As more and more magazines, newspapers and trade publications move into the digital space, public relation firms can leverage SEO tactics to gain greater exposure for their clients.

Journalists and bloggers are using search engines and tweeting and blogging today’s hottest topics. The majority of online content is redistributed content; bloggers and online writers find content and re-post or rehash it. This means that making your PR materials SEO friendly can help you generate continued pick-up online and gain your clients further exposure.

For many traditional public relation firms, SEO may be a new challenge. However, it’s one that must be adopted for greatest success. Here is broad overview of the components that make a press release SEO friendly. Look for future blog posts that dive deeper into each of these areas and download our free SEO Guide to maximize your search presence.

Select Smart Keywords: What are the key search terms that are relevant to your content or your client? Choose 3 or 4 terms that are most relevant to the piece. Keywords with higher search volume are more competitive and harder to rank for, so be selective of the keywords you want to target. Including geo-specific terms can help you eliminate competition. For example, “Philadelphia PR Firm”, “Philadelphia Online Marketing”, or “PA Integrated Marketing” would be targeted terms that Zer0 to 5ive would like to have visibility for. The term “Public Relations” has a far larger scope but may be too competitive to rank for.

Include Keywords: Once you select the best search terms for your content, include them in the piece as much as possible without detracting from the piece’s clarity. Including the phrase verbatim in the title is key, as this title will often have an H1 Tag (an html component in the copy of a webpage) and be included in the Title Tag (html code that displays at the top of a webpage)once brought onto other website domains.

If your client posts the release to their website, be sure to tell their IT team to include the keyword phrases in their Title Tags, Description Tags, and Keyword Tags. Also tell the programmer to use header tags in the copy when the phrase is used. Provide the piece in plain html; do not use it as a PDF or image. This will help search engines see what words you are relevant for.

Use Links: Including links in your materials can be a savvy SEO practice. When you use a keyword in the body of the press release, hyperlink it back to the client’s website. When the content is picked up on a new URL, this link will help boost the SEO of your client’s website.

You can even link the article to itself if it is hosted on the client’s website. Again it is important to be selective. Covering your materials with links can detract from the flow of the piece and make it look spammy. Linking in a boiler plate or author bio section is a good technique for maintaining your credibility and gaining an SEO edge.

Utilize Linking Resources: If you have a Facebook page, Twitter account or blog, include a keyword rich link to the article once it is hosted on the client’s website. For example: Zer0 to 5ive PR Firm Tackles SEO. Remember to use keywords in the anchor text.

All of these tactics can help your piece make its way onto search engine result pages. Use the checklist below and look out for future posts that explain these components in full-detail. Keep all of these tips and the checklist below in mind for your next release and let Google do some pitching for you!

SEO Checklist

• Research keywords for your target audience/subject matter

• Select 3-4 keywords or phrases to target in the release

• Add these keywords to your release title and sub-titles (Header tags if possible)

• Add keywords strategically within the body of your release

• Add 3-4 links that point to the client’s website, by hyper linking a targeted keyword (this can be done in the body of the release or in the boilerplates)

• Have links pointing to the content from any blog or social media outlet available

Post by Zer0 to 5ive’s SEO Strategist Ryan Purtill

Emailing the media is easy. You draft your pitch, email the reporter and wait to hear back. On a good day, the reporter writes back that he or she wants to interview your client. On a bad day, you don’t hear back. On an average day, you probably still don’t hear back. So I ask, how can you rely solely on email when the top journalists are getting 100+ pitches a day and juggling deadlines, meetings and special requests from their managing editors?

I’ve found that using the phone is a complementary tool for pitching the media. The phone is not always appropriate when the reporter is on deadline, says “no” through email or you have not researched his or her recent stories and publication, but what follows are 7 ways to use the phone to your advantage:

1. Time sensitive release: Just as football is a game of inches, PR is a game of minutes. Sometimes there’s just no time to wait to hear back from a reporter if the big event is the next morning or your client just launched the hottest medical device. Follow up by phone if you don’t hear back through email on important and timely announcements.
2. Holiday weeks: Don’t underestimate the holidays. Some journalists will certainly plan vacations around the holidays, but the bottom line is that news marches forward and most journalists who are staffed around the holidays have quiet schedules and could be waiting to take your call.
3. The “generic” email: Often magazines and newspapers will list an “info@” email for following up with key contacts. Calling these outlets directly and asking to speak with your intended contact insures that the right person hears your pitch.
4. Reporter only responds to your first email: When a reporter initially emails back with interest but later becomes idle on follow-up emails, give them a quick call, assuming that you’ve given the reporter a reasonable amount of time to respond. Most journalists are actually ok with follow-up calls if you do your research.
5. Voicemail: Don’t underestimate the power of voicemail. It’s non-invasive, and as I mentioned above, your contact could simply be swarmed with too many emails to ever open your pitch. Earlier this year, I pitched an event to the Los Angeles Times and couldn’t reach the right person by email or phone. I left a couple of quick and to-the-point voicemails and the next morning I found out that the morning assignment editor received my voicemail and sent to a reporter who attended my client’s event and wrote an influential article.
6. Finding the appropriate contact: Usually a media database or publication’s website list the appropriate editors and beats. However, if you cannot quickly identify the appropriate contact at a publication, take a stab at calling the publication’s editorial desk for the most appropriate contact. Sometimes by calling you might even reach an editor who asks you to pitch them and with the proper research and good PR pitching they might encourage you to follow up with a specific reporter that will want to write a story.
7. 100% belief in your pitch: I left this last because I feel that this overrides all situations in media relations. If you truly believe that the reporter is an extraordinary fit, you’ve done your research on the journalist and you just don’t hear back from emailing, try calling. At worst, if the journalist is not interested you can use this as an opportunity to find out how you can make your next pitch better or bring closure by crossing the contact off your list.

At the end of the day, our clients judge us by the amount of quality media coverage we can bring to the table. And the phone becomes another way to get out your story. I can tell you first-hand that adding the phone into the PR toolkit has led to additional media coverage that ultimately has increased client leadership and generated additional customers and revenue.

Post by Mike Levey, Zer0 to 5ive senior strategist
Image courtesy of Aussiegall via Creative Commons BY 2.0 license

Is it possible to put together a pitch template that will work for any pitch? I believe that 99% of the time, the answer is yes. Below is a sample pitch format that I’ve found has worked time and again. Have a look:

Reporters want an organized and compelling pitch that is easy to read, includes numbers and offers thought into the bigger trends and issues around a company or product. Here are the 1, 2, 3s that I believe will work for crafting a great pitch:

1. Here’s the story: This section gives the reporter company/product background and explains why he or she should cover. I try to keep this to 2-4 sentences at most. It’s easy to ramble on about the company and product. For example, the SmartSponge System can easily be described in five sentences, but this format helps me offer a condensed background, top-line product description, and tie it to an industry trend that the reporter will know.

2. Here are the numbers: I’ve found that reporters find numbers, facts and statistics helpful when building credibility for the importance of the story you are pitching. For example, hospital infections adding $30.5 billion to the nation’s hospital costs helps quantify the pain point in the market. The bottom line – reporters love numbers!

3. Here are the discussion points: I like to show the reporter how the pitch applies to his or her particular outlet. For example, in the sample pitch I target a business TV show that interviews CEOs of exciting businesses. Sometimes I will substitute this section with an “interview opportunities” section when relevant and offer industry experts and clients in addition to the company executive.

Some might argue that the sample pitch is too long, but for a new reporter that does not know much about a company or product, I think it’s important to keep the pitch a bit longer to help them see the big picture. Use these three easy steps and you will be ‘moon walking’ with your reporters.

Posted by Michael Levey, Zer0 to 5ive senior account strategist

Image via Creative Commons courtesy of Tim Boyd www.timboyd.info.

The call came late in the day and I was on deadline for a project. It was a Chicago number – I needed to let it go into voicemail. Twenty minutes later and with my stellar copy sent, I took a listen to the message. Fifteen years in the business and you’re still never quite ready for a call from Tarana Harris, Producer for the Oprah Winfrey show. Heart pounding, palms sweating, jaw planted on my keyboard space bar, I vowed to pull myself together. After all, I KNEW Tarana, right? I’d sent her how many emails over the years? Left her how many VMs?

And so I called her back, enthusiastic but cool. Excited, but level-headed. We needed to get the ClearCount Medical Solutions Smart Sponge System out the door, that day preferably, if we were going to stand a chance for having Oprah’s Dr. Oz talk about the technology on his show about medical errors. I had that emotional moment that any PR-pro with a true love for her client should have, the “No DUH they want to have the SmartSponge System on Oprah. Isn’t it about time?” After all, between 1,000 and 1,500 surgical sponges are left behind in patients each year, causing untold pain, heartache, lawsuits and more – thank god ClearCount is doing something about this, in an easy way that actually has the potential to SAVE hospitals money.

Of course when Tarana and I talked, she was very explicit that there were NO GUARANTEES. They were having a few patient safety technologies shipped (I didn’t ask if any of them were SmartSponge competitors – didn’t want to put any ideas in her head!).

What a great client. ClearCount was exemplary about turning on a dime – in less than 24 hours we had the system shipped, the CEO had reviewed our letter and communications package and emailed it off to Tarana. And now there was only the waiting.

I don’t think it crossed anyone’s mind that the system wouldn’t even get to go through the “visual” test. Tarana had said that they’d have to see how it looked on-screen, on-stage, next to Oprah, etc.

But as the week up to the scheduled taping day transpired, it became clear that the system hadn’t really made it past Tarana’s office. It was a long show, with a big name celebrity, and only a minute or so that was dedicated to technology (something smaller than our technology, but thankfully not a direct competitor). She lets us down gently and spent time explaining what happened. It was a “great looking system,” she said, but they’d never even sight-tested it because as the show’s planning unfolded it just became more clear that there wouldn’t be time. That’s all it was. No time. Our system was an extra that never got filmed.

We heard later in the week, as we worked to have the system shipped home, another company in Pittsburgh with a cool medical device had had a similar experience years ago – only they made it all the way through filming. They heard the footage would be used – but it never showed up on-air. O, to arrive in this manner, and not really arrive!

O, the agony.

But you know, when she calls again (and O she will – that’s how cool our clients are) – O, we will do it all Over again!!!!

Which brings me to some lessons learned:

Lesson #1: I heart Oprah as much as the next guy.

Lesson #2: Relationships are relationships – Tarana will (fingers crossed) remember how accommodating we were, and maybe she’ll introduce us to a new Executive Producer coming on-board.

Lesson #3: There are never any guarantees – until someone 1-degree separated from Oprah has a sponge retained during a surgery (and unfortunately it’s possible), there’s no such thing as a “no-brainer.” That’s why this job is so hard, so exciting, so crazy.

Maybe we should pitch the other O, Ozzie. He’s still crazy, and gory enough to do a video featuring a retained sponge, right?

(Posted by Zer0 to 5ive Principal, Jen Bannan)