Digital PR is arguably one of the best ways to build links for your site.
The potential for mass links is far greater than outreach alone and is something you should definitely be incorporating into your digital marketing strategy.
Here are our five digital PR tactics for building links.
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What counts as digital PR?
If you know nothing about PR and you’re imagining Edina and Patsy from Ab Fab, think again. While you can probably find many a PR-person necking some Prosecco, the reality of digital PR lies much more within marketing than you may think.
As SEO became more practised, the importance of backlinks suddenly started proving their relevance. The more backlinks you have, the more Google sees your site as trustworthy. Basically, the more sites that link to yours, the higher you will appear in search results (when paired with other white hat SEO techniques).
Digital PR can then be thought of as creating linkable assets. Rather than just writing a press release and sending it to your local newspaper, you should be creating shareable online content. Something that has the potential for multiple other sites to link to.
By all means, send your press releases to your local. Just remember to edit the same content to be less localised for the potential to be shared far and wide by a number of other online outlets.
Data-driven research
One great way of creating successful digital PR is to use data-driven research. That probably sounds a little dry when you first read it but hear us out.
Data-driven research can be as creative as you like. Actually, you probably want it to be a little controversial or gossip-worthy. That’s the stuff people love to read.
Check out this example of data-driven digital PR from iLivehere.co.uk:
A simple bit of research that has the potential to be shared by both national and regional press – a winning combo.
You’ll probably need the help of an external market research company, so keep that in mind when you’re running the costs.
Creative campaigns
Creative digital PR campaigns probably most closely resemble traditional PR.
While data-driven PR is a safer bet, creative campaigns are the stuff that journalists really love. These could be predictive imagery or creative stunts – things that you don’t see every day.
For example, Now TV announced via Twitter that they had erected a giant statue of Geoff Goldberg in London to mark the 25th anniversary of Jurassic Park. While definitely in traditional PR territory, the reveal via Twitter created a digital storm with coverage across various online publications.
Obviously, your stunts don’t need to be nearly as huge or as extravagant at this but try to think outside of the box!
News piggybacking
News piggybacking is a very achievable digital PR tactic. It’s exactly how it sounds on the tin; you piggyback off of trending or breaking news.
For example, you may be a logistics company and there is some breaking news about Brexit trade deals. You could put together a quote or even put yourself forward for an interview with news outlets.
This is a great way of showing off your expertise in your niche and gain relevant links. These have far more power behind them than links from random sites. So, make sure to keep your eyes peeled on the news.
Insights and expert quotes
As we just mentioned, providing quotes is a great low commitment way to gain digital PR links. Make sure to follow hashtags on social media like #journorequest. This is where journalists will be on the lookout for people to provide stories, quotes or insights into a topic they are writing about.
Similarly, you can sign up to several email subscription platforms that will send you messages with the latest journalist requests. While this does come with a fee, it can be worth it if you’ve got the inhouse team to support it.
These requests tend to be people looking for industry insights, expert comments or case studies. So, this is your time to shine and brag about yourself and what you know.
Influencer/product marketing
Is there anything stopping influencers nowadays?
If you haven’t dabbled in influencer marketing yet, you’re missing out. The best bit about working with influencers is that they can promote your product or services to their followers all of whom should also be your target consumers. That’s why working with a relevant influencer is so important. So, don’t offer free stuff to any old Instagrammer.
Most influencers have more than just an Instagram page, they’ll also have a blog. Because they are so popular online, their blog will have decent traffic and loyal readers.
Why not capitalise on this and offer them your product or service for review? By doing this, they will write a post on their blog about you and, ideally, link to you as well.
So, there you have it, five digital PR tactics for building links. Do you use any of these already or do you plan to do so in the future?
If you’re looking for support with your content marketing, drop us an email on team@modo25.com for an informal chat to find out how we can work together.
