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

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First off, how do we define an outreach strategy?

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

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

A strong outreach strategy should answer the following: 

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

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

Step One: Define Your Target Audience

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let’s use an example.

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

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

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

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

Sweet, let’s move on. 

Step Two: Identity Timely Events Around the Campaign 

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

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

I repeat: It adds to the story. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TLDR; Do your homework! 

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

Ideally, digital PR content that you created to build high quality backlinks will do just that—Gain a journalist’s attention, inspire them to write an article, and ultimately link back to your site. But why do some campaigns fail to produce those high-quality links, and how can you prevent the same issue from recurring in the future? 

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In this article, our digital PR agency has put together three reasons why a link building campaign fails to secure backlinks from a promotional perspective, and what you can do to prevent future flops! 

#1 Your Insights Aren’t Pitchable

The first glance of an email pitch can either make or break a journalist’s decision to simply open the email in the first place, but how can you captivate their attention using just one sentence? The subject line is our bread winner here. Whether it’s a shocking statistic or an overview of the campaign, we have to find a way to make it enticing enough for a journalist to open the email. But before we can get there, we have to go back to the very first step of our process: brainstorming. 

When thinking of link-building ideas, it’s easy to ‘green-light’ the ideas that are our favorites or the ones we feel a personal connection to. However, this is where considering the depth of the campaign comes into play. 

Do we think this will be interesting enough to produce quality results?

What are some of the results we want to see from this? 

Will we be able to find insights that will resonate with journalists? 

Before picking your favorite idea to run with, take a step back and think of the campaign’s future. 

One neat thing about digital marketing is that we can tell the story. While we can’t alter survey results, we can frame survey questions in a way that portrays a more interesting narrative and opens up our outreach pool. 

Here’s the difference that could determine coverage or not:

Have you ever stolen money? (yes or no)

Have you ever stolen money to pay off a debt? (yes or no)

Have you ever stolen money from your family? (yes or no)

Have you ever stolen money because you weren’t earning enough in your job to afford your bills? (yes or no)

While all of these questions will garner results, you can see the difference in storytelling within each of them. While they all paint a picture of debt and finances, the last question hones in on something deeper. It allows the opportunity for an insight to be built off of a bigger picture: debt in corporate America. This gives you the opportunity to cast a wider net in your outreach by including writers that touch on topics such as wages and business.

#2 You’ve Missed the News Cycle

The news cycle can be difficult (and sometimes even impossible) to predict. It can also make or break your ability to secure media coverage. 

Let’s back up. The ‘news cycle’ refers to the timeline of any event that gets people talking—from the moment it becomes a topic of interest all the way until people forget about it. It tends to follow a bell-shaped curve, meaning that it will quickly rise and fall in popularity. The bigger, more impactful events typically stay in their ‘peak’ period for longer amounts of time. 

For PR pros, it’s critical that you nail the timing. The ideal story will align with the build of an already trending event. Too early, and people won’t care yet. Too late, and it will be tough to break through the noise. 

Ultimately, a time-sensitive hook makes it much easier to grab a journalist’s attention and gives them the incentive to cover with urgency. Even with evergreen content, if there’s a way to give the content a tie-in to what’s going on in the world today, you’ll see much better results. 

For example, ‘the most popular cocktail in every state’ might be relevant year-round. But when you frame it as ‘the cocktails that got every state through the chaos of 2020’, it became a little more enticing and encouraged reporters to talk about it as soon as it hit their inbox, while the events of 2020 were still relevant. 

It’s important to note that nailing the news cycle requires proactive thinking and quick responses. If you’re brainstorming a campaign idea that has a four-week production period related to something going on in the news today, odds are it won’t be as relevant by the time the campaign actually goes live. 

Time-sensitive campaigns are great, but you have to be particularly careful with launch dates. You should plan to give yourself ample time to promote the content while ensuring that you’re not wasting contacts by pitching too far in advance. A good rule of thumb is to allow for four weeks of promotion in advance of the event. It is worth noting that a larger event, like Christmas, will have people talking earlier than a smaller one, like National S’mores Day. 

#3 Your Content Isn’t Unique

Let’s face it, the internet is a constant stream of new content and it can be challenging to keep up. 

With all that content, you may come to realize that the brilliant link building campaign idea you just had has just been published last month. Then, you find out your next great idea was also done this year. Frustrated, you go back to the drawing board. That’s the life of a link builder. 

It’s highly important to vet any campaign idea you may have thoroughly. If you don’t take this step, you could find that you’re setting yourself up for a failed marketing campaign by creating the same content that many major publications already picked up this year. 

By only producing unique, high-quality content, you’re aligning yourself with the best potential to capture the attention of journalists and ultimately secure backlinks. At Go Fish Digital, we undergo several rounds of idea vetting before we create any campaign. 

However, just because your idea has already been produced in the past doesn’t mean you’re always back to the drawing board—if it’s been done in the last two years, we don’t recommend reproducing it. 

Avoiding those three mistakes will be the difference between a successful campaign and one that fails.

When your content is timely, unique, and interesting, you will find a place in the news cycle and build those high-quality backlinks.

This article was written in collaboration with Go Fish Digital link building team members Kalina MacKay and Bre Lewis.

Three Steps to Prevent Future Link Building Failures is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

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Here are some things our digital PR agency keeps in mind when browsing social media or media outlets to help strengthen your campaign ideas: 

1. Consume with purpose

In this industry, never underestimate the importance of seeking content from a variety of outlets on a daily basis — Even the ones you don’t necessarily enjoy. Look at consuming media as less of a time killer and more as a part of your daily job expectation. Set aside time everyday to browse your favorite sites and take notes.

2. Browse when you’re hitting a roadblock 

Reading Reddit, watching TikToks, or scrolling through Twitter are all research methods vital to a successful brainstorming session. Follow accounts or tags that are relevant to your clients’ industries. If you’ve hit a creative roadblock, spend some time reading content that’s trending that week across all platforms. What can you contribute to the bigger picture? Ask yourself how you can use trending topics to build a great campaign for a client.

3. Don’t be left behind

In order to stay relevant and build links, you need to be on top of viral trends as they come — And avoid being late to the game. People’s attention spans are shorter than ever, and they’re moving on to the next big thing quickly. Always research if your campaign idea has been done before and if it was covered by big publications recently. You don’t want to create old news.

4. Jot down ideas as they come to you

If you see content that’s captivating or if you have an interesting question, jot it down quickly on your phone to present to your team in your next brainstorming session. You should always be seeking campaign ideas as you go about your day, even off the clock. Are you on a date and wondering who should foot the bill? Maybe that’s a topic worth exploring. Inspiration is everywhere. 

These are examples of some ideas I jot down throughout the week:

Once you adapt your mindset to scroll with purpose, you’ll have a better understanding on what platforms produce the best content inspiration for your specific needs.

Here’s How I Use Media Platforms for Campaign Inspiration: 

TIKTOK

If you think TikTok isn’t your cup of tea, think again. As painful as it might be to scroll the app targeted for Gen Zs, it’s provided me with an abundance of quality ideas geared toward a younger demographic. Because of the variety of content that’s constantly posted on the app, there’s unlimited inspiration in real time. If you need to brainstorm around home topics, seek out relevant hashtags like #homedecor or #interiordesign to see what’s trending. There are plenty of communities to explore like real estate, LGBTQ+, finance, or entrepreneurship. I like to spend 30 minutes to an hour scrolling through TikTok daily to stay on top of viral content.

REDDIT

I get a lot of news from Reddit, but I also look at what folks are saying in the comments of newsworthy articles. Read conversations and observe what people are discussing and what they are curious about. Are they upset at something Joe Rogan said, or are people calling for more public parks in their city? How can you incorporate these discussions into a survey or data campaign? You can also look at subreddits like r/DataIsBeautiful or r/News for current campaign inspiration as well. Although Twitter is a good source for news-related discussion, I find Reddit produces more well-articulated comments and has less trolling overall. 

DREAM PUBLICATION SITES

So you want to be in Business Insider? Or maybe you dream of being posted one day in the New York Times? Look at these publications you admire every day and observe the content being covered. View the sites they’re linking to, find the source of the content, and study newsworthy topics in that industry. Look through articles written by a specific journalist on your media list, too, and brainstorm new content these publications might be interested in featuring as a guest post. Ask yourself, what piece of content can I create that would fit on this site or for this journalist? 

PODCASTS

In any given podcast, you’ll find hours of thoroughly discussed topics, thought-provoking conversations, and listeners asking hosts for advice over an array of subjects. Use your favorite shows to your advantage, they’re a great source of relevant material! Here’s an example: One of my favorite podcasts, Girls Gotta Eat, did a recent episode on sharing finances in relationships, and some of their talking points became survey inspiration for a campaign. How can your favorite podcasts inspire your own creative content? 

Creative ruts are a part of the content development process, but there are plenty of ways to find inspiration you can bring to your future brainstorming sessions and meetings with clients. Next time you’re struggling to find ideas, look at these tips to help create your next successful link building campaign. Good luck! 

How to Stay on Top of Trends for Campaign Inspiration is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.