Salena Knight 0:02
Hey there, and welcome to the bringing business to retail podcast. If you're looking to get more sales, more customers, master your marketing, and ultimately take control of your retail or E commerce business, then you're in the right place. I'm Celina Knight, a retail growth strategist and multi award winning store owner whose superpower is uncovering exactly what your business requires. To move to the next level. I'll provide you with the strategies, the tools and the insight you need to scale your store. All you need to do is take action, ready to get started?

Salena Knight 0:52
Hey there, and welcome to today's episode of the brainy business to retail podcast. Now, I don't know about you. But to me, PR and SEO have a lot in common. Now why? Simply because they're kind of like dark art. We just called them esoteric, you never quite know whether you're going to get a result, whether the result came from the efforts that you put in, or whether you'll actually ever see a return on investment. So today, I have Chris Mannix, from soda communications on to talk about whether you can do PR yourself, whether you should even bother. But most importantly, what makes a story because this, for me is the most difficult thing. I feel like my life and my business are pretty damn boring. But on my GS, she has just come up with some amazing things in our pre call to talk about how you can leverage what is just happening in the world to bring PR to your business. Welcome, Chris.

Speaker 1 1:50
Thank you so much for having me. Can I just flag I'm definitely not your stereotypical PR person, I really need to be upfront about that. I'm not glamorous, I'm pretty down to earth. I'm not going to reel off famous people that I've worked with, everyone's going to be like, Oh, should I be doing something inspect job? No, not necessarily. And I kind of pride myself on that sort of positioning that I'm going to give you really sensible advice. And I'm not going to try and pull the wool over your eyes. So can I just like that some people will be disappointed. But

Salena Knight 2:23
it's not that you can't name drop pitch, they choose not to name drop, which is a very, very different scenario, because I know some of the people in the brands that you've worked with, and they are next level. But what I also know is you are exactly the reason we keep we got you to come on is you are simple down to earth, tell it like it is and that is the kind of person we like to have on the

Speaker 1 2:43
show. Gorgeous. I love that. All right, well, then we can continue.

Salena Knight 2:47
Fantastic. All right, let's start with like, what do we all kind of kind of know what PR is? But maybe if you can give us like a little bit of a definition around what it is you do and how it can relate to retail and E commerce business owners and whether they should even bother?

Speaker 1 3:03
Yeah, for sure. So what is PR? Well, first of all, you need to know that powers are really uncontrolled medium. So no agency or no consultant, regardless of how good they are, can tell you, you're gonna get this coverage in this spot, it'll be this size, it's gonna say these things. It's a completely uncontrolled medium. Now, I could give you a technical definition. But really what we do is we help you create newsworthy platforms, and we go to media to help help get them up in media coverage. So anywhere where you're reading a newspaper, you're reading an online article, you're seeing something on TV, there could be an element of PR activity that goes in with that.

Salena Knight 3:39
Right? Okay, so just kind of getting your getting your brand out there getting your story out there in the hopes that that's going to create some kind of momentum for people to buy from you further down the line.

Speaker 1 3:51
Exactly. So sort of how the theme is, you really need to look at how those news and newsworthy platforms are structured. What are they looking for, and we're gonna go into that a little bit later on. But you need to really fit in with them. They're not going to fit in with you unless you've got something absolutely amazing and life changing happening, which I need to be honest is could be highly unlikely. Yeah,

Salena Knight 4:14
you can't just sit there and wait for people to turn up. Can you at the end of the day, it is you got to push right you've got to sit there and push and push and push,

Speaker 1 4:22
politely ask or sometimes I've been noted put into email headings begging for coverage. A tends to get people's attention. But I guess I'm kind of fortunate, like I've been in the game for 25 years. And so you know, my name will come up and people will kind of know that I generally know what I'm talking about and that I've read their, you know, articles previously, I've listened to their shows or I've watched watch what they've got happening on TV. All right,

Salena Knight 4:50
well, let's jump in and get started. Okay, first of all, what makes news because this is my biggest thing, like even when I go to apply for an award, I just see Gathering think, but how am I any different to every other business? Who's out there helping people like sure we have our story, we have our things. But realistically, how do I find that thing? That the person on the other end goes? Ha, I can use that?

Speaker 1 5:15
Yeah. So the worst thing is sometimes a client might say, Oh, my competitor was insolvent. So why wasn't I there? I mean, first of all, you were working with us, and you didn't ask to be there. So I can kind of sort of understand that. We think of sort of six key categories for what makes news. The first one is super easy. It is general news, there is an obvious spot for you making the announcement, you've appointed a CEO, you've expanded into the New Zealand market, you know, your first to market with, you know, a product really, really straightforward. When you look through the newspapers of your reading your favorite things online or a magazine, think about what they're looking for amazing pictures, great spokespeople, and what have you. But the first thing is kind of like actual news. So it's actually, you know, you've got something to say. But there's five other things that you can use to craft news. And I think this is where I feel my job gets super exciting.

Salena Knight 6:13
This is where your creative brain kicks in. Because my logical brain just thinks you are brilliant when you come up with these things.

Speaker 1 6:20
That's so kind of you look, the first thing is like events and money can't buy experiences. Now I'm the first person to say don't have a cocktail party for a cocktail party sake, do not do that. But there are some fantastic ways that you can use an event to create a platform to create news. So for example, media love to go behind the scenes, how are things made? You know, I've worked for a long time in lifestyle motoring. And the one thing media love is I love going behind the scenes into the pits, for example. Now, you might not have racing cars in the pits. totally get that. But you know, there's some great secrets to sort of, you know, the craft that you do, or how you curate what you have in your store, or any of those kinds of things. So to get media together to you know, feel like they're making something that you're doing start to create that platform for you. So in those kinds of instances, events can actually lead to media coverage. If you're doing an event for an event sake, you're inviting 50, people say you're only going to reach 50 people. But if you're doing an event, as a platform to create coverage, you can you can reach 1000s upon 1000s of people. So that is one of the first ones that we always got a sheet.

Salena Knight 7:28
That's really important, because quite often you'll do like a VIP sale in store or maybe online, but you never think about what you could, I think what you've what I've taken from this is, actually if you start to think about how you could land media coverage, it starts to craft the way that you would create the event. So maybe instead of not having it in your store, if you're an online store, maybe you're an online store, you would go to one of your manufacturers or you go to one of your beautiful stores that stock your product. Yeah. And have it there. Because yes, it's a collaboration. But it's also it becomes such a newsworthy story. Exactly.

Speaker 1 8:05
And so people call go behind the scenes, make sure that you follow them up with interview opportunities, if they'd like to have a chat to you, you might allow them to personalize one of your products. And that can be sort of like an interactive experience. Now, some people will go Oh, but like customers can't personalize. It kind of doesn't matter. Like, you know, everyone was looking at those LG Smart fridges for a long time. Very few of them were actually sold. But it was a great platform for people to buy. Maybe I need to think about LG, and they possibly bought any number of their other fridges. My favorite platform for creating news is transmitted statistics. So if you don't have any news, you don't create it through trends and statistics.

Salena Knight 8:48
Oh, give us some examples. Because I mean, statistics is easy. Like it's, it's kind of you go in there, you do a bit of a search. But we talked about trends just recently and different places where you can find the trends. But you were even more upfront with your ideas, like so relevant today. That it just blew my mind. And maybe it's because I'm I don't know, I don't know if it's just because I'm less of that creative brain. Oh, maybe I'm just not in tune with what is happening in the world.

Speaker 1 9:15
I just love news. So much like I watch it from when I get up. I follow it all during the day. We have five televisions in the office. And radio going well. You know, it just generates ideas. So trends and statistics, statistics, I'm gonna go through really quickly. We do a lot of work for an online dating site. And they're one of the more traditional platforms to work off. But what we love talking about, you know, how long should it take for someone to say I love you and we do surveys of 2000 plus people across Australia, we find out what states are a little slower and, you know, saying I love you versus some states where they're a little hasty, and that death and Les creates news. What are the top five sexiest professions? According to man, and according to women? What are the differences that people are kind of showing? Have they come up before? Are there any surprises? So those kinds of statistics, people love them. They're fun, they're funny, they create a bit of talk ability, it's gonna just jump in

Salena Knight 10:19
there. Because when I had, it never even occurred to me to use that. And that's what I love having people like you on the show. When I had my stores, we used to run surveys, and we had eco baby products. And it would be things like, why don't you use reusable nappies, and there would be answers. And it's like, it never occurred to me. I mean, how click Beatty? Could you make a headline on, you know, 80% of mom's white touch poo or something along those lines, feel

Speaker 1 10:45
gag at their babies poo. And that would be great for like, you know, kidspot or what have you. And you're really reaching your target audience through there. So absolutely, anyone who's got a baby business, there's a great idea for them, you take that my favorite trends story that I've ever done was, with Art series, Hotel Group law, really looking at extending long term stays within the group, because whilst there's some people that might come for two nights or three nights, really, it's easier for them if they're but people who are staying for a little longer. And it was quite a difficult challenge. But what I did was I looked at I had new apartments across the road, not very big. So I just made some inquiries, how much is it going to be to rent a studio apartment or a one bedroom apartment, got that price? Guess the electricity amount based on I was living in an apartment as well. So I sort of knew roundabout how much the electricity would be internet fees, all of those kinds of things clean on once a week, factored all of those things in there. And what we found is it's cheaper to live in a hotel than it is to live in the apartment across the road.

Salena Knight 11:54
And in my favorite hotel chain to be deployed.

Speaker 1 11:57
Yes, you know, and, you know, they've changed hands a few times. I haven't said a there for a little while, but you know, great fun, and just one of those clients that were happy to go out and do things that were interesting and fun, and, you know, not too conservative. And then we wanted to look at who is actually living in hotels. And obviously, you think, Oh, it's you know, men have been booted out by their wives or something. Absolutely not. Women have moved down from Interstate, they just want a little bit of security for a while. People who are renovating and the category that I love the most people who just got to keep getting bills every week or every month, you know, and you know, having this sort of keep on top of that kind of admin. And what I loved was I was in a restaurant, and people were actually talking about it all the time around me. And so that's when I kind of knew that not only have we made news, but we'd really got people talking so that

Salena Knight 12:50
that's very similar to the news that's just done the rounds about going on the cruises for three years or five years. And they worked out it was cheaper to go on

Speaker 1 13:00
a cruise and have a retirement. Hi. Yeah, exactly.

Salena Knight 13:03
Yeah. And it's funny, we just bought a townhouse. And to be fair, there's a lot of old people in the area. And we asked like, you know, people next door who what were they doing? Because they'd sold their house and you said, they've gone on a cruise for two years while the house has been built. And I was like, Oh my gosh, it was it was cheaper than than renting an apartment.

Speaker 1 13:22
Yeah, I love that. And all the foods taken care of there's no argument Jerry washer.

Salena Knight 13:30
Now, if you're in retail and E commerce, I know the big thing that's happening will probably all around the world. But literally as we speak right now, is Taylor Swift. Now, I can't say that I'm a Taylor Swift girl. I called Swift is my cup of tea. But that's beside the point. The simple fact is, if you're in retail, and E commerce is pretty much something that you could tack on. That's Taylor Swift related, am I right?

Speaker 1 13:53
Absolutely. And look that fits into that category of people and pictures, which is our third pillar. And you know, it kind of depends on what kind of store you've got. But one thing is, it's all about the pictures. That's what you need to remember. So whether or not you're calling your Metro daily, you know, pick desk or your local paper. Oh my gosh, you've sold out of so much Swifty style match that, you know, it's gone through the roof. It's really created a trend and you've got a group of cute girls in that SwiftKey gear that they've got from your store. And they've got quotes from you as a retailer saying, Look, we knew this was going to be big. We didn't think it was going to be this big. But we're really glad to be able to deliver easy options for people in our area. Perfect. Or it could be the lipstick of that. Do you have a store that sells red lipstick? You know, I'm sure that sales of red lipstick have gone through the roof over the past few weeks. And so if you can look at they're up by 79% You know, we really put it down to the tailor effects, you know, and then you've got a cute picture of someone that's covered in like red kisses on their face or they're lying down and they've got red lipsticks all around them. That creates a really great news package. really strong picture, great quotes from an industry expert that happens to be you. And you just even say to the journal, like and get a check, you mentioned my store. And so I appreciate that, which makes sense for them to do in a story like that. So it's definitely worthwhile. And that's something that never

Salena Knight 15:17
goes away. Like there is always going to be a celebrity doing something. What Oh, I'm thinking is quite often you'll see retail and ecommerce, especially in fashion, say, you know, Kim Kardashian wore this, this is our version of it, or this is the

Speaker 1 15:35
you know, you can buy this this here, but I've got it here for that, given people are just going in for a concert. It's a great price point. That's something that you also sort of need to be in tune to, to what's happening in news, there was one stage where people were wanting the most lavish things. So, you know, it would be like hamburgers that cost $200. And then COVID money. Yeah, exactly. And then now, it's all about cost of living, have you got to do have you got a short part. And I think that kind of fits under tips and hacks, you know, how can you save money, I'm doing general boxes for, you know, $30, when other people are doing 40, or I've got these tips on how to save money, all of that is so relevant at the moment. So you need to be attuned to it. Hopefully, it's things the other way because the lavish, you know, photos are more fun, but you know, really be a change to sort of what's happening in the world outside. Jeeps absolutely in at the moment, shortcuts, tips, hacks, you know, you shouldn't certainly pitch those, and they're sure to get a bit of a run.

Salena Knight 16:36
And I'm sure at the moment that people aren't doing this anyway, they're just not thinking of ways to leverage it. And we have to remember, as it like, anyone who creates content realizes that, especially in like journalists these days, they need so much content in this digital era, they literally need to be flooding out articles. And we know that we see them in our Facebook feed, and we're like, oh, typo, or how is this news.

Speaker 1 17:03
And it's so amazing. It's like these people, you know, there's some people who are working on five Publications at a time. So you know, and I think in respect to that, don't give them a hard time. Don't do the whole, you know, how's this news, but also present things in a really organized way, make sure your images are at least you know, 300 DPI when the shorter sides 10 centimeters, make sure that you've got a short sharp pitch with some background materials? Do you need to include a recommended retail price? Or what you're selling something for? Do you need to include your website or web address and an actual street address? All the basics pop up there in one email, it makes life so much easier?

Salena Knight 17:40
That's That's fantastic. I mean, you wouldn't even I wouldn't even think about that. But actually, if you can reduce any friction for them to get a piece of content out, I assume that sometimes they'll just run with that without even telling you.

Speaker 1 17:52
Absolutely. So you can't keep track. And look, you can subscribe to media monitoring services. Probably a little bit expensive for you know, if you've just got one store, Google Alerts, yes, my favorite is helpful. At the end of the day, you know, if it gets out there, you'll find it, or people will come and tell you, Hey, I saw you in this. So I think that that's, you know, it's just good. And you start that communication and people will start to come to you go, Hey, I'm doing something on pink things. What have you got that's pink? Or yeah, we're doing this or we want to talk to retailers about you know, how they're finding, you know, the market at the moment.

Salena Knight 18:30
And, and even that, in and of itself, if we went back to, I don't know if it would fit under statistics, or where it would fit. But even that concept of being able to say this is the trend that we are seeing as retail business owners, because of the economy, and it could be something simple as overall cosmetics have been down. But actually red lipstick, which we attribute like you're making your own news when you say that, yeah, Taylor Swift we can only really well, yeah, yeah. So all these things that you're kind of whinging about in Facebook groups? Yeah. Are they news because they will be news, and you

Speaker 1 19:06
can easily turn it into a positive like, you might be like, retails down well, okay, what we're finding customers are looking for is good value. You know, they're happy to settle for juice and what have you. So we've provided it, right. You're putting yourself out there, your business is doing well, because you're attuned to exactly what customers want. So good profile building for you as well. So yeah, there's like light in everything. I think, you know, there's that saying that you missed every shot you didn't take. So if you don't go and pitch yourself or you don't get someone to go and pitch on your behalf. Well, you know, people are not necessarily going to just find you. I mean, it happens sometimes, but it's unlikely. So

Salena Knight 19:44
exactly if you are hoping that someone is just going to read I mean, that's to be fair, that has actually happened to me at Channel Nine right now one day and was like, we back when I had my stores and was like we need a store to filming. Can we come over right now? Ladies store it's a car friendly. Yeah,

Speaker 1 20:00
sure. And there's nothing wrong with putting yourself forward as being available for comment on stuff. So, at the JSA things up, you know, drop the cheaper chases staff at your favorite TV networks. And don't just say, Hey, I'm a retailer I've been operating for, you know, 10 years in this area, help with things that I've noticed, if you need anyone for quiet, I'm always available. And like grabby, don't be difficult. Let them just turn up. Don't worry about your hair or anything, just just get yourself out there. Love

Salena Knight 20:28
it. Love it,

Speaker 1 20:28
how many have we gone through so far I want to go through. So we've talked a bit about tips, and Harun, which is, you know, really all about positioning yourself as the expert. But innovation is the other one. So innovation, it's not just new and innovative products, but innovative services. So different ways of doing things. So for example, and seven elevens brand I worked on, like 50 billion years ago. But you know, we started to do 711 Day here in Australia. And then we transferred it to like, bring your own like copying. And it could be anything that you could bring in. And that actually created some ways, people were bringing in like helmets, buckets, what have you, it didn't matter cost the same. So think about different ways that you can do business, different ways that you can charge different incentive programs that you can offer. It just really makes a big difference and can be a really great newsworthy platform. But it might be the product in itself, you know, could be innovative. And that's worthwhile talking about as well.

Salena Knight 21:32
So how does it work, then if there's something that's innovative, and you're, you resell the brand, so you're not the product manufacturer or the product creator, you curate the range, but at the end of the day, you've maybe picked it because it's innovation. So if you're doing that, should you still be out there searching for PR? Or should you be relying on your suppliers to do that? badly, your supplier

Speaker 1 21:57
should be doing stuff, however, you can position yourself as a little bit of a cool Hunter yourself. And you can go out there and you can be like, here's the trends. And he's the innovation that we're seeing within this space. And positioning yourself really, as the person who's hunted these things down, doesn't matter if 20 other shops have got all that product, they didn't go to media about it. You're the one that's in there. So totally, you know, make hay while the sun shines with that. But also tap into things that the distributors might be doing. So ask them if they're doing anything from a PR perspective, or what is their plan, and for their social media and see if you can tap into any of that I was chatting to some people the other day who one of the ladies was a florist, and she's presenting at all she's participating in one of the big Flower and Garden shows down here. And my advice to her was chat into the PR for the Flower and Garden Show. They will be wanting people who will be like, We need someone at six o'clock tomorrow morning for weather crosses. You know, are you available and there'll be so many people who like all that so early on. I don't know if I can just make it happen and put yourself forward as a person that can make it happen. That kind of reminds me there's also this really weird gray area in PR and I call it pay for play advertorials? Yep, yeah. And it comes up a lot and the graph of the gray getting grayer. And you know, I think it's worthwhile thinking about this and thinking about whether or not it's going to be worthwhile for you. Because sometimes you just really want the coverage. And there's different options that you can go to, I think there's link B, we can have your product in there, and a link. So you'll sort of need to see how that that says to you. But then there's things like you know, where the crosses on TV, and there's six crosses, and there's a production fee that's kind of involved for some of them. Unless it's something that they really, really want to do. What you need to think about is for the fee for that, is it going to be worthwhile for you, you might find you're getting a heap of wastage, if you've got an online and a retail store that's just located in one place, that kind of coverage spending on that's going to be wasted. And you're definitely much better investing in something that's

Salena Knight 24:14
local. I was just thinking about. One of the things that I have seen people comment on is when we run ads in the network, like the advertising network that can be anywhere so for me that could be Forbes magazine, or ink like all these Business Insider, all these places, pick up on these networks to run their ads because they get paid to run the ads. And it's funny because people have said things like I saw you on Business Insider, and I'm like, and I go looking because I'm like, you know, they're not that I knew of and then I realized that what they actually saw was just an ad down the side of the page, but they don't realize that in some cases you don't get to choose where those things go the the ad platform chooses, Yeah, but how much? You know, how much cred do you get when someone says, I saw you on the Forbes website? Even if

Speaker 1 25:11
it's good for you, to me saying that you are on there too, and popping it onto your LinkedIn or other social media platforms? definitely worthwhile. But yeah, what a lovely surprise.

Salena Knight 25:24
And I think they the whole point of play is, I think, if you are, I'm not gonna say uneducated, but if you haven't been in the game, in that the marketing game for a while, you, you probably underestimate how much of media coverage is actually paid for. And it may not be an advertorial. It could be those live crosses on TV. Or it could be that the person who is onstage at the event that you're speaking at, paid to be there, because they knew that the audience was filled with their people. And that you'd be surprised how many people how many well known people do as much I get paid to speak as I pay to speak to get in front of all these people.

Speaker 1 26:08
And, you know, you always sort of pick up a few hints along the way is just sort of how that how that happened. You go Ah, yeah, right. You know, and I love sort of deciphering that and seeing what's going on. Hey, one question that I do get a lot is, can I do my own PR? Or do I need an agency. So I've thought about this a lot, because I sort of think about the clients and kind of write for us versus ones where I'm like, let me just give you some general advice, and say, Hey, you go dipping your toe in the water. And there's lots of times where you can actually do your own PR. And if you've just got one store, or you've got one product range, or what have you, you should absolutely try to do it yourself. Because you'll probably find that the costs involved for getting an agency on board. And the effort that you need to put in to sort of get that going, maybe might not be worthwhile for the number of opportunities that are available for you. If you are producing products, and you are producing, you know, new products sort of every couple of months, then that might be worthwhile getting a PR agency onboard to sort of handle that for you. But if you're a smaller retailer, champion, and just try and build these relationships yourself, and works off old school etiquette, and that's just like the weirdest thing, you know, how you approach people have the courtesy of writing, you know, what they've written before, what their formats are, and what have you. And you know, just just give it a go.

Salena Knight 27:31
I think you have to go in knowing that, that there can be no expectations, like, it would be great if something happens, but you are building relationships. And I can't tell you how many articles I've submitted on Help a Reporter Out or sauce bottle here in Australia, and you never hear anything back. Yeah, you don't know what's happening in the background. The simple fact is they have your name, they have your email address, they have your website. And I have had people like you said, Come to me later on going on. I read about this thing on your website, or Yeah, I saw that you did a podcast about such and such Can you give us a quote? So journalists need to have a database of people they need their little informants to be able to relate the news.

Speaker 1 28:14
Although you know what? I'm loving at the moment. This is totally off topic. Did you think we would ever go off topic?

Salena Knight 28:20
Never Never.

Speaker 1 28:21
I love journalists getting content from Facebook groups.

Salena Knight 28:24
Oh my gosh.

Unknown Speaker 28:27
Very ideas coming through. I

Salena Knight 28:29
think you're just going with like news.com Today you it's so many of the like, they seem to be the groups that I'm in I don't know why did with the article. Maybe it's the business groups and things but it's like, you know, supermarket shamed for the one I just saw this came up in my feed and of course I think they're amazing at clickbait. It's like the real the real gross reason the seats were empty at the Taylor Swift concert. Yeah, so I did and they had to wait for a cleaning crew like

Speaker 1 28:59
these things news I think Taylor hadn't started yet was really gonna have happened. But you know what, Go on take note of who the journalist is. Because obviously they're looking for those kinds of stories and then reverse engineer it. Yeah, drop the midnight say Hi, I've got this this is what happened. The you could also say look, this made mention of it in here as well if they want to get oil cans have got case studies. Yeah. I mean, I'm loving watching that happen at the

Salena Knight 29:25
potential works so well, doesn't it? It's out. To be fair, whoever writes those headlines does an amazing click baiting job because I'm forever clicking on them, which just means I get fed more and more and more. Exactly. It does feed into that intrinsic, intrinsic busy body nature of ours like the voyeur is great. What's happening, what do I need to know about this?

Speaker 1 29:43
And that's where the community groups really are. So they're just sort of taking themselves and putting themselves in the middle of committee, which I think I love it, and I love seeing it happen. I'm also like, pretty careful as to what I'd sort of want to pop in there but it's just exciting to do You

Salena Knight 30:00
can do it, you can do it too, right? Like, you could say, I'm in this face book of 10,000 business women, that the biggest complaint that I see is the post office never delivers. Yeah. And so I've gone and done this

Speaker 1 30:15
service, you know, whatever it is, I have got around at all hacks, but making sure your passwords get delivered, or Yeah, any of that kind of stuff. I think he's like, really, really fun. I love saying is the other thing is if you click on like the journey, like normally for online, say, you know, most of the begone writing click on the journey can see the other stories that they do. And then sometimes they can say a little bit of a pattern. So Oh, my million dollar calls Do you know, took me from this to this? And then there'll be another one that's kind of similar. You go oh, okay, what how can I shape that to be my story how.

Salena Knight 30:48
And I've done that I found a small business writer who was writing about the post office and some changes that they were making. And I literally just sent them a message with my response to that, that was pretty Taylor, I was, well, I was pretty upset at the time. And so I was putting a few quoteworthy sentences that I thought that they might just steal. But then you're again, it may just be one sentence, it might just be your retail strategists, leader night says, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you see that if you actually start to break it down, you'll see that they often have like five or six different people that they've put, like, just one sentence from

Speaker 1 31:27
exactly. And so it's worthwhile being in there, but also positioning yourself as a goto. Also, there's, there's plenty of you know, very obvious places where you should be like, why would you want to sort of go, Oh, why would I want to build myself up in small business media or business media or tech media? or what have you? Well, it's great for your SEO, for a start, you know, it's super helpful for that. It's super helpful. So you're gonna have customers amongst that space. Anyway, I love moving this is one of my passions about PA is moving people from their natural space. So where they might naturally belong, whether or not it's sort of like retail news, or what have you, and taking them into early gen years. That is my favorite journey, the PR. And, you know, it's something that I'd sort of encourage everyone to look at, because, you know, these journals are working so hard to produce what they're doing. But if you go and have a look at it, it just gives you a great indication of where your customers are at what they're thinking. So definitely worthwhile.

Salena Knight 32:24
And all of that is, at the end of the day, you're probably going to sell your business, like, let's be honest, you might not be thinking of it right now, it might be five years, 10 years, 20 years down the track. Yeah, there are very few legacy businesses that get handed down. So if you are building these things, even if you're doing one every six months, you're getting out there, and you can say, but we've been featured in this place, this place, this place this place. Yeah. And all of a sudden, the worth of the brand becomes a lot higher. Yeah, it was you have this media attention that the next person can go back and leverage

Speaker 1 32:56
exactly, it all falls into the goodwill category. So when you're selling your business, so keep that in mind. The other thing is, if you're looking on taking on board a new brand, ask them what they do for PR asked to say that, you know, we call them coverage books, we have all the links in there and you know, for the brands that we work on, that are selling into like supermarkets or other retailers, we make sure that everything goes in there have we had an influencer Jason user generated content, have we had online articles, print articles, even copies of the videos, if you pop it in there, you'd want to say that just to make sure that everyone's kind of doing their bit for the success of that product in your store.

Salena Knight 33:33
And then you can then leverage that like the whole idea is you take what they've created, and then you put your advice on it or your trend or your statistic or your hints and tips or your experience was Which one did I miss? That was five I think

Speaker 1 33:49
and that's actual news actual actual news which does exist and maybe

Salena Knight 33:55
it is actual news but by taking that and putting your spin on it you're getting your it's a really easy way and do you know who's done this real if we think back think back to like 2010 Yeah, blogs were big. Remember that when we used to read blogs? Yeah, workers were fantastic at this they used to be you know, here is here's here's the dupe or here's the outfit that if you can't have this, you can have this or get these Hamptons home on a budget like exactly. It's very, very well.

Speaker 1 34:27
This way to do a ponytail I think was one bloggers you know, a trip to Xyx s and it still I think a lot of people look it up and then how to

Salena Knight 34:35
fold a fitted sheet out. Oh, my thing for George oh my god, how many awards did they win with their sheet?

Speaker 1 34:42
So many? Funny I was talking to Lacey the other day and I helped them launch their online store when I was I think 38 weeks pregnant. And I really tried to say no but John and I had gone to school together and she's hard to say no to so I That's funny, but I still can't fold a fitted sheet. But let's go and look at the content.

Salena Knight 35:04
I know but they rode that wave I reckon for a good two years, they made a video on how to fold a fitted sheet. And for two years they used that blow their business and everyone, whenever you say how to fold a fitted sheet, if you're in Australia and you're in retail, you will immediately

Speaker 1 35:20
think of that. Oh, it's so funny. Yeah. Like, it doesn't have

Salena Knight 35:24
to be anything brilliant.

Speaker 1 35:28
product equal or quirky? Like if quirky is good.

Salena Knight 35:32
Yeah. How to Fold your how to put your shorts in line like Marie Kondo does. Oh,

Speaker 1 35:37
yeah. And like T shirt party. I've been addicted to those reels where they're folding up. They're putting pants on hangers in a different way and T shirts. And then I go to my drawer, and it's very depressing.

Salena Knight 35:50
I'm with you. As I pulled everything out to pack today, and head to the UK. I'm just like, I really tried that Marie Kondo thing, and you can see the bottom layer of the things I haven't touched is perfect. And then everything I've worn since it's just

Speaker 1 36:03
like, I don't know. I'm just hoping that the trend changes, you know, yeah, I miss trend drawers. Yeah.

Salena Knight 36:11
Well, if we're all going to be living with minimal minimalist Lee, we won't have much stuff to put in the cupboard.

Speaker 1 36:16
Well, actually, we've been working with this gorgeous lady called Townsend adding from Miss Lola. And she's all about maximum literalism so everything is bright, colorful, like and so I'm thinking, I hope that trend extends into my wardrobes, my drawers, my kitchen cupboards, that will be so wonderful. I

Salena Knight 36:34
am already in that trend. So

Speaker 1 36:37
as she says, You need to leave her she's just divide.

Salena Knight 36:41
I will bet again, like even something about like, it's almost creating your own trend, isn't it, it's like picking up what she's doing. And saying, This person got media coverage, here's how you can do it. And here's how you can embrace this trend with our products.

Speaker 1 36:55
Exactly, absolutely spot on. I think it just makes such a difference and how you can do it better, cheaper, faster, any of those things. And it doesn't have to be all of those things. You might not have cheaper, but you might have faster, you might have packaged everything up. You want this look, you can actually buy it in a package deal. And it costs x y Zed. Yeah,

Salena Knight 37:14
I just went to a tile shop on the well bathroom slash tile shop on the weekend. And that's exactly what they've done. And get this entire bathroom for $15,000. And it was the bath the toilet, the tiles, the vanity and the mirrors. And I was like oh Shep was that Beaumont tiles? Oh, really? I

Speaker 1 37:31
need the other thing. I'm looking at a bathroom renovation. Bus as shine ablaze, just really good of those kinds of things. I think this was her collection a lot. Yeah, yes, that's spot on. They are so good. But How easy is that

Salena Knight 37:46
for somebody who isn't designed? Like, people, if you and I'm not design function, like I am so much function over form, even though I can pin a good Pinterest board and put things together so they look good. But creating it off the top of my head doesn't work. And so I think people forget that just because you're good at something doesn't mean somebody else is. And in fact, one of the reasons they come to you is because you are good at curating things, whatever things it is. And if you're good at that, you can't, you can't overestimate your customers being good at that. And so if you can package things together, like a bathroom package, yeah, maybe just pay for I'll just take that. Thanks. Yeah, that looks great.

Speaker 1 38:29
You're gonna wardrobes like, that's the other thing. I shot the same spot for my clothes all the time. Largely, we are getting so off track. Likely because everything goes you know, the ladies know, my slides, everything goes, I can just mess you. So I tell them the kind of stuff they want. They pull everything out. Winter done. You know?

Salena Knight 38:50
I guess worst case scenario, like we're not that there's any worst case scenario. But worst case scenario, if you're putting all these things together, and you're putting some time and effort into PR, if it doesn't work out, you got a crap ton of social media there that you can use your

Speaker 1 39:03
eyes looking on the bright side, totally. But you know what, if you're looking in the right spots, you'll definitely crack a winner there, you know. So just really, if you just try and identify and go, Okay, well, what were the key things that we're looking for? Who is it who's written that the emails you can normally find online, or just like call the publications, they can just have the email form, it's usually

Salena Knight 39:23
pretty it's usually usually first name dot last name at

Speaker 1 39:26
whatever it is.com.au And you can check that out

Salena Knight 39:30
by just going to the contact like the end, even if it doesn't have anyone's actual thing. You'll find one person and you're like,

Speaker 1 39:36
This is the format. Although Do you know I'm finding heaps, particularly in that retail space? Hence the journos happy to take a pitch via instant messenger. Ooh, well, that seems really weird. Like I feel weird about it, but I will chat wherever they want to chat. That be where they want to be. Yeah, so you know, keep that in mind as well follow the money and stuff, you know, make healthful, supportive, calm Minutes are, what they're posting. And then you can message them as well. So that's another way of doing it. So all my team and he are constantly on social media I, you'd be thinking that we're just sorting out their own faith. They're not half the time. They're messaging style as sending some screenshots and all that kind of stuff.

Salena Knight 40:16
That's awesome. All righty. Before we wrap up, can you just go back through the six different ways that we can create news for our products?

Speaker 1 40:25
Absolutely. So first one is news or actual news that can go into issues. But that's another thing and definitely get in touch if you need someone to handle some issues for you. So news, actual news, events and money can't buy experiences, trends and statistics, which is my favorite people and peaches, it's all about the peaches, you know, people surrounded by fruit, someone wearing their Taylor Swift outfit, someone with red lipstick everywhere. Create a good picture. And you don't even have to go to a journey he got to the peak desk to start off here to see if they like it. And then they'll help you out with the journey. Innovation, changing the way you sell changing the product that you sell, you know, those kinds of quirky things, tips and hacks, largely positioning yourself as a cool hunter or the expert. That's the CX. That's the

Salena Knight 41:12
stakes. And I would just like to finish that I don't actually watch the news, believe it or not. But I had finished watching a home renovation show this morning as my cup of tea at 530. And as the as it finished, the news popped up afterwards. And it was about a girl who Taylor Swift's drummer had given the drum kit all knowing that I was coming on here today. I was like, Oh my gosh, if I owned a music store, I will be leveraging the bejesus out of that. Absolutely. And

Speaker 1 41:45
look, I mean, you'd be able to say what Brenda drumsticks AR for sure, first off, and you know, if they're the ones that Taylor's using, for sure. So those kinds of fun things, those kind of quirky things to happen to them, it's really, you know, be aware of the world around you.

Salena Knight 42:00
Even the dress that the girl was wearing that got the drumsticks my brain is working. It's

Speaker 1 42:08
a lucky dress totally like all of that absolutely make sense. So I feel I just hope that some of the listeners start to just have a little look at what's happening in the news, how it's formulated. Because it's really, it's actually really fun. And that I was gonna

Salena Knight 42:25
say and have fun with it. Like, yes, there's some seriousness. But if you have any bit of fun with it, yeah. What are the pictures?

Speaker 1 42:30
You know, what's the experience? What's the crazy thing that you can offer? You know, jumping into it. Not everyone's got money for an ambassador, I totally get that. But there's still some fun things that you can do with people.

Salena Knight 42:41
I love it. I love it. Love it. If people are like, I have a great product. I have a great store. I need this lady in my business. Where can they find you? Gorgeous Christmas.

Speaker 1 42:52
Oh, you're gorgeous. So the business side of communications, we're online, we're on Instagram. I think you know, there's a number directing to the office to give us a call. So definitely get in touch, I'll be the first one to tell you, you know, you can handle it yourself. And I will also be the first person to tell you if we've got some great ideas and can jump in and manage that for you. So we'd love to hear from anyone or even if they just want to email me and just bounce around an idea. It's no trouble.

Salena Knight 43:17
Maybe you have some news that you could give to Chris who can pass it on to.

Speaker 1 43:21
Exactly, nation.

Salena Knight 43:25
Thank you so much for helping everyone out today.

Unknown Speaker 43:28
Hi, thanks so much for having me on. I've loved it.

Salena Knight 43:33
So that's a wrap. I'd love to hear what insight you've gotten from this episode, and how you're going to put it into action. If you're a social kind of person, follow me at the Selenite and make sure to leave a comment and let me know. And if this episode made you think a little bit differently, or gave you some inspiration, or perhaps gave you the kick that you needed to take action. Then please take a couple of minutes to leave me a review on your platform of choice. Because the more reviews the show gets, the more independent retail and E commerce stores just like yours, that we can help to scale. And when that happens, it's a win for you. A win for your community, and a win for your customers. I'll see you on the next episode.