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At The PR Insider, we love bringing you insights from the brightest minds in the PR world, and today we’re excited to feature Alex Hickson-Burr. With a career spanning top agencies like Rise at Seven and Trunk BBI, and now working in-house at Lowell, Alex has a wealth of experience in the ever-evolving world of digital PR. In this blog post, Alex shares his expert take on why high-value non-media links are crucial for building trust and authority, and how to execute a strategy that resonates with institutions like councils and universities.
What we’ll talk about in this blog post:
In the ever-evolving world of digital PR, innovative link-building has become a vital skill. Gone are the days when securing links from the national press was enough to boost SEO. Today, non-media links are increasingly valuable for improving search engine ranking and enhancing brand authority. However, success in this area requires a well-thought-out strategy that focuses not just on SEO, but on the broader impact of your brand.
This guide will walk you through the essential steps to devise a strategy for building non-media links that align with your brand’s goals.
1. Understand the Importance of High-Value Non-Media Links
Non-media links, especially from authoritative domains such as .gov.uk, .ac.uk, and .org, are highly trusted by both consumers and search engines like Google. These domains are often associated with government, educational, or non-profit organisations, and they signal that your brand adheres to the principles of Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). Links from these domains can elevate your brand in highly competitive sectors like finance, health, tech, and B2B.
Incorporating these high-value links into your strategy gives your business an advantage by signalling trust to both Google and your customers. It’s a win-win for SEO and brand perception.
2. Prioritise Community Over Consumerism
Non-media links are driven by value. Unlike traditional PR campaigns, where the focus is often on brand promotion, non-media links require a community-centric approach. The key is to provide content that resonates with the target institution’s community and reflects its values. For instance, local councils often prefer content that highlights positive community stories or data relevant to their constituents. Universities, on the other hand, may prefer institutional news or research-backed content.
Steps to Follow:
Research your target institutions: Examine the content they regularly post - whether it’s councils, universities, or regional organisations. This will help you understand the kind of stories or data they care about.
Tailor your content: Your content must be relevant to the community they serve. Data-driven campaigns that offer actionable insights or localised positive stories tend to perform best.
Example: For example, my team at TrunkBBI secured .gov.uk links by analysing which councils had the fewest complaints about bin collections.
3. Leverage Positive Data Stories
Positive, data-driven stories are among the most effective ways to secure non-media links. This type of content demonstrates value without being overtly promotional. For example, if you are targeting universities or councils, you could use data from Freedom of Information (FOI) requests or social listening to uncover interesting insights that would resonate with their audience.
Steps to Follow:
Collect strong data: The foundation of any data-driven campaign is the quality of the data you use. Non-media institutions expect rigorous methodologies and reliable sources. Gathering data from reputable places like Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, government databases, or authoritative industry research ensures your findings hold up to scrutiny.
Frame your data positively: When targeting these institutions, look for opportunities to highlight achievements or strengths. For example, instead of focusing on which regions struggle with a service, shift the perspective to highlight areas that are excelling. This positive framing appeals more to institutions looking to showcase improvements or success stories in their community.
Key tip: Avoid relying on tired formats like search volume data, which often don’t hold up to the scrutiny that non-media institutions expect.
4. Leave Your Brand Messaging at the Door
When aiming to secure non-media links, the focus should be on the data and community-driven story rather than overt brand messaging. The objective is to associate your brand with trusted, authoritative domains, not to promote your products or services directly.
Steps to Follow:
Align with the institution’s priorities: Understand the key issues or areas of focus for your target institution, and tailor your pitch accordingly.
Avoid overt branding: Keep your content neutral and focus on the value it provides to the institution’s community.
Key tip: Your brand will benefit from the association with these authoritative domains without the need for heavy branding.
5. Innovate Your Outreach Approach
Traditional media databases are not particularly helpful when targeting non-media institutions. You’ll need to take a more personalised, research-driven approach to identify the right contacts.
Steps to Follow:
Research key contacts: Use platforms like LinkedIn to find press officers, content editors, or communication officers at your target institutions. To do this head to LinkedIn and find the page for an institution that features in your campaign (e.g. University of Liverpool). From there, you should be able to filter to ‘People’ and then search job titles, looking for communications, media or other relevant titles. Once you’ve seen somebody who may be a good point of contact - you can usually determine their email. For universities, there are often email formats on their site, similar to councils. This method can involve a lot of trial and error - but if your campaign is relevant and well-researched, it’s usually met gratefully.
Craft a tailored pitch: When emailing potential contacts, focus on presenting your data or content in a clear and factual way. Avoid overly creative pitches - stakeholders at these institutions care more about accuracy and community impact than brand storytelling.
Key tip: Email formats for universities and councils are often available online, so you can easily find the contact information you need.
6. Craft the Perfect Pitch
When reaching out to non-media institutions, it’s crucial to keep your pitch concise, data-driven, and tailored to the institution’s content style. Unlike traditional PR pitches, which may follow a standard format, your outreach for non-media links should focus on what the contact needs to see - and why it matters to them.
Steps to Follow:
Keep it concise: Limit your pitch to the key facts, ensuring that it’s easy for the recipient to see the value in your content.
Tailor it to the recipient: Each institution has its own focus areas and audience - align your pitch with their mission or goals.
Be ready for trial and error: Non-media outreach can be labour-intensive, but if your campaign is well-researched and offers real value, it is often met with appreciation.
Building non-media links is a precise and community-focused approach that goes beyond traditional PR tactics. By providing data-driven, positive content that resonates with institutions like universities, councils, and non-profit organisations, you can secure authoritative links that significantly enhance your brand’s visibility, credibility, and SEO. Though it requires more effort and creativity, the long-term rewards in both search engine ranking and brand trustworthiness make this strategy worthwhile.
Key Takeaways:
Non-media links matter: Securing links from trusted domains like .gov.uk and .ac.uk boosts your brand’s credibility and SEO by associating it with highly authoritative sources.
Tailor content for the community: Focus on data and stories that align with the specific interests and values of the institutions you’re targeting, such as councils or universities.
Positive, reliable data is crucial: Institutions are more likely to engage with content that uses verifiable data and highlights positive outcomes, especially when it supports their community’s reputation.
Minimise branding: To gain trust from non-media institutions, prioritise factual storytelling and avoid excessive promotion of your brand or products.
Think beyond traditional outreach: LinkedIn and targeted research are essential for finding the right contacts in non-media organisations, as traditional media lists won’t be as useful.
Craft a clear, concise pitch: Focus on presenting robust data in a straightforward manner that appeals to institutional decision-makers, leaving out creative flourishes that might work for mainstream press.
Make sure you follow Alex on LinkedIn to check out more about his insights and work.
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