In this episode, Bec Derrington shares her success secrets to gaining exposure for your business using PR.
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Franziska: Welcome back to the Basic Bananas podcast. Today we have a very interesting guest, Rebecca Derrington who is the founder of SourceBottle. Bec has a very simple vision which is for every journalist using her service to be inundated with quality sources and also for every SourceBottle subscriber to get publicity or be famous, whichever comes first. Rebecca is a very experienced public relations and marketing strategist as well as a qualified drama coach and workplace trainer. These goals have helped her get results for clients for more than 13 years. Before picturing a career in public relations and marketing, Rebecca practiced as a lawyer for about three minutes but quickly realized she was more passionate about public relations and marketing so she started over. Completing a business degree and working up to executive and senior management marketing, public relations, and corporate communication roles in the service sector. And she never looked back. After the birth of her first child, Rebecca started her own public relations firm Wagging Tongues. It was then that she recognized a need for a service that gave journalists and bloggers an opportunity to use new and old media to call out for fresh sources for stories. Just over two years ago, Rebecca decided to create the service and deliver it to everyone for free. So that‘s when SourceBottle was born. Since then SourceBottle has moved beyond just a service for Australian journalists, bloggers and sources. Now the service is available in the UK, the US, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand. But it‘s core focus remains. Connecting journalists and bloggers with expert sources for free.
So thank you so much Bec Derrington for being on today‘s podcast show. I‘m very excited to talk to you.
Bec: Thank you Franziska. It‘s very… It‘s lovely that you‘ve invited me to have a chat.
Franziska: Well I had to because I love your business. I love SourceBottle. I had to have you on the show because I really want to spread the word about what you do because I think it‘s fantastic. So, Bec, can you just tell us a little bit about you and your business?
Bec: Okay. Well, my background is in PR and marketing which is probably why I‘m running a business like SourceBottle and it really started because working in PR there was always that kind of sort of an agonizing exercise following up with journalists. I just thought that the whole process was a little flawed. Rather than trying to pitch ideas, I just thought why weren‘t we just asking journalists what they wanted and bloggers as well, of course, now. And yeah, so I just thought… And maybe through my networks and through other PR networks we could find the sources for journalists very easily and that sort of probably the origins of where SourceBottle comes from which is really just like a matchmaking service for journalists and bloggers to find sources and experts for their stories.
Franziska: I love it. And I personally have used SourceBottle so many times for myself and also for clients and it is such a great concept actually. A different approach to get journalists to ask for what they want rather than pitching. Which is still a pitch but it‘s different because you pitch for what they want which is great for them and great for small businesses.
Bec: Oh, exactly. I mean obviously the benefit for journalists and bloggers is that they find great sources, but, if you‘re on the receiving end of the callouts, then you get the free publicity that comes along with it which, of course, can be invaluable for a small business.
Franziska: Exactly. So how did you come up with the name SourceBottle?
Bec: Look I would love to take credit for the name SourceBottle. I get asked that all the time and I would love to say it was my little clever idea. But it was my husband‘s idea and yeah… But I always think, well, yeah, but I was clever enough to recognize how good it was as a name so. It was all his idea and I thought it was great. The instant he said it, I said, “Yes. That‘s exactly what we have to call this business.”
Franziska: That‘s fantastic. Did you guys do a brainstorm or he just suddenly said, “Hey, what about this name?”
Bec: Well I think it was a bit of combination of both. We certainly had some dud ideas that we threw out there when we were brainstorming and I think actually we were in the car and he said, “What about SourceBottle?” I said, “Yes. That‘s it. That‘s it.”
Franziska: Oh, that‘s fantastic and it‘s great to hear that you acknowledge him because my husband usually steals my names and then he says, “Oh, I came up with that.” Oh, that‘s fantastic. I think I said that last night. But, you know, men can be different.
Bec: Yes they are. Excuse me. Yes.
Franziska: They wouldn‘t even know that I said. It‘s just suddenly they think of it and they didn‘t realize that the woman said it before.
Bec: Yeah, well that‘s true, too. Yes. I may have said it in my sleep or something. Who knows?
Franziska: Exactly. You‘ve had a lot of success with SourceBottle along the way and it‘s still quite a young business. What have been some of your biggest challenges and how have you overcome them?
Bec: That‘s a really good question Franziska. I think the biggest problem I‘ve had from the very beginning, particularly in Australia, was educating the market on how a service like this could work and benefit them. Because it‘s a very difficult concept for a lot of people to understand and because it‘s a little bit abstract and if you‘re not in public relations and you‘re not sort of involved with media and getting publicity, then you may not sort of understand how the whole process works. So, it‘s a little bit abstract and I know my own family, for a long time, probably in the first say year and a half of SourceBottle‘s sort of starting, they still really couldn‘t explain what I did or what the service did.
So, typical avenues like advertising weren‘t really effective for a service like that. I had to just kind of… I had to get people using the service and the best way to make that happen was for existing people who were using the service to extend themselves and endorse the service because they‘d had some success and share it amongst themselves because it‘s kind of like, it‘s a great tool. It‘s a free tool. So it was always good for them to be able to sort of say, “Hey. Flick on a callout that might be relevant,” to a friend or a colleague and then sort of… It would work like that, but you need to sort of have a capital… Like a good-sized base before that starts yielding much in the way of results.
And so it just took time and persistence and I did a few sort of member get member campaigns where I‘d sort of offer some incentives if you referred a number of people to the service and got them to sign up. And that all worked, but, it‘s been a slow process that‘s started to sort of reach, I suppose the tipping point and then has grown a lot faster since then.
Franziska: And I guess the more people who use your service the more you will grow because the more they will talk… Like for example, my own example. I came across it. I love it and now I just spread the word to everybody because I can see how beneficial it is to small businesses.
Bec: Thank you. Yes. That‘s what I hope most people who experience some success with this service will do.
Franziska: How did you get the first… Your first journalist to put a callout on SourceBottle?
Bec: Well look. I did a press release myself. Because as I said, my background‘s in PR. So I did a press release launching the service and then I slowly had a couple of journalists who sort of decided to use the service. Now, of course, I didn‘t have very much in the way of subscriber base because it was a very much chicken and egg type of business. You try and get subscribers on board and try and get journalists to come on board at the same time.
So I hit the phones. I did whatever I could to try to find sources for these journalists who were prepared to invest their time and trial the service with me. I wanted them to find sources. In the early stages, a lot of those initial sources might have been just friends and relatives of mine because the service may have only had about 100 subscribers or something in the early stages. And then… But those journalists were so good in doing that and supporting the service that they‘ve become… I‘ve been so loyal to them as they‘ve been loyal to me. I just wanted to do whatever I could to find them great sources every time I‘d see their names. I just wanted to support them in every way I can because they‘ve been so generous in supporting the business.
But, of course, they weren‘t flooded with results in the early stages. I think now I get good results. But in the early stages they weren‘t but they still persisted and supported the service and I‘m really grateful.
Franziska: One thing that I hear from that which is huge for any business is your great customer service. They came and they said, “Look. I need somebody who has these experiences or this story.” And you actually get on the phone and try to find a quality source for them which makes really great customer service and which makes you successful.
Bec: Yes. Well. Excuse me. I felt it was the least I could do, really. But no, no, look. You‘re right. I think in the early stages like any business, you‘ve kind of got to go beyond what would ordinarily be expected to stand out and that‘s probably my way of trying to go beyond what was expected of me.
Franziska: And, you know, you‘ve spoken about one of your marketing strategies which is members get members to grow your database. What other strategies have you used to market your business and probably also which one has been your most effective method?
Bec: Excuse me. That‘s a good question. Look, I think… Member get member was definitely the most successful. And, of course, I‘ve used social media a lot and I don‘t think that should be overlooked. Because advertising… I did advertise in a great newsletter that had a really good following. Definitely my type of market. But, it didn‘t yield much in the way of results and I think that was because it‘s really hard to articulate the value of the service in a small advertisement. So, I abandoned those efforts in the early stages.
I tried… I also tried a bit of Facebook advertising. I don‘t think that was massively successful either. So, I sort of went back to the basics which was just encouraging people who had subscribed to the service to talk about the service, tell other people about the service. If I could thank them in any way with a free ad or whatever it was because that was sort of those incentives that I was offering, I would. So, every now and then I‘d sort of do a free t-shirt giveaway or some kind of throwaway or giveaway to help encourage them to spread the message and share their callouts and help their friends and colleagues get free publicity as well. But that was definitely the most effective. Really just nurturing that subscriber base and yeah, making them feel like a part of the family and try to make sure that every advertiser who did advertise with the service offered them a really great sort of special offer. Things like that.
I think the other thing too, is when people were trying to use the service in ways that were a little bit outside the parameters of what the service really offered, I started looking and exploring those as opportunities to add maybe fees… Another sort of revenue stream for the business. So, I tried to listen very much to the subscribers and what they wanted and then if I could attach a small fee so I could keep the service free, and attach a small fee to like an add on service, a value added service, then I would manipulate the service and build it and massage it into what it maybe needed to become. The format it‘s in now is based on subscriber demands and because they‘ve been so clever in thinking about adaptable ways to use the service, I‘ve been able to keep advertising prices quite low and keep the service free.
So, I‘ve just got to say. It‘s all due to the subscriber base which is incredibly supportive of the service and I‘m really grateful.
Franziska: And one thing that I‘d like to highlight here is really your ability to listen to your market. Your ability to listen to your subscribers and giving them what they want which is one thing that most small business owners should be doing. All of them should be doing that.
Bec: Yes. Yes. I think it helps.
Franziska: Now you‘ve come from a PR and marketing background. How important do you think PR is for a small business?
Bec: It‘s essential. There is… It‘s one of the most essential things I think a business needs to engage in. And continually. Not just sort of one off bursts but regularly engaging sort of PR activities and initiatives. And incorporate social media into the PR effort. So you say you write an article for a blog or you write an article for somebody else‘s blog, then you could write a press release about that blog. And then you could write some Tweets about that or Tweets about that press release or Tweets about that blog and then… So the whole time just trying to engage with the same consistent message using PR sort of to try to get external media covering you. But also remembering yourself that you can be your own publisher and then you can publish content online that can be sourced and found easily as well. So, yeah, I think the combination of PR to try to get new and old media covering your story is essential and that‘s why sort of services like SourceBottle exist. So that‘s what I call reactive media.
And then the proactive media. Sending press releases. Writing articles. Using social media like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. Get discussions going about the topics that are of interest. Using the right key words in your press releases, in your articles. So if you‘re also then looking at both platforms, proactive and reactive media. You‘ve got to feel covered. If you do that consistently; I don‘t think you can fail.
Franziska: There‘s some really great advice in your answer there. And I‘m just wondering. I‘m sure a lot of our listeners on the show maybe haven‘t done PR and don‘t really know how to gets started. Do you have any hot PR tips for them that you could share with our listeners?
Bec: Okay. I think press releases are still… There‘s still a real need for press releases and they are in a typical style which is very formulae. But, if that‘s unfamiliar territory for you, you can either engage someone and you can get some really wonderful service providers. Great PR‘s that do things very cost effectively and they could do that for you and look at the distribution for you. Or you could write your own and just follow in the style that you‘d see in a newspaper. Or an article. A writer that you like. Sort of look at their style that they‘ve written and realize that they‘re putting the most important, catchy news in the first sort of paragraph and then working down from there to the least important information. It‘s an inverted triangle and they try to sort of encourage you to write that way because you‘re only capturing someone‘s attention for such a short time you need to pick their interest straightaway.
So writing in a style that‘s catchy, attention grabbing. Writing about things that are news, newsworthy. Thinking of writing a catchy headline and asking yourself, would that be something that if you saw that in a Twitter string, would that headline appeal to you? Would you open it? Is there another way you could word it so that it was more attention grabbing? And just sort of realize that those sorts of things really matter.
I think also never to be overlooked are great images and pictures. They‘re really, really important and there‘s so many platforms that you can use to store pictures and then send them as high points and videos. And so you‘ve got great ways of not only publishing your own news through different services as well, but also engaging with the media. Because they‘re on time call. If you‘ve got a great story that‘s written well and it‘s going to grab their attention, and you‘ve got great pictures or great video to go along with it, that definitely puts you ahead of someone who‘s just sent something pretty dry along to them.
So, you don‘t have to be a PR expert to get your own media attention. You just have to have good story. You need to tell it well in an engaging way and if you can, add pictures that help tell the story in a really effective way.
Franziska: That‘s great. Some really great tips there. Once you‘ve got your press release. You‘ve got the great headline. You‘ve got the first paragraph that tells them what it‘s about, what‘s your suggestion on how they could approach the media? Should they e-mail people? Or call them? Follow-up? What‘s your suggestions?
Bec: Yeah. Look, I think you can buy great media lists very cost effectively that are quite targeted. From people like Handle Your Own PR or you can use services like Pitch Engine which is an online newsmaker which is a great Australian online news distribution service. They sell very cost effective packages for small businesses to get their stories out and get them published online. Or you can be really, really targeted and this is definitely a very effective way of going about sharing your news. And sort of look at a couple of sites. Small business publications. Read what those journalists that are writing for those small business publications are writing about and the sort of style that they‘re looking for. And you‘ll be able to find their details no matter what via the publication. Or, you can contact the news outlet themselves and ask for a direct e-mail. E-mail is definitely, I think, preferred by most as the ideal way to get in touch.
But also look to see if they‘ve got a Twitter handle. There‘s a lot of people that are pitching via Twitter these days and note that a lot of journalists are calling out for sources about Twitter. I re-Tweet quite a lot via SourceBottle. Callouts for sources from journalists. There are very easy to find Twitter handles. The Twitter addresses for journalists online. Just do Google searches. There‘s huge directories for different journalists.
So, there‘s a whole heap of resources available for you. Some free. Some very cost effective that you can do to reach out to journalists and just take it from there. But, if you sort of think that there‘s that whole scattergun approach where you just spray and pray kind of with your press release and just send it to everybody. Or, you can be very, very targeted with your approach and send it to a couple, or even one.
If you really want to get into one different publication, then you read that publication. Find out the journalists that are writing for it, the style they write and get in touch with them directly. And say that you read their articles. You appreciate the way that they‘re writing about this topic. But I thought this topic might be of interest to you.
I think you need to respect them enough to respect that they‘re professionals that do what they do. They write about what they write about and they‘re only going to be interested in stories along those lines. And if they can see that you‘ve pitched the story directly to them, that definitely sort of pays off in the long run.
Franziska: Yeah. I agree. And just I personally found that doing more targeted e-mails to just a few journalists and I‘m actually really making it a bit more personal has worked better for myself than sending out 50 e-mails to 50 different journalists with the same e-mail, copying each e-mail.
Bec: Of course.
Franziska: What about following up, Bec? What‘s your take on following up on the journalists? Do you think calling them or sending them another little e-mail is a good way to follow up?
Bec: I‘m just not keen on the whole following up. I think the only way following up works is you can follow up via e-mail or you can follow up via phone. Whatever you feel more comfortable with. But the only acceptable way for me that you should follow up someone is if you say, “Just following up on my last press release. If that angle didn‘t work, what about this angle?”
So you‘re suggesting that of course they‘ve read what you‘ve sent and then maybe that you need to still re-Tweet a little bit. Or maybe this angle would work a little better for you. But always be respectful of their timelines and their deadlines because they… There‘s nothing more frustrating than receiving 20 calls a day saying, “Did you receive my press release?” “Yes I did. And if I‘d wanted to speak to you, I would call.” That‘s what I always think would be their obvious response.
So if you are going to follow up and a lot of PR‘s clients insist that they follow up. So if you‘re going to follow up, follow up with a slightly different angle that might be more suitable. Or just to sort of say, “Look. I‘m just letting you know that this source has this particular expertise. I‘ve noticed you‘re talking about this in the media today. I thought maybe this might be of interest if you just want to put them in your file of experts.” Something like that. A different sort of follow-up call than the, “Did you get my press release?”
Franziska: Interesting. That‘s great. I actually haven‘t heard that and I think that‘s a really good tip. Instead of just calling and saying, “Have you got it?” Because I personally probably wouldn‘t like to get ten phone calls if I haven‘t got it because yeah, of course, I have. Offering a different angle to make it work somehow and make it work for the journalist. That‘s a great tip.
Bec: Oh, good. Thank you.
Franziska: Thanks for sharing that. Now one of my favorite questions is what‘s been the funniest or weirdest thing that has ever happened to you in your business if there has been anything funny or weird. I‘m sure there has been.
Bec: Oh, yes. Excuse me. Sorry. Yes, there has. I‘ve had… I once had someone trying to use SourceBottle to see… They were trying to post what they were calling a callout for men who wanted a special type of massage which was kind of a bit icky. But the most… Well the funniest. I wanted a really specific like, “I‘d like to speak to a female aged 21 who‘s blonde and has pierced ears with at least one child and has a sore back.” They have these incredible list of requirements, the prerequisites for their sorts of…
Franziska: A bit suspicious.
Bec: Yeah. Then you kind of think, oh, okay. That‘s a little specific. And then others that can be misconstrued. There was one really funny one recently looking for… Calling all dog nuts. So people who are nutty or crazy about their dogs. But when that went on Twitter, it started to sort of generate a whole heap of funny responses like “Dog nuts”. Just imagine. So, they do make me laugh from time to time particularly when they‘re amplified by Twitter because there‘s a much broader audience that can respond immediately to funny callouts.
Franziska: Yeah, that‘s right. I think I actually did see the dog nuts one. I saw it in your e-mail.
Bec: Yes. It was definitely one of those ones that I recall, too.
Franziska: Wow. That‘s awesome. So Bec, what are your future plans for SourceBottle?
Bec: Look. Well the main thing for SourceBottle now is I‘ll continue to promote it in Australia and New Zealand because they‘re where it sort of originated. And but really sort of growing internationally. I would like this service to be very useful in the US and the UK and Canada and I‘ve got publishers over there in the US and the UK now that publish the callouts while I sleep and Tweet while I sleep as well. So, I‘m trying to sort of build the business over there as well so it‘s a really useful service for them.
So, yeah. So going global really. Really trying to build the service as an international business.
Franziska: That‘s fantastic. I can‘t wait to see it, maybe in Europe even.
Bec: Maybe. Yes. So let‘s grow it. I mean I‘ve sort of been concentrating on the English speaking predominantly the English speaking countries. There‘s no reason why it can‘t grow beyond that.
Franziska: That‘s right. That‘s fantastic. So where can people find out more about SourceBottle and where can they join?
Bec: Okay. So all they need to do is go to the sourcebottle.com. So that‘s S-O-U-R-C-Ebottle.com and yeah, just sign up. Just sign up to be a source. Pick your topics of interest. The ones that you‘d like to comment on or be recognized as an expert in and then sit back and wait and you‘ll start receiving callouts on relevant topics of interest which you could perhaps get some free publicity out of.
Franziska: That‘s fabulous. Very useful. I highly recommend our listeners to sign up because it‘s a very useful service and you might get some free publicity. So, thank you so much Bec. Thanks for being on the show. Your tips have been fantastic and I really appreciate your time.
Bec: Oh, thank you so much Franziska for the opportunity. I really appreciate it.
Franziska: You‘re most welcome. Bye.
Bec: Bye.