Hayley Stansfield, Head of Digital PR, deep dives into the importance of tailoring content to strengthen relationships with the media and to reach its target audience.
Back in 2018 I had the pleasure of speaking at a local SEO-focussed digital marketing event, and chose to talk about the importance of digital marketers building stronger relationships with journalists, a topic I’d say still rings true to this day and probably always will.
At that point, I was almost five years into a fast-paced digital marketing environment, having come from a traditional PR background. Within that time, I had to adapt quickly, having learned that my peers, many of whom were also new to ‘link building’, as Digital PR was branded then, had very different tactics for earning top-tier media coverage – it was all about that juicy backlink and not necessarily building strong relationships with the media.
Understanding the benefits of these link placements wasn’t the problem – it made sense. Creating new, high-authority backlinks has a direct impact on a brand’s position in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Page), online visibility and increases authority. So of course, you want that additional benefit of a link to your client’s website you’ve worked hard to create – but it was the type of content that was being created and how it was communicated to journalists that didn’t sit quite right. The tactics used to secure those links were often untargeted, rushed and quite simply, not considerate enough to the journalists they were targeting.
Having come from a more ‘conventional’ PR background that had been all about the exposure from coverage earned (be that print or online) and the AEV (Advertising Equivalent Value) that came with it – that all-important relationship with the journalist was built by only ever providing them content that was useful or insightful to their readers.
Yet, the new tactics I was being exposed to seemed to lack a good level of relevancy to the journalists that I was used to. This sometimes includes generic stories sent to multiple contacts at the same publication and sent out further to a mass of editors of various publications across different sectors. Press releases would be full of mismatched backlinks that weren’t always relevant to the story, making it obvious that for these to be published was the reason only content was being sent.
This showed a lack of consideration for a journalist’s content requirements, style of writing, and specialist topics. It seemed like a very untargeted approach, the opposite of what I found had always worked, and as a result, it would be pure luck that a publication featured the content they were sent and had a much lower success rate.
My personal experience of this made me want to get the balance right; how to secure the backlinks we need for clients – whilst creating, maintaining and growing strong relationships with the media?
Despite the industry now being in a much better place in terms of finding a good middle ground, I believe some disconnect remains. How do we create SEO-worthy backlinks whilst harnessing strong media relations?
So let’s go back to basics and look at what PR is by taking a look at its definition:
‘Public relations (PR) refers to managing how others see and feel about a person, brand, or company. PR for corporations, notably publicly traded companies, focuses on maintaining a positive corporate image while handling media requests and shareholder inquiries.’
To me, that means it’s all about good reputation. So why potentially jeopardise your reputation as a PR professional or agency just because there’s a slight change in the strategy behind your work?
The only real difference between these two types is the strategy, target channels and measuring of results. The tactics used to generate coverage, whether it’s to earn a backlink or not, should always rely on high-quality, unique story-telling content that satisfies its target audience.
Digital PR is all about establishing online credibility by earning the trust of Google, which can be achieved by creating new, relevant and high-authority backlinks. This also means that PR can be measured in a number of ways, such as:
Google also says that in order for content to rank well, we must provide content that covers off four key factors: experience, expertise, authority, and trust – commonly referred to as E-E-A-T.
To put this into context, in 2022, Google’s Core March update focussed on tuning its ranking systems to reduce unhelpful, unoriginal content. By April of that year, Google completed the rollout of those changes, resulting in 45% less low-quality, unoriginal content in search results.
In addition, Google expects content to be focussed on ‘people-first’. This means content should be created primarily for people and not to manipulate search engine rankings, just like a traditional PR story would.
So how do we create a digital PR campaign that’s attractive and mindful of the journalist yet remains in line with Google’s core values?
Expertise-led content is a core tactic of traditional PR, harnessing the power of key spokespeople who is knowledgeable in the sector to add additional insight and substance to a PR campaign or story.
Honing in on an expert opinion regarding the topic you’re writing about provides the reader with a new and unique point of view, whilst helping to position the brand as a market leader in the sector.
This approach is also in line with Google’s ‘Authority’ key ranking factor and adds an element of trust to the content. Another great way to address authority within content for outreach is to use trusted sources and cite them.
A journalist’s key interest will always be about the news hook and the data or story behind your content, not the link you’re trying to include. This shouldn’t be seen as a priority within media material.
Instead, consider how including a link can benefit the publication’s readership. Is it going to add more value to the content? Can readers access the link to find out more information, such as the data behind the campaign? Does a homepage link naturally fit the topic you are speaking about? These considerations ensure that the link is relevant, appeasing the pillar of trust set out by Google.
I hope by now I have hammered home the importance of content being relevant, but that doesn’t just mean to the brand or target landing page you’re trying to link to.
A key focus of any PR strategy should be tailoring your content to an individual journalist’s needs. To do this, take time out to truly understand the topic, style of writing and format of content that your target journalist likes and can work well with.
Consider the potential pain points and topics that the outlet’s readers will find of genuine interest. This may be analysing market trends and sales data to create a new story in line with a trending topic and, crucially, ensuring the story hasn’t been done before.
Journalists will be able to see you’ve taken the time to tailor your content for them. This may be the case of tweaking your headline or quote to suit the publication or target sector, following its content guidelines and even how your press release is structured.
To summarise, any successful digital PR press release or campaign hinges on a solid strategy and engaging content tailored to the target audience, with storytelling coming first.
To find out more about how we generate high-profile media coverage and authoritative, relevant backlinks, check out some of our recent case studies here.
