What is digital PR?

What, exactly, is digital PR? Put simply, it's a clever mix of media relations and digital marketing strategies – such as content marketing, SEO, and social media – to increase the chances of your brand being seen, heard, and trusted.

These strategies can include building relationships with online journalists or influencers, sending out optimised press releases, arranging online reviews or interviews, publishing content on the web, designing and implementing wider creative campaigns, and getting those all-important backlinks.

By creating impactful content and sharing it with your key audiences via relevant media, you can gain a whole range of brand benefits:

- Get more traffic to your website

The more digital PR you do, the more you’ll be mentioned online as a source of authority. As a result, more people will visit your website – exactly where you want them. We do this by providing press releases to journalists that are worthy of linking to a client's website. If a client has something engaging on their website that adds value, expertise, or acts as a genuinely useful resource, we're more likely to gain the link from the journalist – and in turn, more traffic.

- Improve SEO and search engine ranking

When you’re mentioned on other websites, you can also gain high-quality backlinks to your own website. Search engines like Google love this, making it a surefire way to boost your SEO and search engine ranking for target keywords, enhancing your visibility.

- Connect to your audience, fast

Memorable digital PR will get your audiences connecting with your brand, creating a dialogue that spreads your message quickly and effectively across a range of channels.

- Boost brand awareness and trust

Getting mentions on influential publications, social media accounts, or blogs is also great news for building your reputation as a genuinely useful and credible source of information, which in turn helps to increase brand awareness and trust.

- Encourage leads and sales

While not a primary objective, digital PR can positively contribute to leads and sales if the content is engaging enough to drive relevant traffic. By creating impactful content, sharing it with your key media, and increasing brand awareness and trust, you can generate leads from people who visit your website. Win-win-win.

How is digital PR measured?

We use traditional PR tactics in digital PR, but traditional PR alone is typically harder to measure since it involves getting brands featured in print publications, which are broader in terms of audiences. On the other hand, it’s very easy to track the performance of digital PR campaigns. At Scriba PR, we have a media monitoring tool which can listen to conversations, ensuring we’re always on the pulse to monitor coverage and react to news in real time. Some factors we monitor include:

• How many clicks? If an online article or post includes a link, you can track these back to a landing page to see activity, which can also help indicate the level of interest and engagement.

• How many links? As mentioned, quality links matter. We do a little dance every time we get a high-quality backlink, because we know just how much of a positive impact they have on a client’s online presence and SEO efforts.

• How many social shares? The more your content is shared on social media, the most visibility you gain. It also means your message is resonating and being spread across different audiences.

• Has it generated brand awareness? Ultimately, the end goal of any marketing and PR strategy is to drive brand awareness. Monitoring and measuring this is important, as it can lead to leads and sales.

• What was the ROI? When you invest money and time in a digital PR campaign, you want to see an overall return in terms of value, which is why measuring your return on investment is vital.

Is digital PR for you?

Many businesses scour the internet searching for ways to be seen and heard in today’s saturated online landscape. For brands to truly expand, digital PR is a cost-effective solution that can have a huge impact on creating a positive reputation in your industry.

If you’re looking to improve your search engine rankings, boost brand awareness and trust, or want backlinks to your site, digital PR is an avenue worth considering. When applied in collaboration with your content marketing and SEO strategy, it’s the extra firepower you need to drive sales, growth, and brand recognition.

Interested in exploring how your business could benefit from digital PR? If you’re an existing client, reach out to your account manager, who’ll be happy to kick start the conversation. Alternatively, drop us a line and mention you’d like to be added to our newsletter mailing list and we’ll keep you up to date with the latest industry news and insights.