Are you new to the world of digital PR and looking to learn more about how you can earn that sweet, sweet link juice (yes it’s a real term)? Digital PR can be a powerful tool to build your brand, increase visibility, and connect with your target audience so, to help you set off on the right foot, our Senior Account Executive Olivia has put together a list of our top five digital PR tips for beginners. Let’s dive in!
Understand what it is!
No, it isn’t just a different way to say link-building. Digital PR has a lot of the same objectives as traditional PR but uses some different tactics to set goals and measure performance.
While link building may be a method used to achieve those goals (an important one too), it is more than just that! Understanding what digital PR is and is not, will help a lot when coming up with strategies and setting goals/KPIs with clients. Take time to read up on key terms and ideas, as well as how Digital PR can slot in with your more traditional PR or SEO work.
Define Your Goals
Before diving headfirst into digital PR, make sure to define your goals or review your client’s digital PR goals to ensure they’re achievable. Are you aiming to increase brand awareness, generate more leads, or establish yourself as an industry thought leader? As with any PR strategy, by clarifying your objectives, you can effectively tailor your plan of action.
If you’re unsure where to start, here are three KPIs to consider:
- Backlinks: Remember, not all backlinks are the same! Be sure to consider this within your KPIs and set out clear goals. I.e., will you be focusing on securing backlinks in target publications only, or will your focus be on the authority of the pages instead? Quality over quantity matters.
- Referral traffic: Analysing referral traffic provides valuable insights into your audience and helps optimize your digital PR strategy. It’s essential to generate links from pages that attract visitors. After all, if no one visits a page, its link won’t contribute much to driving traffic to your client’s site.
- SERP visibility: Search Engine Results Page (SERP) visibility is crucial for increasing brand visibility and driving organic traffic. Track the keywords relevant to your client’s business and monitor their rankings on search engines. Improving SERP rankings can significantly impact their online presence.
Nurture relationships
Building relationships with influencers, bloggers, journalists, and other relevant industry figures is just as important for digital PR as it is for traditional PR, if not more so. Tailor your pitches to demonstrate the value your brand can bring to their audience, rather than using a “spray and pray” approach to get your release (and links) in any and every title possible. By collaborating with relevant journalists and getting featured on authoritative platforms, you can enhance your brand’s credibility and expand its reach.
Not all news is newsworthy
As with any PR campaign, it is important to remember that not all news is newsworthy. When creating content and coming up with potential campaign ideas, revert back to your KPIs and make sure that your ideas are relevant to your client and to the news titles you want to be featured in.
If your content has a tenuous link to your client you’ll be starting on a backfoot. By creating content that is relevant, informative and engaging, you’ll be doing a journalist’s job for them and will in turn position yourself as a trusted and useful source of information. After all, no one wants to be blacklisted… or worse, called out by a journalist on Twitter for sending a completely irrelevant release!
Measure and Adapt
Your clients will likely want updates on results anyway but regularly measuring and analysing your results is particularly important for digital PR. Learn how to track the performance of your metrics (backlinks, referral traffic, SERP rankings, etc.) to ensure you are targeting the right publications and journalists and to help you adjust your strategy if things aren’t working. Tools like Ahrefs and SEM Rush are great for this kind of monitoring, but other more generic PR tools can also provide a great insight and overview of results. Digital PR is an ongoing process, so continuous monitoring and adaptation are essential.
Digital PR offers exciting opportunities and can be a great way to build your brand and connect with your target audience. By understanding the fundamentals, setting clear goals, building relevant relationships, creating engaging and informative content, and understanding how to analyse your results and strategy, you can set yourself up for success in the long run