Hello there. I’m Tom Chivers, a freelance Digital PR (and part time pick n mix aficionado), with over 6 years of experience building backlinks. 

I was building links since before Digital PR was even a thing. Back when you had a “monthly link budget” and the aim was to get your client as many backlinks as you could for as cheap as possible, often writing up several terrible articles in a day. 

The process was spam, plain and simple, and I’m delighted that Google took action to stop it. It was making the internet a worse place. 

Thankfully, we’ve moved on from that now and since working in Digital PR I can say I’m proud of the work I do rather than filling the internet with spam. 

Digital PR is a fantastic way to build high-quality backlinks to your website, but it’s a hard graft. While getting coverage is difficult, the reward is far greater and the sense of personal satisfaction of building a top-tier link is second to none. 

This isn’t paid link building, where you can slip a website some money for them to publish your article. A site that would literally publish anything for the right price. With digital PR, your story has to be good or it’s going nowhere. 

Journalists are the gatekeepers here and they’ve got a finely tuned sense of what quality is. They are inundated with pitches every day, so your strategy must be creative, your content compelling, and your approach professional and respectful, ensuring you’re providing value to the journalist as much as you are aiming to get value for your brand.

Many press releases are dead-on-arrival when they hit a journalist’s inbox because they’re either too unfocused, overly promotional, or just generally irrelevant. Those are just three examples of why, though in truth, there are probably dozens of reasons why the vast majority of press releases sent out never see the light of day. 

Thankfully, I’ve developed a foolproof system for testing your press releases to ensure they’re as tight as possible in order to actually be of use to the journalist who’s reading it. 

I bloody love an acronym, so I call this magic strategy: CALM IT.

Short for: Context, Analysis, Links, Measurements, Imagery & Time. 

Nail all six of these factors in your next press release and you’ll significantly boost your odds of securing the media coverage of your dreams.

Context – Who is this pitch relevant to?

Before sending your press release, diligently research exactly what topics a journalist covers to ensure your pitch is tailored to their interests.

If you’re sending out your press releases to every single journalist you’ve discovered from a media database – in the hope that even if they’re not relevant they might send it on to someone who is – stop it right now. 

You will be severely damaging your reputation (and automatically ending up in people’s spam folders soon before long) if you’re sending releases about your new line of dog backpacks to someone who exclusively writes about UK pensions. 

Journalists have specialised beats within broader categories, essentially, niches within niches. Finance is rife with this, so make sure your personal finance release on ‘how to save money on dog food’ isn’t being sent to economy journalists.

A good rule of thumb is for every journalist you add to your release, is if they were to ask you why they’re getting this email, you could answer honestly without getting egg on your face. 

Try to look beyond job titles and actually glance at the articles they’ve previously written, which will give you a better understanding of their beat and even what kind of content they’re looking for. 

Analysis – What insight are you offering?

A great press release goes beyond surface-level information. It dives into insightful analysis, helping people to understand the significance of your news. There’s nothing a journalist hates more than someone explaining what they already know back to them. 

Don’t retell them the story, instead break down complex issues, offer expert quotes, or provide comparisons to help paint a clear picture.

The best releases are newsworthy AND educational. If you don’t have an expert on-hand to help you with this, then you can go out and find one. 

The #journorequest hashtag on Twitter is great for finding a wealth of experts on any given topic, from yoga instructors to sleep specialists. Simply let them know what you’re writing about and see if they can come up with a comment to help add additional insight.

Just be aware, they’ll want a credit themselves for helping you out. So don’t ‘accidentally’ forget to include that in your release or you’ll burn some bridges!

Links – Where do you want the reader to go?

Links are the lifeblood of Digital PR. To secure those valuable backlinks, it’s imperative that you are proactive about inserting them across your press release.

Make it unmistakably clear where you want the journalist to go to. To achieve this, I opt for a prominently displayed, long hyperlink within the release that naturally captures the eye’s focus.

After all, if you’ve built some onsite content that you want them to link to you’d be a bit silly burying it under a click here link. 

Measurements – Why is this story pertinent?

Are you able to back up your story with data? Perfect. Incorporating data can improve the credibility and substance of your narrative with the help of some cold, hard facts. 

Include figures, statistics, and quantifiable facts. Trend data, open-source data, whatever data you can get your hands on will massively improve your chances.

Imagery – How can you make the journalist’s job easier? 

A good rule of thumb, the easier you make someone’s life the more likely they are to do you a favour. Make sure you’re providing everything a journalist could possibly need to turn your release into a fully-fledged article. 

Visuals are vital in today’s media landscape. Include high-quality, relevant images, graphics, or videos to help strengthen your press release. 

These should be easily shareable and downloadable for people to use. Include them in a separate folder that you link to in the release and do not, for the love of God, attach them to your releases because the size of the files will cause a serious issue. 

Time – When is the best time to pitch this?

Timing is essential. When will your intended target be most receptive? When are journalists scanning for stories? 

Be mindful of the news cycle, avoiding major holidays and busy news days. The last thing you want to do is be buried in a deluge because you decided to release something on Valentines Day that wasn’t even relevant to romance. 

How does it work in the real world?

This is all very well and good in theory, I hear you mutter to yourself, but how does it work in practice? 

Well, for the sake of fairness, I’m going to lay out how this theory would work if you were a specialist rollerblade company called Wheely Good Times.

Sales are down and you’re getting your ass kicked in the SERPs by Skate Estate, Lace & Race and Ricks Roller Emporium. You just know if you get yourself a few high-quality links you can start to overtake them.

Enter: Barbie. 

CALM IT in practice: get your skates on

You’ve gone to see the new Barbie movie to cheer yourself up after your rollerblade sales were down year on year. 

But wait, what’s that Ryan Gosling is holding up there? SKATES! We’re back, baby! You run out of the cinema in a frenzy, ready to put this good fortune to use. 

You know that something so trendy is bound to be covered in the news, so let’s put a release together to show how Barbie has single-handedly caused a rollerblade boom.

Context

What kind of journalist would care about Barbie causing a massive spike in sales? You’d be surprised. Fashion journalists absolutely love these kinds of stories, from when Nicki Minaj caused Crocs to make a comeback to everyone wanting to know where Adele’s eyeliner came from.

It’s not just fashion though, people who write about film culture or even niche sports might be interested in this one. 

Analysis

This is your moment, because people care about rollerblades now. You can use your expertise to prove yourself to be the go-to for all things roller. You’re a rollerblade expert, damn it, act like one! 

You can contextualise how influential this film has been because you haven’t seen sales like this since before roller rinks were at their heyday. 

Links

For a story like this, the best thing you can do is link to a similar product within your store. 

Do you have a specific pair of neon yellow rollerblades for sale? Well, you’re in luck, because if the journalist links to this in their article you’re probably going to sell out.

Measurement

The best data is the kind that’s personal to your company. Nobody else has it, so that means it’s incredibly valuable. Sharing purchase data is a fantastic way to get across to the press how influential something has been, because your sales are through the roof because of it.

While sharing the actual number of sales made or revenue generated is a bad idea, using percentages is a good way to get around this without giving away company secrets. 

If your client isn’t willing to share proprietary data, even something as vague as percentages, then it’s time to pivot to publicly available data. 

Thankfully Google Trends is a godsend here. Type in “rollerblades” and use the dates slider to find out what the best statistic is. 

While they won’t give exact search figures, interest is based from 0-100. If interest has gone from 32 to 100 in a year, that’s a 213% spike in interest. Sounds like a story to me!

Imagery

So you’ve got these neon yellow rollerskates, right? Don’t let the journalist go trawling through your website to find a picture of them. 

Provide high quality images of your products, even of the ones from the original film so they can see the comparison. Just be sure you add an image credit for any imagery you don’t own.

Time

The best time to do this would have been the week of Barbie’s release. Remember me saying you ran out of the screening before the film had even finished? Well, with a lot of these trends, you really will have to be that fast at times. 

Trending news is here today and gone tomorrow. So be sure to put something together fast or you’ll miss the boat. Nobody cares about your Barbie release now everyone’s talking about the next big thing. 

And that, in a nutshell, is how you CALM IT! 

CALM IT: a press release example

Don’t believe the ridiculous example above can be turned into a press release? That’s where you’re wrong, bud! 

Here is how you turn that theory into practice…

Hi [Journalist Name],

I know you’re interested in all things pop culture (loved the article on Dua Lipa’s pinky ring last week!) so I thought this might be of interest. 

I represent Wheely Good Times, a premium rollerblade company, who have some insight for you on what the new Barbie Movie has done for sales of their products. 

The Neon Rollerblades in question can be found here: https://wheelygoodtimes.com/rollerblades/neon-yellow/

Alongside some high quality imagery: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1WgoBpSC

Barbie’s Neon Rollerblade sales are up 6000%: here’s how you can grab yourself a pair

Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures.

The Barbie movie has been a smash hit at the box office this week and fans are eager to dress the part.

While sales of “I am Kenough” hoodies have likely gone through the roof, there’s one more fashion accessory people can’t get enough of: Rollerblades.

What’s the deal?

Wheely Good Times has seen a 6000% increase in sales in the last 6 months thanks to Barbie’s influence.  

Our premium Neon Rollerblades have been selling like hot cakes, with many a Barbie-lover wanting to grab themselves a pair and head straight to the beach. 

Commentary from our Founder

“I’ve never seen anything like this in my life – and I lived through the roller rink craze of the 70s! 

The difference Barbie has made to this company has been a joy to behold and a special thanks to the creative team for putting skates in the spotlight. It warms my heart to see the magic of skating being embraced so fervently by the general public and I hope it continues. 

I’ve got high hopes that this sparks a lifelong love for rollerblades in everyone else, just as they have done for the team at Wheely Good Times. I just hope the newbies remember to buy some shinpads!”

Rolland Glide, Founder at Wheely Good Times.

Ends

So there you have it. You’ve got yourself a ready-to-go formula that you can now apply to all your press releases to make sure they’re hitting the right notes and increasing your chances of getting some sweet, sweet coverage.