So, imagine this scenario… 

A campaign you and your team have been working on for the last few weeks has finally been posted on your client’s site and you’ve launched an email outreach campaign to earn links. After reviewing your pitches, prospects, and media list, you pitch for a few weeks to your top targets, but no one’s biting. Then, at some point, your team asks for a coverage report but you have no links to share. And we’re always determined to find a way to get links and coverage in the end.

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What a nightmare – the scenario gives me a shiver thinking about it. Fortunately, there are a few steps you can take to troubleshoot your campaign. 

Here are four reasons why your link building campaign isn’t building links. 

Your digital PR campaign concept isn’t newsworthy. 

While newsworthiness is more subjective than other metrics, it is important to consider whether your concept, insights, or campaign will actually grab people’s attention. A concept that’s newsworthy will have a hook that helps journalists and media targets understand the relevance of the pitch to their audience, which will encourage them to report on your campaign. 

Media relations and digital PR agencies can help create stories that are going to inform, interest, or affect an audience using the idea of newsworthiness to guide their news-sense. 

Metrics that can help determine newsworthiness include:

• Timeliness to current events
• The shock value of the insights 
• Relevancy of the concept to the target audience
• Significance of the story to a wide audience (think national story, versus a local story)
• A human element, or the inclusion of an emotional angle
• The newness of the content you’re pitching
• Novelty and uniqueness of the event, product, or story

To be newsworthy, a story or pitch doesn’t need to have all of these metrics, but it is important that the pitch has at least one or two of them. 

A good hook will be able to express the newsworthiness of a campaign or pitch as well as why the target audience should care. A strong and clear pitch paired with a good hook will help increase your chances of media coverage. 

You aren’t targeting the right writers (or enough writers) to cover your pitch. 

Creating an effective and comprehensive media outreach list is very important when it comes to pitching campaigns. In fact, it’s pivotal to the success of a campaign. It is very possible that a lack of media pickup is indicative of your outreach targeting the wrong writers. 

When we’re making media lists and prospecting for targets, a common mistake is to add a writer who has covered something similar to the campaign you’re going to be pitching, but from a different beat or angle. If you aren’t getting links for your campaign, maybe you misunderstood the audience for a publisher or writer. 

That’s why it is very important to understand the different roles of media targets to ensure you are targeting the right people who will actually cover your pitch. Expose your campaign to a variety of possibilities for pickup by making sure you’re evaluating the roles of writers for your outreach list, including broadcast, producers, web editors, and other roles in the newsroom. 

Creating the perfect outreach list is equatable with finding a unicorn in the wild, but we’ve compiled some great tips and tricks to creating the ultimate outreach list that you can use. 

Your creative asset and/or pitch cannot be understood easily. 

The average adult has an attention span of eight seconds. If your pitch and corresponding creative assets (infographics, interactive tables) cannot be understood in eight seconds or less, you’ll lose the coverage opportunity. Your audience should be able to understand the story you are framing for them in that brief curiosity window in order to encourage them to explore more, ask for additional data, or cover your pitch. 

Sometimes, it’s the formatting of the graphics you’re sharing; could they be more clear? More effective in conveying the concepts? Have you sacrificed clarity for creativity?

Other times, it can be the hook of the campaign. Maybe your subject line isn’t strong enough to get the clicks you need to get coverage. In other cases, it could be the pitch you’ve written to frame the campaign. Revisit all of these parts of your campaign to diagnose why you may not be receiving coverage. 

A useful recipe to create a strong frame for a story pitch is to outline: 

• The reason you made what you created
• Why it’s valuable and relevant 
• The new findings your campaign has revealed 

If I can’t effectively answer why the research was commissioned or why we “did something,” I know I need to revise the hook of my campaign. 

You aren’t providing value to your targets. 

Digital PR, media relations, and public relations are all about providing value. So is search intent! When you are pitching a link building campaign, you need to ensure you are providing value to your targets. 

In my experience, developing a conversational yet professional tone in your outreach efforts helps you convey the value you’re adding with your pitch or creative asset. Although many digital PR or outreach specialists might tell you that you need a relationship before pitching a journalist, I don’t agree completely. If you can provide value by sharing a new source, a new story, or a new angle to a target, it’s worth reaching out to them. 

A value-add can be anything from a creative take on a current event, to a new infographic that covers a trending topic in the target’s beat or industry, or a unique quote from an industry professional. Evaluate your options for adding value to the target you’re pitching, otherwise, your campaign may not get coverage from that target. 

How You Can Ensure Your Digital PR Campaign Gets Coverage

While we can never guarantee coverage, there are so many ways you can create quality content, pitch effectively, and get backlinks for your campaign. When you’re beginning outreach for a project, take advantage of all the time you have in order to create a thorough pitching strategy. Make sure your subject line stands out, you’re adding value to the target’s email inbox, and you know how to diagnose your link building campaign before your client asks where the coverage is. 

Still unsure why your campaign isn’t getting coverage? Subscribe to our blog to receive our Link Building Diagnostic Checklist! 

4 Reasons Why Your Digital PR Campaign Isn’t Building Backlinks is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

Even though it’s sometimes quicker to use the tools we have than do certain things by hand, I don’t like to solely rely on paid subscriptions. I like to know how to use free, slightly more manual options just in case I don’t have those subscriptions, add-ons, or tools readily available. 

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But Rebecca, I like using the paid options! 

I understand (I use them too!) but there are a ton of great tools that don’t require you to pay a single cent. Besides, if you’re looking to track your coverage and hunt for web content that may align with your campaigns and clients’ industries, why not learn how to monitor some of these key metrics for free?

Although it’s a free tool, Google Alerts is a powerful notification service that offers a variety of options to personalize your alerts for digital PR. You can choose your inbox, or you can set up your Google alerts to deliver to an RSS feed. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

In this blog, we’ll go over: 

• How to set up Google Alerts
• Choosing use-cases for Google Alerts 
• Making your alerts effective
• Putting it into action

How to Set Up Google Alerts 

Creating an alert is simple, but let’s walk through it together. Head to https://www.google.com/alerts to get started.  

Step 1. Log in to Google with the Google account you want to associate the alerts with. For me, that’s my agency email.  

Step 2. Decide on the keywords or the content you would like to track. We’ll use the term “most popular takeout” in this example.

Step 3. Specify which alerts you’d like to receive and how you’d like to receive them. 

Step 4. Pick your sources. You can choose from news, blogs, video, and other types of content. 

Step 5. Input your chosen language (English), the region (United States) you’d like to monitor, and how many results you’d like to have (All of them). 

Congratulations! You’ve created your first alert. Now, let’s talk about the specifics of using these alerts to monitor your campaigns, clients, or media mentions.

How to Choose a Use-Case for Google Alerts 

Google Alerts is advertised as “a content change detection and notification service, offered by the search engine company Google. The service sends emails to the user when it finds new results — such as web pages, newspaper articles, blogs, or scientific research — that match the user’s search term”. 

When you’re tracking media mentions, you’re really tracking when someone publishes a piece of content that contains the keywords you chose when you were creating the alert. I use Google Alerts to monitor my clients’ brand names, keywords that are important to their industries, and any search terms that could be associated with one of my link building campaigns. 

You’ll notice I did not include social media monitoring within my use-cases of Google Alerts. That’s because unfortunately, Google Alerts doesn’t monitor social media content, such as Twitter or LinkedIn mentions. 

You could use Google Alerts for: 

• Monitoring mentions of a brand, company, or client name
• Monitoring what is being published about a keyword or topic
• Monitoring link building efforts
• Monitoring unlinked mentions of your brand or campaign
• Monitoring creative content to inspire your next campaign 
• Monitoring your company reputation
• Monitoring your clients’ competition 
• Watching what your competitors are doing
• Watching what some of your favorite authors or journalists are publishing 
• Tracking industry trends

How to Make Your Google Alerts Effective 

If you aren’t a search junkie, you might not have a strong understanding of Boolean search. This is a type of search that allows you to use modifiers, such as AND, OR, and NOT, to change the nature of your search. It also allows your searches to be more targeted. Better search terms inputted into your alerts will create more effective, targeted Google alerts. 

Here’s an example. 

“Most popular takeout AND GrubHub – delivery” 

This alert would show me content related to the most popular takeout specifically including GrubHub. They recently released a “year in food” report that’s generating a lot of links, so I thought this would be a good way to showcase how to use Boolean search terms in your Google Alerts. I also made sure to note that I didn’t want the results to focus on delivery, because that alert would have shown me which takeout locations were delivering via GrubHub. 

Putting It All Together

Here are some quick tips our digital PR agency uses that will help you get the most out of Google Alerts:

• Set up Google Alerts to monitor your link building campaigns for free 
• Check on your advanced settings once a month to see if you need to adjust your alerts, especially if you’ve added a new campaign or wrapped up an old one 
• Use as many alerts as you can – there is a 1,000 alert limit per Gmail account 
• Create strings of search terms to generate better results 

Every morning at 8:00 am, I receive a “digest” of all my alerts so I can quickly get up to speed on everything that was published in the last 24 hours. I check for links, and then I check in on what’s going on related to beats I might want to pitch that day. I use this method to track media mentions without spending a dime.

But, now, I want to hear from you – how do you use Google Alerts? Let me know down in the comments!

A Digital PR’s Guide to Using Google Alerts is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

Picture this: freelancers are looking for places to shop their essays around, but staff writers’ queues have been backed up with stories surrounding COVID-19 for the last few weeks. Along with that, their publishers are looking for content related to people and businesses impacted by the pandemic. 

Content-based internet publishers want to drive traffic to their site in order to increase page views and revenue. They need fresh content on a rolling basis in order to grow their readership. Writers and journalists have different goals than a publisher; the staff writer on your outreach list either has a story-quota for the day, or they’re looking for content to flesh out a story for a deadline. 

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How is this different from before? COVID-19 and similar topics are not only trending, but they’re also filling our news feeds from all sides. It has changed the way we’re consuming media, and, in turn, changed the way we’re pitching content. The question we need to ask ourselves before hitting ‘send’ is how can our resources, content, or pitch meet the needs of the publisher, editor, or writer we’re emailing? 

The media is always undergoing change, but right now, it’s changing faster than ever before. Here are a few things I’ve done to adapt my approach to digital PR strategy, to suit the new normal, that you can do as well!

Practice Increased Empathy for Your Writers. 

Digital PR professionals don’t control the majority of what happens once they send their pitch. Regardless of how much effort they put into perfecting the tone of their pitch, there is no way to know how it will be received. 

Remember, the person on the receiving end of your pitch is a human being, just like you. They are experiencing the new normal too, and they are probably just as apprehensive about publishing as you are pitching. Practice empathy for the recipient’s experience by maintaining sensitivity to the current situation, and try to acknowledge the pandemic only when it’s necessary. 

For instance, if you have a lighthearted topic that is a fit for the writer you’re reaching out to, don’t unnecessarily try to include a tie-in to the pandemic in order to achieve coverage. Or better yet, consider if that lighthearted content is actually not a fit at all right now. By maintaining a considerate and empathetic tone to your pitches, you show respect for the situation and for the person you’re pitching to. 

Choose Your Content Carefully. 

Of course, you need to navigate what works for your project as well as the client the project belongs to, but now is the time to be picky with what you’re pitching. If you have a tie-in to COVID-19 that is sensitive but well thought out, it could be worth pitching. Remember that click-bait, something with innate shareability, is important to publishers because it will bring users to their site and a global pandemic makes for strong headlines. 

But, be cautious about tying all of your content into COVID-19. Like I mentioned earlier, your content may not be a fit for the current news cycle. However, that doesn’t mean your content or the campaign you are promoting is going to fail. While the coronavirus may bring users to a site, evergreen content keeps them there. Digital marketing is known for its adaptability and flexibility. So, choose your content carefully, but be prepared to make changes in order to fit the current climate you’re pitching in. 

Provide Value to Your Contacts if You’re Asking for Any Insights in Return.

The campaigns I have been working on have helped me gather feedback from writers I have existing relationships with. Here’s how.

After our team made the decision to hold off on pitching for a few days to check-in on the media climate, I used that downtime to reach out to writers, editors, and producers I’ve worked with before, or that I have an established relationship with. I had questions about what editors were looking for in their story assignments, so I wanted to find a way to figure out what to pitch. 

Remember, you can’t ask for anything like a link or coverage without having something to offer in return. Here’s how I reached out to ask for a favor (pitching insight) while also providing value to them.

• I sincerely asked if they were doing alright and if there was anything I could do to support them during this unprecedented time. 
• We discussed what topics were considered evergreen, and which topics were worth relating to COVID-19. 
• With a lot of help from the content team at Go Fish Digital (thanks, guys!) I offered resources or datasets that may be useful to them. 

In return, they provided insight about what to pitch, who to pitch to, and how to reframe the lens I look at content through.

Keep hitting send. 

There is no one-size-fits-all answer, especially because trade or industry publishers need different content than a national news publication which means there is no reason to give up on a campaign simply because you aren’t getting coverage yet. 

Keep hitting send – eventually, if your pitch is compelling and well-written, someone will pick up your story. If you’re worried that a lack of coverage has to do with your pitch, here are five ways you can pivot. 

Moving forward. 

It’s difficult to see past the pandemic and consider what the future looks like. Digital PR, link building, SEO, and content marketing are part of a long-term strategy that tends to compound itself, getting better with time. 

That’s why it’s important to update your approach to digital PR right now so your clients can reap the benefits, even if the future of projects is currently uncertain. That’s the thing about content… you can always edit it. 

Regardless of where you are at in your content strategy – and whether you’re the owner of the content itself or the professional tasked with its promotion – you can always pivot your work to be more relevant or on par with what’s going on in the world around you. 

No one knows what the new normal will look like after this period of the pandemic passes. Until it does, it’s important to be up-to-date on trends in online media, practice empathy, stay home, and keep hitting send. 

How have you updated your approach to content marketing and link building during this time? Or What does your new normal look like? Let me know in the comments down below!

Pitching During a Pandemic is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

If you’re like the rest of us (and let’s face it, you are), then you probably don’t like being told no. Rejection stings, but it’s inevitable if you want to publish your content on the internet or pitch media who can publish it. Rejection – especially in the form of responses to articles I’ve pitched, projects I’ve promoted, and connections I’ve attempted to make – is something I’ve personally come to respect and use as a foundation on which to build my endurance for persistence.

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When I talk to people about writing or pitching media, nine out of 10 of them are quick to tell me they’d be too nervous to publish or send something out of fear of rejection. I understand because I’ve been there. I’ve had editors tell me to get a new job because, apparently, this one wasn’t for me. I’ve had journalists write the same story I pitched them and ignore my source. Rejection, in its very many forms, happens all the time. But with every rejection I receive, I become that much more persistent.

I’ve kept track of my lengthy list of rejection emails on the wise suggestion from one of the most successful writers ever. Stephen King is known for saying rejection makes a writer. In his book “On Writing,” he drops one of my favorite quotes of all time:

“The nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it. I replaced the nail with a spike and kept on writing.”  

Persistence is the armor that helps writers and marketers accept rejection and learn the valuable lessons it can teach.

Get Ready for Rejection

Being afraid of rejection is a symptom of being afraid of making a mistake. There’s a blog on The Writing Cooperative’s site that talks about writing and the rejection that comes with it. It asserts that if your rejection letters aren’t weighing down the nail, you’re not writing or pitching enough.

I get it – pitching your content makes you feel vulnerable. You never quite feel like you’re ready for your piece to be sent off and never quite feel like your pitch is specific enough. But, there is never a perfect time, there’s never a perfect draft, never a perfect subject line. Putting off pitching because you’re apprehensive about rejection blocks you from the possible chances of actually getting approval. For every time you hear no, you’re building up tally marks for the time you’ll hear yes. You just have to remain persistent and then it will come, whether you’re ready or not.

Hugh Laurie, best known in the U.S. for his character on House M.D., is a critically acclaimed actor who says some pretty wise words:

“It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you’re ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. And you may as well do it now. Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any.”

You’re never really ready for anything, so you might as well just give it a go and get ready to hear the word “no” if (when) it comes. There’s no super scientific way to predict when an editor will approve an article you pitched or when a journalist will pick up the story you pitched as a source, but I can tell you this much: you can’t get anything if you don’t ask for it.

No one likes rejection, but it’s as much a part of life as death and taxes. It’s the kindling you need to start the fire that gets you past hearing no and letting it discourage you.

May you prosper in your pursuit of promotion and pitching, but remember:

• Rejection stings, but it’s inevitable. No one is immune.
• Fuel your fire with rejection by letting the “NOs” fuel your future outreach. It’s better for the environment anyway.
• Don’t wait until you’re ready – you might never be. There’s no better time to pitch than the present.

The Art of the “No” 101: Dealing With Rejection From Editors, Publishers, and More is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

This small, simple concept isn’t new. Mark Twain said, “There’s no such thing as a new idea. It’s impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn, and they make new and curious combinations. […] But, they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.”

He’s not the first to talk about the evolution of our inspiration, ideas, and creativity; but he’s right.

This concept affects all of us, from graphic designers to content marketers. A designer has their favorite design inspiration sites, where they see ideas and are suddenly fueled with artistic passion of their own. A journalist has an idea for a story, but their personal perspective and background helps them discover a new angle. They tell a story that’s been told before, but they offer something new.

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There’s a case to be made for finding inspiration from a tried-and-true idea, and using your creativity to embellish, evolve, and create something new. Even artists scrape their ideas from other artists. Writers tell stories that have been told before, but with a new twist.

Originality can be overrated.

Trying to be original is a distraction. We’ve already established that there are no new ideas, there are simply new ways of executing said ideas. Reinventing the wheel is a waste of your time and energy. After all, the wheel itself is pretty effective. Why spend your time trying to figure out how to get a square wheel rolling, when the original invention works. Spend your time and effort devising how to make it work better.

Being original is time-consuming, and it doesn’t always pay off. While you’re pitching your quality content to carefully researched writers, it’s likely you’re trying to give them a fresh hook to interest them. Chasing originality and trying to stand out from the pack means trying to say something that’s never been said before. And while you’re slaving over what words you can use to do just that, you aren’t saying what you really mean.

Your idea doesn’t need to be original, but your execution should be. Borrowing the heart of an idea, giving it a little T.L.C., and encouraging it to evolve with a personalized twist will transform a tried-and-true idea into a unique one. This can be done with new content, or content native for your brand – creating a fresh look each time.

Turn proven ideas into fresh content.

Don’t avoid something just because your competition has done it. Do it better.  

Of course, your content has to be original in the sense that you aren’t plagiarizing your competitors.  Taking a step back, this means distinguishing yourself using your own voice on a higher level. This means spotlighting yourself in the content field using your own voice or brand message. There are ways to develop content that has a unique angle or weasel your way into media coverage using new research. But offer something new.

We’re constantly faced with new technologies. New demographics, new trends, new patterns. We’re always facing off with our competition. Ideas need to be able to evolve in light of these challenges.

You need new strategies to evolve your content.

Evolve your content.

Evolving isn’t as easy as Pokemon might lead you to believe. There’s no sound effects or cutscene. Evolving your ideas and content takes strategy and implementation. An easy way to set the stage for the evolution of ideas is to stay up to date with industry content, trends, and emerging thought leadership. There are so many ways to tie content into the news cycle, or to trending topics.

Hint: this is a way to give your tried-and-true idea a new take.

Once you’ve got your creative juices flowing put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, whichever you prefer. But write your ideas down already! You would be amazed at the power of recall when you’re reading over your notes later on down the line.

Successful content comes from productivity, and productivity happens when you “just do it”.

Which leads me to: brainstorming will naturally help your ideas evolve. Phone a friend, ask new questions and see if you can fit your idea into different niches. Asking questions is the kicker here, because you may find a new angle to look at your idea.

Let the inner child out to play. Stay up to date on industry trends regardless of your niche, brainstorm, and never underestimate the power of writing an idea down on a napkin.

Use your own perspective.

Originality is the sum of a simple equation. A tried-and-true idea plus a unique perspective spoke in a clear voice equals originality. There is a way to utilize what’s been done before and make it your own by using this equation.

Originality may come, but it has to be organic. Fortunately, people are much more creative than they think they are. But what happens when you can’t seem to find a new perspective?

Inspire creativity.

Don’t you remember the screensaver that walked you through a maze, hitting dead end after dead end? It’s really easy to run into a brick wall when you’re wandering a maze. You think you’re stuck.

You think you’re stuck, but you’re not looking hard enough. Every idea can evolve, especially if you know where to look for inspiration. Creativity is a muscle that needs to be flexed, so exercise it.

Imagine this. Your brain is a river, and your ideas are fish. When you’re fishing, you don’t just stare at the river and say, “Well, there aren’t any fish here!” Right? Instead, you grab a fishing pole or a net and you cast your lure or wade into the water. Finding inspiration for the evolution of your ideas is essentially the same. You have to pay attention to the river, and you might need to dive in if you’re not catching any fish; or you need a better net. But each time you go fishing, it gets easier. You know where the fish are hiding, and what tactics you might need to catch them.

So, you’ve been working with a client for a while.

The river of ideas will not run dry if you flex your creativity muscle, but it’s easy to get comfortable pitching ideas to your clients. Don’t get comfortable. Continue to evolve your ideas, push new buttons, and explore your options for your next campaign or project.

Be unoriginal. It works.

Austin Kleon’s book Steal Like An Artist is a reminder that inspiration comes from flexing your creativity muscle while evolving proven ideas to make them your own.  

When something works, when it’s tried-and-true, it’s likely someone somewhere has done it before. There are results to pull from. We like what has an essence of familiarity, although it’s important to realize that you can’t stop there (plagiarism is widely frowned upon).

Even though no idea is original, you can’t stop trying to be innovative. Don’t reinvent the wheel, update it.

Something Old, Something New: Is Originality Overrated? is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.