How to get your wedding business in the press - with Meghan Ely

Let's get going with today's episode. Today I'm chatting with Megan Ely, founder of Ofd Consulting, a PR and marketing firm that works exclusively with the wedding industry, using her own experience working weddings. She's passionate about getting her clients in front of new audiences through PR and marketing strategies. I first came across Megan on Clubhouse back when that was a thing, and I'm thrilled to welcome her to the podcast today. Megan, it's great to have you.

I'm on the East Coast in Virginia, specifically Richmond, Virginia. But you know, we really work with people all over domestically here in the States, as well as abroad as well here. And so working with Wedding Pros and have been doing that for about 14 years.

You know, it took me a long time to, funny enough, being a communicator to be able to communicate what I do, and I finally landed on you and I both, we talked offline that we have children of the same age, and so you'll appreciate this. I was, during my son's kindergarten year, I went to career day and I had to explain what I do and I blurted out, well, you know, we work with wedding pros. They got that. And I said, we see the best in people and we. Everybody else knows about it.

And I was like, oh, I landed on something. I'm gonna explain it like that for the rest of my life. But essentially we work with people to get them published. We take the best parts of what they're doing in their brand. That could be their beautiful work, that could be their expertise, that could be their ability to have these great conversations with podcasts. And we're the ones who spread the word. We're the one, you know, holding the megaphone for them to get the word out.

And so, you know, that manifests in a few different ways. It could be from having gorgeous events that we take and we submit to blogs and publications that could be. You know, they'd be fantastic on a podcast and we'll go ahead and, you know, review the podcast and then pitch some ideas on behalf of the client. That could also mean working with journalists who say, what are the next trends?

What, you know, how are people saving money right now, so and so forth, and bringing my clients in to be able to provide that sort of guidance and so that, that's. Pretty much what we do, and we find that the people who benefit from that, there's a few different folks. It could be those who, you know, frankly, they're at nearly the top of their game, but they find themselves competing with people not on price, but maybe expertise.

Like what are those extra things that discerning couples are looking for? But it's also from, if I can be a geek for a second, it would be from the SEO standpoint as well. I want links back to my site. I want. Websites linking back to me, and I know there's a lot of power with that. And I think overall, just people who, you know, statistically, it shows that couples all over the world will in part, find their wedding pro team through real wedding features.

And that's gonna be more the your audience. Who are the photographers, venues, designers, planners. They will particularly benefit from having their events out and about. That's a really helpful explanation. I love that you decided on your explanation based on talking to children. That is such a good tip. Well, it just finally helped because how many times have I explained this and I'll take five minutes and then someone at the end will say, so you're a wedding planner, right?

And I'm like, I. What did I just do with these last five minutes? What did I, where did I go wrong? And so that really, inspired that definition . Becca: So for anyone listening, if you can't explain to your kids or kids that you know what you do, then you need to go back and simplify it. If you ask my kids what I do, which is hilarious, they always say, mommy just spends all her time making videos to help wedding businesses be better I think that's a wonderful definition. I think that's great.

Maybe I should hire. Them to go ahead and work on some sort of taglines for me. . Becca: Yeah. I think a six and a nine year old could come up with some really good business taglines. Absolutely. They say it as it is, right? Yeah, they do. . Becca: Love that. Okay, so my wedding pros, I know they're super busy and they are so heads down in weddings. Yes. So why should PR matter to them and what kind of return are they gonna see from.

That's a great, and that's kind of a difficult question to be, you know, honest with that. So why, let's start with why it matters to them. So again, it goes back to some of the statistics that say is splinted insights in particular that couples will impart find their wedding pro team through real wedding features, but also through Google rankings, also through referrals. So peer helps tie that all together. It provides the features the couples are looking at.

It provides the backlinks for SEO to help you in part get to the top of Google, but it also keeps your, your fellow wedding pros happy. I have wedding photographers in particular who work for work with me, right, to get their weddings featured and their big thing is I wanna keep the planners happy, I wanna keep the venues happy for the referrals. So it all goes back to kind of, you know, the lead generation for the couples as well. So that's part of it. There's also some who.

Are ready to explore and diversify. Maybe they've done weddings 10, 15, 20 years. There's, you and I both agreed there's a physicality to it. There's gonna be a point where they maybe don't wanna spend every weekend doing events. And so how can I diversify, be seen as an expert and go out there and make money different ways in an industry that I love so much? So that's, I've seen that, you know, I've seen that journey for people as well.

And it's been very satisfying to see people go in, go in that direction. And then when you talk about. Boy, is that hard because I always say public relations is not a vending machine. You don't put in a quote from the New York Times and suddenly you get 800 new leads coming in. I, and maybe that makes me a bad salesman, but that makes me very honest about what PR can do for you. So instead, what it does is, when I find it comes to roi, it's how much traffic does it send back to your site?

How much traffic does it send? Your social media profiles, you know, if you get featured in Martha Stewart Brides, all these places, you know, if they go ahead and feature it as well, like how much traffic is that sending and then what do you do with that traffic once it gets there, right? Like we can lead PR will lead people to your website. It will lead people to your social media, but then the ROI really does rest in the ability to convert that into business as well.

I would also say from an ROI standpoint, For those looking on the SEO side, what's the value of the links coming in as well? So it really just depends. I mean, anyone who comes in the door, we have a whole guide on ROI for pr, and we tell them, please ask every single human being who comes in through your door. How did you hear about you? Please make sure you have analytics on the back end of your site. So if you get featured on a beautiful blog, you can see how much traffic it sends you.

But I don't know if that helps a little bit. It's always a very, it's a great question to ask. It's complicated to answer.

Crises and of course pandemic and economic problems and things like that. There is something to that social proof. I always say, and I have borrowed this quote, I wanna say first and foremost that PR is when someone else says that you're great. Advertising is, when I say I'm great, PR is when somebody else says I'm great. And this generation coming in, they're all about reviews. They're all about third party credibility. You can't buy anything on Amazon.

Without, and you could buy a straw on Amazon and there's 800 reviews about it, and that's the generation that we're, we're selling to.

This is gonna be great, da da da da da. And they just wanna go for it. But I'd love, I mean, I know I don't know your listeners, but none of us have unlimited time or money to just throw things out there to see what works, right? And so what they wanna do is really look at their business goals. What am I hoping to achieve? Where do I wanna be in one year, five years? And how does PR connect to that?

And you know, I always say it's not a very sexy formula, but great PR to get you started is when you have a message. So you have to figure out what that message is. I'm the. Destination venue in this region, for example. You wanna get it out to a particular audience. You have to figure out who that, that's step two. Who's that audience? Is it couples?

Which typically is, but some people, I know a lot of stationary people who really sell to the planner, they want the planners to refer business to them. Right. And so who's that audience? And where? Where do they consume the media? That's what I need to know. So you kind of start with more bigger picture thinking. I wish I could say, oh, you just write your favorite magazine and go from there. But the planning is worth the time. So you start there.

If you're someone who is interested in getting your events featured, you need to take a good hard look. The events you've done in the last, I'd say, six months or so, and ask yourself which ones were shot well and really had details that were unusual in a, in a good way. Something that people haven't seen. Cause those are gonna be the most strong to start with. And really to start taking in the media. Get an idea, like, see, why am I doing this? What do I have to leverage?

And then start taking in the media. Take baby steps to go ahead and read the blogs, read the sites, the places that you admire. , the places where, listen to the podcast. Right? Get to know, like, I was gonna say back, you know, I pitched you, I listened to your episodes, I went through your episodes before I pitched you because it, it just wouldn't have made sense if I just threw myself at you and said, so what do you say? You know, we should have more value than that.

So start with looking internally. Paying attention to the media that's in front of you to decide what your next moves are.

Go ahead and you know, take a look at their content. Then you're gonna go to their submissions. Everybody has one. I need to fight me on it. If they don't, everybody has one. And it's a submission page that really digs into, Hey, do you have a beautiful wedding you wanna share with us? Here are the steps to do that. And you're gonna follow it like a checklist. It's gonna say, I need 60 images, a hundred images. I want this size, I need this pertinent information about the day.

Just go ahead and go through that list, and from there you're ready to send in. And it's as easy and as hard as that. You don't get anywhere unless you try, right? So that, that's step one. Now, if you've got other parts of your audience as well, that's not my thing, right? Stationary cake rentals, those guys don't benefit from those features.

What you're gonna do again, is consume that outlet, maybe it's a great wedding website that quotes people often and you think, you know, I, I have something to say. I could be great for that. What you're gonna wanna do is either go to their staff section, a lot of 'em will have a contact page with staff people, or you're gonna go ahead and start reading the articles and land on the writers.

You're gonna see that there's gonna be a list of writers somewhere, and you're gonna match your expertise to what they cover. So if you're in cakes, in catering, you're gonna find the person who writes about. All you're gonna do again, as easy as and difficult is start with an easy email. Introduce yourself. Hi, my name is. I've read what you've been doing on this website. I just wanna introduce myself. I'd love to be considered an expert for the future. Give them a few lines about yourself.

Boom. Get out of there. That's all you have to do to get started is I admire your work. Talking about wedding cakes, rentals, stationary photography, and I'd love to introduce myself as. I've been doing photography for 10 years now. My specialty is X, Y, and Z, and I just wanted to say hello in case I can ever assist in the future.

No one will ever be rude about it, but some people just won't respond. But a lot of people will say, okay, thanks. And they'll set you aside and when they need you, they'll be in touch.

So if I am submitting to a blog and their submission page says we will be back in touch in six weeks, what I do is we'll submit. We'll set up something for seven weeks. Notice I didn't say six because we are all human. What if six weeks lands on Christmas Day? What are we gonna do? Right? People, but people think like that. I use an app called Boomerang app for Gmail, which is, can be used globally. It also has one for Outlook for anyone who uses the Gmail interface.

What it does is it will send an email back to. On whatever date I ask it to. So what we'll do is that's when we will follow up and say, you know, and that's with purpose because we expected a response and we didn't get one. Now, if you're just submitting, let's say, um, just yourself to someone as, Hey, I'd love to help in the future, just let that lie. There's no need to come back unless you have discovered a cure for an incurable disease. That's what I tell people, unless you've suddenly done.

Massively. You know, it doesn't, it's okay, let it be. So if there is an But, when I tell people this, listen, if you write a writeup and it's very well researched, and there is an ask, and it requires a response, remember, they're human. Give them time and follow up with purpose. But otherwise, no response is a response. So, So, but you can correct me on that because you're on the receiving end, right? So I know everybody's different when it comes to that.

We kind of knew each other from Clubhouse. I really think this could be a fit. I'm gonna follow up with you because it is like, I think you and I universally could have a good, like I've got other people who could come on your wonderful book, things like that. But if it's only in my best interest, I'm not gonna follow up again. That's a really good marker to determine. And I get say, as humans, we're not great at that.

We think everything about ourselves is important, but you just gotta think beyond yourself. If it, if it's to the benefit of the end receiver, then follow up.

And so therefore it made no sense because they pitched an article for brides and grooms to my business blog. Yeah. And. I went back and said, I think you pitched to the wrong blog, but you've already lost me at that point, because you haven't done your research. So what other mistakes are you seeing people making when they're pitching?

I'm like, you didn't take five seconds to see what I actually did for a living. You know? So that's number one. Number two is not following the rules. I kind of joke that this discipline's great for me because I'm such a real follower by nature. If a wedding blog says, as you know, I need a hundred images, I need them sized like this, and I don't want watermarks on. You send them a hundred, you size them correctly and you take the watermarks off of them. We don't deviate from the guidelines.

The guidelines were put in place editorially for the right reasons, right? And so you wanna make sure that you follow all the rules because there's something to be said for when you submit to somebody, when you send something in following the rule said, I took the time to do my research. I respect your time, I respect your. Guidelines and workflows that work for you. And that's what people need to do.

I mean, even when you and I were speaking about the podcast, it was, you know, I worked hard to make sure where there's certain forms I needed to fill out what, you know what I mean? Cuz we don't wanna waste anybody's time. I would say accuracy also is key. Being mindful. I use Grammarly. I actually pay for Grammarly, but there's a great free option. I just make sure. All my grammar is good to go, so and so forth.

I also run a plagiarism check on, even though we've been very fortunate with that on all quotes coming in, because everything, that's another mistake. Everything has to be unique. We can't borrow from ourselves. That's the thing is I think most your audience is smart. They know, well, of course I'm not gonna like, Steal quotes from other people. I know that, like we all know that, but you can't steal from yourself either.

You can't pull off of your blog, you can't be quoted by this outlet, and then go ahead and, and take that quote and reuse it. Everything needs to be fresh. Inspiring and accurate,

You send a wedding out there to a blog in publication, the worst thing that does happens is it doesn't get picked up. That is fine. You've already been paid for the event. People are none wiser. There's no, some big sign that says, guess what? Megan's wedding wasn't picked up. You know what I mean? As not picked up by, you know, that doesn't happen. And so I would say that's an internal battle. I'd say stop worrying about your competitors. Easier said than done.

I personally don't pay attention to my, I know what I do is a little bit different. I don't look at anybody's stuff. It doesn't. It doesn't. I have different markers for success, and that's the thing too, at the end of the day, is create markers for success that have nothing to do with your competitors. That's being sustainable, that's being able to pay your bills, that's having, you know, more of the right people coming in the door.

Don't worry about the rest of it and just ask yourself, what's the worst that could happen by taking these teeny, tiny. In publicity.

So if you're listening to this and you're looking for somewhere to pitch, pitch to me and Natalie at Vicinity Weddings, Natali's my features editor, so she does the hard work. I'm just the beautiful face and, yeah, pitch to us.

And if you're unsure about it, it's a great starting place because you can pitch to us and say, I'm not sure if this is good enough, and we will help you hone that content and tell you what you need, and then you'll have the confidence to pitch to those bigger publications too. So go ahead and do that. And I think that's very generous of you and believe me when I say it was definitely intimidating to come on here and talk pr knowing your background in vicinity weddings as well.

Can I, if I may add an extra tip to that if you don't mind, cuz I think that's very generous of, of you to do. There's another also platform that free. It's called Haro. It's help a Reporter Out. It is US based, but it is global. So really people from all over. And so what happens is Monday through Friday during, non holidays, of course they won't have anything on, on Thanksgiving here in the United States, for example.

But you receive emails three times a day and I would say if you're five hours ahead, we're looking at, you'd receive it at 10:00 AM UK time. And then you'd receive it again at five and then 10 o'clock at night. So that, that last one's a little late and it's gonna be. All sorts of different people who are already working on articles, who are looking for sources.

Now, they may not be wedding event hospitality specific, but I'm looking for small business owners who can talk about working from home with two kids. I'm looking for someone with chronic back pain. I mean, whatever that is. And all you do is you click on that, that email address and you pitch them. So if you're looking for some more broad based media pitching, that's a great free way to do it. Good practice makes perfect. . Becca: Absolutely. And we just gotta go for it.

Just go for these things. I'm gonna tell you another story about why we should let our six year olds run our businesses. So I saw one of those, I saw one of those things on Help a reporter out when it was, the Queen Jubilee this year. And they were looking for six year olds to give comments on the Queen. So I said to my six year old, too fancy doing it. And so she did it and they paid her 100 pounds, which to a six year old. Is ridiculous.

So if a six year old can do it and get a hundred pounds, everyone listening to this, just be brave and put yourself forward. I will use that example for the rest of my life. Like I will credit you and your six year old to it, but because for years I would always tell people I taught at a local university. I taught pr, and the extra credit project was using help a reporter out. The entire, you know, if you got picked up, you got a huge bump in your grade.

Cuz it's a lot of work, but, and so I say, well, college can do it, do it. But I mean, there's something to be said. What did your six year old say? Do I, can I ask? Yes. Do you remember?

Well, that means, you know, if you gravitate more towards Dark and Moody, that works for particular publications, but not all of them. You know, you're looking at someone who can you, I've had so many planners who have a. Indoor space for weddings, right? And it's outdoor for the ceremony and it's all shot beautifully outside. But the photographer has really just did not go to school the day they were supposed to learn how to light a ballroom.

And so there's an inconsistency with the photos that's gonna be a problem. So the photos matter more than anything else, I would say, in my humble opinion for submissions.

But that's making sure you take time to post it on your social media. That's wherever you're doing social media makes the most sense when it comes to that. You know, for us it's gonna be Instagram. I often take the photo and we will embed it with the logo of the publication, of course, so that they can see that. So doing that, it's insta stories. Oftentimes. I've had a few. where they've been quoted in something like an article, and they will do an Insta story and show everything.

But what they'll do is also give additional tips that maybe didn't make the cut for the article. I think that's brilliant. That provides great content. It's that continued social proof. So social media for sure. You're gonna make sure that you set up a press page on your site once you have three or more. Great press pickups. You're gonna have what's called a press page where it showcases your press.

So I want people thinking about doing that as well at also on their website as they hit these, you know, these kind of goal blogs and publications for themselves. I wanna make sure you know, your homepage has 400% more likely to have interaction if you have logos on. Social proof as seen in vicinity, weddings as seen in, you know, and so and so forth. So putting that on there.

For the largest ones, for any awards, things like that, you may want to, you know, every, I would say I'm a repeatable task kind of gal myself, so every six months. Revisit your press and say, should anything be added to my biography? Should anything be added to my general, like introductions from there? For those who focus on email marketing, putting it into your newsletter, for those who maybe don't have a regular newsletter, that's fine.

One of the most clever ways I've seen, or for people to go ahead. It's one thing to say we've been published, but to actually give benefit to the end user. So it's a top tips for having a destination wedding in the uk. We're so thrilled that we were quoted in da, da, da da da da. Here's three more tips to get you started, so giving a little bit of content and linking to it as well. So it all goes to social.

Your website, email, making sure you get it out there, that's gonna be absolutely imperative. Press only lives as long as you allow it to, so we have to remember that. That's in our hands.

Why wouldn't we showcase beautiful feature? And I think people have to get in the mindset too. You're showing off your work, but you're showing off the work of a big team. So it's not just you benefiting from it, it's all the other pros that could be benefiting from it as well. So sing, you're singing their praises. You're doing them a favor as much as you're doing yourself a favor,

You know, my first three, four years, there are different markers for, of course going full time was a marker and, but then I would look out and there's so few of us who do what I do, right? There's like, Eight of us in the whole world, you know, so you would kind of pay attention to some of the folks and maybe somebody else would have this dinner with a bunch of editors and bloggers, and I'd think, oh, I wish I was doing that. Like, why am I, and I'm so hard on myself.

It's like, wait a minute, I went full time after a year of doing this, you know, I can pay my bills. I have happy clients. I love what I do. Those should be my markers. It was a real moment for me, and I wish I had told myself early on. Create your own markers, even if you have to bring people from the outside. I actually have a wonderful financial person. I have other people to create your own markers for success.

Do not worry what other people are doing because their success will look different than yours. Does it make it more or less successful? I wish I had. Been easier on myself in those earlier years, and I, I hope other people can kind of garner that for their own companies.

If people wanna find out more about what you do, the services you offer, and find out more about your webinars that you've mentioned, where can they find you?

I'll see you next week.