Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / How to Get Regular Local Media Coverage with Mickie Kennedy

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How to Get Regular Local Media Coverage with Mickie Kennedy · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  3, 2, 1, 0, ignition.
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  Lift off.
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the small biz chat podcast with the number 1 small business expert, Melinda
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  Emerson.
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  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's your host, the small Biz chat lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
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  Have you subscribed to the small bizchett podcast?
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  Well, it's time every Wednesday we offer listeners bite sized actionable tips to start
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  and grow a successful small business.
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  And just 20 minutes or so a week you can get a ton of insight and resources to propel your
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  business forward.
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  Be sure to subscribe to the small beachhead podcast today.
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  Hi, everybody.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady.
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  America's number one small business expert And I'm so excited to welcome you to a special
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  edition of small fish chat live.
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  So we have an amazing show in store for you.
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  Today.
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  Have you ever wondered how you could get more local press where you live in your town?
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  Well, I have an expert here who's gonna talk to us about what you gotta do to pitch yourself to
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  be relevant to your local media.
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  And now it's time for me to introduce my guest Micky Kennedy.
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  Micky is here to talk to us about all things media.
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  He is the founder president of ereleases the small business leader for press release
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  distribution now celebrating 25 years in business.
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  He's an expert in helping small businesses increase their visibility and credibility.
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  He's created eberleases to give small businesses access to the media and a national
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  newswire all with a personal touch.
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  He also writes for PR field blog and giving out PR and public relations topic advice for more
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  information, head over to ereleases.com.
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  Mickey, welcome to the small fish chat podcast.
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  Tell me how you learned so much about local media.
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  Great.
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  So, over the years, I have, worked with, my clients and what their needs are.
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  I'm really good at, you know, national media attention through our service.
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  But when it came to local media, I realized that, my clients did not need me.
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  This is really something that I think most people can do themselves And, you know, to
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  break it down, if you think about it, you know, even if you're in a really good metro area,
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  there's probably less than a dozen people who would cover you.
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  And, you know, that includes TV, radio, newspapers, you know, both dailies and maybe
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  some weeklies metro type papers and things like that.
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  So, really, we're talking about you have to do a little bit of research and build a rolodex
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  of, like, a dozen people And, you know, I I think for a lot of people, it it can be sort of
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  daunting, approaching the media and asking for an email address.
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  If you don't find one on the website, or on Twitter or, different places like that.
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  But it really is as easy as just picking up the phone, calling the newspaper, and saying, hey.
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  I I have a news tip I'd like to provide to this Emerson.
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  Can I get their email address?
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  They'll either give it to you or forward you along to that person and just ask for their
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  email address.
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  You know, with that rolodex, you know, if you're lucky enough to have a business magazine
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  or business newspaper in your area, you know, find out who would be the logical person who
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  would cover your industry who writes about you and do the same thing as for their email
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  address.
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  When it comes to TV and radio, it's a little bit different.
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  You're gonna keep an ear out.
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  You're gonna talk to others.
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  Have you ever seen, you know, spotlights or radio shows that talk about companies?
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  And, you know, what what those segments are.
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  You know, a lot of times that are Saturday, Sundays or late evening, and, they'll do a
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  spotlight on a local business.
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  And what you're looking for there is the producer or booker of that segment.
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  And, again, just picking up the phone and calling is all it takes.
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  You know, remember, these aren't celebrities.
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  These are members of your local media.
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  They should be approachable.
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  They should be willing to give you an email address, and they should be able to you know,
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  to to talk to.
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  And what you're going to do is, you don't need a press release.
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  You're just going to send a little pit to them.
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  As you have, an idea, you're going to send a few sentences about yourself.
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  You know, if there's something trending in your industry, and you would be a good local example
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  of that.
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  You know, just tell them that in in there.
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  I do sometimes like to you know, put the the the pill and the cheese with a really great
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  quote, where you spent a a really good time saying 1 or 2 sentences really succinctly and
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  build that into a quote because, you know, if a journalist gets a a a fairly good lead, and
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  there's an amazing quote.
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  They they just, like, can envision an article all right all around that.
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  So I do think that sometimes having a very, well prepared quote in your pitch can really go
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  a long ways, but, it's it's just a matter of that, you know, just naturally networking, with
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  these people over time.
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  You know, if you if you do the work, you may find that, you know, for 6 to 8 months, nothing
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  happens.
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  And maybe you're doing it every other month.
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  But over time, you will see that it, you will get pickup and sometimes you'll have them
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  circle back to you.
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  They'll be working on a story that remember that you're in that industry and they'll go and
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  they'll pull up their email and they'll they'll reach out to you and say, hey.
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  I know you've pitched me a few times in the past, but now I'm working on a story.
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  I feel like would be right up your alley.
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  Could I get a quote or some insights from you as a local business?
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  And, it just happens as naturally as that.
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  It is, one of those things that I think if you put a good year, year and a half of nurturing
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  this relationship along and pitching, you'll find that the 2nd year is going to become much
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  easier to get coverage.
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  And, over time, it just happens again and again.
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  You know, I I followed the Baltimore sun here in the Baltimore Metro.
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  And, you know, it's the same companies that generally get recycled in articles.
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  So if they're talking about work from home issues or things like that, they start
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  transitioning to mentioning this company and getting a quote from them.
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  And, you know, it's not because they're advertisers.
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  It's because they have a relationship, and they're just easy to reach out to, and they
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  know that they can count on them every time they they're writing about a topic that, they
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  would be a good fit for.
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  I wanna go back to crafting that pitch because I used to be a television producer.
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  I used to get those pitches, and there was a lot of really bad ones, Mickey.
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  Alright.
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  So I want you to give me sort of, like, your ABC, what needs to go in this pitch so that we
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  make it super simple for people to, you know, pitch their local news channel or, you know,
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  their local newspaper.
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  Right.
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  So, you know, one of the things you have to keep in mind is that journalists, by and large,
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  care about their audience.
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  And they want to either educate or entertain that audience.
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  You know, sometimes delight them.
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  And so, your message is I wanna sell product And so you have to make them Melinda.
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  And sometimes you have to reverse engineer what it is that you're announcing in a way that is
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  going to make that journalist feel like, wow, this is something that's interesting, and I
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  would want to share with my audience.
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  And so, maybe you have a new product launch.
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  They're usually not very sexy.
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  It's usually here's a product and here's a list of features.
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  But maybe if you have a use case study, of a local business and say, hey.
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  I'm a company.
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  We provide, logistics software, in the metro area.
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  And we've had really amazing results with a local client.
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  And, you know, this was their numbers going in.
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  They've used the product.
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  Here's their result.
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  And, you know, have a quote by them as well.
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  And, again, it's just a few sentences.
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  You don't have to build it out to an entire press But a journalist can look at that and
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  say, I can build that into a story arc.
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  And journalists do love the story arc because, you know, We naturally, since we've been
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  sitting around fires, have always told stories in a climax and going down sort of, story,
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  cycle.
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  And if you can give them the elements to build a story, it it it naturally comes together in
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  their mind and they can envision it and they know that that story would probably relate to
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  their audience.
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  And so I think that having those little nuggets and those little things work really well.
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  You know, sometimes also telling your story, you know, you you're a local business, you say,
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  but, you know, tell us how how it came to be, you know, what what's your journey?
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  You know, there's a reason that everybody that appears on shark tank, one of the first things
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  they talk about is their journey.
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  You know, why they started this product.
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  Sometimes it's inspirational.
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  Sometimes they talk about an obstacle they ever came.
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  Like, was a health issue.
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  They had to, you know, leave corporate America for a bit, but they had this hobby.
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  You know, all of these little things because it's a human interest element.
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  And those are things that draws in and make us wanna care, because we don't naturally care
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  about logos or products, but we care about other people, and we're naturally empathetic,
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  and we want to relate to them.
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  So, you know, getting those sort of things in there as appropriate.
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  And it really is a matter of just paying attention.
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  I I think one of the things is, if you're ever to conferences or other places and you meet
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  other businesses like yours and you're their their local business in their markets and you
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  feel like They really know what they're doing from a marketing standpoint.
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  Set up Google alerts for, you know, these people in other markets.
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  And as they get media attention, see if you could craft something similar for your local
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  media.
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  Don't don't ever tell them, hey.
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  I saw this this person in Greenville, South Carolina get picked up here.
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  Could we do something similar here?
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  It's not gonna go very well, but maybe you could say, hey.
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  I've noticed people in the industry talking about this And I feel my business would be a
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  really great example, and here's why.
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  And here again is an amazing quote.
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  And, again, to tell you a little bit about myself, I started this business because I hated
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  my dad, and he wanted me to be a doctor.
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  And I wanted to do, you know, window installations or something like that.
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  It just a little thing to, to sort of get them to know you or or something about you, and and
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  and sort of pitch that And, again, just sort of, do this on a regular basis, and you will be
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  surprised, you know, how, at first, how how it feels like you're just throwing stuff out there
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  and nothing's happening.
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  But after, like, 6 months to a year, it starts to develop and you find that they will respond
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  sometimes they'll reply and ask a few more questions, and it goes nowhere.
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  But sometimes they will, you know, take it and run with it and and generally, I find that once
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  you have that momentum, it just gets easier.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  Last question.
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  So what are the some of the common mistakes people make when pitching, though?
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  I think one of the common mistakes people make is they kind of try to appear to corporate.
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  I think small businesses sort of want to prove themselves that they're like the big guys.
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  And to be honest, you know, journalists, recognize the big company is gonna afford to
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  advertise.
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  And they love to put the spotlight on small businesses and entrepreneurs and mom and pops.
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  Very few journalists get accolades for, you know, talking about the latest Microsoft Office
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  uptake.
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  But, you know, if it's a local tool or a a small tool from a a mom and pop, They know that
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  they will get recognized, from their audience because, you know, it makes them seem like
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  they're curators, and they've discovered this little thing.
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  And so for that reason, you know, don't necessarily feel that you have to appear overly
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  corporate.
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  And, sometimes being small and owning your smallness is is a real value and something that
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  works with the media.
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  Love it.
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  Love it.
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  Alright.
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  Last question.
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  What is the best business advice that you've ever received?
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  Measure as much as you can in your business and, always try to be able to, a, b, split
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  different elements in your business.
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  So measure and test.
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  In other words, measure and test.
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  Right?
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  Exactly.
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  Alright.
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  Love it.
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  Thank you so much, Mick.
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  I really enjoyed hearing all of your wise tidbits and advice.
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  And as a former media person, I think you gave some good advice as well.
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  Today's show is sponsored by Smallbiz Lady Academy, our brand new monthly membership group
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  for women entrepreneurs looking to start and grow.
• 12:56
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  now you can because I'm gonna be coaching people on my own platform.
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  And I'm so excited because we're gonna be bring this information in English and Spanish because
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  we have a global audience at Team Small Buslady.
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  So I just wanna give you guys a sneak peek of what's gonna be coming.
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  Right now, we're offering a founders rate, but y'all know it's gonna go up.
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  So jump in on it now.
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  We're so excited and we're gonna officially launch at the top of June.
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  Now I want to leave you with this.
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  You never lose in business.
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  Either you win or you learn.
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  God bless everybody.
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  Thanks for listening to the small biz chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you into podcasts and join us next Wednesday for more
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  fantastic information and interviews.
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  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
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  website succeed as your own boss.com.
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  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.