Presscloud started as a PR platform in the Netherlands. It was very well received, and thus the expansion to our Southern neighbors was a logical next step. After this, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US) were also added to our services. Regarding the latter region, we have conducted a rebranding. An overview!
Previous challenges
When adding the US to our platform, several factors were very important. First of all, the entire platform had to be made available in English, including the whole interface (think of the website, onboarding, dashboard) and functionalities, such as the AI Press Release Generator. And not in broken English, but real English suitable for media with English as their native language.
Secondly, we needed to supplement our journalist and media database with American media. That was no easy task: the US is much larger than our own small country (where to start?), and we simply had much less knowledge of the field. Ultimately, with blood, sweat, and tears, we compiled a database of more than 30,000 contacts, consisting of general editorial offices and specific journalists.
Finally, we had to learn how the American news world differed from the well-known Dutch media world. As we mentioned in an earlier blog, Dutch and foreign media differ on several fronts, such as tone, political orientation, and reporting. As a PR platform, we needed to understand this to adequately serve our users.
Other goals
We overcame all the above challenges, resulting in many businesses from the US now using our services. An important factor was: because American media are not necessarily independent, everything was for sale, including media attention. We have so far worked with multiple publishers who guaranteed the publication of press releases from our American users on 50+ American news sites. Brilliant for our users' brand awareness, of course.
The advantage, however, was also the disadvantage: because media attention at these news sites could be bought, the publications were less valuable per se. After all, they were not earned publications, which you always have in the Netherlands (except for advertorials). So, although good for SEO and link building, we still felt that we could offer more to our US users. And so....
The rebranding
... we conducted a rebranding. More towards the 'Dutch model': earned publications in high-quality media titles. In the Netherlands, we have numerous use cases with beautiful publications, why not in the US? Think of the New York Times, Forbes, Business Insider. This is what our users dream of being published in, right? To achieve this, we had to identify even better what the media in the US write about, which journalists are active, what kind of news they want to receive, etc.
This was successful, resulting in a much better and enriched database. This gives our users from the US even more insight into the various media opportunities, hopefully leading to more targeted outreach. So who knows, the next use case might be a US case!
Oh, and those 'guaranteed' publications? US users get them as a bonus with a Pro subscription, so they can still boost their SEO. Courtesy of Presscloud.
