Newsjacking: Litmus

Overview

Litmus is a leading email marketing platform for enterprise customers like Ford Motor Company, Target and JP Morgan. The company looked to PANBlast to help position the organization and its spokespeople as thought leaders and experts on personalization and email marketing. 

Challenge

Analytics and personalization are critical components of a successful email program. In the Fall of 2021, Litmus was ready to announce its new email analytics solution. In the same week that Litmus planned to launch its solution, Apple dropped the news that its iOS 15 updates would include Mail Privacy Protection, which deters marketers from accessing data like open rates. With the update impacting its new product, Litmus postponed its announcement and called PANBlast to determine how to pivot its campaign.

Strategy

Understanding the importance of the iOS 15 update and its impact on Litmus and the industry, the PANBlast team quickly pivoted from Litmus’ product announcement to develop a reactive pitch, offering Litmus’ CMO as an expert to comment on the iOS 15 update — specifically, Mail Privacy Protection — and how it affected the future of email marketing. 

In addition to expert commentary, BLAST leveraged Litmus’ monthly data report on email client market share. The report helps email marketers understand monthly market trends for email clients like Gmail, Apple Mail and more. The data added another source of information for commentary and pitches. Following the initial reactive pitch, PANBlast incorporated the client share data, highlighting that 93.5% of all email opens on phones come through Apple Mail on iPhones or iPads. The pitch then offered Litmus’ CEO’s “must-dos for email marketers ahead of the iOS 15 updates” to secure additional thought leadership opportunities, including contributed content and interviews.  

Newsjacking allows thought leaders to leverage their expertise to comment on current events or industry trends. It requires speed to get to the press as quickly as possible, but it can produce major benefits for a company and its thought leaders. 

By jumping on the news fast, PANBlast got in front of reporters working on stories related to the announcement. The initial pieces secured helped promote and elevate Litmus thought leaders, further showcasing Litmus’ expertise on the matter. This recognition led to an uptick in inbound requests from reporters seeking reputable sources to build their stories.

While Litmus had to pause its product announcement on its email analytics solutions due to the iOS 15 update, the thought leadership from the reactive campaigns created momentum leading up to Litmus’ announcement, helping the team secure more coverage.