How To Do Digital PR Outreach in Ireland

If you want your Digital PR campaigns to land in Ireland, it’s important to understand what works and what doesn’t. How you approach outreach for data-led campaigns needs to differ from how you approach expert commentary/reactive stories.

If you get the split wrong, you’ll find yourself frustrated, wondering why something that works perfectly in the UK isn’t landing in Ireland.

I would not rely on expert commentary/reactives alone. Use your client’s internal data if you can to build out data-led campaigns as well, and below I’ll break down how to approach outreach for both.

Data-led Digital PR Outreach

We have found that data-led campaigns work well in Ireland because they allow us to target national and regional publications across Ireland. I’ve broken the process down into three simple steps.

Step 1: Divide your outreach by county

If you have a data-led campaign, or are thinking of creating one, and want to maximise coverage and links, there is one question you should ask yourself.

“Does this data include a regional county breakdown?”

If it doesn’t, and you only have a national story, the number of journalists you can send it to will be limited. If possible, go back and try to incorporate data that provides a county-by-county breakdown.

Journalists in Ireland WANT county-specific data. National findings alone don’t always tell them anything about their county or local communities.

You might think you only want national news publications to cover your Digital PR campaign, but trust me, you don’t. The reach and visibility that regional news publications can provide for your brand or your client’s brand are huge.

If you’re struggling to find data for different counties in Ireland, the Central Statistics Office is the best place to start. It collects, analyses and publishes independent data about Ireland’s people, society and economy.

The best part is that it’s FREE. If you love digging through data to see what you can find, you will love this!

Step 2: Look beyond just news publications

Don’t just target regional news publications. Add radio stations to your list as well.

Radio is huge in Ireland, and many regional radio stations have dedicated websites. Also, recent research from the Reuters Institute revealed that 71% of Irish people trust local radio, making it one of the most trusted sources of news. 

If your story is good, a radio station may publish it on its website and share it across its Instagram, Facebook or TikTok pages. These platforms can have a huge reach, allowing you to tap into the station’s existing audience. Think Search Everywhere Optimisation. You want your campaign to appear across multiple touchpoints, including news publications, social media and radio.

When building your media lists, make sure you include Ireland’s regional radio stations. Once you have added the relevant radio stations, it’s time to add the following Irish social publishers for your media lists for national releases also.

• LADbible Ireland, which is great for national data-led stories

• SPORTbible Ireland, which is a must if your campaign is related to sport

• Her.ie, which is great for lifestyle, health and women-focused data stories

• JOE.ie, which is great for national data-led stories

• Lovin Ireland, which is also great for national data-led stories

Step 3: Subject line needs to have county specific data

Be specific about what your county data is when pitching your story. For example, try to avoid subject lines with broad national findings when pitching to regional publications.

“Research reveals that only 50% of adults in Ireland go on staycations due to…”

Instead, lead with the county-specific figure immediately:

“Research reveals that only 30% of people in Cork take a staycation…”

You want to grab the journalist’s attention from the first line by showing them exactly why the story is relevant to their county and audience.

Expert commentary/Reactive Digital PR outreach

Expert commentary hasn’t reached the same volume in Ireland as it has in the UK.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. You can still secure amazing coverage/links across national and regional publications, but I would recommend doing some research before pitching your story by doing the following.

Step 1: Research the headlines

Start by researching the types of expert commentary stories commonly covered by publications such as RSVP Live, the Irish Mirror, the Irish Sun and Dublin Live. This will help you understand whether your story is a good fit and identify the best journalist to contact. The fastest way to do this is to type the publication’s website and your chosen keyword(s) into Google. 

For example: site.rsvplive.ie “expert reveals”

This will help you find more relevant journalists than you would with just a media database.

Step 2: Don’t sleep on this regional publication

If you want regional coverage, I would also highly recommend targeting the Ireland Live network. If your story is published on one of its websites, it will often be syndicated across the wider regional network. This is fantastic because it allows your campaign to reach audiences across the country.

Before contacting Ireland Live publications, check the types of expert commentary they have covered in the past. You can use the Google search method above to see whether your story would be a good fit and find the most relevant journalist instead of relying only on a general newsdesk email.

Step 3: Pitch radio only if your expert is available 

Pitch radio stations ONLY if your expert is available for an interview. As radio’s will 9/10 ask for someone to come on for a quick chat and talk about the release you send them.

Once the interview is over they might sometimes publish it on the website as well, so keep an eye out on that. 

Best of luck!

This post was written by Andrea Piackova, Digital PR & Content Manager at Legacy Communications.

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