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Traditional PR agencies vs Digital PR agencies: What to Expect
The advent of the online revolution has seen the world of PR transform dramatically, leading to the rise of digital PR. Despite this, many businesses continue to rely solely on traditional PR methods to build their brand in the digital age.
There is a common misconception that all PR is the same. With potential customers spending more time online than ever before, however, digital PR has developed into an altogether separate entity. Digital PR has evolved the core practices of traditional PR to make them more effective at reaching an online audience.
As such, there are profound differences between a digital PR agency and a traditional PR agency. While both offer businesses the chance to outsource their PR strategy to a team of experts, the services they offer differ significantly.
In this guide, Reboot Online explains the major differences between a digital PR agency, and a traditional PR agency so you can decide which one is best for your business.
Read more: What is a Digital PR Agency?
What do digital PR agencies and traditional PR agencies have in common?
Digital PR agencies and traditional PR agencies share the same primary goals—to increase your brand’s exposure, drive revenue, and improve your company’s reputation.
With this in mind, there are numerous benefits using a digital PR agency can bring, including techniques agencies rely on to help your company reach its target audience. From building relationships with journalists and media outlets to securing press coverage, these practices remain a constant throughout both digital and traditional PR.
While the core principles of brand exposure and positive coverage remain cornerstones of the PR process for any agency, the acceleration of the internet over the last two decades has seen the implementation of these principles evolve.
What are the main differences between a digital PR agency and a traditional pr agency?
There are several differences between digital PR agencies and traditional PR agencies. Traditional PR agencies are still typically focused on gaining brand coverage in traditional mediums like print media, radio, and television. Digital PR agencies, on the other hand, use online marketing tactics to boost your brand’s exposure on digital channels like websites, blogs, online news outlets, and social media.
There are other ways of getting digital PR, such as hiring a digital PR consultant vs an agency, or creating an in-house digital PR team. These come with their own drawbacks, however.
The rise of digital PR has resulted in the creation of entirely new techniques designed to meet the demands of the internet age. As a result, the best digital PR agencies can offer an array of additional services compared to their traditional counterparts.
We’ll cover some of these main services below:
Backlinks
A backlink is a link on an external website that directs the reader to a page on your site. Gaining backlinks from authoritative, relevant outlets is an excellent way to boost your website’s traffic while enhancing brand credibility.
Perhaps the most important factor in digital PR, a website’s authority is determined by search engines and influences where it ranks. For this, search engines will consider the value of the onsite content alongside (and here’s the kicker) the amount of links pointing to that site from other influential sites.
For this reason, the best digital PR agencies work tirelessly to secure high-calibre backlinks from the most relevant and authoritative online publications.
Reboot Online is a Digital PR agency with a wealth of bespoke tactics to source the most valuable backlinks for your site. Our unique digital PR strategy aims to source coverage from national publications and influential niche outlets that appeal directly to your target audience.
With a backlinking strategy tailored to your business, you’ll be armed with all the tools you require to maximise your company’s profile online.
Content Creation
Though content creation plays a considerable role in the work of traditional PR agencies, the type of content produced differs substantially from the work created by digital PR agencies.
Typically, traditional PR has relied on communication methods such as press releases and written advertisements. These pieces serve to directly promote a company’s products and services and tend to be ‘salesly’ in their tone.
Conversely, content marketing in digital PR tends to be more subtle and diverse than these traditional methods of media communication. While the goals of increasing brand exposure and enhancing reputation remain the same, digital PR agencies seek to create online content that meets a need beyond merely promoting a company.
From informational articles that enhance a reader’s subject knowledge to topically-relevant pieces that offer entertainment to a potential customer, online content writing serves to weave brand promotion into an article that provides value in its own right.
By aligning your company with authentic, high-quality content, you improve your brand’s authority and increase the likelihood that customers will come back for more.
Reboot has a team of expert content writers to ensure your digital content is the best-in-class. By outsourcing your digital writing to our creative professionals, you associate your company with innovative, engaging content that is sure to leave a lasting impression on your target audience.
At Reboot, content creation is a collaborative process. Aside from writing, we also have a team of experienced graphic designers on-hand to enhance your content with informative, engaging, and aesthetically pleasing visuals.
We rely on an array of bespoke tactics to produce the content angles that will most appeal to your customers, from newsjacking and reactive pieces to cultivating our own, data-driven stories.
With our expert data analysis team, we collate our own, primary data, as well as obtaining external data from quality, secondary data sources, so we can align your brand with the most relevant, reputable content.
Interaction
Traditional PR is not truly interactive. While a press release from a traditional PR agency is likely to receive some kind of customer feedback, these agencies are limited in their scope to acquire an immediate response from their audience.
Contrastingly, digital PR agencies rely on social media as a key component of their client’s communication. Social media outlets like Instagram and Twitter are unique in their ability to provide brands with immediate and direct communication with their customer base.
By promoting your campaigns on social media, you can deliver your message directly to your target audience and gauge popularity from shares, reactions, and comments.
By having direct communication channels with potential customers, you increase their investment in your brand and can use their feedback to inform your direction going forward.
SEO
Search engine optimisation companies have long been a pillar of a successful digital PR strategy. SEO is the term for a series of processes designed to increase your website’s traffic by improving its visibility in search engines.
Whereas traditional PR agencies rely solely on the strength of their message and ability to source placements, digital PR agencies utilise SEO to ensure their campaigns reach their target audience.
From researching and implementing keywords to providing internal links to other relevant pages on your site, digital agencies use a wealth of proven SEO tactics to ensure your campaign gets noticed by as many people as possible.
Reboot has a designated team of SEO agency specialists on hand to ensure your campaign reaches its full potential.
Measuring success
For traditional PR agencies, measuring the success of a campaign can be a tricky process. While it’s easy to look at an upturn in sales and revenue and link it to the success of your campaign, measuring the true reach and popularity of your campaign is hard to quantify.
There is no such problem for digital PR agencies that have an array of tools and outlets specifically designed to measure the success of a campaign. From analytics tools that measure your performance in search engines to social media sites that track your volume of shares and likes, measuring success is a simple process that you can use to inform your future strategy.
Why Should I Hire a Digital PR Agency Like Reboot?
With the online revolution showing no signs of waning, a well-executed digital PR strategy has never been more essential.
With so many differences between digital PR agencies and traditional PR agencies, it’s vital that you have all angles covered. While traditional PR still has its place in your communications strategy, ignoring digital PR can result in your company being left behind by competitors.
Before signing any digital PR contracts, and before you’ve agreed on a price for your digital PR, you should ask your digital PR agency some questions. These can help you be absolutely certain an agency is right for you. Once you have hired them, you should also keep reviewing your digital PR agency.
Reboot is a digital PR agency with expert teams in all facets of digital PR. By hiring a digital PR agency like us, you’ll provide your business with a bespoke digital PR strategy and place your brand one step ahead of its rivals.
With our proven PR tactics, you can expect:
● Increased online presence from our targeted media coverage and quality backlinks
● Improved search engine visibility from our proven SEO strategy
● Increased brand authority and publicity thanks to our best-in-class content writing team
● Targeted PR campaigns that appeal to your audience
● Expert campaigns backed by data
Get in touch to learn more about how Reboot’s holistic digital PR services could help revolutionise your brand’s online presence.
