Press Releases & PR for Accounting Firms

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Hey. This is another episode of Marketing for Accounting Firms, the podcast where we talk about marketing for accounting firms. And my name is Matt Banker. I'm the owner, founder of Benchmark Growth, an agency that does marketing for accounting firms. It's all, it's all part of a similar system. And today I've got Mickey Kennedy with me, and he is the founder of E Releases. And, and we're going to talk about PR and press releases and things like that for accounting firms and folks who are running small businesses. So, Mickey, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me.

So first question I usually ask people is why should we care what you have to say about marketing? And in this case, press releases and pr. What are your experience credentials? What do you know about this area?

So I've been running e releases for 25 years, effective this past October, and we move between 10 to 14,000 press releases a year. And so we get to see what is working and what is not working. A great position to be in. I get to see the trends in the market and the creative ways in which people are using pr, specifically press releases, to get media attention.

Okay, so I, I come out of originally like a fine arts background and then into digital and copywriting and that side of things. I don't have as much experience with traditional media. I know a lot of traditional media has also migrated online, but give kind of a background. You know, when we talk about press releases and pr, what are we talking about? Where is this happening?

Okay, so basically, well, to break it down, a press release is just an announcement to the media. It's usually written in the third person. A company has a new launch of a product and they write it. You know, there might be a first person quote within it and they send it out. And the ways in which you can send it out vary. You know, there are PR firms that will do pitching directly to journalists that they have a relationship with. They also might do some email sends and they also might post on the wire. They generally post the most newsworthy press releases to the wire because the wire is very expensive. The good news about E Releases is we launched originally as just an email platform and we were emailing journalists. And over time, PR Newswire reached out to us because they liked that we were serving, you know, smaller businesses and entrepreneurs and startups. And they're, they don't, you know, they're after the large clients, a lot of the publicly traded big companies, and that's who their salespeople dedicate their time and energy to. So they, they wanted to work together. And all releases that go out through us get a national distribution over the wire without having to Pay, you know, $1,500 for a 600 word press release. It's, you know, a third of that going directly through E releases.

Okay, so how do you measure success of a press release? So we're talking smaller businesses, accounting firms, you know, maybe there are a couple million in revenue a year, more or less. Local, general, kind of general small business accounting firm. How for someone like that, if you're doing a press release, what kind of ROI or benefit is that?

Sure. So you know, one of the biggest benefits is the potential for acquiring new leads or clients. And that does happen with a lot of people. It also increases your visibility. And you know, when, when you get articles written about you, we call that earned media in the PR world as opposed to, you know, just syndication of the press release, which happens a little bit with any wire service that's out there where they just put the press release on a few different locations on different websites. The real goal of it is to get those articles where a journalist has looked at the press release and drafted an original article based off of that. And so the roi, it really varies. I mean for some it's a branding exercise. I've had some clients that put together one in particular, put together what they call a brag book of all their clippings and they got picked up in about 20 some trade publications in their local newspaper and their local, well, estate magazine, New Jersey magazine. And they put it together in a brag book that they give their salespeople and, and would they go and give people quotes in their home for carpet. They were a carpet company. Can't think of, you know, a non newsworthy more company than a local carpet company by incorporating those clippings and showing the homeowner, hey, we've been picked up in, you know, national floor trade and you know, Floor cover Weekly and all of these publications. They started converting 19% more of these sales consultations just by adding that. And the reason is earned media really is seen as a big credibility boost. You know, it's third party corroboration, almost social proof. You know, when a journalist writes about you and in many ways it acts almost like a referral. The clients that my customers get, you know, directly from articles they say are generally some of the best. They don't price shop, they don't ask for discounts. They read an article, they like what they hear and they want to do business with that company. You know, so that's that's the real value of it. And the thing is, when you get these articles, you don't have to just rely on the audiences out there. You can take that article and put it in front of your own leads. And hopefully, you know, there, there are always a number of people that get close to converting with you, but never do. And this article, if they read it, might create that little situation where they tip the skills in your favor and become a customer. And not to mention, you know, positioning the article with your own customers and your social media just so people see that, you know, you're taking your reputation seriously, you're doing amazing things and the media is reporting on it. It really is a big boost to your brand. Customers are less likely to shop for different providers year to year if they feel they're with the right company. And that right company is doing positive movements and moving along. And PR is one of the great ways in which to indicate that to that audience.

Got it. There's some primary benefits that you might be looking for up top, which is, I mean, leads, sales, that's the main thing we're always focused on obviously. And so getting out there, people see you in different channels maybe than you typically are showing up in. You might have a great reputation in a small circle, but this helps expand who you're chin. You know, one of the things I think about too is you mentioned that third party validation. We do a lot of website work and when people, when people say, you know, I mean, you probably know this like for, it's easier to get Forbes contributor thing these days than maybe it was, you know, 15, 20 years ago. But they see these logos on there as covered by, you know, abc. To be honest, this is, this is maybe a little bit cynical, but most of the time people don't care what, what you had to contribute or what was covered in these various publications. But they feel really good when they see that you're established enough to have been covered by a certain publication. And so, you know, having those logos on your website as kind of a credibility third party validation at addition to it, can we find that that can be really helpful from like a web design standpoint?

Yeah, absolutely.

If I'm a firm owner, I, I'm sitting here and I'm thinking, well, we're not interesting, we're not doing anything interesting, we're not launching any new products right now. Are there opportunities for us to think about press releases? What are some of the maybe trigger points that would make me think, yeah, this would be a great time to take advantage of using a press release to get some recognition and a little bit more awareness about our brand.

Right. So one of the easy things is to provide beneficial information. So sometimes acting as an authority with your position on something that's, you know, maybe there's new legislation in the marketplace and there's some confusion about it, but you can break through and share that as well as some tips and resources. You sort of stand out as an expert. That's one thing. There are times when you can do trends, especially towards the end of the year. People are looking at articles they can position for forecasts for 2024, you know, other events, you know, just look for other types of milestones. It could be an anniversary in the business, it could be some client wins that you want to share more of, like case study type things. It could also just sort of be a survey or study that you've done. Journalists love data and numbers. So anytime that you can put together data and numbers and release that as the author of a survey or study, you really stand a chance of getting serious media attention. That's one of the things that I coach people is how to do a survey or study within their industry. And I break it down from, you know, using survey monkey. 16 questions, 4 questions on each page. That way if someone quits halfway, you've still got 8 of the responses front. Load it with the most important questions, of course, and if you had some silly or left field questions, leave them for the last page. And surprisingly those have worked out over time to be very effective. That those are the surprising little aha moments that lead to a really good press release. And what I mean by silly or strange or you know, is it's like what is the thing that you would ask someone at a conference over the water cooler, hey, have you noticed this in our industry? But nobody really talks about it and it's not really in the trade press. Those could be opportunities to ask questions. And sometimes you can just ask open field questions where you can ask them to write a sentence or two. And sometimes those can give really good insights. And after you've released it and you know, if you don't have an audience that you feel would be fit for sending the survey to, you can borrow an audience. There are hundreds if not thousands of independent and small trade associations. Some are regional, some are specific to a certain class of individual. But find a small or independent trade association, Ideally with like 700 or more members, and ask them if they will send that link, the survey link, link to their members in exchange for you mentioning them in a press release you'll be issuing over the wire. The small and independent trade associations get almost no media attention. So many of them will see this as a win win. I've had a few push back and say, could we co brand the survey? I don't see a downside to that. They're looking for a little more authority in the press release. That's fine. Aligning yourself with someone like that does not hurt. It really is a great way of getting that data. Then analyze the data and figure out what were the big surprises. The press release shouldn't focus on all 16 questions, ideally like two to four questions that were really aha moments in the press release. You're going to provide some analysis and you know, amazing quote by you about why the numbers you believe skewed a particular way because you are the expert and getting that out there is a really great way to get some earned media and getting articles written about you. When I coach clients, it generally results in 8 to 14 articles from one press release. And if anyone's done PR, they know 8 to 14 articles from one press Release is a phenomenal result. That's just because journalists really love data and numbers. And they know, you know, being a gatekeeper of their audience, they're really careful about what they share. And when it comes to a survey or study, if you're asking the right questions, they really want to, you know, share that with their audience. So it's really a great way to breakthrough, especially if you feel like you're just not that newsworthy.

Okay, so let me make sure that I have kind of the sequence. It sounds like there's sort of a three step process. So step one might be generate something of interest that can be a survey. And it sounds like it. We're not talking. You need to run, you know, thousands and thousands of cold calls and use, you know, a market research company to do this. You're saying, leverage the audience that you have or one that you have access to with a pretty simple, you know, survey monkey type surveys. Do I have that right?

Yes.

All right. And so we're getting some data back from our, from our audience and the people in, in a space that we have some expertise and knowledge about, we turn that into a press release that, that goes out and says, hey, we have this information. And then talk me through how, what, what's the, what's the process then from press release to articles? That's, that's just journalists who are seeing the press release and now they're interested in the topic.

Right. So journalists will often look at the press release, look at your website. If they have questions, they'll contact you. But I'd say the majority of the time they don't contact you. Usually they contact you for clarification or if they want insight on something that's sort of a little tangential. Tangential to what you were talking about. But, you know, and, and that's another thing I always say, build out a page on your website where you do list all of the data for all the entire questionnaire, all 16 questions. Some journalists will go there, look, and maybe they'll be intrigued by some of the other questions that you didn't focus on in the press release and do articles. Sometimes that's even inspired some of my clients to say, hey, we, we did really good with this, but we got two articles on this question that we didn't even make the focus of the press release, and could we potentially write another press release focusing on that? And I'm like, sure. And then they get another, you know, grouping of articles from that second release. So it could really work out as a great benefit because, you know, providing data, asking the right questions in a timely manner really works because you can ask questions today, you could ask the same questions in six months, and journalists would be just equally interested in the results because they know that these are questions that their audience cares about. And six months from now is a different time period. And things are always in flux and changing in the marketplace.

Most accounting firms, I think they fall into two major buckets. One is you've got. You've got your generalist firm who they serve all kinds of different businesses, but they're more or less regional or geographically limited. That's their focus. Their accountant near me, they're working with people within an hour drive of their office in most cases, because they don't have a narrow niche. And then you've got other firms who are like, accounting for interior designers or accounting for roofers. They have a clear focus and a niche. And as I think about PR and press releases, you know, in one case, it would make more sense. You know, I want to get picked up by, you know, the Memphis newspaper, because I am in Memphis. And in another case, I want to get picked up by a trade publication for interior designers. How do you help clients figure out and what are the factors when you think about press releases that are going to help you get, you know, more into one or the. Or the other sort of publications? Do you. Do you think through that a lot? And are the tactics involved in that.

Right. So all of our releases go out nationally, but you can do local saturation. So that's where, if you only do business predominantly in one area, you'd want to do the local saturation. You also get to choose SRI or, you know, what we call it, sort of trade categories. And that's where you can sort of, you know, winnow down into the types of journalists who maybe only cover, you know, interior design businesses or things along those lines. So that is where that would go into play when it comes to like really small businesses that have just like a very small mark. You know, using a service like ear leases might be overkill, in which case they might want to just narrate media attention to their local audience. Because if you look at most metro areas, there's probably less than a dozen journalist who could potentially write about you. And you know, at the, at your local paper, figure out who covers your industry. You know, get their email address. It's as simple as calling and asking their members of the community. They're not celebrities, so they are accessible. Just call and ask for their email address and, and you will get it. I've very rarely seen them not be willing to provide, provide that. It can be intimidating. But you know, just go out there and ask. You're a local business and you've got a pitch or a press release you want to send them, business magazines, business newspapers as well, do the same thing. You can even do this with like weekly community papers. You can, it also works, you know, maybe there's segments on TV or radio that sometimes spotlight, you know, this is, you can reach out to the booker or producer of that show and ask who you would email for a pitch. And once you have that Rolodex of, you know, what might be five or six people, maybe as many as 10, then when you have an idea, you can just pitch them directly and you really don't even have to write entire press release. Generally, if you have a pitch, which might be two to six sentences of something that you feel is newsworthy, maybe add an amazing quote. Because journalists love quotes. They can build an entire article around an amazing quote. So spend a little time focusing on saying something very concise or powerful or, or just really cut through it and make sure that the quote really stands out and send them emails as you have them basis. So like maybe every time you have a huge milestone or creative idea, email them. I do challenge people to try to do it at least quarterly, just to stay in top of mind. And over time you'll find that these journalists will reach out to you. They'll be working on a story they're looking to plug in a local business. And you will come to top of mind because you've been reaching out to them for the last 18 months and maybe they haven't written about you, but now they'll, you know, look in their email and do a search and find you and reach out to you and ask you maybe for a specific quote that has to do with that article that they're writing. So local media is some of the easiest media to get. It can be a little unpredictable, but over time it gets a lot easier. And you know, journalists want to cover, you know, their community and you being part of it. As long as you're sharing, you know, interesting ideas and, you know, know creative thoughts, I think that, you know, they'll be receptive to it. And things that you can do is sort of just follow trends in your industry and if you have a product or you're addressing that trend in a specific way, then you can just say, I, I've noticed a lot in, you know, the accounting industry that people are focusing on this and I would love to share with you what we do specifically with a particular client or something along those lines. And also if you have photos, the media loves photos, especially because so many places have online presences and they know that if they're working on an article and one has a photo and one doesn't, they know that their audience is going, at least their online audience is going to engage more with people who have those images. So that's another way to add value. When you're emailing them and sending them.

A pitch, you see pretty similar, like common mistakes that people have or misunderstandings when it comes to press releases like what are people paying for or doing this but doing it in a way that's a waste of money. We what do we need to be avoiding when we think about traditional media and reaching out to journalists and press releases and all that.

So I think the, you know, one of the biggest mistakes I see is people don't realize that journalists are story storytellers and they will release a product launch and it will be, here's our product, here's a list of features, and here's a link to go buy and, and it's very hard for journalists to build a story with that. If you were to take a use case study and add to that and say, hey, here was a client that had this problem. This is the results that they achieved by implementing our product Here's a quote from them talking about their experience. All of a sudden, a journalist can build more of a story when they're talking about this new product. And I think that if you sort of approach it from the standpoint of trying to think as the journalist, what could I do to make their job easier and make it easier for them to build out a. I think that's one of the biggest mistakes that we see. Another thing that I see is people really doing press releases that they see other companies do. New hires and promotions are probably the least newsworthy type of press releases, with the exception of maybe a new executive, you know, industry veteran that you brought on board. Sure, do a press release for that. But you have a new associate of HR or, you know, a couple of interns, that's not really going to be very newsworthy. I think that that's probably fine to send to your local paper and maybe a local trade publication, but just do that directly through email, include a photo, and you'll probably end up with a little on the move section with a photo and a sentence or two. And that's fine. But I wouldn't spend money to go over the wire for those types of releases. And I think that so many people do those types of releases because they look around and see what competitors in other markets do. And that's probably the wrong thing to do because 95% of press releases that are out there getting sent probably generate no earned media. It is a minority of releases that do. And that being said, I see a lot of patterns between the releases that do get picked up, and I would focus on those. And those are the ones that have data, the ones that really focus on building out a story arc. Sometimes it can be your story of how the business came to be or something inspirational or obstacle that the business faced or a vulnerability. A few years ago, someone had a, you know, a cancer situation, and, you know, they've gone through that. Those stories surprisingly work really well because they help humanize. There's a human interest element that, you know, people respond to. You know, I think that's the reason that everybody that goes on Shark Tank, one of the first things they talk about is, you know, what inspired them to create their company. And sometimes it's like they got laid off or they had a health scare and, you know, all these different things. And I think that the reason is because it immediately gets you to start caring about them and their effort right there on the television. And just in a few words. And I think that's one of the reasons that's so powerful, getting that story across to the media.

When I think about publications, there's two things that publications need in order to be successful. One is good content. And so they're in this kind of hamster wheel of always having to produce, produce, produce, write something. And so journalists and people who are in charge of writing, they're kind of looking for easy articles to write and the interesting, like, enough information to start from and then something that they can just run with. So that's this side of things, putting together press releases that turn into articles that are interesting and easy for them to kind of produce. The other way is ads, obviously. But I think that most of us think of using newspaper or other media as like, well, I could go and buy an ad there, but this is sort of that roundabout way of getting your name in there, getting a little bit more authority in the same place. You could be right next to an ad for your competitor, but your story is going to be more interesting than this little blurb that you've got in the side column there. Is that a good way to be thinking about it? We're just trying to provide good, easy to write stuff for journalists out there.

Absolutely. Speaking of ads, I've had clients who've had a conversion rate from an article where like half the people that came from the article to their website bought. And they're just like, is that possible? Because our best landing page is converting at like 5%. And I'm like, it is, you know, not everybody that read the article clicked through, but the ones who did and really felt like this was a good fit click through. And they often have that signal of trust that comes from this earned media where they want to do business with you and it does and, and can convert that way. Advertising doesn't work that way. For some reason, our blinders go up. We've trained ourselves over time not to trust everything that's an ad, but when it comes to an article, we really do, especially if we know the journalist who wrote it and respect them and really value what that publication produces.

I'm thinking in my mind maybe a couple scenarios that I've come up with. Some of my clients, I have a client who they go to the local university to recruit interns and other people to come into the accounting profession. And my thought is that could be a great human interest story. Do a press release about why you go to colleges. And I know there's this big challenge right now. There's a. The pipeline for accountants is really low. And so you can talk about how there are interesting jobs in the accounting field and here's what they are, here's what they look like, here's what a good local business. You know, that, that sounds like a great story that a journalist might pick up. You know, we've got other clients who've gotten like best, best places to work. Well, maybe you can help me think this, this out. Let's say I'm a firm, I got, you know, best place to work in my city, I want to put out a press release. But if I want to get more earned media from rather than just saying, hey, we got the best, best place to work again in Indianapolis or whatever it is. What, what are some, some things just to think through that sort of scenario that's going to turn into better, better results.

Almost like the product launch releases. Is there a use case, you know, someone that worked for you that had a challenge and rather than this being a place where if, what some companies might have felt like this person's not a good fit, you provided something for them, a resource or did something for them, and as a result, they thrived and overcame that. And now you have a great employee who's extremely loyal to you. So that really, really shows something more in the story arc theme than just announcing you won an award. I had a client that, you know, did press release where they were helping out the local Special Olympics and it didn't really do anything locally. And they were really disappointed. And they said mostly they were disappointed because they had a child that was special needs and loved the Special Olympics. And I'm like, we need to focus on that in the press release because that's that human interest element that shows why you're aligned with the charity and really, you know, makes it incredible. We did a second release, added a photo of that child at the previous year's Special Olympics, and it immediately got picked up in their local paper and the business publication. And they just said, wow, that was so much easier. And it is when you really sort of, you know, we try, I think, as businesses to seem all corporate and, and we feel like we won the award and therefore the logic is we should get rewarded for it or we did, you know, helped with the charitable effort. And that in and of itself is newsworthy. But sometimes we have to provide the reasoning, the ammo, the emotional connection, while why this charity is so important, you know, to this firm. And that's where I think the human interest element cuts through. And it really does an amazing job getting the journalists hooked because they know that that would tantalize and interest their audience. That's one of the things that I think that you kind of have to let your guard down a little bit and sort of be a little vulnerable and get your personal relationships out there. The same thing with Best Place to Work, showing a couple of examples with employees that are willing to be out there. You know, they might even see this as like, wow, this is, this is a great exposure for me as well. It's a conversation you want to have with them before you just sort of, you know, volunteer them. Just say, hey, would you be comfortable for this? Could we get a couple of quotes from you? What happened here, what your favorable results were? By handling this, it's going to help build more of a cohesive work culture as well as get the reasoning for why you were selected for that specific award.

Yeah, you know, you mentioned storytelling earlier and you know, journalists are storytelling. We, we really preach the. I don't know if you're familiar with storybrand, but there's this, this framework. It helps you say, like, when you're telling your company's story, you actually don't want to tell your story. You're not the hero of the story. You want to tell your customer's story or, you know, as I'm thinking about press releases, really you want the, the hero is not the only role that you can play in a story. There's different parts. And as you think about this is kind of what I'm hearing. As you think about press releases, how do you make, how do you make the journalist more of the hero in the story? Like, think about what their needs are and you're here to support them, you know, and when you think about putting out press releases about yourself, don't think about how do we tell how great we are or how great our product is, but like center another character in this story, whether that's an employee or one of your clients or you know, someone that you're helping in the community. You get your name associated with being like the guide or, you know, the, the supporting figure in this story. That's more of your goal. Because I guess, to be honest, people, people don't really like self promoters. Right? Like, we don't like to. It comes across as, as salesy or, you know, self centered in a way that doesn't actually build up your credibility and authority as much as when, you know, like you said, you can center, you know, this, the kid in the, in the Special Olympics or you can center, you know, an employee on your team, those sorts of Things tend to. I mean, I just think that sounds like a more interesting story. If I was a journalist, I'd be much more interested in writing about that than, oh, so and so released another product. Right. I can see how that doesn't get much play.

And journalists also like to be seen as curators. And for that reason, they often appreciate finding new companies and smaller companies to profile. The big ones, most everyone's probably heard of in the business community, but the small ones, they may not know much about. So they do like to bridge those to attention because they know their audience is going to have a more natural curiosity with someone that they haven't heard of before than, you know, the big giants that everyone knows.

Well, Mickey, give me a little bit of your pitch. Right. So you're in this space. You've been working in PR and press releases for a long time, and I'm sure you've seen a lot. How do you approach it differently than what other firms are out there now? I mean, I think it'd be great if everybody who listens to this show goes on and hires you, but maybe they're comparing you to the other options. How do you know if you're working with someone who's doing a good job? And what are some of the things that you do that kind of set you apart in this space?

Right. I think the biggest thing that separates me from everyone else is that you get a national distribution over PR Newswire without paying anything close to what the newswire itself charges. That's just, you know, no one can compete against that. There are a lot of players out there that. That offer press release distribution services. Most of them don't go over, you know, a bona fide tier one newswire like PR Newswire. In the US It's Businesswire and PR Newswire, the two largest, and they've enjoyed a duopoly over the years. Anything sort of outside of that really isn't a major wire. And why a major wire is important is it's a destination that a lot of journalists go to. And because most customers use PR Newswire or Business Wire, and they probably control over, you know, 85% of the market, you know, they. They are the destination that most journalists go to to look for stories. And so, you know, venturing outside of that, you're less likely to get picked up. I think that, you know, in the PR space, there are also PR firms, which we have a lot of PR firms that are our clients. You know, press releases are just one component of what they do. They do a Lot of that direct pitching to their own Rolodex. And so they add a lot of value. But for small businesses that really just can't afford, you know, 10 to 30,000 a year to work with a PR firm, you could really build a PR campaign yourself for, you know, let's say a PR campaign of six to eight releases that you do over a year or a year and a half for under, you know, five or six thousand dollars each of those releases going out nationally over the wire as well as like local saturation. And I think that that's a real, you know, thing that can really provide a lot of leverage because if you get, you do six to eight releases and you get two or three of them to really do well and get you a few articles, you know, that's a huge return for, you know, $6,000. Maybe you get like 12 to 15 articles. That's a really, you know, great positive result from that. Another thing that I think differentiates me in the marketplace is education. I am, you know, freely share what's working, what people should focus on. As a matter of fact, I have a free masterclass that focuses on how to build a PR campaign of strategic types of releases, the kind that do get media success. And it's@ereleases.com Plan P L A N and it's completely free, focuses on the survey study that we were talking about, but also a lot of other actionable types of things that people could do that are probably going to yield results rather than focusing on the types of releases that they see other people do. And you know, I think that, you know, we also only employ editors at Ereleases and you know, there's no salespeople or quotas or commissions. We'll level with you if you feel like something's not going to work or if we feel like it's not a good fit. And we really do help you through the process and walk people through their first PR campaign and you know, help them sort of on an a la carte basis because I don't like holding people to like a one year contract. Everybody moves at different speeds. So we just sort of let people come in and use us as they need us and you know, hopefully they can commit to, you know, doing a release a quarter and giving it a try over six to eight releases.

Yeah, that's fascinating. I'm interested in that, the masterclass you have. We actually, we run a group, a mastermind group of in house marketers at accounting firms. Usually what that means is it's like an office manager or a front desk admin who also gets to wear the marketing hat and they're in charge of posting on social media. And so in our group though, you know, it's basically a bunch of people who are learning how to do this for their firm. I imagine there's really some great opportunities for pr. So anyway, anyway, it's a resource that I think I'll make sure to share with that group and put it in our resource library as well. Where can people. You mentioned the website, but where can people find you and find more information about eReleases?

Right, so our website, eReleases.com, all of our social media is on the lower right. It's my direct LinkedIn. That's a great place to reach out to me. And we're also accessible by phone and email or chat. And we really are out there helping people, especially people who've never done PR before and showing them the opportunities that exist and providing them with education that can get them to focus on more strategic types of releases that'll give them much better results.

Well, as the digital landscape changes and I think especially with the advent of, of, of AI and that becoming so typical out there, you know, we're seeing a lot of, we're seeing a lot of volume, I would say. And one of my big concerns is that there's just more and more noise out there, which I actually think is starting to make people reconsider and think about traditional media and, or just finding a few sources that they really trust. And so I, I can see how, you know, marketing is always changing. I can see actually there may be a point in the future where sort of press releases or journalist based relationship, you know, connections to get that sort of coverage becomes even more effective than, you know, maybe SEO was the big thing a couple years ago and that becomes less of a focus as we look for new opportunities. So I really appreciate you coming on the show. This is a fascinating conversation. Not something that I know a ton about in this world, but we're always looking for, you know, what are some interesting tactics and different ways for folks in the accounting space to build their business, get more exposure, get more awareness out there. And I think, you know, thinking about press release as, as an option, especially thinking about it more strategically, which is what I like about your, your approach and what you've shared here today. It's not just about, you know, making an announcement and hoping someone picks it up. You can be strategic about the way you go, you go about it. So Miki, thank you for being on the show. Do you have any last, you know, words of wisdom or anything that we didn't quite hit on in this conversation?

I don't think so. I think we covered most everything. So I just feel like one of the things that a lot of businesses just have to get over is, you know, they just feel like they're too small to matter. And, you know, really everyone has, you know, a story, everybody has something that's potentially a value that they can share and, you know, just take advantage of the opportunity that exists because so few people do take advantage of pr. So, you know, be. Be one of those people that. That, that does. I think it's one of the reasons that in almost every local market that I pay attention to, you have the same companies appear naturally in the news again and again. It's because they're working relationships with local media and, you know, that's some of the easiest things that you can do, you know, without spending a dime just going out there, you know, working those relationships and sharing with them.

Yeah, this is something I'm going to think about. I mentioned those two types of firms before, your generalist local and your niche kind of national firms. And as we provide guidance to our. There's so many generalist firms out there, we really. Local SEO is really important and some of these other things, but I could see layering on top of that a local PR and traditional media strategy as being something really effective. So anyway, appreciate the talk today. This has been another episode, Marketing for Accounting Firms, the podcast. And we hope that you check us out. You can go to marketingforaccountingfirms.com, you can find us on Spotify and Apple podcasts and all those good places. And you can find me, Matt Banker on LinkedIn. I'd love to connect and I think we'll leave it there. Thanks again, Mickey. This podcast, marketing for accounting firms is brought to you by Benchmark Growth Marketing, our marketing agency that helps accounting firms get more calls booked through their website. You can find us@benchmarkgrowthmarketing.com Connect with me, Matt Benker on LinkedIn.