January 20, 2025 • 26 mins
Unlock the secrets to transforming your organization's visibility and credibility through the power of public relations with insights from our guest, Kyle Parks of Parks PR. From Asheville, NC to the Tampa Bay area, Kyle shares his expertise on how PR has evolved beyond traditional media, utilizing platforms like social media and e-newsletters to craft impactful strategies tailored to any budget. Whether you're navigating the B2B or B2C landscape, discover how understanding your unique value proposition and target audience can shape a compelling PR approach. Kyle explains the importance of discovery calls and strategic planning, ensuring that your message resonates with the right people.
Kyle Parks, principal of Parks PR LLC, has a combination of high-level journalism, corporate and public relations agency experience. Parks PR, which specializes in helping clients get visibility for what they do while enhancing their credibility, has a wide range of clients in Asheville and in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. In Asheville, clients include the Builders Association of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Allen Tate/Beverly-Hanks, and the Land of the Sky Association of Realtors. Parks PR has also done work for the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club of Asheville. In the community, Kyle is on the board of Blue Ridge Public Radio, and is a member and volunteer with The Cathedral of All Souls and the Rotary Club of Asheville. • Prior to launching Parks PR, Kyle served as: o Business reporter and editor for the Tampa Bay Times in Florida. o Director of corporate communications for Walter Industries, a Tampa-based Fortune 1000 company at the time, which had seven subsidiaries and over 7,000 employees. o Director of marketing/PR for two real estate organizations – Jim Walter Homes and the residential land development division of Plum Creek. o Principal and co-founder of B2 Communications, a St. Petersburg agency that has worked with such organizations as Colliers, Valley Bank, Lennar Homes, SPCA Tampa Bay, and the University of Tampa.
Thanks for Listening. You may contact me at https://billgilliland.actioncoach.com/
All the best!
Bill
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Bill
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Bill Gilliland (00:03):
Hey there, welcome to this week's episode
of Epic Entrepreneurs.
This week we're having a chatwith Kyle Parks of Parks PR.
So welcome to the show, kyle.
Thanks, bill.
Kyle Parks (00:13):
Thanks for having me .
Bill Gilliland (00:14):
Yeah, it's great to have you, so tell us a
little bit about your business.
Kyle Parks (00:18):
Well Parks PR is a solo public relations practice
that I run out of Asheville,north Carolina and the Tampa Bay
area of Florida, and I workwith a lot of different kinds of
organizations everything fromfor-profit companies to
nonprofits and I like to saythat I help an organization get
(00:38):
visibility but also, just asimportant, I enhance their
credibility.
So if you look up someone or acompany or a nonprofit company
to do business with, nonprofitto give money to, you're going
to want to see right away onlineand also talking to people
around town Is the organizationcredible, do they do a good job?
(00:59):
Do they say what they're goingto do?
And also, are they up to dateon trends?
And that's where my work comesin, too, where I use trends to
talk about through my clients ontheir have.
My clients talk about that andthat shows that they are up to
speed on the latest oneverything.
Bill Gilliland (01:33):
Yeah, that's, yeah, that's awesome.
Pr is pretty widespread.
What does that mean?
What all does it encompass?
I think a lot of people areconfused about what PR actually
is.
What PR actually is.
Kyle Parks (01:42):
Agreed, I think for many, many years.
Up to about maybe 20 years ago,public relations was simply
seen as media relations, whereyou worked with the news media
to get stories and to helpinfluence that process.
But as the media has shrunkwhich we've seen happen in
Asheville, we've seen in TampaBay, we've seen everywhere it's
(02:02):
more and more important not onlyto keep working with the news
media but also to work with allthe different channels at your
disposal as an organization,whether it's social media,
whether it's e-newsletters,whether it's different ways to
reach your key audiences.
So a smart public relationsfirm doesn't just have like a
menu, like McDonald's.
(02:24):
A smart PR firm is going tounderstand your organization,
what your value proposition is,and then you talk about OK, how
are we going to reach the peoplethat we want to reach with that
value proposition?
And it could be any or all ofthose channels, and some of my
(02:44):
clients will never get newscoverage and some will.
So the idea that a PR firm isgoing to come in and go here's
these eight things I'm going todo for you and prescribe it that
way, I would argue, is not asimpactful for your organization
as saying let's look at yourorganization, come up with a
custom plan for yourorganization, but it all comes
back to what is going to lead toan organization reaching the
(03:07):
people that they want to reach,and in some cases it's going to
be millions of people, and insome cases it may be 3,000
people.
So it just depends on theorganization.
Bill Gilliland (03:18):
Yeah.
So it seems to me it's a littlebit like a menu that you'd go
in.
You got all these probablyhundreds of things you could do
for people, but, depending onwhat their goals are, you'd want
to establish that.
So what's the process?
A client comes to you.
What happens?
Kyle Parks (03:35):
Basically I do a discovery call, sometimes a
couple of discovery calls.
I ask a ton of questions I wasa journalist formerly in my
career, which helps me, I think,and I try to get inside the
head of not only what theorganization wants to accomplish
but also what does thataudience want to learn about.
Like, for instance, I'm workingwith an outfit right now that
(03:57):
does student housing developmentaround the country and their
audience wants to know how doyou get student housing
developments to work?
How do you find financing?
So in that case I try to pluginto what that audience is
thinking and wondering about andthen that helps me start to say
, okay, how am I going to reachthat audience?
(04:17):
It may be a specific tradeindustry magazine that reaches
student housing readers.
It may be the email newsletterto a very targeted list.
It's also maybe LinkedIn, whichis really helpful to
business-to-business customers,and also just doing
announcements that aremeaningful and not just a news
release that has a lot ofexclamation points.
(04:40):
I don't do that, but it's moreof a news release that's written
like a news story that alsoincludes a lot of context and in
reading about the newsinvolving that organization you
learn about that organization.
But that's just one example ofmany.
I could tell you where that'sgoing to be a specific use of my
time that is.
It doesn't do me, doesn't dothe client, any good.
(05:02):
If I just say I'm going towrite five news releases every
three months and I'm going to dothis, that and the other, then
that in itself may not get youwhere you want to go.
So what I'm trying to do, as Ido my plans, is say what
percentage of my time is goingto be in each area and making
sure that what I'm doing is themost impactful for them.
Bill Gilliland (05:24):
Yeah, I love that.
So one of the I guess it's notreally a secret, but one of the
things that's cool about megetting to do this is I get to
ask people, I get to learn, so Iget to learn from experts, just
like you.
So I want to talk a little bitabout B2B.
So B2B versus B2C Talk aboutthat.
(05:44):
And then what's your approachthere?
Kyle Parks (06:17):
You're don't.
Most outfits would not have themoney Everybody's not Coca-Cola
or whatever that they haveunlimited.
Not unlimited, but a huge adbudget.
So, even for B2C, you got tothink geography.
You got to think about whatkind of outlets would reach the
folks that you want to reachhome buyers and we are talking
about, okay, what's the agerange, what?
What are the radio stationsthat that age range listens to?
So, even for B2C, you want tobe targeted.
Now, for B2B, it's all abouttargeting, because your
(06:38):
targeting is going to be tighter.
So, in other words, if I amselling, working with an
organization that sells acertain service, I'm going to
want to try to.
There's two ways to spendadvertising and sponsorship and
money for public relations andmarketing agencies.
You can either spend money andjust blast, or you can spend
(07:01):
part of your money to take thetime and research to understand
how to target and, I wouldalways argue, to spend your
money more wisely.
So, for B2B, I think it'sreally important to do that
targeting work and figure outwhere's your audience, what are
they listening to, what are theywatching, what are they reading
?
Bill Gilliland (07:20):
Yeah, it seems like that.
There's a lot, even in B2B.
There's a lot of ways to investyour marketing dollars.
So what in your mind?
I mean you know what percentageshould be versus PR and what
percentage should be other.
Kyle Parks (07:40):
I hate to say it depends on the client.
Bill Gilliland (07:41):
Of course it depends.
Of course it depends, yeah,yeah, but what I?
Kyle Parks (07:44):
would say on that is that you get what you pay for
in PR or marketing.
Sometimes I'll get a commentsaying well, we could do that
with an intern.
Obviously, today's conversationalso often touches on AI.
Obviously, today's conversationalso often touches on AI.
Certainly, ai or an interncould crank out volume in terms
of written material, but it'sprobably not going to be
(08:06):
impactful for your audience.
Certainly, I have found that AIis a great research tool.
It's a great starter kit kit,but the idea that AI is going to
speak to your target audiencein a way that's going to
encourage them to take actionand to trust your client we're
just not there yet.
I don't know five years from now, who knows, but right now I
(08:28):
think it's important that youhave actual experienced people
doing that.
So, for me, the idea that youcan do a PR program for the idea
that you can do a PR programfor hundreds of dollars or just
a few thousand dollars a year,if you have goals that are
meaningful, it's going to take alarger budget than that.
(08:51):
So I think it's also importantthat you don't do marketing and
PR in silos.
I often partner with eitherin-house marketing people or
external marketing agencies thatare working with my client and
that's really important becauseboth sides of that equation need
to work together for a realeffective program, because
(09:12):
marketing should be aboutgetting attention in a
meaningful way, so the messagingshould match.
But also then PR program comesin and goes okay, people are
finding us, they're checking youout on the internet, they're
asking people in the industry.
That's where the PR comes in,which should help the marketing
(09:33):
program work more effectively.
But I would say certainly insome industries a marketing
budget can be one to up to 5% ofbudget.
It's always good to think aboutwhat are your competitors doing
and you can't necessarily findout what they're spending.
But there are industrystandards often where you can
(09:55):
say, okay, we should bedetermining a certain percentage
of our revenues to spend onmarketing and the other big
thing is just not to turn thespigot on and off this is a long
long-held issue where, oh, oursales are down a bit, we better
cut marketing down.
Well, as you can imagine, that'sthe worst thing you can do.
(10:16):
Yeah, well as you can imagine,that's the worst thing you can
do.
And also consistency, even ifyou don't have the budget to do
a ton of stuff every month, ifyou're targeted and smart and
you're having that repetition,then you're going to get there
that way too.
Bill Gilliland (10:34):
But again, turning it on and off just to me
makes no sense.
No, so what I heard was that PRis just a part of marketing.
Kyle Parks (10:53):
And so it needs to be part of the part of the
overall plan I actually publicrelations is.
I think communications isreally important, to use that
term, Although when I had one ofmy corporate communications
jobs used to have people in thecompany call me thinking I could
fix the phone system, which Iwas like that's not my job, Not
(11:14):
my job.
Bill Gilliland (11:15):
Not your job, no , no, it's communications.
So, and then consistency,communications and then
consistency.
You were talking aboutconsistency and how there, but
let's talk about communication aminute.
So we have a saying thatcommunication is the response
you get.
So how do you adjustcommunications along the way to
(11:35):
adjust the response?
Kyle Parks (11:36):
I guess yeah, I think adjusting the response
really ties back to we talked aminute ago about tying into
trends and also understandingwhat the pain points for a
potential customer are.
What's the problem I'm tryingto solve?
Or you know what's theopportunity that I want to try
to capitalize on.
(11:58):
For instance, if you talk abouta nonprofit, adjusting the
response may involve we aresending out a lot of information
with, let's say, a nonprofitworks both, say, in food
insecurity, but also in housing.
Well, maybe there's obviouslygoing to be needs in both areas,
(12:19):
but maybe we're getting moreresponse from a fundraising
point of view to talk abouthousing.
So it goes back to really beingtargeted, where you can't talk
about everything effectively.
So I would argue do you want tomention, let's say, housing is
where you're really seeing aresponse, that's, and also, at
the same time, you're seeingmore progress because you're
(12:39):
getting more fundraising whichhelps drive that part of the
program.
You know, I would say certainlydon't leave out the other
things you do, but figure outone thing to talk about as a
main point and then that's goingto adjust the response in the
way that you want and also Ilike to.
There's a couple of things thisis really marketing speak, too,
(13:01):
where a couple of things I liketo talk about.
One is if you're raising moneyor you're trying to get business
, you will learn as much or morefrom the people who don't sign
up for your service or don'tgive you money.
It's important for the peoplewho are on the front lines
talking to those potentialcustomers or donors.
(13:22):
Okay, so tell me why youdecided not to support, or tell
me why you decided I'm talkingnonprofit right now.
Why did you decide to give us$300 and not $5,000?
And in a lot of cases it mightbe a personal issue, or in a
business it might be our budgetfor the year or whatever.
But by getting to those answers, that's how you can learn to
(13:45):
adjust your communications toget the response you want,
because you're learning whypeople are saying no.
Bill Gilliland (13:53):
So is there an easy way to do that?
Kyle Parks (13:55):
No, yeah, I didn't know, you could, you, could, you
, could you know?
I think regular surveys arehelpful.
Bill Gilliland (14:05):
Yeah.
Kyle Parks (14:05):
But yeah, I'm generalizing here, but a lot of
companies have let's say, youhave I'm going to business to
business here you've got 10major customers.
So I would advocate for takingthe time to talk to your sales
managers and have them do phonecalls with those folks once a
(14:26):
quarter and not just sending outsome online survey.
They could also do both.
Sending out some online survey,they could also do both.
But I'd want to learn let's say, those 10 customers are 70% of
your business.
I want to get in the brains ofthose 10 customers you know, and
nothing against the smallerfish, but basically it's going
to take some personalinteraction because you know I'm
(14:50):
sure you're like this too youget an online survey.
Even if it's somebody you knowand you work with, it's going to
be hard to do more than justcheck the blanks, and you know a
lot of these surveys.
Go tell us about this and writesomething in.
In my experience, you'll get ahundred surveys back, and like
three people did that.
So that's where you have toleverage your personal
relationships to get meaningfulresponses that's where you have
(15:13):
to leverage your personalrelationships to get meaningful
responses.
Yeah, it's a bit like reviews,huh.
Yeah, that's a good point,because reviews it's like
there's a big difference betweensending out a follow-up email
every time you make a sale orsomething and that will get you
this much response but not awhole lot.
But then if you have a systemwhere you have and of course
(15:34):
this takes time but if you canhave a system where you have
we're calling three or four orfive people a week and asking
them to do it, that's obviouslygoing to help.
Getting reviews is very tough,as you know.
Getting negative reviews is nota problem, but because people
are always motivated if they'refrustrated.
Or we have this, really thisthing happening for a number of
(15:58):
years now where there's acertain percentage of the
population that thinks if theydo a negative review, they're
going to get something in return, whether it's a discount on
their next purchase or a refundor whatever.
I'm not counting those folksbecause there's not a whole lot
you can do there.
But to get positive reviews isalways a challenge and you just
have to just it's gotta be aconsistent program where you're
(16:19):
just consistently reaching outto people and asking.
Bill Gilliland (16:22):
Yeah, yeah, I like the.
Kyle Parks (16:23):
I mean, the bottom line is you just need to go talk
to people, whatever that lookslike, you gotta actually get,
you gotta actually have aconversation with people to find
out what's going on in theirhead and how it's working Right,
and then make it easy for them.
Send them a link to do it.
You know, and say talk to themand say I'm going to send you an
email with a link and you canclick the link and do it.
You got to make it as easy asyou can for them.
(16:45):
And also, you know, don'tassume they're going to remember
to do it and to do it and just,uh, yeah, don't call them every
four days, but you know, have alist where you're like okay, we
talked to them last month.
They didn't do it.
Bill Gilliland (16:58):
Let's reach out to them again.
Yeah, well, I think and even inlieu of reviews, I mean, I
think there's more informationto be.
I mean, the really savvy, savvy, large marketing agencies are
gonna go talk to people.
People, I mean, they might doit individually, they might do
it with surveys, they might hiresomebody to survey companies to
do it, they might have focusgroups, whatever it is, but
(17:21):
they're actually going to talkto people and find out what's
actually happening so that theycan adjust their strategies.
Kyle Parks (17:27):
I do advocate, it's easier.
I always like to joke that it'seasy for me to advocate for a
company to spend more money butbasically it's going to be a lot
more effective if someone fromthe company does it versus a
third party.
Because you probably had thesame experience.
Even if I'm asked by a thirdparty, even if it's a product or
service that I really love, I'mgoing to be more motivated
(17:49):
probably if it's somebody fromthe company that's calling me.
It's going to break throughspam better on the phone calls,
all that good stuff.
So just having that's a reallygood, that's a good intern job
for a really really sharp intern.
They've got to be good on thephone, They've got to be good on
their feet or a lower-levelperson at your company and I
would argue that's going to comeback to you many-fold.
Bill Gilliland (18:12):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Well, uh, man, there's a lot,there's a lot more to, there's a
lot more to uh unpack a lot, of, a lot of more of the onion we
need to peel.
But let me uh, let me wrap itup with this.
Let me ask you what do you?
And some people said, how muchtime do you have?
But the question I usually askis like what do you wish you had
(18:33):
known?
That you know now.
Kyle Parks (18:37):
In my business.
Bill Gilliland (18:38):
Yeah, about business or life or anything
really.
But yeah, so yeah.
Kyle Parks (18:45):
I think I wish I'd known the power of relationships
in terms of always making newrelationships, I think, as I've
been the communications agencybusiness now for oh gosh, about
15 years and you tend to getyour foot off the gas on
(19:06):
business development and makingnew relationships when you get
really busy and I think this isclassic for anybody, whether
you're in a company, nonprofitor whatever.
And I think, just understandingthat you cannot take your foot
off the gas because situationschange, like, for instance, for
a company, you never know ifyour biggest customer is going
(19:29):
to get bought out and theychange the contract and cancel
it even though you're doing agreat job.
Or, in the agency world, samething with clients.
So, I think, understanding thatcontinuing business development
, but doing it in a way where Ithink, if you're good at it, I
think it's really important toknow that you're not acting
(19:53):
overly salesy as you make newrelationships and you're
actually listening as you talkto people and that you're
building a real personalrelationship.
I started my business a year agoand changed and started doing
clients both in North Carolinaand Florida, doing clients both
(20:14):
in North Carolina and Floridaand what I found up here in
North Carolina was I made a lotof really good professional
friends.
I would call them and not justpeople.
I would say let me tell youabout my business in case you
know of anybody who might needme.
But I've had business come tome because I'm not doing that
hard sell.
But I've also been veryconsistent about it and they're
all of us.
There's going to be days orweeks where you're like you got
(20:36):
so much to do, I don't have timefor this.
But just taking that time Ithink is something I wish I'd
understood more earlier, but I'mreally trying to embrace that
now.
Bill Gilliland (20:46):
So what's your preferred method of making
building those relationships?
Is it?
Is it phone or networking?
Or how are you doing it?
Kyle Parks (20:54):
I think networking, but I would argue that
networking through gettinginvolved in the community, the
business community and thebroader community.
Here in Asheville I've gotteninvolved in the Asheville
Chamber, I'm a member of theAsheville Rotary Club, I've
(21:15):
gotten involved with theAsheville Symphony and I'm on
the board of Blue Ridge PublicRadio, and those are all causes.
I count the Chamber as a cause,because a cause is to support
business.
But those are all things that Ireally strongly believe in.
And down in Florida there's anonprofit that's about to put me
on their board and I've beeninvolved with a number of things
(21:36):
down there for years.
But this is stuff I like to do.
I feel like in my own way I'mtrying to help those
organizations, but then I meetpeople that can help the
business.
Now, certainly are there alsoother times when I get a
business card at a chamber eventor something one of my clients
is doing.
I'm going to reach out to themdirectly, of course, because
(21:58):
they fit a potential clientcategory, but I have found doing
the other is really I thinkit's also more fun, honestly,
where you don't feel like youjust oh, I got to go to this
event and go hand out mybusiness card and I think that
comes across.
It's like when you meet someoneand you're not asking for
anything, you're just getting toknow each other.
I'm also doing the LeadershipAsheville program right now 40
(22:20):
people and you know, I couldtell you right now I don't think
there's anyone in that groupthat's like, oh my gosh, they're
going to be a client next week.
But you know those connections,you know how it works.
Somebody asks around town whodoes good public relations in
tampa, st pete or ashville.
You know I want them to bethinking about me yeah, sure, no
, I like it.
Bill Gilliland (22:40):
Community involvement, it's a great way to
do it, and if you're bent thatway, if that's that's who you
are, that's helpful.
Kyle Parks (22:47):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think you have to be.
Bill Gilliland (22:49):
I think you have to be bent a certain way.
I way to join boards and tojoin, I would agree.
Kyle Parks (22:54):
I think I see some clients and people and companies
I know try to put a square anda round hole on that.
And if it's someone who justhas no real interest in doing it
and they just really are notgood at talking to people and
they get a bunch of anxietywalking into a room, you know,
find other ways for them to getinvolved.
(23:15):
They might be able to help anonprofit with some of their
books if it's a financial typeperson.
But you know, reallyunderstanding as a company I
have.
I think it's great when acompany says, okay, our six top
people, we're going to look forways to get them involved.
But when I get in the middle ofthat I'm like, okay, let's not
people, we're going to look forways to get them involved.
But when I get in the middle ofthat I'm like, okay, let's not
just start slotting people in,let's think about what are they
(23:38):
interested in and what are theywilling to do and what are they
going to be happy to do.
Bill Gilliland (23:44):
Yeah, and I like it.
Yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a,it's a, it's an underutilized
thing, but if it's something youwould do anyway.
That's what I say.
If it's something you would doanyway, then do it.
Yeah, if you like, whatever youlike to do, do that, cause
you'll meet people wherever youare.
I mean, I I remember when thekids were little, I coached
(24:04):
soccer and I got clients becauseI coached soccer, right, you
know.
So it doesn't yeah, it doesn'tmake it.
You know, whatever it is you'reinvolved in, be involved in it,
so that I think that's, I thinkthat's awesome.
So, hey, look, this has beenfun, this has been a great thing
and I've learned a lot and Ithink there's a lot here for a
(24:25):
lot of people.
So thanks for being on, thanksfor having me, yeah, hey, and
until next time, all the best.
Hey there, welcome to this week's episode
of Epic Entrepreneurs.
This week we're having a chatwith Kyle Parks of Parks PR.
So welcome to the show, kyle.
Thanks, bill.
Kyle Parks (00:13):
Thanks for having me .
Bill Gilliland (00:14):
Yeah, it's great to have you, so tell us a
little bit about your business.
Kyle Parks (00:18):
Well Parks PR is a solo public relations practice
that I run out of Asheville,north Carolina and the Tampa Bay
area of Florida, and I workwith a lot of different kinds of
organizations everything fromfor-profit companies to
nonprofits and I like to saythat I help an organization get
(00:38):
visibility but also, just asimportant, I enhance their
credibility.
So if you look up someone or acompany or a nonprofit company
to do business with, nonprofitto give money to, you're going
to want to see right away onlineand also talking to people
around town Is the organizationcredible, do they do a good job?
(00:59):
Do they say what they're goingto do?
And also, are they up to dateon trends?
And that's where my work comesin, too, where I use trends to
talk about through my clients ontheir have.
My clients talk about that andthat shows that they are up to
speed on the latest oneverything.
Bill Gilliland (01:33):
Yeah, that's, yeah, that's awesome.
Pr is pretty widespread.
What does that mean?
What all does it encompass?
I think a lot of people areconfused about what PR actually
is.
What PR actually is.
Kyle Parks (01:42):
Agreed, I think for many, many years.
Up to about maybe 20 years ago,public relations was simply
seen as media relations, whereyou worked with the news media
to get stories and to helpinfluence that process.
But as the media has shrunkwhich we've seen happen in
Asheville, we've seen in TampaBay, we've seen everywhere it's
(02:02):
more and more important not onlyto keep working with the news
media but also to work with allthe different channels at your
disposal as an organization,whether it's social media,
whether it's e-newsletters,whether it's different ways to
reach your key audiences.
So a smart public relationsfirm doesn't just have like a
menu, like McDonald's.
(02:24):
A smart PR firm is going tounderstand your organization,
what your value proposition is,and then you talk about OK, how
are we going to reach the peoplethat we want to reach with that
value proposition?
And it could be any or all ofthose channels, and some of my
(02:44):
clients will never get newscoverage and some will.
So the idea that a PR firm isgoing to come in and go here's
these eight things I'm going todo for you and prescribe it that
way, I would argue, is not asimpactful for your organization
as saying let's look at yourorganization, come up with a
custom plan for yourorganization, but it all comes
back to what is going to lead toan organization reaching the
(03:07):
people that they want to reach,and in some cases it's going to
be millions of people, and insome cases it may be 3,000
people.
So it just depends on theorganization.
Bill Gilliland (03:18):
Yeah.
So it seems to me it's a littlebit like a menu that you'd go
in.
You got all these probablyhundreds of things you could do
for people, but, depending onwhat their goals are, you'd want
to establish that.
So what's the process?
A client comes to you.
What happens?
Kyle Parks (03:35):
Basically I do a discovery call, sometimes a
couple of discovery calls.
I ask a ton of questions I wasa journalist formerly in my
career, which helps me, I think,and I try to get inside the
head of not only what theorganization wants to accomplish
but also what does thataudience want to learn about.
Like, for instance, I'm workingwith an outfit right now that
(03:57):
does student housing developmentaround the country and their
audience wants to know how doyou get student housing
developments to work?
How do you find financing?
So in that case I try to pluginto what that audience is
thinking and wondering about andthen that helps me start to say
, okay, how am I going to reachthat audience?
(04:17):
It may be a specific tradeindustry magazine that reaches
student housing readers.
It may be the email newsletterto a very targeted list.
It's also maybe LinkedIn, whichis really helpful to
business-to-business customers,and also just doing
announcements that aremeaningful and not just a news
release that has a lot ofexclamation points.
(04:40):
I don't do that, but it's moreof a news release that's written
like a news story that alsoincludes a lot of context and in
reading about the newsinvolving that organization you
learn about that organization.
But that's just one example ofmany.
I could tell you where that'sgoing to be a specific use of my
time that is.
It doesn't do me, doesn't dothe client, any good.
(05:02):
If I just say I'm going towrite five news releases every
three months and I'm going to dothis, that and the other, then
that in itself may not get youwhere you want to go.
So what I'm trying to do, as Ido my plans, is say what
percentage of my time is goingto be in each area and making
sure that what I'm doing is themost impactful for them.
Bill Gilliland (05:24):
Yeah, I love that.
So one of the I guess it's notreally a secret, but one of the
things that's cool about megetting to do this is I get to
ask people, I get to learn, so Iget to learn from experts, just
like you.
So I want to talk a little bitabout B2B.
So B2B versus B2C Talk aboutthat.
(05:44):
And then what's your approachthere?
Kyle Parks (06:17):
You're don't.
Most outfits would not have themoney Everybody's not Coca-Cola
or whatever that they haveunlimited.
Not unlimited, but a huge adbudget.
So, even for B2C, you got tothink geography.
You got to think about whatkind of outlets would reach the
folks that you want to reachhome buyers and we are talking
about, okay, what's the agerange, what?
What are the radio stationsthat that age range listens to?
So, even for B2C, you want tobe targeted.
Now, for B2B, it's all abouttargeting, because your
(06:38):
targeting is going to be tighter.
So, in other words, if I amselling, working with an
organization that sells acertain service, I'm going to
want to try to.
There's two ways to spendadvertising and sponsorship and
money for public relations andmarketing agencies.
You can either spend money andjust blast, or you can spend
(07:01):
part of your money to take thetime and research to understand
how to target and, I wouldalways argue, to spend your
money more wisely.
So, for B2B, I think it'sreally important to do that
targeting work and figure outwhere's your audience, what are
they listening to, what are theywatching, what are they reading
?
Bill Gilliland (07:20):
Yeah, it seems like that.
There's a lot, even in B2B.
There's a lot of ways to investyour marketing dollars.
So what in your mind?
I mean you know what percentageshould be versus PR and what
percentage should be other.
Kyle Parks (07:40):
I hate to say it depends on the client.
Bill Gilliland (07:41):
Of course it depends.
Of course it depends, yeah,yeah, but what I?
Kyle Parks (07:44):
would say on that is that you get what you pay for
in PR or marketing.
Sometimes I'll get a commentsaying well, we could do that
with an intern.
Obviously, today's conversationalso often touches on AI.
Obviously, today's conversationalso often touches on AI.
Certainly, ai or an interncould crank out volume in terms
of written material, but it'sprobably not going to be
(08:06):
impactful for your audience.
Certainly, I have found that AIis a great research tool.
It's a great starter kit kit,but the idea that AI is going to
speak to your target audiencein a way that's going to
encourage them to take actionand to trust your client we're
just not there yet.
I don't know five years from now, who knows, but right now I
(08:28):
think it's important that youhave actual experienced people
doing that.
So, for me, the idea that youcan do a PR program for the idea
that you can do a PR programfor hundreds of dollars or just
a few thousand dollars a year,if you have goals that are
meaningful, it's going to take alarger budget than that.
(08:51):
So I think it's also importantthat you don't do marketing and
PR in silos.
I often partner with eitherin-house marketing people or
external marketing agencies thatare working with my client and
that's really important becauseboth sides of that equation need
to work together for a realeffective program, because
(09:12):
marketing should be aboutgetting attention in a
meaningful way, so the messagingshould match.
But also then PR program comesin and goes okay, people are
finding us, they're checking youout on the internet, they're
asking people in the industry.
That's where the PR comes in,which should help the marketing
(09:33):
program work more effectively.
But I would say certainly insome industries a marketing
budget can be one to up to 5% ofbudget.
It's always good to think aboutwhat are your competitors doing
and you can't necessarily findout what they're spending.
But there are industrystandards often where you can
(09:55):
say, okay, we should bedetermining a certain percentage
of our revenues to spend onmarketing and the other big
thing is just not to turn thespigot on and off this is a long
long-held issue where, oh, oursales are down a bit, we better
cut marketing down.
Well, as you can imagine, that'sthe worst thing you can do.
(10:16):
Yeah, well as you can imagine,that's the worst thing you can
do.
And also consistency, even ifyou don't have the budget to do
a ton of stuff every month, ifyou're targeted and smart and
you're having that repetition,then you're going to get there
that way too.
Bill Gilliland (10:34):
But again, turning it on and off just to me
makes no sense.
No, so what I heard was that PRis just a part of marketing.
Kyle Parks (10:53):
And so it needs to be part of the part of the
overall plan I actually publicrelations is.
I think communications isreally important, to use that
term, Although when I had one ofmy corporate communications
jobs used to have people in thecompany call me thinking I could
fix the phone system, which Iwas like that's not my job, Not
(11:14):
my job.
Bill Gilliland (11:15):
Not your job, no , no, it's communications.
So, and then consistency,communications and then
consistency.
You were talking aboutconsistency and how there, but
let's talk about communication aminute.
So we have a saying thatcommunication is the response
you get.
So how do you adjustcommunications along the way to
(11:35):
adjust the response?
Kyle Parks (11:36):
I guess yeah, I think adjusting the response
really ties back to we talked aminute ago about tying into
trends and also understandingwhat the pain points for a
potential customer are.
What's the problem I'm tryingto solve?
Or you know what's theopportunity that I want to try
to capitalize on.
(11:58):
For instance, if you talk abouta nonprofit, adjusting the
response may involve we aresending out a lot of information
with, let's say, a nonprofitworks both, say, in food
insecurity, but also in housing.
Well, maybe there's obviouslygoing to be needs in both areas,
(12:19):
but maybe we're getting moreresponse from a fundraising
point of view to talk abouthousing.
So it goes back to really beingtargeted, where you can't talk
about everything effectively.
So I would argue do you want tomention, let's say, housing is
where you're really seeing aresponse, that's, and also, at
the same time, you're seeingmore progress because you're
(12:39):
getting more fundraising whichhelps drive that part of the
program.
You know, I would say certainlydon't leave out the other
things you do, but figure outone thing to talk about as a
main point and then that's goingto adjust the response in the
way that you want and also Ilike to.
There's a couple of things thisis really marketing speak, too,
(13:01):
where a couple of things I liketo talk about.
One is if you're raising moneyor you're trying to get business
, you will learn as much or morefrom the people who don't sign
up for your service or don'tgive you money.
It's important for the peoplewho are on the front lines
talking to those potentialcustomers or donors.
(13:22):
Okay, so tell me why youdecided not to support, or tell
me why you decided I'm talkingnonprofit right now.
Why did you decide to give us$300 and not $5,000?
And in a lot of cases it mightbe a personal issue, or in a
business it might be our budgetfor the year or whatever.
But by getting to those answers, that's how you can learn to
(13:45):
adjust your communications toget the response you want,
because you're learning whypeople are saying no.
Bill Gilliland (13:53):
So is there an easy way to do that?
Kyle Parks (13:55):
No, yeah, I didn't know, you could, you, could, you
, could you know?
I think regular surveys arehelpful.
Bill Gilliland (14:05):
Yeah.
Kyle Parks (14:05):
But yeah, I'm generalizing here, but a lot of
companies have let's say, youhave I'm going to business to
business here you've got 10major customers.
So I would advocate for takingthe time to talk to your sales
managers and have them do phonecalls with those folks once a
(14:26):
quarter and not just sending outsome online survey.
They could also do both.
Sending out some online survey,they could also do both.
But I'd want to learn let's say, those 10 customers are 70% of
your business.
I want to get in the brains ofthose 10 customers you know, and
nothing against the smallerfish, but basically it's going
to take some personalinteraction because you know I'm
(14:50):
sure you're like this too youget an online survey.
Even if it's somebody you knowand you work with, it's going to
be hard to do more than justcheck the blanks, and you know a
lot of these surveys.
Go tell us about this and writesomething in.
In my experience, you'll get ahundred surveys back, and like
three people did that.
So that's where you have toleverage your personal
relationships to get meaningfulresponses that's where you have
(15:13):
to leverage your personalrelationships to get meaningful
responses.
Yeah, it's a bit like reviews,huh.
Yeah, that's a good point,because reviews it's like
there's a big difference betweensending out a follow-up email
every time you make a sale orsomething and that will get you
this much response but not awhole lot.
But then if you have a systemwhere you have and of course
(15:34):
this takes time but if you canhave a system where you have
we're calling three or four orfive people a week and asking
them to do it, that's obviouslygoing to help.
Getting reviews is very tough,as you know.
Getting negative reviews is nota problem, but because people
are always motivated if they'refrustrated.
Or we have this, really thisthing happening for a number of
(15:58):
years now where there's acertain percentage of the
population that thinks if theydo a negative review, they're
going to get something in return, whether it's a discount on
their next purchase or a refundor whatever.
I'm not counting those folksbecause there's not a whole lot
you can do there.
But to get positive reviews isalways a challenge and you just
have to just it's gotta be aconsistent program where you're
(16:19):
just consistently reaching outto people and asking.
Bill Gilliland (16:22):
Yeah, yeah, I like the.
Kyle Parks (16:23):
I mean, the bottom line is you just need to go talk
to people, whatever that lookslike, you gotta actually get,
you gotta actually have aconversation with people to find
out what's going on in theirhead and how it's working Right,
and then make it easy for them.
Send them a link to do it.
You know, and say talk to themand say I'm going to send you an
email with a link and you canclick the link and do it.
You got to make it as easy asyou can for them.
(16:45):
And also, you know, don'tassume they're going to remember
to do it and to do it and just,uh, yeah, don't call them every
four days, but you know, have alist where you're like okay, we
talked to them last month.
They didn't do it.
Bill Gilliland (16:58):
Let's reach out to them again.
Yeah, well, I think and even inlieu of reviews, I mean, I
think there's more informationto be.
I mean, the really savvy, savvy, large marketing agencies are
gonna go talk to people.
People, I mean, they might doit individually, they might do
it with surveys, they might hiresomebody to survey companies to
do it, they might have focusgroups, whatever it is, but
(17:21):
they're actually going to talkto people and find out what's
actually happening so that theycan adjust their strategies.
Kyle Parks (17:27):
I do advocate, it's easier.
I always like to joke that it'seasy for me to advocate for a
company to spend more money butbasically it's going to be a lot
more effective if someone fromthe company does it versus a
third party.
Because you probably had thesame experience.
Even if I'm asked by a thirdparty, even if it's a product or
service that I really love, I'mgoing to be more motivated
(17:49):
probably if it's somebody fromthe company that's calling me.
It's going to break throughspam better on the phone calls,
all that good stuff.
So just having that's a reallygood, that's a good intern job
for a really really sharp intern.
They've got to be good on thephone, They've got to be good on
their feet or a lower-levelperson at your company and I
would argue that's going to comeback to you many-fold.
Bill Gilliland (18:12):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Well, uh, man, there's a lot,there's a lot more to, there's a
lot more to uh unpack a lot, of, a lot of more of the onion we
need to peel.
But let me uh, let me wrap itup with this.
Let me ask you what do you?
And some people said, how muchtime do you have?
But the question I usually askis like what do you wish you had
(18:33):
known?
That you know now.
Kyle Parks (18:37):
In my business.
Bill Gilliland (18:38):
Yeah, about business or life or anything
really.
But yeah, so yeah.
Kyle Parks (18:45):
I think I wish I'd known the power of relationships
in terms of always making newrelationships, I think, as I've
been the communications agencybusiness now for oh gosh, about
15 years and you tend to getyour foot off the gas on
(19:06):
business development and makingnew relationships when you get
really busy and I think this isclassic for anybody, whether
you're in a company, nonprofitor whatever.
And I think, just understandingthat you cannot take your foot
off the gas because situationschange, like, for instance, for
a company, you never know ifyour biggest customer is going
(19:29):
to get bought out and theychange the contract and cancel
it even though you're doing agreat job.
Or, in the agency world, samething with clients.
So, I think, understanding thatcontinuing business development
, but doing it in a way where Ithink, if you're good at it, I
think it's really important toknow that you're not acting
(19:53):
overly salesy as you make newrelationships and you're
actually listening as you talkto people and that you're
building a real personalrelationship.
I started my business a year agoand changed and started doing
clients both in North Carolinaand Florida, doing clients both
(20:14):
in North Carolina and Floridaand what I found up here in
North Carolina was I made a lotof really good professional
friends.
I would call them and not justpeople.
I would say let me tell youabout my business in case you
know of anybody who might needme.
But I've had business come tome because I'm not doing that
hard sell.
But I've also been veryconsistent about it and they're
all of us.
There's going to be days orweeks where you're like you got
(20:36):
so much to do, I don't have timefor this.
But just taking that time Ithink is something I wish I'd
understood more earlier, but I'mreally trying to embrace that
now.
Bill Gilliland (20:46):
So what's your preferred method of making
building those relationships?
Is it?
Is it phone or networking?
Or how are you doing it?
Kyle Parks (20:54):
I think networking, but I would argue that
networking through gettinginvolved in the community, the
business community and thebroader community.
Here in Asheville I've gotteninvolved in the Asheville
Chamber, I'm a member of theAsheville Rotary Club, I've
(21:15):
gotten involved with theAsheville Symphony and I'm on
the board of Blue Ridge PublicRadio, and those are all causes.
I count the Chamber as a cause,because a cause is to support
business.
But those are all things that Ireally strongly believe in.
And down in Florida there's anonprofit that's about to put me
on their board and I've beeninvolved with a number of things
(21:36):
down there for years.
But this is stuff I like to do.
I feel like in my own way I'mtrying to help those
organizations, but then I meetpeople that can help the
business.
Now, certainly are there alsoother times when I get a
business card at a chamber eventor something one of my clients
is doing.
I'm going to reach out to themdirectly, of course, because
(21:58):
they fit a potential clientcategory, but I have found doing
the other is really I thinkit's also more fun, honestly,
where you don't feel like youjust oh, I got to go to this
event and go hand out mybusiness card and I think that
comes across.
It's like when you meet someoneand you're not asking for
anything, you're just getting toknow each other.
I'm also doing the LeadershipAsheville program right now 40
(22:20):
people and you know, I couldtell you right now I don't think
there's anyone in that groupthat's like, oh my gosh, they're
going to be a client next week.
But you know those connections,you know how it works.
Somebody asks around town whodoes good public relations in
tampa, st pete or ashville.
You know I want them to bethinking about me yeah, sure, no
, I like it.
Bill Gilliland (22:40):
Community involvement, it's a great way to
do it, and if you're bent thatway, if that's that's who you
are, that's helpful.
Kyle Parks (22:47):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think you have to be.
Bill Gilliland (22:49):
I think you have to be bent a certain way.
I way to join boards and tojoin, I would agree.
Kyle Parks (22:54):
I think I see some clients and people and companies
I know try to put a square anda round hole on that.
And if it's someone who justhas no real interest in doing it
and they just really are notgood at talking to people and
they get a bunch of anxietywalking into a room, you know,
find other ways for them to getinvolved.
(23:15):
They might be able to help anonprofit with some of their
books if it's a financial typeperson.
But you know, reallyunderstanding as a company I
have.
I think it's great when acompany says, okay, our six top
people, we're going to look forways to get them involved.
But when I get in the middle ofthat I'm like, okay, let's not
people, we're going to look forways to get them involved.
But when I get in the middle ofthat I'm like, okay, let's not
just start slotting people in,let's think about what are they
(23:38):
interested in and what are theywilling to do and what are they
going to be happy to do.
Bill Gilliland (23:44):
Yeah, and I like it.
Yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a,it's a, it's an underutilized
thing, but if it's something youwould do anyway.
That's what I say.
If it's something you would doanyway, then do it.
Yeah, if you like, whatever youlike to do, do that, cause
you'll meet people wherever youare.
I mean, I I remember when thekids were little, I coached
(24:04):
soccer and I got clients becauseI coached soccer, right, you
know.
So it doesn't yeah, it doesn'tmake it.
You know, whatever it is you'reinvolved in, be involved in it,
so that I think that's, I thinkthat's awesome.
So, hey, look, this has beenfun, this has been a great thing
and I've learned a lot and Ithink there's a lot here for a
(24:25):
lot of people.
So thanks for being on, thanksfor having me, yeah, hey, and
until next time, all the best.
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