The PR, or what I call “Outreach,” is an important part of any SEO off-page marketing plan. The role of outreach is crucial to the success of many digital revenue-generating channels, including organic, direct, and referral channels. Many digital agencies and brands find it difficult to conduct high-quality outreach on their own.
Why? Outreach is similar to sales, and most marketers are terrible at selling. I’m not talking about a sales pitch, but about reaching out to potential customers, or in this instance, media outlets, bloggers, or influencers, and pitching a story so they write about you. Many marketers have a hard time with the prospecting part.
We decided to invest for the future after years of trying to improve our blogger outreach here at Power Digital. After struggling to get our SEO Outreach team to wear their sales hats and grow hair on their chests, we decided to invest in the future…What did we do then? We hired an experienced and hungry PR professional. It was the best hire we’ve ever made for our Marketing Agency, and now our outreach efforts are booming.
This investment also benefits our clients’ P&L. I’d like to share some tips and tricks for developing a successful outreach program.
What I learned after hiring a professional in PR
- Public relations professionals are very good at outreach, and they are flexible in developing stories that are worth a publisher’s attention.
- There are some sophisticated tools, such as Cision, that aggregate millions of media outlets. These tools automate the process of building a targeted media list. They make life easier, and you can focus on the important things, like pitching stories.
- Most PR agencies are not aware of the power that digital channels can have when combined with PR. The focus is usually on PR, and they wear blinders. This is a shame for the PR agency, but a great thing for us. Their outreach offer is much more valuable when combined with data and other traffic-driving channels.
Point #3 was interesting to me because I believe that most digital agencies who provide services such as SEO, Content Marketing, and Social Media understand the importance of PR and Outreach. However, they lack the personnel to conduct proper Online PR.
5 Effective Outreach Strategies & Angles
Pull Competitor Profiles
This is a tactic that most SEOs are familiar with. It’s a no-brainer. However, I have yet to find a traditional PR person using this technique or even knowing it was possible.
You can use MOZ’s Open Site Explorer (hyperlink) to pull the “link profile” of any website or, in PR terms, “Past Press Hits.” You can export this list to an Excel document and find gold nuggets in the competitor profiles. You can see the media placements they have received, the angle or story that was used, the author, and gauge the strength of the article by evaluating Page Author Metric.
The article was likely well-received by the audience, and it would be a good choice for a target. If an article has a high page authority (50+), it is likely to be very popular with media outlets or blog readers. It is important to figure out how to get your client into that publication as soon as possible.
Do Something Newsworthy
It is an amazing strategy that many PR professionals use. This type of strategy can lead to viral PR. If you have a good story and a solid promotional system to support it, coverage of an important event can spread like wildfire.
Do you want media attention? It would be best if you did something to attract their attention. It is sometimes easier to say than do, but throwing an event for a group that needs help or making a donation is a good example.
The answer is different for every client, but I suggest putting on your consumer hat and thinking about what your target audience would find interesting to read in relation to your brand or your market segment. Hold a whiteboard brainstorming session with a group of creative people. Bring up a few angles that are newsworthy and gauge the reaction of the media.
Promote Great Content by Creating it.
This indeed requires a lot of work and dedication, but it works. You can create valuable content, such as blogs, eBooks, and online quizzes. Or you can produce infographics and videos.
Here are two resources to help you come up with ideas on premium content frameworks you can use for outreach and create content around.
Neil Patel, a digital expert we all know: 15 types of content that work
Russ Henneberry, Director of Editorial for Digital Marketer: blog post ideas. This article is full of gold that will fuel your content calendar in the coming year.
It’s a tactic that is more SEO- and Content Marketing-centric. I believe many PR firms ignore it, but it does work. It is a valuable medium, as it helps to build the credibility of a brand. The brand got a great PR hit but also got cited for its thought leadership. This clarifies the story of the brand and helps to build its reputation.
If you are not newsworthy, get in bed with someone who is
Aligning your brand to another organization with a compelling story can be an excellent Sherpa in your outreach efforts. This Sherpa could be a nonprofit organization, university, club, or even a startup with a great mission. Find an organization you can support that is doing something you believe in, and give them a little scratch on the back. You can benefit from their success if you help them.
You will get the best results from these five outreach angles if you focus on one or two of them and make an effort. This must be a daily priority, or you won’t win. Be prepared to hear a lot of “NO” before you receive a “YES.” This ratio is likely to be at least 30 to 1. You should have a large list of prospects so you can receive a lot of no’s, but also enough to make the YESes worthwhile.