Get local media exposure to boost your business with PR expert Mickie Kennedy - Episode 81 of the Acupuncture Marketing School podcast.

Today I’m talking all things public relations with expert Mickie Kennedy.

Mickie is the CEO of Ereleases, a company that helps small businesses, startups, and authors gain credibility and authority through public relations.

I was thrilled to talk with Mickie because PR is not something we’re taught in school, but it can be a cornerstone of your marketing efforts if you know how to use it. I had a LOT of nitty-gritty questions for Mickie and I learned so much in our conversation; I hope you do, too. 

In this episode, Mickie and I talk about:

  • How to build a pitch to get your idea, and your business, in the media
  • How to find contact info for journalists and producers of local TV shows so you can send them a pitch
  • What kinds of pitch topics get the best results 
  • How often to submit pitches
  • Why local media is an easy win for local businesses
  • And much more

You’re invited! I’ll be doing a free Marketing Q&A for Wellness Practitioners on Thursday, August 29th at 12 pm Eastern Time, hosted by Marla and Tori, the founders of TOMA Skin Therapies. This fun chat will be live on Zoom.

Register here for free. Of course, if you can’t make it live, a replay will be available afterwards.

Show Notes:

🎙️ Listen to Episode #81: Get Local Exposure to Boost Your Business with PR Expert Mickie Kennedy

💙 This episode is sponsored by Jane.

You might already be familiar with the name, but if it’s new to you, Jane is a HIPAA-compliant clinic management software and EMR.

Chasing down patients or clients for important information isn’t anyone’s idea of a good time, especially when there are forms to be filled, payments to be processed, and consents to be collected.

That’s why Jane has designed user-friendly online intake forms, so you can gather all the information you need ahead of the appointment — whether that’s health history, insurance details, or a credit card on file.

Jane will even send a friendly reminder 24 hours before a patient’s appointment if they haven’t completed their intake form yet — saving you from having to manually follow up.

To see Jane in action, click here to book a personalized demo. Or, if you’re ready to get started, you can use the code ACUSCHOOL1MO at the time of sign-up for a 1-month grace period applied to your new account.

Subscribe to the Acupuncture Marketing School podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

 💖 Love the podcast? Help other acupuncturists find the podcast by leaving a review here.

Transcript:

[MICHELLE GRASEK] (00:05):

Welcome to the Acupuncture Marketing School Podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Grasek, and I’m here to help you get visible in your community, take marketing action with confidence and get more patients in your practice and more money in your pocket every week. We both know you’re a talented, passionate acupuncturist and that acupuncture has the power to change lives. So let’s dive right into this episode and talk about how you can reach more patients.

(00:33):

Hi there. So glad you’re here today. I’m talking all things public relations with expert Mickie Kennedy. Mickie is the CEO of Ereleases, a company that helps small businesses, startups, and authors gain credibility and authority through public relations. I was so happy to have the chance to talk with Mickie because PR is really not something we’re taught in school, but it can be a cornerstone of your marketing efforts if you know how to approach it. I had a lot of nitty gritty questions for Mickie and I learned so much in our conversation. I hope you do too. In this episode, Mickie and I talk about how to build a pitch to submit to journalists in order to get your idea and your business in the media. How to find contact information for journalists and producers of local TV shows so you can send them a pitch. What kinds of pitch topics get the best results? How often to submit pitches to really get the attention of your local journalists. Why local media is an easy win for most small businesses and much more.

(01:35):

And before we dive in, I will be doing a free marketing Q&A for wellness practitioners on Thursday, August 29th at 12:00 PM Eastern Time, hosted by acupuncturists, Marla and Tori, the founders of TOMA Skin Therapies. This fun chat will be live on Zoom. I’ll put the link in the show notes so you can sign up and submit your marketing questions ahead of time and hopefully you can tune in live with us. Of course, if you can’t make it live, a replay will be available afterwards. I hope to see you there.

[JANE.APP] (02:05):

This episode is sponsored by Jane. You might already be familiar with the name, but if it’s new to you, Jane is a HIPAA compliant clinic management software and EMR. Chasing down patients for important information isn’t anyone’s idea of a good time, especially when there are forms to be filled out, payments to be processed and consents to be collected. That’s why Jane has designed user friendly online intake forms so you can gather all the info you need ahead of the appointment, whether it’s health history, insurance details, or a credit card on file. Jane will even send a friendly reminder 24 hours before a patient’s appointment if they haven’t yet completed their intake form, saving you from having to manually follow up. To see Jane in action, head to the show notes to book a personalized demo with a member of the Jane team. Or if you’re ready to get started, you can use the code [ACUSCHOOL1MO] at the time of sign up for a one-month grace period applied to your new account. And I will make sure that the code as well as the link are in the show notes to make it easy for you.

[MICHELLE] (03:08):

Alright, let’s get into this episode with Mickie. Hi, Mickie. Thanks for joining me today. How are you?

[MICKIE KENNEDY] (03:16):

I’m good, glad to be here.

[MICHELLE] (03:17):

I would love for you to introduce yourself to the audience a little bit before we dive in.

[MICKIE] (03:23):

So my name is Mickie Kennedy. I run Ereleases press release distribution. I’ve been doing it since October of 1998, so we just celebrated a little over 25 years, and I help entrepreneurs, small business owners, all different types of individuals get media attention by doing press releases over the wire.

[MICHELLE] (03:42):

I would love to begin with the very basics. So when we’re talking press release, that is when a business has something newsworthy, that they consider newsworthy, that they would like to share, that they want published in, typically I would think of it as like a newspaper or like an online digital newspaper at this point?

[MICKIE] (04:06):

Right, and it does encompass all different types of media as well, but most people do recognize it as newspapers, but it can also go to tv, radio. Even social influencers are using press releases this day and age. So it really is a broad spectrum of media that it goes to.

[MICHELLE] (04:24):

And I feel like a really common piece of marketing advice that acupuncturists get sometimes is to just submit a press release so they can have more visibility in their community, if you are hosting an open house or something happened at your practice, you want to celebrate 20 years or something. But most people don’t really know how to write a press release or don’t even have the beginnings of an idea of what should be included, how long should it be, should I include a photo or where they might submit it? So if you want to give us even some basic advice, I think would help people out a lot.

[MICKIE] (05:04):

Sure. I think for a lot of local people who are looking for predominantly local media, the good news is you don’t have to have a press release. So you can just write a pitch, which might be just a few sentences. Definitely tell them about you, that you’re a local business and what it is that you’re wanting to announce. What is the hook, what is the information that you hope that they’re going to want to write about you or report about you or talk about you? And at the end of the day they are gatekeepers deciding is this important enough to either entertain or educate their audience and so you want to sort of approach it not just as an, this is important to me, but how to make it more interesting for the journalist.

(05:47):

One of the easy things is to incorporate elements for story arc, “Hey, we’re celebrating 10 years. Tell us a little bit about you. What was your journey to start this business.” There’s a reason that everybody that appears on Shark Tank always opens with their story of how they started the business, but it’s often just being very personal. We had a divorce, my father died, I got laid off. It’s usually something that’s vulnerable and human and it sort of breaks down these walls and makes you have this immediate empathy with them. The same thing works in a pitch and so share with them a little bit about your journey, as well as what it is that you’re announcing if it’s a 10-year anniversary or an open house or something along those lines.

(06:34):

I do recommend that you put a quote in there where you say something because if a journalist gets a, what they call a mediocre news story, but there’s a really compelling quote, a lot of them will gravitate to it because they know that they can build out the elements of a good article around it. What I say, a good quote, people are always like, what do you mean by that? So it can be like, you’re a wordsmith, maybe you’re a poet like me, and you just say something really beautiful. But it doesn’t have to be, it could just be saying something so concise and with such precision and strength that if they were to paraphrase it, there’d be a loss. You would ache for that original sentence. So really spend a little time on a really great quote.

(07:16):

The good news is that local media are there for you and if you don’t have your own Rolodex of local journalists, it’s easy to put one together. If you think about it, there’s probably less than a dozen people, including TV and radio that would report on you. So look at the local newspaper, who are the journalists who generally cover businesses like yours in your community, their email addresses and online? Reach out to them and ask for it. These are not celebrities, you’re not encroaching or doing something wrong by asking for how to contact them for a pitch. And they should be very forthcoming giving that to you. Just reach out to them as you naturally would try to make a connection. sharing who you are, what you’re about, and what it is that you’re announcing and other things that people really like outside of your personal story is things that are sort of timely and sort of going on right now.

(08:13):

Maybe there’s data that shows that people post-pandemic are living very stressed lives. And you can talk about how your practice helps with getting people to de-stress and to reach some sort of calm within them. And it really is a matter of having that Rolodex and then reaching out to these people on a regular basis. What that looks like depends on how many milestones you have, but also if you put your creative head on, I really think you could probably come up with some ideas. I strive for people to do it at a minimum quarterly. And what you may find is that the first nine months, nothing happens and then all of a sudden you start to get a little traction. It usually does take a while for it to work, but I think that familiarity of pitches goes into their mind and they’re just like not this time. Oh, not this time. They’re like, oh, these people. Yes, okay. Let me see if I can make something work for them.

(09:14):

So just be persistent but not overly aggressive. I don’t think a local business should be pitching like weekly or anything like that, but there are some people who will pitch eight or nine times a year if it makes sense for them. And so it’s just a matter of finding the rhythm and what you’re comfortable working on and announcing. But it is some of the easiest media to get. I know I mentioned TV and radio. And in those cases, you’re not dealing with apparent writers, but usually it’s the producers or bookers of a show, or maybe there’s a segment on the local news that occasionally spotlights health trends or things like that. And you may want to call and ask for who the producer or booker of that particular segment is and again, get their email address and make a pitch with them about why you would be really good for a particular upcoming segment on what your topic is.

(10:05):

And sometimes if you go to Google News and type in other major markets and keywords that are specific to your industry, you can see what other people are getting published under that subject in other cities. Don’t go to your local news and say, “Hey, in Chicago they’re talking about this guy in this content.” But you could take the bones of what that announcement was and say, “Hey, I’ve noticed a trend where a lot of news are talking about, I don’t know corporate wellness, and I would love to talk to you about how I help this local company by providing acupuncture to some of their staff.” And so those are ways in which to, it can help you get those creative juices flowing and get a feel for what could potentially be a good story there.

[MICHELLE] (10:53):

I never would’ve thought of repeatedly pitching quarterly, but I like the idea of becoming familiar to the journalists and the producers. And so we would sort of be thinking about, because as you said, there’s only going to be so many things we can announce in a year. Like I know I don’t have quarterly things to announce, but I love the idea of coming up with those timely topics that would include seasonal as well, like what’s trending based on the season.

[MICKIE] (11:23):

Correct. Absolutely.

[MICHELLE] (11:25):

How far in advance would we want to submit something? Like if we had an idea that was relevant at Thanksgiving, are we doing it three weeks in advance or three months in advance?

[MICKIE] (11:36):

If you’re targeting magazines, they have a much longer lead time, but if it’s newspapers I think four to two weeks out is fine. It really does vary with the different outlets. I know that TV and radio likes to schedule stuff a little bit further in advance, so maybe like three months out you’re sort of approaching them. They may not get back to you immediately, but they do like to be tickled with an idea and then maybe they’ll circle back with you a little bit closer to what they’re thinking about.

[MICHELLE] (12:07):

It’s always recommended, like on the internet, if you look up how to submit a press release, how to find the journalists, everyone always says just reach out to them on Twitter or social media. And I know that a lot of acupuncturists and wellness people are very reluctant to just email them or sorry, to send them a message and say, “Hey, I have this idea, or I’d like to send you a pitch. Can I have your information?” But is that considered, it sounds like that would be fine.

[MICKIE] (12:38):

Yes. I think that everybody has their communication place of preference. For some it may be Twitter, but I know that a lot of people in the journalism world have sort of fled.

[MICHELLE] (12:51):

Have they abandoned Twitter? Yes, yes. Oh, right. We’re not even calling that, calling it Twitter anymore. I’m very behind the times.

[MICKIE] (12:59):

But I think that most of them still have, are on their email. And I think email’s one of the easiest ways. There might be a couple that just say, “Hey pitch me on the phone.” But I say, I just tell people, eh, I clam up on the phone. I’m not comfortable. I prefer putting together a really nice little email pitch and sending it along. And then if you want, you could follow up by email, I mean by phone and just make sure they received it. Sometimes they have to go, oh yes, and pull it out of the trash when you give them a call. But it is one of those things that you don’t want to be persistent to the point that you’re a nuisance. And so it is a fine line and for each person it’s going to be a little bit different, but I think that email is just a natural way.

(13:45):

If they tell you they prefer a phone pitch or give them a call, just to make sure you’ve got their next pitch, then I would use that because It’s obviously something that they prefer. But it is one of these things that, what a lot of people find is once they do this for a year or two, they start getting the calls from the journalist. They will all of a sudden get a call from their local paper saying, “Hey, I’m working on a story about, let’s just say corporate wellness again and I thought of you. Are you doing anything in that space?” And you could just, I always recommend if you’ve got some friends and some things that you can lean on, try to make it say, “Yes, I could talk to you about some company we work with.” And maybe have a local business that you’re friends with and you could get them mentioned as well.

(14:31):

So yes, definitely you will see journalists thinking about you because you reach out to them on a regular basis, whether it’s four times a year or six or seven times a year, and all of a sudden when they’re working on story and they’re wanting to plug in a local business, you’ll come to mind and they’ll reach out to you. And that’s not unusual at all. It’s probably one of the reasons that I see a lot of the same businesses again and again, getting media pickup. And I’ve always wondered, oh, I always see this company mentioned in the Baltimore Sun three or four times a year. I wonder if this is paid. And of course it’s not. It’s just they’ve established a relationship with the local media and they’ve probably established themselves as being very reliable and always with strong quotes and a willingness to immediately return their emails or phone calls.

[MICHELLE] (15:21):

Got you. Yes, that’s definitely the dream when it turns around and then they’re reaching out to you and you don’t have to make that effort on the front end. And I have noticed in the acupuncture industry, I do feel like the same acupuncturists are interviewed over and over again for different specialties, in particular cosmetic acupuncture. They’re in glamor, they’re in in style and it just seems like they are really on the forefront of the journalist minds, like they’re seen as the experts. So I’m sure that took them quite a while to establish on the backend.

[MICKIE] (15:55):

Right, but it just takes a little bit of persistence and just a little regularity. And like I said, local media, some of the easiest media to get, and you’re the best person for it. I would never recommend going through a PR agency or a company because this is the stuff that I feel you are the best person to speak with them and to not have anybody to translating in between you.

[MICHELLE] (16:22):

Got you, yes. And sometimes acupuncture can be a funny thing to sort of have it pass through the game of telephone and all of a sudden, the end result is something that’s like, hmm, okay, well we would probably never say that in acupuncture, but here we are. I also really appreciate the idea of just calling a local TV company and asking for the email, the name and the email of the producer. That never would’ve occurred to me. I do a lot of research online and I love the deep dive. You can stalk anybody on the internet. It’s a magical and terrifying thing, but I think in some cases just making the phone call would probably be much briefer, like take a lot less time and effort. And I also think a lot of people don’t realize that that is information that is just freely available. Like if they want to hear from you so to speak, and so they, someone is going to share that email with you. It’s not like you have to call and badger them. They’re just going to hand it over.

[MICKIE] (17:22):

Another thing to keep in mind is these free weekly papers that are often neighborhood specific or certain communities. Those are gold mines because most of the time they’re focused on pursuing ads and getting ads that content becomes an afterthought. And so, if you approach them with a ready-made column, now a lot of them are weeklies and I’ve worked with a lot of people who’ve got columns in these publications, do not commit to a weekly column.

[MICHELLE] (17:51):

Gosh, that’s a lot.

[MICKIE] (17:52):

Just say I’m comfortable doing a monthly column. It will position you, again, and your business as expert in the community, things that you can talk about, stress, a lot of the different things that are specific to acupuncturists. And there’s also seasonal stuff people get down at the end of the year and stressed and run, so there could be column specific to that. They often love free content, and it is very easy to become a regular columnist. And you would be surprised if you pick really good ones in really nice neighborhoods that the amount of people that will say, “Oh yes, I know about you. I read your column regularly.” And you’re like, wow. So it really is a great way to stand out.

(18:33):

In those cases, they’re not really looking for pitches because they’re not really putting a lot of energy into writing the articles. I really think coming to them with a readymade article or the idea of a column works well. And if a column is too much of a ask for you to just put together a readymade article where you talk about something specific to you and then just put like a little bio at the end about you and your business, make it very short. they don’t want to seem like an ad, so like a sentence about you and your business. And again, these often get picked up because these people are really focused on getting the ads. And then at the end of the day they look and they go, “Oh wow, we have like 14 pages of ads, but we now need to spread some content across this.”

[MICHELLE] (19:18):

That’s so funny. I mean, I know exactly what you’re talking about and it never occurred to me that, of course, their primary purpose for those things is collecting ads and that content would be an afterthought.

[MICKIE] (19:31):

Right.

[MICHELLE] (19:33):

Are there any different recommendations that you would make if someone wanted to be on live local tv or it’s all pretty much along the same lines, like you look up your journalist or you ask for the producer’s name, you submit your pitch via email?

[MICKIE] (19:47):

I would also, if you’ve done a really nice video where you’re very comfortable talking on camera maybe include a link to that, whether it’s on YouTube or something along those lines. That makes them feel very comfortable that, oh, this is someone who’s camera-ready, they’re comfortable talking without clamming up and stuff like that. So I think that that could be really useful. It doesn’t have to be something that you did for a news outlet, but I think just maybe podcast you did, or just a video that you did and put on your website where you’re just very comfortable talking. I think that that would go very well to have them see what they’re working with someone who would potentially be on the air.

[MICHELLE] (20:28):

That makes sense. I did have a friend who was on Canadian local television and they reached out to her because of her specialty, but then they also asked her to submit a video of her having like a fake conversation, a fake interview because they were very interested, but they did want to know what was her conversation like, was it relaxed and easy? Was she camera-ready, as you said? So I thought that was fascinating because it was like they were making her this great offer, but also she had to do a little work beforehand.

[MICKIE] (20:59):

Right, yes.

[MICHELLE] (21:00):

And so you have your business where you’re submitting these press releases on behalf of other people.

[MICKIE] (21:06):

Correct.

[MICHELLE] (21:07):

You mentioned that sometimes for local it’s better if we are doing that on our own. So that would be more for like major publications for magazines and things like that?

[MICKIE] (21:18):

I would recommend our service for people looking for national media, which would include newspapers. nationwide, as well as magazines, trade publications, tv, radio nationally as well as social media, all of those things. In your local market, if there are like magazines and publications that are sort of specific, like in my Baltimore Metro we have a consumer magazine called Baltimore. So if you were targeting that, I would just approach it the same way as you would the other local media. Put together a good pitch, talk about why you would be a good subject matter. We haven’t really talked about images, but the media loves images. They love anything that’s sort of candid. It used to be that everything was expected to be very professional and I think that what’s happened is they recognize the audiences prefer candid shots.

(22:12):

So many people want to appear perhaps maybe a little bit larger than they are and everything being perfect and it doesn’t have to be. So keep that in mind. I think that anything along the lines of something that looks like it was taken not amateurly but candid, I think is going to work really well. They can go get stock photos of someone doing acupuncture and it has a stock photo look to it and it doesn’t engage people. I mean it’s sort of like, I think a lot of people talk about that robots and stuff like that we feel uncomfortable. I think there’s some divide or something that they call it, uncanny valley.

[MICHELLE] (22:51):

Oh, yes.

[MICKIE] (22:51):

I think it’s what it is. And I think that we sort of feel that way about stock photos. It’s not that the people aren’t real, but the situation seems so, I don’t know, just clinical and not —

[MICHELLE] (23:03):

Distant maybe.

[MICKIE] (23:04):

Yes, yes, exactly. And people don’t relate to it. And so I think that having a couple of photos will definitely improve your chances because it gives the media something to really work with. And I think that video, they’re not really utilizing much right now, I think that’s probably where we’re headed, but we’re probably five to 10 years off before you doing video and uploading it is, it will be appreciated and actually the media using it. But I think the photos are really good because if you’re working with a local story, they know that having a good photo that they can pop in, especially for the online article, will really engage the audience.

[MICHELLE] (23:41):

And so that would be for the local newspaper, the local magazines, and even for the local TV as well?

[MICKIE] (23:50):

Yes, I would go ahead and include it because a lot of times if they really like it, they’ll come out and try to shoot some video, but giving them an image gives them an idea of what they would be working with if they did take a video camera in that space.

[MICHELLE] (24:02):

Okay. So do you feel like that is very common where local stations would actually come to a person’s office or do you typically have to go to their studio for filming?

[MICKIE] (24:14):

I think it really depends. I think if it’s like a wellness challenge or a health checkup type of thing, they’re more likely to have you come in, set up and do it there in the studio. However, sometimes they may be willing to come out, but I find it probably is more likely that they’ll ask you to come in.

[MICHELLE] (24:33):

Got you, okay. So do you have any resources for learning about submitting a pitch or like examples how we would go about that?

[MICKIE] (24:43):

Sure. So I have a free masterclass that focuses on the strategic types of announcements that are more likely to yield pickup, probably a good place for someone new to PR to check it out, to maybe get some ideas. It’s at ereleases.com/plan [PLAN]. Again, it’s completely free and it’s only an hour long because I think the last 20-hour course I bought, I never got through it. So I tried to make it really instantly you understand it and can work with it. But I think that that would be a great place for people to start because the truth is a lot of pitches and a lot of the types of press releases that people do don’t get picked up very often. And these are ideas that routinely get picked up way more often and so if you sort of start with those, those might be really good ones for you to consider and perhaps start with

[MICHELLE] (25:35):

Oh, I love that. And then I can sort of kickstart people on there submitting something quarterly, they have some ideas to begin with.

[MICKIE] (25:43):

Yes, absolutely.

[MICHELLE] (25:45):

So I have one more question for you, and I ask this of everyone at the end of the episode, what is your definition of success?

[MICKIE] (25:53):

I think for me, my definition of success has evolved. I think when I was younger, 25 years ago and starting out, it was to just be able to work for myself and make a lot of money. Now I’m on the other side of it. It’s to have a good work-life balance and to be able to help people. One of the last things I don’t want to do is to like take a customer’s money and then have it not work out for them and I think that’s why I spend so much time on education and to get people to focus on the types of releases that are much more likely to give them positive results and the earned media that we’re, that they’re looking for, the articles, the interviews, the recognition.

[MICHELLE] (26:34):

Well, thank you so much for being here and thank you for all of the tips. I will put your website and the link for the free class in the show notes. Is there anywhere that you’d like to hang out on social media where people can follow you?

[MICKIE] (26:49):

Sure. So the website is ereleases.com and in the lower right is all my social media. It is my direct LinkedIn and probably the only one that I spend time on. I have people who sort of handle the rest, but feel free to call or email or chat on the website. We have no salespeople, just editors and we’ll help you whether you use those or not. So if you’re just targeting local media but you want someone to look at a pitch, just feel free to send it to us. Give us a day or two to get back to you. And you don’t have to use us. We just are there to help people, especially with PR and press releases and pitches.

[MICHELLE] (27:22):

Oh, well thank you so much for that.

[MICKIE] (27:24):

You’re very welcome.

[MICHELLE] (27:30):

Don’t forget to join me, Marla and Tori for the free marketing Q&A for wellness practitioners on Thursday, August 29th at noon Eastern time. You can submit your marketing questions ahead of time and I can’t wait to answer them and chat with you. The link is in the show notes to register and a replay will be available if you can’t join us live. Have a great week.