But what is digital PR and how can it impact your business? We’ve build a guide to help you learn about what it is and some of the top agencies that offer digital PR services.

What Is Digital PR?

Digital PR is the marketing practice of building links to your site by getting coverage from large media outlets. Digital PR involves creating newsworthy content that journalists want to cover with the goal of driving links to your site at scale and improving your overall SEO.

Creating digital PR campaigns is an extremely time intensive process that requires teams to work across analytics, creative, development, media relations and more. Oftentimes, digital PR agencies have some of the best infrastructure in order to create end to end digital PR campaigns.

For this reason, we’ve accumulated a list of the best digital PR agencies:

The Best Digital PR Agencies

The best digital PR agencies are:

1. Go Fish Digital
2. REQ
3. Siege Media
4. Rise At Seven
5. Ignite Visibility
6. Fractl
7. JBH

You can learn more about each digital PR agency below and what type of campaigns and industries they excel in.

1. Go Fish Digital

Best For: Best Overall

Go Fish Digital has one of the best track records of driving premium backlinks in the SEO industry. Our team provides end to end digital PR services that cover everything from ideation, data research and analysis, graphic design, outreach and more. Through utilizing consistent campaign formats such as surveys, data studies, illustrations and interactive campaigns, we’re able to consistently create high quality campaigns that earn links that matter from media sites.

Throughout our 15+ years of experience, our team has earned links from sites such as The New York Times, CNN, Business Insider, The Washington Post, Sports Illustrated and many more. Our team seeks to understand what types of articles tend to perform well in terms of social shares, views, upvotes and more. This data helps inform a digital PR strategy that’s more likely to earn links for your business.

2. REQ

Best For: Traditional PR & Media Relations

REQ is a digital marketing agency based out of Washington DC that has a strong traditional PR background. They work with brands across sectors such as B2B, B2C and technology to advise on their traditional and digital PR strategies. All in all, they work across a multitude of services such as branding, media relations, messaging and creative content.

What’s unique about REQ is that their deep media background gives them an edge in terms of the outreach portion of digital PR. With a deep rolodex of media contacts, this enables them to have an extremely powerful distribution network for digital PR campaigns.

3. Siege Media

Best For: Evergreen Digital PR

Over the years, Siege Media has established themselves as one of the best digital PR companies for SaaS and FinTech companies. With over 15 years of experience and 7,500 media contacts, Siege Media specializes in creative campaign ideation, creation and promotion. Their impressive portfolio includes working with companies such as Hippo, The Zebra, Vena Solutions and more.

One of Siege’s specialities is going beyond digital PR campaigns that have a short shelf life. They focus on creating evergreen content that can earn links in the short term but also generate sustainable organic traffic in the long term. This includes examples such as a “Car Affordability Calculator” tool or their “3 Reasons Credit Scores Are Different” analysis. These campaigns are built for links and then optimized for mapped queries for long term growth success.

4. Rise at Seven

Best For: Newsjacking & Social

Rise at Seven has consistently established themselves as one of the UK’s best digital PR agencies. Throughout their years in business, they’ve worked with many impressive retail brands including Pretty Little Thing, Lounge Underwear and more.

Rise at Seven really specializes in their ability to use reactive PR and newsjacking to leverage digital PR success. They’ve been one of the foremost pioneers in the industry of using the social ecosystem to get real-time data on what’s trending and then create digital PR campaigns on the backs of those trends. For example, they worked across both the search and social ecosystems to improve the visibility of prettyLittleThing’s trending products.

5. Ignite Visibility

Best For: Local Businesses

Ignite Visibility is one of the most impressive digital PR agencies, especially for the small business sector. Ignite Visibility is one of the most esteemed SEO and digital PR agencies when working with companies such as home services, franchises, dental, automotive, insurance and more.

Ignite Visibility works across holistic digital PR services. This involves creating a strategy, creating content, performing media outreach, managing influencers and more. They also work to ensure that their digital PR campaign work across different marketing channels such as email, paid search, social media and more. This ensures that their digital PR campaigns aren’t limited to a single channel but are built to succeed across your content distribution network.

6. Fractl

Best For: Strategic Outreach

Fractl is an agency based out of Delray Beach, Florida that focuses on a variety of marketing strategies such organic growth, content development, technical SEO and digital PR. Fractl specializes in creating digital PR campaigns for companies such as McAfee, Alcohol.org, Fanatics and more.

Fractl separates themselves by placing a large emphasis on the outreach they’re able to perform for their clients. When they perform outreach to their media contacts, they focus on quality over scale by ensuring that every single pitch is targeted to their audience. By establishing personal connections with media outlets, they’re able build out media relationships that make future digital PR outreach even easier. On their site, they even have several testimonials from journalists who gave great feedback on their ability to pitch and create deep relationships.

7. JBH

Best For: UK Digital PR

JBH is a digital PR agency that’s based out of Manchester, England. They offer a variety of different strategies including data-led campaigns, newsjacking, proactive PR, PR thought leadership and more.

JBH has an extremely deep rolodex of clients from the UK. This includes companies such as Money.co.uk, Select Car Leasing & Radar Healthcare. As a result, they’ve been able to establish relationships at UK-specific media outlets such as BBC, Metro, The Manc and more. If part of your strategy involves creating campaigns targeting sites in these locations, JBH is a great choice.

How To Choose A Digital PR Agency

When it comes to choosing a digital PR agency, there are several factors to consider. While this will be different company to company, here are some things to consider when selecting an agency to partner with:

Industry Experience

You’ll want to generally work with digital PR services that have experience in your industry. The type of content that’s successful in tech differs greatly from what works in travel. You’ll want an agency that understands the nuances of different verticals, types of content that works, existing media contacts and more. Strong industry experience means that your campaigns will hit the ground runnings.

Past Earned Coverage

You’ll also want to see what media outlets the digital PR agency has gotten links for in the past. Do they routinely target high Domain Authority sites or are they not able to get links from desired publications? If the agency has a track record of getting strong backlinks, that’s a very good sign.

Ability To Adhere To Brand Guidelines

Digital PR campaigns need to run through multiple teams, including the brand team. You’ll want to be sure that your campaigns match the style, tone and personality of your brand. A great digital PR agency will not only come up with great campaign ideas but ensure that they make sense when it put in the context of your company.

Previous Case Studies

Definitely ask about a digital PR agency’s previous case studies. You’ll be able to see the types of industries they’ve worked in, they’re approach to digital PR, strategies they use to ideate content, outreach methods and more. This will give you a much clearer understanding of how the process works, what makes the agency unique and if the strategy aligns with yours in terms of coverage.

Conclusion

Link building may be tougher than ever, but with the right strategies and partnerships, it’s still possible to achieve remarkable results. By leveraging the expertise of top digital PR agencies like the ones on this list, businesses can navigate the complexities of modern link-building and secure valuable backlinks that enhance their SEO performance. These agencies bring unique strengths and innovative approaches to the table, ensuring that your brand gains the media coverage and search visibility it deserves.

The 7 Best Digital PR Agencies Of 2024 is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

Digital PR is one of several strategies that can substantially impact a law firm’s online presence and client interactions in the long term. Digital PR encompasses a range of strategies that enhance a website’s authority, increase visibility, and build meaningful connections with potential clients and peers.

Whether you’re just starting to build your online presence or looking to enhance your existing digital strategy, this guide will walk you through the essentials of digital PR, tailored specifically for the legal industry.

Navigating Digital Marketing

For lawyers, SEO is a fundamental component of digital marketing. By appearing at the top of search results, attorneys can increase their visibility and credibility, making it easier for potential clients to find them.

Digital PR strategies are vital for boosting a lawyer’s SEO efforts. These strategies include creating and distributing high-quality content that attracts backlinks from reputable sites. High-quality backlinks drive traffic and signal to search engines the value and trustworthiness of the lawyer’s content.

Think of each backlink as a recommendation. When a website links to your site, it’s essentially saying, “This site has good content worth visiting.” Search engines use these links to determine how valuable and relevant your site is for specific topics. The more high-quality backlinks you have, the more trustworthy and authoritative your site appears to search engines. 

Digital PR and SEO work together to drive results. Effective digital PR leads to improved SEO that strengthens online visibility and reputation. This enhanced reputation aids further PR efforts, creating a positive feedback loop. 

Tactical Approach to Digital PR For Law Firms

When evaluating the goals for each of your digital marketing initiatives, you should set unique key performance indicators for each strategy. For SEO tactics, that may mean higher keyword rankings or increased organic traffic. The primary KPI for digital PR may be the number of backlinks or quality of referring domains. 

Backlinks serve as a testament to the relevance and authority of a lawyer’s website. The quality and quantity of these backlinks can directly correlate to the success of digital PR campaigns. They indicate how well the content resonates with the audience and the wider community and how effectively it garners attention and engagement.

Tracking the number of backlinks and analyzing where they come from provides valuable insights into the impact of a law firm’s digital PR efforts. It helps in understanding which types of content are most effective in attracting high-quality backlinks and which platforms or collaborations are most beneficial. You may want to keep track of the following metrics: 

• Total number of backlinks 
• Number of unique referring domains 
• Domain authority of referring domains
• Percentage of backlinks that are follow

Assessing the increase in backlinks over time enables law firms to gauge growth in their online authority and reputation. This approach to ROI tracking ensures that the law firm’s efforts are visible and translate into tangible results.

Tools and Platforms for Digital PR For Lawyers

The foundation of effective digital PR lies in the creation of unique, creative content. This content should be developed with a wide audience in mind. The target audience of your digital PR campaign may not align with your company’s typical target audience. Since the goal of this strategy is to build backlinks, you should ideate content with broad appeal. 

The goal is to create content that is not only informative but also shareable and engaging, encouraging readers to spread the word. This can come in many different forms, including the following: 

• Data Analysis: This involves using existing datasets to tell a new story or provide additional insights. It might involve analyzing data from various sources to create compelling narratives or identify trends relevant to your audience. 
• Surveys: When no existing dataset matches your campaign idea, surveys are a powerful tool. Surveys offer the flexibility to explore almost any topic and draw responses from diverse populations.
• Interactive Content: This includes quizzes, calculators, tools, or contests that invite audience interaction. Interactive content is engaging because it allows the audience to relate directly to the material.

Regardless of the format you opt for, it’s essential to present the findings in an easily digestible format. Using imagery, color schemes, and clear labels helps make complex data accessible. Accompanying blog copy can provide additional context, fill gaps, and offer a narrative that complements the visual data.

After creating the content, the next step is to get it in front of the right audience. This point is where traditional PR strategies come into play, as you should identify who you’ll target and how you’ll reach them. Effective pitching involves personalizing communication, understanding the journalist’s area of interest, and presenting the content as a valuable resource for their readership.

There are various tools and platforms designed to assist in digital PR efforts. These include content management systems for organizing and publishing content, PR email platforms for distribution and engagement, and media databases that provide access to journalists and influencers.

Addressing Challenges in Digital PR for Lawyers

Digital PR offers countless opportunities for law firms, but it’s not without its challenges. Addressing these effectively is key to a successful digital PR strategy.

One common issue is the struggle to think of unique and engaging content ideas. To overcome this, law firms can look at current trending topics, client FAQs, or recent case studies for inspiration. Pulling in additional team members while brainstorming for fresh perspectives can help.

The brainstorming process sets the grounds for the rest of the digital PR strategy. If your concept is not feasible and unique, it will lead to issues later on. For instance, if you try to pitch a story that’s been covered in the media just a few weeks ago, you’ll quickly realize that journalists won’t be interested in reporting on the topic again. It’s better to get ahead of these potential challenges in the ideation phase to avoid wasted time and effort. 

Many law firms also face constraints with resources for producing and promoting campaigns. To mitigate this, prioritize quality over quantity — focus on creating fewer but more impactful pieces of content. You may also consider partnering with a digital PR agency with well-established processes and relationships. 

If the content isn’t meeting expectations, take a step back to analyze and understand why. This could involve A/B testing different types of content, revising SEO strategies, or actively engaging more with audiences on social media platforms. Using analytics tools to track user engagement and feedback can provide valuable insights into content performance. 

There are many different reasons why a campaign might not be building the links you hoped, so take a critical look at each piece of your content, from the data to the outreach. 

Shaping Trust and Credibility

Digital PR is not a one-off campaign; it’s a continuous effort that shapes the perception of law firms among their clients, peers, and the broader public. Regularly publishing insightful articles and contributing to relevant online discussions helps lawyers establish themselves as knowledgeable and reliable. This consistent messaging helps in building a reputation for expertise and trustworthiness.

The impact of digital PR is cumulative and long-lasting. As a law firm accumulates a robust portfolio of backlinks from diverse, authoritative sources, its website gains more authority. Heightened authority directly impacts the firm’s search engine rankings, leading to greater online visibility and a higher likelihood of being discovered by potential clients.

Each positive interaction, each well-received piece of content, and every successful campaign contributes to building a positive reputation. Over time, this can translate into a competitive advantage as the firm becomes a go-to source for legal expertise and advice. Building and maintaining relationships with media and influencers in the legal sector can lead to ongoing coverage, further amplifying the firm’s reach and solidifying its status in the industry.

Conclusion

Consistent, quality digital PR efforts build trust and credibility. Each positive interaction and well-crafted campaign can contribute to a law firm’s digital reputation, with the cumulative effect of these efforts leading to a substantial competitive advantage. The strategic focus on backlinks enhances immediate credibility and secures enduring SEO benefits that ensure long-term visibility and authority.

Adopting effective digital PR strategies is essential for law firms looking to thrive in an increasingly digital marketplace. Implementing these tactics can transform how firms are perceived online, attract more clients, and establish them as leaders in their field. 

At Go Fish Digital, we understand the intricacies of digital PR in the legal sector and can build quality campaigns that exceed expectations. If you’re looking for support building backlinks through digital PR, get in touch today.

Digital PR for Lawyers: A Comprehensive Guide is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

The term Digital PR refers to a set of public relations and SEO strategies used to improve a client’s digital presence online. A robust strategy will increase the overall authority of your site and build brand visibility on the web. Read on to gain an understanding of what digital PR can do for your brand and how to implement it successfully.

Understanding Digital PR

The primary purpose of digital PR is to operate as a supplemental SEO strategy — to increase the authority of your site when crawled by search engines like Google. The way that Go Fish Digital accomplishes this ultimate goal is by building backlinks from media outlets. A backlink is a hyperlink from one website to another, such as your homepage, a blog, a landing page, or a product page, from another site. This builds link equity— a transference of authority and value to your site. Backlinks from authoritative sites are one metric that search engines use to tell how credible your own site is, sometimes called a vote of confidence. Think of it like a strong referral from your manager telling your company you’re fit for a promotion, or a high credit score telling your bank you’re worthy of a bigger loan.

Unlike a traditional PR strategy, which directly promotes the brand by emphasizing elements like expert industry knowledge, high-quality products, or a unique value proposition, digital PR uses tangential content pieces. These are interesting articles, data reports, or studies designed to produce newsworthy insights, that are then actively pitched to journalists and linked across high authority outlets to make your website more credible in the eyes of Google. The goal, again, is to ultimately aid overall SEO efforts by strengthening your backlink profile, not directly positioning your brand or product in the media, but rather, positioning your website on authoritative media websites.

Practical Digital PR Strategies and Solutions

Tangential content is an essential digital PR strategy. These creative campaigns, while tangential, are completely customized for the client throughout the process, who can opt to avoid certain topics (ex. religious or political content) and/or target certain topics (ex. insurance or dating). This must be balanced with the fact that the more newsworthy, relevant, and clickable the content, the more journalists will be interested in covering, and the more links will be secured. 

For example, while posting a controversial piece (ex. mask use during the pandemic) could conflict with your brand values, it would likely generate a lot of coverage. However, so would a lighthearted, yet polarizing piece on each state’s favorite Girl Scout cookies. Finding a middle ground that works for the client but is attractive to the media is key, and the options are infinite — from heavy data studies to illustrative AI campaigns. They can be posted on the client’s blog directly, or, on occasion, an orphaned page used for pitching wherein journalists are asked to link back to your homepage if the content doesn’t naturally fit an already designated spot on your site, such as a ‘news’ section or a ‘press room’.

Overall, at Go Fish Digital, our data across countless digital PR campaigns conclusively shows that the more tangential the content is — not about your brand but with a relatable tie-in to the brand — the more likely you are to secure a diverse (high-quantity and high quality, canonical and syndicated) backlink profile.

Journalists are completely accustomed to receiving tangential pitches. We’ve sourced feedback from reporters, who’ve confirmed they prioritize interesting and informational content that is relevant to their audience. A loose tie-in to the brand also means reporters can write up the content without worrying whether they are promoting a service, unlike traditional PR, where brands will pay top dollar for placements on media sites. These same sites understandably aren’t willing to highlight overtly branded content for free. Conversely, by creating content that naturally fits into the news cycle, and has a tie-in to your brand, yet doesn’t feel overly self-promotional, you can organically earn the interest of journalists writing for top news sites.

Other successful strategies include identifying competitors in your industry who are in the linkbuilding space by tracing the coverage that their campaigns secure in the media, and then pitching those journalists with your content. By securing a link on the same domain as your competitor, you not only have brand visibility where they do, but you are now in effect negating the power their link has over your own backlink profile. Imagine it as a game of darts, where earned points cancel out points earned by the opposing team.

Networking with journalists is equally important in digital PR as it is in traditional PR. At Go Fish Digital, we primarily communicate with journalists via email pitches, press releases, and interviews on behalf of our clients to answer campaign data requests or give a quote. Having your brand name become synonymous in a journalist’s inbox as a true resource, not an ad or guest post request, is priceless. If you treat gaining coverage as a result of establishing these relationships, you’ll find instead of one backlink to your site, you’ll build a relationship with no ceiling on the number of backlinks. Keep networking and soon they’ll recognize your name as a credible source.

Tackling Common Digital PR Problems and Implementing Solutions

As the news cycle is running in a realtime, and linkbuilding is all about attracting journalists, a common problem we see in digital PR is competition with other content campaigns, who are often trying to capitalize on the same topic and frequently pitching the same outlets.

We combat this at several stages during our creative process. We meticulously vet our brainstormed ideas for newsworthiness, relatability, uniqueness, size of the pitching pool, and more before presenting a pitch deck to a client. We remain nimble and reactive during production so we can implement creative pivots should a competitor drop a related campaign.

Next, clients with a large scope need to avoid cannibalizing their own campaigns, which means launching similar campaigns with the same pitching period that target the same beat and then have to compete against each other. Client communication (if you work in an agency) or communication with management (if you work in-house) is an easy fix here. Organize your timelines with journalists’ content calendars and keep the newscycle top of mind to create proper spacing. You can then walk the client through your strategy during the process.

One other common problem in digital PR is when a client wants to stick very closely to the brand rather than opting for a tangential campaign. Branded campaigns can be successful, but it’s far more likely with clients whose websites are highly authoritative or whose brand name is recognizable. Also, certain industries see more success with branded campaigns because of the amount of journalists and types of outlets — for example, real estate, travel, and finance — while others have proven particularly difficult — for example, relationship and dating, where journalists are more likely to write opinion pieces. That’s not to say it’s impossible in these spaces, it simply requires extra creativity! Our data recommends tangential campaigns for such brands, while an authoritative travel brand, for example, would likely still see success with a branded campaign.

Tools and Metrics in Digital PR

Digital PR and traditional PR share some similar tactics — building mutually beneficial relationships where media outlets can benefit from (sometimes exclusive) information while the brand benefits from exposure — but they differ in key performance indicators (KPIs).

Instead of goals like high event attendance and product sales, digital PR aims to improve the health of your website in order to improve your online presence and increase search engine visibility. An added benefit is driving new users to your site, which both increases brand visibility and can lead to conversions depending on your industry. From a sales perspective, digital PR is a top-of-the-funnel initiative: It can gain the attention of potential customers (who see the content campaign in the media and follow the link) and bring them into the company’s sales funnel.

It may be a long-term SEO strategy but there are certainly metrics that are used to measure the impact of digital PR in the short term. The most relevant when securing links is domain authority (developed by Moz) or domain ranking (developed by Ahrefs). Both measure the strength of a website’s backlink profile on a scale of 1 to 100. Theoretically, the higher the number the better the website will rank on search engines. When pitching, we target high DA/DR outlets, which will pass on more link equity to your site than low DA/DR outlets. Generally, a DA over 70 is considered an excellent link for your backlink profile, but a range of links of different DAs and from different industries also comes across as a natural pattern to search engines, potentially boosting your online presence as well.

Link quantity refers to the number of links earned: We call 8-10 links per campaign a standard performance.

Link relevance and link prominence are also important metrics alongside with link quality (measured by DA). Link relevance is how relevant the media outlet is to the client’s industry while link prominence is how significant the campaign is in the story (for example, the article revolving around the campaign vs being an additional source).

Anchor text is the text that is hyperlinked and it can help indicate if the link is canonical (the original media piece) or syndicated (iterations of the original piece on other news sites that often use the same images and text) and if the latter, where from. Some experts say that a varied anchor text in a link profile is preferred by search engines. The META SEO inspector is one extension that can identify the canonical tag of the article, which indicates whether the piece is syndicated or not. 

Links can also be categorized as a follow or nofollow link, which can each affect the value of the link differently. A follow link transfers that vote of confidence to your site, strengthening the health of the overall website. A nofollow link refers to a tag within the hyperlink that media outlets add to their so as not to transfer link equity. This practice was established to prevent link manipulation during the early days of digital PR. When a search engine reads the nofollow tag, it turns a blind eye to the link for search ranking purposes. While the primary goal of digital PR is achieved by securing follow links, nofollow links are still beneficial:

Google Analytics can be used to track impressions in the form of sessions, page views, page views per session, and much more. The tool can also be used to see where exactly the traffic to the campaign landing page is coming from. For example, if you secure a Forbes link, which is always nofollow, the benefit is made obvious by tracing the origin of the sessions. If a high number of sessions is coming directly from the Forbes piece, your site is not receiving link equity, but the piece is driving landing page sessions which can increase brand awareness, drive conversions, and increase sales.

To name just a few of our other favorite tools: Cision for building outreach lists, Buzzstream for pitching and email tracking, and Coverage Book for assembling performance reports. Tools like Ahrefs and Buzzsumo can be used to monitor backlinks, along with manually monitoring coverage via social media and search engines.

Additional Benefits of Digital PR

By incorporating digital PR into your SEO strategy, you’re not only taking the proper steps to increase your visibility online. The earned backlinks will increase your authority in the eyes of search engines, and the content that lives on your site can also rank for keywords and become a valuable resource to journalists and your audience.

If you’re looking to convince your client or boss of the ROI of digital PR, try starting with these two measurable outcomes: brand visibility and top-of-the-funnel sales strategy. Next, emphasize the difference between traditional PR and digital PR: A digital PR strategy will work hand in hand with your SEO goals to increase the authority of your site and rank for keywords. Content campaigns can also generate passive coverage over time when journalists cite the piece as a source down the road (we see this often with career and business campaigns). 

With no effort on your end, aside from maybe an updated publish date, the content lives on, securing links and driving traffic to your site far outside the pitching period.

Conclusion

If your company is genuinely committed to building backlinks, a tangential digital PR strategy needs to be your bread and butter. We’ve done the tests for you.

If your team can understand the significance of digital PR strategies for your business, you’re one step closer to bridging the gap between your competitors and strengthening your online presence, among other benefits.

We’re constantly evaluating what’s working at the moment, and how to best learn from and measure both our setbacks and successes, so stay tuned. We look forward to sharing new insights with you in the near future.

The Power of Digital PR Strategy to Improve Online Presence is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

2 campaigns walk into a bar. One has 20 backlinks and the other has 4. Which is more successful?

When I started working in the digital PR industry, I measured success by the number of backlinks I built for my clients. However, after over 2.5 years, that mindset has shifted quite a bit for me. Sure, I’ve pitched plenty of campaigns that have seen a variety of outcomes. Some have received over 100 backlinks, while others have only seen a handful. But why do I still consider them all successful? 

Link-building doesn’t come with a cut-and-dry manual to measure success. The digital PR landscape changes as often as the turnaround in a newsroom. What once worked in your pitching strategy may need to be altered for the new class of editors and journalists on the other end of your email. But as you reframe your pitches, you should also change your measurements of success.

Read on for a  a glimpse into how I measure success for my clients!

Quantity of Links

From an early age, many of us gained the perception that more meant better. That still holds up! Generally, the more links you can build for a campaign, the more successful it is! A rule of thumb that I was told in my early years of digital PR was that a ‘typical’ performing campaign at Go Fish would receive anywhere from 8-10 links. Anything more than that would be considered highly successful. And if you look at success from an SEO perspective, a campaign with more links will drive more link equity to the client’s site.

Remember, success isn’t as exact as the numbers 8, 9, and 10. But for the sake of this lesson, let’s look at a few campaigns that I consider successful from the sheer amount of backlinks that they built:

The King of Wings campaign built 45 links, which was not only a success due to the sheer volume of backlinks but because this was also the most links that a single campaign earned for the client to date. As you can imagine, the client was thrilled to see this, and we considered this a successful campaign. 

Another example of success measured by quantity was The Most Popular Light Beer and Seltzer In Each State. This campaign earned 35 backlinks – now that’s something to crack open a drink and cheers to! 

Quality of Links

It’s often hard to explain to a client that though their campaign only got a handful of links that it’s still considered successful. Like I said earlier, we’ve all been ingrained with the ‘grading scale’ mentally growing up. So how do you explain that a campaign with 7 links is successful? Let’s take a look:

How Much of Your Landlord’s Mortgage Are You Paying as a Renter Across the U.S.? only earned 7 backlinks. So, what makes this a successful campaign? Let’s ask 2 important questions:

Of those links, were any considered ‘high quality’?

Ding ding ding! YES! This campaign received a backlink from The Business Journals in Portland, a site that has a domain authority of 92. The Business Journals provide news to local readers regarding business, real estate, technology, and more, so it was great to have a client featured in this outlet and show the impact on their audience..

Gaining higher quality backlinks can ultimately lead to a site’s increase in domain authority, improved keyword rankings, and help the site appear more authoritative in the eyes of Google and other search engines. 

Did this campaign receive any industry-specific backlinks that were in the client’s domain?

Once again, the answer is yes! Inman linked back to the campaign in an article that they wrote solely about the campaign. The client works in the real estate and construction industry, so having them featured in an outlet like Inman is great for brand recognition.   

So even though the number 7 may seem small, this campaign was covered by a high-authority site and another site within the client’s industry. Having a combination of high-quality and industry-specific links can help diversify a client’s backlink profile. 

The Perfect Recipe

In a perfect world, we’d imagine that a successful campaign would marry the two concepts from above. A campaign would receive a high amount of backlinks, but those backlinks would be high-quality as well. And while we don’t live in a perfect world, this situation does exist!

Take these campaigns for example:  

The State of Affordable Housing in U.S. cities has built a total of 89 links to date. Of its coverage, you’ll find links from The New York Times, New York Post, CNBC, Business Insider, and more.  

Within The Most Expensive Airbnb in Every U.S. State’s impressive 96 backlinks, you’ll find coverage from House Beautiful, Apartment Therapy, Travel and Leisure, and more.

The Importance of Passive Coverage

While it’s never easy delivering the news of a campaign having a ‘less-than-successful’ amount of links, it’s important to remember that these content pieces still exist on the internet and have the potential to build links beyond the promotion period. 

A journalist whom you’ve pitched to may be planning to cover your campaign but has a full calendar and can’t publish it until next month. 

A journalist who is researching a specific topic could stumble upon your campaign and include insights from it in their next article. Whatever the case may be, passive coverage should be celebrated.

One example of the power of passive coverage comes from the 2022 Texting & SMS Marketing Statistics campaign. A standard promotion period lasts 6-8 weeks and can be adjusted depending on timely events, topics in the newscycle, etc. This campaign was pitched for 7 weeks and received 31 links in its promotion period. After 10 months following outreach, it’s currently sitting at a whopping 116 backlinks! 

While a client may want to see coverage throughout a campaign’s promotion period, it’s important to remember that link-building is a long game. Not every campaign can be an overnight success. The power of passive coverage has proven that digital PR can help build link equity over time. 

Conclusion

So there you have it. Well, sort of… 

There’s no perfect equation to success in digital PR. If there were, we’d all know exactly how to build high-quality backlinks and A LOT of them for each campaign. Where your campaign lands on the success meter should be looked at from a case-by-case lens, remembering these few measurements: 

Did it receive a generally high number of backlinks? 

Did it receive a handful of backlinks from high-authority sites? 

Does it have potential to be referenced down the line by journalists and receive passive coverage?

Does your campaign possess a combination of these measurements?

…and there you have it! Enjoy your newly framed mindset of measuring success!

A Win Is A Win: How To Measure Success In Digital PR is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

At Go Fish, we build links by producing creative content campaigns –– data-rich, newsworthy content that tells a compelling story and that journalists will want to link back to. Many refer to this approach as digital PR.

Digital PR campaigns can come in the form of data studies, surveys, rankings, contests, illustrations, and quizzes, among a slew of other formats. 

These types of link building campaigns have never been more competitive across industries, and the real estate + home sector is no exception. In this blog, we’ll focus specifically on link building in the home and real estate niche, providing link builders with a quick guide to producing successful digital PR campaigns in this space. 

The Best Data Sources & Formats for Home & Real Estate Content

The Fastest-Selling Home Styles in Every State, The Most Gentrified Cities Around the U.S., The Dream Kitchen Survey, and the Game of Thrones House Sorting Quiz are all strong examples of digital PR campaign ideas, from past and present, within the home and real estate space. But how can link builders come up with these ideas? 

Sometimes the ideas spark from a timely or trending event in the news (like a recession or Barbiecore). Sometimes we have a lightbulb moment. But more often than not, ideas spark from a data source –– one that’s either existing or created. Let’s take a look at some of the best sources for both types of data within the home and real estate industries.

Existing Data Sources

Real Estate Marketplaces: Zillow, Redfin, Realtor.com, Apartments.com

Zillow’s research hub has a whole host of housing, time-series data by specific geographies (state, city, zip) from median home values and rent prices to median days on the market and inventory data. Zillow also has several APIs for users who want to dive deeper into real estate metrics like home value forecasts, Zestimates, and neighborhood data.

Government Agencies: U.S. Census, Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) 

The Census is a real estate link builder’s dream with data tables you can filter for various home and housing metrics, from property taxes and homeowner characteristics to migration patterns and homeownership rates (diced down by every demographic you can think of). Again, most of the datasets can be analyzed both nationally and locally (by state, county, MSA, and more) –– a huge plus for local media outreach when promoting a digital PR campaign.

Trade Associations: National Association of Realtors (NAR), National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)

Trade associations like the NAR store current real estate market insights on both a residential and commercial level. Housing affordability indices, commercial real estate transactions, and gentrification insights, among hundreds of other indicators, are at the link builder’s disposal on the NAR’s research and statistics page. 

Created Data Sources

Web Scraping: From sites like Airbnb, Google Trends, Yelp, TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit, Zillow, and Redfin

As link builders, we can’t sleep on scraping websites for new data that will help us tell a story. Analyzing TikTok views, pulling search data from Google Trends, or scraping Airbnb listings are all methods for creating a new dataset that will help with:

• Gauging popularity

• Detecting trends

• Uncovering new information

Past campaign performance data shows that 78% of campaigns that use created or scraped data earn organic media coverage, and the average DA of these campaigns’ referring domains is 59 –– considerably higher than average.

AI Tools: ChatGPT, DALL·E 2, Midjourney

It’s no secret that AI is changing the game for content marketing, and digital PR campaigns are no exception. Content marketers can build links within the home and real estate spaces using AI-driven content generation tools like Midjourney or DALL·E 2. These tools produce unique artwork, illustrations, or designs based on specific prompts. 

This format is quite a departure from the data journalism approach mentioned above, but can be just as effective given the right topic! Here are a few AI image campaigns in the home space that we’ve got major crushes on:

Here’s what Barbie’s dreamhouse would look like in every state: Sara Aspier used Midjourney to build a Barbie dreamhouse for each state, based on the state’s most common architectural style. 

AI imagines a typical home in every state: All Star Home tested Midjourney to generate an “idealistic” home in all 50 states and the 30 largest U.S. cities. 

Surveys

Some of the best created datasets continue to be proprietary survey insights. Using automated survey platforms, link builders within the home and real estate industries can launch anonymous polls about homebuying and homeowning topics for the purpose of yielding newsworthy statistics.

For example, we launched the “Zillow Obsession Survey” for a client within the contracting space, inspired by a viral, SNL skit about Zillow browsing. The survey produced head-turning insights such as “53% of respondents have looked up the value of their boss’s house on Zillow” and “49% of respondents would rather browse Zillow than have sex” which helped the campaign earn coverage from top outlets like House Beautiful, Business Insider, and HuffPost. 

Home + Real Estate Digital PR Campaign Examples

Now that you’re familiar with some of the best sources and formats for digital PR campaigns in home and real estate content, let’s look at some real-life campaign examples. 

The Most & Least Expensive Architectural Styles Around the U.S.

Many studies have been conducted about the most popular home architectural styles based on Google search data or quotes from industry experts. There are countless listicles on the subject in the search results, but to build quality links from top-tier news outlets, we need to provide unique value for the journalists we’re pitching to.

In this case that meant providing them with new and unique data that they don’t already have access to or don’t have time to pull themselves.

In “The Most Profitable Architectural Styles Around the U.S.” campaign, we used a web scraping tool to find the average home price and number of days on the market for different architectural styles (from Colonials to ranches) across thousands of Zillow home listings in 50 U.S. cities. The study told a compelling story about how certain architectural styles are more valuable than others depending on where you live. 

With fresh data, a sound methodology, and a strong local angle, this campaign was able to earn coverage from top business journals and local news outlets around the country. 

Vacant Homes vs. Homelessness in Cities Around the U.S.

For digital PR campaigns to build links organically, we often need to piggyback off of the news cycle or go where the reporters already are. In this case, that meant producing a campaign that could be tied back to unaffordable housing during a time when mortgage rates were through the roof, housing inventory looked dire, and rent prices continued to rise.

In the “Vacant Homes vs. Homelessness Around the U.S.” campaign, we used data from the Census and HUD to compare home vacancy rates to homelessness across America’s largest cities, highlighting the ongoing challenge to find affordable housing for both renters and buyers alike. 

A newsworthy angle, local insights, and a combination of authoritative data sources helped this campaign earn coverage from top real estate, local, and national news reporters.

Surveying Americans on Their Home Organization

In order to earn a high number of high-quality links, we also need to make sure our content is relevant to a wide audience of readers. “The Home Organization Survey” campaign is a shining example of wide relevance. We surveyed U.S. homeowners about their home organization systems, their biggest sources of clutter, and the messiest rooms in their COVID-era homes. 

Relaying unique insights around a highly relatable topic with broad appeal helped this campaign earn dozens of backlinks from top-tier home and lifestyle sites.

Wrap-Up

Let’s face it –– link building is hard in this day and age. More and more sites are vying for coverage across top media outlets. The competition is fierce, but hopefully, these strategies can help you produce campaigns that will stand out amidst the clamor of the digital PR world. 

Need help earning links? Get in touch with our team at Go Fish Digital to learn more about our approach to digital PR.

A Beginner’s Guide to Digital PR Campaigns in Home & Real Estate is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

There’s nothing worse than writing a killer pitch with an open rate in the single digits.

In a 2019 interview with MuckRack, BuzzFeed News reporter David Mack put it plainly:

“I get roughly 300 emails a day…Most of the time, I read a subject line and that’s it.”

And if your subject line ain’t solid, a perfect pitch doesn’t matter — it never sees the light of day.

The good news? Writing strong subject lines is a skill you can build with practice, and there are a few solid strategies that have helped me grow in my two years as a digital PR strategist. Call it at least 800 subject lines of trial and error.

As a baseline for success, as you move through these different methods, test multiple subject lines on small groups of contacts as you go. While open rates can vary based on pitching software, spam filters, the beat, national or local angles, and more, a relative rule of thumb is a strong open rate will be above 30%.

Here are some of my favorite strategies for writing effective subject lines that will get your pitch opened and story covered:

Going Through the Motions

Let’s look at this data campaign: The Best Cities for Hybrid Work. Our team scraped LinkedIn’s job database for hybrid job openings in 100 of America’s largest cities and pulled salary data across cities and industries. My basic outreach strategy was to target career, finance, and local journalists.

Working on autopilot, pitching all day, your first instinct for a national subject line might be to CMD-V the campaign title into your subject line and fire away those mass emails: 

The Best U.S. Cities for Hybrid Work Opportunities

Let’s say, locally, you do the same, and grab that first insight as written in the study:​

Atlanta Ranks #1 as the Best City for Hybrid Work

In the next seven steps, we’ll workshop these subject lines together and transform them into ‘opens’ in the inboxes of journalists at top-tier outlets.

Strategy 1: Get Personal

Strategy 1 is the most time-consuming and most effective technique for writing a subject line, which is why we’ll cover this first. This involves reaching out to journalists such as:

• Those you already have a professional relationship with
• Those whom you’ve thoroughly researched and your campaign is a great fit for their very specific role (e.g., An Atlanta career reporter whose last three articles have been on hybrid work practices)
• Those who have previously covered your client’s content
• Those who have previously covered your agency’s campaigns
• Those who cover this particular type of content (city-rankings, Google Trends campaigns, etc)

A BuzzSumo analysis of their 600K journalists database found, “48% of journalists said that the number one thing a PR can do to get in their good books is to ‘Understand my current beat and position, and make their pitch relevant to this.’”

A common practice to begin addressing this is to localize your pitch using merge fields, adding phrases, city names, and other city-specific statistics that match with contacts from that area.

There’s no reason this can’t start in the subject line! Whether you employ merge fields for groups of journalists at a time, or do this manually, it should be as tailored as possible and jump out of their inbox as coming from someone who has done their research:

Hi [Name] – another 2022 hybrid work study for you!

We’re calling her by name, we’re bringing up a previous relationship, we’re calling out her beat.

Simple Texting releases new employee data, updated with LinkedIn data

We’re bringing up a client they trust and mentioning a previous campaign.

[City] ranks high once again in nation rankings for high wages

We’re naming his location and beat while referencing a previous campaign.

And so on. Later we’ll go in-depth on how to use past coverage to your advantage. The main takeaway is this: nothing beats human connection and good research. Even in a subject line. Your ultimate goal is to be a resource for journalists. If you treat gaining coverage as a result of this, you’ll find instead of a single payoff, a single backlink for your client, you’ll build more backlinks for all of your campaigns to follow.

Strategy 1 will not only lead to journalists opening your pitches, but they will recognize your email in their inbox and your name as a credible source.

Strategy 2: Front-Load Your Subject Line

Now, let’s focus on journalists we don’t know personally. Realistically, imagine we know their outlet and beat.

Let’s front-load our first two subject lines with keywords. Most email platforms will cut off around 60 characters, while journalists checking pitches on their phones might see around 30. I want the first few words to be punchy, and The Best Cities for… is a subject line I’ve used many, many times, which means my contacts have seen it, many, many times. Sometimes it works, but this is a national pitch that needs to stand out in massive newsroom emails.

I went with this: 

Making six figures while working hybrid is easier in these cities

I know these reporters want finance and career pitches, and I, for one, would open an email that starts with the idea of making six figures. I’ve provided a specific angle: Think less of sending the title of a paper and more of a news headline. There’s no value in being vague.

Similarly, a local subject line should have the city or state in the first couple of words:

Chicago breaks the top-10 in national ranking of best cities for hybrid work

The first two words here, “Chicago breaks…” include a strong verb and the city name right off the bat.

Strategy 3: Flex Your Authority

Flex your authority. 

Is my marketing software client a direct authority when it comes to hybrid work?

Not so much. I won’t include their name in the subject line here.

An example of a case where you should? A furniture retailer on interior design:

Campaign: The Most Popular Interior Design Styles

Joybird analyzed over 130 design trends & decor items

Joybird study reveals the most popular design styles

When you can’t flex the authority of the client, you can flex a thorough methodology. I’ll ask myself, is the data collection one of the most interesting, compelling pieces of the campaign? If it is, try adding it in as a component:

The top interior design styles, according to Pinterest data

And there’s the money subject line! Apartment Therapy covered the campaign with the headline:

“These are The Most Popular 2023 Interior Design Styles, According to Pinterest”

Adding the general campaign type and the name of the city (at the front-end, Strategy 2!) accomplished the same technique, seen here for Joybird’s Best City for Homebodies:

[Study] Pittsburgh Among The Best Cities For Homebodies

… covered with practically the same headline by CBS News. Success! Flex your client or your method!

In the case of Hybrid Work, we have a data study, specifically a LinkedIn scrape, and the method was really interesting to me. It was as easy as adding:

Making six figures while working hybrid is easier in these cities, study suggests

[DATA] Making six figures while working hybrid is easier in these cities

Make six figures while working hybrid in these cities, according to LinkedIn

Now you’re primed to shoot off some emails. A journalist at The Street plunked it from their inbox, covering it with the headline:

“Want to Make Six Figures Without Going to an Office? Move to These Cities”.

Strategy 4: Steal The Headlines

Okay, so you’ve secured some coverage. It’s time for one of my favorite, and quite effective (and easier!) strategies: Steal! That! Headline! Capitalize on that successful angle, respect what the journalists found most newsworthy, and trust they know how to write headlines in a tone their beat is going to respond to.

And make sure to pocket these headlines — specifically the types of verbs, the abbreviations, and any patterns, not just for your next round of subject lines, but for your next campaign! The more you pitch certain beats, and within that, the same outlets, you’ll have a better knack for their headline style and can work to echo it in your subject lines as you see fit.

A journalist at CNBC covered Hybrid Work with the headline:

“The 10 best cities for finding a hybrid job that pays $100,000 or more”

Coverage of another career campaign for the same client, The Most Common Corporate Lingo was covered again by CNBC with the headline:

“10 corporate buzzwords that show up in job listings the most.”

I’ve got a takeaway: My next finance campaign? My subject line will be structured as a list of 10! Paying attention to an outlet or journalist’s headline is also an indicator of what style/angle an editor is going to approve. Journalists appreciate the extra legwork.

Strategy 5: Don’t Waste Anyone’s Time

There are going to be times when you don’t find a campaign absolutely riveting. Maybe it’s a survey, and you just couldn’t predict that the insights would be a tad snooze-worthy. Maybe it’s an AI campaign that made you swear never to work with robots again. Maybe it’s a campaign so close to the client’s brand that you fear pitching it to journalists will have you labeled ‘AD’ or so far from the brand you’re now inbox clickbait.

Roll up your sleeves. This is your opportunity. You’re going to find an interesting statistic in this campaign if it’s the last subject line you write.

Because Strategy 5? Don’t be boring!

Ask a friend, a family member, or a man on the street if the insight you’ve deemed important is actually interesting. Hop over to Google News and see how others are covering the topic. Do your due diligence.

And when all else fails, don’t overextend your pitching strategy. Acknowledge the campaign’s limitations and work to find the journalists that truly would care about XYZ (Maybe it’s not you, or most of the rest of the world, but there’s seriously a beat for everything these days). Protect your relationships with journalists who wouldn’t be interested, and challenge yourself to pitch to more niche publications.

If you can’t glean an interesting subject line when all is said and done, relook at the campaign as a whole. Don’t blast just anyone’s inbox as a last resort.

Strategy 6: Commit to a Tone

Throughout this guide, we’ve walked through the Hybrid Work campaign. Our subject lines became sharper, but one could say our tone remained consistent. 

From

The Best U.S. Cities for Hybrid Work Opportunities

to our more interesting iterations like

Want to Make Six Figures Without Going to an Office? Move to These Cities

both are matter-of-fact and informative. While the latter is more likely to be opened, I wouldn’t say the former would automatically be off-putting to a journalist. Similarly, in their Employee Burnout campaign, I first opted to use a broad subject line:

A Snapshot of Employee Burnout & Quit Rates in the U.S. 

which received no coverage, and when I switched to a more data-driven insight

1 in 3 think about quitting their current job at least once a week

which was picked up by Forbes. While the latter was opened more and secured coverage, both subject lines are appropriate tones for the client and the campaign.

Conversely, there are many incidents where ‘spicing up your subject line’ can alter the tone in a way that will land you right in a spam folder. One of the best parts of agency life is the diverse group of clients I get to work with each day. There are many wonderful opportunities for your subject line to be silly, punny, or tongue-in-cheek. I secured a TODAY Show segment with a food pun! However:

• Check your campaign, client, context, and climate
• Practice your subject line humor first on radio stations and local TV news before you send a national pitch
• If you ever fear you’re toeing the line, get some pulse checks from your team

Remember that your subject line will be out of context from the rest of your pitch. My own rule of thumb, if I’m not completely confident, is to put my humor in the hook of the pitch and try a different strategy in the subject line.

Another indicator of tone is the use of capitalization. Journalists don’t want to be shouted at in their inbox with an ALL CAPS but don’t be afraid to experiment with them for emphasis. All of these iterations are acceptable:

• Pittsburgh is The Best City For Homebodies
• Pittsburgh is the best city for homebodies
• Pittsburgh is the BEST city for homebodies

For more direction, look at the coverage in that beat and see how they use capitalization or judge grammatically whether it’s more of a sentence or a headline.

Strategy 7: Establish Urgency

If you can, create a sense of urgency if appropriate. This can mean mentioning a timely event, from Christmas to National Cake Day to hurricane season. Most frequently in my day-to-day, I’ll apply this to entertainment beat pitches. Some general examples include:

• Today is [Event] – Everything you need to know on [Campaign Topic]
• [Date] is [National Holiday] – This is [State]’s favorite [Campaign Topic]
• Prepare for tonight’s premiere by catching up on [Campaign Topic]

More specifically, on a campaign on Every State’s Favorite Robot, I swapped my headline multiple times during the promotion period to establish a sense of urgency.

1st Evergreen:

The Most Popular Movie Robot in Every U.S. State

2nd RoboWeek:

Celebrate RoboWeek: [Robot] is [State]’s favorite movie robot

3rd National Star Wars Day: 

May the 4th be With You: [Robot] is [State]’s Favorite Movie Robot

Another way I’ll establish a sense of urgency or timeliness in the subject line is to find journalists who are actively reporting on a story that my campaign might help inform. I’ll then make the subject line that one statistic that might relate most.

Finally, if a campaign is hot out of the oven, I’ll date it with the subject line:

August 2023 study reveals…

Conclusion

An open rate in the single digits? We’ve all been there. Give some of these strategies a go!

Strategy 1: Get Personal

Strategy 2: Front-Load Your Subject Line

Strategy 3: Flex Your Authority

Strategy 4: Steal The Headlines

Strategy 5: Don’t Waste Anyone’s Time

Strategy 6: Commit to a Tone

Strategy 7: Establish Urgency

Stuck Writing Subject Lines? 7 Strategies to Get Your Pitch Opened & Story Covered is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

Related Articles:

• SEO Agency
• Digital PR Services
• Content Marketing Agency

Do the Tutorial

When you begin, it’s vital for you to understand what’s going on or else you’ll be button-mashing wildly. Those who are too eager and skip instructions usually miss key concepts. 

Learn the Controls

To produce what’s expected, you have to know what’s expected. You’ll need to find out exactly what your client’s expectations are, the strategies your team uses for link building, and how to complete the individual tasks you’ll be working on. Therefore, pay close attention to each piece of instruction you receive and don’t be afraid to ask good questions. Engaging with your mentor on the subject matter will not only ensure your comprehension but also show that you care. Plus, you don’t want to get to level 84 and then realize you had an ability you weren’t using the entire time. 

Press (A) to Start

Once you’ve completed the tutorial, you can jump into the action. It’s much easier to learn by doing than it is to get a freeze frame from your mentor for every single scenario.

Develop a Quest Plan

There are a lot of super important back-end tasks that go into link building campaigns. With campaign production, your job is to set the mission up for success. When generating campaign ideas, use your naivety and fresh perspective to your advantage by shooting for the stars. You can always make an idea more practical later. If it’s really outlandish, make sure to include a potential strategy for data collection as well as your hypotheses for pitching angles. If there aren’t any wheels, you can’t drive. It is also important to keep a pulse on what’s happening so you can brainstorm trendy ideas as well. Reading the patch notes can give you the inside scoop on buffs and nerfs before other players notice.

Gather Intel

When working on data collection, think critically about the structure of the study and make sure the research is sound. If you’re not buying it, no one else is. If you think that you need to change methods to produce newsworthy data, speak with a mentor about potentially pivoting in a different direction. Good reconnaissance can win you the match. 

Locate Targets

Once the dataset is complete, the outreach begins. With campaign promotion, your job is to finish what the production process started by finding the story in the data and earning coverage. When you build a contact list, find the beats that align with the campaign angles the most. If you’re struggling to find relevant beats, get really creative with the angles; as long as there’s a tie-in, there’s a path to victory.

Hit the Mark

If you get the chance to pitch contacts, use your knowledge of pop culture and timely events to hook their attention, outline the story within the data, and make your insights fascinating. Remember, if you’re not buying it, no one else is. Keeping up with the news cycle and looking out for newsjacking opportunities are also vital outreach strategies for success. If you apply what you’ve learned about your role with your skills and always keep your goal in mind, you’ll get to crushing levels in no time.

Pay Attention to Tips

We all get stuck on a hard boss battle at some point. The key is to remember that feedback from your mentors is integral to learning and improving. If someone tells you that you need to amend your work or switch up your methods, they’re likely giving you valuable XP. 

Revamp Battle Strategies 

When you reach a roadblock, you should try your best to figure it out on your own first by using the resources available to you. If you’re completely lost on a task, consider the following questions to help frame your next move:

• What will this task look like when it’s finished?
• How does this task help generate links for the client?
• What extra effort can I put forth on this task to make sure this campaign is successful?

If you can’t answer those questions, reach out to your mentor for guidance. Then, get to work. Often, you have the skills, you just need to better understand your mission. With your eyes on the prize, you’ll adapt and navigate to the finish line every time. 

Level Up

Just because you defeat a few enemies doesn’t mean you’re a master quite yet. Never stop finding ways to improve your efficiency. You can do this by looking for the shortcuts that save time without jeopardizing quality. 

Utilize Secret Tunnels

You can reorganize the steps in your personal processes to create harmonious pathways to victory. For example, if you highlight the email column in your contact list and then run the command sequence (Conditional Formatting > Highlight Cells Rules > Duplicate Values… > OK) to highlight duplicates first, the column will stay highlighted for you to run the command sequence (Find & Select > Go To Special… > select Blanks > OK > highlight Delete dropdown menu > Delete Sheet Rows) to eliminate blank rows second. If you do it the opposite way it’ll take extra keystrokes. Maximizing your efficiency saves time and helps build good habits that protect your work quality. There’s usually more than one way to get the gold; never stop looking for the strongest and fastest combo.

Win

There will come a time when your original mission is complete. You’ll put in the effort by paying attention, asking questions, exploring, doing the work, improving, and then doing the work better. Finally, you’ll see the results: almost all of the feedback you’ll get will be positive reinforcement, the campaigns you assist with will get links, and you’ll earn your very first piece of coverage from a top-tier publication. Let’s go! The grind always pays off.

Set New Goals 

You may eventually feel like you’re finished, but don’t stop there! Start the game over and aim for a perfect run. Beat the record on the time trial by milliseconds. Shoot for #1 on the leaderboard. Never settle. Do that, and you’ll keep learning, growing, and leveling up for the rest of your career in digital marketing. You have what it takes to do more than just play the game. You have what it takes to conquer the game. Always remember that! 

Congratulations, Intern! You just completed Link Building for Interns: The Game. You may be ready for the sequel. 

A New Game Hits the Shelves – Do You Have What It Takes? Link Building for Digital PR Professionals: The Game. Coming Soon!

Link Building for Interns: The Game is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

Does that pique your interest? Great. Let me guide you through my two-step process to crafting a killer outreach strategy that will inform your pitches and PR lists.

Related Articles:

• Digital PR Services
• Content Marketing Agency
• Content Creation Services
• Online Reputation Management

First off, how do we define an outreach strategy?

In essence, the strategy is a plan for pitching developed in the beginning stage of the campaign process in order to inform your pitches and PR list.

The outreach strategy is an important first step in our process because it means we have a clear plan for each campaign that we can communicate to our team and to the client. 

A strong outreach strategy should answer the following: 

1. Who you’ll be pitching 
2. How you’ll be pitching them 
3. What your target outlets will be 
4. If there are any timely events involved (think: newsjacking, i.e. riding the coattails of a breaking new story by adding a personal twist)

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s begin. 

Step One: Define Your Target Audience

This is the who you’ll be pitching part of the process. Our target audience here is the set of journalists we will be pitching throughout the promotion period of the campaign. 

Before pulling contacts, you’ll want a clear direction of who’s going to be on your list before the waters get muddy. 

Start with the bigger picture. Which beats am I going to pitch to? Who would be interested in this campaign? Where are they located?

A beat is a particular topic or area that a journalist focuses their

coverage on. There are endless different beats, so it’s crucial to limit your contact pool to writers covering the specific beats relevant to your campaign.

While journalists may have multiple beats to cover, it’s unlikely that they will report on subjects outside of their assigned beats.

Let’s use an example.

As part of a summer launch for Joybird, a mid-mod furniture company, I began prepping my materials for a new data study: The Most Expensive Airbnb in Every U.S. State. This campaign used real-time Airbnb data to find each state’s priciest rental. 

As I crafted my outreach strategy, I first zoomed out to the big-picture beat: Local. Anytime we can find key insights or data about a particular state or city, local publications are our go-to contacts. For example, ABC11, a publication based in Raleigh NC, would be a good fit for data specific to Raleigh and surrounding areas.

Then, I brainstormed additional beats to pitch according to the content of this campaign. These included real estate, lifestyle, personal finance, and travel.

Suddenly, I have five avenues to pursue and a wide range of potential contacts. 

Sweet, let’s move on. 

Step Two: Identity Timely Events Around the Campaign 

There’s one question you should always ask yourself before pitching or even creating a campaign: Why should anyone care about this?

Timely events are a great way to find your answer to that question. A journalist should care about your campaign because it fits into the news cycle and it adds to the ongoing news story. 

I repeat: It adds to the story. 

A timely event is any event that is newsworthy and relevant. It can be a singular day, like Election Day, a couple of weeks, like the Olympics, or an entire season, like wedding season. 

Without a timely event to pitch around, a journalist may have no incentive to cover the Digital PR campaign—No matter how unique or interesting it may be. Why should they care unless they can tie it to the news cycle?

Timely events are a great way to encourage journalists to cover your campaign, while also adding value and remaining relevant. Moreover, timely events tell us more about how we are going to structure our pitch. 

Okay, back to The Most Expensive Airbnb in Every U.S. State campaign. Earlier I told you this campaign had a summer launch, so one of my obvious timely events was the upcoming summer travel season. That’s the angle I pitched to lifestyle and travel writers.

Next, Airbnb hosts were getting a lot of flack in the news cycle around that time for taking homes away from potential local buyers and driving up housing prices—And the most outrageously expensive Airbnbs certainly add to that conversation. Great, the real estate beat is covered.

Plus, can no one afford to travel anymore with rising inflation? I mean, seriously, with those ridiculous added fees it’s no wonder we’re staying home. And yes, this was the angle I used for those personal finance writers. 

With my beats defined and my timely events narrowed down (to the best of my ability, the news cycle is an ever-changing beast), I feel confident to create a strong pitch and PR list that is personalized to each beat and any timely events on my radar.

Remember, just like no two Digital PR link-building pieces are the same, each PR list and pitch is unique as well. Ultimately, you want to feel confident that once your piece is ready to pitch, you’ve set yourself up for success ahead of time. 

TLDR; Do your homework! 

Mastering the Art of Digital PR: Two Key Steps to Crafting a Killer Outreach Strategy is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

Related Content:

• Digital PR Services
• Content Marketing Agency
• Content Creation Services

What Are Some Digital PR Examples?

Examples of digital PR include:

1. Consumer Surveys
2. Blog Posts
3. Third-Party Data Studies
4. City Ranking Studies
5. Google Trends Data
6. Interactive Tools
7. Newsjacking Content
8. Video Content

But coming up with that groundbreaking campaign concept is a tough challenge. One of the best ways to get the creative juices flowing is to look at successful campaigns in the past and identify what strategies you can replicate with your own content. Read on to learn more about 10 of our favorite digital PR examples and why they worked.

1. How Long Does It Take Tech CEOs to Earn Your Salary?

A great strategy for capturing the media’s attention is to provide deeper insight into something already in the news. If you align your content right and pitch the story when the topic is just beginning to surface, you can secure coverage from just about any publication. That’s what SimpleTexting did with the tech CEO calculator—unveiling exactly how much money various tech CEOs make, while these same moguls were making court appearances during antitrust hearings. This example of digital PR found its way into articles in The Guardian, Fast Company, Life Hacker, and many others. 

2. U.S. Cities With the Largest Affordable Housing Shortages

On the other hand, it sometimes works just as well to add to an evergreen conversation that seemingly always has and likely always will be in a part of the news cycle: affordable housing. In this digital PR example, United Way of the National Capital Area focuses on improving the lives of underserved individuals, which is why it made perfect sense for them to release a report on access to and cost of affordable housing around the U.S. The analysis was based on data from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, an authority in the space, and coupled with static and interactive graphics that bring the story to life. This example of digital PR resulted in coverage from publications like Business Insider, CNBC, NY Post, and the New York Times. 

3. The Most Expensive Airbnbs in Every U.S. State

Data sources are everywhere and often right in front of us. In this instance, Joybird turned to Airbnb to identify the most expensive listing in every U.S. state. Not only was this a fun piece to look at, but it was also highly personalized to readers across the U.S. by calling out specific listings in each state. Adding a local component to a digital PR campaign increases the outreach pool exponentially. As a result, you can pitch national and local reporters in all 50 states with data specific to their audience. This campaign earned the attention of House Beautiful, Apartment Therapy, Hunker, and many others.

4. The Best U.S. Cities to Be a Cat

Speaking of the power of local outreach, ranking cities against each other based on a variety of data points is another great example for building a local angle within your digital PR campaigns. For example, Veterinarians.org analyzed the best cities to be a cat based on cat adoptions, cat-friendly accommodations, access to veterinarians, and more. This led to local coverage from sites like The Salt Lake Tribune and national coverage from places like Matador Network. 

5. The Best U.S. Cities for Homebodies

The city ranking format works well when you have a creative list of ranking factors that bring it to life. For instance, consider the things that matter most to a homebody. You might think of things like the size of homes or number of remote jobs. Those are important to include, but it’s also critical to consider more niche factors, like internet speed, property crime rates, and number of grocery stores that offer delivery. Thinking of everything is what takes these campaigns to the next level and encourages a reporter to write a story about it. This digital PR example earned coverage from CBS, Travel + Leisure, WFLA, and others. 

6. The Most Popular Comfort Foods Sports by State

Google Trends is a powerful tool that digital PR experts can use to quickly add local insights without complicating data. You can determine how much each state is searching for pretty much any topic you’re interested in. When married with a relatable topic, such as comfort food, it makes for the perfect consumable piece of content. Pro tip: adding a map to this format is a great way to make the information easily digestible for reporters, no matter what state they’re in. This digital PR example attracted coverage from HuffPost, TimeOut, Boston Globe, and more. 

7. How Much Do Americans Work During a Workweek?

Surveys can be an effective digital PR campaign format, as they can create unique, proprietary insights. You’re limited by only your imagination when it comes to writing survey questions. In the height of work-from-home life during the pandemic, e-conolight asked people to anonymously admit what they actually spent their time doing while ‘on the clock.’ From taking a nap to online shopping to cracking a cold one, the results are pretty shocking; perhaps why it got the attention of sites like Fortune, ZDNet, and The Ladders. 

8. What Pleasures Would You Sacrifice to Keep Your Smartphone?

You’ll often find that no matter how many incredible insights you end up with, successful campaigns will have that one ‘golden nugget’ that causes them to go viral. It’s not always the highest value or obvious headline; it’s the stat that’s most controversial. In this case, SimpleTexting asked people to play a classic game of would you rather. Would you rather give up your smartphone or alcohol? What about coffee? Your pet? People were horrified to find that 40% would give up their dog over their smartphone, which made for a great conversation piece on many, including People, CNET, Daily Caller, and even Al Roker on the Today Show. 

9. House Hunting for Fun – Are Zillow Users Obsessed?

Coming up with a survey concept doesn’t have to be challenging, as there’s inspiration all around us. An SNL skit about Zillow inspired this Surety First survey, which aimed to see how realistic the skit really was. It turns out the skit wasn’t all that much of an exaggeration, as 49% of people say they would rather browse Zillow than have sex. This statistic alone resulted in coverage from The Guardian, Refinery29, and even the Drew Barrymore show. 

10. Get Paid to Binge-Watch Holiday Movies

Another popular digital PR campaign format is contests. You’ve probably seen a fair share of ‘job posting’ style contests asking users to complete certain tasks in exchange for prize money. A classic is the binge-watch contest, where a company asks users to apply for the chance to be paid for binge-watching movies in a given category. These work well for digital PR because they’re mutually beneficial to the company and the reporter—the company secures coverage while the reporter posts a story that drives strong engagement with their audience (who doesn’t want to win money for watching TV?). This contest was featured on Cosmopolitan, Woman’s Day, Country Living, and others. 

Putting Digital PR Examples into Action 

If all of this digital PR talk has you itching to build some coverage of your own, start by brainstorming a list of potential topics. Before launching any campaigns, there are three things you should keep in mind.

• Uniqueness: Has the content already been done? If so, are you adding a new perspective or a different angle to it? A journalist is not going to want to cover something they’ve already written about, so don’t skip this step. 
• Feasibility: How will you carry out the research? There’s nothing worse than coming up with the perfect campaign idea only to realize there’s no way to access the data. Be sure to lay out your research plan before committing to a concept. 
• Newsworthiness: Is the topic interesting enough to make the news? People often think of timely elements and current events, but you may also consider pieces that are tied to human interests, controversy, or oddity. 

Not sure where to start? Get in touch with our team at Go Fish Digital to learn more about our approach to digital PR.

The Best Examples of Digital PR Campaigns is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

Evergreen content is an essential component of many successful digital PR campaigns, but what exactly is it? Evergreen content is like a good bottle of wine – it only gets better with age!

Evergreen content refers to content that remains relevant and useful to your target audience for an extended period of time, often months and years after it was first published. Unlike timely content, such as breaking news or seasonal updates, evergreen content remains fresh and informative long after its initial publication.

Related Content:

• Digital PR Services
• Content Marketing Agency
• Content Creation Services

Why is evergreen content important for digital PR strategy? Here are three key reasons:

Longevity

When it comes to creating evergreen content, one of the key benefits is its longevity. Unlike news or trend-based content, which tends to have a shorter lifespan, evergreen content can remain relevant and useful for years to come. By focusing on topics that are timeless and not tied to a specific moment or event, you can create content that continues to drive traffic and engagement to your website long after it’s published. This is particularly important in today’s fast-paced digital world, where new content is constantly being created and shared.

Another benefit of evergreen content is its ability to provide value to your audience over time. By creating content that answers common questions or provides helpful tips and advice, you can establish your brand as a reliable source of information and expertise in your industry.

Another benefit of creating evergreen content is that it saves time and resources in the long run. Instead of constantly creating new content to keep up with the latest trends and news, evergreen content can continue to drive traffic and engagement without the need for frequent updates or maintenance. This allows content creators to focus on other important tasks, such as promoting existing content and developing new evergreen pieces, without sacrificing the quality or relevance of their content strategy. Overall, evergreen content offers a sustainable and efficient way to build a strong online presence and attract a loyal audience over time.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Evergreen content can also be a powerful tool for improving search engine rankings. By creating content that provides long-term value to your target audience, you can attract high-quality backlinks, boost your domain authority, and improve overall SEO.

Backlinks are an important ranking factor for search engines, as they signal to search engines that other websites consider your content to be valuable and worth linking to. By creating evergreen content that remains relevant and useful over time, you can attract more backlinks, which in turn can help improve your domain authority and overall SEO.

By investing in evergreen content, you can generate passive coverage over time. Evergreen content’s potential to reach journalists is not limited to a specific outreach window but can be a resource for journalists and reporters in the future. 

Thought Leadership

By creating evergreen content that showcases your expertise and knowledge in a particular area, you can establish yourself as a thought leader and authority figure in your industry. This type of content can take many forms, including blog posts, whitepapers, ebooks, and videos, among others.

Creating evergreen content that is informative and valuable to your audience can help you build trust and credibility with your target audience. As you establish yourself as a thought leader, it becomes easier to attract media attention and coverage for your brand. This can lead to more exposure and recognition for your brand, which in turn can lead to increased traffic and engagement on your website.

In addition, evergreen content that positions you as a thought leader can also help you attract high-quality backlinks from other authoritative websites in your industry. By improving your site’s domain authority and search engine rankings, you can attract target audiences.

The key to creating effective evergreen content that establishes you as a thought leader is to focus on providing long-term value to your audience. This means creating content that is not only informative and educational but also actionable and relevant to your target audience’s needs and interests. By doing so, you can build a loyal following of engaged readers who turn to your brand for valuable insights and information. For example, if you’re a jeweler you may want to publish content around identifying the perfect engagement ring. 

The reasons why evergreen content works are important to keep in mind as you begin to craft your evergreen content. However, it’s not enough to simply understand why it works — you also need to know how to create it. By following these steps, you’ll be able to create content that will remain relevant and valuable to your audience for years to come.

Writing an Evergreen Pitch

Once you’ve created your evergreen content, it’s time to pitch it to the media. The first step to writing an evergreen pitch is to identify a topic or angle that is relevant to your target audience and that will remain relevant over time. This could be a topic that addresses a common pain point or challenge that your audience faces, or it could be a trend or issue that is likely to persist for years to come.

Once you’ve identified your evergreen topic, it’s important to craft your content in a way that emphasizes the long-term value of your brand, product, or service. This means focusing on the key benefits that your audience will receive from engaging with your brand or product, rather than simply highlighting the features or capabilities of your offering.

In addition, it’s important to include relevant data, statistics, or case studies that support your claims and demonstrate your content’s merit. By providing concrete evidence, you can increase the likelihood that your pitch will be picked up and that your content will receive coverage.

Finally, it’s important to tailor your pitch to the specific media outlet that you are targeting. This means researching the outlet’s audience, tone, and editorial focus, and crafting your pitch in a way that aligns with their needs and interests. By doing so, you can increase the likelihood that your pitch will resonate with the outlet’s editors and that your brand will receive valuable media coverage as a result.

In summary, writing an evergreen pitch requires careful research, planning, and crafting to ensure that your content remains relevant and noteworthy over time. By focusing on the long-term benefits of your brand, including applicable data and case studies, and tailoring your pitch to the needs of your target media outlet, you can increase the likelihood that your pitch will be picked up and that your brand will receive favorable media coverage.

Maximize Your Evergreen Content

Check out the following tips below to help get the most out of your evergreen content:

1. Update the Content Regularly: While the content may be evergreen, the data and statistics included in it may not be. It’s essential to keep your evergreen content up-to-date by updating it yearly with the latest information and data.
2. Repurpose the Content: Evergreen content can be repurposed in various ways, such as turning it into an infographic, a video, or a podcast episode. Repurposing can help reach new audiences and increase engagement.
3. Optimize for Current Trends: While the content may be evergreen, it’s still important to optimize it for current trends and topics. You can do this by including relevant keywords and topics in the content and promoting it on social media during relevant events or holidays.
4. Use Storytelling: Storytelling is a powerful tool for making evergreen content more engaging and relevant. By including stories and anecdotes that relate to your audience, you can create a connection and make the content more memorable.
5. Use Timeless Examples: Use examples in your content that are timeless and not tied to a specific event or trend. This will ensure that the content remains relevant even as trends and events change.
6. Consider the Format: When creating evergreen content, consider the format that will make the most sense for your audience. For example, long-form articles may be better for in-depth tutorials, while listicles may be better for quick tips.

Making Evergreen Content Timely

Creating evergreen content doesn’t mean it has to be irrelevant to current events. You can still make your content timely by tying it to current events, news, or trends while maintaining its evergreen nature. For example, if you have a blog post about “10 Tips for Effective Time Management,” you can update it with a section on “Time Management during Remote Work” or “Time Management for the Holidays.” By adding these sections, you keep the content fresh and relevant while also preserving its evergreen value. This approach can attract both new and returning readers who are interested in the topic, and you can repurpose the content across different platforms, such as social media or email newsletters, to reach a wider audience. 

Overall, the key to making evergreen content timely is to balance the evergreen nature of the content with current trends and topics. By doing so, you can create content that remains relevant and useful for years to come.

Now that we’ve discussed how to make evergreen content timely, let’s move on to the pros and cons of creating evergreen content. While there are many benefits to producing content that remains relevant over time, there are also some potential drawbacks to consider. Let’s take a closer look at both sides.

The Pros and Cons of Evergreen Content

Pros:

1. Long-term Traffic: One of the biggest benefits of evergreen content is it can continue to drive traffic to your site long after it’s been published. By creating content that remains relevant and useful for years to come, you can attract visitors to your site for a long time without having to constantly create new content.
2. SEO Benefits: Evergreen content can also be great for improving your search engine rankings. By attracting backlinks and establishing your site as a trusted source of information, you can boost your domain authority and improve your overall SEO.
3. Thought Leadership: Creating evergreen content that showcases your expertise in a particular area can help establish you as a thought leader in your industry. This can lead to increased trust and credibility with your target audience, as well as more media coverage for your brand.
4. Time-Saving: By creating evergreen content, you can save time and resources that would otherwise be spent constantly creating new content. This can free up your team to focus on other important areas of your business.

Cons:

1. Less Timely: One potential downside of evergreen content is that it may not be as timely as other types of content. While evergreen content can provide long-term value, it may not be as effective at capitalizing on breaking news or other timely events. Evergreen content also provides reporters less incentive to cover it at the moment, as it will remain relevant to write a story about in several months; timely content has tighter deadlines and gives reporters more of an excuse to cover it now. 
2. May Become Outdated: While evergreen content is designed to remain relevant for years to come, there is always the possibility that it may become outdated at some point. This means you may need to update or refresh the content periodically to keep it relevant.
3. May Not Be as Shareable: Since evergreen content may not be as timely, it may not be as shareable on social media or other channels. This means you may need to work harder to promote the content and attract visitors to your site.
4. May Require More Research: Creating high-quality evergreen content often requires a significant amount of research and expertise. This means you may need to invest more time and resources upfront to create truly valuable content that stands the test of time.

Overall, evergreen content can be a powerful tool for driving traffic, improving SEO, and establishing thought leadership in your industry. However, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons before investing significant resources into creating this type of content. By understanding the potential benefits and drawbacks, you can make an informed decision about whether evergreen content is the right strategy for your business.

Looking at Examples of Evergreen Content: 

Examples of evergreen content include: “how-to” guides and tutorials, industry overviews, expert interviews, infographics, webinars, and in-depth analyses of trends or issues within your industry. 

The campaigns below have proven to be evergreen because they continue to generate interest and engagement long after their initial launch. This is because they were designed with a focus on providing long-term value to their target audience, rather than being centered around a specific moment in time or trend.

• The Best U.S. Cities for Mental Health:

The topic of mental health is a perennial issue that affects people of all ages and backgrounds. By providing evergreen content that ranks and analyzes the best U.S. cities for mental health, readers can gain valuable insights and resources to make informed decisions about where to live and seek support. This type of content remains relevant and useful for years, as mental health concerns continue to be a top priority for individuals and communities across the country. As such, the information provided can continue to attract readers and drive traffic to the website for an extended period, making it a valuable and evergreen resource. This piece attracted coverage from DeseretNews, NewsBreak, and more. 

• Analyzing Digital Equity in Cities Around the U.S.:

Digital equity is a topic that is evergreen because it addresses an ongoing issue that affects many people. The digital divide, or the gap between those who have access to technology and those who don’t, is a persistent problem across the country. By providing data and insights, this type of content can continue to be relevant and informative to readers for years to come. As technology continues to advance and play an increasingly important role in our lives, the issue of digital equity is likely to remain relevant and important, making this an evergreen topic. This gained coverage in City Monitor, and WRAL Tech Wire, among others. 

• What’s Your Personal Data Worth? :

This is an example of evergreen content because it offers readers valuable information and resources to better understand the complex topic of personal data collection, usage, and sale. This content remains relevant to a large and diverse audience over time and continues to be a popular and in-demand topic, as privacy concerns remain a critical issue. By providing this data and empowering readers to make informed decisions about their personal information, this content can continue to educate readers for future years. This earned coverage in PCMag, Digital Information World, and more.  

By creating content that speaks to long-term interests and needs, these campaigns can maintain relevance and value for their audience, resulting in ongoing engagement and success. These topics remain relevant for a longer period of time than time-sensitive or trending topics, making them evergreen content. 

At Go Fish Digital, by incorporating evergreen content into our digital PR strategy for our clients, we create a strong foundation for your brand’s online presence, attract high-quality traffic and leads, and establish your brand as a thought leader within your industry. 

Don’t forget the power of evergreen content – by creating content that remains fresh and useful for years to come, you can drive long-term success for your brand. If you need help with evergreen content for your digital PR campaigns, reach out to Go Fish Digital today. We specialize in digital PR, tangential, branded, and evergreen content for your campaigns. 

Evergreen Content: The Backbone of Digital PR is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.