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The benefits and payoffs that come with a strong digital PR campaign are not to be sniffed at. All of these following benefits work together to help you grow your business and extend the reach of your brand online:

Generates relevant links from credible sources and sites

When respected sites reference you as a source, people come to see you as a credible source of valuable information – and so does Google.

Improves search ranking score

We know that Google penalizes sites that gain backlinks in shady ways and rewards those that gain them naturally. While it is the prerogative of our search overlord to change its rules and algorithms at any time, one thing you can count on is that it will always favour sites that it recognises as publishers of valuable, quality information.

Creates links that are earned – not paid

Helping Google, audiences and potential customers identify your brand as an industry player and thought leader, rather than a newbie or amateur willing to pay for eyeballs. This in turn …

Boosts your brand reputation and identity

In the same way that any good content marketing does. Audiences appreciate that you are prepared to invest in research and good storytelling.

Increases traffic

As other sources with their high domain authority and huge audiences link back to your content, you’ll receive a greater number of visitors to your site.

Generates social shares

Good stories prompt people to share on social media. This boosts the online profile of your brand, prompting even more traffic to flow your way.

Influences purchases

This isn’t the aim of a digital PR campaign, but it can be a welcome side-effect. Some content naturally conveys key messages and USPs to potential customers – just make sure it isn’t the focus. Journalists won’t touch anything salesy with a bargepole.

Inspires brand loyalty

By helping brands build good relationships with consumers through content.

Provides a tangible way to measure success

Digital marketing allows you to track almost every aspect of interaction success. This can help you identify what works, helping you craft better campaigns in the future. Tools like Google Analytics help you keep track of how your campaign is performing.

Is a cost-effective strategy

A campaign doesn’t have to cost the earth to be a success. Get it right and the thing will pay for itself in web traffic and conversions.

Whatever the nature of your campaign, you will find that an effective strategy usually requires the following steps.

Identify content goals

As with any strategy, it’s best to start with your objectives. In digital PR, this means looking at your content/ campaign objectives and how they fit in with your company objectives and business plan as a whole.

Some examples of digital PR or content objectives:

Boost traffic to homepage

Boost traffic to a particular product page

Raise overall brand awareness

Boost social following

Spotlight on new products

Highlight USP

Create a schedule

Who needs to sign off what and when? The schedule will vary from business to business and from campaign to campaign. Put milestones in place and make sure there is accountability. Everyone knows what their role is and when they need to act.

Create personas

Who are you going to be targeting with your content? What kind of journalists or bloggers? What kind of audience niches? More on this below.

Ideation

This is undoubtedly the hard bit. We’ll discuss this a bit more in section 4 – but the key is to be prepared to invest a generous portion of your time and budget in coming up with the goods. The internet is saturated with content – to shine you’ll need something beautiful, useful, interesting or with a bit of an edge.

Research

Once you have the seed of a good idea, it’s time for some desk research. Research can help you see which of your ideas has most ‘legs’. You might find that someone else has already covered your idea, in which case you might need to change the angle. You might find that the data needed for the content simply doesn’t exist, in which case you might want to commission a bespoke survey. If the idea is good, your research should be exhaustive. You don’t want to spend weeks working on a campaign only to find that someone else got there first (and possibly did it better).

Content creation

Self-explanatory – just sharpen that angle wherever possible and remember your target audience every step of the way.

Outreach

This is the other hard bit. Unlike the other steps in the process, you will be battling forces beyond your control. Necessary tools = patience, persistence and a thick skin.