Ep 266 | Creating a PR Strategy with Mickie Kennedy

Ever wonder how some nonprofits seem to always be in the news? It's not magic – it's PR! In this episode, we dive into the world of press releases and media relations with PR expert Mickie Kennedy. Learn how to craft compelling stories, build relationships with journalists, and get your nonprofit the attention it deserves. Whether you're a PR novice or looking to up your game, this episode is packed with practical tips and strategies you can start using today.

What you'll learn:

→ The basics of writing an effective press release
→ How to build and nurture relationships with journalists
→ Strategies for getting national media coverage on a budget
→ Why being a small, unknown organization can be a PR advantage
→ Creative ways to generate newsworthy content

Want to skip ahead? Here are key takeaways:

[06:14] Craft strong, meaningful quotes in your press releases. A great quote is your chance to control the narrative as that's the only thing that would be copied verbatium in the story. It allows you to control your message and impact.
[12:08] Start building media connections locally. Don't get overwhelmed with building your media list. Start local as there are probably less than a dozen key journalists in your area who cover nonprofits. Once you find success there you can duplicate those efforts to appropriate national channels or newswires.
[19:33] Timing, message, and relevance are crucial for press release success. Attach your stories to something that is relevant to what's going on in real time. Or a big launch that is happening that is time sensitive. If you're looking for brand awarness, ensure you're telling great stories!
[30:09] Launch a survey and share the results to the media. Consider creating surveys or studies to generate newsworthy content and position your organization as an expert in your field. This is also a great opportunity for collaboration with other like-minded organizations.
[37:01] Don't let your organization's size deter you from pursuing PR. Sometimes being small and unknown can actually work in your favor with journalists. It's a new story they haven't featured yet. Make sure you make it easy for the media to pick up your story with high quality stories and photos.

Resources

Free Master Class: How to Build a PR Campaign Designed to Get Massive Media Coverage
CauseWire – a nonprofit rate for press releases

Full Transcript

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
Building trust with donors can happen in a lot of different ways. And one of that is showing up in media showing up in news articles on TV in your local area, online when they're browsing their favorite publication. And the way to get there is through press releases and building media relations. And this is often something that we don't think about when it comes to our organization. We just see other nonprofits being featured in the media, but don't really know how they got there, or why we're not the ones being featured. And it starts with conversations. And it starts with sending out really well crafted press releases. So my guest today, Mickey Kennedy is here to talk to us about how to start that process, how to get going with PR how to increase your visibility locally and even nationally, so that you can get more media attention, build more trust with your potential donors or potential audience or existing audience. And really just get more visibility and brand awareness for your organization. Mickey Kennedy founded e-releases 25 years ago to help small businesses, authors and startups increase their visibility and credibility through tier one press release distribution. And he lives in the Baltimore area. So he's sharing some great examples of how to think about your press releases and how to get people to see them. So that's what we're going to talk about today. And I am so excited about this topic, because we haven't really talked about PR at all on this podcast, which is a shame. So before we get into it, this episode is brought to you by our July freebie, our July free resource, which is nine ways to steward your donors. And thank them some fun creative ways to get in front of them, to have conversation with them, to engage with them, connect with them on a regular basis, to say thank you, so that you can really build on that relationship and connection. So you can go to thefirstclick.net/resources, grab that download, or any of the other downloads that we have released this year that might help you where you're at with your organization. So again, thefirstclick.net/resources, make sure you grab it today. And let's get into the episode.

Intro
You're listening to the digital marketing therapy podcast. I'm your host, Sami Bedell-Mulhern. Each month we dive deep into a digital marketing or fundraising strategy that you can implement in your organization. Each week, you'll hear from guest experts, nonprofits, and myself on best practices, tips and resources to help you raise more money online and reach your organizational goals.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
Hey, friends, please join me in welcoming Mickey Kennedy to the podcast. Mickey, thank you so much for being here today.

Mickie Kennedy
Well, thanks for having me.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
I'm excited about this topic, because we've actually never talked PR and press releases on this podcast, which I think is crazy. So I'm excited to have you share all of your nuggets of wisdom. But because it is a newer topic to our audience, well, maybe not to our audience, but to our to our podcast, I would love if you could just maybe share a little bit about PR what press releases are. And you know, as we've talked via email, kind of why they're an underutilized and underused marketing platform.

Mickie Kennedy
Sure. So a press release is just an announcement usually written in the third person that sent to the media, you might have quotes in there where you can talk in the first person. And it's basically you're sharing what you feel as a newsworthy announcement to the media. And it could be around a particular event or an award, or, you know, there's just hundreds, if not 1000s, of endless, you know, things that could be right for sending out a press release. Generally, you do want it to be sort of meaningful, something that you feel is important, not only to your organization, but also has the potential of getting the interest of the media. And I think that's the area that a lot of people aren't very good at. And so they're good at sort of like, Hey, this is important to us. We want to draw attention to this issue. But you know, you also have to realize that the journalist is trying to decide, you know, does this rise enough and newsworthiness for me to want to share it with my audience? You know, is it going to, you know, either entertain or educate, or sometimes both, for their audience, and, you know, what could you do to make it more meaningful? And one of the things that I think that a lot of people forget is, journalists are storytellers, and how does your announcement fit into a story arc? And so sometimes you have, here's this event that's very important to us. And we would love to get a lot of people to, to show up for the events to support it, you know, make donations, things like that. But you know, what stories could you put Get in there that would make people be interested in this. And, you know, I think one of the easiest things is, you know, what, what's the, the journey, the story of how the organization came to be, I mean, often these are, you know, inspirational, it's usually about a founder, who has a personal relationship to an issue, but not always, but you know, that could be a way to really draw someone in, give them, you know, a human interest element, that immediate empathy that happens. And, you know, that could possibly be something that you could add to the release, doesn't have to be the main announcement, but maybe, you know, as the paragraphs come down, you start to talk about, you know, the organization, how it came to be. Because, you know, generally there there is a meaningful story there, there is something that will really resonate with people and make people sort of, you know, feel, you know, a relationship or this emotional response as a result, and that's very valuable. And journalists know that they know that that is a way to get, you know, activate their audience, and therefore, they're more likely to cover that. Yeah,

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
well, um, I have so many questions. But so trying to figure out where I want to go first, because I love everything that you said, and that so in alignment with kind of how we teach people, marketing in general, right, like, we want to tell stories, we want to connect with people on an emotional level. And so when we're sending these press releases out to media, I think there's a couple different ways that they utilize it, right. Like one might be a straight copy, paste to their publication, if maybe they have like an online, wallet, they all have online versions, their publications and whatnot. But it also might be something that encourages them to reach out to you to develop a bigger story. Am I correct in that? Are there other ways that these press releases might be utilized that we want to think about when we're crafting them?

Mickie Kennedy
Yeah, so journalists generally will take a release. And usually they draft it, they'll they'll put it in their own words, they'll write it, you know, if there's a quote in there, they'll usually use that. And for that reason, you know, the quotes the one area where you completely get to control your messaging. And so you definitely want to make sure that you say something that a is strong enough or concise enough or emotional enough, or, you know, it stands on its own in a way that a journalist would want to use it. A lot of times, quotes get written as if they're like, I don't know, written by committee where they're so safe, they don't really say anything meaningful. Yeah, and that's a great way to ensure that your quote, gets you those, a red line through it, not by the journalist writing the article, but the managing editor. And that's, that's a huge loss, because you, you could have completely controlled the messaging of that quote, and, as a result, you know, it would have been included, basically verbatim. And so spend a little time on the quote, you know, what makes a great quote, it varies, it could be like, you know, sometimes the colorful language that you use if you're a wordsmith, but more likely, it's just that you said something very condensed and powerful, or meaningful, or you just reached in and it was, you know, emotionally gripping. And those are the best quotes. And, you know, if your quote, doesn't do that, you know, go back and lean on it, and spend a lot of time in it, because it's a place where you can really, you know, go in, say something really strong and powerful, and then maybe incorporate a small call to action, like, you know, you know, wow, we have, you know, I'm saying something very strong, powerful. This is why it's so important that people support this, and, and you've got that out. And then you can say something like, and we're just reaching out to the community for them to learn more about us and start contributing today. And that little bit of call to action, if it follows a really strong sentence, stands a chance that the quote, completely will remain intact. And you get that little bit of call to action and article that they write about you. It is true that journalists can reach out to you and get more information to build out a different story. But many times, if you sent the right PRESS RELEASE the informations there, they may have to go to the website to get a little bit more contextual information. But they rarely go back to you for more information, unless they need clarification, or if they're sort of going on a tangent or something related to it. You know, generally you want to make sure that you have enough information in the press release on your website that they can draft an article on their own because busy journalists, they have having to tie up loose ends to get a clarification or to you know, expand on something Make sure that they are understanding something completely. Yeah.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
So if I'm understanding you is the likelihood to increase your likelihood and getting your press release published, make it as easy on the journalist as possible clear information, great storytelling, and alignment with kind of who their audience is.

Mickie Kennedy 
Yeah, and I know that when it comes to nonprofits and things like that, that they're doing so much good that things get talked about in generalities. And I always tell people that, you know, you're going to have the biggest impact in a message, we make it very personal. And often, those are individuals. So I know that not every organization is comfortable talking about individuals that they help, but many individuals that have been helped by nonprofits are, you know, advocates as a result of it, and they're very willing to share their story and their relationship with a nonprofit. So you know, if you can capture some of those stories, I think building them out on your website, is a great way for even people who visit you to really get that emotional response, that empathy, the amplification, and, and then also occasionally included in the actual press releases, not a litany of people, but you know, maybe just touch on one, but maybe could cite there for more individuals, case studies that we've helped over the years, click here, it's a really great way to sort of stand out, and it really helps that story arc that people are looking for. So, you know, don't discount the individual story. And, you know, think about as you continue to help, you know, whether it's individuals or other organizations, or whatever, are their stories that you can capture over the years as you're helping people and record that, because it really becomes a valuable asset that you know, anybody new to the organization, what are we about, go to this page, we're about helping lots of people. And these are examples of just the significance we make individual by individual.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
I love that and you're speaking my language. Yeah, let's, let's repurpose and use this stuff in as many places as we can. I think that's great. Okay, so I want to touch on then, like, if we've crafted these press releases, like how do we know who to send them to? Like, how do we kind of start that process of maybe building our media list or our connections?

Mickie Kennedy 
Right, so I think when it comes to nonprofits, you know, look locally, you know, local media, is some of the easiest media for people to cultivate. You know, if you think about it, there's probably less than a dozen people who would write about you and your local market, it's possible, it's a bit more if you're in a really large market, like maybe Chicago. But you know, here in the Baltimore area, there's, there's, you know, it's a small, it's a small pond of places that you could possibly get written about, find the journalist who covers nonprofits and organizations like yours. And, you know, just reach out and get their email address, it could be online, but you could have to make a phone call and ask for their email address. And it's just like, can I get this person's email address, I have a, I'm with a nonprofit, we have a really good story that we're working on. And I just wanted to pitch that person. You don't need a press release for this. But I, you know, a pitch of a few sentences, maybe a paragraph. But I do think that it's worth building a really strong quote, and adding that, because I've already told you the value of a strong quote, a journalist can envision the article around it. And so a strong pro vote is a huge foundation for them to work with. And so if the pitch is good, and there's an amazing quote, you stand a very high likelihood of getting picked up. And you can just sort of do that pitching naturally, as you have these milestones. You know, local newspaper is the obvious one, business magazine or business newspapers, if you're fortunate to have those, you know, there's there's consumer magazines, like we have one called Baltimore, you know, that would be appropriate. And, you know, look at TV and radio, are there segments that occasionally highlight organizations and nonprofits? You know, if that segments on the evening news, you know, reach out and say, Hey, I saw that you did a segment last week, profiling this organization. I represent a nonprofit, I would love to pitch something similar in the future, who is the producer of books or Booker of that particular segment? And again, say I'm really looking for their email address, so that can pitch them in a few weeks when I've got something that I'm working on coming together. And again, just build that Rolodex. And, you know, once you have it, it's just natural. It's just reaching out like that. And, you know, there's always national news as well, for that, you know, you can continue the same thing that you're doing locally, nationally, but it gets cumbersome. And it's a lot of work. And so I think that in those cases a newswire works really well, in the US. There's basically a duopoly there's two major news wires that account for the majority of press releases. And that's PR Newswire and Business Wire II releases that I work with, we work with PR Newswire, all of the releases that go out through E releases get a national distribution on PR Newswire, they charge between 16 $102,000 for a 600 700 word, press release through us, it's like a quarter of that maybe a third of the price. And we do have a nonprofit discount called cause wire, that again, includes that national distribution at a huge savings. We we do a lot of releases, we do 10,000 to 12,000 a year. So we have a really good rate with the newswire, but even more importantly, the newswire saw that we were supporting smaller organizations, smaller businesses, and they knew that their salespeople would never be attracted to these people. Because they're chasing people who are like, oh, yeah, $25,000 newsroom a year, add that $30,000 For a database and all this global stuff. Yeah, add that. And my clients are like, our budget is like four releases a year $2,000. And so it's, it's not, you know, a customer base that they're looking for. But they liked that if we were the intermediary, and we provided their support, and it just sent the releases with them that it made a lot of sense working together like that. So it is something that is really great, because if you have a meaningful message, it can really go large. I have on the website, e releases.com. My leading case study was a, a, something that was set up during the early part of the pandemic called dining bond initiative, it was basically mostly grassroots projects is sort of getting money to restaurants that were closed during the pandemic. And the way it worked is you nominated a favorite local restaurant, and the volunteer was able to get a hold of that restaurant, money would be donated, that would go directly to them to help them during, you know, the two weeks, the two weeks that we were sent home to flatten the curve. And then would be back to sort of like a through a dining bond, what they called it but really a gift certificate. But they liked the dining bond thing, because they sort of modeled it after the war bond initiatives. But it got over 100 articles in many of them in daily newspapers. But you know, it also got picked up in a lot of major publications as well, you know, included the Wall Street Journal, CNN, Harvard Business Review, Bloomberg, Forbes Reuters. But you know, also bood trades, as well as, you know, I, we quit counting like 100 pickups, but so many daily papers, picked it up, generated an excess of $10 million to help restaurants. And the release would have cost like, you know, $350. But we did it for free to help the initiative during that time. And it was, that was all they did one release. And so it really shows you that if you have a meaningful message that resonates, it can go really large and wide on a news wire. And that's the real value of it. I think it did so well, because we were afraid we were sent home, we didn't know what and there, this was positive news, this was something that was really good. And also, we were home. And we were, you know, didn't feel very enabled. And here was something that we could do, it was actually a small action that we controlled, where we could give $40 to, you know, the restaurant we always go to on our anniversary, or something that's meaningful for us, to us, in our community. And I think that if you can tap into something like that, that really resonates emotionally because that was sort of the messaging that they did is like, here is something that you at home can do to help you know, your local pizza place or, you know, the place that you go to with your family on a routine basis. And I think that that's what made it so actionable. And why the media really responded the way they did. Yeah,

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
I love like right time Right place, right message, right? That's what that's kind of the magic sauce. So but I want to go back to a mindset thing in alignment with kind of this outreach in the cultivation and the nurturing of your media contacts. And that I think a lot of times we feel like if we are calling or we are reaching out or we are pitching that we're maybe being annoying or they don't want to hear from us. But you know, especially in this day and age when content is big being created all the time, and people are consuming things all the time. Journalists are looking for that information, right? So it's, I think it's not by accident that that nonprofit gets to be on that TV show. Right? They probably asked or pitched because they don't have journalists don't have time to go out and find all of the content that they need for their publication or their their TV station. So, you know, can you maybe talk through a little bit mindset stuff with regards to building that confidence to reach out and knowing that they're actually looking like they're hungry for more stories to share? Right.

Mickie Kennedy 
So yeah, I mean, it as you reach out, you know, locally to the market, I mean, a lot of people are like, can I just ask for their email address, and it's like, yeah, they're members of the community, they're members of the media, they should be accessible. You know, if they're not, that's kind of strange. And these aren't celebrities, these are journalists, as you know, they should be accessible, you should be able to reach them. If not, and they have a lot of gatekeeping, that's not a good sign. And, you know, I, I haven't had problems with people, there are some that don't like the email, they prefer a phone call. I don't think there's any that probably prefer faxing this day and age, but, you know, if they have a preference that's outside the dorm, you know, try to adapt to it. And, you know, reach them the way that they prefer, it's not unusual to do this, you know, reaching out to them every other month, or at a minimum quarterly, and nothing really happened for like six to nine months, it really is, what you'll find is, after a while you pitch them three, four times or so you are going to come and be in the front of their mind. And all of a sudden, they're going to be working on a story. And they're looking to plug in a local organization, and they're gonna think of you, and you're gonna find them contacting you out of the blue and say, Hey, I'm working on the story about X, Y, and Z. I thought about your organization. Are you guys doing anything like that? Or, you know, are you having, you know, are you seeing this trend in the community? Where this is happening to nonprofits? And you're like, Yeah, you know, you can Oh, yeah, I would love to talk about that. Could I get a few minutes together, and get some quotes and some information from my team, and then get back to you, I always when people put you on the spot, and they just want a quote, it's like you just like, or now I've shut down. So, you know, these people are writers.

So they know. So just say, hey, could I, you know, get some of the questions that you want to ask, I'll prepare some responses, and then it'd be willing to talk to you, or if he just wanted me to email those over. And then, you know, make it your mission to sort of have some meaningful language, and, you know, a great quote, in regards to that, and, and see if you can accomplish that, so that you can get inserted in there. And, you know, as as you do this, and you reach out, there's a familiarity, and after a while, you will find that you start, you will start to get picked up in the, you know, Baltimore Sun is in my backyard, basically. And I've always wondered why the same companies get plugged into articles, it's like, hey, you know, there's this HR culture problems, people are wanting to do hybrid or working from home still, and don't want to go back into the office and, and all of a sudden, they plug it in the same company that I've seen routinely. And it's not that they're advertisers, or they're paying for that. It's just because they've established a relationship. And they've established that they're reliable and responsive when a journalist is under deadline, and make it easy for them to get in there. And they also know that the journalist is looking for quotes that are really going to resonate and speak to the situation. And they know that they're just to go to and that's why they get plugged in. And you see them two or three times a year in the Baltimore Sun on various different issues. And it makes it very easy to get that visibility. And it also makes it easy so that when you have something that's really important to you, you can send them a pitch. But you can also just pick up the phone and say, Hey, I know that I've helped you out the last year with a couple of articles. I sent that email over to you, it would be so meaningful if you could find a way and you know, they are people and they're like, yeah, you've helped me out a couple of times, you apply a little bit of pressure, it takes a little finesse to know what's appropriate, but you know, they will, you know, return the favor. And if you apply a little bit of maybe not even pressure but just saying this is so meaningful to us, this is our biggest driver of the year or this is you know, so important to the organization.

Is there any way that we could make this meaningful to to your audience that interests you in writing an article? So you're basically say, I have something that's so important to me, is there a way that we could make it important to your audience, tell me what I need to add to this, that would, would really resonate. He's like, you know, maybe you could do a mention of someone in the community that you've helped. Or maybe you could, you know, do all these different things, they'll sometimes come to you and say, I feel like what's missing is this, and then you could go, I'm going to fill that in and get back to you. And so I think that that's one of the things that does require a little bit of being proactive, it makes it very difficult for people like me, who are shy, English majors. I did, you know, if you told me 20, some years ago, I'm doing podcasts. And I've reached out to journalists and having conversations that I was not invited by them to have, you know, people, I would, I would say, that's crazy, but you adapt, you realize what's important, and this is part of the job. I mean, PR, and communications is one of those things where you're going to have to be proactive, you're gonna have to put yourself out there, you know, do baby steps. Yeah, you know, start with a smaller publication that is less important. And, you know, really practice and do things like that. So it is something that I think that is a skill set that anyone can acquire. And even a shy English major can eventually get to the point that they're comfortable doing it. But it's just part of what needs to be done. Communication is so important. Journalists are so busy, they're, you know, it's no, it's no secret that a lot of the media world is expected to do more with less. You know, there are writers and journalists who are used to be able to enjoy having a whole week to write a great article. Now, they're expected to do, you know, three or five articles a week. And, you know, and they used to have people who would do the research for him, and now they're just all on their own. And so they're just expected to produce and produce. And so anything that you can do to bring a compelling story to them. And, you know, have it put together a little bit with a quote, and some, well, recent thoughts, and language is going to make it very easy for them to consider and just quickly incorporate that into something that they're working on. Yeah.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
So I had a similar experience in a past job, where I got thrown into kind of media relations and PR, and we had our traditional press releases that would go out as product based business. And so like, you know, every time we launched a new product or whatever, won an award, we'd send out a press release. But we were a smaller fish in this product pond, and definitely didn't have the biggest market share. But similar to what you're saying, because we treated the media really well, because we responded to their inquiries immediately, because we had great quality photography and good messaging, they would come to us and say, hey, you know, we have this random spot that's open for this product, like, you know, best, blah, blah, blah, it was a guitar companies like this concert body guitars, we've got a spot, can you get us something tomorrow, because they knew that we would and those spots. I mean, people don't realize are often paid for product placement. And we would often get things like that for free, because they knew they could come to us in a pinch, they knew our product was good. And they knew that we would give them high quality stuff right away. And so if you feel like, like I think that goes a long way, and just that nurturing and relationship building, so I'm so glad that you brought that up, because that was an experience that we had as well. And we got way more placement than we ever should have just because of how we kind of interacted with and not every single publication. But the key ones that we knew, were really going to get us the most, most traction. And so I think similar to how you are building relationships with your major stakeholders and your larger donors, the same is true. It's the same exact type of experience with media, you're just delivering something different. So I think that's also for your introvert side way to think about how we're building these conversations and relationships. It's no different. You know, you're delivering value to this journalist who needs something. And if you can provide that better than anyone else, you'll get picked up more. Yeah, absolutely. That's so good. Okay. Well, Mickey, we've talked through kind of the basics of what should be in a press release. We've talked about kind of how to go out and find people upgrading to the PR Newswire when you have something really, really impactful and great to share. How often do we maybe want to think about issuing a press release or putting a press release out there? I mean, I know it's not a matter of like do it once a day. Order, like it needs to be around something that makes sense, but kind of what might be a good regular cadence to think about when we're crafting these?

Mickie Kennedy 
Yeah, I think it really depends on the milestones and the things that you're working on, I think that if you are working on lots of projects, and you're you know, if you're doing a lot of activity, then you probably are going to have more milestones worthy of doing a press release. If you're like a smaller organization, and maybe you have a annual fundraising event, and you have a, you know, you win an award or something like that, occasionally, then, you know, your cadence might be a couple of times a year, I do tell people to try to stretch and see if there's potentially, you know, other types of opportunities that you could put together. You know, sometimes they can, you know, revolve around, you know, doing a survey or study is a great way to sort of stand out. I mean, if there's a community that you serve, is there a survey of that community that you could do that would strike, you know, get the interest of perhaps maybe national media attention. And then, you know, when it comes to reaching that community, there's lots of ways to do that. You know, sometimes there's organised organizations that people belong to, or, you know, there's, you know, things like the YMCA that has a national presence, that sometimes will reach out into their databases and communicate surveys, you know, just think outside the box of the people that you're trying to serve, or the community that you're looking at. And if you're wanting to reach them through a survey, you know, what are the alliances that many of them hold that would be willing to potentially send out a survey for you, I find that a lot of times we approach these organizations and say, hey, you know, we're working on the survey in our community that we serve. And, you know, is it possible, you could send this link to your members, because we feel that really good kinship or alignment with our community. And as a result, we'll put you in the press release that we'll be issuing over the wire, you know, that gives them an opportunity for media attention, as well. And again, if a lot of these organizations aren't necessarily ones that do get a lot of media attention, so a lot of them will see it, as a win win. Sometimes I had them push back and say, Could we co brand the survey, right, I was like, as long as they don't start to like rewrite a lot of the questions and things like that, I don't see a problem with that, you know, a lot of times it can actually even, you know, improve your visibility by being aligned with an organization that, you know, has a pool of your community that you're serving.

But the great thing about these surveys is, you know, if you ask really meaningful and timely questions, and you get responses, often the the media are is like, yeah, we would love to write an article about that. Because, you know, our audience would love to know right now how they feel about this particular issue. And, and so, you know, it really is, you know, coming up with really good questions right now. But then you put that in a press release, you share the numbers, I often tell people build out a page on your website dedicated to that survey, put all the questions and answers, make it a resource rich page, include a link to it in the press release. You know, generally the press releases, don't focus, focus on all the questions, you're going to pick the the highlight questions, the most surprising the shocking ones, you're going to provide the analysis of why you believe that the people completed this survey felt that way. And you're going to have an amazing quote, you know, your, your, the people who authored the survey, is really going to elevate you and put you in a position of as an expert, you know, as a as an industry organization. And it's a great way to get a lot of visibility. And it usually is does really well on a national level, because you're the author of this data. And, you know, the media loves data. So, you know, that's one of the things to think about, even when you're doing an announcement that's not survey centric. If you can find instances of publicly available data, and put it in there, you know, things about the community that you serve, and data points that sort of reinforced the necessity for what you do, that really shows the stakes and the reasons why you exist. And and that really makes an audience care more. And it's does it you know, it doesn't make, you know, a lot of sense to people.

So, you know, by pointing out that 67% of people in this community often suffer from, you know, a crisis at least once in their life that, you know, makes them unhoused or something like that. Something that's specific, that's just a number that's out there. It really does resonate, and the journalist knows that's a number that's going to make my audience you know, stand up Been pay attention to this and to this issue and make them care more. And so, you know, look for elements like that, you know, look for opportunities to, you know, really, you know, cover something in your industry, or your or, you know, your community that a lot of people perhaps haven't talked about. And it's easy for things just to get ignored. And, and not put in the media. And a lot of times, you can be the person to take that blind spot, and put a spotlight on it, and bring it to the media. And all of a sudden the media goes, Oh, wow, we haven't really talked about this aspect of this issue. And all of a sudden, that gets a lot of residents, I find that, you know, examining blind spots or gaps in your community that the media is not talking about is often an area where you can really get a lot of people's attention. Because it is true, that if you go to a conference, and you're talking to other people who serve your community, there are things that you're going to talk about, like, Hey, I've been waiting for this conference, because are you experiencing this? And I'm like, Yeah, we're experiencing that as well. And you're, you're looking for confirmation, because no one else is talking about it. And it's not in, you know, publications and other things. And all of a sudden, that could be something that if you put a spotlight on it, the media is going to say, Well, we haven't really noticed that, or we haven't really reported on that. And all of a sudden, you can get a flurry of activity as a result of that.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 
I love that. That's so good. Okay, well, Mickey, if by now people aren't convinced that PR is something that they should be considering and starting to implement, doesn't mean it has to be everything, but just, you know, getting starting to get that in there and get the juices flowing. Kind of as we wrap this up any final words or advice that you'd love to share, as we kind of jump into this world of PR. Right,

Mickie Kennedy 
I think the biggest thing is, you know, don't let your size or your experience be a deterrent. A lot of people feel like PR and media attention is something that the big organizations and well funded nonprofits and have access to and the media would be interested in you. But the truth is, you know, the large, well funded places people generally know about them. And so journalists don't get a lot of accolades for covering them. But journalists do get support from their audience, whether it's readers or viewers, often when they profile, an organization that nobody knows about, and they share that story. And so as a result, sometimes being unknown, and being really small, can be an advantage, because journalists like to be seen as curators, and they like to share, you know, organizations that are doing something a little bit different, and that people don't necessarily know. So don't feel that just because of your size, or a lack of experience or lack of funds is going to be a huge deterrent, because I really don't think it will, I actually think it can be like a superpower for people and people just don't realize it. And then another thing, just to keep in mind is that, you know, focusing on more strategic types of releases and messaging is a is really going to give you a huge advantage. I'm the first to admit that 90 Some percent of press releases that go out, even the ones that go out through me, don't generate any earned media. And I think the reason for that is that people do the types of releases that they see everywhere else. I mean, we even have templates on our website, and they're very cookie cutter. So you know, look for opportunities to take a cookie cutter release, and inject personality into it, whether it's your you know, the organization's story, you know, whether it's sharing vulnerabilities of people you've helped, and you know, their their story, whether it's getting data points and putting in there, but really look for the opportunity to give elements in a press release. That's going to make a journalist say I can build more of a story arc here, I can get my audience to care. And you know, getting an audience to care is a really powerful thing. And producing an article that your audience cares about is a very positive experience. And so put those elements in your press release and in your copy. I do have a free masterclass on strategic types of releases. It's less than an hour long. So it's like not a big commitment, but it's a great place for someone to get started if they're considering PR, because these are the types of releases that generally get picked up. And it's the ereleases.com/plan P L A N and again it's completely free. And as I also mentioned, we do have cause wire, which is a nonprofit rate for people who are are interested in using new releases.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
Yeah. Well, Mickey, thanks for sharing that free webinar. That's amazing. So definitely go check that out. But if people want to connect with you more, learn more just about your releases in general, they can go to E-releases, but where else can they connect with you.

Mickie Kennedy 
So all of our social media is on the lower right of our website, ereleases.com. It's a direct link to my LinkedIn, probably the only social media that I know well, and I'm active on but also feel free to call or email or chat. On our website. We don't have any salespeople, it's just editors. And we're really good at walking people through the process. And if someone ever has a release, they just want us to look at it, feel free to email it to us, give us one to two business days to get back to you. But we'll review it like you know, our thoughts. If there's some obvious ways to improve, prove it, we'll let you know. And again, that's whether you work with us or not just one of the things that we do to help out organizations.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 
I love that that's so generous, that's amazing. Well, we'll also have all of the links and everything at the below on the show notes at thefirstclick.net/266. So you can grab everything there. Mickey, this was amazing. We'll have to have you back and do a deep dive on some of these topics. Because I know we talked briefly just about a lot of things with press releases. So I'm sure there'll be more questions. But thank you so much for being here today. You're very welcome. Thank you. Okay, so are you convinced that it's time to start implementing public relations and PR press releases into your strategy. And if you are already doing that, I hope you got some good takeaways as far as how to improve it, and how to think about ways to continue to connect and chat with the media. The media are not scary people. I love how he said, you know, they're not famous, they're, they're public figures. They're here to support the community, and they're looking for content. So again, you can grab all the information at thefirstclick.net/266. We'll have all the resources and the free webinar that Mickey mentioned, which is awesome. I can't wait to check it out myself. For now, make sure you're subscribed and leave us a review while you're there so that we can get a little bit more visibility for this podcast and get in front of more nonprofits that could use some digital marketing support. I so appreciate you taking the time to listen to this episode. Thank you so much for just being you and the work that you're doing in the community. For now, again, show notes at thefirstclick.net/266 and I'll see you in the next one.