What you need to know before doing digital PR

Understand what you’re getting

Understanding the nuances of a digital PR strategy, from identifying the right tactics, knowing how your brand can stand out, to tooling, can feel overwhelming. In this article, we’ll walk through a few key things to know before you commit to the process.

First off, it’s important to understand what digital PR is and what you want to get out of it, especially if you’re working with an agency, so expectations are clear from the start.

At its core, digital PR is a strategic communication-based SEO process that uses high-quality content and targeted outreach to earn brand coverage, mentions and backlinks from authoritative and topically relevant websites.

If you are working with an agency, make sure you know where their strengths lie and what they do and don’t cover. For example, whether they work in the markets you’re targeting and can support your team with skills or expertise you might not have in-house.

Common digital PR tactics

Producing creative campaigns
Pitching expert insights
Responding to journalist requests
Newsjacking (pitching comments or data in reaction to a news story)
Product promotion
Brand PR (sharing success stories and brand news)

The difference between digital and traditional PR

One common confusion is the difference between traditional PR and digital PR. While they have overlapping practices and benefits, digital PR’s biggest strength is the SEO value it can bring, specialising in gaining online coverage and backlinks to help build authority and boost visibility through earned media. Traditional PR focuses more on shaping overall brand image across channels, often including paid media.

Define your capabilities as a brand

Setting clear parameters, such as internal resources and external budget (including agency support), will help to define the strongest digital PR tactics that will give you the most effective results.

For example:

Reactively responding to journalist requests is often a low-cost initiative, but if you do not have the time to quickly respond to requests, time and money could be wasted on the wrong tactic.
Creating your own news through creative campaigns with multiple pitching angles can result in high levels of coverage, but requires sufficient resources to see through successfully.

Firming up these parameters and being transparent with available internal support helps your digital PR team focus on the tactics that will deliver the most value.

Brand proposition

When a journalist is choosing between featuring you and three other similar brands, they will be looking for a unique perspective. They will also assess any potential pain points that could influence their decision.

Consider how your customer reviews stack up and how these can be improved if needed – and whether things like expensive shipping or recurring stock shortages need to be factored in when it comes to planning what to pitch.

Prime your PR team

Whether you’re working with an internal team or an agency, the more you can help your digital PR team, the more they will be able to help you.

Some of the things we find useful are:

Your goals and mission – what you want to get out of digital PR, and your broader aims as a brand
Asset libraries (including video content if you have it!)
Style guides and/or tone of voice guidelines
Brand guidelines, including any key messaging to be aware of
Audience information and/or customer profiles
Things you do and do not want to talk about
Existing content that could be refreshed or repurposed

Have a clear point of contact

Priming your PR team with the information they need shouldn’t stop once your digital PR activity is underway. Communication should be clear and should help to ensure that PR remains aligned with internal goals and brand messaging.

Having a dedicated point of contact means that this person can and will also collaborate on digital PR activities and share updates such as new hires, product launches, or company announcements that your team could be pitching.

Lead with expertise

Journalists want to speak to real people with genuine expertise, credibility and authority. Having a range of genuine subject area experts to speak on behalf of your brand will give you the voice you need to secure coverage.

While a marketing lead is the correct voice for discussing brand strategy, they are rarely the relevant contact for specialist industry or subject-matter commentary. Instead, look to your product developers, qualified specialists, or C-suite executives; these are the people whose daily work provides the "insider" value that journalists need to validate a story.

A spokesperson’s responsibilities include answering journalist requests (often within 24-48 hours), providing supporting commentary for research and data campaigns and collaborating on thought leadership content.

Thanks to AI, journalists are wary of being caught out by an expert that doesn’t really exist – the more proof you can give that your spokespeople are genuine, the better. You’ll need everything on the checklist below.

Spokesperson checklist

On-page bio

Clearly stating their specialities backed up with why they are a credible expert (background, experience, education etc.).

Suitable headshots

We’re seeing more journalists asking for landscape or more candid options.

On-site bio

To encourage links back to the site and show they are employed at the company.

Availability

For telephone or online interviews if requested.

LinkedIn page

This should have the same job title as their on-site bio.

Credibility

Anything else that can help prove this person is real – previous features and articles not on the company website, other social media links and video interviews are a few examples.

Don’t skip planning

Don’t jump straight into digital PR without first firming up your strategy. While it can be tempting to replicate a competitor's campaign that saw lots of coverage, a tactic that secured significant coverage for another brand may not align with your specific SEO goals, target audience, or brand authority.

The best digital PR strategies consider:

Commercial objectives and goals as a brand
SEO objectives and priority site pages
Who your audience is and where they are
The types of publications you want to be published in, and those you need to be published in to close your link gap with competitors
Publisher preferences including content types and trending topics
How well known your brand is – whether you need to build up media relations or already have a strong media presence
The most effective tactics within your industry and close competitors

It can also take testing a few different tactics to find the combination that delivers the best results.

Align expectations

Digital PR is a long-term strategic investment; success isn't always instant. Establishing clear expectations from the outset prevents reactive decision-making and ensures that both your team and your stakeholders understand how digital PR delivers impact over time.

Editorial schedules

Unlike paid media, earned media operates on an editorial schedule that you cannot control. Journalists often plan content in advance and may have scheduled your piece for a later date to suit their editorial calendar.

Coverage also is never guaranteed, which is why we usually recommend having back-up angles in place and combining tactics to limit this risk.

In some cases, we’ve seen major international news sites run stories months after they were first pitched – and we’ve also gained widespread success by re-pitching stories a year or more down the line in connection with a breaking news hook.

Building a foundation for long-term growth

Digital PR shouldn’t be seen as a short-term tactic. It is time-consuming, but consistent and regular coverage and backlinks from relevant and authoritative sites deliver strong performance results, grow brand awareness and increase audience trust.

While the Rehabs UK campaign you can read about in this case study drove ranking improvements for related terms within the first few weeks of launch, it was over the course of a year's activity that we drove a 200x increase in organic traffic through this foundational work and the wider PR and content strategy that surrounded it.

Without off-site PR coverage, content and technical work can never lead site performance to its full potential. But PR is not a one-time activity. Once your foundations have been built through early outreach and wins, it's crucial that results are sustained if you're hoping to see consistent, long-term growth.

Choosing a digital PR agency

Choosing the right digital PR agency for your brand is an important decision, with factors such as market, budget and alignment to your ways of working to consider among others.

If you’re thinking about starting digital PR, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch to learn more about our digital PR offering and the other services we can provide: