Digital PR is a strategy used to increase awareness of your brand using online methods. In many ways, it’s similar to traditional PR, but it offers the opportunity to reach a much broader audience that can’t be reached with only offline methods. To make the most impact, digital PR relies on Internet-based strategies such as search engine optimization, content marketing, influencer outreach and social media.
Digital PR is a powerful strategy which can improve a brand’s online presence and visibility. Static information can be transformed into conversations, and companies can speak directly to their target audience just about any time day or night. By connecting and sharing with the target audience, it’s possible to start a dialogue that clarifies your focus and to spread news and information much more quickly than ever before.
Digital PR Vs. Traditional PR
Traditional PR involves networking with journalists in order to get featured in print publications. At one time, the goal of a publicist who specialized in traditional PR was to get their clients included in newspapers, magazines, radio, and television. Most people who have specialized in traditional PR have shifted their focus to include digital PR – often finding higher readerships or viewership on online content than offline – although some traditional forms of PR may still be used.
With the growth of the internet, there are many more possible avenues to use to promote a business. Digital PR includes a wide variety of marketing possibilities such as being interviewed by online publications, increasing your online presence and using the interactive power of social media for further growth and recognition.
What Does Digital PR Involve?
The possibilities for online promotion are close to endless. Businesses need to look beyond print opportunities and interact with their target audience online. As a Digital PR Firm we combine the best of traditional PR with a focus on new trends in content marketing, social media marketing and many more.
As digital PR specialists we use a wide variety of tactics to improve a client’s web presence. Examples include:
- Preparing online press releases
- Building relationships with online journalists and bloggers to generate online press coverage
- Arranging business profiling
- Organizing online reviews and interviews
- Ensuring press releases are optimized with relevant links back to your website. This benefits readers with links to more information and gives your search rankings a boost by securing high authority links to your website from high traffic blogs and news sites
- Influencer marketing and blogger outreach to attain mention on influential social media accounts and blogs
- Publishing online content to gain a wider reputation and high-quality back-links
The Goal of Digital PR
Digital PR and traditional PR share one goal in common, which is to help improve a client’s reputation and increase their visibility among members of their target audience. Both are strategies to make a brand more recognizable. The main difference between them is the choice of methods used to accomplish this goal.
Digital PR aims to build brand value while using digital tools. Building a strong brand in the digital age where the sea of competitors is constantly growing can be challenging, but there are a wide variety of methods that can be used to increase visibility and remain competitive.
Prospects are just about unlimited choices regarding who they will do business with, and it can easily get drowned out by the competition if you don’t use digital PR. A well-defined brand has to be created and communicated in order to separate yourself from your competitors and be visible in the online avenues in which target markets get their information and search for solutions to their pain points.
How Digital PR Can Benefit Your Brand
Here are some of the ways digital PR can benefit your brand:
- Boost website traffic – As your brand is mentioned online on a more frequent basis and in many different places, more people will start to visit your website.
- Improve search engine optimization – When your content is published on high authority sites that link to your website, your SEO ranking will improve for your target keywords. As your SEO ranking improves, this will also improve your website traffic and leads or sales.
- Establish you as an authority in your niche – Publishing high-quality articles on authority sites will improve your reputation as a credible source of information and improve trust in your brand.
- Generate leads and sales – Using this strategy, your brand is mentioned much more frequently in front of an interested target audience, which will generate leads from some of the people who visit your website, ultimately also leading to more sales.
- Improve your brand image and increase trust – Your target audience will begin to hear more and more good things about your brand and see an increased number of positive reviews.
By O’Brien