0:16

Howdy . Welcome back to the Unknown Secrets of

0:18

Internet Marketing . I am your host , matt

0:20

Bertram . As some of you noticed

0:23

, you're maybe looking for the podcast I

0:25

have changed the podcast cover . I am working on

0:27

the intro . For those of you that watch on YouTube

0:30

but be looking for

0:32

our new cover and just

0:34

recognize that , I am going to try to push that

0:36

out there and advertise it . But since

0:39

Chris is no longer hosting

0:41

the show , I thought it was time

0:43

to put together a little bit of a brand

0:45

refresh . So just please

0:47

look for that , check that out . And

0:50

today , as we've been talking about

0:52

PR , I found

0:54

another great guest that can talk really

0:56

about comms and PR

1:00

strategy and how it fits into the bigger picture

1:02

. I know a lot of you know that I've

1:04

written the Build your Brand Mania book

1:07

. That was my first book about five years ago talking

1:09

about how to build that know , like and trust

1:11

online , and so I continued

1:14

with that theme . I wanted to

1:16

introduce y'all to Justin

1:19

Goldstein

1:21

.

1:22

How are you doing ?

1:23

Justin , All right . So Justin

1:25

, with PR 73

1:27

, has worked with some awesome

1:29

companies like Uber , ARP , General

1:31

Motors . He's been mentioned in

1:34

Ad Age Forbes PR Week

1:36

. He's really an expert on

1:39

PR strategy and also

1:42

how that fits into the bigger flywheel

1:44

mix , and so I wanted to bring Justin

1:46

on to kind of talk through

1:48

some of that and share some of his

1:50

expertise . So , Justin , welcome to the show . Thanks

1:53

so much for having me . Now , Justin

1:55

, just to kind of credentialize yourself

1:57

a little bit more . I think I did that , but

1:59

if there's anything else you would like to add and kind

2:01

of share with you in the audience

2:03

your origin story , that would be . That would be awesome

2:06

, just to kind of hear how you

2:08

came to be where you're at .

2:10

Sure , yeah Well , thanks so much for having me , matthew

2:12

, and you know I've been in the communication

2:15

space I think PR and marketing

2:17

for over 10 years now . You

2:19

know I started at a small agency , went

2:21

to a midsize firm and then I launched PR73

2:25

, which formally is known as Press Record

2:27

Communication . So if you Google my name , you'll probably

2:29

see my name associated with the old firm name . But

2:33

yeah , we've been at it for a little

2:35

over five years now , as you mentioned , working with

2:37

some really cool clients like ARP

2:39

, the Consumer Product Safety Commission , the

2:41

New York Public Library , american Bar Association

2:44

some really big names and some smaller

2:46

names too , but ultimately having a lot of

2:48

fun doing it and looking forward to what the future

2:50

holds too .

2:52

Well , awesome . Well , I think to like kind of kick

2:54

off this conversation , whether you're a small

2:56

business , owner , enterprise , startup

2:58

, you know a lot of we're talking to

3:01

a lot of PE companies or

3:03

even venture capital . We're talking to a lot of

3:06

PE companies or even venture capital when

3:19

you're starting out and no one knows who you are or who your brand is , or maybe they

3:21

do know who you are , but you're trying to change that messaging . Establishing trust is so important

3:24

with your audience and your right target persona , and so I was hoping we could just kind

3:26

of create some definitions around how to look at trust in general

3:28

, how to establish trust in the online space today 100%

3:31

, you know .

3:32

I think trust is

3:34

ultimately the critical component

3:36

of what is going to allow

3:38

any online practitioner

3:40

to get customers and clients , because

3:43

if people don't believe in the product that

3:45

you're putting out and the person

3:47

that you are as a professional , they're not going

3:49

to choose you . And there's a lot of different

3:51

aspects of trust . I mean we found in our own industry

3:53

, in a research report that we launched earlier

3:56

this year , that trust is actually a really big

3:58

issue across the communication space

4:00

right now , where you know teams don't

4:03

necessarily it's of course , not for every organization

4:05

, but teams don't necessarily , of course , not for every organization but teams don't necessarily trust

4:07

each other internally as well as the message

4:10

that's being sent out externally by

4:12

the companies that they work for , and so

4:14

I think that , in order

4:17

to show success , not only

4:19

from a business perspective , in terms of generating

4:21

revenue , but also career trajectory , it's

4:23

really important to have the trust

4:25

of your colleagues , your key audiences

4:28

, internally and externally , and looking to

4:30

move the ball forward from there .

4:32

I was on a panel discussion last night

4:34

and we were talking about the millennial generation

4:36

and how to communicate those

4:38

messages to the

4:40

middle body of people that are looking for

4:42

it and how to communicate it down on

4:45

organization . And you're , you're absolutely right

4:47

, Um , in in a number of previous

4:49

discussions I've had , comms don't always talk

4:51

to each other . And they're , they're , they're working , um

4:54

, not in concert , but but in a silo

4:56

, and it's really about breaking down those silos

4:58

. Uh , and really

5:00

what ? What is the goal of the

5:02

communications you're trying to do ? Whether it be recruiting

5:05

, whether it be internal communication to get

5:07

everybody in a big organization on the same page , whether

5:10

it be changing public policy or

5:12

influencing public policy , as we're in

5:14

an election cycle , or to sell

5:16

, there's different goals of

5:19

what these organizations

5:22

or teams are doing . These

5:27

organizations or teams are doing , and a lot of times they don't talk , but

5:29

there's really a way to harmonize the brand message where it resonates across

5:32

multiple channels .

5:34

Yeah , 100% , and I really like the point

5:36

you made about silos . I think it speaks to

5:38

a larger issue

5:40

in organizations generally

5:43

, when they do have a creative partner , whether it

5:45

be PR marketing , is that the

5:47

PR marketing work that's being done doesn't

5:49

necessarily get transmitted to

5:52

all stakeholders in the organization

5:54

and different departments , especially at

5:56

the beginning when the project starts . And so

5:58

what often happens is the

6:01

creative partner will bring a recommendation to

6:03

the organization and their point person

6:05

will understand it . Even their direct

6:07

team or their boss might understand it , but other

6:09

departments that have to enact the actual work

6:11

don't necessarily trust it because they

6:14

don't know who the outside entity is

6:16

. They barely know who the internal person is

6:18

as the point person for the organization , and

6:21

so I think the more those silos

6:23

are broken down , the more there's an opportunity for

6:25

that communication and connectivity to happen and

6:28

for that trust to be built up .

6:30

Yeah , so . So when

6:33

you're you're seeing this in a lot of different

6:35

organizations that that you're dealing with , I mean

6:37

, when you're approaching organization and you're you're

6:39

coming on , they've recognized they need a problem

6:42

or there's a message out there that needs to

6:44

be communicated a little bit differently or positioned

6:46

, and you're

6:48

looking at like , okay , what

6:51

does this media landscape look like ? I mean , are

6:53

you doing like

6:55

a industry , like surveying

6:58

or audit of what's

7:00

going on , or how is this

7:02

message going to be received ? Is there some testing

7:05

that's maybe happening , sample testing

7:07

, before you're pushing out messages

7:10

globally in

7:12

some cases , right , how

7:15

does that when you're approaching

7:18

a client , or how should a client , even

7:20

internally , look at it if they're trying to address

7:22

something like this ?

7:24

Yeah . So I think there's a few steps to

7:26

take . There's probably more that

7:28

I can think of , but I think initially , some

7:30

things that are pretty commonplace

7:33

is to your point . One is to take a look

7:35

at the landscape of your audiences

7:38

, internal and external , depending on who you're

7:40

looking to reach with your message , and getting

7:42

an understanding of what

7:44

those demographics want and need and

7:46

who is involved in those demographics . So anything

7:48

down to their age range

7:50

, their education level , but then going to

7:52

their expertise and buying

7:56

habits , whatever it might be . So that's step one .

7:58

Step two is you definitely want to look at what your competitors are

8:00

doing .

8:01

So getting an understanding of what

8:03

their messaging is really helps

8:05

to , I think you

8:09

know , align with what you're doing as well

8:11

. So that one you don't necessarily want to copy them , but

8:13

you can at least let it influence the kind of messaging

8:15

development that you yourself are doing internally

8:17

. And then , three , I think

8:19

it's also understanding what are the long-term objectives

8:22

of the organization that you're working

8:24

with . So you know , you might have

8:26

a brilliant messaging or message

8:28

point in mind and it might match

8:30

what the audience wants , but if it's not satisfying

8:33

the overall organizational goal , there's got to be

8:35

a better match there .

8:37

Man , you know that makes me think

8:39

back to , like , social media , content

8:41

planning , Like , and I know that that's something

8:44

part of the flywheel that we'll get into it . But

8:46

a lot of times when we're first

8:48

working with maybe some small business

8:50

clients , they they'll

8:53

just post random stuff on

8:55

their on their business page

8:57

, right . That is not tied

8:59

into a broader message , right ? And

9:01

so there's a lot of education

9:03

that comes in on how

9:05

to approach communicating this

9:08

message part of a broader story , helping

9:10

people kind of get those insights and

9:14

see what's happening . And so when

9:16

you think about , like , content strategy

9:18

or mastering media relations , how

9:21

do you look at that ? I mean , I know it's about feeding the algorithm

9:24

and you got to warm up some

9:26

of these accounts and these messages and topical authorities

9:28

. And this also plays into SEO , which

9:31

which I talk about a lot . I'm just

9:33

curious , what is your angle when you

9:35

, when you , come at that ?

9:37

It's an interesting question . You know

9:39

, I think content

9:42

development and media relations can collaborate

9:44

, but they could also be separate in terms

9:47

of the masters that they're serving . So when

9:49

you look at content development , that's a little bit more of an

9:51

own channel , as you know , and I'm sure your listeners

9:53

know as well where you're trying

9:55

to drive engagement with the audience

9:57

to say , simply visit your website , your social

10:00

channels , whatever it might be , channels

10:04

, whatever it might be , whereas media relations can certainly feed into that . But you're also trying to

10:06

connect with a reporter and give them what they need for

10:08

their story , which might not necessarily match

10:10

what the content

10:12

is looking to achieve in terms of the channel

10:15

engagement . So it's

10:17

kind of balancing the goals there and

10:19

understanding that sometimes you have to sacrifice

10:21

one for the other , especially

10:24

, I would say , more so on the media relations front . You

10:26

know we've definitely had multiple instances with clients

10:28

where they have a fantastic

10:31

piece of content . It doesn't necessarily

10:33

resonate with a reporter . The reporter wants to talk about

10:35

something else and it definitely benefits their

10:37

brand to do so and will help with their overall

10:39

branding in the longterm . But sometimes

10:41

they can't see past that initial content

10:44

request and it not going anywhere and feeling a little

10:46

bit rejected because of that . So

10:48

you got to kind of coach them through it and

10:50

show them you know the forest through the trees

10:53

and what the value is in terms of

10:55

again sacrificing one for the other

10:57

.

10:58

So to just expand on that a little bit more , when

11:03

you think about media relations , right , those

11:06

reporters have a goal they're trying to hit , or

11:08

a blogger's trying to hit a certain amount of numbers , or they have

11:10

a story they're trying to reach . This

11:13

is actually the same . When you think about different

11:15

social media platforms A lot of people don't know

11:18

this . Linkedin actually has a content

11:20

calendar of things that they're trying to promote and

11:22

things that they'll highlight and even boost in the

11:24

algorithm . If you line up with that

11:26

. That happens with podcasts too , like different

11:29

seasonal things that come out . If you can align

11:31

that , you can submit these

11:33

things to get a greater visibility

11:36

. And so , really , if you're like saying

11:38

, hey , it's about establishing rapport

11:40

, right , cause also people do business with

11:42

people they know I can trust , and so if they

11:44

know your company , they know what you do , you

11:47

have this kind of working rapport with them , there's

11:49

a greater chance that they'll think about you for

11:51

a quote or picking something up . And so

11:53

establishing media

11:56

relations or like who

11:58

you're going to be contacting , where it's just not a

12:00

cold call , basically right , you're like sending

12:03

a pitch and it's a cold call is

12:05

really , I think , pretty important

12:07

. And then also asking them what

12:09

do they need ? And then look at your broader

12:11

strategy and figure out what

12:14

content you have that fits in that right

12:17

, and then if there's something you want to highlight

12:19

as you build that relationship , they may say , hey

12:21

, there might be an opportunity to highlight this down

12:23

the road , right , and so , um

12:25

, I think that like , okay , you can send

12:28

a press release , of course , and you can

12:30

get your message out there and you can see what

12:32

pickups happen . And if you write a really uh

12:34

, good , good article that helps them write their story

12:36

, that that's helpful . But if you're really trying to

12:38

get placements and move it forward , you

12:41

can't look at it as , like this , one

12:43

independent thing . You have to zoom out

12:45

and look at it as a broader media

12:48

relationship strategy as well

12:50

as a content strategy , where you're planning it

12:52

out for a long haul and maybe

12:54

you try to insert those things . I mean , can

12:57

you tell me ? Like , when I look at it , I think like

12:59

, okay , if you want to get your message out there

13:01

, okay , you're going to do advertising . You're

13:03

going to advertise . You can say whatever you want to say to

13:05

whoever you want to say it on whatever platform . But

13:08

like social media as well

13:10

as um like

13:12

press or or , uh you

13:14

know , media . It's

13:16

more about getting that visibility on

13:18

a third party platform or from a third

13:20

party person to , to see it in a way

13:23

, and and and that

13:25

is not just your goals , right , that

13:27

, that's your goals and their goals . And

13:29

so how do you , how do you structure

13:31

that , I like ? I mean , when a company comes to you with

13:34

like , hey , we want to do this , how

13:37

do you like lay out that roadmap for

13:39

them ? Or ? Or look at it in a broader context

13:41

, cause sometimes you don't get that quick win

13:43

immediately , right , you can't just run

13:45

an ad and boom , you got it out there . It's

13:47

a different- , yeah 100% , 100%

13:49

.

13:50

So I think you brought up a really good point , a

13:52

couple of really good points . One is which that you

13:54

have to understand , going into it , that you're

13:56

not necessarily going to get an immediate

13:58

win tomorrow , and that also

14:01

PR in general is there more

14:03

so as a business support than a make

14:05

or break . So you know . Again

14:07

, when we're talking about media coverage , for example , media

14:10

coverage is a fantastic

14:12

piece of content for what

14:14

I call the social proof flywheel . I

14:16

don't know if that's trademarked or not , so don't quote me on

14:18

it being mine , but just using it as

14:20

an example . Now you

14:22

know it's a fantastic piece for that right , because

14:25

ultimately you can use that in your outbound

14:27

DM campaigns for LinkedIn , let's say your newsletters

14:30

even your marketing , your paid marketing , and

14:33

so it all builds up for

14:35

the longer term objective of building

14:37

your business . But it's not necessarily going

14:39

to make or break it in 30 days , let's say

14:41

so . That's part one , you know . Part two

14:43

is also understanding that PR isn't

14:46

just writing press releases . Some people

14:48

have that misconception that if you write and

14:50

distribute , say , five to 10 press releases

14:52

, a year . You're going to get a ton of SEO

14:54

, you're going to get all these new business

14:56

inquiries , and ultimately it doesn't work that

14:59

way . A lot of times press

15:01

releases are hit or miss , especially on the wire

15:03

services . You might get a reporter request

15:05

, you might get a new business lead from it , but ultimately

15:07

it's there is more of a proof document that you

15:09

know what you're saying is official , and

15:12

and so

15:14

I look at the press release as more of

15:16

a supporting asset . Right ? So when you go to

15:18

reporters , when you go to prospects , you can share

15:20

it as a proof point , but it's not meant to

15:23

solicit or generate inbound

15:25

leads of any kind , in my opinion .

15:28

So just random question is all

15:31

good press , is all press

15:33

, good press ? Like if you get bad press

15:35

, is all good press ? Bad press because you have the

15:37

attention and you can spin it or how

15:39

you how do ? You approach that .

15:41

Two pronged answer to that , um , I would say one is

15:44

it's how good you are at PR

15:46

on your own , um , and also if

15:48

you have an agency helping you . I personally

15:51

don't believe that all good , all press , is

15:53

good press . Um , you know

15:55

, there are some people where bad

15:57

press fits into the brand that they're

15:59

trying to build , in a sense , because they're trying to be

16:01

like an anti hero or something like that , but

16:04

for most people I wouldn't advise it . You know you

16:06

really want to try to generate press

16:08

that's , of course , productive and positive

16:10

and , you know , try to avoid

16:12

the negative press situations and not

16:15

get into a situation where mentally , you

16:17

know , you feel like you have free freedom

16:20

to do whatever you want , especially if you work for another

16:22

organization right , or

16:24

even your family right , like you're always

16:26

representing somebody else unless

16:28

you're truly , you know , out of your

16:30

own , single no kids , no significant other

16:32

, no family whatsoever , which you

16:35

know , hopefully , is not the case for most people . You're

16:38

always representing somebody else and so

16:40

, yes , perhaps there are instances where

16:42

the negative press doesn't impact

16:44

you personally in terms of your day to day , for you

16:47

but it can impact your loved ones and those around you

16:49

, and so , yeah , I would say , stay

16:51

away from that .

16:52

Good point , so okay . So say you're in a

16:54

crisis management situation . How

16:56

do you know that you're in a crisis management

16:58

situation , right , if someone's thinking out there like

17:00

something bad's going on right now ? I don't really

17:02

know what to do about it . Tell

17:05

me about , like , what that situation might look

17:07

like where you're saying , hey , I might need to get in

17:09

touch with a representative and then , two , how

17:12

should you approach it ? Or , like

17:14

, how do you start the process

17:17

of saying , okay , we got a bunch of bad press

17:19

, we need to do something about it . What

17:21

are those steps ? To start kind

17:23

of putting out the fire , if you will .

17:25

Yeah , absolutely so . I think there's

17:27

two ways to measure that One is

17:29

getting an understanding

17:31

of is the press damaging

17:33

your brand for the longterm and how

17:35

big of a deal is this , knowing your business

17:38

and your internal team ? So it's

17:40

funny because I had a family friend that called up

17:42

asking for help for something

17:44

crisis related earlier this week , or maybe

17:46

it was last week . I was tracking the time these days and

17:49

after talking

17:52

through it with him , we kind of realized that

17:54

in the moment it feels like

17:56

something really bad , but in a week

17:58

from now , if it's not appearing on Google , let's say

18:00

if it's not easily findable , is

18:03

it something that's really going to impact you ? Where

18:05

you have to spend the money on crisis PR , because

18:07

crisis PR is expensive , you

18:10

know , because the crisis PR

18:12

teams that are out there are working long hours , they're putting

18:14

a lot of man and woman power into the work that's

18:16

being done , and

18:19

so it's a lot of money and a lot of budget . So you have to

18:21

really assess whether this is something that's

18:23

going to be a long term problem or just stings

18:25

for the day and

18:30

then it goes away . You

18:40

know , I think it's always suggested that if you feel an inkling of there being a potential situation

18:42

. It's always good to talk to a crisis expert just to make sure that you're on the same page and like

18:44

, pay that fee to . You know , have that 30 to 60 minute conversation just to make sure and

18:46

if both parties feel like there's something worth activating

18:48

on , then make a decision . But yeah , I would

18:50

say , at the very least , if there's even

18:52

a chance that it might be something bigger , you

18:54

definitely want to try to speak to an expert to make sure

18:57

that it isn't or it is and

18:59

you have to do something about it .

19:01

And that leads into the conversation about maybe

19:03

reputation management right , so like maybe

19:05

put in money in the social bank

19:07

and having your brand represented a

19:09

certain way before you need

19:11

it to be . And also , really

19:14

, when I look at reputation management

19:17

, I'm looking at gaining reviews

19:19

, making sure that when people search for

19:21

you , when they're kind of peeling the onion

19:23

back , like looking into your brand , they

19:26

see good things . Right , and that takes

19:28

a little bit of crafting

19:30

as far as getting getting

19:32

out the good stories early , because many

19:35

times people only share the negative and so

19:37

sometimes you have to draw out that positive

19:39

. How would you approach reputation

19:41

management from a PR standpoint ?

19:45

It's a very detailed process

19:47

so it's kind of hard to , you

19:50

know , boil it down into

19:52

a 30 , 60 second response . But what I would

19:54

say is that the first thing we want to

19:56

do and I mentioned this just a minute

19:58

ago is to have that initial call to

20:01

really go through what the situation is

20:03

, what the potential impact of the business is

20:06

, who are the audiences that are going in

20:08

the real estate sector ? And she

20:10

had a couple of teams leave her and

20:24

we went through that whole process of what

20:26

does that mean for your business that the teams are leaving . Was

20:28

there any bad blood ? What are

20:30

the factors that we need to know in terms of

20:32

the brand impact and

20:35

the business impact ? And so , going

20:37

through those questions , it's

20:39

really important to do that and

20:41

also understanding again

20:43

this goes back to what I was saying earlier about how big of a

20:45

deal this is , how proactive and reactive

20:47

you want to be about this , right ? So an

20:49

example of being proactive is do you want to go

20:51

to the press and say something , or

20:54

is it better not to do that because you might shine a light

20:56

on something you don't necessarily want to shine that light on

20:58

, so reactive would be . Let's

21:00

prepare a couple of statements one

21:02

for the founders or founder of a company

21:04

to have , and then the other statement for the broader team

21:07

to have to answer any questions for clients

21:09

, prospects , press , whatever it might

21:11

be . So this way you're ready to go but

21:13

you're reacting to it versus proactively

21:16

bringing attention to it . So it all kind

21:18

of depends on the situation , but

21:20

I think the key there is being prepared

21:22

and having you know

21:26

reference documents ready to go in case

21:28

something does pop up , and that's the very least

21:30

that you should probably do .

21:32

I love that . I think that that's a great actionable step having

21:34

a preparation document

21:37

of what to say if you are contacted

21:40

or if the word gets out there

21:42

. Because social media is so powerful

21:44

today and it

21:46

shapes a lot of people's perceptions and

21:49

the algorithm just wants engagement

21:51

right . So you

21:53

know , things can get carried away pretty quickly

21:56

online and can kind

21:58

of take it in a direction , and you should

22:00

be prepared in case those sort of things happen

22:02

. So I want to switch gears

22:05

a little bit because I think that something

22:07

that would be really valuable for

22:09

a lot of people that listen are probably thinking okay

22:13

, I have a business and this

22:15

is all good , and maybe this doesn't affect me . Maybe some

22:17

people are like this is affecting me , this is really helpful . But

22:19

a lot of people are like , okay , I want to win

22:21

new business , I

22:23

want to manage my clients in

22:25

a one-to-many situation . How

22:28

can PR help me do that if I'm trying

22:30

to decide where all my resources are going

22:32

to go ? How should I be doing PR

22:34

and what are some like maybe

22:37

proven steps to win those

22:39

long-term clients or to get that social

22:41

proof that you need that sort of thing ?

22:42

Yeah , there are a couple of quick ways that I would

22:45

recommend . So one is definitely hiring a

22:47

team or expert to help craft your

22:49

messaging , because that messaging

22:51

can bleed into the sales messaging that you're

22:53

actually using to generate leads . The

22:55

second I would say is media coverage is

22:57

a fan and I think I mentioned this earlier in the interview

22:59

is a fantastic asset for

23:02

not

23:05

only top of funnel but middle of funnel , meaning

23:07

that you know , oftentimes

23:09

when we're trying to generate business , we have

23:11

some somewhat bland messages because we're

23:14

strapped for time . We don't have a lot of time to put into , like

23:16

writing a really unique message , which

23:18

everyone , including myself , always tries to do better

23:20

about . But , like , once you have a piece

23:22

of media coverage , it makes your life so much easier

23:24

because then you can go to that prospect and say hey

23:27

, so-and-so great to connect on LinkedIn . Wanted

23:29

to flag this piece of coverage . I got in the Wall Street Journal

23:31

talking about XYZ , which I know relates

23:33

to what you're doing , thought you'd enjoy it . Let's connect

23:36

. So , right there you're having , you're

23:38

providing social proof and you're also um

23:41

showcasing that you have expertise in the

23:43

space and that helps to start the conversation

23:45

. The middle of the conversation or middle of the funnel

23:47

part of it is okay . You've had a couple of conversations

23:50

. Now you need something back to engage

23:52

the prospect with , to keep them in your funnel

23:54

and keep them engaged . And that's where

23:56

media coverage comes in . You share that piece

23:58

of media coverage in an email and say hey , so-and-so , hope

24:00

all's well . Since we last chatted , I

24:03

actually got featured in the Wall Street Journal since then talking

24:05

about this . Thought you'd enjoy it , wanted

24:08

to send it over in case it's helpful . Can we

24:10

connect next week and I can walk you through how I

24:12

got this piece of coverage and what it means

24:14

for you . That's

24:19

a way to keep them engaged . So those are two really quick ways to do it . There's definitely more , but

24:21

I think in the short term , when you're first getting started , those are probably the

24:23

easiest ways that you can do it .

24:25

Yeah , I think that when you're

24:27

well , when

24:29

you have that piece of content , it

24:32

becomes a sales so

24:34

okay . So going back to Google , right , so

24:36

Google , how they look at everything is through

24:39

a framework called EAT expertise

24:41

, authority and trust right

24:43

. And so anytime that you can

24:45

get that authority from a third party to

24:47

give you kind of that

24:53

interview

24:57

that

24:59

I did

25:01

about for

25:04

the media , when you're connecting with the media

25:06

, if there's experiential knowledge

25:10

or statistics or anything that is

25:12

not publicly available that you can

25:14

share in that press release or share with

25:17

the media related to whatever they're trying to do

25:20

, is really quite powerful

25:22

. And so you

25:25

got to get that media coverage right to be able

25:27

to use the media coverage . So it's like a little bit of a I

25:30

guess , a chicken and the egg , but really

25:32

hitting on that authority . If other

25:34

people can say it Again , I think

25:36

awards , winning awards , are

25:38

part of like a PR

25:40

opportunity , like I don't think a lot of people

25:42

think about that , you know , I mean the BBB

25:45

is a local award or

25:47

like for us , american Marketing Association

25:49

. There's a lot of different organizations that do

25:51

it , but but being involved in those organizations

25:53

and winning those awards give you that kind

25:56

of credibility Right , just like you can say , hey

25:58

, check out this article , you can say , hey , check out this

26:00

award I won . Right Now I think that

26:02

certain organizations and sometimes

26:05

I've heard back from people , well , they just give

26:07

that award to everyone Well , that

26:09

organization might need some PR to credentialize

26:12

a little bit better the stringency

26:14

of how they're offering

26:16

it . Or like I'm on the subcommittee for the

26:18

BBB , like you

26:20

know , how is the BBB different

26:22

as all the rise of these online

26:25

review sites come into place and and

26:27

and how do they work with different organizations

26:29

and companies ? So I think a lot of it's

26:31

about positioning yourself . I mean

26:33

, can you tell me maybe

26:35

an example for a client

26:38

of something you did where it turned into

26:40

closing a deal so people could maybe relate it back

26:42

to their business of like , hey , I

26:44

could do that similar kind of thing it's not just

26:46

in the ether , yeah , yeah .

26:49

So we've had clients where they're

26:51

on the hook and they've gone

26:53

a little silent , either because they're trying to figure

26:56

out whether what we're proposing is doable

26:58

, if they have the budget for it , whatever might

27:00

be . And so I there's

27:02

definitely been instances where I've even shared podcast

27:05

interviews , whether it be the full interview

27:07

or a clip , and said you know , or have

27:09

my team say hey , so , and so you know

27:11

, justin was just on this podcast talking about

27:13

again this topic that um

27:16

involves , you know , marketing development

27:18

and where marketing's headed in the next five years

27:20

. Thought you'd find it of interest , would love to connect , and

27:22

that person might respond and say thanks

27:24

so much for sending this . I've been meaning to reach back out

27:26

. Can we schedule a time and then you carry it forward

27:29

from there ? So I don't think there's ever been a piece

27:31

of media coverage that's like sealed

27:34

the deal and brought it over the finish

27:36

line . It's

27:40

more so propelled it , in the sense that it's propelled the actual conversations

27:42

to actually happen , to get it over the finish line

27:44

, which is still really valuable .

27:48

Yeah , you need to help salespeople

27:50

along the way , kind of move it forward

27:52

. I can tell you , the biggest win that

27:55

I've had that I can most recently

27:57

think about and this is really

27:59

when you think about like funding

28:01

rounds and stuff like that for startups

28:03

had a client that

28:05

was actually going into

28:07

another round and they didn't want to have a down round . They weren't

28:09

showing like material progress of

28:12

what they were doing . And they came to me and

28:14

we were like what are some ideas

28:16

that we can do to

28:18

generate some value for the brand

28:20

, to show some real progress

28:22

? And I actually knew some people over

28:25

at the Dynamos , which is a soccer

28:27

team here in Houston that

28:30

actually went over to the Texans and so we

28:33

were able to get some conversations going

28:35

with the Texans to establish ourselves

28:37

as an official going with the Texans , to establish ourself as a official partner with

28:40

the Texans for kind of a , a three year

28:42

period that we

28:44

were able to do some press and and

28:46

push some stuff out there and we generated I

28:48

think it was like a little bit under a million dollars

28:51

in press value right Within

28:53

three weeks . And so

28:55

that was like it

28:57

was a really fun project

28:59

and it was exciting , but it was almost kind

29:01

of in that crisis state of like we need

29:04

to do something . What can we do

29:06

? What have we built ? What assets do

29:08

we have available ? So I would encourage everyone out there Everybody

29:10

has a unique selling proposition and has something

29:13

that they've done that's unique from other people

29:15

and figuring out and

29:17

working with the strategist to figure out what

29:19

that might look like is is

29:22

super powerful . I think I mean , tell

29:25

me a little bit about , like , client relationship

29:27

management . Like I mean , certainly you

29:30

know it helps you close the deal . It continues

29:32

to kind of check the box . There's no red

29:34

flags . They find good stuff about you . But

29:36

, like , how do you specifically

29:39

use it to manage , maybe , client

29:41

relations for what may with the bigger organization

29:43

?

29:44

Yeah , I don't . I

29:46

don't think the media coverage helps with

29:48

client management as much as just having

29:50

an understanding of messaging

29:55

to make the client feel confident

29:57

in the work that you're doing and

29:59

also be able to have tougher

30:02

conversations with clients , right . And so

30:04

having that expertise and how

30:06

to craft a message , how to make

30:08

it persuasive while being ethical

30:10

, of course , how to have

30:13

that message in form , really

30:15

helps to build the relationships

30:17

. I mean the media coverage certainly helps , but

30:19

I think it's more about that

30:22

. Plus , you know , as PR

30:24

practitioners most

30:26

PR practitioners , I find , are working with the

30:28

media and so by having conversations

30:30

daily , it just warms you up to be able to talk

30:33

more and feel more comfortable having conversations

30:35

in the first place , especially when you're new to the business . So

30:37

, yeah , I think it's just a natural

30:39

skill set of building messages and having

30:41

conversations that helps , more so than

30:44

the media coverage itself that you could

30:46

share as a sort of win

30:48

for the firm . I mean it definitely helps the client to feel

30:50

like they're working with a cool firm . That's legit

30:53

, that's getting a lot of press , that's always great , but

30:55

ultimately it comes down to the

30:57

messaging around the results that you're providing .

31:00

So it's like a culture to decide whether

31:02

or not you should be doing it , like internally

31:04

, you've got to decide do we

31:06

want to have a media relation component

31:08

or not ? So if you're a business and you don't

31:11

, or a nonprofit

31:13

, or your startup or whatever , how

31:15

do you make that decision on whether or not you

31:18

should engage somebody or

31:20

you should develop relationships

31:22

on the media front ? And and maybe

31:24

people are thinking , well , you

31:27

know , I don't need that right now , or

31:29

whatever you know

31:31

, how are you making that decision-making

31:33

process ? Or how should people look at ?

31:35

that the first

31:37

thing that comes to mind

31:39

is , of

31:41

course , budget

31:44

, and I hate to say it because I want people to spend money with

31:46

us , but it is true

31:48

that you want to make sure you have

31:51

budget , of course , to

31:53

spend , because if you feel like you're always stretched

31:55

too thin on that end , it's never going to be a pleasurable

31:57

experience and I think it puts more pressure

32:00

on the campaign than , honestly , is warranted

32:02

. So if you have the budget , that's

32:04

definitely a great checkmark there , you

32:07

know . I think the second thing too , which is

32:09

probably more critical , is

32:11

to make sure you have the infrastructure to put everything

32:13

to use , and I've talked about this before

32:15

, where it's like you know you could have a PR firm

32:18

, you could have an internal PR person , whatever it might be

32:20

, that's doing the work . But if you don't have

32:22

an infrastructure and process in place

32:24

to make use of the work , to build

32:27

the business and generate engagement , it

32:29

can almost be pointless . You

32:32

know , we had a client , a very good client of ours , come to us

32:34

the other day and basically say you guys do an amazing work

32:36

, but I'm just not seeing organic business from

32:38

it , not

32:42

seeing organic business from it , and we had to have that conversation which we honestly had

32:44

before , which is media coverage , is not a silver bullet to generate

32:46

business . It's to support your efforts to get

32:48

the business . And so , understanding

32:51

that media PR well

32:53

, I would say more so . Media , specifically is thinking past

32:55

the placement itself and how you can make use of

32:57

it proactively is where , if

33:00

you can do that , that's where you're going to see success

33:02

. And if you're

33:04

a founder , that could mean doing it yourself

33:06

, or it can mean having a small team internally

33:09

, whether it's a marketing team or even just you know

33:11

those that don't have any marketing experience

33:13

just you know coming

33:15

up with social posts that are better than nothing , but

33:18

at least you're posting the media coverage , you're sending

33:20

it on your , in your newsletters , whatever it is

33:22

just at least having a

33:24

small team that can help with that . Or , if you're capable

33:26

of doing it on your own , doing it yourself , if

33:29

you can do that , then I would definitely

33:31

consider hiring a team , because then you'll feel more like

33:33

you're using what they're doing .

33:36

I think that that brings up a good point

33:38

that kind of brings this full circle in my

33:40

head of repurposing content

33:42

and and having the infrastructure

33:44

that , once you uh get

33:47

the press coverage or or you get

33:49

the placements that you're looking for , how

33:52

to reuse those in the sales process

33:54

with the client process communicating

33:56

that information . Uh , I was actually

33:58

on a call today , okay , uh

34:01

, with a client that's trying to promote

34:03

, uh , a certain um uh

34:06

event that they have and

34:08

they had a videographer create a

34:10

bunch of short videos for them . Then

34:13

they turn that short videos into

34:15

a long video , okay , and then

34:17

they had hired us to do some paid ads

34:19

and they

34:21

had not even posted any of those shorts

34:23

or that video on

34:26

their social media yet at all . So

34:28

, like you can create a

34:30

bunch of assets but if you don't use them and

34:32

if the teams are not talking and this is

34:34

a lot of organizations there

34:36

and it's a waste . And if you

34:38

think about even on social media , uh

34:40

, each post is roughly four hours

34:43

, like you guys got about a four hour life

34:45

, unless you're doing something else with it . If

34:47

you're spending a lot of money to create that content

34:49

, you want to be able to reuse that content and

34:51

repurpose that content and find , find

34:53

a place for it and , and I think a lot of

34:55

times , um , people

34:59

are not thinking through that , right ? And

35:01

I think hiring a organization to help

35:03

you with that strategy and have that

35:05

infrastructure in place to syndicate it out , to

35:08

get the word out there across the

35:10

different channels , is really quite important

35:12

. I mean , justin , tell me

35:14

, like in your mind what

35:16

would be like a unknown

35:18

secret of internet

35:21

marketing as it relates to PR

35:23

.

35:27

That's a good question . Can

35:30

we skip that one ?

35:32

We can totally skip that one .

35:33

Okay , I'm not sure I have an answer on that yet .

35:36

Okay , well , justin

35:38

, if someone is thinking that

35:40

they need to be getting in touch with

35:42

you , and they're trying

35:46

to find someone to talk to . That's done it

35:48

. Done it for a long time , worked with some big

35:50

companies . They know they'll be in good hands . To

35:52

make sure their message is well , justin

35:55

, how is the best way for people to kind

35:57

of reach out to you or to find out more

35:59

about PR73 ?

36:02

Yeah , no , absolutely . Um , so first

36:04

I would say , visit wwwpr73.com

36:08

. That's our website . You can also reach

36:10

me directly at Justin J

36:12

U S T I N at PR 73.com

36:15

. We also have our main email info

36:18

at PR 73.com and

36:20

, um , yeah , or me an email info at PR73.com

36:22

, and yeah you can catch us

36:25

there and we'd love to chat .

36:26

Awesome . Is there anything else that we haven't

36:28

talked about that you think might be a good thing to share , or to

36:31

leave somebody with actionable steps or takeaways

36:33

as it relates to PR

36:35

?

36:36

No , I think you covered it .

36:37

Awesome . Well , everybody , thanks

36:40

so much for hanging out . Until the next

36:42

time . My name is Matt Bertram . Bye

36:44

, bye for now .