Why PR pros are the future of digital marketing

Digital marketing is a kaleidoscopic puzzle that brands continue trying to solve.

Throwing cash into paid search, and social media isn’t always the answer. However, all too often, businesses are ignoring their secret weapon: the PR pro.

 PR’s value on the rise

The value of public relations is increasing, as PR pros continue to prove their worth as storytellers who can write and place stories, building links in the process and getting the word out on social media which further enhances a brand’s SEO efforts.

How PR affects SEO

Much of search marketing equates to link building. It’s not enough for a PR or search marketing pro to secure an earned media mention. To make a real impact on a brand’s search engine optimisation (SEO), a link has to accompany the media placement.

While the benefit of a press mention boosts a brand, it may be short-lived. The spike in web traffic may be brief – and difficult to track. But, when you’re able to get a journalist, a reporter, or blogger to link to a piece of content on your site, that link is likely to last. It’s rare that sites delete pages and links. And, this will increase your SEO.

Links to your website correspond with authority, and authority increases the likelihood that anything on your domain will rank high. The more external links your brand has, the stronger your domain authority.

This is why PR professionals have enormous power to affect search rankings.

The key is to not just get your brand mentioned, but to ask the journalist, reporter, or blogger to link to key brand content on your site.

 PR’s inside track on social media

Why do we see PR and social media teams working more closely together than ever? Because brands are finally realising that these two powerhouses should be tightly aligned.

PR is so much more effective today because it merges, rather than separates, marketing and media channels. Only the PR team can tell a story and in one day have it distributed almost instantaneously with the communities that are most interested in that specific topic.

Only the PR team can package your message into a format that friends, peers and colleagues will share naturally just as part of what they do each day.

When a business makes an announcement, industry news sites are often the first to cover the news. When they cover it, they usually share it on social media. Then, the brand will also share it, and chances are that other fans of the brand will share it, too.

If you now search Google on the specific product phrases in the press release, you’ll see you’re controlling the narrative with a good presence in the first few pages. Achieving those results through traditional search marketing would take months, significant spend, and tons of hours.

The impact is even greater if a story has real news value.

Swap out the boring corporate non-story for something genuinely thought-provoking. Chances are your search marketing results will be far superior. You’ll suddenly find social media shares go crazy. That can have huge commercial impact for very little ‘heavy lifting.’

Finally, don’t forget about paid social. Once you’ve got your brand out there, you’ll want to boost this earned media with a just a little bit of budget.

Featured image courtesy of Unsplash