Building your brand using Digital PR
What is digital PR?
If you’ve ever asked how some publishers got their book titles to the top of Google results then the answer is most likely digital PR. Digital PR is an online marketing strategy to boost a business’ online profile by working with journalists, bloggers and influencers, encouraging high quality links through press releases among other strategies.
What’s so digital about it?
Digital PR is essentially an adapted and upgraded version of traditional PR which takes into account the importance of the internet and new media in building your profile. Factors like SEO, influencer contacts, relationships with bloggers, using social media for exposure. Online tools have also meant that most of the effects of quality digital PR, like web traffic, are more easily measurable and quantifiable than traditional PR.
Through digital PR, publishers can earn more online publicity, generate great customer reviews, improve search engine visibility and even be featured on popular podcasts.
Links = Visibility
When one site links to yours, it’s a strong indicator to Google that your site should be ranked higher, but not all links are treated the same. By building relationships and sending press releases to online news sites and popular blogs you can get them to link to your website. Check out this page for an incredibly in depth analysis of link building.
It’s important that these links are high quality. What’s meant by this is that if the links are spammed in comment sections, at the footer of pages, or are off-topic then Google will rank them less or ignore them completely. With a well thought out press release, your link could be editorially placed in an article with a visible link and this will be much better for your rankings.
Improving your SEO on your business’ website will only get you so far. Links to your site are stated in the top 3 factors that improve your ranking on Google and can significantly increase website traffic as well as revenue.
Building brand trust
Creating engaging content like blog articles and infographics that are SEO-friendly will build your brand’s image as they will signify to search engines that you are a credible website. Consistent quality content such as this will drive traffic to your website and products, generate leads and increase sales.
Utilising social media is also essential for your online profile. Link to your own blog articles and product pages, share reviews of your products by other bloggers and generate discussion about your brand. Here is an example of MACK books’ blog with fascinating content with artists and writers, and here is their Twitter account referencing a New Yorker review back to their site’s purchasing page of that book.
Increasingly publishers are utilising influencer marketing to build hype around products, for example building connections with popular ‘BookTokers’ to create content around new book releases. Some of the content has even gone viral generating massive exposure for the brand. Have a look at this whitepaper on the importance of influencer marketing created by TikTok.
Final thoughts
Digital PR can quickly become a web of complex connections, mysterious algorithms and rapidly changing trends. However, by following a set of principles then this won’t matter and you can continue building fantastic online exposure.
Set your goal, find your target audience, research engaging content ideas, generate content, build relationships with digital publications, reach out and spread the word.
About BookMachine Creative Agency
BookMachine Creative Agency first launched in 2017 and has since worked with over 50 book-related businesses including trade Fiction, Non-Fiction, Education and Children’s. The Agency team works either on a retainer basis or on fixed-term projects with expertise in digital marketing, online events and now digital product development as well.