Wedding PR Made Simple: How to Get Quoted, Published, and Book More Clients with Meghan Ely

In this episode we’ll cover:

• What wedding PR really is (and isn’t) and why it matters for your business
• Simple ways to get started with PR even if you don’t have any media experience
• How to pitch to wedding publications the right way
• The common mistakes wedding pros make when trying to get featured
• Why being published builds trust and leads to more inquiries
• How PR can help you stand out in a saturated market without paid ads
• What editors are actually looking for when choosing submissions

Wedding PR Made Simple: How to Get Quoted, Published, and Book More Clients with Meghan Ely

0:00:00 – Heidi Thompson
What if getting featured in top wedding publications was not as complicated as it seems. Today you’ll find out how wedding PR can open doors you never even knew existed.

0:00:14 – Intro
In a world where wedding professionals are struggling to market and grow their businesses, one podcast brings together top experts and actionable strategies to help you build the wedding business of your dreams. This is the Evolve your Wedding Business podcast. Here is your host, Heidi Thompson.

0:00:45 – Heidi Thompson
Hey there, my friend, Welcome to the podcast. I’m your host, Heidi Thompson, and I help wedding professionals of all different kinds all around the world book more weddings with clients they absolutely love, make their marketing easier and build a business that really gives them freedom and flexibility the things they wanted when they started this business and it kind of got away from them. Today I am really excited to talk to Megan Ely, really kind of the wedding PR person, because we all crave the credibility and the notoriety that wedding features can get us. It can put us in the spotlight. It can lend so much credibility through a psychological phenomenon known as social proof. When someone sees that you have been featured on some magazine or some website or some blog, that really does build credibility in the minds of your potential clients. It helps you stand out, it helps you build trust, it helps you book more weddings.

But a lot of people really don’t know what they’re supposed to do in order to get their work published or get quoted as an expert, or even really know how wedding PR affects their business. And in this episode I am breaking all of this down with Megan Ely. She is sharing so much good stuff for you on how you can start getting featured, and how Gen Z is looking at this a bit differently than previous generations, and what you can do to get featured in the different places you can get featured, all the ways you can be featured. There are more options now than ever, and Megan is going to break all of those down for you. So let’s get into my interview with Megan Ely Today. I’m joined by the one and only Megan Ely from OFD Consulting really the person I turn to for all things PR related and today we are going to be talking about getting published in 2025, how you do it, what that looks like, all the things. So, Megan, thank you so much for being here.

0:03:14 – Meghan Ely
Absolutely. I was so thrilled to be able to come on today.

0:03:19 – Heidi Thompson
Now, I know we talked a little bit about this before we got started. Like, historically, when we’ve talked about getting published in the wedding industry, it’s often been about like a wedding submission. But I know you have a broader scope of what that can actually look like, so can you?

0:03:38 – Meghan Ely
tell us a little bit about that, a thousand percent. I appreciate you asking this because one of the things I lament over is that people think, oh, getting published like that’s not for me. I’m not the photographer, I’m not the planner and I’m like wait, wait. I think it’s wonderful when weddings get featured. Obviously it’s something my team and I spend a lot of time doing. But the fact of the matter is, getting published, being featured, could mean a lot of different things and I wish people would realize, you know, realize that there are other opportunities that can really expand their press portfolio, and I think a couple off the top here is getting quoted. I mean, that’s a big part of it, right? Don’t you see all those articles for different national publications? It’s like at the time of this recording, we just, for better or for worse, the Pantone Color of the Year came out right, like we could talk about that for probably an hour unto itself.

Let’s not, let’s not. I’ve got hard feelings, but you know, shout out to Pantone for picking brown right. But when those articles come out, they need people to lend commentary. When people are doing articles on trends for next year, how to get married in Hawaii, hosting a destination wedding and things like that. They do need resources and this is a low-hanging fruit way for people to leverage what they know, you know, to be able to get quoted. I mean there’s just so many opportunities out there for you know, between the journalists as well as the wedding pros to get their name out there. And then the other I’m going to be meta for a second too.

But podcasts Like I’ve been a podcast girly forever. I listened to podcasts before. It was cool, before Serial came out, and I really have always loved it and it’s a great way. There’s just so many opportunities for people to be able to pitch themselves, to submit to forums and say, yeah, I’ve got a great topic that I’d love to talk to you about, and so the world’s their oyster. I mean, I could go on and on. There’s TV, there’s radio, there’s guest articles as well, especially if you want to write in front of your industry. But I just want people to really expand their mind to the way of how they could be published.

0:05:33 – Heidi Thompson
I like that. Getting quoted is like you said, it’s a smaller step, it’s an easier step, it’s an easier lift. But I’m sure some people think, well, what does that actually do? What does that help you with? That’s a fair. People think, well, what does that actually do? What does that help you with?

0:05:48 – Meghan Ely
That’s a fair question because, listen, we are all or we should all aspire to be ROI people. We should all be asking ourselves why am I doing any of this? What’s the return on investment, whether it’s financial, through sales, whether there are other reasons, it’s elevating your brand, and so on and so forth, and so I always like to speak to this for a moment. The fact is, we’re going through a big generational shift right now, which I know you guys have covered, in terms of Gen Z and this next generation, and what we’re seeing now more than ever is social proof is everything the couples want to see. Yes, they want your press, I mean. Yes, they want your portfolio. I should say they want to see your personality, but they want other people to say you’re great. Right, like everything is reviewed within an inch of its life on Amazon and where people are shopping. And same goes for, of course, when it comes to wedding pros. And, yes, testimonials are amazing. You should be focused on those, you should get them, so and so forth.

Another discussion for another time, right, but that kind of sexy, as seen in, like, as seen in insert media outlet here, as seen in. You know, we just did something with brides that was on winter color palettes and that that’s a big win for you know, a wedding planner or designer to say, yeah, brides asked me like that’s, there’s that when it comes to that. There’s that, that side of it. But if we’re going to be kind of tech for a second tech geeky for a moment, I am the first to tell you I am not an SEO expert at all, like I’m not. There are plenty of great people out there for that.

But getting those backlinks from the press can also make a difference. I was recently quoted for the first time ever in The New York Times.

It took, you know, a million years and I was so proud and excited and so on and so forth, and that link did so much for my Google rankings, on top of, you know, a pretty robust plan that I’ve got already. So you’re seeing that side of it. It’s that as seen in it’s on occasion, I’ll be honest, this doesn’t happen a ton, but when you know, it’s one of the many times couples see you too. So if they’ve seen an ad, if they’ve seen you on Instagram, and then you see you quoted in something, that is another touch point as well, and it shows authority and gives you, frankly, a chance to add more content to social, to say, yeah, we were just featured and here’s this and here that. But I think, at the end of the day, it really comes down to that authority to show that, yep, other people these editors, these writers, bridal guide they think we’re pretty great and that we’re at the forefront of the trends and there’s something to be said for all of that.

0:08:04 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, and it is huge, like it’s a major psychological component to how we make decisions. It’s not just like hey, look at me, look at these logos I have behind me. Like it really does make a huge impact and, like you said, we’re seeing it make even more of an impact in Gen Z because of the fact that, you know, we have a million messages, we have, you know, advertising up the wazoo and actually having someone you know, a well-known brand, a well-known publication, be like. You know, I’m kind of vouching for this person.

0:08:44 – Meghan Ely
It’s vouching is the best way to put it. Vouching is 100% the best way to put it. The idea of hey, listen, like these people think that I’m on the forefront of that, I’ve got enough authority that I can speak to, Like it’s one thing to say you’re a destination wedding pro, but it’s another to have destination. I do give you kind of that virtual blessing by including you in their articles and their weddings and so on and so forth as well.

0:09:04 – Heidi Thompson
I’m curious with your clients are they doing kind of a mix of all of these different types of ways you can get featured, or is it more heavy in one way or the other?

0:09:15 – Meghan Ely
Yeah, I in a perfect world, I’ll tell you what I force upon them. No, I’ll tell you what I advise in what is a healthy mix Diversifying, because wedding submissions the idea of these gorgeous weddings that have taken place and you’re submitting them to blogs and publications until they get picked up right that is a long, tedious process that we are happy to do right, we are happy to do it. We know we can turn things around quickly, but editors are completely inundated. Let’s try it again. They’re completely inundated with all sorts of weddings and so it does take time. You send it out to a publication, it’s eight to 12 weeks to hear back and then it could be another six months, nine months. We just had a wedding feature go live on a national site took two years. Two years, I know. I know two years and so because of that, I encourage people to jump into quotes and being quoted and podcasts, as long as they’re comfortable with that.

Because you want a mix. If you’re going to sit here and wait for you know, with us people do up to eight a year with us eight wedding submissions. If they’re just going to wait for those eight, that’s in for a long wait. There are so many other ways to get that kind of coveted, as seen in, and get those sexy backlinks, you know. So I want to mix, but I understand it’s not for everybody. You know, obviously I support them. Everyone’s got their own journey, but even myself, like I do a mix myself, you know, obviously I don’t do winning submissions but I do a mix of publicity for myself so that it’s a steady you know, visibility strategy, yeah, and that makes sense to look at it as like the long term, the short term, the kind of medium term, and making sure you have that healthy mix.

0:10:47 – Heidi Thompson
I like that way of looking at it.

0:10:49 – Meghan Ely
Well, you’ve got to. Can you imagine having a wedding wait two years for national you know feature, but like in the meantime it doesn’t feel so long and terrible Because that’s really extenuating. Circles need to have it that long. There were some staff changes at this place as well, but because you’ve got other things going on right, so it’s like, oh yeah, finally that went live.

0:11:09 – Heidi Thompson
Good, you know when you mentioned podcasts, I mean I’m obviously a huge fan, but I wonder, do you see your clients maybe be a little unsure about how to step into, like that thought leadership mode?

0:11:26 – Meghan Ely
Yes, and I think a lot of it has to do with people having a little bit, and we all have it. So let me be clear, like this thought of a couple things. One is that imposter syndrome. Like oh, surely no one needs my expertise, right? Like I don’t know, Everybody else is an expert, I see. But then the other thing is too well, what I know is common sense. I hear that all the time. What I know is common sense and it’s like it’s common sense to you because you live in it. Believe me, back in the day, when I first got started with OFD, I couldn’t believe I was being hired for certain things. So I’m like, isn’t this common sense? I’m like from knowing that, so it’s getting out of that. Well, other people and so on and so forth, I don’t know if there’s room for me and it’s like, don’t worry about that, Like go ahead, put yourself out there and let’s see what happens. I mean, PR is all about getting a lot of no’s in between the yes’s right, but you’ve got to start somewhere.

0:12:19 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, absolutely. And I think you know the idea of thought leadership, the idea of expertise can feel so lofty, you know, just so like, oh, I can’t do that, I can’t step into that, that’s for you know these other people who are feeling the exact same way.

0:12:40 – Meghan Ely
They all feel the same way. There’s very few people who are like, oh, I mean, after a while my clients absolutely have the confidence right, like they’ve done it long enough with me, like, oh, I’ve got this. But I would say a lot of them are like, oh, I don’t know, like you know, and it’s like no, no, no, you know so much, like I wish you could see yourself the way I see you you know, I’m curious how you develop topics with them, whether that’s topics they’re going to write guest posts about, or they’re going to go on podcasts, or that they’re going to speak about.

Well, that’s an awesome question that I don’t know if anyone’s ever really asked me. So thank you. Like that’s a really good one because it’s such a bulk of it, so there’s so many different approaches to it. The biggest thing is why you could ask yourself why do you want to be a thought leader anyways? Why are you looking for these things? Because that will help guide it. If some people are like well, I want to be a thought leader among my peers more so that I can do paid mentoring and things like that. So that’s a different set versus I want to be known as the best luxury wedding planner in Houston. That’s going to have a different set.

So we start with the why, like why you know and then we start small. We’re still like listen, what do you think you’re good at? What do other people think that you’re good at and I might toss some ideas out at them. Like when I was in weddings for a long time, I was in venues and I wasn’t good at the pretty Like I was good at hiring the people who could do the pretty. I was really good at the timelines. I was really good at like everything within an inch of its life was planned and executed that way. You know, and that’s what I was good at, the guy I worked with, jimmy, he was really great at like family stuff, like the family drama, which I wanted nothing to do with, right. So we all have our thing.

So it’s like, well, what’s your thing? What does everybody else say? Your thing is, what are the common questions you get asked on a regular basis? And then, frankly, what do you want to be known for? Because maybe you are a bit of a jack of all trades in terms of being this amazing planner or venue that’s just very involved in the process. But what are the things that you’re really good at? And I think, at the end of the day, it goes to what topics help move the needle, to what the next thing is for you, whether it’s going to be mentoring your peers, whether it’s going to be you know, some people offer this branch of service where you’re just consulting to the couples.

You want to stage yourself in a very particular way against your competitors. You know what I mean. Like it just kind of depends, but it does. You do dig from within and sometimes you have to ask your, you know people around you and say, well, what do you think I’m known for, because it would surprise you. I’ve asked people back in the day and one time I got introduced at a venue when I was doing some work for them in my early oh, she’s our efficiency expert. I was like what are you talking about? Like what? But I guess it was. I had a bit of a rep. I still have a bit of a reputation. So ask the people around you, ask the pros.

0:15:30 – Heidi Thompson
you work with a lot Like oh, you’re my go-to person for this and it’s like, oh, okay, like that’s good to know too. You know yeah, that’s a really interesting point that it does depend. You know what the end goal is. Do you want to build an arm of your business where you are, you know, working with other photographers? Do you want to be known more as, like, the go-to destination planner in a certain place? Yeah, that makes sense. That would obviously inform your strategy. When it comes to you know the topics that you want to choose, because I think it’s really easy to think about what could I talk about? But it’s that strategic. You know, what should I talk about?

0:16:06 – Meghan Ely
Yes, and there’s nothing wrong with with testing out the coulds, right, especially if you’re like listen, I just want backlinks, I want the as seen in, and if the editorial requests, the podcast requests, are related to something you enjoy talking about, then go for it, right. But the more strategic you get the narrowed down you are, the more discerning you are, the better off you get the narrowed down you are. The more discerning you are, the better off you’re going to be in the long run. But it’s okay to start with the coulds and move to the shoulds.

0:16:30 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, yeah, and I think that’s all great practice. To be honest, a hundred percent. So I’m sure someone listening to this is like cool, I would love to be featured in these different sorts of ways.

0:16:50 – Meghan Ely
How do you teach people to find those opportunities? Well, there’s a couple different things I teach them. If someone is sitting here saying, listen, I want to dedicate this to myself, Like I want to do this, so and so forth, Let me start by offering a free resource that has nothing to do with me, Makes me a terrible salesperson. Let me just tell you what people can do. There’s something called Qwoted Q-W-O-T-E-D. It used to be a different one called Haro, but I talked about it a lot for years and years. May it rest in peace. Now it’s called Quoted. It’s a free service. You can sign up and you get free press opportunities that come to you, to your inbox, and you can jump in and start pitching yourself. Right, you can start pitching and answering questions. So if someone wants to start with the basics of that and they want to do it themselves, then go for it. What I like to teach people to do and encourage them to do is, if they have the time, if they have the resources to do this and they want to do it themselves, then they need to set some goals, like set some goals of some top tier publications. They’re looking at that, do these kind of articles that do on it, and we’re talking about articles for a second. They do these kind of articles. They do go ahead and are looking for resources and what you want to do is you know, as a wedding pro, your area of expertise, your flex, as I call it, like what you’re good at needs to match journalists with their beats.

Now, with the beats, journalists will write about the wedding industry, but they have their own specialties. It could be beauty, it could be food and beverage, it could be family strife, and what you want to do is go to these top outlets, start reading, start paying attention and going to the articles that have the keywords associated with what you know best. It could be cakes, it could be destinations, it could be colors and trends and find those writers and be willing to reach out to them with a simple email to start the conversation and introduce yourself as an expert and say Amy’s my fake name, so just go with me on this. But like, hey, Amy, hope this finds you. Well, I see that you cover trends and design and decor for Bridescom and I want to take a moment to reach out and just see you know if you’re looking for more experts.

This is who I am Link back in so you can see who I am. I’d be happy to help you in the future. I just wanted to put my name out there, Like that’s literally. You could start there. If that horrifies you the idea of doing outreach to national writers, then of course, on our side we offer a membership that can connect you with about 20 to 25 opportunities a month. So it’s there’s so many different levels here where you can do it yourself. You can, you know, work with a PR agency a membership. The good news is it’s very accessible at all levels.

0:19:09 – Heidi Thompson
I think too something I’ve learned for myself because getting on other podcasts has always been a good strategy for me you have to recognize that at the end of the day, whether you get featured, whether you get quoted, whether you get a guest spot on a podcast, that’s just not in your control. Yeah, all you can control is how many pitches you send out, how many new journalists or podcasts you identify and do research on. And I just want to put out there like, if you focus on that, if it’s like I’m going to reach out to you, know this many a month, it will drive you a lot less crazy.

0:19:53 – Meghan Ely
It really will, if I may add to that, 100% like chunking out the this, so it’s not so overwhelming. You know, in the last year not to turn you into my therapist, but I just I hit a wall with my travel. I travel a ton and I just said 90 days is too much in the air, like I can’t do it anymore, and so I want to do half of that. But in order to cut back on that, I needed to do more podcasts. I needed to put myself out there. But the idea of like pitching myself to 20 podcasts one, it’s not smart to do it all at once.

Anyways, you get tired. You mix up names, you pitch too much of the same stuff at once. You need to, you know, offer exclusivity. Like right now, at the time of this recording, I’m not having this type of conversation with any other podcast. Like it should be us talking about this, not Megan Ely on 50 podcasts at the same time. You know that’s just a common courtesy for the members of the media and the podcast hosts such as yourself. And so for me, I cut it up and I do six a quarter. I get a reminder in my base camp shout out to my amazing project management software that doesn’t know who I am, but I love them and I just get a reminder and I go on from there.

0:20:54 – Heidi Thompson
So yeah, and then it’s you know, you just focus on doing the process, doing the thing like pitching the podcast, pitching the speaking opportunities you know finding, like pitching those journalists. But I really like that point of breaking it down into something manageable and if you do one this week, like you have to recognize the cumulative effect of those small actions.

0:21:22 – Meghan Ely
That’s such a good way to put it. I mean, you put it much better than I did. When it comes to it, it’s that I always quote. When I do speaking, I often quote this Pelaton instructor who said Ford is Ford right, it’s in a cumulative a little bit today, a little bit the next day. I mean I’m looking back at this year and I’ve done X amount of podcasts, X amount of guest articles, X amount of well, one one New York Times article, but like that’s all from little bits and pieces at a time, 100% Cumulative effect.

0:21:49 – Heidi Thompson
I love it, it’s so easy to write it off, because it is very unnatural. It’s very like oh no, I gotta like do this huge project, but you know you spend 15 minutes on your Monday afternoon on it. That’s going to have a significant snowball effect.

0:22:08 – Meghan Ely
Yeah, thousand percent. With that, I think that the snowball effect is huge and plus it keeps it from being super overwhelming. You know what I mean.

0:22:17 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, and I’m sure you see people all the time run into like, oh my God, I’m just so overwhelmed and I don’t even know what I mean. Yeah, and I’m sure you see people all the time run into like, oh my God, I’m just so overwhelmed and I don’t even know what to do.

0:22:25 – Meghan Ely
And I would say yes. And I think that overwhelm, if I may say, also especially comes during the busy season, because PR is year round, it’s 365 days a year. I mean, take off. If you celebrate Christmas, take off. I mean, the journalists are not between Christmas and New Year’s, you don’t need to do anything, but they’re going to be around. And you can imagine when people are really, really busy during the wedding season. I’m still getting a ton of purely it’s like they don’t care that you’re in the middle of wedding season and so if you can chunk it out and put it into your workflow, you are going to get published so much more if it’s a year round endeavor versus you know, I’m just going to push, put all my eggs in one basket in November, December and January, Cause that’s what a lot of people try to do and it just it doesn’t work.

0:23:08 – Heidi Thompson
That is such a good point, because all of these journalists have deadlines year round and they’re not seasonal the way that we are.

0:23:16 – Meghan Ely
I, you listen, I can keep some like some of the ones that I’m particularly close with. I can be like, listen, this is a Friday and I’m not going to get anyone in June to answer this, but give me until like Monday and then we’re good to go, but other than that, you just got to go with it, you know, at the end of the day, yeah, do you see a lot of people drop off during those busy periods?

Yes, I do, and they know I’m begging them. I’m like guys you just need to like yes, absolutely, I’m begging them. You got to jump in here and so for me what I do I actually so it’s funny because my friends tease me. I have like an email list like you do. I’ve got this broader base email list. That’s not my members and they know in the busy season I’m going to have press leads that go out to this list for free because my folks are just too busy. So I’m trying to catch somebody who’s at their desk who can tell me the top tips for getting married in St Louis. You know it’s like no, I need someone, you know.

0:24:16 – Heidi Thompson
At the end of the day, yeah, so for your clients who are getting these features you know they’re doing them. Hopefully they’re working them into more of like a year round sustainable way of doing things. Yes, how can they make the most of it?

0:24:36 – Meghan Ely
Press will only live as long as you allow it to, and I can’t stress this enough. So what I tell people is this If you are not doing the wedding submissions, that’s fine, but you know what? You’re probably being tagged in it. You could be hair and makeup, you could be DJ, you could be maybe transportation, and that would be amazing. So make sure that you’ve got one, a free Talkwalker alert. I talk about it all the time T T-A-L-K-W-A-L-K-E-R Talkwalker Alert and it’s free.

Put your company name in it and so when you get press, come up like you were already at the ready so that you can share the feature, let people know so and so forth.

You should have a plan in place, a little checklist like even if it’s internal, and you just give it to people to jump in on it and say, okay, something went live, Like this is the Canva template, this is the photo we use.

Throw a logo on that, and then I would say, once people get to a point where they’re, I would say, you’ve got four or five great press like feature, any kind of feature that you’re really excited about.

What you’re going to want to do is set up a press page for yourself and make sure that when couples are going to your site, that it’s not just the occasional blog post or on Instagram or whatever. They’re going to your actual site and seeing a dedicated press page that’s like hey, yeah, this is. You know, this is us in terms of like, this is where we’ve been featured, so continuing, don’t? You don’t want to overdo it and I’m not telling anyone to overdo it, but I am telling them listen, you need to go ahead and just put it out there and make sure that when people come to the site that you’ve got like on the homepage not only the press page somewhere, but like on the homepage. You know three or four logos that say Ask CNN. So it’s just getting it out there in a way that’s organic and shows authority without, you know, overdoing it. You don’t want to be over braggy, right.

0:26:15 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, but I mean to your point, like these pieces last as long as you want them to last.

0:26:20 – Meghan Ely
Yes, they can be reshared. There’s stuff that I talk about all the time. I still am like, oh yeah, like I’m talking about New York Times. That was months ago, but I was like, hey, remember that time I was in New York Times.

0:26:31 – Heidi Thompson
Right, I’m never going to stop talking about that. I’m never going to stop talking about that. What does a good press page entail?

0:26:40 – Meghan Ely
I could spend an hour just on this. So a good press page is thoughtful in the point of you’re not putting everything out there, but you’re putting a lot of it out there and you think to yourself, okay, I need to have four or five-ish to start great press, like I would say, start with the, as seen on your homepage, with some great logos that are all complimentary to one another similar look, similar sizing, all of that like high res, blah, blah. So a press page itself will. The aesthetic has to match the rest of the site, like you don’t want to look like it was an add on right.

There are some people who are really great at keeping it consistent and they are taking photos from each of their weddings that are featured and putting a logo on it and putting it out there. You want to be able to link to everything, unless it’s print, of course. If you have a lot of print which is not as common, but there are some people who still will there’s some great local prints still out there and some national right. So if you see someone going heavy into those strategies, what you’re going to want to do is have a separate, dedicated area for that, separate dedicated for online separate dedicated for podcasts, if you’re someone who’s just swimming in press. Otherwise, you want to keep it consistent. Maybe it’s certain photos and then click on the link and it opens up to a new tab, so it’s not like people are leaving your site.

You want to make sure you’re updating it quarterly, or minimally twice a year, but I’d say quarterly if you can, depending on how heavy you get into it. And don’t wait, don’t sleep on a really great feature If you got. We just had Bridal Guide print come out. We had some awesome, awesome client features in it. I’m telling them that needs to be on your site now. Like, do not wait because you haven’t hit the quarter yet to do that. Like, go ahead and make sure that you do that.

0:28:09 – Heidi Thompson
That makes sense. And then, if you’re doing it on a quarterly basis, yes, you will probably have several things you need to add, but it’s not, you know, massively time consuming.

0:28:20 – Meghan Ely
No, it really it’s. Once you do it and you get the project done, it’s a matter of checking in. I mean, the fact of the matter is, I’ll tell you, we are really big as publicists. We’re all about transparency and what I tell people all the time is listen.

You need to make sure that you’re, if you’re looking for a publicist, that your goals are in alignment with their recent work from last like year, six to nine months, like you know, because the fact is, media changes all the time. It’s no different than, like hotel salespeople changing all the time. So for us, we feel an added responsibility that our press page should be updated every quarter. So it’s literally the most updated press page of any publicist in the industry and what we’ll do is update it with like 15 of our top press every quarter. That takes, in total, no more than 60 minutes for that, because we’ve got it and I share that because we’ve gotten into a well-oiled machine. So if it could take us an hour every quarter to have 15 brand new press, like anybody else can do that in half the time, you know, yeah.

0:29:14 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, I mean that’s very nice to hear. Like, anything we can streamline and do faster is always nice.

0:29:20 – Meghan Ely
Yeah, absolutely.

0:29:22 – Heidi Thompson
So you mentioned there being some great local magazines and it made me think. You know, when does someone want to really focus on local versus national, or is there a place for a blended strategy?

0:29:36 – Meghan Ely
I’m a big mix on this. This is probably not going to come as a surprise. The fact is, not every wedding is going to be a fit for national, but it could be really awesome for local. There could be times where the local magazines and publications are more focused on well, we’ll quote you, but you have to be an advertiser. That’s a very common thing I see, which I fully support as long as they’re transparent about it, because it adds value to being an advertiser. So I find, because of that, it’s a good, solid mix.

Um, what I tell people is listen, if you, if your primary business is within 100 miles of what you do, you should be focused on local. And yeah, local may not have the same pizzazz sometimes as as seen in brides, as seen in the, not as seen in, and that’s okay like it’s. It’s gonna take a mix. They all have their own reasoning at the end of the day. When it comes to press, what I see as the most successful press is when you have a message like I’m amazing, I’m the best at this in my area and you’re trying to get it out to a particular audience, the best press is choosing the media. That is the exact channel to connect with them. I’ll give you a quick, quick example. So I’m based in Richmond, virginia. Shout out to anybody who’s listening. In the Richmond area We’ve had a publication called Richmond Weddings Magazine and richmondweddingscom literally for 30 years, I mean it’s multi-generational.

I’ve heard of it, I’m nowhere near Everybody knows.

Everyone knows the people who run it, like everybody’s known them forever and they’re wonderful and that is going to be an amazing, amazing place for people who are local to Richmond and are serving in the Richmond area. There’s also Tidewater and Tool, which is about an hour hour and a half away from here. That serves. If someone’s doing a little bit in DC, they should be doing Washingtonian and spread out. But on occasion if you’ve got something that’s a really good fit for national, then you should totally put yourself out there and see what that’s all about as well. So I’m all about, I guess, healthy mix tends to be my answer every time. I hope you’ll forgive me, but I do believe that you know.

0:31:27 – Heidi Thompson
It makes sense because they can serve very different purposes. Like you said that you know, brides or the Knot or New York Times has that level of prestige. Times has that level of prestige but is the person reading likely to inquire and become a client? Probably not as likely as someone on a local site or a local magazine.

0:31:53 – Meghan Ely
Imagine someone seeing you in a local what have you? And they come to your site and they’re dazzled by your beautiful portfolio and your fun personality or what insert loveliness here. And then they also see, oh God, they’re recently featured in blah blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, okay, look at that. Like that all starts to, as you said, accumulate that’s going to be my new word. It’s a cumulative effect.

0:32:13 – Heidi Thompson
I love that, yep. And I think we just in every part of our lives, whether it’s like health or business or money or anything, we totally write off the value of doing one pushup.

0:32:29 – Meghan Ely
Yeah, 100%. I don’t do pushups, but I bet that’s how it is. No, I don’t either.

0:32:36 – Heidi Thompson
You mentioned, some of these outlets are only available to have a feature in if you’re advertising, and I know you’ve been getting more and more questions around this idea of okay, do you have to be paying to get featured in these places?

0:32:55 – Meghan Ely
lot and people will say and I think they need to be careful with this is we get anecdotal and we say, well, everything’s pay to play. These days it’s like no, I mean, if it was all pay to play I would not have a job. Like I’d literally have to find a new job. That doesn’t. It’s not how it works. Now what we’re seeing is a few different things. Pay to play means a few different things. So I want to, if I may, have a publication that says listen, we prioritize or only feature our advertisers. We see that at the local level. Equally Wed does that. Junebug Weddings, at the time of this recording, junebug Weddings just announced that, and so on and so forth. That is one kind of form of pay to play and it’s very transparent. From a business standpoint. It makes sense. I mean the publications also have to make money, right. So it makes sense that we’re going to support in that sort of way. Sometimes it’s we’ll prioritize, but we’re open to everybody, and so that’s one form of it.

But when people and they’ve got to be careful when they start saying pay to play and they mean, well, you have to pay to be featured, the fact of the matter is that is more rare than people think. We don’t see that as much. Where it gets sticky, where we’re going to get into the mess for a second here, is that it’s not about the media, because the media have guidelines, american media outlets. There are rules by the FTC that says listen, if someone paid for this placement. You have to note that. So I don’t worry about the media. If they’ve got all their legal ducks in a row, they are doing all the right things when it comes to that. So that’s great when it comes to that. But where we run into problems, if we’re being wildly candid which I’m happy to be with you, heidi is when people pay for placements but then they don’t reveal it or find a way to somehow say that.

And one of the things that’s floating around right now is British Vogue, and I will be the first to tell you that the top of everyone’s list is to get into Vogue, and Alex and her team over there does an incredible job. It’s mesmerizing. The weddings are mesmerizing over at American Vogue. They really are, and there are weddings that get featured in British Vogue, that pull over from Vogue, american Vogue, or they get all on their own. So I’m not talking about that entryway, which is highly competitive. It’s a very impressive tippity top of the game.

You know place to be featured, but what we’re seeing is a place like British Vogue. They offer a special advertising section. It’s very clear. You see a page on their, in their, in their print and it says special Vogue advertising section or something at the very top. And then you’re going to see like 10, 15 photos, all one photo on the same page and everyone credited and people paid to be there, and it’s very clear that that’s what they did. But what happens is we see wedding pros are investing in that which I’m not belaboring the point. That they are or not, that’s their choice with their money. But they will go ahead and get featured and then say, oh my gosh, it was my dream to be in Vogue and dah, dah, dah, dah. And they will show that page and oftentimes they will cut out the section that says special advertising or they won’t somehow put it out there that it’s advertising and that’s tough.

That’s tough to swallow because I think it puts us in a weird spot where people say, well, everybody’s in Vogue these days. It’s like, well, no, no, there are people, there are amazing people in Vogue and it’s wonderful when people get that. But there are British Vogue opportunities where people are paying and it’s not 100% clear. And I’ve got to tell you, heidi, there are a few people who have paid for it, have been a part of campaigns and they’ve done a stellar job, elegantly noting that it’s a paid campaign. And I’ve had a few phone calls with people who just they’ve been inquired about my services and of course we go and internet stalk them ahead of times and they see these things.

And I’ve complimented people and said, listen, I know that you paid for it and you did a beautiful job with the way that you elegantly handled it and I’m quick to give compliments with that. But it’s when there’s this weird line of I’ve always wanted to be in Vogue and here’s Vogue, vogue, vogue, vogue, but they paid, you know, a thousand dollars or more for one photo because they paid the piper. So it’s sticky. And again, it’s not about the media because they are required legally to put it, it’s about the people who put it out there in a way that may not really be covering all the bases of what’s actually happening and that makes it very hard. I think that gives us. It makes it difficult for people to understand the state of the wedding media, because it’s not 100% correct.

0:37:09 – Heidi Thompson
How do you handle that? You know? How are you seeing people handle that elegantly where you know you want to be above board and say that you know this isn’t just a straight up editorial feature. This is kind of an advertorial kind of thing.

0:37:25 – Meghan Ely
Sure, there’s a few ways to handle it and I wish I could remember the exact wording. There’s a few people I’ve talked to who have just handled it super well. Sometimes it’s in the hashtags, where it could say sponsored partnership, like there’s certain words that you can, and the FTC has all sorts of guidelines on this. Like there’s certain words that you can and the FTC has all sorts of guidelines on this right. So there’s that. But in addition to that, you know, I’ve seen people where I wish I could get the wording exactly right and I wish I could credit the person because I can’t remember.

But it’s something like we were asked to be a part of this media advertising campaign or we were part of this media campaign and it was just done so beautifully I thought, oh, this is, this is for someone like me who’s discerning, I know it’s clear they advertise. You know they didn’t cut off the logo at the top, like they didn’t cut off the thing at the top and it is what it is. You kind of have to read between the lines, but it’s done very, very well. So see, we were asked to take part in this special advertising campaign, this special media campaign, and we were so honored da da, da, da da, and it’s just like chef’s kiss, like well done. I should have saved it. I’m sorry to the person that I’m not crediting right now because off the top of my head I can’t remember, but it was just, it was done very well. It’s few and far between, though, unfortunately. Yeah.

0:38:32 – Heidi Thompson
I think a lot of people feel like it’ll come across disingenuous if they say that it was a paid placement.

0:38:40 – Meghan Ely
Yeah, and there’s ways to do it where you can be elegant about it and still be clear about it and and people can take for what they want from it. You know what I mean, yeah.

0:38:49 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, and I think you know being forthcoming is never a terrible thing, it’s always good to be above board with that stuff, especially because you can get slapped real fast.

0:39:05 – Meghan Ely
Well, I was going to say the FTC, if anybody like that’s the thing is, this is what you run into, is when, if someone catches on and it’s like, oh wait, what is it? You know, if someone catches on to that like this could spiral. Now, I’m not trying to scare anybody, I really am not. But like, how many people are paying attention like that? But I’m not trying to scare anybody, I really am not. But like, how many people are paying attention like that? But I’m not trying to scare anybody, it’s just kind of like a yeah, this could really actually turn into something a lot bigger if we’re not just clear about it, you know.

0:39:27 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, I think anytime you try to be kind of cloak and dagger about something, you run the risk of it kind of turning scandalous.

0:39:34 – Meghan Ely
I’m always trying to stay away from scandals. About this Megan Ely scandal free for at least a few days now. I’m just kidding, I’m just kidding. Hopefully longer than that.

0:39:45 – Heidi Thompson
Do you see any changes happening in the media and in features for wedding professionals going forward?

0:39:52 – Meghan Ely
I do see staff changes. I mean staff changes make a big difference when it comes to certain like I do, that pops up all the time. I find that there is. You know, we’re seeing right now, at the time of this recording. Of course there’s like a big gap in publishing between now and the last Real Wedding featured over at Martha Stewart Weddings. I mean, they’ve had some change in their staff with Sarah moving into Brides, which Brides and Martha Stewart Weddings are owned by the same company. That surprises people, but I’m always like that’s been many years since that and so she moved over and then the person who was handling it in August they’ve left the company. So it’s like what’s kind of going? There’s some upheaval with some of these things. Another thing that we’re seeing that changing is listen, I am open to all weddings. Right, like, maybe it’s I’m not strictly for advertisers, but we’re not going to tag everybody. We’re not going to like I’ll only tag the advertisers and of course we will credit the photographer. But I see, and they’re very open about it, I have no problem with it.

It’s just it’s when people are handling press on their own, they have to be mindful of that. I’ve seen it where people will. You know. You’ll have media outlets that will share and they will credit, but they won’t tag Right and and so that’s something to be mindful. And then we’re starting to see a little bit in a rise of and I’m not ready to name certain outlets yet with this. But it’s not just yes or no for a publish, like a feature, it’s also yes, no, or or an Instagram feature. So you just get like one photo, or you get like a series of photos in one post and like is that enough, depending on the you know the level of that particular and like the notoriety of that particular media outlet. So there’s just so much to navigate. That’s why I sit in my little like PR world and stay there, because I’m like there’s just so much to know, you know.

0:41:32 – Heidi Thompson
I’m curious what your thoughts are on that. You know. You know we maybe don’t have a spot for you on the website, but we could do, you know, a sponsored Instagram feature. What would you be telling your clients to keep in mind when it comes to choosing? Is that a good fit, or is it not?

0:41:51 – Meghan Ely
That’s a great question and it’s not necessarily sponsored. So let me be clear. It’s like yes, no, or how about just an Instagram feature and maybe it’s one post. So just to be clear on that. So what I would say to that? First of all, it always depends on what’s the turnaround time, Because the benefit of if it’s a faster turnaround time so you can release the photos quicker, because that’s a big thing.

There’s a huge conversation right now, especially among this luxury, this real luxury set of do I hold off on getting these featured because I really need these photos for content? Like, I’ve got 45, 50, 60, a hundred thousand people following me on Instagram. Like, does it make sense that I’m just posting? And so if you can get a faster turnaround with an Instagram only feature, or they loosen the reins a little bit and say, well, you can share some photos too, it’s like okay, maybe there’s a benefit to that. Another thing is well, why are you doing it? If it’s all about the backlinks, you’re not going to get that with Instagram. But if it’s all about the notoriety and it’s a place that is very well regarded, then it might be worth, once in a while, dipping into that. So I take it on a case-by-case basis. I could have one really well-known outlet offer three of those in a day and I’m going to offer three different answers, three different opinions to my three different clients.

0:43:05 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, what should someone be thinking about if they want to work with the Megan Ely’s of the world and actually get help with their PR?

0:43:23 – Meghan Ely
So, if they’re looking to get help, what I tell people is well, first of all, there are very few people who specialize in wedding PR. There are fewer people now than people five years ago and 10 years, I mean, if you can imagine. I’m sure the wedding photographers of the world are like oh, that must be nice, like, what Like, are you kidding me? There’s like a tripling of wedding photographers every five minutes, and so you have to be mindful. There’s very few of us and we’re all very different. We offer very different things.

You know, on my side I’m primarily someone who focuses. 80% of my work is a membership. So people come in, they get press leads, but they’re paying a competitive rate for opportunities coming to them versus me doing pitches. There are some people who want to do press but also social media, and we don’t mix those two. We are we’re the type that’s like fully dedicated just to the PR side of it.

Like you know, you kind of have to ask those things, but if you’re looking into the world of publicity, what you want to do is like what do I want to get out of it? What level do you need? More high touch retainer services? You’re looking for a membership. And then again, as I mentioned before, you want to make sure that your goals are in alignment with their relationships. Like if someone came to me and they’re like I really want X, y and Z magazine. And I’ll be honest with you, the last time we had that it was about a year and a half ago and did it Like I’m not going to be like, oh, we get that all the time.

You just got to be careful with that. Right. You want to make sure that you’re very discerning. We typically send press from the last like month or two and we put everything in real time on our Instagram. So, yeah, I would say you’ve got to be discerning. You’ve got to ask yourself how much am I willing to time I’m willing to put into it? The more you pay a publicist, the less work you have to do, right? So we’re very honest about our relationships, but also the time expected to spend.

0:44:51 – Heidi Thompson
And for your full service clients versus you know the membership. What kind of time are you seeing people have to put in?

0:44:58 – Meghan Ely
Well, we really don’t do the full service. We have a couple of folks we’ve been with legacy clients for years, but we’re not necessarily expanding in that area. And so when someone does retainer work, though I would say just in general, every relationship is going to be different, but they’re going to probably be two to three hours at most a month, because at most it’s because they’re going to want to meet with the publicist, they’re going to provide content and so on and so forth. On that side they want to approve things. It’s going to be obviously more for a membership when it comes out as well. We primarily live 80% membership and the rest of it’s going to be coaching and then that’s going to be all work on there, like that’s really setting themselves up for success training them in how to do their own submissions, things like that, so then the work really does land back in their, in their labs.

0:45:46 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, and that makes sense. You know, you need to know going into it that this is something that I mean it’s not going to be the most time consuming thing in the world, but it is going to require your time, your focus and I think you know your patience too, because, like you said, press timelines can be rough.

0:46:02 – Meghan Ely
They are super rough and you have to take a long like you’ve got. It’s like a rush, rush, wait. Like I worked on one where it was like how to get married in Ohio and we had it over the weekend and it’s already gone live. You know, it’s been three days and it’s live, which is awesome. But then we have some where we’re waiting three months and I have one for the New York Times. We’ve been waiting probably six months on. Like it’s just, it’s a wait game.

Sometimes You’re at the mercy of the deadlines, the editorial deadlines, which are not necessarily mindful of your busier parts of the week. Like I said, I do my best with the writers I know well to stave them off. Sometimes, when they write me on like Friday at noon, I’m like okay, everyone’s in wedding mode. Like I don’t know who’s going to respond to this in the middle of wedding season. You know I may not be the best fit, but I’m very protective of both sides of it. But then I would say, you know, when it comes to the weight game, that’s why it’s good to diversify and have like a healthy mix right. So at the end of the day it just makes sense that you don’t feel like you’re waiting all the time.

0:46:58 – Heidi Thompson
Where should people go if they want to learn more about what you do at OFD, if they want to work with you, if they want to join your membership?

0:47:06 – Meghan Ely
They can find me over at OFDConsulting.com. That’s the best way that, and like Instagram, OFDConsulting. Don’t find me over at TikTok, because all I do is like I watch cat videos. I’m not doing a lot of good over there, so don’t find me there. But OFDConsulting. I’m not doing a lot of good over there, so don’t find me there. But OFD Consulting. You can find me in those spots on my email. All of those things are there too.

0:47:24 – Heidi Thompson
Well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us about PR today. I really appreciate it.

0:47:28 – Meghan Ely
Absolutely. Thank you for your thoughtful questions.

0:47:31 – Heidi Thompson
I hope you’re amped up and ready to step into the thought leadership that you have inside your head but can be really showcasing in wedding PR. Yes, you can absolutely get your weddings featured, but you can also get your wisdom, your intelligence featured. There are so many ways to do that and I’m going to link to the resources that Megan mentioned over in the show notes, which you can find at evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/312. I’ll also link to her website so you can learn more from her. Megan is such a wealth of knowledge in the industry and it is such a pleasure to have her on and just share all of this, because she’s been doing this for a really long time and she has seen the shifts that have happened. So definitely don’t hesitate to reach out to her if you have follow up questions.

And I would love to hear from you what actions are you going to take after listening to this episode? Because listening and learning is all well and good, but it’s way better when you actually implement it and do something with it, because that is how you get results. So do me a favor, shoot me a DM on Instagram. I am Evolve, your Wedding Business. I would love to hear from you over there and chat with you. Thank you for taking the time to tune in today, and I will speak to you again very soon.

About Meghan Ely

OFD Consulting owner, Meghan Ely combines in-the-trenches event experience with a love of wedding PR to empower her clients to take their businesses to new heights. Her team’s publicity efforts are regularly honored by the Public Relations Society of America, and more recently, Eventex named her one of the most influential Wedding Professionals in the Industry.

A long-time industry speaker and writer, she is a WeddingPro educator with The Knot + WeddingWire. She has regularly earned clients press in such outlets at the New York Times, Brides, Martha Stewart Weddings, People, Bridal Guide, Architectural Digest and Style Me Pretty, among many others.

Meghan is a past national president WIPA and is a member of the Allied Council for the National Society of Black Wedding and Event Professionals.

Website: ofdconsulting.com
Instagram: @ofdconsulting

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Links & Resources:

The Wedding Business Collective
Episode 179: How To Get Testimonials That Help You Book More Weddings
The Power Of Social Proof with Michelle Braswell
Episode 84: Getting Your Wedding Business Featured By The Media Without A Styled Shoot With Brigitte Lyons
TalkWalker Alerts
Qwoted

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