Episode 94 - How to Get Featured on Oprah, BuzzFeed, Brides as Small Business Owner with Marcia Hacker
Success isn’t one size fits all. However, as business owners and entrepreneurs, it’s safe to say that success often lies behind the risks we take.
Risk-taking and facing our fears is a natural part of entrepreneurship. But how often do we follow through on the things we fear? And what possibilities do we unlock when we overcome them?
Meet Marcia Hacker – founder of the beautiful Sauipe Swimwear, bootstrapping founder/entrepreneur, and long-time PR Starter Pack member.
Marcia went from being fearful and burned by PR agencies, to being globally featured in the biggest publications, such as Oprah, Brides, Buzzfeed, Cosmopolitan, Conde Naste, (the list goes on).
The best part? Many of these major publications are now featuring her without her knowledge. This is the power of PR. Because when someone like Oprah Magazine vouches for you, your credibility and authority are instantly boosted, and others can’t wait to feature you, too.
In today’s episode, Marcia is revealing the secrets behind her snowballing PR success. She discusses her experience of being burned by PR agencies and how that left her feeling skeptical about her PR opportunities.
She then shares the mindset shift that propelled her business’s success and the PR snowball that made Sauipe Swimwear a globally recognized brand.
From the non-linear success of your PR efforts to the importance of learning the $10,000/hour skill of pitching and advocating for yourself, this episode is a must for all entrepreneurs who are ready to grow their business sustainably – simply by taking the power of PR into your own hands.
Here’s a detailed look at what we discuss:
Marcia’s experience with PR before the PR Starter Pack
The non-linear nature of PR and why it’s important to put your name out there
How joining the PR Starter Pack changed Marcia’s business and life
How Marcia was able to use the PR Starter Pack and CPR method for wholesale
How to shift your message so that journalists are eager to feature your brand
The power of PR to open up an abundance of opportunities
Marcia’s system for managing her PR activities and lining up pitching angles year round
The importance of following up on your pitch
When should you be thinking about pitching for the holiday season?
The CPR Pitching Method™ helped small business-owning entrepreneurs from PR Starter Pack members see themselves as a go-to expert with a point of view, instead of JUST a founder, seller, or consultant – a standout mindset that takes you far in the world of PR.
I hope you take notes throughout this episode and maybe even listen to it again so you can really nail down the three parts of the CPR Pitching Method™ and use it to your advantage!
So get ready to press send and get your message. And I can’t wait to see you featured in the headlines.
P.S. If you want your small business to go from invisible to visible, seen, and valued, register for my FREE PR Secrets Masterclass. Soon enough, your credibility and visibility will skyrocket. Register now at www.gloriachou.com/masterclass.
Resources Mentioned:
Join Gloria Chou's PR Community: Small Biz Pros: By Gloria Chou
Additional Resources:
Join the Small Biz PR Pros FB group
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Here’s a glance at this episode…
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00:00 - Introduction
Hey friends, I'm Gloria Chou, a 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 opportunities 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.
00:32 Gloria Chou: Woohh. Do we have a good episode for you today? So we have one of our, I wanna say longtime PR sir pack members. She's a phenomenal woman, and honestly, she will share all about her PR journey of being very hesitant at first to join us. So I have the one and only. Marcia Hacker here. She is a founder of Sope Swim, which is a gorgeous, gorgeous, eco-friendly, sustainable, and very flattering swimwear brand.
We're gonna break it down for you on how a bootstrapping founder started her pr, kept it going, and now she's gone into so many places, including Buzzfeed Brides and Oprah Daley. I'm like, I can't even believe it. I'm saying that, Marcia.
01:12 Marcia Hacker: I know. Me too. It's crazy.
01:13 Gloria Chou: So, do you wanna take us back a little bit, because I remember.
When we chatted in the DMs, you were very hesitant about not only joining my program but PR in general. Correct. I mean, you are Correct. You founded this business, you know, in 2007. You said that you've done all the different PR things. Can you walk me back to like where you were with PR before you joined the program?
01:31 Marcia Hacker: Yes. Okay. I'm so excited to be here, but it's my first time on a podcast. I feel like that first email I sent out to media, I was like, oh my God, what do I do? Anyway, so thank you for having me here. So as you said, we started in 2007 and we went straight to a trade show for retailers. Back in Miami was the biggest show for Swim at the time, and Sports Illustrator came by and picked up a bunch of suits and I had, I had no idea what we were doing.
We left the show and I told my sister, no, we are just gonna stop, take a step back, knowing nothing about it. How to run the business properly here, let alone media. A couple of months later, sports Illustrator called us and they were publishing a lot of suits. I was like, okay, now we can't stop. We have to keep going. So that was my first experience with the press. And soon after that, a couple more came, and then I hired a PR firm. I don't need to tell you how much that cost me. It was, I mean, I went all in and I wanted to do the best. But the reality is back then it wasn't like now where you can reach people. There was no social media and like, I didn't even do LinkedIn. I don't even know if LinkedIn was a big thing back then. So I let the agency do what they did, which was not great. And then I figured, okay, I can't keep paying this. It's like it's ridiculous and it's not bringing me the business I wanted.
It got me some exposure, but the big one I had done myself, but I figured, okay, I'm not doing this now. I'm going to focus on other things from the business that need more of my attention. And then. I stopped reaching out to media completely for years, until really, last year. I don't even know how I came across the PR starter pack, but it was, you know, it was just probably the right timing, right? And I had developed our e-comm and our wholesale a little bit, then Covid came. It was a big mess that everybody went through. So in 2022, I, when I saw you and I figured, okay, I need to do something. And my initial goal was only for SEO. I know you've been talking a lot about SEO lately, so it's a great thing that, you know, you are saying that because that was my original goal.
I said I don't care about the press. I don't wanna talk to these people. I don't want anything to do about it. I just want the links back. Then I started taking your program and it took me forever really to hit that first send button. And I kept you in my head like, just press the send button. Just press the send button. And ultimately now I love it. I love interacting with these people. It's like, great they. Nice. They're just people like you say in your program. These are people on the other side of the send button and I am starting to,
04:45 Gloria Chou: well, I'm gonna need you to say that louder. I wanna need to say it again and say it. Say it into the mic.
04:50 Marcia Hacker: Okay. They are human beings just like you and me on the other side of the send button. And if you don't press the send button, they don't know about you. So I started writing to them. Following your program, right? Do you have writing to journalists? Yeah. Correct. To the journalists. And I started writing.
It was like, it took me forever. I joined your program, I think it was in June or July of last year, and I only started sending in September. I was like so afraid. I didn't know what to write, how to write, how much to write, right? But then, I read every single chapter. Program and I said, okay, I have to do this. And I started sending in nothing. It was like crickets. But I saw they were opening the email, at least right as you said. Also, do the tracking and all that. And then one time, I think it was like towards the holidays in December, and I was always writing to them following the program, so I was writing for their audience.
So, Like I put myself in their shoes and I say, okay, the audience is buying a swimsuit. So what are they looking for? What are their pain points when buying a swimsuit? And anything from style to color. So I started sending emails, maybe once every six weeks to the same few people. I had 60 people on my list that I picked, and then, In December, you know, things were slow here.
And I just went to LinkedIn because you talk so much about LinkedIn and I wasn't there at all. I wasn't doing anything on LinkedIn and I started inviting the people from your list and oh my God, I just hit them at the right time I guess, because they started accepting my invitation and that's it. So it is that little step. Which was a big step for me, right? Because I'm not like a social person. That big step for me gave me enough confidence to start talking to them more, and then I continue with your message like, okay, we need, I need to come up with other things to talk about if they are not replying to me. I am going to keep going.
I have a story to tell. I can talk about white swimsuits, black swimsuits, and how the top is our, you know, as human beings, we are not all the same size, we're not all the same shape. So that was my message and eventually, they started talking back. So the first one actually that contacted me was Oprah. It was back in February of this year, and I know you didn't I told you I think somewhere, sometime around March, but it wasn't published until now. So I didn't make it a win in the Facebook group, which is like, so,
08:01 Gloria Chou: but that is huge. I mean, that is Oprah print publication that is, I know directly to your audience. And people are not looking at Oprah if they're not looking to buy. So that's directly to your audience. So Oprah, I mean, I think you might be one of the first people to have the Oprah print one. I mean, that's very highly covered. Oh, really? And also Buzzfeed, that is a high-traffic website that's like 40, 50, 60 million views. Yeah. Tell me how he got on Buzzfeed.
08:23 Marcia Hacker: I didn't even know. Okay. So actually Oprah this week, a journalist told me that, they also put it online, so we are also online. I know. So that's like, yay. That's a link to me. And. I had no idea. So they first put it on print on April 24th, and now it's online. And Buzzfeed, I had no idea this was one of the people that I was contacting since September, and all of a sudden she sends me an email, we just featured you on this. She, so they pulled an image from my website, they did the writing and they put it in there. So that's another thing I learned. Even she never replied to my emails.
This lady from Buzzfeed, never. All of a sudden it was boom, it was featured. So another thing, even if people are not responding to your emails, they are listening now. So they are aware of me. So eventually something does come up and the same thing was with the brides magazine. They never contacted me one day.
She said, we ju, we just featured your swimsuit. Here is the link. I know. So it's like, okay. So I,
09:45 Gloria Chou: I, you know, I, I love what you're saying because I think a lot of times, We think very linear where it's like I send a pitch, I'm expecting to hear back, right? Like it's communication with your friend. But with the media, they have different editorial calendars. We don't know when they're gonna feature it. So you are just trusting in the universe. You're putting your name in the hat and it gets tossed around. Maybe different people's name gets picked, but yours got picked every time without you even knowing because Correct, you said yes to the universe. It might take.
A week, it might take two months to me, but even if it takes six months to get on Oprah, I'm willing to do that. Because how you spent $0 on this, by the way. Right. This is not, this is completely unpaid. Right? Correct. So, you know, before we got onto this call, you made me like tear up a little bit because you said, you said how this, knowing how to do pr and by the way, you were hesitant to join my program, right?
You were very jaded. Yes. Which I don't, I don't, I don't blame you because I think. Like, raise your hand if you're listening to this, that you get these scamming message scammy messages, like, oh, that's fine. Oh, I can get you featured on this and that. Right. It's, it just gives such a bad reputation for pr.
Right. So you've already been burned before, so I understand that's not your fault. You were hesitant to join, you joined, and you said that your whole life changed. So can you tell me a little bit more about how joining this program and learning how to do PR changed other areas of your life?
11:04 Marcia Hacker: Right. Well, first of all, it gave me confidence as a human being and as a business owner. So the fact that I can send an email and the funniest thing, one email that I sent to a big group, I had a type on the subject line, it doesn't matter. I went, I got over that fear and that embarrassing email, they still opened.
So it's like, and I know also when they click because I use a tool that tracks the clicks as well. So like, it doesn't matter. Yeah. I'm human. They're human. It's all forgiven and forgotten. And then I kept sending emails, so it's not a big deal. So it changed my life in that I don't expect myself to be perfect all the time.
And. Yeah, you have a saying, I forgot how you say that. Perfect. Is it not, or something is better than perfect? Like standing the Oh, done is better than perfect. Exactly. Done is better than, exactly, exactly. So I keep, I keep thinking that, you know, because we have to do something, we have to keep moving. And it's an email.
It's not like I'm, you know, putting something on paper and printing it out to the world. Yeah, it's, and you get to learn this too. Absolutely. Whereas when, when you work with an agency, once it's done, it's done. But you're learning a skill for life. So let's pivot a little bit because you told me before this mm-hmm. That you are trying to get your product into wholesale. How have you been able to use the PR program and the CPR pitching method for wholesale? It's incredible. I have had contacts before from trade shows that I attended. We had showrooms before, but I never built them. Well, of course with the retailers that purchased from us before I ended up building, building the relationship, but reaching out to new people, I had yet to learn how to do it.
I figured, okay, this method is working for this. Let me try now for wholesale. And I started that recently and it's working. People are responding to my email. They are. You know, engaging with me. I'm opening a couple of new doors. I just started using your method for wholesale recently, I would say. Wow.
Within the last month.
13:29 Gloria Chou: So let's, so walk me through, walk me through how you were doing wholesale and pitching before and how you think about it differently. because for the people who are not in the PR program right. What can they learn from you about things not to do that maybe you are doing and now you're changing the way you're, you're messaging to get that Yes.
11:04 Marcia Hacker: I am following the same principle. It's about their customer. So with a journalist, it's about their audience, right? And with the retailers, it's about their customers because the store owner wants to serve their customers. Of course. Ultimately, everybody wants to sell and make money, but her goal in opening the door day in and day out is to make her customer happy. So my, the, no, the tones of my emails reaching out to the retailers is, has changed with the program. Whereas before I used to talk about us and who we are and what we do and this and that. Now I talk about them, right? So how now it's summer? So they're not buying now unless they're buying immediately, which is for now.
But I talk about how this particular style serves that particular woman and the callers and so it's what their concerns are as a retailer.
14:48 Gloria Chou: Yeah. Can you gimme an example?
14:50 Marcia Hacker: So, okay, so, for instance, in one of the emails I reached out to, I addressed the concern that the retailers have when adding a new brand, okay?
Especially nowadays. Like their customer doesn't know me yet. They, the retailer don't know how well it's gonna sell, how well it's gonna look into their on their rack, right? So I do the same research I did for the journalist. I go online, I look at their store online, and I do a Google search. So, if they have a physical store, I look at the photos. So, I look at their social media, so I know how they are talking about to their customer, and I see if I fit in. If they don't carry swim, of course, I don't reach out. But if they do carry swim, I look at who they carry, how do I fit in so I can find a niche on, you know, I, I have this type of swimsuits, so then I put a Canva presentation with the suits that I would recommend for them.
So I, you know, it's just like talking to a journalist. You have to reach, out to them with the serving purpose, right? Yeah. It's not like I, here are my suits. Buy it. No, here are my suits and this is how I think they would fit in your store because A, B, and C.
16:19 Gloria Chou: Yeah. So that's what I think you said. I think you said something that so many founders struggle with, but once they overcome the struggle, just like you, infinite opportunities open, and that is this. You are never selling to the journalist, right? You are never selling to the wholesaler. If you wanna leverage someone's audience. The more you sell, like you're selling one-to-one to a customer, the more it's gonna be a no. But if you wanna ride on that wave of someone being able to spread your message to millions of people, you have to step back and away from selling.
And so that's really what we're teaching here in pr, where whereas the journalist is not stupid, they know that you're selling something, they know that you're in business, right? That you're a for-profit entity. But if you treat them like a customer and you say, Here's my brochure, here's an order form, here's a coupon code that's turning them off.
Right? Right. Which is something that we know how to do so well as founders. So this is why we need to do the work, of just shifting our message a little bit so that it's talking about the insight, the solution, the season. Now you're in swimwear, so right now we're in resort season, you know We can even come up with a pitch about, you know, like quick dry swimsuits and you know, like carry-on, approved and all of the ways that it can benefit the end user.
So it's not about selling the benefits and features, but more about the relevancy for what consumers are wanting this season. And I love that you now have, have gained the skill that's going to help you throughout the rest of your life. Is there anything else that you've noticed after joining the program and kind of learning how to shift your, shift, your messaging?
That you wanna tell our audience that they can also get onto places like Buzzfeed and Brides and Oprah?
17:54 Marcia Hacker: Well, that's a big topic. That is exactly what it is. It's changing my mindset from, first of all, trying to sell. I went from trying to sell to both media and wholesale, to trying to provide something that they need. So that's, that's a, a simple thing. Put it here, but it's a process, right? So I didn't get there overnight. I was in your program and then it took me three to four months to even think that I had something to share with pro, a service to provide, right?
And then I think was something in one of your meetings with the group that I thought, oh, I can provide. service and I don't have, I don't need to dump everything into one email this month. I can say about, talk about this, then I'm gonna save some of my juice for another email, right? Because if they did not respond, To this one. Maybe next time they see that I know what I'm talking about. So slow. It was slow in the beginning.
Building confidence is not just about me pressing the button, it's about figuring out that I have something to say and everybody does. As you said, everybody has something to talk about. It doesn't matter what the product is. And I used to think I have nothing to say, and then I, I go to the supermarket and I see all these brands of water, and I think water is like the simplest thing in the world.
And like they each have a story. They each have something to talk about. So if they have something to talk about, I can find something from within my experience and my brand that I can share. And,
19:54 Gloria Chou: oh, You are, you just drop the mic, drop moment. I, I literally wanna message my team on Slack and say, we need to put this as a carousel post because what you just said is so incredible.
There are so many brands of water, there are so many brands of water, and people still innovating water, right? You're so right. So next time people think you don't have anything to say, just remember the fact that people are making millions of dollars doing different water, just shows that. There's always a unique angle for something, right?
You're not reinventing the wheel. Water is not new, right? Nothing that exists in the anatomy of the world is a new compound, right? All the atoms are there, right? It's just a matter of reconfiguring it and repackaging it. So I, and I love what you said too because you know as you started. PR a little bit later.
Like, you're an introvert. I remember like a lot of the calls that we would have, you would have your camera off. You're not like a natural stage person, right? Like you said, I'm not, but you've been able to like, use this for so many things and, and make an impact, and I'm just so proud of the journey that you've been on.
Oh, thank you. Now let's talk about, oh, I'm so, I'm like getting a little emotional thinking about it. I'm so happy that you joined our program, but let's break it down for the people who are listening. Right. So obviously don't sell to the journalist, right? Use social media, and put your name in the hat.
You never know when your pitch is gonna be. Be selected. Freshen up the angles. Don't write everything in one pitch, like break it up. So maybe it's one pitch about swimsuits for people who just had a baby versus people who are, you know, having different, so like, Not, not thing not for everybody, right?
Correct. Make it specific, and you know, because you're in my PR program, I always talk about specificity, right? Peel away the layer of an onion to reveal the juicy core. Who is it for? If your pitch is something that works for every industry, every season, every beat, it's not specific enough. Go back and sharpen that knife again, right?
21:43 Marcia Hacker: Correct. Correct. So now I've been within the program for what, almost a year, right? So I came up with this. Interpretation of the program. So I have emails stacked up the topics for a whole year because I know the season is off. After all, I'm watching this journalist, I go, oh, online I see their articles and I know if they write about swimsuits in February, they were researching back in December.
because they don't write overnight either, right? And a lot of them wrote in February and I missed that boat, but I'll join that boat for next year because now I know like, okay, so I was talking about Mother's Day back in March. I was, I was already talking about brides in the June season in April. So you, you learn over time and I also learned to not give up.
If I miss the boat for this year, then I, I, I need to look at it as building a relationship with them so that next year they will come in and I know they will because it's like, it's a snowball effect. Right? And that's another thing about my goal in joining this program is that I wanted to. Have the context and the relationships.
This is like an asset for me now, right? It's like, yeah, it's not, if I drop a if I join a PR agency and then I don't work with them anymore, I was left with nothing and now I have the context and I have the relationship and they know about me. Even though they may not have written yet this year. It's a growing experience.
23:33 Gloria Chou: I love how you're saying all the things back to me that I used to say to you. I know. See, I listen. Snow snowball effect. I love how when you shift your perspective, everything changes. As Brene Brown says, if you look at ways how it's not gonna work, how you don't belong, you're only gonna find doors that are closed.
Absolutely. But if you turn everything into an opportunity, you start to realize that there's always an ocean of opportunity, right? So it's all about how you. Shift your perspective. So I love what you said about, okay, maybe I missed a boat on Mother's Day, but guess what? There's spring, summer resort season, right? And there's white Lotus, maybe it's something around your favorite, your best swimsuit for your white Lotus Italian vacation. Like there are so many different angles.
24:14 Marcia Hacker: Let me write that down cause I didn't do that one.
24:16 Gloria Chou: That's the one. Yeah, that's the one I wrote for another founder in our PR stutter pack. Think about how you can tie it to like a pop cultural thing, right? So, There's always something. Just because you missed one opportunity doesn't mean the next one is not around the corner. But it takes you putting on that lens of opportunity and abundance and that's what you've been able to do. because now you're like, I'm gonna pitch for wholesale and I'm gonna do this.
There's no limit to what you're gonna accomplish. Right. And I'm just so proud of you. So, one thing I have to say is a lot of people still don't do this because they think. Oh, it's so hard. It's gonna take so much time. And yes, everything takes time, right? It takes time to do an Instagram reel, and it takes time to write a customer service email.
It's just a matter of how you're prioritizing your time. Are you doing things that are gonna give you high ROI, like building an asset? Or are you doing busy work? So how can you help people break down your system? Because what I loved is you created a system with tools and tracking and follow-up. Can you just break it down for me exactly like how you do? Time manage your PR activities with all the different things you're doing in your life.
25:10 Marcia Hacker: Okay, so before we, I do that, I want to add a comment about social media. And I know that a lot of things work differently for different businesses, right? I know. But what I learned for my business is that I don't want to tie my I don't want to depend on a social media platform because those are businesses.
On their merit, right? So if they change the algorithm, what's gonna happen to me? If they go off for a day, like they, you know, Facebook and all of those went down. I'll never forget, it was like October of 2021. Remember they all went down for a day. It was like everybody was going nuts. I sent an email because I have an email list, so that's an asset.
It's something I have the same with the journalist's contacts and relationships I build with and wholesalers, retailers, the relationship I build. So, I tried everything related to social. I gave it a good shot and ads and whatnot. And then I figured, no, that's not working, because those things are like They're, they're short-lived.
I'm not good at reels. I'm not gonna make reels. I don't have the resources, the people to do it, so I'm not gonna do that. And, but, I am good at organizing my time and my tasks, so I, figured I want to build relationships with journalists at first. That's, that was my goal, to build. An asset and that's the relationship and the links back.
You know, I wanted that for sure for SEO purposes, and for those listening, if you haven't heard about the SEO, listen to Gloria's other episodes because she talks a lot about it. Anyway, so I organized, first I was sending the emails. Using my Apple Mail on my computer keeping tabs on a spreadsheet. And then I figured, okay, this is getting way out of hand and I need more discipline.
So I started using it, I hope I'm answering your question. I got a little sidetracked here. So I got I found a tool. I, it's called Pipedrive and I love it. It's like a platform where I put all my contacts and I have one pipe. They call it a pipe for journalists, for my media contacts, and another one for my retailers.
So let's focus on the media because that's the topic here. So I added their content and I can see their emails. The emails I sent to them and their replies, and I create activities. So let's say I send an email about black swimsuits for everybody. Last week I did, whoever opened or clicked, I see the tracking and the tool.
I create an activity for me to follow up with them next week. So it's easy, it's manageable and I don't lose track of it. I was getting lost in the spreadsheet because there was no reminder for me. I would have to go through every single email and see did they click. Did they not click?
Whereas using this tool, it's right on my face. It's super fast because I don't have to look for anything. It's right there. So it's really, that's been very, very helpful, you know, to find. You must have some method of tracking. Now I decided to go for the tool because it's just, for me, my discipline, I prefer that way.
If not anybody can do it on the spreadsheet is okay. Especially in the beginning when I had 60 people on my PR list, I was okay. Now I have about 250. A spreadsheet is too overwhelming for me. It makes me nervous, so I use the tool. But the spreadsheet works, you know, whoever. Yeah, I love it. However, one wants to start.
Just start, even if you have just one journalist, just send an email and build their confidence. Then you add another one tomorrow and another one, and so on.
29:45 Gloria Chou: Yeah. I love what you said, that a goal cannot be achieved unless it's tracked and measured correctly. So I love that you have a way to track and measure it.
And obviously, most people start, with the spreadsheet. I have that in the PR starter pack. But as you get more and more, you're welcome to use any software. I'm glad you found one that worked. I also wanna alert anyone who's listening to make sure that you have some sort of email tracking software. I say this on every monthly call with our members. You can just Google and mail. Mail tracking software, whether it's for Chrome or Outlook, pick one that works for you. They're all. You know, they range from free to $50 a year. And it's simple because what we don't wanna do is start sending emails and not having any data or system to track if they're being opened.
And a lot of times it's not that the pitch is wrong or bad, it's just they're not being opened. And so if you see that they're not being opened, it's gonna give you the confidence to follow up again and again and again. And as Marcia knows, It's all about the follow-up. So that leads me to my next question, tell me about the follow-up, because we know that's what it takes to get featured sometimes the follow-up. So how were you able to follow up? What was your, like the cadence that you followed up on emails, on DMS? Like how did you do it?
30:50 Marcia Hacker: in the beginning? Not in the beginning. When I first add somebody to the list, I send the email. About a topic, right? So as I told you, I have different topics already lined up for the year because it's a cyclical thing.
So let's say I'm talking about Mother's Day. So I send that email about Mother's Day, and a week from then I send a, a follow-up saying, Hey, I don't know if you had a chance to look at it, blah, blah, blah. And then it's super short. So if in the original Mother's Day email I talk a little more, I explain how it would be good for their audience.
Then on the follow-up, I go very short and you know.
Then I see if they click and they open, and then I also go to their LinkedIn, of course, with 250 people, it's not like I'm gonna be able to do that with everybody. So I have my priorities, right? The people like A, B, C, and then I go to their LinkedIn and I send a little message, you know, just like you said, a quick message saying I don't know if you had a chance to look at it.
I know your inbox is super full. Here is the email and I just put the subject line that I used. And often they do reply right there and then. So it's just, you have to be and create your method that fits your lifestyle, meaning your time, right? Because I don't do this every day, I got very organized.
By using the tool and following the PR method and just following up. So then I send an email a week from then, and I send a follow-up very short. If nothing happens, I send the next topic email a month from now or whatever, and then a week from then I send another follow-up. So I, I get into the cycle and I know that they will see.
And now they know about me. So that's how I implemented your method into my schedule.
33:07 Gloria Chou: Yeah. I, I love that so much. Every month, refresh your angles every week and follow up. It just becomes a habit when you can make a system out of anything. Right. You take the emotion and drama out of it. Right. You just kind of do it.
So I love, I love how you did that. Another question I get asked a lot is, well, do I have to send, all these samples? Did you send a ton of samples again on Oprah Breastfeed and Brides?
33:23 Marcia Hacker: No. No, no. Not at all. Not at all. That's amazing. So, Oprah asked for samples. So I did send a box and you know, she said she'll send them back.
They're super professional. And she did send everything back and she picked one to feature, but she sent everything back. And a couple of people, they ask for samples and I sent really a couple, like two or three, and nothing happened yet. But that's okay because I learned that I don't wanna be sending samples. After all, my samples are expensive, right?
I don't want to be sending them out. And if I was able to get into Oprah and Buzzfeed and Brides Magazine without giving away samples, that's the path I wanna pursue. Right. I don't wanna be sending samples like right and left. You don't have to.
34:29 Gloria Chou: Exactly. Because they want you, you don't.
34:34 Marcia Hacker: No, they want to write, they have an audience to serve.
Mm-hmm. They want to write about you, whatever you're selling. Right. So if you provide a service and a good message in your pitch, then you don't need to give the product.
34:42 Gloria Chou: Yeah, exactly. I love it. It's, it's, that's what separates legitimate editorial journalism from a lot of these wannabe influencers slash journalists that just want free products.
So I always teach in my PR program, you don't have to give anything for free to, like you got on Oprah without, without giving it away, you know? So that's, that's incredible. Okay, so we talked about systems, we talked about samples, we talked about follow-up. What about timing? So obviously like, For print, it's a longer lead time. But let's say you wanna do something for the gift guides, right? For like q4, the biggest shopping season of the year. When are you thinking of starting to pitch for the holidays?
35:16 Marcia Hacker: All the time. Anytime, because they may not be writing about it, let's say you sell makeup, right? They may not be writing about that specific type of product now, but you need to start creating the relationship.
Now or any time of the year so that when they have that opportunity, they will write about you. In the beginning, I used to think, why are they gonna listen to me? Why are they gonna write about me? And then I figured, yeah, that's true. Why are they going to write about me in the very first email I sent? They have, they know nothing about me. There are hundreds of other swim brands out there. So I need to take the time. Be consistent in introducing me and the brand, and then when they have the opportunity, they will know about me. So anytime, don't wait until November or October, or even September.
Start now. And Don doesn't even focus on the gift guide. Focus on providing a service for their audience and be consistent and send emails and follow up. So when the gift guide comes, let's say September, October, that's when I'm gonna do it. Okay? So come September, I'm gonna follow this and send an email to the same people, but my focus is gonna be a gift guide. But by then they already heard about me, so I'm not like new on the block.
36:50 Gloria Chou: No you aren't, baby. I'm so empowered by listening to you. I see the transformation. I'm so grateful to you for trusting in this process, even though you were skeptical. How can people find you? I mean, now you're online because we, you've been on BuzzFeed and brides and you have so many more irons in the oven. But how can people find you and yeah, get to learn a little bit more about your journey?
37:12 Marcia Hacker: Okay, so we are on sauype swim.com, S A U Y P E swim.com. Our Instagram is sauype swimwear.com and as I said, I'm on LinkedIn. You can find all those links on our website. I, I'll be happy to share any info or any experience with your listeners or with anybody in the program because it works.
Thank you. It does work it. If people it works don't know it works. Yeah. But, you know, I, I could have, how, how would I know what to start, where to start. It's like so complicated. You know, like I, I used to think I have nothing to say.
37:56 Gloria Chou: That's what the industry wants you to think, and that's why we exist, is to make you feel like you do have so many things to say. I'm so glad that we're on this journey together. I'm so grateful to you. Keep going. Keep shining a light. Keep inspiring us all.
38:08- Outro
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