The PR landscape is changing, with digital tactics becoming an increasingly important part of the average agency’s toolkit. 

While the demand for digital PR continues to grow, there remains some uncertainty about what this relatively new field actually is, and the role it can play in boosting a brand’s reputation. 

When executed properly, digital PR can boost your authority among key audiences and help your website rise to the top of search engine rankings.

What is digital PR?

In a nutshell, digital PR takes the principles of traditional PR and applies them to the online world, helping brands reach audiences that can’t be reached with only offline methods. 

From guest blogging to influencer marketing, digital PR draws on wide a range of techniques to promote branded content, services and products through online channels. 

It’s a perfect example of how PR and marketing are becoming increasingly integrated.

What is the difference between digital PR and traditional PR?

Like traditional PR, the goal of digital PR is to enhance a brand’s reputation. However, the tactics it uses to achieve this goal are completely different.  

Where traditional PR primarily focuses on print, radio and television, digital PR leans more heavily on online strategies like digital marketing and social media marketing. 

In practice, this means securing coverage in online platforms as a means of building authority and acquiring backlinks for your website.

What is the difference between digital PR and link building?

Where link building focuses solely on the SEO benefits of acquiring backlinks, digital PR also considers the reputational benefits of appearing on a particular platform. 

In this way, digital PR encompasses a wider set of tactics that includes building relationships with digital journalists as well as creating online content that’s tailored to different audiences. 

John Mueller, Google’s leading SEO expert, is careful to separate digital PR from the “spammy” kind of link building that the search engine has sought to penalise over the last decade. 

I love some of the things I see from digital pr, it’s a shame it often gets bucketed with the spammy kind of link building. It’s just as critical as tech SEO, probably more so in many cases.

— John Mueller (official) · #StaplerLife (@JohnMu) January 23, 2021

What are some examples of digital PR?

There are a multitude of tactics that PR agencies can use to drive results through digital PR, including: 

• Press releases – statements that may be picked up by online news platforms 
• Guest blogs – thought leadership articles published on another website 
• Unlinked mentions – ensuring any mentions of your brand link to your website 
• Influencer marketing – partnerships with influencers who promote your brand 
• Podcasts – developing a podcast that can be shared across online channels 
• Surveys – data-driven campaigns that other platforms may use as a reference 
• Interviews – sharing insights and expertise on other online platforms 
• Directories – adding your company to online business directories 

As the list demonstrates, virtually all forms of online content can be used in digital PR, provided they generate enough interest to be shared by other people.

What are the benefits of digital PR?

Digital PR presents brands with a unique opportunity to get ahead of their competitors, particularly in the online space. 

Here are five key benefits that a calculated digital PR strategy can bring to your business.

Build relationships

Securing coverage in online platforms doesn’t happen by magic; PRs must first approach bloggers and digital journalists with a compelling pitch. 

In this way, digital PR encourages brands and agencies to build their network of contacts in the same way that traditional PR has done for decades.

Establish authority

Whether through interviews, influencer partnerships or thought leadership articles, digital PR is a great way to establish your authority in a specific area. 

Leading PR agencies will target online platforms with high relevance and credibility, ensuring a positive perception among key audiences.

Improve SEO

Backlinks from blogs, newspapers and other online platforms positively impact the domain authority of your own website, in turn improving its visibility in search engines. 

The benefit of digital PR on SEO can be amplified by targeting high-authority websites with a subject matter like that of your own website.

Boost traffic

New backlinks may be enough to push your website into the top positions for certain keywords, bringing more traffic to your website through organic search. 

Not only that, but backlinks – especially those appearing in high-circulation platforms – may bring people directly to your website.

Generate conversions

Whether your goal is to make sales or generate leads, an influx of people to your website will likely lead to an increase in conversions. 

Digital PR is noted for its cost-effectiveness, helping brands increase their revenue without needing a huge budget.

How to create a digital PR campaign

As with traditional PR, there are a number of important steps that agencies should follow when creating a digital PR campaign.

Set tangible goals

It’s vital that you set tangible goals for your campaign so that you can measure its success upon completion. This way, you’ll know whether the campaign represented a good allocation of resources. 

Here are some examples of objectives for a digital PR campaign: 

• Generate £1,000 in sales for a particular product 
• Increase traffic to the website homepage by 10,000 
• Grow combined social media following by 2,500

Identify target audience

To ensure your campaign drives results, you’ll need to target a specific target market. Your audiences could be grouped based on a shared interest or demographic factors like age. 

With your target audience established, you can then research where they go online for their content, gathering potential platforms to pitch to in a media list.

Develop creative ideas

Based on your goals, target audience and media list, narrow down the types of content that are viable and likely to generate most interest. 

For example, a guest blog in a trade publication may be the best option for a niche B2B business, while influencer marketing may offer better returns for a B2C brand with a Gen Z target market. 

Nail the pitch

The fundamentals of media outreach for digital PR campaigns are no different than pitching to print publications: be succinct, make it personal and clearly outline the benefits of your campaign for the platform’s readership. 

Once you’re secured the opportunity, broach the subject of backlinks by specifying your chosen anchor text and ensure the backlink is assigned as a “dofollow” backlink.

Analyse performance 

It’s crucial that you check in on the performance of your digital PR campaign, especially if it’s your first time working with a new platform. 

Adding UTM parameters to your backlinks will allow you to capture valuable data about the behaviour of referred users once they land on your website. 

Get support from experts

Managing a digital PR campaign for the first time can be daunting, particularly for traditional PRs who may not have much digital marketing experience. 

As a fully integrated Birmingham PR agency, we have expertise across PR, social and digital channels, as well as a wealth of experience delivering results-driven digital PR campaigns. 

If you’re interested in digital PR for your business, get in touch today.