The Importance of a Multi-Tactic Digital PR Strategy

Over the years, digital PR has progressed significantly. Producing press releases and a sole focus on media relations is not the only PR tactic available to businesses. As digital has evolved, news can be spread further and faster to an extremely targeted audience.

This is why digital PR has become one of the most effective digital marketing tactics for supporting SEO, driving traffic, sales, brand awareness and reputation. However, a “one size fits all” strategy will not generate the best results. Instead, a unique blend of specific PR activities is required to drive the highest ROI.

Key takeaways

• What is digital PR?
• What digital PR tactics are available?
• Why is a multi-tactic digital PR strategy so important?
• How can our services help you?

What is digital PR?

Digital PR is a marketing tactic used to grow a business’ online presence. There’s a common perception that digital PR is purely based on link building and SEO. While these are most definitely part of the process, digital PR covers much more, including building brand awareness and reputation.

With digital PR, it’s common to network with journalists, bloggers and influencers to send articles, news and press releases that will gain high-quality, relevant and authoritative backlinks.  These tactics work to develop your online footprint and strengthen your brand presence.

Common types of digital PR tactics

There are many facets to digital PR with each tactic requiring a different level of investment. Understanding how each area and how competitive it is will help you establish the best strategy to maximise your ROI.

Here are the common digital PR tactics you may consider:

• Reactive press office: With reactive press office, relevancy, quality and speed is of the essence. Centred around media liaison and giving the media the content they want at any given time, unlike other PR tactics where the aim is to lead the story, reactive press office is about fitting into planned editorial. This involves providing expert comments, unique statistics, imagery or product information in response to a journalist request.
• Proactive press office: Like reactive press office, media liaison is key to success and stories must be newsworthy to gain traction. This side of press office is usually considered to be more traditional as it’s centred around the drafting and distribution of business news stories such as performance, acquisitions and partnerships to relevant media. As a digitally focused team, our PR experts prioritise online media outlets including national and regional press alongside trade and industry specific.
• Data driven research: Leveraging data for your digital PR campaign, paired with a hard-hitting headline and unique onsite assets is a great tactic to drive links to your website. Another data driven PR approach is known as data drop. This uses your own data to create a regular ‘index’ which highlights trends in the business and industry. Steady and reliable coverage can be earned this way and your data will soon be seen as a consistent voice in the industry, leading to natural pickup from other publications.
• EAT PR: Involving the production of ready-to-publish articles for high authority, broad appeal press, EAT PR typically covers high search volume topics. Offering the advice people need, it is designed to remove confusion and tackle the questions your audience are seeking answers for. EAT PR articles can be adapted from existing blogs or guides you may already have, or we can start from scratch working with our experienced content team.
• Influencer/product marketing: Digital influencers are those with the ability to influence the perception or habits of their audience via content they share. Influencer marketing involves engaging with influencers that have a connection with your target audience and can be an effective way to increase brand awareness and encourage sales. Our approach to influencer marketing is to cherry-pick those that will be the best fit for your brand.

Why is a multi-tactic strategy important?

Having more than one digital PR tactic within your strategy can help generate the maximum ROI from your campaigns.

We chatted with our head of digital PR, Cheryl Crossley, who commented:

“We always advise having at least two PR tactics in play at any one time. Usually, this would be a mix of proactive and reactive, such as data-led campaigns or EAT content for the proactive side and media ops or newsjacking for the reactive side. This means we can tap into both the longer-lead or evergreen editorial opportunities and short-lead opportunities.

Cheryl also shared her top benefits of taking a multi-tactic approach:

• Drive consistent results: Multi-tactic strategies help drive more consistent results as you always have a campaign or promotion in progress. Consistent results can also help you plan and budget your digital marketing strategy more accurately.
• Earn a broader range of results: Using multiple tactics allows you to earn results from a broader mix of target sites. Whether it’s editorial sites, data-led campaign stories, advice focused or reactive. Results from a range of sites forms a more varied, higher quality backlink profile which will aid in boosting your organic presence.
• Reduced risk: Depending on a single tactic can be risky. Cheryl shares further insight:
  “The media landscape is always moving and changing. This means there are loads of opportunities, but you do need to be agile and prepared to try a few different things. Putting all your eggs in one basket with a single-tactic PR strategy can be risky and is likely to generate a lower volume of relevant results over time, simply because you’re limiting what you do.”
  By placing all your eggs – and therefore budget – in one basket, you’re risking the strategy not driving the results you desire. With multiple tactics in use, you can also understand what works best for your brand and invest more time and budget into it.
• More results: Being in the media more consistently helps with brand building and audience awareness. If your target audience continue seeing your name on various sites with various pieces of content, it’s an effective trust signal. You’re also more likely to be at the forefront of their mind when researching or buying in the future.

Although a multi-tactic strategy is right for most businesses, it’s worth noting that every industry and business is unique so the blend of tactics used should be unique too:

“What’s important to keep in mind with a multi-tactic strategy is that every industry is different, and every client has different requirements too. The right blend of tactics is unique. Equally, more tactics doesn’t mean churning out content without thought – there still has to be a clear strategy in place so you can ensure that each piece of PR content is ultimately designed to contribute to a bigger plan.” – Cheryl Crossley

How can we help?

PR has long been used to build a positive image but in today’s digital age, there’s so much more to gain. While the media landscape is ever-changing, the support of a PR specialist can help you make the most of every opportunity.

Our digital PR team only target placements that will deliver a return, gaining relevant brand exposure using our multiple tactics. With direct access to our in-house experts, we can help you craft high-performing, bespoke campaigns tailored to your business objectives.

To find out more about the way we work and how we can grow your brand’s digital presence with digital PR, contact our team.