About This Talk Drawing on her decade in the journalism and marketing industry Ruth Barrett, Digital PR & Creative Team Lead at Aira will dispel common Digital PR myths with insights from journalists. She will take you through practical steps to achieve great results for your clients, and discuss the importance of networking. About This Speaker With 13 years’ experience in journalism and digital marketing Ruth was highly commended for Women In Marketing’s One To Watch award in 2019 and has worked on a number of award-winning campaigns. Alongside the coverage she gains for clients, Ruth shares her views on equal rights and pop culture with the likes of Forbes, BBC, Telegraph, Guardian, Daily Mail, Huffington Post on a regular basis.

1. DIGITAL
PR
TRAINING
DECK
Debunking Digital
PR Myths
@RuthBarrettPR

2. What I’m going to talk about today

3. Part 1
Introductions
What is Digital PR?
Debunking Digital
PR myths
Part 2
The importance of
networking
Who to follow
Part 3
Summary
Questions
What I’m going to talk about today

4. Part 1

5. Introductions

6. Ruth Barrett - Digital PR & Creative Team Lead at Aira
Introductions

7. Introductions

8. Introductions

9. What do we do?
In short, we build backlinks to our clients website from another
(external) web page through some kind of intentional activity.
The coverage we get ranges from brand mentions, to no-follow
links, to followed links.
We come up with ideas, validate them, share them with our
clients, produce them and finally, and the stage most crucial to
us, pitch them to journalists to get coverage and those all
important links!
Introductions

10. Introductions

11. What is Digital PR?

12. Online PR, also known as Digital PR, is a link-building tactic that
involves creating a story or piece of creative content, and
distributing it to target media to secure coverage that includes
backlinks to a client’s website, thereby improving SEO and
overall search rankings on Google.
What is Digital PR?

13. Essentially, a Digital PR’s goal is to build a range of quality links
on relevant, high authority publications that mean something
to the client – whilst simultaneously aiming to enhance the
client’s reputation and increase brand awareness.
What is Digital PR?

14. Debunking Digital PR Myths

15. You can’t launch a campaign on
Friday

16. You can’t launch a campaign on Friday
● From my time in journalism, I know that most
publications have their editorial planning meeting
between 9-11am on Monday. So if you send your
outreach email over on a Friday you’re ahead of the
crowd.
● It’s also worth remembering that most news desks are
manned 24/7. So if you’re worried your email won’t be
seen if you send it on a Friday, don’t be.

17. You can’t launch a campaign on Friday
● I worked on a viral campaign, gaining regional, national
and international press. The starting point? Weekend
staff.
● There isn’t a hard and fast rule. It can differ by sector, but
please don’t discount the untapped hero that is Friday.

18. You can’t launch a campaign on Friday

19. You only need to monitor current
campaigns

20. You only need to monitor current campaigns
● A campaign can pick up a second, third or even fourth
wave of coverage.
● Don’t leave it to gather dust.

21. You only need to monitor current campaigns
● Monitor the news and pick it back up if it becomes
relevant once again to gain more coverage.
● Check the backlinks to your content to see if it is
organically gaining coverage after ‘active outreach’ ends.

22. You only need to monitor current campaigns

23. You only need to monitor current campaigns
Tools to use to monitor press coverage:
● Google News
● Google Alerts
● Google Analytics
● Google Search Console
● Ahrefs
● Moz
● Majestic
● BuzzSumo
● BuzzSumo Media Alerts
● Buzzstream

24. You don’t need good relationships
with journalists

25. You don’t need good relationships with journalists
● It should be a give and take relationship, otherwise if
you’re always the one taking what’s in it for them? You
wouldn’t stay in a friendship like that, so don’t expect
journalists to.
● Sourcing case studies, for example, saves journalists so
much time.

26. You don’t need good relationships with journalists
● Ensure that you only send over content pitches relevant
to them and try to build and maintain a relationship over
time.
● If you notice they need help with an article why not lend
a hand? It’s all about balance.

27. You don’t need good relationships with journalists

28. You don’t need good relationships with journalists

29. You always need visuals

30. You always need visuals
● Visuals aren’t always needed to tell the story.
● Data is often the key to success.
● Some press won’t even use external images anyway, so
analyse your target audience before you commit time
and money into creating beautiful imagery that may go
unseen.

31. You always need visuals
● A campaign I worked on picked up ZERO links. It was a
bulky postcode lookup tool that people couldn't embed.
● So we used the backend data from the tool to simplify
the concept and provide a new angle for press.
● This then gained coverage from local and national press
including London Evening Standard, BBC and ITV.

32. You always need visuals

33. The more complex, the better

34. The more complex, the better
● Albert Einstein said that “If you can’t explain it simply,
you don’t understand it well enough.”
● If your campaign is so complex that you would struggle
to sum it up it in a sentence, then how are you going to
sell it in to press?
● Award-winning campaigns all tend to use the KISS
(Keep It Simple Stupid) principle for their campaigns.

35. The more complex, the better

36. The more complex, the better

37. The more complex, the better

38. You don’t need to personalise
emails

39. You don’t need to personalise emails
● Journalists get hundreds of emails a day. Some relevant,
some extremely irrelevant.
● I spoke to a few who said they have to produce up to 10
articles a day.
● Journalists know if they’ve been sent a blanket email and
they could call you out for it on Twitter.
● Take the time to ensure your campaign and pitch is
relevant to the journalists you contact.

40. You don’t need to personalise emails

41. You don’t need to personalise emails
Source: https:/
/twitter.com/MrHarryCole/status/1367122564590555139

42. You don’t need to personalise emails

43. A “No” is a bad thing

44. A “No” is a bad thing
● I will take a “no” over radio silence.
● It can be a challenge to find the silver lining in such a
results-driven industry but try you must.
● If a journalist has taken the time to get back to you to
turn you down, that’s a good thing.

45. A “No” is a bad thing

46. A “No” is a bad thing

47. A “No” is a bad thing

48. Always add attachments to emails

49. Always add attachments to emails
● Attachments in emails will take ages to both send and
receive and often result in an irritated journalist.
● Some domains like BBC automatically block external
emails with attachments.
● Include your press release into your email copy or add
all press assets to Dropbox and include the link in your
email.

50. Always add attachments to emails

51. Always add attachments to emails

52. All campaigns deserve links

53. All campaigns deserve links
● Some campaigns will perform better than others.
● There’s going to be times when breaking news, editorial
policy or factors outside of your control means you don’t
get a backlink in your coverage.

54. All campaigns deserve links
● Your campaign doesn’t deserve a backlink purely
because it exists. You need to ensure that you’re offering
adding value.
● A link is a trust signal, not just from Google’s perspective,
but also from the journalist providing it.

55. All campaigns deserve links

56. Part 2

57. The importance of networking

58. The importance of networking

59. The importance of networking

60. Who to follow

61. Who to follow
@Aoife2705 @leximills @ichbinGisele @WomeninMarketin @CarrieRosePR
@saffronshergill @epicgraphic @louisevparker @techseowomen @SurenaChande

62. Who to follow
@ShannonMcGuirk_ @alexhicksonpr @SophieRhone @lauralhampton @AbiBennetts
@In_Hines_Sight_ @Laura_D_amato @BethanieJane @katherynrwatson @DriscollDigital

63. Part 3

64. Summary

65. Summary
1. Don’t believe all the Digital PR myths.
2. Build relationships with journalists.
3. Become an active member of the Digital Marketing and
Digital PR community.

66. Any questions?
@RuthBarrettPR

67. PROPOSAL
Thank You