Getting PR Onside with Data | SearchLove 2018

© Copyright 2018 Builtvisible. All rights reserved. Private and Confidential
Winning PR over with data:
Building bridges and proving
your worth
Rebecca Brown | Content Director | rebeccab@builtvisible.com | @RebeccaGraceB

There’s no escaping the fact that currently SEO is a
siloed practice

A lack of collaboration and understanding stops us
getting things done

Despite the fact that PR teams should be our allies
the relationship we have with them is often inefficient

We rely on collaboration for success but we
fail to collaborate

Today I’ll be talking about 3 things

The Issue
How we currently
work with PR

The Issue
How we currently
work with PR
The Future
How we should be
working together

The Solution
How to bring about
organisational
change
The Issue
How we currently
work with PR
The Future
How we should be
working together

The issue
How we currently work with PR

I asked the question:
“From your experience of collaboration in the past,
what’s your perception of SEO teams/agencies?”
Some direct quotes from PR experts

“PRs aren’t pretending to be search experts, but
do have an acute awareness of search. SEOs
typically treat PR with a lack of awareness and
interest.
The value of PRs and SEOs working together is
obvious - yet SEOs seem to lean away from it.”
Lotty Chudley, Digital Director, Weber Shadwick

“SEO agencies are so focused on their area
they can struggle to see the bigger picture
beyond links, this is often where there is
friction.
With a little bit more collaboration and
more of an understanding of what the PR
goals are, it is absolutely possible to create
campaigns that do both”
Vix Leyton, PR Manager, Decision Tech

The fact is, we’re not adding enough value to matter

The Future
How we should be working together

I’m going to talk through 3 tactical examples

1. Content gaps analysis—but not how you know it!
2. Using SERP Analysis to deliver insights PR teams
care about
3. Scraping Google News

1. Content gaps analysis
But not how you know it!

Content gaps analysis- but not how you know it!
Typically content gaps analysis
is used for:
Mapping content to keywords that your SEO
strategy aims to target, so you’re able to
identify where the opportunities for content
creation are
= Increased visibility,
traffic and £££

is used for:
creation are
traffic and £££
These are the same things
editors care about

is used for:
creation are
traffic and £££
Where this gets interesting for PR teams is performing this same analysis for the
publications they aim to gain coverage within

Using our way of thinking, to a different end
Research Analysis Alignment Pitching
Work with PR to identify
the publications in which
you wish to gain
coverage
Ensure the relevant gaps
are aligned with your PR
strategy
Provide a top level
content gap analysis of
the highest quality sites
on your list
Pitch in your article
ideas, with potential
volume and ranking

Why does it work?
Journalists care about the
performance of their
content.
Editors care about hitting
traffic targets.

2. Using SERP data to create an output
PR care about

Good SERP analysis doesn’t just tell you where you can
rank

rank
It tells you where you can’t

rank
It tells you where you can’t
But just because there isn’t an opportunity to rank,
doesn’t mean there isn’t an opportunity

Many awareness
terms deliver
brand-less SERPS

This might look like an opportunity to rank,
but often it isn’t the most realistic opportunity

If the intent of the searcher isn’t aligned with a brand,
or if they are looking for an impartial view you may
have a hard time ranking

Collaborating with those already
dominating the SERPs may deliver the
greatest opportunity

If the sites dominating
the SERPS are
publications, this
provides an ideal
opportunity to
collaborate with your
PR team

Let’s look at a couple of examples

Opportunity 1:
Publish dates

The articles in green have been updated this
year, but The Independent and Healthline
have old articles ranking
The opportunity: PR teams can reach out with
updated products for review, so the journalist
can update their content- as well as including
our client within the piece

Opportunity 2:
Using answer boxes for brand awareness

You can’t always rank within answer boxes
But that doesn’t mean your brand
can’t appear within them

3. Scraping Google News

Information on which publications are most likely to
cover competitors

Data on when throughout the year certain topics are
being covered the most

Seasonal PR activity paired with average share count

These types of insights have proven
invaluable to PR teams and brand teams alike

They inform launch dates

They help build campaigns

They build data-led media lists

They build data-led media lists
They prioritise messaging

By thinking creatively we
can provide data that will
make your team invaluable
to PR

By thinking creatively we
can provide data that will
make your team invaluable
to PR
But how do you build the
relationship? How do we
bring about organisational
change?

The solution
How to bring about organisational change

Though we might be fully capable
of delivering these types of insights,
we need to be able to impact change

We need to be clear and concise about
attributing the value of our activity

The way we talk about the
value of link building
activity is still far too vague
If you’re not talking about
revenue, you can’t expect to
be taken seriously

‘it’s hard to measure the impact of campaigns’
That’s embarrassing.

Big shiny campaigns with 300 links are irrelevant
unless you know the exact ROI of that campaign

So what’s the solution?

Build a model which allows you to
accurately forecast how your link building
activity will impact revenue

Here’s how…

Understand the short,
medium and long-term
opportunities available to you
Quantify the level and type of
effort required to achieve
them
Define the optimal revenue-
focused strategy for organic
growth

Which parts of your site hold the
most opportunity for growth?
Will links impact the performance of
these parts of the site? What type of
links to you need?
A tailored strategy, with revenue
goals for each line of activity-
including link building
Understand the short,
medium and long-term
opportunities available to you
Quantify the level and type of
effort required to achieve
them
Define the optimal revenue-
focused strategy for organic
growth

In essence

Avoid expensive content
marketing campaigns with
an unclear outcome

Avoid expensive content
marketing campaigns with
an unclear outcome
Only invest time building as
many links as you actually
need to

Building a forecast for link building
The size of the market
The size of the opportunity
The effort required
Volume and market level data
Brand and product level data
Define what it’s going to take to rank
Strategy
o Short, medium and long-term opportunities
o Expected uplift in revenue

Which pages on your site
need links?

What impact will these
links have on visibility
and revenue?
need links?

and revenue?
need links?
What is the effort
required to build these
links?

and revenue?
What is the ROI of your
link building activity?
need links?
What is the effort
required to build these
links?

Once you have that insight, you can use it to do the
following things

Get CMOs on side, and get the
team introductions you need!
No CMO worth their salt is going
to care about whether you can
build 300 links to an infographic.
They will care about how much
money you can make their brand

Get CMOs on side, and get the
team introductions you need!
No CMO worth their salt is going
to care about whether you can
build 300 links to an infographic.
They will care about how much
money you can make their brand
Team up with PR, and
discuss a plan to share KPIs
PRs are having the same issues
around measurement. If we can
become part of their solution we’ll
be invaluable

So to conclude

The issue
Currently, we’re not
adding enough value
to matter

The issue
adding enough value
to matter
The future
Sharing data, and
providing invaluable
insight

The solution
Organisational
change, by changing
the conversation and
exclusively talking
about revenue
The issue
adding enough value
to matter
The future
Sharing data, and
providing invaluable
insight

Thank you!
rebeccab@builtvisible.com
@RebeccaGraceB

Getting PR Onside with Data | SearchLove 2018

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Getting PR Onside with Data | SearchLove 2018