Using PR for B2B Link Building

PR is essential for building brand awareness, but it’s also an excellent tool for building backlinks. In this guest post, Sarah Ross, PR Account Manager at Anicca Digital, shares some tips on using PR for B2B link building.

By integrating PR and SEO strategies, you can increase quality backlinks to a website through great content and online coverage.

Recent research from Backlinko discovered that 93% of B2B content receives zero external links and only 3% receives links from multiple websites. In the sample of 912 million blog posts, only 6% had at least one external link.

So how do you ensure your content is part of the 3%? The following tips will help you develop a B2B campaign with linkable assets.

How does link building differ between B2B and B2C?

Quality links are one of the most important Google ranking factors. It favours authoritative websites that are updated with new content regularly, which is why news websites have a high domain authority – the search engine ranking score that predicts how well a website will rank on search engine result pages.

It makes these websites an excellent target for link building.

B2C campaigns are often product focused – gift guides, home and garden shopping features, beauty ‘tried and tested’ articles – giving journalists a reason to include a backlink to your website.

However, building links to B2B websites can be more challenging and as some links are easier to earn than others, success depends on your approach.

Generating ideas

• Great PR ideas don’t always translate into great links – you need to create a reason for coverage to include a backlink to your website
• Look at topics that journalists in your industry have covered previously and think about what is absent. Can you offer any unique insights or original data?
• Target media outlets that are relevant to your topic and likely to drive traffic to your website
• Review competitor campaigns for inspiration

Creating content

Keeping in mind that you need to create quality content, the following ideas can be developed into linkable assets:

Surveys are useful for creating unique data on a topic and can be completed using a survey specialist or using your own email database. Host the full results on your website so journalists can link to the original source of the material.

Research can be used to produce a whitepaper sharing industry data or insight. Again, the full piece of content can be hosted on your website, while key findings or opinion pieces can be used for PR activity.

Events like seminars, conferences and networking meet-ups can encourage links by asking attendees to reserve their place via your website.

Infographics offer a more visual take on industry insights and can be published on other websites easily, earning you a backlink as the original source of the material.

Guides from industry thought leaders can provide useful advice for step-by-step features or ‘top tips’ articles.

Earning links

Once you’ve created your content, choose key snippets to create an angle for your press release. Being selective with the data will help to encourage backlinks to the full source of the information.

Be aware that you won’t get a link from every piece of coverage, but these tactics can help to boost the number of links you’re achieving for B2B brands and make your content part of the 3%.