7 Steps to a Winning Digital PR Strategy (2024 Guide)
Do you want to boost brand awareness? Expand your reach into untapped markets? Build your website authority and become a leader in your industry? All of this is possible with a winning digital PR strategy.
In this complete guide, you’ll discover the power of PR, how to find the best media opportunities for your business, and the best strategy for getting tangible results from your efforts.
7 Steps For a Winning Digital PR Strategy
At Linkifi, we have an in-depth, seven-stage process for creating winning PR strategies for our clients. But if you’re looking to DIY the process for your new brand, here’s your step-by-step guide.
Step #1: Define Your Goals, KPIs, and Buyer Persona(s)
Before you start looking for press opportunities, you need to start with a detailed analysis of your KPIs, buyer personas, and brand goals. This might sound obvious, but the more specific you can be with your targets, the easier it will be to get the right PR opportunities and measure success.
Don’t start with vague goals like “increase website traffic” or “get more customers” – be as specific as possible with your statement:
- Boost website traffic by X% by Q4 of 2024.
- Get X backlinks from X publications with a DR of 85+.
- Generate $X in revenue by the end of 2024.
Any objectives focusing on your website traffic, links, or analytics are a great place to start. If you’re unsure what you should be focusing on, here are some more examples:
- Number of unique clicks or website traffic
- Uplift in rankings
- Number of backlinks
- Number of brand mentions
- Number of impressions generated
- Coverage gained in a specific media outlet
- Number of sales
- Increase in domain authority
Make sure your goals are linked to your overall business strategy. You should have firm reasons for using PR and understand how it can be used to take your business to the next level of success.
Step #2: Analyze the Competitive Landscape
Once you have your goals, do a competitive analysis to assess what is achievable in your industry. If there’s a lot of competition, you might find it hard to snag an article in the leading publication in your space, but there is a broad spectrum of opportunities to consider.
The best way to create a successful campaign is to research what is currently trending or on-topic in your niche. Dig into themes and subject matter that publications will find the most interesting.
There are a few tools that can help with this stage of your research:
Don’t forget to check out the leading publications in your industry to see what is currently being published. If you’re in the tech industry, that could be Business Insider; for the beauty niche, it could be Glamour Magazine.
Step #3: Devise Unique, Authoritative Topics Relevant to Your Target Audience
This is where creativity comes into play. You should pitch relevant, unique topics to journalists to get them interested in your ideas. That means coming up with innovative spins on hot topics and creating content that drives traffic.
There are plenty of content formats to choose from, depending on your target audience and industry:
- An article
- A blog post
- A video
- An infographic
- A microsite
- A podcast
If you’re struggling to come up with creative content ideas, this is where a PR company becomes invaluable. At Linkifi, we have professional content creators who write engaging, relevant articles for our clients. Our content is industry-specific, well-researched, and crafted to catch the eye of key publications.
If you’re going it alone, spend time creating in-depth, valuable content – and avoid AI programs like ChatGPT; Google can penalize you for it, and journalists see right through it.
Step #4: Research and Build a Media List That Aligns With Your Content
Your goal with building a media list is twofold: find outlets that make sense for your brand and content and ensure you know what kind of content each publication covers.
If you have a specific media outlet you’d love to get featured on, take the time to understand the type of stories they like, the style of content they post, and who their target audience is.
Have content ready to go to make sure you can send an engaging pitch straight away to beat the competition.
Don’t get blinded by the huge publications – you might find excellent backlink opportunities from smaller publications, local websites, and much more niche media sites.
If you’re unsure whether a website is a good choice for you, use tools like SEMRush and Ahrefs to check on their website stats:
- Number of website visitors
- Website traffic trends
- Domain authority
- Page authority
- Spam score
- Average time on page
- Bounce rate
Spammy websites will always be looking for guest posts, but a backlink from a low-quality website is worse than no link at all! Be selective with your media choices and hold out for the best opportunities.
Step #5: Pitch the Right Journalists With Compelling Emails
Create a spreadsheet with potential media sites listed in order of quality and authority. Now it’s time to find the right person to send a pitch to.
LinkedIn is a great place to look up employees at specific companies – you’ll be looking for content managers, editors, etc. – and they usually have contact information listed.
Your email needs to be concise, captivating, and personalized to the person you’re sending it to. Here’s a digital PR email template to get you started:
Subject Headline: The Title of Your Article
Hi [first name],
I’m reaching out because I have a story that I think would be perfect for [name of publication]: [Story Headline].
Here’s an elevator pitch and why I think your audience would love it:
- [2-3 bullet points on the main crucks of the article and the relevance to their audience]
- 2
- 3
Is this something you’d be interested in covering? I have the full article (including custom graphics) ready to go if so.
Thank you for your time,
[Your name]
[Your brand]
Make sure you come up with an interesting, captivating title to use as the email subject line – this will be the difference between the journalist clicking straight away or it getting lost in the shuffle.
Step #6: Don’t Neglect the Visuals
Visual content has the power to captivate audiences, convey messages, and enhance brand visibility. Publications will be much more interested in your content if it comes with ready-made, high-quality graphics, such as:
- Custom images
- Videos
- Infographics
- Memes
- Icons/explainers
Infographics are incredibly popular, especially if they contain stats and figures. These are highly shareable and linkable, so they will increase your chances of landing a high-authority publication and have the potential to get you more backlinks.
Step #7: Measure and Monitor Your Digital PR Strategy
Hopefully, you’ve found several great publications to pitch to, so you’ll need a way to measure and monitor your progress. There are plenty of online tools to help you do this, but if you work with a dedicated PR company like Linkifi, we’ll do all the tracking and monitoring for you.
Here’s a quick example of one of our client dashboards showing the number of links, audience reach, and sites reached:
But what should you be tracking to tell if your PR initiative was a success? The impact of any campaign isn’t directly quantifiable, but there are some important metrics you should keep track of.
1. Number of press articles
Start by tracking the number of press articles that mention your brand or product. Not only is this a key indicator of PR campaign success, but you can use them as a valuable tool in your marketing efforts.
If you do get high-profile coverage, don’t forget to highlight this on your own website to help boost brand trust and authority.
2. Social media reach and engagement
Track your social media reach, follower count, and engagement to see whether you get higher exposure after publishing a PR campaign. Large publications usually share new articles on their social media pages, so you should see a spike in followers and engagement on your channels.
3. Media content analysis
You should also track whether you’re getting actionable content or positive content for your brand. Actionable content usually involves press around a specific service or product, and it can drive sales and sign-ups.
Positive content about your brand doesn’t lead to action, but it does boost brand image and awareness, which could help with website traffic, domain authority, etc.
Both types of content are great to secure, but you’ll need to tweak your pitches and content style if you’re aiming for one but regularly getting the other.
4. Website traffic
Record a baseline of website traffic before your strategy for digital PR goes live and measure any changes afterward. You should see a good boost in website visitors following a PR campaign, especially if you’ve managed to land a high-authority publication.
5. Brand mentions
An increase in brand mentions following a PR campaign is great for awareness, trust, and credibility. You might find a boost in mentions on social media, forums, or other blogs.
If you do find unlinked mentions on high-quality blogs, it’s a great opportunity to reach out and turn them into valuable backlinks.
Unfortunately, PR can come with an increase in negative mentions, too. Make sure you have a plan in place to deal with any negative reviews or press so it doesn’t impact all the hard work you’ve put in.
6. Backlinks
Backlinks are like gold. If you can get links from high-authority websites, you’ll boost your own domain authority and increase trustworthiness in Google’s eyes. You won’t see backlinks skyrocket overnight, but a three-month PR campaign can easily result in dozens of new backlinks.
7. Sales figures
Finally and most importantly, track your sales to record any spikes after your PR campaign. A well-crafted, engaging campaign should drive traffic back to your website, and if you have that set up for conversions, this should easily help boost your sales figures.
6 Reasons Why Your Brand Should Invest in Digital PR
The global PR market is worth around $107 billion, and it’s easy to understand why so many companies have a digital PR strategy as part of their overall marketing.
Increased Brand Awareness
Using PR campaigns boosts brand awareness and encourages trust, no matter how new your company is. A well-crafted strategy for digital PR positions your brand as an industry leader, helping to overcome those initial barriers with new clients.
Improved Organic Rankings
High-quality backlinks play a key role in website authority, meaning you’ll begin showing up in more searches. The more links you have on high-authority websites, the more trustworthy your website becomes to the Google algorithm, which will have a direct impact on your organic search rankings.
Increased Website Traffic
With a winning PR campaign, you’ll see an increase in organic traffic to your website. Having quality links on publications and social media pages means more people are going to click and see what your website is all about.
Enhanced Brand Credibility
No matter what industry you’re in, establishing brand credibility is essential for making consistent sales and retaining customer loyalty – it’s even been found to be a better predictor of brand choice than expertise.
A powerful PR campaign immediately lends credibility to your brand, improving both the quantity and quality of business leads.
Digital PR Increased Sales
The ultimate goal of any business is to make more money, and a strategy for digital PR can help you get that boost you’re looking for. There’s no better way to increase brand visibility and reach new, untapped audiences than with public relations, especially if you can land links on the leading publications in your industry.
How Will Digital PR Help Your Brand?
At Linkifi, we’re passionate about getting tangible results for our clients, and we know how to create the best digital PR campaigns that transform even the smallest brands into leaders in their niches.
But if you’re still not sold on creating a digital PR strategy, here’s a quick recap of how it can take your business to the next level:
- Higher website traffic.
- Increased SEO for better organic rankings for your keywords.
- Boosted brand awareness and visibility to new audiences.
- More customers and higher sales.
- Increased brand trust and credibility.
The best part is that PR doesn’t have to cost a fortune. The best publications don’t charge for quality content, which means you can get incredible PR opportunities no matter the size of your company or your marketing budget.
Linkifi Can Help You Gain Traffic and Brand Authority From Top Publications
There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to creating an effective digital PR strategy. You need an optimized website, a killer content plan, a niche-specific list of media opportunities, and a consistent way of tracking results.
Luckily, Linkifi can handle all of that for you. We’ll reach out to the best industry-specific publications on your behalf, create engaging content, and get you high-quality backlinks that boost traffic, increase website authority, and improve your sales. Get started with powerful PR today.
