It is no shock that the business world has taken advantage of digital marketing after knowing its potential. Digital Public Relations (PR) for your small business allows more connections that build loyalty and demonstrate your brand’s value on a personal level. Utilizing this prime online marketing strategy helps to enhance your online presence.
To ensure that your digital PR strategies work well, you need to understand what to do and what not to do. If you want your small business to succeed in a very saturated technology-driven market, you must know how to place your business above the competition.
What is Digital PR?
Digital PR applies the principles of traditional PR using your content to drive brand awareness, website traffic, links to boost organic rankings, social following and engagement. A good digital PR strategy can increase your online visibility and create more brand awareness for your business.
With a comprehensive SEO strategy, content, social media, website design, and more to help provide a stellar customer experience, your PR efforts may stay strong. Here’s a comprehensive list of all the best dos and don’ts of managing digital PR for your small business.
DO optimize your website design to be mobile-friendly
Your website is the primary source for customers to have an easy shopping experience. If your pages are challenging to access or people become confused about where to find information, it won’t matter how much work goes into your content or your products and services.
People are accessing internet websites using a mobile device, the majority of online users (90%), to be more precise. So, by ensuring that your web pages have a more pleasant user experience associated with your PR, you’ll ensure that you can allow your consumers to focus on the important stuff.
DO write press releases
You don’t need to announce every single update or change to products and services. But, you should bring attention to significant milestones within your small business. If there’s a major event or collaboration, you should also ensure you release something to your audience.
The key to a good press release is writing something compelling and unique, so your audience understands why they should consider looking toward your company. Whatever the campaign, your primary focus should always be on helping customers find you by finding what enables you to stand out and promote it.
DO brand storytelling
Personal connection is everything in digital PR, so finding a way to help familiarize people with your brand is vital. Developing your brand identity allows consumers to recognize you quickly by your logo or a catchy tagline. Share your story across multiple channels and platforms to help rally your audience to keep sharing and supporting what you offer.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) focus is also at the forefront. It can help to obtain a proper project management system for SEO so you know you’re using the right keywords and phrases to include within your content.
Consider also being more transparent when it comes to how you got started so that people can find that connection to you. Understanding the relevance of PPC ads on Google Ads for growing your online search traffic along with consistent SEO efforts would be of great advantage.
Tell the story about how you left a corporate job to start your own business because you found it more rewarding. Or, you can provide a story regarding what mistakes you identified that made you want to create a small business to change it.
DON’T use the same pitch or message
Customize your public relations or digital PR outreach because journalists and reporters can sense when they receive a more generic pitch. Personalize as much as possible, and don’t argue with them if they don’t write about your small business. Sometimes, your pitches won’t land, so you need to regroup and come back with another pitch at a different angle after some time has passed.
You can ask for feedback if you don’t understand why the media didn’t pick up your story. Just don’t go into it by taking it personally; chances are reporters are constantly getting pitched to every day.
Don’t take to stalking since reporters won’t appreciate you calling or sending several emails – and it could result in a bad reputation for the press. Just send one follow-up, and show genuine interest in your communication to try and gain feedback or see if you can reach out again in a few weeks.
DON’T forget your email marketing efforts
Digital PR is done in several ways, from social media to video coverage, but you can’t forget your email marketing. Having an email list provides the ability to become more personal with your audience, and it provides you with direct contact with your consumers rather than through a third-party channel. Email marketing is one of the best methods to receive updates, new launches, and events.
DON’T show up on all media channels
Digital PR means using social media, but you don’t need to be present on all social media platforms. Success doesn’t mean posting content to every channel; instead, you want your marketing teams to determine which platforms are more preferred by your target audience.
Developing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) so that you understand your ideal customer should be part of your small business focus. It ensures you help your team make more intelligent business decisions, so you’re not investing in providing content across too many platforms. Find out as much about your prospects as possible, and narrow your digital PR efforts.
DON’T overdo it
One last thing to remember with Digital PR strategies is to diversify your content and message for repurposing. Marketing to your audience is great, but you don’t want to do it where you seem too salesy or annoying to your potential consumers.
For instance, sending emails on a daily basis or more than one email can result in having people unsubscribe more quickly. Consider only sending an email once or twice weekly to keep your customers updated.
Getting Digital PR Help
Don’t assume you can effectively market with digital PR for your small business alone. It is helpful to have a team to help you understand your customer and implement the best PR techniques and tactics to draw them in with your content.
Hopefully, these do’s and don’ts can help you create and develop your small business’s digital PR more effectively. If you’re lost on how to gain more online visibility or the best way to promote a new launch of products and services, you may consider investing in a team of professionals for more insight.
About the author
Nicole McCray
Nicole writes blog posts and articles for a wide variety of sites, from SEO agencies and online marketers to startup entrepreneurs and e-commerce websites. She aspires to keep her readers engaged and invoke curiosity while delivering solution-based content. She has prior experience working with magazines and e-commerce establishments as a content marketer.
