2 campaigns walk into a bar. One has 20 backlinks and the other has 4. Which is more successful?

When I started working in the digital PR industry, I measured success by the number of backlinks I built for my clients. However, after over 2.5 years, that mindset has shifted quite a bit for me. Sure, I’ve pitched plenty of campaigns that have seen a variety of outcomes. Some have received over 100 backlinks, while others have only seen a handful. But why do I still consider them all successful? 

Link-building doesn’t come with a cut-and-dry manual to measure success. The digital PR landscape changes as often as the turnaround in a newsroom. What once worked in your pitching strategy may need to be altered for the new class of editors and journalists on the other end of your email. But as you reframe your pitches, you should also change your measurements of success.

Read on for a  a glimpse into how I measure success for my clients!

Quantity of Links

From an early age, many of us gained the perception that more meant better. That still holds up! Generally, the more links you can build for a campaign, the more successful it is! A rule of thumb that I was told in my early years of digital PR was that a ‘typical’ performing campaign at Go Fish would receive anywhere from 8-10 links. Anything more than that would be considered highly successful. And if you look at success from an SEO perspective, a campaign with more links will drive more link equity to the client’s site.

Remember, success isn’t as exact as the numbers 8, 9, and 10. But for the sake of this lesson, let’s look at a few campaigns that I consider successful from the sheer amount of backlinks that they built:

The King of Wings campaign built 45 links, which was not only a success due to the sheer volume of backlinks but because this was also the most links that a single campaign earned for the client to date. As you can imagine, the client was thrilled to see this, and we considered this a successful campaign. 

Another example of success measured by quantity was The Most Popular Light Beer and Seltzer In Each State. This campaign earned 35 backlinks – now that’s something to crack open a drink and cheers to! 

Quality of Links

It’s often hard to explain to a client that though their campaign only got a handful of links that it’s still considered successful. Like I said earlier, we’ve all been ingrained with the ‘grading scale’ mentally growing up. So how do you explain that a campaign with 7 links is successful? Let’s take a look:

How Much of Your Landlord’s Mortgage Are You Paying as a Renter Across the U.S.? only earned 7 backlinks. So, what makes this a successful campaign? Let’s ask 2 important questions:

Of those links, were any considered ‘high quality’?

Ding ding ding! YES! This campaign received a backlink from The Business Journals in Portland, a site that has a domain authority of 92. The Business Journals provide news to local readers regarding business, real estate, technology, and more, so it was great to have a client featured in this outlet and show the impact on their audience..

Gaining higher quality backlinks can ultimately lead to a site’s increase in domain authority, improved keyword rankings, and help the site appear more authoritative in the eyes of Google and other search engines. 

Did this campaign receive any industry-specific backlinks that were in the client’s domain?

Once again, the answer is yes! Inman linked back to the campaign in an article that they wrote solely about the campaign. The client works in the real estate and construction industry, so having them featured in an outlet like Inman is great for brand recognition.   

So even though the number 7 may seem small, this campaign was covered by a high-authority site and another site within the client’s industry. Having a combination of high-quality and industry-specific links can help diversify a client’s backlink profile. 

The Perfect Recipe

In a perfect world, we’d imagine that a successful campaign would marry the two concepts from above. A campaign would receive a high amount of backlinks, but those backlinks would be high-quality as well. And while we don’t live in a perfect world, this situation does exist!

Take these campaigns for example:  

The State of Affordable Housing in U.S. cities has built a total of 89 links to date. Of its coverage, you’ll find links from The New York Times, New York Post, CNBC, Business Insider, and more.  

Within The Most Expensive Airbnb in Every U.S. State’s impressive 96 backlinks, you’ll find coverage from House Beautiful, Apartment Therapy, Travel and Leisure, and more.

The Importance of Passive Coverage

While it’s never easy delivering the news of a campaign having a ‘less-than-successful’ amount of links, it’s important to remember that these content pieces still exist on the internet and have the potential to build links beyond the promotion period. 

A journalist whom you’ve pitched to may be planning to cover your campaign but has a full calendar and can’t publish it until next month. 

A journalist who is researching a specific topic could stumble upon your campaign and include insights from it in their next article. Whatever the case may be, passive coverage should be celebrated.

One example of the power of passive coverage comes from the 2022 Texting & SMS Marketing Statistics campaign. A standard promotion period lasts 6-8 weeks and can be adjusted depending on timely events, topics in the newscycle, etc. This campaign was pitched for 7 weeks and received 31 links in its promotion period. After 10 months following outreach, it’s currently sitting at a whopping 116 backlinks! 

While a client may want to see coverage throughout a campaign’s promotion period, it’s important to remember that link-building is a long game. Not every campaign can be an overnight success. The power of passive coverage has proven that digital PR can help build link equity over time. 

Conclusion

So there you have it. Well, sort of… 

There’s no perfect equation to success in digital PR. If there were, we’d all know exactly how to build high-quality backlinks and A LOT of them for each campaign. Where your campaign lands on the success meter should be looked at from a case-by-case lens, remembering these few measurements: 

Did it receive a generally high number of backlinks? 

Did it receive a handful of backlinks from high-authority sites? 

Does it have potential to be referenced down the line by journalists and receive passive coverage?

Does your campaign possess a combination of these measurements?

…and there you have it! Enjoy your newly framed mindset of measuring success!

A Win Is A Win: How To Measure Success In Link-Building is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

So put yourself in a journalist’s shoes. Imagine how many pitches for potential story ideas they get each day. Just like us, I’m sure they don’t end up reading every email they receive (even if they want to).

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• Digital PR Services
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If you’re in PR, you know that connecting with journalists is a key component of the job. Here are some tips for constructing a compelling email pitch that will inspire journalists to pay attention.

1. Write a Captivating Subject Line

Imagine all of the subject lines that pile up in our inboxes. This is the first impression an email makes and can immediately impact whether we decide to read it or not. What are some things you can do to make sure your subject line gets clicked on?

Two words I like to use are Here’s and You. 

This lets the journalist know that what’s inside the email is either informative to their audience (Here’s the most popular coffee shop in each state) or something that will hook them personally to want to read further (We asked Americans how they really feel about weddings and the answers will shock you).

Also, don’t be afraid to get witty and creative. As cheesy as they may be, we can’t deny that we all chuckle at a rhyme, play on words, and even a good ol’ dad joke. Being clever in your subject line could lead to a journalist opening your email pitch.

Example: Doggone! Here’s the Most Common Pet Mistake that Lands Them in the Doghouse

It’s also effective to personalize your subject lines for local outreach. The difference between “These are the most popular flowers in the U.S.” and “This is the most popular flower in North Carolina” could greatly impact whether a journalist based in North Carolina wants to open the email. By seeing their state or city, they’re more likely to open it, as it directly pertains to their audience.

2. Use Eye-Catching Visuals 

Now that the journalist has opened your email pitch, you want to keep their attention. If they see long, dense paragraphs, they may immediately lose interest. Try to format your email’s body copy in a way that is easy to skim and gets right to the point.

If your campaign is state-by-state based without many statistics, use a map! 

Map displaying the top searched dog breed in every state

Using a map is an efficient way to pitch to journalists at local news outlets. They can immediately find the information that’s pertinent to their state, city, or target audience without having to search for it and risk losing their interest.

If your campaign is a study or more focused on numbers, try to pull out the most interesting statistics and put them into short bullet points.

3. Check the News Cycle

While we can’t predict the future or what happens in the news cycle, relevancy is key. Can the topic of your campaign tie into a current event? Is there a national holiday or sporting event happening that you could mention as a way to pique the interest of the journalist? These are questions to ask that could take your email pitch to the next level. 

You can tie this into the subject line:

Example: Celebrate National Taco Day in One of the Best Cities for Tacos 

Or even include it in your closing statement:

Example: I thought this would make an interesting piece for your audience, and what better way to celebrate National Taco Day than in some of the cities with the best tacos. 

4. Ask for a Second Opinion

After you’ve constructed your message, get a second opinion on it. There may be some statistics that you overlooked that could strengthen your email pitch, or even a different angle that you may not have thought of. Everyone thinks differently, so get feedback from a different perspective. Getting a team member to look over your pitch could strengthen your outreach and ultimately help get coverage you may not have otherwise gotten.

Using these tips has helped our digital PR agency craft stronger email pitches. When you keep them in the back of your mind, it becomes second nature to always seek out a different angle, different statistic, or different news tie-in that could grab the next journalist’s attention.

We’ve all seen the impacts of turning a not-so-strong pitch into one that’s compelling enough to make a difference. At the end of the day, coverage for your clients is key and making sure your pitches get opened is the first step!

4 Tips for Crafting Digital PR Email Pitches That Grab Journalists’ Attention is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.