Picture this: it’s a summer Bank Holiday weekend and you’re camping with friends in a four-man tent from Blacks. You’re surrounded by your fave outdoor brands in the form of a Berghaus jacket, hiking boots from Millets, and a Regatta rucksack.
The brands I’ve mentioned have been in the game for some time, but I’d take a bet that their awareness, particularly over the past few years, has been thanks to a clever mix of Content Marketing and Digital PR.
Like in all divisions of eCommerce/Retail, Outdoor Clothing brands have had to invest more time and resources into creating unique content that captures their customer at earlier stages of the customer journey and utilises Digital PR techniques to help them make headlines so that when it comes to that festival/weekend away, their customer knows exactly who to turn to for supplies.
Why is Digital PR important for eCommerce brands?
Like traditional PR, Digital PR campaigns get your brand in front of potential customers. Google views links as a vote of confidence from other websites. The more links from authoritative, highly relevant publications, then the more likely Google is to view your website as a credible source.
eCommerce websites can reap the benefits of Digital PR even further as, if done well, higher search visibility drives more traffic to your website and can even influence product sales!
The malleable nature of Digital PR means it moves a lot faster than traditional PR. A proactive Digital PR team that knows your product can share sales and promotions, comment on trending topics and ultimately give your brand an active voice in live time.
Read on to discover how this translates in the outdoor clothing sector.
Four Digital PR tactics that can attract links for Outdoor Clothing brands
Product PR:
If there’s one thing the outdoor clothing sector has nailed, it’s Product PR. Product PR is a great way to build links, asset brand authority and drive revenue from product-first coverage.
Conducting Product PR is a fantastic way to secure product or category page links, particularly around key shopping dates like Black Friday when consumers are increasing the amount of research they’re doing to discover the best deals. It’s also useful to ramp up the promotion of your products during peak seasonal interest, such as tents and hiking gear in the summer months.
Image-led campaigns:
In a world where we’re overwhelmed by information, image-led Digital PR campaigns are something the outdoor clothing sector could be doing more of.
Take this campaign by Regatta comparing before and after imagery of five famous seaside towns; a picture says a thousand words, right? The imagery, particularly that of the Brighton pier, delivers key information quicker than consumers can receive in a written article.
The seaside towns campaign earned a respectable 14 links (according to Ahrefs), amongst local tourist coverage (Brighton and ‘day out’ travel websites like Day Out in England).
Reactive campaigns:
Fast-acting, reactive outreach is one of the Evolved Digital PR team’s favourite tactics. It gives you the opportunity to get involved with the newsflow and jump on opportunities that are highly relevant to you and your product offering.
Alongside a strategically planned promotion calendar, reactive outreach allows the Evolved team to jump on opportunities on behalf of clients in return for links. Whether it’s pulling data, offering advice or creating a ‘fake’ product, it’s a staple in all of our Digital PR strategies.
Go Outdoors did this perfectly. At the height of the pandemic, Go Outdoors did the best PR stunt they could think of to encourage Brits to follow lockdown rules – they rebranded as Go Indoors.
Alongside the logo refresh, the Go Indoors inspiration page hosted ideas for entertaining kids at home, recipe information and guides to perfecting tent pitching skills in the wait for the lockdown to lift.
Data-led campaigns:
Another firm favourite tactic in the Digital PR industry is data-led campaigns. Well produced data can add further context to a trend, back up a theory or add authority to the advice you’re giving to a publication’s readers, all in exchange for high authority backlinks.
Finding stories in data is no easy feat, but Millets demonstrated this perfectly when using survey data to reveal the best dog walks across the UK. The regional nature and interactive nature of the campaign meant it was covered in publications in Metro, MSN and local press.
Interested in Digital PR for your outdoor brand?
It’s clear that it’s a competitive industry, and when you’re up against the big names, gaining quality linking coverage for your outdoor brand has never been more important. Creating a story that offers your audience something they can’t get access to elsewhere is key for securing quality linking coverage.
If you’re struggling to know where to start with conducting Digital PR for your outdoor business, drop us a line! We know how to deliver solid, interesting stories that get your audience talking.
Request a free copy of our Outdoor Clothing Search Competitor Insight Report, here.
