The Benefits of Digital PR: Link Building & Beyond
Stupidly competitive at everything. Sport, leisure and fitness PR and marketing background. International racqueteer. Ponderer.
If you’re not seen online, do you exist?
It’s the kind of philosophical question that sounds outlandish but often feels true in the digital world, where competition for Google’s top spots and your audience’s attention is fierce.
Increasing your brand’s visibility online is more than a numbers game though. It takes the age-old art of storytelling, combined with the power of SEO, to shape a credible and authoritative reputation online, which is why digital PR has become so important in recent years.
Digital PR experts create relevant content with a news hook and compelling story. You can earn links and mentions off the back of it, which support your SEO goals by showing search engines that your content is so useful that high traffic websites want to link to it.
But the benefits of Digital PR go far beyond just building links to feed an ever evolving algorithm. Creating linkable assets that journalists want to promote and more importantly people want to see and read, can help your website and your brand in countless ways.
Below, we explore the different ways that Digital PR can help you to achieve your marketing and coverage goals.
10 Benefits of Digital PR
We could spend hours discussing the ins and outs of Digital PR, but we’ve already done that in our ultimate guide. In short, it’s a powerful tool that gets you seen by the right people, in the best light. Here are 10 of the benefits that it can bring to your business.
- Increased Online Visibility
As with brand PR, there’s tremendous value in getting your business into the right publications – whether that’s through press releases, by securing expert comment opportunities or publishing bigger research-led campaigns.
What makes digital PR so effective is that it uses newsworthy content to build links too. Earned backlinks from credible sites help to push your website to the top of search engine results pages (SERPS), the sites that people click on first.
If you need any proof of this working, just check out the results we have helped clients like YorkTest to achieve with effective Digital PR campaigns. It saw its organic traffic grow by 371% after achieving links from 300+ referring domains, including the likes of Men’s Health, Business Insider, The Sun US and Fox. - Broader Audience Reach
Digital PR campaigns allow you to reach a broader audience because you’re targeting more publications – as long as the content is relevant to your product or service, this coverage is still valuable.
They don’t always have to be business focused either. At Tank, we revealed the top hidden haunts in the UK just before Halloween which got us coverage in the local press around the UK exposing us to new audiences. Generally, by being present on the news, blogs or social media, you can reach a broader audience letting people know who you are. - Enhanced Brand Authority
By securing coverage in reputable publications, you can show Google that your content is trusted and useful. Journalists exercise editorial control over what they publish – so securing coverage and a link from a news site demonstrates that you’re an expert in a subject. This should be reflected in your search engine results pages (SERPs). - Sales & Lead Generation
Boosting your online visibility and leaving a positive impression puts you in a strong position to generate more enquiries, convert leads and boost revenue. Improving your rankings for relevant keywords means your website should be front and centre when people are looking to buy. - Improved Search Engine Rankings
One of the key goals of digital PR is to earn external links from reputable websites which can improve your position in SERPs. This is achieved with quality content that other sites will want to link to. Google trusts the judgement of these websites convincing it that your content is useful and relevant. Together with SEO, you can persuade Google of your standing. - Crisis Management
Digital PR specialists monitor the news and social media to check for any negative comments or sentiment that could be a risk to your brand. Putting your crisis management plan into action, they mitigate the risk before it spreads. With expertly placed words, they update your audience on the situation or explain it in a way that doesn’t cause more damage. - Partnership Opportunities
Greater brand awareness and authority can result in influencers and bloggers wanting to work with you. Often on the lookout for trustworthy and credible companies, the right influencers can promote and position your products or services online. Working together to create compelling content increases your chances of building trust and reaching a broader audience. - Increased Social Media Engagement
Thought-provoking content that tells a story can resonate with your audience and lead to more likes, follows, comments, clicks and shares. Partnerships with influencers, who may have hundreds-of-thousands of followers, will also boost your brand and generate audience trust. Once you are recognised and have a credible image, social media users will naturally engage more. And being consistent with fresh content will keep your followers engaged.
There’s also the potential to create social assets to support campaigns, like maps, tables and infographics. - Competition Distinction
Engaging content that reveals fresh insights and interesting data can put you miles ahead of your competitors. With far-reaching media coverage and higher rankings in the search engines, you can highlight your unique selling point and attract all of the traffic. You may also be the go-to-expert for commentary from journalists if you build a good relationship with them. - Trends Adaptability
Digital PR experts will get to know your industry inside out but they also proactively follow the news agenda – so know exactly what hot topics and emerging trends will get journalists and readers talking.
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Is Digital PR Worth the Investment?
Digital PR isn’t a hard-sell. The proof is in the metrics – coverage, reach, page views, links, mentions, keyword ranking improvements, organic traffic, brand awareness, public sentiment, and conversions. We track all of these for our clients and have proven results.
If you are in a niche industry, you have the opportunity to differentiate yourself from your competitors, reach a broad audience and drive leads.
Find out how our digital PR services can support your business.