With hundreds of PR tools circulating the internet, it can be hard to filter through and find the best ones for you. Here are eight useful tools from Millie Henderson at Surge Marketing.

Rocket Reach

Rocket Reach is a great tool for finding journalists' contact information and much more. The tool discovers verified emails, phone numbers and social media profiles for over 450 million people at 17 million companies worldwide.

If you’re looking for a tool to make outreach much more effective (and without endless hours of finding contact information) then Rocket Reach is the tool for you.

Similar Web

Similar web ranks websites and apps based on traffic and engagement metrics. The rankings are calculated according to the collected datasets and are updated on a monthly basis with new data.

Similar Web ranks websites, apps, browsers and search engines and allows you to filter down by a range of categories and locations. The platform will rank the sites, as well as give information on the average visit duration, the number of pages visited and bounce rates. So you can compare how you perform against your competitors.

HARO

HARO also known as Help a Reporter Net, is one of the most popular and well-known tools for PR and search engine optimisation (SEO) professionals.

It is a great tool for businesses with expertise on specific topics that are looking to gain media coverage in relevant publications.

HARO is a two-way street, journalists are looking for sources to cover their story and the sources (such as yourself) are looking for press coverage.

In addition, there is a free version of HARO for you to be able to trial the tool first before committing to a payment plan. It’s one of the best tools to get you started in the world of PR.

Editorielle

Editorielle is a UK based version of HARO. The tool was made with the intention of creating a modern, fun and user-friendly way to connect media with top-tier brands and PRs.

Editorielle has been free for the past year, however, as part of its one year anniversary it is updating prices. It is introducing two types of services.

Daily - membership will cost £5.99 a month and includes the daily newsletter

Instant - starts at £9.99 a month and includes 24/7 press opportunities, exclusive access to requests and short deadlines. (and of course the daily newsletter).

Google Alerts

We couldn’t write a list of useful tools for PR without including Google Alerts of course. Google Alerts allows you to monitor the worldwide web for new content ideas and topics that are specific to your niche.

There are two ways you can apply Google Alerts to your PR strategy:

1. Monitor the web for content ideas around certain terms and topics that are relevant to your business.
2. Monitor the web for content that mentions your brand, products or services.

If you have a brand with a good online presence, the second way will come in handy to be able to monitor what is being said about your business online. However, the first way can be great to discover trending topics surrounding your business to help with your PR strategy.

Did we mention also that Google Alerts is free? Yep, that’s right, as long as you have a Gmail account you can use Google Alerts for free.

Glimpse

Glimpse enhances Google Trends data for better insights. The chrome extension adds enriched data to the default Google Trends experience, with added features such as search volume, related trends, longtail keywords analysis and much more.

The tool is also commonly used with SEO professionals to help find business opportunities, investment research, eCommerce product selection and more.

Answer the Public

Answer The Public is a great tool to understand what your audience is searching for. Simply enter a keyword and let answer the public do the rest. You are limited on the number of free searches you have daily, however, you can upgrade to the pro plan for $99 a month.

Just enter a topic and Answer the Public will give you hundreds of long-tail keyword questions starting with ‘how, which, why, can, where...’ to give you endless content ideas.

Response Resource

Response Resource is a useful tool for both journalists and PR representatives alike. The journalist enquiry service puts you in touch with PRs and organisations to help you source material from case studies, statistics, facts, press releases and other background material.

The PR resource allows PRs and businesses to connect with the right media. You can receive timely requests from top journalists at national, consumer and trade publications. In addition, the media bulletin will give you insight into industry news, media moves and news updates.

Written by Millie Henderson, PR and outreach specialist at Surge Marketing Solutions