Reporters. They’re just like us. They’ve got goals and they would love help in achieving them, especially if it comes without having to ask for it. The great news is that there’s a really easy way to do this while gaining more mentions for your brand or clients.
PR professionals are constantly trying to secure the best media coverage and any good comms person knows that spray-and-pray pitching only weakens their relationships with reporters.
What if you knew exactly what stories were being widely read or taking off? When relevant, you could use that opportunity to align your pitch to what’s being highly engaged for the reporter. At the same time, you could avoid pitches where you know the story has just fallen flat, and therefore, it’s unlikely a reporter would write another story along the same lines.
Here are 3 ways you can use article traffic (readership) to ensure more placements:
High traffic on a piece will lead to more coverage on that topic.
I’ve seen this firsthand. A reporter we worked with in the past reached back out for a follow-up story. The original article was the most-read piece of content on the site for the year so far. Since it was driving so much traffic, their editor told them to keep going. Write more on that topic. Dive deeper. Capitalize on the interest to get more traffic.
How many people read articles on a site is a strong indicator of the themes reporters will be covering more of to meet publisher traffic goals – and a signal of how PR pros can focus their pitches to the most relevant reporters.
You can almost guarantee coverage when you pitch stories that outperform an outlet’s baseline.
Publishers want more traffic. When PR pros know which stories brought in an outsized number of readers to what’s typical for that publication, they can pitch topics, angles, or commentary tied to the top performers.
Pitching a story that performs above a site’s average (the publisher benchmark, as we call it), almost guarantees you coverage. It’s a major efficiency boost.
Another time saver: don’t pitch a follow-up story unless you know the original saw some decent traffic. Don’t pitch a story on a topic that doesn’t attract readers for that reporter in general.
Pitching stories that boost traffic for reporters strengthens relationships.
When you pitch stories to reporters that they know will get a green light from their editor based on past article performance, it ultimately makes their life easier. Consistently delivering angles, sources, and news that boosts traffic for the site makes them look good and only increases your value for media friendlies. Over time, you can become a resource for stories that always deliver wins for your brand and for publishers.
On the flip side, when you continue pitching follow-up angles to stories that didn’t perform or stories that don’t drive traffic, your value in the relationship begins to plummet.
TL;DR
Article readership data is more than better PR measurement. Data transparency helps fuel the earned media ecosystem. The more data you have to guide pitches, the better your results, the stronger your relationships with press.
Learn more about Memo’s Reporter Intelligence, the only readership-driven reporter database.