How To Blast Your Brand Name Out Of Millions Without Advertising

Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here today.

In high school, I was a theater geek. I loved the theater, I had my freshman year. My English teacher, who was also the drama teacher, told me that she would give me extra credit if I would audition for the school play. I was always down for extra credit, so I went to the auditions thinking of it as purely an extra credit exercise. So, I did the audition and didn’t expect anything to come of it. It was just about the extra credit for me and lo and behold, I was cast in the starring role. From that point on, I got bit by the theater bug and appeared mostly in starring roles in every production my entire high school career, and then when I was in college I actually started out as a theater major. I Went to New York for a little while and quickly realized that I would mostly be waiting tables with an occasional acting role and that’s really not what I wanted to do most of my life. So, I switched to broadcasting and that’s what I ended up graduating in.

I think the beauty of theater is the audience can see you, but with those lights, you could only see maybe the first row or two of the actual audience. So that helps.

So, immediately before I started Three Girls Media in 2005, I was working as a press secretary for the California state legislature. Working 70-80 hours a week and the job I had right before that was for a major PR agency in Silicon Valley, where I was also working 70-80 hours a week. And for me, at that point, it was really about wanting more work-life balance. I had a young son at the time and one of my bosses told me that they didn’t want me to leave the office, work on a project and miss my son’s cello concert.

I was like, No, I don’t think so and at that point, it wasn’t about climbing the corporate ladder anymore. I really reached tremendous heights in my career, and I wanted more say over my work schedule and family life. So I decided, I’m going to go out and try this on my own, where I can set my own schedule, be with my family in the evenings, go to my son’s cello concert and soccer games and all that kind of stuff and that was really the impetus for me starting the company.

So many, as an entrepreneur, when I started the company, I had no experience as an entrepreneur. I had no clue what I was doing. I had to learn and totally bootstrap things. Learning about just like even how to incorporate the company. For what kind of business did I want to be, starting there and then had to learn everything about baking, taxes, how to manage my finances on a business level, and how to market myself and get clients. I mean just the initial learning curve that I was on for the first year or two was insane. But once I got that initial stuff behind me and got established, then it became constantly learning and growing because marketing and PR is a type of industry where things do not stay stagnant, there’s always something new. When I started the company in 2005, social media didn’t even exist in the digital space.

There was no such thing and so things like Facebook, Twitter came along and all the other socials. We really had to incorporate that into the services that we were providing our clients and figure out how businesses can use social media platforms to market themselves. I really had to incorporate those new kinds of services as they came along. We were hit by the recession in 2008 and lost the majority of our clients. So, that was a real challenge. I ended up having to restructure all of the services we offered. How do we charge for our services? And it dramatically reshaped how we provided things and how we charge for things as a company. And those changes, I made to serve us well today. So that was a big change on our end.

Absolutely, Which point there are major tax implications and definitely how you have to report things about your business. It’s a big deal.

Yeah, absolutely.

Websites alone have changed dramatically. Back in 2005, they were very rudimentary, often single-page sites, just like a calling card kind of situation. They didn’t look very good, they weren’t dynamic, there was certainly no video incorporated and now websites themselves have vastly grown into sleek-looking sides. Search engine optimization has become a major factor in how you put your site together, everything from the words on the page to what happens on the backend. And so that just from a website perspective has changed. And then, of course, there’s everything else that has come along with the Internet, including. Social media, social media advertising, digital advertising, things like Google ads, Yahoo!, and Bing, all these things are vastly different and are new in the last 20 years.

That’s right.

When I worked for my first PR agency in Silicon Valley, right after I left broadcasting, it was still the days of fax machines and we were faxing press releases to journalists and the newsroom, one by one over the fax machine and we used to have books like hard copy books of media that would come out where we would have to compile media lists and like Excel database and that kind of thing. It was very, very rudimentary and it took a lot of time, took a lot of effort, and now things are so much easier. We have the Internet, we have mail merging, we have databases that you can subscribe to easily access journalists all across the country and North America, and even around the globe. It’s a completely different world and so much easier than it used to be.

You know, who still has a Fax machine? Doctor’s offices. Those are the only places that I ever run into that still fax numbers.

Yes.

So many different ways to go now. It’s incredible.

There are so many different services, everything from PR newswire to access wire to decision. They’re so many to choose from. And they all offer something a little bit different at a wide variety of price points, everything from a few hundred dollars up to $1,000 or so, depending on the distribution and how it’s distributed, where it’s distributed, and that kind of thing.

Yeah, public relations is hugely effective because it’s all about your reputation as a company. And if you get an article published about your business in a reputable magazine or website or on the evening news, it’s essentially an endorsement for your business product service from a credible third-party organization. And it’s much more believable to your consumers than an advertisement. If you read an article about a product and a reporter is saying, this product does X, Y, or Z, and it’s really fabulous, and that solves this problem for me. You’re going to go, oh, wow, that sounds like a really great product, maybe I’ll go out and try it. If you see an advertisement for the same product, you’re going to be a lot more skeptical about it because, you know, it’s an ad and you know, it’s paid by the company to promote itself. So, a PR story can give you that credible endorsement, that reputation management that is so vital to earning the trust of your audience.

Yeah. I think, first of all, you need to be realistic. There isn’t a story everywhere and the media is savvy. The media knows when there’s really no story there, the media wants information that is unique, different, engaging, that’s going to be exciting to their audience and sometimes you just have to face the fact that there is not a story there. Launching a new website is not a story that the media is going to care about. Now, should you promote that? Absolutely, you should. You should promote it on social media, you should promote it in your e-newsletter, you can promote it to your networking groups and your elevator speech and those kinds of things. But it’s not something you’re going to issue a press release about or a media pitch and it’s going to be on the evening news. So, you have to understand that.

That’s the key, that’s absolutely the key. If you’re the first to do something and it’s never been done before, that’s a story. Whether it’s a new product or a new type of website or a new type of social networking platform or whatever it may be, there’s probably a story there. But if it’s simply a new Web site for your business, chances are the media is not going to care. Now, if you’re launching a new business, there may be an opportunity there. What is your history? What kind of business is it? Is it something new in your marketplace? It might not be a story for the CBS Evening News, but maybe your local newspaper is going to write about it. So, you have to be realistic, too, in what kind of media might cover your story. There might be an opportunity in your local community newspaper or in your local evening news, or maybe there is a local website that covers news in your local area. Sort of a community website kind of thing where they might run a story about something like that. So again, you have to know where your story’s going to fit and where it’s going to be sold to the media and what kind of media is going to be interested in it. But what you’re really looking for when it comes to any media story is what is the news. And you want the news to be as compelling and interesting as possible. If the news isn’t that, for instance, if you started another tile company and there are five other tile companies in the market, maybe that really isn’t that exciting. But maybe if you do some kind of tiling that’s very unique and only, you’re doing maybe there’s a story there. Maybe there is an interesting story about the owner. Or maybe they’ve changed careers and now we’re starting this business under some unique circumstance, and you can make the story more about the owner than the business. So, there are ways that you can look for stories where there might be none. But again, you have to be realistic and understand there isn’t necessarily a story in everything.

100%. There are some really big social media challenges like you might remember, it was the Ice Bucket Challenge a few years ago on social media that was really big and that got a lot of press coverage because it became this national movement to do this ice bucket challenge for charity. So, simply by starting something like that, you can make news where there wasn’t news before.

Oh, yes.

It used to be that, you are absolutely right that you could issue a press release on a wire service like PR newswire or access wire or something like that and it would go out to hundreds, if not thousands of websites and provide a backlink to your website and there was good SEO value in that. But it’s my understanding that the way that Google has changed its latest algorithm, that that’s not as valuable anymore. It’s not to say that it’s a total waste, but it certainly doesn’t have the power that it used to have.

Oh, yeah. I love HARO.

It’s fabulous. So HARO stands for help a reporter out. You can simply do a Google search for help a reporter out or I think it’s HARO.com, it’s a website where you can go, you can create free accounts and journalists from all over the country in all kinds of major media outlets from newspapers, magazines, websites, blogs, from the literally the largest media outlets in the country and some smaller ones as well, will put out requests for information they’re seeking for stories. So, for example, if USA Today is doing a story on the best gourmet marshmallows in the country, the journalist who’s working on that story would get on HARO and put out a request and say, I’m working on a story about the best gourmet marshmallows in the country. If you know, a marshmallow manufacturer or you know somebody that I can interview for this story, contact me and you would contact them. And if you’re a marshmallow maker or work for somebody who is or whatnot, you could contact that journalist and they could potentially use you or use your company in their story. Now it’s free to apply, you can have updates sent to your email box three times a day. There are three issues of HARO that come out of the day, one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening and there are literally dozens of requests in each issue that come to your email box. All you have to do is scan those quickly, see if there’s any opportunity that you might be a good match for, and respond. It’s a wonderful, easy way to know what journalists around the country are working for and very easily become a free resource and potentially get yourself some wonderful media coverage.

Helpareporter.com

Yeah, CISION actually bought HARO a few years ago. It was an independent site and it got snapped up by CISION is actually something we should talk about because we’re wanting to get media coverage for your company. You need to know about companies like CISION. Now, CISION isn’t the only one but they’re the biggest in the country. And they have several different components to their services, but one of the services they offer is a media database. You subscribe to their media database, We Three Girls Media subscribe to the North America database. So, this gives us access to hundreds of thousands of journalists in North America. Blogs, Newspapers, magazines, websites, television, and radio, so we can get into our CISION media database and we can say we want to find people who were writing about dinosaurs, for example. And build a media list of people who write about dinosaurs and then if we’ve got a story about dinosaurs, we can contact those journalists through CISION, send them emails. We get information on the people who are opening our emails, click-through rates, and all of that kind of stuff. So it’s a wonderful way to get access to media. You get all of their information from their phone numbers, email addresses, and the latest stories they’ve been working on. It’s very comprehensive and it’s updated all the time.

Sure. So, help a reporter.com is going to be journalists that you know are working on a particular story at a particular time and are looking for resources.

Yeah and with the media database, you would be building a custom media list of people who work on or write about a certain beat in the media where you could reach out to them and pitch them your story.

Yeah, great question. I think a lot of people think that a press release is the only way to go to get media coverage. That used to be true about 20 years ago, but that is no longer the case. And I would say nine times out of ten, you’re going to be better off and get more traction with a press pitch than a press release. So, a press release most of us are probably familiar with. It’s a formal document that’s formatted in a very specific way with a headline and a subhead line and then a few paragraphs of news usually include a quote from someone and then have a media contact listed somewhere on it. A press release is good for certain circumstances, which I’ll talk about in a couple of minutes. But that’s what a press release is. A media pitch or press pitch is a casual e-mail that is very short, a fraction of the length of a press release. It’s usually just a paragraph or two long that is sent directly to a reporter’s email and teases them about a story. So, you might want to say, “Hey, I’ve got this interesting story about X, Y, or Z. I’d love to give you some more information. I’m happy to arrange an interview or send you a product or something like that.” If it’s a product that you’re offering and it’s basically a short introduction, a casual introduction to your product, service, or business, as opposed to a press release, which is this very formal, long-winded, document that is not casual, is sometimes sent directly to reporters but is more often sent to newsrooms where they come in on a either on a screen, usually a computer screen, where they’re sort of like in this constant roll coming in by the dozens all day, every day. When somebody like a producer can print out the ones that they think might be interesting as where a pitch goes directly to individual journalists, it’s a teaser about a story. It’s like a casual introduction. Very, very different beasts.

Yeah. So, you can get into a database like CISION or there are others like meltwater is another one that’s very popular and is another really big service. And you can get into these databases, and create custom lists for the journals you want to try to reach and then you write a casual, short, brief press pitch, send it out to your list and your chances of getting coverage that way and getting the interest of an actual journalist who’s going to do something with your story are 100 times higher than blasting out a press release that goes into the ether or somewhere. Now, I did say that I would mention there are appropriate times for a press release, but there are few and far between these days. So, I would say if your company has major news to share, for example, you have a new C-level executive. It might be worthy of a press release. If you were acquiring another company or you were being acquired, that would be an appropriate time for a press release. If you maybe won a major award that might be appropriate for a press release. If you are a publicly traded company and you have some major news or something’s happening with the company, then that’s appropriate for a press release.

Absolutely, if you have an IPO, absolutely an appropriate time for a press release. But as you can see, these are not circumstances that happen every day. They are kind of few and far between. And so there’s a time and a place for a press release. But it’s not very often. And like I said, nine times out of ten, a press pitch is going to be the right answer.

Great question. So, your first obstacle to overcome in your press pitch is going to be the subject line, because if you don’t have an interesting subject line, your email is never going to get opened and the journalist you’re sending it to is simply going to delete it. These are very busy people who get a ton of pitches every single day. So, you want to make the journalist’s job as easy as possible. You want your subject line to be meaningful and actually say something about what the story actually is. Meaning you don’t want to be too cryptic or cutesy with your subject line you want to entice them, but also say something that’s compelling enough to get them to actually open the email. When we send pitches at Three Girls Media for our clients, I actually put the word pitch in the subject line as the first thing in all caps. Pitch, all caps right there, first thing in the subject line. So, obviously, the journalist who gets it is going to go, oh, this is a pitch.

Exactly. You want them to know what’s a pitch because you want them to say, hey, this is something I might be interested in. Let me open it and check it out. So, that’s a little trick we use that really does rates. I’ll actually put a pitch in all caps followed by a colon and then, you know, a very brief subject line. You don’t want to make it like 16 words, right? You want to keep it short to the point, but again, meaningful in something that’s going to pique the curiosity of the journalist and let them think, I really need to open this. So, that’s number one. Number two, you want to address the journalist by name, and it’s perfectly appropriate to use first names. You don’t need to use Mr or Mrs.

Not on the subject line, but in the body of the email.

So, once the journalist opens the e-mail, you should address them by name. Dear Joe, dear Susie, dear Jane, whatever. You can take that casual approach and then in the very first sentence or two of that pitch, you need to explain what the story is. Don’t bury your lead. You need not waste the journalist’s time. Be candid, be right up front and tell them what it is they want to know. Again, these people are very busy. They don’t have a lot of time. Get to the meat of the story. Don’t try to be cutesy or fluffy or beat around the bush. It’s only going to take them off. As a former journalist, I can tell you this from firsthand experience. So just get right to the point. Tell them what the story is and see if they’re interested.

Exactly. And then you can spend maybe the second paragraph giving them some supporting information. So, you can go into a little more detail about why your story may be compelling or why your product may be so great, or it’s changing the world, or whatever some supporting facts are. And then in a third paragraph, you’re going to offer them more information. So, meaning you can offer them an interview or a product sample or maybe a link to an electronic press kit where they can go and get more details or a website where they can go and get more details and then make sure that they’ve got your contact information and your email signature. You want to be easy to contact, so make sure you include a phone number as well as your email address. And that’s it. That’s all that goes into a press pitch. It’s short, sweet to the point, three paragraphs max. And again, those are the outlines of the paragraphs and you’re off and running.

Absolutely.

Yeah. You know, maybe not a question I could think of, but there is a resource that I can provide.

If your audience would like to learn more about the differences between a press pitch and a press release. How to pitch the media? How to craft a good press release? We have some articles on our blog at Threegirlsmeda.com that are written specifically about that. And our website again is three girl’s media dot com. It’s the word three all spelled out girls’ media. Tom, we have a little search magnifying glass in the top right-hand corner of our website. And all you have to do is type in something like pitch versus press release, and those articles will come up. And we’ve written, like I said, specifically on these topics, and there’s a wealth of information there on those topics as well as anything else you could imagine related to digital marketing, branding, graphic design, website design and build PR, social media. So, we’re a wonderful free resource for information about anything related to marketing.

The value of PR. I think that a lot of people don’t understand what kind of value PR can bring. Again, it’s that credible endorsement by a respected member of the media that goes a long, long way. It’s essentially a testimonial from the press that’s leaving your business, and that goes so much farther than advertising could. I had one client who made realistic-looking sushi, but it was all chocolate. That looked just like sushi, it was amazing, except it was all made out of chocolate and they’re no longer in business. She decided to close her business and focus on her art. She was an amazing artist, but we did a media relations campaign for that company and they got an article that we placed for them in Sunset Magazine, which is a large magazine in the western United States, covering the entire Western US, a very popular magazine. She had an article about her chocolate sushi. And literally, four years later, she would have people call and come into her shop and visit their website and leave comments about how they saw them in Sunset Magazine for years. I have another client who is a priest, and he makes gourmet hot chocolate in a variety of different flavors called holy chocolate made by a priest and so we did some media campaigns. He got an article that we placed for him in Rachael Ray magazine and the same thing. For years, he would come back to us and say, I still get people coming to me and saying that they found me and Rachael Ray magazine and so on. The PR can last long, long beyond the actual newscast or issue it comes out, and especially if it’s online, those things last forever on the Internet. So, you know, again, it may cost you a few thousand dollars for a media campaign, but the payoff that you can get from that in consumer goodwill is indefinite.

Exactly.

There’s a formula that you can use. And if you subscribe to another service that companies like Cision offer their media monitoring service where they’ll actually answer all of your media coverage for you. They’ll provide you what’s called PR value, which is a dollar amount of the equivalent value of that media coverage and it’s based on a variety of factors, including the size of the coverage, like how big the article or how long was the news story, you know, things like that. Did it include pictures? Did it include links to your website? Was it a positive story? It bases it on all of these factors and comes up with a dollar figure that it’ll give you. But some of the campaigns that we’ve done for our most successful PR campaigns were in the tens of millions of dollars of PR value.

Yeah. You know, we have several sites in the Puget Sound area, in the greater Seattle area that will do that here, too. They’re often community-based websites like in my particular area it’s called Thurston Talks, thurstontalks.com and it’s all about Thurston County and they cover businesses in Thurston County and basically, you pay them to write a story about you. So, it’s paid media, but the way it looks is like it’s an editorial story. It doesn’t look like an advertisement.

Yes, it’s an advertorial. That’s exactly what it’s called. So you’re paying them to write a favorable story about your business, product, service, whatever it may be. And to the reader, it looks like editorial coverage. It looks like that third-party endorsement by the media organization. But you’re actually paying for that article. There are lots of opportunities to do things like that. There are all kinds of magazines that will offer advertorials that you can pay for articles and it’s definitely a way to go. You know, if you get approached by something like that or you have an outlet like that in your local area, is it worth paying a few hundred dollars for or even $1,000 for an article that’s going to live online forever and give you that community goodwill? It very well could be.

Besides our website, you can certainly find me all over social media as, Erika Taylor Montgomery, that’s my handle everywhere Facebook Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. On Twitter, and publicity Erika. But if you search for me is Erika Taylor Montgomery. You’ll also find my Twitter profile that way so you can stalk me on social media if you want to email me, an easy email address to remember is info@threegirlsmedia.com and that comes directly to me. I love to say that, I’m full of free advice, right? So, I do offer a complimentary 30-minute consultation where we can set up a Zoom meeting or a call and talk about each person’s specific marketing needs, their media relations needs and we can talk about your specific instance and scenario. If nothing else, I can give you free advice. You know, if you’re interested in more, we can certainly put together our customized proposal for you.

My pleasure, Matt. Thanks so much for the opportunity. Have a wonderful day.