Mapping PR opportunities across the buying journey
Our job as PR professionals is to drive the most visibility for our clients, to the most relevant audiences. One of the ways we approach this at Verde is through the lens of the customer journey. This full-funnel approach not only helps us tailor our pitching to be most effective, but it also helps drive the best results for all KPIs, from awareness to sales.
Here, we’ll walk through the process of identifying the different steps of the buying journey and the PR and earned media opportunities that come with them. Our hypothetical customer in this scenario will be someone that is looking forward to trying out backpacking this summer and is shopping for their first backpacking tent.
Gathering Information
Intent: research, learning, broad, non-transactional
Keywords or Searches: “how to choose a backpacking tent,” “what is a backpacking tent,” “backpacking tent vs camping tent”
What Kind of Websites Show Up In Search: retailer guides/blogs, media articles, brand blogs
PR & Earned Media Opportunities: expert opinions in guides, owned content
How We approach this category for our clients:
Informational searches can be long-tail or more niche, meaning that they can be less competitive. With lower competition brands can use their topical expertise to have a better chance to rank and drive traffic with owned content on their websites, like blogs or articles. Still, powerful retailers and media are big players in the space, so owned content needs to find ways to provide searchers with better and more helpful information.
- Matt, Digital Marketing Manager
Going deeper than just product placements is a big priority in our overall PR strategy for our clients. Finding ways to showcase our brands as experts in their field - whether that be experts in water purification, waterproof/breathable technologies, or experts in the freeze-drying food process. Whatever their expertise may be, it is essential to set them apart from other brands in their space and to make them available to the media as a go-to resource. For every product-based pitch we send out, we’ll also mix in pitches about the different topics our clients can speak to - a bullet-point list of their expertise. This also often helps create story angles or new ideas for the media, while also giving them access to the experts they need to tell those stories in a compelling way.
- Alexa, Director
Broad Research
Intent: research, learning, brand discovery, price discovery
Keywords or Searches: “backpacking tent,” “2 person backpacking tent”
What Kind of Websites Show Up In Search: retailers, media
PR & Earned Media Opportunities: “best of” and category roundup articles
How We approach this category for our clients:
Showing up in the search results for these broad product searches can be a huge visibility driver, with the largest search volume of any category. This means a placement here will get new eyeballs on our clients month after month. Likewise, this is likely one of the hardest places for brands to rank with owned content, competing against high-powered media and retail websites - making PR & earned media the best way to take advantage of the high search volume. To drive the biggest impact for our clients, we take a search-first approach here, using SEO techniques to discover the high-performing articles and outlets that we need to be in to get seen.
- Matt, Digital Marketing Manager
Choosing The Best
Intent: comparison, brand discovery, price discovery, shopping, transactional
Keywords or Searches: “best backpacking tent,” “best backpacking tent for beginners,” “best ultralight backpacking tent”
What Kind of Websites Show Up In Search: media, retailer blogs
PR & Earned Media Opportunities: “best of” and category roundup articles
How We approach this category for our clients:
With the increasing importance of affiliate marketing for publishers and trends in Google search, “best of” roundups have become the bread and butter of PR. Modern digital PR necessitates that we focus on these pieces to drive day-to-day visibility for our brands while we continue to push for more in-depth brand stories and focused reviews. Leaning on our digital tools helps us to efficiently target “best-of” content so that we can make sure our brands are showing up where they need to be in order to be seen by searching consumers. Efficiency also means more time to develop and pitch the marquee stories.
When it comes to pitching, landing best-of and gear roundup coverage comes down to a few factors. Working with some of the best brands, innovators, and industry leaders helps us land placements, however, the outdoor industry has become more competitive, so we need to make our brands stand out. Getting high-value placements is never easy. Highlighting differentiated technology, customer reviews, and experiences, as well as simply being good partners to the media help us rise to the top. The latter point is perhaps the most important - as much as we’re here to serve our clients, being of service to the media makes Verde a valuable partner to journalists as well. This means everything from timely responses to knowing what assets we need to provide and when. Long-term service of media and brands alike has helped us deliver outstanding results for clients year after year.
- Julie, CEO
Reading Product Reviews
Intent: comparison, shopping
Keywords or Searches: “MSR backpacking tent review,” “MSR Hubba Hubba Review”
What Kind of Websites Show Up In Search: media, independent blogs
PR & Earned Media Opportunities: product reviews
How We approach this category for our clients:
Landing a thorough review placement is built on one of the most valuable pillars of public relations, which is the established, trustworthy, and long-standing relationships we have with our media contacts. This is PR at its core. Sometimes product reviews will stem from inbound media requests from editors whom we work with on a daily basis; and who are familiar with our work with a brand. Journalists come to us because they trust us to deliver them the high-quality information and products that they need to do their jobs. Other times, we will execute targeted pitches to endemic and beat-specific editors, based on the client’s goals and objectives which were worked into a well-curated PR tactical plan. Being good partners to the media means we put our clients in the best position to land impactful review coverage.
- Maor, Junior Account Manager
Takeaways:
Earned media is showing up more than ever in Google searches, and we want our clients to show up every step of the way, and these are just a few of the ways we do this. In a more competitive outdoor and active lifestyle industry with consolidating media outlets, and with evolutions to search, PR is more important and more powerful than ever. Approaching PR with a search perspective helps us to be more strategic by segmenting types of earned media articles so that we can tailor our outreach and pitching. This means that we can drive a larger impact for our clients, and be a better partner to media and journalists.
Want to learn more? Contact us and let’s get to work.