Fatrank Podcast

James Dooley:
Hi, so I'm joined today with Chris Pantelli from Linkify and today's question is about reactive PR versus expert quote link building. Which is better and why.

Chris Pantelli:
They're both different and you can do both. There are differences and nuances between the two. Expert quote link building is inbound. Journalists are sourcing experts and you can view those sources and then make your decisions on which journalist you're going to reply to and therefore which publication you're potentially going to receive a link from. Oftentimes these are not going to be holistically on your brand and your message. You're enhancing the point that the journalist is trying to make within their article.

There's a great SEO play and there are some amazing publications you can win links from. Many of these publications are not receptive to PR campaigns. Some freelance writers or journalists or the publication as a whole just isn't doing any form of PR inbound from you as a PR. The only real way to win these links is to answer expert commentary requests from the journalists or writers who are sourcing for their articles on these publications.

PR campaigns however are outbound. You need to come up with an idea or a story that will resonate with the journalists that write for the publications. You need a media list of journalists. You need your story idea. You then send your idea to the journalist. It is like cold outreach but not really because journalists are expecting these sorts of emails all day every day from PRs. Over time you develop relationships with journalists. You’ll say hey Judy it's me again we've got another idea and another story. You can do really well because of those relationships and also because you have more control over the narrative. You're coming up with the idea on behalf of the client and the client will be the feature of it. Whether it's a data campaign, an expert commentary campaign, a newsjacking piece or a reactive piece. The Euros are happening now for example. If you’ve got a sports client you can pitch something around that.

There's a nuance between the two. Another nuance is the US and UK slant. You'll find much more of a US slant on expert quote side. A lot more US publications. You'll find much more of a UK slant on digital PR side. The best thing is to do both because you want as many different referring domains. You want to be featured as an expert in as many variations as possible.

A great way is to start with expert quote commentary. Start building relationships. Then you get an idea of what works well from a PR campaign perspective. You can then leverage the network you’ve built from expert quotes to deliver your PR campaigns.

James Dooley:
So to simplify it slightly. A reactive PR campaign is where you reach out to journalists and reporters with a story or trending topic and you're pitching that idea to them. It's an outbound PR campaign. An expert quote link building campaign is inbound. The journalist or reporter is already writing about the topic. Whether you get added or not, they’re writing the article. They want third party experts to validate what they're saying. You're looking to place maybe a snippet of content and hopefully they’ll link back to your website. There's big SEO value for both.

What do you find is easier? You run Linkify and you do both reactive PR and expert quote link building. Is one easier than the other to get placements?

Chris Pantelli:
Great summary and great question. It boils down to a handful of things. First is the niche. Some niches are very PR friendly. Think about reactive campaigns or data campaigns. You’re going to the journalist and saying this story will be good for your readers. For that you need something interesting and creative. Gardening is a good example. Many publications write about gardening. If the seasonality fits, gardening is perfect for reactive campaigns. If you're a tech expert you can do really well. If there's a big data leak you can run a reactive campaign on tips for public Wi-Fi safety. It depends first on the niche.

Secondly you want to think about the client's mentality. If the client is conscious about their brand and how they want to be portrayed that can guide the path. With reactive pieces you have more control on the narrative and the client can sign off on a campaign. But the client must understand that nobody is publishing an article that says James Dooley owns a link building agency. That's not interesting. You must give us freedom to come up with something interesting. While we control the narrative somewhat, the story still needs to be interesting to the journalist.

Expert quote commentary gives us more flexibility. We know the article. We know the angle. But we still need freedom to pitch as you and say something interesting that leverages your expertise. Two different paths with the same outcome, which is links. You must understand the nuances and what the client wants from it.

James Dooley:
To summarise. People ask me what’s better. Reactive PR or expert quote link building. What I actually took from what Chris said is there are certain websites that do not allow PR campaigns. If you pitch them, they won't publish. But you can get on them via expert quotes. So if you want a big referring domain count, you need both. You need both types of referring domains.

Chris, you're doing this day in day out at Linkify. Where can people get hold of you? Can you do both reactive PR and expert quote link building?

Chris Pantelli:
Yeah we do both PR campaigns and expert quote link building. We always chat with the client first to see what’s best. We'd normally recommend doing both. Start with one. When you've run a number of PR campaigns and got links, you can then do more. You can always get new links. You can always get featured. It's always good to send new signals to Google. New links all the time.

People can find us at linkify.io or on X at linkifyore. They can book a call through our calendar widget on the website. It’s a holistic approach. Do as much as you can but don’t do more than you can. Pick one place to start.

James Dooley:
Good advice. Anyone watching this let us know in the comments what you feel is better. Reactive PR versus expert quote link building. Are you doing either as part of your SEO strategies? If not, I strongly recommend you start doing both. Let us know what you think.