Hello Small Business Owner! I know you.
Super tired. Pulling your hair out trying to figure out how your customers are going to know about you. I mean my gosh…you don’t even have a marketing budget.
In fact, “marketing” wasn’t mention in your business plan. Don’t worry, I have your back.
Need Advice on Marketing – Need to Broadcast Your Business to the Media
Here you go! My conversation with Diane Helbig on her Accelerate Your Business Podcast will help.
She has been chosen as one of the best podcast for small businesses by Inc. and MSNBC. It was an honor to talk with her and share some of my advice with you.
Publicity Podcast Transcription
Diane: Hey everybody thanks so much for joining us. Today’s podcast is sponsored by Audible.com. Audible.com is a leading provider of spoken audio entertainment and information, listen to audiobooks whenever and wherever you want. Get a free book when you sign up for a 30 day free trial at Audibletrial.com/businessgrowth. Accelerate your business growth podcast continues to enjoy inclusion on lists of the best podcasts to listen to and just continues to gain recognition as a great resource for small business owners, entrepreneurs, sales professionals, business leaders. And it really is because of the guests who joined me, we have a great conversation. The guest shares their expertise with all of you, so that you can take the things you need implement them in your business and be more successful. Today is no different. Today my guest is Katrina Cravy. Katrina is an author and Emmy Award winning TV media veteran, as a former investigative reporter and TV host for Fox, NBC and ABC affiliate, she is now helping clients get on TV and deliver a winning message. Katrina is also a wife and mother and her greatest joy is raising her 12 year old son to be a good human. And I just have to say before I welcome you that that I think is my favorite sentence.
Katrina: Then we will get along great!
Diane: Yeah it was so great too because I’m always saying you know they’re just the really good human. And people look at me funny. But seriously! That’s what it’s all about.
Katrina: Isn’t that the goal? Exactly. I mean he’s a really good human per eye roll, he gives me every day. You know he is about to turn thirteen so if there is anything I say, if I get the eye role, I’m like that was a good eye roll, that was good. So yes my goal is for him to be a good human and really for all of us to be a good human.
Diane: Yes exactly. That’s right. It’s not really difficult. It’s really a simple thing let’s just be better humans. Right. Let’s leave the world in a better place than it was when we got here.
Katrina: Exactly, exactly.
Diane: I’m totally with you. Well thanks for joining me today. This is such a great topic because so many people don’t understand it so they either don’t try or they try incorrectly and end up shooting themselves in the foot. Never really get anywhere, so.
Katrina: Right getting immediate attention is not easy. And I know there’s a lot of entrepreneurs and small businesses out there and that’s really how my whole business started was I was asked as a journalist just to come and talk to this entrepreneur group. And at the time I was like what am I going to talk to them about. I mean I cannot keep talking about how I got into journalism and I was a consumer investigative reporter so I would tell them how I would not chase you down the street. Probably a better human and a better businessperson and make sure that I don’t run after you with a camera and a microphone. So that’s what I usually got up and talked about. But for this particular one and this was in 2013 I just felt like I needed to tell them what everyone always asked me, which was how do I get on your show or how do I become an expert in one of your stories. And I wrote about a 45 minute talk and I got in front of this group of people and it was about 170 people there I think that night and when I got done and there was a guy from the Better Business Bureau, he was on the board of the bureau and he walked over to me and he’s like you’re just sitting on a mountain of information that these small businesses need to have. And he goes, you’ve got to start writing this down.
[05:08]
Katrina: And then he walked me out to my car and he was still, I said he was kind of creepy because I was driving away and I could still see him in the rear-view mirror with his like, you know, superman pose staring me down as I was driving off. But he got on my head and that’s when I started writing my book and I was just trying to put everything I knew about being a journalist and what the media really needs to cover your story. And I think that that was just the reason why I wanted to do it. There were several ladies that were there that night that ended up getting on television and it changed their businesses and it made my heart just so full to go oaky what I told them that night helped them get coverage.
Diane: That is really great. It’s so great. I just and I love that because you didn’t even realize at the time that that you were going to be able to have that sort of an impact with giving a 45 minute presentation.
Katrina: No, not at all. I did not know that that talk was going to change my life. I just was bored with my old story, really old. I was bored with my job is really what it came down to. So I really was trying to think you know what do they say that you’ll be successful if you can help other people get what they need.
Diane: Sure, right, exactly.
Katrina: That was, that was the the change of everything because then I started on my off time just writing on my book and then I asked to if I could teach two classes to a business initiative group here and I surveyed people that were in the audience. And I tweeted then, you know, just eventually got to the point where I had this must have formula for getting media coverage. And then. Yeah, well it’s fun because it’s easy for people to remember. But if you think of have H A V E, the H is you’ve got to have the hook. Why is the media doing business with you today? What is it about your story if you’ve got a new product something out there that of course new is always the great thing in marketing but it may be something that goes with a holiday. How many times have you heard the TBP people going okay we’ve got this great mother’s day unique Mother’s Day gift coming up, right after the break. Does your product, can it go into some sort of holiday? So those your hook. And then the A is the audience benefit. And I think this works in any kind of sales presentation. You got to think about what is the audience really want of any media outlet that you’re going to contact. Think about what their audience what they’re going for people all the time will say well you know we’re having our fortieth anniversary of our business and I don’t want to be rude but I’m like who cares? You know. Oh tell me what you’ve learned in the last 40 years and what can help my audience? And then I might be able to put you on and then the V is visual, it’s got to be something visual that people like to watch even for newspapers. Anything now. They’ve all got online presence and they need pictures they need video that type of thing and then E is engaging, I tell people I don’t care whatever E word you want to bring engaging, excitement you have just got to bring it when you’re on TV or on an interview and have some excitement to show some passion for your business.
Diane: Boy those are so great and I’m so glad you said about the audience benefit thing because that is you know I teach sales and I work a lot with small business owners and they’ll always say things like well I’m you know this is happening and I’m celebrating this and I think I need to you know to get the word out and I’m thinking okay well because that matters to you. But if it doesn’t matter to your audience, it doesn’t matter.
Katrina: It is true.
Diane: But I know.
Katrina: And it’s hard to have that conversation with people that actually say that, but I think the thing is teaching them how can you get what you want and also help the audience. So.
Diane: Yeah.
Katrina: And I’d love to think of it you know, as a problem-solving reporter for years I love to think of like okay where is the problem and how are we going to market this? How are we going to get them to bite on this? And it really is about listening to their story. I’m sure you’ve probably figured this out too with your clients, they say, the more you talk to them then you’ll hear the nugget. Then all of a sudden.
Diane: [Inaudible 09:30]
Katrina: That’s right there, what you just said right there is why I will care.
Diane: Yeah, yeah. But people have to get out of their own heads, right. They have to be willing to really actively think about what is compelling to the audience.
Katrina: Right.
Diane: Can they do that by like watching some of these shows and seeing the kinds of things that they’re talking about?
[10:02]
Katrina: For sure and actually that’s what I tell people is you’ve got to personalize it to whatever media outlet you are trying to contact. And never before could you do it all across the country so easily except online. They’ve got most of their content on their websites anyway. You can go and watch it, see what they’ve done in the past, see what they like, learn the hostname. I mean that’s really important, I would hate it when I would get e-mails and they would call me like Katrina Crazy or something like that, which hey I maybe sometimes, but you know I’m learning the actual name of the show. The name of the host watching a few segments and especially if you’re getting in touch with TV media, the producers are the ones who create the content and will probably book you. So always being sure to say when you write them an email, to go hey I really liked your such show and I especially liked this segment, show that you’ve had a little bit of interest and done a little research on of them. People that send out those mass mailings. I tell everybody it’s like we can smell them a mile away. You can just, but everybody’s getting the same content.
Diane: Yeah. Yes.
Katrina: Yeah. So personalize it. Know something about the show, learn or the magazine, the trade magazine. It’s all online now. It’s only, you might just think well that’s a lot of work. Well, guess what? It is. But to get that kind of earned media coverage, that’s worth thousands of dollars. You get to be on a segment that could be three minutes long. You can’t buy that kind of commercial time and then you’re in the real show with the host, which builds that credibility and your brand. I mean you know, you can tell I’m a little passionate about it. I just, I’m sorry I’ll pull back. Do the work.
Diane: But see this is what’s so valuable. This is important. People really need to understand there is a process that you have to go through. There are things that you have to do you can’t just throw it out there you can’t assume that they should want to be interested in your story. Yet you have to write and you can’t say, this is the other one I hear people say, that like that they’ll pick an outlet that really has nothing to do with what they do and that but because it’s it’s big or very well-known or seems to you know get a lot of airtime they’ll say I got to get on that. I got to get on that show. I’ve got to get on that magazine. I’ve got to whatever. Okay, well, why. I mean.
Katrina: Right.
Diane: Is that really going to do somebody any good if they’re someplace where their audience isn’t?
Katrina: No and that’s the other thing is, you’ve got a target. You’ve got to think about who are your clients, who do you, who’s your target? You know your zebra. And then. what is your zebra reading or watching or listening to? And then go there. And it may be a finite audience and it might be a very small publication but that might be where you get the greatest return on your investment. So I really tell people you’ve got to think about who is your ideal audience. And actually I used to work for a radio station that had heard they named her. Her name was Tammy. She was 43. She had high school students and she was worried about paying for their college. And they even had some of her hobbies. And when you knew all that about who your ideal customer is then it was really easy to find the outlet.
Diane: Boy, no kidding.
Katrina: And the content that we would give on the radio because we were talking to Tammy. So who are you talking to, who is your target audience and put a name and a face on them.
Diane: I love that.
Katrina: And it really will make a lot of difference in how you create the content.
Diane: Boy, no kidding. You know, I’m listening this and I’m thinking when I, I’ve been doing this podcast for a long time and the easiest, I get, you know, different kinds of people reaching out to me. There are people who reach out to me and say I would love to be on your podcast. And they have never listened to it and they have no idea what it’s about. And they have some really wonderful and wonderful self-help personal sort of story. And I can’t put them on because I have a business audience. I have a business show. And so you know I will tell you and then I have people who say I just love your podcast. I especially love the episode with whoever, and what they talked about, and I think okay well at least this is someone who you know had the opportunity to look at and listen to see if it was someplace they should be, and those people usually know that they fit with the audience.
[15:00]
Katrina: And they are not wasting your time.
Diane: Yup.
Katrina: And they’re not wasting their time and they’re not wasting the little bit of energy that they put into it because they only wanted to put a little bit of energy.
Diane: Right, because [inaudible 15:14] got to be on podcasts.
Katrina: Right, right, exactly. So if you take that energy and you actually focus it to where you really need to be, it will make the world the difference and you won’t get frustrated. The other thing I hate is when people go well I emailed them and they didn’t get back to me. Do you know how many e-mails we all get? Oh yeah, oh yeah. That meant that you read it and they like you. Yep, that’s a great story to tell yourself, you know, that’s not the right story to be telling your brain because you sent one e-mail and they didn’t get back to you. Then you keep on it.
You know, you give them another e-mail just a quick reminder, circling back. whatever it is, and then you know make those follow up calls. And I think that’s one thing the people have to realize too, it’s not going to be a one and done thing. And you have to, I say you’ve got to make relationships with reporters before you need them. And in my 20 years on TV, I can, I only had about five, one handful of PR people who called me to say I just want to get to know you, can I bring in some coffee and donuts and can we talk about how I can be a resource for you? Okay. How are you not going to say yes to that? First of all you are bringing me food, you are bringing me food and coffee? Okay. But I really encourage people especially in their local markets if there are particular reporters that you want to get your story on with. Call them and ask to come to them so it’s no energy on their part to create this relationship and start to create a relationship that way.
Diane: It’s really great. Now though I do have to ask you this question.
Katrina: Okay.
Diane: Because I can picture people reaching out to a reporter or you know someone in the media who they really should not be reaching out to, I’m not really sure how to say it. But.
Katrina: A bigger marketers, somebody who wouldn’t be interested.
Diane: Yeah or it’s just not their, their area of focus. You know like you have the sports reporter. Well if you don’t have anything to do with sports you probably don’t want to be reaching out to that guy.
Katrina: Oh my gosh, Diane, you are so right. Okay. So, the other thing is, do your research on the people, follow them on Twitter follow them on Facebook. Find out what is their niche. I’m usually on the Web sites that will tell you what the reporter’s focus is and yes make sure they’re in your genre. Don’t be going for the romantic comedy when you’re a horror show.
Diane: Yeah. Yeah okay.
Katrina: It’s not good.
Diane: I know.
Katrina: It is not good.
Diane: I know. I know. I know, it’s so true. I am going to take a quick break so that I can just, we can just keep talking enough to worry about it.
Katrina: Ok, great.
Diane: Today we’re speaking with Katrina Cravy about how to use media attention to grow your business. We’re talking about earned media, so, I have a question about, is there or are there I guess misconceptions that people have about earned media? Do they know the difference between earned and paid?
Katrina: I don’t think a lot of people do know the difference being paid media’s obviously you’re paying for a sponsorship or some sort of mention in the media. Earned media means you pitched a very good segment or a story idea and they are going to do the story and including your company but they may not put you in the light exactly as you want it, it’s earned media. So you don’t have the right to write the copy or to do any of that. You were just going to be considered as an expert or the segment is about your business. I did not even know the term earned media until I got out of the media and then I was giving these presentations, no, I am serious this is funny because I was giving these presentations and somebody is like, oh you mean earned media and I’m like what’s earned media. And then I went back to all my friends you know, here we are these journalists for 20 years. I am like, did you know they were earning us. They were just earning us, they were pitching us great story ideas but that was earned media. They’re like oh my gosh I didn’t know that term. We all have those, you know, inside your industry. And to me it was just called, giving me a good story or giving me a good segment. But yes so earned media, I just want to make sure that people realize that when you are mentioned, you don’t usually get the right to look at the copy before it goes out. You are providing that information to the media and they are hopefully using you and will be good for your business.
[20:56]
WHAT PUBLICITY CAN DO FOR YOU!
Diane: Okay. Alright.
Katrina: And I’ve been really happy to get clients that have gotten that kind of coverage are shocked to see what ends up happening with their business. We had a Catholic school that was completely booked after getting one segment, they got every TV station to come including Telemundo and then their whole school was completely booked which was awesome. And then I have this other woman who sold incredibly large bras. She goes up to a size M and, yes, but nobody knew about her business, she had been a struggling, small business owner for 12 years and when she finally got that TV segment, she said it was crazy how many people showed up the next day. She didn’t have enough staff on hand, which is another thing I always tell people make sure you have staff and people to call, you know, that are in your call center. Because once you get that kind of coverage you’re going to need somebody that can handle the business is going to come in.
HOW TO PREPARE AFTER A MEDIA INTERVIEW
Diane: So you really have to, that there’s a lot more preparation that goes, that goes into it.
Katrina: Oh yeah it’s not just the interview in fact. So one of my, the greatest thing that just happened last December is that one of my clients was interviewed by Steve Kroft in 60 Minutes. So he and I were together yeah it was awesome and getting him ready for that interview and really training him on one is to write a really good message and then two is how do you perform it. How to be really great on camera. So that’s what I really help people with. But the thing that I thought was great is as we were coming home from New York I said okay so when this airs it’s going to be a Sunday night, is your call center open? And he’s like, oh no, you’re right. I’m like yeah, we have to have a call center open, the web site’s got to be able to take extra. I mean when you’re getting on a national television show like 60 Minutes you have to be prepared to be able to take calls from people are like oh I haven’t heard this business. I want to check this out.
Diane: Yeah. Wow, yeah, I never would have thought about it. That’s really interesting. Yeah. Okay. I think people think okay it’ll go out there and it’ll be a nice slow drip.
Katrina: Yes, sometimes, sometimes it is and sometimes you won’t get anything. I mean sometimes people go oh I did this and I didn’t. We didn’t have anybody come rushing in.
Diane: Well then it’s either A the product isn’t something that people need desperately right now or B you also have to think of it as brand building your brand. So then you can use those video segments or that newspaper article and continue to put it out on all your social media channels and little bits. So that you can create from that content more and more drip down the way.
Diane: That’s great. That’s so great I was just going to ask because it seems like you can’t just rely on earned media, it has to be part of a whole marketing plan.
Katrina: Right. It has to be part of what you’re going to do and you have to have somebody that can cut up the videos. I mean, I think that’s what I really help people with is like okay what were the best portions of what you did and then how can we get that out to the rest of your clients if they didn’t see the segment or they didn’t read the article.
Diane: Okay. I have a really weird question.
Katrina: Okay, great, I love weird questions.
Diane: Good. Because you’re about to get one. Is there a way. I know you help people make sure that they look really good but are they able to prepare and know for example the questions that they’re going to be asked. So that they are better at the, at giving the answers, they don’t stumble around it. Or you know come off as unsure of what they’re saying.
Katrina: Yes, and that is all about writing down that message.
Diane: Okay.
Katrina: So one thing I think that people get jammed up on are the easy questions, like if you sat down with me and I said okay Diane tell me about your new book. It’s about lemonade? What’s it all about? You know. Then could you tell me the answer?
[25:09]
Diane: Yes.
Katrina: I see people thrown softball questions and they can’t hit it out of the park. It’s that elevator speech that none of us have really prepared for.
Diane: Right.
Katrina: So, one thing is to always, so you write down the questions of everything you think you’ll be asked and then you write down the answers to those. And then of course of my clients and especially if it’s a controversial thing or crisis management communication. Let’s write down all the questions we don’t want to be asked and the answers for those.
I want to write down all the questions I don’t want to be asked but be prepared to get it back to what I really want to talk about which you need. You don’t want to sound like a complete politician where you give the same answer to every question. But you need to have enough, what I call your signature statements that you can always go back to those signature statements if you get in a jam.
And you do that with bridging statements you can remember that might say that’s a good point and I think the other thing that’s interesting about that is this. And then you go to talk about what you want to talk about.
Diane: Okay. Boy, that’s huge.
MEDIA TRAINING WITH BRIDGING STATEMENTS
Katrina: So it’s a bridging statement to get you across and that’s what I really work with clients on is okay, let’s practice, I’m going to get you in a jam. I just was doing some crisis communication work with an insurance company and they’re one of their things. They were, we were just coming up with a fake scenario and it was that somebody had left a laptop. A contractor had left a laptop that could have compromised data.
It was funny we’re doing this mock newscaster in a mock news conference and I said to him, I’m like, oh my gosh, okay, so how many employees you have with laptops like this? I mean is this employee just dumb and then he was like, looked at me, like laughing, and like, no the employee is not dumb. I mean all of us can leave things behind at certain times.
And then I just stop and I go okay remember, you never repeat the negative because if I’m going to edit the story, I’m going to say so and so and so and so left the laptop, then it’s going to go to your soundbite of calling laughing and saying no the employee is not dumb. You know, you just can’t do that I said so we just have to say all of our employees have been trained and you know give the positive. But be prepared for a reporter to ask you something out of the blue.
That is going to catch you off guard and have them repeat what they just said and you cannot do it. I will not allow you to do it. I will be sitting there giving you the choke hold signal hiding behind you. To tell you to stop.
Diane: That is, that is absolutely huge. And so let’s talk about crisis communication because unfortunately sometimes that happens. And so, but what we’re not expecting it. So sometimes that sounds to me like things you don’t get earned media that you are not looking for that shows up at your door. Right. Okay. So you, so this sounds to me like you really have to be prepared ahead of time for in the event that something were to happen. I’ve got as you said signature statements and ways of I’ll say for nothing the conversation.
CREATE A CRISIS COMMUNICATION PLAN
[28:45]
Katrina: Right. Exactly. And you do have to be, the smart companies are the ones that are prepared for negative situations. And you think it will never happen to you. But one of, I do a presentation about this, and one of the companies that I interviewed about this was so tragic, it was an accounting firm here in town in Milwaukee and they, of course, didn’t have any kind of crisis communication because it wasn’t something they ever expected. They had three of their youngest accountants on their way home from a training recruitment killed by a drunk driver. Yeah. And I mean these are brilliant kids. They were in their 20s and just wiped out. And it was of course covered by the media here, because drunk driver, the guy was driving the wrong way on the freeway. It was just, it was horrible. And they weren’t the only ones. Another car, another passenger died.
And so you know, at that time they didn’t have a crisis communication plan, but one of the partners had a husband who was an attorney who had dealt with the media a lot. And he came in and he helped write the press release and he wrote the most beautiful thing because he wrote you know, so many companies now like our hearts and prayers go out to the companies. And that’s fine, I mean but it’s not heartfelt. It’s what everyone says and I tried just like we were talking about be a good human, be human. I mean be human, say something and they wrote you know this devastating loss of our best and our brightest. And it really took all the headlines, like what he wrote about these kids and I said kids that they are in their 20s, young professionals was really great.
And the way that they handled the situation, only because he was there and that was that was lucky.
Most companies don’t prepare and I talk about you have to have your crisis compass team because there’s so many different audiences when you get into a crisis, you’ve got to communicate to your employees and perhaps their families, if employees have been hurt and you’ve got to communicate to the media, you’ve got to communicate to your customers, because if it’s hit the media now your customers are going okay what about us. Are you going to be able to make it through tax season? You’ve got to talk to law enforcement because that’s another whole conversation to be had. And so, you know you need to have a team that everyone knows what role they’re going to play because you get caught into that situation without having that compass team and without having strong communication between the team to get the outward message solid and consistent across all those communication channels. You’re going to be devastated if you don’t have that plan.
Diane: Boy, I so get it. And it leads me to another question which is what should companies do about making sure that everyone is singing from the same hymnal so to speak. You know, that you know, of any outliers. No one can walk out of the building and be ambushed by somebody asking a question and give an inconsistent answer.
Katrina: Well that’s a great, Diane that’s a great question, because I think that one of the things I tell my clients is that all the people whoever takes the phone call, the receptionist, everybody has to be given a script to say, you don’t want to tell anybody in the media no comment or I’m sorry I can’t talk to you. You know, that kind of thing. But you can be a good human and say hey we’re really glad to get your call. I’m going to transfer you and I’m also going to give you the name and the phone number of the person who does handle these inquiries, just in case something happens and I don’t get you transferred correctly. So that you are being gracious and giving them good information and then transferring that phone call. But if you have not done that with your employees and come up with a script, for everybody to have and for them to know what channel, where you’re supposed to send certain people, then that’s on you. So if an employee goes and says something really horrible and it’s quoted in the paper, it’s very possible.
Diane: Yeah.
Katrina: I mean, there are not. I mean not all reporters are good people. Some of them are lazy and they don’t want to take the time to get the information from the right people and they’ll say, that’s what they said. And they’re not lying. That might actually have been what the person who first picked up the phone said, but it’s not accurate information and not coming from the right source.
Diane: Right. Right. Okay.
Katrina: So get that script out to all of your people. And then when of course when you’re in that compass team everybody needs to agree on the message before it goes out.
Diane: Right, right. Because you all have to be on the same right, and if there is someone who maybe doesn’t feel comfortable with the message. I’m guessing that they should bow out of being answering any questions. They should always refer to, there should be something for them to say, there should be some scripted thing for them to be able to pass it on to someone else.
Katrina: Do you mean somebody in the crisis team, like if you’re all sitting around and you’re talking about the statement and the chief financial officer goes I don’t really like this.
Diane: Yeah. I’m not comfortable with this. But everyone else is.
Katrina: Yeah. But if everybody else is comfortable then I think you have to have that lead person on your team is the one who makes the final decision. And that may not always be your CEO, because the CEO in times of crisis has to also remember they got to keep the business running. So there are different levels that I talk about where okay at times when the CEO, the CEO needs to be the one that speaks. But you have to assess every kind of media inquiry or every kind of crisis at a different level and certain times the CEO is not going to be needed. It’s something that’s really easily done by the chief safety officer or something like that. You know, you really have to make a determination assessing the level of the crisis and then who is the right person to speak. And that can be different for every company.
[35:05]
Diane: Yeah. I would think every situation in that. That’s great, because I think a lot of these owners and CEOs think they have to be the point person for everything and that’s not necessarily true..
Katrina: Right, and if you are in a smaller business.
Diane: [Inaudible] the best message.
Katrina: Yeah. And if you’re in a smaller business, it might have to be the CEO you know, if you have employees of 10 then yeah maybe the CEO, but if you’re a bigger company then and you need to think about who is the person. And sometimes you want to shield your CEO. It’s something that you think is going to go away pretty soon. So why put he or she out there if it’s something that you don’t want to put their face to it.
Diane: And sometimes. Well, so we have a mayor, not the mayor in the city I live in. But a mayor in the area who really should never be in front of the media. And I’m not kidding. I mean.
Katrina: Now you are making me want to go and find out who it is.
Diane: I know, I’ll tell you later but I did. And I can’t even tell you some things that person has said and there’s things going on right now where someone really needs to be talking about this stuff. And I am just thinking his whole media team is probably signs of okay who else can get out there and say something [inaudible].
Katrina: Right. Exactly. With no notes or whatever. You know. Yeah. It is scary and I’m sure that there are probably people listening that will say, oh my gosh I don’t think my CEO could do it.
Diane: Right.
Katrina: Or I don’t think so. So, who’s in charge of media public relations or marketing could do it.
Diane: Yeah.
Katrina: So you do have to find the right people in your office who can do it or hire somebody to come in to do it. One of the other good tips that I give people is that if it is something where you’re afraid of having them out there swimming on their own with the media right there next to him and having a banter and have these kind of questions like in a news conference is to videotape them, because you can put that out on your social media channels now or your Web site and have your statement contained. But at least you’re putting a face and some emotion to a written statement.
Diane: Yeah.
Katrina: Yeah that the media can then use and download, you know you give them the ability to do that and then you’re containing the message without opening up their flanks, keep your elbows in, you know, keep them down, keep them down. Because it’s one little thing that you might say that opens up that elbow and that’s when they go in the side because that’s what they’re, they are waiting for you to open up.
Diane: Exactly. That’s what they’re looking for.
Katrina: Oh yeah. And we’re hoping that you will screw up, because it’ll be better video and better TV and better radio and better newspaper articles just because of you saying something dumb. In this presentation that I talk about. It’s horrible. The Deep Horizon where 11 men were killed and of course 40 million gallons of crude oil put into the Gulf. And the head of BP Tony Hayward at the time the CEO. I mean after a month and a half he’s probably a pretty tired guy. And finally said, I’m sorry. And a reporter goes what’s that. He goes, I’m sorry. You know these people’s lives have been changed and we want this over. I mean nobody wants it over more than me. I want my life back. And those five words changed the course of his career. He was fired a month and a half later because of those five words, and you get tired and the media starts hounding you and then it won’t, you know, and you can see how it would happen. And you can also see how it was a horrible thing to say especially to family members who will never have their loved ones back.
Diane: Exactly, so you really don’t ever want to be winging anything.
Katrina: No, you can’t wing it, the sure way to fail is to wing it.
Diane: Yep. Wow. All right. Okay. So we talked about, a little bit about the local media and then 60 Minutes and you know the big outlets and the smaller ones. But do you think people underestimate the power of local television because we live in this world of global television?
Katrina: I do. I think that people forget that the reason people come to local television is because they want to see the businesses that it might be opening up new restaurants of things that are happening in their communities. So if you’re a local business that’s needing that kind of coverage don’t forget about the local media and how much people watch that. I mean you could get in front of thousands and thousands of people every night by getting on those kind of broadcasts or even in newspapers. Now, we have a lot of online, you know, people that highlight the city. So those are places that you should go as well. But I also think that there are companies who’ve made a great living at going around to all the local media and doing tours of the nation. Because even though you might you’re not getting on the Today show or CBS This Morning or one of those, if you went to some of the top markets in the country and got on all the local media there you might get a lot more bang for your buck than you think.
[40:36]
Diane: That’s interesting.
Katrina: And I, and I even highlighted some of the companies that I knew that had done that. And if you are a small business owner right now and you’re like oh you know what I happen to be taking this trip with my family. Why not try to see if you can get on the local media that morning? Before you even start doing anything that day.
Diane: That happens.
Katrina: If you have a product that will sell there as well.
Diane: Okay. All Right. So, so that leads to my next question which is is this is this equally valuable for companies that sell to consumers as companies that sell to other businesses or does this lean more towards people to sell to consumers?
Katrina: I would say is to the consumers. It’s the [inaudible] people that will be more for the consumers of the local news. Now if it is, if you are selling to a business then you know you might want to think about videos that you can post and put on to LinkedIn, might want to think of MSNBC, CNBC, some of the business broadcasts and then you need to think about like your business journals in your communities for the newspaper, the business sections in your local newspapers. There are radio broadcasts around that would love to have whatever expertise member again that audience benefit. Where would your audience be listening and how can you be seen as the expert in that in the right media outlet.
Diane: Okay that’s great.
Katrina: And even in a trade magazine some of them on their Web sites they have video interviews. That you can do in the trade magazine so look at whatever your industry is and see what or wherever your clients, you know, might be and see what they are watching.
Diane: Yeah, thanks for that, I was going to say because I know, I’ve written for like a roofing magazine about management. You know I think it was about sales management because my that’s my, that’s one of my, you know, small business it’s my audience. So at the end, and a lot of them are looking for content.
Katrina: Right.
Diane: That’s outside of their industry because there’s only so much in the industry they can share and they want to be more valuable to their readers. So they look for people who have expertise in other areas.
Katrina: Right. And you really should be looking for that. Like sometimes people can write for newsletters for big companies. If there is, I’m trying to think of like what would be a good example, but let’s say one of your main clients has a newsletter and you say okay I want to give you some free content and help you write a blog every month for your newsletter. That can be huge. I was just paid by an insurance company here for them to interview me to put out to their retail, their manufacturers about crisis management. You know so for me it’s about me getting my own media coverage as well. That puts me in front of the audience that I really want to help and it helps the insurance company by saying look we’re giving you good content.
Diane: Right.
Katrina: So it is that shared audience, that shared benefit. But again we are going to help each other out.
Diane: Yeah, yeah. I love that. That is awesome. Wow. Katrina I just seriously I love all of this information and really appreciate you joining me to share it. This was really.
Katrina: Oh no problem. I love, you can tell. I love talking.
Diane: But you’re so knowledgeable and you are just giving them all this info, you can tell that you were, you know, that you are in the industry and you know what it’s like from both sides of the table.
Katrina: Yeah, it’s very nice. It’s very nice to be a double agent.
Diane: Yeah, for sure. So you tell the listeners how, you know about your book and how they can get in touch with you and all that fun stuff.
Katrina: Yeah, that would be great. So my book is called On air insider secrets to attract the media and get free publicity. And it’s on Audible. Just this last month. I know. So we just got an audible. I spent eight hours in the studio reading it. It’s about two and a half hours so it’s a great listen. And for the top three people who come through my Web site it KatrinaCravy.Com that’s K-A-T-R-I-N-A and then Cravy is just like gravy but with the C C-R-A-V-Y .com for the first three people who email us and mention your podcasts. I will give them the code for a free audible book.
Diane: Oh how great. Well thanks. And I knew I should’ve asked about whether you are on Audible because then I could have said something about it during the sponsor break but.
Katrina: Oh no worries, no worries, it just happened.
Diane: That’s fantastic. That’s fantastic. I’ll probably add you into another sponsor break down the road since now it’s live and will be airing in a little bit. So, terrific. Thank you so much. I know the listeners got a lot out of this. And speaking of them, I want to thank them and our sponsor. Remember if you want to get a free trial of audible.com and a free audiobook you go to audibletrial.com/businessgrowth to sign up and reach out to Katrina. You know email and tell her that you were listening to this podcast and you can get that book. If you’re one of the first three. Continue to prosper and be curious. And when I say be curious, I mean a lot of things, a lot of the things I mean is be curious about other people and what’s of interest to them and what they need and want to know and provide that for them and you’ll be able to get some of the earned media that we’ve been talking about today until we meet again at another episode of Accelerate your business growth. Goodbye and good day.
[End of transcription 46:55]
