Public Relations, more commonly known as just PR’ is how most businesses gain, capture and acquire additional followers, customers and interest in their business offering. Traditionally, this has been achieved through advertising on the traditional channels of print, television and radio. However, with the advent and explosion of interest in newer, more engaging digital channels in recent years like online video, social media and even to a degree search engine optimisation (SEO), PR has been changing massively.
How Does Digital Promotion Work?
Digital PR in a nutshell entails getting the business or brand’ online entity, usually their website or simply their branding placed across relevant channels online (source: Brandnation). In practice this will require adverts and ‘sponsored content’ placed on third party websites in the form of banners and content.
The general aim of such campaigns though is to get the brand in question placed on relevant and impactful platforms. For example, a clothing brand looking to undertake digital PR may well look at websites which talk about and even sell relevant items. Alternatively, a clothing brand launching anew may decide to publish numerous press releases and pieces of written content on both national publications and industry websites and publications.
Channels Used for Digital PR
When it comes to promoting brands online, there are some widely accepted channels with regards to being effective and their returns on investment for the business undertaking the campaign in the first place. Popular channels to be used online for PR include:
Search Engines – Utilising search engine optimisation (SEO), a brand can work to get their website higher up the search results on Google and other search engines for both brand terms and their brand name as well as ‘generic’ searches; this includes terms like ‘men’s clothing’ for example in the case of a clothing business.
Pay-Per-Click – Also known as PPC, this channel can do very much what SEO does. However, the fundamental difference here is that the positions and placements on search engines are explicitly paid for and users know this. The benefit here is that PPC, done properly can be very impactful and get you in front of your audience almost immediately.
Remarketing – This entails literally retargeting people who have previously visited your website. Remarketing works by capturing a ‘cookie’ from each user’s browser when they come to your site. Then, they are remarketed your brand on other sites that have signed up to a ‘display network,’ a network of websites that display remarketing campaigns.