How can digital PR improve your brand’s presence in 2023?

Professional PR agencies blend digital with traditional PR methods to get the best outcome. However, digital PR campaigns tend to give brands greater reach and access to a broader audience. In fact, a staggering 86% of marketing professionals have increased brand awareness using just one or more digital marketing channels. This makes digital PR a powerful way to improve your brand’s presence.

What is digital PR?

Digital PR and traditional PR have the same goals and priorities, but very different methods of getting the job done. They are both concerned with increasing brand awareness and heightening a brand’s reputation.

However, the PR industry is evolving. A digital PR campaign will use all of the new opportunities and channels afforded by the rise of digital. This may involve content marketing, social media and search engine optimisation (SEO) linking into a wider digital marketing strategy. Expected results now may include referral traffic, number of brand mentions and quality links.

Generally, digital PR enables brands to reach more people and build more authentic relationships with a target audience. It also provides brands with a better way to build credibility and establish trust. Digital public relations is no longer a luxury for brands but is crucial to raising awareness and driving growth.

How do the recent Google updates affect digital PR in 2023?

Every brand should be focused on creating quality content as part of its overall marketing and digital PR strategy. However, creating content and getting it to rank in the SERPs is becoming an increasingly unpredictable feat.

In the last year alone, there have been nine confirmed updates to Google’s algorithm. Each new update leaves creators and businesses trying to keep up as Google continues to change the rules.

In particular, Google’s 2022 updates surrounding content and spam make digital PR more important than ever before. Those updates include:

The link spam update: Google finished rolling out their link spam update in December 2022. The update neutralises, or no longer counts, links that Google finds to be spammy. All links will now need to be natural and adhere to Google’s webmaster guidelines.

The helpful content update: this update aims to reward helpful content and connect people to better information. The algorithm update introduced a new ranking signal to devalue content primarily written for search engines and not users.

The updates signify that Google is consistently putting people first. Content that is helpful, informative and of value to a target audience will generate more organic traffic and rank higher. The algorithm will no longer tolerate websites that buy links or sites used for the sole purpose of passing outgoing links.

What does ChatGPT have to do with it?

ChatGPT is an AI chatbot created by OpenAI for online customer care. It interacts in a conversational way, generating answers to questions quickly and efficiently. Many businesses are turning to ChatGPT to write their content.

While Google recently declared that they aren’t against all AI-generated content, there’s still a concern. It’s clear that spammy, AI content designed specifically to manipulate search rankings goes against their Webmaster Guidelines.

Therefore, a digital PR campaign surrounding high-quality, relevant content, will always achieve superior results with Google.

How can digital PR improve your brand’s presence?

Digital PR is a powerful tool that has amazing benefits for brands and organisations. It can help you reach your target audience, increase brand awareness and boost your reputation. Digital PR is built to improve your brand’s presence and visibility, and it can do this in the following ways:

Increasing website traffic

Online PR involving the publishing of quality content will give your brand better visibility and credibility. This will help you rank higher on search engines and gain high-quality backlinks from high-authority websites.

Your brand will then benefit from improved domain authority, increased organic search traffic, and more trust in your website.

Greater engagement on social media platforms

The rise of social media has had a staggering impact on PR. With real-time messaging, direct interaction with audiences and plenty of opportunities to build credibility, social media mentions make your PR stronger. It’s an essential part of creating your online identity.

Digital PR can also help boost your social media marketing efforts. It can help craft your message and spread that message to a wider audience. It can also help you manage a crisis in real time. Build relationships with your audiences and customers here and reap the results.

Establish yourself as an industry authority

Establishing authority in your industry will help you convince people to invest in your brand. However, authority is something that needs to be earned. Digital PR strategies can give you the third-party validation you need to be established as a credible authority.

Create blog posts that are high-quality and form relationships with other trusted brands, these are just some of the digital PR strategies that can help establish authority. Influencer marketing can also help you build credibility and develop a more trustworthy image of your brand.

Lead to more sales and leads

Digital PR isn’t about selling your products, but it can create the environment necessary to nudge customers into purchasing. PR can raise brand awareness and create brand trust, and trust is a critical element for sales. In fact, 90% of consumers are willing to pay more with a brand they trust.

Create a better image for your brand

Digital PR is all about increasing visibility and promoting a positive brand reputation. A good digital PR strategy can do this in a number of ways. Digital PR can help you stay on top of your brand’s online presence through social monitoring. It can also generate positive mentions and conduct crisis control so that your brand maintains a positive image over the long term.

Generate higher-quality backlinks

Digital PR and link building go hand in hand. Digital PR will help you create and distribute linkable assets to make it easier to earn credible backlinks to your site. It will also help you establish brand credibility and authority to earn non-paid third-party endorsements and boost your SEO rankings.

If 2022 has taught us anything, it’s that the rules of marketing and PR are becoming much more volatile. A strong digital PR agency can help you navigate the changes, and make 2023 your most successful year to date. Contact us at [email protected] or call us at 0117 905 1177.