Welcome to a new Weekly Interviews edition where we interview brilliant women in our industry and share their stories with the world! Anyone is welcome to share their story by simply filling this form, we encourage women from all walks of life in our industry to do so.
Introducing Robyn Gravestock! Based in London, Robyn is a Senior Digital PR & Promotion Consultant at Builtvisible and started in 2017. With a background in traditional PR from both in-house and agency roles, she works to translate her past experience and skills honed in the traditional PR world to enhance the work we do at Builtvisible.
While leading a variety of clients from top airlines to some of the largest UK insurance companies, Robyn is also responsible for the marketing efforts for the Digital PR team as a whole - advocating to elevate the agency’s Digital PR & Promotion offering within the industry.
We asked her everything from how she first got into SEO to what empowers her to be the brilliant woman she is 💪🏽
I studied Marketing, Communications and Advertising at university but didn’t hear much about SEO during my time on the course. However, I had a year out in the industry where I worked in the marketing and communications department for Dolby, a global company specialising in audio, visual and voice technologies - this is where I fell in love with PR.
Following my degree, I joined the traditional PR agency I’d been working with during my time at Dolby but quickly realised I wanted more variety and came across a Content Marketing Executive role at Builtvisible. In my interview, I fell in love with the agency and the team interviewing me and took the role as soon as it was offered. In my first few weeks, I knew I was where I wanted to be. I was getting everything I wanted and more in terms of experience, training and variety in my day-to-day! My strengths and interest lead me to specialise in Digital PR and this is where I continue to grow, still loving the agency set-up and no two days ever being the same.
I’d say my favourite task is outreach, where we contact and build relationships with journalists and website editors using the content we’ve created for our clients, with the goal for them to feature our content on their site and reference our client with a link.
There’s so much to Digital PR that’s fun and creative, but there’s nothing like the feeling of securing a good link. Especially when it’s on a site you and your client have wanted to place on for ages!
It would be so hard to name just one! I find the hardest part of Digital PR is generating campaign ideas that you’re confident will actually work for securing links, but that will also do much more for your client beyond just that link being built.
Because of this, I’d say any tool that helps me to validate an idea is what I couldn’t live without - starting from the incredible Digital PR community on Twitter, specifically accounts like Digital PR Examples, to tools such as Buzzsumo and Ahrefs.
SEO changes so much that I’d say I have an ‘AHA’ moment on a weekly basis, especially when you’re surrounded by some of the best in the business and there’s so much evolution that there is always something new to learn.
For me, the concept of search engines and websites needing to provide users with the best experience possible and how Digital PR can fit into that with relevant, helpful stories is most exciting.
Recently we created a campaign for one of our leading airline clients which I was 100% sold on being a success, but it was taking a little while to take off. After a rework of our outreach angles with the wider team who hadn’t worked on the campaign to date, I started outreaching again and placed it on CNBC Make It. This was a dreamy link for two reasons, 1. it’s a high-quality website and 2. Its audience was ideal for the client as we were aiming to reach people in business. Following this link, the campaign went viral!
You’re not on your own! There are so many incredible women in this industry and the community thrives off knowledge sharing, helping and lifting each other up. Don’t be afraid to reach out to people on Twitter or LinkedIn and you’ll find you can quickly build up a solid network.
There are so many women, especially my colleagues and friends at Builtvisible that I’d love to shout out individually - this would turn into an essay. Olivia Wiltshire’s been my line manager for many years now and leads our team at Builtvisible, aside from being a good friend she’s also taught me a lot and supported me through busy or stressful times.
I also work super closely with Kristina Lazarevic in the digital PR team here on many things from sales pitches, to training and supporting the team - it’s so great to have a peer alongside you that can offer different perspectives and experiences.
I’ve said a lot about the support and community here at Builtvisible, and previously in my career - these positive environments have really been what I can attribute my growth to. A safe space where you’re being constructively challenged, and having open and honest conversations, helps you improve. I’ve been fortunate to have this and be surrounded by inspirational people my whole career!
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Thanks Robyn for a truly insightful interview, you can connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.
To view more interviews with brilliant women, check out our Interviews page. If you've enjoyed reading this interview, then we'd love for YOU to share your story with the world! Simply fill this form here, we welcome brilliant SEOs from all walks of life! 🙌🏽