At Cedarwood, we use a tried and tested technique to build links and drive site traffic without the need for any outreach at all. Yep, you heard that right – we like to call it Reverse Digital PR and it’s our secret to low-maintenance link-building. Stay tuned for a run-down of what exactly reverse PR is, why it’s so valuable and a couple of case studies where we’ve used it successfully.
So, what is Reverse Digital PR?
As PRs we spend most of our time crafting content we think journalists will love, outreaching it and hoping for the best. But, with reverse digital PR we’re inviting the journalists to come to us. With this strategy, you create a data piece for your website, with the intention that journalists find it when looking for a resource, and link back to it. This works because journalists often search for data and statistics online to back up their articles and add credibility. It flips the traditional PR approach on its head; instead of chasing journalists, you create valuable data hubs that attract them to your content. The benefits are countless, it saves you time and energy, whilst being a great way to organically attract links, drive links, and boost E-E-A-T signals.
How does it work?
Well it sounds good in principle, but how does reverse digital PR actually work in practice?
🔗First, identify areas of your brand where you’re hoping to gain additional visibility and where you could feasibly create a high-quality data hub of facts or stats. For example, if your company is a travel agency and you’re hoping to increase search engine visibility for accommodation pages, a data hub comparing the average accommodation costs across popular destinations could be an effective reverse digital PR strategy.
🔗The next step is to then make the hub! You can gather the data in a few ways. To make your piece unique and fresh, so that journalists couldn’t find this information elsewhere, it can be a good idea to gather your own internal data. This can be done by:
>>Commissioning surveys, although an additional cost will come with this
>>Analysing your own sales data to identify customer trends or popular products
>>Using tools like Google Analytics to determine user demographics or conversion rates in your customer base
>>Analysing the social media data to understand how audiences are interacting with your brand
You can also gather external data from various public data sources online. Take a look at Statista, ONS, Centre for Cities and NHS digital for free data.
🔗Once you’ve sourced the data, now’s time to present it in the best way possible. You want the piece to be easily digestible, laid out in a clever format, and also optimised for search engines – a lot to ask I know. But this is all crucial to ensure you rank well so that the journalists can actually find the page!
Why is Reverse Digital PR so valuable?
You should have gathered by now that reverse digital pr is a pretty good idea. But what are the specific advantages it offers in comparison to traditional methods like newsjacking?
📈 Instead of constantly chasing down journalists, reverse digital PR lets your content do the heavy lifting. By providing valuable data journalists actively seek out, you attract coverage organically.
📈A well-crafted data piece on your website can generate ongoing value. Unlike a one-time press release, this content continues to attract journalists and relevant traffic over time.
📈A good piece of reverse digital PR will also work wonders for the good old E-E-A-T signals. Presenting original research or analysis solidifies your expertise, and is made more credible by the data or statistics. To make extra sure that the page contributes to E-E-A-T, ensure your data comes from credible sources, and is presented clearly. Also, it’s a good idea to update the information regularly to keep it relevant and accurate.
A couple of examples
1)Using Reverse Digital PR to naturally attract links to Patient Claim Line’s website
Patient Claim Line is a leader in the medical negligence field, which is increasingly competitive and sitting within the Your Money, Your Life category. Within these verticals, it’s especially important to display E-E-A-T signals so we decided to create a valuable data hub on their website. We focused on cosmetic surgery statistics as this was an area of the site we were looking to boost visibility for. Previously, we’d relied on creating journalist-friendly content and outreaching it as a traditional campaign, but here, the plan was to simply create a hub and wait for the journalists to find us.
The page was designed to inform the user of information and up to date statistics around cosmetic surgery in 2022. We included fresh data from our own survey to ensure the information was as useful and unique as possible. Then, we presented it in a user-friendly format and optimised it to rank well.
As a result, the page ranked in position #3 for “cosmetic surgery data”, and has attracted thousands of visitors since its inception. We keep it updated regularly and receive a number of great links, from publications we wouldn’t usually reach.
2)Using the same strategy to drive links to our own website
Back in Valentines 2020, we created a hub of seasonal trend data. We included data around valentines day keywords, compared different types of searches e.g. ‘gift for boyfriend’ vs. ‘gift for girlfriend’ and fun facts like the increase in searches for ‘bridget jones’ on valentines’ day.
The aim was to create a hub of information that users and journalists might be searching for, but for it to also be an article of genuine interest around the when and how of user search intent. The idea was that journalists might be keen to pick it up as a topical interest article – and even now, four years later, we still attract seasonal traffic to the page at the same time of year.
All that’s needed is to refresh the content each year and the page continues to bring in traffic and links, with very little maintenance required. This same concept can then be applied to other seasonal trends, for example we produced a similar hub in March looking at the most popular easter eggs.
Cedarwood Digital is an award-winning digital marketing agency based in Manchester. If you like the sound of a reverse digital PR strategy or you want to enquire more about our white label digital pr service, why not get in touch with us to find out how we can help get you media coverage for your business. Fill in our quick form here.
