The document outlines a 5 step process for executing a successful digital PR campaign: 1. Set clear KPIs and align all stakeholders from the beginning. 2. Develop newsworthy and brand-relevant ideas through research and validation. 3. Bring ideas to life through design while adhering to technical and brand guidelines. 4. Conduct robust outreach to media and ensure alignment with internal PR teams. 5. Measure success holistically including quality link acquisition and tangible metrics like traffic, not just link volume. Quality, not quantity, should be the focus.

1. 5 steps to executing a
successful Digital PR
campaign
Tom Mansell | Croud
SLIDESHARE.NET/TomMansell
@tommansell

2. ● Over 10 years agency side experience working in
SEO, Content and Social teams
● Have spent the last 6 years building Organic teams
across both London and the Midlands
● Have seen it all when it comes to link building, both the
good, the bad, and the consequences when corners
are cut

11. More than any other creative
initiative, for Digital PR to work
effectively, every key stakeholder
needs to be involved and aligned
from day one.

12. But why?
The actual goal of Digital PR is
often confused, so sometimes a
quick recap is required.

13. Set out KPIs early,
establish what we’re
looking to achieve
1.
Outline the end to end
process, ideation to
outreach
3.
Establish the following:
1. What topics are on and off
limits?
2. Technical limitations
3. Desired publications
4. Are there internal PR initiatives
already in play?
2.
You’ll need representatives from:
● SEO
● Brand/Design & Marketing
● PR
● Tech/Dev team

14. 4.Development
Interactive development
can bring a design to life
and really help to tell the
story in new and interesting
ways
1.Ideation
Create a detailed brief that will
form the basis of your ideation
and research. Validate ideas
with internal teams, including
PR.
3.Research
Once an idea is signed off
start the production process by
gathering all the necessary
research and data required for
the content piece
2.Design
Once all the data is in place
start to bring it to life with a
design that tells the story of
the piece in the best way
possible
1
2
3
4
5.PR & outreach
Build a prospect list of relevant
journalists at publisher sites to
reach out to as well as
producing professionally written
press releases and creating
any extra assets journalists
might require
5

16. Ideas are vital for Digital PR to be
effective, but how do we come up
with an idea that can get coverage?

17. Newsworthy or useful
Ideas for Digital PR work best when
they are a genuine news story or
useful
Sweet Spot
Digital PR ideas are drawn from here
Digital PR campaigns work well because they are genuinely newsworthy or useful
Brand Relevance
We come up with ideas that
your brand have authority
speaking about, but do not
sell the product or service
you offer

18. New ideas around a
topic can be found
here.
& explored more
here.
Competitor content can be
interrogated to see what’s
worked too.

19. But ultimately it’s about making your ideas stick, and remember, story story story! And relevancy.
This book by Chip and
Dan Heath served as the
bedrock for our ideation
framework.

20. 1. Simple Don’t bury the lead
2. Unexpected What’s new or different?
3. Concrete “you can’t pick up a calorie, you can pick up a burger”
4. Credible Is your data credible? is it credible coming from you?|
5. Emotional Does your content make people feel something?
6. Story People remember stories, not stats

21. 1. Simple Don’t bury the lead

22. 2. Unexpected What’s new or different?
There was no other tool
like this around!

23. 3. Concrete “you can’t pick up a calorie, you can pick up a burger”
Real language
that resonates

24. 4. Credible Is your data credible? is it credible coming from
you?
Yup, it sure is

25. 5. Emotional Does your content make people feel something?
You’ll either laugh
or cry at these
costs.

26. 6. Story People remember stories, not stats
Add story context
to your asset

27. Coming up with ideas is great and all,
but never pitch an idea that can’t be
done.

28. Potential data sources:
● Internal client data
● Paid Surveys
● Scraped data (social/forums/other websites etc)
● Statista
● ONS
Run a sample of the
data to make sure
the story can be
told.

30. The exciting part of any campaign is
when you start to bring your story to
life visually, but make sure you don’t
get too carried away with the shiny
thing.

31. Before you start designing, you’re going to need a few things
Make sure you know of
● Any technical limitations - Will it be static or interactive?
● Any brand guidelines
● Brand assets - Logos, fonts, imagery etc

32. Design to client
Share clear milestones with everyone
Agree feedback timeframes
24/48 hrs

34. A good and robust outreach strategy
is key to success, make sure you’re
prepared.

35. Be sure to re-align with internal PR teams for the following:
● Updates on any internal initiatives going out around the same time
● Feedback on press release and outreach emails and materials - Make sure you
break down how you wish to target different publications with different news
hooks and angles from the campaign
● Feedback on your prospect list for outreach - Some internal PR teams may have
publications they don’t want to reach out to, or relationships that they wish to
handle themselves
● Communicate and agree on a process for reporting - weekly, bi weekly etc, and
clarify the metrics you’re showing (article links, DA, follow/no follow etc)

37. Most people’s measurement of
success for a Digital PR campaign is
the amount of follow links you
receive.
But there is more to consider.

38. Let's look at things holistically
The purpose of building HIGH QUALITY links is to:
● Build trust
● Improve visibility
● Improve rankings
For key pages and subfolders
Depending on the site, this can be achieved with
quite few, but high quality and relevant links.
So we shouldn’t always be thinking that more is more.
Quality placements that show tangible uplifts should be
the focus and measure of success.
This is easily proven by reporting when a campaign launched
and had placements vs any uplifts in relevant keywords, DA or
traffic for example.

39. Outreach Starts

40. 1K
traffic per month
103
backlinks since launch
2.4k
keywords ranking

41. Two weeks post
campaign launch
45
DA
48
DA

42. In summary.

48. Questions?