Germany is so much more than just Bundesliga and cars. With vibrant cities like Munich and Berlin, as well as beautiful landscapes along the alpine and black forest region, the country offers a wide range of opportunities to jump on for your Digital PR campaigns.

Know your newsjacking opportunities

Similar to most European countries, awareness days as we know them in the UK and US are rarely heard of. There are however a few important ones for your diaries which we’ve highlighted below. Religious celebrations play a much bigger role, although people leaving the church community was at a record high1 in 2021.

During all bank holidays and Sundays, it’s important to note that in Germany, people aren’t allowed to mow their lawn or have loud renovation work done and most shops will be closed, apart from a small number of supermarkets with reduced opening hours.

The main days to keep in mind for your Digital PR campaigns are:

Ostermontag (Easter Monday)

One of the most popular bank holidays to celebrate the end of fast, with people focusing on getting together with their family, having a typical Easter brunch and don’t forget the Easter egg hunt! The preparation leading up to Easter is often based around family activities such as Easter egg painting or planning a trip away for the long weekend.

The Easter period is great for any campaigns around family and food. If the weather forecast is looking good, then this is a good time to start outreaching outdoorsy campaigns, such as Ikea’s Seedballs campaign. You can make use of people’s time off work during this period to motivate them to spend time improving their garden or maybe simply having a picnic at a nearby park!

Weihnachten (Christmas) – 24th December

Alongside many northern European countries, Christmas is celebrated on the 24th of December, not the 25th. Presents are typically opened in the evening of the 24th, with most families having a simple meal, such as sausages and potato salad, traditionally to remember the sparse meal Mary and Joseph would have had. The two days after most families will then have a beautiful traditional roast. Offices are usually closed between Christmas and the new year.

The lead up to Christmas is used for all types of campaigns and the period after Christmas is often disregarded with the thought that people have simply consumed too much over the past few weeks, however, this does not have to be true! With a lot of people spending large amounts of money during the Christmas period, the time before and after Christmas can be ideal to run campaigns on finance and money-saving tips as well as tips on how to track spending can work a treat.

International Women’s Day

This is one of the few awareness days widely celebrated all over Germany and in Berlin this is even an official bank holiday. Gender inequality is a huge topic in Germany with people all over the country using this day to raise awareness, which can be used to get people to talk about your brand. One brilliant campaign that looked at gender stereotypes was “Wir haben nie gesagt, dass es einfach ist” (English: We never said it was easy) by Hornbach, a German home improvement store.

Summer Holidays

The summer holidays differentiate between the 16 federal states to ensure not everyone is off school at the same time, but all Bundesländer will have around six weeks off school. Often families will plan a longer holiday, teens may go on so-called “Zeltlager” trips, where a large group goes camping, usually accompanied by younger adults who will plan their activities and tasks.

This is the perfect time to run campaigns on outdoor-related topics, kids’ activities, and travel. Deutsche Bahn ran a campaign (“Spar dir den Flug”) comparing different famous landmarks from all over the world with similar-looking spots in Germany, comparing the train fares to the cost of flying abroad.

Oktoberfest

Last but not least, Oktoberfest! Although primarily celebrated in Bavaria, most other parts of Germany have taken on the tradition and even in smaller towns, you’ll find Oktoberfest celebrations. But don’t be fooled, even though the name indicates it may be in October, it’s actually celebrated in September.

Oktoberfest can be used for different types of campaigns – anything garden or party related and even travel. You could for example share tips on how to prepare your own Oktoberfest at home for friends and family.

How to contact journalists

Now that you know which days you want to use for your upcoming PR activities, it’s time to look at how best to reach out to German press. Getting in contact with people in Germany is much more formal compared to the UK, especially if you haven’t been in contact with the person before. Don’t ask how someone is doing or how their day has been, it’s often seen as too invasive and therefore rude.

Most people still prefer being approached as Mr or Mrs and it’s important to think about what type of topic you’re looking to cover – if it’s a serious one you should consider using a more formal way to approach someone. In-person or even in an email, you may ask a person if they’re happy for you to use their first name instead of last, but don’t be discouraged if they say no – it’s simply a formality.

When you’re contacting someone ensure to mention why you’re contacting them and often it’s best to explain in what way they can help, rather than simply sending over a press release or comment. The more clarity the better. Also, don’t hesitate to contact outlets and ask for the best person to get in touch with, most journalists will be happy to redirect you.

You’re now ready to start your PR campaign in Germany – happy link building and viel Erfolg!

For more digital PR tips head over to our blog and you can find out about connective3’s international growth here.

Sources

 

As our media landscapes rapidly evolve to keep up with the volume and breadth of information being shared around the world, organisations are trying to find new ways to keep their audience engaged and attract new ones.

Understanding the media ecosystem of the countries you want to target with campaigns is vital to international PR teams, as without this information you may find campaigns that you thought would take off remaining grounded.

Our series on the different media landscapes you might encounter is designed to help you get a clearer picture of the angles you should be taking in different countries, the media targets to keep in range, and the major players you should keep on your radar.

An overview of the media landscape in Germany

With a population of 83 million people, Germany is one of the top 10 largest countries in Europe. And with German speakers in Austria, Switzerland, parts of Belgium, Liechtenstein, and Luxembourg, German media extends even beyond the borders of Germany itself.

German history has played a huge part in how the media landscape has formed. Until 1990, the country was divided into East and West Germany, each with its own media outlets. The Eastern German media was tightly controlled until the country was unified, under which the broadcasting system became centralised.

As a result, Germany’s media ecosystem remains one of the most traditional in Europe, with most of the country’s media trust being held by newspapers and radio. In 2021, 69% of Germans were using TV as their main source of news, however, online media, including social media, is quickly catching up to this, with a 13% rise in popularity since 2016.

The five most popular online news sites in Germany include:

  1. ARD News online (Tagesschau is the name of their news show broadcasted several times a day)
  2. Spiegel online
  3. t-online
  4. Focus online
  5. n-tv.de

Internet coverage is 96% across the country, meaning that the vast majority of the country has access to these platforms. The most popular device to access the news is mobile phones (61%), followed by computers and laptops (49%). But how much trust do the German population put in their media outlets, either traditional or online?

Trust in the media

Over half of the people in Germany consuming news (53%) claim to trust the news that they consume. The highest trust rate for the media lies in their public service broadcasters (PSBs) and local news outlets, such as ‘ARD Tagesschau’ (70%) and ‘ZDF Heute (68%).

The most well-known ‘yellow press’ or tabloid newspaper, ‘Bild’, on the other hand, only has a trust rating of 19% from the German public. In fact, between 2013 and 2021, print media lost 40% of readers, but 26% of those interested in the news still rely on print.

A lot of this decline could be due to the rise in interest in social media as a news outlet, specifically amongst the youth of the population. The country has over 28 million active social media accounts, meaning there is a penetration of 35% of the population through this route.

As a result, PSMs have tried to keep up with the growing interest by making their content accessible through multiple social media platforms, including Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. (1)

How to create a successful international campaign in Germany

Now that we have a better view of the lay of the land, it’s time to take a look at how we would recommend preparing an international PR campaign for the German market.

Preparation

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail, especially when it comes to international PR campaigns. Before starting your outreach, it’s really important to ensure that you know that your campaign is going to be successful when you outreach, and that means doing some research and preparation beforehand.

You will need to know:

  • What topics have been covered by the news and what have people been interested in – you can do this with trending topic tools like Buzzsumo. Using the feeds option, you can select Germany and find the topics that fit best with your upcoming campaigns.
  • You can also use keyword research to find out what searches are prevalent in Germany currently – make sure to do this with translated keywords! Ask someone who is fluent in German (Twitter can be a huge help for finding freelancers/a generous helper!) or use online dictionaries such as linguee or leo.org
  • What your competitors have been up to in Germany – scan backlinks that competitors have generated and see what content has performed well.
  • Think outside the box – you may have to get a bit more creative to find topics that will generate the results you’re looking for, as certain content may perform much better culturally in the UK than it would in Germany.

Now that you have an idea of what to look out for and you’ve got a solid base of ideas and concepts, you can begin to build out your campaign further.

Picking the right tone and topic for your brand

Whether it’s for one of your clients or your own brand that you’d like to introduce in Germany, picking the right tone is vital to ensuring that a campaign lands well in a country that you may be less familiar with.

Culturally, there are formal and informal ways to address people in Germany, so making sure that you find the culturally correct form of address will be essential. Speak to your team to find out if a more formal approach would be better suitable for your topic.

For example, if you’re covering finance or business-related topics, consider using the address ‘höfliche Anrede’. To address someone directly when using more formal speech, you’d use ‘Sehr geehrte/r Frau/Herr (last name)’ or ‘Guten Tag Herr/Frau (last name)’. That translates to ‘Dear Mr/Mrs…’  Using correct terminology in your content, is essential. If you are using a translator, include this in your brief.

In general, Germans are more interested in more serious topics or topics that they can personally relate to, such as finance and business, current and traditional lifestyle topics, and particularly sustainability. Here are some angles you could consider:

  • Finance and business: consider a topic surrounding personal finance and keep up to date with the news – maybe a new law has been put into place and you have an expert who could comment.
  • Lifestyle: Think about tips that are relevant to Germans, make sure you’re aware of traditions and look out for any newsworthy awareness days – as long as they apply to Germany! A ‘fluffier’ topic may not perform as well as a topic Germans can relate to – campaigns like tips on where to travel to in Germany or the most visited tourist hotspots in Germany are less likely to land for example.
  • Sustainability: This is a great topic to pick up, using the seasons for different angles on how to be more sustainable in day-to-day life, sustainable travel, or maybe for tips on how to raise a child more sustainably.

Reaching the right journalists

Finding the correct journalists can be critical to your international campaigns. Finding exactly the right journalist will help your campaign and content to land in exactly the right inbox, so doing the research beforehand will help you immensely.

Don’t shy away from emailing or even calling one journalist from a certain publication and asking for the contact details of the person who may be interested in your content! If you’re not sure what publications to reach out to, see who has previously covered similar topics.

A little tip – if you’re not located in Germany, change your location in your Google setting and more relevant results will show in your search feed.

Finally, find creative ways to include your statistics from your release, either with a well-organised table or a creative illustration. This ensures that the journalists you reach out to are entertained by your content and not overwhelmed by a page of numbers.

Ensure you introduce your content and explain in a short sentence why you are contacting the journalists. Some journalists may have further questions, so offer your help and assistance in your pitch so they know who to get in touch with to keep your campaign in the running for outreach.

Understanding the culture, traditions, and landscape of the country you want to target for international PR campaigns is crucial for success. For further insights into the media landscapes of various countries around the world, check out the international section of the c3 website.

You can also find insights into different industries and PR campaign concepts here, as well as contact details for our native in-house speakers.

  • Source: https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2022

 

2021 was a record year for iGaming, one of the most popular forms of gambling right now, especially in the United States. Numerous states posted all-time-high revenues, leading to total industry-wide revenue of $53 billion, and these numbers only seem to be going up in 2022 as well.

With more and more states legalising online gambling, it’s becoming one of the hottest commodities to market in the PR world. And as it continues to grow and develop in line with numerous regulations, traditional marketing and marketing strategies need to evolve to deliver a killer Digital PR approach that can have an incredible effect on visibility, trustworthiness, and traffic.

So where do you begin with running a digital PR campaign for iGaming brands?

In this guide, we’re going to take you through how to complete a top-tier digital PR campaign – from conception to delivery to outreach, and cover all the bases you need to drop the best international PR campaign for your clients.

1. Research and competitor analysis

Before you start, it’s important to understand the current landscape by running some competitor analysis to find out:

  • What your competitors are doing? What stories are doing well and how are they illustrating assets on site?
  • Why are they doing it? Does the campaign fit in with the current news agenda?
  • Is their content working for them? Are they seeing good results – are backlinks strong and is visibility increasing?

To do this, you can use sites like BuzzSumo to see which content is currently trending and popular and is getting people talking. You can use some of the keywords that you find to run keyword research to find out not only which keywords are trending, but associated keywords that your competitors might not be jumping onto.

You can also scan the backlinks of your competitor’s campaigns using tools such as AHRefs, to see which campaigns are most successful and which publications and journalists you can pitch to during outreach. Once you have these findings you can call for ideation sessions based on the keywords and concepts you’ve found.

2. Ideation and brainstorming

Content ideation and brainstorming with your team is one of the most effective ways to come up with new and exciting ideas for your clients, especially when it comes to iGaming. iGaming clients are fantastic for Digital PR as you can create campaigns which focus on three major sectors:

  • Sports: Sports betting is one of the biggest areas you can cash ideas on, as it’s one of the most popular forms of betting. This gives you the freedom to explore different sports from around the world and allows the targeting of big sports publications, such as Sports Illustrated and individual team fan sites.
  • Gaming: Gaming and casino betting is another key area to target with iGaming brands – you can explore lots of different gaming keywords and niches, which allows you to target more niche publications and sites, such as GameRant and NintendoLife.
  • Lifestyle: An area that can be targeted with most brands, lifestyle is another great area to generate ideas for, as you can angle a lot of lifestyle campaigns to have a gaming, sports, or competitive element in keeping with your client’s brand – for example: “In which US state are you most likely to win the lottery?”.

All three sectors are massive and have specialised journalists who talk about each topic individually, which increases your outreach opportunities. Consider all three segments of the iGaming pie as they’re a fantastic way to diversify the client’s link portfolio while sticking with the theme of gambling.

3. Create a calendar to ensure campaigns are newsworthy

Campaigns have to be newsworthy for journalists to have any incentive to cover them – this means ensuring that your campaigns are up to date, in keeping with current events and trends, and likely to get your clients a big boost in visibility. Here are some examples of things to keep in mind when it comes to newsworthy angles you can take:

  • What big events are coming up? Is it the Super Bowl, World Cup, or even the Olympics?
  • Are there any gaming competitions coming up or any big game releases on the horizon?
  • Are certain things going on in the media which can be jumped on? Are there some awareness days coming up which would make for a strong news angle?

Knowing what’s coming up is essential to ensure that you stay on top of the game, keeping your client’s name and branding at the forefront of the public’s awareness.

4. Using an ‘always on’ approach

IGaming clients need to maintain consistency when it comes to their PR activity. Here at c3, we use a three-pronged ‘always on’ approach to ensure we stay on the ball at all times:

  • Planned – These are your planned Digital PR campaigns with design and content assets, which sit on your client’s site to gain backlinks. These are created and developed ahead of big newsworthy events, such as the Super Bowl/March Madness.
  • Proactive – This is the reangling of a relevant post onsite which would fit with the current news agenda and can be pushed out quickly.
  • Reactive – This is when we look at newsjacking and jumping on stories that are hitting the headlines. There is always something new trending on Twitter or being talked about in gaming and gambling communities and being the first one on it can give you strong results. For example, some sports areas that always give good results:
    • Players retiring/changing teams.
    • Performances of teams, players, referees etc.
    • Overall results from a season/year.

From our experience, iGaming clients are great for signing ideas off quickly – which is why this approach of combining planned, proactive, and reactive PR is so important.

5. Creation of quality content and design assets

Now that you have your incredible ideas signed off, it’s time to create the content and assets for your campaign. Your PR campaign is not going to take off if you don’t have engaging content and eye-catching design assets to showcase all your hard work.

A campaign about the hiring of a new wonder kid in the NBA is not going to take off if your tone of voice is boring or lacklustre – your content needs to be exciting, attention-grabbing and most of all, entertaining, to even make it past the inbox of the journalists you reach out to.

One of the best ways to capture your reader’s attention is with design assets that ‘pop’ and stand out. Keeping your assets on brand is important, so you can ensure that your brand can be easily identified wherever your assets end up online.#]

Ensuring the quality of your content and assets is as sleek and professional as possible also gives your readers the impression that your client is trustworthy and an expert in the field.

6. Outreach and media relationships

Once you have your content and assets perfected and live on the client’s site, it’s time to find relevant journalists and publications to reach out to boost your content for you. Finding relevant journalists and publications is essential – especially those who are happy to cover content from gambling brands.

Looking at the three leading sectors – sports, gaming, and lifestyle – it’s important to create killer media lists you can keep going back to them and adding new contacts as you go.

With sports journalists, you must ensure all your contacts are tagged appropriately with their favoured sectors/teams, as these journalists rarely just talk about general sports. With gaming journalists, make sure to reach out to those talking about topics related to gaming as well as just specific gaming journalists.

Using media databases, like Vuelio, are great, but they often only just scratch the surface of people you could, and should, be reaching out to. Scour the web to find more journalists – use Twitter, LinkedIn, and even Reddit, to find those talking about your chosen topic and reach out to them on those platforms to make new connections.

However – it’s important to note with the nature of iGaming, that you will usually find out quickly who is (and isn’t) happy to receive pitches. It’s important to make a note of these people for your company’s database and avoid those who aren’t open to it.

Remember that not all states in America have legalised sports gambling, so think twice before outreaching to them.

You now have the structure to take all your great gaming and sports gambling ideas and turn them into incredible international PR campaigns that will get people talking about your clients! For more support with international clients and work, check out our international section for more blogs, updates, and insights from our international PR team.

Report Contents

Abstract

Over the last decade, the rise of digital PR has revolutionised how brands communicate with their audience online, both in the UK and the US.

However, in recent years, more and more countries are catching on to this wave of marketing, and now France has become a fertile ground for global brands keen on earning or diversifying their backlink profiles and boosting SEO through European PR strategies.

With that being said, the French market presents several unique challenges and opportunities that are distinct from the UK, US, and other European practices, but they can be overcome.

From our experience of working in the French market, we’ve pooled our knowledge together to compile a useful guide that explores the key differences in the French media landscape, including consumption habits, popular news outlets, and social media usage.

Additionally, we’ll offer a few invaluable tips for brands seeking to navigate the French market and how to craft successful digital PR campaigns in this region.

The current state of news consumption in France

Despite the worldwide digitisation of news, the consumption of traditional media remains imperative throughout France, with much of the population getting their news via TV, radio, or print newspapers.

Currently, television reigns supreme as the most popular medium for consuming news and entertainment in France. Thanks to flagship networks like TF1, and public broadcasters like France Televisions, television channels play a pivotal role in shaping public discourse and disseminating information.

But alongside TV, newspapers also maintain a significant presence in the French media landscape. With over 100 daily newspapers available across the country, including respected publications like Le Monde and Liberation, print media continues to serve as trusted sources of news and information for French readers.

However, recently, many digital media platforms have emerged as pivotal players in shaping news consumption behaviours in France. ‘Ouest-france.fr’ was the most visited news site in France in June 2023, with online publications like Bfmtv.com and LeFigaro.fr rounding out the top three, highlighting the increasing digitalisation of news consumption in France.

Social media has also become an integral part of the French media landscape, with platforms like Facebook, YouTube, X, and Instagram commanding a large user base. So much so that a 2023 report revealed that 80.5% of French people are active on social media1.

In fact, competition from social media influencers has become quite a contentious issue for traditional media outlets, who are increasingly seeing many of their readers move to more readily accessible content.

What are the key differences between the UK and French markets?

Based on our experience in executing PR campaigns across France, it’s important to understand there are several key differences between the French and UK media landscapes.

From differing consumption habits, content preferences, and media practices, here are some distinct characteristics that set the two media landscapes apart:

Tabloid newspapers don’t exist in France

One notable difference between the UK and French markets lies in their media preferences. While UK audiences may gravitate towards tabloid-style content, the French media landscape differs significantly.

Case and point, in France, the coverage of lighter lifestyle articles commonly found in UK tabloids like The Daily Mail or The Sun, is not typically featured in mainstream media.

And while there are some French platforms dedicated to celebrity gossip, they tend to focus on different aspects of news and entertainment compared to their UK counterparts.

As a result, PR campaigns tailored to the UK tabloid audience may not resonate with many French media outlets.

French news is often more ‘serious’ than UK news

In France, media stories are typically favoured when they are backed up with data, interviews, and reports from credible sources. This contrasts sharply with the UK media landscape, where shorter, less substantiated, ‘fluffy’ stories often feature heavily.

Part of this difference is due to the challenge of French media in the past years trying to promote itself as a trusted source of information that fights against fake news. So, before covering a topic, French journalists usually ask themselves three questions:

  1. Is this content 100% accurate?
  2. Will it help me be seen as a trusted source of information?
  3. Will it boost my number of readers?

Therefore, to capture the interest of French audiences and journalists, PR campaigns should emphasise authenticity and relevance, incorporating elements such as surveys, national data, or expert interviews.

Remember cultural differences

Central to effective PR in France is an understanding of the many different cultural norms, values, and communication styles present across the country. For example, French people have a different sense of humour to Brits, which could impact the success of your PR campaign.

This means that, if your PR campaign is only suited for Brit’s self-mockery and dark humour, it would not make sense to a French audience as they tend to favour irony, second-degree jokes, and cynical humour.

Rethink your outreach approach

Surprisingly, the famous #journorequests hashtag doesn’t exist in France, so any PR professional thinking of using X as a pitching and sourcing platform should refocus their outreach efforts towards using media databases or searching manually for similar stories via search engines.

Lead times are longer

Unlike the quick turnarounds often seen in the UK, PR efforts in France typically require patience, with lead times stretching anywhere from 2 to 3 days, or even months in some cases.

This delay is influenced by various factors, including the meticulous attention to detail prevalent in French business culture and the emphasis on building relationships before transactions.

Considering this, prioritising evergreen campaigns is recommended to ensure your campaign topic is relevant not just in the present moment, but in the weeks and months to come.

Understanding and accounting for these longer lead times is essential for crafting effective PR campaigns tailored to the French market.

French PR best practices

From data-led studies to regional campaigns with a nod to individual cultures, below are some actionable tips for crafting high-quality PR campaigns that will resonate with French audiences and most importantly, land relevant French links.

Data-driven campaigns are important

French journalists value the use of robust statistics to add credibility to their stories and will most likely conduct thorough fact-checking procedures before publication.

If you choose to implement data-driven campaigns within your French Digital PR strategy, be sure to obtain the information from reputable sources and include detailed methodologies.

Additionally, incorporating quotes from relevant industry figures can add further legitimacy and interest to your client’s data-based campaign, increasing the likelihood of coverage.

Regional breakdowns matter

France has many regional differences which can spark creativity for crafting regionally focused PR campaigns. French culture often involves playful criticism among regions, ranging from culinary preferences to linguistic differences in describing everyday actions and objects.

A great example of a cultural debate that gets French people talking is the “Pain au Chocolat” versus “Chocolatine”2. This long-standing dispute over what to call a chocolate pastry sums up the differences in regional identity and linguistic diversity in France.

Whether it’s enjoying a “Pain au Chocolat” in the North or indulging in a “Chocolatine” in the South, this culinary debate continues to unite and divide communities across the country and could be the perfect idea for a PR campaign to settle the debate once and for all.

Having on-site content is key

Having on-site content is important when developing campaigns targeting the French market.

Providing journalists with easily accessible, comprehensive resources not only increases the likelihood of media coverage but also aligns with the meticulous attention to detail valued in French culture.

Furthermore, having well-crafted on-site content adds a layer of credibility and trust, both of which are essential elements in building relationships with French journalists and audiences.

By prioritising having on-site content tailored to French audiences, brands can establish themselves as trusted sources of information, fostering stronger connections and driving greater engagement in the French market.

Introducing and selling your story properly matters

Properly introducing and selling your story to journalists is crucial for PR success, especially in France, where building relationships and maintaining professionalism are highly valued.

When reaching out to journalists, it’s essential to personalise your communication by using formal language, such as “Vous” instead of “Tu”. Using “Bonjour [First Name]” is becoming increasingly common, mostly when contacting journalists in their 20s or 30s. For a more experienced journalist, use “Dear Mr/Ms. [Last Name]”.

Another key point is that journalists like to see interest in their work. When outreaching a similar story they may have covered in the past, make sure to compliment them on their work. It will provide a rationale for you emailing them.

Prioritise outreaching content in French

It’s recommended that, before you begin outreaching to French media, you accurately translate all infographics and landing pages into French. This will help ensure you maximise communication efforts and resonate with a broader French audience, enhancing the success of PR efforts in the region.

PR in the French media

We have developed and executed campaigns in France for some of our clients who have already witnessed promising results.

Here are a few standout examples of our PR campaigns from a range of different sectors featured in the French media:

Sumup’s best cities to open a business

Our global financial tech client, SumUp, landed links in the popular regional publication, Nice Presse, for their best cities to open a business campaign.

The study was based on a ranking of 14 criteria, including the number of bakeries and average customer reviews on Google Maps in January 2024.

The study was also picked up by other key regional publications, including ActuMarseille, which boasts a high domain ranking of 90.

The headline followed an English PR style, beginning with ‘According to this ranking, ‘Selon ce classement, Marseille est une ville en vogue pour les commerces indépendants’ which translates as ‘According to this ranking, Marseille is a popular city for independent businesses’.

According to Buzzsumo data from the past 6 months, French media outlets have published over 100 articles featuring the headline “Selon ce classement” (according to this ranking), indicating a clear preference among French journalists for study-based content.

By leveraging robust regional data and conducting a comprehensive analysis of business-friendly factors, SumUp strategically positioned themselves to secure follow links across France, effectively amplifying their campaign’s visibility and credibility to a wider European audience.

José Mourinho interview

It’s not just study-based campaigns that land in France; our financial trading platform client, XTB, collaborated with football manager, José Mourinho, to expand their partnership and achieved high-quality links in France.

By identifying shared traits between traders and football managers, such as emotional control and handling pressure, we crafted a PR strategy targeting audiences across France.

Through interviewing José Mourinho, tips-based content was hosted onsite and segmented into courses featuring José’s tips, translated and tailored for each target market.

In France, the campaign garnered attention from sports-focused publications like goal.com and national news site lepoint.com, leveraging the interview-style strategy to bridge the gap between sports and trading, thus securing links in relevant sports media outlets.

 

View Case Study

Elevate your international PR results

And there you have it; by consistently following the insights and strategies outlined in this blog, you should be able to set yourself up for success in the French market and drive impactful results for your brand.

Of course, if you’d like more information on French digital PR and to see the amazing work the connective3 international team are currently doing, you can visit our c3 international page or get in touch directly!

Sources

  1. Social media in France: Link
  2. Pain au chocolat vs Chocolatine: Link
  3. CISION State of The Media 2023 (France): Link

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Introduction

New technologies and processes have facilitated businesses’ international expansion, and these days there are more and more businesses looking to build their international presence due to the impact this could have on their growth.

There are multiple factors that could influence this decision, whether this is because your local market is saturated with competitors, or a new opportunity to take your brand globally has appeared. This guide will provide you with some useful SEO tips to take into consideration when going global.

Guide Contents

What’s international SEO?

International SEO refers to the process of growing your business’ organic presence across different countries.

Once a business decides to go international, one of the most important considerations is to ensure the website is set to be competitive in such markets, as this will help succeed in the expansion.

Why is international SEO important?

With the business’ website being one of the most crucial touchpoints, having an optimised website with localised content could help meet users’ expectations.

Although going global has some challenges, when international SEO is done right, it presents multiple benefits including:

01

Access a wider audience

Launching in new countries means that you will get access to a new audience.

02

Drive organic traffic & revenue

This goes hand in hand with reaching a new audience. Following the best practices would help maximise your performance and drive more sessions and revenue to your site.

03

Provide a good user experience

Users who have a positive experience with a brand are more likely to become repeated customers. Additionally, providing a good user experience is one of the many guidance that search engines require to increase your ranking potential.

04

Build brand awareness

Helping to position your brand globally and consolidate in the new regions.

How to set your website to go global?

Once we’ve learned what international SEO is and why it’s important, this section will cover some of the top tips that would help you be successful when taking your brand globally.

Decide which countries to target

When it comes to deciding what countries to target first, we’d recommend analysing your current online performance as this could help bring some light to what regions to prioritise.

There are different tools that could be used to identify where your current traffic is coming from, with one of the most reliable ones being the countries search results report from Google Search Console.

Ahrefs is another useful tool that would help see which countries are contributing to the total organic traffic to your site.

While these reports are useful, there are other things to consider when making the decision, such as the potential search demand for your products/services, the competitiveness in the market or the business capacity to fulfil orders from such regions, to list some of them.

We’d advise carrying out an initial keyword research to understand demand levels, as well as trends in the market.

Some of our favourite keyword research tools include:

  • SEMrush or Ahrefs: To carry out a competitor analysis and identify similar search terms.
  • Google trends: To get more insights at a city/regional level.
  • Keyword planner: To analyse search demand over time and identify seasonality periods.

 

Once you are set on which countries to launch, it’s time to talk about how to launch on those regions with your website.

Decide the URL structure

Reaching new countries could be challenging but using the right locale-specific URLs could help you on the way.

We’d suggest following Google’s recommendations on URL structures, which include:

01

Country-specific domain:

This is one of the most popular options as it sends clear geotargeting signals and there’s a clear separation of sites. This approach is also useful when the server location isn’t an issue. Some examples:

  • https://www.amazon.co.uk/
  • https://www.amazon.es/
  • https://www.amazon.it/

The downside of this approach is that it obviously requires more infrastructure and it’s expensive. Additionally, a new domain would be needed to target different countries.

02

Subdomain with a generic top-level domain (gTLD):

Another option is using subdomains, as it’s easy to set up and it also offers a clear separation of sites.

  • https://us.speedo.com/
  • https://de.speedo.com/
  • https://it.speedo.com/

The con of this structure is that users might not recognise the geotargeting from the URL itself.

03

Subdirectory with gTLD

Using subdirectories is probably the easiest way to launch internationally, as they require low maintenance. However, the separation of the sites is harder. They only allow a single server location and users may not reorganise the geotargeting from the URL alone.

  • https://www.apple.com/uk/
  • https://www.apple.com/es/
  • https://www.apple.com/it/

There are cons and pros of each of the above, and therefore the decision on which one to use would depend on your business goals and resources.

International optimisation

Once we know what countries to target and their languages, and a decision on the URL structure has been made, it’s time to ensure the website is fully optimised for each region.

It’s recommended to have as many unique and localised signals as possible. Some of the key optimisation elements include:

01

Translations

All content on the new sites would need to be translated into the local language, not only to offer a good user experience and reduce bounce rate but also to perform well organically.

Even if your expansion is to other English-speaking countries for example, it’s still recommended to optimise your content for the new region, as they may use different expressions/terms.

02

Currency and pricing

The right pricing and currency would need to be displayed to ensure users can place an order and complete a transaction.

It’s also important to know the different ways other countries express numerical values, to help with this, we’ve written a useful guide on how to translate and localise values.

Additionally, an understanding of the foreign regulations around pricing and promotions would be key to running a successful online business.

03

Sizing and fit

To minimise returns, it’s recommended to have the local size and fitting details.

04

Trust signals

Delivery and returns details should be localised, as well as the contact details and any other trust signals on the website.

Technical international SEO

There are also some technical SEO elements that you would need to implement when launching your website in multiple countries and languages:

Hreflang implementation

Hreflang tags indicate to search engines the language used on each URL, to serve the right results to users in that language.

It’s recommended to use hreflang tags to help search engines understand the relationship between pages that have similar content in different languages or the same language but with different spelling e.g., British English vs American English.

It’s also important to understand that hreflangs are a signal, not a directive and so it’s recommended to use them in conjunction with the other localisations signals mentioned earlier such as pricing or delivery details.

If you would like to learn more about hreflang implementation, check out our latest hreflang tags guide for beginners.

Page speed optimisation

Providing a good user experience is key to reducing bounce rate and driving conversions and page load speed is something that will contribute to it.

Using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) is recommended when operating in multiple locations. A CDN is a group of servers distributed geographically which help speed up the delivery of your website content closer to the users.

CDNs will not only help improve the website load times, but they also help reduce the bandwidth cost and improve security against malicious attacks amongst other benefits.

Domain authority and brand awareness

When planning your international SEO strategy, building your domain authority is something to take into consideration.

Digital PR campaigns tailored to the new regions could help build authority. It will not only help search engines view your brand as a relevant and authoritative source of information but also drive brand awareness to your new audience.

Knowing your new markets and the local media landscape would be crucial to producing successful PR campaigns. If you would like to learn more about how to run a successful international PR campaign check out the latest tips from our international team here at c3.

In conclusion, going global with your brand would be challenging, but the benefits of it would outweigh these challenges. Having the right international SEO strategy in place with a connected approach looking at everything from content, technical and authority will help you be successful.

If you are looking for an international SEO agency to help with your upcoming expansion plan, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Alternatively, you can find out more about our international SEO services online.

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The World of US Digital PR

With a population of 329 million people, it is no surprise the US is one of the most important countries to take into consideration when expanding your business or running a digital PR campaign.

From 50 states to incredibly unique cultural nuances, the US is a vast country with its quirks and preferences. But how do UK and European-based businesses begin to find their niche amongst American journalists and publications? And what kind of content performs well?

This blog will go through the main considerations on how to angle business and PR campaigns to get the biggest impact in US publications, diving into some top tips when pitching to journalists and explaining the importance of crafting a campaign which feeds into news agendas and general content that performs well in the US.

Points we’ll touch on:

How to pitch to US journalists

With such a highly demanding and competitive landscape in which to contend, with thousands of publications and journalists across the states, not only is it imperative to come up with unique ideas but the construction and sell-in of these ideas need to resonate with journalists. To better understand the timing and tone needed for idea pitches, and to understand key target demographics and the publications that can help to reach those audiences, here are some top tips to help pull in links from the US.

1. The basics of SEO content writing

Knowing the best journalist or publication to pitch your campaigns to is a must. Receiving an email that isn’t relevant (or of any interest) can be very frustrating, therefore, it’s essential to do some initial research into each person to understand what they do and don’t cover.

Whilst it might take a bit more time, pitching to someone who doesn’t cover that topic makes it not only unlikely that they will cover your campaign, but could also be damaging to any possible future relationship. Always make sure it’s relevant and exciting.

It’s also important in the United States to understand what the publications/journalists’ views, opinions, and tone of voice are. With the US having essentially 50 different countries, what lands in one part of the country might not have the same effect elsewhere. And whilst a friendly and informal pitch works for some, it certainly won’t work for all. Each state is different, and it can even be as granular as a city-by-city approach in some states, so it’s best practice to adapt pitches to reflect these subtle nuances to ensure that they land in the right inboxes.

It’s also important to understand the best ways to contact specific journalists. For the most part, it’s over email, but some US journalists have their direct messages open on Twitter, welcoming story ideas. Never be afraid to reach out through these methods, as response rates have been found to be extremely strong using these mediums.

2. Craft a media list for the US market

To ensure that campaigns perform well, make sure that your media lists are updated with current journalist information and contact details. When targeting those publications and journalists, spend some time diving into Google to find more niche contacts to improve those media lists. Make sure to use sites like Feedspot to find more journalists that work in your desired target area/topic/demographic.

3. Find unique angles for US campaigns

When creating a US-targeted PR campaign, creating a story which can be broken down by state (at the very least) is incredibly important. Breaking it down even further to regions or even cities can add much more content to the campaign and can also win more regional links too.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of journalists and publications which are specific to one local area – so make sure to create specific and targeted angles which are highly relevant. For example, if there’s data for multiple cities in California, like San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, then dig into those finer details and get a campaign that can work for multiple outlets on both a regional and state level.

4. Write great outreach emails for US recipients

With these specific angles, it’s important to ensure that all email subject lines are relevant. Aim to target journalists with what they want to hear and make them know that the material being pitched aligns with their coverage. Keep it short, mention what the pitch is about, what it’s regarding, and how it fits them.

When pitching, ensure the journalist has all relevant data upfront with links added to any further assets (and avoid adding these as attachments). This allows the journalist to jump straight into the piece with confidence and limits back and forth.

According to Muck Rack, 90% of US journalists are happy to receive one follow-up email, so allow the email to settle, but ensure to follow up on all pitches. US journalists are (unsurprisingly) busy, so respect their time/choice.

Understanding what content performs best in US publications

As stated previously, campaigns that perform best in the USA are those that have unique data specific by state/city/region. This is because the data can be broken down into individual content pieces which can be targeted to specific journalists with what is highly relevant to them.

This approach was utilised for Blacktower’s retirement index, which revealed the best (and worst) places to live out your ‘golden years’ across the states. The campaign analysed several key retirement metrics, pulling out state specific data which allowed for the creation of a ranking. This ranking could then be outreached with many different news hooks, adapted to fit the news agenda in the state in which is being pitched to. To check out the full campaign, you can visit the site here.

Touching on relevance, the story also needs to align with something topical with the current news agenda, or perhaps an awareness day, to illustrate to the journalist or publication why the piece is significant and worth publishing.

An example of where this was relevant was Pickswise’s ‘Cost of Being a Fan’ campaign. With growing concerns surrounding the increasing costs for fans across the NFL, there were worries of many fans being priced out of the experience. Therefore, the team at Pickswise revealed which NFL teams offer their fans the most cost-effective experience, ranking them from best to worst. The report aligned well with the news agenda at the time and brought in some highly relevant coverage.

When collecting unique data for the states, surveys can be a really powerful tool as they allow for the discovery of something new which can be used as a strong news hook. However, it’s important to remember that survey sample sizes must be far greater than that of the UK, as a sample size of 1500 people is often too small to make generalised statements regarding the US population.

What to avoid in US PR campaigns

As well as practices and processes that should be ingrained into all US-based PR campaigns and pitches, there are certain actions that should be avoided to ensure that there’s a maximum opportunity for success.

It’s best to avoid a mass outreach approach – sending one generic email to every journalist in a list will not only ensure that your email gets ignored by the vast majority of recipients, but it could also potentially limit future relationships with journalists and publications that are key to unlocking big audiences in the states.

It’s also important not to schedule emails to send all at once from your account, as the States have different time zones, and this could mean missing key time periods when news should ideally be hitting journalists’ inboxes. Additional research into the location and time zone of the journalists and publications you’re targeting will help to eliminate the chances of sending an email out of hours or at a time when it could get missed. This information can be found on large media databases such as Vuelio and Roxhill, but also explore make sure to explore Twitter and LinkedIn profiles if needed.

Finally, avoid pitches that are excessively long. It’s tried and tested that American journalists respond better to shorter pitches that are to the point and with all the key details noted right at the top. Remember to include, succinctly, what the campaign is about, why it’s relevant to their publication, and the top takeaways to lead with – this is a great place to put content that relates specifically to the city, region, or state that they report within.

From key pitching tips to understanding what content performs well and knowing what to avoid, we hope this guide gives you a taster of the Digital PR space over in the states, and some knowledge on how to build killer link building campaigns which will get results.

If you’d like any more information on digital PR and to see the amazing work the connective3 international team are currently doing, just drop us a or visit our ‘US Digital PR’ page.

 

David White

Digital PR in the US is a fantastic opportunity for any UK/European company to expand their brands presence. Building killer links across the states can result in higher rankings, greater awareness and new leads.

 

Chloe Keys

It’s key to remember, when pitching across America, one thing which works in one state might not have the same affect in another. Ensure you A/B email outreach to see what performs well (and what doesn’t).

 

Cameron Black

The US is home to thousands of unique publications. Don’t be limited to news sites, explore the likes of local radio stations. There are numerous across each US state, often with strong domain authorities.

 

Allen White

The US is home to thousands of unique publications. Don’t be limited to news sites, explore the likes of local radio stations. There are numerous across each US state, often with strong domain authorities.

 

Eirini Theodoridou

Make it personable. Remember, you’re sending the email to real people and PR it’s all about creating connections. Yes, you won’t be best friends with the journalists but being polite and actually putting in the extra effort will help you in the long run.

View our international work

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Report Contents

Abstract

It’s no secret that the American marketing industry differs from that in the UK, with a considerable focus on traditional media rather than its digital counterpart. While digital PR, a subcategory of digital marketing, has become an established factor in the United Kingdom in accordance with increased digital media consumption, the same cannot be said for the nation across the Atlantic.

While continuously building and expanding on our digital PR experience in America, we’ve encountered instances where digital PR has not been a well-known practice for brands. This could be due to different factors, such as reduced trust in the media, or digital PR simply not yet being a prominent factor in American marketing practices compared to implementations of, for example, content marketing or paid media.

As a digital agency in a dynamic industry, we’ve questioned why some brands are hesitant about transitioning from traditional PR to digital in America.

Looking into factors such as trust, the digital landscape, and Americans’ media consumption, we’ve set out to answer why it’s beneficial for brands to use digital PR as a form of marketing, while maintaining credibility and increasing brand awareness.

Are brands that refuse digital PR losing out on new customers, brand awareness and visibility in a world increasingly turning digital? Most likely, yes.

With data revealing Americans’ consumer behavior, brands are reminded that most generations are transitioning from TV and print when searching for news, products, and brands online and on social media. Missing out on digital PR and other online marketing avenues could mean neglecting your target audience and reducing visibility and brand awareness.

Heritage and experience in the digital PR industry

The current state of public relations in America

Traditional advertising remains strikingly effective across America today, by utilizing radio, TV, and print ads. This form of advertisement is a trusted source of information, with 46% of Americans still trusting commercial advertisements on TV and print according to a 2021 study by Statista.com.1 In comparison, only 38% trust ads from search engines, and even less (30%) in websites. In the same study, less than one in five (19%) said they trusted social media.

This lack of trust in online media could be a contributing factor for why many brands choose the traditional public relations route rather than digital. While the two have much in common when it comes to enhancing brand awareness and building trust among customers, there are distinct differences.

The Differences Between Traditional and Digital PR

Traditional PR is predominantly about establishing your brand, whether it be a company or a person, as a reliable source. This bracket of public relations focuses its efforts on media channels, such as TV, radio, and print. The aim is to make your brand memorable and authentic; to act as a source of information, content, or trustworthy products you’re certain will fulfil your audience’s demands.

Digital PR shares similarities with traditional PR in that its focus remains on brand awareness. The differences start to show when looking at the channels digital PR utilizes to get brands recognized, such as online news publications, social media influencers, and other digital platforms. And when digital PR is not link-building, its focus is on building relevant, top-level backlinks to your brand’s site for SEO (search engine optimization) purposes.

Knowing the differences between these two avenues of public relations can help your brand determine which strategy is the most suitable. While traditional PR builds credibility through trustworthy outlets in America, there are rising concerns about the state of print newspapers and whether it’s a reliable method of marketing in the long run.

The Decline of Newspapers and Print in the U.S.

With the rise of digital and traditional papers taking their news online, America has seen a steady decline in print news, with many media companies closing. According to Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, in just three years (2019-2022), over 360 print newspapers shut down for good. The same research estimated that since the mid-2000s, America has “lost more than one-fourth of its newspapers and is on track to lose a third by 2025”.2 Unfortunately some of these long-established print newspapers might not be able to afford the digital shift.

However, with so many print newspapers closing, would a shift from traditional to digital PR mean a higher success rate for brands? Not all newspapers will close, but the demand for online content is on the rise. In fact, in 2020, the world saw content consumption doubling due to lockdowns and the pandemic, according to Forbes.3

This means that transitioning from traditional to digital could potentially increase your brand awareness and expose your brand to new customers. By exploring channels within digital PR, such as digital newspapers or social media platforms, you can reach new audiences that might not have previously engaged with your brand.

The Generational Shift in Content Consumerism

The generations most interested in reading printed newspapers are baby boomers (1946-1964).4 Surprisingly, Gen X (1966-1982) are big digital consumers, and were the generation that saw the biggest increase in media consumption during the 2020-2022 pandemic.5 If your brand is attempting to reach this specific generation through traditional PR (e.g., TV, radio, or print), you might want to reconsider your strategic approach.

Half (50%) of Gen-Zers use social media as a source of daily news according to a study by Statista.com in 20226, while only 4% could say the same about national newspapers, and 5% for local newspapers. This suggest that, if brands refuse to explore digital options in their marketing strategy, that they risk losing out on the younger generations. Millennials, too, consume most of their news from social media (45%), streaming services (32%) and online news sites (17%).7

With the generational shift from traditional media (TV, radio, and print) to digital media (digital newspapers, social media, streaming services, and podcasts), brands should explore new avenues to appeal to a wider audience, and digital PR is one way to utilize the virtual world while still maintaining the old traditions of public relations.

Understanding Americans’ Consumer Behavior

Understanding your audience is the key to any PR campaign. The goal is to influence and establish yourself as a market leader in your target audience’s eyes, which is why looking at your target audience’s consumer behavior is vital.

And studies and experience show that Americans behave and consume stories differently than other English-speaking territories. Data from GWI8 revealed that 39% of Americans worry about how companies use their personal data online. That’s nearly two in five Americans who are nervous about their safety online.

For streaming services, 62% of Americans have watched Netflix at some point in the last month, over half (51%) have watched YouTube and 42% have clicked on Amazon Prime Video to stream a show or a film.

In terms of what media Americans consume, over 9 in 10 (92%) have watched live TV or a TV channel in the past month. For the rest of the world, it’s 88%. Over half (58%) of Americans spend time at least once a day on Meta (Facebook), 42% are on Instagram, 24% scroll TikTok and 22% send and view photos from friends and family on Snapchat.

The GWI study also revealed that 24% of Americans actually follow companies and brands they actively purchase from on social media, and 19% follow companies and brands they’re interested in purchasing from in the future.

Having understood your audience, it’s easier to determine which digital marketing avenue you wish to proceed with, but there are some key factors to make note of.

Digital PR versus Content Marketing

There are mentions in the digital PR world that the term ‘digital PR’ does not yet exist in the American market. Some insist that instead of calling it digital or online PR, the term Content Marketing should be used instead. But whilst Content Marketing can remind us of digital PR, the term digital PR does exist, especially the term public relations.

Some agencies choose to strip back on ‘traditional’ and ‘digital’ and simply call it ‘public relations’, influenced by SEO and content strategies, (which is what digital PR is all about). Simultaneously, they might switch between public relations, website traffic* and link building.

*Traffic is the number of visitors that click to your site. Driving traffic to your site is one aspect of digital PR, where we increase traffic to enhance brand awareness.

Content Marketing is defined by the Content Marketing Institute as “a marketing technique tailored towards creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”9.

Digital public relations, on the other hand, is defined by the Digital Marketing Institute as “a strategy used to increase awareness of your brand using online methods. In many ways, it’s similar to traditional PR, but it offers the opportunity to reach a much broader audience that can’t be reached with only offline methods.”10.

While PR shares similarities with content marketing such as producing relevant content, public relations focuses primarily on the brand, rather than customer profit. This is an important distinction to remember when you develop marketing strategies, as they have two different outcomes.

Public Relations = increases brand awareness

Content Marketing = drives profit through customer action

Some of America’s top agencies still maintain a strong interest in creating a picture-perfect image of your brand through the means of digital PR. They’ve kept the beliefs of traditional PR and inserted it into the digital counterpart. This adapted approach offers a new way of looking at the digitalization of the American marketing industry, taking bits and pieces of previous work and inserting them into an adapted, digitized method. Perhaps that is the path to digitizing the American marketing industry and transitioning from traditional to digital PR?

The benefits of digital PR for your brand

While Digital PR can be used on its own, it usually achieves better results in collaboration with SEO and Content Writing. In addition to this, Digital PR can utilize Social Media Marketing in their strategy to reach a wider audience through social media channels. Digital PR on its own can help your brand:

Build Credibility

Public relations allow a brand to connect with its audience and customer base, building and establishing credibility in a market. Building a brand into an expert in their field allows your business to develop trust and respect among customers and other brands alike. According to a study by the GWI, 67% of Americans want their brands to be reliable and 48% claimed they need the brand to be authentic11.

Increase Visibility

Digital PR is the perfect opportunity to show your strengths, achievements, and your mission as a company. For example, finance companies can offer advice, and become an expert in their field so that people recognize them as a market leader.

Positive Image

While Digital PR can be used on its own, it usually achieves better results in collaboration with SEO and Content Writing. In addition to this, Digital PR can utilize Social Media Marketing in their strategy to reach a wider audience through social media channels. Digital PR on its own can help your brand:

Brand Awareness

Digital PR has the power to make you a market leader, promoting your brand and its message across multiple platforms. Working closely with other teams, such as paid media, SEO, and content marketing allows you to get your message out to a variety of platforms.

Digital PR can get your brand recognized, but in combination with other marketing practices, such as SEO and content writing, you can establish yourself as a market leader.

Digital PR in Combination with SEO and Content Strategy

The purpose of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to improve your website and increase your visibility on the SERP (search engine results page). In essence, this SEO practice is designed to make you rank higher on Google, preferably on the first page so that you’ve got increased chances of people clicking on your website for information or to purchase a service or product.

Relying on SEO and Content for your digital PR strategy can help your brand find relevant keywords you can use in your content that can increase your brand’s chances of ranking highly on the SERP.

SEO and Content can also offer target niches or topics for your digital PR campaigns, which are relevant to your brand and can build credibility. Content can help your digital PR campaign by supporting relevant and educational blogs and other forms of content. This, in turn, builds trust and brand visibility.

Developing a digital PR strategy with the influence of SEO and Content can, therefore, increase brand awareness by ranking higher on the SERP. They can help nail your press release with relevant keywords and build trust and relevant, informative content, establishing your brand as a market leader within your field.

Digital PR in Combination with Social Media Marketing

Digital PR can yield unlimited possibilities if you’ve got the budget and the means to create campaigns which are creative, purpose-driven, and insightful. One way to enhance your PR campaign strategy is

This avenue of marketing can open many doors in terms of reach, increased brand awareness, and engagements on different platforms that can drive traffic to your site. A social media team can provide a variety of insights that SEO and Content don’t have access to.

Working cross-channel with a social media team can also increase your chances of backlink success by evaluating and predicting upcoming trends. They scour platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Meta every day looking for emerging trends.

Your digital PR campaign can benefit from a variety of platforms to increase visibility. You’re able to engage more with your intended audience than through press releases sent to national and regional journalists. You will also be able to access a variety of data and other insights that have not previously been available to you from a mere digital PR perspective.

Collaborating with Paid Media to Enhance your Digital PR Strategy

Paid Media is one of the most well-informed avenues of digital marketing, harboring enormous amounts of data that can benefit your digital PR strategy and campaign. Paid Media can help you develop your media strategy and broaden your brand awareness to reach new audiences. One way they do this is by establishing where your existing customers and new customers spend time online.

While digital PR teams should focus on the SEO aspects of a strategy, Paid Media can help you build audience personas and learn as much as possible about your target audience. Creating audience personas for your strategy will not only help you decide on your target publications, but you’ll also be able to create content that suits your audience.

How digital PR manoeuvres the digital media landscape

Utilizing digital PR in relation to other services can be truly beneficial for your brand if you’re moving from traditional marketing to digital. But how does digital PR operate in the digital media landscape? There are a few, distinct, key components that make up a successful digital PR campaign. One of them is backlinks.

The Power of a Backlink

When transitioning from traditional to digital PR, you’re in a completely new playground, one where KPIs are often measured against the number of backlinks you get from media outreach. Because you are building credibility and a brand online, brands tend to follow Google’s Ranking Factor, where backlinks are one of the top ways to gain credibility from Google.

While your brand should want backlinks, it’s not as simple as gaining coverage from any site. You want publications with high domain authority, which means the site is trusted by Google. It’s also important to distribute your stories to relevant sites. Don’t send your press release to a myriad of publications that do not write about your topic. This can sour the relationship between your brand and the journalists on the other end, resulting in missed opportunities in the future.

Domain Authority: A DA score ranges between 0-100. The higher the number, the more likely your publication is to rank on the SERP. There are platforms that track domain authority for you, such as Ahrefs and Semrush.

Examples of online publications that have high domain authority are ABC.com, which has a rating of 93, and NBC, which also has 93 in domain authority. This tells Google they’re trustworthy, credible sites, and digital PRs want to land backlinks to sites like these in order for their brand to rank higher on the SERP.

The different link variations

 

Follow Links

Follow links are, according to wordstream.com, “links that count as points, pushing SEO link juice and boosting the page rank of the linked-to sites, helping them go higher in the SERPs as a result”.12

Simplified, if you attain a series of follow links to your site by getting a backlink on high-value sites, Google will favor your site as reputable and trustworthy, therefore, pushing your website higher on the SERP. In the world of PR, a follow link equals gold. The more follow links your brand gains from trustworthy sites, the better it will rank on Google, which increases your visibility and improves your brand awareness online.

No Follow Links

A website, when receiving your content, can decide to mark your backlink as no follow (rel=”nofollow” in the HTML). This tells Google that there’s no need for it to crawl it and to discredit the link. While this can seem unreasonable, there is a reason for the implementation: Preventing spam.

In America, misinformation and spam are ripe. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Statista.com reported that nearly 80% of American consumers had encountered misinformation and fake news about the pandemic13.

While it’s inevitably the news outlet that decides what backlink they will use in their articles, there are things you can do to attain a follow link instead:

  • Ensure all content is credible and trustworthy and use reliable sources from high-rated websites.
  • Never tweak your campaign to fit the narrative. Always be honest and appreciative of the publications that cover you.
  • Ensure you follow the publication’s guidelines when submitting your press release and content.

While it can seem like Google penalizes you if you’ve got a no follow link, it’s not just bad things that come with a no follow link. It still drives traffic to your site, as customers can click on the link. You also get exposure from gaining a link on the websites. As previously mentioned, some publications have an editorial policy preventing them from using any other link type.

In 2020, Google also introduced two new link attributes alongside the no follow link. Google then implied they would use the no follow link as a hint to see which links they should exclude and include in Search14.

Syndicated Links

Syndicated links are links that come from websites that are hosted on the same network. In essence, syndication can look like duplication. While you don’t want duplicated content on your website, syndicated links are not problematic from an SEO perspective. Syndication has spurred many debates about its value, but it’s not worthless.

The reason why Google thinks of a syndicated as ‘less’ valuable than a follow link, is because Google prefers sites which are completely unique. The more high-authority, unique sites you attain a backlink on, the more Google will favor your site.

But syndicated links are not bad links, they’re simply not as strong as the same number of links from unique or independent sites. You can think of backlinks as a tier system:

Coverage

Coverage, while not a link, helps bring attention to your brand and increases customer’s awareness of it online. Brand awareness is all about reaching the right audience, so a mention on the right site can sometimes be just as valuable as a link. This is because you’re gaining the attention of the right audience, which in turn builds trust and authority.

Knowing how to measure one element of your success is important in order to plan a digital PR strategy for your brand. Still, it’s paramount to fully develop a strategic plan of attack for media outreach. America is a vast country, with 50 unique states each requiring a niche media approach.

The best strategies for your U.S. Digital PR Campaign

At connective3, we’ve carefully developed a solid structure for building your digital PR strategy and campaign in America. This strategy focuses on three strategic avenues: national, state-by-state, and hyperlocal.

These three strategies have proven effective in securing authoritative backlinks and media coverage, establishing brands as experts and thought leaders within their field.

The National Strategy

Our national strategy involves targeting large, influential news outlets and media platforms at a national level. These are typically widely recognized publications with broad audiences and significant domain authority.

By crafting compelling, newsworthy, and relevant stories, we aim to catch the attention of these media giants. Testing out this strategy can help you reach a wide range of audiences, especially if you send your pitch to news outlets such as The New York Times, which has over 9.7 million subscribers15.

A national study also allows you to build relationships and trust within those high authority sites, becoming a leading voice in that market and hitting a larger, more professional audience demographic.

National Strategy in Practice

Using this strategy, the U.S. team at connective3 developed a campaign for a VPN brand. Inspired by pop and cyberculture, they ranked the celebrities most associated with fake news.

For this, they determined the most searched-for celebrities online and used social listening data to find how often their names were posted alongside the phrase “fake news” from January to October 2022.

When the data had been collated, they ranked the celebrities based on the reach (number of users exposed to the posts) of these posts, including reposts. They kept the campaign on a national level, not breaking any findings down by state, but keeping it relevant to all of America.

101

Links

42

DA

72

Engagements

984 M

Audience

1.12 M

Views

The State-By-State Strategy

Our state-by-state strategy focuses on tailoring digital PR campaigns to individual states and their respective media outlets. While nationals provide broad exposure, state-by-state campaigns allow us to target local audiences, addressing their specific interests and concerns.

A state-by-state study allows you to expand on your data, and every state study can eventually be turned into a national one. While radio stations such as Town Square Media or Heart don’t have 80/90s domain authority, they do build authority with a local audience, resulting in gained trust.

State-by-state Strategy in Action

An example campaign run with this approach was one for an insurance company, where the team at connective3 developed an American Retirement Index. Gathering resources from the different states, such as the cost of living, crime numbers, life expectancy and average property prices, they ranked the states by the found data attributes individually and reached out to each state’s regional news to drive campaign performance.

The results were mirrored in TV placement and backlinks on websites such as ABC, Fox LA and the Miami Herald, which provided a significant boost to brand awareness.

153

Backlinks

21 K

New visitors over the campaign

The Hyperlocal Strategy

For our hyperlocal strategy, we take PR campaigns even further by zooming in on specific towns, cities, or neighbourhoods within one state, implementing this across several states simultaneously.

Hyperlocal campaigns narrow down on smaller communities at a hyper-targeted level. By creating content and stories that directly impact these local areas and communities, we aim to secure backlinks from niche media outlets and community blogs, thus building localized authority.

According to a 2022 study by the University of Oxford, more than one in four Americans pay for regional news subscriptions16. An important factor of the study to pay attention to is the generational gap in paid subscriptions of newspapers, with only 17% of the payees being under 30 years of age.

For a hyperlocal strategy, it’s important to understand your target audience. If your brand wishes to target millennials and the younger generations, it’s imperative you research the websites you want to outreach to find out which websites and platforms your target audience spends time on.

Hyperlocal Strategy in Practice

For a well-known iGaming brand, we conducted connective3’s hyperlocal approach and created a campaign focussing on the odds of spotting the supernatural. For this campaign, we analysed all reported UFO and ghost sightings across the 50 American states to reveal which states and cities are hotbeds for supernatural activity.

Being able to distinguish between the three strategic approaches can help your brand reach across America on a national, state, and local basis. While Americans subscribe to national newspapers online, breaking your campaign down into several levels, or developing campaigns depending on your brand’s desired reach and target audience, will help shape your goals and campaign outcome in the long run.

Understanding the reach of digital PR, both as a single avenue and in relation to other marketing strategies, like SEO and Paid Media can help inform your decision about whether your American brand should transition from a traditional to a digital PR strategy.

300 +

Links across the U.S.

51

Average DA

2 M

Over the campaign

Conclusion

Is it time for brands to switch to digital pr?

Having read and developed a deeper understanding of how digital PR works and differs from its traditional counterpart, would the transition be worth it? Looking at key components of digital PR, we now know shifting from traditional PR to digital can broaden your reach through a multitude of online channels and platforms, such as online national and regional newspapers, niche blogs, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and more.

Digital PR can help you reach a bigger audience by adapting your strategy to suit generations who are going more virtual. It can also prove to be more cost-effective, as you don’t have to spend your budget on product placements.

The practice of digital PR is to build backlinks through earned media, meaning you never pay for backlinks. They are organically picked up by the media, which builds trust.

The digital marketing world is expanding and growing, compared to the traditional marketing route, with print newspapers shutting down, and podcasts competing with radio channels. Choosing digital PR means you’ve got a chance to rank higher on the SERP, therefore building credibility through Google, which is important while competing against other brands going digital.

Recent data tells us Americans follow brands that they wish to purchase from in the future online and on social media channels. Choosing to opt out of digital PR can neglect customers and your target audience who are actively searching for your brand online.

We know from the GWI study that the majority of Americans who watch TV and read print newspapers are Baby Boomers (1946-1964), while generations from Gen-X and onwards spend their time virtually.

If you want to target Gen-X, millennials, Gen-Z or Gen-Y, the most well-informed decision would be to reach them on platforms they are utilizing, e.g., online publications, social media such as TikTok and Instagram, and streaming services.

In conclusion, depending on your target audience, transitioning from traditional to digital PR can prove hugely beneficial for your brand. This is especially applicable to businesses with a desire to develop their brand to fit current, dynamic American consumer behavior.

Campaigns which can be broken down by state and city perform well in the U.S. Make your data and pitch unique to whom you’re reaching out to – local writers want something relevant to them.

Cameron Black

International PR Manager – connective3

The U.S. is home to thousands of unique publications. Don’t be limited to news sites, explore the likes of local radio stations. There are numerous across each U.S. state, often with strong domain authorities.

Allen White

U.S. PR Lead – connective3

Make it personable. Remember, you’re sending the email to real people and PR is all about creating connections. Yes, you won’t be best friends with the journalists but being polite and actually putting in the extra effort will help you in the long run.

Eirini Theodoridou

International PR Manager – connective3

Methodology

  1. Trust study by Statista.com in 2021: Link
  2. Northwestern University of Medill School of Journalist: Struggling Communities Hardest Hit by Decline in Local Journalism: Link
  3. com: Global Online Consumption Doubled in 2020: Link
  4. Pew Research Center: Newspapers Frace a Challenging Calculus: Link
  5. Colorado State University: Generational Media Consumption Trends: Link
  6. com: Frequency of using selected news sources among Generation Z in the United States as of 2022: Link
  7. com: Frequency of using selected news sources among millennials in the United States as of 2022: Link
  8. Global Web Index: American Consumer Insights: Link
  9. Content Marketing Institute: What is Content Marketing: Link
  10. Digital Marketing Institute: How Can Digital PR Improve a Brand’s Presence? Link
  11. Global Web Index: American Consumer Insights: Link
  12. WordStream: no follow / follow: Link
  13. Statista: Misinformation in the US: Link
  14. Google’s 2020 no follow change: Link
  15. The New York Times: The Times Added 190,000 Subscribers Last Quarter: Link
  16. University of Oxford: Digital news report: Link

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