Ruby Robinson

One of the biggest mistakes in outreach is treating the UK and US press the same way. The editorial cultures are genuinely different, and your angle needs to reflect that.

For UK press, prioritise immediate relevance. Use statistics and news-hooked headlines and introductions to create urgency. Journalists want to know why this matters right now — connect it to the current news cycle and make the hook impossible to ignore.

For US press, adopt a more evergreen approach. Due to longer editorial lead times, keeping headlines and introductions broader gives the story lasting resonance. It doesn't need to be pegged to a specific moment to land — it just needs to be genuinely useful and timely in a wider sense.

Getting this distinction right can be the difference between a pitch that gets opened and one that gets deleted.

Managing expectations is just as important as the outreach itself, especially when it comes to US press. The editorial processes there tend to be slower, which can catch clients off-guard if they're used to the pace of UK coverage.

Factor in longer turnaround times from the start and make sure clients are aware and aligned before any US outreach begins. If clients are expecting results in the same window as a UK campaign, you'll face unnecessary pressure — and potentially damage trust.

Setting realistic timelines upfront is a simple thing, but it makes a significant difference to how campaigns are perceived once they're running.

Expert commentary is one of the most underused assets in digital PR. Leveraging your clients' spokespeople and subject matter experts wherever possible elevates your stories from interesting to credible — and that's what earns links from the publications that matter.

Don't just drop in a quote and move on. Reinforce your experts' credibility with supporting content: an on-site author bio, a well-optimised LinkedIn profile, or a history of thought leadership that journalists can easily reference.

When a journalist sees that the expert behind a comment is a real, established voice in their field — not just a name attached to a press release — it dramatically increases the chance they'll include the commentary in their piece.

One-hit wonder campaigns can feel like a win in the moment, but they leave you starting from scratch every time. Unless you're confident an idea will perform exceptionally well, it's worth asking: can this be built to last?

By building reusable content — things that can be refreshed, updated, or re-angled — you create an asset that keeps delivering. A well-structured comment bank, for example, lets you respond to awareness days, seasonal hooks, and breaking news without starting from zero each quarter.

Link back to evergreen content when news hooks arise. Journalists often appreciate context from a piece that already exists. This keeps your client visible in the right conversations across multiple news cycles, not just one.

Automated databases are a starting point, not a strategy. The most effective media lists I've built have come from going back to the source — finding previously published articles on similar themes and identifying exactly who wrote them.

This approach means you're pitching journalists who have already demonstrated an interest in your topic. They've covered it before, they understand the space, and they're far more likely to engage with a relevant pitch than someone picked at random from a list.

It takes more time than clicking "export contacts," but the hit rate is incomparable. Strategic, manual contact building is one of those habits that separates good outreach from great outreach.

I started at Digitaloft as an intern in January 2022 without a traditional PR degree, and I've learnt more through real-time experience than I ever could have from theory alone. If you're trying to get into the industry, here's what I'd tell you: