Five advantages of Digital PR
In the digital age, it’s important to understand the best ways to reach and connect with your target audience. One great way to boost the success of your PR strategy is to utilise the benefits of digital media.
What is Digital Media
Anything that is created, distributed, viewed or stored using an electronic device can be described as a form of digital media. It’s most useful for companies to use digital media to effectively advertise their business or brand through different types of digital media content, such as social media posts, video advertisements or blog articles.
This is because a large majority of people have access to digital devices and therefore can engage with external communications that utilise this space.
Different Forms of Digital PR
There are two main sub-categories of digital PR which can be used to gain an understanding of how to control your brand image: earned and paid media.
On one hand, earned media refers to the concept of your customers sharing your information voluntarily. For example, traditionally companies would have relied on this in the form of word of mouth, where people would recommend your product or services to friends or family. However, in a modern landscape, earned media is more likely to take place virtually through social media. The result is that customers will like your brand enough to interact and share your posts, and therefore brand recognition and awareness will increase online.
On the other hand, paid media is when a company purchases specific promotions or advertisements, aiming to drive traffic back to their own social media platforms or website. This could be through display ads or paid search ads, which will improve your website’s traffic, hopefully increasing sales and driving a profit.
Within these two forms of digital PR, there are many different content types available to use, which can further a company’s understanding of their most effective marketing strategies and target audience needs:
- Online advertising – e.g: website banner ads or social media ads
- Social media – e.g: targeting specific audience demographics
- Written content - e.g: blogs or research articles
- Video - e.g: promotional clips
- Audio – e.g: created podcast or advertisement on an existing radio show
- Websites – e.g: a whole company website, or blogs/research articles accessed through a website
- Electronic books – e.g: any book, magazine or newspaper available to be read through a screen and a company advertises on
On the whole, publishing content on a mixture of these platforms is most effective to help a company expand. At Seren, we understand the importance of utilising these different areas of digital PR in relation to what is most effective for an individual brand and its needs.
The Benefits of Using Digital PR
Using digital PR to assist your brand’s marketing has shown to have many benefits, including:
- Being able to share information more easily – not only is it easier to communicate and connect with your customers using digital PR, but you also have a lot more flexibility. If there is an issue or amendment you want to make with a specific advert, you have the control to pull the ad and republish with any necessary changes in real-time.
- Increasing your brand’s awareness – with more and more people moving online, digital marketing is a hugely effective way to target a variety of different demographics on a large scale all at once.
- Connecting with your customers – experimenting and remaining consistent with different digital PR content, facilitates social interactions as it makes it easier for customers to reach out, interact and get in contact with you. It allows a constant dialogue between a brand or company and its consumer base.
- Boosting your brand image – keeping active on social media and other digital media platforms can boost your brand’s awareness and promote your core values.
- Expanding your company – it’s been proven that when employees can access and use digital marketing, their productivity increases, therefore expanding the potential of your company. Furthermore, being able to use different digital PR forms means you can reach out to potential future job candidates on a range of different platforms, particularly encouraging those who recognise your company as a digitally, up-to-date and modern brand.
Although, print media isn’t out of the picture completely, it’s important to research and experiment where the most beneficial results are for your brand, considering where your target audience receive their information, and this may be a balance of both digital and print media.
However, using digital PR to strengthen and further your company’s status is vital in a modern media landscape. At Seren Global Media, we’re happy to help develop your brand exposure effectively and boost your success with the tools of digital PR.
Contact us today to find out how we can help your business thrive.