Using Press Releases is a key element of your media campaign strategy. We're talking with Mickie Kennedy who is an expert - and a speaker at the Break Through with Media summit, June 14-16 - and in this conversation Mickie shares
We're going even deeper on this at the summit - and all the other facets of your media, speaking, PR, and publicity strategy
The BREAK THROUGH WITH MEDIA Summit is a FREE, virtual event, June 14 - 16, offering live interactive sessions with experts in the fields of media like television, podcasting, radio, magazine and news, speaking, publicity and PR to help entrepreneurs, authors, and start-ups quickly understand how they can step their brand up to more prestigious, credible platforms, stages and pages
We want to provide an interactive expo experience for your to get the big picture, see the opportunities for you, and meet knowledgeable experts that can make this the year you have the break through you've been dreaming of.
REGISTER FREE at https://breakthroughin22.com/
You can find Mickie at: https://www.ereleases.com/
Using Press Releases is a key element of your media campaign strategy. We're talking with Mickie Kennedy who is an expert - and a speaker at the Break Through with Media summit, June 14-16 - and in this conversation Mickie shares
We're going even deeper on this at the summit - and all the other facets of your media, speaking, PR, and publicity strategy
The BREAK THROUGH WITH MEDIA Summit is a FREE, virtual event, June 14 - 16, offering live interactive sessions with experts in the fields of media like television, podcasting, radio, magazine and news, speaking, publicity and PR to help entrepreneurs, authors, and start-ups quickly understand how they can step their brand up to more prestigious, credible platforms, stages and pages
We want to provide an interactive expo experience for your to get the big picture, see the opportunities for you, and meet knowledgeable experts that can make this the year you have the break through you've been dreaming of.
REGISTER FREE at https://breakthroughin22.com/
You can find Mickie at: https://www.ereleases.com/
Welcome to the She's All That video podcast. This season of the podcast is all about the BREAK THROUGH with MEDIA virtual summit that we're holding and all about the amazing industry experts that are speaking at the summit who will give entrepreneurs, authors and thought leaders, people just like you, a powerful alternative to the fast-deteriorating tool of social media for your marketing and visibility. The next big opportunity that you need to rapidly uplevel your positioning and your reach is media exposure, TV, podcast, radio news, speaking opportunities, publicity, PR and more. The free BREAK THROUGH with MEDIA Summit provides you with a constellation of experts information and strategy to give you the big picture of how you can get started. Our guest today is a key piece in that puzzle. And my guest today is Mickie Kennedy, he is the founder of e-releases, which has been going for over 23 years. This is a press release company that helps small businesses, authors and startups increase the visibility and their credibility through press release marketing. Mickie, welcome, thank you so much for being here today.
Mickie Kennedy:Well, thanks so much for having me.
September Smith:I am so excited to talk about this. This is such a fascinating thing that I think a lot of business like you say businesses, entrepreneurs, startups, they don't think about this, this is going to be really interesting. But before we get there, what was your background that made this a natural direction for you to go?
Mickie Kennedy:Well, it may not seem very natural, but my background is in creative writing. I got an MFA in creative writing with an emphasis in poetry. And to be honest, I assumed I was just gonna wait tables my entire life. But I did that for a summer and realized that my back and my legs and my mind couldn't take it. It was very taxing. And so I decided I need an office job. And I started a telecom research startup, I was employee number three. And the owner of the company came in one day and said, well, we should be doing press releases. And Mickie, you're the closest to a writer, we want you to write and send out press releases. And so I did that via fax. It was very tedious. And because we published numbers and statistics, a lot of journalists started to call and say, Could I email them that press release as a Word document, and I mentioned to my boss and emails seems so much more natural and easier than faxing. And he said, there might be a business there. And so I spent about a year reaching out to journalists. And that just asked him, could I email you press releases on your beat or topic? As I find them? And they said, Sure. And that's sort of what launched the releases.
September Smith:That was the birth of it. Wow. So yeah, really, that your service is doing journalists a favor because they are forever having to find new stories. And you're queuing them up with this well crafted story that they can kind of pick up.
Mickie Kennedy:Right. So fortunately, they're getting a lot more email now. So they feel a lot more in and inundated. I wouldn't want to start my business today. So I'm glad I have the relationships that I already have with the journalists. Because, you know, I can't imagine going to them now and saying, Can I email you press releases? And they're like, No, I need to take away a two or 300 that I'm getting every day because there's so much competition, but the competition wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't so off target. There are these media databases that get licensed and sold. And people are just like, well, we're in the golf industry, but why not just send it to all sports, why not also send it to men's interest because some men play golf. And, you know, there's this logic that happens in the boardroom, where all of a sudden, you're blasting it a lot of off topic, press releases, and that really hurts the reputation of people who are sending out press releases, and, you know, trying to be taken seriously. So if
September Smith:you're doing that, and the journalists are just gonna, like basically now send that to spam. I don't want you to read from that person. So yeah, again, it comes back to I mean, it's a great tool, but somebody that's been in it for over two decades, and has that relationship and their emails aren't going to spam is definitely an advantage.
Mickie Kennedy:Right? Absolutely.
September Smith:So what was what is the problem that most people, most businesses, or like you said startups authors are having that this is going to solve?
Mickie Kennedy:I think its visibility. And it also helps to sort of solidify what their unique selling proposition is. If you're going to build a PR campaign, you really want to know your story very well. You want to be authentic. You want to know what is it that you do that's different than everybody else that does something similar to you, you know, if you don't have that edge, that's a really big sign that you need to go out there and create it so that you are doing something a little different and unique. And that you know, as a result, you'll stand out in the marketplace. And I think that that's probably one of the best things that I've seen it can take. I've taken small businesses that are just scattered and get them to be really focused by Trying to put them on board of, you know, who is your audience? Who are you trying to reach? What type of readers what type of publications, and you know, really narrow down what, you know, what they feel their products or services are, you know, doing in the marketplace, and who are best suited for that. And sometimes we've had some discoveries along the way where a client turns and does a pivot and start serving a different industry. And, you know, it's just something that happens with focus, and you know, being able to really identify a need, and what your product or service solves.
September Smith:Wow, that's interesting. So is this the pivot caused by the data you're getting back or the or the results that you're seeing from what you're putting out, and you can then identify, you got potential over
Mickie Kennedy:here? Yeah, we had a client many years ago that had created a, an umbrella that you could attach to a golf bag, and it had a little screw, you've probably seen him at beaches and stuff like that. He was the one who created it before them. And this was probably closer to 20 years ago. And he had developed it for the golfing industry. And somebody wrote back to him and said, hey, you know, I think this is bigger than golf. They said, I think that this has applications for beaches, wheelchairs, things like that. And so he didn't do it, but he licensed the technology, you know, the patent that he had out there to so that other people can start incorporating it.
September Smith:Wow. So it's more than even just I mean, the visibility potential there is enormous if it's done, right. But it can even give you insights into where else you could be actually reaping revenue and profits in your business.
Mickie Kennedy:Right. Wow. And he realized that the market was bigger than he was. So he would just license it if you did very well with that.
September Smith:smart, smart. So do you have any? What if somebody came to you and said, Okay, why should I be going with E releases versus any other company? What is the edge that E releases offers
Mickie Kennedy:really are our big edge is that we offer a custom national distribution over PR Newswire were the only person in this space that's offering a national distribution over the wire, anything close to our price, the newswire charges, over $1,000 to move a 500 word press release nationally, and through us with a new customer special, you could do that for two to $400, you know, per press release. So it can be substantially cheaper using us, you know, if your market is national in nature. And so that's that's really our our bread and butter is serving people who are looking to go out nationally, and we're able to offer it much cheaper than you know, going directly to the wire or using anybody else that's out there.
September Smith:So cheaper and a much richer history with all the journalists that you really want your clients stuff to be being picked up by. Pretty amazing combination.
Mickie Kennedy:Yeah, PR Newswire is the oldest and largest newswire, so they have the biggest stable of journalists that they reach and serve. So it's just a really great fit so that you know that your content is probably one of the biggest oceans of content out there.
September Smith:Wow. Well, for anybody listening, who is maybe totally new to this, and I have to admit, I'm pretty new to this, if anything that you heard so far, is kind of confusing. Let's get maybe to clear that up a little bit with, for example, give you a case study of a recent client or doesn't even have to be reason that kind of give us a vision of what doing press releases can actually do for your business.
Mickie Kennedy:Sure. So I have this is the one of our main case studies on our website, it's during the pandemic, we did a free press release for the dining bond initiative. And it was basically set up based off the war bond initiative, and you could nominate a local restaurant, all of them were closed at the time nationwide. And if they accepted, they reached out to the restaurant, you know, through email and social media, if they accepted, you could basically give them money that they would immediately get and it'd be secured sort of like a gift certificate. And it was it was, you know, a project that was meant to live for just a very short period of time. But it created a lot of, you know, valuable help. It resulted in over 150 articles, The New York Times Wall Street Journal, all the food trade publications picked it up, you know, many dozens of newspapers, magazines, it got out there and millions of dollars was raised for restaurants that were shut down during the pandemic. And that's just one press release did that is probably like my most extreme example of a successful press release. But it just shows that you know, if you have the right message and it's extremely newsworthy and timely, you can get major leverage from just hitting send and once place, and it just going out there and really feeding and growing on its own.
September Smith:Wow. Yeah, that's that's incredible like that that's a survival of this these businesses. Now for, as you said, when you get the right message out there do you help? Does e releases help the people who the clients who come to you? Do you help them craft that right message like you can with your background? Sure, you can go Yeah, that's not it, or we got some stuff to work with here.
Mickie Kennedy:We do offer writing services, but the area where I feel that the client can do the most is by doing an audit of themselves. And I have a masterclass that I put together of strength, eight strategies that you can use to build strategic press releases. And if you go through that, and do an audit of your business, or what you offer, and it's, you know, it's less than an hour of a video, I think that you'll come away with probably like 10, good ideas of newsworthy type press releases you could do about your, your business. And it's one of those things that people just feel I'm not newsworthy, you know, I don't have anything to say. And I guarantee once you've gone through this, you'll come away with saying, well, I could do this, I could do that. And so that allows you to build a PR campaign and get started.
September Smith:Fabulous, and is this resource, what we're going to be offering because all of the speakers at the break breakthrough with Media Summit will be offering us some free resources that they know are really going to help people get started with this. So we'll have that right there by your profile on the speaker page, making sure everybody gets access to that. Wow, that's fabulous. So I could ask you a million more questions. I am really, really interested in this. And I'm sure all our listeners are as well. But we're saving the juice for the BREAK THROUGH with MEDIA Summit, a three day live virtual event happening June 14 to the 16th t. So when you come over to the BREAK THROUGH with MEDIA Summit, a three day live virtual event happening June 14 to the 16th t, and you pick up Mickie's session on this, we're going to be going much deeper, we're going to get some background information on this powerful opportunity for your media, your PR growing your business, we're gonna go deeper on who can help what you need to know about that, how you should be using it. And also some tips, strategies and action steps because that's really important. When you hear from experts, you really, if they don't give me the action steps, you can't get started. And we're going to make sure that we get that from all our speakers, Mickie included. So make sure you check out make entity's links down below for E releases. And also, I'm going to put the link down there for this. What was it eight strategies?
Mickie Kennedy:Yeah, it's a strategic PR strategy, masterclass god,
September Smith:okay, that'll be links down below. And also, if you want to learn more about all this and get even more great insight into how all this media opportunity can be helping you in your business, make sure you register for the free three day BREAK THROUGH with MEDIA Summit, a three day live virtual event happening June 14 to the 16th t that's happening June 14 to the 16th and can be with Mickie and me and an exciting array of other industry experts who are going to be there to help teach you how you and your business can really have that big breakthrough that you want to have this year. The links are all down below for you to get registered, and you don't want to miss this. So Mickie, thanks so much for being here with me today.
Mickie Kennedy:Oh, you're very welcome.
September Smith:I can't wait to go deeper with you at the summit. See you there. And that was just one of the amazing guests that we have at the BREAK THROUGH with MEDIA Summit, a three day live virtual event happening June 14 to the 16th to give entrepreneurs authors and thought leaders a panoramic overview of the opportunities, the skills required and the services and tools that you can be using media exposure, speaking opportunities, PR publicity and more to have the major breakthrough that you are looking for 20 industry experts three days all available right from wherever you are and it's free. Register at the link below in the show notes. You will not want to miss this!