Digital PR is an area of public relations that is exclusively taking place in the online space. As a strategy, digital PR is mainly used to increase brand awareness and complement traditional PR aka offline methods.
What is the difference between traditional and digital PR?
Traditional PR is mainly based on media relations. Public Relations managers will establish relationships with journalists across publications and markets and based on that generate offline coverage. Offline coverage included articles and mentions in newspapers, magazines, radio and television.
In today’s public relation society, both traditional media and digital publications are strongly considered in the media mix.
Learn about the five main drivers for your brand’s success through digital PR below.
Drive website traffic
Putting content online is a starting point to receiving mentions in the digital space. What is more important are online mentions generated by third-party receiving websites, blogs, influencers and social media. The more frequently your brand is mentioned via different sources, the more people will visit your website.
Rank higher
Published content will make you visible on Google and other search engines. Being mentioned on other high authority sites that generate backlinks to your own website will improve your SEO ranking immensely. Once your ranking has improved, you will drive more traffic to your website and hence leads and sales.
Unlike digital marketing, digital PR strategies are based on pieces of content, social networks, link building and public opinion. All of this is "earned media" and doesn't cost the brand.
Become a thought leader
The ultimate goal for any brand is to establish itself as a thought leader in its industry. One way of doing so is to simply create your own platform and publish high-quality content. Establishing a position of authority improves your brand’s reputation as a credible source of information. It furthermore aids in generating trust with your target audience.
Having established your niche will also make your digital pr campaigns more successful. While press releases are a tool of traditional PR, you still want to share this information with your online audience.
Unlike Social Media Marketing, digital PR allows you to create that niche without a budget.
Generate leads and sales
Becoming the leader in your niche or industry helps your reach your target audience. The likelihood of generating leads and sales is, much higher than speaking to a wider audience that might not be interested.
If your brand is offering complex products or services that need explanation, owning the thought leadership space is crucial.
Generating content will also give you a greater insight into what your target audience likes reading about. Tools like Google Analytics are a great help to get a handle on the data. This might inform future product development and service offerings.
Improve reputation and trust
Being as visible as possible in the online (and offline) space is crucial in order to generate brand awareness. Digital platforms give brands the opportunity to express what they are about in different formats, appealing to different audiences and situations. Finally, this will result in positive publicity in the online space.
A written article is helpful to inform you about what your brand's product can do for your target audience. If you want to appeal to a younger audience, you need to be active on social media platforms such as TikTok.
Appearing approachable across online platforms such as social media will also generate an opportunity for reviews. Reviews are essentially somebody else doing the talking for your brand Ultimately this develops trust with your target audience.
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