Transcript: Build Firm Credibility with Media Relations

Lindsay: Well, Hey there friend. I am very excited about today’s topic because it’s a topic I haven’t really covered. And I haven’t personally had experience in all of my years of AEC marketing. And that topic is media relations. I brought on the expert, my friend, Michelle Calcote King from reputation, Inc.

She’s been doing this for a long time for our industry and she’s going to share some strategies. Well, first she’s going to tell us what the heck media-related. Is, and then she’s going to share some strategies that have worked for her clients, other AEC firms, and, how to get started at your firm. If this is something that has been on your to-do list or your goals for a while, but you don’t really know how to begin today’s episode is for you.  So, without further ado, here’s Michelle.

Lindsay: Okay. Hi everyone. Today. I have a guest on, her name is Michelle Calcote King, and she is the principal and president of Reputation, Ink. And I have brought her onto today to cover a topic that I haven’t covered on the Marketers Take Flight Podcast. And that is media relations. But before we get started, let’s meet Michelle. Hi Michelle. Thanks for being on the show today.

Michelle: Thanks for having me.

Lindsay: Before we get started on our topic. Let’s learn a little bit more about you. tell our listeners who you are, maybe how you got involved with the AEC industry, your career path, and how you help firms today.

Michelle: Yeah, thanks for having me. I’m excited to talk about this. So, I am the principal and president of Reputation, Ink. And we are a public relations and content marketing agency. I focused on professional services firms. And we have two key markets that we focus on. we work with corporate law firms and then architecture engineering and construction firms, or we’re about half and half with those two industries and we’re 10 people. We are fully remote, so I’m, I’m based in Jacksonville, Florida, but we’ve got one team member in Canada. We have someone in Connecticut. We have, Utah, and Kentucky. So, we’re kind of we’re yeah, we’re kind of spread

Lindsay: all over the time zones.

Michelle: Yeah, we do. We kind of covered the time zone, so, and our clients are like, similarly spread out, So I started the agency about 10 and a half years ago and before that had always worked in marketing and PR agencies and had had a very good client that was a large AEC firm. And ended up when I started my firm, they ended up being my first client and they are still a client to this day. So, we’ve just had a lot of, uh, experience working with those types of firms.

Lindsay: Well, great. So, you are the person to talk to about today’s topic. So, let’s start right at the beginning. Cause like we were saying before we hit record, I was telling you me personally. I have all of my experience working, you know, marketing business development in the AEC industry. I would say I probably spent the least amount of time or at least the amount of my personal time or expertise involved in public relations or media relations. We always had other people in the department, you know, experts to do that. So, I hope to learn a lot from you today. And I’m so excited to talk about this topic.

Michelle: Yeah.

Lindsay: So, let’s start at the beginning. Let’s start at a basic level. What is media relations and why is it so important for AEC firms?

Michelle: Yeah. So, media relations are kind of how the name sounds. It’s really working with the media to get your messages out there. So, you are pitching, and wanting to, to, uh, get covered in publications that your target audience. pay attention to, so, uh, and, and kind of the strategies have evolved over the years as the media industry has changed over the years, you know, the internet really changed how, uh, media is consumed, um, and, kind of media outlets have been really kind of struggling to catch up ever since that happened. So, and for AEC firms and, and honestly, really any business today, you, you, can’t be part of these conversations that are happening in your industry. these publications understand your target audience intimately because they serve the same audience. If you’re targeting, let’s say you are an AEC firm that builds, uh, let’s say healthcare facilities, you’re going to want to be, in the healthcare trade publications that facilities managers are reading to get, to stay up to date on the latest trends and the latest issues that they’re facing. and the media gives you that third-party credibility.

So, a lot of AEC firms have sort of finally jumped on doing content marketing. So, putting out their own content publishing blog posts being active on social media, you know, creating white papers, those kinds of things, which is great. but by, pitching that same content to the media and getting covered in the media, you get that one you get in front of their audience. But you also get that stamp of approval that a media outlet gives. any, firm any business that’s covered in the media, you sort of been vetted by that other party. And, um, it helps, establish your credibility, which, you know, for, for services like AEC, which are such a large dollar purchase, there’s trust is so important. Media credibility, that’s so valuable, in the sales process. So, it gives buyers. That, uh, feeling that this is a credible established company, which knows what it’s doing, knows that knows your industry and provides what we’re all aiming for with doing marketing, which is to convince a prospect that this is a credible, company that understands, you know, your prospect’s business. And, um, it’s the right provider.

Lindsay: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. So, thank you for starting at the basics for newbies like me. It makes a lot of sense when you explain it like that. So, I really appreciate that. I had some inkling of it, but always having, you know, a communications director or outsourcing to a firm like yourself, you know, I never got into the nuts and bolts of it. So, thank you. so now that we kinda know our listeners have an understanding of what media relations are and why it’s so important. I’m sure all the listeners are like, yes, I need to do that. that is so important for my firm. We’ve already identified. I know you and I have talked before about our personas and knowing, you know, who our targeted audiences and the personas are and what industry publications, or organizations they’re involved in. So, tell us, maybe give us some ideas or some strategies you’ve used with some of your clients to get placements in some of these industry publications.

Michelle: Yeah. so, you’ve got, really, I think kind of two ways you have your traditional, news type media relations Where you’re, putting out press releases on new hires, uh, project milestones, that kind of thing. So, you are sharing news about your firm and your project. Then you have thought leadership, which is where you are, contributing or you can call it contributed content where you are sharing lessons learned from projects, insight into new, Technology’s insight into trends, insight into issues that maybe there’s a new, legislation that, you know, clients need to understand and how it impacts their projects. There’s the funding coming out and they need to understand it. And I’ve presented on it a lot. I use the term knowledge extraction. I borrowed it from someone else, but really, you have to get into a process of kind of being an in-house journalist for your company and, going around and really kind of capturing the knowledge from your subject matter experts, packaging up and giving it to the media.

So. What my team does is sort of a regular we’re regularly meeting with subject matter experts at our clients. So, you know, subject matter experts or SMEEs, we’re asking them, what are the common questions that you’re hearing from your clients? What are some new issues that you’re hearing? Have you completed a project recently where there was a unique challenge that you faced and you solved it, in a novel way? And then we’re writing up pitches and we’re contacting, trade publications or a local business, outlets. And we’re saying, hey, this subject matter expert at this company has a topic that we think your readers would be really interested in. Here’s a brief summary of it, and we’d love to write an article for your publication. Or, you know, your editor. We just addressed this, unique issue on a project, and we’d love to write up about it because we think your readers would face the same issue. So, you’re giving that valuable educational content, but you’re, instead of just publishing it to a blog, you’re going to an editor and you’re convincing that editor, that this would be great content for their publication and, and media outlets today. They are hungry for this kind of content.

Lindsay: Yeah. Cause they need to put out content just like we need to put out content.

Michelle: and they, and they want to include, you know, insights from people in the field actually doing the work. So, having someone, either in-house or an agency who can kind of facilitate that, you’re really kind of facilitating a knowledge transfer. Right. So, and you’re facilitating the there’s a lot of knowledge and expertise happening in your firms today, but someone has to one have that conversation with the SMEEs and then to identify what, what are the golden nuggets in there of information that, clients and prospects would be interested in? And this sort of translating that to a media outlet in terms of what kind of content could you create for that magazine or whatever kind of media outlet it is. that would be interesting contents.

I always joke that we’re sort of like matchmakers between our clients and the media, because we’re doing that kind of that facilitation of insights and ideas, and what it does is it create, so it, and it really works. The reason why Reputation Ink, is a public relations and content marketing agency is that it really, it works hand in hand. So, your kind of creating that content for the blog for LinkedIn. Whatever it is. And then there’s, there’s good content there that a media outlet would likely be interested in. So, it’s kind of figuring out, okay, what content goes on the blog versus what content can we pitch to the media, and, figuring that out.

And then you kind of doing that in tandem. You might have content that you only publish on your blog. and then some content that’s perfect for the media and you really work with that outlet. The other benefit of, this so, that I always get questions from clients, like what should I just put published on my blog and what should I pitch to the media?

Lindsay: that was going to be my next question.

Michelle: Well, you know, and, and I hate to be the, uh, it’s the worst answer ever. It depends, but it depends on really. Sometimes we have something that we think the media is going to be interested in and we go out and we don’t get any interest. So then, then it goes to the blog. Right. So, often. To start with, let’s see if we can get any answers from this. And sometimes, you know, the media will say, oh, we’ve already written about that. Or we just did something about that. Or we’re really not focusing on that until later this year, then that’s when it goes on the blog. it really is just, is there, is there a home for it, in a media outlet and I think you should often try that first. and then, but sometimes content is much more. self-serving.

So, let’s say you have a piece of content, and it really is just more kind of a vanity piece about your firm and the great work you might’ve done on a project, which has a place there’s, there’s a value in that content. So that wouldn’t be content we’d go pitch to the media. I think, for it to work for a trade publication, you have to think about, you know, is this truly a new interesting, does it touch on something incredibly timely? The media wants very timely. so, you might have, evergreen content, which again is important and there’s a place for it, but the media is not going to be as interested in what they want. You know, they’re really looking for that new, angle to it. So, it’s really kind of assessing what you’ve got and there’s value in both. but you have to have that persistent look at that and also, a consistent kind of ongoing dialogue with editors. once you start feeding them content on a regular basis, they’ll start coming back to you and saying, you know, I know you guys have done, I know you, X client has done work in this area and we’re looking to do a couple of articles, on this topic. So, you start to have that back and forth and you could feed content that way.

Lindsay: Yeah. So, something that I, I kind of heard you saying over and over again is when you’re pitching to these editors or these media outlets, you don’t necessarily have the piece already done and finished. Pitching an idea, maybe an abstract, a couple of hundred words.

Michelle: Yeah. And that’s, that’s really important because, what often happens is an editor will come back and say, ah, I’d like this, but I’d rather go in. can you focus it more on this angle? They’re going to have, they’re gonna, because editors, their job is to understand their audience and deliver great content to them.

So, it’s actually really, it’s a lot of value that you get by having that back and forth with an editor. So if you finish the piece, before it’s, you know before you actually start contacting editors and having that conversation, then you’re doing work that isn’t necessary and might be a waste because you end up editing it to suit their needs has certain style guidelines too, but it really is that process of the back and forth with the editor about what’s going to work for their audience while also serving your needs as well.

Lindsay: Okay, so I guess I’ve just been in the realm of the traditional press releases. Press releases that, we write them up. We send them out through the Newswire. and so, this is a little bit different. This is where you’re actually pitching, ideas doing that back and forth, and you don’t have the content. And, I totally agree with you, because they might come back to you and be like, okay, we really love this. We want it to be a feature, you know, it’s 5,000 words or. Or, well, we have, we can fit this as part of a snippet of a bigger feature. And so, you’re going to be in the sidebar, so you have 300 words or 500 words.

Michelle: And we’d get approval from our clients on a pitch. So, what we do is we have a Smee call. We come up with, we, you know, through that call or we’re aiming to get a few pitch topics. We go away, we develop it. and it’s, maybe, maybe it’s one to three paragraphs. It is, you know, dear editor, here’s the issue. Here’s our take on it. here’s why these clients and experts are in it. Here’s the kind of article we propose.

Lindsay: Okay.

Michelle: So, and you’re, you’re kind of giving that flavor of, and that, very high level, it’s really thinking in terms of, uh, freelancers do this all the time when they want to, pitch a topic to a publication. And they’ve got an idea for an article. So, it’s doing that similarly, but just facilitating it from the client’s perspective. And, and then what we do is we go straight. So, once we get them. Once, once the publication comes back and says, yes, that’s great. We’d love an article. Or, they might have a freelancer or a writer on staff who’s going to write the article. So, then our job is to prep our client, um, make sure we’re getting key messages in the article, that kind of thing. But if they come back to us and say, we’d love an article from you, then we go straight to the article and said that that’s when that, that actual writing happens.

Lindsay: The content. Okay, great. Well, I’m just learning all sorts of new things today. Okay. I love that. So, we’ve convinced people they’ve got to start last. Right? So, if we have in-house marketers at AEC firms, you know, how would they begin to maybe formulate their media relations plan? If they’re not doing any of this right now, maybe they’re just sending out press releases for new hires, but they want to get into this more of the spot leadership, you know, media relations pitching, how would they start that plan?

Michelle: Yeah. There are a couple of things you should do. Uh, one is to form, I, I used to, it depends on the client, but one thing I started with one client was I created an editorial board, with the client. So, we went and we selected key subject matter experts in different areas of the company that we knew one would participate actively. and then we scheduled regular meetings, where we, I would put up a PowerPoint slide in the room and it would be like five questions and they would, they were, what is the most interesting project you’ve just recently worked on, and we did this monthly. What is the top question you’re hearing from clients? Are you using any new tools, techniques, or technology on your project? Are there any new challenges? So, we had, and I, I can’t remember them all, but that was kind of the thing. And then we’ve just brainstormed for an hour, and it would be, you’d get a lot of great information. So, we just set up that process on a regular basis and then started the process of pitching it to the media. Of course, you have to, you have to figure out who your target media outlets are. but it was creating that regular cadence of having those conversations and coming out of it with solid information and ideas to go take to the media. and, always within, you know, there’s gotta be that overlap of your, clients’ interests and your key expertise. Right? So, I think, Joe Pulizzi of the Content Marketing Institute calls that, you know, the content sweet spot. So, we don’t want to be pitching, topics, that aren’t, of interest to clients. Um, so it’s gotta be right in that sweet spot.

So, that’s one way to do it is to just set up that process. Right. and then two, it’s to go and look at what the media are writing about. So, a lot of these trade publications have almost all of them published editorial calendars. so, you can have a look at what are they planning for the future. and then you start reaching out to them.

So, let’s say you are an AEC firm that builds food processing facilities, and you notice that they’re going to write about a certain trade publication. They’re going to cover the food industry. You’re going to reach out. and often what we do when we see that as we kind of reach out to the editor, early enough, several months in advance and say, you know, Hey, I’ve got this client who, does a lot of work in this area, a lot of expertise, maybe a couple of examples, maybe point them to a few blog posts. Just curious as to what you’re planning for that issue. Do you have any needs right now? Would you like me to come back to you with some specific topic ideas? So again, that’s sort of just a general conversation. Sometimes you don’t get any response to that because they just really want you to come to them with some pitches and then sometimes, they go, you know, we’re just planning that out now we’re thinking about looking at these areas and then, then you can get a much more informed Pitch strategy around that. so, it’s really the two it’s, it’s really having a, an eye on what the publications are doing. and what they’re planning. and then it’s also being that in-house journalist for your company and getting, uh, a regular cadence where you are talking to, the subject matter experts and get ideas for topics.

And you can do that in an editorial board format, or you can just have, like, you know, let’s say you have a handful of three to five go-to people and you schedule a half-hour zoom calls with them to go over that. the key is to keep people, to keep your SMEEs engaged, and into this is to facilitate the time with them. Don’t go to them and say, hey, what should we write about.

Lindsay: Yeah. Yeah.

Michelle: Can you get me a blog post? You don’t do that. That doesn’t work. You have to ask questions that, speak to tell me about, your most interesting product, your most challenging project right now. Tell me about, way, you recently solved a problem or a challenge, in a creative way. You have to ask those questions and then you need to be the one that understands how that’s gonna translate into an article or a blog post an interview on a podcast or whatever it

Lindsay: Yeah. Yeah. I love it. That’s the in-house journalism is what you’re talking about. You’re being the journalist to extract that knowledge. I love it. I love it. And it’s so much easier for The SMEEs to just sit there and talk. Yeah. When asked, I find that having those conversations, for those of us who have offices and can go into offices, having those conversations, you know, back in the good old days in the conference room and start whiteboarding is, now we have the virtual conference room with the zoom, the zoom rooms. it just, it just helps get people talking. so, I like that strategy a lot. Thank you for breaking that down because that is the way that you explain that, like identify your SME. not only the people that have the knowledge, but the people that are willing, and they get them either together or meet with them separately and ask them these questions, to start brainstorming ideas, and then go look at your, your media outlets and look at their calendars and see what things align and start reaching out. So,, it’s a pretty simple process when you break it down like that.

Michelle: It’s just, a couple of things. One gets buy-in on doing it in the first place. Cause it’s not definitely time-consuming. So, if you don’t have the people to do it in-house, you’re going to need to, work with a firm like mine. So, you know, getting the buy-in and the budget to do it. cause if you’re, if, and I know, you know, with the AEC market, marketers are, sometimes they have no other bandwidth than to do proposals. So, this is not something you can just patch on and do. And you know, it, it is a time-consuming process, and it has to be done regularly. So, what I tell clients is that this is, modern marketing. This is what this. so, we can no longer go off and create a, you know, a couple of brochures and a display ad and call it a day. people expect to Google your firm’s name and find a wealth of information. And if they find it not just on your site, but, throughout very credible media outlets, you’re going to be much more successful in building the kind of relationships and reputation that you, that are going to enhance your, your sales process.

So, to do that, you can’t create great content, whether you’re placing it in a media outlet or on your blog. Without, your SMEs involvement, it just can’t happen. Otherwise, it’s very it’s. If you are only putting out content that you can find on Google already, you are not creating anything of much value, so you really have to go to the people that, that are really working on a day-to-day basis with your clients and get that information out of them and create content that way.

So, this is how people make decisions today. It’s how companies market themselves. And the other parts of marketing are still important, but you have to have this ongoing storytelling, which is what you’re doing. You’re telling your company story and your company’s story is your people’s expertise and knowledge and how they approached problems and, uh, how they’ve solved challenges and how they’re innovating on projects, what ways there, they’re really stepping things up. That’s your story. And you have to tell it, and the only way to do that is to connect with your SMEEs on a regular basis and tell it,

Lindsay: Absolutely. Couldn’t have said it better myself. I am hundred percent agree.

Michelle: Yeah.

Lindsay: Okay. So, before we wrap up the show today, I have my rapid-fire questions. Are you ready for those?

Michelle: I’m ready.

Lindsay: Okay. Question number one. What is your number one piece of advice for marketers who are new to the AEC industry?

Michelle: Read, be an expert at marketing, and you can’t get a degree in marketing and call it a day. I think it was one of those things that frustrated me at the beginning of my career thinking, oh, I’ve learned, and that’s done. Marketing changes rapidly and frequently. So, it’s very hard to gain credibility with people in-house, because unfortunately in these kinds of industries, marketing doesn’t have a built-in credibility factor-like let’s say an in-house lawyer would have. Your discipline is foreign to engineers, architects, and my project managers, but there’s no built-in credibility because we have a low barrier to entry. Right. Anyone can get into marketing. there’s not a, there’s not a certification that you have to have in order to practice marketing. so, you have to build, credibility yourself. And the only way to do that is to be, to be very knowledgeable about your craft. and, you have to keep learning. You have to build in that, the expectation that you go into a meeting and, you’re going to have a wealth of knowledge that is going to help them, build this, you know, build the business. so yeah, read,

Lindsay: yeah, read,

I love it. Okay. Question number two. What has been your favorite or most memorable win?

Michelle: I have a story that I love, and it was so impactful for me at the time I had worked with an AEC firm that had never really done this kind of marketing for several years, but they had trusted me and let me kind of run with content and, PR, in, in a very focused way for them. And the vice president of sales came to me, and he said, I went to a meeting recently with a very high-value prospect. This prospect was the vice president of engineering at a massive, massive global company. And he walked into the meeting in the prospect, said, you know what? I know that you know, our industry and that you’re an expert at it because I read your blog. And yeah, and he told me that and I thought that’s exactly what we’re trying to do. Right. That’s exactly the outcome we’re trying to get. Yes. People don’t click buy on a website for large facilities or infrastructure projects, but we’re trying to help. We’re trying to enhance the sales process so much to where the buyer is almost convinced before that meeting happens. So, that was just such a great, uh, win really for us at the time.

Lindsay: Awesome. I love that. last question. Number three. What are you excited about?

Michelle: I’m excited about a lot of things, but, uh, Reputation, Ink has grown, a lot for a, we’re a 10-person firm and we’ve just gone from eight people to 10 people, very quickly, which is a big jump and we’re hiring for one more. So, it’s, it’s an exciting time. we’ve been in business, for 10 and a half years, and I’m really starting to get to the size.

That’s kind of exciting. I don’t want to get too big. I like there’s a real sweet spot. you know, you can kind of get, too big and lose some of your, your culture, but I think we’re, we’re growing and getting to a point where it’s really exciting and doing interesting things.

Lindsay: Oh, that’s nice. I love that. Congratulations. okay. So, before we close out today, tell us a little bit about Reputation, Ink, how people can get in touch with you and how they can work with you.

Michelle: So, you go to our website, which is rep dash Inc. And it’s ink with a k.com. And we do, I have my own podcast. We have a blog. we do a couple of newsletters. So, sign up for our newsletter. We publish one newsletter every month, it’s just sort of a Roundup of a variety of PR opportunities. towards PR opportunities.

And we’re just trying to give marketers a flavor of the kinds of things they could be pursuing. and then we do another newsletter that is a more traditional newsletter, where we’re offering, um, kind of helpful articles, specific to the AEC market. so that’s the best way. And I, and of course, I’m on LinkedIn Michelle Calcote King. We’re on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram. So, all the links are on our website.

Lindsay: Yeah. And I’ll be sure to link the show notes, as well as your podcast because I was on your podcast. So, I’ll definitely make sure to link up that episode as well as just the general show link as well. So, it’s a great podcast to listen to. So, after you’re done listening to Marketers Take Flight go listen to the Spill the Ink podcast.

Michelle: There you go. That’s right.

Lindsay: Well, thanks, Michelle. Thanks for being on with us today and for teaching me even. So, Thank you.

Michelle: Thank you.

Lindsay: Well, okay. I want to thank Michelle again for coming on and teaching me. So hopefully you learn some stuff along the way. My favorite part of our conversation was when she was talking about going to the editors with ideas, pitching ideas, having maybe some thoughts out, but not the entire piece was written, that’s something that I hadn’t even thought about.

 And maybe I just, you know, because I haven’t done this. so. I am really glad that she shared that and that we emphasize that. So, I really like that part of, you know, looking at the industry publications. Editorial calendars see how your message or your expertise line up with it. And then working together with those editors to really, you know, formulate a piece that is going to be good for them and their readers, but also highlight your firm as the experts and make you into that subject matter expert, position.

And so, I really liked that approach. If you’re resonating with any of this, or if this is on your to-do list, I encourage you to go check out Michelle’s website of Reputation, Ink. It’ll all be in the show notes, and she has a lot of resources. She talks about a lot of them. She has the podcast spill the ink. so, I’m sure you can learn even more from her and then maybe even hire her to help your firm. So, thank you so much for joining me today until next time. Bye. For now.