Online PR - newspaper

How To Get Media Coverage For Your Business In Seven Steps

by Digital PR & Outreach tipsLink Building

As a small or start up-business, gaining media attention  is important for growth and gives your SEO a significant boost. But, it can often feel like a daunting, nay impossible task. Where do you even begin? And do you need a big budget to make a difference?

At Cedarwood Digital, we work with clients of all shapes and sizes, with a variety of budgets. So, we know first-hand that you can make an impact, regardless of size or budget.

We’ve rounded up our top tips and broken down the process of  landing coverage for your business, so you can start a media storm. 

 

1. Understand what journalists want to see

When creating a press release, keep in mind that journalists receive countless similar emails each  day. Focus on providing something valuable that they can’t get elsewhere! Create fresh content that either supports established ideas with research or challenges them with new data. Surveys that provide journalists with interesting and topical statistics are a great way to get your business featured in the press. Whilst there are companies that will run surveys for you, these can be costly, so SMEs can benefit from using their own customer databases to conduct surveys and research.

Images are also crucial for a strong press release, as we live in an increasingly visual world. Including a few good  images to support your press release saves journalists time and could be the difference between your story getting picked up and falling flat.

 

2. Know your target audience

Craft a unique angle that makes your story resonate with the publications you’re looking to target. Try not to generalise content and send it across all genres of media – this will be obvious  to the journalist and appear lazy. It’s best to brainstorm and research topical news, upcoming events and  media trends relevant to your brand to ensure your content hits the right mark. Don’t neglect regional press, as a local angle can also be a great hook. Though regional publications may have a smaller audience than nationals, they offer the chance to showcase news on a local scale and can be easier to land  features in than the bigger publications. If you’re offering research and statistics that cover the whole of the UK, try breaking your research down into key city demographics so that it is more relevant to regional publications. 

 

3. Build a comprehensive media list 

Whilst you may already be familiar with some key publications you would like to target, it’s useful to go beyond the obvious and expand your horizons to more niche publications as well.  It’s a good idea to think about your ideal customer, and then pinpoint the media outlets they would be using for their news. There are numerous online tools  to help you build out  a thorough media list – with everything from trade journals to nationals. Tools like Roxhill Media, Muckrack, and Cision offer subscriptions, allowing you access to media databases. Or for those with smaller budgets, websites like Hunter.io allow a limited number of free searches for journalist contacts. Both X (Twitter) and LinkedIn can also be good places to start building connections. Monitor #journorequest and #prrequest on X (Twitter) to find relevant feature opportunities and connect with journalists on LinkedIn.

We recommend keeping your media list nice and organised. Categorise the publications by type, size, and geographic reach to make your life easier when you get to the outreach stage.

 

4. Research the targeted journalist

Once you’ve built your media  list, double check that the journalist specialises in your topic. Ensure you’ve got accurate contact details noted as first impressions count and you don’t want to come across as unprofessional!  

Make sure to stay on top of deadlines and publication dates to ensure timely outreach and avoid interrupting journalists when they’re working against the clock. There’s no problem in getting in touch to ask if a certain topic is of interest, but don’t harass them. If you’ve followed up twice via email and have still not had a response, then unfortunately the journalist may just not be interested in your pitch.

 

5. Design your press release to make an impression

Structure press releases in a way that makes them easily digestible to busy journalists. Generally, try to stick to the following rules:

  • ➡️Use a snappy and attention-grabbing headline; assume the journalist is in a rush and reading it on their phone, it needs to grab them! 
  • ➡️It can be useful to think about your press release as an inverted pyramid. Immediately summarise the gist  of the content in the first paragraph, making sure to answer the 5 Ws (who, what, where, when, why). Then, bring in your additional context below with the information becoming less vital as you move down the page. 
  • ➡️Avoid technical terms which aren’t accessible.
  • ➡️Support your story with evidence or data where possible. In particular, including a shocking statistic in the headline is a good technique to get your release noticed and show journalists that it’s news.
  • ➡️Include your contact information at the end of the press release, and make sure to be available for follow up calls.
  • ➡️A ‘Notes to the Editor’ section at the bottom of the release is always useful. This is where you can include relevant background information that does not feature in your press release, such as an overview of your business’ services, how you conducted your research  or a brief history of your business.
  •  ➡️Then you’re ready to press send!

 

6. Add supporting information & special extras to the press release

To give your press release a bit more zest, it’s worth considering what extra support you could provide to each journalist. Publications often want to get unique angles on stories to avoid duplicated articles, so think about offering a case study, interview or photograph to sweeten the deal.

If you have a larger publication in mind that you are eager to work with, then you could offer them the exclusive on the story first; being featured in one large publication with a significant audience could be more worthwhile than coverage in  multiple smaller publications.

 

7. Build relationships with journalists

To establish long-term media relationships, provide journalists with a steady stream of good content, stick to deadlines, and be readily available for interviews and commentary.  This way, you’ll create a great reputation for yourself as a useful contact and build a lasting relationship with the press. 

 

Land media coverage with the help of professionals


With these tips under your belt, you should now be in the best position to get out there and secure coverage for your business. Need a hand getting started? Our digital PR team here at Cedarwood Digital have a proven track record. We deliver campaigns that land you 100% earned links and coverage from top publications because we know what the journalists want to see, and how to execute it.

We’ve achieved excellent results for both SMEs and large international clients alike. Get in touch today to get your brand in front of its target audience.

Ella Valentines Blog Image

Valentine’s Day Search Data: Key Trends For Your Marketing Campaigns

by SEO

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, and for many businesses this is a crucial time to get your products or services noticed by potential customers. Whether you’re offering a romantic dinner location, a flower delivery service, or even hosting a singles event, the high amount of interest in February needs to be utilised. 

 

Needless to say it’s important to plan your digital marketing strategy in advance – but when is the best time to push your campaigns? 

 

We dove into the heart of the matter, exploring data from sources like Google and TikTok to unearth the golden nuggets of Valentine’s Day search trends. After all, who doesn’t want to be the cupid of commerce?

 

Using this historical data, you can get into the mind of the consumer, and try to get your business in front of them at a time when they’re willing to spend. 

 

Valentine’s Gifts Galore

 

Flowers? Chocolates? Or just some inspiration for something less cliché? If you’re looking to promote gifts for Valentine’s Day, it’s important to dive into the minds of potential customers by understanding the top-searched terms. 

 

From a list of the top searched Valentine’s related queries in the UK in 2023, we examined popular gifting keywords including ‘Valentines gifts,’ ‘Valentines day card,’ ‘Valentines flowers,’ ‘Valentines chocolate.’

 

Our journey through the UK’s Valentine’s Day queries revealed a fascinating surge in interest towards the end of January, hitting its zenith between the 7th and 9th of February: 

 

‘Valentines Gifts’

 

In 2023, interest around the general ‘valentines gifts’ query picked up momentum towards the end of January and had the highest interest between the 7th-9th February. 

 

 

‘Valentines Day Card,’ ‘Valentines Flowers,’ ‘Valentines Chocolate’

 

For more specific gifts, we can see that there was a rise in interest at the start of February, increasing in the days leading up to the 14th and peaking on the 14th for flowers and cards likely due to last minute shopping and the ease of next day delivery.

 

 

To make things more interesting, we decided to go deeper into this keyword data and assess which UK cities are searching the most for these popular Valentine’s queries. 

 

Which UK city can be crowned ‘Most Romantic?’ And, which UK city is most likely to buy a certain kind of Valentine’s gift? Maybe there’s a target audience for your business that you’re currently missing out on!

 

City Love Showdown: Which UK City Is The Most Romantic? 

 

Using Google Trend’s top 73 Valentine’s Day related keywords searched in the UK between January and February 2023, we’ve taken a look at which UK city is the most romantic based on searches per capita. 

 

Our results show the following… Leeds emerged as the UK’s most romantic city with an overwhelming interest in Valentine’s Day!: 

 

1. Leeds (3,579 searches per 100,000 people)

2. Bradford (2,206 searches per 100,000  people)

3. Liverpool (2,064 searches per 100,000 people)

4. London (2,024 searches per 100,000  people)

5. Bristol (1,870 searches per 100,000  people)

6. Sheffield (1,632 searches per 100,000 people)

7. Birmingham (1,508 searches per 100,000  people)

8. Nottingham (1,257 searches per 100,000  people)

9. Newcastle (1,093 searches per 100,000 people)

10. Manchester (683 searches per 100,000 people)

 

Not only does Leeds take the top position as the UK’s most romantic city based on their Valentine’s search behaviour, they also claimed the top position for ‘Most Likely To Send’ the following gifts: 

 

💟 A Valentine’s Day Card  

💟 Valentine’s Chocolates 

💟 Valentine’s Flowers 

💟 A Valentine’s Poem!

 

Move over Shakespeare, Leeds is in the house! 

 

In fact, Leeds took the top spot for most but not all… 

 

Gifts Across The UK Cities

 

Liverpool stole the spotlight as the city Most Likely To Buy Valentine’s Day PJs with the most searches for ‘Valentine’s jammies’ and ‘Valentine’s PJs,’ celebrating the day in comfort and style. Here, Liverpool were searching 220% more than runner up Leeds!

 

Meanwhile, London and Bristol secured positions two and three for cities most likely to send a Valentine’s Card and Chocolates.

 

UK Cities With A Funny Bone … 

 

They say laughter is the key to the heart, and many UK cities seem to wholeheartedly endorse this sentiment, evident in their spirited searches for ‘Valentines Meme’ and ‘Valentines funny quotes’.

 

The top three cities where humour takes centre stage when it comes to Valentine’s included (per 100,000 people): 

 

1. Leeds (159 Searches) 

2. London (86 Searches)

3. Liverpool (75 Searches)

 

Anticipate receiving a card brimming with memes from these humour-loving cities.

 

These cities are not just looking for love; they’re looking for a love story sprinkled with humour. So, if your brand is looking to spread joy, consider infusing a touch of humour into your Valentine’s Day campaigns.

 

Gifts For Him vs Gifts For Her 

 

Two of the highest searched queries included: ‘Valentine’s Gifts For Her’ and ‘Valentine’s Gifts For Him.’ 

 

In the realm of gift-giving, our exploration across every UK city on our list reveals a distinct preference for ‘Gifts For Him’ over ‘Gifts For Her,’ but when are people generally searching for inspiration?  

 

The prime dates for those searching for ‘Gifts For Her’ emerge on February 9th and February 11th, while those in pursuit of ‘Gifts For Him’ hit their peak on February 4th!

 

Those hunting for the perfect gift for her exhibit early interest, yet show a penchant for last-minute decisions, so it may be worth running a longer marketing stretch if you’re promoting gifts for females compared to gifts for males. 

 

 

 

Timing is everything, and capturing the attention of those searching for inspiration is an art. Make sure your brand stands out during both the early explorations and the eleventh-hour searches. 

 

Most Organised and Least Organised Valentine’s Shoppers In The UK

 

In our research, we noticed a rising trend of peaks closest to February 14th where interest was highest. Having already found out which UK city is the most romantic when it comes to Valentine’s Day, we also wanted to find out which UK city is most likely to leave their Valentine’s shopping until the last minute.

 

We took a combination of gifting queries, prefixed by ‘next day delivery’, that were searched for in February 2023 and checked how each UK city performed here:

 

And the results were as followed (searches per 100,000 people): 

 

1. Leeds (90 searches)

2. Bradford (48 searches)

3. London (45 searches)

4. Bristol (41 searches)

5. Sheffield (32 searches)

6. Liverpool (31 searches)

7. Birmingham  (30 searches)

8. Nottingham  (21 searches)

9. Newcastle (21 searches)

10. Manchester (14 searches)

 

Leeds may be the most romantic, but they also topped the charts as the city most likely to embrace next-day delivery for Valentine’s gifts. On the flip side, Manchester emerged as the most organised, showing low searches for ‘next day delivery’ terms.

 

 

Google Search Trends: Valentine’s Dates 

 

Other popular searches surrounding Valentine’s Day revolve around date-nights and more specifically: restaurants. 

 

If you’re in the hospitality industry, understanding when people begin to plan and book their Valentine’s dates is key. Our analysis delves into popular searches such as ‘romantic restaurant’ and ‘valentine’s day restaurant,’ offering a snapshot of when people initiate their quest for the perfect dining experience.

 

The graph below unveils peaks on February 9th and Valentine’s Day itself!: 

 

 

It’s A ‘Galentine’s Day’ Affair

 

One topic we noticed an increase in was the interest in ’Galentine’s Day’ on TikTok! Interest around this sensation peaked between the 12th and 18th of February in 2023, with a rising interest starting as early as January this year:

 

Last 12 Months:

 

 

Last 30 Days: 

 

 

So, whether you’re already in full marketing swing or just gearing up for the love fest, 2023’s trends hint at last-minute shoppers and high interest nationwide. Get ready to spread the love and watch your brand steal the spotlight this Valentine’s Day! 💕

 

If you’re eager to elevate your SEO, Digital PR or PPC campaigns and strategies in the midst of the Valentine’s Day frenzy or ahead of the next seasonal trends, get in touch to find out how we can help!

 
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How to use dynamic features in Google Ads

by Paid Search
Are your ads lacking creativity? Then it’s time to embrace dynamic features in your Google Ads campaigns. In this blog, we cover how you can implement two popular dynamic features into your campaigns – dynamic keyword insertion and countdown timers.

What is dynamic keyword insertion?

Dynamic keyword insertion allows you to automatically update ads with the keywords in your ad group that trigger ads to show. For example, If you are advertising men’s watches you can use the keyword insertion code Headline: Buy {KeyWord: Mens Watches} to automate this advert displaying. Google Ads will try to replace this bracketed section with one of the keywords in your ad group such as “gold men’s watches”, “men’s black watches” & “men’s silver watches”. If the keyword can’t be replaced then it will just use “men’s watches”.

How can you use dynamic keyword insertion for Google Ads campaigns?

If used correctly, dynamic keywords can lead to an improved Click-Through Rate because the ad has been dynamically updated to match a users search enquiry. A user is more likely to click on an ad that closely matches what they are searching for. This is also a useful tactic if you want to target long-tail keywords that have a good search volume. Compile a list of search terms and if there are any that have a good amount of impressions and clicks then you might want to target these using keyword insertion. It is important to ensure that the number of characters doesn’t exceed 30. If you have a campaign for your competitors, it is vital that you do not use dynamic keyword insertion in your ads. Whilst it is legal to bid on your competitors brand term, you cannot use the brand term in your ad copy.

What are countdown timers in Google Ads?

This feature can highlight the end date of a sale and can create a sense of urgency amongst customers. Timers countdown by day, then by the hour, then by the minute. Furthermore, countdown timers can be used to improve the click-through rate of an ad – for more information about how to improve your Ads CTR, read this blog here.

How can you use countdown timers for Google Ads campaigns?

Countdown timers are another great dynamic feature available on Google Ads. they can be used as part of the ad copy and are ideal for e-commerce businesses that want to create excitement around sales. Countdown timers can be created when you create an ad in Google Ads and they are fully customisable. They can be set to a specific time and date for either the time zone where the business is based or where the customer is based, therefore if the retailer sells products worldwide then the timer can be set to different time zones. Note: It is important to make sure that your ad copy allows for the additional 8 characters that the countdown customiser code generates.
6 Ways To Improve Your Google Ads Click Through Rate Blog

6 ways to improve your Google Ads click through rate

by Paid Search

Is your latest Google Ads campaign not delivering the results you were hoping for? Then it’s time to increase your click-through-rate. In this blog, PPC Executive Anna Simpson explains how to enhance your CTR, and why it’s so important.

What is click-through rate & why is it an important metric?

Click Through Rate (CTR) is the percentage of total ad views that result in clicks – this, therefore, gives good top-level insights into the campaign and can help to identify any issues.

CTR is also a factor which is taken into consideration in Google’s Quality Score formula as Google uses “expected click-through rate” as one of the criteria which determines your ad position and cost per click (CPC). It’s important to maintain a good CTR because this not only means more traffic to your site, but also will help to increase your keyword quality score. In turn, this will give your ads the maximum potential to rank higher whilst lowering your CPC – a clear example of an effective campaign.

Countdown timers

Countdown timers allow you to let potential customers know about current sales or booking deadlines within the ads, all for the same CPC. Adding this feature to your ads can create a sense of urgency, as the customer will be able to see how long is left until the end of your sale or before a deadline is met.

Countdown timers are a dynamic feature, so they’re automatically updated each day until the end of the countdown – meaning no manual work is required once these have been set up. Creating this urgency means that people are more likely to click on the ads because they don’t want to miss out on the limited offer, giving a higher chance of improving both click-through and conversion rate.

Ad extensions

There are many different extensions that you are able to include on your ads, including:

  • Call extensions – adding a phone number to encourage interaction
  • Sitelink extensions – creating additional links to other relevant pages of your site
  • Callout extensions – adding short text to your ads to highlight business USPs
  • Structured snippet extensions – highlighting specific aspects of the products/services your business provides

The great thing about ad extensions is that they are of no extra cost; Google automatically shows your chosen extensions if they believe that it will improve the performance of the ad. Having extensions also gives you greater ad visibility as it will show up more prominently in the search results, meaning greater chance of CTR – what’s not to love?

It’s important to assess what the main goals for your business are, as you can match relevant extensions to boost your chances of generating your required action. If you want more store visits, location extensions would be ideal so that potential customers know where to find you from the outset. If you provide many different services that you want to mention at a first glance, then structured snippets would be a perfect way to highlight these and may be the difference between a potential customer clicking on your ad over a competitor. The possibilities are endless!

Call to actions (CTA)

You may be using call to actions already in your ad copy without actually realising the positive impact that these can have on the performance of your ads. Call to actions are short phrases usually at the very end of the ad that encourage potential customers to take a certain action such as ‘Find Out More’ or ‘Book Today’.  Doing this means that customers are given a direct instruction after viewing your advert. By making the next step for the customer clear, a well-placed CTA can be the difference between your ad receiving a click or being scrolled past.

A/B Ad testing

A/B ad testing is a great way to gain insights into how your ads are performing and which ad copy works better than others. By doing this, you are able to test different combinations of headlines and descriptions to see which work well together, giving you a better understanding of what information makes potential customers want to click on your ads.

It’s also important to use this to trial different styles of ad copy to see how this affects the CTR. Different businesses have different audiences and this is a key factor in creating successful ad copy. This is dependent on the type of business and the conversion action that you want customers to take – some customers may want to see credentials and awards, some may want to see USPs to choose you over competitors, and some may want more descriptive ad copy. Giving customers what they’re looking for is critical to increasing CTR.

Regular bid adjustments

Ensuring that you regularly monitor and adjust your bids is key to CTR. Bidding too low on keywords will see your impressions suffer due to your ads being in a lower position, and consequently, your CTR will be negatively impacted a because your ad isn’t being seen as much as it could.

The best way to review and adjust your bids is most importantly making sure that you’re bidding high enough to appear on page one of the search engine results. This gives great exposure for the ads, as most users only browse the first page. Although it may be tempting to implement first position bids so that your ad appears right at the top of search results, this isn’t always the best practice.

You need to ensure that your ads are cost-effective and being in position one doesn’t always equate to high CTR/conversion rate. It’s important to bear in mind that users often “shop around” and browse between the top 3 advertisers rather than solely clicking on the top ad. Therefore by bidding effectively, you are able to gain essentially the same amount of exposure as the first position advertiser – but for a lower CPC.

Expanded text ads

Expanded texts are a great new addition to Google Ads, allowing you to create ads with 3 headlines and 2 90-character descriptions. This means that you now have the space to give more detailed information within your ad copy to portray the correct messages to your target audience. It’s also important to note that having more text means greater visibility because these ads will stand out to potential customers over other short standard text ads.

The additional headline allows you to highlight your business’s USPs, promote special offers or create a call to action to give that extra persuasion to get your customer to click-through. One last benefit of expanded text ads is that due to the additional text, you can to target long-tail keywords, giving more chance of appearing for related search queries that may have a lower CPC due to the smaller search volume.