There are some fundamental strategic nuances when it comes to earning media coverage on digital platforms. As a client, you need to ensure that your agency understands those nuances and that they are getting your brand discussed across digital platforms. These five questions will help you to ensure that your agency is doing the right things.
Why is digital PR important?
Measurable results that are genuinely relevant to your audience. Digital PR allows more of a two-way conversation and has the power to encourage a loyal following for your brand. It’s a great way to monitor what content is relevant to your consumer, enabling you to create PR strategies that inspire them to keep engaging with your brand. Crafting campaigns that get people talking is an essential part of PR, but when applied to digital you have the added benefit of being able to track and measure conversions and ROI. Traditional PR must evolve and cannot ignore that its future does lie online.
How will digital complement my PR strategy?
Digital PR is all about getting people to engage with your brand. It’s keeping your audience excited, interested and compelled to talk and share your brand. The lines are blurred between PR and other strands of your marketing strategy – your PR agency should be working alongside SEO and content marketing teams, to help shape online visibility and secure valuable coverage from high authority sites.
How do you measure success?
A common challenge for clients and PR agencies may be around the lack of transparency around objectives and whether or not they’re achievable. From the offset, your agency should be able to manage your expectations and offer solutions if they feel the coverage target is too high, or the publication isn’t right. Analysing spikes in your website traffic, looking at how your campaign has directly contributed to lead sales and reviewing brand citations and sentiment are all valuable ways of measuring a digital PR campaign.
Why is social important to a PR campaign?
Covering additional communication platforms to spread your message gives you more bang for your buck - providing they’re relevant for your target market. Over 57% of UK adults are active on social media, with this figure estimated to grow rapidly over the next few years. But despite social’s obvious popularity and heightened reach, many brands still don’t really understand it. Many undervalue its use and find it time-consuming, costly and an unnecessary element in the whole marketing mix. What they forget, is that it’s still an essential brand awareness tool and builds a deeper connection with your audience - consumers want transparency and social is the perfect vehicle to allow that.
What kind of media contacts do you have?
A well-established PR agency should be in active conversation with journalists from different sectors. PR pros will already have publications in mind that are likely to cover your brand whilst great PR pros will have already spoken to the specific journalist and asked for their feedback. Ultimately, your PR agency should know your brand inside-out and will be able to recommend the type of media contact best suited to your business. Whether it’s key influential vloggers or online editors of top-tier publications – your PR agency should be armed with media contacts from lots of different areas, ready to seed out your story to your target audience.
It’s not a case of one-size-fits all – your PR strategy should be tailored to your business needs and closely tied to your campaign objectives. Your PR agency should be working closely with you to ensure your business objectives are met through marketing strategies that fit your brand perfectly.
