What It Is
Digital PR for link earning means creating newsworthy content — original data studies, surveys, expert commentary, or industry research — that journalists and editors want to cite in their own coverage. Unlike outreach that negotiates for link placements, Digital PR earns editorial links because the content itself is genuinely useful as a reference. The goal is to appear in publications your audience already trusts, building both authority and referral traffic simultaneously. James Brockbank of Digitaloft has built one of the UK’s leading Digital PR and link earning agencies on this foundation, and emphasizes that the gap between traditional SEO outreach and PR is closing fast.
How It Works
- Identify a trending topic in the client’s industry where there is a genuine data gap — something journalists cover but have to estimate or speculate about because no authoritative source exists
- Commission a survey (minimum 500 respondents via SurveyMonkey Audience, Pollfish, or Lucid), compile industry data, or conduct original experiments that produce publishable findings
- Write a press release that frames the findings as a news story, leading with the most counterintuitive or surprising result — not with the brand
- Build a media list of 30–50 journalists who have covered similar topics using Cision, MuckRack, or manual SERP research on “[topic] site:nytimes.com” or “[topic] journalist”
- Pitch with a personalized email — one paragraph max — for each journalist referencing a recent article they wrote and explaining why your findings are relevant to their beat; follow up once after 4 business days
Who Recommends It
- James Brockbank endorses — Managing Director of Digitaloft, one of the UK’s leading Digital PR and link earning agencies. Unscripted SEO episode →
Difficulty & Time Estimates
HardDifficulty
3–6 monthsTime to Results