Public relations in the digital age (PR) can be an instrument for businesses to influence the public perception of their brands within the digital world. PR is generating interest in your service or product through compelling stories that resonate with your customers.
More than creating a buzz about your business and generating buzz, digital PR can also help develop connections, turning passive viewers into extremely curious prospects that you’ll most likely attract and convert.
What Is Digital PR?
The process of digital public relations (PR) involves strategically using the internet to boost your brand’s image and create an image that is positive to the public.
It involves managing reputation and communication, particularly in times of crisis across a variety of digital platforms. This strategy ensures effective branding and creates trust and confidence.
Traditional PR strategies were primarily focused on broadcasts, print media, or live shows. However, since everything and everyone is now digital in the last few years, businesses have switched to digital PR to make use of online channels like the Internet, social networks, and digital publications. Traditional PR, although effective in reaching a wide population, does not have the precise reach and accountability that digital PR provides.
The effectiveness of any strategy is contingent on the goals that are specific to your PR strategy, as well as the intended audience, and the character of the company.
Combining traditional and online PR strategies usually yields the most effective and comprehensive results.
There’s nobody better to promote the digital realm than Google’s John Mueller. In his announcement, you will not only learn the significance of this strategy but also two informational points, or maybe cautions.
In the beginning, you must use white-hat link-creating tools and strategies. Also, avoid being too spammy in your digital PR plan.
The second reason is that you must consider digital PR strategies like other elements related to search engine optimization (SEO).
A digital PR strategy enables your company to:
- Enhance recognition and brand awareness. Digital PR doesn’t only boost brand recognition. When your business is mentioned in trusted online press release publications and other publications, it demonstrates to prospective customers that you’re an authentic company.
- Better search rankings. Digital PR is one of the most effective white-hat link-building tools. When top-quality websites link to a company’s website, it informs search engines that the company is an authority source for information. The higher rank on search engines gives you more visibility.
- Engage and cultivate markets. Digital PR is also a way to interact with customers and establish relationships. Through sharing informative and interesting information, businesses can draw in new customers while retaining existing ones.
- Bring visitors to your site. Digital PR does not just allow you to disseminate positive information about your company and its products. It also lets you strategically link backlinks to your site and increase the amount of traffic.
Every purchase begins with a moment of interest and digital PR is about getting people interested in your business your digital PR strategy eventually will result in a profit.
Many companies, particularly small – to medium-sized ones work with a reputable Content Marketing Strategist or fully-service digital marketing agency to help them with their digital PR plans.
Should You Partner With a Third-Party Digital PR Agency?
If you’re able to work with Digital PR agencies you can, then in all probability, take it on. Beyond having the experience to deliver real results Digital PR agencies also have connections with influencers and journalists. These relationships also reduce the time it takes before your content marketing strategy is brought to life via electronic press announcements.
Understandably, you decide that hiring a digital agency isn’t your option. It is possible to ask your content marketing specialist in-house to educate you on digital PR. This process will take time and in some instances, may cost more over the long term because of the trial-and-error process.
Related: Digital Marketing: Techniques for Successful Internet Outreach
3 Key Metrics To Measure the Success of Digital PR Strategies
As with all worthwhile ventures doing the digital PR plan demands patience and perseverance. It requires your best effort for this, and in this case, it is about investing in content that is of high quality.
Digital PR concentrates on the use of assets like blogs and website traffic. Therefore, to determine the results of your online PR initiatives take into consideration the following:
Backlinks
Quality is important, but every backlink is not created equal. Think about your customers’ preferences and look for placements in the publications they are likely to read. Set a minimum threshold for the authority of your website as well as page authority scores or estimated traffic to determine the number of hyperlinks.
Digital PR isn’t centered solely on traditional link building. It can also create high-quality passive links that are built up over time. The creation of useful content that can be shared, such as reports and case studies draws high-domain authority websites to link to your site and make your content more useful.
Share of Search or SERP Visibility
Although your site can only get a single position on the search engine result page (SERP) for the non-branded search phrase however, your company’s name can be seen on many pages that rank for relevant keywords that are not branded by way of mentions. Search share is a broad measure of your brand’s exposure online and extends from your site to other sites.
To grasp the significance of such a measurement, consider this situation following a successful digital marketing campaign for PR, the name is listed in four twenty of the top results for a keyword that is not branded and you get a ‘ share’ of the search.’
Now, suppose that you enlisted a content marketing service expert to promote your company’s name to appear in the top eight of the 20 most popular results. Then, you have a staggering 40% of the search results. A higher percentage of search engines results in higher chances of being looked at by potential customers.
Conversions
Conversions are a crucial measure of digital marketing. They can be analyzed using a variety of methods. However, the first step is to determine the criteria that define a conversion for you. This could include anything from a purchase that is completed a subscription to a newsletter, or filling out a contact form. Once you’ve determined your conversion criteria, use tools like Google Analytics to track conversions on your site.
When it comes to digital PR, you need to keep an eye on the results of your referral traffic. Referral traffic is a portion of traffic to websites that comes directly from other websites (where you’ve got press announcements) in contrast to coming from websites or search engines and then navigating to your site.
Analyzing your referral traffic and understanding how it affects conversions will allow you to determine your next strategies for digital PR, knowing the things that work and what don’t.
Thrive’s Full-Service Digital Marketing Agency: Digital PR Strategists With a Proven Track Record
A well-crafted digital PR strategy can help your brand build visibility and recognition, boost search engine rankings, engage with your target audience, and drive high-intent visitors to your site. In addition, by attracting attention to your company’s image Digital PR eventually paves the way for a profitable business.
If you’re interested in exploring the possibilities of digital PR for your company, Thrive can help. We utilize whitehat link-building tools and have helped our clients build backlinks from reputable websites.
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