Your Digital PR Campaign Flopped. What Should You Do Next?

There’s no worse feeling than hitting send after spending weeks researching and writing a campaign, building the perfect media list and then waiting for coverage that never appears. Not every campaign will secure coverage straight away. But when you’ve followed up, tested a slightly different headline, contacted new journalists and still received nothing, it can be difficult to know what to do next. 

At this point, it’s easy to panic. You might decide that the campaign was a terrible idea, blame the timing or start sending increasingly desperate follow-ups to anyone who has ever written an article remotely connected to the subject (which I absolutely do not recommend). 

However, a lack of coverage does not necessarily mean the entire campaign was a failure. It could simply be that the main angle was not strong enough, another campaign beat you to the story, or perhaps the most interesting part of the campaign was still buried somewhere in the data and you just missed it. 

Equally, not every campaign can or should be rescued. Sometimes, the most sensible decision is to stop the outreach, learn from what happened and move on. 

So, how can you tell the difference? 

First, Decide Whether the Campaign Really Flopped

Before you start tearing apart the campaign, you need to remind yourself what you wanted it to achieve. Did it genuinely fail or did it simply land fewer pieces of coverage than you hoped? 

A campaign that earns five relevant links from respected publications may be more valuable than one that secures 30 low-quality mentions through syndication. A piece of coverage might also bring referral traffic, place the brand in front of the right audience or establish a relationship with a journalist who later returns for expert commentary. 

It’s important to look beyond the total number of links and mentions. Consider the authority and relevance of the publications that covered it. Did journalists respond positively, even if they did not cover the story? Or could there be an opportunity to revisit the campaign later? 

This is not about finding excuses for poor performance. It is about judging the campaign against its actual objectives rather than comparing it with the exceptional case study that earned 200 links and ended up on national television.

Once you have established that the campaign has genuinely underperformed, you can start working out why.

Next, Work Out What Went Wrong 

There’s no point changing everything at once. Doing so can make it harder to understand what the actual problem was. 

Rewriting the subject line, shortening the press release and adding hundreds of journalists to the list may create more activity, but it will not necessarily reveal why the campaign struggled.

So, instead of doing everything all at once, start by reviewing the core elements.

Was the Story Strong Enough? 

Ask yourself:

• What is genuinely new?

• Is the finding surprising, useful or important?

• Can the story be explained in one sentence?

• Is there an obvious headline?

• Would it still be interesting without the brand name?

An expensive design, detailed methodology or impressive landing page cannot compensate for the absence of a clear story.

Sometimes, a campaign is a strong piece of content but a weak piece of news.

Was the Timing Wrong?

A good campaign can struggle if it launches during a major news event, after a competitor has published similar research or when journalists have already planned their seasonal content.

If timing is the main issue, you may be able to pause the campaign and return to it later.

However, timing should not become the default excuse. If journalists continue to ignore the story across different days and news cycles, the problem is probably elsewhere.

Did the Right Journalists Receive It?

A large media list is not necessarily a relevant one. You need to check whether the journalists still cover the subject and whether the pitch is suitable for their audience.

A travel editor might care about the destination findings. A personal finance journalist might focus on the costs. A regional reporter will want to know what the research says about their area.

The same campaign may need several different pitches.

Did the Pitch Hide the Headline?

Open the outreach email and look at it with fresh eyes. Can you identify the story immediately?

Campaign pitches often include every statistic, ranking and regional finding in an attempt to prove the value of the research. This usually makes the story harder to understand.

The subject line and opening paragraph should communicate one clear angle. Everything else should support it.

Look for Another Story

If the lead angle did not work, it’s time to find another angle that could still have potential.

Return to the data and look for:

• An unexpected result

• A strong comparison

• A positive or negative outlier

• A regional pattern

• A result that challenges an assumption

• A finding connected to current news

• A practical consequence for consumers

For an index campaign, the overall winner might not be the strongest story. One individual metric could be much more relevant to a particular group of journalists.

For survey research, a demographic split may be more interesting than the headline statistic you originally chose.

A genuine re-angle changes what the story is about or why it matters. Changing three words in the subject line does not.

Review Using the Rose, Thorn and Bud Method

When you’re struggling to pinpoint the problem or decide whether to continue the outreach, a structured review can help. One of my favourite methods is called the rose, thorn and bud method.

You may know it by a different name, but it’s a pretty simple idea:

• Rose: One thing you liked or that worked well

• Thorn: One thing that did not work

• Bud: One opportunity to improve or help the campaign grow

For example:

• Rose: The regional results attracted the strongest journalist interest.

• Thorn: The national headline was too broad and did not contain a surprising finding.

• Bud: Test national and regional headlines before approving the next campaign.

The thorn should be specific. Saying “we did not get enough links” describes the outcome, but not the problem.

A more useful thorn might be: We expected personal finance journalists to cover the cost findings, but the differences were not significant enough to create a strong finance story.

The bud should also lead to an action. It might involve simplifying the methodology, testing headlines earlier, improving the briefing process or building relationships with a different group of journalists.

Ask everyone involved to contribute one rose, one thorn and one bud. It can also be valuable to involve colleagues who were not part of the original campaign. A fresh pair of eyes may spot something the campaign team missed. This prevents the discussion from being dominated by the most senior or vocal team member.

Know When to Stop

It’s true that persistence matters in Digital PR, but continued outreach is not always strategic and could damage relationships with journalists if you keep pushing the same story. You need to recognise when enough is enough.

 For example, it may be time to stop when:

• Several different angles have received no interest

• The data is becoming outdated

• The news hook has passed

• The brand connection feels forced

• The story takes several paragraphs to explain

• You have run out of genuinely relevant journalists

• Further outreach is taking time away from stronger opportunities

Stopping does not mean pretending the campaign never happened. It means recognising that the potential return no longer justifies the time being spent. Remember, not every campaign will succeed, and that’s okay.

Carry the Lesson Forward

One thing I cannot stress enough, is once you have reviewed the campaign and put your thoughts together, don’t let it disappear into a document nobody opens again. The whole point of carrying out a review is to learn from it. The campaign itself may even be worth revisiting a year later. 

Make sure you return to those findings during your next briefing and ideation session. Over time, patterns will emerge. You may find that regional angles consistently outperform broad national rankings, or that campaigns are stronger when headlines are tested before production begins.

Not every campaign can be rescued. Sometimes the most useful result is a clearer understanding of what your team should do differently next time.

Diagnose the problem, test meaningful changes and know when to move on.

A campaign can flop without being a complete waste. The lessons it produces may improve every campaign that follows.

This post was written by Isobel Walster, Digital PR and Content Specialist at Koozai.

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