MBA2506 How To Get Free PR for Your Business

0:09Heyo, welcome to the$100 MBA show, practical business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher, Omar Zinhome. And in today's lesson, you will learn how to get free PR for your business. Public relations can be a game changer for your business. I've had two separate experiences running the$100 MBA, this podcast and this brand, as well as my software company that I grew for 10 years and sold, Webinar Ninja. One of them was very easy for me to get PR for free. and the other one required me to make more of an effort and apply the strategies I will share with you today. Getting mentioned in the media, in the press, not only gives you exposure, but it gives you credibility, increases your customer trust.

0:57There's a reason why many websites say featured in all these publications, Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, whatever. But how to get PR without shelling out big bucks? That's what we're going to dive into in today's episode. I'm going to share with you some practical strategies that really work, but require you to commit to them. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. I want to start by saying that it depends on the type of business you have. Getting PR, getting mentioned in the media may be easier than other types of businesses. For example, this business, the$100 MBA, the podcast, I'm a part of the media.

1:33I have a podcast that's been running for 10 years. We've done fairly well. We have over 250 million downloads. We won Best of Apple Podcasts in 2014, which is like winning an Oscar in the podcasting world. But the point here is that because the podcast has done so well, it is just in the media. The nature of the brand and having a podcast, you're going to be mentioned in articles, the top five podcasts for business, top 20 business podcasts for e-commerce owners. People are going to write articles on these topics. You are ranked on these platforms like Spotify and Apple and Chartable. So it's easy for journalists and writers to discover us.

2:15On the other hand, when I was running Webinar Ninja, our software company, for 10 years, we were not part of the media. We were a software company selling to small business owners. So to get published in the media, to get PR, we had to make a lot of effort. We had to have some strategies in our back pocket, and here are some of the ones that work the best. Strategy number one, build relationships with journalists. One of the most effective ways to get free PR is by building relationships with journalists and media professionals. They're always looking out for interesting stories. It's their job to do that.

2:51Without stories, they don't have work. So if you can position yourself as a valuable source, you'll increase your chances of getting coverage. So one of the things we did is we would search on Google, you know, top 10 webinar softwares or the best webinar softwares for small businesses. And we would look at all the publications that have already published, you know, lists or articles on this topic or in the tech space. Once we found these writers, we would search for them on social media. I found that Twitter or X was the best for this type of relationship. relationship. You'd follow them on social media and then you would engage with their content and the articles they share, retweet them, comment on them.

3:35Over time, you'll build rapport with this writer. This takes a bit of time, you know, it takes a few months, but it's going to make it easier for you to pitch a story to them to go into their DMs and say, hey, we are launching something new in our business. Maybe you want to take a look. Now, this doesn't really work for one or two journalists. You're going to need to reach out or build relationships with 20, 30 journalists, 40 even. And if you can't do this yourself, you can find somebody or team to do this. And it's an ongoing thing that you need to kind of be on top of following new journalists, engaging with their content, and then reaching out when you have something that's worth them publishing.

4:12Remember, their job is to publish interesting stories. They're not looking to publish a commercial of your business, right? They're not looking to publish an advertisement. So if you're doing something interesting, quirky, even within your company, like let's say you start hiring people from a country that not a lot of people hire from, like Bhutan, and you're getting great results. They might find that interesting. Strategy number two, create a compelling press release. A lot of people think press releases are kind of old-fashioned, but press releases can get a lot of attention of journalists in media outlets.

4:45Your press release should be noteworthy of some sort. It should be concise, and it should be compelling, like I mentioned. You want to highlight what makes your story unique and why it matters to your audience. There are services that allow you to put out press releases. They're not too costly,$300,$400. And what happens is when you put out a press release, other media outlets pick them up. And there's like this momentum thing that happens where when one outlet picks it up, another one wants to pick it up as well, and it kind of snowballs. When Webinar Ninja got acquired by ProProfs, Yahoo Finance published our press release.

5:20And once that happened, it got picked up by other outlets. And before he knew it, it was published over and over and over, resulting in several articles and several mentions on those articles. Strategy number three, leverage social media. Social media is a powerful tool for gaining PR. By sharing valuable content, engaging with your audience, by participating in industry conversations, you can attract the attention of journalists that are kind of thinking, hey, this person is kind of interesting. They're putting out some interesting stuff. They have an interesting perspective. A lot of journalists hang out, again, on X, Twitter, LinkedIn, even Instagram.

5:56You may want to start tailoring the content you put out to attract some PR or some journalists, like industry trends, or how are you using something that's kind of hot at the moment in your business, like AI. You may not be the main story, but you might be a reference or something that they use as an example. So say, for example, you share on your Instagram how you're using AI to improve your customer support. and a journalist is writing an article for a big publication, a strong website saying, hey, AI is taking over customer support. Here's an example from this entrepreneur and they'll embed your Instagram reel.

6:33This is a strategy that I kind of didn't take seriously. Actually, the last decade, I really didn't work very hard on growing my social media. I really didn't love being on social media. I really wanted to focus on the content, on the 100 Lombie program, on the podcast, on serving our audience, and of course, building and growing our software company, Webinar Ninja, for 10 years. And I neglected social media, and I didn't get a lot of PR because of that. Now I see the value in that, and I'm doubling down trying to grow our social media profiles, especially my personal profile. So I do have some regrets there.

7:09I haven't really worked on my social media, but I'm making a change now. So don't be like me. Social media does matter. So continue to put on good, valuable content to get the attention of journalists. Strategy number four, become a thought leader. Now, you might be interested in your business, in your product, your service, your customers, and you just love what you do. But you can also become a leader in your industry, a thought leader in your industry, by sharing your expertise and sharing what you've learned along the way in your experience. And this could be by writing a guest post on a blog or showing up as a guest on a podcast or speaking on stage at events.

7:48The more visible you are, the more likely journalists will seek you out and ask you for a quote or ask you for some insights. I went to a conference back in 2015, I believe, called FinCon. It was a finance conference. And I didn't even speak at the conference. I was an attendee, but I went to a lot of interesting meetups. I spoke to a lot of the speakers there. I was networking. And somebody who is in that group of people wrote a great article on Forbes about people that you should know that they met at the conference. And I showed up on that article. So just by being at a conference and networking and speaking and meeting new people, you have a chance of getting some free PR.

8:30Strategy number five, become a journalist. I know this sounds weird and interesting, but this could be you. If you're a thought leader, if you've done well in your industry, in your marketplace, you can actually write for some of these websites like Inc. and Forbes and Entrepreneur. You could have a regular column. And of course, in your body line, people will know who you are and what you do and your business. Many of these journalists that write for these publications, this is not their full-time thing. They do other things. They're writers, they're authors. And if you're wondering how do you become a journalist?

9:05Well, why don't you reach out to one and ask them, how do they become a journalist? Interview them for your podcast or YouTube channel or even for your blog. Once you have their game plan, you can just implement it. Strategy number six, use PR platforms. There are several platforms that connect businesses with journalists looking for sources. Sites like HARO, H-A-R-O, help a reporter out, and Sourcebottle. They allow you to respond to journalists' queries and potentially get featured in their articles. So journalists will write down, hey, I'm writing an article on this topic, I have some questions who can help.

9:39And you can send them your ideas, your thoughts, your help. And if they like it, they will mention you. They will use your information and of course, mention you as the source of that information. We use HARO a lot when we're running Webinar Ninja to find opportunities to be featured in articles. We were like the webinar experts in the industry. So we're able to add valuable insights in the area of webinars or live events online. The key here, though, is you need to respond quickly to these journalists' queries because usually these journalists have deadlines to publish these articles. And, you know, the first answers to their questions usually get published if they're high value.

10:17All right, let's recap the six steps to getting free PR. Number one, identify journalists, follow them on social media, start building relationship. Two, craft a press release. They'll get picked up by other publications. Number three, leverage social media. Use social media to generate content that attracts journalists to you. Number four, become a thought leader like we did with the$100 MBA and become part of the media. Number five, become a journalist and write articles for these publications. Not sure? Reach out to a journalist and see if you can interview them and find out how they became a journalist or a columnist for one of these publications.

10:56And number six, utilize PR platforms like Haro and Sourcebottle, but respond quickly. Getting free PR for your business is actually a lot of work, I got to be honest with you. But it's all about building relationships and sharing valuable content with journalists and positioning yourself as that thought leader, as that somebody who can be a great source. By taking these steps or using the strategies we shared today, you can get a lot of free attention. And in the online world, this is great SEO and free traffic to your site or to your brand. Thanks so much for listening to The$100 RBA Show. So if you love what you hear, if you love this podcast, why don't you share it with a friend?

11:33Go ahead and just send them a message and click that share button on whatever podcast app you are using right now to get the link of today's episode. And say, hey, friend, was listening to this podcast. I thought it was pretty cool. And I thought of you. Go ahead and share it with them and do your friend a solid. Thanks so much for listening. But before I go, I want to leave you with this. Here's a reality when it comes to anything that's free. It's free in terms of money, but it's not free in terms of time and effort. you're going to pay somehow. Anything valuable is worth whatever you're going to have to pay for it.

12:03In this case, it's time and effort. So understand that this is going to take some time, it's going to take some investment, and the more effort and time you give it, the more benefit you're going to get. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll check you in the next episode. I'll see you then. Take care.

12:33Thank you.