Public relations (PR) isn't what it used to be; it's evolved. To connect with today’s audience of fast-paced consumers, leveraging both traditional and digital PR techniques is crucial. This blended approach to PR is essential for brands to tell their story in a way that works. But what are the key differences between traditional and digital PR? And why should we use both? Let’s find out.
What is Traditional PR?
Traditional PR, sometimes referred to as “offline PR”, often relies on conventional media outlets like newspapers, magazines, television, and radio to convey messages to the public. Although these avenues are still influential, especially for brands with a mature audience, it can be difficult to accurately measure the impact of traditional PR beyond coverage count and average readership.
Typically, the goal of traditional PR is to build brand awareness and trust, influence public opinion, and nurture relationships.
Traditional PR Techniques
Traditional PR techniques and strategies include:
Press Release Creation
Press releases are crucial in any PR strategy as they help to tell a brand’s story and convey core messaging and values in a clear and engaging manner. Traditional press releases are often, but not always, longer-form and focused on the messaging of the brand or its product/service.
Similar to digital PR, press release creation and distribution involves identifying key members of the press and reaching out to them with press releases. In traditional PR, however, it’s more common to target television and radio stations, print publications, and niche industry or trade publications.
Building Media Relations
Building and nurturing relationships with journalists, editors, and other media professionals is another traditional technique commonly used to secure press coverage. This strategy doesn’t solely apply to traditional PR, however, it is just as important in digital PR.
Hosting Events
Hosting physical events also sits under the versatile traditional PR umbrella. From product launches and press conferences to trade shows, hosting events is a great way to attract media attention.
Award Applications
Another effective traditional PR example is drafting and submitting award entries. They say you have to be in it to win it, and the same applies to industry awards. Being shortlisted and winning awards is a great way to gain credibility, boost publicity and position brands as industry leaders.
Crisis Comms
Traditional PR also encompasses crisis management and communication. If something were to happen that could potentially damage your brand's reputation, having a proactive and experienced PR team to manage and mitigate crisis situations is crucial.
Thought Leadership
Another great example of traditional public relations is thought leadership-led PR. Providing expert commentary and insight on topical and relevant stories within the media is a powerful way to position a brand as a thought leader in their industry. Whether it’s a detailed Founder story or some expert industry on a trending topic, this traditional PR tactic is a great way to secure coverage naturally and authentically.
What is Digital PR?
Digital PR, on the other hand, focuses on building a brand’s online presence. It’s often misconstrued that digital PR is solely about building backlinks to a website to improve its search performance. Yes, backlinks are still important for any website as they are considered a ranking factor. But digital PR encompasses so much more than that.
Also known as online PR, digital PR leverages online channels to increase a brand’s online visibility, garner greater brand awareness and trust, increase web traffic, acquire higher sales, and more. Measuring the results garnered from digital PR campaigns also differs from traditional PR methods. For example, some common metrics to monitor the success of digital PR campaigns include reach, web traffic and referral traffic, social share, and number of sales.
Digital PR Techniques
Digital PR tactics and strategies include:
Proactive and Reactive Pitching
Also known as newsjacking, proactive and reactive pitching involves keeping tabs on media requests as well as relevant and trending news stories and providing expert commentary or insights to acquire coverage.
Data-Driven Stories
Another powerful digital PR example includes crafting engaging, data-driven stories to capture journalist interest and acquire coverage in the media. Whether you’re opting for original survey results or sourcing publicly available data, the key to success is story relevance, timing, and strength of the data. When gathering publicly available data to support the story, the source needs to be trustworthy, reputable, and authoritative.
On-Site Assets
Creating topical or evergreen on-site assets is also a great example of digital PR. Also known as hero content, on-site assets are designed for pitching purposes and/or to acquire backlinks naturally, over time. An on-site asset refers to a piece of content that is published on a brand’s website. Examples of on-site assets include reports based on original survey data, blog posts featuring an interactive map or infographic, or a useful tool or resource.
The Key Differences Between Traditional and Digital PR
Gone are the days of cold calling and cutting up clippings. That’s right, most journalists just don’t want to talk on the phone. They’re flicking through hundreds if not thousands of emails per day, so calling them is probably going to put you in the bad books.
The truth? Traditional and digital PR are not so different. Both strategies, when executed effectively, can help to build brand awareness, drive traffic, increase customer loyalty, and result in higher sales.
The key difference is that digital PR is more focused on search engine optimisation (SEO). As mentioned above, acquiring backlinks is a common goal of digital PR as it helps to enhance the organic search performance of a brand’s website. More often than not, high-performing websites usually have strong backlink profiles consisting of high and medium authority links – this is not a coincidence.
In a nutshell, a strong backlink profile, combined with other important ranking factors like content quality and user experience, means you’re more likely to appear higher in search results. The higher your website appears in search results for relevant search terms and queries, the more traffic you’ll acquire. This means more leads and sales.
Benefits of Combining Digital & Traditional PR
Whether your aim is to build brand awareness, drive traffic, generate sales, or all of the above, leveraging both traditional and digital PR strategies is key. This is why PR is so important. In today's PR landscape, a successful strategy involves a blend of traditional and digital PR.
At Lem-uhn, we are proud to have talented PR experts with years of experience in both traditional and digital PR. Would you like to learn more about how we can help add zest to your campaigns? Book a free PR consultancy call or contact us to find out more.
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