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Why You Need to Establish Relationships with Editors

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Published: December 3, 2014

One of your best marketing allies is the editor who covers your particular industry or niche. Whether your plans include content marketing to acquire inbound links or public relations to gain favorable press coverage, having the ear of the editors who represent the various blogs, trade journals, and associations that cater to your particular field can mean the difference between success and failure.

Quality Editorial Relationships are the Key to Successful Content Marketing
Content is King as far as SEO goes. The higher the quality of your content, the greater the likelihood that others will want to share and link to it, providing valuable link juice that will improve your search engine ranking.

Unfortunately, there is a tremendous amount of content already on the web, with more being added every day. If your content is to rise to the top, it needs to be marketed to the relevant authority sites where it stands the best chance of being shared.

With so much content clamoring for attention, the content creator who has made the effort to build a relationship with relevant editors and webmasters has a distinct advantage over someone making a cold-call approach.

  • Editors would rather work with someone they know and can trust to deliver unique, high quality material that will appeal to their target audience.
  • Content creators who have previously published on an editor’s site have the advantage of name recognition with that site’s audience.

Public Relations is all About Trusted Relationships
A successful public relations effort is based on the quality relationship that you have with the writers and editors responsible for covering your particular or industry. An editor is far more likely to be receptive to a story pitch from a company that they are already familiar with as opposed to receiving a press release from someone unknown to them.

Timing is everything. When you know your target’s publishing deadline in advance, you can time your approach to give the journalists the lead time that they require to give your pitch proper consideration.

Once you have established a relationship with the editors relevant to your industry or niche, you’ll be able to craft your material to meet their particular requirements. For example, some may require documented sources for your content or a certain format for accompanying photos.

How to Build Positive Relationships with Editors
Familiarize yourself with their work. Writers and editors alike take pride in the material that they have poured their heart and soul into. The best way to create a positive impression with them is by reading their articles and leaving insightful comments with your name and company affiliation.

Engage with your target editors through social media. If they’re active social media users, they’re definitely open to interacting with you. Be sure to respond quickly to any posts that invite references or story ideas. Just make sure you keep your conversations free of blatant sales pitches unless they ask for them.

As your relationship builds, send story ideas that might be of interest to the editor’s readers even if they don’t necessarily contain a public relations opportunity for your company. This demonstrates your interest in furthering the interests of your industry by simply sharing ideas among colleagues.

Above all, stay in touch without making a pest of yourself. Aim for some form of engagement at least once a month. The more you are able to demonstrate your willingness to contribute meaningful information and ideas that could benefit the editor’s readers, the stronger your relationship will become.

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