Episode 73

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Published on:

4th May 2023

The Press Release Playbook: Maximizing Your Press Releases with eReleases Founder Mickie Kennedy

Episode 73 of Mesmerizing Marketing™ Podcast: The Press Release Playbook: Maximizing Your Press Releases with eReleases Founder Mickie Kennedy.

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Transcript
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welcome to the Mesmerizing Marketing Podcast, where we take a deep dive

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into the latest marketing trends, tools, and tips, and provide you with

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the top resources you need to thrive and make your marketing mesmerizing.

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And now here's your host Dimple.

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Dang.

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Hello everyone.

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Welcome back to Mesmer Marketing.

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Today I'm here with Mickey Kennedy with eReleases and we're gonna be

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talking about the importance of press releases and what you need to know.

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So welcome Mickey.

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Thanks for having me.

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Yeah, you're welcome.

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So maybe you can tell us a little bit about what, you know, what

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inspired you to, to start this company and you know, what was your why?

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Right.

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So about 26 years ago I was working for a telecom startup as employee number three.

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I had a writing background, so they told me to figure out press releases

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and try to get media attention.

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And we published a telecom traffic statistics numbers.

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And so I tried to flesh out interesting anomalies in the data, certain

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countries traffic that just stood out for a strange reason and tried to

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figure out what was going on there.

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And I got really good at, you know, fleshing these out and,

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having entertaining stories and the media responded.

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We would get picked up routinely by the Economist Financial Times, Washington

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Post, wall Street Journal, lots of national and international coverage.

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And I was faxing at the time and I started to get calls from journalists saying,

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Hey, I received your fax press release.

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Could you email it over to me cuz it's easier to work with the data

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and numbers by copy and pasting.

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And so that sort of got me thinking that email seemed a natural evolution

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of press releases from faxing.

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And so I spent a year reaching out to journalists and asked if I could

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send them press releases on their subject, the beat that they covered.

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And I, launched a little over 24 years ago with eReleases just sort of

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being a matchmaker, trying to pair up client's releases to the journalists

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that, that fit their industry the best.

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And over time we've added Newswire distribution through PR Newswire.

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They reached out to me I think about 15 years ago and said you, I should

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also include their distribution.

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And I pointed out that they charged like $1,500 to go out nationally.

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And surprisingly they didn't, they didn't balk, they, they

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understood that entrepreneurs and startups and small businesses just

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don't have the assets for that.

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So, all of our releases do go out naturally over the wire.

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But it's substantially less than spending $1,500 with the wire directly.

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So you've been in the industry for quite a bit of time and what have you seen change

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throughout, in terms of like the industry of, you know, press releases back from,

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let's say 20 years ago, up until today?

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So it's gotten a lot more relaxed.

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Used to be People believed one grammatical mistake in a press release, and you

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were, you were doomed for failure.

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Things happen so fast now in the era of Twitter and, you know, fast typing that

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it's not as strict as it used to be.

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And.

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I was strict adherent, adherent to the AP style and everything being perfect.

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But I've calmed down a little bit.

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And so, that's a big change.

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Another big change is the landscape of media.

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It used to be just, you know, mostly print magazines.

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There was also radio and TV broadcasts.

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But you know, about 15 years ago, kicking and screaming,

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the Newswire accepted bloggers.

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As a news source and as a result, I think they've done a 180

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because they embraced social media faster than I thought they would.

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There are Instagram influencers, for example, in the fashion arena who

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have journalists access to the wire.

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You know, because they have more influence than a lot of you know,

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journalist, editors and things like that.

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And they're looking for advanced material.

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As well.

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And that's you know, press releases and newswires are a great access for that.

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I, I see the landscape.

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Probably going to continue to change.

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I think there's gonna be a lot of cool stuff that happens with video.

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We're not there yet.

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Some people do include video collateral, but I haven't seen it

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being utilized a lot by news sources.

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But I think that that's the natural progression that we're gonna move

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from print to online to more of video and you know, multimedia delivery.

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Yeah.

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Thank you for sharing that.

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So when you're referring to video, how long can a video be,

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you know, in the press release?

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Is there like a limit of how many minutes?

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There isn't a limit with the wire though.

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It's, it's YouTube only to be embedded as a video.

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If you have a video that's not YouTube, You can provide a link, like a url,

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just like you can with anything else.

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And that would be supported, but it wouldn't be embedded

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into the actual press release.

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I, you know, I, I recommend, you know, if you, if you have a video collateral, it's,

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it's worth using, but I wouldn't stress over very much because I'm not seeing

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it giving you a huge advantage today.

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But I think it will in just a year or two.

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So what do you think is gonna change in a year or two?

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I think that right now I think the, the media hasn't determined who

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owns these rights to the video.

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That you're including.

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And I think I, I find so many places don't utilize the videos that are provided, even

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the news sources that have video and when asked, they say it's copyright clearance,

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and things like that, that you know.

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And, and, and the idea is that what you include in a press release.

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It's kind of copyright free so that a journalist can work with

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it freely and make it their own.

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And I think the video should be the same way, but for whatever reason.

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Maybe legal departments and news teams and things like that.

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They don't utilize a lot of video from clients press releases yet.

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And the thing I hear about is clearance, you know, getting the rights to the video.

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They feel like they have to have them sign a a release form.

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But that's kind of bizarre because you don't have to sign a release

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form with the press release.

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It's understood that the press releases is, is open content to be utilized.

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Yeah.

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Thanks for sharing that.

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So what are some best practices that you can share for our audience in

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terms of if they are putting together a press release, you know, one, how often

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should they put out a press release?

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Like, should it be.

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Every month, every two months, every quarter.

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I think quarterly is a attainable goal for a lot of small businesses.

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I think that you know, I, I have clients that do them monthly, but I

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think that you really have to have a framework in place that sort of easily

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allows for you to develop new press releases new subjects to talk about.

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And, you know, it, it's harder I think, for small businesses to make room

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with everything else they're doing to incorporate that kind of frequency.

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But I do think quarterly should be a goal for, for people,

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to get a release out there.

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And the types of releases, you know, they, they vary all over the place.

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A product launch is a no-brainer.

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You have a new product.

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The one thing I would advise people is a lot of the product launch press

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releases that we get are, here's the product and here's the features.

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And you gotta realize journalists are storytellers and it's really hard for

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them to build a story around a product.

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And a list of features include a use case study, someone who used the product.

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What were their results and then get a quote by them.

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All of a sudden they can say, here's this new product.

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Here's someone who used it.

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Here's what they achieved.

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Here's a quote by them, and here's some additional features.

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That's a complete story.

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There's a story arc, and I think sometimes people get preoccupied with.

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What they're doing is important to them and they want to get people to buy and

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promote it, but they don't realize that they have to sort of make it in a way

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that's appealing to the other party.

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And journalists being gatekeepers and trying to protect their audience, you

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have to make it really captivating and of interest so that it would be something

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that could be shared with that audience.

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Absolutely.

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And, how does one do that?

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Right?

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are there some specific components that , This is gonna catch the eye of

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a journalist versus a press release.

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That's not like, what are some, you know, tips on that, that you can share, right?

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So whenever you have sort of what I call soft press release, you know,

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where you're just talking about maybe forecasting trends or something in your

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industry, or talking about a subject like something that's really been trending in

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your industry might be like, you know, going green or something like that.

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I consider those softer pieces cuz it's not hard cutting news and the

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newsworthiness is, is a little low.

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Try to add data.

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Take, you can take publicly available data and put it in your release.

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It really grounds it.

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And journalists like numbers, they like data.

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Another thing that you can do and this is what I recommend with a lot of my

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clients who just feel like they're not newsworthy, is make the news Generate the

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content you know, generate the data, do a survey or study within your industry.

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It's easy to set up.

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Survey Monkey Four questions per page, four pages, 16 questions.

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Ask things that are really relevant today that anybody would say,

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Hey, I am curious in my industry if people are halting hiring or.

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Are they having difficulty with people wanting to work from home or what their

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marketing spend is over the next quarters?

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Are they cutting back?

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You know, taking the barometer of things can really help people and

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so asking really relevant questions that are very timely as of right

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now is, is a great way to do that.

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I get pushback from clients saying they don't know who

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to send the press release to.

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That's easy.

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There are hundreds if not thousands of trade associations in every industry.

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Pick a smaller independent trade association in your industry.

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Reach out to them and say, Hey, I'm doing a survey.

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Would you be willing to send this link to your members?

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If so, I will include you in a press release.

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I'll be issuing over the wire.

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So they see it as a win-win.

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The smaller and independent trade associations don't get

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a lot of media attention.

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So, them being mentioned in the press release could be a, you

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know, a real benefit for them.

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And often they'll promote it either through social media or email.

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And sometimes you're lucky enough that they'll do both.

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And, you know, once you get, I, I usually strive for 200 responses or more.

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You can sort of analyze the data, figure out.

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What are the most surprising things?

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And have some quotes ready for why you think that the the numbers skewed

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a certain way and you can make some analysis and then put together that

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into a press release and send it out.

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Generally surveys that I've been involved with, with clients, Get between eight

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and 14 articles earned media as a result.

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And these aren't like syndicated press releases where the press releases

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is replicated on lots of websites.

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That happens with everybody, but these are actual articles for a journalist

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wrote it and is completely original.

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And if there are any links, you know, it's original content linking to you,

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which is really valuable from a s e o com component as well as bringing

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you new traffic and potential leads.

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So to recap, you're saying it helps to do some, some type of market research or, you

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know, a survey and take the survey, see if you can partner up with a local train,

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you know, association in your industry and get them to, you know, have that trade

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industry, whether it's legal, industry, medical, whatever it happens to be.

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. Right.

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And it doesn't have to be local.

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It could be national if it's like, you know, there's trade associations get

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broken down into so many differences.

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Some of 'em are demographics some of them are you know, by gender.

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All these different variables.

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Just pick one that you're comfortable with.

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You know, perhaps one you belong to, but it, you don't have to belong to it.

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To, to reach out to 'em and ask and, but generally I find the smaller and

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more independent ones, usually between 20 505,000 members is the sweet spot.

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Okay.

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So then, and yeah, partner up with them.

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Let's say they agree, then you can mention them in the release

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and that's an advantage to them.

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But then you're saying the journalists like that, so they pick it up and then

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they might, some of them may write that story on their own initiative.

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And now you're getting, maybe instead of, you know, just a couple

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of inbound links, you're getting like seven to eight or more?

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Correct.

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That's, that's a great, yeah, that's a great example.

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Thank you for sharing that.

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Sure.

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So besides, you know, the obvious press releases, people do them

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to try to get media attention.

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What are some not so obvious advantages of doing a press release?

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Well, I think the biggest advantage is that everybody's so focused

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on marketing, paid marketing.

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And social media they don't think about press releases.

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Ironically, the busiest times that I have at eReleases is when we're in a downturn.

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We went through the.com crash business boomed.

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We went through the recession in 2008, 2009, business boomed, and I

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think what happens is people can no longer spend marketing dollars with

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Google and Facebook and other places.

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So they're like, what can I do with very limited funds?

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And they're like, oh, I've always heard about press releases in pr,

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but it takes so much time and energy and it, but it's not very expensive.

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And so I think that's why people turn to it when they don't have a lot of

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capital because the before their time and energy was being spent elsewhere.

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And I would say that you know, a lot of people in a lot of industries

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aren't taking advantage of press releases or if they're doing

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it, they're not doing it well.

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I see, you know, the most common press release that I get at eReleases is

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the least effective press release.

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It's the personnel change.

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There's a new hire you know, associate hr club person, or

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someone else at the company.

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With the exception of like key executives, most of these do

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not generate any media pickup.

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It just looks nice and I think that companies feel like this is kind

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of nice to the incoming employee to see a press release was on the wire.

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But you know, outside of that, You know, you might get a local two

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inch mention on, on the move and a trade publication if you're lucky,

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and perhaps maybe the local paper.

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But that's about it.

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So I would say if you're going to utilize your resources and spend

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money and go over a wire, you want to use your best ammo, and a personnel

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change is not it, you know, there are lots of other things I would do first.

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Yeah.

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Thank you so much.

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And, and I have a question.

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So, you know, let's say like, for example, I'm, actually doing this

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next week I'm launching a podcast for a client who's a lawyer.

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And you know, I produced a whole show for them and everything and we're launching

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and we're gonna do a press release.

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Cuz personally, I believe in press releases for many reasons.

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But one of the main reasons is for.

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The advantages it brings with seo, with search engine optimization and

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getting an inbound authoritative link, you know, from powerful sites.

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How would you position a press release to announce the launch of a new,

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you know, legal industry podcast That may be, you know, more opt

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for like the media to pick it up.

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Like what, what are some good elements to put in there?

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I think that The trick here is we've got a new podcast

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that we're trying to promote.

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But from the standpoint of the journalists are like, well,

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everybody's launching podcasts.

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What's so different about this one?

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So is it the story?

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You know, it could be being authentic and sharing the story of the, you

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know, people behind the podcast.

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It could be inspirational or overcoming obstacles or just

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being vulnerable and real.

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You know, that, that could potentially be an arc into a story.

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But you know, just.

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What, what, working with what you've got, where, where, what are the potential

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stories that you could promote that an audience would find captivating?

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Is it, some of the cases that the principles have, have done in the past?

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Or is it some analysis that they have?

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Like if there's something trending right now in the legal landscape?

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And , the people behind this podcast are contrarians, which

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I love as a in the media.

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And pr being a contrarian is, is really great.

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And maybe they have a contrarian viewpoint.

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So putting that front and center and then mentioning the

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podcast being launched as well.

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That could be a way to sort of, you know, put the pill in the cheese so to speak,

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so that they really will respond to the contrarian aspect and then buy into

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the podcast and promote that as well.

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Other things that I, I find work really well are yearly predictions, top 10 list.

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Things like that.

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So if there's something with the podcast that has an angle like

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that, you could potentially do it.

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One thing that I've seen other podcasts people do is build the

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Top 10 podcast for their industry and put their podcast in it.

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But then surround it with nine other really leading podcasts in that industry.

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And as a result, it's content that's very easy to copy and paste, and journalists

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love stuff that's almost ready.

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So all they have to do is copy and paste it.

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So if you've done the work of, of pulling together a top 10 list

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or something like that, that's another great way to stand out.

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You are there with nine other podcasts, but the, the likelihood.

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It getting out there to a lot of places and potentially you getting traffic

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as a result of it could be high.

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So, it, it's one of the cases where sometimes being with potential

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competitors has an advantage.

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That's a great tip.

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I love that.

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But I'm just thinking, if you're a new show, can you really say you're a top 10,

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I might wait a few months after the launch, before I, I did the top 10

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industry podcast, but It is one thing to keep in mind cause I have seen that

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work really well for a lot of other people where they they're a marketing

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podcasts and they do a roundup of the top 10, and they're all names that you

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recognize except for pretty much them.

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But, you know, as a result it gets, the whole thing gets copy and pasted

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and used by a lot of journalists and websites and as, as free content.

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So, it, it's a great way to sort of get some exposure out there.

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Yeah, I think I'm kind of wrapping my head around all this stuff.

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It's just interesting cuz I, I do marketing and marketing strategy, but

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that makes sense because whenever I see a lot of these articles that are shared,

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And, you know, picked up and, and by different, , platforms, it is like tips.

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It's like 10 social media apps and tools.

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It's 10 this, it's 10 that.

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So I mean, yeah, I can see that, that makes sense.

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So, and I think that's the thing, people have to get more creative with their

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press releases instead of, I've seen the ones that you're talking about,

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oh, we have a new marketing director, we have a new coo o o or whatever.

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And.

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So thanks for sharing that.

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Can you talk a little bit about, the SEO part of press releases?

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Because to me, Whenever I recommend clients do press releases, that's

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one of the primary reasons, because you know, more than

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likely you can do press releases.

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You may get picked up, but it doesn't mean you're gonna get picked up by the media.

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It's like, it's like putting it out there and seeing if it happens.

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Obviously the way that you write the press release can have a big impact on

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that, but, It's not anything that anyone should promise anyone, but more so it's

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like what's, what are like the facts?

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What's the reality?

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The reality is when you have a press release out there, you're getting an

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inbound link back to your website from a news related site that has high authority.

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So can you talk to us a little bit about that?

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Sure.

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So anytime a press release goes out, it gets syndicated where the press release

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gets replicated on various news sites.

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Google has in the past said that it doesn't convey much in the way of SEO

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benefit, but despite that, people see in their logs and their traffic that they

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do get bumps from it, and it does help.

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And a lot of the links, for example, from the Newswire itself and a few other

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websites will last a really long time.

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And I think that that's, really valuable to have that happen.

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What I do say is that, If you get an original article written about

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you that links to you, that's, that's definitely going to convey

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a lot of, of SEO juice to you.

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I had one client with just a local auto repair shop in Pennsylvania.

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They had a new website.

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Their old one was tied to the yellow pages and it went dark.

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And so they had to get a new domain name.

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They weren't ranking in their area.

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And a SEO guy came to me and said, do you think you could help?

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And I'm like, Potentially.

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I said, what kind of links are you looking for?

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And they said, auto industry links would be great.

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And I'm like, perfect.

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A survey.

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So we did a survey.

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We asked among all the questions, one that was open-ended, what's the

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strangest thing a client has left in their car while being repaired?

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It was sent out to independent auto repair trade association.

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We got a few hundred responses.

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All of the ones for that question were not statistically relevant because

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every response was unique, but what we did is we put together like the top 50.

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Of the weirdest things people left in their car.

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And that was the press release.

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And it got picked up by over a dozen auto industry.

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Trade publications got picked up by their local newspaper as well,

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and a few other little newspapers thought it was a cute story.

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They all didn't run with all 50, but they would pick and choose what they

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thought were the most interesting of the things that were left.

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And it worked extremely well.

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Within two to three months, they were ranking number one in their

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area with a brand new domain name.

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And really the core of the back links were just auto industry links.

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So , it can be a really powerful thing.

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And you know, despite that there are places that generally don't link to you.

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Like the New York Times rarely links to anybody, but I've had them

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link to clients in their articles.

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Where they built out a resource page that had a lot of information

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having to do with a survey.

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It's like, here's all the questions, here's all the

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responses, here's some analysis.

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It was just a very valuable page and the New York Times linked to it.

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So if you build out really good, powerful pages, the media will reward it by

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often leaking to it in their articles.

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But even if they don't, you know, there it's still.

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Exposure for you.

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And Google says that they still give you page rank even when your domain name

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doesn't occur in an article that they have a patent where they can contextually

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tell that if a New York Times article is talking about eReleases and they know

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that that's definitely eReleases, press release services based on the context,

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then they will treat that as a link to you even though there is no link in it.

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Yeah, that's powerful.

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. I see the links reflect on s e m Rush when I look on the backend, you know, it,

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they, they do show up and they do count as the higher authority links, which, you

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know, those are hard to get, so I think if you can do press release and pay a

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little bit of money, but also you have the ability to, to, reach media, you have

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the ability to rank higher organically.

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Cuz I think if you're strategic with how you write the content, how you write

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the title, You can also end up ranking on page one, even if it's, you know,

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not permanent, but at the time being for, you know, particular keywords.

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I think that's, that's key also.

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Excellent.

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So what else, what else did you wanna share about press releases that our

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audience might find interesting?

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You know, any.

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Any final thoughts?

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Any, any other tips that you wanted to give out?

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Well, I think one of the most valuable things about going over

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a wire is the ability of leverage.

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We had a PR firm reach out to us early in the pandemic and said,

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we're doing something called the Dining Bond Initiative.

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We're not making money here.

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It's basically a a very short-lived effort where we're going to try to match people

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to their favorite restaurant, which is likely closed because of the pandemic.

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And if we can get in touch with them.

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And they're willing to accept People can make a donation and it would

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go immediately to the restaurant.

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It'd be secured through like a gift certificate or what

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they called a dining bond.

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And we did the press release at no charge to them normally would've cost

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probably $400 to go out through us.

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And they got over 150 articles.

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The Wall Street Journal barons I think the New York Times, Washington

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Post, all the big publications, lots of small publications.

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We actually stopped counting local newspapers once we got over 150 combined.

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And all of it was just through one press release and it generated

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excess of 10 million in revenue.

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And that is an extreme example.

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I think it worked really well because it was positive news at a

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time of uncertainty and negativity.

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And here was something actionable as well where you could actually help out

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your, your favorite local restaurant.

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And it was a really cool concept, lived for a very short period

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of time, but it, it was able to get exposure incredibly fast.

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Incredibly cheap by utilizing the wire.

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And, and I think that's the, the real advantage of a press release.

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If you have something that's extremely newsworthy, just hitting send can get

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you out to a lot of different places, and the results can really be amazing.

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And, and I think that that's the opportunity that's there if you just

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sort of take advantage of it and work on strategic types of press releases.

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And , I have a free masterclass that teaches how to build out these

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strategic types of press releases.

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It's about an hour long video training, and it's completely

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free at ereleases.com/plan.

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P L A n.

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I'm really all about educating my clients to do more strategic types of releases,

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and I do encourage anybody who's new to PR to go through that sort of with

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an idea of being, you know, auditing your own company and seeing if you

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can't come up with probably six really good ideas that you could do strategic

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press releases and avoid the press releases that don't get media pickup.

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Yeah, I love that because if you're gonna do it, you might as well do

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it right and be strategic about it.

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You know, everything's about having a strategy and if you wanna

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see the results, so I love that.

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And for that webinar too, I will put it in the show notes for our audience so

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that they can sign up and check it out.

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I would be interested in signing up for it myself, you know,

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because I want the rest of the tips that weren't shared today.

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What other resources do you have or any other ways like, you know, like, let us

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know where people can go and check out the eReleases website, how they can sign up.

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And also I would love to know a little bit more about.

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I know the prices may change, but like the different plans,

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I was looking on the website.

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It wasn't clear to me.

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I saw the pricing plans.

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It just wasn't clear how many releases are included.

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Like do you have packages where they get a certain number of releases for the year?

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Something like that.

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If someone wants more than just one, right?

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All of our prices are all a carte, it starts at 3 99.

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Runs up to 6 99 per press release.

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We do have a new customer special where you save about 30% off of your first

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order, and you can, can buy packages of releases at that discount at the, at the

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time that you place the order, or within 30 days of placing your first order.

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It is pricey, but the, the thing is you're reaching a, a news wire that

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normally costs $1,500 per breast release.

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So it's a, it's a really good value from that standpoint, and

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the Newswire can really open you up if you have strategic news that

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potentially could, could catapult you into getting several articles.

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Yeah, I think all businesses and, you know, entrepreneurs, lawyers, doctors

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who have their own private practice, things like that, they should all be

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doing press releases at least quarterly.

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That's, that's my opinion.

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I mean, for one of my clients, if we do them more often, because we just, I

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remember we got a package at the end of last year and you know, we do them every

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six weeks because that's a good way.

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To get more traffic coming back to the website.

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So I think people, it's, I think press releases is something

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that people forget about.

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They always think about things like TikTok and Instagram, LinkedIn, but

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press releases are like a powerful, you know, resource and tool to use as part

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of the marketing plan and strategy.

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But Mickey, I always think like people forget about press releases and, and

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it's good that we're doing this episode.

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To remind them.

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Sure.

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And another thing on the website e ereleases.com, we have press

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release templates a writing guide for how to write a press release.

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We have chat, phone, email.

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No salespeople, just editors.

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So feel free to reach out in whatever way you want.

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And we can walk you through the process and talk you through where,

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where to find the right resources on our website to help you.

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Awesome.

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Thank you so much.

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We'll put everything in the show notes for our audience and

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thank you for being on the show.

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Oh, you're very welcome.

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Thank you for listening to the Mesmerizing Marketing Podcast.

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If you found this episode valuable, please subscribe to the show so

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you don't ever miss an episode and also share it with your friends.

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Dimple would be so grateful if you could take a minute to leave a review

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and visit the podcast website to check out all the latest episodes.

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At www.mesmerizingmarketingpodcast.com.

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That's www.mesmerizingmarketingpodcast.com.

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And follow Dimple on Clubhouse.

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Her handle is Marketing Expert and also join her mesmerizing marketing club.

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Also on Clubhouse for live rooms, on top marketing strategies for

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entrepreneurs and business owners who want to mesmerize their marketing.

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Mesmerizing Marketing™
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Mesmerizing Marketing™ Podcast talks about the latest and most innovative marketing strategies, apps and brings actionable tips and strategies that you can implement to take your business to the next level.
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Dimple Dang

Dimple Dang is a passionate marketing expert that helps law firms, doctors, entrepreneurs, and small businesses take their marketing to the next level. Dimple is the Host of “Mesmerizing Marketing” and the founder of the “Reels for Lawyers Challenge” Dimple is skilled at SEO, WordPress website design, content creation, blogging, and Instagram. Dimple is also a contributing editor for “Attorney-at-Law” magazine and writes articles on online marketing and social media for the legal industry. Dimple is the founder of the “Lawyers Mastermind” club on Clubhouse and the “Mesmerizing Marketing™” club on Clubhouse. Dimple has an extensive sales and marketing background and has sold over a million dollars in PPC marketing when she was working for a nationwide marketing firm. Dimple is a professional speaker and hosts her own rooms on the Clubhouse on a regular basis. To connect with Dimple on Clubhouse, search for her by name or the handle @marketingexpert.