What Is Digital PR And How Can It Impact Your Brand

1. What Is Digital PR And How Can It Impact Your Brand? An estimated 63% of the world’s population uses the internet. This means that a whopping five billion people are active on the internet today, per Statista. This represents a tremendous market — in fact, 95% of all retail purchases will be made online by 2040. Naturally, there are millions of businesses that want to leverage this today by having a stellar online presence. And that’s where digital PR comes in. Read on to find out how. As they say, out of sight means out of mind. You need to find favorable ways to stay in the minds of your customers — both existing and potential. Else, they will forget about you quickly. And what better way to remain visible to your target demographic than to have a presence where they spend most of their leisure time? The help of a digital PR agency can act as a game-changer in this regard. In fact, most of your competitors might already be doing this. So, let’s make sure you’re leveraging digital PR services, too, to stay at the top of your industry. In this informational blog, we will explain everything you need to know more about online PR. Let’s delve! What Is Digital PR? Digital PR is a strategy that brands use to communicate and build relationships with customers by leveraging the internet. It also acts as a way to raise brand awareness and manage a business’s online reputation. Online public relations include publishing press releases, posting blogs, interacting with customers via social media, and more. Digital PR vs. Digital Marketing The terms digital marketing and digital PR are often confused and used interchangeably. The former focuses on promoting a business or its products and services directly using the internet. Digital PR, on the other hand, is more focused on generating brand awareness and creating a favorable public opinion. However, both these methods may sometimes use a few common tools and techniques. No matter what business you run, your target demographic is hanging out somewhere there on the internet. And you need to find that place and get there before your competition does. Digital PR vs. Traditional PR

2. Traditional PR leverages mediums such as television, radio, billboards, magazines, and so on to communicate with audiences. There are many brands that are using this form of PR even today. But traditional PR is fast getting trumped by its digital counterpart in almost every industry. This is owing to the latter’s broader reach and higher conversion rates. There are several advantages of digital PR over traditional methods of PR. For instance, the metrics of online PR are easy to track. You can accurately gauge whether a campaign was a success or not by analyzing data curated by algorithms. With traditional PR, there is little data to study and leverage. Moreover, digital PR enables two-way communication with your target audience, thereby boosting engagement. By taking the digital route, you can also ensure that your message reaches only your intended target audience. You don’t have to indulge in bombarding uninterested parties with ads or brand communication. But in traditional PR, there is hardly any way of controlling this. However, traditional and digital PR both have the same intent at heart. They both spread brand awareness and build healthy communication with audiences. But they go about that in different ways. In that, digital public relations make use of different channels and techniques. You can read more on that in the next section. What Are Some Popular Digital PR Techniques? Media Placements

3. Media placements and press features are one of the foremost digital PR techniques. Getting featured in top-tier publications and trusted media sources can help you generate significant brand awareness. Not just that, media placements can also help you establish your credibility. Publications such as Forbes, USA Today, Business Insider, etc., have high editorial standards and millions of readers. Naturally, a mention in such a publication would compel your target audience to sit up and take notice. Social Media Growth and Verification 58.4% of the world’s population uses social media, with an average daily use of 2 hours and 27 minutes. Think about how much you can engage a user in that time by using the right digital PR strategies. You can achieve this by engaging your target audiences in meaningful conversations and growing your social media presence. Another must-have in the social media age is the blue verified symbol. In a world full of scammers, impostors, and false advertising, social media verification acts as a huge plus. Having a verified brand account acts as a badge of authentication. It assures your audience that they are interacting with a genuine person or business. Moreover, it gives you the upper hand over competitors who run regular, non-verified accounts. Thus, verification can lead to more followers, more engagement, and more people paying attention to what you have to say. Online Reputation Management Let’s say you have successfully generated brand awareness through media placements and social media. Now, how do you maintain that reputation you’ve built and prevent it from tarnishing? That’s where online reputation management (ORM) services come in. An effective ORM strategy ensures that you maintain a consistent, positive brand image. It tackles negative online reviews or comments about your brand. ORM also involves promoting more positive PR to suppress and bury the negative links. In short, ORM ensures that your online presence remains spotless, keeping you ready to seize quality conversions. Guest Posting and Link Building This digital PR strategy is a part of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) — the process of improving your website’s ranking on a search engine organically. It involves posting links to your website content on other websites via guest blogs and articles. This redirects traffic to you from these other websites. But more importantly, it tells the search engine algorithms that your website is popular and credible. Hence, it is an effective way to increase your website ranking and traffic using white-hat SEO methods. Influencer Marketing In this digital PR technique, a brand partners with social media influencers, who bring increased visibility to the brand. People trust the advice of the influencers they follow, almost like trusting the word of a friend. Thus, audiences tend to perceive a brand better when an influencer recommends it to them. This digital PR strategy is especially useful to gain the trust of young audiences who look up to their favorite content creators. This way, your brand and its offerings become more relatable and relevant to such target demographics. In fact, influencer partnerships can even help you build a loyal brand following.

4. How Can Digital PR Impact Your Business? Build Brand Awareness With the help of an effective digital PR strategy, your brand can develop its unique voice and identity. It can help you position your company as a thought leader in its segment that customers can trust. Increase Website Traffic Your website is your digital shop — the place where you sell your products or services. Convincing people to buy from you comes second. Getting them to even visit your shop comes first. Digital PR can help increase your website traffic, thereby overcoming the first and most difficult hurdle in the purchase funnel. Generate Leads Identifying your target market, attracting them, and converting them from viewers to buyers is what lead generation is all about. A well-planned digital PR strategy can help you generate quality leads with ease. Professionals at a digital PR agency study buyer patterns and gauge your target market. Content is then created to cater to this demographic. Boost SEO Rankings Guest posting, robust backlinking, generating brand awareness, and building digital visibility are a few building blocks of digital PR. And they all help with giving your SEO rankings a leg up. Earn Credibility When potential customers read your brand story in reputed publications, it contributes to building trust and credibility. Open Up Chances for Collaboration Digital PR opens up doors for collaborations, be it through guest posting or influencer marketing, and so on. Collaborations help merge two audiences, giving your brand much-enhanced visibility. Drive Sales None of these benefits count for anything until they lead to sales. And digital PR can accelerate the purchase-funnel journey by leaps and bounds. An effective digital PR strategy would broaden your viewership and generate quality leads. And this, in turn, would ultimately drive your sales. Why Hire An Agency For Digital PR Services? Today, businesses find themselves in a world of cut-throat competition. No matter the industry or niche, every market has a plethora of options. If your target demographic does not find value in your offering, they go to your competitor.

5. But you know that you have a valuable offering. We know that your offering indeed adds value to your customers. Let’s make sure thatthey know this too. Here are a few ways that a digital PR firm could boost your bottom line: Outsource Requirements Digital PR requires specialized skillsets, technical expertise, and a knowledge of the constantly changing nuances of the online world. Hence, building a dedicated digital PR team is harder than it sounds. So, why not outsource your requirements and save yourself this burden? Get Help from Proven Experts As Mark Twain rightly said, “Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.” And the task is made simpler when you enlist the help of professionals and industry experts. By entrusting a reputed digital PR agency to handle the PR for your brand, you’d be doing yourself a solid. Such an agency would have the necessary networks and demonstrated experience to generate the right buzz around your brand. Save Costs Contrary to popular belief, hiring a digital PR agency is more cost-effective than building a dedicated PR team. Moreover, it is sure to get you faster and decidedly more effective results. Enter Digital Nod We are Digital Nod —the US’s leading digital PR agency offering guaranteed services to thousands of satisfied clients. The digital PR campaigns we’ve run for our clients are an excellent example of how smart investments can help a brand. Our clients have seen massive turnovers and a string of high- quality leads since enlisting our digital PR services. Take this as your sign to jump on to the digital PR bandwagon and test the marketing waters yourself! Contact Digital Nod today for a free brand consultation, and see your brand’s online presence soar!