Intro: Coming to you live from the Business RadioX studio. It’s Franchise Marketing Radio.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Franchise Marketing Radio. And this is gonna be a good one. Today on the show, we have the CEO and founder of Publicity for Good and also the author of the new book seen by AI Found by Customers, The Purpose Driven Brand Guide to Dominating the New ERA of PR. We have the PR expert, Heather Holmes. Welcome.

Heather Holmes: Thank you. I’m so excited to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I am excited to learn what you’re up to. Well, let’s start with your company Publicity for Good. How are you serving folks?

Heather Holmes: Yeah. So Publicity for Good. We are the number one communications agency for purpose driven brands. We are celebrating our ten year anniversary this year and I’m so grateful. But we really help people become industry leaders, help people really be well known for how they’re really making a difference in the world.

Lee Kantor: So what’s kind of your backstory? How’d you get involved in PR?

Heather Holmes: Yeah, so I went to school for communications, and then from that I worked at an ad agency. And a lot of what I did growing up was giving back nonprofits, starting service initiatives. I graduated from college. I then went to work at an ad agency, and then from there really fell in love with the power. I mean, you know, the power, right? One interview can impact millions of people. People can hear about your product and service. And there’s such a sense of, you know, pride and ownership when people get to tell their story. And now, you know, with AI, it matters more than ever because when people are making choices, a lot of times, you know they’re searching for who is the best clean air company to hire, what, who’s the best to hire? And it’s those media stories that help rank when people are doing the search. So it’s been a very exciting journey for sure.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And it’s an ever changing journey. Like, you know, when you started, you were at the beginning of kind of the internet and social media and now where it looks like we’re progressing from that to an AI world where finding being found, you know, via an AI snippet or, uh, or something like that is a lot different than it was like when you were doing SEO for your website or even kind of trying to be found on social media. So how are you helping your clients kind of navigate this new transition?

Heather Holmes: So there’s a couple of different things. Like you said, I wrote a book, we’re doing audits. We created a software and a tool called AI search scan. It’s at ai.com. But we are doing audits. We’re showing our clients where competitors are ranking when someone searches on Google, which is Gemini, ChatGPT, or Claude. Um, and we’re really helping them put a plan into place. So it’s not only the tactics and execution, but it’s also the education to help them see that it really is a level playing field, uh, for brands that want to grow and be leaders in this space.

Lee Kantor: Now, what about the people who think like, okay, there was a time when there were strategies around SEO and that things I could do on my website, and that would bubble me to the top of a search. Now it seems like the search is almost irrelevant, that people are just getting an answer from AI of what the best pizza in town is, or the best chicken sandwich. How do you have to change your website? Or do you have to change how you’re doing things in order to be found via AI as opposed to showing up in some search engines.

Heather Holmes: So there’s a couple of different things with that. It will include yes copy on your website. Um, and also you need to make sure that your name, address, phone number and your company bio, meaning whatever is on Google, whatever is on your website, whatever is on social media. And then if you’re a part of any chambers or local associations, all the copy needs to be consistent. That’s the first thing. Um, the second thing is medium and LinkedIn. Those are high domain ranking websites and those will actually help, um, with your company ranking, um, in the LMS when people are searching. Um, and that’s language learning models. So what that looks like is if someone goes to ChatGPT and they type in, I am looking to hire a business consultant to help my business grow. I have an Hvac company. Those answers are coming from the external validations, which are seen from awards directories. Chamber of Commerce listings being featured in third party websites that have a higher domain ranking. A newswire. So putting a news release on the wire. All of those things, um, go together to impact who is showing up or who isn’t.

Lee Kantor: And that’s where a PR help can come in, right? This is where that’s your superpower, right?

Heather Holmes: It’s our superpower. And it’s what we’ve done for ten years to help over 500 plus incredible, um, companies and brands.

Lee Kantor: So now at one point, I think a lot of people thought, you know, kind of being, um, in the news in some form or fashion was a nice to have, but are you finding in today’s world with AI that it’s a must have?

Heather Holmes: It’s an absolute must have. Because if you’re not in the media, you’re not going to show up when people are searching for you and essentially you’re invisible. And I do think third party validation matters more than ever, because how many times have you seen content that’s AI generated? Right? Like people crave more endorsements. Third party validation awards, right? Like people for good or bad, people trust those things, right? Like, I’m sure there’s people that are watching this incredible radio show and they trust you. We because they listen to all your shows, right? So brands and companies really need that third party validation. I would say now more than ever, because one, if you’re not in the media, you’re not going to show up when people search for you. And two, I think that there’s so much being created that’s fake or AI generated, that people really need to see that endorsement from actual third party people.

Lee Kantor: Well, this show focuses primarily on franchise marketing. Can you talk about how a franchise or should be leveraging PR when you have a brand that you want to protect the brand, but you also have tons of people in local markets spread out around the country or the world even, and they might be trying to do their own thing through their own kind of social media, um, channels. But you still want to protect a brand as a whole. How do you kind of navigate that?

Heather Holmes: Well, there’s two sides to it. The first is if you have a local franchise, it’s going to be really important that you join local associations, have your website be listed as a member of a Chamber of Commerce. Add that to your website. Do local media anytime there’s local awards or best of lists for best local restaurant, best local, um, electrician, all those things matter. Even if you have a national company and you’re in a local market, you should be featured on those things. That’s the first thing. The second thing though, is if you’re trying to grow your business and get more franchises, you’re going to want to get your franchise company in publicity to talk about the value and the market value from the financial perspective that you provide business owners. So there’s the local publicity for best of, and then there’s the building your franchise to be a leader in the space, talking about the financial opportunity for investors and how you would get that type of media is leaning into franchise media is being on this show, and the message would be really about the business opportunity, but you need to do both. If if you’re just a local and you’re not wanting to expand nationally and get more people to invest in open a franchise, but we typically work with our clients who have, you know, 100 plus franchise locations and growing, growing, growing. We focus on local media for the local franchise owners, and we work directly, typically with the GM and then the national level. We’re really building up the brand story, why it’s a good investment, the company growth, all those things.

Lee Kantor: Now you’re also working with the franchisor on how to create a system that enables their local franchisee to be able to have some social presence, but maybe within some guardrails, that protects the brand as a whole. So they’re not just going off and doing kind of some wacky things on their own.

Heather Holmes: Oh, absolutely. So from a corporate level, what we’re doing for one of our incredible, um, franchises, um, they have 100 plus possi locations. Think QSR, we’re securing local media for our local market, but then we’re providing media training, writing talk notes, holding the hand of a local, you know, franchise owner in that market to ensure that the messaging isn’t a lie is aligned with corporate and everything. So there is very much, um, strategic oversight for all those things.

Lee Kantor: So let’s walk through what an engagement with Publicity for Good looks like. So I’m a franchisor. Um, what is first off, what is something, maybe a symptom that I need to hire somebody in PR and not just kind of a typical marketer.

Heather Holmes: So symptom would be that you are expanding into new cities. I need support with announcing the new location, driving influencers and media, and maybe local mayor and representatives to the event for a ribbon cutting ceremony. You need more brand awareness for customers in those market. Those are really all the things that we help with. Um, for our franchise clients, we create literally a forward facing plan where we ask our clients, okay, what consume, what promotions are you running? Do you have any new deals? Right? Are there certain seasonal peaks example where maybe people get their roofs redone? Right? We get all those things from you, and then we build a forward facing, uh, plan. And I would say it’s very much boots on the ground. So even if you have a franchise in another market and you don’t have leadership there, like we’re able to manage social media for our clients. Post on social, get local media to talk about you, all those different things.

Lee Kantor: So you have some things that are done for you, but also done with you. And then some of the things they could do themselves.

Heather Holmes: Correct, correct. We heavily focused on high end done for you. So we work with our clients to get their vision. Where do they want to take it? How many more franchises do they want? Are they working towards the exit? And then we create a strategic communications plan that has the plan, the timeline, timeline, the milestones, really all those things. So we do the execution, the media outreach, the planning. We tell the media where they need to be, and then we physically prep you for interviews.

Lee Kantor: Now, does that trickle down to the franchisees? I mean, some of these people could have hundreds of franchisees.

Heather Holmes: Yeah, it just depends on the business model. Right? Some corporations have like a marketing budget. So for sure, a national franchise could use our services towards their marketing budget, right? The other model is sometimes local franchise owners just pay for it themselves. But yes, it’s very dependent typically on market, right? How many locations they have per city and all those things.

Lee Kantor: So at the at the minimum, if you’re not going to go down to do the work for each franchisee, you can give each franchisee kind of a best practices or a playbook that they can do locally.

Heather Holmes: Correct? Correct. Correct.

Lee Kantor: Because earned media is important for the national brand, but it’s just as important for the local franchisee.

Heather Holmes: It is so important. I would say national media absolutely will help with the LMS and getting more investors and franchise owners, but it’s the local media that I see the traffic in the store, the inbound sales, the clients. Right. So I definitely see a higher conversion rate for sure if the local business, local media.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. So both are important, but the franchisee cares about what’s happening in their local market. It’s nice that the brand gets another franchisee somewhere else, but they want another person entering their store.

Heather Holmes: Correct? Correct.

Lee Kantor: So now is there some tips that you can share, maybe some do’s and don’ts when it comes to putting together some cohesive, um, PR focused, uh, plan for a company?

Heather Holmes: Absolutely. I’d say first, what you need to do is map out all of your upcoming promotions, new menu items like look at from now until the end of the year, a new year first thing. Second thing, you need to make sure you keep into account the holidays and everything because that can impact the editorial cycle, right? You should also look at awareness days and months, right? Like there’s National ACI day. There’s National Home Improvement Month. So there’s all these different awareness days and months that companies can use to add leverage to what they’re doing.

Lee Kantor: And then is there mistakes that you see businesses making?

Heather Holmes: Well, the the mistake that I mostly see is that companies are way too promotional and they don’t focus on problem solution. So we need to focus on problem and then solution and really lean into consumer awareness. So instead of a franchise roofing company pitching themselves as a roofing company, we need to say, hey, it’s almost July 4th. Um, most likely people may have fireworks get stuck in their gutters. Can we bring an expert on to help your viewers get ready for summer?

Lee Kantor: So it’s less of hey, we were founded in 1974 and more. Here’s three ways to, you know, have clean gutters.

Heather Holmes: Correct? Correct.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And that’s a little counterintuitive for a lot of brands are so proud of what they’ve done. They want to tell that story first and they’re really missing out. What’s the story that it really is going to impact and be useful for their clients or potential clients? Now, is there a story you can share that may be illustrates what it’s like to work with you? Is there, you know, you don’t have to name the name of the franchise, but maybe share the challenge they came to you with and how you were able to help them get to a new level.

Heather Holmes: Yeah, I mean, I would say the biggest thing that I hear is, I mean, we’re a team of 70 and we’ve worked with over 500 brands and clients. And the gap that I hear is that people hire these big agencies. And when they hire an agency, they’re not able to move fast or be agile or any of those things. So we provide such a sense, a sense of stability for our clients. One of like, we have graphic designers, full time, full time designers, all those things. So like we are able to see areas of opportunity to help our clients. We had, um, a brand that had a full time graphic designer that wasn’t that left the company and we were able to come in and now we’re doing full time graphic design. So we’re really that full partner Swiss Army knife to help our clients.

Lee Kantor: So now regarding the book, is the book a handbook on how to be found on AI? Is that what you. Is that what the why behind it?

Heather Holmes: It’s a very tactical book that I put together, uh, last fall to help brands with showing up when people are searching. So it’s these, that exact process that we’re taking our clients through.

Lee Kantor: So now if somebody if there’s a franchisor right now listening, what’s something they should do tomorrow to be seen by AI? Is there any action they could take? Is there low hanging fruit?

Heather Holmes: Yeah. So I’d say absolutely, you can put a news release on the wire. And then secondly, make sure that all of your, um, bios are consistent as well.

Lee Kantor: So consistency is, is just as important if you’re going to put your name out in a bunch of different directories and listings, then make sure that they’re saying the exact same thing, that that’s a sign to AI that you are who you say you are.

Heather Holmes: Correct. Because essentially in back with Google, right there wasn’t like third party validation, but now with AI, it’s pulling in third party validation.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to connect with you or the team, what’s the website? What’s the best way to connect?

Heather Holmes: Yeah. So if they just go to publicityforgood.com all spelled out or find us on social media. Um, that’s probably the best way to connect with us.

Lee Kantor: And they can find the book there.

Heather Holmes: And that’s on Amazon.

Lee Kantor: Okay, so the books on Amazon and your website is publicityforgood.com.

Heather Holmes: Correct? Correct.

Lee Kantor: Well, Heather, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Heather Holmes: I appreciate you and thank you again.

Lee Kantor: You got it. All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Franchise Marketing Radio.