Digital PR strategies: The Future of Link Building

What is an Online PR Strategy?

Online PR is a highly cost-effective way of marketing your business on the web.

Just like traditional PR, it’s a way of spreading the word about your brand, only using websites and blogs rather than TV, radio, and newspapers.

A good online PR strategy is essential in this day and age. Not only will it help you start influencing people, but you will also begin to gain trust and authority.

The payoff is with valuable organic backlinks.

However, it’s more about building relationships. The links will come. 

If you can connect with authority figures in your industry, news outlets or high profile media sites, it can do wonders for your SEO.

It’s important to understand there is no one size fits all online PR strategy. Every business and every industry is different. Develop a plan that fits your needs  

Here are some basic principles to follow.

How to Create Online PR Strategies

Your company or clients PR strategy online will depend on what you do, which industry you serve, and where your customers are located.

It is essential you have a thorough knowledge of the market you are promoting.

It’s also vital to understand what you want from your online PR strategy.

Are you looking to gain more authority in your field? Do you want to spread your market reach? Are you looking to raise awareness of a particular problem or product?

Once you have these critical points noted, it’s time to take a look around.

Who are the influencers in your field? Where do they hang out online? What sort of content do they create and respond to? Are there already contributors on their site (more on this shortly)? The idea here is to build up a picture of who you want to contact – and how you should contact them.

Research, analyze, and spot the opportunities you are missing. There are some excellent pr management software options available.

Also, be aware some links are more powerful than others.

Google awards links from websites with a high “domain authority” more than they do for lower authority domains. You can use services such as Moz to check domain authority – also known as DA. Granted, Domain Authority is a controversial and dying metric. You may also consider using Ahrefs new domain rating formula.

Use a domain rating when evaluating link targets for PR.

Ideally, you need to be targeting websites with trust from Google, and not waste your time on low-end targets.

It might be that you need to cross some prospects off your list.

The best possible links you can get to your site are from organic media and authoritative websites related to your website. For example, a link from a top digital marketing blog to my site would be considered significant.

It’s going to be tough to get these types of links if you are selling, say, rubber ducks. But you might have some success if you have anything of value to add – customer research, a brand new use of technology, etc.

OK, so now you have strategies in place, it’s time to get to work.

Developing Media Relationships

Many people tend to confuse guest blogging with PR.

Guest blogging is merely an attempt to place your articles on blogs often with regard to how authoritative these blogs are. Sure, you fall into the DA55 trap, but does that old blog, really have authority with Google?

Public relations is developing a healthy media relationship that could result in a high-quality content placement and even more opportunities in the future.

Building relationships with bloggers, journalists, publishers, and influencers are imperative for this.

You must focus on quality over quantity, and take the time to build these all-important relationships will help you to do just that.

Think about it: would you rather have one link from an authoritative site Fox Business,  or several from a small blog that nobody cares about? The former is far harder to obtain and therefore more trustworthy.

Start by targeting 10-15 relevant people and cultivate relationships with them.

You will get better results than trying to build relationships with hundreds of people at once. This is not a mass email game plan.

Take time, do your research to find influencers, writers, and journalists in the niche you are working in. Then, it is time to start engaging with them.

Do not spam them and ask for a link. 

Pay attention to what they are saying. Comment on what they are putting out, add value and personalize it.

When the time comes, they will be more likely to work with to you. Yes, I said work. PR is about providing value.

Meeting influencers in person is even more useful. Do not be afraid to buy them a coffee or a beer if you get the opportunity.

Online PR Strategy Tips

There are several ways of attracting the right kind of attention with your online media strategy. Let’s take a look at those right now.

HARO

HARO – an acronym for Help A Reporter Out – is an exceptional service well worth checking out. I did a previous full review of Help A Reporter Out.

Journalists use it for research purposes when they have a piece to write – and it can bring you amazing results for PR and link building.

Here’s how it works.

First of all, you need to sign up for the HARO service. It is free to use, although there are graded subscriptions with extra features. Three emails are issued every day, Monday thru Friday. Each one containing a variety of requests or questions from journalists.

There is usually a broad range of topics available, everything from science to business practices. 

If you have something interesting to say on a particular subject, you reply with the requested information.

With a little luck, the journalist will use your answer and give you a link back to your website. 

It sounds easy, right? Not quite.

HARO journalists tend to get many replies. Unless your industry is particularly niche, it can be tough to stand out from the competition. 

So, what can you do to make sure you are noticed?

Start by writing a few fundamental ‘pitches’ for the subjects you want to talk about. Speed is of the essence.  If you do not get your response in quick, your reply will most likely be ignored as the writer has already found a source.

You will need to get into the swing of creating compelling, eye-catching headlines that stand out from the crowd. You will need to be adept at tailoring your media and PR pitches to the relevant subject matter in a super quick time.

Outline your expertise, your main points of discussion, and a little about why it matters. 

Make sure your reply is free of typos and grammar errors, I always use Grammarly to check my writing.

Finally, you will need to be patient and persistent. Check your email queries when they arrive and be prepared to move fast.

Interviews

The next part of this section is an important one. Some of the most potent links come from journalists. Whether from the national or local press, these links are golden.

If your story is compelling enough, there is a possibility you could earn an interview or feature. That means tremendous link juice.

The big question is how do get featured on one of these top sites?

You have to offer something of value. 

There are a few things you can do to attract the right kind of attention. First of all, do you have anything worthwhile for a journalist looking for a good story?

I touched on this a little earlier, but let’s say you notice a particular trend in your Google Analytics account. 

Perhaps you have commissioned some research into a particular subject, and the responses have revealed some interesting info. 

Your next step would be to find a journalist in your industry that has a direct interest in the detail you uncover.

It could be part of a broader trend or something to legitimize a point the journalist tried to make in the past. The point is, if it is relevant to the journalist’s requirements for a piece, they need all the help they can get.

By supplying them with that relevant info, you could end up with a direct link from a leading publication. Not to mention the impact of the shared links that go along with it – on social media, for example.

Journalists can be valuable tools for getting your message out. 

Build your Influence on Popular Blogs and Websites

This is a vital part of your armory when it comes to your online media relations strategy. A contributor post is when a blogger allows you space and opportunity to write an article and publish it on their platform.

Let’s take a look at the basics – and how to get them right.

Content is (still) king: Your content – blog posts or articles, in this case – has to be excellent. It is that simple, and you will not get away with offering anything less if you want opportunities on highly visible sites. The more incredible your content, the more people will read it and possibly look you up.

The Internet is full of repetition: Don’t be the guy/gal who copies other people’s work, and rehashes the same old points of view. Be original and compelling.

Don’t miss your target: Your audience targeting needs to be razor sharp if you want to get people’s attention. This goes for the audience, as well as the blogger. Give them value, and you will get rewards.

This is a relationship: Finally, don’t forget this is a relationship. Tailor your content to the journalist/blogger’s needs. Be honest and open in your communications and exceed their expectations.

Be friendly, helpful, and polite. Remember you are building relationships here.

The role of the PR department.

The PR department expands a company’s reach, builds up a brand and helps it to gain publicity. They do this by pitching stories to the media with the goal to help raise awareness of a brand, and also earn referral traffic to a site.

How could we put that simply? They are building links! Without even knowing it, too.

This is a super useful link building method. By imitating what PR teams are doing, you can work to produce better content and earn powerful links from high-quality sources, helping your business to get results in the long run.

It is the most natural way to produce links.

Utilize Social Media As A Way To Support Your Strategies

Social media is one of the most influential public relations tools. 

Using social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram allow brands to introduce themselves to influencers in various industries and build professional relationships.

Social media can also be used to help SEO efforts. It can help you to get more people reading your content. Make sure you are being found where you need to be seen, and you are not missing out on anything.

Conduct Competitor Research

You must always know what is going on in your niche, whether it’s something another business is offering or a rumor in the industry.

A marketer will miss out on lots of opportunities when they don’t know what is going on in the industry they are working in.

Establish yourself as an expert in you or your client’s field.

There are a few things you can do to help you with this.

For instance, if you have publicly traded companies in your niche, you can read earnings reports. You can learn a lot from these reports.

Make sure you also keep an eye on what your competitors are doing in search and what seems to be working for them.

Take a look at their backlinks and stay on top of it so you can get even more efficient at optimizing your pages.

Create Your Content Based On Audience Problems And Insights

The goal here isn’t to use PR to build links directly; it is to raise brand awareness and get referral traffic on your site.

Producing content based on specific audience problems can help with this.

Google Alerts can be used to generate keywords, terms, and brands that help you to find trending topics to focus the content on. You can also see the problems your audience is focused on by using tools like Buzzsumo.

Use your keyword research intelligently to gain an insight into your audience’s issues, rather than to use keywords and generate clicks merely.

PR Metrics Outside Of Just Links

When using PR in to build authority, this is what you need to pay attention to:

• Social Media- Monitor social shares, likes, tweets, and online brand mentions so you know what your audience thinks of your content.
• Engagement- Make sure you pay attention to comments, even on the content you have posted on other sites.
• Monitor Links- This will help you to see if your PR techniques result in any additional backlinks to the site.