Branded Content Smarts: How to Turn Your Insights into PR

There’s so much you can learn from content analytics. These insights can inform the content you create, the channels you use, and what your audience wants. Another opportunity is turning those insights into PR ideas for content. What you learn could provide ample ways to develop content that other publications would find intriguing.

In doing so, you’ll drive more awareness for your brand, build valuable backlinks, and showcase thought leadership. So let’s dive into how to make this approach part of your content strategy.

Pitching Content to the Media Is a Crowded Space

Journalists from publications receive lots of emails every day from PR folks. This makes it seem like it’s difficult to cut through the noise. You may think you need an “in” with publications to get noticed. While that doesn’t hurt, you don’t have to spend time and effort buttering them up.

To hook a journalist, you need more than an average, everyday email. What you have on your side is a deep understanding of the audience and industry. If you’ve been building your content marketing library for some time, then you have a bounty of options.

What’s most important in pitching them is that you are telling great brand stories. If you’re doing this, you’ll interest journalists with what you have to offer because it is useful, unique, and compelling.

Your Brand Can Actually Help Journalists

Journalists typically have to produce content fast and at volume. Those articles require research, data, angles that have a broad appeal, and much more. That’s a heavy burden, and you can help them. It’s especially true if you have original proprietary research, which is one of the most impactful types of content you can produce.

You might be making their job a little easier with your gamut of ideas. There are several ways to roll with this:

  • Help them with holes in their stories with your research or expert quotes from your company.
  • Develop original story ideas with perspectives and angles you know about that mention your brand.
  • Use your publishing data as the backbone of a story in the vein of a case study or example. For example, if you notice that a specific topic is getting substantial traffic, that’s obviously something important to your audience and that of the journalist.

Neither of these is directly promotional. Instead, it’s positioning your business as a thought leader on the subject.

Publications Care About Traffic and Virality

You also need to keep in mind that publications are all about the traffic they get and the virality of stories. If you’re pitching them stories with this kind of edge, they are more likely to respond.

For example, if you’re working with an influencer in your industry or have a relationship with one, this would be attractive to publications. In the branded content piece, you’ll get your company’s recognition alongside the perspectives of the influencer. In this case, it’s a win for all parties.

PR Content and SEO

As any enterprise content team knows, branded content on third-party sites can be extremely impactful for SEO. When you have backlinks from these high-authority websites, it’s a signal to search engines that your brand is credible and trustworthy. But link building is hard. To do it well in a competitive market, you’ll find that creativity is key.

Even if your brand is well known or a startup, you can make connections that matter if you lead with something relevant and enticing. You also don’t need a six-figure budget to earn these backlinks. Instead, you need to follow the best practices we’ve discussed.

What Type of Content Works Best for PR?

When thinking about the world of content, there are so many options. Blogs and articles are just one sliver of the pie. That can certainly be your starting point, but you’ll also want to get into video and podcasting.

Video consumption is growing every day. According to Statista, consumers spent 103 minutes a day watching digital video. With smart devices always available, watching videos is just a normal part of life now in how buyers learn and discover.

Podcasting is a hot medium as well, and not just those true-crime series. As a result, it’s also become viable and easy to execute for business. In 2020, 28 percent of the U.S. population listened to podcasts weekly. They listen to hear stories, learn, and get tips.

Both mediums will be critical to your content marketing now, and in the future, so they should be part of your PR content plan.

Publications do more than publish articles. They are producing this type of content. As such, being able to be part of videos, which could include interviews, panels, or other activities, is good exposure. Having your brand’s leadership be a guest on a podcast is just as valuable, so diversifying your options is a good move.

PR Ideas for Content Can Also Be Paid

While we’ve mainly talked about ways to get your brand in publications that are not dependent on budget dollars, paid content should also be part of your plan. You can create branded sponsored content on websites for associations or trade publications that your audience trusts. There’s also the option to boost branded content with paid social media ads. Guest blogging is also an option to obtain those backlinks, and sometimes it comes at a cost.

Weigh the value these things would bring with the cost and focus on the ones that will support SEO and brand awareness the best.

Keep Thinking Outside of the Box on Branded Content

Branded content can support SEO, expand your reach, and strengthen your credibility. While PR ideas from content require research, ideation, and time, they can pay dividends. You should certainly make it a priority for this year and beyond.

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