How to Use Digital PR as a Link Building Tactic

8min.

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How to Use Digital PR as a Link Building Tactic
11 October 2022
If you’re looking for new link building tactics, then you’ve come to the right place. We’re going to show you how you can use digital PR to get more quality backlinks. After reading this article, you will become fully aware of digital PR link building potential. And this knowledge will help you get the coverage and improve your site’s ranking.

8min.

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Getting viral isn’t easy unless you’re some hot celebrity with billions of followers that share and talk about everything you say or do. Inducing journalists to write about your brand, adding links that direct back to your website seems to be even harder. Luckily, with a piece of luck or help from SEO specialists you can develop the digital PR link building strategy that works. Why do you need such a strategy in the first place? Simply to draw more traffic to your page, jump higher in SERP and get noticed by new customers who don’t know yet your brand exists. (What a chance they miss, don’t they?) Before giving you the answer to ‘What is digital pr link building?’, we need to go through the basics first, so that we start off from the same page. Table of contents:  

What is Digital PR

Digital Public Relations (PR for short) is a marketing practice with the main focus on increasing and spreading brand awareness, getting more social following and boosting organic traffic through new media. Its principal objective is to gain more backlinks and mentions on reputable blogs, social media and websites relevant to the niche.

Digital PR vs. Guest Posting

At first glance both strategies appear to be almost identical. After all, digital PR and guest posting depend on writing content revolving around your service/products for other websites, blogs, posts than your own. The big difference, however, is that guest posting is often limited in the number of features you are given. It also provides just one backlink to your website. You are often signed by your name or brand, which may influence the objectivity of the content. Digital PR, in turn, offers a broader exposure and at least a couple of backlinks. Additionally, the content created for you - or on your behalf - is already integrated with the best SEO practices. One last difference is that guest posting is often free, which can’t be said about running a digital PR campaign.

Digital PR vs. Traditional PR

Its principles don’t differ much from the old school public relations as most of us perceive it. Just like traditional PR, digital PR aims at creating a bridge between businesses and the public, with just one obvious difference. As the name suggests, traditional PR is typical for old media that existed before the Internet got easily accessible to everyone, and that is the press, TV and radio, to name just three. Digital PR uses online media outlets. You bet, it is! Actually, digital PR link building is among the prime goals of a well-developed digital PR strategy. After all, this is how you gain high quality editorial backlinks that have a profound effect on your website ranking in Google.

How can digital PR be used as a link building tactic

Being featured on authoritative websites and showing your future clients where exactly they can find you in the depths of the Internet is one of SEO strategies. This also increases your website credibility in Google. To benefit from digital PR, the content you create must be found useful and valuable for the online community. It also needs to intrigue journalists so that they are more likely to get you covered on their channels. TIP: To attract top publicists’ attention, try creating some trend-driven content. Such ‘hot’ pieces of writing, videos and memes have a massive potential to spread like wildfire among the online media that matter and attract the widest audience.

Benefits of digital PR link building strategy

When looked closer, it becomes clear that PR link building strategy has plenty of advantages, surprisingly more than it may seem at first glance. Here are six benefits that you may expect to achieve if big online magazines and dominant influencers talk about your brand. It:
  • drives more organic traffic
  • gives you more backlinks from reputable websites
  • increases the domain authority
  • offers a great way of getting introduced to the market
  • generates honest customer reviews
  • explodes sales
  • positions you as an expert in the field
Generally speaking, link building strategy combined with digital PR increases your brand credibility, and consequently reaps handsome profit. Isn’t that what you ultimately strive for? Now, when you know the power of digital PR link building, we can move on to show you some clever ways of getting your brand featured in the online magazines your prospects read, and the social media accounts they follow.

Digital PR Tactics

There are numerous digital PR tactics to pick and choose from. If we asked you to list the most common ones, you would probably have no problems giving at least three. However, the thing is that a great part of digital PR tactics are slowly sinking into oblivion mostly because they are simply outdated. To save you valuable time, we’re presenting five tactics proven to be the most effective nowadays. Surely, they will remain fruitful for the few years to come.

Creative Campaigns

This one will never get out of date, that is good news. The bad news, however, is that there is no one-size-fits-all piece of advice that will help you create amazing creative campaigns that grip your prospects' hearts. Just try making sure your campaign evokes strong emotions in your audience. This may be joy, awe, agitation, or even fear (don’t overdo with the latter, though). They must be memorable and sherable, but most of all, they have to attract the attention of journalists and inspire them to write an article about you. Examples:  Red Bull Stratos Campaign PR Link Building strategy - RedBull

source: https://steemit.com/marketing/@remergo/how-red-bull-drives-extreme-branding-stratos

  Sony Bravia The “Colour Like No Other” PR Link Building Sony Bravia

source: https://medium.com/@onlykutts/iconic-ads-sony-bravia-balls-51eb394f0762

Reactive Digital PR

Reactive digital PR requires a bit of wit, astuteness, and the ability to notice connections among often seemingly unrelated things. Keeping up with the latest affairs helps you seize an opportunity to create content commenting on or simply - as the name suggests - responding to a popular event or trending topic. When done cleverly, reactive digital PR will get you backlinks, mentions and coverage. Examples: Heineken Squid Game PR Link Building - Heineken

source: https://latana.com/post/squid-game-effect/

Ikea ‘Cristiano’ bottle PR Link Building Ikea & Ronaldo

source: https://www.sportbible.com/australia/football-ikea-release-cristiano-water-bottles-after-ronaldos-coca-cola-stunt-20210624

Research Studies

You can use research studies to address some burning issues that shouldn’t be neglected. Making reference to reliable economic or health statistics and reports will get your brand featured on more reputable websites. Perhaps you will be the one who introduces into the public some game-changing idea inspired by hard data.

Expert-Insight Pitches

Be available for those who seek an expert’s comment or detailed insight into an issue you know inside out. To help others find you, create an account on well-liked and popular platforms for connecting journalists, experts (you) and the public - like HARO. Once you are suited to share your expertise, the feedback of yours will appear on the interlocutor’s webpage/blog/profile, bearing your domain URL.

Product PR

Even though digital PR is fairly new, it doesn’t mean it shouldn’t take advantage of the old school marketing strategies. Especially those that work wonders like the evergreen product PR. Don’t hesitate to tell inspiring and amusing stories about how your product or service changes people’s lives. It’s also a good practice to inform journalists about special offers and limited price-cuts on your merchandise. Such news goes viral super fast.

Digital PR Tools

Now it’s time to look for some digital PR reference tools that can help you get the coverage and backlinks your brand deserves. Let’s start from something you’re already familiar with, which is HARO.
  • HARO, also known as Help A Reporter Out, is a magnificent tool that brings content creators and experts to one place. Via HARO, publishers and companies from numerous brands ask specialists who meet specific requirements (eg. are from a certain country/industry) for an insight into a particular issue. Later, they use the obtained particulars in their articles, including info on the expert. What an easy way to get a valuable backlink, isn’t it?
  • Another great tool that can help you promote your brand is PROWLY. This kind of all-in-one PR and Media Relations tool allows you to find the right media contacts, create press releases, and in general take care of your day-to-day digital PR-related issues.
  • It’s also a good idea to simply LOOK FOR JOURNALISTS IN YOUR INDUSTRY and make business partners with them. This way you expand your list of valuable connections with people working in your niche to stay up-to-date with upcoming events from your business, and expose your brand exactly where it should be seen.
  • You shouldn’t also neglect the power of contacts that are already existing in your hometown or state. Just LOOK FOR JOURNALISTS IN YOUR LOCAL AREA and keep in touch with them. It’s highly possible that they will call you when they happen to need an explanation on a topic related to your brand - in other words, use your feedback in their articles.

How can digital PR help your business?

Online media and the opportunities they offer are so wide and so easily-accessible that it would be a pity not to make use of them. And the best thing about digital PR campaigns is that they allow you to achieve not one, not two, but literally numerous goals that will take your business to the next level. The top four benefits of digital PR for you include: Among many benefits of digital PR, there is the great rank-increasing potential that is absolutely worth making use of. Receiving backlinks from websites that outrank yours, and in general are considered strong and trustworthy by Google, gives your website better parameters. In plain words, the stronger backlinks you get, the stronger your website gets.

More buzz about your brand and products

You’ve probably heard this famous quote ‘It doesn't matter what they say as long as they are talking about you’. And you know how powerful this can be to increase your brand recognition. Digital PR allows you to spread a word about your products and services in places you aren’t able to get into your own. This, in turn, showcases your brand to people you may not have a chance to ever reach.

More conversions

More backlinks straggling across the Web sends prospects to your website. And since they already have some idea about your brand (the article you are mentioned in tells this and that about your offer/story), they know what they come for after clicking on the backlink. In other words, people directed to your store or blog are already interested in what you offer. That is why they are more likely to sign up for a newsletter, leave a comment or make a purchase.

More traffic from referrals

Having your brand featured on top websites and popular social media profiles enhances your credibility. This is especially valuable if you’re in the process of introducing your brand to a wider audience which - let’s be honest - happens to be pretty difficult. Additionally, exposing your brand to the internet users by being present in the popular media builds public trust. This can’t be done by regular advertising, can it? Obviously, quality backlinks also have a positive effect on the traffic that is directed to your website. Not only does the number of visitors significantly increase but also the redirections that come from quality pages makes your website more trustworthy.

Summary

Without doubt, link building is immensely important for every online business. Without links that take visitors from other websites to yours, as well as without showing Google that your communication with the netizens meets with appreciation, you may have a hard time generating organic traffic you count on. Not to mention winning top places in SERP. The thing is that websites the backlinks are placed on must be viewed by Google as reliable. Only in this way will the ranks go up, getting you more visitors and conversions. And this is when digital PR link building comes in handy. Reaching out to widely recognized media people for coverage is your way to get the backlinks that really mean something. Naturally, there are more entrepreneurs like you who want to make use of digital PR link building. This means that journalists working for top online magazines or trendy blogs have a long queue of business owners who ask them for coverage. Pushing yourself forward isn’t unachievable. Yet, it may be arduous. Besides, do you even have time for that in your already-heavy schedule? To by-pass the queue, you may consider asking a link building agency or SEO agency for help, and use their contacts on your behalf. Such agencies have entire teams of specialists who are in touch with all sorts of websites that your brand can be featured in. It’s also worth realizing that some of the most reputable magazines aren’t fond of collaborating with individuals, dedicating their time entirely to the SEO agencies. If you are curious how digital PR link building works in real life, just let us know. Simply contact us if you want to fast-track the process of link building and boost your brand visibility.
Author
Kasia Śliwa SEO Delante
Author
Kasia Śliwa

Off-site SEO Specialist

Off-site SEO specialist, link building expert. At Delante since December 2018, she took her first professional steps in organizing large events. Student of journalism and social communication. Passionate about dance, music and good cinema. Loves listening to people and discussing with people with opposing views.

Author
Kasia Śliwa SEO Delante
Author
Kasia Śliwa

Off-site SEO Specialist

Off-site SEO specialist, link building expert. At Delante since December 2018, she took her first professional steps in organizing large events. Student of journalism and social communication. Passionate about dance, music and good cinema. Loves listening to people and discussing with people with opposing views.

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