E30: Small Business PR Secrets To Dominate Your Local Market! | Mickie Kennedy
Think PR is only for the big guys? You might be missing out on a game-changing marketing strategy!
In this episode, we’re breaking down how small businesses can use PR to grow their audience, establish credibility, and attract customers—without spending big bucks on ads.
Our guest, Mickey Kennedy, founder of eReleases, has spent 26+ years helping small businesses get featured in major media outlets. He’s here to dispel PR myths, share insider tips, and give you a simple strategy to make PR work for YOUR business.
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Sean Garner is a marketing consultant and Certified StoryBrand guide dedicated to helping small business owners grow and dominate their industries. He created the Marketing Domination podcast to teach people how to combine storytelling with strategic marketing to help businesses connect with customers and stand out online.
Mickie Kennedy, founder of eReleases, has over 26 years of experience helping small businesses, authors, and startups boost their visibility and credibility through strategic press release distribution, making him a valuable resource for anyone looking to amplify their brand in a cost-effective way.
He revolutionized the PR industry by creating eReleases, a service designed to give small businesses access to the same media and national newswire exposure as larger companies, offering personalized support that ensures each press release is impactful.
Mickie is a seasoned PR expert with deep insights into how businesses can leverage press releases to generate leads, drive traffic, and build authority in competitive markets, making him an ideal guest for marketing and sales discussions focused on visibility and growth strategies.
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EPISODE 30 TRANSCRIPTION
Introduction
Sean Garner [00:00]: How would you like to have more people talking about your business? Wouldn't it be great if somebody else was telling everybody about you and driving customers to you? Well, today, my guest on the Marketing Domination podcast is helping small business owners do just that.
Mickie Kennedy is the founder and president of eReleases, the small business leader for press release distribution. He’s been in business for over 26 years and is the leading expert helping small business owners increase their visibility and credibility. He’s here today to show how PR is not just for big enterprise companies but how local service businesses can leverage PR to grow their reach and dominate their market.
Welcome to Marketing Domination.
Sean Garner [00:45]: Mickie, I am so excited to have you on the Marketing Domination podcast today. Great to connect with you, and thank you so much for taking the time to meet with us.
Mickie Kennedy [00:53]: Sure, glad to be here.
Sean Garner [01:01]: I work with a lot of local service business owners. Typically, they start out as mom-and-pop shops, and as their business grows, they wonder when PR becomes relevant for them.
A lot of my clients think PR is for enterprise-level companies, that they’re not big enough or ready for it yet. Can you give us an overview and dispel some of those myths about what PR actually is and who can benefit from it?
Mickie Kennedy [01:37]: Right. PR is largely about interacting with the media—sharing pitches and press releases to create opportunities for journalists to write about you, feature you on television or radio, and even cover you on social media.
A common misconception is that PR is only for large businesses, but the truth is journalists actually prefer to spotlight small businesses, new businesses, and mom-and-pop shops. Most of their audience isn’t familiar with those companies, and that makes the coverage more engaging.
When journalists write about big corporations like Amazon or Microsoft, the engagement isn’t as high. But when they cover a small business, they see more shares, more conversations, and more excitement. That makes it a more successful article.
So being small is not a disadvantage when it comes to PR. In fact, it’s often more effective for small businesses because they don’t have the same advertising budgets as large companies. For big corporations, journalists require a higher level of newsworthiness. But for small businesses, they’re more willing to share stories that introduce something new and valuable to their audience.
Breaking PR Myths
Sean Garner [03:01]: Okay. That makes a lot of sense. I guess I'm asking the same question in a different way. What you just said makes sense, but I’m a small business. I don’t do things that are super noteworthy. I’m not a big enterprise company that has all these corporate events, product releases, or new market expansions.
I’m a local plumber. I don’t have anything new and exciting going on all the time. What do I need to do?
Mickie Kennedy [03:33]: Great. So you've got to think strategically and be creative. I have an entire free masterclass dedicated to the types of releases you should be focusing on. It’s free, and it’s less than an hour long. You can find it at ereleases.com/plan, P-L-A-N.
It walks you through an audit of the types of press releases you could be doing. So if you’re a small plumber, for example, you could conduct an industry survey and ask meaningful questions relevant to your field.
You don’t need to have direct contacts with plumbers nationwide because there are many small and independent trade associations out there. The big ones have their own PR teams, but the smaller ones? Many of them represent niche groups, like plumbers with up to 50 employees.
Find an association that aligns with your business. Approach them and propose a survey using a tool like SurveyMonkey. Ask relevant industry questions that people would want answers to today—and the great thing is, if you ask these same questions next year, people will still want to know the answers.
The industry shifts based on the economy and market trends. Take the survey link and approach the trade association. Say, “Would you be willing to send this link out to your members? If I get 100 responses or more, I’ll include your organization in a press release I’ll be issuing over PR Newswire in the coming weeks.”
Many small associations see this as a huge media opportunity. They don’t get much press attention, and most people don’t even realize these associations exist.
In my industry, for example, a PR professional once told me, “Mickie, there’s only Public Relations Society of America.” I had to explain to her that there are actually 470 different trade associations for PR in the U.S. alone.
These associations are out there—you just have to do a little research to find them. In my experience, two-thirds of the time, the first one you approach will say yes. If not, move on to another that fits your niche.
Once you get the survey results, find the biggest aha moment. That’s your headline. Provide some analysis—why did the numbers skew a certain way? You’re the author of the survey, so you’ll be quoted along with a mention of your company and the trade association.
This takes you from being just a small, local plumber to being a thought leader in your industry. I’ve seen this work across various industries.
For example, an auto repair shop in Pennsylvania conducted a survey and got a massive amount of press from it. If you ask timely questions, the media will be interested in what people said and how they responded.
How Small Businesses Can Create Newsworthy PR
Sean Garner [06:31]: Okay. That's really interesting. My ignorance here is that I always thought of a press release as just an announcement—like a grand opening or a company expanding into a new market. But you're saying that for trades, a press release can almost be like a case study that you’re presenting to the press.
Do journalists pick that up because it saves them the legwork of doing all the research? Or what makes them interested in that type of content?
Mickie Kennedy [07:01]: Well, journalists never do the legwork. They don’t conduct surveys or polls—someone else does, and then they cover it.
They’re always looking for stories across different industries. If you take the time to conduct a poll or survey, you’ll get cited and written about.
When it comes to things like grand openings, you can absolutely do those types of releases, but the key to making them meaningful is incorporating something valuable—like a user case study. Instead of just announcing a new product, service, or market entry, combine it with a case study.
For example, “We have this new product or service, or we’ve just entered this new market, and here’s someone who has already used it and can speak to what people can expect.” That creates a story arc, which is what journalists are looking for.
Journalists prefer to write in a narrative format. But most product launch press releases are just a list of features and a link to learn more—not much of a story. If you incorporate a case study, it becomes far more compelling.
Another great strategy is using publicly available data. Adding a key statistic can make your release more compelling.
For example, if you’re talking about a logistics software solution and you have a client who has been losing money for three years but is now projected to turn their first profit after using your product—that’s a great story.
You can also include a relevant industry statistic, like “In the transportation industry, 72% of new companies fail within their first five years because they don’t achieve profitability.” That highlights why your solution is important and increases the story’s relevance.
Sean Garner [08:59]: Okay. So we know PR is for everyone—big businesses and small businesses alike. You've given some great insights into different types of PR and how they work.
What’s the next step for actually getting this information out?
Let’s say I’m a local plumber, and I’ve done this amazing case study. What do I do with it? How do I start distributing it? Is it relationship-based? How do I even get it sent out?
How to Get Your Press Release in Front of the Right People
Mickie Kennedy [09:26]: Right. So you could utilize a service like eReleases. We send out press releases nationally through PR Newswire, and you can also target locally. That might seem counterintuitive, but even though it's a national platform, a lot of local media outlets are tagged as only interested in local news.
By getting local saturation on top of the national reach, your release will go to people in your market who care about local business news. At the same time, it will also go out nationally and be sent to trade categories relevant to your industry. That means it reaches trade publications, websites, bloggers, and journalists who cover that sector, whether in newspapers or other media outlets.
If you’re only interested in local news, you can also do this yourself and start building relationships. It's not difficult. If you’re looking for local media coverage, do some research. There are probably fewer than a dozen people in your market who could cover you.
Start with your local newspaper, if you still have one, and figure out who generally covers your industry. Then, reach out to the publication. Look online for their email address. If you can’t find it, call and ask. These aren’t celebrities—they're members of the media, and they’re supposed to be accessible to the community. It’s not weird to call and ask for an email.
They may ask why because they don’t want to be spammed, but you can say, “I’m a local business, and I occasionally have industry-related news I’d love to share with this journalist.” Most of the time, they’ll either give you the email or patch you through to their phone so you can talk or leave a message. Sometimes, they’ll just say, “Pitch me over the phone.”
I always tell people, “I’m a shy English major. I’d rather put my thoughts into an email and send them along.” That works really well.
If your area has business magazines or newspapers, find out who covers your industry. In Baltimore, for example, we have both. We also have a Baltimore consumer magazine that’s a little more luxury-focused, and sometimes services are a good fit there.
Once you know who your ideal media contacts are, you can expand into TV and radio. Look at local segments where they feature businesses. In our market, we have a wellness week where they bring in a chiropractor and crack people on camera.
Ask yourself if your business has something visual that would work on video. If so, call the station and ask, “Who produces this segment? Could I get their contact information?” You do the same for radio—if they have industry-related segments, find out who books them.
Lastly, don’t ignore weekly community papers, especially the free ones. They focus heavily on advertising, and when it’s time to print, they suddenly realize they need content.
One strategy that works well for local service businesses is pitching a monthly column. Write an article in advance and send it with your pitch. You’ll often catch them at the right time, and they’ll just copy and paste your content in. Sometimes, they might even ask if you could do it weekly.
Don’t overcommit. Tell them you’re only available for a monthly column. Just make sure you get a byline that includes your name and business.
This strategy has worked well for chiropractors, fitness professionals, gym owners, and even event planners covering bridal topics during wedding season.
The key is providing basic, valuable content that the community finds interesting. These publications love it because they’re so focused on selling ads that they sometimes forget about the content.
The Secret to Getting Your Press Release Picked Up
Sean Garner [13:44]: Yeah, that's great. Now, that's the distributing it and sending it out, but is there anything you can do or best practices you've seen to increase the odds of getting picked up? Just because you build it doesn't mean they're going to come, right? So, you've made this amazing case study, you've got your contact list, now you've reached out. What are some things you can do to increase that or common mistakes people make when trying to get their story picked up?
Mickie Kennedy [14:10]: Right. The biggest mistake is assuming what's important to you is going to be important to them. These are journalists. Their biggest asset is their audience, and they have to ensure it doesn’t come across as advertising. There have to be nuggets of content that either educate or entertain—or ideally, both.
Sometimes, you have to reverse-engineer your announcement to incorporate elements that make it more meaningful. Stories work really well. Data points work really well. Having an amazing quote can make you stand out.
When you reach out to your local media, you're usually not sending a press release—you're sending a pitch of a few sentences. If you add a strong, powerful, and meaningful quote, journalists can envision a great article around it. If you have a weak or safe quote, even if they write an amazing article, it will still fall flat.
A good measure of a strong quote is if you take it out, does the content lose impact? If it were paraphrased in regular language, would you think, I said it so much better, much more succinct, and with much more power? Use active verbs, conviction, and say something bold.
Sometimes, if you have a contrarian viewpoint on a trending issue in your industry, getting out in front of it can be a great way to get featured. Journalists like to be fair and balanced, and if everyone is praising something, they may look for an opposing perspective.
For example, if the media is overwhelmingly praising electric cars, but you raise your hand and say, Not so fast—there are environmental hazards in mining minerals for batteries, we don't know how to dispose of them at the end of their life, and lithium battery fires require hundreds of thousands of gallons of water to put out, that’s a reasonable argument.
If a journalist is writing an article full of praise but needs an alternative viewpoint, they may plug you in as the expert with the opposing take. That can be a great way to get incorporated into a lot of stories.
That said, any contrarian viewpoint you take should not alienate your customer base. I had a client say, I'm great at contrarian viewpoints, but I'm making all my customers angry. And I told him, Maybe these aren't the viewpoints you should be taking.
Measuring PR Success and ROI
Sean Garner [17:16]: Yeah, I'm super good at being opinionated. That's great. So in video content, they always talk about the hook—you want people to be hooked in the first few seconds. When writing and structuring press releases, is that quote kind of like our written hook? Should it be at the beginning, or should we structure it differently when submitting it?
Mickie Kennedy [17:28]: So, I think the hook should be in the headline and opening paragraph, not necessarily in the quote. The quote should be higher up, maybe in the second paragraph. Sometimes, I see it in the third or fourth, but you really want to push the most newsworthy angle upfront. What's the biggest sizzle here that you want to talk about?
You want to avoid puns and make it obvious to journalists why your release is relevant to them. The playful, pun-filled headlines you see in consumer publications like the New York Post are not what busy journalists want. When scanning emails or newswire headlines, they need to immediately see that the story is relevant before they click through.
Sean Garner [18:52]: That's good. Now, I have clients that say, from a social media perspective, We want to go viral, we want followers, we want more eyeballs on our stuff. But I always joke with them, You can't pay your bills with your follower count. So it only matters if it's actually turning into dollars. How can business owners track their ROI on press releases? Digital tracking is easy with UTM links, but how do you quantify ROI for traditional print media?
Mickie Kennedy [19:32]: In 26 years, I've only seen news outlets preserve tracking links two or three times. That makes it difficult, and it really frustrates marketers who want clear ROI.
One way to track impact is by setting up a white paper, cheat sheet, or some call to action specific to the campaign and incorporating that into the press release. That way, you can measure traffic and sign-ups. But it’s still unpredictable.
For example, I had a client get their book on the front page of USA Today’s entertainment section, and it only resulted in a few dozen sales. Meanwhile, another client got picked up in a small, niche community and sold hundreds of books.
So, I tell people to commit to a PR campaign—do six to eight releases with different strategic, newsworthy ideas and see what sticks. If something works, build off of it.
One strategy I suggest is identifying blind spots in your industry. What are the issues that trade publications and media don’t really talk about, but everyone at a trade show is complaining about? If you focus on that, you could become the go-to expert on a hot-button issue.
This even worked for a carpet company in New Jersey. They thought there was nothing newsworthy about their business, but in talking with them, I realized their biggest competition wasn’t Al’s Rug-A-Porium across the street—it was big-box home improvement stores.
Sean Garner [21:41]: Yeah.
Mickie Kennedy [21:50]: They shared how bad big-box stores are for the carpet industry—how they offer an inferior product and customer experience. We built a release around that, and they got featured in flooring trade publications, their local newspaper, New Jersey Magazine, and more.
At the end of their PR campaign, they had over 20 media clippings. When they went into a home for a quote, they would open a folder and say, We may not be the cheapest, but we’ve been around for a while. You won’t have to move your furniture out again in two years to restretch your carpet—we do it right the first time. Then they’d show their media mentions: Here we are in Floor Trade Weekly, here we are in this publication.
That small tweak—adding about a minute to the sales process—increased their closing rate by 17%. The third-party credibility from earned media made all the difference. A national trade publication wrote about this small business in New Jersey—they must be doing something right.
Automating PR Success: How E-Releases Helps
Sean Garner [22:58]: Yeah. Okay. So that's great. That leads me to the next question. We've got this press release done. We got it picked up. It's out there. Boom. Now, what are some things we need to do to make sure we maximize and leverage it every way possible?
Mickie Kennedy [23:23]: You're gonna want to share that press release with your customers and leads. As you get media pickup and coverage, share those links again with your leads and customers. Put them on social media, add them to your website, build a newsroom.
Some small businesses hesitate to create a separate page for this. If you have a blog, put it there. It's great content—get it on your website and preserve it. It builds trust and credibility, which can help conversions and improve your leads. It also helps retain customers because when they see you're getting media attention and industry recognition, they're less likely to price shop or consider competitors.
Sean Garner [24:25]: Okay. This sounds awesome, but it also sounds like a lot of work. First, I have to come up with the content, do all the research, build this huge list, email all these people, keep track of contacts. I'll tell you—that's not going to happen for me. Thankfully, it seems like you've got a way to help businesses do this. As a busy business owner, what's your process? How do you take this off their plate and just get them results?
Mickie Kennedy [25:07]: We offer writing services as well as distribution. You can build a campaign of six to eight releases as a new customer and take advantage of our special package. For under $4,000, you can build a campaign of six to eight releases, and you don’t have to push them out all at once.
For a small business, six to eight months might be too fast—so maybe you roll it out over a year, maybe a year and a half. But if you consistently release them at least quarterly and make sure they are strategic, following the lessons I teach, it makes a huge difference. And we can handle the heavy lifting—writing, strategy, and distribution.
Sean Garner [25:59]: So you're going to help me write it, get it sent out, and get it picked up. After that, do you provide consulting on how to leverage it—like adding it to the website or sharing it properly?
Mickie Kennedy [26:11]: We give that advice, but we can’t log into your social media and do it for you. It’s really just a matter of getting it done, and I know small business owners already have a lot on their plate.
Sean Garner [26:18]: Yeah. Well, Mickey, this is amazing. You've got that masterclass—tell us about that again. And where do business owners need to go if they want help with their PR?
Mickie Kennedy [26:36]: That masterclass is at ereleases.com/plan. It's a great place to start if you're new to PR because you'll be learning strategic planning.
Our website is ereleases.com. All of our social media is on the lower right, including my direct LinkedIn, which is a great way to connect—though I don’t check it as often as I should.
You can also reach any of our editors through chat, email, or phone. We have no salespeople, no commissions, and we’ll be honest if we think something will or won’t work. We've helped many people with their first campaign, so feel free to reach out. We also have a new customer special, which you can find in the footer of any page on our website.
Sean Garner [27:25]: That’s awesome. Well, Mickey, thank you so much for your time and for helping small business owners learn how to dominate their marketing with powerful PR. Thank you, sir.
Mickie Kennedy [27:36]: My pleasure.
