Marketing That Produces Results

In February of 2009 Michelle Tennant Nicholson of Wasabi Publicity, Inc., sat down to speak with Michele PW, Your $ Ka-Ching!$ Marketing Strategist, to discuss tips on how to market yourself both online and offline.

Heres the transcript:

Interviewer:Hi, its Friday, February 20th and this is Michelle Tennant with the Wasabi Club and today I have with me, Michele P.W., Your Ka-Ching! Marketing Strategist. And since shes actually a Michele in marketing and Im Michelle in PR, what weve got planned today is a conversation about what you should do around your marketing and your publicity. Some really basic tips on what you can do to really make things work on the Internet, both offline and online in relationship to how you market yourself and get to yourself in the news. So welcome Michele.

Michele P.W.:Well thank you, Im so excited to be here.

Interviewer:Yeah I we have a lot of Wasabi Club members who were really interested in insider tips and trade secrets about marketing and publicity and a lot of them are just entering in the actual field, they might be business owners, they might be complete veterans having done this for several decades and theyre just wanting to know whats the next best thing. And I think that weve got some insights today to really share with people so that they can kind of take a glimpse into, Ok, heres what Im doing with my marketing, heres what Im doing with my PR and how can I ______ to look to see whats missing?

Michele P.W.:Cool, yes, I think thats really important.

Interviewer:So you know I want everybody to know how to reach both of us on the outset and for sure make sure you get Micheles free special report, Five Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make that Kill Their Sales and How To Prevent Them and if you want to go to her website, its michelepw.com and thats a Michele with one L and its P as in pet and W as in water dot com. And if you want to look at my website while youre listening to this recording then you can go to publicityresults.com and theres an s on the end of results and my blog is storytellertothemedia.com. Michele, you wanna tell people about your blog as well because I know that you do all the Internet stuff as well, so.

Michele P.W.:Yes and actually yes its michelepw.com/blog and I just, in fact, please go visit because I just changed a lot of stuff to make it more of a social networking blog. So make sure you go and comment because youll get some good promotion and back links doing that.

Interviewer:Awesome. Ok well I, you know weve talked a few times in the past, I think that were trying to capture the conversation between us that you know a lot of people can benefit from what a marketing strategist would say and then also what a publicist has to say and each of us have been doing this for quite some time. So before we get into these specific tips and pitfalls that we always see clients and potential clients doing, why dont we first give kind of like a 20 second overview about our background so that people who are meeting us for the first time can actually you know get related to us a little bit. Why dont you go first Michele?

Michele P.W.:Sure, I am I come to this with a great deal of experience in just marketing in general so basically I started my business in 1998 and I live in a small town within Prescott, Arizona which is an hour and a half north of Phoenix, its a retirement town. And the reason why this is important is because when I started I was very local. I mean in 1998 the Internet was here, but it wasnt, it wasnt the way it is now. And so I was really building my business the old fashion way, which is knocking on local businesses doors. So what happened was because it was such a small community, one of the ways that I used to build my business and make money is to continually up sell to my current clients and how I did that was a client would come up to me and say, I want you to write a brochure. So Id write a brochure and then a month later I might seize an opportunity, which maybe its a PR opportunity, maybe it was a newspaper opportunity and I would go back and present that to them and then they would say, yes. And then hire me to do the work. So it was a great way for me to get a really good foundation on marketing in general.

And then in 2005 thats when I really started to focus on the Internet and I also really started to focus on direct response and started to specialize in that. And direct response is using words, using copies, using words to make the sale. So the sales piece, the sales letter actually stands on its own. It doesnt require a sales person to make the sale, it makes the sale for you, which is great cause we all know we could certainly use more time, not selling or having to hire a sales person. So the more we can have our promotional pieces do, the better. So since then I really specialize in an Internet marketing and direct response and even though I used to do a lot of PR I really dont do it anymore because Ive found that its much better to specialize and its much better to partner with people like Michelle because you guys do it all the time and then it just turns into a win-win for both of us.

Interviewer:Yeah, exactly. So gosh I guess the 20 seconds on me is Ive been doing PR for about 20 years now, Im 40 this August and I first learned PR when I was in undergraduate school in Chicago I worked for a woman who used to be a radio producer and she decided to actually do PR cause she wanted to control her own company and so forth and so I was for many years her right hand just working myself through undergraduate school. And I learned I learned to do PR when it was prior to the Internet, we did it on a Brother typewriter and faxes and phones. So we did it the good old-fashioned way and thats how I learned it. So when we started to integrate technology later in my career I launched a TV network for the National Head Start Association in conjunction with DISH satellite network so everybodys got satellite TV in their home, we actually launched a TV network that would train early childhood professionals throughout the country so they could get their accredited degrees.

So I quickly integrated PR with my distance learning and technology skills in project management and then later created Wasabi Publicity with my business partner. Weve been doing it for close to a decade and Wasabi Publicity has been pretty successful. We are now, like just today I got a call from Good Morning America, regularly working with major media, weve had people on Oprah, The Today Show, Larry King Live, I mean all the biggies. You know New York Times, Wall Street Journal, all of it you can ask me, Im probably going to know something about that media venue, both local, national as well as International news making and how – you know were both Michelles, Im the Michelle with two Ls, but the way that were distinct is that Michele is really working on the sales end of it, the marketing end of it, which has to compliment your public relations efforts which is really being part of the news and its very distinct animals. We often say in PR that you pay for advertising and that you pray for PR because we say that a lot because its true. You really you know you could work and invest a lot of money with a publicist or often times we do campaigns and then gosh its just not what we thought it was going to be. Why? Its because of the news environment, its always fluctuating and so what we look at is how to actually be strategic with breaking news.

So thats what were going to talk about today. Id also like to kind of integrate Michele, you know some of the stuff about the Internet strategy like I was messing with my blog and actually making it a little more integrated with my Twitter profile and so I also kind of, I think that people are really interested today in how to marry both the offline and online world. And I think its very confusing for people, but I think also you our two companies do that quite well and if before we the other thing that we have in common thats really interesting is that we both are dog people, so I dont want to step over that. Im a Husky owner, I do the dog training and my Husky girl is very, very special and is a rescue and her names Lulu, how about your dog?

Michele P.W.:Oh well Nick is famous. Actually Ive got three dogs, but Nick is the one that hes a Border Collie and you can see his photo, hes got a photo with me, Nick also has a blog and he Twitters, although he doesnt Twitter nearly as much as he should so we have to have a conversation about that, but-

Interviewer:I love it. Ok this is giving me some ideas that I should do cause Lulus definitely too much fun. Ok well lets jump right in to some of the pitfalls that we see both with marketing and with PR. Lets also talk to the people who are listening as if theyre a potential client cause I think that everyday you and I have conversations about hey here are the pitfalls or someone will grab us in our personal lives and say, hey I know you do this and what do you recommend? And so heres the secrets if you were our best friends, here are the things to really think about with regard to having a special marketing campaign and how it would then integrate with PR.

I think by in large the first step is your marketing plan. Before you even start to really think about PR and a lot of time people will get PR because they think that its a substitute because they can then generate free placements for themselves because the news is mentioning them. And then theyre like, Oh but it didnt really follow through with sales. How come that is? What happened there? Cause its not designed to really sell your product and its not your direct message, its a third party message thats more like endorsement so lets first first things first, Michele, lets pretend were talking to weve gone out to lunch and were talking to a potential new client and were talking to them first about marketing. What would you say?

Michele P.W.:Well, in terms of yes the whole publicity why it didnt work theres a couple things why it could be happening. One of them is, is that there are two big pitfalls that I always see that they dont which is part of the whole marketing plan, foundation. The first one is they dont they dont go after, ok they dont look at their PR as an extension of their marketing plan, exactly what you say because the reality is just going out there and getting PR, anywhere you go is kind of like the scatter shot method. But its like the Donald Trump, I dont know like The Apprentice, I dont really watch it, but there is that show, you know they stand out there on the street corner and hand out fliers. Its like-

Interviewer:Heres your latest product, now go sell it and so theyre on the fly about it, which unfortunately is a way a lot of entrepreneurs look at things.

Michele P.W.:Yeah they do and its kind of like oh well I suppose in the grand scheme of things that theres some truth in that, the reality is is that not everyone is your customer on any stretch of the imagination. And lets even look at things like this is one of the things I like to play with, you know people I get this a lot with people who sell health food or anything thats kind of like nutritional based or to have better health. And they say, Well its good for everybody. And its true, everyone Im not going to argue with you that everyone doesnt need what youre selling, that everyone doesnt need good nutrition and to be healthy and happy and all that other stuff, but there is only a small a portion of your audience who can first off afford what youre selling, I mean the reality is that theyre barely making enough money to rent their car or rent an apartment and live in a car, theyre not going to have any extra money to buy it.

And if they dont value just because they need it doesnt mean they want it. And if they dont want it theyre not gonna buy it. Because people only buy what they want, there is no need, it is only want. Cause I mean really when it gets right down to it we only need very, very few things to actually survive and exist. You know what were purchasing is what we want. And what happens is that if you dont we have to have a very clear idea of who your target market is and then you have to have a very clear idea what they are reading, what news media are they reading or listening to? What radio shows are they turning into, what news channels are they turning into? And thats where the key is. Theres a story that I saw, I was listening to a PR professional and I totally disagreed with this person-

Interviewer:Oh really? I want to hear it.

Michele P.W.:Yes.

Interviewer:I want to see if I agree or disagree, lets see.

Michele P.W.:I was sitting in the audience and I was just like, oh my god, well this person, I suspect that her, she was a PR professional so her target market was PR businesses, entrepreneurs, if not entrepreneurs at least corporate, I mean it was some sort of business. And so here shes up there and she gets a call from a Catholic radio station and their target market is Catholic families with kids and they want her to talk about like, something completely unrelated to PR and everything. It was kind of like a side note of something else. So it wasnt her target market, it wasnt even anything that she could really sell, it was just kind of like it was just this radio show and she said and she made a point of saying that. She said, Should I do it? And she said, Heck yes. I think she actually said the other H word, she wasnt even Catholic and she says, Because all PR is good PR.

And I was thinking to myself, I dont think thats true because unless youre a celebrity and at that point you dont mind getting your name out there wherever you go, thats not I dont think its true, I think it can be a massive waste of time. And thats what I see and Ive seen this with book authors too, where they feel like, Ok, Im going to get on all these radio shows and then they come back to me and its like, Well I was on all these radio shows and I didnt sell a book? Its like, Well were you talking to people who would buy your book? It doesnt if you write romances, going and being on a sports talk show is not going to sell a lot of books, it just isnt.

Interviewer:Well I mean I think it begs the question, what is your ultimate goal because-

Michele P.W.:Exactly.

Interviewer:Whether all PR is good PR I would then have to ask the question, well whats your objective? And if the objective is something like you know Ive had clients in the past, there was one International Childrens Organization, they were non-profit and they were housing orphans. So for them, where it might look like, well is this actually on target for a radio show? It might look like a waste of time, but see their goal was to become a household name. So if your goal is to become a household name, then any type of touch with the public would be beneficial, but if your goal is to sell books and youre not then all of the sudden like for example today when we were called for Good Morning America, they were actually looking for a family and the need was a character in their story, you know by in large the media is doing stories and so they needed that main character family.

So and then my one client was like, Well should I go on? Im like, Well it depends. Its not going to get you anything; its not going to sell you anything. Youre going to be basically the media likes to think in terms of problem and solution and so youre going to be helping illustrate the story of a societal problem we all have. So youre just the visual. Youre the illustration, its not necessarily going to drive people, Oh I gotta get these tips because youre not going to be allowed to talk about those tips. So then, no that would be a huge waste of time and the only thing that would benefit you is to maybe get related to the particular producer, but thats not going to be the booking producer, thats going to be the field producer. So exactly so I guess what Im saying Michele is I do agree with you in that many times in PR people arent really considering the end result. And I mean Ill be honest with you, I think that I plan and that theyve communicated what theyre doing to me and then Ill actually suggest, you know a particular venue or run of them and then they might go, Gosh, I dont know if thats really in my target audience. I dont know if thats – And so then we have to have that conversation and thats why we have to work so closely one on one with our clients because it is you have to kind of explore that and research it every single opportunity to say, Well what is this opportunity getting us? What is this you know its not only an investment in time, its an investment in money and thats when youve got to ask yourself, Is this really moving forward our overall plan? And that is a huge pitfall that I see almost all entrepreneurs or all leaders of organizations doing is in every moment of your day, are you moving forward your plan or are you completely working on something thats just a busy waste of time?

Michele P.W.:Oh I love that idea because yeah its so often people get people get yeah, they dont do I tell people, Do a little marketing every 15 minutes because thats whats going to drive your business forward. And youre right, the thing is that it depends on your goal and if your goal is also like you dont have a lot of experience for instance, you havent had a lot of radio experience, I think getting on some radio shows that maybe dont hit your target market or maybe dont hit a lot of your target market the practice would be a good thing because you need practice and you need to have a little bit of credibility and build up some PR credibility that you know other people wanted you.

So there is time, theres a time and place to do that, but just know that. Dont go – dont be on all these little radio shows and then come back and say you havent sold a

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