Episode 42: How to Write, Publish, and Leverage a Press Release to Get PR and SEO for Your Business with E-Releases CEO Mickie Kennedy (part 2)
There are many elements that go into the quality of a press release, but the most important is that it's well written.
It's not enough to just write up a press release and send it out into the world. Sure, you can write about the latest trends, but what good is it if it doesn’t connect with your audience?
You need to know who your audience is, what they want to read about, and how they want their news delivered.
Developing a unique messaging strategy is essential to connecting with your audience and getting them to click. This strategy needs to be tailored to the media outlet and its audience.
Speaking of media outlets, building a relationship with them is essential for a successful PR strategy. This is because they are the gatekeepers for your messaging, and an effective PR strategy is all about getting them on your side.
In addition to unique messaging, a great press release also includes the use of visually appealing infographics and images. Images and text are two crucial parts of PR, and to get the most out of your communications, you need to make sure that both are reinforced with the same message.
A catchy headline is also important. It grabs your audience's attention and compels them to read on. You want your headline to be informative and captivating, not too long or complex, and always relevant to the story at hand.
Nailing these elements together is what eReleases Press Release Service does best. Mickie Kennedy, founder and president of eReleases, has been recognized for his efforts to develop an effective PR strategy, and now he’s helping other organizations do the same!
“So many people have success with PR when they've approached it with an openness and a willingness to try it and test it. The media is just looking for great content. And a lot of it comes from really small companies, people who have large ideas. If you're willing to share those ideas, you can really go far with PR.”
-Mickie Kennedy
Mickie Kennedy is the founder of eReleases. He created the company after observing the challenges of small and medium-sized businesses to have access to newswire with a personal touch. Mickie earned an MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University.
There are many elements that go into making a good press release, so if you want to know more about the process, I suggest you take the time to listen to this episode.
This is your chance to learn from someone who has been at the forefront of this field for years. So tune in, and let’s get you to your next press release!
This is part two of our deep dive into press releases. In case you missed the last episode, we talked about what a press release is and how to use them as your leverage. If you want to catch up on that episode, click here!
Topics We Cover in This Episode:
Crafting the elements of an effective press release
Why every business needs a unique story to tell
Why media relations are essential in press release distribution
How your headline makes or breaks press releases
How to use press releases for SEO
Why eReleases is a great option to get your press release published
Check out how Gloria can help you maximize your announcement and write your entire press release on a VIP day at www.gloriachoupr.com/vip
If you want to land your first feature for free without any connections, I want to invite you to watch my PR Secrets Masterclass where I reveal the exact methods thousands of bootstrapping small businesses use to hack their own PR and go from unknown to being a credible and sought-after industry expert. Register now at www.gloriachou.com/masterclass.
Resources Mentioned:
Check out eReleases website at: eReleases.com
Follow Mickie Kennedy’s LinkedIn account: Mickie Kennedy
Press Release Topic Ideas: the Ultimate Collection
Additional Resources:
Join the Small Biz PR Pros FB group
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Here’s a glance at this episode…
[39:12] I think that being very creative in the headline can be a recipe for disaster because it generally makes the press release longer and more playful and requires more hoops for the journalist's quick browsing mind to jump through and figure out before they move on.
[43:28] It doesn't have to be a lot. I think you want to leave the article writing to the journalists, but you do want to have enough strong details that they can, you know, develop the article themselves without contacting you.
[44:29] The biggest pet peeve of journalists is that they read unnecessarily long press releases that just don't get to the point.
[45:50] I would try to get numbers, and data points, because the media loves numbers. I mean, they love stats; they love data. And so if you have data points and numbers, I try to get them in the first paragraph if it makes sense.
[55:25] Photos that showcase the product, or real people using the product, do really well. Candid shots work extremely well and get picked up all the time.
[1:04:58] So many people have success with PR when they've approached it with openness and willingness to try it.
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Mickie Kennedy 0:00
I think that being very creative in the headline can be a recipe for disaster because it generally makes the press release longer and more playful and requires more hoops for the journalist quick browsing mind to jump through and figure out before they move on. Hey, friends,
Gloria Chou 0:16
I'm Gloria Chao, small business PR expert, award winning pitch writer and your unofficial hype woman. Nothing makes me happier than seeing people get the recognition they deserve. And that starts with feeling more confident to go bigger with your message. So on this podcast, I will share with you the untraditional, yet proven strategies for PR marketing and creating more opportunity in your business. If you are ready to take control of your narrative and be your most unapologetic and confident self, you're in the right place. This is the Small Business PR podcast. So in terms of the uniqueness, right, I'm all about showing not just telling. So we talked we keep talking about unique, unique, unique. And you know, we talked about doing a survey, can you give me another example of how can someone find their uniqueness, even though there may be doing something that is a very saturated market market, you know?
Mickie Kennedy 1:04
Sure. So, I mean, there are a lot of companies that sell Apple computers, and Apple doesn't like people selling their products within 5% of the MSRP. So it really makes it so that where you shop for computer, it really depends on what you're looking for some people like the retail experience, so they do best buy, that's their USP that we built a place where people could drive to go inside, test it out, play with it, and then take it home. There are places like Mac mall, that I'm not sure if they still do this, but one of the things they did was bundle, so we can't sell it at less than, say 2995. But what we can do is throw in some free software, free overnight shipping and some additional things. And that's like their USP and how they stand out. And another company might come through and say, hey, we'll give you a free USB iPod. But now it might be something else that they throw in, that's more hardware oriented rather than software. And so what is it that you're doing that you're you know, is different from your competitor? And you know, take an audit, you know, is it the shipping capability that you have? I had a guy who did commercial seals and gaskets for lots of different equipment. And his USP is I can custom make any seal within 24 hours. And he got a call from an oil rig that was in the water off of Texas. And they said we need this seal. It was a monster a huge seal. And he says yeah, I can have that for you and 12 hours and they said, Okay, we will have a helicopter there in six hours waiting for it. And he he he said only charged him like $1,400 for it. And he says, Yeah, I know, they spent like 20 $30,000 going to helicopter to helicopter all the way up to Illinois, where he was located. And you know it to them, it was very valuable. We ran with that story. And it got picked up. People really resonated with the journey. In this case of you know, here I am with a solving a problem very quickly. And for the oil rig that was closed down, it was losing six figures a day. So getting that seal replaced with with someone who could do it immediately meant a huge difference to them. And you know, that was what he was doing that was unique. Is there something that you're doing that's a little bit different in your marketplace? Is you know, it could be if you're a local business, is it like Do you have a special relationship with the community? Do you so do something for after school? Could you do something that would resonate with local, you know, your local community. And I always encourage people to go after local media, it's the easiest media to get. And you should definitely do it yourself. It's the same way you talk about, you know, building relationships, you do that with the your local media, if you think about it, in almost every market, there's probably less than 10 people who would ever write or cover you, including TV and radio. So just find out who those 10 people are, ask for their email address, and then just communicate with them on a quarterly basis with what you know, as you have something that's really compelling that you want to share with them. And, you know, sometimes it could just even be providing them a tip or resource that you've noticed a trend. And you're not really applicable to be plugged into that. But they will appreciate that so that as you communicate with them more and more, they'll you'll become more top of mind when they are looking to plug a company into a story and they're like, oh, what kind of company could I put here? It's like, oh, yeah, that company that reaches out to me every once a while. This would be pretty good for them. And I think that's the reason that so many people find the same companies being recycled and used Ken again, in their local papers is because they have the relationships and they built the relationships with the local media. And I think that those are things that you can really do to at least get started. Even if you're a national ecommerce company, you're based, you're headquartered in a local market, why not feed them as well?
Gloria Chou 5:18
Yeah, I think it's so important to nail down your story. But also, like you said, see it as a relationship, because unlike a lot of the other relationships, like for example, and like dating and marriage, like you've maybe date one person, but with, like, you know, being the go to expert, they will keep calling you again, and again, because they know that you're a dependable person. And I can't tell you the number of times people in my startup community, you know, they actually started to get emails from the journalist, and was like, Hey, I'm actually working on a story about this, do you know anyone, right, because they're also looking for people. So it's, I feel like PR and, you know, relationship building with the media, it's one of those things, it's only going to keep paying more and more dividends, but you just gotta get used to pitching. And I, as I always say, is everything you want, is on the other side of the send button. Right? So like, don't, don't be afraid to pitch. So can you tell me so you've given me a rundown of the types of releases, you're using predictions and not being afraid to be wacky and not following a stringent style? Now you've seen hundreds 1000s of press releases? What are some of the other ones that tend to do? Well, let's talk about the headline, actually. So I have a certain way I like to write it. But is there any like best practices of the actual headline, you know, the part that's in bold, big letters,
Mickie Kennedy 6:32
I find that the for a press release, you got to realize it's going over the wire, and it's usually beads that are headline oriented. So I would avoid puns and the clever New York Post style headline, I can see if it was for the consumer, it might do well. But journalists want to just know, looking at the headline that this is applicable to them, their beat what they cover. So I think anything that sort of answers that question of Is this relevant to me? And then why? Why Why does this matter right now?
Gloria Chou 7:06
Yeah, I love that. So that's the headline. So for example, I'll just like for example, you know, one of the pressures I wrote for sigma ratings, which is a FinTech company, the world's first non credit risk ratings agency closes 2.4 million series seed funding. So that's kind of your like, standard announcement, right? Or it could be like, is there do you think that that's kind of what it should be? Or should should we be a little bit more creative? Or?
Mickie Kennedy 7:29
No, I don't think you have to be very creative. I think the media responds to just that. That's a very succinct, it's a very short little bit of real estate. And you've got the, you know, the, the announcement there answers the questions. I think that being very creative in the headline can be a recipe for disaster because it generally makes the press release longer and more playful, and requires more hoops for the journalist quick browsing mind to jump through and figure out but before they move on,
Gloria Chou 8:00
what about the sub headline because I know that sometimes when it gets reposted on like a markets insider, some people don't have a sub headline. So how do you feel about the sub heading?
Mickie Kennedy 8:09
I think it's a it's an opportunity to stand out. It's another place it's usually at the very top. I like sub heads. There used to be with the newswire, some syndication partners that wouldn't publish the subhead. But I think that most of them do now. And I think it's an opportunity to stand out. But you know, is it is it is it, are you standing out is the question you should ask because if not move on to the first sentence and skip the subhead. So it really depends whether you have something meaningful to say there that elevates the the headline and gets you moving farther down the page. Yeah, I
Gloria Chou 8:48
agree. I usually feel like the headline, you don't want to be too creative, because you want them to quickly scan what it is. So if you're announcing if you're launching, and for me, the sub headline, it just adds a little bit more color to what it is by combining XY and Z. They're doing XYZ. So let's move on to the first sentence. And a lot of press releases have the city and the date. So can you tell me about how do we know what city because what if I'm headquartered here, but I work remotely,
Mickie Kennedy 9:14
there are no rules. So you'll see a lot of authors will pick New York's just because it's the publishing capital for a lot of people regardless of where they're located. But generally, it's where someone is headquartered or are located, or the major metro nearest to them. But that being said, it doesn't have to be and it really is up to you as to what you feel most comfortable. If, for example, you're working on something that's more Hollywood related, and you're based in, you know, the southeast, but you would prefer a Los Angeles headline or something like that, feel free to use it. No one's going to call you out for you know, it really is just sort of voluntarily put there. And it's it's it's It's a harbinger of an older system, that it's just still respected.
Gloria Chou 10:05
Yeah. And then so let's say like New York coma, you know, and then the date. So is that date just the date that the press releases go
Mickie Kennedy 10:12
live? Yes. And generally it's injected by the newswire, so that it's not modifiable, because we get people panicky, saying, I uploaded the release to you, but it's got the wrong date. And it's like, well, it doesn't matter that we take it out, because the newswire injects the date in there.
Gloria Chou 10:27
I love it. And so let's keep going. So I usually what I do is I hyperlink the so it's like New York, you know, July, whatever. And then the name of the company, I hyperlink it. And then I kind of reiterate what I'm saying in the headline is that is that good practice?
Mickie Kennedy 10:45
I think that rather than reiterate, I feel like I would, I would acknowledge the headline, but start building it out to say more, and so that it really leads the person because I don't want to be a complete redraft of the headline. But you know, yeah. introduce more, more Be more specific.
Gloria Chou 11:07
Great. Yeah. So for example, the one I wrote for for sigma, it's like the world's first, you know, non credit risk Agency announced that close this money to support their goal of becoming the ratings company of the future. Right. So is that kind of what you mean by? And then so then let's keep going. You know, and we want to keep it short. Because usually, how many words is the ideal press release,
Mickie Kennedy 11:26
I say 400 to 500 words is pretty typical for most releases, I've had some that are longer, and they needed to be longer, because they were, you know, providing a lot of technical information that they didn't want to send people to a page on the web on their website, but they wanted to incorporate some of the stuff that they just knew journalists were going to want to know. But most releases are between 405 100 words,
Gloria Chou 11:51
which is not very much if if that includes the about section. I mean, that's like three paragraphs.
Mickie Kennedy 11:56
Yeah, it does. It doesn't have to be a lot. I think that you want to leave the article writing to the journalists, and but you do want to have the enough of the strong details that they can, you know, develop the article themselves without contacting you. Journal, journalists are often shy, busy people. And they really appreciate that. If not everything is in the press release, that they can look at your website and look at your about section or your newsroom, and flush out stuff without having to call you or email you to try and get some answers. Yeah,
Gloria Chou 12:30
I love it. And I love that's why you charge like every newswire charges more if you go over a certain amount, because no one's reading it. No one's reading.
Mickie Kennedy 12:39
It uses me that they were paying per word, it was sort of like the teletype system. But they've kept it in place, mostly because they are worried that the press releases will get longer. And I know they will, if you it's unlimited words, people are just going to be more verbose, and not succinct. And that, you know, that's one of the biggest pet peeves of journalists is that they read unnecessarily long press releases that just don't get to the point.
Gloria Chou 13:04
And that shows that you're really a novice because it takes a lot more work to really define your messaging and be concise. And so the shorter it is actually, the more skilled I think it is. Okay, so we talked about the headline, we talked about sub headline, what do you recommend us put in the first paragraph,
Mickie Kennedy 13:19
I think that you want to just build on what your announcement is, and really position that what that announcement is and why it's relevant. I think that your subsequent paragraphs are generally just more supporting paragraphs, they might go into a little bit more detail about something, those are opportunities to put a quote in there. Usually one or two sentences, those, you know, again, or it's just really magical language that said, in a way that can't be easily paraphrase. So that, you know, if someone was writing a story, if they took that quote out, it would be a real loss to the story. And so, you know, does does the, quote, stand out. And then usually, there's an about section, you can usually recycle those in all the press releases, it's usually about the organization or about a person, if it's a speaker, or author or something like that. Where would you put a data point? Oh, a data point, I would try to get that in the first paragraph. If I could, right after the first sentence or two, I would try to get numbers, data points, because the media loves numbers. I mean, they love stats, they love data. And so if you have data points and numbers, I try to get them in the first paragraph, if it makes sense. If it doesn't, then I would put it right front and center, the second paragraph, you're just sort of looking as to making it all work. And sometimes, you know, these hard, fast rules of having it in the first paragraph. It maybe it doesn't make sense. So you have to move it to the second, but, you know, I would try to get it higher on the page as much as you can. Because I think that you know, numbers are things that journalists respond to You know, if you've done the research and you've got the data points, they're going to appreciate it, and it's going to make your use stand out.
Gloria Chou 15:07
Yeah, I really think the first paragraph is setting the stage on what this new reality that we live in. And then and then the, the data point, obviously further supports that. So then my next question is, does it have to be your own proprietary data? Or can it be something from like Accenture or Gartner
Mickie Kennedy 15:23
it can be public data, you don't want to hide it. But you know, so many people will publish the, you know, according to XY and Z 97%, of all homeowners do, you know, don't carry earthquake insurance unless they're located in you know, a fault zone. And here's why that's important. And you know, so what you're doing is you're, you're, you're you're producing public data, but you've you've packaged it with your content of why this is an important thing. And the importance isn't that the 97%, you're not taking ownership of that. But you're acknowledging that, despite this number, this is the problem. And this is what the press release is addressing. And, you know, playing to so it can work really well there.
Gloria Chou 16:12
Yeah, so set the stage. And then and then what I usually like to do is give a strategic quote by the CEO. What if I have more than one? What if a company has two founders, like three founders,
Mickie Kennedy 16:22
I say it tends to look like jockeying when you have multiple quotes from different people. But that being said, sometimes it makes sense. So I have seen personnel releases, which do well, because a company got an industry veteran who may be out of retirement to everybody new. And so this is a really big deal. And he stepped on, and he's now VP of, of marketing or something in the business or business development. And so you've got the CEO talking about it, and then you might have the HR person addressing it as well. I think that that's appropriate. But I think that just to have two founders in quotes, just for the sake of having it. It can be tricky. I think, if you wanted to do it, well, I would have them sort of almost like they're talking to each other. So that one person is saying something and another person's elaborating on it. I think that that's a place where if you were sort of jockeying the to, and you really wanted to include it, that's a place where you could make it work. But it is tricky. I think it's one of those things just like having a shorter press release. To do it. Well, you have to have a be a little more artful with it.
Gloria Chou 17:39
Exactly. Because you're competing with their limited attention every single line, right? So every line needs to be more compelling. I have written a couple of press releases for partnerships. So for example, one of the small digital banks I worked with a years ago, they went on to raise like $50 million. But when I just started working with them, they won an award by Visa. And so we had the spokesperson of visa give a quote, and that really gave them that kind of industry authority. So that's one way that I would actually allow two quotes, but I do agree with you, I think one quote is more than enough. And you want to make sure that quote paints a very strategic picture of like, why you're in a position to sell something, maybe it's a quote, that's, that's a data point. So let's talk about wrapping up the press release, what should the last paragraph not the about section, but how should like what tone should it end with,
Mickie Kennedy 18:23
I recommend that you send people to relevant pages if you have more data. And so a lot of times, you could say, if you're announcing a product towards the end, and you're wrapping it up, if you want to review all the technical specs, and things like that, you can send them to a product page through a URL or something like that, I think that you want it to come to wrapping it up to be like, open. And I think that, you know, ideally, journalists want all the information in one place. But you know, with a press release, you're not always going to be able to get that there. So if you have any resources, you would you would send them there. But also you could, you know, make an appeal to, you know, that, you know, if you want to schedule an interview with this, the CEO or founder or the lead developer of this product, you know, please contact us for more information. There's there's lots of different approaches to it, but I like being open. And, you know, that's, that's a place where, you know, you can get to not quite a call to action, but pretty close to one, where if you have a white paper, that would be a good place to sort of position it to, you know, towards the end as well.
Gloria Chou 19:40
Yeah, one way is, you know, like for for a product demo, or click here, especially if it's like a software. Another way I've done the ending is looking ahead, giving people something to be excited about. So in the next six months, this company plans to roll out these features, right, that's another way to end
Mickie Kennedy 19:55
that. Yeah, that's a really great, great thing to point out to sort of Do it with the idea of the future in mind.
Gloria Chou 20:03
So let's say now we have the press release, we've walked every like sentence by sentence, how to write it, then what happens next in terms of using this press release to get on the radars of journalists before you just kind of put it out there on the on the news wire.
Mickie Kennedy 20:17
Right. So I would say that if you do have media that you've worked with in the past, or you're open to reaching out to, you could, you know, create your own, you know, top list of places that you would like to get published, and you could offer them an exclusive. And, you know, sort of go down the line and see what happens. And, you know, once that happens, you can then you know, send the release out over the wire. You know, a lot of the clients that we deal with don't do the exclusive route, they just don't have the time or, or the expertise to do that. So it's not something that they generally do. So they just hit, you know, send on E releases, and we send the release out forms scheduled in the future. And, you know, that's, that's, that's one approach to do it. But I love the idea of, you know, cultivating your own contacts and offering some exclusivity, because it doesn't hurt to ask, and if they don't, then you can move forward.
Gloria Chou 21:22
Yeah, and you have one chance to announce, especially if it's about your launch, you want to make sure that you've used that to get conversations going. Because once you put it on the newswire, like three months pass, you can't really pitch it as an exclusive anymore. It's kind of fast news. Right? Right.
Mickie Kennedy 21:36
It is. And you know, you don't want to recycle old releases and old, old content. It's something we see all too often at the releases. And so, you know, I always tell people that, you know, I'm certain that you can come up with something that's more relevant than, you know, issuing a press release that didn't work a few months ago, or didn't live up to your expectations. And I've been challenged in the past saying, Oh, no, it did really well. That's why we want to do it. And I'm like, well, what could what could you announce? Or what could you put in a press release that you feel would, you know, scratches, similar itch with the media without saying the same thing again, and it takes a little bit of effort to get to it, but it's, it's rewarding once you do it, because those are the things that generally do well, if you can sort of, if you've if you've, if you've had success, once you can often replicate it by just differentiating and, and doing slight little pivots of what you're announcing.
Gloria Chou 22:35
Yeah, I always have the press release is great for SEO is going to be indexed on Google is going to be there for decades, giving you that SEO backlink but it does not replace that relationship. And so use it right. And that brings me to my two last questions is a lot of people ask me about logos, photos, videos, what are your thoughts about like putting something in the actual press release versus just hyperlinking it to a page,
Mickie Kennedy 22:59
right? So when we issue over the wire, we it's sent as separate collateral. So if you embed it in Microsoft Word, it's taken out, so you'll need to have the images separate to upload logos there. Okay. But I think photos are a great place to stand out. If you have a photo, or infographic or something that's really compelling image wise, it does really well, there is a lot of online news outlets. And one of the things that they know is there is a progression in the audience where people are moving more visually. And eventually we'll get to the video being probably the main type of news consumption. But we're not there yet. In respect to, you know, most content and things like that, but they love having images. And so photos that showcase the product, or real people using the product, they do really well candid shots work extremely well, and get picked up all the time. Stuff that looks like it's clipart doesn't really translate very well. So in the same thing with product pictures, so many people take product pictures, and there's still there's nothing in the background. It's just, you know, it's it's a highly produced piece. And I think that you'll find that you do really well if you just have your product in real world situations. And, you know, I think the media responds to those types of photos, and they get used quite a bit.
Gloria Chou 24:36
I do love infographics. I mean, there's a whole industry about like data visualization. And we you talked earlier in the first segment of this about doing a simple survey. So it could be like a very small like it could be 10 people that you serve, uh, you can still turn that into a beautiful infographic that's really going to connect the dots. So I really do and I also think if you're in like a beauty, or wellness or let's say if you published a book and that's a Visual like food recipe, then yeah, you're gonna want to put, you know a sample of that. But I know it costs money, right? Because every word, every thing that you embed, there's an extra charge. So there is a creative way to hyperlink and get around.
Mickie Kennedy 25:12
So you can include images on the wire at no charge. But if you want them embedded in what they mean by embedding is some of their downline syndication partners will embed them on their website, I don't recommend paying the embedding fee unless you just have a nice budget, you're willing to spend it, because it didn't help you get media pickup, because the journalists who log into PR Newswire or get the wire through, you know, news feeds in the newsroom, they're going to see the images, whether they're embedded or not, you're just paying for something that just looks more visually interesting on the syndicated part. And, you know, we haven't really gone into that. But syndication is, I feel like a really big scam, that has just really messed up the industry for a long period and makes it very confusing for people. When you use paid to have a release issued over the wire, it automatically appears on Yahoo Finance, and various websites they call syndication partners. And in the early 2000s, there, it was, like a Cold War, where everybody was trying to have the biggest list of syndication partners. And so if you issued a press release, it could appear on over 300 different websites. And, you know, Google after a while said, Hey, we don't want to give SEO credit for this. So these are best practices, nofollow links should be included. They should, you know, they should be tagged as press releases so that generally not all of these media pickups will be included in Google News and things like that. So it's settled down quite a bit. But there are a lot of people who feel that the number of sites that automatically pick up the release after the release goes out is the goal. And that's not I mean, the goal is earned media, that article in The New York Times or you know, a certain magazine, that's really relevant for you. That's the real goal. And that's the real magic that happens with PR, and that the syndication part of it is really not that important. So I wouldn't pay to embed just to make your syndication links look prettier, by having the images embedded on certain websites.
Gloria Chou 27:20
Yeah, I love how you validated that, that it does not replace you pitching and building that relationship, because that's a journalist is not just going to read, like republish your press release, they're gonna want to get on the phone with you to make sure your name is spelled right. And that's part of why they have integrity as journalists, right, they need to do their due diligence. And that leads me to my last question is, a lot of people have no idea. I mean, you know, in terms of which news wire to choose, there's so many different prices, and they make it very complex. So can you just tell us your point of view on how a small business can choose? What's the right distribution for them?
Mickie Kennedy 27:53
Well, I think if you're a small business, or entrepreneur or startup, your releases is a great way to go. Because PR Newswire charges over $1,000 for a 500 word press release with through us it's as little as two to $400 for the same press release going out nationally. And, you know, it's it's interesting that we're able to offer that and it's because we're serving an industry that the newswire hadn't traditionally reached out to or or served. And so we, we, we talked for a really long time before we started working together. And I addressed the fact that my customers couldn't afford to pay $1,000 Plus to move a press release. But you know, there was value to going over a wire. And so we did sort of when, when things were, you know, I make sure that I'm not recruiting customers that would be betters sent directly to the wire. So that's why I generally work with really small businesses that are doing three or four releases a year on average. And another thing is, you know, looking at the scheduling, most people are used to going directly to a wire and picking their time when they release goes out, but ours are default sent before 9am next business day, and that allows their editorial team overnight, which generally doesn't have much to do to set up our releases for us so we're not costing them additional labor. And so that real relationship that we have allows, you know, small businesses and entrepreneurs and startups to to get access to the wire nationally without you know, paying anything close to the retail rate. And I see that as like our huge win win. You know, business wires are really great wire. I feel it's, you know, it's right there with PR Newswire, but you would never send to both and so I think that you know, getting business getting PR Newswire at a really great rate through E releases is is really a great option for people and we're really proud to help small businesses not too printers by offering that.
Gloria Chou 30:03
Now this might be kind of a question that's kind of obvious for you. But for a lot of our audience, the next question is, well, why can I just approach the wire directly?
Mickie Kennedy 30:12
You can they have salespeople, and on average, each customer under a salesperson represents 30,000 a year in revenue, if you're not willing to outlay $30,000 a year with them, then it's not worth their cells, people's time and energy. So, and again, they're just going to give you the public rate of 1100 $1,200, for 500 600 word press release, they're not going to discount it, just because you approach them, you know, they, they, they have no problem with like fortune 500 companies spending, you know, 50 60,000 or more year with them. And so they're not looking to cut e releases out and try to get the small businesses that potentially could drive six $800 a year to them, you know, so that it allows us to provide the customer service, the support, the holding hands of these people, a lot of the small businesses we work with, have never done a release, or they've never issued a release over the wire. So we sort of, you know, walk them through that process and ground them in their expectations.
Gloria Chou 31:18
Right, I guess. So it's not really, like, mutually exclusive. It's just they're serving the Microsoft's of the world that you know, are they have a huge PR department, whereas me and you, we are really for the small business entrepreneurs. So for anyone that's interested in actually having a press release written, you can go to Gloria childcare.com/vip. But Mickey, why don't you tell people how they can, or maybe you want to tell us if maybe an offer a special rate for our community. And I challenge everyone to issue a press release in your lifetime, just to see how it works. I mean, I think it's a really fun exercise as well, in terms of getting your messaging
Mickie Kennedy 31:50
proper. Right. So we have a new customer special on our website. If you look at the footer, it says new customer special, that's the best place to go. It's the releases.com forward slash Hello. And I do recommend that anybody who's considering PR to take an audit of their business, for a strategic press release ideas, and I have a free masterclass that goes through that eight strategic ideas for building a compelling press release. And if you take that you should walk away with six to 10 different ideas for your business that you could do that stands a really strong chance of getting media pickup. And that's available at e releases.com/plan. PLA n. And again, it's completely free. You just have to sign up to get it and get access to it. And whether you use us or not. I think there's some really valuable tips in there and resources that can help you and your press release journey.
Gloria Chou 32:46
I love that I'm going to after this, I'm going to put a special code that you can give to our community that I'm going to put I'm going to put on in the show notes. Because I do think that every business should issue at least one press release in your lifetime. It teaches you how to how to speak in a more official tone and a more authoritative way. Like everything we said. So we've talked about so many things that you've dropped so many gems, I think I'm going to make this actually a two part episode. The first part being what is a press release? The second one is a line by line education class on how to write it. Is there any last parting thoughts that you want to leave my audience with?
Mickie Kennedy 33:23
I think that, the thing to know is that so many people have success with PR when they're approach it from an openness and a willingness to try it and test it. I think that you know, doing a PR campaign rather than just a single press release is the right approach to take. And you know, don't be afraid to own your story. And to get out there. You know, so many people are just hesitant or don't feel they're important enough. And the thing that to realize is that the media is just looking for great content. And a lot of it comes from really small companies, and small, you know, people who have large ideas. And if you're willing to share those ideas, you can really go far with PR.
Gloria Chou 34:11
Thank you so much. And how can people connect with you other than just going on the E releases website?
Mickie Kennedy 34:16
Right. So on the website is social media. That's my direct LinkedIn on there at e releases.com. And LinkedIn is the best way to reach me individually. I can't say that check every day. But I do check a couple of times a week and I am pretty responsive to people who reach out to me there.
Gloria Chou 34:34
Thank you so so much for doing this very thorough class, if you will, on press releases from the beginning of what it is to what it is now and how to write it and I cannot thank you enough. So thank you so much for being on the show. You're very welcome. Hey, small business hero. Did you know that you can get featured for free on outlets like Forbes, The New York Times, Marie Claire Pop Sugar and so many more, even if you're not yet launched? Or if you can Don't have any connection. That's right. That's why I invite you to watch my PR Secrets masterclass, where I reveal the exact methods 1000s of bootstrapping small businesses use to hack their own PR and go from unknown to being a credible and sought after industry expert. Now if you want to land your first press feature, get them a podcast, secure a VIP speaking gig or just reach out to that very intimidating editor. This class will show you exactly how to do it. Register now at Gloria Chou pr.com/masterclass. That's Gloria Chou c-h-o-u pr.com/masterclass. So you can get featured in 30 days without spending a penny on ads or agencies. Best of all, this is completely free. So get in there and let's get you featured.