What’s The Difference Between Traditional PR and Digital PR?

PR is PR, right?

Well, not exactly. Not anymore. There are two main types of PR now; traditional and digital.

Fundamentally, the mission of traditional PR and digital PR is the same. The core objective of both is to build brand awareness, whilst putting together a positive message, to help engage the most relevant audiences.

Traditional Newspaper PR versus Digital PR Tablet news

That said, public relations has moved on dramatically in the last 15, or so, years. Digital marketing is becoming an ever-important part of outreach. The use of online media in communications is on the rise too.

Do you want to know the biggest difference between these two types of public relations? It’s the fact digital PR needs to be considered as part of a wider online marketing strategy. Traditional PR doesn’t.

We get asked “what’s the difference between traditional PR and digital PR” all the time. Let’s explore, in more detail, some of the things we get asked most frequently. These questions include:

What does digital PR do that traditional PR doesn’t?
Are the messages the same?
Any differences in terms of audience interaction?
What different channels and tools are commonly used?
How do you measure a PR campaign’s success?

What Does Digital PR Do That Traditional PR Doesn’t?

Digital PR is designed to align public relations with your wider online strategy including SEO, lead generation and inbound marketing.

SEO and improved search rankings are two areas in particular that traditional PR simply can’t help with. Done well, digital PR will drive performance improvements across the whole online profile of your business.

Digital PR can help you gain quality backlinks from higher authority domains, build a useable sales funnel via your content output, increase the value of PPC campaigns and leverage all the engagement opportunities that social media can provide.In a nutshell, you can do so much more than bog-standard PR, with digital PR. If you do it well, that is.

Traditional PR versus Digital PR - Whats the difference?

Are The Messages The Same?

When it comes to digital PR the message can often be much more subtle than traditional PR. When working with bloggers and online influencers there’s a higher level of focus on creating quality content around a specific subject. A subject that their audience will appreciate, whilst also somehow relating to your brand.

You have to be cleverer with your content output, otherwise the likelihood is it won’t get published. If your content isn’t published then you won’t get those all-important backlinks or improve your SEO.

Traditional PR will tend to be more direct. Perhaps a corporate communication that speaks directly to the target audience about the brand or a product. It can often be a bit more ‘salesy’ too. However, the message won’t be able to be shared, or engaged with, in the same way as a strong piece of digital PR.

Any Differences In Terms Of Audience Interaction?

With traditional PR, interactions with the audience tend to be a one-way-street. A press release in an industry paper, for example, or details of a new product launch; these are the sorts of things that get a message out there, without offering any level of interaction. The ‘shareability’ of the content released will also be more limited.

Digital PR on the other hand will generally provide more scope for feedback and engagement. Website blogs and posts on social media sites are two good examples. By giving your audience a voice, interaction levels will rise.

Also, with users having additional functionality such as being able to ‘like’ and ‘share’ content, you can grow your audience. The potential is there to reach new prospects that you weren’t originally targeting. This can help extend your campaign’s reach at no extra cost.

What Different Channels and Tools Are Commonly Used?

Traditional PR tends to focus on channels such as the general press, niche printed publications, TV and radio. Digital PR on the other hand has a multitude of other channels available. These include websites, social media platforms, blogs, influencer campaigns, online news and video portals.

Just like the channels available, there are also big differences in the tools that need to be used, when comparing traditional PR and digital PR.

To do digital PR correctly, tools such as SEO software, marketing automation services, website analysis (including Google Analytics), social media solutions and many others should be used concurrently for greatest effect.

How Do You Measure A PR Campaign’s Success?

This is an area in which a huge difference can be seen. Digital PR, done properly, can offer far more in the way of metrics to decide how good a public relations campaign has been.

With the right tools in place you can track every aspect of a digital PR project. Important metrics such as impressions, click-through rates, the time users spend on a piece of content, social shares and cold, hard, sales, are all measurable.

With traditional PR the main way of measuring cost is with something called AVE (Advertising Value Equivalent). This basically means measuring the column inches of an article and comparing how much that space is worth according to the publications advertising rate card.

This is old-fashioned and doesn’t provide any tangible evidence of success or cost-effectiveness. That doesn’t mean it isn’t still used by traditional PR firms today though!With digital PR having much more precise metrics in place, an actual ROI (Return On Investment) can be worked out. You’ll be able to better understand which campaigns have worked well, which ones haven’t and ultimately improve things accordingly.

Summary – Does Your Business Need Traditional PR Or Digital PR?

Pretty much all businesses would benefit from having a strong and consistent approach to PR. There are significant benefits to both types of public relations we’ve spoken about here. In our opinion, if budgets permit, a firm should have a good mix of traditional PR and digital PR in place to maximise their exposure.

There’s no denying the world is becoming increasingly online though and this is demonstrated by the number of traditional PR agencies that have moved into the world of digital PR. Mind you, not all of them are well-versed in the finer details of digital marketing. This lack of understanding about the bigger online picture can have a dramatic impact on the overall effectiveness of a digital PR campaign.

Digital PR is perfect if you want to ramp up engagement, measure performance and ROI more effectively and enhance your business’s overall online presence. With most firms wanting to improve their online profile, digital PR is something that should definitely be detailed in your marketing plan.

Get your contacts in the Cookie Jar!

We all have a contact database, people we’ve met over the years. Maybe out networking, at lunch with a business contact or even down the local pub.

But how can you capitalise on this within your companies marketing. The last thing you want to do is annoy those new found contacts with cold sales calls.

Get them in the cookie jar! Then provide them some value.

Remarketing to your cookie jar

The first and most underutilised way of using a website cookie is remarketing.

You can use your list of contacts on a number of platforms to build a custom audience of people you want to get your brand in front of.

What is remarketing?

Facebook custom audiences, Google custom audiences, Twitter custom audiences, Linkedin custom audiences to name a few platforms allow you to add your contact data and put your adverts in front of them.

It is such a cost effective way of having your contacts see your brand as they browse round the world wide web.

Even if they take no action, your brand is being reinforced over again.

It is of course very important not to overdo this and create a negative brand impression. But this can be carefully managed by defining the right campaign settings.

Understanding your contacts needs and requirements

We now have access to some great technology when it comes to utilising the information a website cookie can give a webmaster or business owner.

I’m sure we have all seen Google Analytics data? If not, 1, where have you been? 2, get it set-up right this minute!

But did you know you could use the same information to build up a profile of what your website visitors are interested in? What pages have they visited?

We work with a marketing automation platform called Active Campaign. Using this software we can create lead scores based on what a contact has done on the website.

For example:

If a contact clicks through from an email sent using Active Campaign we install a website cookie. They click on a training course information page, then they click through to a specific course page and then look at the pricing and dates page for the course.

We can use this data to add points to their lead score. Once this threshold is reached we email the contact information through to the sales team. They can then contact the lead.

This has 2 benefits for the business, first they aren’t wasting time on people who have accidentally clicked through from the email but have no interest in the service and secondly they know that when they do call the contact, they will know who they are and a bit about what they’re talking about.

It’s a warm lead rather than a cold lead.

Summary

It’s really important in business these days to take advantage of all opportunities to get your business in front of people. You never know when they might need your services.

Utilising cookies and your existing contact data can help you do this and for not a massive cost.

If you feel the above might be something your business needs to get in place but worried you don’t have the time or the resource in house to set it up. We can help, just give us a shout.

Ten Great Ways To Optimise Lead Generation For Small Business

You spent good money on the new website for your business. It looks great and is a decent tool to refer people to when they already know about your business and want to learn a bit more.

It’s kind of like when a salesman hands a brochure out to someone who’s already in the showroom looking at a new car.How can you do even more with your website though? Is it possible to turn your business website into a lead generation machine?

Reach out to potential customers before they tour all the different car showrooms. Most importantly, what steps can you take to automate this lead generation process so that your website does all the hard work for you?Forgive the car showroom analogy. No matter what business you’re in, you can maximise the use of your website.

Driving new customers towards it, keeping in touch with existing customers and compelling all visitors to act while they’re surfing your pages. These are the three main things your site should be aiming to achieve.Whether that’s buying a product, signing up to a newsletter or sending a request for further information, there’s plenty of great ways to optimise lead generation with your website.

Let’s explore ten of the best ways to convert your website’s visitors into your business’s customers.

1. SEO Improvements And Higher Traffic

Well, first things first, you need visitors to your website if it’s going to turn into a key part of your lead generation strategy.

Having a great SEO strategy, using keywords and phrases to your advantage and having awesome written and visual content on your website is a sure-fire way to drive more potential customers to your business.

If you’d like to learn more about all the different SEO services available, click here.

2. Speed Is Of The Essence!

Turning up late or forgetting to attend a job interview probably isn’t the best way to impress your prospective new boss.

Will you get a second chance? That’s exactly what it’s like for customers when they try to visit your website and it either loads really slowly or, even worse, crashes and doesn’t load at all!

According to recent Google studies, 53% of mobile users abandon the site if it doesn’t load within 3 seconds. This is a stat that seems to be ever-increasing too.

3. Call-To-Action (CTAs)

You may have come across the acronym CTA or call-to-action to give it its full name.

Strategically positioned CTAs throughout your website can be very useful for making people take action and ultimately give them the opportunity to easily do what you want them to do.

These work best on pages that have higher traffic and usually following on from either some compelling sales copy or identification of a customer pain-point and an idea on how to solve the problem.

4. Offer Useful Information; It’s Not All SELL SELL SELL!

A common mistake some business owners make is by having all their CTAs as sales aides. ‘Buy Now’, ‘Add Item To Basket’ etc.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Sure, when done well the sales CTAs are perfectly fine but you can also use CTAs to sign people up to your mailing lists or give them a free copy of an E-book about a certain subject for example.

Not all customers are going to buy straight off the bat.

It’s well worth developing relationships over time to make sure you’re well positioned when someone does want to buy.

5. Landing Pages And Paid Ads

Sometimes it’s best to create an entirely separate landing page to get people to sign up to a certain offer or buy a certain product.

A landing page coupled with paid advertising is a superb way to drive leads fast.

6. Automate Your Email Marketing

As your customer and potential customer lists grow, you can start tailoring your automated marketing content.

With services like Active Campaign and Mailchimp it’s easy to reach a wide audience and further refining can be done as well. For example, you can send certain offers to newly registered people or special discounts for existing/long-term clients.

It’s worth trying lots of different things with email marketing too. Do text-based emails or ones featuring pictures work better?

Was your offer of a free trial more productive than your countdown/limited time offer?

7. A/B Testing; What Works And What Doesn’t?

A/B tests can help shape your digital marketing strategy. By understanding what works well and what doesn’t will allow you to optimise and improve your lead generation, moving forward.

A/B tests can be aligned to review campaigns side-by-side or even which title for the same blog gets more interest.

There are some great tools out there including Optimise by Thrive Themes. Well worth a try if you want to enhance the effectiveness of your marketing output.

8. Share Insightful Content With Blogs And Social Media

There’s no better way of gaining the trust of a prospect than by being a leading source of knowledge on your specialist subject.

With interesting content output on a regular basis you’ll become the go-to source of information and this will also give people a reason to visit your website blog or your social media pages.

9. Follow Up After Events

A simple ‘thank you for subscribing’ email to a new subscriber goes a long way to building familiarity and confidence.

It might sound obvious but reaching out to new contact after networking events or seminars is also a great way of improving lead generation.

10. Make The Most Of Dynamic/Smart Content

When email marketing or a piece of content is personalised to someone, click through rates increase by 14% and conversion rates by 10%.

On the flip side, in a recent survey, 74% of people get frustrated when content isn’t tailored to their interests.

Dynamic content, or smart content as it’s also known, is a rising star within the lead generation world.

Giving people the information and offers they want to see will help drive sales through the roof!

If, like me you’re now fed up of people using the four letter word; GDPR! You’re probably asking yourself, how do we actually market our business to suspects past the 25th May 2018?

We’re getting all these emails about updated privacy policies and asking us to re-subscribe to an email marketing list. People are going on about it like its doomsday for businesses.

The new rules will prevent certain aspects of business that have been practiced since business first started marketing, but, there are some major positives to take from this legislation.

And yes, we’re bound to say this as it puts us in a great standing as we’re the experts in inbound marketing. But, what can you actually do to keep on the right side of the rules and keep your marketing moving?

What are the positives of GDPR?

As a marketer I feel this is a positive move, in general, towards a better and easier life. I mean we get so many unsolicited emails, phone calls, direct mail etc. that it sometimes becomes a bit overwhelming.

I subscribe to people I find interesting or companies that I have a vested interest in or thinking about purchasing from or even sometimes just for the fun of it.

I want to be able to read about what these people and businesses offer form time to time and happily ask them to do so.

I do however find that a lot of time is spent deleting emails rather than reading them. I’m concentrating on email here because it is something we do a lot of for our clients.

Being very busy I regularly just purge the lot as the time I want to read I spend time deleting unsolicited SPAM.

I am very hopeful I get lots of time back from those SPAM vampires when the GDPR comes into effect.

Will it work? I doubt it, but I’m very hopeful!

Anyways, what marketing can you do and what should you be doing better?

Email Marketing! But much better, and the way it should really have been done before GDPR.

Yes, email is still one of the best tools to move a prospect from a newcomer to your brand, into a full on evangelist for your business.

When I say better, I mean by using either a checkbox on your forms or by using double opt-in. It’s easy, so why aren’t you doing it? If you are then what you worrying about.

You will, in fact, definitely won’t gain as many people into your marketing database but do you really want people in your database that aren’t really looking for information from you or your business? I would argue it’s wasted energy, and money if you’re using a tool based on number of contacts such as Active Campaign (p.s we’re a reseller!).

How do you get people into your marketing database?

Inbound marketing or content marketing, call it what you want. It works! Look at Hubspot, the worlds best inbound marketing company in my humble opinion. They appear in pretty much anything you search for around their niche.

You can too!

Anyone who spends any time online will know the scenario, you are searching for a solution to your problem and suddenly you find yourself reading an article on “how to attract the right customer” finding it really engaging and a nice slide in box or in content box pops up asking if you would like more information?

Yes, you would as the content you are so engrossed in means that there must be more you don’t have time to read now but want to. So you fill in your email address.

Within a few weeks, or months you’re proposing the solution or service of said company to the boss or your line manager. You’ve become an evangelist for the brand who you didn’t even know about a few weeks or months before.

This is inbound marketing at its best. And it’s much easier than you think to do.

Need help with inbound marketing, give us a shout we don’t mind saying we’re pretty good at it!

So what does Inbound marketing consist of?

Just to set expectations, we’re not looking to produce an exhaustive list here. We’re simply looking to help with a few ideas which might be common place in certain industry sectors.

Here are a few types of inbound marketing we’d suggest starting right away:

Subject leading articles – Most people don’t know as much as you do about your industry, service or product. Write about it, not from a sales point of view but from the view of the user. What will they gain and why is the service or product a good thing for them in general?

Ultimate guides – You might think that telling someone how to do the actual service you offer is counterintuitive. But it really isn’t. There are lots of people who just want to know you can complete the job they would like you to do. Plus, an ultimate guide should give you an enormous amount of exposure. Hopefully leading to subscribers and those all important links from other websites.

Case Studies – Producing engaging case studies are great for lead generation. People will actively look for these on your site and in any marketing literature they have before they make a decision. They can also be great for SEO and can often be found by people searching for your service. Perfect opportunity to bring in new prospects.

Videos – If you aren’t using video as part of your marketing strategy at the minute you should be! The growth of video is massive and just keeps on growing. The world’s second biggest search engine is Youtube, and they now show as tiles within relevant searches on Google! Get on it if you haven’t already!

Like I said above, I’m not going to go on about too many types of content for your inbound marketing. Just try a few at first!

Make sure you have a way of converting those site visitors into subscribers or prospects! A great tool for this, if you’re using WordPress is Thrive Leads. If you’ve read this far you will, no doubt, have seen a perfectly designed opt-in section or slide in. It’s perfect and integrates via API into Active Campaign to help build a seamless inbound marketing platform.

Anyways, that’s where we’ll end this one. Hope you enjoyed reading it.