What is digital PR?
Digital PR, in a nutshell, is a digital marketing strategy used to build a brand’s online presence. Playing an important part of any marketing team’s integrated strategy, digital PR strives to drive authoritative backlinks to a brand’s site. But it’s so much more than just ‘link building’…
Digital PR encompasses insight and data, social media and content marketing to drive tangible results. But those results all depend on what your brand focuses are in terms of ROI, and the benefits go so much further than the number of links achieved.
Obviously, we want our campaigns to land links on authoritative sites and relevant publications, but it’s not the only thing digital PR can do for your brand.
So, let’s get into it, what are the benefits of digital PR? And why is digital PR important for your brand?
Brand awareness
To paraphrase the official motto of the U.S., “In digital PR we trust”.
Building trust, along with sales, should undoubtedly be one of the most important aspects of your strategy. Not only can you use digital PR to help search engines trust your website but also to build consumer trust.
Both Google and consumers value well-informed, accurate content offering insights from experts. This strategic use of content helps to position your brand as an industry leader across the topics that are most relevant to your audiences.
Drives traffic to your site
Digital PR can be an incredibly cost-effective way of generating website traffic as a result of earned (not paid) press opportunities. Not only can it increase traffic in the short term, but it also has long-term traffic gains. After all, building authority via securing links from reputable sources can play a role in achieving better search visibility.
Using digital PR to drive traffic could also help your PPC team and their marketing efforts. It’s unlikely people will purchase a product from simply seeing an article online. However, they may convert or take further action if targeted by social or a display advertisement afterwards.
Improved domain authority (DA) and organic ranking
Everyone wants to stay relevant – especially us millennial marketers… And Domain Authority predicts a website’s ability to rank within its unique competitive landscape. So, by using awesome campaigns to earn authoritative backlinks to high-quality, respected external sites, you can improve your brand’s DA!
Quality backlinks indicate that your website is a source of excellent, well-informed content and signals to search engines that you can be trusted… there’s that trust again!
Essentially: More links = more trust + higher ranking!
Gets people talking – cross channel
Whenever we’re planning campaigns, one of the most important things we have to ask is, will people care about this?
When done right, digital PR has the power to open up conversations and drive engagements across social media. Whether it’s a super creative campaigns asset or a controversial regional comparison, we truly have the power! And it all comes down to knowing your audience to a T, and knowing how to pique their interest.
Could increase sales
Although not the main objective of digital PR, increased web traffic and improved brand reputation can indirectly work to boost your brand’s bottom line.
Google Analytics can track every link click and site visit related to your campaign. So, make sure you check the conversions; you might find some surprising results that can be added to your reports.
