EP.163/ eRELEASES
Zero-Cost PR Hacks: How Small Businesses Can Get Media Attention with Mickie Kennedy, Founder of E-Releases
Mariah Parsons hosts Retention Chronicles podcast, sponsored by Malomo, which helps e-commerce brands enhance their post-purchase experience. She discusses with Mickey Kennedy, founder of Earleases.com, the importance of press releases in building brand credibility and reducing churn. Mickey emphasizes the need for storytelling in press releases and suggests using industry surveys to stand out. He highlights the effectiveness of targeting smaller trade associations for media coverage. Mickey also advises using AI to assist in press release creation and stresses the importance of authenticity and human interest in PR strategies.
EP. 163
MICKIE KENNEDY
Episode Timestamps:
Introduction to Retention Chronicles and Malomo 0:00
Mariah Parsons introduces the podcast, Retention Chronicles, focused on customer retention strategies for e-commerce marketers.
Mariah highlights the importance of post-purchase experience, noting that 84% of shoppers won't return if they have a bad shipping experience.
She explains how Malomo helps brands turn transactional shipping emails and SMS into powerful marketing tools by adding cross-selling, educational content, and social media links.
Mariah encourages listeners to visit go.malomo.com to learn more about leveraging order notifications as a marketing channel.
Introduction of Mickey Kennedy and Earleases.com 2:39
Mariah introduces Mickey Kennedy, who runs earleases.com, a press release distribution service.
Mickey explains that earleases.com offers press release distribution at a fraction of the cost of traditional services like PR Newswire.
He emphasizes the value of newsworthy press releases, which can lead to media coverage in major publications and influencer mentions.
Mickey shares a personal anecdote about his early career in telecom and how he learned to craft press releases that garnered media attention.
Mickey's Journey into PR and the Importance of Storytelling 22:49
Mickey recounts his transition from a telecom startup to writing and distributing press releases.
He discusses the importance of storytelling in press releases, sharing an example of a press release that highlighted a unique data point and led to significant media coverage.
Mickey explains how he pivoted earleases.com to use PR Newswire for distribution, noting the effectiveness of wire services over email for reaching journalists.
He highlights the challenges of media databases and the importance of targeting relevant journalists and publications.
The Role of PR in Acquisition and Retention 23:04
Mariah and Mickey discuss the intersection of PR and retention, noting that PR can help build credibility and trust with customers.
Mickey explains how PR can reduce churn by creating a sense of trust and emotional connection with customers.
He emphasizes the importance of sharing authentic stories and images in press releases to engage journalists and readers.
Mickey shares tips for founders on crafting effective press releases, including the use of AI tools to assist with writing.
Strategies for Effective PR and Retention 27:37
Mickey outlines a checklist for creating effective press releases, including focusing on storytelling, data points, and industry surveys.
He explains the benefits of conducting industry surveys and how they can position a brand as a thought leader.
Mickey provides tips for finding and collaborating with smaller trade associations to gain media coverage.
He emphasizes the importance of authenticity and human interest in press releases to stand out and engage journalists.
Conclusion and Call to Action 33:11
Mariah thanks Mickey for sharing his expertise and insights on PR and retention.
She encourages listeners to subscribe to the podcast and follow them on social media.
Mariah provides a final shoutout to Malomo, highlighting its benefits for e-commerce brands looking to enhance their post-purchase experience.
She invites listeners to visit go.malomo.com to learn more about branded order tracking and how it can improve customer loyalty and revenue.
TRANSCRIPT
This transcript was completed by an automated system, please forgive any grammatical errors.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Customer retention, post-purchase marketing, order tracking, press releases, PR Newswire, media databases, storytelling, industry surveys, trade associations, credibility, emotional response, SEO, AI in PR, customer engagement.
SPEAKERS
Mickie Kennedy, Mariah Parsons
Mariah Parsons 00:00
Foreign Hello and welcome to retention Chronicles, the customer retention podcast for E commerce marketers. I am your host and fellow e comm marketer, Mariah Parsons. Tune in as I speak with D to C, founders and operators about strategy that works and strategy that doesn't of course, we are able to have these conversations because of our podcast sponsor, Malomo. I have seen 1000s of brand operators power their order tracking with Malomo to make every single message count as a consumer, I personally have come to expect that brands have a phenomenal post purchase experience, or else I'm not really shopping with them again. And a lot of consumers are this way. 84% of shoppers won't return if they have a bad shipping experience. And it feels so important for E commerce brands to have a good pre purchase experience. You're trying to get that acquisition. Your customers are coming through the door. They're coming through your website, it is a very personalized experience. You have pop ups that are timed Well, you have customer testimonials that are easing fears. You have well timed car abandonment, emails, all of that stuff. And then you purchase with a brand, and sometimes there's no communication, and it leaves you wondering. It leaves you mad, maybe scared that you fell for a scam or something like that. And so I think it is such a smart decision to have your transactional shipping emails and SMS, not just be about only business. Malomo helps turn them into a powerful marketing tool. What does that look like? It means you can cross sell other products on that branded order tracking page. You can put educational content on that page. So if you have something that consumers will have to learn how to use for the first time, you can put that there. If you have recipes that they could you know, use your product for when they first get it. You can put that there, your social media, everything, frequently asked questions, whatever you want. You get the control back so that you're not sending your customers to a carrier tracking page, you're putting them right back on your website, and you're also keeping them informed about their order status. Why you do it? That's the beautiful thing about this platform. If you're ready to turn your order notifications into a marketing channel and join 1000s of E commerce brand operators in making their customers happier while also adding to your brand's profits. Visit go malomo.com that's G O M, a, l o m, o.com Hello everyone, and welcome back to retention Chronicles. I'm psyched to have Mickey Kennedy joining me here today, and it is going to be such a fun episode. As a lot of our listeners know, in 2025 we've been really honing in on retention, obviously, as we continue to explore, just like what that means in E commerce. So Mickey, take the floor. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Tell us about how you're sitting in the seat, why you're sitting in the seat, all that fun context that our listeners love to hear,
Mickie Kennedy 03:02
sure. So my name is Mickey Kennedy, and I run earleases.com which is a press release distribution service. We send out press releases to the media through PR Newswire, the oldest and largest newswire press releases, and they charge like $1,700 to move a 600 word press release. And through us, it's about, probably closer to a quarter of the price. So it's a huge savings. The caveat is that we can only work with small businesses, and the newswire and their sales team continues to work with like the fortune five hundreds and the publicly traded companies and people like that. And the real value of a newswire is, if you put together a newsworthy message and send it to the media. You can get articles written about you. You can appear in New York Times, Washington Post, as well as like local newspapers, even TV and radio and blogs. But also influencers. There's people that I follow that use press releases all the time, one snack a later on, tick tock. And I think Instagram, who, uh, does round ups each week of new products hitting grocery store shelves, and, uh, pulls all of his material from press releases and images as well. Wow.
Mariah Parsons 04:11
Okay, I'm excited for this episode. Um, we're on retention Chronicles. Historically. We haven't really, really dived into the PR world. And we're, we're starting to do that, and it's it's very exciting. Obviously, PR naturally fits more in the like acquisition side of things, but I obviously acquisition retention plays so well together, and PR can also really help with retention of customers, like being friend of mine and having a little bit more of that credibility for either returning customers or new customers. So I'm excited to dive into it all, and I admittedly don't know a ton about this world, like this is just not my world. So it's always fun to you know, of course, welcome people on the show to talk about it. So give us a little bit more context, like of your background. Why did you kind of want to get into this space? And then we'll go more into the strategy side of things. Sure.
Mickie Kennedy 04:57
So I started out I got. Around 2728 years ago, working for a telecom startup, and I had just finished a Master's of Fine Arts in creative writing and with an emphasis in poetry. So my game plan wasn't to work in the corporate world, but I had always waited tables and figured I could do that and write poetry and live a little bohemian life, and I did it full time after graduating, and realized that when you wait tables full time, it tends to be 5060, hours a week that my body I couldn't take it. My knees hurt, my ankles hurt, my back hurt, and I just felt psychologically damaged at the end of all these shifts. And so I decided to pivot to a safe office job, and because I had writing as a background, albeit creative writing, they asked me to write and send out press releases. And I did that. Then I had to program a fax machine and spend all day sending faxes, and nothing happened. And the owner of the company's like, yeah, never does. And I was just like, whoa. Why am I wasting a day almost monthly, sending out these press releases? He goes, I guess we just are expected to do it. And so I started researching, you know, press releases that do get picked up. And, you know, I also looking at what articles get written about. And I noticed the one common theme to a lot of the articles that people write is journalists like to follow a story arc, and we were just publishing data tables and not a lot of story. And so I took the last data table that we had published and sent a press release about which was like Caribbean telecom traffic. And there was one outlier in there. There was one country that had more Caribbean incoming and outbound traffic to the US than all the others, and I didn't know why. And I asked around at the office. There was just three of us at the time, and they said, Oh, that's the call center for one 900 numbers, which were properly at the time, where you would call on your landline a one 900 number. And you might get horoscopes recorded for 75 cents a minute, or live for $1 or $2 a minute. You can get love advice. You can get, you know, talk to a, you know, a pet specialist, all different types of things, including dating and adult types of things. And so I took and repositioned the data sharing the story of, you know, why this was and that this phenomenon was going on where all these one 900 numbers were being routed through this country, and then when I faxed that out, we got picked up in The Economist The Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and three telecom trade publications, and all of a sudden I felt like maybe I figured this out. And so I continued to take the numbers that we had, which is a real asset of when you're sending out a press release, but putting the story in there and finding out what the story is. And again, we would send these out and get picked up again and again. Around the same time, journalists started to call and say, Hey, could you just email in the future? And so I started thinking about, you know, emailing press releases, and that's what gave me the idea for E releases. Over the years, I have pivoted where all of our releases go through PR Newswire now. And not much of that email send happens anymore, because the big thing that's happened over the past couple of decades is media databases, and so anybody can get access to a media database of basically global journalists for as little as 6000 a year, maybe as much as 20,000 a year, and they're spamming everybody. And you know, you have a golf product, and they pay $10,000 for annual license to this, and they see there's like 2400 golfing writers and editors and people who cover the golf industry, and they start talking themselves and to say, well, let's send it to all the banking and financial analysts and people who report on banking things, because, you know, bankers and business people play golf, but you know, a financial analyst is never going to write about golf clubs, and neither is, you know, someone who only reports on banking and true business activity. And so as a result, emails become the worst way to really communicate with journalists, and the wire is, unfortunately, the most ideal way, because journalists are busy, and the wire is very clean, not cluttered in the way that their inbox is now, and it allows them to even customize their feeds so that they can exclude certain keywords and make sure that they're just seeing the industry that they cover and press releases that are relevant to them and in the US, we Just have a duopoly of press release services. It's Business Wire and PR Newswire. And so, you know, just being on one of those is all you need to do, and you're covered. And so that's the real asset of, you know, working with PR Newswire. Yeah,
Mariah Parsons 09:34
there's so much in there, like, I just don't, you know, even like, knowing that it makes sense. Because in my world, like, I'm comparing this to like customers, right? Like, because, obviously I work in B to B marketing, so I'm comparing it to like clients on that end of like, mass spamming, or like databases of people's emails just being, you know, being able to be bought by big players who have that kind of money. And it's really interesting that journalists like are kind of the same way, right? It's just like, it's, it's really reminding me that no matter what the industry is, there's just, like, so much information out there that you really have to figure out how to, you know, funnel it down and filter it down so that you know you're making you're getting through that filtered inbox, or you're doing X, Y, Z, to make sure that you're standing out in that way. And so I think that's a really great background of you know how the space and then a little bit of a foundational platform for us to go off of, in case anyone isn't super familiar with PR, and I want to get your opinion on not responsibility a lot of authority people can have on their own, like their own owned channels of social media, and, you know, like sub sack, Reddit, like just all of these different things where people can produce, obviously, their own blogs, their own websites, their own social media, blah, blah, blah. So how has that affected or changed the way that, like, you see PR, or a lot of other people in the space CPR, rather than like, Okay, your PR is traditionally, like, you're you're backed. These journalists are back, unless they're independent, are backed by a, you know, an institution, and so they kind of have that credibility of like, okay, I've already been vetted by these people. Now, here's what I have to say, or here's what we're thinking, or here's our opinion. How do you, how do you, how have you seen that change based off of, okay, now people can independently, like, in a way easier, way more accessible, way, share what they're, you know, see.
Mickie Kennedy 11:36
So I think that it's making it even more important to get your messaging out there and sort of differentiate yourself from others. Journalists are wanting to communicate what's trending, what's going on, what's new, and so you know, for that reason, they're constantly looking for content. And you know when it comes to, you know, being a, you know, a brand, and setting up your own shop and putting it out there and selling, you know, what is it that you're trying to carve out that's a little bit unique and different to you? Is it, you know, your vibe, or the, you know, the products that you're offering? You know? What is it particularly that you're speaking to that that sort of, you know, you feel defines you differently than everybody else, and being able to communicate that, and, you know, get that out there to the media, as well as other things that you have that are, you know, somewhat newsworthy, are a great way to sort of differentiate yourself and sort of stand out, and sort of, you know, gain a little bit of visibility, and you know, sort of move the spotlight towards you and sort of let people Know about you and about your product offerings,
Mariah Parsons 12:42
yeah, and so that's great. You had said with you know, like you kind of learned, okay, data is not what is really going to draw in a reader or draw in a journalist. It's more that story arc of, okay, what is the data telling or what is interesting here? So how do you see that for founders? Because that's obviously, like our listening base. How do you see that? Of like, okay, founders sharing, my first assumption would be sharing their founding story, right? Of like, okay, the problem that they saw, and then how they've grown, or how they've changed and all that stuff. Is that a correct assumption on my part? Very
Mickie Kennedy 13:17
much. So, share your story. You know, having authenticity, you know, being vulnerable is one of the greatest ways to sort of differentiate yourself and get people to care. It breaks through and sort of gives you that human interest element. It's the reason that, you know, one of the first things that people do when they go on to Shark Tank is share their story. And it's not here's my numbers, and this is my widget. I got laid off, and I had this hobby that me and my dad used to do, and he died a few years ago, and I picked it up, and I asked my husband, do you think we could build a business around that? And he goes, Hey, you know, you've got the time explore it. And so, you know, that sort of gets us, like, rooting for him, and like, wow, you know. And that the same thing happens with anybody so, you know, sharing what your story is, you know what, what it was that sort of, you know, gave you the impetus for starting this business, why you picked this niche. You know, what it is that drives you to continue to build it and offer things to the world. You know, one of the also great things about, you know, small businesses and read, you know, online e commerce shops is you get the ability to include two photos with your press release. And the media really does love having an article and being able to provide a photo with it, and they know that their online engagement is going to be much better as a result of that. So pick something that you know is going to pop you know, it might be a product. You know, if you make things, I've worked with a lot of makers before, on Etsy and people like that, and they do really well showcasing a couple of images of something they've made, if it's just like a retail shop and something like that. You know, maybe it's a photo of you, or maybe it's a photo of you and your mother, if she was a. Part of your origin story, or something along those lines. Don't just use a logo. I mean, they can always pull a logo from your website. You really want to make sure that those images are something that people can sort of resonate with and feel. And often that's a face or it's a product, and it doesn't have to be professionally shot. You know, the best engagement online are with candid photos, the ones we take with our iPhone or Android or things like that. So, you know, don't feel you have to get a professional photo shoot or anything along those lines. It really is about just being authentic and sort of, you know, getting yourself out there and putting your best face forward. Yeah,
Mariah Parsons 15:41
yeah. That makes so much sense. And it really is incredible how great pictures you know, you can get on on your phone these days, with a smartphone. So we've kind of covered the foundational aspects of PR, kind of how to approach it. Now I want to ask, do you have, like, a template that it's like, okay, this is like, or not even a template, but maybe, like, a checklist of like, you need to include this we've talked about the story, I think, obviously data, right? Like a little bit more of that quantitative proof, all that you know, all that good stuff is there, are there things that we haven't discussed on this podcast where it's like, oh, founders should definitely be aware. You should, you should be including this when you're thinking about writing to a journalist or getting featured or like, what are those things that founders should know about, right?
Mickie Kennedy 16:26
So I have on my website. It's a free master class, and there's also a download as well, of a short document that walks you through it, but it goes through all the different types of press releases that you should focus on, the things to watch out for, the pitfalls and things like that. And it's available free of charge at ear releases.com/plan, P, l, a, n. The video is less than an hour, but if that's too long, you can just, you know, look at the materials that's downloaded and go through it, but it'll sort of walk you through the types of releases that are getting picked up. The reality is that, like 97% of press releases do not generate earned media. And despite that, I am a big advocate of PR and press releases in particular, because I've looked at the 3% that get picked up, and within that are a lot of press releases that almost anyone can do. And you know, being, you know, talking about your story, your unique selling proposition, your journey, you know, that's one of them. And you know, taking something that doesn't have a story arc and incorporating elements like a product launch, that's the most common type of press release that we get. And everybody assumes I have a new product, therefore it's newsworthy, but it's missing the elements of a story. So often it's just, here's a new product and here's a list of features and here's a page to buy it or learn more. And what a journalist is looking for is a story. And one of the first things you can do is talk about, you know, the story behind the product, you know, or you can talk about someone who used the product and what their experience was, you know, inject a use case study in there of someone who used it and saw a big transformation, or it, you know, it really solved the pain point in their life. And have a quote by them and that sort of, you know, you can already envision an article where they're like, hey, this company's launched this new product, and here's someone that used it and this was their outcome. And then you have an amazing quote from them. We see those types of articles all the time, but when people write press releases, they don't think back at that, and they leave out all of that stuff, and then they just say, I don't know, I sent the press release out and it had a lot of features in it. I don't know why it didn't get picked up. So, you know, go back and sort of, you know, put the mindset of, you know, what could I add to this that would create a story arc? You can also incorporate data points. You can take publicly available data that's out there and put that in there. If you have a, you know, a product that you know, helps a particular industry. Could maybe even talk about, you know, the failure rate of new companies in that industry, like 63% fail in the first five years, according to this study within the industry. And so that really, can really show the importance of your product or your solution and things along those lines. And so there's just a lot of these things that get you thinking in a different direction, but it gets you thinking at the types of releases that the media is wanting. And I think that if you approach it like that, rather than look at the types of press releases that are out there, you'll have much better results. And when it comes to AI, I always tell people, feel free to use AI to help you write a release. The article that the journalist writes is the end result, and that'll be written by them, not AI. You know you want to read through it make sure everything's accurate, but never ask AI to come up with the idea for the press release, because AI has been trained on the 97% of press releases that don't work. So make sure you approach it knowing exactly what you want it to write about. And and get it help you there. I find the best thing is to break it down piece by piece. This is the type of press release I want. This is exactly the approach that we're taking now. Give me 10 headline variations for my company to then pick the best headline, or have it brainstorm off the best headline that it has to come up with a few more options and then say, how would you structure a press release on this type of announcement? And then it tells you, and then just approach it, paragraph by paragraph, opening paragraph, you know, try to, you know, give me an opening paragraph that will lead this press release about my company knowing this and that ask me questions that are needed in order to complete this opening paragraph. And if you leave it open like that, it takes a little bit longer. You know, generally it takes 15 minutes for me to work through a press release doing this approach. But once you've done it, you get a press release that's like night and day above anything else that if you just said, Give me a 500 word press release on a product launch. And here's a little information about my product. You'll get a, you know, a well written press release, but you won't get it with all the depth and all of the information that'll make it much more likely to get picked up. Yeah,
Mariah Parsons 21:12
yeah. I think AI is obviously one of those things just everyone's talking about right now. So it's really crucial to understand, like, I find the same thing, like, break it apart and be really specific for that one piece that you're trying to get and then move on to the next. Or, like, reiterate and refine. Because if you just say, like, give me this, then it just kind of does more of a generic, you know, like, post about it, because it doesn't have, obviously, a lot of data about what you're trying to get at, right? So it's just taking its best guess. And if you, especially if you haven't trained a specific, you know, AI agent to do what you're trying to do, like, multiple times, and you're just kind of going in fresh, it's not really going to know what you want. So that's a great, great call out that it's, you know, that that AI most likely has been trained on that, like, 97% that Ha, that don't get picked up, right? So it's, it's good to take that time to try and get into that 3% that gets picked up. So okay, we have obviously been talking a lot about, you know, how you can get to that point of getting a press release out there and, like your your brand, getting a little bit more of the acquisition side of things. I would love to get your opinion on how you think PR really goes hand in hand with retention and what you've kind of seen on that side of things. Because I think, I think that would be a really interesting angle here, right? So
Mickie Kennedy 22:33
there's, there's something called churn for people who buy from you, even though you continue to communicate with them and they might continue to follow you on social media. They get to the point of like, maybe I should consider someone else. Is it on Amazon? You know, let me hit Google, just make sure I'm getting the best price or the you know, I'm looking at all the options that are available in the marketplace. But when someone reads an article about you, and you take that article and you share it in your newsletter, you share it on social media. When people read it, something happens. It's you know, when you have this huge credibility indicator and a journalist has chosen to write about you, it builds for poor it's like third party corroboration or social proof, and it's also a huge signal of trust. And what I find is the people who have the most engaged and ongoing PR campaigns have the least amount of churn, because people feel when they see, oh, you got picked up in the trade publication this year and Oh, you got picked up by, you know, a major outlet, they feel like, Hey, we're with the right company. They've got it going on. You know, they're, they're they're getting some wins. I don't need to go and shop around. I don't need to open that window and check and see if I can get something similar on Amazon. It builds that emotional response, that amplification with you, and it creates that relationship and and it doesn't happen with ads. It doesn't happen with most landing pages, but it does happen when you know a third party has written about you, and you can take that link, or you can take that article and share it with your people. You know retention is great as a result of that, and also it generally gets people to tell others about it. It creates excitement where they're like, Hey, Barry had recommended this other product. I want to learn about this company. Here they are, and, you know, you know, our trade publication, or here they are in a major outlet, and all of a sudden, Barry's like, Wow, they look really cool. I think I'll try them next time,
Mariah Parsons 24:34
right? Yeah, yeah, that totally makes sense. And I love the point of, you know, you can, you can obviously get a lot of trust. You can build a lot of trust. Some people put some people put those, you know, certain publications, linked on their website, and, like, trusted by XYZ, you know, or, like, ranked on, I don't know, like BuzzFeed or something, right, like some institutions credibility. And I also think for the founders who are listening the. That also, not only builds, you know, consumer trust, but also trust with other brands, like for collaborations, and it builds trust for like, if you're trying to get into retail, retail buyers, if they're seeing, you know, okay, you're getting highlighted on one of our partners, newsletters or PR posts or blogs. So it really does have kind of that all inclusive effect of giving some trust to your brand. And I think that is one of the framing it as, like reducing churn, because of that reason. I know we'll speak to a lot of founders in the space, because it really just, like it really just is so interesting. And I think, like, for the SEO component of it too, of okay, you're obviously getting those backlinks from reputable brands, or, sorry, reputable institutions who are saying, like, Okay, go to this website and look at these products and, you know, like, okay, whatever gift guides Mother's Day is about to, you know, Easter that we're when we're recording this, it's in like, the spring, Right? So all those more, like, seasonal, I guess potential seasonal ways to get like highlighted is, is a really, really interesting way for maybe founders to be like, Okay. How can I tailor this PR, you know, this outreach to a journalist to like what is going on right now, or just like, being really quick with the times of okay, I'm seeing like this keyword is trending right now. Does that fit in my product, or does that related to my product? How can I, how can I kind of still have a really strong outreach, but have it be even more like tailored to, you know, who you're reaching out to, absolutely. So now I want to think a little bit more about, is there any like strategy in terms of retention that we haven't talked about, because obviously, it's great to get, like, your opinion around what you think, how you think PR and strategy are related. But what would you say to our audience, like, what's one thing that they could really learn from in terms of, you know, trying to retain those, those customers, and doing it through PR, right?
Mickie Kennedy 26:57
One of the things is, I had a customer that at the time I considered them sort of like a link farm. They had like, Hey, here's top 10 CRMs for car sales people. Here's the top accounting software. Here's the top 10 of architecture. CAD software, and they had lots of little top 10 list of all different types of software products, all different types of industries. And their problem was that, you know, people saw them for what they were. They were just a roundup of things. And, you know, some people would look at them, but they didn't have a lot of weight. And one of the things that they started over six or seven years ago, was to start doing industry surveys. And so they would talk about, for example, the type of software, CAD software, that architects used, and do a press release that just focused on that, and would have a quote by them. And they would talk to people in that industry and get survey results, uh, based on questions that they asked. And they did this for every one of these little verticals. And they were doing 30 to 40 press releases a year, 30 to 40 industry surveys a year. And almost every press release that they did would get over a dozen articles, most of them trade publications and people that covered that industry. And what happened was they got so many links to their website. They got so many people from the media reaching out to them saying, hey, there's some consolidation in the industry. Do you have anything comments you'd like to say about this company and this company Joining Forces? And all of a sudden they were seen as thought leaders within all of these little verticals, and before they were nobody. And just by doing a survey within your industry is a great way to stand out, and it seems really daunting, but it's just asking questions that people in your industry would want to know right now. You know, think if you were going to a conference or a trade show, what are the things that people would want to talk about? Often, you're going to pick things that trade publications aren't talking about, and you're like, Hey, have you noticed this? And no one's reporting on it? And they're like, Yeah, I have noticed that. So those are right questions that you can ask in a survey. You know, brainstorm and think of things that are going on. Is AI affecting your industry. Are there fears around that? You know, those might be questions you could ask. Is there, you know, uncertainty in your industry? You know, do you plan on laying off in the next two quarters? Do you plan on hiring in the next two quarters? Do you plan on staying the same? These could all be really great questions to ask, and you don't need to have a roll of text of everybody in that industry. What they do, and what anyone can do is reach out to a smaller, independent trade association, avoid the large ones, the ones that are really well known. But in every industry, there's lots of small ones. I had one person tell me, well, in PR Mickey, there's only prsa. And I was just like, there's 470 small and independent trade associations for PR in the US. Yes, and this person didn't know that, because the big one gets all the recognition. The great thing about these small and independent ones is you pick one that's got, like, a couple 1000 members, or at least 1000 members I like, and you say, Hey, I had this link to a survey. I use Survey Monkey, and I like four questions per page, and go multi page, so if someone stops halfway, you've still got their responses to the most important questions, and I take it and say, Hey, could you send this link to your members? I'm looking to get at least 100 responses, and if we get that, I will include you in a press release. I'll be issuing a repair newswire in the coming weeks. And so a lot of them see this as a win win, ability for them to get some media recognition and sort of partner in this and about, I'd say, two thirds of the time, the first trade association, association I asked, says yes, and then you get the responses. If you don't get 100 I usually circle back and say, Hey, could you do another push, either through email or social media or both? So we hit that magic 100 number that the media likes to have in surveys and and then you analyze it. You pick the best question, and you lead with that is the headline, put an amazing quote with you, talking about why you felt the numbers skewed that way, and you just stood out there as an industry expert. And it's a great way to elevate you. And when you do that, and you're recognized as an expert in your industry, all of a sudden, you know your conversions are going to shoot through the roof. Your retention is going to be phenomenal. Why would people go somewhere else when they can be with the person who's speaking on behalf of the industry routinely through these surveys and has the pulse on what's really going on in your particular industry or niche? Yeah,
Mariah Parsons 31:38
no, that's really, I really like that. I haven't heard of, you know, taking the approach of using a survey to, kind of, like, get the data to then talk about what you want to talk about, or what you're an expert in. And I think that's really applicable for audience. So if someone wanted to find, like, those smaller trade associations, where would they look? Would they just use, you know, like, their search engine, or where were they? Use Bing.
Mickie Kennedy 32:01
Use Google. You know, look for trade associations. And then when you see the big ones, you can actually create the little minus symbol to exclude them when it's talking about trade association. And all the other ones start to rise up. Some of them are going to be very niche and small, like might be mid Atlantic, PR firms, in my case, for you know, PR firms founded by people in their fees. But there's some that are like, you know, PR firms of 50 employees or less, which is probably 80 to 90% of the PR industry, except for the big, giant ones. So that, you know, is a perfect one to reach out to. And it isn't PR essay, and so they're out there. Just do a little research and look and get really good at using those Boolean symbols, like the minus symbol to start excluding people and trade associations that you can put in quotes with a minus symbol in them, and they'll just start rising up. You'll be surprised the ones that are out there that you weren't aware of.
Mariah Parsons 32:57
Yeah, that's so cool, and I think it's an awesome idea, especially for, you know, smaller businesses who might not have the budget to do something crazy, of okay, like doing something like, Hey, if you can push this to your audience, I'll push, you know, your your nick guys's name and like, give you a shout out in what I'm trying to do. And it is kind of like a win win, in that way, of great businesses coming together to mutually benefit. So I love, I love that call out as well. And I think that's a perfect place to, you know, round out the episode. So thank you, Mickey for coming on and sharing about your expertise in PR. It's a really interesting world, and I I find myself fascinated by it, even though I'm not in that space. So this was a really fun episode to record. My pleasure. Thank you for listening to today's episode. These conversations bring so much knowledge to the table, and I'm so grateful for that. If you haven't already, please subscribe, follow us on social media and tell us who our next guest should be on our website. Let's give another shout out to our day one sponsor, Malomo. As you know, Malomo is an order tracking platform that enables Shopify brands to take control of their transactional email and SMS through branded order tracking pages. That means you can ditch those boring, all white carrier pages, you know, the ones I'm talking about. Everyone has seen an ugly tracking page in their life, and you can swap it with a page that matches your brand. Customers like you and I obsessively check order tracking an average of 4.6 times per order. That's why leading Shopify brands are turning that engagement into customer loyalty and revenue through branded order tracking. Learn more about how to get ahead of shipping issues, brand your order tracking experience and reconvert customers while they wait for their package to arrive with Malomo. Visit go malomo.com that's G O M, a, l o m, o.com you.
