Kyle Garcia
The chances are high that you have heard of Digital PR, either while in the office or in line at your local coffee shop. However, maybe you aren’t quite sure what it is or how beneficial it can be compared to traditional PR.
To put it simply, Digital PR is the big sister of traditional public relations. It features all of the same great PR networking and relationship building, but in the online space.
Digital PR is a strategic element used by companies and personal or professional brands to utilize the internet to gain new leads, increase brand loyalty, and improve visibility through SEO rankings.
Unlike traditional PR, the benefits of Digital PR include reaching a much wider audience than would otherwise be inaccessible offline.
Not that long ago, a company that wanted to reach a broader market would have had to hire a firm to network with journalists to get their name featured in magazines and newspapers. Thankfully, with the advent of the internet, anyone can find their niche and grow their brand via online content.
Digital PR and Brand Awareness
One of the first primary advantages of Digital PR is building brand awareness. With millions of active users per day, the social media arena is a veritable playground for new and established businesses hoping to retain and gain new followers.
In addition, with more people averaging upwards of two or more hours on their social media channels daily, brands have the unique opportunity to connect and share with their target audience more now than ever before.
Constructing an online presence and gaining visibility is not necessarily an easy task, but interacting with users by starting a dialogue will help spread information about your brand much more efficiently and quickly.
With more channels to cross-post on, there is more chance of boosting web traffic as your company or brand is frequently mentioned by various social media outlets.
Using Digital PR to Cross-Post on Social Media
One essential method brands can use in their Digital PR strategy is cross-posting on their social media channels.
Cross-posting is the act of posting one piece of content across multiple platforms to gain more eyes and ears on that particular post. This strategy is excellent for smaller brands or companies with a fixed marketing budget.
Cross-posting has many benefits, including allowing more consumers to see the brand’s content without spending extra time creating more content, which can be a huge time saver for companies with multiple social media channels. Additionally, many digital tools can help facilitate the cross-posting process, including scheduling and analytics.
Despite posting the same content on every platform, the leading factor brands should keep in mind is creating high-quality content tailored to their target audience. If the content you are posting doesn’t fit your niche or isn’t resonating with consumers, they will likely not share or engage with it.
Generate More Sales Using Digital PR
Most companies are in the business of making money, but even if you own or operate a non-profit or a personal brand, more brand mentions mean more clicks, which leads to an uptick in sales or engagement.
Consumers are more likely to buy and or engage with brands that interact with them directly, either through comments or Q&As. Aligning audience engagement is critical when using digital strategies to generate sales and leads.
Digital PR Offers More Ways to Generate Press
The possibilities of online promotion and press are practically limitless. New trends in content marketing are popping up every week and can help brands gain more awareness and impact in their niche.
Digital PR offers a variety of methods, including generating online buzz through consumer reviews, building relationships with bloggers, journalists, and influencers, and keeping a close eye and ear on feedback from consumers directly.
Influencer Marketing in the Digital Space
More and more consumers are getting their recommendations directly from other consumers, mainly social media influencers.
As the digital marketing space expands, most companies are reallocating funds that were once used for print advertising and funneling them toward influencer marketing, allowing brands to redirect creative control from in-house teams or outside agencies to the content creator.
As more people enter the influencer marketing space, companies rely less on expensive celebrity endorsements. Instead, they leverage the brand to instill more trust in its target audiences, who put more faith and trust in social media influencers they see as just like them versus out of touch and overpaid celebrities who won’t give their honest opinion.
Establishing Consumer Trust with Digital PR
Any good brand should have a reliable brand image and established authority in its niche. Digital public relations can help improve the company’s public image and increase consumer trust in the process. Target audiences will react positively to high-quality and credible content, increasing the number of affirmative brand mentions and reviews.
A good reputation that relays the brand as a reputable source of information can improve trust in the brand and help attract new clients. When consumers relate mutually to a brand that emits authority and trust, they are more likely to recommend it to others.
Word of mouth and positive, glowing reviews can revive dying brands and help existing brands exert dominance as the authority of their prospective niche. Brands that collaborate with established and trusted influencers have more standing amongst consumers.
Improve SEO Ranking with Digital PR
A major benefit of Digital PR is improving search engine optimization and Google ranking by amassing brand mentions and backlinks on high-profile websites and social media channels. Brands can easily achieve their marketing goals because Digital PR works in conjunction with any SEO strategy.
Using targeted keywords that are optimized for getting your brand higher search rankings is an excellent extension of the digital pr toolkit. Ensuring your company reaches the top of Google search pages allows more consumers to find your product or service.
Another use of search engine optimization concerning Digital PR is backlinking. A backlink is a link to your website that originates from another company’s site.
Most search engines view backlinks as indicators of trusted websites, thus ranking them higher in results. Therefore, branded websites with more backlinks are considered trusted sources and enjoy more popularity, higher SEO ranking, and more brand visibility.
Using Digital PR to Measure ROI
While traditional public relations could take months to see a return on investment, Digital PR is not only easier to track and measure effectiveness but is also faster.
Tracking analytics is a fundamental tool for brands and businesses to utilize to evaluate a campaign’s effectiveness. Thus, Digital PR offers accelerated access to that data which can help brands grow exponentially.
Brands can use Digital PR to measure their ROI by tracking brand mentions, social media shares, traffic analytics, page rank, and backlinks. Using these tactics effectively can lead to new client referrals, existing client retention, and an uptick in organic traffic.
Using Digital PR to Compare Competitors
Digital PR is an excellent way to study the strategy of competitive brands. Reading the brand’s comment sections is one way to gauge the trust level of the company and see what consumers are saying about them. Analyzing the level of trust and brand visibility can be beneficial when building your own brand awareness.
Another way to use a competitor’s Digital PR for your brand is by using SEO analytics. Searching for competitor brands and their products or services can help brands define what targeted keywords are ranking higher than others.
Overall Benefits of Digital PR
Digital PR is a valuable tool that aims to increase brand presence and visibility using methods available in the online space. The overall lifespan of Digital PR is far broader than that of traditional public relations, which results in easier and more accelerated growth.
Brands and companies who use Digital PR can expect to increase their brand identity through SEO, social media, content marketing, and tracking analytics. Companies are occupying the digital space now more than ever. As a result, brands must use Digital PR to employ brand awareness and visibility.
Brands can utilize tactics such as cross-posting on social media and engaging social media influencers to build trust and generate press. Brands improve their SEO ranking using targeted keywords and backlinks and measure return on investment by tracking social media shares, page rank, and other analytics.
If you still aren’t convinced about the effectiveness of Digital PR, remember that in traditional public relations, brands had to hire publicists to rub elbows with journalists and spend massive amounts of money on running print and television ads, which are becoming more outdated.
The growth of online shopping and influencer marketing in recent years has made it more accessible for brands to delve into the arena that is Digital PR.
