What is a Digital PR Outreach Agency?

A Digital PR agency specializes in working with businesses to increase their online presence. People use digital tools and search engines like Google every day to find things like their local hairdresser or the best HR software for their company, and being able to be found online has become one of the best ways to increase leads, sales, and customer engagement.

Digital PR agencies live and breathe all things focused on technology. They have the knowledge, expertise, and resources to construct targeted Digital PR campaigns tailored for your specific needs. Plus, with improvements in PR measurement, campaigns can now be aimed at delivering tangible results that will boost awareness, engagement, and online presence.

Because not only do online methods of earning media coverage help increase brand awareness and trust, but it also has a significant impact on the performance of your best sales person – the website. Important, as the majority of your potential customers and target audience will interact with your website before they even get in touch with a real person.

Inbound searches are becoming the best way to reach and direct people to your business. But even the most powerful or optimized websites in the world will sometimes struggle to get in front of new audiences or target the ones it wants to reach the most.

How Does Digital PR Help with SEO?

Combining Digital PR methods with SEO best practice can help businesses rank higher up on search engine results pages. In turn, websites see an increase in traffic, engagement, and the chance of sales as visitors become more engaged and interested in what they see.

Content used for a media engagement program can also be used to support the targeting of website keywords. For example, if you’re a FinTech company and you’re looking to be known as a provider of blockchain technology, then placing a piece of content or news story placed in a relevant and targeted media publication will help you be found for those exact search terms if you’re unable to do so through your website.

Plus, unlike traditional PR where articles would appear in a print newspaper and be discarded the very next day, Digital PR coverage sticks around for the long-term. Much like you might see with your own blog traffic, online coverage can stay at the top of search results pages for years depending on the topic, value of information provided, and the media website. 

If it hits all three of these, then there is a serious chance online placements can place your brand next to targeted search results as well as lead people back to your website. Which is important, as being able to use online coverage to be found for relevant search topics is another wider benefit of Digital PR. Media websites typically have a very high Domain Authority (70+) and therefore a bigger chance of outranking your own web pages for certain search results.

Example of A Digital PR Strategy

For maximum impact, Digital PR strategies have to be closely aligned with your SEO and online marketing strategies. But remember – the main aim of content to be placed in the media, such as thought leadership articles, is still to create unique insight that speaks to the reader. Stuffing an article full of keywords will not only result in no placements, but even if it does it might actually be penalised by Google as spam.

There are three main areas to start creating a successful and effective Digital PR strategy: 

1-Undertanding your audience-and what they’re searching for

The first step is to understand who it is you’re looking to target, as this sets the bar on how successful your Digital PR campaign will be. For example, if you’re a provider of retail technology, then there’s almost no benefit of earning coverage in a magazine aimed at people working in manufacturing.

Buyer personas – a rundown of who your target audience and key users are, their role, and their challenges – can help with this. From here you can work out the kinds of search terms they’re typing into Google that you can start trying to rank for.

A lot of this will also be tied into any keyword research you’ve undertaken for the website SEO. Working backwards, you can use search terms to tell you what you have to start writing about to gain media placements and reach your target audiences.

2-Create content based on hot topics, not just search terms

First and foremost, Digital PR content has to be written around a trending topic. Only then can it be based around carefully researched target keywords. Not only will this increase the chances of your website appearing in search engine results for terms prospects are looking for, but it also allows the team to pitch and place the article in your target publications.

The problem with creating content around search terms and keywords is that it can end up sounding like a robot has written it. What you want, and what publications ask for, is well-written pieces that talk about relevant news stories and industry challenges or updates that their own audience will want to read.

When researching content ideas, have a scan of the media websites that speak specifically to your target audience and the topics their journalists have covered. Not only will this give you a better indication of what content to produce, but it will also help increase the likelihood of earning a placement by being highly targeted. 

If you want to take this one step further, Twitter is a good way to see what topics are currently trending in your area or industry. You could also look into using tools such as Google Trends to research which search terms your audience is looking for information on.

3-Agree what a successful Digital PR campaign looks like

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it’s important to set out what a successful Digital PR campaign will look like. Are you looking to gain 100 backlinks in the space of a 12 month campaign? Or are you looking to dominate one targeted search term to put your business at the coveted #1 spot in Google?

The key thing is to set metrics and KPIs for the PR campaign that relate to what it is you want to achieve. If it is to gain backlinks or a certain amount of online coverage, then set a certain target that can be measured over a certain period of time. 

These metrics can also relate to wider benefits of the Digital PR campaign. For example, it’s possible to correlate spikes in website traffic to announcements, launches, or other stories that have earned you coverage. You can also view things like referral traffic from media publications through Google Analytics, or view the SEO benefits of placements using tools like Moz. 

Setting out what a successful campaign looks like will give you and your PR agency the ability to work towards many different objectives, but one primary goal. Plus, at the end of the program, you can expect to be updated on the metrics and aims that you set out right at the start of the campaign, without any need to move the goalposts.

How Can A Digital PR Agency Help You?

1-PR for a Digital World

PR and may have “gone digital”, but the fundamentals remain the same. Our B2B Tech PR team are experts at creating stories for your business that engage the media, and we have the relationships with key journalists to get those stories read by your target audience.

2-Website-focused Results

All of our campaigns are planned and executed to get you media coverage that will raise your business’ profile, and improve the performance of your website. By creating digital PR campaigns that drive traffic back to your website, we not only get the results – we can show those results to you.

3-Digital PR Expertise

The media and PR landscape is always changing. That’s why our team receive constant training – both internal and external – on the latest PR, content, SEO and inbound marketing best practice to ensure we remain ahead of industry trends.

4-We Think You Might Like

Traditional PR used circulation, advertising equivalency and guesses how many people have read the article. B2B Digital PR have web visitors per month, is about Domain Authority and can show the article ranking as #1 on Google search terms. Could B2B Digital PR be right for your business?