Reactive digital PR, or newsjacking, can be a simple, effective and low budget way to generate high quality coverage and backlinks for your brand. Done correctly, it can help boost your SEO performance, as well as impacting brand awareness and allowing you to ‘own’ your chosen space within the media. 

It’s all about capitalising on trending topics and news cycles to land valuable backlinks and media coverage. Unlike the larger, meticulously planned “hero” PR campaigns, reactive PR allows you to create quick, impactful content that resonates with journalists and your target audience. While long-term strategic PR remains crucial, incorporating reactive campaigns helps you secure consistent coverage throughout the year, keeping your brand relevant by ensuring you’re always a part of the conversation.

This post will explain what reactive digital PR is and the benefits it offers, as well as helpful tips on how to successfully introduce it to your marketing strategy. We’ll also look at proactive digital PR, how it differs, and what it can offer for your strategy.

What is Reactive Digital PR: 

Put simply, reactive digital pr involves reacting to current events with either expert comments or useful data. With reactive, you’re keeping a close eye on news, waiting for the moment where a story relevant to your brand’s niche breaks. It relies on identifying the perfect moments to interject with valuable commentary. The key lies in expertise: if your client has unique data or in-house specialists, their insights can be valuable contributions to the conversation sparked by the news story. 

Reactive PR plays a crucial role in steadily building your online presence over time and bridging the gaps between larger, planned campaigns. 

Let’s illustrate this with a real-world scenario. We recently executed a successful reactive campaign for our client specialising in medical negligence. When news emerged about Chas Dingle’s breast cancer diagnosis in Emmerdale, we saw a chance to raise awareness about the importance of early detection. We promptly secured expert commentary from one of our client’s internal healthcare professionals on the topic of recognisable symptoms. This resulted in valuable coverage from various publications, positioning our client as a trusted source of information.

What about Proactive Digital PR:

While very similar, the key difference between reactive and proactive digital PR is in the name. Reactive digital PR is unplanned, reacting to the latest news, while proactive digital PR can be planned in advance. Admittedly, predicting the exact news cycle is impossible – however, we can anticipate potential areas of interest. An effective strategy is to analyse the previous year’s news headlines to identify recurring themes and events.

This would usually be based around key dates coming up in the calendar, for example:

• Holidays: Easter, Valentine’s, Christmas etc.
• Seasonality: Daylight savings, extreme weather, spring/summer etc.
• Financial: Government budget, inflation rates, tax returns etc.
• Pop Culture: Awards season, TV & movie release dates etc.
• Sport: Olympics, World Cup, Superbowl, Premier League season etc.

That being said, jumping on every fleeting trend isn’t the answer. The key is to strategically select opportunities that align with your brand and resonate with their target audience.

What are the benefits of Reactive Digital PR:

Reactive digital PR offers unique advantages and should certainly be a significant part of your overall strategy. Here’s why: 

• Low-cost

Reactive digital PR leverages existing news stories, minimising the need to put substantial resources towards your own data collection or content creation. This makes it much more cost-effective than some other approaches to digital PR.

• Quick turnaround

The beauty of reactive digital PR is that, by capitalising on current events, you can secure links in a quick time frame. Due to the time-sensitive nature of newsjacking, you can receive media placements more immediately than in a longer-term campaign where results often require patience.

• Boost SEO performance

Links earned through reactive PR placements in high-authority publications send strong signals to search engines about your website’s experience, expertise, authority and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). This can significantly boost your website’s ranking in search results, leading to increased organic traffic and brand visibility.

• Amplified brand awareness 

Reactive digital PR ensures your brand is consistently appearing in the media. This exposure significantly increases brand awareness and recognition, keeping your company at the forefront of your target audience’s mind.

• Builds your reputation as experts 

When you frequently provide valuable commentary or data tied to trending news stories, you establish your brand as a trusted authority within your niche. Journalists take notice, and this can lead to a snowball effect. They’re more likely to reach out directly in the future for your expert opinions for upcoming stories, further solidifying your reputation as a thought-leader in your field.

How to spot opportunities for Reactive Digital PR

Wondering how to spot those golden opportunities for reactive digital PR? Here are our secrets:

• Monitor the news

Develop a habit of consuming news content regularly, both within your specific industry and across broader topics. Subscribe to industry-specific publications and follow relevant journalists on social media. The more content you consume, the more chance you have of spotting opportunities

• Set up alerts

Use tools like Google Alerts and Talkwalker Alerts to stay on top of keywords and topics relevant to your brand. You’ll receive real-time notifications whenever these keywords appear online, allowing you to react quickly to breaking news and trending stories.

• Sign up to journo request services 

Platforms like ResponseSource & HARO connect journalists with PRs; by actively monitoring these platforms, you can identify opportunities to provide insightful commentary and secure media placements.

• Keep an eye on relevant hashtags 

Twitter is a goldmine for journalists seeking expert opinions. Monitor hashtags like #journorequest and you’ll be able to seize prime opportunities for reactive PR.

Our top tips:

We’ll finish by doing you a favour and giving you our ultimate top tips for a successful reactive PR campaign.

1. Remember, speed is key

Competition is fiercer than ever and journalists’ inboxes overflow with pitches on the same trending topics. Ensure you have a streamlined sign-off process in place which allows you to respond as quickly as possible to opportunities; if you take too long someone will beat you to it, or the story will become old and irrelevant.

2. Make use of internal spokespeople

Your expertise is your biggest strength and the key to a winning story may be right under your nose! If possible, build a bank of usable quotes in advance for speedy responses. Secure commentary from key spokespeople on a variety of topics commonly covered in the news. Then, when a reactive opportunity strikes, you can quickly tailor these existing quotes to fit the specific story, saving valuable time.

3. Utilise existing content where possible 

Mine your blog and other on-site resources for material that could be repurposed for reactive PR opportunities. Even just slightly revamping existing content can significantly improve its chances. Reactive campaigns offer a chance to revisit and potentially breathe new life into past content and this has the plus of saving you time and effort down the line.

4. Build detailed data hubs on your site

Data hubs can house industry reports and stats relevant to your niche – becoming your go-to resource for reactive stories. These hubs, when optimised with relevant keywords, also have the potential to rank organically in search results. This will attract qualified traffic to your website, further establishing you as a thought leader.

5. Pick your battles

You want to make sure that the stories you’re reacting to are relevant for your brand. Don’t try to shoehorn your way into every story you see – you need to make sure you’re actually adding value to the story. It’s also a good idea to discuss brand-sensitive topics with your client beforehand to avoid potential missteps.

6. It’s not for everyone

Reactive PR needs speed. If you lack the internal resources to quickly generate responses and secure approvals, or aren’t willing to have an opinion on trending topics, this might not be the strategy for you.

A winning digital PR Strategy from Cedarwood Digital

At Cedarwood Digital, we’ve got years of experience utilising reactive digital PR strategies to get our clients in front of their audience. We have access to advanced tools, allowing us to identify upcoming trends and put a brand at the centre of the conversation.

If you’d like to find out more about how our digital PR team can drive coverage for your business, please get in touch today.

Stuck in a digital PR rut? Struggling to brainstorm fresh ideas that will resonate with your audience? There’s no denying that the brainstorm is one of the most important parts of any digital PR campaign. After all, great brainstorms produce great ideas which generate great results. But what makes a great brainstorm?

This blog will provide practical tips to fuel your next brainstorming session and generate effective campaign ideas. We’ll explain exactly what to do before, during and after a brainstorm to make it as productive as possible.

Before Your Brainstorm

1. Research, research, research

The more research you do prior to the brainstorm, the better your chance of success (as the saying goes – if you fail to prepare, then prepare to fail). Research your brand, as well as the wider market you’re part of. Your ideas, and eventual campaign, will need to deeply resonate with your brand’s messaging and the values of your audience.

Explore the media landscape – what publications are you hoping to feature in and what sort of content do they publish? Analyse their audience demographics and dive deep into understanding their content to ensure your campaign and outreach is tailored effectively.

Research your competition and assess the sort of content they’re producing. Keep tabs on digital PR Twitter, LinkedIn and industry blogs and newsletters to see what is working well. Competitor research can be used to spark original ideas – look for recurring themes and identify insights to inform your own strategy.

It’s also important to carry out a review of all the sources already available on your topic; your campaign needs to be adding value to the data and expertise already out there. Examine the existing data and studies published on the subject, and perhaps research experts on the topic that you may be looking to work with. Scout out how people have been tackling this topic and identify opportunities to explore new territory beyond what others may have already covered.

2. Choose your participants wisely

Don’t overlook the brains behind the operation! Choosing the right people for the job is key to success and we’d recommend thinking outside the box. Don’t just limit yourself to the digital PR team, consider bringing in people from other parts of your business, as they might be able to provide new insights into the brand, or provide a fresh perspective. 

A member of the SEO department may be able to provide useful intel on search trends relating to your campaign topic. Equally, your PPC team could be harbouring demographic knowledge that could help refine your PR strategy to reach the target audience. 

3. Provide a detailed brief

It’s a good idea to share a brief with the participants before a brainstorm. This will ensure that everyone in the session will be able to sufficiently prepare, or at least begin to start getting some ideas flowing. Send your brief a week before the brainstorm to allow everyone to fully absorb the details and come prepared.

What should you look to include in a briefing document? Here’s our checklist:

• ☑️Outline the brand
• ☑️Include details on the target audience & publications
• ☑️Highlights from your research
• ☑️Guidance on what you’re hoping to achieve with this campaign (point out key products or focus areas)
• ☑️Specific areas you can/can’t discuss
• ☑️A couple of points of inspiration (campaigns and topics that are working in this space)
• ☑️Perhaps some preliminary ideas to get the ball rolling 

During Your Brainstorm 

1. Icebreakers 

Before jumping straight into the ideation, we recommend leading a couple of icebreakers to loosen people up and get them feeling creative. Don’t overlook how nerve racking it can be to share ideas in a group of people, especially for newer team members. Creative warm-ups can help everyone relax and let their guard down to make sure you have the most effective session.

Another tip is to use AI to help you with these icebreakers. Include details in the prompt on how long you’d like to spend on the warm-ups and core topics you’ll be covering in the brainstorm. You’ll receive a list of fun icebreaker ideas tailored around the subject of your brainstorm to help generate a relaxed and creative space at the start of your meeting.

A couple of our go-to icebreakers are:

Alternative Uses: Give each member of your brainstorm a different item and challenge them to come up with as many alternative uses for that item as possible within 3 minutes e.g. a charging cable could become a bracelet, a measuring tool, a cat toy or even an organiser to other cables!

Two Handed Drawing: Give each member of your brainstorm 2 pieces of paper and 2 pens or pencils. Then ask them all to either write a certain word, or draw a certain image. The challenge is that they have to do the same thing with both hands, at the same time! The idea behind this warm-up is to engage both the left and right sides of your brain.

2. Share sources of inspiration 

Ask your team to bring along some examples of relevant, successful campaigns they particularly like. Ahrefs’ content explorer tool is great for diving into topics and reviewing the pieces that have gained the most links. You can also use Buzzsumo to track content across social channels; enter a topic to discover the content people have been talking about the most. The reality is that some of the most effective campaigns stem from ideas found elsewhere and repurposed.

Competitors can also provide great inspiration. No one likes a copycat but keeping an eye on the content competitors have had success with is a good idea. Ahrefs again comes in really handy here. After you’ve entered a domain into the Site Explorer tool, you can sort by ‘Best by links’, which shows you the resources and content the website has published which has gained it most of its backlinks. Examine each of these, reviewing the sources that linked to these pages and the specific aspects they highlighted about the content.

3. Log everything!

There are no bad ideas (at this point) – make a list of everything that is discussed and don’t discount anything at this stage. Have someone note everything down on a whiteboard. Or, if the brainstorm is held remotely, you can use shared worksheets like Excel or Google Sheets to ensure nothing is lost.

After Your Brainstorm

Now is the time to go through everything and pick out the best ideas. To give our campaigns the best chance of success, there is a rigorous process we put all of our ideas through, asking the following questions:

Simplicity: Journalists need to ‘get’ the story quickly and easily. Can you explain it in a couple of sentences?

Newsworthiness: Why should a journalist write about this now? Are people already talking about this, or a similar topic?

Emotive: What emotions would this story make a journalist and their readers feel? Stories which elicit an emotional response are more likely to get clicked, read and shared.

Timing: Does this idea all revolve around one date, or will it have a more evergreen appeal? How will the timing impact our production and sign-off processes?

Broad appeal: Will this idea provide us with a variety of different angles for outreach, allowing us to target journalists in multiple different press verticals?

Originality: Has this story been told before? If so, do we have something new to add to the conversation?

Data: What data does this story need to make it a success? Where will we get it from? Is the source credible?

Relevance: What is the link between this story and the brand? Does it make sense for them to be talking about this topic?

Execution: Where will the content sit, and what does it need to bring it to life?

Budget: It’s important to make sure that the campaign idea you’re deciding on is within your ball-park. You’ll need to consider what methodology you’re going to need.. Are you going to need tools or equipment to develop your campaign? Do you need a survey platform as part of your research?

If you’ve landed on a promising idea, remind yourself of the original brief and goals and double check that it will deliver the required KPIs. At this stage it can also be useful to seek additional perspectives from experts in the wider team. They may be able to provide some data or an extra angle to turn a good idea into a great idea.

Land Links And Coverage With Cedarwood Digital

At Cedarwood, our team of PRs has decades of experience under their belts; they know exactly how to take an idea from conception to tangible results for your business.

You can take a look at our success stories here or, better still, contact us today to find out how we can help you spark high-impact ideas.

If you work in the Digital PR industry, it’s highly likely that you’ve experienced this emotional rollercoaster before: getting excited to see your campaign land in the press, before noticing it only includes a brand mention, with no link in sight. 

Whilst it’s great to see your content covered and credited, it’s understandable to want a backlink to your website as well. 

In cases like these, it’s best to apply the mantra: if you don’t ask, you don’t get. 

Remember, the journalist covering your story has clearly seen something of value to offer to their readers. So, this should stand you in good stead when making that all-important link request. 

What is an unlinked brand mention?

An unlinked brand mention is when a publication mentions your brand by name, but does not include a hyperlink back to your website. 

A hyperlink would most commonly be inserted in the brand name or to a spokesperson mentioned in the feature.

Once you spot an unlinked brand mention, you can email the journalist, or contact the website, to request that a backlink is inserted to your website. 

How can I turn brand mentions into links? 

To convert brand mentions into links, there are a number of steps you can take: 

1. Make a list of articles which feature just brand mentions 

Search for your brand name, and any relevant spokespersons, in Google News to find articles which do not include backlinks to your website. 

To help with this process, it’s always a wise idea to set up alerts for your brand name and spokespersons. My go-to is Google alerts but firm favourites around the Cedarwood Digital office also include Talkwalker, Ahrefs and Semrush.

2. Source the journalist’s contact information  

Aim to contact the article’s author when requesting a backlink. You can find their contact details listed on media databases, such as Roxhill, Vuelio or Muck Rack. Other means of sourcing their email include their article author page or their social media profiles i.e. X (formerly known as Twitter) and LinkedIn.

If you’re unable to find the journalist’s email, it’s still worth contacting another journalist on their team. Alternatively, you could email an editor or corrections desk at the publication, or opt for a general, editorial contact email address. 

Online tools, such as Hunter.io, can also help you to find missing email addresses from any company name or website.

3. Craft your backlink request email 

From the offset, it’s always good manners to thank the journalist for covering your story, or for including quotes from one of your spokespersons. 

This shows that you appreciate your professional relationship with them, and also allows you to insert a link to the article you’re referencing, so that the journalist can quickly access this. 

Politely request if they could insert a link to your website as a form of accreditation. This will have the best chance of success if there is an incentive for including the link. For instance: 

• ➡️ Do you have a data hub with further statistics readers could be interested in?
• ➡️ Does your blog contain further visuals to help readers understand the story? 
• ➡️ Does your spokesperson’s author profile provide further credibility for expert opinion pieces? (this is particularly important in the legal and financial industries) 

Clearly signpost the URL that you would like the journalist to link back to, invite them to provide feedback on what you have proposed, and thank them for their time. 

Hopefully, you will receive a response that they have inserted a link into the article. Otherwise, you can still gain valuable feedback from a ‘no’, such as learning if a particular publication has a ‘no link’ policy or if they require an exclusive to feature a backlink.

Five tips to convert your brand mentions into links:

• ➡️ Keep your finger on the pulse: Try to request a link for a brand mention as soon as possible. The closer to the time of publication, the higher the incentive the journalist should have to insert a link. They are less likely to insert a link to an older article over one which is newly released. 

• ➡️ Research best sending schedules: Media databases often detail at what time of day journalists prefer to hear from PR’s. If you can, send your email within this time frame as they may be more likely to spot it. 

• ➡️ Give them a good reason: Don’t expect journalists to insert a link to your website if you’ve not highlighted the added value this would provide to their readers. Be sure to showcase any additional data or visuals you have to accompany the story, as well as your spokesperson’s credentials. 

• ➡️ Send your request in a follow-up to your campaign pitch: If you have recently sent your campaign, and it has been published in a quick turnaround, it’s worth sending your request as a follow-up to your original pitch. This highlights the existing relationship and will appear less like a cold email. 

• ➡️ Limit follow-ups: If you haven’t heard anything back, it’s worth following up in case your email has been lost amongst hundreds of other emails. However, keep this to just one follow up; to maintain good relationships with journalists, it’s important to not be too persistent when chasing a link.

If you need help reclaiming unlinked brand mentions, or building links for your brand, contact us here. 

How can I measure Digital PR return on investment when it has such varied effects and benefits? This is a question PRs frequently encounter. You want to show your clients and stakeholders that the work you’re doing is having a positive impact, so what are the best KPIs to highlight?

At Cedarwood Digital, we know that measuring the success of a campaign can be tricky. We’re lucky to work with brands of many sizes, from a breadth of sectors – clients want a variety of things and prioritise different metrics. As such, we find that a multifaceted approach to measuring campaigns is the best way to reach an accurate assessment.

This post will explain the different metrics you can use to track Digital PR success; you’ll hopefully gain a good understanding of the different softwares and criteria to consider. No matter the nature of a campaign or client, this guide will put you in good stead to present a precise evaluation.

Why should we care about metrics?

There has long been debate within the industry when it comes to KPIs for Digital PR. For many years, the only metric many clients (and agencies) cared about was the number of links a campaign earned.. However, a campaign’s impact goes much further than just links. “There’s more to link building than quantity – in fact in many cases one super relevant high quality link can outweigh the performance of many poor quality links – so when it comes to measuring digital PR how do you prove effectiveness when you’re not working with a volume metric?”

It’s important to consider which metric is most important to your business and stakeholders, depending on your goals. This will ensure that you’re all working for the same thing. You might think you just want as many pieces of coverage and backlinks as possible, but dig a little deeper and you may find more specific goals. Do you want to boost the visibility of certain parts of your website? Perhaps your main goal is driving referral traffic, or growing brand awareness by generating links in key target publications? Determine which focus area should be prioritised and this will help you to create the best possible outcomes and keep everyone happy.

Measuring the success of campaigns will also help you determine why a campaign did or didn’t work. With this information you can then adapt subsequent strategies, and keep learning and improving. This is vital when it comes to providing commercial return for the client. After all, they want to see that you are providing a return on their investment. Tracking the relative success of different campaigns and effective, and less effective, techniques will help ensure you achieve the ultimate aim – customer conversions.  

Quantifying a Digital PR campaign is also a great way to encourage motivation within your team. Having clear aims in mind and celebrating successes will help ensure a productive and positive morale.

➡️At Cedarwood Digital we talk about two categories of Digital PR metrics: owned metrics and shared metrics. Owned metrics are those a Digital PR team has control over. Then, shared metrics are things we can have a positive impact on but that are also impacted by other factors. For example, corresponding SEO strategies, and external business components.

Owned Metrics

Backlinks

Links from publications to your website are a significant indicator of a campaign’s success. A link goes beyond a brand mention in its ability to have a substantial impact on SEO. Google loves a backlink because of the E-E-A-T signals it demonstrates. A good quality, quantity and relevancy of backlinks are seen as big votes of confidence that will improve the site’s SERP ranking, and drive traffic. 

However, not all links are equal and, to get an accurate sense of a campaign’s success, we’d recommend evaluating different backlink factors. In addition to measuring the quantity of backlinks, you’ll want to consider their quality, relevancy and diversity.

The best way to deduce backlink quality is to look at the relevancy of the link, the website it’s coming from, and the content of the article. This can then be used alongside metrics like Domain Rating, Domain Authority and Trust Flow. These are all measurements of quality, created by SEO tools Ahrefs, Moz and Majestic. Each will give a numerical score to a domain, with a higher score indicating a better, more authoritative website. However, be careful not to use these metrics in isolation. Some spam directories have a high DR and likewise, backlinks from lower scoring sites should not be discounted. A good amount of coverage on relevant sites, no matter their rating, will have a positive impact on your ranking.

In line with this, it’s also a good idea to track the diversity of your backlinks. A successful campaign is not only demonstrated by a high volume of links, but also appearance in new unique referring domains, wishlist publications, and link gap placements. When pulling together a tracking system, ensure to include measures of the nature of the link, not only the number. 

While some people will only report on Follow links, we’d advise measuring all types of links. No-follow links, syndicated links and affiliate links should not be discounted merely because they aren’t ranking factors for Google. They can all positively impact brand awareness and, as people start associating your client’s name with key industry terms, this will bring in more high-intent traffic to your site.

Deeper Page Linking

Another key metric here is quality links to deeper pages within the website. Using Digital PR to build links to a specific high-return landing page can push value directly into that page – helping your client outrank their competitors and bring in more conversions over time. Therefore, when determining the success of a campaign, keep your eye out for the number of deeper page links. They will show your client that you’re boosting organic visibility to high-intent pages, demonstrating the possibility of future ROI.

Brand Mentions

The amount of times your brand name is published is one of the simplest Digital PR metrics to track. Brand mentions can present in a variety of ways, not only from online news outlets, but also print, audio and video mentions. Plus, your brand mentions will exceed just links. Some outlets won’t link to your website but you should keep your eyes peeled for this coverage as it will still have some positive impact. Any mention of a company’s name is great for brand awareness – the more customers hearing about your business, the better. 

However, it’s worth mentioning that Google doesn’t acknowledge brand mentions as part of a link building campaign, due to the algorithm’s inability to identify the context of the mention. Therefore, whilst they’ll help to build your overall brand, brand mentions won’t function as direct trust signals to Google so shouldn’t be overly emphasised. 

Wanting to keep track of your brand mentions? Some of the best measurement tools to find these all-important mentions are Google Alerts, Talkwalker Alerts, Ahrefs mention alert and good old fashioned Google searches!

Email Tracking

The last owned metrics to keep an eye on are email opens and click-through rates. With this, you can identify if your pitches could be improved, and whether your story is compelling. Although lots of factors impact the length of time taken for a journalist to open your email, it definitely indicates how much your subject has caught their attention. Meanwhile, if your open rates are good but your click through rate is on the lower side, this could be a sign that your email content needs adapting.

Shared Metrics

Business Goals 

The most important metric for your clients is the real financial impact of Digital PR and how your campaigns are tangibly helping them reach their business goals. Achieving high-quality, relevant backlinks is a meaningful metric and good achievement, but the big question your clients will be asking is ‘what will those links do?’ 

Businesses put resources into Digital PR to get a return on their investment – they want more conversions and revenue as a result of your efforts. You need to have a strong understanding of what these links are achieving, to then illustrate this to the stakeholders.

A good Digital PR strategy isn’t just about building links, it’s useful to think about links as the first step of a chain, ending in revenue. Building backlinks improves rankings and brand awareness, which increases the site’s visibility and boosts organic traffic. This combines to bring in lots of high-intent clicks, and then the all-important conversions.

Keyword Rankings

As Digital PR is usually one element of a wider SEO strategy, one of the larger goals you should be working towards is increasing keyword rankings and online visibility. Building high quality, relevant links to key commercial pages, when combined with on-site optimisations, can have a big impact on overall rankings. However, as previously mentioned, while Digital PR can help in this area, there are a range of other factors impacting it too, so this is why we class this as a shared metric. 

Do remember though that keyword ranking is a slow-burner and a successful PR campaign may not drive an immediate boost in visibility. This is why reporting on the previously mentioned owned metrics is a good way to highlight success straight away.

Site Traffic

Site traffic can be impacted by Digital PR, whether through direct referral traffic from successful placements, or just from overall visibility improvements. However, as with rankings, Digital PR is just one of many factors which can impact traffic. It can still be a good metric to track, as for people who don’t work in SEO, it can be seen as a more tangible indicator of success. 

Social Shares

Whilst the extent to which social media can positively impact SEO is debatable, it’s generally acknowledged that any social media coverage is a valuable thing when it comes to growing brand awareness. Social media buzz around your story can also help boost the campaign’s reach, which can in turn lead to more coverage and backlinks. Social listening tools like Brandwatch and Pulsar can be used to track social media mentions, as well as the sentiment of the discussion.

Deliver successful Digital PR Campaigns with Cedarwood Digital

At Cedarwood Digital our Digital PR team has an excellent track record of executing successful campaigns which land coverage and sales for our clients. We closely monitor our metrics to ensure that we are constantly updating and improving our strategies. To discuss how we can bring our successful Digital PR techniques to your company’s growth plan, get in touch with us today. 

Expert commentary is an increasingly popular tactic used in Digital PR to make pitches stand-out and to amplify campaigns. Expert comments grab attention and help to position your business as an authority. They also appeal to Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines, acting as signals of expertise which help to build trust in your site.

This blog will be our ultimate guide to introducing expert commentary into your Digital PR campaigns. We’ll begin by outlining what exactly an expert comment is, before explaining how to find them and place them effectively in your campaigns.

What is expert commentary?

Expert commentary refers to a relevant quote from an authoritative figure within their industry. You might hear it referred to as ‘thought leadership’ and it often comes in the form of a professional opinion about something, or an actionable tip. Expert commentary can also provide a bit of background context on the topic a journalist is writing back. No matter the form, these comments or quotes are designed to add credibility and value to an article.

To give an example: we used expert commentary to showcase expertise, enhance E-E-A-T signals, and build brand trust for our client Patient Claim Line, a market leader in the medical negligence space. After researching the news landscape across our client’s services, we circled in on areas we could provide expertise on. We located suitable experts within the company and outreached their comments to journalists. Our approach involved reactive newsjacking of relevant trending stories, partnered with commentary in-line with health awareness days.

We achieved 105 links, including coverage in national papers. We had ensured that the commentary was genuinely informative and useful in order to build trust with both Google and potential customers.This resulted in a boost of Patient Claim Line’s domain rank, while also improving their brand awareness.

Why do journalists value comments from brands?

It’s clear that journalists love a good bit of expert commentary, and that it can be a great way of earning valuable coverage and backlinks. But why is this? Well, a useful comment from a genuine expert really helps a journalist out – it adds a valuable element of expertise. This reassures a reader that what they’re reading can be trusted, making them more likely to continue reading and potentially share the article with others.

Not only do quotes from an expert help inform the actual content, they also help a writer meet their all-important word count. Expert commentary is a great way for a journalist to pad out or conclude their story. So, we’ve established the why, now let’s turn to the how. How exactly should you tackle getting expert commentary into your campaigns….?

How to use expert commentary in campaigns

There are various ways you can go about including valuable expert quotes in your Digital PR campaigns. Some methods we find get results at Cedarwood Digital are:

• Reactive Digital PR: Utilise an expert’s insights on an event or news relevant to their industry. Keep an eye on what’s trending and when you identify an opportunity, respond quickly with some thoughts from your expert.

• Data-driven campaigns: You can add an additional layer of authority to a data-led campaign by including comments from a credible spokesperson, discussing the data and providing unique insights.

• Answering a journalist’s request: Identifying opportunities to provide commentary will help to establish your expert as an authority. Sign up to services like Response Source and HARO, or just type #journorequest into Twitter.

This is all well and good, but where can these trusty experts be found? 

How to find the right expert within your business

There will likely be many suitable candidates right within your business, fully equipped with the knowledge to provide expert commentary. To pinpoint the right spokesperson for a campaign, it’s important to get your questions right when you reach out. Make sure to ask:

>Do you have knowledge or experience on this subject matter?

>Are you happy to discuss these ideas, for them to be shared?

>Are you happy to be named or pictured?

>What time frame can you work to?

>Would you be willing to potentially speak to a journalist?

Finding external expert commentary

If you’re struggling to identify a relevant expert in your company, do not worry, as a comment can often be sourced externally. Here at Cedarwood, we often make use of Twitter to find experts. It’s a great place to source a thought leader. To curate the most effective tweet, make sure it includes the following:

🐦Firstly, specify what you’re looking for, whether that be a particular role or a specific insight

🐦Give them an incentive, mention where their comments will be going

🐦Include a way of contacting you

🐦Finally, include popular hashtags to reach more of your target audience

How can expert commentary help a business?

By now, you’ve probably gathered that expert commentary does a world of good for you and the journalist in question. But there are a few added benefits you might not have considered.

Expert commentary can be instrumental to building good relationships with journalists. They are likely to save your details for future reference and are likely to reach out next time they need an expert comment,  leading to more opportunities for publicity for your brand.

Securing an expert comment in a relevant publication will also help boost your brand awareness and reach new potential customers. Ensure that the topics you’re providing expertise on are relevant to your brand and you’ll open the doors to users genuinely interested in your products or services.

Last but not least, expert commentary is beneficial for SEO as it helps to build up a diverse backlink profile and sends important E-E-A-T signals to Google. Expert insights, and the backlinks that come with them, shows Google that your website can be trusted. This increases its domain authority, and boosts traffic as a result.

If you’d like help building your brand’s backlink profile through expert commentary, get in touch with us today. We have years of experience pinpointing the right spokesperson to secure coverage and get results.

There is an endless list of Digital PR softwares at our fingertips these days. Free, subscription-based, AI-generated, the range of tools extends far and wide. So how do you know which to include in your stack, and which are not worth your investment?

This blog is here to answer all your questions. We’ll take you through every tool we actually use for our client campaigns at Cedarwood Digital. From journalist databases, to data scrapers and proofreaders, we’ll give you the insight on what’s worth your cash, and where you’re better off sticking to a free alternative.

Here’s our short but sweet guide to the ultimate tools you should be using for your Digital PR campaigns….

Roxhill Media

There’s a whole host of media database and distribution softwares out there – you’ll have heard of the likes of Cision, Muck Rack, Prowly etc. A media database helps you to find the most relevant contacts for your story and construct your own targeted media list. This greatly increases your chances of getting your story noticed and picked up by the media. 

Our tried and tested favourite is Roxhill Media. Unlike many others, it offers a free trial before you commit to the full contract price. It also includes some unique features like journalist social feeds, and access to hundreds of webinars.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a bit of a goldmine software, with a bunch of great features for Digital PR. To inform our Digital PR strategy at Cedarwood, we use the Backlink Report tool. It allows you to see the campaigns competitors are carrying out that have successfully landed coverage and secured links. This is great for providing inspiration for our own campaign ideas. The tool also shows us where our clients’ link gaps are in comparison to competitors so that we can target content (and tailor it to these publications) in our upcoming strategy.

I’d also recommend exploring Ahrefs’ data on search volume which can be utilised for Digital PR strategy. This feature can be used for looking at the average monthly search volume for your chosen keywords, and tracking increases and drops. You can then use this information to plan your campaigns accordingly.

BuzzStream

Buzzstream is a link-building and outreach tool that we love to make use of with our clients. It’s fab for email management, with an email ‘open and click through’ tracking feature which lets you know whether your email has been opened and clicked. This gives you an understanding of how effective your email subject lines are, and what kind of content is most appealing to a journalist.

Another useful feature in BuzzStream is the Research Lists. This allows you to pull in Google News results for a list of your chosen key terms. Through this, you’ll have insight into the types of angles to consider, and what has already been covered.

Google Trends and Glimpse

Google Trends is a tool showing you what people are searching for in real time. You can customise the time frame and location to clearly see peaks in relevant trends. There’s a useful feature allowing you to filter by search type – so you can zoom in on News trends, YouTube trends etc. This can also be used as a planning tool – have a look at when searches for a particular keyword have increased in the past, and plan your future PR outreach correspondingly. 

If you don’t know about Glimpse, get to know. It’s the perfect companion to Google Trends, providing detailed insights at the click of a button. Glimpse is an extension tool which just makes the Google Trends data more thorough and digestible. Search volume and percentage increases are overlaid to show you exactly when and where topics are trending.

Screaming Frog

Pulling together a data-driven Digital PR campaign? Screaming Frog will be your best friend. With free and paid options, this software is our go-to when we need to scrape data sources. It can crawl hundreds of thousands of pages, in an inch of the time it would take you. Screaming Frog can also help you to get a sense of the conversation around a trending topic. It can gather comments and posts in seconds, giving you insight into patterns of discussion and interest.

ChatGPT

The idea of AI writing assistants is increasingly contentious. We think that, used in the right way, they can definitely be of benefit. You’ve just got to make sure to use it as an addition, not a replacement, to human-made content. At Cedarwood, we use it for many tasks from writing excel formulas, to sparking ideas for a campaign. However, we’d reassert that it’s really only as good as what you put into it. By all means, use ChatGPT to get a brainstorm started, but don’t rely on it to write whole pitches for you!

Canva / Flourish / Google Looker Studio

Once your data has been gathered, it’s important to visualise it in the most engaging way possible. These three tools are our favourites for easy but effective data visualisation. The good news is that they’re also all free. Using these softwares, you’ll have fun, digestible and highly shareable reports for your campaigns in no time. Do make sure to bear your unique target audience in mind. You’ll need to find a visual style that is appropriate for your client’s website, and right for your target journalists and readers.

A couple of special mentions

TikTok Creative Centre: clear and detailed insights into what’s trending on TikTok, from hashtags to sounds – with information on the relevant creators for each trend.

Haro: looking to enhance your stories with some expert quotes? This software will connect you to the right sources with expertise on your subject matter.

Hemingway: a great writing editing app to help you ensure your writing is readable and snappy.

How Cedarwood Digital can help with your Digital PR strategy

Hopefully this blog has given you a few ideas for your Digital PR tool stack, and a bit of insight into areas where you could be saving time and money!

At Cedarwood Digital we have an impressive track record of landing coverage and strong links for our clients’ brands. We know what works and what doesn’t, and combine a few great softwares with our wealth of experience to get results. Think you could do with a bit of Digital PR assistance? Go ahead and get in touch with us today for a chat about your Digital PR strategy.