Using crime stats to build links
Locks Direct are a client that sell a range of high security and reliable locks. Stocking brands such as Abus and Squire, they specialise in weatherproof, outdoor solutions to business security. eComOne commenced work with the brand on SEO and since February 2022, this has meant an uplift of 70% for quantity of orders as well as an uplift of 161% in quantity from organic and referral revenue year on year. After expressing an interest in launching a data-led story, the Digital PR team set out to provide a campaign.
The Challenge
Locks Direct, while hugely successful as an e-commerce store, have never branched out into public-facing Digital PR. To make an impact and to improve the domain authority of www.locksdirect.co.uk the brief was to gain high domain backlinks in relevant press, be that local, regional or national.
The Strategy
To make an impact, ideation sessions were established to explore what strategies fit with the audience profile of Locks Direct. Looking at crime stats, both for businesses and private residences, there was a plethora of data available for burglaries and where they were most and least prevalent.
By sourcing official crime stats and also using the innovative stats that hone in on exact areas on www.crimerate.co.uk, we noticed we could geographically isolate certain crimes and compare year on year examples.
Using these two sources, we started to compile the towns and cities that fit the profile. Once these were compared, we created detailed listings for both the ‘most burgled’ and ‘least burgled’ cities and then created infographics for each too.
We also created security tips that sat with the information on the Locks Direct website, as well as expanded comments from the firm’s Director.
We then compiled a distribution list for relevant titles, namely:
- The security press
- Relevant national press
- Regional press for towns and cities included in the top tens
- Local and hyperlocal titles for towns and cities included in the top tens
We then approached each title with the press release and infographics, and followed up with each individual to gain coverage.
Results
We were able to land links on more than a dozen sites for a relatively short turnaround time on this campaign, including national links on Yahoo News, LoveProperty, ThisIsMoney, London Daily News and more.
We also localised it specifically to the firm’s most successful local news site, breaking down Lincolnshire and then Lincoln’s rates too: