Digital PR is manual. Whilst we’re surrounded by tools that enable us to save time on outreach and researching contacts, being savvier on alleviating tedious processes throughout ideation and outreach will enable more time for you and your team to focus on what’s important - being creative. Here I outline actionable tips and tricks that have helped me automate the most time-consuming aspects throughout the digital PR campaign process.

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How to Save Time in Digital PR:
From Ideation to Outreach
Sarah Fleming, Kaizen Agency
@sarahhflemingpr

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We are SPOILT with the amount of tools we can
use to help craft our creative campaigns

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Look familiar?

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But sometimes we forget about the ‘tools’ staring
us right in the face...

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Saving time in the Digital PR process ultimately
starts with becoming more savvy with our tools

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How to:
What this talk will cover

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Building client trust from day 1

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What qualities do your BEST clients have?

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1. Clients that say “you’re the experts”
2. Give minimal feedback and approve things fast
3. Clear on the value you’re adding as an agency
The Perfect Client Formula

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DATA &
RESEARCH
OUTREACH
2 DATA &
RESEARCH3
OUTREACH
1
Avoiding delays throughout your campaign process
starts with building client trust

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2 31
Our god-tier approach to saving time

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Prospective client: “As I expressed, (working with our previous SEO
agency) was all very positive but there was a distinct lack of action
when it came to establishing links.”

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Proving why we live and breathe links
Page-level link features:
● PageRank
● TrustRank
● Quality of links
● Quality of link sources
● Anchor text distribution
RANKING
FACTORS
Backlinks
Content
Relevance
Technical
Factors
User
Signals
Local

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Your competitors have
121different tier 1 publications
linking to them that you
don’t have
These publications include:
Proving proactivity re: attaining links

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Prospective client’s traditional PR agency: “We cannot ask
journalists for links on nationals like the BBC, beyond encouraging
them to use where appropriate. It’s a tactic that journalists tweet
about regularly as bad practice.”

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Proving why granting outreach to tier 1’s is CRUCIAL
1 national link from
one campaign
resulted in
91follow links and
coverage on high-tier
publications
1 national link from one
campaign resulted in
1090social shares across high-
tier publications

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Proving why granting outreach to tier 1’s is CRUCIAL
CNBC link went live

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Building trust starts with proving how your agency
will be better than your prospective clients’ last!

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Prospective client 2: “The other ideas pitched to us that we
liked were interactive or had a strong data research
component.”

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Are interactive campaigns WORTH the time?

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Data from Aira Agency 2018
Whilst interactives CAN allow greater performance

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It’s important to never forget the selling point

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Content formats should NEVER be the initial
driving force for a campaign

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Leading your campaigns story first will save both
you and your client time and money!

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How to save time throughout the
Digital PR process

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First of all, why is it important?

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Spending more time devising AMAZING creative
campaigns = less time on outreach

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CONTENT
STRATEGY
DESIGN &
DEVELOPMENT
CONTENT
STRATEGY1
DESIGN &
DEVELOPMENT
4
Allowing your team to create campaigns like this...
200+ pieces of
links & coverage
earned
Outreached and
updated over time

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1
4
and this!

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How to save time in the Ideation
stage

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Some of the best ideas come to me out of office...

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But being switched on about current performing
content all the time is so important

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Utilise the news as an ideation tool

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Google’s News Finder Tool
http://bit.ly/GooglesNewsFinderTool

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Editorial Standards Process

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Global Relevance
CONTENT
STRATEGY
IDEATION
DATA &
RESEARCH
DESIGN &
DEVELOPMENT
OUTREACH
CONTENT
STRATEGY1 IDEATION
4 5Niche
Regionals
Nationals
International/Non-English
Global
Number/Type
of News Sites
Global
UK Only

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How to save time in the Creation
stage

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The secret to saving time in the Creation stage is
Quality Assurance-ing EVERYTHING

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As well as self-checking all data and research you
collate!

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Use a data bank to bolster your campaign’s sources
http://bit.ly/kaizendatabank

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Make sure you have a standard design upload process

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How to save time in the Outreach
stage

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Importing prospect lists can easily be automated

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Implementing macros for your prospect lists in Excel
1. Open your media list export
2. Go to View > Record Macro
3. Name your macro
4. Store in “Personal Macro
Workbook”
5. Choose shortcut key ie.
“Ctrl+Shift+T”
6. Press OK (you’re now
recording)
7. Filter out unnecessary columns
that BuzzStream won’t care
about. Make sure you alter
anything by whole columns i.e.
deleting columns or creating
tables
8. Rename columns to
BuzzStream-friendly names i.e.
“Person Email” and
“Publication Name”
9. Hit stop recording macro
10. And voilà!

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Steal prospect lists from similar campaigns

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Steal prospect lists from similar campaigns

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Be proactive turning brand mentions into links
“Your chance of success doubles when you reach out the same day that an article is
published” - James Brockbank, MD at Digital Loft Agency

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Optimise your outreach strategy for sell-in headlines
http://bit.ly/OutreachStrategyTemplate

52. @sarahhflemingpr
How to Save Time in The Digital PR Process
1. Build client trust from day 1 to avoid delays 🤜🤛
2. Only recommend interactive campaigns if they add story value 🔮
3. Utilise social media and the news as ideation tools 📲
5. Implement an editorial standards process for every new campaign idea 🗂
8. Steal prospect lists from similar campaigns 👩💻
6. Quality Assurance all your data and research 📊
4. Use Google’s News Finder Tool for ideation & coverage searching 🔎
7. Utilise Excel macros to speed up filtering prospects into BuzzStream 📮
9. Follow up with unlinked brand mentions on the same day 📬
10. Optimise your outreach strategy for sell-in headlines 💸

53. @sarahhflemingpr
Thank you!
Grab the slides at bit.ly/PintSizedSarah
@sarahhflemingpr