It’s not often your first thought is it? Digital marketing, especially with PPC and Google Ads, is usually the first go to – and that makes perfect sense. However, consistent good PR with resultant coverage does boost your ad performance as well as your SEO and does wonders for overall brand recall.
How does it work?
Editors and contributing journalists love a good listicle. This can be for ‘The Best 10 Dog Trackers’ (Tractive, who we’re working with, is the no 1 GPS tracker by the way) with a series of critically tested reviews. Or it could be for more abstract lifestyle lists along the lines of ‘Things Every Smart Home Should Have’ (that would be a Bird Buddy!). Also, let’s not forget about the opportunities that arise with seasonal annual occasions, like ‘What Your Garden Needs (check out Market Garden for that). And of course, the holy grail of seasonal coverage is always the Christmas Holiday git guide season, when journalists and editors will be working on pieces titled, for example, ‘17 Ideas for Her’ (Slipper Box’s Shepherd is a popular choice).
Complete with the hard-to-get backlinks (directly to your brand’s site, or to a reseller), listicles and reviews do much to boost the performance of an e-commerce brand. Usually this applies to the specific product being covered, but it can also often result in upsells and cross-sells as customers wander around the website and get hooked into the well executed sales funnel and discount maze. Being featured in the press also acts a direct feeder to other online news outlets, such as Yahoo or MSN, as well as eliciting organic interest from other journalists.
E-commerce businesses, if they are successful and aim to be a leader in their categories, tell a good brand story – which is like catnip to a features journalist. Interviews and exclusives with the founder(s) have significant engagement and brand impact. Understanding the passion behind a brand, and what makes a product stand out among competitors, provides a learning backdrop to many; the rise from nothing is a common drama yet one that continues to rake in an interested audience.
And let us not forget the power of local PR. With the high street and traditional physical shopping means rescinding, some customers maintain their preference for buying local. This is where features and lists in local media outlets and regional press perform strongly (they align to your whether-you-like-it-or-not local SEO preferences) and your literal chattering networks. Local influencers doing local reviews also have an impact in driving sales to your online business.
Stepping further upwards, even the biggest e-commerce brands rely on being seen in the media. Whether that is as part of a photo shoot or being reviewed or listed, they understand the impact of being included in the likes of Vogue, BuzzFeed, or Forbes.
It all matters and counts.
It’s not hard to do PR for e-commerce brands. You just need to be consistent – this approach should be part of your marketing make up. And once a journalist loves your product and your brand, you’ll have made friends for life.
