digital public relations strategy

While it might be obvious for some, others may not be aware that developing a strategy is impossible without the company understanding what it’s trying to achieve.

If the company has made the decision that it needs to develop a digital PR strategy, chances are that all of the objectives have already been detailed.

Most of the time, through digital PR, companies are trying to improve their SEO, increase lead generation, or increase brand awareness.

Target Audience

The first step in developing an effective digital PR campaign is understanding the target audience. That means knowing where that audience is getting its information from in digital spaces.

For example, with B2C companies, it might be through vlogs or blog posts, while with B2B companies, it might be through digital trade press.

Before starting any sort of digital PR efforts, the company needs to understand who the target audience is engaging with, and all the places it frequents.

The best way to understand the target audience is to create buyer personas and detail their demographics, pain points, values, and interests.

Then, the buyer personas can be further defined with any data that’s available to the company, such as data from social media or Google Analytics.

Target Media

Once the company understands its target audience in detail, it’s time to figure out the target media outlets. That list can range from digital publications to bloggers, influencers, and digital content creators.

It solely depends on the type of digital media the company wants to target. Once that’s defined, it’s relatively easy to figure out which people the business needs to get in touch with.

Additionally, there are plenty of tools available online that can help businesses navigate their long list of contacts and filter the different ones according to different information.

Pitching

With an effective digital PR campaign, companies should be both reactive and proactive.

That means creating an editorial calendar with content topics that interest the target audience, as well as using those same topics as pitches on the targeted media channels or outlets.

Companies can also set up their own Google Alerts for a certain set of topics so that they’re always aware of what’s being talked about and when.

Testing

At the end of the day, no strategy is going to be as effective as one that’s constantly being upgraded, updated, and tweaked as the company learns more information and gets more customer data.

The best and most effective strategies are created by companies that are able to invest time, money, and effort into perfecting each promotional effort they create simply by learning from their mistakes and figuring out what works best for the audience and journalists.

That’s why it’s so important to constantly keep track of metrics and test out different PR tactics against the PR goals, and to adjust those tactics when necessary.

Every quarter, businesses should reflect on the results of their PR campaigns , and figure out how they will be moving forward to create the most effective digital PR.

Discover more from Ronn Torossian

Ronn Torossian’s Professional Profile on Muck Rack
GuideStar Profile for Ronn Torossian Foundation
Ronn Torossian’s Articles on Entrepreneur
Ronn Torossian’s Blog Posts on Times of Israel
Ronn Torossian on SoundCloud

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Ronn Torossian is the Founder & Chairman of 5W Public Relations, one of the largest independently owned PR firms in the United States. Since founding 5WPR in 2003, he has led the company's growth and vision, with the agency earning accolades including being named a Top 50 Global PR Agency by PRovoke Media, a top three NYC PR agency by O'Dwyers, one of Inc. Magazine's Best Workplaces and being awarded multiple American Business Awards, including a Stevie Award for PR Agency of the Year. With over 25 years of experience crafting and executing powerful narratives, Torossian is one of America's most prolific and well-respected public relations executives. Throughout his career he has advised leading and high-growth businesses, organizations, leaders and boards across corporate, technology and consumer industries. Torossian is known as one of the country's foremost experts on crisis communications. He has lectured on crisis PR at Harvard Business School, appears regularly in the media and has authored two editions of his book, "For Immediate Release: Shape Minds, Build Brands, and Deliver Results With Game-Changing Public Relations," which is an industry best-seller. Torossian's strategic, resourceful approach has been recognized with numerous awards including being named the Stevie American Business Awards Entrepreneur of the Year, the American Business Awards PR Executive of the Year, twice over, an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year semi-finalist, a Top Crisis Communications Professional by Business Insider, Metropolitan Magazine's Most Influential New Yorker, and a recipient of Crain's New York Most Notable in Marketing & PR. Outside of 5W, Torossian serves as a business advisor to and investor in multiple early stage businesses across the media, B2B and B2C landscape. Torossian is the proud father of two daughters. He is an active member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and a board member of multiple not for profit organizations.