Esther
Good morning. And welcome to the Monday Morning marketing Podcast. I'm Esther
and I'm Melanie.
And today we're joined by Tara Galicee, PR consultant of Galice Communications. And we're talking about PR. Welcome, Tara, how are you?
I'm good. Thanks for having me on, ladies.
You're more than welcome. So, PR public relations, what is it and why do we need it?
Public relations, in its simplest terms, is getting yourself out there getting publicity for yourself or for your company. I suppose the way I like to describe it is advertising is you saying nice things about yourself, whereas public relations is other people saying nice things about you or your company?
Well, that sounds like quite a hard thing to do to encourage other people to do it about you. What kind of businesses approach you give us an idea of what kind of businesses they are and where in their business relationship are there? Are they startups? Are they well established?
Yeah. Most of my clients would be startups or very small companies because I'm a sole trader and don't have the huge costs and outlays that a lot of the big agencies would have. I can keep my costs lower so that's attractive to smaller companies and to start-ups. So, yeah, they tend to approach me and say, "Look, I don't have a huge budget, but I know I need to get out there". A lot of my clients would be in the beauty sphere, which is fairly saturated. My job really is just to dig deep, get to the bottom of what the company is about. Find out more about the founder. Why did they set up the company? What makes them different? What's their unique selling point? What are their products like, what's the price point? And why should a beauty journalists write about them?
So it's a combination of all the things that we've talked about in the past, USPS understanding your customer avatar, understanding your audiences and where they're located in the stage of buying. And so how do you take this complete start up and make something of them when they, frankly, don't know what they're doing themselves right at the very beginning, anyway.
Yeah. I suppose it's having the conversation, first of all, and finding out a bit more about the client and what makes them tick. And from there, it's really putting together a Press release, which kind of includes information on them and on their company and on their products. If it is a product or if it's not a product, then if it's something else entirely. So, yeah, it's just about trying to dig deep and get to the crooks of what the company or the person is about.
Okay. So you mentioned press release there. Would that then be traditional marketing, traditional media, or would those press releases end up online? How could they use that for as part of their social media, is the press release just a one and done sort of deal?
No. The press release. Now, when I started off in PR 30 years ago, now you'd write a Press release, print it out. We have mail merge. You had to put everything addressed to an editor, put it in an envelope addressed to the editor, and everything will be couriered to the newspapers.
Okay. So one thing I wanted to ask because you just mentioned you've got a short amount of time in this particular field.
Couple of years, five minutes,
maybe.
So. How has communication changed? Apart from the fact I can't actually say the word, how has communication changed? And do you think it's changed for the better?
Yes. I know that's not a straightforward answer, but yes, in that there are so many more opportunities to get your name out there. In terms of you've got newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, you've now got podcasts, you've got influencers, you've got e-magazines. Whereas when I started it was newspapers, magazines, radio, regional papers.
So it's got more complex basically
It got more complex in that it's so saturated. It's kind of difficult to get your voice out there. Whereas back in the day, it was easier because it was a much smaller circle of people you were trying to contact.
So can small businesses do this themselves? Is there a way for them to just release a Press release and it be published, or do you have the contacts and the know how and why should they come to you and why should they do it themselves?
Okay, that's a good question. It's not brain surgery. Somebody said to me one time and I said,"Yeah, okay, right. I've just spent a year in College studying it and three years before that doing another degree". But that's besides the point. It really isn't that's difficult if you can write if you're someone who happens to be making skin creams, but you're an excellent communicator and you can write, well, go for it. What I would say, though, is a lot of companies. When they're talking about themselves, they can't see the wood for the trees, whereas I can be a lot more objective about them and their proposition. Also, they don't have the contacts. I've spent years putting together databases of features Editors, health Editors, business Editors, science Editors. You name it and a lot of them, not all of them, but a lot of them would recognise my name when it comes through the email. And believe me, they get some of them would get between two and 500 emails a day just from PR companies. So it's a lot. So if they don't recognise your name.
Shooting For the stars, not really aiming if they were to do it themselves and just pull the name out of the Yellow Pages or Golden Pages or whatever it's called.
Absolutely. A lot of the time as well. When you're talking about yourself, apart from not being objective, companies can be too Pluggy, too product driven and newspaper registers will just put that straight in the bin, because as far as they're concerned, that's an ad.
Yeah, the ads you have to pay for.
Well, one of the things I've noticed because I am a journalist with Irish Tech News. It's not quite any of the fields you've mentioned there, but I do notice that I get an awful lot of emails from people who send a Press release through and then includes click links throughout, which is I completely get it. I totally understand it, but we always remove them because pointless exercise really. Because it gets a little too much. People don't want to be sold to, they want to be helped. And one of the reasons why we thought you'd be a good fit for our audience today, Tara, is because myself and Esther have seen your work, maybe not for 30 years, but we've definitely seen your work for a good, long time. And the people that you've helped and build over the years and you don't do that. You know how to tell a damn good story and make people stand out prominently and get them shared across all crazy amounts of platforms. Give us an example of one of your most successful customers. I mean, obviously it's being unfair picking your most successful, but that's what we're here about. We're here about marketing. So how have you spread one particular business and how many different platforms have you managed to get them on?
Gosh, you put me on the spot. Now. I've worked with a lot of companies over the years. One of my most memorable accounts, I suppose, back in the day, was I worked at the Department of Health and Children on their breastfeeding campaign, and at the time, Ireland had incredibly low levels of breastfeeding and still does. But I managed to get hold of Caroline Core because I found out that she had breastfed her baby. And we had a lunch with the Minister and Caroline came along. We had huge media coverage because obviously they're really interested in what she had to say. Lots of cute babies. We were all over every single news channel, every single radio station. I had just had my baby. So he was there as well. So that was extra special. And I normally don't do the interview a bit, but because he was there in the day, Sky News came up and stuck their microphone on my face. That was 30 seconds of I don't know what I just said, but it came out okay. Yeah. The result of that, I suppose, was that breastfeeding in Ireland, the statistics went up 3% after that campaign, which doesn't seem like a lot, but it went from 30% up to 40%.
That's brilliant. So. All of the PR and communications that you do, it's all measurable then people can go with you and say, look, this is the audience I have now I want to reach a national audience. I want to be on national television and at prime time. Is that all stuff that you can do for them and measure it? Or is some of it just not measurable at all?
Yeah, some of it is measurable in terms of sales, but it's kind of hard to be specific. I mean, I have a client now in the beauty business and their sales rocketed during lockdown because they had to pivot online. Now some of that was down to me and some of the communications I put out there, some of that was down to them going online when they hadn't been before. It can be hard to measure, but it's part of the marketing mix. And you just have to say, okay, if I hadn't done this, if I hadn't gotten myself out there.
Okay. So when I think of PR, traditional PR, I think of traditional elements, so not the digital aspect. Do you help with both, or are you just the traditional side of things.
Predominantly traditional in that. That's where I started. That's what I learned. But I've had to pivot as well. I've had to learn the new ways that my dad would say how to get out there online influencers like them or loathe them. Some of them can really sell a brand if you put the right brand with the right influencer. What a lot of companies tend to do is they look at the figures and say, oh, she has high numbers. Let's just send her a load of products and pay her a load of money. It's not that easy. You need to match your product with the right influencer. Who would be passionate about your brand and not be marketing your competitor in the next breath. So that's important.
Brilliant advice. Brilliant advice there. So we've all heard the expression, "no, PR is bad PR". Is that right?
No publicity is bad publicity.
Yeah.
No, I wouldn't necessarily agree with that. You don't want to write up that your product has chemicals in it. If you're a natural skin care brand, so that could be very damaging to your brand to your company.
Do you do damage control as well?
Yeah, I do.
Something goes badly wrong.
Yeah, that would be crisis PR. One of my biggest clients at the moment is the Federation for Early Child Care Providers. And that's a lot because they're lobbying the government at the moment, and they've just issued a big budget submission about how much money they need and how much funding they need to keep their services open. So there's a lot of crisis PR involved in that. That's in a different way, as opposed to something going bad with the brand or somebody speaking negatively about your brand. But, yeah, that would be crisis PR. And that's part of what I do.
Do you collaborate with anybody else to offer a more wider service? Has that ever happened?
Not really. I do have a girl who works with me in the background, but in terms of working with someone like yourself, a marketing person. You mean?
Well, I was thinking more like brand reputation or brand management teams. Have they ever brought you on board as a team member?
No. I suppose the best example I could use would be Samantha in Women's Inspire. She's kind of brought me in to win as her media communications expert. And I've worked with a lot of the ladies in there to help them get their message and their brand out there.
That's Samantha Kelly, also known as Tweeting Goddess on Twitter. He's responsible for an awful lot of what's happening today.
It's like six degrees of separation. Everyone knows Samantha.
Absolutely. Here in Ireland.
Yes.
So is there any one magic formula that we can help people with their PR? Is there any micro moment that we can give our listeners from you?
Yeah. As I said, just try and look objectively about your product and just not be too Pluggy or write it as an ad. Media don't talk about products. They talk about people. They talk about stories. They're looking for an angle looking for a news hook. So for example, if again, I'll go back to skin care, if your brand cures eczema and it's national eczema day, then that's getting a link in there. That's getting something newsworthy. I have a client who is in the supplements sphere, and it's not the most sexy thing out there. But they are an iron supplement. They provided the iron to the athletes going to the Olympics in Tokyo recently, especially the female athletes who suffered really badly during their period because their levels dropped dramatically and therefore they were less productive. Tired lethargic. So this company provided the iron for these women and sending out the press release on its own didn't get many hits. But when I got one of the athletes to talk about it, she was on Ireland A. M. Recently and they left her story because it was the human element of the human voice.
Definitely.
So that's definitely the angle to go for is the human angle, if possible, get someone else to write about your business. It could even be your next door neighbour if they've tried your product or service. It could be coming in from reviews that people have sent you on your Google my business. Obviously, you could pull in from all of that information rather than being seals seals.
Exactly.
Because there is a huge difference between PR and a Press release and an ad in the local paper or the radio station. But. Is there one media that would bring in more ROI than others? Like if you're on national TV, is that more appealing than being in the national newspaper, or are they both on a level?
I suppose TV or radio would be more impactful because the audience is wider. But then again, it's more difficult to get on because as I said, they are looking for the angles. They're looking for the news unless it's a programme in Ireland. I am like boost my business, which allows you to go on and give you two minutes to talk about your business, but otherwise, they are looking for that angle. That human interest story.
So how do we learn more about Gilleece Communications? Where would be the best place to get information about your business, Tara?
Www.gilleececommunications.ie
And that's G-I-L-L-E-E-C-E. Isn't it, GILLECE?
Exactly. Yeah.
And some of our audience is based in the UK and in the United States. So would you be able to help them as well, or are you more predominantly helping Irish businesses? Could you help them get into the Irish market?
Yeah. Well, I could help them with press releases, copywriting stuff like that. But in terms of getting press releases to their media. No, I wouldn't do that because you need to live in the country and you work in and know the journalists involved. So I only work with Republic of Ireland media, even up the north. It's a completely different ballgame, so I wouldn't even go there. But if they wanted me to help them launch here, absolutely no problem. Or if they want to do their publicity in their own territory, that's fine. I could just have them with the copywriting or press release.
That's quite a good service, actually, the press releasing, because there really is quite a trick to it, isn't it quite a formula to making sure that a journalist Loves the damn thing.
Who where why, what? How in the first paragraph, getting all your most important information in the first paragraph and not rambling on for pages and pages. They don't have time. They're extremely busy. Even the heading in the email in the subject matter could make or break you.
I've got to agree with that. How many posts already today? Because it wasn't particularly. I mean, I have a certain area that I work in. That's something else you need to know as well. Don't just spam a lot of journalists because I work in a certain sector for my online Journal, and sending me camera information is just not relevant. It's not me at all. So I just delete it. But if it says the right keywords that matter to me and to my audience, then will open it.
Absolutely. There's no point in sending a health journalist information on your new bar of soap. They don't care. It has to be relevant to them. So you need to, as you said, manually find your audience and make sure you're targeting the right journalist. And one last thing I'll say is that photographs I can't emphasise how important they are because the amount of clients who come to me with a few photos taken on the iphone and say, "Look here's my photos" either of themselves with shadows everywhere or themselves out at a party with their uncle and aunt. It's not going to cut it. If you're sending out a photograph yourself and it has to be really clean background. I'd suggest getting a professional photographer to take your portrait or else if it's a product getting a good product photographer to take good clean product shots, which are high resolution.
Yes, we definitely agree with that. Just one last question. You were talking about getting the most of the information in the first paragraph. How long should a Press release be?
Okay? I would say a page. Ideally, if there's a lot of information like the words of my child care providers, two pages Max, because they won't read any more than that, they will continue reading if it catches their information or catches their attention, I should say, but they won't if it's rambling on.
Always attach a website because if they want to learn more, they can just click on the link and we can go and view the website in greater detail. I've done that before.
Absolutely. Or your own contact information, which sounds obvious, but some people might not include a phone number.
It's always good to include the obvious. Tara It's been wonderful. Thank you so much for coming and giving us your time and your information and your Nuggets of gold. All about PR press Releases communications do get in touch with Tara if you've other questions and we'll be back next week with more Monday morning marketing Bye bye.
Thank you. Bye
bye. For now.