60,000 reasons why you need this media matchmaker today for your public relations.

Jim James: 0:22

Hello, and welcome to this episode of The UnNoticed Entrepreneur. Today, I'm delighted to have Rachel Taplin joining me all the way from Solihull in the middle of England, to talk about Media Matchmaker. Rachel, welcome to the show.

Rachel Taplin: 0:34

Thank you for having me. I'm very excited to be here.

Jim James: 0:36

Well, we're super excited to hear about all the success. Now, tell us about Media Matchmaker, and how does it help entrepreneurs to get noticed?

Rachel Taplin: 0:43

Oh, bless you. It's my absolute passion on what I've created with Media Matchmaker. We help business owners and entrepreneurs secure publicity. But we do it very differently, we're not PR agency. So we provide you with daily PR leads, we give you all of the training and hold your hands every step of the way, and we give you access to up to 60,000 journalists, so that you can pinpoint, target the right type of journalist. So we're a very cost-effective way to secure publicity.

Jim James: 1:08

We'll talk about price later, but let's just talk, first of all, about the challenges facing business owners, because you've mentioned 60,000 journalists. But Sheryl Sandberg, once wrote that, "The media are not interested in small companies, they only want to talk to big companies," you know, she was the CEO of Facebook, was she wrong? Are you saying that there's an interest from the media in the small-to-medium-sized entrepreneur-led agency then, Rachel?

Rachel Taplin: 1:32

There's a massive interest. I've seen it done works in 30 years in the media, so I've seen it change a lot. And I've worked in closely with journalists over the last 10 years. And even in the last two to five years it's changed. So the way we consume the news has changed, everything we read is shorter, we have soundbites because our attention spans are a lot smaller. There's so many online media outlets as well now. So they need content, and they need it fast. And the way the media report the news has changed. So that they now report the news and how we consume the news via social media. So the, the journalists will sit down each day and say, "Right, what's trending?" Rather than, than leading the news, they're following the news. So that's a great chance for you to secure publicity, but absolutely now could not be a better time. There was an interesting stat. I did a survey once to some small business owners and as it came that's 80% of corporates use PR as a natural strategy, yet 20% of SMEs only considered it, when it really should be the other way around. And it was, you know, so yes, the perception is only corporates use PR or should be using PR. But, oh my goodness, mate, it's amazing for us, small business owners.

Jim James: 2:38

Yeah, well, so why would it be the only 20% consider using PR? Is it because they don't understand it or they don't have the time, and how do you solve the problem for them?

Rachel Taplin: 2:48

I think it's a bit of both those things. We don't know, what we don't know in business. And we always feel we have to have a big budget and traditionally, and PRs do a great job, by the way. PR agencies do a great job, but if you want to connect to the journalists, and get those connections yourself and do it yourself, then you can create amazing kind of success for yourself. So traditionally, yes, you'd have to go through but we have technology now, everything's at your fingertips. You know, the journalist's contact details are at your fingertips. Journalists are using Twitter for journal requests. We put a journal request service, so we bring the leads to you. So everything's up far more immediate and accessible, which has opened it up for the media to connect to every single person. But don't forget the media looking are for new sources all the time. We're looking for diversity, they're looking for people with different ethnicities, different backgrounds, disabilities, we're so much more inclusive now. So as I say, it's far more easier than you think.

Jim James: 3:40

Okay, well, that's really encouraging. And I'm like you, I think that technology is sort of democratising the process. But what about the skill sets there, Rachel? Because most entrepreneurs didn't start out with a marketing or a PR background. How do you help people to overcome or some guidance that they say they can't write, or they're nervous in front of the camera, or don't like the way they look, or sound? Any guidance or encouragement from that front?

Rachel Taplin: 4:04

I've got loads of, I could speak to you all day long about it. One of the biggest things to kind of remember and take away is when we write a press release or we're thinking about writing a press release, or if you were going to consider it. What you probably want to do is be getting across your company. What is it that you do? And ideally, a special offer or maybe a product that you're selling well, that's advertising, that's logical. PR is all about an emotional connection. You have to share value, you have to connect to the audience. So always try and remember, " Advertising sells, PR tells." You're telling a story, and that's what you need to do. And that's where we guide you to show what t hat's a bit of an advertising there, but just, they want to know the story behind the business. So it's, it's practically what you're doing even if any of your listeners already doing marketing and they're doing the blogs, you know, their social media, that they're writing posts on LinkedIn. Those are stories that can be sent to the media. Those stories will help because you're giving value. And that's all I'm asking you to do, is take your current marketing one step further and send it to the media.

Jim James: 5:01

So most people are afraid of sending something to a journalist because the view is that the media gets so many inquiries per day that yours is just going to be, you know, spam even, right? Any advice then? Because it's great to say, if you write a blog post, you publish it yourself, there's no editor, right? You got, you have control. How do you get that journalist, who's getting hundreds of emails every day to take notice of yours?

Rachel Taplin: 5:24

I've interviewed literally hundreds of journalists, and they're all slightly different, but they all have similar themes. You've got to make it relevant. Make it relevant to their audience. Don't waste their time. So if there's a trending news story and you know you can comment on it. Send them an email say, "In light of today's story, I'm available for comment on mental health awareness," whatever it is. So be relevant, be specific industry. So if you're going to send some into a trade industry magazine, make sure you've got some case study behind it, have some stats behind it, you know, just make it relevant. So we don't always do press releases, sometimes we just send them through emails. We sent one yesterday to targeted journalists for lifestyle and parenting. And this was a, a lady who's just parenting for parents with children with disabilities, and literally within seconds of a sending out to targeted journalists, and that's the key to it. We had a response, and she got some publicity. So if you imagine something like The Guardian. The Guardian or The Daily Mail might have 150 to 200 journalists. What you want to do is make sure your press release, newsletter, email, whatever it is, ends up in front of the right type of journalist. The freelance that writes about parenting, or health, or business, you know, not just at the news desk, because, yes, that will then go into a spam box with lots of other things. But journalists don't just dismiss you, they will, you know, I had someone I interviewed from the Telegraph actually, and he's written for Forbes. He literally starts everything and he falls it all away in it. So he can just do a search by keyword in his inbox. So, you know, don't always think if that they don't respond to straight away, they won't use your story, often, they will come back to you, it just takes a little bit of time and commitment.

Jim James: 6:59

And I think, that's a really good point that they might not be working on your story right now. But they might want to build that story later, right? So to keep you on file. So what sort of information would you want to send to a journalist about yourself? As an expert or an entrepreneur so that they, they kind of know to keep your funnels, so that you're a credible source because that's another issue, presumably for journalists.

Rachel Taplin: 7:20

Well, don't feel that you've got to have, you know, lots of media interviews behind you or lots of letters after your name. If you've got the expertise and the knowledge then you're helping them, it's a win-win. They're not there to trick you. They're there to share the information to help their audience or their listeners. So you can either share your story, you might have a personal story that's never been shared before. The media love exclusives, because there's so much noise out there if they can get an exclusive. So if it is an exclusive story and you want to get it into whoever you want to get it to, send it as an exclusive story. If you have a specific expertise, send it to targeted journalists. See what trending new stories they said. See if there's any national days or celebration days, or weeks, that you can write off the back of that you can preempt it. Have case studies, you know, there's lots of ways that you can make it easy for yourself. But simply, as I said before, just an intro email sometimes works really well. One of my clients, a couple of months ago, she's a rate relationship expert. I think she secured eight to twelve pieces of media coverage from one introductory e-mail.

Jim James: 8:19

Wow, that's amazing. Amazing success you're getting for clients. And what about this idea of the exclusive, Rachel? You mentioned that what we've found is that if we have clients that want to have an exclusive, the danger is you're sending it to lots of journalists and you're kind of worried about upsetting those that don't get it. What's, what's the strategy you current recommend? If you've got a piece of news and you know, that making it an exclusive would be a better hook for the journalist. But you don't have the time to send it to one at a time, kind of like in series, you need to send them out in parallel. How do you manage that?

Rachel Taplin: 8:47

I think like any think in business, it's no like trust, isn't it? So if you can try and build some relationships with the journalists where you want to be. I always encourage my clients to have like a hot media list. Ten clients, ten media outlets, if you like. Read their articles, follow them on Twitter, on LinkedIn, find out about that who liked their posts so they kind of get to know you in advance. And then you can say, "Look, you know, I've been following you. I love your articles. I love the way you write. I've got an exclusive story." Give them about a week. Maybe follow it up a few days later. If not, then send it out. What you'll tend to find is we had a client last year, and she was launching well, Jenny's Day, her daughter sadly committed suicide. And out of that, she's created her own business to help people now with the hurricane Tiffany process. And she sent this story out and literally have the media, you know, coming back to her and she positioned an exclusive with a national newspaper that went on then to a national at Glossy Magazine. So they share, they agreed terms, that she was an exclusive story for a months. So they'll all agree different terms. And then she could put a story and speak to the media. So they all have slightly different ways. So either targeted really specifically to one media outlet give them a chance, or send it to say, "This is an exclusive story that's not been shared before." And then wait to see who comes back to you.

Jim James: 9:59

Okay. And yeah, what we've done is say, "Here's a deadline it's a first come, first serve." Whoever comes in first, gets the exclusive.

Rachel Taplin: 10:06

Yeah, I wouldn't quite put it, it's a first come, first serve. I would just say, "It's an exclusive story that hasn't been shared, and I'm really open to sharing it." And you've been authentic with that, and then just say, "It's up to you." And it might be that you get it and then you can choose, but also be mindful where you want to be, who your audience is. I always say, you know, I help people with publicity and PR, but I'm a business owner first and foremost, look at the bigger picture. What is it you're trying to achieve? Make sure the media coverage has your customers, that's the most important thing for you. So, you know, PR isn't about ego, it's about getting the success that you want from raising your profile, new customers and cash in the bank.

Jim James: 10:43

Lovely. And I think you're actually right. You've also raised an interesting thing about consistency and about going to the media over time, because PR isn't just a one hit wonder, you are building a relationship. Rachel, how do you sort of guide clients on building the relation with the media over a longer period of time? Rather than just a one or one hit, and if you've got an exclusive as one journalist, maybe you're upsetting another one. And that danger that you could, over time, only have one or two journalists that you deal with. How do you navigate the long term building?

Rachel Taplin: 11:12

We help you. So the way I work with Media Matchmaker is we're together for 12 months minimum. And it's a programme where we say right, every first Thursday of the month, you can join us, and we'll give you guidance on your strategy, what your ideas are. It's about consistency. You're not going to upset somebody, a journalist that they're not going to remember. If you make them a promise, obviously, stick to that promise. But you are open to talk to anyone, as I said, right at the beginning, it's over 60,000 journalists, there's over 44,000 media outlets, there's plenty to go around, there really is. And you know, big lover of radio, radio is a great way, BBC, to secure publicity and start your journey. A podcast, we just launched a new podcast service. This is a great way to secure publicity and get to reach new potential customers. So don't always think PR is about traditional PR, the national broadsheets, and national radio stations, each digital PR as well, but there's so many opportunities and it's about consistency and we encourage you. So we give you access to templates and things like that, but it's about showing up. You know, in business, we can't just stop, we have to do something, whether we're doing paper click, or I don't really know that side, or marketing, or sales, we have to have some sorts of strategy. And for me, because I've had so much PR success myself and helped hundreds, if not thousands of others succeed in it, I think, this is one of the easiest ways to add on to what you're already doing and get success.

Jim James: 12:31

Rachel, you've mentioned there about, sort of, the consistency. Can you give some guidance about how much activity you think a company should be doing? Because that's the other unknown, isn't it? And in social media, this is, you know, how many posts you should do in some? From a PR point of view, is that too much? Is it not enough? What sort of guidance do you give on, on volume?

Rachel Taplin: 12:49

It's when you've got something that's newsworthy. And so you can do maybe once a month, check in with the media, send them an email to say, "These are the topics I can talk about," or give them three new topics to see if they're interested in covering these stories. If you're a natural writer already, send them some information, send them your blogs. If you're not, you can give them the headlines, because don't forget the job of the journalist is to introduce you and to interview you. Your job is to be the great source of information. So I'm dyslexic. I really get challenged with writing. So I end up for podcasts like this or radio interviews. But I've done, I've had so much coverage in the print and press because the journalists have interviewed me. So play to your strengths of what you want to do. But just because this is so, maybe if you've got a new trending news story, get it out straight away and get it to the media that can publish a story straight away. So have different media lists. So consumer magazines, trade magazines, they'll print two months in advance. So you're breaking news stories isn't going to go to that news desk unless I've got an online version. You need it to go to The Daily's, the radio stations, the TV channels, the podcasters, and the regional press if they, if they print weekly. So just think about where your story kind of fits. If there's a, say, a breaking news story that's trending, you're the expert, jump on it straight away, because they want people to comment. And a great place to start is your local community or your trade press, because you are credible in what you do, hopefully, you know your services. We're not asking you to be someone you're not. We're just saying, share your expertise and your knowledge.

Jim James: 14:15

Fantastic. What about the assets, Rachel, that a company should have? Because you've talked about writing and pitching. But can you share with us what we would call a pressroom, really. Some of the materials that a company should have ready in case a journalist does replies and say, "Hey, that's great. Tell me about you and your company." Can you give us like a checklist?

Rachel Taplin: 14:32

Yeah, absolutely. So we have we built Media Matchmaker, so it's multimedia ready, and that's what you need to consider. So in our platform, we encourage you to put your audio files there, so they can listen to see what you sound like. Your video, so they can see what you look like on camera, and also your photos. So have kind of those links to them, so that I'm going to download them. Have some low res photos, but I have some high res photos available as well. Head shoulders, action shop maybe, if it's relevant to your business, but definitely have the kind of the auditory side, as well if you're going on radio. Press back is simply, you know, the details of what you've done before, the topics you can talk about, the credentials you have and your contact details. It's really important that you are available. So you have a mobile phone number so they can get hold of you when you want to. But don't get too hunged up about it. You know, some of our clients have a media page, if you can. Nowadays, a lot of us are creating our own websites. If you can have a press page, direct media page. Even if you haven't had publicity, show that you're now, available to speak, topics you can talk about and put it all on your, you know, or you can obviously just send them a link to your profile with us, you can send a link to it. But it doesn't need to be overcomplicated. Gone are the times where they can see, they can do their due diligence, they can look you up. You can just send them and help them as much as you can.

Jim James: 15:45

Okay. And presumably, it's also important to be consistent across, for example, having your LinkedIn profile updated, maybe your Facebook group, your a Google business. All of those other touch points need to be aligned, don't they as well, Rachel? Is there something that you're doing to promote Media Matchmaker, and as an entrepreneur that you found to be particularly useful and successful to get noticed? What would be your, your own success points there?

Rachel Taplin: 16:07

Yeah, no, I'm doing exactly what I'm sharing with my members. So, you know, I do a lot of speaking at events which raises profile, but I, I share my content first. So I teach people how to do it and get them inspired and, and take the fear away from it. And also, as British people, this is obviously on our podcasts on it will go international. But typically, as British people, we kind of a bit more reserved, are we? We don't push ourselves forward. And, and, and I teach you how to say, "You are the expert. You're knowledgeable." If I have a conversation with you, I'm hoping you could talk about your business that makes you the expert. So in terms of getting ready for it, you don't need to prepare too much, you just need to just put yourself forward. So I do is I share my stories through press releases as well. Through podcasts and stuff like this for speaker opportunities, and through just networking. Fantastic. And if people want to use your platform, tell us about the pricing for Media Matchmaker, and for podcasts hosts, and also podcast guests. Just share with us, is it affordable for everybody? Have you made it super expensive? I've made it super, super, super affordable. So, on average, a PR agency would cost between three to 5,000 pounds a month. And that's not, I mean, and don't get me wrong, they do great jobs, and we work with PRs. So this for the whole year, you can start working with me and getting daily PR leads, and ongoing training for the whole year for just 600 pounds plus VAT. So it's really, really affordable. And then if you want to take our larger package, it's just over 2000 pounds, and that's access to all of the journalists. You can literally send unlimited press releases, you've got all the media contact details, so it's really affordable, but most important things, you're getting a return on investment. The stories I hear every single day, I've got featured there. Even my my marketing guy's got his side hustle business. And he said to me, "I responded to one of the journal requests." He said, "I've got publicity." Yeah, I, I I'm really proud of this. Now, I created Media Matchmaker out of my own pain of wanting to raise my own profile and build credibility way back in the day of the credit crunch when I couldn't afford a PR agency, and then realise the insider secrets on how you do it. So I share with you and hold your hand as much as I can. It's free for podcast hosts like yourself. It's free for the media to join. Because if we have the media, and we do, you know, we have so many podcasts all signed up yesterday. The media use our services it's free because they need a quick turnaround, they can search for experts. That's you guys. They can send that media requests, you receive them, and then I give you the training. So, hopefully you can see that I'm supporting you with the whole package.

Jim James: 18:26

Well, I'm convinced. Rachel Taplin, if we want to find out more about you, how can they do that?

Rachel Taplin: 18:31

Oh, thank you. Just get to the website, mediamatchmaker.co.uk. Or you can connect with me, Rachel Taplin, on LinkedIn, and I'd be happy to have a conversation with you.

Jim James: 18:39

Rachel, and I've been very, very happy to have this conversation with you today. Thank you so much for joining me on The UnNoticed Entrepreneur today.

Rachel Taplin: 18:44

Thank you for having me.

Jim James: 18:45

It's been my pleasure. And for everyone in the audience, that's Rachel Taplin, who's in the UK. And I'll put all this information in the show notes, of course. Thanks for listening to this episode of The UnNoticed Entrepreneur. If you hear with Rachel, then you'll become the noticed entrepreneur.