What is Digital PR: Beginner’s Guide (Tools, Examples, and Tactics)

What is the best way to get your prospects to know about your business? Shove your products and services on their faces until they buy from you? That would only turn them off.

A better way is digital PR. You tell stories about your business in a way they want to hear in ways they like to hear them. You build awareness about your brand. And organically generate leads, traffic, and brand affinity.

Let’s look at how to start your first digital PR campaign today. Starting with the basics of the difference between traditional and digital.

Digital PR Vs. Traditional PR

If we discuss the differences, traditional public relations methods involve channels like print media (magazines, newspapers), broadcast media (radio, television appearances), and event coordination (release parties, trade shows, VIP events).

Digital PR majorly focuses on online publications and platforms like blogs (guest posts, quotes in articles, online profiles), influencers (social media shares, giveaways), and various digital content formats such as podcasts, online videos, image copyrights, and directories.

Now, which approach should you choose for your business totally depends on your business model and growth marketing strategy; you can also go for a mix of them if required.

To make the right choice, consider which method can help you better in building brand awareness. For instance, if your potential customers are predominantly active on social media, digital PR may be more effective, as it reaches users on the internet.

But let’s say you’re an attorney and serve in a specific geographical area, then you can also go for traditional PR methods to reach your audience and establish credibility and authority in the local legal landscape.

Link Building Vs. Digital PR

Link building means getting more links to your website from places like social media, other websites, or directories. While digital PR is more about building your brand, and as a bonus, it gets you more links.

For instance, if your PR shows up in well-known publications and gets this media coverage, you’re not just building your brand image and improving your brand reputation but also getting high-quality backlinks to your website.

Types of Digital PR

Different forms of digital public relations involve multiple PR tactics, the majority of which are dependent on content creation. Let’s discuss them:

Social Media PR

Social media PR is all about getting people to talk about your brand. 

It uses different content strategies for different social platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok to create pieces of content that get people interested and talking. 

Unlike traditional PR, it’s not just about one-sided news delivery; social media PR lets you interact and engage with your audience. It’s a way to make your brand more visible and encourage conversations. Influencer Marketing can help with it.

Press Releases

It means using press or official announcements to share your company name and other information about your brand. But it doesn’t always have to be news. You can also share product launches, new branch openings, event coverage, or other noteworthy updates about your company.

PR Link-Building

PR link-building is like using PR skills to get more links to your website. You can do it in different ways, such as through podcasts, webinars, guest posts, and news articles.  

Digital PR Examples

Here are some examples of the PR.

Skadden

Skadden, a New York law firm, is using this Press Release to announce a leadership transition. It’s not just about sharing this news; it’s a way for them to make sure people are aware of what’s happening and to keep their name and reputation strong.  

Duravit

Duravit, a German bathroom fixtures manufacturer, share news about their 8-year partnership celebration. In this PR, they’re showcasing a specific project to emphasize their commitment to supporting architectural education. 

This helps them build a positive image in the public’s eyes, portraying Duravit as a provider of top-notch and eco-friendly bathroom fixtures 

Naks

Naks, a Filipino restaurant, announces its launch in the city in the form of news. 

The article is published on a reputable site and links back to the website of the restaurant—giving it credibility, direct traffic, referral traffic, backlinks, and other benefits of digital PR with the right information and placement of links.

Digital PR Tools

Several tools can assist you in enhancing your online presence and optimizing your content for better visibility.

SEMrush

SEMrush is an SEO tool that you can use to find the right keywords for your PR campaigns. Google Analytics, Ahrefs, and other SEO tools can also help you with that.  

It can also help you improve your content and analyze backlinks. With SEMrush, you can boost your Search Engine Optimization strategy and make your public relations efforts more effective.

Google Trends

Google Trends checks how the demand for your chosen keyword has changed over time. This information helps you understand which keywords are becoming more popular. If a topic is quickly picking steam, it may be worth creating a digital PR story around it.

Business Wire

Business Wire works as a PR outreach tool to submit your press release over channels like news, finance markets, investors, social media, etc.

HARO (Help a Reporter Out)

HARO gives you a daily platform to connect with journalists looking for expert quotes in their articles. If your quote gets picked up, you can get a brand mention even in high-profile publications.

How Can a Digital PR Campaign Help Your SEO

The main job of digital PR is to build and maintain your brand. 

And building your brand isn’t really a direct ranking factor, is it? 

But, Moz’s founder, Rand Fishkin, explained how it indirectly influences the SEO factors that Google considers.

A well-known brand means more visibility in Google searches, increased traffic, links, and click-through rates. That’s because a recognized brand tends to get more clicks and web visitors.

In 2021, John Mueller said that PR is just as important as technical SEO; in fact, it can be even more crucial than that in some cases. 

Essentially, even SEO aims for the same goal—brand awareness. It’s just that PR can make this job a lot easier.

How to Launch a Digital PR Campaign

Define Your Target Audience and Goals

For a successful public relations (PR) campaign, start by clearly defining your goals and target audience.

Metrics you set to measure your success can be reaching a new audience, increasing sales, increasing walk-in traffic to your office, or enhancing your overall SEO strategy. Plus, it should definitely drive traffic to your website. 

If your business offers multiple services, narrow down which services will be the focus of the PR campaign.

Clearly communicate how you want your brand to be perceived, set a budget, and also consider deadlines for the implementation if required.

Develop detailed personas for your target audience. It can help you tailor your campaign for better effectiveness.

Use Build Relationships Journalists, Editors, Influencers, and Bloggers

Establishing and maintaining relationships with journalists, editors, influencers, and bloggers is a great strategy for launching effective and sustainable public relations (PR) and digital marketing campaigns. But it’s a long-term approach.

You can’t just appear in someone’s inbox out of the blue and expect them to readily promote your PR story. Trust and rapport need to be established beforehand.

If you’re starting from scratch, you’ll need to invest time and effort in building relationships with these key figures so that you can use your existing connections with them later.

If you’re already on good terms with journalists, editors, and influencers, you can leverage these relationships by reaching out to them when you have a PR story to share.

Create High-Quality Content That Suits Your Campaign 

Instead of treating your press release like a regular ad or a blog, give it a positive news angle to grab journalists’ attention. It can significantly improve the likelihood of journalists picking up your story. 

Depending on your budget, you might also explore options like hosting an event or creating a noteworthy occasion to provide a unique news angle to your campaign. Otherwise, you can use any other information about your business for it.

For example, if you recently opened a new branch in a city, avoid a generic announcement like “Auto Repair Shop Opening in [City].” Instead, focus on what makes you stand out. Highlight a speciality or unique offering, such as ” XYZ Auto Repair Hub Launches in [City]: 20% Discount for First 20 Customers.”

Or, if you’re in the legal field, you can showcase a notable case, with the client’s consent of course, like “Cab Driver Secures a Hefty Compensation in a Hit-And-Run Incident Within 4 Days” or “Local Hero Attorney Secures Swift Justice for Hit-and-Run Victim.”

Remember, the more compelling your news angle, the more likely journalists are to publish your stories. Plus, make sure to make it interactive. 

To add authenticity and depth to your content, you can also include quotes from your employees or industry leaders for thought leadership type of content. This extra layer adds credibility and interest to your press release, making it more effective in attracting media attention. 

Start Your Outreach

After identifying the angle that makes your story newsworthy, the next step is to start reaching out. Contact different media outlets like newspapers, magazines, online platforms, and local TV or radio stations.

But before reaching out, do some research on these outlets. Check their official websites to understand their content, audience, and style. This will help you customize your pitch for better chances of getting your story published or featured.

Measure Your Results

Check your results based on the KPIs you decided in the beginning. Take a close look at various numerical indicators like client inquiries, sales figures, conversions, social media followers, direct website traffic, and the number of clicks on your links. 

This way, you can see how well your efforts are working and if you’re reaching your goals. Depending on the results, you can also create templates for the type of PR that works best for you.

Hire Us to Create a Digital PR Strategy For Your Business

On The Map Marketing is a digital PR agency that can build a custom campaign for your business to scale your brand awareness (and even scale some link profile and organic traffic with it). Contact us to discuss your digital PR needs and we’ll create a custom strategy for you.