Getting links from online legal publications can have a very powerful impact on your visibility and credibility online. But attracting links from these publications can sometimes be quite difficult. While there is no doubt that the quality and newsworthiness of your piece is critical, you should also think about how and who you are going to pitch your story.
Over at Distilled, Lexi provides some great tips on how to get big links from big media sites:
There are two factors that determine whether you get an awesome link from a newspaper: what the story is and who (and when) you pitch the story.
Too often I see a disproportionate amount of time and consideration going into the details of a story or a pitch, and not as much into determining who to pitch a story to and when.
This is odd because when you sell in a press release, timing is paramount. And as PR and SEO get closer to each other, this becomes true for SEOs who are trying to get links from high-quality sites. It is imperative to get your information seen by the right people at the right time.
I couldn't agree more. This goes directly to the "getting content in front of people who are ready, willing, and able to link to, publicize, and share it."
The first step is to identify the online legal publications that you think you have a chance of getting links from. Start out by thinking local, legal, and relevant. For example, if you're an injury lawyer in Illinois, you might identify the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association website.
The next step is to consider your story or pitch. If your story isn't newsworthy, it's going to be a much more difficult pitch to a news publication. However, don't obsess about your story. In many instances, media outlets are hungry for decent stories.
Finally, as Lexi points out, you have to think about the who, how, and when to pitch your story:
If you call to let a publication know several days in advance that you will have news coming out on a particular day, their response to your story will be significantly warmer.
If you are giving a publication few weeksโ notice, remember to keep them up-to-date, or else they will forget about it.
Once youโve got through to the newsdesk:
Remember to keep your pitch short and concise.
Donโt over-sell it.
Ask how theyโd like to receive the information.
If you successfully pitch your story directly to a reporter, they will pitch it to the editors for you.Make sure you ask whoever you speak with to put a followed link in the piece.
Make sure you have relevant links in several key parts of whatever copy you send out.
Email ASAP to request a link if it is not in the published article.
Don't get discouraged if your story isn't published on your first try. Develop a relationship with contact people at the publication. Try different approaches. As you might know, links from authoritative online legal publications are amongst the best links you can get. Usually, they're worth the extra effort that it might take to pursue them.
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