How Reactive PR Helped One of the UK’s Biggest Vaping Brands Earn 25 Links From Top-Tier Media
Vaping is not an easy industry to build authority in.
Advertising is restricted. Journalists are cautious. Editors do not want anything that feels like promotion. And many major publications are reluctant to link directly to commercial vaping websites.
For brands in the space, this creates a problem.
You can build links through guest posts, niche edits, affiliate partnerships and other traditional SEO tactics, but those links only take you so far.
At some point, if you want to compete at the top of Google, you need more than links.
You need trust.
You need authority.
You need your brand appearing in the publications people already know.
That was the challenge for one of the UK’s biggest vaping companies, they needed digital PR.
The objective
The client had already invested heavily into SEO.
They had used guest posts and other backlink methods to increase their search traffic, and to their credit, the strategy had worked.
They had grown.
They had rankings.
They had traffic.
But they also knew there was a gap.
Most of their backlink profile came from traditional link building. That helped with authority, but it did not give them the same level of trust or credibility as being featured in major national publications.
They wanted to add a stronger layer of authority to the website.
Not just links from blogs.
Not just paid placements.
Not just SEO-led backlinks.
They wanted earned media coverage from publications their customers, competitors and Google would recognise.
The goal was simple:
Use reactive digital PR to earn high-authority links from national media, while positioning the client as a trusted voice in the vaping industry.
The challenge
Vaping is a restricted niche, which makes PR much harder.
You cannot just send journalists a product story and expect coverage.
Most editors are not going to publish something that looks like an advert for vaping. They are also unlikely to give free coverage to a commercial vaping brand unless the story has a real reason to exist.
So the challenge was not just getting links.
The challenge was getting journalists to see the client as a useful expert source.
That meant the stories had to be timely, useful and relevant to the wider public.
They could not glamorise vaping.
They could not feel sales-led.
They had to give journalists something they actually needed.
The strategy
We used reactive PR to put the client in the centre of current conversations.
Instead of trying to force a brand story into the media, we looked for trending topics where the client had a credible reason to comment.
This included consumer advice, regulation updates, health-adjacent conversations, travel issues, lifestyle trends and public-interest stories connected to vaping.
The key was speed.
Reactive PR works when you can move quickly.
When a relevant story starts trending, journalists need expert comments, context and practical advice fast. If you can give them something useful before everyone else, you have a much better chance of being included.
So that is what we did.
We monitored the news agenda, identified relevant hooks, created expert commentary, and pitched the client as a credible voice who could add value to the story.
This meant the client was not just being mentioned as a company.
They were being used as part of the story.
That is a big difference.
Why reactive PR worked
Reactive PR was the right strategy because it allowed us to talk about vaping in a way that felt useful rather than promotional.
Journalists did not need a story about the client selling vaping products.
They needed expert insight on topics already being discussed.
That gave us a way in.
The client could comment on what the news meant for consumers, explain changes in regulation, offer practical advice, or give context around common vaping questions.
This made the brand relevant without making the coverage feel like an advert.
For a restricted industry, that is crucial.
The story has to be bigger than the brand.
But if the brand is placed correctly, it can still sit right in the middle of the coverage.
The results
The campaign earned 25 links from major national, lifestyle and regional publications.
Coverage included links from:
The Mirror
Express
Daily Mail
The Sun
Netmums
OK! Magazine
Daily Star
Daily Record
And many more top-tier publications
These were not paid placements.
They were not guest posts.
They were not affiliate deals.
They were earned editorial links from reactive PR campaigns that gave journalists timely, relevant and useful commentary.
For a vaping brand, that matters.
These are the types of publications that are extremely difficult to access through traditional link building, especially in a niche where editors are naturally cautious.
Why this matters
The client had already built search traffic through SEO and traditional link building.
But this campaign added something different.
It added authority.
Guest posts can help build links, but they do not always build trust.
A link from a small industry blog is not the same as being featured in The Mirror, Express, Daily Mail, The Sun or OK! Magazine.
When a brand appears in national media, it creates a different type of credibility.
It shows that the company is not just another site trying to rank.
It is a recognised voice in the industry.
That can support SEO, improve brand trust, strengthen the backlink profile and make the site harder for competitors to catch.
Digital PR for Vaping Brands
This campaign proved that reactive PR can work even in a restricted industry like vaping.
The key is not to promote the product.
The key is to understand the conversation journalists are already having and place the client inside that story in a way that adds value.
That is how you earn links from publications that would never accept a standard guest post.
That is how you build authority beyond traditional SEO.
And that is how you turn a brand from another website in a competitive niche into a trusted voice being quoted by national media.
If your business has already invested in SEO but wants stronger authority, better links and coverage from publications your competitors cannot easily copy, reactive PR could be the missing piece.
Book a call with us today and we’ll show you what stories could work for your brand.