45: How to Create a Killer Press Release for Your Business

Behind Their Success: Ep 45

Mickie: [00:00:00] one of the big criticisms about PR and press releases specifically is that it doesn't work. And I see where they're coming from because probably 97 percent of the press releases that people send over the wire.

Mickie: Do not yield any earned media. And I think the reason for that is  

Welcome to behind their success. This podcast is for people who are feeling stuck on their entrepreneur journey or in their careers. It's for people who want to scale and grow their businesses, learn about the power of mindset, or they just know there's more out there and they want to start making changes.

I'm Paden Squires, the host of the podcast. I was never cut out to be an employee, and when I was an employee, I was bored out of my mind. So I made a plan. I studied and passed the CPA exam in eight months while working, all with the end goal in mind of quitting my job and starting my own business. I did that in 2014, and it has been an amazing wild ride since.

So now let's hear from other entrepreneurs, and what mindsets, and probably more important, what [00:01:00] actions they have taken that have created and led to their success.

Paden: Hello, everybody. Welcome back to behind their success podcast. I am Peyton Squires, the host, and today we have on Mickie Kennedy. Mickie Kennedy is the founder and president of E releases. The small business leader for press release distribution is now celebrating 26 years in business. He's an expert at helping small businesses increase their visibility and credibility, and he has a lot to share about that.

Mickie: Mickie 

Paden: Good morning. Welcome on the show. 

Mickie: Thanks for having me. 

Paden: so you work with a lot of different small businesses on press releases.What are, I guess, some of the benefits, the companies get out of that.

Paden: obviously, they get some attention and maybe some revenue, but I guess, tell us a little bit more, 

Mickie: right? So when a journalist writes about you, it's called earned media in the industry to distinguish it from paid media, You can pay some money and get off a blog section of Forbes basically today.

Mickie: But, what we're looking for is the real media, the [00:02:00] real articles that people read and interact with. And, it acts very differently. It acts as a third party corroboration. When a journalist writes about you, it's social proof. It's almost an implied endorsement. it really boosts your credibility.

Mickie: acts as a referral, and it's, really the signal of trust that is created. And people, that come through, and discover you through that article, often will convert, quicker. And your normal sales cycle, they'll often spend more and they're less price sensitive because they want to work with you.

Mickie: They read this, they had this emotional response, this amplification, and they just want to, to do business with you. They're looking for reasons on your website not to do business with you because they've already been sold based on the article. And,that, that's, response, can be replicated by taking that same link and then sharing it with your leads.

Mickie: If you convert 20 percent of your leads and you put these articles in front of them as they happen, and they read [00:03:00] those, you're going to see an improvement in your conversion rate. going from 20 percent to 30 percent is not unusual. So that's like a 50 percent boost in your conversions. also with your customers, everybody has churn and often it's because the customer.

Mickie: is sitting there is thinking we've been with this person for a while. Maybe we should shop around, maybe try someone else out, or maybe there's someone else now in charge and they just want to make the decision that we're going to try something new, but all of a sudden they get that link that you send them and they read that article and they're just like, Oh yeah, I see why Bob was working with this company.

Mickie: They really looked like, they know what they're doing. They had this, Authority and thought leadership by articles written about them. I have a carpet company in New Jersey and it's a doozy how I got the media attention because they are not newsworthy at all.

Mickie: But,we worked with them for a year and they got about 30 clips together and, printed them out. most of them were trade publications, which, their customers don't read like floor trade [00:04:00] weekly and stuff like that. but, But they also got in their local paper and New Jersey magazine, which is a high end consumer magazine that was really good for them.

Mickie: And, uh, you know, when they went into Gabe quotes, they added that book to say, Hey, they opened it and just thumbed through it saying, we may not come in the cheapest, but we've been picked up in here and here and New Jersey magazine and the local newspaper. And, we do it right. You never have to move all your furniture back out of your rooms for us to come in and restretch or, Fix a seam or something like that.

Mickie: And all of a sudden people are like, wow, there's an actual cost with going with someone who may not do it perfectly. And all of a sudden they started converting almost 20 percent more, of these leads. And so one of every five lead that they were previously losing, they're now winning. And that made a huge difference to them and their actual cost, in conversions.

Paden: yeah, that's, yeah, that's massive, it gives them the authority, the social proof,and you see that I sell that in my own business, when I finally was smart enough to actually get Google reviews [00:05:00] or ask people for Google reviews, I was in business for like seven years before I did that stupidly enough.

Paden: But, um, as soon as I did that and, you know, got 40, 50 reviews, you imagine that the social proof, right. That that provides, It makes closing,that closing leads so much easier. and then also just knowing that it's like. In my local market, people type in CPA, guess who's there smiling it's, it's me and it's, it's, it's just a matter of like being,like you said, kind of top.

Paden: so maybe you've been in business for 26 years, that's a long ride. what would you say is your kind of number one skill that, that you have that's kind of led, uh, led to the stretch of success? 

Mickie: I think it's largely being able to pivot to the changes in the marketplace.

Mickie: I abandoned my initial email sends of releases, and embrace the newswire. Despite that, my loss of control of that. and also just, keeping, adept of everything that's out there. one of the big [00:06:00] criticisms about PR and press releases specifically is that it doesn't work. And I see where they're coming from because probably 97 percent of the press releases that people send over the wire.

Mickie: Do not yield any earned media. And I think the reason for that is it's obvious. It's not, it's not answering the need of the journalist and it's not, strategic enough or newsworthy enough. You're not thinking of the journalist who's the gatekeeper and what he needs. You're thinking about what you need.

Mickie: So we get press releases often about a product launch, which in and of itself should be newsworthy, but. But it's like, here's a new product. Here's a list of features and here's a page to learn more by it. And what's aching there is that story art. So, you know, put a use case study, someone who beta tested it.

Mickie: what was their situation before? What was their situation at the end, ideally with some numbers, data points, and then get a quote by them. And all of a sudden, that fleshes out more of a story [00:07:00] arc. And also, put an amazing quote in there. So many people have quotes that look like they've been written by AI or by committee.

Mickie: They're just safe, but they're not really saying anything strong. And you want something that really resonates and has a lot of strength. I know if writing may not be your thing,I'm not expecting, expecting you to be a wordsmith, but instead put it as concise and as strong as you can try to get like the heart of the matter and just speak about it, in a way that's just very authentic and very straightforward and just very, and all of a sudden you'll see more pickup because a journalist can take a weak story.

Mickie: But if there's an amazing quote right around it. So if they're considering two press releases that are of equal strength, but one has an amazing quote, they'll always gravitate to that one. And so that's a really great way to distinguish yourself. But, try to,Be more strategic. If you're writing about your solution, maybe there's some publicly available data out there that you can use to strengthen it.

Mickie: if you have logistics software [00:08:00] solution, you could talk about, the failure rate of transportation companies in the first five years, certain percentage fail in the first five years, often because they can't control,their profit. or even obtain a profit. And here we have a solution that makes it very easy to do that by taking into consideration some of their biggest expenses that fluctuate over time, like labor and fuel costs and things along those lines.

Mickie: And so, having that Really braces and anchors, why your solution is so important to the industry and then incorporate those,story elements, put a use case study in there. you will much better satisfy what a journalist is looking for and greatly enhance and improve your chances of getting media pickup.

Paden: yeah, for sure. And it is like telling that story of like, Hey, I met with this person. This is the problem they had. You know, we came in, provided this solution and this was the results that came from that solution. Of course, now you add a lot of color to that and jazz it up with quotes and whatnot.

Paden: But like it is, it's like [00:09:00] your classic, yeah. Oh, they talk about like the hero's journey or whatever, right? Just storytelling, right? And that's what people remember, right? Like people don't remember the details, features or whatever they, but they will remember story, you know, all throughout humanity.

Paden: Like we didn't have a written word and everything was just communicated through story. And so humans very much remember stories way more than anything. Type of facts or figures. 

Mickie: Yeah. we work with a lot of, uh, people that appear on shark tank. The producers recommend they do a press release with us before the episode airs.

Mickie: And one of the things that I've noticed is every time someone goes on shark tank, they open by sharing their story. what was that inspired them to either create the product or the company. And often it's just being authentic and, sometimes vulnerable sharing that. They just went through a divorce or they lost a parent or something that just really tugs at you.

Mickie: And it's that immediate empathy that's created that gives you this human interest element and it humanizes [00:10:00] what would otherwise just be a logo or a brand. And that's the most important thing about,us trying to get media is we're people. And I think a lot of small businesses try to appear to be, Two corporate and two polished and they're not, they don't get naked and vulnerable and share their story.

Mickie: in sometimes, you can lead with it, but other times you might talk about your product launch, but in the about section or boilerplate section, which you'll probably recognize at the end of a lot of releases that usually say about company is a place where you get your elevator pitch of just a few sentences.

Mickie: And maybe that's a place where you share your little vulnerable story of, what it was that. Cause you to create your business. And often we're not even aware of these stories unless you do an audit and go back and think about it. Because,I just said, I don't know. I was just interested in press releases.

Mickie: It was like, well, how did, how did you discover press releases? Oh, the job I worked at previously. And then I had to put it together in my head that I had the little origin story as well. do an [00:11:00] audit of, what it is. That was going on when you started your business. I had one person tell me that nothing special happened.

Mickie: And later as we worked together more and more, it turned out that her mother had died at the same time and she was always just a homemaker. And I was like, Ooh, but you know, she's more than a homemaker. She was a mom and she was the CEO of the house. And she goes, I guess, you know, that's one way to look at it.

Mickie: But she always. say I'm just a homemaker and I was like, well, how'd that make you feel? And she goes, I don't know. I just knew I didn't want it for me. And I said, that's your story. you had a mother who always felt she was less than, and because of that, you felt like you wanted to go out and strike into the business world and you're doing it not just for yourself, in the honor of your mom's memory and she's like, Whoa, you know, you're, you're like a psychologist, we all.

Mickie: Have these stories and journeys and we're often not aware of them in the moment. So go back, think about them and, you know,do an audit. [00:12:00] Think of the motivations that were there, the things that shaped you. 

Paden: And it's the amazing thing is this podcast has helped me shape my story a whole lot.

Paden: And even, even prepping, you know, I started this podcast back at the very beginning of the year, and we're like 40, 50 episodes or so in, but, It's helped me shape my story a whole lot. but it's also, I love pulling their story out of the people, 

Paden: through these interviews and really sharing, because it's, it is those stories of the entrepreneurial struggle and the successes and all the reality of, everything that comes with entrepreneurship, like it really can be deeply connecting with people and that's, Yeah, it's just such a powerful thing, So Mickey, along your journey, what would you say is one of the best decisions you've made? 

Mickie: So I have two, one is measure as much as you can in your business. I was trained as a poet, so I wasn't really business minded. And so I joined a marketing mastermind, just learned a lot. But one of the thing was, specifically to advertising is to measure everything, split test what you can.

Mickie: And I was [00:13:00] like, why can't I split test? Processes of my business that aren't related to advertising. And so I would do stuff like that. And I would look at, see if there's statistical, relevance between, onboarding one way compared to another and found that there was a huge difference. And so just by measuring as much as you can and being open to a lot of little tests.

Mickie: And then the second thing was, I found out I was a micromanager of like probably the highest level. And, uh, so I walked away from my day to day operations in April of 2015. And, I, knew that I had huge turnover in my business, people staying on average one year and, uh, in the marketing mastermind was someone who mostly worked with large corporations in HR, but she agreed.

Mickie: for a price to interview my staff, interview my customers and look at my, job postings to see why I was hiring the wrong people. And she came back and said, the people you're hiring are the right people. It's just, they hate being [00:14:00] micromanaged by you. And they're just looking for the door. They feel like they could never do anything right.

Mickie: And I just felt like I was constantly giving them. Small little nudges of how to perfect themselves. And, you know, I'm making my masterpiece and yet I'm chiseling away and destroying their self esteem and making them feel horrible. And, I tried to take that knowledge and, uh,changed myself.

Mickie: And a lot of people say you took the advice. I was like, I did. I'm, I was a trained poet. I'm not a business guy. So if an expert tells me I'm the problem, I'm going to try to fix it. And I found that I couldn't. And so I just left the office and, there was someone there that was senior, to all the other editors.

Mickie: And I just put her in charge and, we've been working happily since and everybody that was there at that time. except for one person is still there today, so it really solved my big problem, but it freed me up to focus on this, talking to other people in education, freed me up to focus on marketing,my business wouldn't have nearly tripled in that [00:15:00] time if it probably hadn't been for me taking my eyes off the mundane day to day, operations and focusing on the big picture.

Paden: Yeah. Yeah. Um, biggest, biggest takeaway I think, I, took from that answer was that. You were willing and brave enough to actually get the feedback because most people won't even want to look at it. And then once you got the feedback, you know, the vast majority of people would have just seen that as completely negative and denied it or pushed it away or said it was wrong or what have you.

Paden: But you have the humility, to take that in and be like, okay, I'm the problem and that's fine. and, really every problem inside your business is really ultimately you. You now, you may be, may not be causing it directly or whatnot, but it's certainly your responsibility to do something.

Paden: And, I think that's kudos and it speaks to your ability to have a business for 26 years. It's because you are willing to adapt. You are willing to take that feedback and not take it personal. Realize that, you are who you [00:16:00] are and you have pros and maybe some cons, personality types have, There's flip sides to everything.

Paden: Right. And, um, you're willing to do something about it.

Paden: So another question for you, Maggie, so looking back, so you say you started this in 98, right? So like the internet was really just getting real commercial, right. And you're just starting to, if you can go back to that timeframe then and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?

Mickie: Buy as much Apple stock as you can. No, uh, I would say, continue to be open and, to, try to measure as much as you can learn as quick as you can about statistical relevance, have a number, but also have a number where it's not noise and to be able to actually make decisions based on it, because once I realized there's rules about stuff like that, it just made everything so much easier where,you can, Call a landing page, a win or a loss, comfortably once a certain metric has been met.

Mickie: [00:17:00] And, uh, that that's powerful. And before it was just like a gut feeling and you can't gut feel your business to, many millions of dollars in business. I don't think. And, uh, so I, you know, if I could, if I could have gotten there faster,that's what I would recommend.

Mickie: And I found that being part of a marketing mastermind for me, a non business major was just like really amazing. It really set me up and allowed me to grow my business and scale it. 

Paden: Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. and to me, it's interesting, as a, a marketing guy trained in poetry that you see the value or have really hammered in the value of like measuring and tracking and,and how valuable it's, you know, that as a somewhat numbers guy, that really speaks to me.

Paden: But it's, to me, it's interesting how, you're much, I guess your natural personality is probably much more I don't know, you'd call it artsy or in that type of world. Cool. but you also, you see the importance of the hard analytical and you really integrated that in your business.

Mickie: And I think another [00:18:00] advantage being a poet has given me is I look at, the opportunities that are out there for, Media attention. And I see things that other people don't see. I have one type of press release that I've done with clients and every time we've done it, it's always yielded to earn media a hundred percent of the time.

Mickie: And I just say to myself, why don't PR firms do this? I've, worked with people who've spent 20 to 40, 000 with PR firms over a year. And yielded nothing. And I'm just like, you could have done this one and probably yielded six to 12 urge media articles from a single press release. And, that's one of the things that, I'm always learning and I'm seeing the patterns of things that do work again and again.

Mickie: And that's one that just never failed. And that's doing a survey or study in your industry. conduct the survey, publish the results, write a press release about the biggest aha moment and have an amazing quote in there where you synthesize why you felt the, the numbers skewed a particular way.

Mickie: And it, it [00:19:00] elevates you to the, a thought leader position in the industry. and. The first thing I hear from my clients is that sounds like a big ask. Uh, but uh, you know,it's really just asking a few questions and survey monkey. I like four questions per page. So, you know, eight, 12, 16 questions.

Mickie: you take that link and then, you don't probably don't have enough people to send it to. So don't bother, just reach out to a small or independent trade association in your industry. And believe me, they're out there. in our industry, everybody knows the P. R. S. A. is the big guy, and nobody knows about the other ones.

Mickie: But there's over 400 other small and independent trade associations and P. R. Some of them are so niche, it doesn't matter. But find one that sort of speaks to your Business and just reach out to him and say, Hey, I'm doing a survey in the industry. here's a link to it. I'd really appreciate it if you could send this to your members in exchange for that.

Mickie: If I get a hundred responses or more, I will mention you in the press [00:20:00] release. I'll be issuing over PR Newswire. And these small and independent trade associations, as I mentioned, no one knows about them, so they often see this as a win where they can get some media attention as well. And I did put the caveat that we're looking for at least 100 responses.

Mickie: So the onus is on them if we don't get it from the initial send that they do a push through social media or maybe even a second email send to get you over 100. I find 100 to be a good metric that most journalists don't have a problem with when it comes to these industry surveys. And,then you just analyze the results, pick the biggest, the one that's going to create the biggest wow, or interest in your industry and build out a page on your website where you put all the questions and answers because there are journalists less smarter than you that will go.

Mickie: Hunt through there and find two or three other stories that you didn't even think about, focusing on those angles and, uh,and then send it out. And every time I've done this working with a client, it's generally, six to 12 articles, every single time. 

Paden: Wow. Wow. Yeah, that's cool stuff.

Paden: So, uh, [00:21:00] you know,what's the best way, people connect with you, connect with your business. they like what you're doing and are maybe interesting and seeing if you can get them publishing. 

Mickie: Sure. So,my website is ereleases. com. All my social media is on the lower right, including my direct LinkedIn.

Mickie: I have that free masterclass where I go through, a lot of these strategies like, The survey and study type of release as well as other releases that do get picked up and it's available for free at e releases. com slash plan P L A N and it's a less than an hour long video with some accompanying materials.

Mickie: I know that the last course I bought, it turned out it was 20 some hours of videos. I never finished it. So I tried to make this very digestible for, people. Today's environment. If you know nothing about PR, it's a great place to start because you'll start auditing your business with strategic ideas that you could do.

Mickie: And I always tell people if you're going to try PR, try to do a PR campaign of six to eight releases. [00:22:00] Some are not going to hit. Some will, especially if you're doing the strategic types of releases. And once they do, you'll see the type of difference it can make for your business. The same things that I saw when I worked at that, telecom firm, like 27, 28 years ago.

Paden: No, Mickey, appreciate you coming on today. you guys want to check him out, at www.ereleases.com. MickieKennedy. Thank you so much. Appreciate you listeners. We'll catch you next time.

Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. If you found it valuable, please rate, review, and share it. That is the best way to help us build this and reach more people as we're trying to accomplish our goal of help creating more healthy, wealthy, and wise entrepreneurs. You can follow us on social media by searching for me, Paden Squires, or going to www.padensquires.com . On the website and social media, we're always sharing tips of personal growth, and there we can actually interact. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks guys.