And it’s not just any content that you need for digital PR. Content that compiles data from original research and presents it in an easily understandable format seems to be more effective for digital PR efforts. 

Publications don’t want to link to your site if your blog is full of promotional articles about your brand. But they do want to source you if you have helpful, informative content and data that further their story.

Not only is data-driven content more likely to attract links naturally, but sites are more likely to accept your stories if they are rooted in the unique source content. These ideas will help you determine ways to gather unique, data-driven source content for your digital PR.

1. Utilize data you already have

Using your own data is the best way to ensure that your content is unique and stands out. Presenting your own data shows initiative, provides your audience with content they can’t find anywhere else and immediately elevates your authority. Most companies have more owned data than they realize, but don’t realize the potential that data holds for them.

If you or your client has a website, then you already have data to utilize. Every website gathers data, whether it’s how a customer moves through the site or what customers are purchasing. This information is great for gaining insight into customer behavior and purchase trends. Anything from customer numbers to data specific to your products or services can be used to craft compelling content. 

Utilizing the analytical tools that track your own website and marketing efforts can give you insights to use in your content marketing strategy. Google Analytics is a good stepping stone, as you can look into different consumer demographics such as age, gender, and location of customers, along with the industries they work in, what they buy, what devices they use, and more.

Data you already have can move past website data as well. Does your company do any yearly reports about industry data and trends? These can be great sources of information internally, that may have the potential to be posted to your site. Use them as source content data for your digital pr and you may see that publications seek out your company for larger, industry-wide trends to the source.

2. Survey customers

In some cases, it’s better to conduct your own research through surveys, rather than using readily available data. Conducting surveys is a great way to gather information and statistics around topics you specifically want to focus on. The key to getting the best data from a survey is to know exactly what you want out of it.

Customer surveys and user-sourced data are powerful ways to highlight what your product or service can share with others. Think carefully about the questions before asking them. You want to get the best results possible to generate a variety of angles to use in your content.

You’ll want to have some questions about your company specifically, but don’t be afraid to broaden your reach and ask some industry-wide questions. The broad survey data is often what publications would want to source in their content. 

Before you begin, it’s important to think about what size sample base you need to make your research credible. You’ll want a sample size large enough to know that you can glean useful data from it. 

How to survey customers

1. Social media: Social is a great way to use the audience you have to get information. You could post a survey to your page and ask your audience to answer some high-level questions. You could also boost your survey and get insights from a new audience.
2. Email surveys: You can send out an email survey to your existing customers. You can use a variety of online tools to conduct the survey. When you get your responses, you’ll have a unique view into exactly what your current customers think about you and your industry. That can help you iterate and optimize how you work with them. 

And if you want to move past just your customers, you could even survey any email list you have of leads. That may be people subscribed to your newsletter, or who have reached out to you before.

Not only do you get helpful data through these surveys. The advantage of building and implementing your own surveys is that the promotion for it through social media or email marketing creates brand awareness in itself.

3. Compile other research

Aside from your own data, there are always plenty of data sources you can use and combine to make a whole new set of data. There’s nothing wrong with using existing data, but you can use it in a slightly different way. 

You may be able to get the information you need so you can create data-driven linkable content that publications will want to source. You could analyze someone else’s data and approach it from new angles that haven’t been used yet.

If you’re unsure of where to start, some targeted google searching can help you find useful data. Social media is another outlet for information. Scour hashtags that relate to what you need and see if you can find the information you’re looking for.

If you don’t have the budget to conduct your own research or the data you already have isn’t sufficient enough, readily available data could be your answer.

Focus on Your Source Content Data for Digital PR

By considering these methods, you’ll be prepared to create content that attracts and engages your target audience. With high-quality content, you will start to get the attention of online publications that want to source you in their articles. 

If you do your research correctly, it will result in powerful data-driven content that will boost your digital PR efforts.

The post 3 Ways to Gather Source Content Data for Your Digital PR appeared first on Relevance.

Most publications are interested in citing educational, helpful information that adds to a conversation. If you’re only focused on putting out promotional content about your brand, it’s highly unlikely a publication will want to source that content.

Instead, try creating content that is educational, informative, and provides true value to relevant conversations. When you have a variety of content on your site that does just that, that’s when you’ll see success with digital pr outreach efforts. That’s when a publication will want to use your blog post full of useful data points in their article. 

To get to that point, you need to be thinking through different types of source content that you can put on your site to help aid your digital PR outreach efforts. Here are some types of content to get you started:

1. Data-Focused Research

Original research is difficult for everybody. But with some hard work, it’s possible, and if you do it well it can lead to incredible results. Utilizing your own data ensures that your content is unique and stands out among others. 

Creating content focused on your own data shows resourcefulness and elevates your authority since your audience can’t find it anywhere else. Think through what information you can gather from your own customers, employees, or audience that would provide value to your industry as a whole. Use that as a starting point to creating data-focused content for your site.

2. Blogs

Detailed, relevant content can drive organic traffic to your website, while also informing consumers about your products, brand, and expertise in the field. Blogs are great opportunities for keyword optimization and gaining inbound links, which help with SEO and traffic growth. 

More than that though, blogs are the windows to your company’s soul. They explain what you do, who you are, and why you do what you do. When you write strategically and educationally about your company, this encourages publications to utilize that information.

Make sure you sprinkle in helpful stats and quotes when applicable to make your digital PR outreach as strong as possible. Incorporating quotes around industry trends and high-level ideas for the industry within your blogs makes for the great source content. Quoting industry experts will boost the credibility of your content and overall brand. These quotes add weight to your content and what you’ve said seems more valid. That also means you’re ready if publications want to use you as a source.

3. Unique Insights

Unique insights are distinctive aspects of your company that make you stand out from your competitors. It can also be a unique way of thinking you have about your industry as a whole. Using this as content inspiration is great because publications can utilize you as examples in their content. 

In a world of competition, personalization has become a necessity for brands. Targeted and personalized insights help communicate a clearer message and attract customers. Unique insights can help businesses determine why people buy certain products over others and what’s driving those preferences. 

4. Podcasts and Videos

The ease of use and accessibility of these digital mediums over the past several years has made them must-use forms of content. Podcasts and videos have become increasingly popular because they can be consumed somewhat passively. 

Videos are more likely to hold the audience’s attention as opposed to something they have to read. Podcasts are also an engaging, personable method to reach users and allow them to easily access the content.

Both of these are great sources of content for publications to use and link to. As with all other content, make sure your videos or podcasts are moving the conversation forward and are answering questions about your industry.

5. Infographics

Infographics are great because they’re easily shareable and consumable. Creating interesting visual representations of information and statistics makes it easier to read than a list of numbers and facts. 

Because these tend to have a lot of stats and numbers associated with them, they make great pieces of content to source in external articles. Think through stats that are relevant not only to your business but your industry as a whole to capture the attention of online publications. This will help make your digital PR outreach more successful.

6. Social Media Posts

Every business should be utilizing social media in some capacity. However, using social media platforms as content distribution isn’t enough anymore. You should also be creating content that’s specific to your various channels and promotes your business’s personal growth. 

Social media can also be a great tool for distributing key stats, facts, and quotes about your business and industry. Many online publications will look to social for helpful snippets, so think about keeping your LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook up to date. Posting to social media could help provide a publication with the information they need to include you in an article.

7. Case Studies

Case studies take time and energy to create, but they also hold a substantial amount of weight with consumers. These studies are essentially success stories that show the power of your business and its services. 

By researching and taking an in-depth look at specific subjects, your business can quickly increase its trustworthiness and expertise in the eyes of consumers. The more specific results you can showcase and the deeper you can dive, the more potential people will believe your company has.

These case studies can be another source of information for publications to pull if you’re sure to fill them with helpful information. When doing digital PR outreach, they can be a great tool to prove why your company should be mentioned.  

Excelling at Digital PR Outreach

Strong content has and always will be the foundation of a successful marketing strategy. 

But it can do more than just help to encourage readers to become customers. It can be the key to excelling in digital PR outreach. With strong source content, publications won’t have a choice but to include you in the articles they are writing about your industry.

The post 7 Types of Source Content for Digital PR Outreach appeared first on Relevance.