Welcome to episode 122 with my guest Mickie Kennedy

Mickie is an experienced podcast guest, bringing a positive, matter-of-fact style on a range of subjects including, PR, Marketing and more.

Mickie created eReleases 20+ years ago to give small businesses access to the media and to a national newswire. eReleases helps small businesses, start-ups, and authors get website traffic and better-quality customers through coverage in the media.  They write and distribute press releases to journalists, trade publications, and key industry influencers. This increases the visibility and credibility of your business, while bringing you more revenue from your dream clients.

So, what does this episode cover?

We begin by discussing the best place to start if you want to promote your business via the media and really stand out.  Mickie says that recognising your strengths, and weaknesses is a good thing. That might mean you need to acknowledge that expert writers can be really beneficial (if you are not a strong writer. People don’t buy from people they don’t trust and nowadays the first thing people do to see if they can trust you is look you up on Google.  So, it’s hugely beneficial if you are visible on there!

Mickie explains that the most important thing when wanting to stand out from the crowd, is whether you use an expert writer, or you try it yourself, it is essential that attention is placed on what it is you are announcing.  This is the area Mickie feels most people get wrong.  What you are announcing needs to be newsworthy and the story needs to an interesting/valuable read. The principle of capturing an audience can be lost to those with no journalist background hence why expert writers can be so useful.

What can Journalists do for you?

We discuss the idea of journalist involvement with small businesses.  Mickie assured me that journalists love giving small businesses big exposure via the media because they can afford to advertise them, and entrepreneurs wouldn’t necessarily have access otherwise.  Mickie also suggests that allowing people to see you as you really are, as a small business that has vulnerabilities, can be a positive. It can help to capture the heart of an audience.

We talk about when using the media is practical to promote a business.  Mickie suggests it’s harder when a business is just getting started because it’s unlikely that many obstacles have been encountered or indeed overcome.  But he does believe that media and PR should be a part of any business to incorporate strategic press releases.  He thinks the magic really happens with third party connection and collaboration.

You can find out more about Mickie and the services he offers by visiting his website https://www.ereleases.com/.  This is a really valuable episode and I know you will find it very interesting.  You can hear more of this podcast when it airs on Thursday.