What is digital PR, how is it different than traditional PR and why is it important?

Digital PR can be used in a number of ways to support your digital marketing strategy. Primarily it focuses on building high-quality links to your site. This is achieved by creative content and stories which are outreached to specific publications and target media. Links for links sake is neither conducive to a successful strategy or likely to yield the best result. What is relevant and useful to each person will differ and a new strategy for each business with regards to outreach is advised.

Digital PR is essential to becoming more ‘relevant’ in the eyes of Google, improve SEO, and of course provide gains in your search rankings. It works hand in hand with SEO and content and are the three wise men of your site! It works to enhance your Brand and your reputation.

Traditional PR and Digital PR – What is the difference?

Think online and offline. Traditional PR and Digital PR are very different in many ways even if the core principles are the same. They are to serve different purposes and provide solutions in their specific genres. The lines here often become blurred, but the main 2 differences are simple:

1.Digital PR is with the aim of Google relevancy and website engagement first. Traditional PR is usually led with brand.

Measurement of these activities and attributing metrics

Traditional PR creates stories and outreaches to press too, but this tends to be for coverage in radio, television, or print. Measurement here can be tricky to track as it is largely based on audiences for broadcasting and determining precisely who has engaged with placements is almost impossible to attribute a metric to.

A high number of brand mentions in traditional PR and portrayal of the client is very important with a traditional PR approach. Understandably, the lead times for this activity can be substantial and will vary for business to business.

Digital PR has online goals and therefore allows us to see metrics such as backlink numbers, traffic increases, engagement and search ranking results asl well as boosting brand awareness along the way. Digital PR’s will create surveys, infographics or content people can interact with prior to pitching this to client specific publications online.

Buzzsumo and Google Analytics  can show you these metrics and show what is working and what isn’t. Arguably, you can gain far greater insight this way, segment your audience and target in a more personal manner that resonates with your goal markets.

Creating a strong Digital PR strategy

When creating a successful digital PR strategy, the most important thing to remember is the goal of each digital PR activity. Is it to build links? Is it to increase rankings in search, boost conversions or is it to support a particular project or the brand? Whatever the goal is keep it in mind throughout the process and keep it core to the strategy.

Before rushing out and coming up with ideas for digital PR, there are a few things which take president in your decisions:

Perception: How does your client or your business want to sound and what is the tone like? What values and point of difference is there for your client or business? What topics are worth avoiding? If your are off brand, off tone or not echoing the core values of the business, you may need to change tact.
Content: Who is the target market? Does your idea resonate with them? If it doesn’t fit its likely to not do as well as it could.
Sign-off and timescales: Who signs what off? How long does it take? What ideas are likely to need more sign off than others? Factor it into your plan when looking at this process.

Once your plan is in place and a timescale has been set, you can move on to the ideation stage of the process. This is essentially coming up with the ideas for your Digital PR activity.

The one thing to remember here is that its easy to be wrapped up in your brand or what you think is a fantastic idea but the reality is that this may not be of any interest to the press. No matter how great an idea is, if it doesn’t get picked up then the point of this activity is hard to reconcile.

There are steps you can take to make this appealing to journalists. Firstly, ensure your piece is backed up with strong data to demonstrate its credible. Including appealing visuals which fit with your target demographic will catch the readers attention and so should also be carefully considered. Finally, a hook – this has to be something to solidify a journalist wanting to use your piece.

There is a lot of considerations to take into account when embarking on a digital PR campaign but with the right tool, a good strategy and the right thought process, this activity will contribute to the growth of your business.

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