Are You Media or an Influencer? And What’s the Difference Between PR and Marketing?
Mary and Alex answer these questions and more! Whether you're a pet store owner, a vet, or a pet influencer, understanding PR and Marketing can make a big difference in how you promote your brand. Public Relations is all about managing the public image of a brand or individual. It’s about building and maintaining relationships with the public, media, and other stakeholders.
Marketing is essentially the process of promoting and selling products or services. It involves research, advertising, sales, and everything in between. The goal of marketing is to drive sales and increase revenue. Learn how you can do both for your business in this fun episode!
Listen to Episode #7 Now:
Transcript:
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Announcer: This is Pet Life Radio.
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Announcer: Let's talk pets.
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Mary Tan: welcome to the Whisker Report.
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Mary Tan: We're a new podcast, dedicated to helping anyone in the pet industry or in animal welfare to get some PR buzz for your business or nonprofit.
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Mary Tan: We're all about helping you.
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Mary Tan: I'm Mary Tan, I'm one of the hosts of the show, and my co-host, Alexane Ricard, is across the pond.
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Mary Tan: Bonjour, Alexane.
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Alexane Ricard: Bonjour, tout le monde.
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Alexane Ricard: So today, we do not have any guests, and you will have to set up for Mary and I.
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Alexane Ricard: Well, I mean, we also have a producer, Mark Winter of Pet Life Radio , with us today.
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Alexane Ricard: And we are going to talk about PR and marketing.
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Alexane Ricard: How interesting is that, Mark?
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Mark Winter: Yes, it's interesting.
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Mark Winter: We can always use good PR here at Pet Life Radio .
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Mark Winter: I know we need it.
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Mary Tan: Well, you run the largest pet network.
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Mary Tan: You have tons of great PR.
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Mary Tan: Everybody knows to go to Pet Life Radio .
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Mark Winter: I know, but still, sometimes I say, we're from Pet Life Radio , and they say, we've never heard of that.
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Mark Winter: And I'm like, what's up with that?
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Mark Winter: We need to do something about that.
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Mary Tan: Yes, we absolutely do.
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Mary Tan: I mean, you know, that's something that Alex and I can help you with.
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Mary Tan: And, you know, I think, you know, this whole podcast is also to help people learn how to do it themselves.
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Mary Tan: So, you know, that's something, although you wear, you're just like all of them, you wear 18 million hats, right?
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Mary Tan: Like marketing and PR is tough on your tight schedule.
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Mark Winter: Yeah, it's hard to find time to do everything.
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Mark Winter: I got to keep Pet Life Radio running, so all this other stuff is like extra stuff that you need to do for me.
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Mary Tan: Yeah.
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Mary Tan: Well, hopefully, you'll learn some things today and just chime in whenever you have a question.
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Mary Tan: Let's hear it.
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Mary Tan: Hey, Alex.
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Alexane Ricard: Yeah, for sure.
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Alexane Ricard: So, let's dive into the difference between PR and marketing right after this little break.
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Daryl Michelson: Cat furniture is supposed to be a jungle gym.
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Daryl Michelson: Most cat furniture hardly passes as a plant stand.
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Daryl Michelson: So I set out to build my own.
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Announcer: Daryl Michelson, owner of Purniture Cat Furniture.
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Daryl Michelson: My cats absolutely loved it and then that changed everything.
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Daryl Michelson: We are using 4x4 posts and we are also using what are called cores, which are half inch thick tubes.
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Announcer: You can see the Purniture difference online at purniture.com.
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Announcer: That's P-U-R-R-N-I-T-U-R-E.
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Announcer: Let's talk pets on petliferadio.com.
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Alexane Ricard: Okay, we're back, so we're gonna start with a question from Mary.
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Alexane Ricard: Mary, you come from a background of journalism, and that's how you got into PR.
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Alexane Ricard: So could you try to define what PR is for listeners?
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Mary Tan: Yeah, it's really simple.
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Mary Tan: It is managing the public image of a brand or an individual or a group, and it's about building and maintaining relationships with the public and the media and other stakeholders.
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Mary Tan: And what's really interesting is people really don't know what PR is.
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Mary Tan: So PR is technically part of marketing, but it's kind of a unique part of marketing in that we don't buy ads, right?
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Mary Tan: So everything in PR is about PR people having the influence to approach reporters and different things and build a trust with the people who are putting out this information.
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Mary Tan: We're talking reporters, it could be pet influencers.
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Mary Tan: So it's about getting out there and trying to persuade these people that you have a great company or a non-profit that you're representing and they need to cover it.
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Mary Tan: So that's kind of in a nutshell what PR is.
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Alexane Ricard: So what you're saying is, you know, PR is kind of all about like the image of the brand or the non-profit.
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Alexane Ricard: So it's not like, cause marketing is usually about sales, but PR is all about their reputation.
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Mary Tan: Yes, it is reputation management.
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Mary Tan: And it also encompasses, it's not just like media relations, which is the majority of what we do at Whisker Media, but it's also crisis communications.
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Mary Tan: It's also employee communications.
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Mary Tan: It can be events.
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Mary Tan: It can be thought leadership, where you position a CEO as an expert and try to get them coverage based on their expertise.
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Mary Tan: So PR really has a wide reach.
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Mary Tan: But you know what, as you know, it's also PR is also part of social media and digital marketing.
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Mary Tan: Because there's kind of a blur between PR and the other fields of marketing.
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Mary Tan: Because everything is starting to blur together.
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Mary Tan: Like you PR people need the digital aspect.
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Mary Tan: You know, we need to be able to put out emails and that sort of thing.
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Mary Tan: So there should be a lot of collaboration between all of the different people involved.
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Alexane Ricard: Yeah, no, for sure.
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Alexane Ricard: And I think one point for people that is a bit hard at the minutes is influencer marketing.
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Alexane Ricard: Because actually influencer is kind of PR because it's all about building relationships.
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Alexane Ricard: So if influencers are considered as media, then it is PR related.
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Alexane Ricard: But also we call it influencer marketing because you're trying to market your product to them.
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Alexane Ricard: So yeah, all of this is a bit of a blur and the line is getting thinner and thinner between the two.
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Mary Tan: Oh, it is and it's really hard.
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Mary Tan: Like, you know this when we have new clients.
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Mary Tan: It's like the first intake session or the first session before they even hire us and want to get us to get to know us better.
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Mary Tan: They're asking like, well, what can we do for them?
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Mary Tan: And, you know, we'll tell them.
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Mary Tan: And a lot of times we have to tell them, unless it's in the scope of work we agreed upon, that we're not doing advertising for you.
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Mary Tan: We're not pay for play.
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Mary Tan: You know, we're more like reaching out to our database of contacts that we know.
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Mary Tan: Because we go to, you know, we go to all the trade shows and different conferences.
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Mary Tan: And, you know, Alex, you just went to Inner Zoo and made all these contacts there.
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Mary Tan: And that's for future use for perhaps placement of media, correct?
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Alexane Ricard: Yeah, no, exactly.
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Alexane Ricard: And I think that's what PR is all about.
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Alexane Ricard: And that's what you said.
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Alexane Ricard: It's just the networking and building, you know, a database where you can just reach out to the people to cover your clients.
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Alexane Ricard: And that's what I think we're really good at.
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Mary Tan: Yeah, absolutely.
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Mary Tan: So what do you think when it comes to working with influencers?
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Mary Tan: In the media world, it's pretty easy to vet the reporter.
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Mary Tan: But can you explain to people how you do that when it comes to social media and pet influencers?
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Alexane Ricard: Yeah, no, for sure.
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Alexane Ricard: So we've been working with influencers for a few of our clients, and it was kind of a new thing for us when we first started to work with them, because we've never done that before.
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Alexane Ricard: And you quickly realize what kind of influencer works for you, for the brand and what doesn't.
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Alexane Ricard: And what I've seen is, first of all, the number of followers does not really matter, because they can have like a hundred thousand followers, but their engagement is going to be very low.
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Alexane Ricard: And that means, well, then, you know, like it's not going to work out for us, because we want an influencer that has so much engagement, that people trust them, like they trust their opinion, they trust what they're saying.
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Alexane Ricard: So yeah, I think what you always need to look out for is, especially today in today's world, is an influencer who is very authentic and genuine about what they're saying, that wouldn't like just, you know, advertise this brand of food, and then the next day another brand, and the next next day another brand.
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Alexane Ricard: Like you need somebody that will actually love your product and that will actually share about it from like a genuine place.
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Alexane Ricard: So definitely that.
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Alexane Ricard: And I also think micro-influencers are getting better because, well, you know, big influencers have such high rates now, it's hard for pet brands or pet nonprofit to work with them.
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Alexane Ricard: So I think we need to consider micro-influencers, because again, if they have high engagement, and if their audience is really passionate about their page, then you'll have success.
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Alexane Ricard: And the success again, it is like with PR, and that's the difference between marketing and PR.
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Alexane Ricard: PR is all about brand awareness, positive image, and that's what you're doing with influencers as well.
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Alexane Ricard: You cannot expect to have direct sales.
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Alexane Ricard: I mean, I know you want to, but it is PR.
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Alexane Ricard: So the thing you'll get mostly is brand awareness.
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Mary Tan: So I have a question about this buying of followers.
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Mary Tan: I feel like there's so many, there's a lot of accusations out there from some big accounts.
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Mary Tan: So how can you tell and who, like how do you know how this works?
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Mary Tan: Like with these companies, do they have like bots that are signing up for accounts?
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Mary Tan: And those are the bots that are being followed?
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Alexane Ricard: So I've never looked into it because well, you know, none of our clients would do that.
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Alexane Ricard: But yeah, so you can definitely see it yourself.
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Alexane Ricard: When you go into an Instagram account, let's say, and you see they have 10,000 followers, but they only get like two likes on their post, they're fake, fake followers, 100% sure.
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Alexane Ricard: They cannot have, like they can talk about the algorithm and the algorithm is hiding their post or whatever, but no, if you have 10,000 followers and you only get two likes, you bought your followers.
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Alexane Ricard: Like we just have to be clear on that.
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Mary Tan: Do you know like how much does it cost to buy followers?
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Mary Tan: We're not going to do that, but I'm just curious, like do these companies make a ton of money?
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Alexane Ricard: You know what, I don't think it's that expensive.
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Alexane Ricard: I think you would like buy maybe like, it depends on what threshold you want to be.
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Alexane Ricard: If you want to be on under 10,000, like under 100,000.
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Alexane Ricard: So it depends how, but it's not that expensive for sure.
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Alexane Ricard: That's why many, many people do it.
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Alexane Ricard: And even like, you know, people who want to be influencers, they will buy followers to try to start their following base but it usually just doesn't work because if you don't get engagement, then you're not going to reach real people.
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Alexane Ricard: So I do not recommend it.
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Mary Tan: And can you talk a little bit about how, how you vet influencers?
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Mary Tan: Like what tools can people use to find, you know, to make sure these people say who they are?
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Alexane Ricard: Yeah, well, so I think you need to follow your instinct a bit as well is just to, when you talk to them, see what kind of person they are.
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Alexane Ricard: That's definitely how I do it is I start reaching out to them, and you can quickly see if they're all about the money, and then it's not going to be a good match because you really want somebody that will, you know, again, be genuine.
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Alexane Ricard: So definitely that.
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Alexane Ricard: And then the second thing more like technical is definitely the engagement rate.
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Alexane Ricard: And there's so many tools like we use InfluenCity, but there's a lot as well that can tell you exactly the engagement rate.
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Alexane Ricard: And that is very, very important to see how engaged their audience are.
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Mary Tan: Are there any free services out there for people?
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Mary Tan: Or do they have a right to ask the influencer to give them analytics?
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Alexane Ricard: Oh, yeah, no, definitely.
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Alexane Ricard: So what you do when you first want to start with an influencer is you ask their media kit.
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Alexane Ricard: And then on their media kit, they should say, you know, the number of followers, like the demographic, like where they're from, which country or which cities, if they're male, females, and then you should see the engagement rate on it as well.
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Alexane Ricard: So, yeah, you can always ask an influencer for that 100 percent.
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Alexane Ricard: It's completely normal.
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Mary Tan: Wow.
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Mary Tan: So I heard at Super Zoo this year, they have drastically limited the number of influencers coming because last year, I think the show got a complaint that there were so many influencers, you know, who maybe weren't really influencers and they just kind of wanted free product.
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Mary Tan: I want to ask Mark a question.
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Mary Tan: So Mark, you're traditional media.
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Mary Tan: Right.
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Mary Tan: And these shows, you can see who's press media and then there's, they usually call them content creators or influencers.
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Mary Tan: Have you noticed these shows in the past?
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Mary Tan: So I'll tell you what I've noticed.
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Mary Tan: I've noticed there's fewer and fewer media and more influencers at these shows.
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Mary Tan: Do you find that?
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Mark Winter: Yeah, we go to Global every year and we've gone since 2010.
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Mark Winter: So every year, I know less and less people there.
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Mark Winter: At the beginning, you saw all the people from the media and same people, you know, Marty Becker and the Harrison Ford, all these people.
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Mark Winter: And then as the years go by, a lot of young people and not media, they're all like influencers.
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Mark Winter: And in fact, when we were at Global this year, one of the large companies, I'm not going to say which one, but they always do like a media event for media and they give out an award for best media personality or whatever.
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Mark Winter: And this year, they didn't have it.
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Mark Winter: And it's always my favorite event of Global.
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Mark Winter: And we went to them and said, well, why aren't you having it this year?
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Mark Winter: And they said, well, because Global Pet Expo wanted them to give their award to an influencer and not media.
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Mark Winter: And they said, no, we're not doing that.
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Mark Winter: We want to give it to a media person.
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Mark Winter: And they said, no, we want to attract influencers.
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Mark Winter: So they decided they won't let them have it unless they do that.
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Mark Winter: And they said, no, we're not doing it this year.
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Mary Tan: Oh my gosh.
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Mark Winter: So it's all about the influencers now and not the media.
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Mark Winter: And we're not really traditional media because we're podcasts and we're on I Heart Radio and all that too, but we're not like terrestrial radio.
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Mark Winter: So we're like new media.
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Mark Winter: So I mean, we should be considered new as well, but we feel like the OGs when we go there.
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Mary Tan: You and your wife, Michelle, who is the host of Catitude and Best Bets for Pets, are there every year.
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Mary Tan: And yeah, I think people do think of you guys as the OG.
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Mary Tan: So what's really interesting is that Global Pet Expo, which is run by the American Pet Products Association, they went the opposite of Super Zoo.
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Mary Tan: They let all influencers in.
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Mary Tan: But you guys know, you can't make everybody happy.
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Mary Tan: So I'm sure Super Zoo ticked off a lot of influencers because they can no longer sign up because they allowed so few.
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Mary Tan: Because it seems like they want the more traditional media.
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Mary Tan: I'm not putting words in their mouth, but.
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Mark Winter: Well, let me tell you something about Super Zoo.
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Mark Winter: We don't usually go because it's far and we have our animals and everything home.
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Mark Winter: But I said, maybe this year we might go because I'd like to go to Vegas and see what Super Zoo is all about.
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Mark Winter: So we registered and they won't let me in.
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Mark Winter: They said, because you're not a show host.
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Mark Winter: They let my wife in, but they said, you're not a show host.
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Mark Winter: I'm only running the whole network.
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Mark Winter: But they said, no, you're not actual host or reporter.
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Mark Winter: So you can't come unless you pay like $600.
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Mark Winter: So I said, hell no, I'm not going there.
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Mary Tan: Oh my gosh, that's absolutely insane.
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Mary Tan: Huh, wow.
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Mary Tan: Yeah, I know lots of influencers that are getting turned down.
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Mary Tan: And from what I understand, it was just first come first serve.
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Mary Tan: So if you didn't sign up by now, you're probably not going to get in.
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Alexane Ricard: But at Interzoo, it was the, I don't know.
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Alexane Ricard: It was not as the same scale as in the US.
00:15:28.859 --> 00:15:32.719
Alexane Ricard: They weren't that many influencers, but there was still a lot.
00:15:32.719 --> 00:15:34.719
Alexane Ricard: And they had that pass around their neck.
00:15:34.859 --> 00:15:38.039
Alexane Ricard: Like the little card that said media or press.
00:15:38.039 --> 00:15:41.839
Alexane Ricard: And so every time I would see somebody with, you know, the press pass, I would want to go and talk to them.
00:15:41.839 --> 00:15:44.239
Alexane Ricard: But then I would realize actually influencers.
00:15:44.239 --> 00:15:47.739
Alexane Ricard: And so I think I only found like one actual blogger.
00:15:47.739 --> 00:15:50.319
Alexane Ricard: And, you know, maybe they didn't come by a booth or something.
00:15:50.319 --> 00:15:56.739
Alexane Ricard: But it was really, really hard to see people with a card that said press when it's influencers.
00:15:56.739 --> 00:16:05.619
Alexane Ricard: So I definitely think at least at Interzoo, they should definitely change that to say influencers rather than press, because it's definitely not the same thing.
00:16:05.619 --> 00:16:06.399
Mary Tan: Yeah.
00:16:06.399 --> 00:16:13.039
Mary Tan: And you also ran into other issues at Interzoo because of like email laws, right?
00:16:13.039 --> 00:16:14.079
Mary Tan: Is that correct?
00:16:14.079 --> 00:16:14.479
Alexane Ricard: Yeah.
00:16:14.479 --> 00:16:16.059
Alexane Ricard: So it was difficult to do PR.
00:16:16.059 --> 00:16:22.719
Alexane Ricard: So as we said, you know, PR is all about networking, but it's hard to network when you can't actually find the press.
00:16:22.719 --> 00:16:30.379
Alexane Ricard: So we went to Interzoo and you have to know that Superzoo and Global, you have access to the list of the media coming, right, Mary?
00:16:30.379 --> 00:16:32.319
Alexane Ricard: You got the list with their email address.
00:16:32.779 --> 00:16:40.259
Alexane Ricard: So you can actually like send them some e-mails before hand to plan to meet, to go for dinner, just organize to hang out at some point.
00:16:40.259 --> 00:16:55.939
Alexane Ricard: Whereas Interzoo, because it's in Europe, and Europe is very about, like, you know, confidentiality and privacy, well, then they're not allowed to share the list of media coming or just of people coming, and they're not allowed to share their e-mail addresses.
00:16:55.939 --> 00:17:01.859
Alexane Ricard: So I couldn't do what we usually do, which is to reach out to the media before the events and to meet up with them after.
00:17:02.079 --> 00:17:03.999
Alexane Ricard: So yeah, that was a bit annoying.
00:17:03.999 --> 00:17:06.119
Mary Tan: Yeah, those lists are really important.
00:17:06.119 --> 00:17:14.479
Mary Tan: If you're a small pet company, for example, and you're showcasing at these shows, make use of the media list.
00:17:14.479 --> 00:17:20.239
Mary Tan: And I think they give you tips and tricks, and you can submit your press release and that sort of thing.
00:17:20.779 --> 00:17:25.899
Mary Tan: So take advantage because you're paying for it when you get a booth at these shows.
00:17:25.899 --> 00:17:32.139
Mary Tan: You know, I think we should take a break because we're awful chatty, and we'll be right back.
00:17:34.739 --> 00:17:37.739
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00:18:47.219 --> 00:18:48.559
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00:18:54.199 --> 00:18:57.339
Announcer: Let's Talk Pets on Pet Life Radio .
00:18:58.659 --> 00:19:00.779
Announcer: petliferadio.com.
00:19:10.710 --> 00:19:12.870
Mary Tan: And we are back.
00:19:12.870 --> 00:19:17.330
Mary Tan: I'm Mary Tan with Alexane Ricard and producer Mark Winter.
00:19:17.330 --> 00:19:21.970
Mary Tan: And Alex, can you talk about, let's dive into marketing.
00:19:21.970 --> 00:19:28.970
Mary Tan: We kind of talked about the differences between PR and marketing, but there's some finesse between the two fields.
00:19:28.970 --> 00:19:30.290
Mary Tan: Can you talk about that?
00:19:30.290 --> 00:19:31.230
Alexane Ricard: Yeah, no, definitely.
00:19:31.230 --> 00:19:38.890
Alexane Ricard: So as we said, you know, PR is about the reputation, whereas marketing, I feel like, is more about promoting or selling a product.
00:19:39.050 --> 00:19:40.330
Alexane Ricard: And that goes...
00:19:40.330 --> 00:19:50.830
Alexane Ricard: So marketing is essentially more like SEO, or email newsletter, email campaigns, and, you know, social media, social media advertising.
00:19:50.830 --> 00:19:56.010
Alexane Ricard: But it can also even be more like traditional, like billboards or flyers.
00:19:56.010 --> 00:20:01.230
Alexane Ricard: So that's why it's very different than PR, but it's still like they work hand in hand.
00:20:01.230 --> 00:20:04.110
Alexane Ricard: So that's why the confusion is there.
00:20:04.170 --> 00:20:06.710
Mary Tan: Ah, that totally makes sense.
00:20:07.470 --> 00:20:13.370
Mary Tan: So what are some of the strategies that you use in your daily work at Whisker Media?
00:20:13.370 --> 00:20:19.430
Alexane Ricard: Well, I will just talk about one of our clients that we, like Purniture.
00:20:19.430 --> 00:20:21.590
Alexane Ricard: We had them a couple of weeks ago on the podcast.
00:20:21.590 --> 00:20:22.690
Alexane Ricard: I really loved them.
00:20:22.690 --> 00:20:24.750
Alexane Ricard: And just I do a lot of marketing for them.
00:20:24.750 --> 00:20:31.830
Alexane Ricard: So we do PR whenever, you know, they have something newsworthy, like, you know, when they had that thing, that broken window.
00:20:31.830 --> 00:20:33.830
Alexane Ricard: But we also do marketing on a regular basis.
00:20:34.370 --> 00:20:39.590
Alexane Ricard: And some strategies I put into place for them was to start email campaign.
00:20:39.590 --> 00:20:42.410
Alexane Ricard: So I send newsletter every two weeks.
00:20:42.410 --> 00:20:50.010
Alexane Ricard: And of course, it can be difficult to write about cat furniture every two weeks, because at one point, you just run out of what things to say.
00:20:50.010 --> 00:20:58.690
Alexane Ricard: So you have to understand that to still get the attention of your audience is you have to provide them with things they need or they won't.
00:20:58.690 --> 00:21:13.450
Alexane Ricard: And what we do as furniture is we write newsletter about everything cat related, because the people who read the newsletter, people who buy cat furniture, they're also very interested in the well-being of their pets or just, you know, like what kind of food is good for their cats.
00:21:13.450 --> 00:21:18.430
Alexane Ricard: So that's one strategy we really put into place, is to always try to provide something.
00:21:18.430 --> 00:21:26.390
Alexane Ricard: Because if you just send newsletter about, oh, this cat furniture is amazing, those stairs are great, those scoops to put on the wall.
00:21:26.390 --> 00:21:30.610
Alexane Ricard: Well, you know, your audience is going to unsubscribe because, yeah, it's just addsy all the time.
00:21:30.770 --> 00:21:39.990
Alexane Ricard: So you need to find ways to promote or to sell your product or service with the way that you provide something to your audience, which can be a bit tricky.
00:21:39.990 --> 00:21:41.790
Alexane Ricard: And you have to think outside of the box.
00:21:41.790 --> 00:21:43.410
Alexane Ricard: That's what Mary always say.
00:21:43.410 --> 00:21:44.150
Alexane Ricard: Think about it.
00:21:44.150 --> 00:21:45.590
Alexane Ricard: Think outside the box.
00:21:45.590 --> 00:21:47.190
Mark Winter: Outside the litter box.
00:21:47.190 --> 00:21:49.310
Mary Tan: Yes, outside the litter box.
00:21:49.310 --> 00:21:50.770
Mary Tan: Exactly.
00:21:50.770 --> 00:21:56.350
Mary Tan: Do you want to talk about a marketing example that you put into, I know you talked about furniture.
00:21:56.350 --> 00:21:59.190
Mary Tan: What's one thing that really stands out with our pet clients?
00:21:59.710 --> 00:22:02.850
Alexane Ricard: Oh, well, I remember, and that was great.
00:22:02.850 --> 00:22:06.730
Alexane Ricard: I remember when we worked with Simply Paws.
00:22:06.730 --> 00:22:07.210
Alexane Ricard: Yes.
00:22:07.210 --> 00:22:09.690
Alexane Ricard: So Simply Paws was actually really good.
00:22:09.690 --> 00:22:19.130
Alexane Ricard: It was Patty and her husband, and they made like a cat ramp made out of card box, so the cat could scratch it, and it was just to go inside the litter box.
00:22:19.130 --> 00:22:25.090
Alexane Ricard: And so it would capture all the dust and all the little things of litter, so your floor would stay clean, really like that.
00:22:25.750 --> 00:22:38.550
Alexane Ricard: And they were just a startup, just started, and they had not really any idea of what to do, so we implemented a social media strategy for them.
00:22:38.550 --> 00:22:47.590
Alexane Ricard: So we did a whole campaign on social media, and something that you have to know when you just start in marketing, for example, social media, is just to stay consistent.
00:22:47.590 --> 00:22:54.210
Alexane Ricard: So stay consistent in the branding and the fonts you use, and just post quite often.
00:22:55.870 --> 00:23:03.810
Alexane Ricard: If you look at the Whisker Media's Instagram, you'll see that we have those colors, the yellow that we always use in those fonts.
00:23:03.810 --> 00:23:06.550
Alexane Ricard: And then people, they don't even need to know it's us.
00:23:06.550 --> 00:23:09.690
Alexane Ricard: Whenever they see it, they're like, oh, that's Whisker Media, it's yellow.
00:23:09.690 --> 00:23:10.690
Mary Tan: Yes, we are yellow.
00:23:10.690 --> 00:23:21.070
Alexane Ricard: So it's just like in marketing, have something that differentiates you from the others and that really stands out so people know it's you directly.
00:23:21.070 --> 00:23:22.430
Alexane Ricard: That's really important in marketing.
00:23:23.290 --> 00:23:35.490
Mary Tan: Do you think people, especially the solopreneur, the little rescue group that has four volunteers and you're mostly rescuing cats and dogs, do you think they have to make time for this?
00:23:35.490 --> 00:23:46.090
Mary Tan: Do you think that PR and marketing is critical and it's important enough to stop rescuing cats or dogs for an hour or two to do this?
00:23:46.090 --> 00:23:48.110
Alexane Ricard: Yes, and I will give you my own example.
00:23:48.450 --> 00:23:57.290
Alexane Ricard: So I run a cat rescue in Greece, saving lives with two A's and we just rescue cats on a daily basis.
00:23:57.290 --> 00:24:00.310
Alexane Ricard: We go outside, we trap cats, we get them neutered, we return them.
00:24:00.310 --> 00:24:01.710
Alexane Ricard: It's like an everyday job.
00:24:01.710 --> 00:24:07.790
Alexane Ricard: So I completely understand the stress, the time, it's time consuming and you just don't have time for anything else.
00:24:07.790 --> 00:24:09.890
Alexane Ricard: And it's a very hard life.
00:24:09.890 --> 00:24:20.210
Alexane Ricard: But once we started to actually put some work into social media, like put some videos on TikTok and do all of that, that's when we actually went viral.
00:24:20.210 --> 00:24:30.170
Alexane Ricard: And then when we went viral, I took Mary's knowledge and I was like, oh, Mary always said, like you always have to promote yourself or promote your product in a way that's newsworthy.
00:24:30.170 --> 00:24:33.870
Alexane Ricard: And I was like, well, a video going viral is actually newsworthy.
00:24:33.870 --> 00:24:44.070
Alexane Ricard: So I actually wrote some press releases and send them to my local hometown, the local hometown of Amber, the co-founder, and then we got coverage everywhere.
00:24:44.070 --> 00:24:51.470
Alexane Ricard: We got coverage in the UK, we got coverage in my local hometown, but also in the national newspaper, like the Parisian newspaper.
00:24:51.470 --> 00:24:55.810
Alexane Ricard: So yeah, I went on the radio just because a video went viral.
00:24:55.810 --> 00:25:04.410
Alexane Ricard: So if I didn't put time into just creating something good, because we were trying to take example of the dodo.
00:25:04.410 --> 00:25:10.290
Alexane Ricard: So I don't know if you see what kind of video it is, but we were really trying to work on that style of video because we could see it was working.
00:25:10.290 --> 00:25:12.410
Alexane Ricard: And we did it and it worked amazing.
00:25:12.410 --> 00:25:15.950
Alexane Ricard: And because of that, now we have more than 50,000 followers.
00:25:15.950 --> 00:25:19.690
Alexane Ricard: So that means we get more donations to actually do our job.
00:25:19.690 --> 00:25:21.670
Alexane Ricard: We get more adoptions.
00:25:21.670 --> 00:25:23.990
Alexane Ricard: So we put time into it.
00:25:23.990 --> 00:25:30.930
Alexane Ricard: And yes, you might have rescued less cats at that time, but now what we get in return is definitely worth it.
00:25:30.930 --> 00:25:32.030
Mary Tan: That's amazing.
00:25:32.030 --> 00:25:35.850
Mary Tan: I mean, so I hate to tell people this, but they have to do this.
00:25:35.850 --> 00:25:40.810
Mary Tan: If you have a small business, and as I always tell my clients, you have to promote yourself.
00:25:41.550 --> 00:25:45.030
Mary Tan: So you can hire a PR agency like ours.
00:25:45.030 --> 00:25:52.330
Mary Tan: And we always try to put our mindset at Whisker Media is that we think like your company is our company.
00:25:52.710 --> 00:25:54.730
Mary Tan: We promote it like it's our own company.
00:25:54.730 --> 00:26:01.670
Mary Tan: But if you don't promote your own product, no one else is going to care more than you do.
00:26:01.670 --> 00:26:06.150
Mary Tan: So you are the perfect person to promote your product.
00:26:06.150 --> 00:26:11.290
Mary Tan: And those of you who don't like to promote yourselves, you got to do it anyways.
00:26:11.290 --> 00:26:18.110
Mary Tan: That's the only way you're going to get money or you're going to get donations or you're going to get profit.
00:26:18.110 --> 00:26:20.470
Mary Tan: Because people, there's so much out there.
00:26:20.470 --> 00:26:32.130
Mary Tan: There's so much noise that you have to get through to get people to want to adopt an animal from your rescue or buy a pet product from you.
00:26:32.130 --> 00:26:43.990
Mary Tan: It's just, I can't tell you the number of entrepreneurs that we meet at Whisker Media who are like, I just want to hire you and then you handle it.
00:26:43.990 --> 00:26:52.510
Mary Tan: But I always think, and this has been from my personal experience, is behind a new product, that's not really newsworthy.
00:26:52.510 --> 00:27:01.450
Mary Tan: There's new products coming out every single day, but it's getting to know the story behind the company or the rescue.
00:27:01.450 --> 00:27:03.330
Mary Tan: And so it's storytelling.
00:27:03.530 --> 00:27:14.490
Mary Tan: That's what's going to get people, like, last week we had Tricia Montgomery of Moose's March on, and Tricia just, it's all about emotion with her.
00:27:14.490 --> 00:27:23.390
Mary Tan: She started her nonprofit because her dog Moose died and she was crushed, and, you know, was just really so depressed.
00:27:23.390 --> 00:27:31.810
Mary Tan: And the way she talks about it is so motivating, because if you read a lot of the news coverage about her, it captures her emotion.
00:27:32.390 --> 00:27:36.870
Mary Tan: And it's that her story is sticking out to reporters and different things.
00:27:36.870 --> 00:27:42.150
Mary Tan: And so it's whatever your story is, that's got to be the story.
00:27:42.150 --> 00:27:46.570
Mary Tan: So with Pet Life Radio , for example, it's going to be Mark is the story.
00:27:46.570 --> 00:27:53.750
Mary Tan: And he started Pet Life Radio 17 years ago when there were very few podcasts.
00:27:53.750 --> 00:27:55.470
Mary Tan: Am I correct, Mark?
00:27:55.470 --> 00:27:57.990
Mark Winter: Yeah, they weren't even called podcasts yet.
00:27:57.990 --> 00:28:00.490
Mark Winter: They were just like archived audio shows.
00:28:01.070 --> 00:28:02.310
Mary Tan: Oh, my gosh.
00:28:02.310 --> 00:28:07.290
Mary Tan: So when you're talking the podcast, the story is going to be about the hosts and their stories.
00:28:07.290 --> 00:28:13.390
Mary Tan: But when you're talking about Pet Life Radio , it's about you, Mark, because you started it.
00:28:13.390 --> 00:28:15.990
Mary Tan: And it's about why you started it.
00:28:15.990 --> 00:28:20.910
Mary Tan: You love pets and you love podcasts, and you found a way to marry the two.
00:28:20.910 --> 00:28:23.350
Mary Tan: And so that's got to be your story.
00:28:23.830 --> 00:28:27.330
Mary Tan: And that also ties into all the other shows as well.
00:28:27.330 --> 00:28:36.850
Mary Tan: So that's kind of that's just a little bit of advice for you, Mark, since we're just talking on randomly on this podcast about PR and marketing.
00:28:36.850 --> 00:28:49.950
Mary Tan: So, but yeah, so we really want to help people, but we're going to really have to give you a kick in the butt saying if you don't like doing it and you don't have any resources to hire anyone, I'm going to say tough cookies.
00:28:49.950 --> 00:28:52.010
Mary Tan: You got to do it anyways.
00:28:52.010 --> 00:28:53.510
Alexane Ricard: Yeah, you've got to do it.
00:28:53.510 --> 00:28:55.070
Alexane Ricard: That's all.
00:28:55.070 --> 00:28:56.070
Mary Tan: Yeah.
00:28:56.070 --> 00:29:09.070
Mary Tan: You know, this has been an interesting conversation and we got very much off of script and we were just kind of talking, telling you, you know, some of our challenges and things, but we really want to share everything.
00:29:09.070 --> 00:29:12.810
Mary Tan: PR can be really difficult and marketing as well.
00:29:12.810 --> 00:29:15.950
Mary Tan: And you have your good days and you have your bad days.
00:29:15.950 --> 00:29:32.450
Mary Tan: So if you have a question about PR marketing, please ask us on our social media where you can follow the Whisker Report on Instagram and Facebook, Alex Zahn runs it because she's our digital guru.
00:29:32.450 --> 00:29:37.570
Mary Tan: And ask us a question, because we really, really want to get feedback.
00:29:37.570 --> 00:29:41.810
Mary Tan: We want to include you in every single show if we can.
00:29:41.810 --> 00:29:47.190
Mary Tan: So as we always say, bark loud and purr smart.
00:29:47.190 --> 00:29:49.850
Mary Tan: All right, everybody, we'll see you later.
00:29:49.850 --> 00:29:55.850
Announcer: Let's Talk Pets, every week on demand, only on petliferadio.com.