agree with, that's
(18:30):
a really strong leading indicator.
So ask meaningful questions.
Take that link.
And you do not need a Rolodexof your industry.
Just reach out to a small orindependent trade association in
your industry.
Stay away from the big ones.
They get all the mediaattention, the small and independent
ones don't.
And they exist in every industry.
(18:51):
I had PR professional tell mein a podcast, this wouldn't work
in our industry becausethere's only Public Relations Society
of America.
And I looked her in the eyeand I said, There's 470 other trade
associations for PR firms inthe United States.
And she didn't know it.
And the truth is it's likethat in every industry because these
smaller associations get nomedia attention.
(19:13):
A lot of them aren't going tobe relevant because they're very
esoteric New England PR firmsor Italian American founded PR firms.
But there's a lot of them thatare just like Public Relations Society
of America where it's like PRfirms of a hundred employees or less.
That's most of the industry.
And so you just find one thatyou feel sense you in the industry
(19:35):
and has like at least 500members in the association and approach
them and say, hey, could youtake this link, send it to your members,
I'll put you in a pressrelease I'll be issuing over a wire.
And they will say, whoa, wecan get a little media attention.
We never get that.
So they'll see it as a win, win.
And about two thirds of thetime the first person you ask will
say yes.
And I think only once have weever had to go to a third association.
(19:59):
But they will, they often willsay yes and they'll send it out.
You get the results.
The press release is onlygoing to focus on one or two of those
questions.
So you're going to look at theresults and say what's most surprising
in the survey, what's the bigaha moment?
And then make that the, thefocus of the press release and tell
a story, provide someanalysis, a quote by you of why you
(20:23):
felt the, the results turnedout this way.
And then when you put togetherthat press release and send it to
the media, it usually resultsin 8 to 14 articles every single
time.
The least we've ever had is four.
And it was for the biometricsindustry, which is very small.
And so there probably was justless people interested in writing
about it because there's lesstrade publications in that space.
(20:46):
Again, it, it's a, you've justcreated a lot of authority in the
marketplace.
You've gotten all of thesearticles, you can then take those
links and share them withpeople and create this huge asset
that really, you know,improves conversions, brings you
new customers, brings youpeople who are looking for exactly
what you sell and you areelevated as an industry leader, a
(21:09):
thought leader in the spaceand all by just doing a little bit
of work.
And so my follow up questionwith that is, how do you convince
maybe the PR person trying toconvince the marketer or the marketer
trying to convince the bosshow to do this and how Many press
releases should they write?
Because I know some bosses arelike, we want to wrap price press
release every week.
And even I was like, that'snot possible.
(21:31):
And you should really not do that.
So I've had some clients domonthly and it's because they're,
they've got three or fourproducts out and they've got lots
of little milestones thatthey're doing and that's completely
fine.
But for most small businesses,it's like, you're going to have to
buckle down to be able to doevery other month.
And maybe it works out to beonce a quarter.
I think that it has to be anatural fit.
(21:54):
Don't do a press release forthe sake of doing a press release.
Don't do it because you're ona schedule.
Do it because you have donethe research, you've got a milestone
or you've got somethingactionable and newsworthy that you're
getting out.
And then try it.
I always tell people, six toeight releases is a PR campaign.
And in the same way that Iwouldn't judge Google on 30 clicks,
(22:15):
and whether those 30 clicksconvert or not, I'll stop advertising
on Google.
I wouldn't judge a singlepress release.
I would do a proper PRcampaign of six to eight different
strategic releases.
I've had people who try tojust do the same release over and
over with a different headlineand it never worked.
And I'm just like.
And they're like, I did six releases.
They're like, no, you did thesame release six times with a different
(22:39):
headline.
You really have to trydifferent strategic approaches.
And I think that Masterclassis a great place to start because
every one of those ideas areones that when my customers do those,
they have better wins than losses.
And with a failure rate ashigh as it is in the PR press release
world, you really should besticking to what people respond to
(23:00):
and what's working.
And so I think that's a greatplace for someone to start.
And so someone's listening tothis and they're wondering, where
else can they find you onlinebesides what you just shared with
us?
My social media is on thelower right of my website, ereleases.com
Facebook and Instagram and allthat good stuff.
It's my personal LinkedIn.
(23:21):
That's a great place to reachout to me personally.
If you have any questions oryou just want to talk to someone
or you've written somethingand you'd like us to take a look
at it, feel free to just emailor chat or or call the number on
the website.
We have no salespeople,there's no commissions.
And everybody is empowered tosay, I don't think you're a good
candidate.
(23:41):
Because the last thing we wantto do is take a small business's
money when we don't feel likeit's going to work for you.
And we really are abouttelling people what is working in
the hopes that they're doingbetter and trying to give them a
leg up and an advantage.
When you send that releaseover to us to look at, we'll try
to give you actionableimprovements, tell you where it's
(24:03):
not working, and try to giveyou some ideas of how to make it
even better.
All right, any final thoughtsfor listeners?
I think the biggest thing isthat a lot of people feel like they're
too small to matter when itcomes to pr.
And what you have to realizeis journalists don't get accolades
for covering Google andMicrosoft, but when they pull out
a tool or a company that'sdoing something new in a new, fresh
(24:26):
space, they do get peoplesaying, I really appreciate that.
I'd never heard of them before.
And often it's because they'resmall, they're new, they're a mom
and pop business.
They could even be a sidebusiness that someone has.
And people feel like, oh, Ihave to wait until I'm bigger to
do pr.
And really being small andunknown is an advantage because journalists
love to put the spotlight onnew companies that haven't been covered
(24:50):
and that makes you really atarget for getting media coverage.
All right, thank you, Mickey,for joining Digital Coffee Marketing
Brew and sharing yourknowledge on press release marketing
and PR in general.
You're welcome and thank youfor listening.
As always, please subscribe tothis podcast on all your favorite
podcasting.
Absolutely.
A five star review really doeshelp with the rankings.
(25:10):
And let me know how I'm doingand join me next week as I talk to
another great thought leaderin the PR and marketing industry.
All right, guys, stay safe,get to understanding your PR and
try out that press releasemarketing and do better PR as well
because it really does help.
And see you next week later.
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