Preparation is key. Before starting anything, you need to do some analysis. Whether that’s analysing competitors, the media landscape, keywords or the client. So here are some tips that may help you to get started when planning your digital PR strategy.
Ideation
Having done your analysis, and the client has officially signed on the dotted line, we then recommend coming up with the ideas that are going to achieve results and help meet and beat their KPIs. It may be useful to think about the shareability of content. Many people will be concerned about the number of views their content gets and is the story shareable? Is it emotive? Therefore, we suggest creating ideas that produce stories a journalist couldn’t easily create themselves. The story can use multiple data sources, proprietary data, visuals, media, expert commentary, case studies etc. It’s the perfect time to get creative!
Some questions to ask yourself include:
- Why will this work in the media now?
- How does it add to the conversation and make it different?
- Does this format tell the story I want it to clearly?
- What journalists right now would take this?
Data
Not everyone is a fan of data and numbers. Many may think spreadsheets are soul destroying. However, it is widely known in the digital PR world that data stories are usually the most successful. Data is only as good as the questions we ask it. However, it is important to remember to never make data up. Not only will it impact the PR industry, it will affect your relationship with journalists and your client’s reputation.
- What stories do you care about the most?
- What are the 2nd, 3rd and 4th most important things you want your data to tell you?
- What juicy stories do you hope you can get from this data?
Content
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, content is king. As one of Google’s top ranking factors, it is vital that people in the PR industry get their client’s content spot on. Try to conduct content checks by making sure it is useful, informative, engaging and relevant to the client’s audience. We also recommend monitoring search trends to see what people are interested in in real time and to also predict when there could be a spike of a previous trend again.
The only way to find the best content is to consume content. This could be by reading blogs, listening to podcasts, looking at data or follow inspiring people on social media. Whatever suits you.
Campaigns
Campaigns are the bread and butter of PR professionals. It’s all about the campaign, be it a data campaign, the PR stunt, dream job or fake product. Safe campaigns, such as map campaigns or most instagrammed, can often receive the best results. But you shouldn’t shy away from riskier ideas. Remember, don’t be scared of failure! However, here are some tips that may help turn a few more flops into successes.
- Get strategic with internal links, distribute link authority to target pages through your campaign landing page. You want to ensure this is a core part of your campaign strategy. Ask yourself: which topics does this campaign relate to? Which is the primary target? What anchor text should we use?
Outreach
After all the hard preparation is done, it’s now time to outreach and reap the coverage rewards. It’s important to remember that some journalists get over 1000 emails a day so making sure your email stands out and converts to coverage is not easy. So try and use some of these tips to refine and polish your technique.
- Avoid multiple follow-ups: send your original pitch email and follow up once – aim for three days later.
- Monday mornings are not necessarily the best time to pitch.
- Go to your target publication and look at the five most recently published articles in the section you want to land in for urgent contacts.
For any more tips on PR and strategy planning, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
