About this Video

• Video Title: Digital Superchats #16 (Digital PR Strategy & Search Performance)
• Channel: Marketing Masterclass Series
• Speakers: Rick Guttridge (MC), Louise Parker, Will Waldrin, Lauren Henley, Sarah J Taylor
• Duration: 01:51:06

Introduction

This video is a recording of the 16th Digital Superchats event, focusing on digital PR strategies and their impact on search engine performance. The event features several speakers who discuss adapting digital PR to the evolving media landscape, particularly considering the rise of AI and its influence on search engine results. The overall aim is to help attendees rethink and refine their digital PR and SEO approaches for greater impact and revenue generation.

Key Takeaways

• AI's impact on search: AI is significantly changing how people find information online, impacting both Google search results and other platforms. Digital PR needs to adapt accordingly.
• Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): To be visible in AI searches, brands must ensure their brand is referenced alongside relevant keywords and topics on the internet. This means broadening the scope of what is considered "good coverage."
• Customer pain points as a foundation: Creating successful digital PR campaigns requires a deep understanding of customer needs and pain points. Focusing on these can significantly improve relevance and resonance.
• Multi-channel approach: Successful digital PR strategies require a holistic approach, incorporating various channels (influencers, social media, paid media, SEO, content, CRO) for greater impact and customer engagement.
• The Six Hats framework for ideation: This framework offers a structured approach to brainstorming and refining campaign ideas, ensuring thorough consideration of various perspectives (process, facts, emotions, risks, positives, creativity).

Here are detailed summaries for each speaker's presentation in the video transcript:

Louise Parker: Louise Parker's presentation focuses on adapting digital PR strategies to the rise of AI. She begins by highlighting the volatility of the digital landscape and how digital PR professionals must constantly adapt, using the example of infographics' rise and fall in popularity. She discusses the impact of Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and AI-generated Google overviews on search results. While acknowledging the hype around AI, she emphasizes that AI-based searches still represent a tiny fraction of overall online searches. She notes that AI overviews are not always accurate, highlighting instances where they provide incorrect information. However, she emphasizes the importance of being present in these AI-generated results.

Parker introduces the concept of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and explains that LLMs work similarly to predictive text, prioritizing brand mentions alongside relevant keywords and topics. She proposes three key tweaks to digital PR strategies: rethinking "good coverage" (acknowledging that some high-profile publications restrict AI access to their content); focusing on product/industry-specific stories to better inform LLMs about the brand; and using internal spokespeople to provide expert commentary to publications, emphasizing the importance of providing unique and newsworthy comments to cut through the competition and address the rise of AI-generated fake experts. Finally, she advocates for incorporating social media into digital PR efforts, acknowledging its increasing importance in AI-driven searches.

Will Waldrin: Will Waldrin's presentation centers on moving beyond simply building links in digital PR to driving tangible results. He starts by emphasizing the continued importance of backlinks in improving search engine rankings and driving organic traffic. He highlights a Google leak revealing that the quality of backlinks significantly impacts organic performance, emphasizing relevancy, freshness of content, and site authority. Waldrin points out the changing organic landscape due to AI integration in search engines, particularly Google's AI-generated answers. He stresses that brand searches and fresh content are now more crucial than ever.

Waldrin then shifts focus to influencing the customer journey, dividing it into three stages: exposure/trigger (how to initiate purchase intent), the "messy middle" (competing with various online platforms and reviews), and conversion. He argues that ideal campaigns must drive sales, enhance brand awareness, and generate relevant links. He illustrates this with a campaign involving sending keys to space, showcasing how a creative idea, combined with data-driven insights (surveying about house deposit affordability), generated significant media coverage, links, and organic growth across multiple platforms. He then explores how different marketing teams (influencers, paid media, SEO, CRO) can collaborate to create a comprehensive strategy, showing the benefits of integrating PR into other aspects of the marketing process.

Lauren Henley: Lauren Henley's presentation focuses on the critical role of customer understanding in digital PR. She emphasizes that effective organic strategies rely on in-depth knowledge of customer needs and pain points. She argues that content addressing these pain points boosts relevance, credibility, and trust. Henley introduces the "BIC" framework (Brand, Issue, Customer) as a structured method for developing relevant PR campaigns, illustrating its application in a young driver's insurance campaign.

In this campaign, they identified the issue of abuse faced by learner drivers, aligning it with the brand's values and creating a campaign around increased penalties for such abuse. This generated considerable media coverage and petition signatures. Henley details how they conducted research – through a customer base census, social listening, and interviews with driving instructors – to gain insights into customer challenges. Her key takeaway is that by understanding customer problems and creating solutions via PR, brands improve link opportunities, boost EAT signals, and enhance organic visibility and rankings.

Sarah J Taylor: Sarah J Taylor's presentation introduces the "Six Hats" framework for ideation, a structured thinking process to enhance creativity and collaboration. She begins by sharing a personal anecdote about being creatively blocked as a child, highlighting the common struggle of information overload in creative fields. She introduces Edward de Bono's Six Hats framework, designed to separate different thinking processes (process management, facts, emotions, risks, positives, and creativity) to improve decision-making and idea generation.

Taylor explains how each "hat" (color) represents a different mindset, encouraging team members to adopt each perspective at different stages of the ideation process (pre-ideation, during ideation, and post-ideation). She emphasizes the importance of self-awareness to understand individual strengths and weaknesses within the framework. She provides a step-by-step guide on how to apply the Six Hats method, stressing the significance of emotional resonance in PR storytelling, and proposes six key questions to evaluate ideas based on each hat. The method encourages parallel thinking (the team focusing on one hat simultaneously), and rotating hats to challenge perspectives and stress-test ideas before presentation.

Yes, the following summarizes the key learnings/takeaways from each speaker, formatted for sharing with wider teams:

Louise Parker: Future-Proofing Digital PR in the Age of AI

• AI is changing the game, but not completely: While AI is significantly impacting search, it's crucial to remember that it's still a small percentage of total searches. Don't panic, but adapt.
• GEO is key: Focus on getting your brand mentioned alongside relevant keywords and topics across the web to improve visibility in AI-generated results. Think "predictive text" when crafting content.
• Rethink "good" coverage: High-authority sites might block AI crawlers. Diversify your media outreach to include publications that are accessible to AI.
• Product-focused stories: Shift from creative, tangential stories to more product-centric narratives to better inform AI algorithms about your brand.
• Internal spokespeople are valuable: Leverage internal experts to provide comments for journalists, ensuring accurate and relevant brand messaging in publications. Prioritize unique and compelling angles to cut through the noise.
• Embrace social media: Social media platforms are increasingly important data sources for AI; strategically incorporate social media into your PR strategy.

Will Waldrin: Building More Than Just Links

• Backlinks still matter, but quality counts: Focus on relevant, high-authority backlinks and fresh content for optimal SEO performance.
• AI is reshaping search: Google's integration of AI into search demands a shift to content that answers both shallow and deep user queries.
• Influence the customer journey: Don't just build links; create campaigns that directly influence customer behavior from initial exposure to conversion.
• Multi-channel approach: PR is not a silo; Integrate PR efforts across multiple platforms (influencers, social media, paid media, SEO, content) for maximum impact.
• Data-driven creativity: Leverage data from various marketing sources (paid media, sales, SEO) to inform PR campaign ideation and improve effectiveness.

Lauren Henley: Customer Pain Points as a PR Strategy

• Relevance is crucial: Effective PR relies heavily on understanding customer needs.
• The BIC Framework: Use the Brand, Issue, Customer framework to create campaigns that resonate with your audience and are newsworthy.
• Data-driven insights: Gather insights through various methods (customer surveys, social listening, internal data) to identify relevant issues.
• Actionable PR: Create campaigns that drive action (e.g., petitions, surveys) to boost engagement and brand visibility.
• Brand-customer synergy: Align PR campaigns with brand values and customer needs to generate lasting impact and organic growth.

Sarah J Taylor: Unlocking Creativity with the Six Hats Framework

• Structured creativity: The Six Hats framework provides a structured approach to ideation, enhancing both team collaboration and individual idea generation.
• Identify your thinking style: Understand your natural thinking preferences and those of your team to better leverage the Six Hats.
• Parallel and rotational thinking: Use the framework for parallel thinking (everyone focusing on one hat simultaneously) or rotate hats among team members to challenge perspectives.
• Six Killer Questions: Use the six key questions to evaluate ideas thoroughly, ensuring alignment with the brief, data support, emotional impact, risk assessment, benefit identification, and potential for maximization.
• Prepare for presentations: The Six Hats framework helps structure your thinking and anticipates potential questions, resulting in stronger, more confident presentations.

This format provides a clear and concise overview of each speaker's key points, making them easily digestible and applicable for wider team discussions and strategy development.