Freelancer emails have low open rates but the highest reply rates, especially Gmail, at 4.88%. National news outlets dominate outreach but have lower engagement due to inbox saturation. Australian and UK journalists reply more often - local relevance and exclusivity increase success. US Read more

Emails under 300 words get the highest open and reply rates—brevity significantly boosts engagement. Including full press releases or long intros may lower pitch effectiveness; link out to details instead. Focus on journalist relevance—tailor pitches to their beat, not just broad verticals. Read more

Follow-up emails boost reply rates by 85%, especially in Education, Entertainment, and Tech campaigns. First follow-up is most impactful—subsequent replies drop by 66%. Best timing is within 1 day of the original pitch; reply rates peak early. Industry matters—Travel and Fashion see Read more

In September 2024, Google took a rare manual action against Forbes Advisor, wiping out nearly 20 million monthly visits. Forbes Advisor's digital PR team drove over 70,000 referring domains before the penalty. As of May 2025, the site had regained nearly 4 million in traffic (~17%) Read more

Most replies come fast: 57% of link-building replies and 69.4% of digital PR replies happen within 6 hours. Average response times are 12.85 hours for link builders, 11.4 hours for digital PRs. Education, Fashion & Beauty had the fastest link building reply times. Fashion & Read more

Unsubscribe links are legally required in most unsolicited commercial emails, including for link building and digital PR outreach. Reply rates drop slightly in small campaigns with unsubscribe links, but volume—not the link—is the bigger factor. Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft mandate unsubscribe Read more

Massive campaigns (1001–5000 emails) received less than 3.5 links per campaign—70% fewer than 51-100 spots. Only 1 in 3 emails in digital PR gets opened — the average open rate was 33.79%. Open rates dropped from 35.42% (1–50 emails) to 29.76% (1001–5000 emails) — a 16% decline. Read more

Take effect May 5, 2025 Impact bulk senders, aka sending 5,000+ emails/day to Microsoft consumer email addresses Must pass SPF and DKIM Must publish a DMARC record (at least p=none) Must align the “From” domain with SPF/DKIM Must use valid reply-to/from addresses Must include Read more

Podcast pitching is on the rise as PRs struggle to reach traditional journalists. Personalized, value-driven pitches with clear topic ideas outperform generic outreach. Pitch tactics like filling gaps, offering counterpoints, or proposing swaps increase acceptance. Research the show’s Read more

Target high link-intent keywords like “[industry] statistics” to attract organic, citation-driven backlinks. Use proprietary or hard-to-find data to increase linkability and differentiate your content. Evaluate SERPs and backlink profiles to ensure your keyword has citation potential before Read more