Refreshing your PR strategy for 2026

Why Digital PR needs a reset in 2026?

Over the last 18 months, Digital PR has entered a new phase shaped by AI tools, shifting user behaviour and a rapidly evolving search landscape. As a result, the way our digital PR strategies are developed, delivered and measured has changed significantly. 

In 2026, successful Digital PR strategies are built on a clear understanding of how and where people now discover information, how search engines assess relevance and authority, and why digital PR has become an important connective layer across marketing, SEO and brand. Now, Digital PR plays a broader and more strategic role supporting not only performance in the SERPs, but also discoverability, credibility and brand presence across an expanding number of online touchpoints. 

Moving forward, Digital PR activity must work harder and smarter not simply to secure links, but to ensure brands consistently appear in the right places, with the right context, at the moments audiences are actively seeking answers.  

So, these are our biggest top tips for setting up your brand for Digital PR success in 2026:

Start with audience insights and business objectives

Refreshing your digital PR strategy should always begin with reassessing your focus. To build campaigns that resonate in 2026, it’s essential to clearly understand who you’re trying to reach, what matters to them, and how this aligns with your wider commercial objectives. 

Whether your priority is launching a new product, supporting a core service or strengthening brand authority, the most effective digital PR campaigns sit in the ‘messy middle’ of audience interest, brand relevance and business goals. When these elements are aligned, campaigns feel natural, purposeful and far more impactful.  

To help achieve this in your 2026 strategy, start by asking the right questions: 

• What problems is your audience trying to solve? 
• Where do they go for trusted information? 
• How do they search and how do they discover content without searching at all? 

Incorporating tools such as Google Audience Insights or social listening tools such as Brand Watch can play an important role here, helping to validate assumptions and discover certain patterns in behaviour and interest. Answering these questions ensures your digital PR strategy is built with clear intent, and campaigns are informed by insight designed to deliver long-term value. 

Rethinking links: quality and intent in 2026

Links will always play an important role in digital PR, but in 2026, it’s more about ‘how’ we approach them that matters more than ever. An effective link strategy is no longer about link volume alone, it’s about securing intentional links that are closely aligned with both audience behaviour and brand objectives.  

When refreshing your 2026 PR strategy, you should consider how you define success and ensure you select the right metrics to measure performance.  

A good approach to doing this is applying the ethos that links should be considered across two core categories. The first is consumer-focused coverage which is particularly relevant for consumer-facing brands such as nationals, lifestyles and regional publications. This type of media coverage typically aligns with audience conversations and wider cultural moments, securing placements across mainstream and lifestyle publications. For brands operating in sectors such as travel, retail or beauty, this type of media coverage can be highly effective in driving reach, visibility and brand discovery.  

The second category is core-service coverage. This includes landing media results in trade, niche and sector-specific publications that closely reflect what your brand actually does. These links typically carry stronger topical relevance and authority, playing a crucial role in SEO performance and in how large language models interpret brand expertise and credibility. 

The strongest digital PR strategies in 2026 will strike a balance between the two, using consumer-focused coverage to build reach, while consistently securing highly relevant links that reinforce trust, authority and long-term visibility. 

Cross-channel Digital PR is now the expectation 

One of the most significant shifts in recent years has been the move away from siloed activity. Digital PR no longer operates in isolation from SEO, social or influencer marketing. Instead, it acts as a connective layer ensuring campaign ideas travel further, work harder and deliver greater impact. 

If you’re an in-house PR, it’s important you collaborate with your internal channel teams to get the most out of your Digital PR campaigns in 2026, and ensure ideas are designed with flexible strategies built in from the outset. 

For example, a single, helpful insight from a PR-led survey can be used to power an activation across PR, social and influencer channels alongside being referenced within your email marketing tactics, rather than existing solely as coverage on news sites. When these elements work together, each channel strengthens the performance of the others. 

So, by applying a cross-channel mindset to your Digital PR strategy in 2026, you can ensure your activity does more than generate coverage. It actively supports wider marketing objectives, amplifies brand visibility and delivers measurable value across the entire search landscape.