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What is Digital PR? And Why Your Brand Needs it

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In today’s world, where we spend most of our time online rather than reading magazines and newspapers, the traditional PR (Public Relations) methods that rely on physical media are no longer as effective.

Instead, we have seen the emergence of a new tactic—Digital Public Relations, or Digital PR for short. Digital PR aims to reach the target audience online and has experienced a sharp rise in popularity over the last decade as businesses realise it is the best way to promote their brand in the modern world. 

But you may ask yourself, what exactly is digital PR, how does it differ from the more traditional PR methods, and what are the basic goals and techniques?

This guide will aim to define digital PR, exploring its key goals, processes, tools, and strategies, and explaining how and why it differs from traditional PR methods.

Defining Digital PR: What Exactly Is It?

In straightforward terms, digital PR is the act of increasing brand visibility and promoting positive messages around the brand by securing placements in various online and digital publications such as websites, blogs, podcasts, and social media platforms. It tends to blend elements of SEO, content marketing, influencer outreach, and link building to achieve this goal.

How is Digital PR different from Traditional PR?

At its core, digital PR is just a modern take on traditional public relations, with the main difference being that traditional PR was concentrated on the popular media outlets of the time such as TV, radio, newspapers and magazines. Digital PR however acknowledges that the vast majority of people are now online, and instead aims to target them through online media outlets such as websites, blogs, vlogs, podcasts, and social media.

There are however several fundamental differences between traditional and digital PR that you should know, which are:

Media Mediums and Platforms

As stated previously, one of the key differences between traditional PR and digital PR is the target publications, with traditional PR typically targeting offline outlets whereas digital PR is almost entirely focused on online coverage.

Research and Audience Targeting

Another change from traditional to digital PR is that a digital PR agency can reach a global audience in a way that traditional methods simply could not due to the nature of the internet. Traditional PR’s impact was localised, and its audience targeting was fairly general, as it was limited by both the distribution of print publications and the general public’s access to TV or radio. 

Digital PR, due to the amount of data collected and the far-reaching capabilities of the internet, can target much more specific niches or demographics within a much wider audience pool that is not restricted in the same way as traditional media.

Measurability

Typically, traditional printed media and broadcasts rely on estimates of audience figures, TV ratings, and print circulation, which could give an idea of reach but were not an exact science. One of the significant differences with digital PR is the ability to provide measurable results using the vast amount of data available via the internet through specialised tools.

Speed and Flexibility

Another big difference between traditional and digital PR is the ability to be both fast and adaptive. Rather than waiting on print deadlines or broadcast dates, businesses can now put out content themselves, and they can also adapt and flex this content as they see fit.

What are the basic goals of Digital PR?

Now that you understand what digital PR is, and some of the differences between it and traditional PR, let’s cover some of the key goals of any good digital PR campaign. Broadly speaking, these are:

  • Earned media coverage – Getting your content (and/or getting mentioned) on respected websites and platforms with a high authority and high traffic.
  • Building backlinks – You can boost your website’s SEO efforts by earning backlinks from your digital PR campaign, which can drive traffic and improve your own site’s authority.
  • Improving online brand reputation – A good digital PR campaign can strengthen your brand reputation through an increase in online mentions, reviews, and social media activity around your brand.

Sounds good, right? Well, they are. Digital PR is an extremely useful tool in any business’s marketing efforts, and the results often speak for themselves when a campaign is successful. But the next obvious question is, what does ‘doing’ digital PR involve?

What does digital PR involve?

Along with knowing the key goals of digital PR, it will also be useful to know the most important methods that are used to bring about success from a campaign. We believe that the most important methods in digital PR are:

Content Marketing – The very core of digital PR is creating high-quality, valuable content that will interest and intrigue the target audience, encourage them to share it, and ultimately gain media attention whilst also subtly promoting your brand. This can take several forms, from press releases and research-driven reports to expert opinion round-ups and captivating visualisations.

Link Building – Unique to digital PR, link building involves making sure that when you are mentioned online on other websites, they include a link back to your site. High-authority backlinks hint to search engines that you are a trustworthy site, and as such can lead to a boost in SEO rankings (and thus more traffic to your site). They can also be a direct source of traffic.

Influencer and Media OutreachOne of the most important (and most difficult) aspects of digital PR is outreach which involves contacting journalists, bloggers, influencers, and other digital content creators to get your brand featured on their platforms. It is no use having great content if no one is seeing it! Outreach in this way can allow your brand to tap into brand-new audiences.

Reputation Management – In the digital age the presence of online reviews and social media can make or break a brand, making online reputation management a critical aspect of digital PR. Encouraging positive posts and reviews, whilst also responding to the negative ones, plays a big part in the world of digital PR.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of digital PR?

It isn’t all easy! Whilst there are plenty of advantages to a successful digital marketing campaign, there are also some challenges that should be considered. Below, we have listed out the key advantages and disadvantages of a digital PR campaign:

Advantages of Digital PRDisadvantages of Digital PR
Increased Online Reach – By securing placements on high-authority sites and publications, brands can reach a much wider audience than traditional PR would allow.High Competition – The online world is bursting with content, and making sure yours is seen can be a struggle, especially for smaller brands with smaller resources. Journalists are also bombarded with press releases, so making sure you stand out can be difficult.
Boost in Search Engine Rankings – Successful digital PR campaigns can bring backlinks and mentions online, which in turn gives your site more authority and leads to higher rankings in search engines.Time-consuming – This isn’t always the case, but many digital PR campaigns can be time-consuming, whether it’s ideating and crafting the content, or building the relationships and pitching to journalists and influencers.
Enhanced Credibility and Trust – Features on certain websites, online discussions, and having influencers endorse your brand bring enhanced credibility to your business, meaning your audience is more likely to engage with you.Reliance On External Platforms – Digital PR typically relies on a number of third-party tools and platforms, and this means there is the risk that if these change or alter, your entire digital PR campaign will have to adapt as well.
Improved Lead Generation and Conversions – Because modern tools allow you to better target your campaigns, the traffic and interest generated will be much more likely to convert.

What does a digital PR process look like?

If you’ve decided that a digital PR campaign sounds like it will work for you then the next step is knowing what the average digital PR campaign process looks like. Agencies will have their own way of doing things (we have a thorough 8-step process) but generally, digital PR campaigns will follow the same five steps:

  1. Setting Objectives – Before you launch a digital PR campaign, you need to have some clear goals defined. These goals can range from increasing website traffic and boosting domain authority through backlinks to improving online visibility and brand awareness. Following the SMART acronym is a good way to try and frame your objectives and ensure the campaign stays on target, making them specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
  1. Audience Research – There is no point in sending out a campaign if it is not going to resonate with your target audience. Before launching a campaign, any good digital PR specialist will make sure they understand some basic questions about their target audience, namely who they are, what they care about, and what type of content they consume. Doing this research helps businesses to fine-tune their campaigns to maximise impact.
  1. Content Creation – This is arguably the most important part of the campaign as without a solid idea and good content, your PR campaign will struggle to get off of the ground. The best types of content to gain online attention and views are high-quality, easy to understand, engaging, and shareable. Some examples of digital PR content are case studies, statistical breakdowns, press releases, infographics, or even some more advanced tools such as quizzes or calculators.
  1. Outreach – Once you have your goals set, you have researched your audience, and your content is ready, it is time to start pushing your campaign out to the public through relevant publications, journalists, bloggers, and influencers. Often, digital PR specialists will already have a list of contacts within certain industries or at specific publications, but there are many tools and methods available to create an outreach list fit for your campaign. One thing to note is that personalising these outreach emails and tailoring them to the style of the target will greatly increase your chances of getting published.
  1. Monitoring and Optimization – Once your campaign is launched, you should aim to continuously track performance so you can assess its effectiveness. There are various tools (we have listed some later in this post) that can be used to measure performance, from your own website metrics through Google Analytics to social media coverage through a number of third-party tools. Generally, the metrics that are tracked most are website traffic, backlinks, social shares, and mentions online. Understanding how your campaign is doing will help to inform future campaigns and make improvements.

What are the biggest and best tools in Digital Public Relations?

To succeed in digital PR, you will need more than just a good idea of the process and good content. The right tools will ensure that you are carrying out your campaigns as efficiently as possible, allowing you to manage relationships with journalists and track your outreach, track your traffic, measure coverage, and generally help to assess and optimise the performance of your campaigns.

various cogs working in unison

Below we have listed some of the types of digital PR tools you will need to get started:

SEO Tools – Before you start sending out campaigns, you want to make sure you can accurately measure their success on your own website. A free tool such as Google Analytics will help you measure traffic and conversions, as well as tell you the source of the traffic. However, you will likely also want a dedicated SEO tool such as Ahrefs or Semrush which will help you to track backlinks gained, and keyword positions, and can even give you a share of voice metric to see how you are performing against your competitors.

Content Creation Tools – There are far too many to list here, and what tool works for you will depend on the type of content you are creating, but there are numerous options out there to help make your content stand out, from video and podcast editors to assisted writing tools and infographics creators. There is always a tool out there to ensure your content is being produced at the highest possible quality.

Media Databases – There are a number of tools such as MuckRack and Cision that streamline the process of identifying journalists, bloggers, influencers and publications relevant to certain industries. They do this by creating a big database of contacts and websites and allowing users to browse them using keywords, ensuring they can easily access the right people. This is something that can be majorly time-consuming and difficult when done manually, so these tools can be crucial to an efficient digital PR strategy.

Email Outreach Platforms – Publishing a digital PR campaign involves sending out A LOT of emails; thankfully there are tools that can make this process as simple as possible. Platforms such as Hunter, MailChimp and HubSpot allow you to send out mass personalised emails, track open rates, click-through rates, and assess engagement overall, giving you the ability to fine-tune your outreach for next time.

Social Media Monitoring Tools – Likes, retweets and mentions are all positives from a digital PR campaign, and so ensuring you are tracking these is crucial to assessing the performance of your work. Tools such as Hootsuite and BuzzSumo allow you to track your social mentions, as well as view current trends that may help inform your next campaign.

Now, you are getting there with your knowledge of digital PR, but given it is so fast-moving, you should also be aware of the trends in the industry. They can seriously boost your performance and help you stay relevant. To help you get started, we have listed out some of the most prominent digital PR trends for you here:

Video and Interactive Content – Content that effectively engages the user is a key component in a PR campaign, and video is one of the most engaging formats as it grabs attention quickly and can be shared easily on multiple platforms.

Data-driven PR – Journalists love data-backed stories, and as such, brands have tried to use their own unique data to get coverage online. These can be industry insights or trend reports that their audience will find useful, and campaigns like these have proven a success for digital PRs both in achieving media coverage, but also in earning links back to the study as journalists will often link to their source of data.

Influencer Partnerships – Influencers are an increasingly important aspect of the marketing world, and as such, targeting them in digital PR campaigns is becoming more and more necessary. Prominent on social media platforms, working with influencers allows your brand to access a large, receptive audience and gain credibility through positive reviews and feedback.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) – As with every industry, AI is having a big impact on helping digital PR specialists streamline their campaigns. Whether it’s AI suggestions from your media database to AI-driven content creation tools, incorporating this new technology into your workflow is essential.

Reactive PR – As the internet allows businesses to put out press releases and content immediately, brands have started to react quickly to important news or announcements in their industry. Being quick to react has always been an advantage in PR, and now brands are trying to be the first to put out a statement or engage with trends.

Ultimately, digital PR is an essential tool for any modern brand or business that is looking to improve its presence and reputation. By combining traditional PR tactics with modern SEO strategies, influencer outreach, and content marketing, digital PR allows brands to build authority, generate backlinks, and reach a wider audience in the ever-expanding digital space. Remember, if you want creative, results-driven digital PR campaigns, we can help!

FAQs

What is the difference between marketing and digital PR?

The main difference between marketing and digital PR is that while marketing is largely sales-driven and uses paid tactics, digital PR is more focused on brand reputation and relies on earned media coverage through relationship-building and organic mentions. Both are crucial for a complete digital strategy, as digital PR builds trust and awareness, which marketing can then use to help drive sales and conversions.

What does a digital PR specialist do?

A digital PR specialist is typically responsible for promoting and improving a brand’s online presence and reputation by securing media coverage, building relationships with journalists, influencers, and bloggers, and creating shareable content that earns backlinks. They develop and execute strategies aimed at gaining visibility online, including writing press releases, conducting media outreach, and securing influencer collaborations. Additionally, they monitor the performance of their campaigns, track SEO metrics like backlinks and website traffic, and manage online reputation by addressing customer feedback and reviews. A digital PR specialist’s role blends public relations with SEO, content marketing, and social media management to drive organic brand growth.

What industries benefit the most from Digital PR?

Digital PR is useful across all industries, but it is particularly beneficial for industries like tech, e-commerce, consumer goods, fashion, and travel. This is because brands in these sectors often have a high reliance on online visibility and credibility. Startups, in particular, benefit from Digital PR as it allows them to build recognition and trust with a large audience quickly.

How can small businesses benefit from Digital PR?

Small businesses can benefit from Digital PR by using it to build brand awareness and reach new customers without large budgets. Through targeted outreach to niche blogs, local media, or micro-influencers, small businesses can gain significant online exposure. Digital PR can also help them compete with larger brands by improving SEO through backlinks and mentions.

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