Reactive PR vs Expert Quote Link Building: Which is Better and Why?

James Dooley: Hi, so I'm joined today with Chris Pantelli from Linkify. Today's question is about reactive PR versus expert quote link building. Which is better and why? They’re both different and you can do both, but there are some differences and nuances between the two. Chris Pantelli: Expert quote link building is inbound. Journalists are sourcing experts and you can view those sources and make your decisions on which journalist you’ll reply to and which publication you may receive a link from. Oftentimes these won’t be holistically about your brand or message. You’re enhancing the point the journalist is making in their article. It’s a great SEO play and you can win links from amazing publications that aren’t receptive to PR campaigns. Many of those publications either work with freelance writers or simply don’t accept outbound PR. The only way to win those links is to answer expert commentary requests. Chris Pantelli: PR campaigns, however, are outbound. You need to come up with an idea or story that will resonate with the journalists. You need a media list. You need your story idea. Then you send your idea to the journalist. It’s kind of like cold outreach, but not really, because journalists expect these emails from PRs daily. Over time you also develop relationships, so you can say things like, “Hey Judy, it’s me again, we’ve got another idea.” That helps massively. You also have much more control over the narrative because you’re creating the idea on behalf of the client and the client becomes the feature, whether it’s data, expert commentary, newsjacking or a reactive piece. Chris Pantelli: There are more nuances. You’ll find much more of a US slant on the expert quote side. You’ll find much more of a UK slant on the digital PR side. The best thing to do is both because you want different referring domains and to be featured as an expert in as many variations as possible. A great approach is to start with expert quote commentary, build journalist relationships, then learn what works well from a PR campaign perspective. You can then leverage the expert quote network to deliver PR campaigns. James Dooley: To simplify it, a reactive PR campaign is where you reach out to journalists with a story or trending topic and pitch it to them. It’s outbound. Expert quote link building is inbound. The journalist is already writing the article. You may or may not be included, but they want expert opinions to validate what they’re saying. You hope to place a snippet of content and earn a backlink. Both have strong SEO value. You own Linkify and do both. From your point of view, is either easier than the other for getting placements? Chris Pantelli: Great summary and great question. It boils down to a few things. First, the niche of the website you’re building links for. Some niches are very PR friendly. With reactive campaigns you’re saying, “Hey journalist, this story will be good for your readers.” That means you need something interesting. Gardening is a good example. Publications always write about it and seasonality helps. If you’re an expert in a niche like technology, you can run reactive campaigns on things like data leaks or tips to stay safe on public WiFi. It all depends on the niche. Chris Pantelli: Second, you need to consider the client's mentality. Reactive campaigns give more control over narrative and the client can sign off. But the client needs to know we can't just run a PR campaign promoting their company directly because nobody will publish it. They must give us freedom to come up with something interesting for journalists. Expert quote commentary is different. We know the article topic but still need freedom to pitch as the expert and provide something that leverages your expertise. Two different paths with the same aim, which is links, but the client's expectations and flexibility matter. James Dooley: To summarise, people always ask what is better: reactive PR or expert quote link building. What I took from your explanation is that some websites don’t allow PR campaigns. If the site doesn’t accept outbound PR, you need expert quote link building. If you want a strong referring domain profile, which matters for ranking well in Google, you should do both because they earn different types of links. James Dooley: Chris, you're doing this day in and day out at Linkify. Where can people get hold of you and can you do both reactive PR campaigns and expert quote link building? Chris Pantelli: Yes, we do both. We run PR campaigns and expert quote link building. We love to chat with clients if they need guidance on which path to take. We normally recommend doing both. Start with one. After running PR campaigns and earning links, you can always earn more. It’s always valuable to keep getting new signals. People can find us at Linkify.io, on X at Linkify or book a call through our Calendly on the website. It’s a holistic approach. Do as much as you can, but don’t overdo it. Pick one place to start then progress. James Dooley: Good advice. Anyone watching, leave a comment on what you feel is better in reactive PR versus expert quote link building. Are you doing either as part of your SEO strategy? If not, I strongly recommend doing both. Let us know which you feel is better and why.