How To Successfully Land Digital PR Coverage In Germany

For a huge number of brands, Germany, or the DACH region in general, is a key market in Europe. It is the promised land of opportunities across a multitude of industries and has a lot of untapped potential when it comes to Digital PR – emphasis on untapped. What we mean is while Germany has positioned itself as a global leader in innovation, technology, and design, Digital PR is still very much in its fledgling stages. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean you have to be meticulous when creating campaigns and outreach strategies, as this region comes with certain challenges and considerations.

At Kaizen, we have a native German-speaking team of Digitial PR specialists who work across multiple global accounts, including gambling, finance, and travel clients. We recently worked with SumUp to create international campaigns looking at small business practices across Germany (amongst other EU countries), and our team of experts created bespoke strategies for engaging journalists in the DACH region. In short, targeting and outreaching to the German market is nothing new to us!

As a Senior Digital PR Executive working in this area, I’ve pulled together my top tips to help you with your outreach approach in the German market. These are what I’ve picked up along the way working at Kaizen, plus a few of my insider secrets!

Contacting journalists: Formal vs. Informal

In Germany, getting in contact with journalists is a much more formalized process than in other markets, such as the UK. We do a lot less small talk and avoid trivial niceties, especially if you have never been in contact before. Basically, we get to the point and keep things relatively serious. Imagine how you would email a potential employer or uni professor – that’s the tone of voice you should be aiming for. Most journalists prefer being approached by their last name rather than using their first name, otherwise, it might be perceived as impolite, and in that case, your email could be added straight to the trash.

For all non-German speakers, in the above example, we’ve used the polite form (Lieber Herr {Surname} / Sehr geehrter Herr {Surname} ) to address the journalist, and then crack on straight into the content we’re sharing.

Don’t send too many follow-ups 

The idea of follow-ups and how many you should send can be a contentious issue in and of itself. A lot of PRs and journalists have different opinions about sending follow-up emails and, more importantly, the exact number of follow-ups you should send. Based on countless campaigns we’ve outreached in Germany and Austria, we recommend not sending more than one follow-up email, as German journalists have a lower tolerance for these. They will quickly feel like you are spamming them, and you’ll risk being blocked by that journalist. Keep your emails concise and follow-ups to a minimum. If your initial emails aren’t getting picked up, you may have to move on or restrategize.

Focus on data-led campaigns and credible sources 

In our experience, indexes, surveys, and data-heavy content seem to perform best in Germany, and to be honest, this isn’t surprising! Germanic logic-based thinking lends itself better to these sorts of pitches. Journalists tend to be much more selective when it comes to content and rely less on PR pitches, so make sure you have done your research, use credible sources, and present something that actually adds value to the journalist’s readership.

The two campaigns above are examples of campaigns we launched for Savoo in the German market. These campaigns were data-rich and contained many regional angles, which interested our target journalists and landed the client coverage in Germany’s biggest publication – Bild.de.

Plan ahead, be patient and set goals

Something to keep in mind when outreaching in the German market is that lead times tend to be much longer than in the UK. In Germany, it’s much more common for journalists to plan their content weeks in advance. So don’t get disheartened when coverage does not come through straight away, you might have to be a bit more patient until you see your first pieces of pick-up. Every market faces its unique challenges, which means you can’t expect the same results, and your KPIs should reflect that. Try to set appropriate goals and communicated effectively with your client to manage expectations from the get-go.

Are you looking to gain online coverage and improve your backlink profile in the DACH region? Get in touch and find out how our Digital PR team can make that happen!