Media outreach, as the name might suggest, is the process of reaching out to the media through a variety of channels. The aim is simple – get them to feature your product, service or website in the pages of their print publication or on their website.
You might write them a pitch letter with a great idea for an article that their readers are sure to love. You may send them a press release with details of your latest product offering or some industry news that may be of interest to their audience. However you approach media outreach, the name of the game is to gain valuable column inches.
When you actually achieve a write-up from a media outlet, the benefits can be enormous. A feature in a recognized magazine or on an authoritative website can do wonders for the trust that consumers have in your brand, and you’re sure to reach a much wider audience than you might through other channels such as your own social media sharing.
But what of the other benefits of media outreach? It turns out that good PR and media outreach can actually boost your SEO in a multitude of different ways. With better SEO comes higher rankings, greater visibility and more traffic. Here’s exactly how media outreach can have a positive impact on your overall optimization efforts and online visibility:
Authoritative links
Backlinks are still important when it comes to search engine ranking positions. If your media outreach results in a link from a trusted news source or other reputable website, it will do your own SEO a world of good. All good marketers know that in a post-Penguin world, quality of links will always trump quantity, and if you can secure a link from a quality website, it’s sure to give your SEO efforts a real boost.
Social signals
Traffic from social media sites is something that Google particularly likes to see. It’s likely that any article or feature posted online nowadays will also be shared on social media, igniting some form of discussion and directing some traffic towards your site. Google sees this traffic and notes that it’s come from social sources, concluding that your site is being talked about and must be active, relevant and of a high quality.
That’s two additional benefits that are a value add to the primary bonus of being featured editorially within a publication that has the same target demographic as your own.
The ’trickle down’ effect
Once one large media outlet, blog, publication or website has published an article or feature about your brand, it’s likely that other smaller publications within the media will follow suit.
Put simply – if you can convince a large site to write about you, you can expect to see many smaller sites talking about you too. You might even find yourself being approached by blogs and smaller publications to ask whether you can be featured on their site, without you having to lay the groundwork as you have for the larger influencers. These links might not be quite as high quality as the initial link from a top influencer, but they’ll certainly contribute towards your SEO in a positive way.
A network of influencers
Cultivating relationships with influencers and writers is important for a multitude of reasons and especially for SEO and brand building purposes. If you can build your own network of writers and influencers, you can turn to them the next time you have an important campaign or launch coming up. If the first article was a success and brought them traffic, they’re likely to want to work with you again. They could help you by providing social media shares, as well as that all-important feature.
Nurture these relationships and reap the rewards further down the line.
Increased traffic
The more traffic sent to your site from media outreach, the more likely it is that your brand and business will grow. As your business grows, you’ll be talked about on social media, you’ll become naturally more visible and your brand should develop an authority of its own. All of these factors contribute to even more traffic, giving you momentum to build on.
Once you start the cycle of increasing your traffic, you’ll find it easier to maintain a steady pace, growing your site and cementing your brand’s place online.
To sum up…
It’s becoming increasingly clear to marketers that an integrated approach to media outreach and SEO is the way forward. Together with content, these three strands complement one another perfectly. Develop a united approach that spans your content marketing, your website and your PR efforts to really make the most of media outreach.
