Digital PR isn't something to overlook as you work to build your brand and grow sales. On the contrary, digital PR is a powerful tactic that helps build brand credibility, ensuring your company stands out in the niche reserved for your products and services.

Used properly, digital PR can help connect people online with your company and create genuine interest, respect, and recognition for your brand.

Let's dive into what that means and why using digital PR to build credibility is so important.

What is digital PR?

Digital PR is not about sales content or any promotional message. Yes, there's a venue suitable for breaking out "the hard sell," but this isn't it.

Instead, marketers design digital PR campaigns to build brand credibility for brands by providing authentic, valuable content to readers. Digital PR also places messages where target audiences are most likely to find and appreciate them. Rather than impose a heavy-handed commercial where it's more annoying than helpful, these messages are a natural extension of the discussion.

In short, digital PR connects traditional public relations with social media, content marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO).

Digital PR builds awareness of your brand.

One of the ways digital PR helps is by providing people with an opportunity to get to know you and your brand. Done right, this opportunity shows up in a low-pressure, low-stakes encounter. If a target customer (a person most likely to want and need your services) does not know your company exists, they cannot even consider that you might be able to solve their problem.

Today's consumer is savvy. Experts estimate that 81% of shoppers will spend time researching a product or service before purchasing it or buying from a company they do not know. With the help of digital PR, it is possible to highlight what makes your company stand out and why you're better than your competitors.

It can provide a boost to your SEO efforts.

You may not realize it, but digital PR also helps by building your visibility in search engines.

That means when people seek information about what you offer, they can easily find you. Search ease helps develop your ability to be seen by prospective buyers.

Remember that digital PR cannot solve problems with products or services. If your products cannot stand up to others, this deficiency will become evident in search results. It will become even more apparent in consumer reviews posted to widely-used eCommerce sites.

When you use digital PR properly online, it suddenly becomes possible to get noticed. You're then a part of industry discussions and articles. This can be an additional signal to Google when you're trying to rank for specific topics and themes online.

Dovetail content with other digital PR marketing efforts.

You've worked hard to build a company that provides quality products and services, consistently-excellent customer service, and great value for the dollar. However, you might be baffled by a lack of online visibility. Worse, you see that competitors with an objectively inferior track record score hit after hit on SERPs. Why does the SEO spotlight shine brightly there?

Scan through industry websites, magazines, and popular sites. In all likelihood, sites that rank high on SERPs appear in industry-specific social media accounts, informative articles, and the like. The job of any successful digital PR and marketing campaign is to garner the attention of these industry voices and obtain links back to your content.

However, the digital footprint you create for your company must be entirely consistent with the messaging you are developing in traditional PR channels.

If you have a solid product or service and consistently send the same messages in your traditional marketing channels as you do online, you will begin to gain domain authority. Simply stated, "domain authority" can roughly be translated to "These people know what they are talking about." It goes without saying that you should provide agenda-free, service-oriented content in the spirit of helping people find solutions to real-world problems.

Social Collateral

Once you start scoring backlinks, you can use those brand mentions as social collateral. Leverage them! Highlight the fact that a credible online site mentioned your business. This aspect of digital PR will help fill your social media accounts with solid content.

When people start digging into your specific market niche, you will appear on those social accounts. You can then promote that you're a credible brand.

Lead Nurture

You can nurture leads or tout your efforts to current customers by showcasing your mentions in your email marketing efforts. Email campaigns help build credibility with both audiences.

Perhaps your audience is on the fence regarding your product or service. At that moment, a shopper sees that a powerhouse such as Forbes mentioned your brand in a positive light. This connection immeasurably boosts your brand.

Build a positive platform for your brand.

At the core of successful branding is using digital PR methods to build an impression on prospective customers about your products or services. That way, when someone mentions your brand, your customers know who you are and what you offer.

Being consistent in your approach matters. Consumers need to hear the same type of message from you every time.

Creating a positive impression for your potential consumers isn't a simplistic process. Consider these key questions.

• Do people think positively of your brand now?
• What are some areas of improvement?
• What are the main themes your audience should hear from you about?

Because it is all happening online, digital PR can help improve the decision-making and opinions of your consumer base. Utilizing the best methods, it's possible to enhance your branding considerably. Even if your credibility isn't where you want it to be, digital PR can help improve it.

Become a leader in your industry.

One of the best ways to conduct a digital PR public relations campaign is to build your presence in that market. That means becoming a thought leader and speaking authoritatively about innovations in your field.

It may mean contributing to the stories that are breaking within your industry now. You could provide tips and strategies or discuss the future of the industry. The possibilities are endless.

This form of digital PR is quite powerful because it allows you, the business owner, CEO, or other leader, to become the face of the industry. That means you can stand out from other companies. When a person has a problem your services or products can fix, they recognize you as the person to trust. That's building strong credibility in the industry.

Your service solves their problem, and they will remember your business favorably. They will likely recommend your products to others.

How does digital PR fit into your marketing strategy?

Digital PR is one component of your efforts to build a robust business model and online presence. Beyond a doubt, it is a core part of your digital marketing strategy. It works alongside your other efforts to build a solid digital PR footprint.

Over time, your digital PR, any traditional PR you are implementing, and other tools you use to develop your customer experience work together. These tools deliver an outstanding outcome for your client. They learn from you. They benefit from you. That leads to their willingness to recommend your business to others and come back repeatedly.

In a world where consumers see brand credibility as very important, especially for online businesses, you cannot overlook putting time and effort into digital PR. In the era of the smartphone shopper, your business (regardless of size) can't afford to let this opportunity go unrealized.

Intrigued? Want to learn more? We're here to help. Find out how our team at Relevance can help your business achieve its digital PR goals and build brand credibility. Schedule a free consultation today.