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Meghan Payne- Online PR Show - Brighton SEO
- 1. How to successfully win over your stakeholders, maintain creative freedom and ensure your awesome ideas get the green light @megspayne MEGHAN PAYNE
- 2. @megspayne
- 3. • Working alongside PR’s can feel like the parting of the red seas Traditional PRs Digital PRs
- 4. Digital PRs CHANGE YOUR BRAND TONE OF VOICE TAKE OVER ON BRAND PR CAMPAIGNS BEFRIEND YOUR JOURNO CONTACTS @megspayne Digital PR’s are NOT trying to
- 5. Digital PRs @megspayne The aim of Digital PR GET PUBLICATIONS TO LINK TO US EXPAND YOUR BACKLINK PROFILE IMPROVE RANKINGS
- 6. Digital PRs @megspayne The aim of Digital PR GET PUBLICATIONS TO LINK TO US EXPAND YOUR BACKLINK PROFILE IMPROVE RANKINGS
- 7. TRADITIONAL PR DIGITAL PR OBJECTIVE: METHOD: Brand Awareness Get people to talk about your brand Links Brand Awareness Get people to link to your brand @megspayne
- 8. Digital PRs @megspayne The aim of Digital PR GET PUBLICATIONS TO LINK TO US EXPAND YOUR BACKLINK PROFILE IMPROVE RANKINGS
- 10. Digital PRs @megspayne The aim of Digital PR GET PUBLICATIONS TO LINK TO US EXPAND YOUR BACKLINK PROFILE IMPROVE RANKINGS
- 11. “THE #1 RESULT IN GOOGLE SEARCH HAS AN AVERAGE OF 3.8X MORE BACKLINKS THAN POSITIONS 2-10”
- 12. “THE HIGHER THE DOMAINS POSITION IN THE SERPS, THE MORE REFERRING DOMAINS IT HAS”
- 13. CONVERSION CONTENT AWARENESS CONTENT Link building page Editorial page Category page Product pages @megspayne
- 14. BUT IT CAN BE HARD TO CONVINCE STAKEHOLDERS TO GIVE US CREATIVE FREEDOM
- 15. 1. Knowledge 2. Building trust 3. Collaborate don’t dominate 4. Shout about your success 5. Know your audience 5 KEY STEPS TO GETTING STAKEHOLDERS ONBOARD
- 16. 1. KNOWLEDGE
- 17. LINK BUILDING IS NOT A DIRTY WORD
- 19. 2. BUILD TRUST
- 20. PEOPLE DO BUSINESS WITH PEOPLE THEY LIKE
- 21. BUILD A RAPPORT PROVE YOURSELF SHOW YOU KNOW YOUR STUFF @megspayne
- 22. Trust and linkbuilding success is built overtime 250+ Links built last year 5+ Years 14+ Industry awards
- 24. DIGITAL AND TRADITIONAL PR HAVE SIMILAR GOALS JUST DIFFERENT METHODS
- 25. GET CLIENTS INVOLVED IN THE PROCESS WORKING ALONGSIDE BRAND PR’S STRIKE A BALANCE @megspayne
- 26. BUT DIGITAL PR AND TRADITIONAL PR’S HAVE A REAL OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN FROM ONE ANOTHER
- 27. MAINTAINING JOURNALIST RELATIONSHIPS PRODUCT PR AND STUNTS DIGITAL PR’S CAN LEARN FROM TRADITIONAL BRAND KNOWLEDGE
- 28. INCORPORATE A LINK BUILDING STRATEGY NICHE TARGETING DATA TO DRIVE CAMPAIGNS IN THE SAME WAY TRADITIONAL CAN FROM DIGITAL
- 29. @megspayne
- 30. 4. SHOUT ABOUT YOUR SUCCESS
- 31. Links Keyword improvements Revenue and ROI Traffic New Users TOO OFTEN REPORTING FOCUSES ON JUST VANITY METRICS Follow links
- 32. NEW REFERRING DOMAINS DRIVE AUTHORITY FROM AND TO THE RIGHT PLACES
- 33. INTERNAL LINKS FROM THE CAMPAIGN PAGE NEW REFERRING DOMAINS DRIVE AUTHORITY FROM AND TO THE RIGHT PLACES
- 34. INTERNAL LINKS FROM THE CAMPAIGN PAGE BUILDING DEEP LINKS NEW REFERRING DOMAINS DRIVE AUTHORITY FROM AND TO THE RIGHT PLACES
- 36. PROOF OF CONCEPT THROW IN A FEW ‘WILD CARD’ IDEAS KNOW YOUR BRAND @megspayne
- 37. A LITTLE INDEX NEVER HURT NOBODY @megspayne
- 38. SUMMARY
- 39. FOUR KEY TAKEAWAYS EDUCATE ON YOUR GOALS ELIMINATE MISUNDERSTANDINGS PEOPLE SAY YES TO PEOPLE THEY TRUST BUILD TRUST GET STAKEHOLDERS INVOLVED IN THE PROCESS COLLABORATE SHOUT ABOUT YOUR SUCCESS DELIVER WHAT YOU PROMISE
Editor's Notes
- Quick bit about me- I started in Digital Marketing around 6 years ago doing everything from SEO, social media and influencer marketing right through to of course digital PR. I then transitioned into a Digital PR-centred role giving me around six years in the industry and four years in Digital PR.
- In my time of working in digital PR- particularly with larger and more corporate brands- working alongside traditional PR’s can feel like the parting of the red seas. But in reality, for most brands to really succeed- they’re going to need a good mix of both Digital and traditional methods.
- A lot of the time brand PR’s hear the word PR and it ignites an immediate fear. But in reality, we’re not trying to: Change your brand tone of voice- your brand tone of voice is very much traditional territory. We won’t do anything to jeopardise, change or alter it but we will try and abide by the frameworks that you’ve set out within our campaigns Take over on brand PR campaigns- Brand PR campaigns have entirely different goals which we’ll go into in detail later. But while we can support on brand PR for mutual success- brand PR generally work best to more traditional KPI’s than that of digital. Befriend your journalist contacts- Traditional and digital PR’s can get very protective over sharing contacts. But digital and traditional PR can co-exist for the brand without causing any issues.
- Sometimes, the fear around Digital PR comes because it feels as though it is stepping on toes. But there are some key differences to be aware of between the two.
- One of the key aims for digital PR is to get publications to link to us.
- Where a traditional PR’s objective is all about brand awareness, Digital PR is very much a link building state of play with those brand awareness goals coming secondary. And so, while traditional PR’s are working to get people to speak about the brand, Digital PR is all about getting people to LINK to your brand. And we do this through creating content that is naturally linkable so that journalists will WANT to create a story around and hopefully add that all important link too.
- When it comes to expanding a brands backlink profile, Digital PR’s need to be doing this through four key categories.
- I’ve used dogs here because why not but we’re going to be looking for: Quality- so obtaining links from high-profile and trusted websites Quantity- we need a volume of backlinks to make a strong signal to Google that you as a brand are to be trusted. Variety- we need to build links from a variety of different domains as new referring domains are the most powerful in your backlink profile. Getting multiple links from the same website still provides some value but each time you get a link from that site, it’s value diminishes slightly. Lastly, relevancy- Digital PR should always stretch your brand more so than traditional PR but we need to ensure that any links we build remain hyper-relevant to the content created and also that your brand has a right to play to talk about the subject.
- But just saying to brands that ‘we need to improve and build on your backlink profile’ might not be fully appreciated by your stakeholders until you can also explain WHY this is so important. And this is where improving keyword rankings comes in. There have been a number of studies that prove how much your backlink profile affects where you rank on Google.
- A study from Backlinko found that “The #1 result in Google search has an average of 3.8 X more backlinks than positions 2-10.” And so it’s clear that backlinks have a key role to play when it comes to where you rank on the SERPS. And to take this one step further, it’s worth reiterating to stakeholders that the higher up you rank on Google, the easier it is for people to find you online. And this will then lead to increased traffic, new audiences and ultimately conversion- then you’ll be able to peak stakeholders interests.
- Semrush then took this one step further explaining that the “higher the domains position in the search results, the more referring domains it has”. Again, this reiterates the importance of building links from those new referring domains. Links from new unique domains that don’t yet link to you essentially supercharges your chance of ranking higher on Google.
- In order to be able to target those new referring domains, we need to be diversifying and targeting new sectors with our content. We need to stretch the brand beyond product and brand PR and into awareness content. The content we use for link building efforts needs to be positioned a step away from product and category pages in order to build the right kind of links, we need to drive earned links and from a variety of sectors that we wouldn’t otherwise contact with brand PR. A good tip to get used to stretching the brand, particularly for any joint client and agency ideations is to start ideations with a word association game so that you can get from A to Z
- But even with this in mind, it can still be hard to convince stakeholders to give creative freedom.
- I like to think of there being 5 key steps to get buy-in from stakeholders
- Education and knowledge is one of the first barriers to tackle.
- And with this, know that ‘Link building is not a dirty word’ but it often gets bucketed as one. But sometimes using terms like ‘link building’ and SEO outreach will help you to get SEO’s on your side to fight internal fires. You’ll need to ensure that you know your audience and that you come in at the right level for your knowledge session.
- The importance of links is the bread and butter of what we do. But it’s important to also go beyond just links- links won’t peak the ears of key stakeholders on the brand side. But explaining how links can help them to improve their rankings for non-generic keyword terms and how this helps further KPI’s will. You’ll then want to tie this to wider business objectives. Get more links > monitor keyword rankings for terms > better rankings means people who aren’t looking for you can better find you > New audiences/ more traffic > More revenue/ ROI.
- Building trust is a very underated second stage to getting internal buy-in to what you’re doing.
- It might seem obvious but ‘people do business with people they like’ and so its important you take the time early on in the process to build trust, be warm but also knowledgeable in order to push through.
- Spend the time to build a rapport with stakeholders, idle chatter is so important to relax people at the start of calls. Make them feel comfortable, make them like you as a person and you automatically have more of a chance to get them on your side. Show you know your stuff- prioritise tasks and what is important using your SEO knowledge of what will move the needle. There is a time and place for pushing back at the right times and in the right ways. YES men are likely to be less trusted- you’re the expert and you know your stuff so don’t be scared to show them Don’t just tell them, show them- Smash your campaigns and get them excited about digital PR for their brand, the more you prove yourself from the get-go, the more trust you have for future projects and the more they will relinquish control.
- But also remember that trust and link building success is built overtime. Some of our clients like The Body Shop, we’ve been working with for over 5 years but they didn’t give us creative freedom from the get-go. It was a long process of building trust and proving success and through this we have been able to get recognised in 14 industry awards for the client and have been able to build around 250+ links in the past year.
- Collaborate don’t dominate. Make them feel involved- some brands are naturally a bit more protective but find out why, know what restrictions you have, push back when you have grounds to. But more than anything work with them.
- Digital and traditional/ brand PR’s have similar goals in terms of success for the brand just different methods.
- Get clients involved in ideations etc- they know their Brand the best and their insight as to what will or won’t get through is invaluable Working with PR teams and other agencies doesn’t need to feel like this. While we might have different methods e.g. getting people to talk about your brand (brand, product PR and trad means) VERSUS getting people to link to your brand (backlink profiles FOLLOW links etc). We all collectively have the same goal and that is success for your brand. Working collaboratively doesn’t have to mean becoming a yes man. Campaign concepts should always challenge but it’s important to strike a balance- there is nothing wrong with the odd ‘safe campaign’ that you know will work- not everything will be a big out there viral campaign and that is ok
- With all this in mind, digital and traditional PR’s have a real opportunity to learn from one another.
- Journalist relationships are the bread and butter of traditional PR. It’s harder to build and sustain those journalist relationships when we’re contacting different avenues and different journalists everyday in Digital PR but there is definitely something that can be learnt from traditional PR’s. Product PR is beginning to be done creatively by digital PR in the way of fake products, future products and really ‘out there’ products and when it is done well these campaigns can really fly. They also can become so synonymous with the brand but it is generally more of a traditional method Journalist relationships are the bread and butter of traditional PR. It’s harder to build and sustain those journalist relationships when we’re contacting different avenues and different journalists everyday in Digital PR but there is definitely something that can be learnt from traditional PR’s.
- Traditional PR’s could benefit from: Traditional methods can incorporate a clever link building strategy to their work but this isn’t just about adding in a link to the home page to your press release You should be aiming for deep links (e.g. links beyond the home page to ensure authority is well spread across your brands site.) Driving links to relevant pages and pushing these. Traditional PR’s can also collaborate with digital PR’s to access a wealth of data to really drive their campaigns and give them as much clout as possible.
- It’s never an us or them approach to digital PR and really we all need to be working together to generate the best success for our brands.
- Once you’ve got stakeholders on your side, you’ll want to keep them there. Don’t be afraid to shout about your success.
- Convincing clients you're smashing it means reporting on more than just links or even worse- just follow links. But there a real range of metrics to prove the wider success to the business. These secondary KPIs are often more tangible and are going to prick the ears of stakeholders if you can say you drove X000 people to the site which resulted in X increased revenue. So you’ll want to also monitor and report on traffic and new users as well as keyword ranking improvements. And ultimately, this should allow you to also get eyes on revenue and ROI stats.
- To make the most of reporting, you’ll need to ensure you’re driving authority to the right places: Focusing on those new referring domains- repeat backlinks from Daily Waffle and Flipping heck isn’t going to move the needle
- Within your campaign page, you want to incorporate internal links from within the campaign page in order to pass authority through to those product/ category pages
- Building deep links- campaigns should be used to build links to campaign pages, category pages and more to pass authority around the site.
- Know your audience when you’re pitching ideas to stakeholders:
- We want to always be pushing our clients to think outside the box- these are the campaigns that get noticed in a sea of Instagrammable and most searched for campaigns. It’s a good idea to put wild card ideas within each deck so that you’re always pushing to stretch the brand- if BIG ideas come out of the blue, a while down the line, you’ll struggle to explain where they have come from and why they have worked Proof of concept is VITAL when it comes to pitching these. Fake products and dream jobs can feel a bit abstract if a brand hasn’t done them before but a view of successful previous similar campaigns is a great way to prove that competitors are doing them (and smashing them). Knowing your brand and how far you can push them is also a real balance. So it’s a good idea to get a mix of safe and ‘out there’ ideas.
- Because after all- a little index never hurt nobody. Not everything will be a big out there viral campaign and that is ok.
- So to summarise:
- You’ll want to educate on your goals for digital PR- this will help to eliminate misunderstandings Build trust- people say yes to people they trust and so it’s vital that you spend that time with stakeholders Collaborate- ‘passing over a brand’ can feel overwhelming so get stakeholders involved in the process and make it clear that they still have a say Deliver what you promise- actions speak louder than words. Once you’ve smashed your campaigns, shout about it too.