So you have a great product, but no one’s heard about it. Want to get your brand message out there? Digital PR is one answer for getting online visibility—visibility that can turn into real sales. And with ecommerce sales projected to surpass $6.3 trillion in 2024, it’s no wonder PR pros focus their pitches on online and digital media.
“If you have a product that can be talked about in publications, and you're not on an affiliate platform, you are completely losing out on maximizing all the press opportunities for the brand,” says Lauren Kleinman, founder of the PR agency Dreamday.
Below is a look at the benefits of running a digital PR campaign and how you can start building brand awareness for your company using digital PR strategies—with advice from Lauren along the way.
What is digital PR?
Digital public relations is the practice of managing a company’s brand reputation online. Digital PR strategies include coordinating product reviews, setting up interviews, networking with bloggers and online journalists, creating and distributing digital press releases, using influencer marketing, and pitching and publishing digital PR content—all of which help build brand awareness with target audiences. Digital PR campaigns might also include common digital marketing tactics for search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, influencer marketing, and social media marketing.
A huge part of digital public relations is affiliate marketing—the practice of coordinating people outside of your company to discuss your products in exchange for a sales commission. Lauren describes affiliate marketing partners as existing in three categories:
- Top-of-funnel partners. This includes heavyweight publications like Vogue or The New York Times.
- Mid-funnel partners. This includes bloggers, social media influencers, and sub-affiliate networks.
- Bottom-of-funnel partners. This would include loyalty- or coupon-based programs like Rakuten and Honey.
Digital PR vs. traditional PR
Digital PR efforts focus primarily on reaching audiences via online channels, whereas traditional PR focuses on outreach to traditional media outlets, often via live press briefings or press releases. Most PR specialists combine digital and offline methods to manage brand perception.
Lauren explains that there’s a difference in methodology between digital and traditional, too. Traditional PR firms are more retainer-based, focusing on a list of contacts with whom they have established relationships. Digital PR, on the other hand, is more data- and performance-based and relies on modern media monitoring tools and analytics tools.
Lauren shares an example scenario for a digital PR firm: “OK, these are the top five publications that performed best for this brand in the past,” she says, “[so] we're going to go really hard after [them] this quarter in whatever way we can.”
Digital PR vs. link building
Link building is an SEO strategy dedicated to increasing the number of quality backlinks to your content—in other words, getting websites to link to your content. Link building can boost organic rankings in search results based on how many links you get directing readers to your content, as well as the quality of those links. When reputable publications link to your site, Google perceives you as creating quality content and will direct more traffic your way.
Link building is part of a digital PR strategy. While a content marketing team might be responsible for creating quality content to improve a brand’s reputation, a digital PR specialist might send that content around to news outlets, popular blogs, and influencers, looking for coverage and links.
Why is digital PR important for businesses?
Digital PR is more than just a promotional tactic to get traffic to your content—although that is one of the goals. Let’s take a look at the benefits of digital PR to shape your brand’s online identity:
- Create brand awareness. A digital PR campaign can deliver your brand’s key messages to a wider audience. Better brand visibility means more potential customers who know your name.
- Boost traffic to websites. Digital strategy tactics, such as link building and SEO, can help boost your website traffic so you have more chances to convert visitors to customers.
- Increase social media followers. A social-focused digital PR campaign—with brand mentions, influencer shout-outs, and users creating content around your brand message—can increase your followers. “Instagram and TikTok have broadened the additional surfaces … that PR can live on,” Lauren explains, making the platforms complementary to digital PR activities.
- Earn high-quality backlinks. The more relevant media outlets link to your content, the better your brand perception will be—especially with Google’s search engine algorithm.
- Generate sales. Online PR will improve brand awareness and your online reputation—and that’s a good thing, since 81% of consumers need to trust a brand to consider buying. Better brand visibility and brand image might just be your secret recipe for converting your web traffic into sales.
How to create a digital PR campaign
- Set your KPIs
- Identify your target audience
- Establish relationships
- Mine existing content
- Develop new content
- Track and readjust
A strong digital PR campaign has many components and requires diligence and patience. “There's no free PR,” Lauren says. “You have to work for it.” Here’s how you can craft a digital PR strategy that will help skyrocket your brand’s online reputation:
1. Set your KPIs
A plan is nothing without a measure of success. Figure out what it is you want your PR to achieve, and make sure your strategy builds toward these goals. Possible key performance indicators (KPIs) include a boost in web traffic, more sales leads, increased followers on social media platforms, or a set number of high-quality backlinks when you create content.
2. Identify your target audience
The more you know about your target audience, the better. Find out where they go to consume content, and what kind of content they respond best to. You can’t create relevant content if you don’t know who you’re talking to.
3. Establish relationships
The foundation of a good PR team or digital PR agency is a network of bloggers, journalists, websites, and newsrooms who can get you media coverage. Build up your base of media outlets that you can send press releases and content to so you can get positive media coverage.
4. Mine existing content
Don’t reinvent the wheel for your PR—if you have existing written or video content, think about how you can repurpose and repackage it for off-site purposes. “Our team will … clip Instagram stories or posts, which kind of qualify as press in their own right,” Lauren says, “when it’s the right person sharing to their audience about a product.”
5. Develop new content
Once you’ve taken stock of the content you do have, identify new approaches and content ideas to further increase brand awareness. Lauren recommends sharing interesting founder stories, examples of your brand’s cultural relevance, and impressive metrics. For instance, her firm created a press release that client Fly by Jing had sold over a million dumplings in its first two months. Using these as content prompts can help kickstart your PR strategy for driving brand awareness.
6. Track and readjust
With your KPIs in mind, assess your PR strategy’s performance regularly. Use social media analytics, Google Analytics, and other data-driven tools at your disposal to make sure you’re on track. If you’re not hitting your goals, reassess your strategy, using greater brand awareness and brand loyalty as your guiding lights.
Digital PR FAQ
What are digital PR examples?
What is the difference between marketing and digital PR?
The primary focus of digital PR is to build brand awareness and develop a positive online reputation with customers—in other words, get them to know your brand’s name and message. Marketing, on the other hand, is a wider umbrella that includes spreading the word, converting to sales, and keeping in contact with customers.
How do digital PR and SEO work together?
A large part of digital PR strategy is increasing visibility for a company’s content. SEO’s main purpose is to drive traffic to websites most relevant to searches. Implementing an SEO strategy can be a valuable tool for PR specialists who want to capture targeted audiences with relevant keywords in their press releases and blog posts.
