Media is always changing, and this is something that the PR world has to constantly adapt to. Trends come and go, and what saw success last year won’t necessarily have the same impact in the future.
This is why having a multifaceted PR strategy is crucial to consistent long-term results. If your brand consistently relies upon one annual report for bringing in digital PR results, what happens if there’s a huge news story that breaks at the same time which severely impacts its results?
Even beyond mitigating some of the risks that come with putting all of your brand’s eggs in one PR basket, having a varied approach to PR means that people won’t just associate your brand with one thing.
For example, if you’re an insurance brand, releasing an annual holiday report to promote your travel insurance is a great idea, but if that’s all that you do for PR, people who come across the report will trust you as an authority on travel insurance, but they might not be aware of any of your other products, or think of your brand when they’re looking to insure their home.
The best digital PR strategies use a blend of:
- Planned campaigns
- Reactive newsjacking
- Proactive newsjacking
- Thought leadership
- Citation monitoring
- Expert-lead comments
- Business updates
By covering all of these opportunities within your strategy, you give yourself a broad range of ways to earn coverage, build authority and get yourself in front of customers.
One of the key elements to ensure is that your strategy involves a balance of planned and reactive work. Larger campaigns such as annual reports which can build your brand’s reputation within your industry and beyond can take months to plan, research and execute. However, opportunities to earn coverage pop up all the time, so it’s essential to be able to react and make the most of these occasions, putting the right systems in place to enable you to do so.
So many reactive PR successes are simply a result of being the fastest authority figure to react. This applies to responding to journalist requests in the same way as it does to creating a quick reactive campaign to a viral moment in pop culture.
Since speed is so crucial here, having a bank of pre-approved comments from your brand’s spokesperson that you can either use to respond immediately to a journalist request, or adapt and share to be signed off quickly, can be a huge help in getting content out of the door.
Don’t neglect the simple strategies
You’ll also notice that the above list isn’t full of glamorous campaign types, but that some of the key elements of a PR strategy are relatively dull.
A wide range of activity falls under the umbrella of PR, and it’s crucial to avoid neglecting the basics in favour of producing shiny campaigns. Citation monitoring isn’t exciting, but if you can earn your brand links where journalists/blogs are already talking about you, then you’re well on the way to improving your online presence for very little effort.
Similarly, you may feel that business updates won’t be of interest to anybody outside of your company. However, there may well be publications within your niche who would cover a story about investment your brand received, or leadership developments as you grow. These stories won’t result in widespread national coverage, but they could well bring in consistent links from authoritative sites within your sector.
On the subject of authority within your sector, any strong digital PR strategy makes sure that your target audience informs the strategy itself, as well as the activity within that. This means that your brand needs to meet your customers where they are. Target the publications, communities and platforms that your customer engages with so that you are able to build a connection with them and a reputation as an authority figure in your subject area.
And since your audience isn’t one dimensional, the digital PR methods that you use shouldn’t be either. Incorporate a variety of methods into your strategy to make the most of your efforts.