Insider PR Secrets

0:02 hi everybody welcome back
0:05 we’re here today with Katie from the
0:07 founder of the inventors club for women
0:10 I’ve got Keith as usual with me
0:12 but I’m we’re really excited today
0:14 because
0:15 Katie’s background is PR and PR is
0:19 amazing when you can get good PR and she
0:22 knows how to get it for free so Katie
0:24 tell us tell us all the secrets that you
0:27 have so that our investors we’re doing
0:29 everything we want it all give us every
0:30 tidbit absolutely
0:33 I love being able to share this
0:34 because our innovators and the women and
0:39 A Few Good Men that are part of icw
0:41 inventors club for women
0:44 really need this they need to be
0:46 able to get it for as little money as
0:48 possible so the one organization that I
0:50 always reach out to is help a reporter out
0:53 also known as HARO but when you’re
0:55 Googling it go up look up help a
0:58 reporter out because HARO was a
0:59 totally different uh the website yeah
1:02 it’s a totally different website
1:05 I always recommend the paid version
1:07 it’s 19 bucks a month
1:08 there is a free version so if you want to try
1:10 it out you can do that but it’s a long
1:12 lengthy process they’ll send you like
1:13 one email a day and then you can respond
1:15 to it basically the request from
1:17 journalists is really what you’re
1:19 responding to so if you do the 19 dollar a
1:22 month
1:23 you can respond to potentially 20 or
1:27 more a day so there’s no questions
1:30 specifically what they need oh that’s so
1:33 cool so maybe they’re looking for
1:34 someone that has a product
1:36 and this could be across the country
1:38 so I know innovators that have received
1:42 placements in the Chicago Tribune or
1:44 Washington Post and they don’t live in
1:47 those cities so it’s a really big deal
1:49 because journalists are always looking
1:51 for stories and that’s really the bottom
1:54 line Yeah we actually didn’t know
1:57 about the paid tip so I’ll have to
1:59 remember that but when we use the free
2:00 version a little while back actually and
2:01 just experimented around yeah see like
2:03 oh how does this work did get a
2:05 placement with like a small you know not
2:07 not any name brand that anybody
2:08 recognize but it was a really neat
2:10 process it was kind of see good to see
2:12 how all that comes together and how you
2:14 can do it for yourself absolutely and
2:16 it’s actually a great opportunity to
2:18 hire maybe of a teenage kid at home
2:20 that’s looking for extra money or a
2:23 niece nephew or a college kid that’s
2:25 looking for money
2:27 have them respond to request
2:29 and you can even have something
2:30 typed out ahead of time so that they
2:32 know exactly what at least what topic it
2:35 might be that they’re we’re
2:36 responding to because it can be a really
2:38 time consuming process so that would be
2:41 my one thing that I would recommend
2:45 but yeah it’s an awesome service
2:47 and so to come bring it back to a higher
2:49 level for just one second a lot of
2:51 people today are thinking about social
2:53 media instantly when they’re thinking
2:55 about marketing or whatever that channel
2:57 is that instantly Pops to mind and so
2:59 sometimes we think of PR only associated
3:01 with like big companies that have all
3:04 this established stuff from press
3:05 conferences whatever it is right but
3:07 tell us a little bit about for you know
3:09 a startup or somebody who’s working on a
3:11 product launch a product how does that
3:13 fit into their world yeah that’s great
3:15 great question so on Instagram
3:17 specifically
3:19 they have influencers out there that
3:22 don’t necessarily have to have 10 000
3:24 followers
3:26 maybe because just specifically maybe
3:28 those 10 000 followers aren’t going to
3:30 like your product right so we have
3:33 something called micro influencers maybe
3:35 they only have of two or three thousand
3:37 followers on their page but maybe the
3:40 majority of those are going to be people
3:42 that love consumer products and
3:44 something that you might have to offer
3:46 and it’s a really great way to get into
3:50 the eyes of two three thousand people
3:54 for very little money and that can just
3:55 be reached out on your own through DM
3:58 direct message that’s actually a really
4:00 good point right so it really ties into
4:02 everything we always talk about and kind
4:03 of knowing your audience and who you
4:05 absolutely trying to reach absolutely
4:06 even at that point you know kind of a
4:08 direct message to an influencer is very
4:10 similar right kind of approach
4:11 absolutely and just because an
4:13 influencer has maybe even 20 30 50 000
4:17 followers does not mean that you’re even
4:20 400 dollars is going to be well spent from them
4:23 doing a post because it’s not the right
4:25 Market it’s not the right Market
4:27 your money is better spent paying
4:30 someone to do HARO searches for you to
4:33 get multiple placements and real PR
4:36 interesting thing about that too is that
4:39 they’re a little bit have a longer life
4:40 right absolutely as opposed to a social
4:42 post it’s pretty short life right
4:46 well there’s something called earned
4:47 media so yeah the earned media would be
4:49 like the HARO
4:51 and I only I keep saying HARO
4:53 because it’s an easier way to
4:55 really get in front of journalists so
4:57 you know any publication and you can
4:59 think of from the Chicago Tribune to the
5:02 Philadelphia Enquirer to the New York
5:04 Times to the New York Post any one of
5:06 those is going to be earned media and
5:09 that earned media is going to live
5:10 basically forever yeah it’s a really big
5:13 deal well you know I have clients who I
5:15 have been able there’s a gentleman and I
5:17 will put it on our website
5:20 you know Before You Tank you’ll be
5:21 able to go to our website and there’s a
5:23 gentleman who does the product segment
5:25 on The Today Show and it’s really fun
5:28 and he’s given instruction on like
5:31 sometimes it’s around Christmas it’ll be
5:32 Christmas or whatever and I’ve had
5:34 clients be on that show and they do
5:36 really well because you’re in
5:37 front of a good audience you can sell
5:38 product and I find that sometimes my
5:42 innovator forgets to wait till they have
5:45 products absolutely so you know there’s
5:47 always we always hear you know there’s
5:49 no what is it there’s no bad PR
5:52 but to me that’s bad PR right absolutely
5:55 and they can replace that correct and
5:57 there can be that PR and that’s why as
5:59 you know Luanne Today’s Show and some of
6:01 these other
6:02 big media Outlets that do promote
6:04 small businesses or products they
6:07 require you to have X amount of units so
6:10 maybe anywhere between two and five
6:12 thousand units because number one they
6:14 don’t want to look bad right
6:16 but then on the other side of it they
6:18 don’t want the innovator to look bad
6:19 either
6:20 and that’s a really big deal because
6:22 if they do run out of product everybody
6:24 kind of looks bad and it’s just not not
6:27 a great situation yeah so you want to so
6:29 so there’s ways to get to that right you
6:31 can get that you guys I’ve seen it
6:33 happen all the time that there’s like
6:35 Stephen who I’m gonna give you he has
6:36 three other outlets that he uses that
6:38 you can get to now some of it you pay
6:39 for and some The Today Show is free but
6:42 like you said it’s really important I
6:44 don’t remember my clients having to have
6:45 a quantity meet but they should no doubt
6:48 about it you guys when you’re going to
6:49 use that PR use it when it’s important
6:51 so that you do absolutely is there a
6:54 way to kind of use PR to get like
6:56 investment funding does that work ever
6:58 or no
6:59 well that’s a really interesting
7:01 question
7:02 so yes and no right so it definitely
7:06 puts you on the Investor’s radar
7:09 whoever you know there are
7:12 there are founders out there that are
7:16 appearing that they might be more
7:18 successful than they actually are just
7:20 because of the amount of PR that they
7:22 have
7:23 so interesting
7:26 and that’s and that’s but that’s you
7:28 know why I said in another episode
7:31 always be your own publicist right so if
7:35 you need something you need to ask if
7:37 you’re in the room with people and you
7:40 want something from someone in that room
7:42 someone of importance you need to speak
7:45 up on your own behalf you need to always
7:47 be your own publicist because
7:49 the pr can only get you so far yeah so
7:52 it’s interesting that you mentioned
7:55 earlier you’re talking about having
7:56 enough product to have enough inventory
7:57 right what about PR for the cases where
8:00 you’re not there yet right like let’s
8:03 say
8:04 you’re gonna launch your product
8:04 maybe you’re doing a new Kickstarter
8:06 right that’s always that’s that’s an
8:08 interesting topic in and of itself but
8:10 how does it apply there right because a
8:12 lot of a lot of people are under the
8:14 impression that Kickstarter is just you
8:15 know you throw a product on there a
8:17 million people see it you get all kinds
8:18 of money how you know we all know that
8:20 that has developed a lot over time and
8:22 so it’s different now how does PR factor
8:24 in yeah that’s huge so that’s I’m so
8:26 glad you brought that up Keith because
8:27 with Kickstarter
8:29 in order to have a
8:30 have a full campaign and that’s really
8:32 what it is you need to have an entire PR
8:35 campaign around that yeah you have to do
8:39 all that first it’s a really big deal
8:40 there are ways to do it yourself I
8:43 highly recommend at least Consulting
8:45 with someone maybe on Fiverr upwork
8:48 it’s going to be less expensive but
8:50 you can do a lot of the homework
8:52 yourself and that would be doing
8:53 research
8:55 for bloggers that post specifically
8:59 for Kickstarter and that sort of thing
9:01 and different media Outlets that pose
9:03 for Kickstarter and really reaching out
9:05 to them before anyone else and then
9:09 getting them on the list
9:11 so that you’re ready to blast them out
9:13 when you’re ready to kick off your
9:15 Kickstarter yeah when would you when
9:17 would you start that because I mean I
9:18 know when we talk to somebody about
9:20 Kickstarter from a digital marketing
9:22 standpoint we say it’s sort of a bring
9:24 your own audience platform in innocence
9:26 right because you’re trying to build up
9:28 to that launch right and so we tell
9:30 people I mean you got to be like six
9:31 months out at least six months and stuff
9:33 right yeah so the Kickstarter campaigns
9:35 that we’ve done that have been
9:36 successful and
9:38 I’ve worked on the pr side of things
9:40 so it really does take an entire team to
9:42 make it successful and there’s a lot of
9:44 rules and regulations you have to follow
9:46 with Kickstarter or you could get into a
9:49 lot of trouble
9:50 another little tip for Kickstarter is
9:53 that it is a very male oriented platform
9:55 so
9:57 the products that do really well
9:59 on there are gadgety devices that men
10:02 would purchase don’t ask me why this is
10:05 just a thing
10:06 yeah so really reaching out to those
10:09 Publications that would promote men’s
10:11 products maybe even but always ask do
10:15 they promote kickstarters because you
10:16 just don’t want to waste your time yeah
10:17 that’s a really big deal yeah and we say
10:20 Kickstarter but I’m sure there’s
10:21 other platforms that probably come to
10:23 mind like oh yeah but I think
10:25 everybody’s just so familiar right and
10:27 most people start on Kickstarter and
10:28 then they go to Indiegogo second
10:31 but as far as timeline I just want to
10:32 back up and mention that so typically
10:35 when people would come to us with
10:37 kickstarters they would start a year out
10:39 yeah
10:40 and then nine months out you know
10:42 within the first three months we’re
10:45 working on the research for just
10:47 collecting the different media Outlets
10:49 that we’re going to blast this out too
10:52 and then between you know nine and
10:54 six months
10:56 that’s when we’re sort of in
10:58 discussions and pitching them ahead
11:00 of time and you really want to have a
11:02 Media Kit so you want to have your pitch
11:04 in place but you also similar to a pitch
11:06 deck but you want to have a Media Kit
11:08 and I would Google that it’s going to
11:09 give you the best
11:10 best information and when you’re
11:12 pitching journalists with your product
11:14 make sure you figure out how to create a
11:17 link for your Media Kit they do not want
11:19 their inboxes filled with PDFs they’ll
11:23 delete it before anything else it’ll
11:24 just be gone that’s good that’s
11:26 interesting to know so you make a
11:28 link so let me see I think you said
11:30 something that I wasn’t sure I totally
11:31 followed but okay when you were saying
11:33 to build for this for the kickstarter
11:36 campaign to build it you said to go
11:38 after the influencers yes first because
11:41 they come with 3 000 people right
11:43 so you’re trying to build us so you want
11:45 to have a following of ten thousand
11:47 hundred thousand whatever absolutely so
11:49 and you’re gonna have
11:51 sort of a combination of influencers
11:54 bloggers
11:57 other media outlets and really that’s
11:59 going to be based upon your research so
12:01 research finding the right whatever’s
12:04 doing the research it could be you it
12:05 could be someone you hire
12:08 but the research is going to be key
12:09 and compiling that list and you really
12:11 want to have a list of at least 50 media
12:13 Outlets because they’re out there
12:14 there’s tons of media Outlets that
12:16 promote kickstarters you just have to
12:18 find them and it has to be ones that are
12:20 going to Target a product like you’re
12:22 selling correct okay because otherwise
12:23 you guys have wasted and the majority of
12:25 the products that are on Kickstarter are
12:27 going to be similar so keep that in mind
12:29 too if you have a gadgety type product
12:31 again that can be potentially male
12:34 oriented a beauty product is not gonna
12:36 it’s not gonna do well at all in
12:37 Kickstarter so keep that in mind
12:40 unless it’s something that is sort of
12:41 male oriented if it’s a shave cream or
12:43 something along those lines or a shape
12:45 device fine but if it’s very female
12:48 oriented it’s just not going to do well
12:49 in Kickstarter interesting wow yeah I’m
12:51 glad you laid out that timeline because
12:52 uh we often get folks that are you
12:55 know come in and say Hey I want to do a
12:57 Kickstarter and we ask about launch and
12:58 they’re like well I’m thinking about
12:59 launching next month and you’re like
13:00 it’ll never happen it’ll never happen
13:02 and just building it out right and PR is
13:05 a process
13:07 Luanne had mentioned reach outs on
13:09 another podcast for buyers and it’s this
13:11 same with PR seven times is really how
13:15 how many times it takes to reach a media
13:18 Outlet seven times until you get a
13:19 response if you get a response so what
13:22 you’re trying to do is make your pitch
13:25 as clear as concise make it as easy for
13:28 the journalist as possible
13:30 so they don’t delete you and make
13:32 sure that your subject line is something
13:34 enticing so that they will open it and
13:36 you can Google best subject lines for
13:38 products best subject lines for
13:40 Kickstarter campaigns you know all of
13:42 these types of things Google is going to
13:44 be your best friend yeah nice that’s
13:46 some really great tips so I mean I heard
13:48 yeah Google find good subject lines
13:51 right make sure that you’re not adding
13:53 attachments because that’s going to get
13:54 you booted out of these products pretty
13:56 quickly right be pleasantly persistent
13:58 as we like to say right and kind of
14:00 continue to follow up and know who
14:03 you’re reaching out to because if you’re
14:04 using Kickstarter or if you have this
14:06 kind of product or that kind of product
14:07 right and know your audience you know
14:10 you don’t want to pitch a journalist
14:13 that works on crime even if you happen
14:16 to know you know you could be best
14:18 friends with the producer at the Today
14:20 Show and still never get a media
14:21 placement and that’s the biggest
14:23 misconception I just explained this to
14:25 someone else not long ago that it does
14:28 not matter who you are
14:31 if they don’t like your story they’re
14:33 not going to take it if they don’t have
14:34 a place for that story they’re not going
14:36 to take it so more often than not a lot
14:38 of journalists will encourage you to
14:40 pitch the info desk because the info
14:42 desk it all goes straight there and then
14:45 everything gets divided out to the right
14:46 journalist oh so you don’t have the work
14:49 has sort of been done you don’t have to
14:51 figure it out all your local ABC NBC
14:53 local cables channels or you know
14:56 whoever you’re pitching
14:58 you know a lot of a lot of different
15:01 media Outlets have product segments in
15:03 their morning shows and that sort of
15:05 thing that’s awesome that is so awesome
15:07 yeah and you know I know this is not
15:09 exactly relevant but
15:11 we did an event in my hometown
15:15 and we wanted to film something for the
15:18 president and we
15:20 I went to the local media
15:22 they liked you know we were in a
15:24 recession they liked what we were doing
15:25 and not only did we get coverage we got
15:28 a PR woman that came to bat for us
15:30 and we also got to use the local news
15:34 helicopter and the helicopter that flew
15:37 awesome and we got 2 000 kids on a ball
15:39 field and they so I guess what I’m
15:41 saying is you have to ask yes or you
15:43 won’t know okay so because my cause was
15:45 great
15:47 we had kids involved which helped you
15:49 know high school kids but you guys they
15:52 want that story they loved us it turned
15:54 out to get really out of proportion
15:56 crazy so
15:58 it wasn’t a product but right but I do
16:00 believe in the same thing but if your
16:02 story is right and you’re at the right
16:04 people they do want to help and they
16:06 they paid the story absolutely and that
16:08 just touches on one quick story that
16:10 I’ll tell she’s actually in an
16:12 inventor from Orlando so she’s local to
16:15 here to Central Florida and she
16:18 created a product called polyblocks and
16:20 it is a teaching tool and she donated a
16:23 ton of them to schools in Central
16:25 Florida and that got her a significant
16:28 amount of media coverage and it was
16:29 really awesome so
16:32 so having the right heart being
16:34 creative using everything we taught
16:36 right they want to hear generous stories
16:38 they want to hear really feel good
16:40 stories so if you’re in a position where
16:43 you’re able to do that I love that more
16:45 often than not you will get the media
16:47 coverage and that’s that creative angle
16:49 yes anytime you do good you get back
16:52 even if you’re selling if you’re
16:53 thinking of the buyer he’s going to help
16:55 you if you’re thinking of the the
16:57 community you’re going to get help for
16:59 that I love that I love that it’s great
17:01 so tip of the day would it be
17:03 cheating to say call Katie when you need
17:05 PR coming over I mean in reality though
17:08 I mean I think there’s so much more
17:09 information we could mine out of that
17:11 but I guess I would say yeah doing doing
17:13 good research really because I think do
17:15 you find that there’s a lot of this
17:16 stuff that maybe you don’t know maybe
17:18 it’s the first time you’ve heard of
17:20 HARO or something like that right
17:21 digging in finding out what are those
17:23 tools and opportunities to reach new
17:25 people
17:26 and I think
17:28 my tip I’m going to end on you since
17:29 you’re the expert
17:31 I think my tip is to realize that
17:33 it’s an asset for you that PR is one of
17:37 those things that has to be in your
17:38 portfolio of your creative marketing
17:41 strategy and using the tips that she
17:44 gave us then you’ll know when to get it
17:46 how to get it and be creative
17:48 to get it so I love the generosity angle
17:50 I think that’s great and you guys I
17:52 think those opportunities come around
17:53 more than people realize right that you
17:55 have a product that will solve a problem
17:56 that’s an issue right now in the front
17:58 and center so I like that so what do
18:01 you give us your best tip so I would say
18:03 as I’ve given this tip before be your
18:05 own publicist and do not be afraid of
18:10 getting PR so reach out to those
18:13 those HARO requests and really just
18:17 be confident and know that everyone
18:20 started somewhere and you have just as
18:23 much opportunity as somebody else does
18:25 to score the media segment on television
18:28 and also score the placement in the New
18:31 York Times and also just always be
18:34 promoting yourself because just because
18:36 you get the pr doesn’t necessarily mean
18:39 you’re successful because you know that
18:41 as a Founder there’s so many needs so
18:44 many things that you need in general and
18:45 you want to always make sure that your
18:48 community indicating that when necessary
18:49 that’s awesome and I think Spanx is the
18:52 best example in using PR absolutely she
18:54 went to Oprah she’s worked for two years
18:57 she gets on Oprah and changes her entire
18:59 world right but she had a product that
19:01 was awesome she was ready to go and she
19:03 stayed persistent and she was confident
19:04 and you guys I have to tell the secret
19:06 and then I’m gonna let you go but you
19:08 guys she got a purchase order and she
19:10 bought up most of the inventory so she
19:13 that’s creative I love that so she made
19:18 sure that what she gave in got spot up
19:21 so that she could continue so I love it
19:23 yeah it’s perfect right so you guys
19:25 thanks again for tuning in and we’ll see
19:27 you next time