The role of digital PR is more than just writing a standard press release. It’s about getting the best of your brand’s content shared and truly recognized.
Today, SEO can greatly impact the way your brand is perceived online. A simple Google search shows you content, whether it’s negative or positive media, so long as it meets the criteria search engines look for. This is where digital PR strategy comes in.
A well-crafted digital PR strategy can promote your business and protect your brand’s reputation. In this article, you’ll discover the importance of digital PR and what will make a successful digital PR campaign. Ultimately, you will be able to answer the question: What is digital PR?
What is digital PR?
Digital public relations (PR) is a modern marketing approach to managing and enhancing a brand’s online presence and reputation. By combining traditional PR with the techniques of a well-thought-out digital marketing strategy, brands can effortlessly reach their target audiences.
Some of the most used digital PR methods include:
- Creating relevant content in the form of articles, videos, and posts
- Reaching out to journalists, influencers, and relevant outlets
- Securing quality backlinks from websites with authority
- Engaging with audiences on social media platforms
Every digital PR effort contributes to the brand’s website traffic when executed effectively. Think of it as a domino effect.
For instance, media outlets can use press releases and relevant research articles as resources. They can link to these pages and invite more audiences to view them.
Voila, more potential customers! It’s a continuous path of pieces falling together.
Digital PR vs Traditional PR
Digital PR and traditional PR are essential strategies for managing a brand’s reputation and public image. They both seek to cultivate a positive brand perception. However, they differ in their approaches, tools, and platforms. Let’s examine how they can vary.
Scope and channels
Digital PR is focused on reaching audiences through digital channels. Some campaigns use proactive and reactive PR tactics to reach their target audiences effectively. This includes websites, social media platforms, blog posts, online news sites, and even public forums where their content is relevant. Their content types cover the following.
- Digital press releases
- Media coverage from online publications
- Blog posts
- Infographics
- Videos
- Social media posts
- Custom posters
Traditional public relations look to promote on your classic media channels found offline or without the support of the internet. This includes magazines, television, radio, and in-person events. The content formats you can expect to see traditional PR in include the following.
- Press releases done through in-person press conferences
- Media kits sent to news outlets, publications, and influencers
- Feature articles in print publications
- TV and radio ads and interviews
Techniques and strategies
A closer look at digital PR strategies will tell you they’re more than just about producing a large volume of content. Many techniques can be implemented to create a truly effective strategy, and these are some of the most valuable techniques.
- SEO integration
Search engine optimization is perhaps one of the most crucial points of any digital PR strategy. Integrating SEO into your digital PR efforts means utilizing link-building to become an authority on a specific topic. What matters here is optimizing your content for search engines to improve your content’s visibility and ranking. - Influencer collaboration
The most visible digital PR technique is influencer collaboration, just because everyone who goes online has most likely seen a brand-influencer collaboration. Here, brands can tap online influencers and bloggers to mention their products or services to expand their audiences. - Real-time engagement
This approach prioritizes engaging with audiences in real-time through social media platforms. This can mean responding to comments on social media posts and participating in conversations with brand mentions.
Traditional PR familiarizes itself with a more personal approach to getting a brand’s name and reputation out there. Traditional PR often requires a charming and outgoing personality to truly sell the brand’s authenticity. Some techniques and strategies implemented include the following.
- Media relations
Like what’s seen on TV when the lead works in PR, building relationships with the right people, like journalists and editors, can get brands recognized. Think of it as the early beginnings of link building. Media relations can score brand coverage in print and broadcast media. - Event management
Events are a great way to make connections for traditional PR. Brands can organize and manage important events to build relationships and get media coverage. These events include press conferences, product launches, and trade shows. - Publicity stunts
Sometimes, brands can also opt to get that wow factor for attention through publicity stunts, creating memorable and newsworthy events or actions to attract media attention.
How to kickstart an effective digital PR campaign
Kicking off an effective digital PR campaign involves strategic planning, execution, and analysis. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you get started. We’ll also take a look at examples of digital PR tactics that are done in the wild.
1. Define your goals
Goals will shape the way you craft your digital PR strategy. Drilling down into what goals you wish to achieve in your campaign will help you identify what steps need to be taken. Common goals include increasing brand awareness, enhancing your online reputation, and driving website traffic through link building or generating leads. If you’re not sure where to start, a good digital PR link-building service should be able to help you identify these goals.
When you have a clearer idea of your endpoint, setting measurable objectives is crucial. Quantifying your content will help you see how much work needs to be done throughout your campaign. Likewise, this can help you determine what needs improvement later in campaign retros.
2. Identify your target audience
Segmenting your audience will help you find exactly who your target audience is. Some factors that should be considered are demographics, online behaviors, such as what platforms they frequent, and finally, their interests, which can also help shape your brand voice and tone.
For a more detailed approach, creating buyer personas can help you better identify your audience’s motivations, needs, and preferences. You can use this to position your product, features, or services as something they need.
How do other brands apply this?
Netflix is present on a wide variety of platforms. Recently, it released the latest season of its series Bridgerton. To speak directly to the audiences present on their different platforms, Netflix updated its bio to speak in the same manner people on each platform converse while cleverly referencing the series.
3. Research and develop key messages
Again, key messages are influenced by your goals and audiences. Your goals must align with your core messaging to ensure your campaign is effective. By conducting competitor research and analyzing their techniques while factoring in trends, you can create relevant messaging to your brand.
With your findings, you can craft messaging and tactics to highlight your brand’s unique value proposition (UVP) or what makes it stand out against your competitors.
How do other brands apply this?
One brand worth noting is Lego. Using market research, they are rooting themselves in building an inclusive reputation catering to kids and adults.
In recent years, they have openly shared that their products can be enjoyed by the young at heart. This is followed by the plethora of Lego sets that follow art and design, travel references, and even retro games that create a sense of nostalgia.
4. Create high-quality content
The purpose of any piece of content a brand puts out is to engage, inform, and get enough shares to get your target audience talking about you. This is where high-quality output matters the most; content strategy makes this work.
Content strategy plays a major role in digital marketing and PR efforts. Considering the type of content that should be developed can impact how many audiences you can attract, engage, and eventually convert into customers. Again, this is structured based on your goal and audience research.
How do other brands apply this?
Every year, Spotify, the music streaming platform, kicks off Spotify Wrapped. This event shows all users a roundup of every single piece of music they’ve played in the last year. They are then gifted a personalized playlist based on this data. Users can share their Spotify Wrapped results and playlists with friends online.
Not only has Spotify Wrapped become somewhat of a worldwide year-end tradition, but it’s also a clever way to hit two birds with one stone:
- It gets their audience engaged and eager to keep using the platform year-round to spread awareness seasonally
- It pulls useful audience data, which can be used by artists who have songs in the app and the actual brand as well
5. Build a media list
Having a ready list of journalists, media outlets, bloggers, and influencers most relevant to your industry and audience can make content distribution smoother. Before kicking off content creation, you can form a plan of when and how to reach out to these resources.
Additionally, a media list allows you to conduct personalized outreach. This approach expresses your sincerity in choosing them and can increase the chance of getting media coverage from them.
6. Optimize for SEO
As we’ve mentioned, SEO efforts contribute greatly when you want to improve brand awareness in online channels. To effectively optimize for SEO, you’ll want to conduct keyword research first. Determining your target audience’s most relevant keywords can elevate your brand visibility in search results pages.
Weaving your keywords into your content, from an article to meta tags and other internal links, can ensure your website is optimized for SEO. When done right, you can even convert website visitors into actual customers.
How do other brands apply this?
We can look to the digital marketing experts at SEMrush for inspiration on SEO optimization. They use keyword integration impressively, so Google identifies their webpage as a top-recommended content piece in search results.
Their article on E-commerce alone utilizes the keyword consistently throughout the page, as seen in the article title, headers, and body.
7. Distribute your content
Your content strategy should outline the most ideal platforms of where and how to reach your target audience. You can distribute your published content in several ways to get the ball rolling on your brand’s visibility.
There are some ways you can do this. You can share press releases to your chosen media outlets, journalists, and influencers. Additionally, you can maximize your keywords on the relevant platforms and industry-specific websites that reach your target audience.
How do other brands apply this?
In 2023, Procreate launched Procreate Dreams, an app dedicated to creating animations. While the Procreate app alone had animation capabilities, what stood out about this new release was its features, which made it easier and more accessible for artists, designers, and hobbyists to make more intricate animations with an app designed for the iPad.
Following its release, several relevant publications covered the news such as PR Newswire, Creativebloq, and The Verge. To beef up the app’s unveiling, they gave artists like Aaron Blaise early access to the app to try for themselves so they could share their reviews about the product.
To tie the whole launch together, Procreate Dreams handpicked several artists to create animations with the tool, which they featured in their launch video. Talk about getting all eyes on your brand!
8. Monitor and engage
Keeping a close eye on your content’s performance and social media platforms can positively affect your brand’s reputation. By proactively looking into online mentions, shares, and other forms of engagement with social listening tools can allow you to get a pulse of how your target audience is responding to your content.
Using the opportunity to engage in real time by responding to comments and participating in relevant discussions on your expertise, product, service, and brand conversations can help cultivate a stronger relationship with your potential customers. Another useful resource is utilizing user-generated content (UGC), where actual customers share photos, videos, and reviews of your products and services.
How do other brands apply this?
American-owned eco-friendly bag manufacturer Baggu gained popularity in recent years thanks to its quest for sustainability, functionality, and, most importantly, its unique look.
It’s no wonder its Gen Z audience loves it so much that it’s become a TikTok trend to share how much they can pack into their bags. This shows how much of an impact UGCs can impact your brand’s success. To top it off, they make it a point to share humorous announcement posts to keep their audiences engaged and eager to make a purchase.
@bagguOur best selling Medium Nylon Crescent Bag is back in stock! 🔥♬ Battle, brawl, martial arts, heavy loud rock(1432866) – Cheng Lee
9. Measure and analyze results
Considering the goals you’ve set at the start of your campaign, it’s important to keep track of your progress at crucial milestones. Some metrics for success or key performance indicators (KPIs) you’ll want to measure and analyze at the end of your campaign consistently can include the following.
- Clicks to your website
- Links to your page
- Shares of your posts
- Revenue or leads
- Return on investments (ROI)
This makes using analytics tools like Google Analytics, SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Sprout Social crucial. These platforms offer features that allow you to measure the effectiveness of your campaign, which you can use to create detailed reports. At the end of the day, you’ll be able to effectively determine insights on what worked, what didn’t, and how you can improve your future campaigns.
10. Iterate and improve
You’ve finished your digital PR campaign and the retros. Now what? It’s back to the drawing board—iterate and continue to improve and grow your brand. If anything was missing in your past campaign, it’s good practice to create a feedback loop from your audience and stakeholders to create an even better campaign the next time around.
Maximizing your digital PR campaign
Businesses today can amplify their brand awareness and promote a positive reputation online with digital PR. While it might seem overwhelming with the number of ways you can go about upselling a brand, product, or service, knowing how to craft an effective strategy can make all the difference.
Fortunately, starting with your goal-setting and audience research can lead you to a successful digital PR campaign. Once your guides (goals) are ready, you can create compelling, engaging, and optimized content. The true secret lies in keeping your audience involved and engaged, as this allows you to build a strong relationship with your customers.
Want to build your digital PR campaign but still don’t know where to start? Let the Ethical SEO team take you through the opportunities that await. Drop us a line to get your brand out there.
