Liz Nable 0:00
I promised to bring you guys more working journalists and media experts this season did no. Well, today's guest is me delivering on that promise. And guess what? I've also just confirmed my next guest as one of the print and digital media experts inside the next round of the media masters Academy, which opens doors in just a few weeks on May 16. Eloise Keating is the news editor of Smart Ccompany and Inc Australia. Eloise is passionate about supporting small businesses and has reported extensively on the sector for nearly a decade. Prior to joining Smart Company, Eloise, was News Editor at books and publishing the trade press for the Australian book industry. And Eloise has degrees in media and communications, marketing and business management and political science. So let's get this straight. Eloise is a champion for small businesses. In other words, she wants to feature you as a small business owner in her publication. She's looking for founders, entrepreneurs and CEOs just like you to feature every single week. She runs one of the best business publications in the country. She's super friendly and approachable. And she's open to all your ideas. And you'll get her all to yourself inside the media masters Academy. So now you're officially all out of excuses not to get started growing your business leveraging the media and PR and there is no better place to start than right here with Eloise Keating and Smart Company. Enjoy. Hello, I'm Liz Nable and you're listening to Nable My Business, the podcast. When I first started in small business almost 10 years ago, I had no idea what I was getting into. You see, my background was in the media. I had spent 15 years as a television news journalist and reporter working at several major networks in Australia. And then as a freelancer in the US and around the world. I spent years dividing my time between working long shifts on a news desk and travelling the world chasing stories. It was unpredictable and exciting. Until it wasn't anymore. I decided I wanted to live where I was in charge of what happened next. And where I was working to build my own empire, not someone else's. I also never wanted to work a midnight new shift again. Now, I don't have to. There was a lot I had to learn about running my own business. But one thing I already had in the bag was how to get media coverage and free PR. I knew what the media wanted. I knew the secret formula for what made us and I knew how to leverage those organisations to build my business, get more exposure, and ultimately make more sales. During my decade of building my business, I have managed to get featured in almost every major news outlet in the country. I've been interviewed on television countless times, had personal profiles written up in women's magazines, done point of view pieces for large newspapers, and be listed in top 100 lists for women in business and in my industry. And I've never spent a single cent on PR. I took that knowledge for granted until it dawned on me one day that I could teach what I knew to other businesses, let them in on the secret. And they too could build their businesses, leveraging the media and gaining free PR. They could use my insights in the industry and my behind the scenes experience and take their business from Best Kept Secret to well known brand simply by following my formula. Welcome to enable my business, the podcast. Hi, always welcome to the enable my business podcast.
Eloise Keating 3:40
Hi, Liz. Thanks for having me. Oh, it's
Liz Nable 3:42
an absolute pleasure. You are one of our coveted guests we've been wanting to have on the show for a while. And we're very excited to have you in the next round of the media masters Academy. Now you're the news editor of SmartCode. Australia, which is covers ink, Australia and smart companies that correct?
Eloise Keating 4:01
Yeah, that's right. And so I've been with Mark company now for around nine years. And towards the end of last year, we actually is very exciting. We almost doubled our footprint by taking on the licence for in Australia. So we have two, two websites. Now two publications that we look at. And they're both really focused on small and medium sized businesses and entrepreneurs.
Liz Nable 4:25
So you're the perfect media outlet or media organisation for our listeners who are women, led businesses, female entrepreneurs, co founders, founders, that sort of thing. You're one of the coveted kind of publications that our founders want to pitch. Tell me a bit about your role as news editor in I guess, under the umbrella of who we would be pitching to and how that kind of works.
Eloise Keating 4:52
Sure, I guess the there's a variety of ways that business owners would pitch to Smart Company and really we're happy to listen and take any pictures. But really, the most important thing to know is that we are essentially a business to business publications. So we're in the SME community, and we're talking to other business owners who are coming to us for news and advice and inspiration about running, how to run their business, how to grow their business. So that's the first thing to keep in mind that the the audience that are reading Smart Company are also running businesses. So we get pitches for news stories, it might be, for example, a startup has secured some funding, or maybe a business has got this great distribution deal with a major retailer. Or, you know, we also would cover news in the sense of what the ATO is doing, what the Fair Work Ombudsman is doing, and what the government's going to have in the budget to help business owners understand what it means for them. So we do get businesses coming to us and pitching about, you know, things that they're doing within their own business or milestones that they've met. That's the new side of things, we would also get pitches for more in depth profiles. And that would be a longer interview based story where we go into the background of how someone started their business, how they grew it, what they've learned along the way. And they are usually some of our most popular stories, because like I said, people are looking for that inspiration. They want to know how others have done it and, and what leads to success in business. And then the other part and I think this would be particularly relevant to people listening to this podcast episode, is that we're often taking articles from experts in their small business community to or in the broader business community, where it's then lending their expertise to help other business owners understand a particular issue or or analyse something that's in the news or offer an opinion, that kind of thing. So I get a lot of pitches on that side of the fence, as well as the more newsy based profile pictures. So open to all of those. But the first point of call is to understand that it's for a business audience.
Liz Nable 7:10
So when you when you are thinking about what you're filling the publication with, is it female focused specifically? Or is it more what? What's your readership? And what kind of demographic? Are you looking forward to, you know, feature and that sort of thing?
Eloise Keating 7:25
Sure. It's a source of pride, I guess, for me, that's my company's readership has always really been 5050, male, female, and that's quite unusual in the Business Media. Generally, it does skew to male readership. So we work very hard to make sure that we reflect that in the stories that we covered, but we would cover both male founded and female founded businesses, I would say, of late, we have tried to definitely improve and increase our coverage of women run businesses, because we feel there is a real gap of that kind of coverage in the Australian media landscape. And we want to play a role in rectifying that and really showcasing the wonderful women entrepreneurs out there who, you know, well, we've all read the stats, that not enough funding goes to women led businesses and, and you know, there's still a lot of business events that are dominated by men, that kind of thing. So we really feel smart company has an important role to, to do what we can to elevate those stories. So I would be encouraging, you know, any women who are running businesses to get in touch, and it might not be, you might your business might be at a stage where we're not where we wouldn't do a profile just yet, like maybe you've only just started or something like that. But usually when someone starts an own business, their own business, it's because they're an expert in a particular field. And they have, you know, knowledge that they can share with other people who are running businesses. So that's a great way to, to start getting some coverage in in a different way that then might lead over time to a profile about your business.
Liz Nable 9:04
Inside the media Master's course, week one we teach founders about building sorry, we too we teach founders about building their brand story and why that's such an important asset to the business, from your perspective, if how important is that, that someone's kind of got that brand story together when they pitch you? Because obviously, like you said, you're interested in the person behind the business, more so than a product or service? Is that right?
Eloise Keating 9:28
Definitely. And I often think back to when I joined Smart Company, and my editor at the time said, when it all boils down to it, small business is about people, and it's incredibly personal to run your own business and, and the reasons why people you know, go into business for themselves, whether it's to support their family, or it's the incredibly passionate about a particular issue that they want to address or solve. So yeah, it really is about that story and from a media point of view from generals point of view. They're the stories that cut through. And we, we see that all the time that human interest elements. So, yes, it's important to have that brand story. But I wouldn't necessarily want anyone to put pressure on themselves that they have to have it all figured out. Because sometimes it's in the process of talking to a journalist and explaining how you came up with your business idea, that that, you know, they can help pick out what that narrative is for you. So don't be put off if you haven't figured it all out just yet. Because, you know, you might think that you have it and you might pitch it to a journalist, and they say, Well, have you actually considered that you've got this really great story hidden underneath that. So be open minded. But yeah, if you can read some of the profiles on Smart Company or in the business press and see how other entrepreneurs are talking about their business journey, they're often starts with what was the problem that they wanted to solve? Or what was that light bulb moment when they realised that there was a business opportunity? And from there, you can start building out? You know, what happened next? What, what were the steps that you that you took, and who were the people along the way that helped you?
Liz Nable 11:11
Great advice. Talk to me about the pitches that you receive, like on a daily basis, are we talking 1020? Like dozens, hundreds, you know, what kind of influx of pitches do you get? And do you open all the emails from business?
Eloise Keating 11:27
I'd say I would like to think I could open all the emails, but it's, it's near impossible. And I've had to come to accept that. Over my time as an editor. Look, I we get a couple of 100 emails a day. But not all of them would be would be straight pitches, some of them on press releases, industry news, that kind of thing. So within that, I would get direct emails from business owners or business owners who are working with publicists, that kind of thing. We probably get a bit more of that then hearing directly from business owners. But yeah, unfortunately, I can't open every email each day. But I do you have a habit of keeping every email that I'm sent, I'm not sure if that's a smart strategy, because my inbox can get out of control. But I find it incredibly useful. Because in my role as news editor, I'm also helping my journalist find people that they might want to talk to as well and, and commissioning freelancers. So I might receive the email, I might read it, you might not necessarily get a personal response from me, but you might hear from Tegan or David on my team or one of my freelancers. Or it might be that we don't get to your story this week. But next month, something's interesting is happening in the news. And we're looking for someone who runs a beauty business, for example, to comment on something in the news. And if I've saved your email and got your details, there's a good chance that we might resurface that. So I do try and get back to people. And it just might take me a little bit of time.
Liz Nable 12:58
Is there a formula? What you're looking for? Like? What kinds of stories are you looking for? And, you know, how relevant is the news of the day in the pictures that you, you know, that you're receiving from people? Obviously, we teach a lot of this inside the course, generally, but for Smart Company, is there a formula to what you're looking for something specific, that never dates that you always love? You know, that style of story?
Eloise Keating 13:21
Yeah, I think for that sort of timeless SmartCode story, and I used to call it say to my journals, it's the classic SmartCode story, it's the growth of a business. And it's usually going back to that idea of a brand story, it's sort of the couple of elements, I'm looking for growth. And even better if you can put some numbers to that growth. And I you know, some people are comfortable sharing revenue, but it might also be a percentage growth, or it might be the number of stockists that you've got your product in or something like that. Some numbers will always put your pitch in front of ahead of others. You know, picking up on something personal in that story. So to give an example, we recently published a profile of a woman who had created her name's Suzanne, and she created a product called Mac mats. And it's a piece of astroturf that you can see. You can clean your feet on when you've for her it was after surfing with her kids. But it's really taken off in the caravan industry, because people put it at the step of their caravan and they can clean their shoes or their feet before they go in. But for Suzanne, it was really just it solved a personal problem. It solved a problem with, you know, all the sand that was coming into her house. And she just happened to have this piece of astroturf in the garage. And then people started asking, Where do you get that? Like, how could you get me one of those and that's turned into this incredibly successful business that's now stopped in Anaconda stores. And so, for her story, you know, she's got that she can articulate the personal problem that she sold she could tell Tell us about the growth of how of how quickly it grew and some numbers there. But also some insights into getting into a major retailer. So for me that ticks all the boxes for Smart Company, because there's inspiration there, there's insight for other business owners. And we're, you know, we're showing how amazing Australian business owners are. So that's the kind of timeless story if I see something like that, absolutely, we want to jump on it. I think for more newsy type things that are tied to the news cycle, those ones for us tend to be a bit more commentary based or opinion articles, that kind of thing. And we do have a lot of people who successfully pitch us those kinds of stories, and we pick them up. And for those ones, time is of the essence, really, it's sort of, if something's in the news today, you probably want to email us tomorrow, kind of thing, you know, next week might be too late, that kind of thing. So I think in the first instance, it's being clear about what is the story that you're pitching a? Is it for a profile? Or is it for a news, you type thing, and then that will govern how sort of how you frame it. And when you might expect a response from us that kind
Liz Nable 16:12
of thing. So if someone is successful in pitching you, and they do deliver you a story on a platter, like the muck rack story, how likely are you to then go back to them when you have something else that might be relevant to them? Or you need someone who's an expert in that story? How important is that relationship when someone makes a good impression?
Eloise Keating 16:32
Yeah, I think it's, I think it's really important. And, you know, I've had formed some really great relationships with business owners over the years that we know that, you know, I could drop them an email, or give them a call and say, can you tell me what's happening in this industry? Or what do you think about the government doing this? Or that? Or do you have any thoughts about the budget? So that's always really good. And I also have people who will just sort of email and say, Look, if you're ever looking for someone in the hospitality industry, here's my, my details, give me a call, that kind of thing. So yeah, I think I think it's great. And you know, LinkedIn has become a really good source of those kinds of connections for, for me, and for my team. And we, we often will do call out from there, too, we might say, we're looking for a Victorian based business to comment on this or that or we're looking for a business owner who is happy to talk about their experience with hybrid work or something like that getting in touch with us by this time, or I'm looking for answers today, that kind of things. So I would recommend for anyone listening in like jump on LinkedIn, go and follow some of the journals that you like their work, or you like their publications, and start almost just kind of observing what they're looking for and who they're talking to.
Liz Nable 17:53
Now, how important is it for you to get a really good first impression on a pitch in terms of you can tell right away in the first few sentences that the person pitching you has read? smartcompany? I mean, I know that's like a bugbear for so many editors and and journalists out there, how important is it to know where you're who you're pitching to?
Eloise Keating 18:14
Yeah, I would say it's almost like the number one thing on the list is being familiar with where you're pitching to. I do fairly regularly get pictures that have the wrong name, or the wrong publication in the email, or, you know, that kind of thing. Or it's very obvious that it's just sort of a copy and paste. So they've gone to a lot of different places, and they haven't really thought about smartcompany. And that's okay, I, you know, everyone does it differently. But I think the more you can demonstrate that you understand what we're doing, the better, you're a better place, really. And that could be as simple as just reading it right fairly regularly, just jumping on the site having a look. And that would apply to other publications, too, because you'll start to get a feel of the stories that they don't ever do, as well. And that will give you clues about, you know, if that's the story you're pitching, but you can see that Smart Company or, you know, one of the bigger publications never does stories like that, there's probably a reason for that. And I remember, you know, hearing from a television journalist one time, worked on one of their sort of current affair type shows. And she said, we just have a blanket rule, nothing to do with toilets. Don't ever pitch us any, anything to do with toilets. And she said, the reason is very simple, because we broadcast at a time when a lot of people are eating their dinner. So even if you've got the most amazing story, I'm sorry, it's just not for us. So, you know, that's just it. That's a bit of a strange example. But there are there will be things that you can pick up just from reading a publication from following them on LinkedIn from looking at their social media. You will get a feel of what they like and what they Never touch.
Liz Nable 20:00
Do you have like a mission statement or like a, something that sort of summarises in a couple of sentences, what you're trying to achieve at smartcompany that would give people a good idea of whether it's the right place for them to pitch?
Eloise Keating 20:15
Yeah, I think what it boils down to for us is that where we exist, really to champion small and medium sized businesses in Australia, we, we have a very clear mesh mission that we want to see more small businesses succeed. And we, we feel that it's a it's an underrepresented sector of the business community in terms of the media. But we know, you know, 97% of Australian businesses are small businesses, and they employ, you know, more than 4 million people across the country, they're an incredibly important part of the economy, but a very diverse part as well. So we want to see more success there, we want to see less obstacles in their path. And, you know, we feel it's a, it's a really important part of the community for us to talk about the issues that are affecting them, but also to celebrate the success stories.
Liz Nable 21:11
So it's the perfect first place for someone to get their feet wet. If they're pitching for the first time. Now, you're our guest expert, like I mentioned in one of the print weeks of our media masters Academy. So you'll be obviously you'll have your little small group of people who are pitching to your business owners who are pitching to you, what what could they expect to sort of get from you what sort of insight tips and tricks like, could they get, I guess, an advantage in having a private audience with you.
Eloise Keating 21:42
Um, you know, I would love to be able to offer them some personal feedback on their pitches, whether it's well suited to Smart Company, if it's not, I think I'd be able to offer them also some suggestions of perhaps other publications they might like to get in touch with, or potentially different angles that they might think about might not have thought about yet. So they might be going into it thinking I'm pitching a story about my business or my product. But really, I might be more interested in hearing from them as an expert in their particular industry, whether it's manufacturing or hospitality, or consulting, that kind of things. So I think, be open to suggestions that I might offer as to where it might fit. And yeah, don't. My other big thing to say, I guess is don't be nervous, because, really, at the end of the day, journalists are just regular people too. And I've never run my own business. I don't know what that takes. So for me, a business owner is really the expert, and I'm trying to learn from you. And I think every business owner has an really special story to tell because owning your own business, running your own business is a very personal thing. So I usually love to approach it from that point of view, tell me about yourself, about why you started your business, and then get into what you think might be the pitch for a particular story. I also find it really helpful for pitching to for the person, the business owner pitching, to almost think about it in terms of the headline, because that's often how I'm thinking about you, I can imagine the story in smart companies, I'm thinking of the headline as I'm listening to someone speak so have a go write down a few headlines that you think could suit your business, if it's for a profile or news story. And include that in your pitch, because straightaway, that helps me start to form the picture of, of what the story might look like.
Liz Nable 23:41
Yeah, and it is a really safe space to be in, in this small group environment. Everybody's small business owners, everybody's having go and it's not like they're pitching to a roomful of 5000 people. And they get you all to themselves. So it's very exciting. How often does. So say for example, smartcompany does a feature. I see it a lot in other media publications. And I'm interested to know if it happens with you guys, too. That then sparks like a rolling story that might get picked up by other publications. Does that happen a lot, because I'm trying to explain to the students inside the course. As we go along the things can get syndicated and or picked up and sparkers story that continues for days or possibly weeks.
Eloise Keating 24:21
Yeah, it does happen a bit. I'd say it's probably Yeah, more on those news, you type stories that something's very topical in the news cycle. From time to time, you can see, you know, a few of the business publications will seem to have a profile on the same business around the same time. For those listening at home, that's usually because it's been it's come through a PR kind of effort or a push. And they you know, we know that we would be pitched at the same time as other other publications. So that might be a reason why but, you know, we do have arrangements where other outlets will republish smartcompany stories, so you might see it get more traction in that way. I think in terms of a turning it into a rolling story, it's usually that might happen when someone you know, we publish a story about a topical issue. And then other people get in touch with us and say, I've got this different perspective, or I can share bit, shed more a bit more light on why that happened, or I worked for the company. And this is what really happened, that kind of things. So probably more on the news side of things. But that being said, if you see something in Smart Company, or even in another publication that, you know, it's about your industry, or you know a lot about it, or you know, feel very strongly about it. That's a great time, that's a great prompt to email an editor or a journalist and say, I could offer, you know, I could help you move this story along, I could offer something else there. Yeah. And
Liz Nable 25:51
like you say, like, these days, it's not just your online audience, because you would then take those stories, put them on your socials might feature it on LinkedIn, there's so many places where that gets repurposed these days, it's not just this one channel that sees the story. And then that is done. Yeah, and
Eloise Keating 26:07
I've heard from quite a few people who have been featured in smack company that then it leads to, you know, someone that they haven't chatted to, for five years getting in touch, saying, Oh, I saw the profile of your business Great to see you doing really well, and opens up some networks that might not have been there before. Or then they might get approached to speak at a conference or I had one example of a motorcycle tour company that we profiled in Smart Company. And the very next day, the owner got an email from someone who had been thinking about booking one of their tours, but wasn't sure But read the profile and said, Yes, we're going to do it. And that was a $50,000. Wow, for this business, regional business, and she just said, it just blew her mind that an article could lead to that. So my advice would be if you are featured in a publication, like smart company or another business publication is like, then you need to share it, put it on your LinkedIn, put it on your Facebook, put it out there, refer to it again, you see businesses will have on the bottom of their website as featured in they'll put the logos there. So make the most of it, put it, put it all over your socials and bring it up again and a few weeks. And yeah, keep
Liz Nable 27:23
leveraging as much as you can. Always it's been an absolute pleasure to talk to, you've got so much golden nuggets of information there. And we're really excited to have you in the course. At the end of May. We will see you inside the Media Masters Academy. And until then, thank you.
Eloise Keating 27:41
Thanks, Liz. I'm really looking forward to it.
Liz Nable 27:43
Thank you for listening to this episode of Nable My Business. If you've loved it, please share it on Instagram and Facebook for your friends. I'm all about listening and learning from you my audience. So please pop a review on iTunes and let me know how you're enjoying the show. I'd love to hear from you. So if you have any questions, email me at Liz at Liz Nable.com And if you want to know more about what I do, head over to Liz Nable.com I truly hope this podcast is a game changer for you. Whether you're a small business owner, a franchisee you have a side hustle or you're just starting out. This is where you truly begin to build your own empire and the life of your dreams.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai