SEO has come a long way. It is no longer limited to developing link building and search engine optimization strategies that would show instant result. The process has become convoluted, and difficult owing to the increasing number of suspicious link building strategies. Google has taken those spams seriously, and only considers links which it deems having quality.
Widget links (blogroll), Scholarship links, and even sacred guest posts are no longer impactful.
So, what are the options are you really left with? The answer is digital PR.
What is Digital Public Relations?
Digital PR is an online marketing strategy. Like conventional PR, businesses use digital marketing strategies to increase their online presence. Digital PR agencies work with bloggers, influencers, journalists and other such actors to get social media mentions, high quality back links and improve their SEO.
Why Should You Opt for Digital PR?
A single email can earn you top-tier coverage. It can generate hundreds, if not thousands of backlinks, and a wide array of social media shares. Digital PR is a powerful tool. You just need the right people to use it.
- You want quality not quantity.
- You want to improve organic search rankings.
- You want greater lifespan of your campaigns.
- You want to increase brand awareness.
You Want Quality not Quantity
Traditionally, publicists sent verbose and one sided press releases to a hoard of journalists in a single day. They hoped it would earn them massive media mentions. But success was not guaranteed.
Digital PR opts for a different approach. It makes sure that a mutually beneficial relationship is established with journalists and influencers through deliberate as well as personal interaction and understanding. Result? The relationships are everlasting, and both can work together indefinitely to promote each other.
You want to Improve Organic Search Rankings
Digital PR also improves your search engine rankings. It accumulates press mentions, and backlinks from high authority websites. This data is then used by Google to assess the rankings of your website.
You want Greater Lifespan of your Campaigns
Traditional PR have a short life span. It was either a hit or miss kind of strategy. Digital PR is not only fast and easy, it also has a longer life span owing to various social media handles, and other digital channels.
You want to Increase Brand Awareness
Digital PR is a sure way of increasing brand awareness among your prospects. Your competition might be a household name, and have established itself as a master in the field. Even if you are a newbie, you can use Digital PR to your advantage. You will only succeed in the market if people trust your brand. Digital PR can not only infuse trust among your audience, but also improve your brand’s reputation and increase awareness.
The Steps of Digital PR
The digital PR consists of four major steps:
Phase 1: Ideation.
Phase 2: Publishing.
Phase 3: Building an outreach List.
Phase 4: Pitching Phase.
Ideation Phase
Ideation phase is the very first step. It is where you think about what you want to create and brainstorm various campaign ideas. You can short list three to four different campaign options and determine which one is the most suitable one for your brand, and which one will yield the most optimal results.
Things to Remember
Phase one is critical and demands your utmost attention. Before proceeding to execution of any idea, remember these four things:
- The topic should be relatable
- Think outside the box
- The campaign should be newsworthy
The Topic Should be Relatable
The topic of the campaign should be relatable with your brand. You should not be creating apples for oranges. You can’t create a campaign for a soap company that explains the best gardening tools. These two are worlds apart and won’t make sense.
Think Outside the Box
However, it does not mean you have to create a campaign that has no creativity, or outside the box thinking. A soap company can create campaigns revolving around cleaning, health and Covid-19 crisis.
The Campaign Should be Newsworthy
Another thing to remember is the topic should be newsworthy. It should give incentives to the journalists to cover the story. You can create topics related to current political events, social problems or relatable fads. For instance, the soap company can create a campaign revolving around Covid-19, how it can take a toll on one’s mental health.
Examples
A flower retailer can create a campaign about global warming, and climate change to help the people understand the intensity of the situation.
You can browse Reddit to find relevant topics, and take it from there to generate your own unique campaign idea.
Also, check to see if anyone has done similar campaigns. Several companies have done work on the outcome of Covid-19 and its impact on mental wellbeing. Many journalists have covered it too. The instant you come up with an idea, do a Google search to determine if anyone has already done newsworthy work on it or not.
Publishing Phase
This is the exciting phase. You are going to transform your campaign from a bunch of raw data to meticulously and beautifully designed graphics which are going to live on your website.
Add the campaign as a blog post to your site. Do not forget two most important components:
- Custom Graphics to highlight your data insights.
- Copy comprising details about the research and findings.
Work with a graphic designer, or digital agency, like Ternion Solution to get the most of your data, and for your audience to understand it easily.
While working with the designers be specific, and do not shy away from asking exactly what you want. After your work has been done, create a copy, to explain the research methodology, the data collection methods and other such things.
It should not be a long page of unnecessary jargons and mumbo jumbo. Make it simple for the users.
Building an Outreach List Phase
Once your campaign has been published start the pitch process. Find relevant journalists and influencers to pitch the campaign. The best and easiest way to do is through Cision. Other options are available but Cision lets you search for journalists across various categories such as subject, name, location and even keywords, among others.
Pitching Phase
This is the final phase of your digital PR campaign, granted it is good. In pitching you begin to reach out to the journalists after you have garnered information about them.
Key Take Away
One thing to remember is that every journalists receives at least half a dozen pitches every day. It is a part of their job to wade through them and make decisions about the most successful ones. Good journalists are bombarded with several stories and pitches. So it is up to you to convince them to choose you.
My advice is simple, do as much upfront work for the journalist or influencer as possible. Make the outreach, or proposal succinct, and easy to understand.
Eliminate excessive information. Bullet points is always a favorable option.
Start the email by using an attractive punch line, such as:
The Most Effective Way to Fight Global Warming.
Hello (name of the Journalist)
My name is XYZ, and I represent Flower Retail ABC. We recently performed a study in the State of Louisiana, and Texas on how we can fight global warming. We came across some interesting and effective insights, including:
- People are more concerned about global warming than they were a decade ago.
- People in Louisiana are more likely to opt for echo friendly life style.
- Global warming is becoming an increasingly important topic of discussion.
If you want more, you can find the entire study on the link below: (provide link).
Please, let me know if you will be willing to write something about it.
Conclusion
Digital PR is an efficient way of improving your SEO, and overall presence on digital platforms. You need to establish a strategy that will help you build a lasting relationship with journalists, and place you under the spotlight.
It is a matter of understanding how your campaign will influence the journalist, and the prospects. You need to be creative, innovative and committed towards your Digital PR campaign. The process is a bit complex, especially if you are new to the market. Therefore, do not get overwhelmed, nor disappointed if it is time taking. In fact, take your time with the digital PR campaign.
Digital PR should focus on quality, improving your SEO rankings, and increasing brand awareness. Select topics that resonate with your audience, and strikes a chord with them, and the journalists. Make sure you are upfront and direct with the journalist you are pitching the idea. Trust goes both ways, if they are not able to trust you, you will not be able to trust them either.
