We’re delighted to announce that we took home the UK Ecommerce Agency Of The Year award at last night’s UK Ecommerce Awards, to add to the awards that we have won at this event over the last two years!
We also had some great feedback from the judges on our entry:
Congratulations to all of the staff & our clients on a successful year in 2023!
With business after business churning out impressive PR stories, how can you make yours stand out?
The answer is data. Incorporating data-driven campaigns into your strategy can be the key to attracting readers and journalists, and gaining substantial coverage.
This guide is going to look at what data-driven PR is, how it can elevate your marketing game, and give you some advice on how to create, present and pitch your campaigns.
Data-driven Digital PR is the process of using data as a basis for your PR stories. These stories are then pushed out to relevant publications and journalists in order to achieve coverage. It brings reliability to a piece of PR and can be visually presented in a way to attract attention.
Using unique data in your press releases really makes your stories stand out to journalists. It makes the piece valuable and more likely to be respected. Without the use of numbers, there’s a risk of your narrative coming across vague and indirect – data provides precision. It also helps you to position yourself as a source of innovative, fresh information that the journalists can only get from you. But more on expertise and authority later….
People love stats so search engines love stats. They signal to Google that you are an authoritative source, improving your domain authority, and as a result, your ranking. This should make more sense if we are to talk about E-E-A-T.
Part of Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines, E-E-A-T means that you need to demonstrate Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness to be deemed a useful site. And what plays into this? You guessed it… good data. Include relevant and reliable data in your content, in accordance with meeting the other guidelines, and Google will be evaluating your domain favourably in no time.
A main benefit of using data in your Digital PR is its potential to earn you backlinks. Stories involving statistics, particularly unique statistics, tend to earn a greater number of links. People researching a topic related to your data will come across your information and credit you as a source.
You’ll then secure backlinks from authoritative domains like online newspapers. These links will help drive traffic to your website, especially if you make sure to upload a more in-depth piece on your dataset to the landing page of your website. Also, each backlink will act as a trust signal to Google that your domain is a worthwhile and quality source of information.
Data usage can get you your desired outcome from the reader. It helps fuel your audience’s desire to act – whether that be clicking a link, making a purchase or sharing the piece. It acts as a bit of a guiding star: fine-tuning your message and making it relatable and tangible to the reader.
Data also builds credibility with your audience. This will support your brand image and give customers more confidence to buy into the services you’re offering. Today, misinformation is rife in the online world and audiences are more sceptical than ever. Figures and evidence bring much needed reliability to your digital PR.
Data-led PR tends to have a higher success rate as it can result in multiple, alternate angles. A good example of our Digital PR team using this approach was a campaign for a client in which we ran a survey looking into what Brits get up to while working from home. Through keeping a close eye on online discussion surrounding the data, we noticed a lot of conversation on Twitter surrounding statistics about people having sex whilst working from home! To capitalise on this, the team sent out a new angle focusing on this data specifically, which led to more and more backlinks from authoritative outlets.
Always remember to rework and remix your data campaigns. One set of data could have endless potential lines of narrative. Keep track on which aspects of the story are being frequently picked up and linked to, and hone in on them specifically.
The value of Digital PR has never been more important, but how exactly do you pull off a brilliant data-led campaign? Stay tuned, we’re going to take you through all our top tips for everything from developing initial ideas, through to constructing a visualised piece that journalists will love.
Perhaps you’re an ideas person who decides on the topic of a story, then generates data to support it. Or, maybe your style is forming ideas through analysis of data. Both methods can bring about equally successful campaigns, the key lies in the numbers being used. Let’s begin by looking at where to find this crucial data.
There are a few effective kinds of data you can make use of:
📍Internal customer data
If you own a website then I have good news for you, you’ll have a wealth of data there at your fingertips (visitor data, purchase data, interactions, location, products bought etc.). Anonymised data about your customers can sometimes reveal interesting insights, perfect for shaping a Digital PR story. Analyse your customer demographics and internal data and you might find some surprising findings and changes over time.
The good thing about leveraging your own data is that it will be one of a kind information that your competitors don’t have access to. Your story should be entirely unique because you have conducted this research yourself. So, when searching for the numerical backing for your next PR story, bear in mind that it might well be right under your nose.
If not quite what you’re after, another idea is to run a customer survey with your own customers – this can help you get more specific insights. But, as this sample size will likely be on the smaller side, we’d recommend finding other third-party data to support your research and increase credibility.
📍Public data
Third-party data can be retrieved from a whole range of online sources, and the great thing is that many of them are free! You can check out our in-depth guide here to the best free data sources. Whether getting your numbers from YouGov surveys, SEMrush Keyword Research, or even the NHS website, there’s heaps of useful data in the public domain which can be utilised for a good story. Just remember to credit your source and ensure you’re doing something new and different with the data.
Another great source of information is of course social media. Things like the TikTok Creative Centre hold data on hashtags and trends which can be used to get figures for a campaign on ‘the most popular..’ or ‘most hashtaggable…’.
However, you really can get the data for an effective story anywhere. At Cedarwood, we like to think outside the box, like in this campaign on roast dinners that we put together for a client. The Digital PR team pulled off a hugely successful campaign, simply from analysing ingredient prices on supermarket websites!
📍Generating new data
Another technique we’ve used for many of our most successful PR campaigns is to produce our own new data through commissioning surveys. It’s a good idea to use a third party agency, like One Poll or Toluna which can provide a good sample size. Take a look at this survey we generated for a client, discovering how much pet owners know about the impact of smoking on their pets.
It is worth noting that running your own survey does not mean it will definitely come up with the results you’d like! Also, this technique often requires payment and a good portion of time. However, as you can see, these sacrifices can pay off in an impressive campaign.
Once you’ve secured your facts and figures, the next important step is working out how to display it to the readers. Data visualisation is a big thing these days. Plain bar charts are being replaced with research formatted in more beautiful displays than ever before.
Don’t neglect a good bit of brainstorming when it comes to visualising your data. Data is useless when not portrayed in an effective way, formatting really can be the make or break of your campaign. Graphs, charts, maps, animations and infographics can all be equally effective ways to display your data. We’d recommend following a few data visualisation blogs which can be great for inspiration. For example, Information is Beautiful presents bespoke projects where big portions of information are conveyed accessible and creatively.
Consider the website it is going to be displayed on and the audience you’re targeting. Another tip is to have a look at the data stories published recently by your media targets. Learn from how they presented their statistics to get some ideas for your own visualisation.
So, you’ve gathered your data, and presented it stylishly. Now it’s time for the crucial pitch. Here are our do’s and don’ts to get your story sought after by every journalist:
>Keep your headline short and punchy, no more than 10 words ideally
>Determine why a journalist should want this story, and how it’s new or different and get that across from the beginning
>Don’t overdo it with the statistics. Pick a few key points from your data that are most relevant for your audience. Too many stats and there’s danger of your pitch becoming confusing.
>Remember to include a link to your website, where people can find the full set of data
We’ll end by reminding you that a data-led campaign may not always land immediately but that doesn’t necessarily mean your research is futile. Have a re-think and try a different angle – you may just get the results you’re hoping for.
To sum up, journalists and readers love data and in Digital PR we need to use this to our advantage. It brings context and credibility to a narrative. When illustrated in an effective way it’s the key to a world of increased backlinks, coverage and conversions.
Why not get in touch with one of our experts at Cedarwood today to discuss how we could help you utilise data for your SEO strategy. Fill in our 2-minute form here, it couldn’t be easier!
I’m sure you’ve heard of backlinks, but why do they matter so much, and how can they be secured?
The Cedarwood team have heaps of experience in this area of SEO, and in today’s blog we’re going to explore what backlinks are and a strategy for building them to your domain.
Whilst there are numerous SEO concepts to follow for increased site traffic, link building is a really great place to start. The more high quality and relevant backlinks you can acquire, the higher the likelihood of your site ranking well in the SERPs, because Google will view it as an authoritative source. Keep reading to find out exactly how to build those all-important links.
So, let’s begin with the basics. A backlink is one website linking to another with anchor text. Magazine and news articles will commonly use backlinks but you can find examples all over the internet; from scholarly literature to ecommerce websites. This is an example of us using anchor text to link to our most recent blog (which you should check out if you haven’t already!)
Backlinks are gold dust because they act like a vote of confidence, suggesting to Google and other search engines that the linked website is trustworthy and useful. The domain receiving the backlink demonstrates better authority. Then, in theory, this in turn results in the website securing higher search rank positions because backlinks are one of Google’s most powerful ranking factors. The higher your rank, the more likely that your content will be seen!
I’m sure you’re getting the gist now of just how important backlinks are. But to drill it in a bit more, I’ll remind you of the three pillars of SEO. It’s well-understood that search engine algorithms reward distance, prominence and relevance. So, it is crucial to secure prominence if you want your domain to rank, especially if focusing on local SEO. And what’s the key to building prominence? You guessed it, the ever-important backlinks.
Unfortunately, you can’t just secure backlinks from any old site and expect your rank position to sky-rocket. To carry out successful backlink SEO, you really need to work on securing backlinks from sites with a high domain authority score and sites that are relevant to your subject matter.
The scoring system is logarithmic and runs from 1 – 100, with a higher score indicating authority and reliability. A high DA score and a strong website overall means that Google will be a big fan of your site, and you’re therefore far more likely to appear at the top of SERPs. You won’t be surprised to hear that these high scorers include the big-hitters: Youtube, Facebook, Wikipedia, IMDB etc.
You should always ensure that any backlink you acquire has been sourced from a reliable domain, ideally with a higher authority score than your own. If you’re ever wondering what a website’s score is, this can be easily found using a tool like Moz or Semrush.
There’s really no simple yes or no answer here. Whilst buying backlinks is a frowned upon practice and has historically led to Google penalties, more recently a paid link is likely to be ignored rather than penalised. In Google’s link spam updates in recent years, they have repeatedly used the words ‘nullify’ and ‘neutralise’, rather than ‘penalise’. So, no you’re unlikely to receive a fatal penalty if you choose to splash the cash on some links but we still wouldn’t recommend it. Let us explain.
Ultimately, buying links could result in a short term boost of traffic to your site, but you will quickly find that this isn’t sustainable. When bulk-buying backlinks online, you are often being supplied with low-quality links and Google knows which backlinks are high quality and relevant to your site.
Perhaps your next thought is, fine I will make sure to only purchase high-quality links… I’m afraid to say that this is not advised either. High-quality backlinks are far more expensive than their low-quality alternatives, so it is often not feasible to secure many of them. You’re then stuck with one or two of these prized backlinks which, without high quantity, are unlikely to make a difference to your rank. Buying your backlinks, whether high or low-quality, has the potential to be at best a waste of money, and at worst the cause of a fatal penalty. I know the prospect is alluring, especially if you are a start-up with financial constraints, but it really is worth investing your time and money into sustainable SEO strategies.
We’ve put it pretty plainly that you shouldn’t pay for backlinks but should build them naturally. No stress though, following the right backlink-building strategy will get them flying in in no time – and without any attached risk. There are various methods you can use to acquire backlinks but here are a few of the most effective to get you started.
Digital PR is a strategy that has been rising in popularity as a sustainable method of link acquisition. It’s a technique in which traditional PR principles are applied to online content and can be carried out in a number of ways. Some of the most effective Digital PR tactics that we utilise at Cedarwood include:
📌Newsjacking – identify a newsworthy topic and place your client at the centre of the conversation. This can be done proactively (researching events in advance) or reactively, like when we recreated Harry and Meghan’s Oprah garden backdrop for a client in the garden furniture sector. Monitoring the media and turning around newsjacking content efficiently can be a speedy way to secure links, and highlight your clients’ expertise.
📌Data-Led Campaigns – another expertise-driven approach to Digital PR is a data-led campaign. We recommend using free sources like ONS Data and Google Trends to pull together your data, then back this up with a fresh angle and some expertise from your client. And…data doesn’t have to be dull! Here’s an example of a data-led campaign we executed for our client, looking into the cheapest roast dinners. These campaigns can then be outreached to gain some great backlinks.
📌Thought Leadership – this is another effective approach for Digital PR which positions a senior representative of your client’s brand as an expert in their field. Done effectively, it’s a failsafe way to build trust with your audience, and secure quality links back to your site. Identify your target audience and pain points that your client could provide valuable insights on. Then, create helpful content, remembering to update it regularly to keep it fresh. LinkedIn is a fab place to share thought leadership PR and reach the decision-makers in your industry, as are email newsletters.
One of our favourite backlink hacks is to create engaging assets that other websites will want to link to.
Venngage found that 41% of marketers say infographics and illustrations help them reach their marketing goals. If you create an infographic or any other type of visual, people are more likely to naturally cite you as a source. This is because visual content is appealing and sharable to a user. Design your content with creativity and intention. Make sure that your assets are accurate and well-researched, even whilst being aesthetically pleasing!
Source: Venngage
Conducting competitor backlink analysis is a great way to create backlinks for yourself at no cost. Begin with using an SEO software to pull together a list of the various websites that are providing backlinks for your competitor sites.
>Enter the competitor’s domain address into a tool like SEMrush or Ahrefs.
>They’ll do the hard work for you and identify a list of domains that link to the competitor’s website.
>Then, set about reviewing these domains, highlighting the ones with high authority and a good domain score that are relevant to you.
>From here, you can then begin backlink outreach. Research the company behind the domain and find the best person to contact to discuss a backlinking opportunity.
*Another top tip is to make use of the Skyscraper Technique when looking at competitors’ sites. This is a proven process in which you find successful content that has earned a hefty amount of links, create better content, and then promote it to those who linked to the original piece.*
Source: Ahrefs
You won’t be offering these domains a financial incentive for the backlink so, instead, you need to provide high-quality content that they will want to link to. It is essential that your content is well-researched, informative and readable. You may not have success with every domain that you reach out to, but leveraging your expertise to produce genuinely useful content will make it far more likely to be shared.
High-quality content is the gift that keeps on giving because every time a blog or business features your research, you’ll receive a white hat backlink (a link attained ethically through good SEO practice).
A failsafe way to make sure you’re producing informative content is to publish ‘ultimate guides’ or ‘step by step guides’ – like the one you’re reading! Users love simplicity and content that’s digestible, which a step by step guide is great at.
Another simple but effective way to secure backlinks is resource page link building. A resource page is a curated list of helpful links, and they exist for pretty much any niche topic you can think of. From information on the best tools for baking, to resources for dog training.
Being featured on a resource page sends a powerful signal to Google about the authority of your site and that you may be a thought leader here.
Resource link building is a sustainable SEO strategy because it’s clean and easy. There’s no money involved and, whatever niche you operate in, there will always be a number of good websites building resource pages relevant to what you do.
To get your website listed on these sorts of pages, all you need to do is fill out a form that will look something like this:
As we know, broken links will not get Google on side. Search engines prioritise overall web page experience when deciding where sites will rank, and a broken link causes frustration for the user.
Broken link building is the process of finding broken links on pages within your field and reaching out to the site manager with replacement resources of your own. It’s relatively simple and a win-win situation – the webmaster fixes their broken link, and you achieve an updated backlink so your previous efforts are not ignored.
So, how do you go about this? Well, firstly navigate to “Backlink Analytics” on one of the softwares we mentioned earlier (Ahrefs, Moz, SEMrush). Then, type in a domain related to your niche and click the “Indexed Pages” tab. Click the “Broken Pages”/”Broken Links” box and look for any broken pages focused on topics that you have existing content for (or could create content about).
The final effective way to get white hat backlinks is to find relevant guest blogging opportunities. It allows you to build your business’ backlink profile organically because you can include links to your own resources in the blog.
This is another mutually beneficial method; websites will welcome your guest blog content because it adds fresh topics to their content schedule for little effort on their end.
When looking for these opportunities, search for sites that:
In particular, it’s definitely worth being fussy about a site’s domain authority score because the higher the number, the more traffic your backlink will receive.
Another important note is that Guest Blogging, like any effective SEO tactic is victim to abuse and manipulation. This is something that Google has cottoned on to, and you can be penalised for ‘spammy’ practices including: backlink-cramming, repeatedly publishing on the same website, writing thin content purely for the sake of a backlink etc.
Therefore, this technique should be used with caution and following best practices. As long as you’re producing relevant, original content for authoritative websites then you will be fine, and hopefully reaping benefits in no time.
Here at Cedarwood Digital, we have a talented and experienced team of Digital PR and SEO specialists on hand to provide a professional backlinking service. On your behalf, we reach out to reliable domains to secure high-quality backlinks to content published on your online site (created either by us or your in-house writers).
Why not speak to one of the friendly members of our team to get your backlinking strategy moving today. You can either send us your enquiry in an email to [email protected], or fill out our 2-minute form.
What a great way to end the week! ⚡️ – We’re delighted to announce that Cedarwood has been nominated for 12 UK Search Awards after our best year ever for digital marketing performance.
The nominations follow on from our success last year where we won:
🎊 Best Use Of Search (Finance)
🎊 Best Use Of PR In Search (Silver)
🎊 Best SEO Agency (Silver)
We have been nominated for:
💥 Best Use Of Search (Finance) x2
💥 Best Use Of Search (Retail PPC)
💥 Best Use Of Search (B2C)
💥 Best Use Of Search (Health)
💥 Best Use Of Content Marketing
💥 Best Use Of PR In Search x2
💥 Best Use Of Data (PPC)
💥 Best PPC Agency
💥 Best SEO Agency
💥 Best Integrated Agency
The event will be held at Bloomsbury Big Top on November 30th and we are looking forwards to seeing everyone on the night! You can find a full list of all nominees here: https://searchawards.co.uk/2023-shortlist/
Domain Authority this, domain authority that, but what does this metric mean and should we really be focusing on improving it?
Well, if your website is struggling to read those sought-after top ranking spots, it may be that you could do with improving your domain authority. Today, the experts at Cedarwood are giving you a one-stop guide about how to get that all important DA score shooting up. Below, we define what domain authority is, explain what it isn’t, and help you to figure out why your website isn’t showing up where you want it to.
The long and the short of it is that domain authority = how authoritative your site is deemed to be by a search engine. It’s calculated based on a number of factors, including quantity and quality of backlinks, referred domains, and search traffic.
What about my domain authority score?
SEO community, Moz, were the first to develop a Domain Authority metric, and since then, lots of SEO softwares have developed their own Authority algorithms.
These algorithms rank DA on a score from 1 – 100, on a logarithmic scale. The closer to 100 your score, the more reliable and authoritative your site, and the more likely that you’ll land good SERP results.
Below is an example of an algorithm returning a domain’s DA score:
Generally, a ‘good’ DA score is classed as anywhere between 50 and 60, while a value of between 40 and 50 is deemed average. Anything above 60 and your website is the bee’s knees.
As expected, websites with the highest domain authority scores include the big hitters – Google, Apple, Youtube, Microsoft etc. This is basically because each of these domains is the most well-known in their respective fields.
Another thing to note is that the level of competition in your industry will majorly sway your DA value. The more competitive it is in your niche – the harder for your domain to move up the ladder.
Equally, because the scale is logarithmic, it’s much easier for a site of say 20 or 30 to increase their score, than for a domain already sitting higher up the ranks.
Domain Authority vs. Page Authority
While Domain Authority measures an entire web domain, you can also find out your Page Authority score. This looks specifically at the probability of each of the individual pages of your website ranking on SERPs. It’s a useful metric to consider because it enables you to determine the performance of an individual blog post or product page, so you can then work out which pages need work.
It’s worth saying that Domain Authority is not a specific ranking factor for Google, like your content’s relevance or your location is. However, it is a super useful indicator that will help you assess the performance of your site, and its relation to competitors. And… a study by Ahrefs found a correlation between DA and SERP ranking. So don’t click off just yet!
Whilst knowing that you have a domain authority score of 53 isn’t hugely useful on its own, knowing where you stand in comparison to the DA scores of your competing pages can be very helpful. For instance, discovering that you stand at 53, whilst your competitors for a specific Google query are working at a 85, can save you a lot of wasted time.
If you want your content to appear higher up on SERPs (as I’m sure you do), a good domain authority score is a necessity. Google wants to show its users the most reliable content, and a high DA score essentially means you are top-tier when it comes to reliability. The association should be making more sense to you now…
Okay, you’ve gathered that DA is important, but now you’re probably wondering how to ramp the score up to grow those SERP rankings.
We’ve put together a five-step guide for how to work your way up, but remember, every top DA dog today started at the bottom and you’ll need to practice patience!
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that quality links are a critical thing to prioritise in any SEO strategy. They drive both your domain and page authority, and the more authority, the higher those rankings. Every link is a vote of confidence, and a signal to Google that this is a good quality site.
However, more is not more when it comes to backlinks. It’s not all about just collecting copious amounts of domain links – what matters is the link quality. They’ve got to be relevant, and ideally, of a decent authority themselves. For example, securing backlinks from governmental pages or respected newspapers will likely send your score shooting up.
Another thing we recommend is researching who is considered a thought-leader in your industry. Then, work towards acquiring a link back to your site, perhaps through writing a good-quality guest post for them – that’s a dead cert backlink right there.
Unfortunately, I can’t simply tell you what a good backlink is for your website’s DA. It really does differ from industry to industry. For instance, a backlink in a national newspaper would be sought after by some companies, but not by your small local winery who would prefer to seek links in a regional paper or industry-specific food & drink magazine.
Because the quality of your backlinks is so important, you need to make sure you’re conducting regular link audits. This isn’t quite as laborious as it sounds, you simply just need to check that all links to your site are valid.
Fish out which links are sending traffic to your site, and then identify the risky links, weak ones, and strongest links. Through this you can determine which of your pages are drawing the most inbound links, and figure out an overall link strategy.
To help you out with all this, there are some great tools available – such as Moz, Semrush and Google’s very own Search Console. We can assure you that checking up on your links regularly will make that domain authority surge.
Digital PR plays a crucial role in any robust SEO strategy, and it is a sure-fire way to gain those backlinks. There are many ways to execute effective DPR (product placements, newsjacking, thought-leadership, amongst others.) Data-led campaigns have also been growing in popularity and we have an article here taking you through all the best tools to use to land high-quality backlinks through data-driven stories.
It is worth reaching out to companies you have existing relationships with, to see if you can support each others’ online platforms through links. Alongside this, target other small businesses to propose a collaboration with.
Additionally, don’t forget about your outbound links as they can help forge beneficial partnerships. Scan your existing content for opportunities to add links – if there’s a business mentioned at any point, link to their website. If they’re monitoring their traffic they’ll spot your link and might then return the favour. As said, do remember to make sure all the backlinks you receive are of good quality.
Backlinks through newsjacking is something we’re particularly good at Cedarwood – it’s tricky, but when executed effectively can land those all-important placements. You can see our full, comprehensive guide here but the key things to remember are:
📌undertake constant news-listening so you’re primed to jump on a story
📌thoroughly research your topic using tools like Buzzsumo
📌remember to follow up and rework your content so you keep landing links
If you’re putting in all this work to secure a backlink, it is important to make sure that the content being linked is actually of good quality! This also has the added benefit of making it easier for you to secure backlinks naturally.
Inform your content with SEO practices (like keyword research) and also consider having a blog on your site. This is an absolute haven of content guaranteed to get you receiving link referrals. Ensure that this content is relevant, readable and ideally between 1500 and 2500 words. The longer the content – the more information provided, and the more backlinks received. It’s as simple as that.
Also, feel free to get creative in these blogs. Infographics and other engaging forms of content attract backlinks, and this increase in referring domains will positively impact your DA score.
Another top tip from the team at Cedarwood is to compare your competitors’ content. Study where your key competitors get their backlinks from, and analyse their style of content. See what you can learn from them.
Social signals are sure to do your website’s domain authority a world of good. Here, I’m talking about metrics such as shares, likes and retweets on social media channels and numerous SEO experts have claimed that these signals influence rankings. Social media is no longer just home to funny cat videos, search engines now hold these platforms in high regard. When you publish a blog, or secure a link, be sure to share it on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Another pointer is to be active on relevant discussion forums and ‘question and answer sites’. This way, you are consistently providing valuable insights and positioning yourself as an industry expert. Establishing authority in your field attracts more users, and builds trust among your audience. Get yourself onto pages like Quora and see your web traffic and DA score go through the roof.
So, I’ll leave you with a final instruction to be patient – you can increase your domain authority but it won’t happen overnight. It’s the product of robust strategies and production of a great deal of content, over a good period of time.
However, if you want a head-start, go ahead and get in touch with the experts over here at Cedarwood. We can help you create tailored SEO and Digital PR strategies to land you links, coverage, and an impressive DA score.
Manchester’s Cedarwood Digital has appointed Matt Thompson as its Head of Digital PR.
Matt brings over a decade of experience to the role, having previously worked at iProspect, Open Partners and THG.
“It’s an exciting time to be joining Cedarwood,” Thompson said. “The team are already producing some fantastic work, with a whole host of recent award wins under their belt. I’m looking forward to driving things forward, helping grow the team as well as our clients’ businesses.”
Amanda Walls, director of Cedarwood Digital, added: “The past 12 months have seen our digital PR team go from strength to strength, and we’ve got big plans for the future. Matt’s experience in launching new products, as well as growing existing channels, will play a key role as we look to further expand our offering to be truly market leading.”
Founded in 2016, Cedarwood Digital works with a diverse array of national clients to enhance their business’ visibility online through organic, earned and paid channels.
We’re delighted to win not one, but two awards at the UK Digital PR Awards yesterday!
We took home:
🏆Digital PR Agency Of The Year
🏆Digital PR Campaign Of The Year – E-commerce
Here’s what the judges had to say:
Digital PR has been a huge area of success for Cedarwood over the last 12 months, so we’re over the moon that this is now being recognised in such a competitive space🎉.
A big congrats to the team, for all their hard work! 👏
Digital PR has been a buzzword in the world of online marketing for quite a while now and it’s a popular marketing approach for businesses who are looking to grow their online profile while also landing important links back to their website.
Here at Cedarwood, digital PR has always been an important part of our service offering, not just for the visibility that it garners for our clients, but also for the positive impact it can have on SEO campaigns and as a result we have a lot of experience (over seven years direct experience in fact!) in rolling out effective digital PR campaigns.
Although it is one of the more popular approaches within the SEO mix, digital PR is something which if not done properly can fail to have the desired impact – so below we’ve included some top tips on how you can go about creating an effective digital PR campaign.
The importance of Digital PR
Before we dive into five key tips to creating an effective digital PR campaign, let’s first look at why digital PR is important and how it can help you to achieve your goals across both SEO and also improving overall awareness.
Digital PR is important because it can help businesses achieve a number of goals, including:
➡️ Increase brand awareness: When your brand is featured in high-quality, relevant publications, it can help to raise awareness of your company and its products or services. This can lead to increased traffic to your website, more leads, and ultimately, more sales.
➡️ Generate leads: A well-executed digital PR campaign can also help to generate leads for your business. When journalists and other influencers write about your company, they often include a call to action, such as a link to your website or a way to sign up for your email list. This can help you to capture the contact information of potential customers who are interested in learning more about what you have to offer.
➡️ Improve SEO: When your brand is mentioned in high-quality, relevant publications, it can help to improve your website’s search engine ranking. This is because search engines take into account the number and quality of backlinks to a website when ranking it in search results.
➡️ Build relationships with journalists and influencers: Digital PR can also help you to build relationships with journalists and other influencers in your industry. These relationships can be valuable assets for your business, as they can help you to get your company featured in the media and reach a wider audience.
There’s a lot of value that you can add to your overall marketing mix with digital PR but it’s important to understand how it fits in with a broader marketing mix, so that you can understand how to utilise it effectively.
Five Key Tips
Strategy plays a key role within your digital PR campaigns and understanding your client’s audience, the current landscape and the type of content that will resonate with your audience (and journalists!) is important to driving success.
So let’s start off with some key considerations and questions to ask around your digital PR strategy:
➡️ Your target audience: Who are you trying to reach with your digital PR campaign? What are their interests? What are their pain points?
➡️ Your goals: What do you want to achieve with your digital PR campaign? Do you want to increase brand awareness? Generate leads? Improve SEO?
➡️ Your key messages: What are the key messages you want to communicate with your digital PR campaign? What do you want journalists and influencers to take away from your story?
➡️Your content: What type of content will you create for your digital PR campaign? Will you write blog posts? Create infographics? Produce videos?
➡️Your distribution strategy: How will you distribute your content? Will you share it on social media? Submit it to media outlets? Pitch it to influencers?
➡️ Your measurement strategy: How will you measure the success of your digital PR campaign? Will you track website traffic? Leads generated? SEO ranking?
It might seem like a lot, but putting time into understanding your target audience, goals and distribution strategy will save you a lot of time further down the line so invest the time early on to ensure you are driving maximum efficiency through your campaigns.
2. Do You Research
Undertaking research at the start of a digital PR campaign is another way to ensure you save time further down the line, don’t repeat stories which have already been covered and really maximise your outreach capacity and capabilities.
When you’re doing your research for a digital PR campaign, there are a few key things to keep in mind:
➡️ Identify your target audience: Who are you trying to reach with your campaign? What are their interests? What publications do they read? What influencers do they follow?
➡️ Identify the right publications and influencers: Once you know who your target audience is, you can start to identify the right publications and influencers to reach out to. Consider the following factors when making your selection:
➡️ Relevance: The publication or influencer should be relevant to your target audience.
➡️ Reach: The publication or influencer should have a large enough audience to reach your target audience.
➡️ Credibility: The publication or influencer should be credible and respected by your target audience.
➡️Find out what they’ve written about in the past: Take a look at the publications and influencers you’ve identified and see what they’ve written about in the past. This will give you a good idea of their style, their interests, and the types of stories they’re interested in.
➡️ Find out how to contact them: Once you’ve identified the right publications and influencers, you need to find out how to contact them. This may involve finding their email address, phone number, or social media profiles.
By doing your research, you can increase your chances of success with your digital PR campaign.
Here are some additional tips for doing your research:
➡️ Use online tools: There are a number of online tools that can help you with your research, such as Google News, Cision, and Meltwater. These tools can help you to find relevant publications, influencers, and stories.
➡️ Talk to people in your industry: Talk to people in your industry who are familiar with digital PR. They can share their insights and advice with you.
➡️ Attend industry events: Attending industry events is a great way to meet journalists and influencers and learn more about their needs.
Taking additional time to thoroughly research all of the above and build your contact list can really help when it comes to outreaching the campaigns, so make sure you put the groundwork in before you start building the campaigns to maximise the success.
3. Create High Quality Content
If you want journalists to link to your website then you need to generate great content which gives them a reason to link to it. So whether it’s a data piece, a piece of thought leadership or just something of genuine interest to the user, make sure that the content you create is relevant, up to date and most importantly, within the user interest.
Great content for Digital PR comes in a number of different formats and can include:
➡️ Data-driven content: This type of content uses data and statistics to tell a story. It can be very persuasive and can help you establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. For example, you could create a blog post that analyzes industry trends or a report that provides insights into your target audience.
➡️ Compelling visuals: Images, infographics, and videos can be very effective at engaging your audience and driving traffic to your website. Make sure your visuals are high-quality and relevant to your content.
➡️ Interviews and thought leadership pieces: Interviews with experts in your industry can be a great way to generate backlinks and establish yourself as a thought leader. You could also write thought leadership pieces that share your insights on industry trends or best practices.
➡️ Case studies: Case studies can be a great way to demonstrate the value of your products or services. They can also help you generate leads and build relationships with potential customers.
➡️ Trendjacking: Trendjacking is the practice of capitalizing on current trends to create content that is relevant and timely. This can be a great way to generate buzz for your brand and attract new customers.
Undertaking the first two steps will help you to better understand the audience and it’s important to keep this in mind when creating high quality content to ensure that when you outreach it to journalists it’s going to be relevant to both their audience and yours.
4. Promote Your Content
In the simplest terms promoting your content is essentially outreaching it – getting it in front of journalists to ensure that you get the right level of coverage for your client, at the right time. The promotion of the content is almost as important as the quality of the content if not more so, as it doesn’t matter how great your content is, if no one sees it then it will have no impact on your overall marketing efforts!
When outreaching to journalists the first step is to create an effective media list – remember – you don’t have to include everyone on your media list, rather focus on the contacts that count, people who are likely to cover your story or who have a genuine interest in what you are doing.
Here are some top tips to land coverage with journalists:
➡️ Do your research. Before you reach out to any journalists, take the time to learn about their work and their audience. What kind of stories do they typically write? What are their interests? Once you have a good understanding of their needs, you can tailor your pitch accordingly.
➡️ Make a great first impression. Your subject line is the first thing a journalist will see, so make sure it’s clear, concise, and attention-grabbing. The body of your email should also be well-written and engaging. Get to the point quickly and clearly, and make sure your pitch is relevant to the journalist’s interests.
➡️ Be helpful and responsive. If a journalist is interested in your story, be prepared to provide them with all the information they need. This includes high-quality images, videos, and other supporting materials. Be responsive to their questions and requests, and make sure they have everything they need to move forward with the story.
➡️ Be patient. It takes time to build relationships with journalists. Don’t expect to get a response from every pitch you send out. Just keep pitching good stories, and eventually you’ll start to get results.
You won’t always get it right first time, but taking your time to build out media lists & prepare them effectively will play a key role in ensuring that you are maximising the most of your opportunity.
It’s also important to stand out – in a crowded area where journalists receive hundreds of PR pitches each day, how do you make sure that you stand out from the crowd?
➡️ Personalize your pitches. Don’t just send out a generic email to a list of journalists. Take the time to address each journalist by name and tailor your pitch to their specific interests.
➡️ Offer exclusive content. If you can offer journalists exclusive content, they’ll be more likely to take a look at your pitch. This could be a press release, a white paper, or even an interview with an expert.
➡️Be persistent. If you don’t hear back from a journalist right away, don’t give up. Follow up with them a few days later to see if they have any questions.
Timing is also key – ensuring that you outreach at the right time to the right person plays a key role in getting the coverage that you are looking for.
5. Measure Results
Measuring results and evaluating your digital PR campaigns plays a key role in ensuring that you get the most out of them and that you can take learnings to continue to evolve and improve your offering. Digital PR is constantly changing and evolving, so staying on top of your game is key and ensuring that your clients understand the value of what you are offering plays a key role in ensuring that you’re showcasing the value that you are bringing.
To start with, you need to be clear about what you want to measure, approaches here include:
➡️ Set clear goals: Before you launch your campaign, set clear goals for what you want to achieve. This will help you track your progress and measure your success.
➡️ Use a variety of metrics: Don’t rely on just one metric to measure the impact of your campaign. Use a variety of metrics to get a more complete picture of your results.
➡️Track your results over time: Don’t just measure the impact of your campaign at the end. Track your results over time to see how your campaign is performing.
➡️Make adjustments as needed: If you’re not seeing the results you want, make adjustments to your campaign strategy.
Don’t be afraid to make updates and changes as you need – this will help you to ensure you keep firmly fixed on the overall goal of delivering value to your clients and the reach/coverage that they want.
You can use a number of different ways to measure from a metric perspective, but here are some of the most common metrics:
➡️ Media coverage: This is the most basic metric, and it simply measures the number of articles, blog posts, and other pieces of media that mention your brand.
➡️ Link building: This metric measures the number of links to your website from other websites. Links are important for SEO, so this metric can give you an idea of how well your campaign is helping to improve your website’s search engine ranking.
➡️Social media engagement: This metric measures the number of likes, shares, and comments on your social media posts. It’s a good way to measure how well your campaign is resonating with your target audience.
➡️Brand awareness: This metric measures how well people know your brand. You can measure brand awareness through surveys, polls, and social media analytics.
➡️Website traffic: This metric measures the number of people who visit your website. It’s a good way to measure the overall impact of your campaign, as more traffic means more people are learning about your brand.
Whichever you use, it’s important to remember that you always need to be linking it back to revenue and results for your client – these are there key business metrics, so make sure to keep in mind how it closely links back to what your client is looking to achieve.
Final Thoughts
In addition to everything that we have mentioned above, at the end of the day an effective digital PR campaign all comes down to whether the user consumes it, engages with it and feels something for it – after all we are trying to create something which sits within the human interest angle.
Keeping this in mind, additional elements which will play in to the success of your campaigns include:
Each of these play their own important role in ensuring that your campaigns get off the ground, so in addition to some great planning and activation make sure you take the time to build the relationships and research the impact of your content – this is essential to gaining that all important coverage!
To find out more about how we can help you with your digital PR campaigns, get in touch!
We were absolutely delighted to take home TWO awards at the European Search Awards in Lisbon last night! Hosted at the beautiful Patio De Gale it was great to see everyone come together in a celebration of search across Europe!
On the night we took home:
📣 Best Small Integrated Agency
📣 Best Use Of PR In Search
Absolutely delighted to take home two awards to showcase the great year that Cedarwood has had and was lovely to catch up with other agencies & brands during the night!
💥We’re Winners!💥
We are thrilled to announce that Cedarwood has won the Digital PR Campaign of the Year award at the PR Moment Awards 2023 for our outstanding work with Little Loans. Our team of digital PR experts, including Alex, Amber, Beth & Elle, put in tremendous effort to bring this campaign to life and we are proud to see their hard work being recognised.
Digital PR has been a significant area of success for us at Cedarwood in the past 12 months. This award, in addition to our recognition at the UK Search Awards, we are delighted that we have also been recognised for this directly within the PR space.
The judges were impressed by our well-researched and well-thought-out campaign, which produced excellent results. Our team worked closely with Little Loans to create a unique campaign that not only raised their brand awareness but also increased their online visibility.
On Wednesday I had the pleasure of speaking at Brighton SEO’s Online PR Show, along with a great line up of speakers, talking about all things Online PR and beyond!
My deck, entitled “Using Digital PR To Enhance Your E-E-A-T Signals” was designed to explore how Digital PR can and should be utilised to enhance those all important E-E-A-T signals that Google is looking for on a website, in addition to looking through some case studies of where we had used it effectively, with great impact.
This deck is particularly useful for clients who sit within the YMYL industry (of which we have quite a few!) where the importance of key trust and expertise signals become even more important due to Google holding the website to a much higher quality standard.
Some key takeaways from the talk include:
👻 Use your client’s expertise to generate great outreach ideas – focus on the key strengths of your spokespeople to understand the types of publications and areas you might want to cover & what they might be best suited to (and also most likely to be seen as an expert for!)
👻 Use Reverse Digital PR as a way of getting clients to come to you, rather than having to go to them, this is also a great way to establish yourself as a credible resource and it’s the gift that keeps on giving as journalists will continue to find and use this source over time.
👻 Think outside the box, if you can’t get any real life ways to showcase your expertise then innovate – look at soaps or fictional situations where you can demonstrate your expertise and still build those key signals
👻 Get your news listening right – digest news, as much as you can and get your news listening set up so that you are ready to jump on topical trends – this will help you to be first to the conversation when you need to be.
It was a great day with a range of great speakers & for anyone who missed the event you can catch it online again in the next couple of weeks or in the Brighton SEO vault! You can also view my slide deck here
Delighted to kick off the week by announcing that we have been nominated for 12 European Search Awards, it’s great to see everyone’s hard work rewarded over the last 12 months & to be recognised for some of the great client achievements we’ve had in this time!
Some of our nominations include:
🍉 Best SEO Agency
🍉 Best Use Of PR In Search
🍉 Best Use Of Search (Finance)
🍉 Best SEO Campaign
🍉 Best PPC Campaign
Looking forward to seeing everyone at the event in Lisbon in May! ☀️ 🍷🍹 You can find a full list of nominations here
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