Gaining Attention With Online PR the Right Way: Here's How

The goal of PR has always been to improve the positioning of any brand.

00:03 10 March 2021

Traditionally, businesses sought PR agencies to improve their brand awareness, and the best way to achieve that was to expose the business to media outlets. Although the goal still remains the same, the digital world has significantly changed how we do PR. Nowadays, online PR is just as important as traditional PR - if not even more important. 

 

Businesses now invest in digital PR to reach a much broader audience rather than relying on offline PR alone. Digital PR is heavily integrated with other digital marketing strategies; it goes hand-in-hand with SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, and influencer outreach, all for the purpose of raising brand awareness and improving credibility. It’s become so vital that digital marketing strategies can’t neglect it anymore. 

 

How to Gain Online Attention with Digital PR

First of all, you’ll need to make a list of the media outlets you want to contact. Such a list is also called a media list - it is a document containing a list of media contacts: journalists, reporters, influencers, bloggers, etc.

 

Whether it’s digital or traditional PR, both strategies aim for improving the brand awareness of a certain business. The difference between both strategies is that while traditional marketing often focuses on reaching out to media outlets like newspapers, magazines, and TV channels, digital PR uses the available digital tools to reach its target audience. They can still target online news agencies and digital magazines, but their efforts are not limited to news publishing entities. 

 

Digital PR uses all the available digital tools to build brand awareness and value. Since the online scene is highly competitive, digital PR agencies need to go out and beyond to overshadow their competition and grasp the attention of their target audience. To achieve that, they’ll publish articles, secure backlinks from related blogs and directories, and build strong relations with journalists. There is a myriad of other ways to strengthen your digital PR efforts, but, if you’re looking for a way to get started, here are the industry’s best-practices. 

 

1. Tell Your Story

 

Some studies show that the abundance of online information has significantly affected the attention span of digital users. Their attention span has become too short that they can, on average, lose interest in a matter of seconds. It’s safe to assume that you only have 3 to 8 seconds to grasp their attention; otherwise, you’ll lose them, probably forever. So how can you get the attention of your target audience? Should you start splashing colors or use clickbait links and images? These flashy methods can certainly get their attention, but they’re neither effective nor credible. If you want to appeal to your readers in a way that upholds your brand reputation, there’s no better way than to tell your story. 

 

Readers have a soft spot for stories. If they’re bombarded by facts and raw data, they’ll lose interest faster than you can say PR. However, if you share the same information in the form of a story, they’ll be tempted to even ask you for a second chapter. Better yet, you’ll be able to utilize storytelling in various formats; you can write it, record it in a podcast, shoot it as a video, or display it in the form of graphics. The most important thing is to make it as exciting and interesting as it is credible and from trusted sources. After all, there’s nothing to ruin your reputation as sharing fake news. 

 

1. Create a Solid Content Marketing Strategy

 

Everyone knows that content marketing is the backbone of digital marketing, but it’s just as vital for digital PR as well. That’s because digital PR and digital marketing overlap closely every step of the way. When you’re devising your content marketing strategy, you’ll want to include the goals of both digital marketing and digital PR to come up with a solid strategy. 

 

At first glance, digital marketing and digital PR may feel like one and the same. Although they overlap heavily, there are a few key differences in both strategies. Generally, digital marketing focuses on driving sales through online marketing efforts. It focuses on creating and converting leads; as such, digital marketers advertise, publish one-way information, and treat the audience as potential buyers. Meanwhile, the main focus of digital PR is to raise brand value. It works on raising brand awareness; as such, digital PR agencies encourage engagement via two-way conversations, work on educating the audience by sharing valuable information, and promote long-term campaigns. 

 

One of the leading tactics of a solid content marketing plan is to start a blog. The blog will be the place where businesses share useful insights, demonstrate products, and establish themselves as industry leaders. This is also where SEO comes to play, as a blog can only be as effective as its SEO strategy. The backbone of any SEO strategy is quality content and link building, which digital PR agencies can nurture by reaching out to gain high-quality backlinks on relevant blogs and news outlets. 

 

In addition to the blog, social media content will also be tailored according to the digital PR goals. At the end of the day, you’ll find yourself with a huge amount of content that’s too valuable to be left as it is. That’s when you can start repurposing your content to be reused in plentiful other ways. For instance, you can re-write the content you’ve shared on your blog and use it as a reference for your guest posts on other reputable media outlets. You can expand current blog posts with new information in the form of infographics or embedded videos, or turn your content into podcast episodes. 

 

Soon enough, you’ll find out that your content marketing strategy can quickly get out of hand. To stay on top of your content creation process, it’s best to write down your plan and transform it into an editorial calendar. The editorial calendar will include all the topics that need to be written, their publication schedule, the outreach plan, and every other significant date. Furthermore, your editorial calendar should mark national, global, and significant events you can’t miss. You’ll use these events to hijack the trends and seek out media partnerships, as well as point out the days you should stay away from the media. For instance, it’s not smart, nor will it be effective, to reach out for media coverage during the elections. 

 

1. Reach Out to Journalists

 

Once you have a solid content marketing plan in place, you’ll be more confident in approaching media outlets and journalists. However, keep in mind that you’ll still have a list of items to prepare before you can reach out to the journalists. 

 

First of all, you’ll need to make a list of the media outlets you want to contact. Once you narrow down, or scale-up, the list of media outlets, you’ll work on getting contact information for one of their representatives or journalists. While most media outlets provide their official email address and you can send them direct messages on social media, it’s best to get the contact information of one of their journalists. That will significantly streamline your outreach efforts, as a journalist will have the authority or means to directly publish your content.

 

This brings us to the next point: creating the content. Mostly, you’ll need to create the content in the form of a press release; it’s the format that journalists are most familiar with, it’s also the most effective way to publish your information on media outlets. You’ll then brainstorm ideas and topics for the press release. If you’re new to this, it’s best to opt for a press release template, and unless you’ve found a good one, it’s best to find a specialized digital PR marketer to write it in the proper format. Generally, a press release will include an informative yet catchy title, contact information, a summary, and paragraphs describing concise and valuable information. 

 

Keep in mind that it’s best to customize the press release according to the media publication you’re reaching out to. Each media outlet will have its own audience, and writing a one-size-fits-all press release will reduce the efficacy of your content. Moreover, there’s no reason to oblige these media outlets to publish your content; if it’s not appealing, trendy, trustworthy, or valuable, they’ll quickly disregard it. Be sure to research trends and come up with unique topics. For instance, creating comprehensive articles that provide analyzed research is always a surefire way to steal their attention. 

 

1. Partner-up with Influencers

 

Social media influencers have the advantage of being able to reach a big fanbase. They’ve cultivated their followers by gaining both their trust and interest, which is exactly what your digital PR is trying to do. Perhaps this one of the leading factors that have increased the number of partnerships made with influencers lately. Established brands, as well as startups, reach out to social media influencers to raise awareness of their products and services. However, keep in mind that most influencers will objectively review your products, as they can’t risk losing their fanbase. You want to ensure the quality and value of the product, services, or content you’re creating. You should also consider the benefits you’ll offer them to be able to establish a mutually-beneficial long-term partnership. 

 

1. Start Affiliate Marketing Programs

 

Affiliate marketing shares some similarities with influencer marketing, but the main difference is that affiliate marketers will get a certain commission for the number of sales they get you. Once you start an affiliate marketing program, they’ll also share your products or services and provide an objective review for your business. They can share their reviews in a comprehensive article comparing your business to similar ones to devote a whole section for your business. At the end of the day, they’ll be able to reach the audience you’re targeting, and they’ll get a percentage of the sales you make thanks to their efforts. 

 

1. Set PR Goals and Measure Performance

 

Whatever you do in your digital PR, the most important thing to move according to your goals. Be sure to set your SMART PR goals to include all coverage and outreach goals as well as your own target reach. Once you set the goals and devise the strategies accordingly, you’ll need to set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and milestones to measure the performance of your strategies. 

 

If you’ve estimated certain targets but failed to achieve them in the designated timeframe, you’ll need to identify whether your efforts were lacking or the goals were unrealistic to start with. Analyzing the performance will give you the insights you need to tweak your strategies or optimize your efforts to get the best ROI. 

 

How Your Brand Can Benefit from Digital PR

 

Digital PR can benefit your business in a myriad of ways. In the beginning, you’ll be focused on raising brand awareness and establishing your online presence. However, once you start implementing a successful digital PR strategy, you’ll enjoy the following benefits as well:

 

1. Enhanced SEO, as sharing your content on high-authority sites is one of the best ways to boost organic ranking and domain authority. 
   
   
2. Increased website traffic, as your backlinking and outreach efforts will spread the name of your website. As your website becomes better known, more readers will start visiting it out of curiosity. 
   
   
3. Positioning yourself as an industry or niche expert, thanks to your blogging and guest-posting efforts. Furthermore, there’s nothing that can prove your credibility like being referred to by trustworthy and established media outlets. 
   
   
4. Generating leads will come as a side-product of all your PR efforts, and the marketing department will never be happier. 
   
   
5. Improved conversions and sales. Not only will you generate high-quality leads, but these leads will have a much better chance of being converted. After all, these leads come from readers who believe in your credibility. 
   
   
6. Ultimately, all of these efforts will point out one irrefutable result: improved brand image and increased trust. 

 

There’s an infinite sea of prospects in the digital world, and digital marketing efforts can’t reach it on their own. Chances are, your competitors are already implementing the best digital PR strategies to build ever-lasting relations with their target audience, so every second you spend hesitating is costing your potential customers. To make full use of your digital PR efforts, you’ll want to integrate it with your sales and marketing departments to come up with a wholesome strategy that’s sure to benefit your business in every way.