Latest / Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney / How to get your wedding business in the press - with Meghan Ely

Transcript

How to get your wedding business in the press - with Meghan Ely · Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney

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Meghan: There are gonna be listeners of yours who hear this and say,
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you know, this sounds like this is gonna be great, da da da da
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da, and they just wanna go for it.
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Becca: I'm Becca Pountney, wedding business marketing expert,
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speaker and blogger, and you are listening to the Wedding Pros
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who are ready to grow podcasts.
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I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies, and real life
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examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.
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If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion
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and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business doing what you
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love, then you're in the right place.
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Let's get going with today's episode.
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Today I'm chatting with Megan Ely, founder of Ofd Consulting, a PR and
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marketing firm that works exclusively with the wedding industry, using
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her own experience working weddings.
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She's passionate about getting her clients in front of new audiences
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through PR and marketing strategies.
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I first came across Megan on Clubhouse back when that was
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a thing, and I'm thrilled to welcome her to the podcast today.
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Megan, it's great to have you.
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Meghan: Oh, thank you so much for having me.
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And do you remember when Clubhouse was a thing?
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I remember those days.
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So I love that you brought that up.
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. Becca: I loved Clubhouse even though it was only a small moment of time,
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I made so many connections and got to know people all around the
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world that I'm really thankful for.
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Meghan: Absolutely.
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Well, it's great to have you here.
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Why don't you start by telling people where you are based and what.
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Absolutely.
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So I'm based in the us.
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I'm on the East Coast in Virginia, specifically Richmond, Virginia.
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But you know, we really work with people all over domestically here in the
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States, as well as abroad as well here.
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And so working with Wedding Pros and have been doing that for about 14 years.
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Becca: Incredible.
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Have you ever been to the uk?
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Meghan: Oh yes.
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I was there a few weeks ago.
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I was there for an event and I made a long weekend out of it and just
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had a spectacular time and plan on.
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I was, I mean, at that point I was in London for the most part, ready to send
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for my family to come over with me.
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And so it was a spectacular time and looking forward to doing that again soon.
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Becca: Incredible.
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Well, if you come back to England, as I always say to my guests, make sure
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you let me know and we can go for a.
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Meghan: Yes, I would love that
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. Becca: We can have a lovely drink in London.
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Okay, so I explained in the intro a little bit about what you do, but I
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know for some of the listeners, they won't really understand what that means.
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So can you explain in really simple language what on earth PR and
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marketing is for the wedding industry and why they should be interested?
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Meghan: Absolutely.
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You know, it took me a long time to, funny enough, being a communicator to be able
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to communicate what I do, and I finally landed on you and I both, we talked
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offline that we have children of the same age, and so you'll appreciate this.
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I was, during my son's kindergarten year, I went to career day and I had
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to explain what I do and I blurted out, well, you know, we work with wedding pros.
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They got that.
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And I said, we see the best in people and we.
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Everybody else knows about it.
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And I was like, oh, I landed on something.
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I'm gonna explain it like that for the rest of my life.
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But essentially we work with people to get them published.
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We take the best parts of what they're doing in their brand.
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That could be their beautiful work, that could be their expertise, that
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could be their ability to have these great conversations with podcasts.
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And we're the ones who spread the word.
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We're the one, you know, holding the megaphone for them to get the word out.
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And so, you know, that manifests in a few different ways.
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It could be from having gorgeous events that we take and we submit to
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blogs and publications that could be.
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You know, they'd be fantastic on a podcast and we'll go ahead and, you
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know, review the podcast and then pitch some ideas on behalf of the client.
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That could also mean working with journalists who say,
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what are the next trends?
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What, you know, how are people saving money right now, so and so
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forth, and bringing my clients in to be able to provide that sort
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of guidance and so that, that's.
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Pretty much what we do, and we find that the people who benefit from
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that, there's a few different folks.
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It could be those who, you know, frankly, they're at nearly the top of their game,
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but they find themselves competing with people not on price, but maybe expertise.
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Like what are those extra things that discerning couples are looking for?
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But it's also from, if I can be a geek for a second, it would be
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from the SEO standpoint as well.
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I want links back to my site.
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I want.
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Websites linking back to me, and I know there's a lot of power with that.
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And I think overall, just people who, you know, statistically, it
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shows that couples all over the world will in part, find their wedding pro
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team through real wedding features.
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And that's gonna be more the your audience.
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Who are the photographers, venues, designers, planners.
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They will particularly benefit from having their events out and about.
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That's a really
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helpful explanation.
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I love that you decided on your explanation based on talking to children.
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That is such a good tip.
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Well, it just finally helped because how many times have I explained
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this and I'll take five minutes and then someone at the end will say,
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so you're a wedding planner, right?
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And I'm like, I.
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What did I just do with these last five minutes?
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What did I, where did I go wrong?
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And so that really, inspired that definition
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. Becca: So for anyone listening, if you can't explain to your kids or
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kids that you know what you do, then you need to go back and simplify it.
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If you ask my kids what I do, which is hilarious, they always say, mommy
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just spends all her time making videos to help wedding businesses be better
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Meghan: I think that's a wonderful definition.
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I think that's great.
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Maybe I should hire.
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Them to go ahead and work on some sort of taglines for me.
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. Becca: Yeah.
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I think a six and a nine year old could come up with some
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really good business taglines.
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Absolutely.
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They say it as it is, right?
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Meghan: Yeah, they do.
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. Becca: Love that.
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Okay, so my wedding pros, I know they're super busy and they
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are so heads down in weddings.
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Yes.
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So why should PR matter to them and what kind of return are they gonna see from.
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Meghan: That's a great, and that's kind of a difficult question to
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be, you know, honest with that.
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So why, let's start with why it matters to them.
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So again, it goes back to some of the statistics that say is splinted insights
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in particular that couples will impart find their wedding pro team through
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real wedding features, but also through Google rankings, also through referrals.
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So peer helps tie that all together.
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It provides the features the couples are looking at.
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It provides the backlinks for SEO to help you in part get to the top
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of Google, but it also keeps your, your fellow wedding pros happy.
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I have wedding photographers in particular who work for work with me,
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right, to get their weddings featured and their big thing is I wanna keep
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the planners happy, I wanna keep the venues happy for the referrals.
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So it all goes back to kind of, you know, the lead generation
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for the couples as well.
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So that's part of it.
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There's also some who.
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Are ready to explore and diversify.
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Maybe they've done weddings 10, 15, 20 years.
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There's, you and I both agreed there's a physicality to it.
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There's gonna be a point where they maybe don't wanna spend
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every weekend doing events.
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And so how can I diversify, be seen as an expert and go out there
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and make money different ways in an industry that I love so much?
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So that's, I've seen that, you know, I've seen that journey for people as well.
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And it's been very satisfying to see people go in, go in that direction.
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And then when you talk about.
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Boy, is that hard because I always say public relations is not a vending machine.
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You don't put in a quote from the New York Times and suddenly
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you get 800 new leads coming in.
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I, and maybe that makes me a bad salesman, but that makes me very
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honest about what PR can do for you.
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So instead, what it does is, when I find it comes to roi, it's how much
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traffic does it send back to your site?
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How much traffic does it send?
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Your social media profiles, you know, if you get featured in Martha Stewart
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Brides, all these places, you know, if they go ahead and feature it as
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well, like how much traffic is that sending and then what do you do with
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that traffic once it gets there, right?
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Like we can lead PR will lead people to your website.
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It will lead people to your social media, but then the ROI
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really does rest in the ability to convert that into business as well.
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I would also say from an ROI standpoint, For those looking on the SEO side, what's
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the value of the links coming in as well?
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So it really just depends.
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I mean, anyone who comes in the door, we have a whole guide on ROI for pr, and we
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tell them, please ask every single human being who comes in through your door.
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How did you hear about you?
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Please make sure you have analytics on the back end of your site.
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So if you get featured on a beautiful blog, you can see
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how much traffic it sends you.
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But I don't know if that helps a little bit.
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It's always a very, it's a great question to ask.
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It's complicated to answer.
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Becca: Oh, I think it's really important to be honest about it.
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And presumably as well it builds a trust factor
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for clients.
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Meghan: Yes, absolutely.
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We call it social proof.
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So the idea of, you know, someone comes to your site and let's say
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they are comparing one planner to another planner, and they look at the
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two and you know, its very similar.
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Great look, great portfolio testimonials, but then one has that
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coveted as seen in, and then you put all these different media outlets.
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Suddenly this person has this discerning quality of I'm an expert.
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The media trusts me.
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I'm sort of guiding light in the industry to help.
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Crises and of course pandemic and economic problems and things like that.
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There is something to that social proof.
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I always say, and I have borrowed this quote, I wanna say first and
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foremost that PR is when someone else says that you're great.
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Advertising is, when I say I'm great, PR is when somebody else says I'm great.
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And this generation coming in, they're all about reviews.
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They're all about third party credibility.
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You can't buy anything on Amazon.
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Without, and you could buy a straw on Amazon and there's 800 reviews
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about it, and that's the generation that we're, we're selling to.
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Becca: That is really, really true.
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Okay, so someone's listening to this, they're thinking,
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Megan, this sounds great.
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I definitely wanna get my stuff featured in some press or on some
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blogs, like practically, where do they even get started with that?
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Meghan: Well, first, don't get overwhelmed.
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Like, isn't that easier said than done?
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As someone who's been doing it fourteen years, don't get overwhelmed.
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I would say first and foremost, you've gotta set goals.
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You have, you know, you probably have business goals, don't get me wrong, but
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you've gotta connect them to the PR goals.
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Why do I wanna do this in the first place?
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Because there are gonna be listeners of yours who hear this and say,
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you know, this sounds like.
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This is gonna be great, da da da da da.
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And they just wanna go for it.
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But I'd love, I mean, I know I don't know your listeners, but none of us have
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unlimited time or money to just throw things out there to see what works, right?
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And so what they wanna do is really look at their business goals.
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What am I hoping to achieve?
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Where do I wanna be in one year, five years?
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And how does PR connect to that?
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And you know, I always say it's not a very sexy formula, but great PR to get
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you started is when you have a message.
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So you have to figure out what that message is.
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I'm the.
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Destination venue in this region, for example.
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You wanna get it out to a particular audience.
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You have to figure out who that, that's step two.
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Who's that audience?
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Is it couples?
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Which typically is, but some people, I know a lot of stationary people who
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really sell to the planner, they want the planners to refer business to them.
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Right.
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And so who's that audience?
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And where?
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Where do they consume the media?
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That's what I need to know.
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So you kind of start with more bigger picture thinking.
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I wish I could say, oh, you just write your favorite magazine and go from there.
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But the planning is worth the time.
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So you start there.
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If you're someone who is interested in getting your events featured,
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you need to take a good hard look.
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The events you've done in the last, I'd say, six months or so, and
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ask yourself which ones were shot well and really had details that
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were unusual in a, in a good way.
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Something that people haven't seen.
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Cause those are gonna be the most strong to start with.
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And really to start taking in the media.
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Get an idea, like, see, why am I doing this?
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What do I have to leverage?
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And then start taking in the media.
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Take baby steps to go ahead and read the blogs, read the sites,
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the places that you admire.
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, the places where, listen to the podcast.
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Right?
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Get to know, like, I was gonna say back, you know, I pitched you, I
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listened to your episodes, I went through your episodes before I pitched
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you because it, it just wouldn't have made sense if I just threw myself
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at you and said, so what do you say?
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You know, we should have more value than that.
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So start with looking internally.
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Paying attention to the media that's in front of you to
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decide what your next moves are.
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Becca: I think that's a really important step that so many people forget
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and just become totally overwhelmed because they don't know where to start.
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So once they've identified the place where they wanna pitch to
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you and they've identified what they wanna pitch, like now what?
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How do they go back?
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Where do we go from?
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Meghan: Yeah, absolutely.
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We'll go two different ways.
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If you don't mind.
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I'm gonna answer this a couple different ways.
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If you have an audience, which some people will, they'll say, you know, I wanna get
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my weddings to these particular outlets.
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That's the PR I wanna do, which is what a lot of people start with because
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they already have the great content.
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What they're gonna do again, is take some time to look at that blogger
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publication, go ahead and buy it.
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Go ahead and read it.
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Go ahead and you know, take a look at their content.
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Then you're gonna go to their submissions.
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Everybody has one.
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I need to fight me on it.
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If they don't, everybody has one.
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And it's a submission page that really digs into, Hey, do you have a beautiful
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wedding you wanna share with us?
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Here are the steps to do that.
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And you're gonna follow it like a checklist.
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It's gonna say, I need 60 images, a hundred images.
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I want this size, I need this pertinent information about the day.
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Just go ahead and go through that list, and from there you're ready to send in.
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And it's as easy and as hard as that.
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You don't get anywhere unless you try, right?
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So that, that's step one.
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Now, if you've got other parts of your audience as well,
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that's not my thing, right?
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Stationary cake rentals, those guys don't benefit from those features.
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What you're gonna do again, is consume that outlet, maybe it's a
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great wedding website that quotes people often and you think, you
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know, I, I have something to say.
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I could be great for that.
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What you're gonna wanna do is either go to their staff section, a lot of 'em will
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have a contact page with staff people, or you're gonna go ahead and start reading
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the articles and land on the writers.
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You're gonna see that there's gonna be a list of writers somewhere,
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and you're gonna match your expertise to what they cover.
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So if you're in cakes, in catering, you're gonna find the person who writes about.
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All you're gonna do again, as easy as and difficult is start with an easy email.
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Introduce yourself.
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Hi, my name is.
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I've read what you've been doing on this website.
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I just wanna introduce myself.
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I'd love to be considered an expert for the future.
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Give them a few lines about yourself.
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Boom.
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Get out of there.
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That's all you have to do to get started is I admire your work.
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Talking about wedding cakes, rentals, stationary photography,
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and I'd love to introduce myself as.
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I've been doing photography for 10 years now.
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My specialty is X, Y, and Z, and I just wanted to say hello in case
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I can ever assist in the future.
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Becca: That is it.
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. You make it sound so simple,
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Meghan: don't I?
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Don't I, but, but I've gotta tell you, this is where I got started when?
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All these years.
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So what you may not know about me, I was.
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For a long time I did.
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I was at venues and I did all sorts of events.
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And then when I had to change the conversation and really turn into
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this kind of wedding industry expert, everything I'm telling you, I did.
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I wrote all the outlets, all the people, just a simple email and you
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know, some of them will never respond.
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No one will ever be rude about it, but some people just won't respond.
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But a lot of people will say, okay, thanks.
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And they'll set you aside and when they need you, they'll be in touch.
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Becca: I love that.
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And that is so true because we do go back through our emails now, what
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do you think about following up?
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Because I own a wedding blog myself and I'm very busy, and sometimes people
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pitch me and I think it's a great idea.
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And then two weeks later I realized I forgot to.
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Meghan: Yes.
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So I am not, let me just tell you, I'm not a very aggressive publicist.
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Publicists can be very aggressive.
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I am a rule follower and I serve two sets of people.
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I serve the wedding pros, but I serve the editors, the bloggers, the, the
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podcast hosts and all those things.
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And so I'm very protective of their time.
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And if there's one thing I hear.
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All the time.
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It's only follow up with purpose, right?
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So if I am submitting to a blog and their submission page says
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we will be back in touch in six weeks, what I do is we'll submit.
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We'll set up something for seven weeks.
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Notice I didn't say six because we are all human.
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What if six weeks lands on Christmas Day?
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What are we gonna do?
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Right?
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People, but people think like that.
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I use an app called Boomerang app for Gmail, which is, can be used globally.
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It also has one for Outlook for anyone who uses the Gmail interface.
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What it does is it will send an email back to.
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On whatever date I ask it to.
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So what we'll do is that's when we will follow up and say, you know, and
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that's with purpose because we expected a response and we didn't get one.
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Now, if you're just submitting, let's say, um, just yourself to
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someone as, Hey, I'd love to help in the future, just let that lie.
16:55
There's no need to come back unless you have discovered a
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cure for an incurable disease.
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That's what I tell people, unless you've suddenly done.
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Massively.
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You know, it doesn't, it's okay, let it be.
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So if there is an But, when I tell people this, listen, if you write a
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writeup and it's very well researched, and there is an ask, and it requires
17:15
a response, remember, they're human.
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Give them time and follow up with purpose.
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But otherwise, no response is a response.
17:23
So, So, but you can correct me on that because you're
17:27
on the receiving end, right?
17:28
So I know everybody's different when it comes to that.
17:31
Becca: Yeah.
17:32
I think what you're saying is really helpful.
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I think definitely a soft response, not a hard, like anything that's just sending
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me emails all of the time, I tend to block and get rid of because it drives me crazy.
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But equally, there is a balance where I flag things and there's things
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and conversations I really wanna.
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And then something comes into my inbox and I just totally forget about it.
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And in that case, sometimes the follow up is what I need to make sure it.
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Meghan: It's difficult.
17:56
I think, you know what, there's kind of a marker people have to
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think about is, I always say, you know, public relations, yes.
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It's the, the benefit is when you know what you're doing as newsworthy.
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But the other side is when you understand it's not newsworthy.
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So if some, if you write, and by you I mean the royal you, if
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you write an editor, writer and following up is in their best.
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Like you, right?
18:21
You and I have some great repertoire back and forth.
18:23
We kind of knew each other from Clubhouse.
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I really think this could be a fit.
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I'm gonna follow up with you because it is like, I think you and I universally
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could have a good, like I've got other people who could come on your
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wonderful book, things like that.
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But if it's only in my best interest, I'm not gonna follow up again.
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That's a really good marker to determine.
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And I get say, as humans, we're not great at that.
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We think everything about ourselves is important, but you
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just gotta think beyond yourself.
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If it, if it's to the benefit of the end receiver, then follow up.
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Becca: Yes.
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And I'm all about that and what I teach about thinking how we can
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serve rather than how we can take.
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So if it's a way you can serve someone then absolutely follow up on it.
19:00
Okay.
19:00
So people are making mistakes all of the time.
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I see them coming into my own inbox.
19:04
One of the mistakes I had recently is someone pitched to my blog and it was
19:09
a great idea, but they pitched to my business blog instead of my wedding blog.
19:13
And so therefore it made no sense because they pitched an article for
19:16
brides and grooms to my business blog.
19:18
Yeah.
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And.
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I went back and said, I think you pitched to the wrong blog, but you've
19:22
already lost me at that point, because you haven't done your research.
19:24
So what other mistakes are you seeing people making when they're pitching?
19:28
Meghan: Well, I think you just, and I love your insight on this because I think
19:31
you really speak to the number one, it is reaching out, making all about ourselves
19:37
and not doing the research ahead of time.
19:38
So I wanna augment that by saying a hundred percent it is.
19:42
I hear journalists, writers, bloggers, editors, what have
19:46
you, lament all the time.
19:48
People pitch me for the wrong reasons.
19:50
You know, it's like when people come to me and say, oh, do you?
19:53
And they think I'm a planner.
19:54
I'm like, you didn't take five seconds to see what I actually did for a living.
19:58
You know?
19:59
So that's number one.
20:00
Number two is not following the rules.
20:03
I kind of joke that this discipline's great for me because I'm such
20:06
a real follower by nature.
20:08
If a wedding blog says, as you know, I need a hundred images, I need them sized
20:13
like this, and I don't want watermarks on.
20:16
You send them a hundred, you size them correctly and you
20:20
take the watermarks off of them.
20:22
We don't deviate from the guidelines.
20:25
The guidelines were put in place editorially for the right reasons, right?
20:30
And so you wanna make sure that you follow all the rules because there's
20:33
something to be said for when you submit to somebody, when you send
20:37
something in following the rule said, I took the time to do my research.
20:41
I respect your time, I respect your.
20:44
Guidelines and workflows that work for you.
20:47
And that's what people need to do.
20:48
I mean, even when you and I were speaking about the podcast, it was,
20:51
you know, I worked hard to make sure where there's certain forms I needed
20:54
to fill out what, you know what I mean?
20:56
Cuz we don't wanna waste anybody's time.
20:57
I would say accuracy also is key.
21:00
Being mindful.
21:00
I use Grammarly.
21:01
I actually pay for Grammarly, but there's a great free option.
21:05
I just make sure.
21:06
All my grammar is good to go, so and so forth.
21:09
I also run a plagiarism check on, even though we've been very fortunate with
21:13
that on all quotes coming in, because everything, that's another mistake.
21:17
Everything has to be unique.
21:18
We can't borrow from ourselves.
21:20
That's the thing is I think most your audience is smart.
21:22
They know, well, of course I'm not gonna like, Steal quotes from other people.
21:26
I know that, like we all know that, but you can't steal from yourself either.
21:29
You can't pull off of your blog, you can't be quoted by this
21:33
outlet, and then go ahead and, and take that quote and reuse it.
21:36
Everything needs to be fresh.
21:39
Inspiring and accurate,
21:41
Becca: so, so many great tips in there, . Okay, so I know because I know my audience
21:47
well, that many of them are already gonna be stuck before they take any action
21:51
because of that dreaded imposter syndrome.
21:53
They're gonna be thinking, why does anyone care about me?
21:56
Why does anyone wanna hear from me?
21:58
Everyone's gonna ignore me, therefore, I'm not good enough.
22:01
And when I'm good enough, then I'll start pitching.
22:03
Mm-hmm.
22:03
, what are you gonna say to those people?
22:05
Meghan: I would say . Fake it till you make it . I would say go
22:11
talk to a therapist like it is.
22:13
It's one of these, here's the thing, one foot in front of the other, you cannot
22:18
worry what other people are doing.
22:20
You've got the work you're doing, the bookings.
22:23
What is the worst thing that can happen by putting one foot in front of
22:28
another with public relations, right?
22:30
If you send out a wedding, and let's say you're very hard on
22:33
yourself about it, but, but, but that's just your stuff, right?
22:37
You send a wedding out there to a blog in publication, the worst thing that
22:41
does happens is it doesn't get picked up.
22:44
That is fine.
22:45
You've already been paid for the event.
22:47
People are none wiser.
22:48
There's no, some big sign that says, guess what?
22:51
Megan's wedding wasn't picked up.
22:53
You know what I mean?
22:53
As not picked up by, you know, that doesn't happen.
22:57
And so I would say that's an internal battle.
23:01
I'd say stop worrying about your competitors.
23:03
Easier said than done.
23:04
I personally don't pay attention to my, I know what I do is a little bit different.
23:08
I don't look at anybody's stuff.
23:10
It doesn't.
23:10
It doesn't.
23:11
I have different markers for success, and that's the thing too, at the end of the
23:15
day, is create markers for success that have nothing to do with your competitors.
23:20
That's being sustainable, that's being able to pay your bills,
23:23
that's having, you know, more of the right people coming in the door.
23:26
Don't worry about the rest of it and just ask yourself, what's the worst that
23:29
could happen by taking these teeny, tiny.
23:32
In publicity.
23:33
Becca: That's a question I say to myself all of the time.
23:35
What is the worst thing that could happen?
23:37
They say no, and nobody else knows about it.
23:40
It's just in our own heads.
23:41
Meghan: None the wiser.
23:42
A hundred percent
23:45
. Becca: Exactly, and if you are listening to this and you're thinking, I wanna
23:47
get going with this, I'd like to have a go at pitching, but I'm feeling
23:51
a bit nervous, then I always say, pitch to me if you are in my world.
23:55
Pitch to me, pitch to be on vicinity weddings, I, we are
23:58
very open to helping you out.
24:00
That's why I started the platform was to help the wedding pros that I
24:03
work with have a starting place to get their confidence and to build.
24:06
So if you're listening to this and you're looking for somewhere to pitch,
24:09
pitch to me and Natalie at Vicinity Weddings, Natali's my features
24:13
editor, so she does the hard work.
24:14
I'm just the beautiful face and, yeah, pitch to us.
24:17
And if you're unsure about it, it's a great starting place because you can pitch
24:21
to us and say, I'm not sure if this is good enough, and we will help you hone
24:24
that content and tell you what you need, and then you'll have the confidence to
24:27
pitch to those bigger publications too.
24:29
So go ahead and do that.
24:31
Meghan: And I think that's very generous of you and believe me when I
24:34
say it was definitely intimidating to come on here and talk pr knowing your
24:38
background in vicinity weddings as well.
24:41
Can I, if I may add an extra tip to that if you don't mind, cuz I think
24:44
that's very generous of, of you to do.
24:46
There's another also platform that free.
24:49
It's called Haro.
24:50
It's help a Reporter Out.
24:51
It is US based, but it is global.
24:54
So really people from all over.
24:55
And so what happens is Monday through Friday during, non holidays, of
25:00
course they won't have anything on, on Thanksgiving here in
25:02
the United States, for example.
25:03
But you receive emails three times a day and I would say if you're five
25:06
hours ahead, we're looking at, you'd receive it at 10:00 AM UK time.
25:10
And then you'd receive it again at five and then 10 o'clock at night.
25:13
So that, that last one's a little late and it's gonna be.
25:17
All sorts of different people who are already working on articles,
25:21
who are looking for sources.
25:22
Now, they may not be wedding event hospitality specific, but I'm looking
25:28
for small business owners who can talk about working from home with two kids.
25:31
I'm looking for someone with chronic back pain.
25:33
I mean, whatever that is.
25:35
And all you do is you click on that, that email address and you pitch them.
25:39
So if you're looking for some more broad based media pitching,
25:42
that's a great free way to do it.
25:44
Good practice makes perfect.
25:46
. Becca: Absolutely.
25:47
And we just gotta go for it.
25:49
Just go for these things.
25:50
I'm gonna tell you another story about why we should let our six
25:53
year olds run our businesses.
25:54
So I saw one of those, I saw one of those things on Help a reporter out when
25:59
it was, the Queen Jubilee this year.
26:01
And they were looking for six year olds to give comments on the Queen.
26:04
So I said to my six year old, too fancy doing it.
26:07
And so she did it and they paid her 100 pounds, which to a six year old.
26:12
Is ridiculous.
26:14
So if a six year old can do it and get a hundred pounds,
26:17
everyone listening to this, just be brave and put yourself forward.
26:21
Meghan: I will use that example for the rest of my life.
26:24
Like I will credit you and your six year old to it, but because for
26:28
years I would always tell people I taught at a local university.
26:32
I taught pr, and the extra credit project was using help a reporter out.
26:36
The entire, you know, if you got picked up, you got a huge bump in your grade.
26:39
Cuz it's a lot of work, but, and so I say, well, college can do it, do it.
26:42
But I mean, there's something to be said.
26:44
What did your six year old say?
26:46
Do I, can I ask?
26:48
Yes.
26:48
Do you remember?
26:49
Becca: Yes.
26:49
She had to answer questions.
26:50
I'll send you a link to it because it was in the national
26:52
tabloid newspaper here in the uk.
26:54
But she had to say what she thought about the queens tiara and she said,
26:58
I think it would be really heavy.
27:01
Probably too heavy for me to hold or something like that.
27:03
It was the most basic of clothes, which is true, but they picked it up, they
27:06
loved it, and she got her a hundred pounds and she doesn't stop telling
27:09
everyone how easy it is to earn money.
27:10
Meghan: I love it.
27:12
, please tell her I will be here in Virginia telling everybody about that.
27:15
So I love it.
27:16
Becca: I definitely will.
27:17
Okay.
27:18
Before we close, I wanna ask you a few quick questions to help people
27:21
get more yeses to their pictures.
27:24
So how important are the images that.
27:27
Meghan: Submit.
27:28
They are as important as the content.
27:31
A hundred percent.
27:32
You need images that have, they're not only shot.
27:36
Incredibly well, but they also have to really feature the right things.
27:40
I mean, you know, you know this as much as I do, right?
27:42
With people are looking at not only the, you know, of course the professionalism
27:47
of the photos and it's gonna be the details, but they have to be shot.
27:50
Well, that means, you know, if you gravitate more towards Dark and
27:54
Moody, that works for particular publications, but not all of them.
27:57
You know, you're looking at someone who can you, I've had
28:00
so many planners who have a.
28:02
Indoor space for weddings, right?
28:05
And it's outdoor for the ceremony and it's all shot beautifully outside.
28:08
But the photographer has really just did not go to school the day they were
28:12
supposed to learn how to light a ballroom.
28:14
And so there's an inconsistency with the photos that's gonna be a problem.
28:17
So the photos matter more than anything else, I would say, in my
28:22
humble opinion for submissions.
28:25
Becca: Okay, so have good images.
28:27
Now what about if people finally get a yes?
28:29
So someone goes ahead and features them.
28:31
How can they make the most of that feature in their Marketing.
28:36
Meghan: I'm so glad you asked that.
28:37
I actually just did a webinar on this and I spent 35 minutes, I'll keep it shorter
28:41
than that, but I did 35 minutes on this.
28:44
So what there, there's a few things to consider here.
28:47
First and foremost, if you can, I mean, don't get me wrong.
28:50
If the news comes and it surprises you, great.
28:52
Come up with a plan.
28:54
If you can come up with a bit of a checklist ahead of time of how
28:57
can I make sure to maximize this?
28:59
But that's making sure you take time to post it on your social media.
29:02
That's wherever you're doing social media makes the most
29:05
sense when it comes to that.
29:06
You know, for us it's gonna be Instagram.
29:08
I often take the photo and we will embed it with the logo of the publication,
29:12
of course, so that they can see that.
29:15
So doing that, it's insta stories.
29:17
Oftentimes.
29:18
I've had a few.
29:19
where they've been quoted in something like an article, and they will do
29:23
an Insta story and show everything.
29:24
But what they'll do is also give additional tips that maybe didn't
29:27
make the cut for the article.
29:28
I think that's brilliant.
29:29
That provides great content.
29:31
It's that continued social proof.
29:32
So social media for sure.
29:34
You're gonna make sure that you set up a press page on your site
29:36
once you have three or more.
29:39
Great press pickups.
29:40
You're gonna have what's called a press page where it showcases your press.
29:43
So I want people thinking about doing that as well at also on their website as they
29:49
hit these, you know, these kind of goal blogs and publications for themselves.
29:53
I wanna make sure you know, your homepage has 400% more likely to have
29:58
interaction if you have logos on.
30:01
Social proof as seen in vicinity, weddings as seen in, you know, and so and so forth.
30:06
So putting that on there.
30:08
For the largest ones, for any awards, things like that, you may
30:10
want to, you know, every, I would say I'm a repeatable task kind of
30:14
gal myself, so every six months.
30:16
Revisit your press and say, should anything be added to my biography?
30:19
Should anything be added to my general, like introductions from there?
30:24
For those who focus on email marketing, putting it into your newsletter,
30:27
for those who maybe don't have a regular newsletter, that's fine.
30:31
One of the most clever ways I've seen, or for people to go ahead.
30:34
It's one thing to say we've been published, but to actually
30:36
give benefit to the end user.
30:39
So it's a top tips for having a destination wedding in the uk.
30:43
We're so thrilled that we were quoted in da, da, da da da da.
30:47
Here's three more tips to get you started, so giving a little bit of
30:51
content and linking to it as well.
30:52
So it all goes to social.
30:54
Your website, email, making sure you get it out there, that's
30:58
gonna be absolutely imperative.
31:00
Press only lives as long as you allow it to, so we have to remember that.
31:04
That's in our hands.
31:06
Becca: That's such a great quote, and it's true.
31:09
I see again, people making this mistake that they get this huge feature or they
31:12
get an opportunity to be on TV and then they're too embarrassed to talk about it.
31:16
They don't wanna feel like they're showing off, but actually it's
31:18
really important they do that.
31:20
Right.
31:21
Meghan: Well, it's a business transaction between you and your prospective
31:24
audience that that's what it is.
31:25
Those in a position to refer business to you, people have to understand.
31:28
None of us like to go into a job interview and talk about ourselves.
31:32
I think it's human nature that most of us are not gonna wanna do that.
31:35
But in this instance, it's, it's a part of our sales and marketing.
31:39
I mean, if we were gonna have a promotion, we're certainly gonna promote it.
31:42
We're certainly gonna advertise it.
31:43
Why wouldn't we showcase beautiful feature?
31:46
And I think people have to get in the mindset too.
31:48
You're showing off your work, but you're showing off the work of a big team.
31:51
So it's not just you benefiting from it, it's all the other pros that
31:56
could be benefiting from it as well.
31:57
So sing, you're singing their praises.
31:59
You're doing them a favor as much as you're doing yourself a favor,
32:02
Becca: that's a great way to look at it.
32:03
And we need to channel that in a six year old, because I can tell
32:06
you now, my six year old took that newspaper with her everywhere.
32:10
She went for a week, and she did not stop talking about it.
32:13
And we could learn so much from that.
32:15
Meghan: A paid authority on the queen of all people.
32:19
I mean, that that is cause for celebration, I would say.
32:23
Becca: I love it.
32:24
It's just so funny.
32:25
Okay, Megan, before I let you go, I always finish my podcast with the same
32:29
question, which is, what is one thing you yourself wish you'd known sooner
32:33
Meghan: in your business?
32:34
I love this question.
32:35
I kind of alluded to it before, but I'm gonna dig in a little bit more.
32:38
If I mean, now create your own markers for.
32:42
Your success doesn't look like anybody else is.
32:45
And, and I'm gonna speak as a publicist for a second knowing
32:48
that what I do is different.
32:50
I'm more b2b, but I think people resonate from this.
32:53
You know, my first three, four years, there are different markers for, of
32:56
course going full time was a marker and, but then I would look out and there's
33:00
so few of us who do what I do, right?
33:01
There's like, Eight of us in the whole world, you know, so you would kind of
33:05
pay attention to some of the folks and maybe somebody else would have this dinner
33:08
with a bunch of editors and bloggers, and I'd think, oh, I wish I was doing that.
33:12
Like, why am I, and I'm so hard on myself.
33:14
It's like, wait a minute, I went full time after a year of doing
33:17
this, you know, I can pay my bills.
33:19
I have happy clients.
33:20
I love what I do.
33:21
Those should be my markers.
33:22
It was a real moment for me, and I wish I had told myself early on.
33:26
Create your own markers, even if you have to bring people from the outside.
33:29
I actually have a wonderful financial person.
33:31
I have other people to create your own markers for success.
33:35
Do not worry what other people are doing because their success
33:38
will look different than yours.
33:39
Does it make it more or less successful?
33:41
I wish I had.
33:42
Been easier on myself in those earlier years, and I, I hope other people can kind
33:46
of garner that for their own companies.
33:48
Becca: Absolutely.
33:48
And there'll be a lot of people listening who need to heed that advice and listen
33:53
to it, because I know they, they put themselves down and they feel like they've
33:57
always gotta be better and actually they can have their own markers for success.
34:00
Megan, it's been such a pleasure to chat with you.
34:03
I could have talked.
34:04
All day about PR on market.
34:06
Keep going.
34:06
You'll have to come back another time.
34:08
If people wanna find out more about what you do, the services you offer, and find
34:12
out more about your webinars that you've mentioned, where can they find you?
34:16
Meghan: You can find me over at OFD Consulting.
34:18
That's pretty much will take you anywhere else.
34:20
That's also OFD consulting over at Instagram as well.
34:23
Those, those two paths will lead you pretty much everywhere.
34:26
Becca: Great.
34:26
I will make sure I put all of the links in the show notes.
34:29
Megan, it's been a pleasure.
34:30
Come back to the UK again soon and we'll go for that drink.
34:33
Meghan: I look forward to it.
34:35
Becca: I hope you enjoyed that chat with Megan as much as I did.
34:38
Sometimes I meet people in this industry and instantly I know that
34:41
we're gonna work together again.
34:42
So I'm hoping we'll get Megan back either in the members lounge or on the podcast.
34:46
Again, very soon.
34:47
If you take action on anything you heard today, if you manage to get any press,
34:50
publicity, or features on a blog, why not Let me and maybe even Megan know,
34:55
so that we can celebrate with you.
34:56
Get in touch.
34:57
You know where I am.
34:58
I'll see you next week.