Matt: Welcome back to Growth Unleashed, the podcast for pet brands that want to grow smarter without relying on paid ads. I’m Matt, the founder of Bubblegum Search.
Louis: And I’m Louis, the SEO Manager here at Bubblegum. And off the back of last week, we wanted to dive into a topic we are very excited about personally — which is unpacking how digital PR actually works and why it can be so effective, particularly for pet brands.
So we are not talking mass press releases here. We are not talking spammy newswires. What we are talking about is smart, pet-focused campaigns that land you in the right media placements that both your audience and Google love.
But digital PR is different from traditional PR. Matt, can you break that down for us?
Matt: Yes, absolutely. So traditional PR has been around for many decades. Broadly, it’s more about brand awareness, and traditionally it’s more on the physical side — so it could be a magazine feature, or even a mention in a printed newspaper. All super valuable.
But with digital PR, it is very SEO-driven. It’s all about tying it to organic goals — getting the right backlinks and the right brand mentions to increase search visibility and ultimately send trust signals that compound over time and impact your organic marketing goals as well.
Louis: Yes, it’s like, along with the brand awareness, there’s something a bit more tangible in terms of the mention or the link that is directly feeding into Google’s algorithm.
Matt: Yes, exactly. It’s tied into performance marketing more so. Of course, even with digital PR, you get the brand exposure, the brand awareness from it — and really the brand building as well. But yes, it’s a little bit more fine-tuned in that respect, in terms of the strategic side of it.
Louis: So my next question would be — in terms of where these digital PR campaigns, content, whatever it is that you’ve put together — where do they land? Like, where do we think the best location is to be mentioned?
Matt: Yes, I mean, it depends, because every brand is different, every story is different, and ultimately every campaign that launches is different. But really, if you broadly break it down, there’s the category of pet-specific press publications. A few examples could be Your Dog, Pet Gazette, PetsRadar — there’s plenty out there that are very specific.
But there’s also broader lifestyle sections and media — even tabloids like The Metro, Huffington Post, The Express, even BuzzFeed Pets. So there are lots of sections that relate to lifestyle and pets more broadly, which run stories all the time as well.
Outside of those, it would probably be more local, regional publications and news outlets — particularly good if the story you’re running has a localized element to it. If it’s in London, for example, it could be something like “The Cleanest London Boroughs” or “London Parks to Walk Your Dog In” — whatever the story is, if it has a localized angle, then yes, absolutely, run that with the local press within that region, county, or location. It makes absolute sense.
Louis: Yes, and I’d add to that — it’s not only important where you land, but also, I think there’s always been this focus on needing to have a backlink in the publication for it to be valuable. And we see this a lot now — the contextual relevance of the publication and you being mentioned there is more important than whether they actually physically link back to you from the page.
So regardless of whether you’re getting that actual physical link or not, you’re still building a lot of brand awareness and sending really strong trust signals to Google and your users by being talked about and seen in exactly the sorts of places they already look.
Matt: Yes, definitely. And I always search, right? So we know that these branded mentions are highly correlated. With digital PR now, that’s a massive win — if we get our story featured in the right places where we know the audience is paying attention, then yes, it’s always good for you to still get a link — whether that’s follow or nofollow — but even at minimum, being mentioned contextually around the right topic sends the right signals to both Google and search. So yes, super, highly, highly valuable. Maybe even more so than it used to be, where it was a little bit more like “you have to get a link.”
Louis: I think part of the reason why at Bubblegum we’re so hot on digital PR is because we see how much it’s future-proofing your business. That brand awareness — it’s not just temporary excitement about your brand. It’s building foundations for growth.
And the fact that we know large language models are looking at mentions in the press, subreddits, forums, and all of these sorts of things proves how valuable it’s going to be going forward.
Matt: Yes, definitely. And it’s easy to forget the viral factor that you get off it. If you get featured — especially in some of these known, top-tier publications — there’s so much sharing of that content that goes on behind the scenes that we don’t even see. How many times does that get shared in Slack chats, WhatsApp groups, or emails? There’s so much in the way it gets shared and spread, and we don’t even have visibility of it — which then drives things like branded search queries in Google. And that’s where you get that snowball effect and knock-on impact that stacks over time, as you’re saying.
Okay, great — so with that said, what separates a great campaign from something that never gets traction?
Louis: I think there’s a really good answer here, which is: essentially, “give the people what they want.”
A lot of companies fall into the trap of thinking the most exciting thing they’ve got going on is a new product launch. So they think, “Well, there you have it, we have a press release. People are going to want to know about this.”
Unless you already have a dedicated brand following — in which case, you’re probably already doing good digital PR — no one’s going to care about you launching your new pet food or toy brand. People care about things they find interesting on a personal level.
So it has to hit emotionally, or be relatable, or be something that gets them talking, or it has to tie into a trending topic. Like you said — the shares in Slack groups and WhatsApp messages — those aren’t going to happen with your product launch.
Whereas something like your example of “Top 10 Parks in London to Walk Your Dog, Rated by Cleanliness” — that’s something people could have a gossip about. “My local park’s number one and yours isn’t even on there!”
Yes, you really need a newsworthy story — not just something fun that you think is happening in your company.
Matt: And that’s where it all starts from, right? It’s the ideation. Whenever we start a new campaign, we ideate — we get dozens of ideas. It’s a case of team brainstorming, researching, whittling them down. So yes, it’s a process.
But as you say, pet content and pet PR works best when it includes something unique. Hopefully it could be data — anything data-driven, anything that you have that’s unique. Hopefully, internally at the company, where you’ve got insights from whatever product or service you offer.
Even if the data is there, sometimes it’s just a case of extracting and analyzing it. And then you have a story off the back of that, hopefully. But if you don’t have internal data, there are ways to get it — you can commission surveys, or do Freedom of Information requests as well.
Louis: We love an FOI.
Matt: Yes! They tend to work really, really well. Takes a bit of time to roll out and gather that information, but again — it’s unique data that no one else has. That provides unique insights for a story.
On that side, expert commentary also works really well when you’ve got a great story and idea. Of course, you plug in whoever is the brand ambassador or expert within your brand or team. If you have a bank of quotes that relate to the story, you can plug those in.
But even if you don’t have that, you can still combine it with quotes from other experts — as long as it makes sense to the story you’re pitching. It could be tips from vets, animal behaviorists, or pet nutrition experts, as an example. You can partner with them and still both be credible sources within the press release and the story.
Louis: Yes — and to piggyback on that, I really like expert commentary as a PR tactic because it helps build relationships with journalists.
If you can become someone they reach out to for comment — especially if it’s a journalist at The Dodo who’s always going to be asking about pet topics, and you’re top of mind when they send out that email — yes, there’s nothing better than that.
Matt: No, exactly. And we’ve had it before with client campaigns — where you do build that relationship, you do get known as people who have those connections and experts and insights.
Sometimes, the best PR is when they come to you. They say, “Hey, I’m running this story ahead of time — can you provide some insights or data? Can you comment on this?”
Yes, that makes things a lot, lot easier.
Louis: Absolutely.
Matt: Cool.
Louis: Okay, so I think on top of that — what have we said? Fresh data, always really valuable. Expert commentary, yes, always really valuable. Or you can go the classic route and tug on people’s heartstrings a bit.
I think relatable emotions are always a good way of tapping into news stories people care about.
Matt: Yes, absolutely.
Louis: That could be anything from funny fail videos — humor people love — or, I don’t know if you’ve seen this, but on my Facebook I get rescue animal compilations all the time. They seem to perform really, really well, because people love a sob story about animals being rescued.
Matt: Well, sometimes it can work both ways. A PR campaign can get good traction and then do well on social media — but often, it’s the other way around. Something trends on social media, and then we plug it into PR, and it does well there too.
That’s where the magic happens — when you get that mini-viral effect happening on both sides. That’s where it’s at its best.
Louis: So I think that’s the first thing when you’re trying to pitch a story — you start with, “What is the story?” But then, pitching it itself — I think there’s a lot to think about when you do this.
Matt: Yes, absolutely.
Louis: Some of my top tips when pitching to journalists would be — essentially, make their life as easy as possible. Give them as much of the story as you can up front.
So that’s: give them a tagline, give them certain angles, include strong visuals. If you’ve come up with a data-driven story, think about how you could present that data in the best graph possible — or what would be the most visually compelling version.
If you’ve got one set of data that’s super high, then go for a line chart where one stands out dramatically.
Matt: Absolutely. Everyone loves — and journalists especially appreciate — any sexy charts and graphs you can include. Oh yes.
Louis: Ready quotes, ready to go. That’s another one.
Matt: Yes — and strong visuals, especially when it’s something product-related or lifestyle-oriented. Anything unique in terms of visuals.
Definitely not boring stock images — and in our experience, journalists really don’t like AI-generated images either.
So anything unique — even a case study-style image that goes with the story — as long as it’s a strong visual that sums up the PR section, and it’s high quality, that tends to run quite well.
At Bubblegum, because of all this, we’ve put together our own eight-step process which increases the chances of getting traction with each campaign.
Of course, with PR, there’s no guarantee — ultimately it’s in the hands of journalists. But our process helps. We do often fine-tune it, we re-angle certain campaigns, we send several rounds to get the traction we’re looking for. That’s all very normal.
But having the process in place increases the probability of maximizing traction. Still — with PR, it’s never guaranteed.
And as we’ve found, just because something doesn’t get traction right away doesn’t mean it’s a bad story or you’ve done something wrong. Sometimes it’s literally timing.
We’ve had cases where we run it again a few weeks later — nothing has fundamentally changed — and it gets picked up.
Louis: Or it might just be a slow news week for the person you’re pitching.
Matt: Yes, exactly. Journalists are busy. They’re juggling multiple stories that come across their desk. Sometimes something else happens that supersedes your pitch.
And yes, sometimes people get disheartened too soon. But you can try re-angling — or try again a week later, or a month later, or even six months later. You’ll be surprised how it can get picked up then.
So yes — never any guarantees, but our eight-step process certainly helps.
Louis: So I think to summarize — unlike traditional PR, digital PR isn’t just about exposure. It’s a blend of telling a story, selling your news, and applying SEO strategy.
The goal isn’t just to get coverage — it’s to get mentions, links, people talking — all the things that boost your rankings.
Ultimately, you’re trying to build your brand reputation and influence your audience off the back of it. So it’s a little different to traditional PR — but…
Matt: Yes, definitely.
Louis: Still hugely effective.
Matt: Yes. And of course, when you do build — or I should say, earn — all those mentions, links, brand authority, and trust, your search visibility naturally climbs over time. Both in Google and in daily search.
Louis: That’s why we love it.
Matt: That’s why we do it.
All right — cool. Well, that’s it for today. Digital PR can be a daunting thing to start, so look — if you need help, why not get in touch and let us take a look?
Otherwise, as always, be sure to drop any questions you might have in the comments. And if you haven’t already, please do subscribe and hit the like button.
That’s it for now, and we’ll catch you next time. Bye!