Digital PR can help rankings, organic traffic and more.

The term digital PR may differ slightly depending on who you ask.

We recently discussed the differences between US and UK digital PR with Rise at Seven’s Will Hobson on our podcast.

But ultimately, the goal is the same: to get high-authority links to boost rankings and brand awareness.

As digital PR continues to grow and refine worldwide, with new agencies and sites adopting the strategy daily, we thought it was worth exploring how brands use digital PR to support their SEO goals.

No two brands are the same, but there are some key strategies that you can use in digital PR to help support SEO.

How Does Digital PR Help SEO?

In short, studies show that getting high-authority links can improve rankings.

Most wield digital PR by getting links to a page directly and then internally linking to a secondary page that they want to get ranking.

Link building does not happen in a vacuum. We’ve all but confirmed that other factors, like clicks, may also impact rankings.

So, first, I’ll show you some studies showing a strong correlation between ranking and links. Later in this post, I’ll show you significant evidence of organic traffic boosts from digital PR to individual pages.

Last, I’ll discuss directional metrics that ultimately make up the digital PR mindset.

Links Impact Site Authority

Several flagship studies have shown a correlation between overall site authority metrics and backlinks.

One study from Backlinko analyzed over 1.18 million keywords and the top ten ranking URLs for each to identify correlations.

They found that the top-ranking result in Google has almost four times more backlinks than positions 2-10.

Another point found that Ahrefs Domain Rating correlates with higher rankings.

SEMRush’s Ranking Factors Study analyzed over 16,000 keywords and analyzed the top 20 positions and their performance.

As you can see in the image below, several backlink factors (in yellow), including domain authority, number of referring domains, and number of backlinks, are highly correlated with ranking.

A study from Internet Marketing Ninjas found that over 96% of websites ranking in the top 10 of Google had more than 1,000 unique referring domains.

However, not all links are equal. In our post about the number of backlinks you need, I showed how looking at the raw quantity of links is misleading.

Sites need quality, relevant backlinks to improve their domain’s authority and rank for keywords.

Another Moz study reached similar conclusions. In 2021, it examined the first 20 organic results for every MozCast keyword (10,000 keywords).

They, too, found that the number of links to a page was highly correlated with ranking.

They also found that Page Authority was highly correlated with ranking, meaning that links from authoritative sources play a bigger role.

After the 2024 Google leak, even more potential connections between ranking and links have come to light.

What the Google Leak Says

Many SEOs have found connections between links and ranking based on the leaked documentation from Google.

The documentation mentions a locality and bucket when referencing links and ranking:

A link’s quality is categorized as low, medium, and high:

Many believe this supports Google’s use of a link’s relevancy and quality for ranking purposes.

The documentation even supports evidence that Google can track links across pages even when not directly linked.

This supports the common digital PR practice of getting links to a page and then passing that link value internally via an internal link to a product or service page. (More on that later.)

There’s a lot of evidence to support how high-authority, relevant links can impact rankings. But let’s look deeper at where Google is headed with AI and LLMs.

AI Wants Unique Information

Google wants things they haven’t seen before.

After the Helpful Content Update, many sites were penalized for simply regurgitating the same information as everyone else. (Though Google does seem to show bias to news sites—more on this later.)

One of the central tenets of their self-assessment has been to provide “original information, reporting, research, or analysis,” as seen below.

But the future brings even more adjustments to Google, including AI.

LLMs Need Fresh Information

Campaigns that provide unique data are primed to succeed during AI.

Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews need fresh information and data. When they cite information, you can be cited within that.

Check out the example below of how ZipRecruiter is getting mentioned in the AI Overview and then cited as a source below:

So, by providing unique data in your content, you put yourself in the best position to rank and get links and exposure over time.

But Are Links the Cause of the Rankings or the Result?

In some cases, they can go hand-in-hand. In the next section of this post, I will show you how many brands use content to build links and organic traffic over time.

Some might argue that you build links because a post is ranking, not vice versa.

This can be the case sometimes.

A well-known brand like Nike may not need to manually build links to help their pages rank because they naturally get mentioned in the press.

Some keywords have high link intent and are often searched for and cited within blog posts or news articles.

Sites focusing on these high-link intent keywords can gain more links over time (as we’ll see next.)

Let’s look at how to run a digital PR campaign that ticks SEO boxes.

Using Digital PR to Increase Rankings

In all cases, finding that happy ground between keyword-driven content and pitchable digital PR content is where you can make the most significant impact.

You can drive relevant organic traffic and bring in high-quality, relevant links.

The challenge is always how to make keyword-driven content link-worthy.

The answer is with unique content.

So, let’s look at some examples of how brands do this to improve their SEO.

Best Cities for X

In a “best cities” or “index” campaign, the goal is to create a ranking of cities, states, or countries, rank them, and then pitch the winners (or losers) to those regional news publications.

Most start by identifying keywords that are relevant to their industry. For instance, here is a snapshot of keywords with “best cities for”:

The question to ask is, can this get me relevant links? Can this get me coverage from a place that makes sense and supports my statements?

For example, when creating digital PR for a construction rental company, I knew I wanted to focus on construction industry publications.

However, it might not be that obvious. Sometimes, you must leave your primary service offering area to get links.

For example, WalletHub is a personal finance publication. They rank for hundreds of “best cities for X” queries tangentially related to personal finance.

Take a look at this snapshot from Ahrefs Site Explorer:

Digging into the backlink profiles for these posts, you’ll see a steady stream of backlinks and increasing organic traffic over time.

You can also see short surges of traffic right when the post is published, pitched, and subsequently updated and repitched.

For example, here are the best cities for families:

But, to make this work, you don’t have to be a high-authority site like WalletHub.

Here is a DR 63 site that did a post about the best cities for runners:

Here is a DR 42 site that looked at the best cities for biking:

Again, you can see the impact of the digital PR campaign on organic traffic at publishing and right at the time of the update.

One thing you may notice is that the traffic is waning between updates. This is due to a few factors, but “best cities” don’t always have much interest year-round. And if sites aren’t getting clicks or searches, the traffic can drop.

So, let’s look at a keyword type that can get more consistent traffic: statistics.

Statistics Posts

Statistics posts are any kind of post that rounds up relevant statistics about a current subject and presents them in a digestible, easily citable way in a post.

The way these work for digital PR and SEO is that they have both search volume and high link intent, meaning they are topics often searched for and cited.

For instance, here is the link profile for a customer service statistics post. You can see that it slowly gains links over time.

However, to truly make this digital PR, you must pitch them first. And to make something pitchable, you need to give something of value.

Value can be something like a pitchable asset, such as this construction statistics post, which includes an infographic that can be pitched for coverage:

But another way to create value is by using proprietary data for your statistics posts.

This is data that no one else has and can be extremely valuable when pitched correctly. (Check out how to pitch media.)

Hubspot’s Marketing Statistics report is an excellent example of this.

They survey and publish their data results each year. As you can see, their links grow along with the organic traffic (although it dips a bit yearly, it’s not nearly as drastic as the city studies mentioned above).

They rank for “marketing statistics” and get links over time.

However, statistics keywords aren’t the only ones with high link intent. Other general data queries can bring in passive links while still being pitchable.

Let’s look at these next.

Data-related queries

General data-related queries can also have high link intent. If you can make these pitchable, you can see gains across organic and links.

This study from Attentive is based on proprietary survey data, giving them something unique to pitch, while being also setting themselves up to rank.

It ranks for “millennial shopping habits,” which gives it high link intent but also a monthly search volume of 80.

Looking at the overview in Ahrefs, you can already see the traffic and link gains moving together.

Here’s another piece by Insurify that looks at the most ticketed cars. They used their proprietary data from thousands of insurance claims to determine the car models that get the most speeding tickets.

Then, they pitched it for coverage.

This piece ranks for “most ticketed cars in america”, which gets 250 searches per month, and has accrued over 400 links.

You also see a boost in links and rankings when they published and refreshed.

(There is slightly more than meets the eye to this post as it was updated after Insurify’s merger with Compare, which is most likely why you see that big boost with the publish date.)

But let’s look outside the data-related queries and into my favorite (and most underutilized) way to tie digital PR to SEO: informational queries. That’s up next.

Informational Queries

You can also get creative with how you tie digital PR campaigns to keywords.

If you can take any old question and provide proprietary data to make your content pitchable, you are uniquely set up to rank for the keyword and grow links over time.

Casper took the informational query “couples’ sleeping positions,” which gets 800 monthly searches, and made it pitchable by gathering their proprietary data.

They answered the query in the post by listing the different sleeping positions and what they meant, but then they supplemented the post with survey data to pitch to journalists.

You can see from the results that the piece gains organic traffic and links over time.

In all of these cases, digital PR directly impacts organic traffic.

Next, we’ll examine how brands use digital PR to build domain authority.

Using Digital PR to Increase Rankings Indirectly

Building links to a product page or money page can be challenging. So, the common practice is to create links to related content and then internally link to a money page or home page.

Most digital PR campaigns use the indirect approach to supporting rankings.

Because of this indirect relationship, you are more likely to find directional data supporting the campaigns.

Here are some signals you can look at with this tactic:

Money Page Traffic Increase

With this tactic, you can pass some of that link value to help your money page rank specifically.

I say “some” of that value because it is unclear how much passes through via an internal link. (It is safe to say that if it were 100%, then we’d see everyone’s money pages ranking all over the place.)

But if you remember this graphic from earlier, it is clear Google may track this kind of internal linking:

So, this is what we mean when discussing using digital PR to help SEO indirectly. You both boost the overall site domain authority, making it easier to rank overall, and you boost a specific page through internal linking.

The digital PR campaign below by ScrapCarComparison looked at how dirty car interiors are.

They got over 190 referring domains, and while it doesn’t rank for a keyword, you can see that they link to one of their money pages at the top of the piece.

This way, all the link value gained can be funneled to their money page. Then, if we look at the money page itself (which is a page about scrapping cars), we can perhaps see a brief boost.

Homepage Traffic Increase

You can also look at homepage traffic increases.

One of my favorite posts of all time is from Signs.com. They asked users to try to draw common logos from memory and plotted them on a graphic based on their proximity to the actual logo.

This has drawn over 500 referring domains over time.

And when you look at the impact, there is a boost in traffic to their homepage around the time that piece went live and began gaining links.

See that next bump in March 2020?

A very successful post about coronavirus signage went live then. In the below you can see a screenshot below of the burst of links right after March 2020 that coincides with the boost in the overall traffic:

These may not be the only cause behind the spike in traffic during those timeframes, but they play a part.

A Mix of Metrics

As you can tell, it’s virtually impossible to give a 1-to-1 attribution in this fashion.

Your money page or homepage traffic may increase based on numerous other factors, such as social or traditional PR.

Your digital PR campaigns can also increase brand awareness, increase interest in the brand, and send more traffic to your homepage.

So, this is where you start looking at directional gains rather than individual metrics. Sure, you can have a KPI of links per campaign, but connecting the dots to sitewide rankings becomes more difficult.

This makes sense because digital PR (and other tactics) should be part of the marketing mix, not your entire strategy.

Do You Want Homepage Links or Links to Content?

From an SEO perspective, if the content targets a keyword, get a link to the content.

If your brand isn’t well known or growing, getting links to your homepage may be more beneficial to establish some authority and awareness in the space.

But, for an established brand, linking to a blog might make more sense, though I’ve seen it go both ways.

Either way, if you are getting links to a homepage, ensure that it is optimized to pass value to your priority pages by linking to them prominently on the page.

What to Think About in the Pitch Process

Digital PR doesn’t end with a great piece of content. The pitch process is just as crucial to supporting your SEO goals.

Here are a few tips for ensuring your pitch gets you the best value.

1. Pitch to Quality, Relevant Sites

When building your target list, getting links from relevant sites is critical.

Google’s leaked documentation may show that links from highly clicked sections are worth more than those from low clicked sections.

Since most cannot access a website’s click data, you can lean on relevance and homepage.

Most sites highlight their homepage’s most important/relevant sections.

For instance, a site like Timeout, based on its homepage, mainly focuses on travel. You see it in the tagline.

And it’s one of the only categories they highlight on the homepage:

So, getting a link from them about a travel study would most likely hold more weight in Google’s eyes.

2. Pitch to Sites That Get Updated Frequently

The documentation also shows evidence that Google considers links from frequently updated sites.

What this primarily points to is news sites, aka digital PR.

3. Pitch to Sites That Provide Follow Links

Although new evidence shows that Google tracks unlinked and nofollow links, the most direct value is from followed, linked mentions.

So, to get the most SEO value out of a campaign, we should focus only on sites that provide follow-links.

You can easily tell if a link is a follow link using an SEO extension like Nofollow.

I cover this extensively in my post about building a media list from scratch.

4. Push Your Brand Keywords in Your Pitch

Anchor text and the surrounding text are essential for SEO. (Again, the new leaked documentation supports this.)

So, you want to ensure that your brand name is mentioned correctly.

Since many journalists copy exactly from a pitch, you can nudge them in the right direction by providing your brand name and a short description they will likely include in the article.

For example, if I were pitching a study to a journalist from our site, I’d say “a study by email outreach tool, BuzzStream.”

If you’re interested in learning more, we have some comprehensive articles on writing media pitches and email outreach templates.

5. Follow Up to Ask for a Link

Sometimes, journalists link incorrectly. They may forget to link, link to the wrong page, or sometimes even use a click-tracking link instead of your link.

Although journalists are incredibly busy, if your goal is to support SEO, it is always in your best interest to follow up and ask them to change the link.

The email draft would look something like this:

I wrote a whole guide about finding and claiming your unlinked mentions.

6. Maintain SEO Best Practices Sitewide

This might be obvious, but if your site doesn’t follow SEO best practices, you are hindering your digital PR performance.

You may get links, but to effectively support your core keywords or domain authority, you don’t want something like site speed or keyword cannibalization slowing you down.

SEO Doesn’t Equal Leads

To wrap up here, it’s worth mentioning that good SEO doesn’t always mean you are converting customers, generating leads, or turning a profit with a website.

SEO can support organic and some branding goals, but you need to consider the entire funnel for a customer.

Digital PR can be wielded for bottom-funnel keywords, but it is limited.

Think of digital PR as a supporting player in the entire marketing mix. You can integrate it into conversion goals, but if that’s the only thing you are leaning on for leads, you may be limited in what you can accomplish.

The post Digital PR and SEO: Getting The Most Value Out of Campaigns appeared first on BuzzStream.

We even had an entire podcast episode devoted to the differences between digital PR strategies US and UK with Rise at Seven’s Will Hobson.

Some people refer to digital PR as content-led link building. But there is a lot more to digital PR. There are also asset-less digital PR strategies that include pitching quotes to journalists.

Ultimately, digital PR is designed to build high-authority links to help you build your brand and rank better.

Instead of showing you digital PR examples by industry, I’ve broken it down into different ideation strategies and vehicles that drive the content.

Since most people reading this are interested in ideas for their brands or clients, I will avoid showcasing publications like NYTimes, Pudding, or VisualCapitalist, as well as independent artists and content creators like Neal Agarwal or others you might find on r/dataisbeautiful.

Those are all great examples of content that gets links and coverage, but they aren’t as helpful if you want to replicate them as a brand.

So, without further ado, here are some of the best digital PR examples that work today.

Keyword-Driven Digital PR

Strategically tying keywords to digital PR campaigns has many benefits. I actually wrote a whole post about tying search volume to a digital PR survey-type campaign.

• If you can tie search volume to your digital PR campaigns, you can get extra value out of the links that you build.
• Alternatively, you may need a little boost for some lower to mid-authority sites to get ranking. I refer to this as “jump-start link building.”
• Lastly, bigger brands that don’t necessarily need many links to rank can rank more quickly with a little link building.

Building links to a product, service, or “money” page can be challenging. Many brands utilize digital PR to drive links to an asset and then use internal linking to direct SEO or link value to their money page. (More on this in a bit.)

You have to go further up the funnel to find relevant keywords for your brand while still maintaining pitchability.

So, let’s take a look at a couple of examples.

1. Most Affordable Cities to Buy a House from Homebuyer.com

Strategy: Building a pitchable city “index” study around a mid-funnel keyword.

Homebuyer.com is a lender for first-time home buyers. When I worked for them, I helped create a post around the cheapest cities to buy a home.

To create the index (as some call it), I weighted a handful of criteria, such as homeowners insurance and transportation costs, and then assigned scores for over 800 cities.

Then, I divided the post into four sections: an overall list of affordable cities and a list of affordable large, medium, and small cities.

How to pitch: This gave me four rankings lists that I could pitch to journalists in the local media outlets in the top-ranking cities.

But since it’s a nationwide study, I knew national pubs would be interested.

Results: While the search term “cheapest cities to buy a house” isn’t likely to lead users to buy directly, it has a traffic potential of 3.6k monthly searches. They rank #5, and it has bought in over 80 LRD (Linking root domains, aka backlinks from unique sites.)

Coverage came from high-authority media like Yahoo, Lifehacker, and local news sites for top-ranking cities like Chicago and Cleveland.

Whereas the primary goal of this Homebuyer.com post was to raise awareness of the top-mid funnel, it is possible to achieve a lower funnel.

Next are two examples of search-driven keywords related to tools that are pitchable for coverage and can serve as bottom-funnel lead generators for companies.

2. Pinrose’s Fragrance Quiz

Strategy: Building a pitchable interactive tool that serves as a bottom-funnel, keyword-driven asset.

Pinrose is a fragrance company that sells candles, perfumes, and lotions. Using the “science of synesthesia,” they created a tool to help you choose a scent that works for you.

By the end of the 9-question quiz, Pinrose presents you with recommendations to buy.

How to pitch: This approach gives Pinrose an asset when pitching to beauty and lifestyle journalists. These journalists talk about topics like fragrances, and since their readers would also value a quiz like this, it makes it much easier to pitch.

They also gain links for a relevant keyword by tying this to search volume.

Results: You can see coverage from lifestyle publishers like Self and TeenVogue, aligning with Pinrose’s buyer persona.

Then, because of their link building, the asset ranks for the keyword “perfume quiz,” which brings in 2.3K monthly searches. This traffic is highly relevant and much further down the funnel.

Interactive tools like this are a tremendous way to build quality links via a digital PR asset. Because they are shareable and tied to search volume, they can even grow links passively—more on that approach next.

3. Hubspot Marketing Statistics

Strategy: Gathering proprietary data to make a pitchable search-driven post (with high link intent).

You can grow links passively by targeting a keyword with high link intent. This is where some of the digital PR lines get a bit blurry because these topics can be harder to pitch.

However, if you can find the right topic, you can have great success growing links over time.

Statistics posts are some of the most common examples of this. These are keyword phrases that writers search for when researching an article.

To create these posts, you can gather statistics from the web (most people do this) or utilize your proprietary data (which is much more effective in the long run). If it’s interesting, you can pitch it for coverage.

Let’s look at how Hubspot does this with their Marketing Statistics post.

They’ve compiled their statistics into a post with research, breaking it down into categories like content marketing statistics and social media, as well as subcategories like blogging or content strategy.

How to pitch: They not only have the statistics (most of which are proprietary data), but they’ve also collected everything into one massive report. This report becomes a shareable asset, and they can pitch to get links from high-authority marketing industry sites.

It also becomes information that anyone discussing marketing may want to cite passively.

Results: The coverage shows that they achieved both. They’ve got links from highly authoritative industry sites like Inc.com, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, and CBS News, as well as marketing sites like Shopify and Salesforce.

They refresh the statistics yearly, so their link profile has climbed to almost 14,000 Linking Root Domains (LRD).

Tip: AI Overview may help this approach even more. Google shows statistics and cites sources. (However, the ones I see don’t always cite the original source.)

But statistics are the only way to gain passive links. Let’s look at another keyword-driven post.

4. Casper’s Couples Sleeping Positions

Strategy: Using survey data to make a (non-passive link intent) keyword-driven post pitchable.

In a Casper post I worked on, we chose a keyword—couples sleeping positions—and built a blog post around it.

But, to jump-start it, we also gathered some proprietary data.

Why?

So that we could make this more enticing to pitch.

How to pitch: With a shareable asset with brand new data, we could pitch to high-authority sites to discuss relationships, sleep health, and other wellness pubs.

Results: The result was coverage from publications like Marriage.com and HealthDigest. Over time, the post gained passive links because it also ranked for “couples sleeping positions.”

But keyword-driven content is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s my favorite from a strategic point of view, but it can be challenging to get very creative.

So, let’s get into some of the more “link-baity” kinds of digital PR.

Visual-Led Content

One of the best content types is visual-led. Photos, graphics, and data are easily shared, and stories are told through the most accessible medium.

So, let’s look at how some brands do this successfully through digital PR!

5. Signs.com Branded in Memory

Strategy: Using an enticing graphic illustration to build links.

One of my favorite pieces of all time is one from Signs.com (so much so that I mentioned it in my talk at SearchLove in 2019.) It’s not a particularly interesting industry (no offense to Signs.com), but they have the visual aspect to lean into.

So, for this piece, they took 10 famous logos, such as Apple, Ikea, and Target, and asked people to draw them from memory.

The result is a fascinating look at how well (or not well) people can remember images and logos they see.

Take a look at the Apple logos:

How to pitch: Because of the broad focus of topics covered, they could pitch everyone from high-end news to design sites.

Results: The resulting coverage is well over 1200 LRDs and came not only from high-end news sources like DailyMail and Houston Chronicle, design sites like CreativeBloq and Core77 but also brand-specific blogs mentioned in the piece like MacRumors.

Plus, it’s not just a flashy post designed to get links. It’s an advertisement for Signs.com.

If consumers forget what your logo looks like, your business may need better branding.

This was done in 2017, but a study like this can 100% be done today as a digital PR campaign. It’s been replicated in industries like VanMonster’s Motors By Memory from 2020, which has 200 LRD.

6. Perceptions of Perfection Across Borders From SuperDrug

Strategy: Using an enticing photograph to build links.

SuperDrug, a remote healthcare service in the UK, took another approach to a similar concept. They asked artists worldwide to Photoshop an image of a woman, making her, “in their opinion, more attractive to other citizens of their country.”

How to pitch: Since the piece has a highlight image for various countries, they could pitch this to regional news publications in each country featured. Due to the subject matter, they could also pitch to lifestyle, wellness, or beauty sites.

Results: They earned almost 400 LRD from major publications like DailyMail, Huffington Post, and the Telegraph.

The “re-imagined” concept used to work well. We did one long ago that reimagined famous comic book strips as popular TV shows.

It’s still some of my favorite artwork.

However, the concept somewhat played out. Google “Disney princesses reimagined as” and you’ll see what I mean:

But AI image generators like Midjourney and DALL-E are breathing some new life into this.

For example, here are states reimagined as shoes, as done by KURU Footwear:

Given the proliferation of independent artists and social platforms, you’ll find that most publications are more likely to share artist renditions rather than major brands.

I’ve found that data visualization is the better option these days. Let’s examine an example.

7. WriterBuddy AI Tools Industry Analysis

Strategy: Using an enticing data visualization to build links.

To me, a graph isn’t data visualization. Technically, it is, but it typically isn’t interesting enough to inspire coverage on its own.

So, let’s look at how WriterBuddy made data more exciting and visually engaging.

They investigated the available AI tools, such as ChatGPT or Bard (now named Gemini), and explored the traffic they received in a given timeframe.

Then, they created a shareable data visualization:

How to pitch: The pitch process is more impactful with a shareable visual because sometimes the visual can do the heavy lifting for you. I recommend putting the visual right into the email pitch. A picture says a thousand words.

One note is that visual-led content only works when you invest in the design of a post. The above visual might cost ~$1-2K from a good data visualization artist. But as you can see, the results below show that it is a good investment.

Results: They ended up close to 700 LRD with major coverage from publications like Forbes and Cnet.

As you can see, you can also use data to drive stories and power visuals. So, let’s shift focus to data study types in digital PR.

Data-Led Digital PR

This section overlaps with some previous sections in terms of content type and presentation, but since data-led campaigns are one of the best ways, if not the best way, to win in digital PR in 2024, I think it deserves its own focus.

From an SEO perspective, providing new data and research is one of the things that Google mentions in their Helpful Content “self-assessment.”

As Google continues to roll out AI features, it will continually seek new data points to feed its LLM.

You can pull third-party data from government sites, online databases, APIs, and hundreds if not thousands of other sources. If you’re lucky enough to have proprietary data, that’s the best.

So, let’s start there.

8. Insurance.com’s Most Ticketed Cars

Strategy: Using internal data to create a pitchable post.

Insurance site Insurance.com lets you compare quotes for various insurance types. As users fill out online forms, they constantly collect data.

For instance, to get auto insurance quotes, the tool asks for your car’s make and model and the number of tickets you’ve received.

So, after realizing they were sitting on a treasure trove of interesting information, Insurance.com decided to use this data to create a piece of content showing how many tickets your car model gets.

How to pitch: This approach lets Insurance.com pitch to journalists covering the auto industry and auto sites, but since it has an interactive element that makes the user the star, they can also pitch to general news sites.

Results: This got over 90 LRD from sites like Forbes, MSN, and USA Today and many auto sites like MotorTrend and TheDrive.

However, not all sites have access to internal data sets like Insurance.com, but you can create your own proprietary data through third-party survey platforms. Let’s look at that next.

9. MattressNerd Nation of Nappers

Strategy: Using survey data from a full-service paid platform to create a pitchable post.

Mattress review sites are trendy. So, it’s essential to stand out in any way you can. MattressNerd went the digital PR route to gain links and eyeballs on their brand.

They used a paid, third-party survey platform, OnePoll, to gather responses from 2,000 people about their napping habits.

The study found interesting insights, such as that nappers are more productive than non-nappers and that others would take a pay cut if they could nap on the job.

How to pitch: This approach allows them to pitch to relevant sites or blogs about sleep and lifestyle or general news publications.

Results: Ultimately, the piece has over 90 LRD and coverage from top news sites like the NY Post, Huffington Post, and the Sun.

10. Preply’s Why Are Americans Obsessed with Subtitles?

Strategy: Using survey data from a self-service platform to create a pitchable post.

Preply is a peer-to-peer language tutoring site. So, communication is an excellent arena for them to play and ideate in.

They studied subtitle use based on a stat about how younger generations prefer to watch content with subtitles.

They asked general subtitle usage questions and which celebs were hardest to understand (Tom Hardy, of course!).

And to tie it back to Preply, there was even a question about using subtitles to understand a foreign language better.

How to pitch: This can appeal to mass audiences, making their prospect list every general news pub. However, it could also narrow the focus and pitch to movie and TV-related publications and blogs (which number in the thousands).

Results: The survey tapped into something special because it ended up with over 800 LRD, including coverage from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, TimeOut, ArsTechnica, and foreign sites like Observatório docinema and El País.

11. Angi Home Renovations Confidence Survey

Strategy: Using survey data from a full-service paid platform to create a pitchable post.

Angi is an online marketplace for those looking to connect with professionals for home projects and services.

So, it makes sense for them to lean into a home renovation survey.

There is always some trepidation about starting a home renovation project, so this study leaned into that. They asked how people feel about the home renovation process, whether they add value, whether DIY is better, etc.

How to pitch: In our email outreach templates post, we outline great ways to pitch surveys like this one. This survey has a finance and home improvement angles, appealing to a large audience of high-authority publications.

Results: The piece ended up with over 50 LRD, with coverage from major publications like FoxNews and industry-relevant publications like realtor sites.

Some journalists say that the survey platform affects coverage, so let’s look at one more digital PR example: YouGov, which uses a third-party survey platform to gather data.

(I’m not saying one is better, but since this is a post of examples, I want to show as much range as possible.)

12. ResumeBuilder’s AI Interview Study

Strategy: Using survey data from a full-service paid platform to create a pitchable post.

Many content creators gather data from self-service platforms like YouGov, SurveyMonkey, and Pollfish.

One study from ResumeBuilder.com used SurveyMonkey to craft a survey around the interview process from a company hiring standpoint.

Although this doesn’t necessarily relate to their core audience of job seekers, it is still more than relevant enough to build authoritative links from the right kinds of sites.

Their campaign asked employees involved in the hiring process to determine whether and how they’d use AI in the interview process going forward.

The study had interesting findings, such as AI being mainly used for screening questions. A survey like this for ResumeBuilder can help bring relevant, authoritative links to their site.

How to pitch: This topic allows ResumeBuilder to pitch to general technology-focused sites, small business sites, and the HR/job-seeker market, which is right in their wheelhouse.

Results: They received over 160 LRD from sites like ZDNet, CBSNews, and NBC, as well as industry-related sites like Workable and HRDaily.

Self-service platforms are typically cheaper than full-service, so some opt for self-service. But let’s look at an example from full service next.

With some of these surveys, successful brands will try to run it back annually, quarterly, or monthly.

If you have a data-savvy team, you can get creative with collecting data in other ways.

13. BuzzBingo’s Profanity in Film

Strategy: Using scraped data to create a pitchable post.

Scraping tools like Webscraper.io or ScrapingBee allow you to scrape any available dataset online.

This is a great way to unearth or analyze data that may otherwise be hidden or too time-consuming for journalists and publishers to find. If you can find a good angle, it can be extremely sharable.

Online gambling site BuzzBingo found a tremendous f*ing angle.

Using scraping tools, BuzzBingo looked at the text from 3,565 film scripts, cross-referenced them with lists of curse words, and then ranked the films and actors with the most profanity.

They also looked at swearing over time to add other angles for pitching.

How to pitch: With a film-focused post, they could really dive into high-authority cinema sites, but because they also focus on celebrities, they could tap into mass media news as well.

Results: This campaign garnered over 800 LRD from top publications and social media mentions from actual celebrities like Jonah Hill and Samuel L Jackson, who were mentioned in the study.

Sometimes, the data for your survey doesn’t exist yet, so you need to find it yourself.

14. Backlinko’s Voice Search Study

Strategy: Using manually gathered data to create a pitchable post.

Backlinko’s Brian Dean was on our podcast in an episode about using data trends. He talked about a study he did for Backlinko right when a voice search came out.

As an authority in the SEO space, he wanted to dive into the new world of voice search.

No datasets existed, so he was forced to gather the data old-fashioned: manually asking 10,000 questions to a Google Home and recording the answers to create a proper data study.

The study looked at data points such as response length, reading level, and the pages on which it appeared.

How to pitch: Since this post bridged the gap between tech and marketing, it can appeal to both markets. And since the data collection method is unique, you could even mention that in the pitch (I’m not sure if Brian did).

Results: The current number is over 3000 LRD, with links from Inc, Entrepreneur, and Forbes, as well as industry-relevant coverage from Wix, Hubspot, and SEMRush.

In Brian’s words: “If you’re willing to put in that little elbow grease, you’d be surprised what you can accomplish with this sort of stuff.”

If you succeed with a single study, you can sometimes repeat it with new data for the next year.

So, let’s dive into some examples of recurring digital PR content next.

Recurring Content

Some brands release recurring content to refresh data, establish trends, create anticipation and buzz from journalists, or all three.

Let’s look at a few successful examples of those.

15. Bankrate’s Annual Emergency Savings Report

Strategy: Establishing an annually-recurring, data-led piece.

Bankrate covers all things financial.

They have been around for a long time and have garnered a lot of authority in that time.

They keep getting eyeballs on their content through recurring surveys, like their Annual Emergency Savings Report for 2023 and 2024.

In it, they survey Americans about their saving habits, including how much they save, how highly they prioritize saving, and more.

How to pitch: This is a financial piece that addresses a general population, so any news site would fit in a pitch. Since it’s a recurring post, it’s essential to call that out in the pitch and focus on any gains or losses from the previous post.

Results: The resulting coverage is massive. And the fact that they publish on the same URL each year allows for cumulative link gains.

The post currently has over 8,000 LRD, and the bump will be visible in 2024 when they re-release their new survey.

However, yearly studies can be extensive, and some don’t want to wait long between publications. So, let’s look at a monthly report next.

16. CNBC|SurveyMonkey (Monthly) Workforce Survey

Strategy: Establishing a monthly data-led piece.

Speaking of SurveyMonkey, they are also involved in digital PR.

Given that they are a survey platform, it’s only fitting that they run a survey campaign.

They publish a monthly Workforce survey as part of a co-marketing collaboration with CNBC.

It asks questions covering the gamut of employee happiness, such as whether they want to start their own business, how enthusiastic they are about work, and how open they are to discussing politics.

How to pitch: Employee happiness appeals to HR and job seeker markets, but it can also fit in high-authority wellness sites, as mental health is playing a much more significant role in the news these days.

The fact that this is monthly allows them to highlight trends and changes, making the story much more enjoyable for journalists who want to cover it.

Results: Each month gets about 30-75 LRD and coverage from relevant, high-authority sites.

Getting Regional Coverage

The region coverage game is a highly successful strategy for many digital PR agencies and brands looking to generate news links.

I also referred to them in the keyword-driven section at the beginning of this article, but we’ll go a little further here.

It has one of the broadest outreach markets, allowing for extensive coverage.

So, let’s look at a few versions of this.

17. Expensivity’s Burger Economics

Strategy: Creating a piece for worldwide coverage.

Expensivity is a financial information site that covers topics like investing, credit cards, and insurance.

These sites (like Bankrate) are very competitive, so I’ll show you how Expensivity leans on digital PR to get links and help build authority.

In this piece, they looked at the price of McDonald’s in every country.

This interesting approach compares common benchmarks, such as the price of a Big Mac and a Happy Meal, in every country.

How to pitch: By focusing on every country, they could pitch this worldwide. As discussed in the data-led and visual section, a solid visual component makes it easier for journalists worldwide to understand.

Result: The result was over 100 LRD, including coverage worldwide, including the UK’s The Sun, Canada’s Globe and Mail, and Japan’s Big Globe.

18. Wordtips’ United States of Cussing

Strategy: Creating a piece for national US coverage.

As we saw in the post about Profanity in Film, curse words get links.

So, WordFinder site Wordtips also decided to lean into the language of swearing for a digital PR campaign.

They used Twitter (now X) data to create a map showing when, where, and how different states curse.

How to Pitch: By pairing a potential buzzworthy idea with geography, they expanded the outreach market. The map below helps this get regional coverage.

Each state becomes an interesting data point for a journalist to share.

Results: They ended up with almost 300 LRD, with coverage from local pubs in Alabama, Louisiana, and NY and more general coverage from publishers like Mental Floss.

So far, these studies have creatively presented data, but their methodology has been a little less data-heavy. Let’s look at a more traditional “index” or “city study” in the next piece.

19. CoworkingCafe’s America’s Top Cities for Work/Life Balance & Mental Health

Strategy: Creating a piece for regional city coverage.

I’m writing this piece during Mental Health Awareness Month in May. So it’s fitting to share Coworking Cafe’s study about the top cities for work/life balance and mental health.

To create this list, they needed to conduct an extensive data study and determine which factors best represent “mental health and work/life balance.”

So, they focused on U.S. cities with at least 200,000 residents and scored their piece based on factors like average work hours per week, green spaces, and recreational amenities (among others).

Then, they scored the cities to create the index below:

Each category gets weighted differently, and each city is scored accordingly.

How to pitch: With the information broken down and scored, they can contact local publications for the top-ranking (or sometimes bottom-ranking if it’s newsworthy) cities.

You can even lean into city “rivalry,” as I explained in a recent newsletter.

Results: They gained over 75 LRD, and their coverage came from many local publications. They also received links from colleges and universities in the cities that ranked highly on the list, which is a great alternate angle for these indexes.

Let’s step away from data and get into digital PR examples with interactive elements.

Interactives

Interactive content is typically high effort but can have high rewards. Most require developers and designers. However, with AI these days, you can code pretty much anything.

(Check out how UK agency Distinctly is working on building a digital PR campaign using only ChatGPT.)

With that in mind, let’s look at some interactive pieces in various industries.

20. JustPark’s Reaction Time Test 

Strategy: Creating an interactive game.

JustPark is a UK parking app that lets users reserve or rent out parking spaces. So, they could focus their content on driving.

They created an interactive game that simulates driving and gauges your reaction time.

Then, your results are compared to those of the typical age.

Games like these are great for building links because they have built-in sharing triggers.

For example, when I got my score, I immediately wanted to brag about it to my friends. (I may be 37, but I still have the reaction time of a spry young buck!)

How to pitch: Since this appeals to drivers, there is obviously a built-in outreach market there. But they cleverly positioned this as a reaction test, not a “driver test.” So, this appeals to the mass media outlets as well.

Interactives can sometimes be challenging to pitch, so I’ve seen some PRs that include animated GIFs or at least screenshots.

Results: This interactive digital PR campaign got them over 1,300 LRDs, including many UK-specific outlets like DailyMail and Metro. They were also featured in many international sites like Larepublica and Levif.

21. Zava’s Sexual Exposure Calculator

Strategy: Creating an interactive calculator.

I talked about calculators as a tool for tackling search-driven keywords, but they can also be pure link bait as well.

Zava is a prescription medicine site in the UK and Europe that offers solutions for STDs, ED, and other things that most don’t like to talk about.

So, Zava smartly leaned into this and created their sexual exposure calculator. This is not only a helpful tool that provides real information but is also highly linkable, given the subject matter.

How to pitch: Although people might not love discussing it, many news publications do. So, this is pitchable to a variety of general news pubs as well as getting into wellness sites.

Results: It currently has 45 LRD, including coverage from Express, Metro, Esquire, and, surprisingly, even PCMag.

Microsites

Sometimes, brands create an asset so significant that it ends up on a microsite. This is done less often as the link value may not be passed on as clearly as if it were done on the same domain.

An example of this might be Lucidworks’ The Data That Lies Beneath.

For digital PR, you are better off building your content on your site for the link value. A microsite can still work if you are building it just for awareness.

I’ll show you a unique version of that in the next section.

Newsjacking

You can news jack with any of the previous kinds of content mentioned. It can be a data study, an interactive, or sometimes just a simple quote.

The challenge is that you have to move quickly actually to ride the news wave.

Brian Dean discussed using his tool Exploding Topics to catch trends that are on the rise but have yet to reach their peak.

But to catch something in the news currently, you need to be plugged into the news.

Here’s one example that went above and beyond:

22. HireAHelper’s WeWontMoveYouChargers

Strategy: Newsjacking a bit of regional news with pitchable content.

I’ll set the scene. The San Diego Chargers were an American Football team leaving San Diego and moving to Los Angeles to become the Los Angeles Chargers.

The San Diego fans were not happy.

So, the San Diego moving company HireAHelper had a very creative idea. They created a microsite called wewontmoveyouchargers.com to boycott the move.

They then enlisted several other moving companies in the SD area and pitched this project to local media.

How to pitch: Pitching a newsjacking piece involves reaching out to the same journalists who covered the original news topic, which would be journalists in San Diego and LA.

However, after this piece gains traction, it could be pitched to more general news. But don’t take my word for it; check out Ryan Charles’ breakdown.

Results: This piece of content not only received 45 LRD for the microsite from top-tier news outlets like Fox, CBS, CNN, and USA Today, but HireAHelper, who spearheaded the post, also received a lot of love, including multiple TV spots.

But you don’t always need a microsite for newsjacking. It’s quite a rare feat, given how much lift it can take in such a short time.

23. RareCarat Jewelry Estimates

Strategy: Newsjacking a bit of regional news with a quote.

If you have something important to add to a story, you can try to get a link to it. Unique data and insight can provide extra context for a news story and make you an invaluable resource to a journalist.

For example, Brooklyn Beckham’s engagement was one of the significant news events in the UK in 2020 (besides that thing we don’t like to talk about).

How to pitch: You must be prepared to add value to a trending news topic. You need to have something relevant to say and be an authority in the space.

In our podcast episode with Mark Rofe, he mentions, “I think the answer would probably be, would you feel okay if you got invited on TV, like live TV, to kind of talk about that?” I think that’s the best way to approach newsjacking.

Results: Jewelry site RareCarat’s CEO Ajay Anand got a quote and, importantly, a link from PageSix by providing their ring estimate.

Talking with Digital PR agency RiseAtSeven’s team, they used this strategy to tackle multiple celebrity engagements and pitch their client for over 100 placements over multiple months.

Where to Find Digital PR Examples

If you’re stuck in an idea rut or looking to jumpstart your brainstorming, here are some great places to find your own digital PR examples:

Content Newsletters and Roundups

Many others out there collect great examples and showcase work from around the web, either as an email, a newsletter, online roundup posts, or even on dedicated X accounts.

Iona Townsley’s Grapevine Newsletter

A monthly newsletter showcasing fantastic digital PR campaigns from around the web.

Thea Lauren Chippendale’s The PR Insider

This weekly newsletter includes PR campaigns and resources for those looking to up their game.

The BuzzStream Newsletter

We highlight case studies from BuzzStream users’ digital PR campaigns at least monthly.

Nathan Yau’s FlowingData Newsletter

A weekly newsletter sharing really cool data visualization work from around the web.

@Digitalprex on X

This account on X shares PR content found online.

Case Studies 

A Google search for “digital PR case studies” from digital PR agencies will get you far.

Content Inspiration from Creators

Content inspiration can come from anywhere. We have an entire post on the topic, but here are some of my favorite places to get inspired.

Neal.Fun

Neal Agarwal does some great interactive work. (If you want to kill some time, check out the Password game.)

Remember StumbleUpon – it’s back! In CloudHiker form!

CloudHiker takes you to random sites on the web based on the topics and industries of your choosing.

Reddit’ r/dataisbeautiful and r/infographics

Reddit is a treasure trove of great content from around the web. Its search functionality can also help you find nuggets of gold like this thread.

Content Inspiration from Publications

I mentioned in the beginning that I didn’t want to include examples from these types of sites because they aren’t the kinds that individual sites typically release, but they are still incredible for inspiration.

NYTimes Graphics

The graphics team at NYTimes is masterful.

WallStreetJournal Graphics

So is WSJ’s team.

Reuters Graphics

Same with Reuters.

Bloomberg Graphics

And Bloomberg.

Pudding.cool

I’m saving the best for last. Pudding.cool is one of the most creative agencies that tell stories with data.

Did I miss anything? Reach out and let me know!

The post 23 Digital PR Examples and Strategies That Work Today appeared first on BuzzStream.

Email is the best way to contact reporters, though social media is a close second. Finding them can be a challenge. We’ll show you how.

Imagine a world where journalists saw every piece you published.

Unfortunately, that world doesn’t exist.

We need to work for our coverage, get it in front of the right people, and share our stories.

For some in the social media space, these are influencers. Others rely on bloggers. In the digital PR world, journalists and reporters promote our content.

Some journalists love to get pitched great stories. But they are so bombarded with irrelevant stories and weak pitches that they don’t put their email addresses front and center.

This post isn’t about writing a media pitch because we’ve already done that. Instead, let’s discuss the most effective (and ethical) ways to contact reporters and journalists.

How to Find Journalists Interested in Your Story

There are at least six main ways to find journalists.

1. Use a Media Database to Find Reporters and Journalists

Media databases are the most obvious starting point for finding journalists in your industry. We cover a lot of media database tools in our post about digital PR tools, but some of the most used are:

• Cision
• MuckRack
• RoxHill
• Prowly
• Meltwater

For example, if I were writing a post about farming, I could search MuckRack with a keyword like “farming,” it would uncover journalists in their database who talk about farming.

Media database tools typically include the journalists’ email addresses and contact details.

However, the downside of media databases is that they typically get outdated quickly. In our post about building your own media list, we discuss the importance of verifying a target journalist’s industry (and contact information).

In our example, let’s imagine the post we will pitch covers something specific to Tennessee farming.

If we wanted to contact Lee Maddox from our screenshot above, I’d click on Lee Maddox to see what they have written about recently.

MuckRack displays recent Tweets from X, which gives me some idea of his current posts:

But I’d still like to click on his site, Tennessee Farm Bureau News, to evaluate whether the site is a good fit.

The most recent news story is about new USDA news.

The next is about an emissions study with some colorful graphics.

There is a good chance that this site may be open to our study.

No specific authors are listed in the News section posts, so Lee may be the best person to pitch to get a story included. So we can add him to the list.

You could continue using your media database tool to find more journalists or pivot to find journalists on social media.

2. Find Relevant Journalists on Social Media

According to Muck Rack’s State of Journalism report, X/Twitter is still the number-one place journalists go for news.

So, let’s focus on that platform as it’s the dominant area where journalists are active.

Finding Journalists on X

To find journalists on X, try a generic search in their search bar and then toggle to People.

For example, searching “farming news” will show us people who include “farming news” in their handle or description.

This search has uncovered publications, which we can use to search the site for relevant journalists, as outlined in the next section.

Let’s try to focus on reporters. We’ll use X’s Advanced Search feature, which allows you to be a little more creative with your searches.

I’m searching for any profiles that include farming, agriculture, or agriculture and “reporter.”

Ah, much better.

Now, I can click on these journalists’ profiles, see what they have written about recently, and gauge their relevance to my story.

If you’re lucky, the journalist will share every article they write on X, giving you insight similar to what you saw in the previous MuckRack example.

However, this isn’t always the case. Some journalists use X for personal news as well.

So, I’ll walk you through my workflow.

Let’s pretend our post concerns farming in Ireland, so I chose Kathleen O’Sullivan, a farming reporter for the Irish Examiner.

I see that she most recently posted on April 9 (over a month ago), and it isn’t a story she’s written (it’s one she’s reposted). So far, I don’t have a lot of confidence.

But we need to keep digging. I need to go to the Irish Examiner and see if I can find her most recent articles.

I navigate to Farming News on the Irish Examiner’s site and open a few articles.

Luckily, the first article I opened looks like it was written by Kathleen O’Sullivan—and it was written one day ago.

That’s good enough for me. I’ll add her to my list!

Some like to go a different route to find interested journalists and seek websites or articles via Google search.

3. Find News Sites on Google

To find journalists to contact about your post or story, you can always start by finding similar news sites and then identifying journalists to build your media list.

So, continuing our farming example, let’s perform a Google search for farming news.

This will give me generic farming news sites. Then, I can dig further into each page to find a relevant journalist interested in my post.

For example, let’s click on Successful Farming.

Now, I want to find relevant journalists.

I found an author in one recent article named Natalina Sents Bausch.

Now, confirming that Natalina writes about our topic frequently is essential. Given that this is a farming-centric publication and her bio confirms it, we can reasonably be sure this is true.

However, for illustrative purposes, I’ll still show how to confirm.

Let’s confirm Natalina writes about our topic frequently enough to be interested in our pitch.

If I click on her name, I’m taken to her author page, which is pretty standard practice UX for a publication.

When I do this, I can see all of Natalina’s recent posts—all about farming.

Jackpot!

Some sites display the date on an author page like this, but you can click on each to confirm the publication date.

I see that these are very recent.

Finding websites and publications and then identifying journalists can be time-consuming. Some prefer to find specific articles related to their pitch, which gets them closer to the journalist.

4. Find Similar Articles on Google News

To find similar articles using Google when contacting reporters, I recommend using Google News rather than Google Search. Both work, but Google News will get you the articles you seek more quickly.

Let’s type farming into Google News.

By default, Google News will display the most recent articles.

Again, although these are recent articles written by a journalist, it’s always critical to check that the journalist writes about this industry frequently. (Oftentimes, a journalist might jump onto a new beat for only one article and then jump back off.)

So, let’s click on the Guardian result and see if this reporter is a good fit.

We see that Jessica Murray is a correspondent for the Midlands area.

Maybe she covers farming in the Midlands! (UK readers most likely already know what’s coming.)

Let’s click on her name to take us to her author page.

Unfortunately, it looks like she covers all different news topics. I see everything from Birmingham City Council news to museum-related news.

But if she was interested in farmers in Shropshire, wouldn’t she be interested in my piece!?

Not necessarily. If our farming post were explicitly about a significant piece of farming news in the Midlands, perhaps she’d be a little more interested.

But the fact that she covers such a wide beat for the Midlands area, I’d pass on Jessica.

Then, it’s back to the Google News results to find a new article.

By adding extra keywords to your search queries, you can get more specific. For example, you can find journalists who have written about your posts.

For instance, if our farming post was about drought-resistant crop innovations, we could search for queries like “drought-resistant crops,” “drought news,” and “farming technology innovation.”

However, this approach of searching for single terms can get pretty tedious. That’s where BuzzStream comes in.

5. Use BuzzStream

I can use BuzzStream’s Research tool to combine multiple Google News queries simultaneously, compiling a list of prospects to evaluate.

For this, I open BuzzStream and Create a new project.

Then, I’ll create a new Research List.

Then, when prompted, I’ll choose Search News.

Then, I’ll name the list, enter my search queries, and adjust the date window. I like to start with a week or a month out to have a solid list of prospects to research.

Then, I click Save, and BuzzStream starts pulling in all of the Google News search results into one list.

Now, I can filter this list for quality or jump into the review process, which lets me review each page and approve/reject them.

I click the checkbox to select all pages and then click on Research to get into the research and evaluation flow.

I’ll select the default evaluation flow, which pulls up 5 tabs simultaneously. Then, I can see the first page on my list, a news article from CKRM in Saskatchewan, NY.

On the right, I can see the BuzzStream Research tab, which lets me Approve or Reject the page to add it to my prospect list for my project.

In this case, if my post had an angle about NY, I would consider this author as a potential target.

Let’s pretend it’s not a fit, and I click Reject.

When I close the tab, BuzzStream loads the next one, always keeping 5 in the queue. This allows me to repeat the process until I’ve completed my whole list (without needing to open hundreds of tabs at once).

BuzzStream also pulls all contact information on each page, allowing me to contact the journalist immediately. I will get to this in the next section.

6. Search for Journalists Based on Their Role

In more traditional newsrooms, there are specific roles that are better suited for pitching your story than others.

Some like to find a news site and seek out the person in the specific role.

You can do this using the aforementioned media list, but you can also search the site once you’ve identified it.

Most news sites provide a list of contacts.

You can find their team roster by searching for pages entitled Contact Us, About Us, Staff, or Our Team. Typically, these are found in the footer of a news site.

For example, if I wanted to contact the local NBC news site in Connecticut, I’d find the contact page in the footer and see a list of their staff.

Then, clicking on the names, I’d look for the assignment editor or relevant reporters.

To better explain who to prioritize when pitching your news, I asked Nicole DeLeon and her team from the content marketing agency North Star Inbound.

Here’s what they said:

Who Should You Prioritize When Pitching a Story to a Newsroom?

In order of importance…

1. Assignment editor
2. Reporters & producers
3. Executive producer
4. Digital producer/web team*
5. Anchor

You could probably switch the executive producer title to the editor in non-broadcast newsrooms.

Why Should You Prioritize Pitching Assignment Editors?

Assignment editors are the newsroom’s center (literally and figuratively).

Their job is to organize incoming emails, often from the general newsroom email and their personal emails, so that they can be directed to the right person.

If they see a press release with relevant or interesting information for their audience but not in-depth enough for a full reporter story, they will send it to the producers.

When they see information relevant to a story one of the station’s reporters is already working on, they will send it along to that reporter.

They also often run the morning and evening pitch meetings, sharing with the team the most exciting and relevant press releases they’ve seen.

But Reporters and Producers Are Also Important

Reporters are often responsible for developing their own story ideas and pitches. They have a lot of sway in the newsroom.

If they see an interesting pitch they think they can expand on and pitch it well enough, they will do just that.

Producers are in charge of their shows.

There are many spots in an hour or half-hour newscast to fill, some as small as a 15-second story.

Why Anchors Are at the Bottom of the List

Many anchors just read what is given to them and written for them. Those who work on their own stories don’t do it nearly as often as reporters do.

Reporters produce a story or more every day. Anchors, IF they work on their own stories, do it maybe once a week or a few times a month.

Now that you know who to pitch to, let’s discuss how to contact them.

How to Contact Journalists and Reporters

Contacting journalists and reporters is typically best done by email. In this section, I’ll discuss finding contact information, crafting emails, and messaging using different platforms.

1. Find Their Contact Information

Once you know who to reach out to, you need to find their contact information.

Many news sites include contact information right on their author or staff pages. For example, if I looked at the same Connecticut list, I could see the contact information for reporter Heidi Voight.

The journalists who want to be found can typically be found fairly easily.

You can even see her email address right on her Facebook page.

But what if you run into those sites that don’t advertise their reporters’ contact info?

I covered how to find everyone’s email addresses extensively already, so I won’t discuss it too deeply, but I’ll call out three tips:

BuzzStream

When you are on a page, BuzzStream will automatically comb the site and extract any email addresses and social accounts it can find using the Chrome Extension Buzzmarker.

For example, I wanted to look at Newsday’s Mark Harrington, who appeared on my X search for farming reporters. When I open Newsday, you can see BuzzStream extracting all the emails it can find (including Mark’s).

Google Search

Even if the publication doesn’t list its name, it can usually still be found using Google search. Often, their name, the publication, and the word email can be enough.

For example, let’s back up to the Irish Examiner example. That site doesn’t have a list of contact information on their site for each reporter, writer, or anchor.

So, a quick Google Search unveiled Kathleen O’Sullivan’s email right in the search results via X:

Hunter.io

Using a tool like Hunter.io, you can sometimes guess the email address.

Hunter.io will show you the format of the names and contact information on a website. You can then verify the address using an email verification tool.

For example, if I was reaching out to a farm site Hoosier AG Today, I see author Eric Pfieffer, but I can’t find his email address.

So, using Hunter’s Chrome Extension, I see that the website’s email pattern is most likely [firstname]@hoosieragtoday.com.

Then, I can use Hunter’s email verification tool to confirm.

Neverbounce also has a great email verification tool.

Now that you’ve got your email address for your journalist. You can craft your email.

2. Craft your Email

As I mentioned, emailing journalists is the best way to contact them.

Not every pitch is the same, but they all have similar components.

We’ve covered all of them in our email templates post, but here’s a basic structure for pitching a data study:

The idea is to include everything the journalist would need to write the post without needing to back.

In our podcast interview with Hannah Smith, she reiterated some of the best advice I’ve ever heard when contacting journalists:

“I’ll look at my pitch and I’ll be like, could the journalist write this story in 15 minutes just using my pitch…so if I get a paragraph or two in, and I’m suddenly Googling trying to find some sort of stat or some sort of other reliable bit of research, I’m like, “oh, I need to reference that in my email then.”

Email with BuzzStream

Now that I’ve got a vetted and qualified list of relevant journalists and know how to reach them, I can begin sending emails.

Using BuzzStream, I can easily email journalists from my outreach list at scale while still being able to personalize the emails to make them effective.

First, I go to the Outreach List in the navigation.

Then, I’ll click the checkbox at the top to select all of my prospects.

Next, I click Outreach and choose Send Individually. Then I’ll see the option to choose a template or sequence.

I click New Sequence to create something brand new for my project.

First, I’ll name my Sequence (so I can quickly find it later when needed).

Then, I’ll fill out my template using the Dynamic Fields on the right.

I can also enable a follow-up email if I don’t receive a response.

Then, I can work through my outreach list individually to personalize each email. On the left, I see any contact history my team or I might have had with a particular site.

On the right, I see the email outreach that I’ll be sending.

Then, BuzzStream keeps track of all the responses in my Dashboard so that I can easily see who has responded, linked, etc.

3. Pitching Via Social Media

Based on the same MuckRack study, most journalists receive ~3-5 pitches daily. So, some choose to pitch using social media.

If I ever decide to contact a journalist via social media, I lean heavily on X, given that is the preferred platform for most.

Journalists who want to be connected will keep their DMs open. You’ll see an envelope icon next to their follow button.

Keep your contact short and sweet:

Hi Kathleen – I’ve got a great new study on crop technology that I thought you might like. Mind if I send it along?

I sometimes like to use the double-touch technique: I email them and then DM them on X to let them know I’ve reached out:

Hi Kathleen – Just a heads up: I emailed you a new crop technology study that is right in your wheelhouse.

This puts you on their radar.

Some digital PRs recommend following and interacting with a journalist on X before pitching.

This is excellent advice if you plan on being in the industry for a long time and want to build relationships with journalists.

If you only pitch one-off pitches, it’s unnecessary and will likely not impact much.

4. Quote Requests

The last way to contact a journalist is through a journalist request platform. Although this slightly differs from other tactics listed in this post, it’s still worth mentioning.

This is more of an opportunistic approach to digital PR vs a tactic for pitching stories.

There are several platforms there.

• Connectively (formerly known as HARO)
• HERO
• Qwoted
• @PRJournorequest on X

Each platform requires setting up an account and keeping track of requests that come in daily.

For example, I utilize Qwoted to find opportunities to pitch quotes from myself in the digital marketing space.

You can also set up your own for specific industries.

HARO used to be the go-to but has waned in quality since Cision purchased it and renamed it Connectively. Luckily, the founder of HARO recently created H.E.R.O. or Help Every Reporter Out.

Simply sign up, and you’ll receive a daily email with pitch requests from journalists broken down by industry and detailed instructions for pitching.

Lastly, with X, the account @PRJournoRequest compiles all instances of Tweets that use #journorequest or #prrequest.

These two hashtags are the go-to ways many UK journalists source quotes for their pieces.

They are not used as much in the US, though as digital PR continues to grow in popularity, perhaps we’ll see US journalists utilize this approach as well.

Why It’s So Important to Pitch Relevant Journalists in 2024

We are in very interesting times.

Journalists are getting laid off around the globe, yet more agencies and teams are turning to digital PR for answers.

So we have an influx of pitches to an ever-shrinking number of journalists.

Google has also implemented new email requirements to prevent mass nonrelevant emails to personal email addresses.

They now require “bulk senders” — or those who send 5,000 or more emails within 24 hours from the same domain to personal Gmail addresses — to adhere to new security requirements.

Those who do not will hit spam filters, rendering their outreach useless.

Luckily, there is a simple solution: hyper-targeted pitches. The more targeted and personalized your pitch emails are, the easier it is to build relationships with journalists.

And I know that the term “building relationships” sounds fluffy, but it has real business value.

Once you’ve established a relationship with a journalist, you can pitch them again for the same client (or new clients) with little to no barrier to entry.

You’ve already established trust, and as long as you don’t abuse it by pitching non-relevant pieces, you can start to build your Rolodex of journalists you can count on for links.

So, while the workflows I’ve outlined in this piece may sound time-consuming, you realistically only need to do them one time and can reap the benefits for each subsequent campaign.

The post How to Contact Reporters For Your Digital PR Campaigns appeared first on BuzzStream.

Journalists don’t respond; they post. Some forget to link.

And even if they do, link indexing tools don’t cover every nook and cranny of the internet.

However, for link builders and digital PRs, reporting that one extra link can significantly impact relationships with stakeholders.

In my time with Siege Media, I developed a stepwise approach that can find your coverage even in the deepest caverns of the web.

So here are my six ways to find media mentions from your campaigns.

1. Try a Google Search

The easiest way to find coverage is through Google Search.

There are a few specific ways to search, starting with your title. Even though your coverage will most likely appear in news publications, I still like to use Google Search instead of Google News to ensure I don’t miss anything!

For this post, we’ll focus on finding links to a specific post on the site. But don’t worry; the steps below will also capture domain and brand mentions.

Search for the Post Title

If you have a post, start with a search of the post title + the brand name.

For example, let’s choose a post I worked on for Homebuyer.com: The Most Affordable Cities to Buy a House. (This is one of my go-to digital PR examples.)

Adjust the date parameter according to your search window in the Tools dropdown menu.

For example, if I posted last week, I’d choose “Past Week” as my date parameter. If you posted just yesterday and wanted to see if anything came in, you could adjust to “24 hours”.

So the search is:

“The Most Affordable Cities to Buy a House” + “Homebuyer.com”

Right off the bat, you can see several pieces that have covered the study.

However, the list ends abruptly at around 30 results. So it’s time to widen the net.

Search For the Brand

For Homebuyer.com, we’d search for “Homebuyer.com” and adjust the date to 24 hours, then Past Week, and so on.

Depending on your company’s size and the amount of content published, this can get very noisy, so we can use some keywords to narrow it down.

So, for Homebuyer.com, we could try something like “Homebuyer.com” + cheap.

I see some coverage from catcountryutah.com that I hadn’t seen before! Big win!

Combing through a list of ever-expanding search queries can be very time-consuming.

Luckily, there’s a trick to combining and evaluating multiple Google Searches using BuzzStream.

2. Use BuzzStream to Combine Multiple Google Searches

One of the reasons I like using BuzzStream for finding media coverage is that the Research feature finds and combines Google searches into one centralized list.

(I outlined this feature at length in a post about building your own media list.)

Then, you can cross-check those sites to confirm if they’ve linked to you.

Create a Project

To start, create a New Project and name it.

Then, most importantly, scroll down and add your target link. (If you don’t have a lot of content on your site or want to pull in any mentions of any link, then you should choose “Any URL in the domain.”)

Then go to Research Lists and choose Create A Research List.

Choose Google Search, and it will prompt you to enter keyword phrases to search.

Here, you can combine the previously mentioned keyword phrases:

Then, adjust the Post Date under Search Filters to Past Week or Past Month (depending on your publish date).

After that, click Save and let BuzzStream do its thing.

Once the list is populated, you can move on to the next step, which is finding links and coverage.

Check URLs for Links

Once your list is available, you need to export it, which you’ll find below the project name.

When prompted, choose “All Fields”.

Then, move to the Monitored Links tab. Click “Add Links” and “Import from CSV.”

The import may take a few minutes, but once it’s complete, you’ll get a full list of URLs where you’ve gotten links to your designated URL or domain!

You’ll also receive a handy email report that breaks down the results in several ways, including anchor text, whether there’s a nofollow tag, etc.

Unfortunately, Google Search won’t find everything—even when you run searches through BuzzStream.

Or, sometimes, you just don’t have the time to check every morning for coverage like I used to obsessively.

Luckily, there are digital pr tools for alerts.

3. Set Up Alerts

Alert tools like Google Alerts and Talkwalker Alerts are passive ways to find coverage.

Simply set up an alert based on brand name, keywords, or post titles, and watch the alerts fly in!

Set Up An Alert For Your Exact Campaign Title

I personally prefer Talkwalker Alerts because it has some better features and search functionality. (You can even sync it with Slack to alert you and the team of coverage as it comes in.)

Like Google Search, a Talkwalker search is only as effective as its parameters. So, let’s start by setting up an alert for the exact campaign title.

Go to Talkwalker, set up an account, and choose “Create an Alert.”

(Be sure to read Talkwalker’s Syntax for Alerts. They use AND as the boolean.)

For example, we’d do “the most affordable cities to buy a house” AND “homebuyer.com”.

Set the parameters to alert you to All Results (this will be noisy, but you’ll ensure you don’t miss anything).

For Result Type, you can choose Twitter, Blog, News, and Discussion. I recommend choosing Everything.

Then, you’ll start to see emails come through.

I prefer to set up multiple alerts per campaign.

Set Up An Alert For Your Campaign Topic

Follow the same steps you did previously to set up an alert for the topic of your campaign.

So, something like “cheapest cities to buy a house homebuyer.”

Then, set the alert parameters.

Set Up An Alert For Your Brand Name

Lastly, I always recommend setting up alerts for your brand name. I do this for BuzzStream and find unlinked mention opportunities all the time.

Follow the same steps as above, but simply add your brand name.

So, for our example, it would just be “homebuyer.com” (the .com is part of the brand name.)

Remember, alerts come in as they occur, so if you want to fill in a last-minute coverage or link report for stakeholders, these alerts won’t help.

For that, you can turn to tools like Ahrefs.

4. Use Backlink Monitoring Tools

According to their site, Ahref’s Site Explorer “has the fastest backlink crawler in the industry and boasts the world’s biggest index of live backlinks (over 14 trillion), offering access to 7+ years of historical data.”

So, there are instances where Site Explorer may find a link that Google doesn’t surface right away.

Here is the best way to use Site Explorer to find links and coverage:

Enter Your Target URL or Domain in Site Explorer

First, go to Site Explorer and enter the domain or the URL you wish to find coverage.

If you want to find backlinks to a specific URL, choose Exact URL.

In our case, I’m going to enter,

“https://homebuyer.com/research/most-affordable-cities-to-buy-a-house” and choose “Exact URL.”

(To find backlinks to the entire domain, enter only the domain URL or choose “Domains” from the dropdown.)

Check Backlinks

You’ll be brought to an overview page where you can see all of the page’s metrics. Then, you’ll want to choose Backlinks from the left sidebar.

Then, sort by First Seen to see a list of links your post has received based on the date Ahrefs found it.

The URL on the left is where you’ve been mentioned, along with metrics like Domain Rating and anchor text.

At this point, you should have a pretty complete view of who is linking to your piece.

6. Try a Reverse Image Search

Reverse image search is an underutilized topic when it comes to finding coverage.

Stephanie Beadell of Briggsby outlined this as one of her top tactics that most people forget when finding and claiming unlinked mentions.

“If you have very large visual content, bloggers and journalists will likely take screenshots and create smaller versions that better fit their blogs’ layouts (or things like Twitter’s 2:1 aspect ratio).”

Google has a reverse image search feature that allows you to upload an image.

For example, try a reverse image search for one of the images from Homebuyer.com’s post.

First, right-click on the image and save it to your desktop.

Once you’ve identified the image, go to Google and click to upload the image.

Then choose “find image source” or “see exact matches,” and you’ll get a list of results that have used your image.

Not every result will be spot on, so you could also try using tools like Tineye:

Tineye has a paid feature for setting up alerts, which I recommend for anyone whose brand uses many proprietary images in its content.

Users typically share images on social media, so you may run into sites sharing your visuals without letting you know. That’s where social media monitoring comes into play.

7. Use Social Monitoring Tools

You can enable alerts for brands or terms. Although social mentions are not exactly links, some brands or agencies still like to report on them—especially when a campaign has gone viral.

I recommend setting up social monitoring tools like Mention or BuzzSumo at the campaign’s onset before pitching. This will alert you of coverage and potential linking opportunities.

Mention has a large set of tools for brand monitoring that allow you to search for your brand based on keywords.

Setting Up Alerts with Mention

In the setup, you’ll choose the keywords to include.

For our example, I’ll enter the brand name as the primary and then use iterations of our title and topic as our secondary keywords:

Then, you can choose the social platforms that you’d like to monitor:

Then, to stay on top of alerts immediately, you can enable Instant Mentions.

As I said, social media mentions are sometimes a secondary KPI for digital PR campaigns, but to get the full value, you should also leverage them for links.

Leveraging Social Media Mentions Into Links

Check the user’s profile if you find a mention of your piece on a tool like Mention.

If the user has a website with a blog, you can ask if it’s possible to add a link from their website.

For example, although this isn’t the Homebuyer.com example, I see an X user @EarnYourLeisure shared a list from Forbes of the most affordable cities to buy a house.

EarnYourLeisure has a website but didn’t mention the study anywhere on its site:

If I were Forbes and needed an extra link (which they don’t, but for our purposes, let’s imagine Forbes was a new, plucky startup), I’d ask EarnYourLeisure if they would share a link on their site via a custom story.

This is similar to an unlinked mention outreach covered in our email templates post but with a slight twist.

Check it out below:

SL: Thanks for mentioning [Your Site]

Whether you search via social media or Google Search, the impact of a media mention can be hard to tell.

The next and final step can not only help you find links but also help you gauge the impact.

8. Find Referral Traffic

Google Analytics (or any website analytics tool worth its salt) can tell you where traffic comes from.

Traffic from a specific external website is known as referral traffic, which can help uncover media mentions. If you have goals set up, you can also gauge the impact of your referral traffic.

There are several ways to access this referral data, but I’ll outline the most straightforward approach.

Check Acquisition Channel

In Google Analytics 4 (GA4), go to Acquisition> Traffic Acquisition in the left navigation menu.

It defaults to “Session Primary Channel Group.” Change this to Session Source from the dropdown to see your referral sources by domain.

Referral traffic gives an incomplete view as it only gives you the domain, but it will tell you the amount of traffic from each domain to gauge impact accurately.

Perform a Site:Search

If you want to investigate the coverage further, you can perform a site search on the specific domain.

In the example from BuzzStream below, you can see that we receive referral traffic from learningseo.io — meaning we have a link there somewhere.

So I can go to Google and type “site:learningseo.io buzzstream,” and it will show me all the pages that mention BuzzStream.

Once I know where this traffic comes from, I can see if it leads to conversions.

But wait, Vince — why are we discussing conversions when finding media mentions?!

At the end of the day, if you want to move the needle for a client, conversions are what matters.

So, being able to report on conversions makes your digital PR campaign much more impactful.

Check Events and Conversions

GA4 works a little differently than Universal Analytics (GA3). Instead of setting up and tracking conversions as Goals, you now set Events and mark them as Conversions.

If you have Conversion events set up, you’ll see them in the Acquisition reports.

For example, I have a Conversion event set to fire whenever anyone visits our /plans-pricing page.

So, I can look at the number of conversions from Learningseo.io’s traffic.

Unfortunately, it’s a big goose egg.

But you never know where your conversions will come from, so it’s always best to set them up.

Setting up conversions and events is pretty straightforward, but I recommend reading this post from Analytics Mania because it covers it in great detail.

Remember to Follow Up

Every person who covers your site deserves a thank you email.

After all, the name of the game is building relationships.

Contacting journalists or bloggers can help bring in more links down the line.

If you did pitch them and they covered it, let them know you are open to help with quotes or data requests.

SL: Thank you for covering our story

Even if you didn’t pitch your content to someone, you can email them and thank them if they covered you.

See how below:

SL: Thank you for covering our story

Happy hunting.

The post How to Find Media Mentions for Your Digital PR Campaigns appeared first on BuzzStream.

According to Muck Rack’s 2024 State of Journalism Report, the top reason for rejecting a pitch (73%) is the lack of relevance to their coverage area.

Not personalization, timing, or pitch length; relevancy is the main driver of success.

Media lists can be a shortcut for digital PRs looking to find the relevant journalist to connect with.

However, there are downsides, and using a paid media list without properly vetting and qualifying it is ineffective and may hurt more than it helps.

In my time with Siege Media, I learned to build and vet my own lists, leading to many more relevant pitches and high-authority coverage.

So, here is how you can build your own media list that is more up-to-date, relevant, and better quality than anything you would pay for.

Why Build Your Own Media List?

Don’t get me wrong—media lists like those provided by Cision, Muck Rack, or Roxhill are not bad.

In fact, for most digital PRs, they are a necessary part of their digital PR toolkit.

Many BuzzStream users use a mix of traditional media lists for large email blasts and utilize BuzzStream to vet the lists for a more strategic, targeted approach.

But there are some significant upsides to building a media list yourself:

Google’s New Email Spam Requirements

In Feb 2024, Google and Yahoo announced significant changes to their email requirements to help eliminate spam.

One of the main things they are trying to combat against is large-scale email blasts to irrelevant recipients.

Google is pushing users to personalize emails and ensure the recipient on the other end is supposed to get the email you are sending.

Curating your media list solves this.

Up-to-Date Lists

Ask any digital PR professional, and they will say you need to update your lists if you want to utilize them successfully.

Media lists can get outdated in just a few months, sometimes weeks!

Reddit users echo this in the space as well:

MuckRack found in its State of Journalism 2024 that an irrelevant pitch to a journalist is the top reason they won’t cover a post.

So, unless you don’t care about sending massive email blasts to a general audience, a traditional media list will take time to audit.

And if you are spending time auditing it yourself…that leads to my next point.

Building a List is Cheaper

Media lists can be expensive.

According to Prowly’s data, media list database access starts at around $258/mo (Prowly subscription) and goes up to $7,200-$10,000 monthly for subscriptions to tools like Muck Rack or Cision.

Those are estimates, and major subscriptions’ prices vary based on size and industry.

However, in addition to the cost of the list, you also need to factor in the costs associated with vetting and maintaining the lists yourself.

Your List is Unique

With standard media database lists, everyone has access to the same journalists. So, you are competing with thousands of others pitching to the same list (and contributing to the noise.)

You can see this also echoed on Reddit.

You Learn More About the Industry and the Journalists You Pitch

Building your own media list helps you familiarize yourself with the industry you pitch.

This may sound like a fluffy take, but this was especially true for me when taking on new clients at Siege Media or pitching in a new industry.

For example, the tech industry tends to lean more toward sharing data-rich visualization, whereas lifestyle journalists prefer more photography.

Learning what type of content to pitch is essential to getting your pitch covered.

Media List Examples – What Should Your Media List Look Like?

Your media list should pull the following information:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Media outlet/publication/website
• Email Address
• Role (in-house journalist, freelancer, blogger, etc.)
• Industry/beats/topics covered

And if necessary:

• City, State, Country, Region
• X account or other relevant social media accounts
• Phone Number

Many self-curated media lists are done in spreadsheets on a program like Excel or Google Sheets.

However, spreadsheets can get tedious—even if you only send out a few campaigns. More importantly, they lack the visibility into past campaigns or email tracking that many other tools have built into their databases.

This leads me to my next point: identifying where and how you will build your list.

Identify Where to Build Your List

Some digital PRs and link builders who build media lists use spreadsheets, while others might use a tool like BuzzStream.

Think of BuzzStream as a CRM for journalists.

In my agency days, we stumbled along with Google Sheets until BuzzStream came along.

The reason we switched to BuzzStream is because it streamlines a lot of the following steps.

Their Research tool lets you search the web and build and evaluate outreach lists in one tool.

You can search a list of Google News (or Google) search queries, then review your list and start identifying potential prospects and reviewing them for fit.

(I’ll cover all this later in this article, or you can jump to it now.)

If you prefer to use a spreadsheet, that works, too.

Later, I’ll also show you how to import the spreadsheet into a tool like BuzzStream to help you evaluate your prospects more easily.

For now, let’s talk about aligning goals.

Before You Start: Align With Stakeholders

Before you start, ensure everyone is on the same page about the project’s goals.

It may sound obvious, but I’ve built content for clients that gets tons of shares but then gets slammed at the stakeholder level because they need more qualified leads or relevant traffic to the site.

Realistically, all campaigns want links. However, there are often goals driven by the need for links.

It helps to consider the general goals of digital PR: some campaigns want general brand awareness, some need conversions, and others want to support rankings and SEO.

For example, let’s consider an industry like construction. Your stakeholders may want to build brand awareness. In this case, any general news site could work—local, national, etc.

But, if they decide to drive conversions, general news may attract too broad an audience; industry news or even review sites would be better areas to pitch.

For example, in the construction industry:

So, always ensure your goals are aligned and communicated with the business.

Don’t worry if you’re new to an industry; finding relevant sites and contacts for your campaign can be pretty straightforward. We’ll walk you through areas to find sites below.

Now that you’ve set your goals and know where to put all the information we find, we can start filling in the blanks and building the media list.

Media List Building Process

The media list-building process takes place in three phases:

• Find Relevant Sites, Articles, and Journalists – I’ll cover where to find your potential targets
• Evaluate the Sites and Journalists – I’ll cover what to look for once you find them
• Find Contact Information – I’ll show you how to find email addresses

However, for the sake of this article, it makes sense to present the tactics in a slightly different order.

First, we must know what to look for when evaluating sites and finding contact information.

So, I’ll cover the evaluation criteria first, then tips for finding email addresses, and lastly, how to find the sites you need to evaluate.

Evaluation Criteria for Websites

As mentioned, journalists hate irrelevant pitches, and getting coverage from a sub-par site can sometimes hurt you in the long term.

Other times, the site may not align with your brand’s or stakeholder’s values.

So, for any site you visit, you’ll always need to visit the homepage and click on some articles to learn more about the site before considering adding it to your list.

Keep in mind that each of the below are pieces of the puzzle.

Unfortunately, there is no singular golden metric.

Topical Relevancy

When a site isn’t relevant to your brand, it can serve a lesser purpose.

Topical relevancy isn’t easily explained, even by Google, so it’s often a judgment call.

If the site talks about many of the same topics that your site does, it’s relevant.

If your customers would spend time on the site, it’s relevant.

Remember to lean on your goals.

For example, links from ENR.com or ForConstructionPros.com are highly relevant in the construction industry and can help with SEO and conversions.

However, if the lifestyle site People.com wrote about our construction story, they share no real topical relevance.

Is one more valuable than the other? Yes, if the goals are SEO and conversions.

If the stakeholders only want links and don’t care where they get them from (perhaps they believe that any press is good press?), a link from People.com would be “valuable” for the construction company.

But before we get too bogged down in link relevancy, it’s also important to look at how it intersects with authority.

High Site Authority

Domain Authority (DA) and Domain Rating (DR) measure a site’s likelihood of organically ranking for keywords. Both are proprietary metrics from Moz (DA) and Ahrefs (DR) that are supposed to emulate Google’s PageRank; Google’s patented way of determining a site’s importance.

You can use Ahref’s Site Explorer or Moz’s Link Explorer to measure either metric.

Though there is no exact metric, anything between 60 and 80 is considered “good quality,” and 80 and above is considered “high quality.”

For example, news site NYTimes has a DR of 94.

DailyMail has a DR of 92.

However, if a site is highly authoritative but not topically relevant, it carries less value.

I frame relevancy and authority together in a matrix:

If our construction post got a link from a DR 90 site like People, it would be high authority but not highly relevant. People rarely talks about construction, so there’s little overlap there.

It may drive some traffic, but if the traffic isn’t relevant and won’t convert, the link is less valuable.

Conversely, a site like ConstructionToday only has a DR of 56, which is highly relevant to our main topic.

The topics overlap, and our customers are most likely spending time on ConstructionToday, so it’s more valuable in the grand scheme of things.

Relevancy and authority are the big two, but here there are some other important factors to consider when evaluating a site or article:

Helpful, Quality Content

Quality is essential after Google’s Helpful Content Update. We covered its impact on link building, but getting covered on low-quality sites won’t help anyone’s goals—even if you just want brand exposure.

Helpful Content pushes users to create content that is well-researched and made for users, not search engines.

If you are building media lists, chances are you are looking for news outlets. Most news outlets provide well-researched content, but you can always check for yourself by clicking on some of the posts and seeing how well they cite their sources for information.

For example, I came across a construction site with a post about the home-building process.

While this isn’t exactly a “news” publication, it could serve purposes for coverage, so I dug into it.

This has a DR of 58 and is relevant to construction, but upon evaluating the post itself, I found it lacks many of the Helpful Content signals that Google outlined.

And even without knowing the signals, you can use common sense.

For instance, no photos are used, even though the home-building process seems (to me at least) to be a photo-specific topic.

There are no external links to any sources. (A little inside baseball here, but the one external link it has is to a professional builder site, using exact match anchor text, which signals that this article exists just to give a link to that site.)

Lastly, nothing makes me think this content is helpful beyond something ChatGPT could write.

So, to me, getting a link from here isn’t valuable.

Some sites even provide editorial guidelines that explain how they maintain quality control.

Non-Intrusive Ads

Although news sites thrive from ad sales, sites that inundate users with ads are bad practice and could be penalized by Google.

A 2019 Google algorithm update slammed DailyMail for having too many ads on the page, causing it to lose over 50% of its traffic.

Google directs users to avoid intrusive ads on their pages as part of maintaining a good Page Experience.

So, if you see ads covering content or where it’s hard to distinguish between ads and content, those sites are at risk of being penalized.

No “nofollow” Links

When a site doesn’t want Google to see a link, it can use a tag called “rel=nofollow.” The code shows this:

The nofollow tag tells Google to ignore the link when crawling through a page. If you are concerned about using digital PR for rankings and SEO value, “nofollow” links will not help.

You can use a Chrome Extension called Nofollow to highlight rel=nofollow links.

However, don’t discard them just yet.

Nofollow links can still get clicks and send traffic to your site. So, if it’s a high-traffic site whose audience is relevant to your website, it may be worth keeping on your list.

For example, Forbes exclusively gives nofollow links, but its readership is vast. So, if the audience aligns, it may send quality traffic to your site.

Although we’ve been focusing on pulling in journalists who have written about similar topics, you should still read some of their work to determine a few of the following considerations.

Here are some steps to assess if the journalist is a good fit:

Matches Journalist’s Primary Industry/Beat

Do you throw away a site if the journalist isn’t a good fit or the site isn’t a good fit? It’s kind of a chicken-and-egg situation.

I prefer to evaluate the site first and then the journalist.

If the journalist isn’t a good fit, you might find a better-suited journalist at the same site.

Journalists who don’t write about your industry are not a good fit for a media list. As we said earlier, journalists do jump around often, so it’s important to check their most recent articles and bio to ensure that they work in the industry you think they do.

Again, there is no metric to measure this, so this is a judgment call.

Read their bios and review their most recent articles to determine if they cover the industry you want to pitch.

You can usually just click on the author’s name to find their bio and most recent articles.

If you cannot find a page that contains their info, perform a site search for the journalist’s name.

For example, in the image below, Emma Potter, from Alberta Construction Magazine, doesn’t link when you click on her name.

So, I would Google search “site:albertaconstructionmagazine.com emma potter” to uncover other articles she’s written about to see if she consistently writes about construction.

Sometimes, the journalist is simply not a fit.

Journalists occasionally write one-off articles or contribute to articles for different industries/sectors. So, it’s always wise to confirm by checking a few recent articles.

For example, I found Jill Lamkins from 3newsnow talking about Women in Construction.

It’s a relevant article, but considering what else she writes for, pitching her a construction article probably isn’t exactly her focus.

She seems to cover local Omaha news, not construction specifically so I wouldn’t add her to my media list in this case.

Journalist’s Post Recency

You also need to ensure the journalist is active on the site.

Check their most recent articles. If they haven’t published in the last 2-3 weeks, the author may be on break, changing roles, or writing as a freelancer for several publications.

That last part dictates a bit of your pitching strategy and, thus, your media list. So, let’s briefly touch on freelance vs in-house writers.

In-house/Freelance (Bonus tip)

This is optional for building your media list, but I always check the author’s bio to see if they mention phrases like “freelance contributor.”

I typically like to know who I’m pitching because it helps me frame my pitch differently. Not entirely, but if the writer contributes to multiple sites that may be a good fit, you don’t want to limit the pitch.

For example, this author appears to have written for construction site ENR.

However, when I checked his bio, it said he is a freelance writer who covers the industry from the Washington, DC, metro area.

I like to note this in my media list so that when I go to pitch, my angle may be a better fit for a different site he writes for; maybe I have a DC-specific angle I can pitch.

Or I can dig to find other sites he writes for by Googling “Jim Parsons construction.”

These steps may seem tedious initially, but they will quickly become second nature. In the next section, I’ll show you how to employ them naturally.

If it feels like a lot, it’s because it is effective. I tend to discard more sites than I keep; instead, I’d contact 30 high-quality sites rather than 100 low-quality sites.

Now that you know what to look for in a site and journalist, let’s examine how to find contacts to fill your media list.

Finding Proper Email Addresses During List Building

Finding the correct contact info will make or break your campaign. While traditional media lists include phone numbers and mailing addresses, if you are building a media list strictly for backlinks, I’d argue that those are rarely necessary.

We’ve written a whole post on finding someone’s email address, but we’ll go into some basic tactics below.

Use Email Lookup Tools

Tools like Hunter and Voila Norbert use public data and databases to find and verify email addresses, simplifying the search for professional contact information.

For example, if we are evaluating a site on ENR, you can use Hunter’s Chrome Extension to try to identify email addresses.

In the screenshot below, it has found 63 results:

You can also go directly to their app and type in the author’s name and domain. It will then check its database to see if it can find the email address.

But tools like Hunter or Voila Norbert can’t find everything. You may need to widen your search.

Look to Social Media Profiles

X, aka Twitter, is usually the most reliable source for email addresses since many journalists and writers are active on it.

Sometimes, journalists will put their email directly into their profile. So if you know who the journalist is and they link to their X profile, you can check on their profile.

If they don’t link to their X profile, you can go to X and search for their name and the domain from which you found them.

For instance, Will Hurst from Architects Journal doesn’t list email or X username anywhere.

But a quick search on X with Will Architects Journal email finds his email address in the profile.

Found ya!

Other times, you need to dig through old Tweets. Use X’s advanced search feature to find the journalist using terms like “email me,” “tips,” or “contact me.”

For instance, I came across Kim Slowey from ConstructionBroadStreet.com but couldn’t find her email address on the site.

So I went to X, searched her name, and found she was some kind of editor (she calls herself the “Head So-and-So”).

Then, using the Advanced Search feature, I entered her username and searched for instances of the word “email” and found her telling someone else to contact her at the address below:

So that would be the one to add to the list!

Utilize Google Search Operators

A plain old Google search can also help you find email addresses for those folks that aren’t obvious.

You can help find email addresses using search operators like:

• site:website.com + “name” + contact
• site:website.com + “name” + email
• “name” + “email me”
• “name” + “contact me”

For instance, I couldn’t find Colin Marrs’ email address on his Construction News author page.

So I searched “ site:constructionnews.co.uk colin marrs email” and found it:

I found the email on a contact page, leading to the last tactic: searching their website.

Search the Website

Search the domain for About Us, Contact Us, or Team pages to uncover lists of journalists at a particular site.

For example, a site:search on Architectural Digest gives me an entire list of authors.

There are a few other highly specific techniques I recommend reading about in my full post.

OK, now we have the tactics for evaluating the site and finding the email addresses.

Now, we can dive into how to find sites and journalists to build our list.

5 Ways to Find Sites For Your Media List

When building a media list without purchasing an actual media list, the easiest way to start is to find journalists who have already talked about campaigns similar to your own.

Let’s stick with the construction industry and pretend our campaign is “Top Construction Safety Concerns for 2024”.

Google News Search is the easiest place to start.

1. Find Articles Using Google News

Google Search’s News feature (not news.Google.com) will allow you to browse news articles similarly to how you search with Google.

I like to search for potential sites both topically and chronologically, expanding wider as I go.

Start by searching as though you are looking for your campaign.

So, in our case, let’s pretend we are creating a post about construction safety concerns.

So, we’d search for “construction safety concerns” on Google Search News.

Start by searching within the past 24 hours.

You can adjust the date in a Google News search by choosing Tools and then adjusting the drop-down.

We now have a list of potential sites we want to evaluate using the earlier criteria.

For example, the first site in the SERP is Canadian Occupational Safety.

The post “Skilled Labour Shortage a Safety Concern in Busy Construction Year” focuses on Canada.

Given the site’s name, I assume it only covers Canadian news. If our post includes facts about Canadian safety concerns, this may fit our media list.

By clicking on the author’s name, Shane Mercer, we can confirm that the author is relevant to our beat and has posted recently.

Shane Mercer would be a perfect fit as his bio states that he “… now focuses on safety in the workplace in Canada.”

If you find someone who fits your list, you should find their contact information and add them to your list.

For instance, I did a site search and found his name on their contact page:

Then, repeat that process for the rest of the search results.

Widen Topically

You’ll eventually start to find posts that aren’t relevant, or sometimes Google will cap the number of results.

So, that means it’s time to widen the net.

Once you’ve exhausted your first search, you’d expand topically into broader categories, all with a search range of the past 24 hours.

For example, “construction industry safety,” “construction workforce,” or even simply “construction.”

You don’t want to get too far away from construction safety because you risk losing topical relevancy.

So, repeat Googling and evaluating your sites.

All search results become potential sites to evaluate using the previous criteria.

Widen Chronologically

Then, once you’ve exhausted your topics (or find yourself getting too far afield), you can widen the net chronologically.

Instead of 24 hours, you can go past a week, then a month, then three months, then six months.

After six months, you may start running into journalists who have switched beats or changed jobs.

Eventually, this process will take you too far afield. If that’s the case (or you get bored with Googling), it’s time to change the tactic.

2. Find Posts With Ahrefs

Ahrefs’ Content Explorer is a great tool for finding websites and content.

It evaluates the web the same way that Google Search would, but it has powerful features that allow you to drill down to the exact content you are looking for.

The only downside is that it doesn’t have an index as large as Google’s, so you must widen your date range a bit when searching.

Head to Ahrefs, search for your topic, and set the filter to “In Title.”

In our example, I’d use “construction safety” and set the filter to “In Title” and see a list of posts with “construction safety” in the title.

Change the Publication Date filter to identify articles published within the past 30 days.

You can then evaluate these sites for potential fit.

The first result I see is a post from Jpost.com, which appears to be a general news site at first glance. Clicking through the About Page, it’s “the largest English-language daily newspaper in Israel and the most-read English news website in Israel and the Jewish world.”

So, it’s high authority but lower relevancy for construction specifically.

Still, the author did write about construction safety concerns. So, by clicking on the author, I can evaluate whether or not journalist Judy Siegel-Itzkovich would fit our media list.

Her bio and recent posts lean more heavily on science and biology, so she’s a bit of a stretch for an article about Construction Safety Concerns.

Not to worry. We can just move on to the next one. Or move to the next tactic.

3. Find Sites That Talk About Your Campaign’s Focus

We discussed finding specific articles that discuss your campaign’s focus. However, stepping back, you can search for sites and publications in general.

I didn’t do this first because it involves two steps: finding a relevant publication and an article or journalist at the site relevant to your campaign.

However, the process is similar to before.

Perform a Google Search for Niche News Sites

You can find sites in your niche by searching Google for your topic + “industry news” or “news.”

Since Google News doesn’t pull in every site, this type of search will typically uncover some new sites.

For example, Googling “construction industry news” finds me sites like ConstructionDive.com and ENR.com. Both are great news sources in the construction industry.

Once you find the site itself, then you will search the site for a relevant article, which is outlined next:

Search the Site for Relevant Articles

Once you have the site, it’s time to find relevant journalists. The easiest way to do this is to perform a site search.

One of my favorite SEO extensions is Search the Current Site tool.

For example, if I’m on ConstructionDive and want someone talking about construction safety, I can search “site:constructiondive.com construction safety.”

Then, the author would appear below the post’s title or featured image. See Julie Strupp below:

Then, you evaluate the site and journalist the same way.

You can turn to social media if these tactics fail to uncover sites worthy of your media list.

4. Find Sites or Journalists on X

X (formerly Twitter) is one of the best places to find journalists and websites in your target industry online.

Search X for your term and choose the “People” tab to uncover accounts that may be linked to a site.

For example, we can search for “construction news” to see if there are any sites we may have missed in our media list search.

Hover over their handles to see if they reference a site in their bio.

For example, @cnplus links out to their site: https://www.constructionnews.co.uk/. This site may fit our list if we want to pitch our piece to UK journalists.

We would then do a “site:www.constructionnews.co.uk construction safety” search to uncover articles written about construction safety.

Alternatively, you could try to uncover journalists in the construction industry by searching for “construction journalist.”

This will search X for instances of the term construction journalist in Tweets and bios.

In the image above, you can see three who say they are journalists for various sites.

If we click through to Carl Brown’s X feed, you’ll see his most recent articles on Building.co.uk.

Then, we’d click through to the site and evaluate.

5. Find Sites Using SparkToro

SparkToro is an audience research tool that uses engagement metrics to find websites and social platforms.

It’s a fairly underutilized tool in the digital PR space, but it’s quite powerful because it connects sites based on audiences.

It doesn’t just find you similar sites to what you are looking for, but specifically similar sites that a target audience spends time on.

If your goal is to find websites that could potentially turn into conversions, this is the type of targeted search worth starting with.

For example, you can ask SparkToro to find data based on audiences who frequently visit BigRentz.

Then, toggle to Websites on the left sidebar to display other websites your target audience frequently visits.

These can become potential coverage opportunities.

For example, Equipmentworld.com looks promising for our post.

We can visit the site and see an entire section on “safety.”

Then, we will see if we can identify a relevant author from one of the articles for our media list.

Building Media Lists With BuzzStream

If the above feels exhausting, that’s normal.

Remember, you get out what you put in. If you spend the time to find the right contacts, you will reap the rewards when it comes time to pitch them.

Luckily, BuzzStream has a workflow that takes everything you’ve just read and learned and combines it within the app for a seamless workflow and saves a TON of time.

(Again, this is one of the main reasons I switched from Google Sheet to BuzzStream about 8 years ago.)

You can research sites, evaluate them, and find email addresses in one flow.

You can review them within the app itself or the BuzzMarker Chrome Extension.

So, let’s get into the flow:

Finding Sites, Articles, and Journalists For Your Media List

BuzzStream users get access to powerful Research tools, which allow them to Google Search or import data to evaluate within the app.

So, say we wanted to start building a list for our construction project.

To start, open the BuzzStream App, click Projects from the left sidebar, and then click on any project in the top navigation.

You will see the option to start a New Project.

Click on New Project, and it will prompt you to fill out the project name and any project details. By default, it will pull metrics that make evaluating sites easier in the next phase, like Moz’s DA.

You can also add Ahrefs if you have an account connected to BuzzStream.

Once the project is created, you’ll see the open to Create a Research List.

Now, the fun begins.

Research using Google Search

You can perform any standard Google search using BuzzStream, and it will analyze and collect all of the results in a helpful dashboard for review.

Go to the Research Lists, Create a Research List, then choose Search the Web.

Enter the search queries you wish to use.

In our construction industry example, we can start with a search like “construction safety concerns.” You can also adjust the search parameters.

Let’s start with one week to pull in the most recent posts.

BuzzStream will then search the web and pull in all results for your review.

However, the benefit of BuzzStream is that you can search multiple search queries simultaneously.

Let’s show what that looks like in the next section.

Research using Google News

You can search Google News in BuzzStream the same way you do Google Search.

Let’s add a new list for the construction project.

Go to the Research Lists, Create a Research List, and then choose Search News.

Then, you’ll see the same prompt for adding your search queries.

This time, we’ll add multiple search queries. Let’s add more construction-related queries, expanding our topical scope.

BuzzStream runs the analysis and pulls in over 300 potential sites.

Importing Lists

Lastly, we can import lists into BuzzStream.

You can paste a list into BuzzStream or import CSV from Semrush or Ahrefs.

For example, I mentioned exporting a search from Ahrefs Content Explorer as a CSV file.

Well, now you can import that right into Ahrefs for evaluation.

In BuzzStream, go to Research Lists, Create a Research List, and choose Import Existing.

With the Import Existing feature, you can choose Ahrefs as your source, and BuzzStream will automatically match up the correct data columns to ensure your list is imported correctly.

Now that we have our lists of sites and articles. We can begin the evaluation phase.

Evaluating Sites

The evaluation workflow in BuzzStream is very intuitive.

Simply go to the project you’d like to evaluate and choose your list.

Then, use the checkboxes next to each site on the left to select all the sites you’d like to evaluate and review.

I usually just select all.

Then click the Research drop-down menu and choose Review on the Web.

Then, confirm how you’d like to review the prospects (one tab at a time or multiple tabs).

BuzzStream will then open up your pages in tabs (it will default to five tabs at a time.) You’ll see a brief description of the page, as well as the ability to Approve, Reject, or Blacklist.

Choose an applicable one and click “Close and go to Next.”

This will open the next tab (and refill your queue of five tabs.)

At this point, you’ll begin to evaluate the site yourself using the criteria mentioned above.

For example, the first tab that opened for me was this post from Amazon:

In looking at the site, they seem only to share Amazon-specific news. So unless our construction safety post covered Amazon safety somehow, I would click “Reject.”

Once I click that, it brings up the next site for evaluation automatically.

When you find a site or journalist you think is a fit, you can move on to finding their contact info.

Ready to streamline your outreach and link building campaigns? Start free trial

Find Email Addresses

The feature I love best about BuzzStream is that the tool automatically finds any email addresses during your evaluation process.

Let me show you how.

As in the previous step, go to your Research tab. Then, select the sites for review. Click the Research drop-down and choose Review on the Web.

Choose the recommended option to review prospects using tabs five at a time.

Alongside the page information, you’ll see an expandable section called “Discovered Contact Info.” Click this, and you’ll see all of the information BuzzStream found.

In our construction industry example, this post from 3NewsNow found author Jill Lamkins’ contact information.

Choose Approve, and it will take you to the next page.

You may sometimes run into an email address BuzzStream cannot find on the site. You can use Hunter with BuzzStream to increase the scope.

When you go to Research, you’ll see a menu option that says, “Search Hunter.io for contact information.” Choose this to connect and search for emails using Hunter.

Note: to use Hunter, you must sign in with your account and have credits available.

 

Using the BuzzMarker to Evaluate Manually

Ah, my favorite feature.

You may want to evaluate or update contact information on a site independently of the workflow I mentioned above.

For example, say you just wanted to do a Google Search, open a single link to a story, evaluate the story, and find the journalist.

Of course, you could do all of that within the Research List workflow above, but you can also do it using BuzzMarker.

BuzzMarker is a Chrome Extension that opens on the page you are currently working on and connects to the BuzzStream project database.

So, if I’m working on my construction project and come across a site I like, I can open BuzzMarker and enter site contact information, make notes, and search for the email address, all without leaving the page.

For example, if I came across TheSafetyMag and it wasn’t currently in my project, I could fill out the information in the BuzzMarker and add it to my list.

OR, if it was already in my project and I just wanted to update the information, I could click on the BuzzMarker icon to show me everything I’ve already done.

This is very helpful when updating a media list (which is at the end of this post).

OK, by this point, you have your list. One step remains.

Last Step Before Sending – Verify Your Media List

However, before crafting and sending your email templates, one important step remains: verifying the email addresses on your list.

Let’s touch on that before we’re done.

Starting in 2024, Google and Yahoo announced major email requirements to combat spam.

The new requirements apply mainly to those who send over 5,000 emails to personal email addresses in 24 hours. Failing to comply will hurt your email sender’s reputation and result in rejected emails.

(Aside from verifying your email, there are many other requirements, so if you send many emails, I highly recommend reading up on the new guidelines.)

Verifying email addresses is an excellent practice because it helps ensure your emails get sent to active email addresses.

You can verify and validate your list with a tool like NeverBounce.

You can verify a limited amount of single emails for free or grab an account and add your entire list:

How Often Should You Update Your Media List?

To be safe, I’d recommend updating and verifying your media list before each pitch, which may be unrealistic for some.

It does depend on the industry. For example, in this Reddit thread, users discuss how the TV industry has a quicker turnaround time.

Most media lists should be updated every three to six months.

However, more frequent updates might be necessary if you’re in a rapidly changing industry, like technology or politics, or working on time-sensitive projects.

Does Building a Media List Get You Better Results?

With media lists, you get out what you put in. If your list is up-to-date and properly targeted, you will have great success with a purchased or custom-built list.

However, I’d argue that building your list is still the best way.

Between mass-produced generic and AI-written emails, journalists are getting numb to pitches that barely match their industry.

So, to have success in today’s market, you need to send personalized emails to the right people.

Building your media list will get you there, and sending a proper media pitch will seal the deal.

The post How to Build A Media List (Without Paying For One) appeared first on BuzzStream.

Digital PR is one of the best strategies for building high-authority backlinks in 2024.

As Google continues to tighten the noose on borderline link building tactics with March 2024 Helpful Content updates, building backlinks is more important than ever.

Even some white hat link building strategies rub against Google’s spam guidelines if builders don’t properly check websites for quality signals.

Although it can be tempting to purchase a handful of links from Fiverr for tens of dollars, what if I told you there was a way to create AI-proof, competitor-proof backlinks with a strategy that Google approves of and truly likes?

Enter digital PR.

I’ve spent the last ten years helping companies grow their digital presence with digital PR, and I’ve seen first-hand the impact and value it can drive for a brand’s growth.

This post will help you understand everything you need about digital PR to decide if it’s right for you and your brand.

What is Digital PR?

Digital PR exists somewhere between traditional PR and white hat link building.

But the simplest explanation I’ve ever given is that digital PR is a marketing tactic used to earn high authority links from publications that drive rankings and site traffic.

Digital PR covers many content types and strategies, but its goals align with SEO goals, so they play hand-in-hand.

How?

Campaigns might involve pitching a quote from a thought leader to a journalist writing about a related topic or creating and pitching content highlighting data from a commissioned industry survey.

In both cases, the goal is to drive links to boost rankings and site traffic.

But, where SEO focuses mainly on quantitative metrics, digital PR can push more qualitative goals like brand reputation, which overlaps with traditional PR.

Let’s take a look at this overlap.

Digital vs. Traditional PR

Technically, digital PR focuses solely on online media to boost brand awareness, sentiment, and market share on the web.

Traditional PR may encompass online media but mainly focuses on newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV.

While both aim to shape a brand, digital PR pairs with SEO performance—primarily high-authority quality links—as the core metric. In contrast, traditional PR has broader metrics to measure public perception and sentiment.

Ultimately, deciding between digital and traditional PR comes down to goals, audience type, and costs.

Here’s a quick way to visualize the overlap:

So, if digital PR builds backlinks, is all link building digital PR?

Not exactly…

Digital PR vs. Link Building

Digital PR is a tactic for building high-authority links, but not all link building is digital PR.

The tactics may overlap, but the overall strategies are unique.

Although hard to pinpoint, “digital PR” likely spawned after both link builders realized how impactful high authority links were for rankings and journalists’ need for stories to tell.

But, digital PR is a single strategy executed in many different ways, some very similar to “link building” and others very specific to digital PR.

In the next section, we’ll explore the types of digital PR.

Types of Digital PR and Who They Work Best For

Since we’ve mentioned a few types of digital PR at this point and there is some overlap, let’s clarify what each entails.

Hero Content

Hero content, or content-led digital PR, is typically standalone content on a site or blog pitched for coverage.

For example, a survey piece, a data study, or a story with heavy visual elements like an infographic or map could all be considered hero content.

Here are some specific examples of Hero content:

• Surveys. PatientPoint created its own using survey data from the platform OnePoll.
• Internal Datasets. Instagram has an extensive set at its disposal to create its Annual Trends Report.
• External Datasets. Census Bureau or WorldBank are examples of sets that can get analyzed and combined. At Homebuyer, I used this to create the most affordable cities to buy a house. Or Lottie tapped into Spotify’s data to make a Spotify Playlist for People with Dementia.
• Product Creation. Jewelry company Jessica Flinn created engagement ring Croc charms for a digital PR campaign. Some brands even create fictional products like Taylor and Hart’s Haribo ring.
• Graphics. SurfShark’s ‘Apps That Track You is an excellent example of a shareable graphic at the helm of a digital PR campaign.
• Maps. WordTips created a piece on the cities best at Wordle with a map to lead the campaign.
• Interactives and Calculators. FinAid’s student loan calculator can provide excellent link bait while tying into search volume goals.
• Animations. Brands can use animations to explain complicated topics or help visualize an exciting idea like Expedia’s reconstructed ruins piece.

Beyond just links, these content types can drive real traffic and revenue depending on how well-aligned the hero content is to the bottom of their marketing funnel.

Traditionally, building links to a product page, service page, or any other highly converting money page on a site can be very difficult.

Digital PR provides a creative alternative to bring authoritative links and relevant traffic to a site primed to convert.

For instance, the Homebuyer piece that I worked on focused on affordable cities for buying a home because first-time home buyers are the target audience for Homebuyer.com.

So, people searching for the term or interested enough to click on a link to the post mentioned on another site are more likely to be potential customers.

Newsjacking – Proactive vs Reactive PR

Another type of digital PR is newsjacking, which involves leveraging a trend or current news for coverage.

These campaigns can be Hero, aka content-led campaigns, but don’t necessarily need Hero content.

Based on our newsjacking guide from Will Hobson, there are two main types of newsjacking: proactive (or planned) and reactive.

Proactive

Proactive content is pre-planned based on events, holidays, and other scheduled news.

For example, a fragrance retailer, Aroma Retail, created a Superbowl-scented candle to pitch around the Superbowl.

Another typical example is planned company reporting, where a brand analyzes and comments on significant industry reports and then pitches those comments/analyses to journalists in the space.

Reactive

Reactive strategies include responding to breaking news across various sectors and leveraging it however possible.

Journalists typically look for industry experts to comment and support their stories when news breaks. So, the most common form of reactive digital PR is pitching a quote from a knowledge leader.

However, newsjacking can also be bigger than just a quote.

My favorite newsjacking example was when a San Diego moving company called HireAHelper created a microsite called wewontmoveyouchargers.com after the Chargers announced they were leaving San Diego for Los Angeles.

In a matter of days, HireAHelper put out the microsite where they announced they were boycotting the move by saying they wouldn’t help the Chargers move out of San Diego. Then, they enlisted several other San Diego-based moving companies to join the boycott.

This piece went viral, gaining major news coverage in the space due to the timeliness of the campaign and the creative way it came together.

Digital PR should be clear at this point, so let’s examine when a brand might decide to invest in it.

When Does a Brand Need It?

If a brand cares about SEO and online brand awareness, it can and should invest in digital PR.

But sometimes, selling to stakeholders or clients can be a challenge.

Not to worry, here are some of the reasons a brand might decide to shift to digital PR or hire an agency:

It Wants to Drive High Authority Links

Links are typically the main KPI in a digital PR campaign. Each coverage instance leads to a backlink. One can draw a direct line from a link to a sale. It goes like this:

Quality, relevant links can help boost site authority and increase rankings. Several studies, like this one from Ahrefs, have proven their impact.

Better rankings boost site traffic, which drives leads and sales.

It Wants to Boost Brand Exposure

Not all media “coverage” yields hyperlinks, and that’s not always bad.

Frequently, high-end news coverage may result in an unlinked mention or when a website mentions the brand or site but does not include a backlink. For example, see the unlinked mention of BuzzStream in this list:

These mentions can still drive direct traffic to a site.

(Plus, many digital PRs and agencies also provide services for unlinked mention recovery, where they request that journalists add the link to the brand.)

Some coverage can also lead to syndication, where the content gets republished on subsequent sites.

For example, TechCrunch originally published a post and then syndicated it on Yahoo News. It also appears as written here and here.

While the extra links from syndication don’t carry SEO value because they are technically duplicate content in Google’s eyes, there is a lot of potential for direct traffic from people clicking on the link.

Establish Thought Leadership

The more a brand is mentioned within a specific niche, the more likely it is to be perceived as an authority.

Google has put much effort into understanding how brands are perceived as topic authority.

Although it’s less quantifiable than a metric like Domain Authority, this authority, through links or mentions, can also help better establish topical authority in Google’s eyes, making it easier to rank.

Build Relationships with Journalists

Building relationships with the media is one of the under-appreciated results of a digital PR campaign.

Like traditional PR, having the press on the side of a brand is always a plus.

In digital PR, having the ear of the press makes each subsequent campaign more likely to yield authoritative links. Tenured digital PR experts have a Rolodex of journalists they’ve successfully pitched and established trust with.

Many use BuzzStream to contact reporters, maintain those relationships, and repitch new digital PR campaigns to the same journalists over time.

I wrote about this benefit and advantage while working with Siege Media.

Driving Leads and Sales

Although I talked about this already, it’s worth repeating.

Of course, leads and sales are the primary purpose of all marketing. Digital PR campaigns can directly and indirectly impact a company’s bottom line.

Brands can measure the impact of digital PR via referral traffic, determining how many leads and corresponding sales came from that traffic.

Brands can also measure the lift in organic traffic due to higher domain authority and better rankings. Then, apply this lift to any leads and sales from organic.

So, with so many potential benefits, how is success measured?

How Is It Measured?

To better understand what goes into a campaign and, more importantly, what comes out, let’s look at the different ways digital PR is measured:

Backlinks

Backlinks are the most commonly used indicator of a campaign’s influence and a website’s authority.

Here are some of the metrics brands us to report on links:

Unique Referring Domains – the number of unique sites linking back to the content or website

Linked Publications – the number of publications, like DailyMail or NYTimes, that linked to the piece

Top-tier Links – the number of high authority (DA/DR) links

Media Placements – The links are placed on media sites. (Though these can sometimes refer to social media placements)

While it can be tempting to focus on the sheer quantity of links, the best agencies and digital PRs focus on the quality of the backlinks and look at quality signals.

Our post on quality links covers quality signals at length, but some brands use third-party metrics like Domain Rating (DR) and Domain Authority (DA).

Domain Rating or Domain Authority

Metrics like Domain Rating and Domain Authority are proprietary, third-party metrics designed to measure Google’s PageRank (which helps gauge how easily a site can rank for a keyword.)

Some brands report on DA/DR gains to signify digital PR success. As a site accumulates more quality backlinks through digital PR efforts, its DA/DR improves, enhancing its visibility and credibility in search engine results.

Domain Rating is Ahref’s metric that specifically measures the strength of backlink profiles.

Domain Authority is Moz’s metric that takes backlinks and a few other metrics.

For example, agency Kaizen reported a 7-point increase in DR from three campaigns.

Brand Mentions

Another success metric is the number of times a brand is mentioned (linked or not.) These mentions are typically found using a tool like Google Alerts or Talkwalker.

Do they hold SEO value or rankings? No, but they can lead to traffic, which I’ll get into next.

Traffic

The most successful campaigns drive links and relevant traffic to a site. Brands see the results in either referral, direct, or indirectly from organic traffic.

Referral traffic is traffic that comes from external websites. So, if BuzzStream got a link on Forbes and saw traffic from Forbes, we could track it back to the link.

For example, I can look at BuzzStream’s Referral traffic sources on Google Analytics to see which external links are bringing in the most traffic for us.

Direct traffic is a little harder to pin down as it refers to traffic from users going directly to a site, usually by typing in the URL.

However, brands can argue that a rise in brand awareness can cause users to type in their URL—especially if the brand has an easy-to-remember brand name and URL.

Organic traffic is another measure of success. When a brand sees a boost in organic traffic, it may be due to backlinks from a specific digital PR campaign.

A healthy, successful site will see links building naturally over time in line with their organic traffic.

You can see this using a tool like Ahrefs’ Site Explorer.

However, many factors impact organic traffic, and it’s often difficult to attribute just one change to a boost in traffic.

Measuring the impact of organic traffic on the specific campaign or page tied to a campaign is easier.

For example, if we wanted our link building tools page to rank better, we could create a digital PR campaign around it.

Then, when the campaign ends, we could measure the impact of organic traffic on the page itself.

Organic Traffic Value

One off-shoot of organic traffic increase is Ahrefs’ Organic Traffic Value metric (though other tools have similar metrics), which some brands and agencies like to report on because it has a dollar value.

For example, North Star Inbound’s case study shows how they increased the value of a site from $10k to $3.5M.

The value, as explained by Ahrefs, is the “equivalent monthly cost of traffic from all keywords that the target website/URL ranks for organically if that traffic was paid via PPC instead”

(So brands don’t make the money; they just don’t need to spend it on ads)

Theoretically, sites with a higher Traffic Value rank for more valuable, higher-converting keywords.

So, by securing backlinks from highly authoritative sites, digital PR campaigns can indirectly increase a site’s Traffic Value.

Social Media Mentions

When the brand has a social presence or is trying to build one, mentions on social platforms may be a big part of a campaign’s results.

For instance, Rise at Seven’s Bernie Sanders’ Ikea chair campaign generated over 1.2 million image views on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Social media will not drive any direct SEO value, but it can bring traffic to a site, leading to rankings and leads.

Leads and Revenue

Lastly, a brand may measure a digital PR campaign’s direct impact on leads and/or revenue. Realistically, leads are harder to measure directly from digital PR.

But it’s common to see brands get major sales boosts when campaigns are tied directly to products.

For example, agency Frac.tl discusses how digital PR strategies helped dating app Sapio increase weekly downloads by over 3,000%.

Another agency, Reboot, talks about how they’ve increased organic revenue for a client by 613%.

There are many examples of campaigns that impact different business goals. Let’s examine a few.

Cost Per Link

Last note here on measurement.

Some brands and agencies quantify digital PR results using CPL or Cost Per Link. CPL is the campaign cost divided by the number of links achieved.

So, if a brand invests $10,000 in a campaign that yields 10 links, then the CPL is $1,000.

Generally speaking, the cost per link from a digital PR campaign that yields high-authority, highly relevant links should be at least $1,000.

But, costs can range from a few hundred to several thousand dollars per link, considering agency fees, content production costs, and the time spent on outreach and follow-up.

Let’s get into the fun stuff with measurement out of the way.

Great Examples That Have Gotten Major Coverage

The best part of writing this post is researching and sharing all the outstanding work and examples of digital PR at its best.

We’ve covered numerous examples of digital PR.

I also recommend checking out case studies from these well-known agencies that specialize in digital PR:

• Neomam’s portfolio.
• Fractl’s case studies page.
• Reboot’s case studies page.
• Siege Media’s case studies page.
• Rise at Seven’s case studies page.

I also subscribe to newsletters like WeAreHeroine’s TheGrapevine.

Here are a few of my favorites to highlight:

Beer Around The World

This example from the personal finance site Expensivity examined the price of beer worldwide.

The data was cleverly compiled using the prices of a 330ml (~11 oz) bottle of beer in supermarkets worldwide. Then, they found average alcohol consumption based on World Health Organization statistics.

They focused on developing great map visualizations and many other lists and charts that journalists and sites could utilize when sharing.

By encompassing countries worldwide, the piece widens the net of people they can reach out to.

This post has a clear connection to its audience, ensuring that when pitched, they get relevant links.

• Coverage: Vice, Food & Wine, The Scotsman, Paste Magazine, Business Insider, The Daily Meal, Conde Nast’s Traveler, and many more.

• Backlinks: 265 Referring Domains (RD), according to Ahrefs.

Perceptions of Perfection

This piece from UK drug retailer Online Doctor (similar to Hims or Roman in the US) breaks down the perception of female beauty worldwide. Since Online Doctor sells prescription drugs for health concerns like weight loss, this campaign ties into their audience and industry.

The campaign compiled its data by hiring female designers across the globe and tasking them with altering an original image to better fit their country’s perception of beauty.

Then, the post compared the photos with a fascinating analysis.

Anytime a campaign can elicit an emotional response to a campaign, it has the potential to go viral, and this one saw a significant response.

• Coverage: DailyMail, Business Insider, The Telegraph, BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, Vanity Fair, and many more.
• Backlinks: 389 RD, according to Ahrefs.

Drones in Construction

Not all industries can appeal to the mass audience. The construction industry comes to mind.

This drones in construction post was a piece that I worked on while at Siege Media for a construction rental site called BigRentz.

The strategy was to leverage a trending topic with high search volume and create interesting visuals that would stand out when pitched to journalists at industry new sites.

It currently ranks in the top 5 for “drones in construction,” so it has been attracting consistently high-authority, relevant links from construction industry news sites like For Construction Pros and Constructive Dive.

It has a clear connection to the construction brand and features high-quality graphics.

• Coverage: ForConstructionPros, Teledyne, ConstructionDive, Civil and Structural Engineering Mag
• Backlinks: 93 Referring Domains (RD), according to Ahrefs.

The Ultimate Spotify Playlist For People Living With Dementia

This creative asset by UK retirement home site Lottie examines songs that improve the mood of those battling dementia. From the name, there is a clear, relevant tie for their brand.

Again, this has a strong emotion tied immediately, continuously improving a campaign’s performance.

To create the piece, the team ranked songs from Spotify based on positivity, tempo, and mood to produce an overall score for the tune. Then, they created their ultimate playlist.

The presentation provides a brilliantly designed infographic and then, obviously, the actual Spotify playlist.

• Coverage: New York Post, The Scotsman, National World, The Star, London World, and many regional UK newspapers.
• Backlinks: 66 RD, according to Ahrefs.

The 10 Most Dangerous Roads in the U.S.

This piece, created by auto insurance comparison site The Zebra, analyzes the most dangerous roads in the U.S. based on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, specifically the fatality analysis reporting system.

There is an obvious tie to their core offering, and the subject matter made it perfect for pitching to relevant sites.

Simple, easy-to-understand graphics make it easy to share, and the fact that this is location-based gives lots of angles to pitch a post like this.

• Coverage: CBS News, Moneywise, ABC7, My SanAntonio, Deseret News, and more.
• Backlinks: 208 RD, according to Ahrefs.

What Digital PR Tools Do Brands Need to Get Started?

Each company and agency typically has a digital PR stack. I’ve compiled an extensive list of 25+ essential tools for digital PR teams, so below is a sense of the tools used to run a successful PR campaign.

Tools for Content Ideation and Brainstorming:

The best campaigns start with strong ideas. (I wrote a whole post about the importance of survey campaign ideation, one of the stronger digital PR types.)

Although ideas can come from anywhere, most marketers utilize several tools to help with ideation, from social listening tools to more SEO-driven research tools.

For example, many successful digital PR campaigns leverage trending topics on Exploding Topics or Google Trends, like the HireaHelper microsite I mentioned above.

Others use a competitive analysis tool like Ahrefs to look for successes from other sites and then try to create similar, better content. They can also use Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer to lean into topics with high search volume, as I did with the “Drones in Construction” post.

Digital PRs can use a tool like BuzzSumo to find trending social topics to leverage for content ideas. Then, they can take advantage of the news for reactive campaigns, like the Bernie Sanders Ikea chair from Rise at Seven.

Tool for Building Media Lists or Prospects:

Although targeted journalist discovery can be incredibly beneficial, many teams find it valuable to leverage a media database to quickly source journalists for their campaigns.

Common database tools are Cision, MuckRack, or Roxhill.

Good databases will have an up-to-date list of journalists, contact details, and information about articles they’ve written.

BuzzStream is for those teams that prefer to build and maintain an up-to-date media list on their own, leveraging their own research and/or combining contacts from third-party media lists.

BuzzStream has helpful importing and manual research features that I use for every campaign.

Some teams use a hybrid approach and use a media list in conjunction with an outreach tool like BuzzStream.

Tool for Content Creation and Visualization:

When pitching content, design, and presentation can help cover the story. Data studies need data visualization. Travel-related studies may need custom photography. And, of course, the words on the page must be convincing.

For instance, I use Grammarly to quickly edit all of my written content for grammar, flow, and consistency of voice.

Even some of the largest brands use third-party tools for data visualization. For example, Bankrate displays data using the data visualization tool Infogram.

Tools like Canva and Pixlr can help create a great-looking product.

Content Distribution Tool:

Content rarely gets coverage without pitching, so a distribution tool is important.

Digital PRs typically do a mix of emailing journalists and utilizing press release newswires, typically both.

In my time with Siege Media, we used BuzzStream because it allows users to create or import a list of journalists, vet the list, email them, and maintain relationships, all within the same app.

Some media list-building tools mentioned previously have built-in press release distribution, but brands also use standalone services like Newswire.

These distribution networks are then seen by journalists and sometimes utilized for stories.

Analytics Tools:

Lastly, analytics tools are required to track the success of digital PR campaigns. Different tools are usually employed since different goals are tracked for each campaign.

Tools like Talkwalker or Google Alerts can help track brand mentions. Ahrefs, Majestic, Semrush, and good old-fashioned Googling can help find backlinks.

Social mentions can be tracked using tools like Mention or BrandMentions.

Most digital PRs use multiple tools to track backlinks and mention since the need to report on links is so critical.

Then, a tool like Google Analytics tracks conversions and revenue based on traffic from referrals, direct, and organic sources.

What Do Digital PR Campaigns Cost?

Unfortunately, there is no quick answer to this question because campaigns have so many factors that influence the cost.

Digital PR campaigns can range from a few thousand dollars for essential services to tens of thousands for comprehensive campaigns executed by top-tier agencies.

Some reactive campaigns are cheaper and quicker — especially if pitching thought leadership quotes for coverage. Quote pitching for backlinks requires an ear for trending topics and a pitching platform like BuzzStream.

So overhead costs can be as little as $24 per month for a starter BuzzStream plan.

Hero-led campaigns are more extensive and expensive—especially when a developer or high-quality graphic designer is involved.

Siege Media, the agency I used to work for, has a great post explaining the cost of digital PR.

The Future of Digital PR is Bright

As Google becomes more sophisticated in recognizing backlinks, digital PR will become even more important (and popular).

Digital PR is very popular in the UK but hasn’t yet been fully adopted in the US. Most experts agree that the US is a few years behind when it comes to utilizing the strategy of digital PR to its fullest potential.

I talked about the impact of Helpful Content Update on link builders, and one of them is that link builders, SEOs, and digital PRs alike need to start considering how they build links and from where.

When you consider how many backlinks you need to rank or outdo competitors, it’s not necessarily the quantity of links; it’s the quality of links. High-authority, relevant links will really move the needle going forward.

And digital PR is the most consistent and effective way to do this.

The post Digital PR: What Is It and How to Get Started in 2024 appeared first on BuzzStream.

Writing media pitches for data-led stories or studies is very different from writing a media pitch to promote the launch of a new product, service, or event.

Maybe you’re wondering what your pitch should include.

Or are you struggling to figure out how best to structure your pitch?

Possibly, you’re confused about the differences between press releases and media pitches and which approach is right for you.

In this guide, I’ll be sharing my approach to writing media pitches, plus you’ll find a bunch of helpful tips and examples to assist you in writing your own.

What is a Media Pitch?

A media pitch (sometimes called a PR pitch) is a message normally sent directly to a journalist via email.

The ultimate goal of a media pitch is to persuade the journalist to cover a story.

What is the Difference Between a Media Pitch and a Press Release?

Media pitch and press release are often used interchangeably, but they aren’t quite the same.

Before the advent of email, companies largely depended on newswires to distribute their stories to journalists, and that’s where press releases come in. A press release follows a strict, formal structure that hasn’t changed much.

If you do an image search on Google for “press release template,” and you’ll be confronted with various options which essentially follow the same structure:

• Contact information
• Release date
• Headline
• Optional subhead
• Lede paragraph (a short paragraph which explains the “who, what, where, when, and how” of the story)
• Body paragraphs (further supporting information, quotes, etc)
• Company boilerplate text
• A call to action
• End notation

Learn more about the anatomy of a press release and its parts.

Press releases follow the inverted pyramid writing style, which news journalists (for the most part) still follow today.

The idea is to ensure that the most pertinent information is communicated within the first paragraph, so even if a person only reads the beginning of an article, they have a clear grasp of the story.

It was particularly important for print journalists to follow the inverted pyramid structure because articles would often be “cut from the bottom” (i.e., later paragraphs in the story would be removed to make space for breaking news stories right before the newspaper went to press).

Today, many PR professionals still write press releases, and whilst some still elect to distribute via services like PRNewswire or BusinessWire, they’re more commonly emailed directly to journalists.

Others choose to email PR pitches (or media pitches) instead.

Whilst these pitches often include many elements you’ll find in traditional press releases, they tend not to observe the same strict structure.

Data-Led Media Pitching

In this article, I’ll explain my approach to structuring media pitches; however, I want to be clear that this is just because I personally prefer this method – I’m in no way suggesting that sending press releases to journalists is the wrong approach.

Plenty of guides out there deal with pitching new products, services, and events or pitching a person to appear on TV, radio, or a podcast, so I won’t be covering those types of media pitches here.

I’m specifically focusing on data-led media pitches – partly because that’s where my experience lies, but also because I feel there’s a lack of specific guidance on how to create these types of media pitches.

To help make this more concrete, I’ll be using a campaign from my time as Head of Creative at Verve Search, where I worked with a wonderful team of people.

It should also be noted that the learnings I’m sharing here are the results of their creativity, tenacity, and hard work – I’m certain they taught me more than I ever taught them.

Notes About the Campaign

On Location was a piece we created for our client, GoCompare – using 20 years of IMDb data, we uncovered the most filmed locations on the planet.

By creating several tailored media pitches, we were able to gain coverage across a number of publications and verticals.

Our core media target was travel publications. We sent a media pitch about the most filmed locations worldwide to these outlets, which resulted in coverage like this:

We also cut the data in many ways to create additional topical and niche-specific media pitches:

Plus, there were plenty of regional stories we could tell:

Country-specific:

State-specific:

City-specific:

But how did we go about pitching these stories?

Planning Your Media Pitches

Before I leap right into writing media pitches, I like to think about the types of journalists who might be interested and the stories I can use the piece to tell.

My process looks like this:

1. Understand the client’s priorities 

Where do they want coverage, and which story angles most likely appeal to these journalists?

2. Identify other potential verticals

Are there different story angles that might appeal to journalists in other verticals?

3. Evaluate the potential for regional coverage

Not all PR campaigns lend themselves to regional coverage, but where appropriate, I like to identify potential regional angles at this point, too.

For On Location, we identified the following:

The team created separate media pitches for each of the various story angles to enable them to send the most relevant story to each segment of journalists.

This is really important.

On some beats, staff journalists are expected to write 8-10 articles in an 8-hour shift. On other beats, this number is lower, but nevertheless, journalists are under a lot of pressure time-wise. They just don’t have the time to unearth relevant stories from poorly-targeted media pitches.

Let’s take regional journalists as an example – most regional journalists don’t cover national or worldwide stories. If you take a look at the coverage we secured in the Miami Herald, journalist Madeleine Marr says as much in her article:

“What the market research firm discovered were the most-filmed locations in various areas throughout the United States, as well as the world.

We were only interested in the results out of Florida (naturally), so here you go:”

If we’d sent her a “Most Filmed-Locations Worldwide” media pitch, she’d have ignored it. She covered our piece only because we’d taken the time to send her a story relevant to her beat – in this instance, The Most-Filmed Locations in Florida.

How to Write a Media Pitch

We’ve identified several segments of journalists, plus the most relevant story angle for each segment. This means we have a clearer idea of how many media pitches we will write.

Our client’s priority is worldwide generalist travel outlets, so tackling this media pitch first makes sense.

To figure out how best to structure my pitch and what I should include, I like to find a similar article to the one I’m pitching to use as a guide.
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Let’s take a look at the Mail Online coverage we secured.

By looking at this coverage, you can make reasonable assumptions about how the original pitch was structured:

Headline (a.k.a. Your Subject Line)

This is the article headline:

“The top 20 most-filmed movie and TV locations in the world revealed: From New York’s Central Park to the UK’s South Bank, these are the places you’re most likely to see a star”.

This is a pretty long headline! The original subject line was likely shorter.

Still, by reviewing the journalist’s headline, you can make reasonable guesses about the original subject line.

Plus, I often use existing headlines from journalists as inspiration to create my own subject lines for media pitches.

Writing a good subject line is hard, but in my experience, quantity is often the quickest route to quality. I recommend setting a 2-minute timer on your phone and writing as many as you can as quickly as you can. Repeat this exercise until you have at least 25 subject lines – I guarantee there’ll be a good one in there.

3 Key Stats or Findings (Bullet points)

These three takeaways are most likely taken directly from the pitch.

• New York’s Central Park has been used as a filming location for movies more than any other place on earth

• Venice Beach in California came second, followed by Greenwich Village, Astoria, and Williamsburg in the top five

• Only location outside US in top ten was University of British Columbia, with South Bank most popular in UK

Since journalists often structure their articles like this, ensure you include around 3 key stats within your media pitches.

For pieces like this, you might also consider delving a little deeper to uncover broader trends rather than just mentioning the top three ranked locations.

The Lede

Remember the inverted pyramid writing style I mentioned earlier in this article?

The lede is a short written summary explaining the story’s “who, what, where, when, and how”.

Here’s what the journalist has written:

“The most-filmed TV and movie locations around the world have been revealed – and New York’s Central Park is the place you’re most likely to see a star.

A new study has revealed that it’s US locations that make up most of the top ten filming locations  – perhaps not surprisingly – with Venice Beach, California, in second place followed by New York destinations Greenwich Village, Astoria and Williamsburg completing the top five.

The most filmed location outside of the US is the University of British Columbia in Canada, which is the ninth most popular location, while the most popular spot for filming in the UK is London’s South Bank, which ranks 11th.”

Explain Each Key Data Point

This makes up the bulk of the article.

In this example, the journalist has included a sentence or two about each of the top filming locations and examples of some of the most iconic films that were shot there.

Again, this detail was likely provided in the original pitch.

(I think including some examples of which films and TV shows were shot in each location was likely really important here – without that detail, the piece is just a list of places).

In this example, we included examples of the most iconic films and TV shows shot in each location – without this detail, the article is just a list of places.

Ranking Tables

Again, most likely provided in the original pitch email.

Methodology

Journalists will often copy and paste your methodology, so it’s a great opportunity to influence how they refer to the company you’re promoting and whether or not they’ll include a link.

Notice how the methodology has been written in this example; it’s clear, concise, and written in the third person:

“The study was carried out by comparison site Go Compare, which used analysed data from IMDb’s ‘filming locations’ section. They included both films and TV series shot in these locations but excluded film studios from the data.”

I’d recommend writing up your methodology in a similar vein.

It’s also a great opportunity to influence both how the journalist refers to your client and whether or not they include a link in their coverage.

By now, I’m sure you can guess where I’m going with this!

Publications vary in terms of the style and story structures they tend to employ.

Of course, you’ll need to tailor your media pitch according to the particular findings of your data analysis.

Still, it’s these core components, plus a couple of additional elements, that form the structure of my media pitches for data-led stories:

• Core Component: Headline (this is your email subject line)
• Additional Element: A sentence or two demonstrating why this story is relevant to the journalists’ beat
• Core Component: Lede
• Core Component: 3 key stats or findings
• Core Component: A short paragraph about each key data point
• Core Component: Data tables
• Core Component: Methodology
• Additional Element: Company Boilerplate Copy
• Additional Element: Contact Details

As you can see here are three additional elements I like to include.

Company Boilerplate Copy, and Contact Details are pretty self-explanatory, but “a sentence or two demonstrating why this story is relevant to the journalists’ beat” warrants further explanation.

Let’s take a closer look at that element:

Demonstrating Why This Story is Relevant to the Journalists’ Beat

Here, I’m trying to reassure the journalists I’m contacting that I’ve thought about how the story relates to their vertical.

For example, I plan to send travel journalists the Most-Filmed Locations Worldwide pitch.

There’s a possibility that some of these journalists might struggle to see the link between a study about the most filmed locations on Earth and consumer travel.

But I need to tread carefully here – some journalists might have made this connection, and I don’t want to come across as patronising to those folks!

Here’s how I chose to frame the story:

“Visiting some travel destinations can feel like stepping into a movie or TV show – and there’s a good reason for that – it’s because filmmakers often use the same locations over and over again.

But which locations are used most frequently in TV and film?”

Important points to note: 

By opening with the line, “Visiting some travel destinations can feel like stepping into a movie or TV show…” I want to connect travel and filming locations quickly and clearly.

I’m inferring (rather than explicitly stating) that travelling to destinations that have been used as filming locations is something that people like to do. This is deliberate.

I don’t want to say something like, “People love travelling to visit the locations of their favourite movies and TV shows,” because that feels like a stretch! Also, I have no data to prove this assertion.

Media Pitch Examples

I’ve covered the elements I typically include in a media pitch, but what does a media pitch written by me look like?

Media Pitch Example 1: Most-Filmed Locations Worldwide

Here’s an example of what I might send if I were pitching the Most-Filmed Locations Worldwide story to a travel outlet:

Subject Line: Central Park tops the list of the most-filmed locations in the World

That is a lot to digest. Let’s break it down a bit.

A good portion of the email body is comprised of explanations about the key data points.

Next comes the data section.

Last is the methodology, boilerplate information, the hyperlink, and contact information.

You don’t have to include your phone number here. In my experience journalists are more likely to email than call you, but I like to make it as easy as possible for them to contact me if they need to.

As I mentioned previously, we need to write separate media pitches for each of the various story angles to send the most relevant story to each segment of journalists.

Fortunately, this is reasonably quick and easy once we’ve written our initial pitch. Let’s take a look at a few examples:

Media Pitch Example 2: English Stately Homes Made Famous Through Film

In order to demonstrate the relevance of the story to this segment of journalists, my opening sentence has been revised.

Rather than talking about travel destinations, I’m talking about the  “star quality” of these country houses.

Also, rather than taking the approach of listing the Key Findings, and then including a short summary of each key data point, in effect here, I’ve just gone straight to the data table.

I’m expecting these journalists are most likely to write this up either as a listicle, or image gallery, and, as such this is the information that’s most relevant to them.

Subject Line: Hampton Court Palace tops the list of the most-filmed Stately Homes in England

Let’s look at one final example.

Media Pitch Example 3: The Most-Filmed Locations in Florida

Note the inclusion of locations in the subject line – in my experience, tailoring your subject lines in this way maximises your chances of a regional journalist opening and reading your media pitch.

The lede and intro sentences have also been edited to make them more relevant for the target audience.

As with the Stately Home pitch, rather than taking the approach of listing the Key Findings, and then including a short summary of each key data point, in effect here I’ve just gone straight to the data table.

Subject Line: Miami tops the list of the most-filmed locations in Florida

You can also check out BuzzStream’s email outreach templates for more inspiration.

Notes on Personalisation

As you might have noticed from the examples I’ve included above, somewhat controversially, I don’t recommend high levels of personalisation for this type of media pitch.

I believe that whilst it’s important to target journalists appropriately – i.e.:

• Segment your pool of journalists to ensure you’re sending them the story that’s most relevant to their beat (Proper segmentation and targeting will help align with Google’s new email requirements.)
• Include a sentence or two within your pitch that demonstrates how the story is relevant to these journalists’ beat

(Learn more about building your own media lists.)

I tend not to do things like reference a similar article a journalist has previously written.

This is for a couple of reasons:

I don’t think it’s necessary 

A journalist is more than capable of determining whether or not the story I’m pitching is right for their audience.

Including a reference to an article they’ve previously published is unlikely to influence their decision.

It’s surprisingly easy to get this wrong

I might judge a previous article as similar (let’s imagine I’ve found an article about the same topic), but the journalist may have a different view.

As far as they’re concerned, I’m claiming that two very different things are, in fact, similar – I’d rather not run the risk of alienating the journalist before they’ve even read my pitch.

It’s incredibly time-consuming

Let’s imagine I’m pitching 100 journalists. If I spend 15 minutes trying to find a relevant article for each, that’s 25 hours of work.

When It’s a Good Idea to Personalise

I’d also like to highlight that whilst I don’t think high levels of personalisation are worthwhile for pitching data-led PR campaigns like On Location, there are other types of media pitches that I’d definitely take the time to personalise.

For example, suppose I were pitching a client to be interviewed for a feature article or to appear on a podcast, TV, or radio segment. In that case, I’d advocate for high levels of personalisation.

In a similar vein, if I were pitching my client as an expert via a platform like Connectively (formerly HARO) or Qwoted then my pitch would be fully-personalised.

I’d be sure to obtain full answers to all of the journalist’s questions and provide anything else they required in my response.

Final Thoughts

I hope you’ve found these media pitch examples useful and that you’ve picked up a few tips to use to craft your own PR pitches for data-led stories.

I think it’s important to note that there’s no single “right way” to write a media pitch – PR professionals take different approaches based on their own experiences and preferences, the types of stories they’re pitching, and the types of publications they’re targeting.

I’ve shared my approach here to help demystify the pitching process to the media; I’d encourage you to experiment with some of the things I’ve suggested and see what seems to work best for you.

Good luck out there!

The post How to Write a Media Pitch (That Will Get Coverage) appeared first on BuzzStream.

Just because most journalists agree that press releases are a top priority when looking for trusted sources doesn’t mean all press releases hit the mark.

There are many different wire services where companies publish thousands of press releases daily, so it is critical to put the time and effort into crafting the best press release to make yours stand out.

If you can nail the press release, you’ll also have a leg up on crafting media pitches because they use many of the same principles.

Let’s break down exactly what a press release is, the different types of press releases, some industry best practices, and, most importantly, the anatomy of an effective press release.

What is a Press Release?

A press release is an official statement or proclamation announcing news that provides relevant information to the media. The key here is that it is an informative piece of content.

Press releases can take many forms depending on the news you are announcing. Before writing a press release, whether it’s your first or 100th time, it is essential to set clear expectations on what you want to achieve so that you can better understand what you are writing.

Press releases are announcements. They are not editorial (like this) or inspirational pieces.

Can press releases lead to editorial and inspirational content?

Absolutely!

But that is the job of the media you are trying to reach, and what the media needs is an informational source – a press release.

Types of Press Releases

Companies issue press releases for various reasons, so it is crucial to understand the different types of press releases; let’s break down some of the more common types of releases: product or brand launches, company news, event announcements, and reports.

Product or Brand Launches

Product or brand launch press releases can do wonders when trying to reach a new audience of potential customers about a new product or feature. However, not all product or brand releases warrant a press release.

If you are launching a new brand or product, tailor your press release to resonate with journalists at industry trade publications, so always tie it back to what they find valuable and relevant.

If a new enhancement gets launched and is only relevant to customers already using the product, then an email campaign to your current customer base is the way to go.

Here are a few different ways brands have launched product news:

• Media Advisory: Chrysler Will Unveil Innovative Electric Concept Car, Three Teaser Images to Preview Brand’s Drive to All-electric Future
• Found Advances Weight Loss Standard of Care With MetabolicPrint Launch | Business Wire

Company News Announcements

A company news announcement encompasses any significant news the media might be interested in, such as new hires, mergers and partnerships, award recognition, company milestones, growth, and more.

But how do you know if your news is …newsworthy?

Jodie Booras from Kaiona Communications recommends asking: “Does this news impact those outside the organization? For example, if the company is restructuring its internal management structure in a way that only affects employees, it’s likely not newsworthy. If they bring in a new VP of Sales to focus on customer relationships, that is newsworthy.”

Company news can be as broad as what you see on Crain’s People on the Move when announcing a new CEO or something more specific to your industry, like Healthcare Dive’s Hospital Administration News.

In an ideal world, these announcements will lead to interviews or, at the minimum, coverage from various target publications.

Here are a few examples of company news announcements from various newswires:

• Orthofix Names Massimo Calafiore as President and Chief Executive Officer | Business Wire
• Travis Barker Launches Barker Canna Co. with Hardware Partner Jupiter Research

Event Announcement

Events have taken on many different forms since COVID-19, but whether virtual, in-person, or hybrid, events are just as essential to promote via a press release.

The primary goal of issuing an event press release is increasing attendance.

To reach the right audience, focus on resonating with the publications your audience reads. Scan through other event press releases they have covered to ensure your press release includes all of the common elements or themes you see.

Here are a few examples of event announcement press releases:

• Enterprise Connect 2024 Expands Conference Program, Adds RingCentral CEO Keynote | Business Wire
• Oncternal Therapeutics to Participate in Oppenheimer 34th Annual Healthcare Life Sciences Conference

Data-Driven Reports

Finally, one of the most intensive yet effective types of press releases is announcing reports with insightful data.

It is no secret that journalists love data, so if you can provide new and proprietary data, along with an analysis, you will quickly become a trusted source to them. A common strategy for digital PR, data-driven press releases are a great way to establish your brand as an industry thought leader.

Unlike announcing a product enhancement that may no longer be relevant after 6-months or a year, releasing reports full of valuable data can get cited for many years.

Here are some examples of press releases about data-driven news:

• TCN Consumer Survey Reveals Nearly Three-Quarters of Consumers Will Abandon a Brand After Just One Bad Customer Service Experience
• Holiday Tourism and Luxury Travel: The Latest Travel News Trends

Anatomy of a Press Release

There are a few key elements that all press releases should include, regardless of what type of announcement it is.

Breaking down each section:

Headline

The headline is one of the most essential parts of your press release – it is your opportunity to catch your audience’s attention and make them want to read more, so it needs to be concise, engaging, and informative. Focus on why this press release is essential to the audience, not why your company is excellent.

Dateline

The dateline is one of the most critical elements of the press release, and there isn’t much to it other than the date you publish it.

Don’t overcomplicate it.

Press Release Lead-in

The lead-in is the beginning of the first sentence of your press release, and for branding consistency, this should always be the same on all press releases. Most lead-ins get written ahead of time as part of a brand’s approved press kit.

Key Facts

Adding key facts lets journalists quickly scan and extract the most crucial information.

How do you know what warrants a key takeaway?

If your report found something that challenges the status quo in your industry, that is a newsworthy takeaway. If some data points reiterate a well-known fact that everyone is already talking about, then leave it out.

Try to shoot for including 8 – 13 key findings.

Quote

Always include at least one quote in all press releases, ideally two to four sentences per quote.

The quote can come from an executive team or someone in charge of the project or event.

If it makes sense for the story, you can include quotes from multiple people. One example would be having a quote from a new partner, hire, or customer and an executive.

Call-to-action (CTA)

All press releases should have a call to action. CTAs can be event registration links, landing pages, or as simple as a link company’s home page.

Boilerplate

Boilerplate outlines what exactly your company does for those who have yet to become familiar with the brand. You should be able to find this information in a press kit already.

Contact Information

All press releases should include contact information for the press. We recommend using someone on the PR team, whether internal or with an external agency.

Let PR be the gatekeeper of all inquiries instead of letting executives get bogged down by emails.

Additional Media

If you want to give your press release the best chance at reaching the most people, think about some unique media assets that can make it stand out and make the lives of your target journalists easier.

Examples of assets include data, infographics, and videos, among others.

Although assets aren’t always available, they can make a significant impact. We recommend including them if you can.

Additional Sections for Launches, News, Events, and Reports

In addition to the essential elements mentioned above, here are some other specific sections to include based on the type of press release.

Product Specs for Product Launches

For product launches, include key differentiators of the product that make it stand out from competitors or prior versions.

Company News Highlights

When announcing company news, try to incorporate at least one specific key highlight that makes it significant to this news.

For example, if you are announcing a new executive, detail that executive’s background and what they will bring to the company. When announcing an award the company won, what was the main contributor to that company winning the award?

Event Specifics

Event announcements must include vital information, like the 5 Ws (who, what, when, where, and why). Where will the event be held? Who should attend? Where can they register? You get the idea.

Key Takeaways for Reports

When announcing the results of a new report or survey, you want to point out the most insightful key takeaways, along with a brief analysis of the findings. Give just enough to intrigue them but not enough where they do not need to take any action.

Your CTA for these releases will likely get them to download or sign up for the full report.

Additionally, provide the survey demographics so they can quickly see the audience used to give this data and ensure it is the right fit for them.

Click here to download the full PDF version of our anatomy of a press release.

5 Press Release Templates To Get You Started

Ready to write your own press release? To get started, use the templates below for the main types of press releases discussed in the previous section.

General Press Release Template

[Headline: Engaging title highlighting the main news]

[Date] 

[Company Name], a leading [brief description of company], today announced [briefly state the news]. This significant [milestone/development/achievement] marks a [reason why this news is important].

Key Facts:

• Fact 1: [Important detail about the news]

• Fact 2: [Another crucial point]
• Fact 3: [Additional relevant information]

“[Quote from a company executive or project lead highlighting the significance of the news and its impact on the industry or target audience],” said [Name, Title] of [Company Name].

For more information, please visit [website/landing page].

About [Company Name]: [Brief boilerplate about the company, its mission, and its impact on the industry].

[Contact Information]

–

Product Launch Template

[Headline: Captivating title announcing new product and its impact]

[Date]

[Company Name], a [description of company], is thrilled to unveil [Product Name], a groundbreaking [product category] designed to [describe the main benefit or problem it solves]. Set to revolutionize the [specific industry or market segment], [Product Name] offers [key features or differentiators].

Product Highlights:

• Feature 1: [Description of feature and its benefit]
• Feature 2: [Another feature and how it addresses customer needs]
• Feature 3: [Additional feature or unique selling point]

“[Quote from a company executive or product manager explaining the inspiration behind the product and its expected impact],” said [Name, Title] at [Company Name].

[Product Name] is available [mention the launch date, availability, and where to purchase or learn more].

About [Company Name]:[Company boilerplate highlighting expertise and commitment to innovation].

[Contact Information]

–

Company News

[Headline: Attention-Grabbing title reflecting the company news]

[Date] 

[Company Name], a [brief description of the company and its industry], is excited to announce [describe the news, such as a new partnership, milestone, executive hire, etc.]. The [announcement/news] is a testament to [Company Name]’s growth and commitment to [mention the goal or mission related to the news].

Key Highlights:

• Highlight 1: [Detail about the news and its significance]
• Highlight 2: [Another critical aspect of the announcement]
• Highlight 3: [Additional relevant information]

“[Quote from a key executive detailing the news and its impact on the company’s future],” stated [Name, Title] of [Company Name].

For further details, visit [website/landing page].

About [Company Name]: [A brief company overview, including its mission, market position, and achievements].

[Contact Information]

–

Event Announcement Template

[Headline: Compelling title announcing the event and its unique appeal]

[Date] 

[Company Name], a [description of the company], proudly announces the upcoming [Event Name], scheduled for [Date] at [Location]. This event aims to [state the event’s purpose, such as raising awareness, launching a product, etc.] and will feature [mention key activities, speakers, or highlights].

Event Details:

• What: [Brief description of the event]
• When: [Date and time]
• Where: [Venue and address]
• Who Should Attend: [Target audience]
• Registration: [Where and how to register]

“[Quote from an organizer or executive explaining the significance of the event and what attendees can expect],” said [Name, Title] at [Company Name].

For more information and to register, visit [event website].

About [Company Name]: 

[Brief boilerplate about the company and its role in the community or industry].

[Contact Information]

–

Data-Driven Report Template

[Headline: Engaging title highlighting the report’s key finding]

[Date]

[Company Name], a leader in [industry], released a comprehensive report titled “[Report Title]” today. The report offers groundbreaking insights into [brief description of what the report covers], revealing [key findings].

Key Takeaways:

• Finding 1: [Significant discovery or data point from the report]
• Finding 2: [Another crucial insight]
• Finding 3: [Additional important data or conclusion]

“[Quote from an executive or lead researcher discussing the report’s implications or how it challenges current industry perceptions],” noted [Name, Title] of [Company Name].

The full report is available for [download/purchase] at [website/landing page].

About [Company Name]: [Company boilerplate, emphasizing expertise and commitment to research and innovation].

[Contact Information]

–

Press Release Examples From Around the Web

Here are some more press releases found in the wild. You’ll notice that not all of them follow the exact same layout that we’ve recommended. But all of them include essential sections that make a press release successful.

Tech Rebrand

This example uses a strong title stating why the news is important to readers. The video helps this stand out and provides another medium for information. Within the body of the release, the use of bullets helps to break down the complexity a bit, making it easier to read.

Non-Profit Fundraiser

This event announcement press release answers the 5W’s (who, what, where, when, and why) all in the intro paragraph. There is also a clear CTA to learn more.

Product Launch

The headline on this press release focuses on the company and what it means for the industry (education usage surges). The format calls out key features using bullet points, and there’s a quote from the product team.

Note – there’s also a quote from a customer, which serves as nice third-party validation.

Press Release Tips

Once you understand the key elements you should include in each type of press release, you are well on your way to creating a great outline.

Below are a few bonus tips to keep in mind as you start diving into crafting the perfect press release:

Keep It Concise: Aim for around 600 – 800 words for news, events, and product launches.

You may go well over 1,000 words for data-driven reports because you include critical takeaways with an analysis of each.

Use Visuals: Give the journalists and their audiences a significant element to visualize your announcement. Even something as simple as a product image or an executive headshot.

Proofread Carefully: Even the best writers make mistakes. The more you read and re-read any content you have written, the more your brain will read what you know it should say, not necessarily what it says on the page.

Even small teams can consider affordable tools like Grammarly.

Distribute Strategically: Once you have put the time and effort into creating and publishing a great press release, implement a strategic plan to distribute it using a digital PR tool like BuzzStream so it reaches the right audience.

If you plan to pitch using email, check out our email outreach templates.

Using BuzzStream to Send Press Releases

BuzzStream has a bulk send feature built into the platform for sending press releases.

You can set sequences, follow-ups, track opens and clicks, set dynamic fields, and many other features. You can read all about our bulk send functionality here.

Frequently Asked Questions About Press Releases

What Are the 7 Parts of a Press Release?

The seven parts of a press release include the headline, dateline, introduction (lead or lead-in), body, boilerplate, call to action (CTA), and contact information. The body contains the key takeaways and the quote in our list above.

What is the Structure of a Press Release?

The structure of a press release typically follows a straightforward format: it starts with a headline that grabs attention, followed by a dateline, an introduction that summarizes the news, the body with detailed information, a quote, a boilerplate with background on the issuing company, a call to action, and ends with contact information for further inquiries.

What Should Be in the Body of a Press Release?

The body of a press release should contain detailed information supporting the announcement, including key facts, statistics, and quotes from company executives.

What Are the 3 Core Components of a Press Release?

The three core components of a press release are the headline, which captures the essence of the news; the lead paragraph, which summarizes the most critical aspects of the announcement; and the body, where you include detailed information and quotes to support the lead.

What are the 5 Ws in a Press Release?

The 5 W’s in a press release are Who, What, When, Where, and Why. These elements ensure the press release communicates who is involved, what is happening, when it’s occurring, where it’s taking place, and why it’s important.

What is a Boilerplate in a Press Release?

A boilerplate in a press release is a standard paragraph at the end that provides background information about the company or organization. It typically details the company’s mission, history, or achievements.

What Not to Include in a Press Release?

In a press release, avoid irrelevant information, jargon, unverified claims, and personal opinions that do not directly support the news announcement.

The focus should be on newsworthy content that interests the media and your audience.

What Does 30 Mean at the End of a Press Release?

The number “30” at the end of a press release is a traditional notation used to indicate the end of the document. It is a holdover from press telegraphy days in the US.

What Does ### Mean at the End of a Press Release?

Similar to -30-, using ### signifies the end of a press release. Some may also use -END-.

The post The Anatomy of a Press Release: Types, Templates, and Examples appeared first on BuzzStream.

Is the subject line not grabbing them?

Does the data need to be more compelling?

Did I reach out to the wrong person?

Is my email not grabbing their attention?

After you’ve found their email address, focus on your email messaging.

I’ve been sending emails for years and getting pretty good links. I’ve also had thousands of emails that have gone unread and unanswered. So, I decided to develop a handy acronym for my methods.

I call this the C.H.A.M.P. outreach method. This method uses five checks to ensure your email clicks with your target audience.

C.H.A.M.P. stands for:

• Connect
• Help
• Adapt
• Make it scannable
• Personalize

With this method, an optimized email would look like this:

Before I get into the details of each check, the C.H.A.M.P. outreach method is tailored towards a targeted, personalized email approach (sometimes called the sniper method) vs a bulk send (or shotgun method).

However, this method has components you can apply to a bulk send approach.

Without further ado, here is the C.H.A.M.P. outreach method.

C – Connect

Make sure your email immediately connects with the reader.

Connecting isn’t exactly personalizing (as that will come later). The connection we want here is contextual. This connection should be natural. If you set out to build relevant links, for instance, there should be a clear connection between your pitch and your target.

An immediate, snap connection should answer most people’s question, “Who the heck are you, and why are you in my inbox?”

For example, if I write about travel and receive an email pitch, it must be immediately apparent why you are contacting me.

However, depending on the type of email you are sending, you might not have an immediate connection as obvious as the one in the image above. So, it’s OK to remind them about the connection.

Or if you’re lucky, maybe you know the person already and can remind them where and how you know them. For example, I recently received an email from someone who made a clear connection in both the subject and first lines of the email, reminding me that I tagged them in a LinkedIn post.

You’ve gone too far if it takes 2-3 lines to connect.

If it takes more than a line to explain the connection, it probably isn’t a fit as a prospect.

H – Help

The name of the game is to provide value in some way. Your outreach strategy should never make the other person do all the work.

At BuzzStream, we use the term “Relationship stage” for a reason.

When you perform email outreach, you are building a relationship. However, some forms of email outreach, especially link building, may seem one-sided. How am I helping someone by asking them for a link?

Help can mean many different things in the context of the C.H.A.M.P. method. It can mean providing value by:

• Pitching them a great shareable asset that they can then share on their blog, impressing their readers
• Pitching some helpful data they can share to get more views on their story
• Giving them a free trial to a tool
• Offering to write an entire post for them

Help can also mean providing clear instructions for your ask. For example, in resource page outreach, broken link building, link moves, link reclamation, unlinked mentions, and other white hat link building tactics, helping means showing your target exactly where to find everything.

Tell them the exact page you are referring to on their site. If it’s a large site, provide the link. When the target page has multiple sections, suggest a section where you believe your resource would be a good fit.

Call out specific stats the journalist should know if you pitch a survey or data piece. Proactively provide a supporting quote from your CEO so the journalist doesn’t need to. We’ve outlined many of these in our email outreach templates post.

The name of the game is making it as easy as possible for your target to take action.

A – Adapt

Matching the style and language within a conversation has been used in sales and psychology to better connect with people.

Tailor your tone and presentation to the type of prospect that you’re reaching out to.

So, if somebody uses very bubbly language in their blog posts, lean into it. If someone is very formal, match your tone.

The above is an extreme example to prove a point, but the fact is that people respond better if you talk to them like a person, not a prospect on a list.

If you’re stuck finding the correct tone, AI can help with this. Copy and paste a few blog posts or stories from your target’s site into a tool like ChatGPT or Bard, asking them to analyze the style and tone.

Then, prompt them to write your email matching the target style and tone. (Don’t think it’s possible? We ran a study on using AI for pitches, and the results were very surprising.)

M – Make it Scannable

People view emails on different devices. Some might be on the train, scrolling on their phone, while others are home on a desktop with a 27-inch monitor.

It’s no surprise that users scan web pages. An American Press Institute study found that users understood 100% of the sentence, which was eight words long.

At 14 words, comprehension dropped to 90%!

Large blocks of text are immediately off-putting.

Consider the difference between these two email messages. One is on a desktop, the other on a mobile device:

Although both are rough to read, the mobile experience could be better. The long sentences more than double the number of lines before a paragraph break.

Some simple ways to make things scannable (and to help with accessibility guidelines):

• Break up large paragraphs into 1-2 sentences max
• Break up long sentences
• Use bullet points
• Use some bold text to make things stand out

Again, AI can come in handy with a task like this. Ask ChatGPT to take the same example email and make it more scannable.

Here is the same example from above after prompting ChatGPT to make the whole passage scannable:

Using bullets and bold text makes the email infinitely more scannable.

P – Personalize

Finally, we’ve come to personalizing your email. I could spin 10,000 words about the importance and impact of personalization, but instead, I’ll condense it down to a few tips for quick ways to personalize.

The cleanest, easiest personalization structure I’ve used throughout the years is to start each email with:

I saw you published [Recent, Relevant Post Title]. I really liked [specific thing you enjoyed]+ [why I enjoyed it.]. 

The more specific, the better. I’ll touch on this later.

Here are some other tips:

Read their bio. If you connect with someone based on their interests, you can easily connect there. I once found someone who was a fellow Phillies (baseball) fan, and we connected about that.

Read their most social posts. Sometimes, you can find notes about what they are working on or doing outside of work, like recent vacations. (Insights from social posts can even help prevent pitching content they might not personally agree with, politically, etc.)

Get their names right. Databases can be ancient and need to be updated. A prospect might prefer a nickname vs what appears on a public database (especially one they never wanted to be on in the first place).

People like to see their names. One study found that adding names into subject lines can increase open rates by almost 25%.

Reference a post that they’ve written recently. The most recent post is likely fresh in their memory. So you can extract information and personalize your email based on that.

Be specific. If you like something about an article your prospect wrote or shared, be specific and include details.

General statements sound inauthentic. Avoid statements like “It’s interesting” or “You do great work”.

Ready to be a C.H.A.M.P.?

The post C.H.A.M.P. Outreach Method (That Got Me Thousands of Links) appeared first on BuzzStream.

Like in link building, quality beats quantity with email outreach. You don’t need 1,000 emails to get ten mediocre results. You could send 100 or 50 highly-targeted emails to get ten solid results.

The less spam we put out, the more our outreach gets ignored, making it harder for ourselves in the long run.

With that out of the way, here are our favorite email outreach templates to help you reach your targets, get those links, earn some coverage, and win those deals.

Cold Email Outreach Templates

“Cold outreach” is usually meant to mean reaching someone you’ve never met before. You then “warm” the prospect up over time until that prospect becomes a sale.

But too often, cold emails go right out of the gate for the sale. There’s no effort to personalize or build a relationship.

With Google’s new email requirements to reduce spam starting Feb 2024, cold outreach may take a critical blow if you aren’t personalizing.

Any way you can connect to your target, the better your chances of getting them to take action.

The remainder of this post is a collection of cold email outreach templates broken down into specific industries for easy browsing.

PR Outreach Templates

In the fast-moving world of PR, getting placements depends on many things going right. The one thing you should always be able to count on is your outreach email.

Hannah Smith of Worderist stresses that “you can follow the template structure below, but if you’ve failed to uncover the most compelling stories from your data, you still won’t secure coverage.

I suspect that whether or not you secure coverage is more down to factors like how compelling (or otherwise) the story you’re selling in is, plus whether or not you’re taking that story to the most appropriate journalists.”

We’ve covered tips on successful survey ideation in the past, so the next step is distributing your content. This section delves into crafting templates that resonate with your target, ensuring your emails yield coverage.

Survey Pitch Outreach Template

When pitching a survey, highlighting the key takeaways is the most effective way to inspire your target to cover your post.

Some journalists like to dive into your data and extract their insights, but most don’t have the time, so they look to you to point out the most critical aspects (which they may confirm themselves.)

Here is a successful template used by Jodie Booras of Kaiona Communications to secure coverage from major news outlets across the globe. Jodie says:

“Journalists love data, but sometimes it is not easy to come across. If you can provide them with useful, relevant data it makes their jobs much easier and you become a highly valued partner/source for them. When pitching the data, be sure to call out why it is relevant to them and their audience. WIIFM?”

Subject Line: New Survey Data for [Website Name]

Press Release Pitch Template

Like those outlined in our digital PR tools post, many press release platforms provide distribution networks. But if you are doing your own pitching, a press release template is a great building block for all types of pitching.

Jodie reminds us that “journalists receive hundreds of email pitches and press releases a day. Make their job easier by using bullet points to allow them to quickly and easily see the key takeaways of your news and give them a head start on potentially covering it.”

You’ll first need a press release. Discover the anatomy of a perfect press release to ensure you cover the most compelling information.

Then, use Jodie’s recommendation for a press release email pitch template.

Subject Line: New Survey Data for [Website Name]

Quote/Interview Pitch Outreach Template

Pitching quotes from a thought leader, C-suite executive, or relevant spokesperson for a third-party report or news event is a great way to get press mentions and links.

Jodie’s insight:

“When any news breaks in an industry, being able to offer quick sources to comment on that news and how it will affect the industry is key. It is important to highlight what unique angle or perspective your source is offering and what makes them credible on the topic.”

Subject Line: Exclusive Insight: [Company] on Recent [Report Name] Findings

Link Building Outreach Templates

Link building techniques have changed significantly, but many tactics still work well. Below are the most effective templates for link builders who want to personalize their outreach to boost their approach. Each is based on my years of experience with agencies like Siege Media and The Grit Group.

Guest Post Outreach Email Template

When pitching a guest post idea, the golden rule is to follow the writer’s guidelines on the target site. Some will have specific words to include in a subject line; others may also want the entire pitch in a Word Doc or Google Form. For example, here are the guest post guidelines from the Hubspot blog.

If you miss those guidelines, don’t expect your email to get read.

With any pitch, you’ll need a strong post idea and clarify why your target will benefit from including your post on their site. Don’t be afraid to show off by linking to authoritative, relevant sites where you have written lately.

Pitching to Someone Who Accepts Guest Posts

You can find 150+ high-quality guest post sites on our blog with links to their guidelines.

Here is a more specific guest post outreach template:

Subject Line: Guest post idea for [Website Name]

Pitching to Someone Who Doesn’t Advertise Guest Posts

Not everyone asks for guest posts, but you may still be able to convince someone to share your post. This more strategic approach requires finding a keyword that a site isn’t ranking for but should be able to and then pitching that post idea for them.

Subject Line: Getting [Website Name] to Rank for [Keyword]

Broken Link Building

Unless you write to your target post author a few days after their post has gone live, authors rarely remember the specifics of an external link they’ve placed within an article.

So, when writing a broken link building template, make it as easy as possible for your target to find and change whatever you need.

Here is a more specific broken link building outreach template:

Subject Line: Broken link and suggestion for [Website Name]

Link Reclamation

Websites drop links for many reasons, most of which aren’t on purpose. So, it’s usually easy to get them to re-add the link. You just need to guide them to exactly where your link was and remind them why it was relevant to include.

Here are more specific templates for a few different scenarios.

Link Was Removed

Oftentimes a link may be removed accidentally or due to a technical change on the site. Either way, you never want to appear too aggressive with your ask.

Subject Line: Missing link on your [Website Name] article

Link Was Set To Noindex

Sometimes, a site might not altogether remove your link; instead, they might just add a noindex tag, rendering it “invisible” for Google. Here’s a quick email to send to get it back.

Subject Line: Missing link on your [Website Name] article

Resource Page Outreach

Resource pages are pages that list multiple resources in the form of links. If you want a page to include your resource, include a compelling reason. Then, help tell them exactly where it should fit.

The more work you can do for them so they don’t have to think about it, the more likely they will help you.

Here is a more built-out outreach template for resource page link building:

Subject Line: [Topic] resource for [Website Name]

Unlinked Mention Outreach Templates

You can ask for the link when a site name-drops your brand but doesn’t link. Unlinked mentions are an excellent way for brands to pick up high-quality backlinks.

To make it as easy as possible for your target, tell them exactly where the unlinked mentions occur—specifically which post and where in the post.

Subject Line: Thanks for including [Your Brand/Site] in your article

Link Insertion Outreach Templates

Getting your link inserted into a post is one of the lowest-effort link building tactics because all it takes is a compelling email. Once you find a relevant, quality site that you think would be a good fit for your link, you can dig around to find their email address and send the template below.

Subject Line: Complementary resource for [Website Name]

Infographic Outreach

Infographics have been used for link building for years, though interest and reliability have waned due to overuse. Ensure your post is compelling, the graphics are original and high quality, and your infographic topic is relevant to your site.

Subject Line: Infographic for [Website Name]

Link Moves

“Link move” is a bit of a misnomer, as you are asking for a link replacement. So, pitching a link move requires you to include specifics to make things as easy as possible for your target.

Include the post, place, and new link you’d like as the replacement.

Here is a more specific link move outreach template:

Subject Line: Quick link update on [Website Name]

Podcast Pitch Outreach Template

Aside from being a great brand-building technique, getting yourself featured on other people’s podcasts is an effective white-hat link building tactic.

If you can warm up a lead by reaching out on social media first, you’ll have more success. You should always try to listen to a few episodes on the podcast so that you can speak to something more specific in your email.

An outreach template for a podcast pitch would look like this:

Subject Line: Podcast guest for [Podcast Name]

Affiliate Recruitment Outreach

Affiliate recruitment helps expand your brand’s reach and, with the proper targeting, can drive sales. Here are some best practices that ensure your outreach hits your potential affiliates.

I may sound like a broken record at this point. Still, the main focus should be personalization, with an extra eye on your value propositions and any mutual benefits of these partnerships.

Affiliate Recruitment Outreach Templates

Faique Moqueet, CEO of the affiliate and partnership marketing agency, Hamster Garage, mentions that “the point of the first outreach should be to open the conversation and give enough information to gain interest.

Keeping it more general will mean partners will have to reach out to learn more, which opens the door to sharing more about what you are looking for and what the partner is willing to provide so you can begin the negotiation process.”

Here’s his recommended template:

Subject Line: Partnership with [Brand]

Product Review Outreach Template

Building reviews for your product can drastically influence product sales and exposure. About 75% of users read reviews to learn about a new product, according to a study from PowerReviews.

Faique offers two different, more specific approaches.

Subject Line: Partnership with [Brand]

Another More Detailed Approach

Faique recommends not thinking about it like you are soliciting a product review but rather you are building a partnership. “If you are reaching out for a specific kind of partnership, you need to be specific about what you are looking for and how it would relate to the partner.

They will be looking to see what the benefit of the collaboration would be for them and how it would relate to current content. 

Being open about flexibility around communication can help start a conversation and engaging the potential partner. “

Here’s a more detailed template:

Subject Line: Subject Line: Partnership with [Brand X]

Influencer Outreach Templates

Influencer outreach is becoming a much more powerful strategy in digital marketing than ever, with apps like TikTok continuously dominating usage reports.

Below are templates designed to effectively engage influencers for product promotions, collaborations, or brand endorsements.

Collaboration Invite

Remember to approach all emails to stress that you are building a beneficial relationship where your brand and the influencer can grow and succeed together.

Subject Line: Collaborate with [Your Brand]

Event Invite

Inviting influencers to your event is a strategic move to magnify your event’s reach. The key to this email is the exclusive invitation, which flatters the influencer and leverages their presence to attract their audience.

Here is a more specific invite email template:

Subject Line: Exclusive Invite: [Event Name] Hosted by [Your Brand]

Follow Up Email Templates

Follow-ups have proven to be very impactful in B2B outreach campaigns, with one study from Belkins showing an increase in reply rate of 49% from the first follow-up email. Another survey from Woodpecker.io found that the first email increased by 40%.

Follow-up emails can be effective for PR, link building, and other marketing-related email outreach campaigns.

The question is, how many emails should you send?

The same survey from Belkins found a significant drop-off after the first follow-up email.

While there isn’t a clear answer, it is somewhere between one and two emails.

First Follow-Up

We generally recommend sending these 3-4 days after the first email if no one responds. Use the same email thread.

Second Follow-Up

A second follow-up can be five days to one week later.

Personalized Follow-Up

While this approach isn’t something you can quickly scale, it is much more effective than others. You want to mention something recent that they did to show that you are following and genuinely interested in their work.

—

New Angle Follow-Up

Gisele Navarro from NeoMam Studios recommends utilizing the follow-up pitch to unresponsive contacts as an opportunity to try completely new angles and approaches to your pitches:

• Offer new insights that you didn’t utilize in your initial pitch
• Conduct additional research or data analysis to uncover new findings
• If the topic allows, incorporate an emoji into your subject line to make your email stand out
• Experiment with the presentation of your email — Could you embed a striking visual? What about utilizing shaded containers to highlight important points?
• Always include a link where recipients can find all the assets ready for download

When you follow up with unresponsive targets, you have nothing to lose. Make your follow-up emails count by trying new things beyond the ‘Just following up on the story I sent last week.’

Using AI to Write Your Outreach Template

We partnered with Fractl to create a survey where 500 respondents working in the media evaluated AI-generated pitches.

We found that 79% found the pitches convincing, and 71% reported them being of high or very high quality.

Does this mean this whole post is obsolete? Not at all.

Before using AI to draft your pitches, there are a few things to remember.

• AI cannot personalize email without prompting.
• AI makes mistakes, so it’s critical to proofread anything before you send

What is the Format For a Successful Outreach Email?

While all outreach emails are unique, there are a few main sections to hit in every email template you create. Traditionally, the format looks something like the below:

Purpose: Clearly and succinctly explain why you are reaching out to them. Whether you are looking to collaborate, asking for a link, or setting up a call, be sure to state what you want.

Personalization: Some type of personalization should happen early in the email to hook the reader and let them know you are a real person. You can reference something in their bio, a recent blog post, a social post, or an email.

Value Proposition: Explain what’s in it for them. What are the mutual benefits of establishing this relationship together?

Call to Action: Specify what action you want your target to take. If the answer from the recipient is “OK, what am I supposed to do with this?” (a real answer I once got), adjust your template to ensure you are including a clear ask.

C.H.A.M.P. Outreach Method

I outline this more in the C.H.A.M.P. outreach method post, but in essence, the C.H.A.M.P. outreach method encapsulates the best practices found throughout this post.

C.H.A.M.P. stands for:

• Connect
• Help
• Adapt
• Make it Scannable
• Personalize

The method focuses on making immediate connections with recipients, offering a clear value, matching the communication style, and ensuring everything is readable (on any viewing device) and highly personalized.

Ultimately you end up with something like this:

This format is ideal for a targeted outreach approach, though bulk senders can benefit from a similar approach.

How Do I Create An Outreach Template?

There are many tools available for sending outreach templates.

In BuzzStream, simply start a new project, choose Sequences, and then you can set up either an individual template or an automated sequence.

Copy and paste any of the templates above to set up your outreach template. Use the Dynamic Fields or create your own.

If you’ve created a Sequence, you can add follow-up emails.

Then, when it’s time to do any outreach, you can choose your template or sequence and it will automatically pull in any of the Dynamic Fields.

Learn more about setting up projects and outreach templates with BuzzStream.

The post 22 Effective Email Outreach Templates (From Our Experts) appeared first on BuzzStream.

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