Digital PR is an important part of a well-rounded growth marketing strategy. It helps broadcast your brand across third-party websites and can help you develop greater credibility with your target audience. 

While online public relations is a powerful tool, you can’t engage in digital PR by simply flipping a switch or pressing a button. Often working with a reputable Digital PR agency is the best way to make the most of your outward-facing marketing efforts.

Here are 10 of the top digital PR services to consider in 2024, along with some additional thoughts on how to vet them, other digital PR tools to consider, and answers to some of the top frequently asked questions on the topic. 

Let’s dive in, shall we? 

Top 10 Digital PR Services

First, we have the services themselves. Here they are, along with a few thoughts on their strengths and a quick summary of each service.

1. Relevance

Overview and strengths: A growth marketing agency with a thorough approach to digital PR that integrates the marketing discipline with SEO and content creation to build credibility, visibility, and authority for a brand.

Summary: Relevance (ranked 88th on the 2023 Inc. 5000 list) is a full-service growth marketing agency. Digital PR is a central cog in its strategic approach to holistic marketing. Cultivating earned media helps establish credibility with key demographics and target audience segments.

The marketing experts at Relevance incorporate digital marketing into a larger strategy that also builds up visibility through SEO and authority through content. Effective digital PR on relevant, high-level publications is a synergistic element that helps these other aspects of marketing work together, accelerating a brand’s growth in the process.

2. Adogy

Overview and strengths: A flexible digital PR firm with custom strategies for any size enterprise and a track record of client mentions in high-profile publications.

Summary: As another leading digital PR agency, Adogy’s strength comes from its well-established network of media outlets and journalists. This makes it easy to surround a brand with third-party buzz. 

Adogy leverages high-quality articles to land premium brand placements and mentions. This organically puts the online spotlight on each of their clients. The service’s 90% pitch success rate demonstrates its team’s ability to execute digital PR strategies and create bonafide results.

3. 5th Avenue Brands

Overview and strengths: A PR agency specializing in building brands’ public profiles and thought leadership positioning in the finance, public policy, and B2B tech sectors. 

Summary: Fifth Avenue Brands’ digital PR goal is thought leadership. The agency engages in media relations and financial communications that broadcast brand messaging and build awareness across the finance, public, and tech sectors. 

Led by CEO Richard Lorenzen, 5th Avenue Brand’s team of seasoned PR professionals also engages in strategic planning to take advantage of every marketing opportunity. Risk mitigation and crisis communications are also critical in this area of business and are key aspects of the brand’s digital PR services.

4. BrandYourself

Overview and strengths: A PR firm dedicated to promoting positive messaging while maintaining and enhancing privacy on both personal and company-wide levels.

Summary: At first glance, BrandYourself is a PR agency dedicated to personal branding. However, the company has services for both professionals and their companies. These include strategic support to boost Google placement and build brand awareness. 

Along with these common digital PR offerings, BrandYourself focuses on cleaning up its clients’ social media profiles and overall image. For instance, it removes posts with the potential to damage an individual or brand’s image. The PR agency also helps with PR in the opposite direction by reducing the publicity of key information, such as addresses, birth dates, and contact information, when necessary.

5. Reputation Economy Advisors

Overview and strengths: A PR firm that streamlines and bolsters a brand’s digital PR by building leadership confidence and giving C-suite members insights into and control over the metrics that matter for promotional success.

Summary: Reputation Economy Advisors provides a model of trickle-down digital PR solutions. The company’s veteran PR team focuses on supporting leaders and encouraging them to embrace and champion positive change in the area of brand reputation management. 

The PR firm is focused on easing leadership concerns over reputation management and providing oft-elusive solutions to those risk concerns. It does so by identifying the reputation metrics that matter. From there, it comes alongside leaders and helps them glean actionable insights from that information to guide their brand’s promotional efforts.

6. Terakeet

Overview and strengths: A firm with a focus on digital asset optimization, including an emphasis on digital PR as a way to connect brands with their target audiences.

Summary: Terakeet’s approach to digital PR seeks to reach consumers who are conditioned to tune out traditional advertising. The agency focuses on its OAO (owned asset optimization) framework, which starts with understanding audiences and using that data to create a strategy with actionable insights.

Digital PR enters the picture as part of Terakeet’s prioritization of assets by “degree of control.” The agency seeks to categorize digital content into categories of owned, managed, and leveraged. From there, the goal is to create useful connections between a brand and its target audience by populating the internet with high-quality, high-utility content that resonates with consumers.

7. Digital Olympus

Overview and strengths: A digital PR firm with a link-building focus that seeks to combine topical authority with SEO value.

Summary: Digital PR can impact many aspects of a marketing plan. One of those is SEO backlink strategy, and Digital Olympus specializes in maximizing backlink impact. 

The online PR agency conducts a backlink profile analysis for a brand. From there, it creates a link plan to improve the quality and quantity of links pointing to a brand’s digital assets. Next, the Digital Olympus team outlines requirements, builds out a linking schedule, and monitors link performance to ensure results over time. While this is a specific approach to digital PR, it is a good option for anyone looking to leverage the digital marketing option specifically for link-building purposes.

8. Shout Bravo

Overview and strengths: A synergistic PR brand focused on creating quality content to promote via digital PR and influencer channels.

Summary: For Shout Bravo, everything starts with strong content. The company’s PR experts help brands generate high-quality content (worth “shouting” about). This content is original, optimized for a digital format, and focused on a brand’s target audience. 

Once created, that content becomes a springboard to generate third-party mentions across the internet. This step is conducted in collaboration with influencers and with link-building in mind.

9. Coinbound

Overview and strengths: A digital PR firm and marketing agency that specializes in the web3 and crypto spaces.

Summary: If a company is in a niche market, they may want to consider a digital PR firm that specializes in their specific industry. A good example of this is Coinbound. The digital PR firm is a top option for marketing cryptocurrency and web3-based companies.

Coinbound uses a highly integrated promotional approach with strategies that include PR and earned media. The agency has cultivated industry-specific contacts at many of the digital finance world’s top publishers, influencers, and media outlets. Coinbound may be specific to digital PR in the crypto world, but it is an excellent example of hyper-targeted digital PR services in highly competitive markets.

10. Thrive

Overview and strengths: A digital marketing agency with a fractionalized, á la carte approach to digital PR.

Summary: Thrive is an ideal option for marketing leaders who have an idea of what they want but who don’t have the time to execute their own vision themselves. The digital marketing agency offers a highly fractionalized and comprehensive number of digital marketing services, many of which fall under the digital PR umbrella.

For instance, companies can sign up for social media reputation management, social media management, and link-building services. By mixing and matching needs, they can create a digital PR support plan that helps them reach their brand’s digital PR needs while still maintaining a certain degree of control. 

Other Digital PR Tools to Consider

Digital marketing agencies provide third-party professional support that can shape and guide your public relations efforts. However, there are also many tools that either a partnering agency or your own internal staff can use to enhance your digital PR. Here are a few examples to keep in mind as you craft your digital PR strategy.

Glimpse

What is it? Glimpse is a marketing platform designed to inform and guide content creation. It provides key traffic and trend data that improves the chances that off-site content and mentions perform well.

How does it help with digital PR? Digital PR works best when it’s backed by high-quality, high-value content. This requires a steady stream of content creation that addresses the pain points and interests of your target audience. Glimpse makes it easier to discover those topics and related terms, isolate those with the highest search volume potential, and then focus your content creation in those areas. 

Cision

What is it? Cision is one of the biggest PR platforms on the internet. The tool is designed to generate massive exposure to journalists and media channels, supercharging digital PR efforts in the process.

How does it help with digital PR? One of the biggest challenges of digital PR is getting content out in front of potential third-party outlets. Cision specializes in broadcasting press releases and related time-sensitive promotional content. That way, journalists and media outlets can quickly become aware of and pick up branded stories that interest their readers.

Prowly

What is it? A platform designed to streamline the digital PR process and maximize its results. The one-stop PR tool helps with everything from drafting a press release to pitching to media and monitoring media performance.

How does it help with digital PR? Digital PR is a time-intensive activity. Prowly removes much of the burden of the PR process by helping create, pitch, promote, and track digital PR messaging. It is an ideal efficiency tool that works across countless industries, offering genuine PR content and providing data-driven results.

Muck Rack

What is it? Muck Rack is a tool designed to monitor your brand’s mentions. The Public Relations Management (PRM) platform helps with pitching, monitoring, and reporting digital PR in a single, comprehensive location.

How does it help with digital PR? Digital PR can be difficult to track. As you design and execute a digital PR campaign, these can quickly spiral into dozens, hundreds, and even thousands of earned media mentions. These aren’t all in a single, convenient location. They’re spread across the internet. Muck Rack helps monitor and track these mentions in a single dashboard.

Questions to Ask When Looking for the Best Digital PR Services

With so many tools and services available, it can be difficult to narrow your choices and select the right digital PR partner for your marketing needs. Here are a few questions to ask to help you hone in on the best choice for your brand. 

Do you know what you need from digital PR?

This is a simple initial question that is worth asking before you go out in search of a digital PR service. Even if you don’t have a precise answer, you want to consider what digital PR is to your marketing team, what media coverage you expect to get from it, and what you’re willing to invest in it. This gives you a clearer picture as you begin to vet various agencies.

Does the PR agency have experience in your industry?

Industry experience matters. Even if a digital public relations agency works with companies across various industries, make sure they have at least a rudimentary understanding of your industry and what creates success in that arena.

Does the PR agency utilize digital PR as part of a larger marketing strategy?

Digital PR is a helpful marketing activity. However, when used in a vacuum, it will only get you so far. Make sure a digital PR agency is willing to leverage earned media as part of a larger growth strategy that includes an emphasis on key pillars, including establishing authority, building credibility, and increasing visibility.

Does the PR agency have a clear approach to PR strategy?

Digital PR isn’t a “shoot from the hip” kind of activity. Any good agency will have a clear methodology and proven formulas and frameworks that they have used to generate success in the past.

Is the PR agency up to date on the latest Google updates?

Google is always changing. The brand’s Helpful Content Update in late 2023 unexpectedly upset the traffic for many well-established websites. Further updates in early 2024 are, once again, shaking up the industry. Make sure a PR agency is familiar with the latest updates and key search engine factors, like Google’s E-E-A-T standards.

Does the PR agency have the right connections?

PR starts with good content, but that won’t help if it doesn’t get published on the right platforms. Whether it’s through tools like Cision or Prowly (see tool recommendations above) or connections with high-profile journalists and media outlets, make sure each PR agency you work with has robust, relevant, and impressive connections to help get the word out about your brand.

Can the PR agency track metrics to prove success?

Data-driven marketing is the only kind of marketing that you can trust. A PR service should always be able to prove its impact on your brand through rock-solid data. The specific metrics may vary from one situation and agency to the next, and that’s fine. Just make sure you’re comfortable with how they can prove their success over time.

Frequently Asked Questions about Digital PR Services

Something as complex as partnering with a third-party agency for digital PR always creates an endless stream of questions. Here are some of the most common inquiries, along with some basic answers.

• What services should be included with PR? A good PR agency should come with proven strategies and frameworks, established media relationships, content marketing capabilities, and clear metrics for tracking results.
• What are successful PR metrics to measure? The ROI of PR is hard to measure — but not impossible. Factors like consistent mentions, improved Google ranking, and increased credibility help gauge the ongoing success of digital public relations.
• How much do digital PR services cost? Unfortunately, this isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. At Relevance, we specialize in holistic growth marketing. That means we seek to create an ideal amalgamation of SEO, content marketing, and digital PR services to meet each client’s needs. We have clients that require heavy digital PR strategies, while others don’t need the service at all. If you want a price range, the best option is to get a quote. Reach out now for a free strategy session with our team, and we can explore the digital PR needs, cost, and impact we can provide for your brand.

Digital PR is a complex and nuanced activity. Working with a digital PR agency can help you reduce wasted time and resources and maximize the impact of this powerful online promotional channel.

Use the tips and suggestions above to identify the best digital PR service for your company. Then, reach out and initiate the process of collaborating to ensure your brand is effectively earning media as part of a holistic growth marketing strategy built for maximum long-term impact.

Brand awareness is a critical part of building a brand. It helps consumers recognize your company and trust you as a valid source of solutions.

One of the best ways to build brand awareness is through a solid PR campaign. PR or “public relations” is a common term that marketers use in the course of promoting a brand. But what does it mean?  

Let’s investigate.

What Is Public Relations?

At its most basic level, public relations is an all-encompassing term that refers to the communication and relationship-building process that takes place between a brand and its target audience. Good PR builds trust, boosts credibility, and fosters familiarity with a company’s key customer demographics.

In practice, this manifests as companies seeking positive, natural brand mentions that put their business in the spotlight. These mentions keep them relevant and position them as an authority in their industry. 

A good PR strategy is different from normal advertising in the sense that it is the opposite of paid-for promotion. Rather than paying for an ad space, PR focuses on unpaid, earned, and credible mentions from third-party individuals and publications. 

What Does Public Relations Look Like Online?

PR can happen anywhere. Media coverage, such as a press release in the news or at a public event, is a PR activity. Even word-of-mouth marketing can quietly build the public image of a brand. 

While PR can happen “in the flesh,” modern PR takes place online. This is where people congregate from around the globe through various media relations, providing a massive audience that marketers can easily tailor to their specific target demographics. 

In addition, online marketing has a low barrier to entry. It is accessible, cost-effective, and easy to scale up or down to the current needs and budget of each enterprise. This makes it an ideal outlet for online PR efforts. 

Digital PR can happen in numerous ways, including: 

• Writing a guest post for an industry publication.
• Being mentioned in a high-DA (domain authority) third-party site.
• Creating shareable content on social media.
• Benefiting from UGC (user-generated content) on social media.
• Publishing a press release that journalists pick up and redistribute. 

A good digital PR strategy will incorporate each public relations activity into building a brand’s online presence. This can have a positive impact on a brand’s marketing efforts and can fuel growth. 

However, digital PR should never happen in a vacuum. It should be part of a comprehensive growth marketing strategy.

How Does PR Factor Into a Growth Marketing Strategy?

Growth marketing strategies are a holistic approach to marketing. They put the customer first and use data to back up each decision. They also focus on three key pillars: authority, credibility, and visibility. 

Growth marketers use content marketing to build brand authority. They use SEO strategies to enhance visibility. And for credibility? They use digital PR. 

Digital PR cultivates credibility by creating a buzz around a brand. When consumers see third-party sites referencing, quoting, and linking to a company, it creates a sense of trust. They begin to believe the company they are seeing has genuine solutions to their pain points and are more willing to try those solutions.

Working Digital PR Into the Growth Marketing Mix

Growth marketing is a comprehensive approach to marketing, and none of its elements stands on its own. That said, a good growth marketing plan combines digital PR with both content and SEO efforts. 

For instance, it’s difficult to gain mentions if a company doesn’t have high-quality content. Before pushing its presence out on the interweb, a brand should invest in creating valuable content that answers its target customers’ pain points. 

This linkable content paves the way for earned media. When a mention links back to valuable content that genuinely helps the reader, it also naturally enhances the public perception of a brand and builds its authority as a leader in their industry.

SEO also benefits and is benefited by digital PR. For instance, when a brand earns a mention, it often comes with a backlink to its site. Link building is a key piece of SEO success.  

The benefits flow both ways, too. When SEO works, it creates organic traffic. As a brand pops up in search engine results more often, it boosts credibility, bolstering digital PR strategy in the process.

Using Public Relations to Build a Brand

There isn’t one marketing solution that can single-handedly send a company to the next level. Consider hiring a digital public relations agency to help create an effective PR strategy. In most cases, brands and their marketing teams must use thoughtful, intricate marketing plans to capitalize on all of the promotional opportunities available. 

Public relations, and especially digital PR, is a powerful tool in that marketing tool kit. It enables marketers to build credibility, promote high-quality content, enhance SEO, and ultimately help a company reach its growth marketing goals.

Digital PR is an important part of a comprehensive growth marketing strategy. Healthy public relations campaigns build credibility for your brand. 

But how do you know if your digital PR campaign is working? What results can you measure? What KPIs should you set? 

If you’ve ever struggled to evaluate the ROI (return on investment) of your PR efforts, you’re not alone. An educated growth marketer with up-to-date knowledge, tools, and techniques might be able to gauge if your PR is working (and, if not, what tweaks it requires to get back on track). However, there are some aspects that you can discover all on your own. 

What Is Digital PR?

It’s hard to measure something that you don’t understand. So, what is digital PR? A digital PR campaign consists of online tactics that purposefully gain media coverage.  

This could be a mention to one of your resources on a media outlet like Forbes or Entrepreneur. It could be a brand mention in a niche industry publication, too, or a guest appearance on a podcast. This strategic, unpaid placement is something growth marketers refer to as earned media. To be clear, you can manufacture an earned mention (such as agreeing to co-host a podcast episode or writing a guest post with a byline). However, it is only considered “earned” when you do so without reimbursement.

The result of earned media placements is better brand awareness and trust. Your reputation with consumers rises as they see you mentioned by credible third-party sources. This cultivates consumer trust and teaches your target audience that your company is a viable solution to their pain points.

The Need for Continuous Digital PR

PR outreach isn’t a one-time deal. It needs to be consistent over time. As you gather various mentions via different insights across a variety of publications and mediums, it sends a multi-faceted message that your brand isn’t just a flash in the pan. It is a sustainable and trusted source with answers that maintain their value over time. 

It requires consistent investment, effort, and creativity as your team and growth marketing partners seek to keep your digital PR messaging continuous and relevant. As with any ongoing business expense, it’s important to know that your PR strategy is paying off.  

The question is, how can you quantify the ROI of your PR?

Evaluating the ROI of PR

Marketing typically has an obvious metric. You get traffic from search engine optimization. Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing is easy to calculate. You can measure CTR (click-through rate) on an email.

When it comes to PR, many naturally connect the activity to referrals. They want to know how many leads they generated from each mention. However, that isn’t the goal of digital PR, and you’ll be sorely disappointed if that is what you hope comes out of it. Referrals tend to be more closely connected to things like affiliate and influencer marketing, where you can easily track each occurrence. 

When it comes to public relations, then, what can you measure to calculate the success or failure of a digital PR campaign? The key to coming up with a viable KPI is to remember the goal here: to build credibility. In a sense, the fact that a third party is willing to use your brand as a positive example for something is invaluable.

At least, the value feels incalculable. The truth is, though, there are subtle ways to get a better idea of the worth that your PR credibility is generating. Here are four benchmarks and metrics you can use to measure your PR ROI:

1. Increasing Credibility

This first one is a straightforward way to measure brand awareness as generated by digital PR. Are people recognizing your brand?

Of course, we’re not talking about just anyone. It’s great if your friends or co-workers know your logo when it pops up. But that doesn’t mean much. 

You want to know if your target audience recognizes who you are and the value you offer. Do consumers and investors know who you are? Do you get a positive response when you’re brought up in industry conversation? The answer can help you gauge if your PR is working.

2. Improved Ranking

Effective digital PR enhances industry-specific elements of your brand. It creates a buzz around your business in the areas that matter.

When done well, this should increase the way you rank for branded search terms. A well-known horse farm, for instance, should show up higher on a search for “horse riding lessons.”

As you engage in digital PR, see if you’re ranking for more branded terms and showing up more in the SERPs. This is a good indicator that things are working.

3. Consistent Mentions

One of the most important metrics is measuring the consistency of your mentions. What is the frequency and quantity of your mentions across the web? 

To understand this, you need to engage in media monitoring. This is similar to monitoring your reputation online.

However, in this case, you aren’t just reviewing how the interweb is talking about you in general. You’re looking for consistent positive messaging (much of which comes from deliberate PR attempts you initiated).

4. Stronger Marketing Material

Another way you can ensure you’re optimizing the ROI of each PR mention is by maximizing the mention after it publishes. You can do this by:

• Creating an “as seen on” bar on your website with links to mentions.
• Sharing mentions on company social media and platforms.
• Linking to mentions in your email signature with a “check out my recent mention in” lead-in text.
• Writing a summary on-site preview of the mention to post on your blog and then linking it to the original post.

By measuring things like consistency, credibility, and ranking, you can gain relatively specific insights into the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of your digital PR efforts. In addition, investing in thoughtful, targeted, and efficient repurposing of content ensures that you have the best bet of making every digital PR effort count.

Backing PR Initiatives With Data

Growth marketing is a data-driven activity. It seeks to remove “gut instinct” from the equation whenever possible. 

With something like PR, it can be hard to quantify how effective or ineffective your public relations activities are at any given moment. However, by measuring consistency in your mentions, maximizing each occurrence through complimentary growth marketing techniques, and investing in the right digital PR right partner, you can create a measurable metric to gauge your PR success.

If you want your brand to succeed, you need to make it recognizable to your target audience. This comes through a purposeful and strategic brand awareness strategy. 

Brand awareness is the attempt to develop awareness as well as trust for a business in the eyes of a potential customer. It associates your company with specific pain points and positions it as an effective solution to those problems. 

If you’re trying to boost your brand awareness efforts and increase brand recognition, it’s important to go about it the right way. Here are five ways to help you build your brand awareness effectively.

1. Start With Consistency

Let’s start with one of the most critical brand building items of all: consistency. If you want to improve brand recognition, your brand has to be consistent every time your target audience sees it. 

That doesn’t mean you can never change things. Rebrands are a reality at times, and it’s possible to alter and tweak branded elements as you go along. 

However, change should never take place flippantly. Why? Because you want to be consistent.

Consider all of the elements that represent your brand to consumers. There are colors, logos, fonts, labels, products, slogans, content — the list goes on. All of these are touch points by which a consumer can begin to build brand loyalty.  

For your outward-facing branded marketing to work, it has to look and feel the same across the board. Even something as intangible as a central story or marketing message for your company should always come across the same, whether you’re presenting it in a 2,000-word “About Us” page or a 100-word boilerplate on a press release.

2. Drum Up PR Buzz

PR is a key element of any brand awareness marketing strategy. If you want to generate brand equity and customer loyalty, you need to push your brand out into the spotlight. Digital PR is the perfect way to do just that.

Brands that continuously appear in relevant conversations are able to build consumer trust and enhance the customer experience. That means you can’t simply present canned pitches on a company blog and call it a day. You need to seek out meaningful PR opportunities on third-party platforms, such as getting your brand mentioned on an industry publication or news site. It’s one thing for you to say great things about your business, but you’re in a whole other ballpark when you have that third-party credibility of someone else saying something great about you. 

By positioning your brand in the right limelight and bringing powerful, positive, and insightful messages to the table, you communicate that you aren’t just another option. You’re a superior solution. You understand consumers’ struggles and can provide effective, thoughtful answers to their questions.  

The critical element here for effective brand building awareness is to continuously invest in digital PR. You can’t make a single push and expect to remain relevant in the modern, over-saturated marketplace. Ongoing digital PR keeps you in the spotlight and creates repeated exposure for consumers. It builds your brand into a company that is an industry authority with relevant answers.

3. Engage on Social Media

Awareness is dependent on creating a brand that your target audience can relate to on an individual level. One of the most powerful ways for businesses of any size to build that personal element into each marketing effort is through social channels. 

Social media marketing allows you to build communities around your company’s vision and mission. You can interact with an existing customer and answer the questions of curious potential buyers. Are you a beauty brand and your future customers are going to TikTok for the answers to their beauty questions? Then you need to be on that social media platform too. 

You can also invest in shareable content marketing and even embrace user-generated content. Influencer marketing can also help you build awareness and trust with highly-targeted audiences. Social media is highly interactive and also opens up the door to run contests and deliver free content as a way to offer value to your existing and future customer base. 

4. Invest in SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) isn’t necessarily an obvious choice for building awareness as a brand. But it’s an effective tool, nonetheless. 

When you invest in optimizing your business site with keywords and linking strategies, it can boost your SERP rankings. As you appear higher in organic search results, it does more than just improve site traffic. It can also begin to embed your brand name into the minds of those searching for targeted solutions for which you can provide answers. 

SEO is a common marketing technique that is often associated with traffic and revenue optimization. However, it can also play a critical role in the earliest stages of the sales funnel as you seek to increase brand visibility with curious customers.

5. Donate Resources

Charity work can be a powerful way to impact your community …and build your brand at the same time. Business strategist Nida Leardprasopsuk emphasizes the importance of not just one-time but ongoing “Do-Good” campaigns. These give back to society in ways that align with key elements of your business. 

For instance, you should choose to support causes that relate to the central focus and vision of your company. This spreads brand awareness among audiences that can relate to what your brand stands for. 

If you maintain hiring standards that reinforce brand identity (i.e., you hire workers who actually want to invest in your cause), choosing the right organizations can also improve buy-in from your workforce. This can increase loyalty and lead to better team performance — which can have a quiet but important impact on how effective your awareness efforts are.

Increasing Brand Awareness for Your Brand

Building brand awareness doesn't happen in a day. Brand awareness campaigns take time. Consider partnering with a growth marketing agency that specializes in digital PR. If you’re willing to invest in a multi-faceted brand marketing campaign, they can provide guidance to help increase your brand awareness quickly and effectively. 

Use things like digital PR, social media, SEO, and “Do-Good” campaigns to grow your reputation and credibility with consumers. And remember to stay consistent every step of the way. If you can do that, the results will speak for themselves.

If you want to take your business to the next level, growth marketing is an essential strategy worth consideration. Growth marketing is a data-driven approach that focuses on acquiring and retaining customers through experimentation and continuous optimization. 

In this article, we'll discuss several growth marketing ideas that you can use to boost your business along with examples of companies that have successfully implemented these strategies.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving the visibility of a website in search engine results pages like Google’s. This is accomplished through techniques such as keyword research, meta tags, and link building. SEO is an extremely powerful way to drive traffic to your website and grow your business. While this is a long-term strategy that requires a lot of effort and dedication, the payoff can be significant. 

In 2023 every business needs a website, and SEO is the way to get it in front of the right people. Improving your website's ranking in search engine results pages can increase visibility, drive more traffic, and ultimately grow your business. There are a variety of businesses that really benefit from SEO, but to see who’s really coming out on top, just take a look at who’s sitting in Google’s number one spot. 

Onsite Content

An SEO strategy is essential for modern businesses, but it’s not really worth much without quality onsite content. Audiences can’t search for content that doesn’t exist, so without it, you’re practically invisible online. Put simply, your content signals to search engines and your audience that you know what you’re talking about. When prioritizing onsite content, you want to make sure your business’s website has relevant material. Types of content may include blogs, infographics, and/or videos, but you have to choose what’s best for your business. 

Leveraging your online content allows your business to showcase your expertise, which can help you earn your audience’s trust and gently move them through your sales funnel. Canva is a popular design tool, and they are killing it when it comes to onsite content. They offer users thousands of design tutorials through their design school. It teaches people how to use their product while also showcasing  the features their service has to offer.

Digital PR

Digital PR is a powerful tool to help businesses build their online reputation and brand authority. With time, it can help you become a reputable industry leader. When done successfully, a digital PR campaign will result in brand mentions and backlinks from sites with quality domains, which increases a brand’s authority both in the eyes of search engines and human readers.

Any current industry leader is most likely benefiting from digital PR. Think about businesses positively mentioned on sites like The New York Times, Forbes, or Entrepreneur. Once those mentions are obtained, it heightens a company’s level of authority. So much so, it’s common practice to see “as featured in” sections on their website. Those sections speak to a level of authority and convince your audience by providing social proof. Strengthening the relationship your business has with the public is important, and digital PR does just that.

Influencer Marketing

Almost everyone is familiar with who influencers are and how they contribute to the marketing space. But to define for those who don’t know, influencer marketing describes a partnership with individuals who have a large social media presence to promote their products or services. Partnering with these individuals can be an effective way to reach a large and engaged audience that is likely to be interested in your products.

With this marketing strategy, you’re able to leverage influencer connections to promote your business. An example of a company that has had great success partnering with influencers is Fashion Nova. They’ve partnered with celebrities like Cardi B and Amber Rose to promote their brand on Instagram. The company made a million dollars on the first day that Cardi B’s line dropped — and that’s largely due to her dedicated fan base. 

Referral Marketing

Referral marketing encourages existing customers to refer their friends and family to your business. To incentivise these referrals, companies often offer rewards and additional perks to these existing customers. This can be an effective way to acquire new customers at a lower cost than traditional marketing methods.

Dropbox is a great example of a company who benefited from referral marketing. They grew their user base by offering more storage space to users who refer their friends to the service. Their company grew 3900% (not a typo!) in just 15 months. That’s wild, but it speaks to how capitalizing on your customer’s connections can really benefit your business.

Mobile Optimization

Optimizing your website, products, and services for use on mobile devices is crucial if you want to grow your business. According to Think with Google, “Almost half (46%) of consumers prefer to use their smartphone to complete the entire process from researching to buying.” This means that having a mobile-friendly website and making sure your products and services are easily accessible on smartphones is crucial to reach customers. Through optimization, you can increase visibility, drive more traffic, and ultimately grow your business.

Personalization

Personalization has become more and more important over the years as audiences expect to be treated as individuals rather than statistics — and rightfully so. However, it can make some marketing efforts more difficult. Personalization as a marketing strategy tailors messages and experiences to individual users based on their behavior and preferences. This can be a powerful way to increase customer engagement and retention.

Netflix is known for its personalized recommendations, which have been successful in keeping users engaged with the platform. According to the company, over 75% of the content that users watch on Netflix comes from its recommendation system. This highlights how effective personalization can be, especially as it keeps users engaged.

A/B Testing

A/B testing is the process of testing two or more variations of a marketing campaign, website, or product feature to see which performs better. This allows you to make data-driven decisions about which changes will have the biggest impact on your business.

If you’re familiar with the meal kit delivery service HelloFresh, they provide a nice example of A/B testing with their menu display update. When they redesigned their menu to create a seamless user experience while also promoting upselling opportunities, they compared their original design to the update. They found the final version contributed to a 7% increase in upselling, proving the second variation performed better.

Remarketing

Remarketing is a strategy in which advertisements are targeted to users who have previously interacted with your business. This can be a powerful way to increase sales and customer retention. Studies show that retargeting can increase conversion rates by as much as 150%. It also helps re-engage the 98% of visitors who leave a website without making a purchase.

Amazon's retargeting ads, which show products that a user previously viewed on the website, have been very effective in driving sales. Just think about how your social media pages look after you’ve been scrolling on their product page. Those great finds sitting in your cart almost immediately end up on your newsfeed. If you’re not remarketing already, it’s an idea worth considering.

Deciding What Strategies Are Right For Your Business

It's important to note that a single method may not necessarily drive the growth of your business. It is important to use a combination of multiple strategies and methods to achieve the best results possible. But you may also find some strategies aren’t worth the resources they will cost your company.

Growth marketing will look different for every business because not all approaches will help you reach particular goals. Continuously testing and refining your approach can help you identify what works best for your unique audience. The above-discussed growth marketing ideas are just a starting point, and you should continuously experiment with new strategies to find what works best for your business.

In an era when more and more people are using their smartphones to shop, digital marketing has exploded, so it makes sense to “go where your people are” via newer growth marketing channels.

Growth marketing is an increasingly important goal shared by small businesses and large corporations alike. However, tapping into some growth marketing channels, such as search engine optimization (SEO) or email marketing, can produce more growth than others.

All fine and well, but the question remains; how do you allocate a finite marketing budget?

Allocate Your Marketing Budget for Maximum Impact

Traditional marketing practices, such as outdoor advertising, still have their place. However, many of your potential customers miss these messages entirely. They walk right past your place of business, staring down at their smartphone. As they ride shotgun with a friend, their handheld device commands their attention…so they could easily miss that expensive billboard.

Spending on growth marketing channels makes it tempting to go with an either/or decision. However, businesses need to do a little bit of both to remain successful. As your marketing efforts increasingly shift into the digital realm, it might be helpful to have a roadmap. Which channels will be the most effective in your niche? If you plan to break out of your comfort zone, it would be great to be confident you are heading in the right direction.

Nowadays, most marketing experts agree that the following eight channels bring the most ROI for businesses. The channels you select will depend on your niche, but you can adapt most of these top eight growth marketing channels to suit your needs. As you devise your growth plans, ensure they will be worthwhile. For example, if video marketing isn’t the best choice for your industry, you’d probably like to know before investing in equipment.

1. Search Engine Marketing

Search engine results pages (SERPs) represent the critical metric for the success of all your assorted growth marketing channels.

If your growth marketing efforts are not moving the needle on SERPs, you’ll want to recalibrate until that changes. Dive into what keywords you should be ranking for, and what type of content you’ll need to create to move the needle. Once you are on the board, you’ll want to keep a close eye on your rankings and tweak strategies as necessary. Success on this channel can lead to relatively inexpensive yet consistent traffic for your site.

2. Content Marketing

The quality and usefulness of your online content are the primary means by which your company demonstrates that it knows its stuff. Content represents the main channel by which your domain authority (DA) will rise or fall. A rising DA signals search engines that your digital footprint should be ranking for those key search terms.

Search engines will crawl your site and verify that your company has the knowledge and content to support its claims. That content is also vital for moving a prospective customer through every stage of the sales funnel. It should answer questions and address common pain points at every stage of the visitor’s journey. Because of that, if you aren’t paying enough attention to this channel, now’s the time!

3. Digital PR

If a meaningful discussion is occurring online relevant to your industry, you want your company to garner a mention by others.

Third-party validation of your products and services is another key to building your online credibility. As unpaid third parties begin linking to your materials, citing you as an expert on the topic, your DA should rise correspondingly. This can help lead to better search rankings and can help your brand build credibility, all of which will help with growth.

4. Email Marketing

Email marketing is an integral part of promoting growth. As prospective customers move through the sales funnel, provide opportunities to learn more via email. Your online presence should nurture leads by providing in-depth materials that won’t perform well on smartphones.

For example, a website overview on a relevant topic could offer the opportunity to download an in-depth white paper in exchange for an email address. This way, your company will educate and respond to real-world needs as you grow your list of leads.

5. Paid Advertising

Don’t forget to allocate a portion of your online marketing budget to the growth channel of paid advertisements. Paid insertions on search engines and social media platforms that are popular with your target audience should provide measurable results.

As your company grows, you can reliably compare the cost of these ads to the number of referrals you receive. They play an essential role in ensuring that your company pops up in front of potential customers in the right place and at the right time.

6. Referrals

A robust, win-win referral program will pay enormous dividends as you seek recognition as an authoritative voice. When your products work well and your services generate positive buzz, you should leverage what others say to a great advantage.

As non-competing businesses begin to look to you for reliable answers, many others will feel the influence to follow along. Customers become unpaid cheerleaders. Satisfied customers begin to chat you up. Business owners start to notice when your company solves real-world problems for others. As a result, your DA climbs.

7. Influencer Marketing

For many industries, influencer marketing is more critical today than ever before.

Having another well-respected voice in your corner reassures potential customers that you are who you say you are. When someone with a respected reputation validates you with a recommendation, they are putting their reputation on the line.

Don’t jump in recklessly, though. It’s vital to sift potential influencers. Are they flashy? Is their reputation appropriate for your target client base? Try to steer toward respected industry voices. Avoid controversy at all costs.

8. Affiliate Marketing

Of all the growth marketing channels you need to address, affiliate marketing can represent “low-hanging fruit” for companies looking to see remarkable growth.

Once again, the enduring quality of your partnerships will strongly influence the quality of the audience. When any well-respected voice cites your company as authoritative, they carry all of their influence on others in their wake.

That’s a wrap.

So there you have it! You now know which eight marketing channels will appear on nearly every Top 15 list worldwide. Now it’s up to you to pick the growth marketing channels that make the most sense in your context.

Go in expecting at least some trial and error, but be quick to base all future decision-making upon empirical data should it appear that you need to change course.

Of course, many SMB owners are far too busy delivering quality products and customer service to have the time to devote to developing growth marketing channels. In these cases, it might make more sense to use a growth marketing agency to get you up and running. As you consider this option, look for an agency with the heart of a teacher. You’ll want to partner with someone who gives you a boost but “teaches you to fish for yourself” as its ultimate goal.

As you branch out into various growth marketing channels, try to remind yourself and your staff to have some fun and freedom to experiment. No one can predict with any 100% certainty how the swells in our shared digital ocean will move, so some adjustment will always be required. Just play to your known strengths, and remember…keep it real.

Digital public relations is a powerful tool to help businesses build their online reputation and brand authority. It’s a tool that helps connect businesses to their customers in a meaningful and positive way. Like traditional public relations, digital PR is a powerful way to control the messages said about your company. The difference is that it focuses on online reputation.

What Is Digital PR?

To understand the benefits, it’s essential to know what digital PR is and how it works. It is a strategy that’s used to help build awareness of a brand using digital or online methods. It’s a powerful tool that allows you to create the message and brand awareness that your company needs in a crowded online marketplace.

There are a lot of components to digital PR. It includes things like blogging and guest posts. It may include developing online profiles and building social media follows. Podcasts and online videos you share are other potential inclusions. All of this contributes to what people know of your business and leadership.

What Are the Benefits of Digital PR?

Utilizing it in the proper manner allows business owners to achieve numerous goals. Some of those benefits include the following:

1. It Builds Brand Credibility

This type of PR builds your brand, and while doing so, it also helps build your company’s credibility. People learn of you but also learn why you are a leader in your industry. This type of PR helps people who find you online know why you matter.

One way it can directly impact credibility is with an “as seen on” bar that’s placed on your website. It can allow you to create credibility when you’re quoted in articles. Being referred to by an industry leader can help, too. People see all that you’ve accomplished and know you’re the person to follow.

Keep in mind that 91% of people use online reviews and other data to form opinions of companies. They do this long before they agree to buy from that company. Credibility matters.

2. It Contributes to SEO

Properly placed and functioning PR like this contributes to search engine optimization (SEO). It may help by contributing to your backlinking strategies. A quote on a highly ranked and established website is going to help the search engines see the value of your website. A link to your website helps Google recognize its value.

This is a type of organic SEO strategy. It is highly effective at boosting your rank on the search engine results pages. Like all other forms, it has to be done properly.

3. It Helps Nurture Leads

Many companies use email marketing as a core component of their marketing strategy. It allows you to bring customers back to your website. PR can help you with doing just that.

Create an email that showcases your efforts. It can discuss some type of valuable bit of information. It may include some type of recognition for a recent accomplishment. This allows current customers to recognize your credibility. It also helps to boost their interest in buying from you.

Those customers may tell others about your company, too. That helps to build traffic to your website with highly qualified leads.

4. It Builds Social Collateral

What are you posting on your blog and social media pages? If you use brand mentions, a component of digital PR, properly, they could help to build your social collateral. That is, they can help people learn about and want to work with you. Connecting on social media like this can be quite powerful.

Promote your business with brand mentions on various websites. When you do, you are creating incredible content for your social media. That helps people to, again, recognize the credibility of your company.

5. It Helps Get Attention from Investors

Digital PR can be an excellent way to get your company in front of the investors you need to grow your business. For example, digital public relations allows for the placement of valuable, highly positive content online. When a potential investor learns of your company and researches it, they come across this information. That fuels their interest.

You can also link to those positive mentions in your “as seen on bar,” as mentioned previously. That allows investors to see exactly what you have to offer.

6. It Builds Your Target Market Reach

One of the goals of this PR is to get your business in front of the people that are most likely your customers. Once you hone who your target market is, you can use brand mentions wisely to get in front of them. That could be done on social media. It could be about better ad placement.

The key here is that the content they read is valuable. It’s interesting as well as positive for your business. People want to learn about it. They’re interested enough to click through and visit your website.

7. It’s a Positive ROI

A lot of the marketing you do now may have a reasonable ROI. Digital public relations ensure a better ROI. Every positive mention of your business creates a long-lasting mention online. That means that anything you invest in it will continue to pay off for years to come.

Some may not recognize the initial investment. No, you likely won’t get hoards of traffic to your site from a single PR mention. However, using it on social media, the brand credibility it helps build, and the potential leads you catch the eye of in your email marketing is where you’ll see the true benefits. This type of PR strategy is a slow burn, one that creates a lasting image of your business that continues to boost your online presence for a long time.

Utilizing Digital PR

The goal of digital strategies like this is to help people learn who you are. What is your brand? Why is it the leader in the industry? 

Most importantly, you want people to know why to connect, engage, and buy from you. It’s not a paid ad that lasts a few days. It’s a long-term investment in building your company’s credibility. Now’s the time to see how your brand can be utilizing digital PR to boost your credibility. If you aren’t sure where to start, see if Relevance can help.

In a world where traditional marketing can feel gimmicky and forced, authenticity is key. By now you’ve likely heard of thought leadership, you may have even been tasked with creating a strategy, but what is it? Thought leadership is about educating your audience, focusing on their needs, and establishing yourself as a reliable source of knowledge.

It has evolved as a strategy for building a business and brand awareness as well as a personal brand. Being a thought leader means your views are trusted, and you get to be the go-to person or subject matter expert in your respective field.

With information constantly flooding the Internet, providing resources that are actually relevant and contain the information audiences need can set you apart and put you top of mind for consumers. You want to start your thought leadership strategy by looking inward at your own values and ideals, rather than outward where you’ll likely end up repeating current trends.

With that said, why is it important and how do you implement a successful thought leadership strategy? What are the benefits that come from this type of strategy? Keep reading.

What is a thought leadership strategy?

Thought leadership can be difficult to understand, as it means something different to a variety of people. As a strategy, it’s a scalable way to influence people outside of your organization, and it’s key for building a strong brand. According to Semrush, “Thought leadership is the delivery of authentic and genuine content that uses the expertise, insight, and experience of the author, with the goal of sharing that wisdom with others.”

As part of a content marketing strategy, thought leadership focuses more on information that establishes your company as an expert in your field rather than selling products or services. You can leverage your company’s knowledge. In short, the goal is to answer questions that those in your target audience are asking.

Rather than educating buyers on what you want them to know; thought leadership focuses on sharing information that audience members gain value from knowing. It helps to ask whether or not your content focuses on messages you want to send or information that is useful for clients to hear. If you provide helpful information, your target audience will turn to you when they need help finding a product, service, or answers, and you can be the one they think of first. When done well, thought leadership is a key component of an inbound marketing strategy.

What resources do you need to implement a thought leadership strategy?

While some thought leaders create and distribute content on their own, your organization can benefit from a team focused on improving your thought leadership strategy. If you have the resources to hire in house, here are some common skill sets to look for:

Strategist: Basically someone who can align thought leadership with other business strategies. Somebody who can align content or think how it affects the bigger picture and your overall content marketing strategy. Also someone that can be the quarterback for keeping track of all the content and how it all aligns with each other.

Content Creators/Editors: Sometimes you can find someone that is both a content writer and editor, but ones that are amazing at both are somewhat unicorns. A keen editorial sense is a rare skill. These creative people are fantastic at finding a new angle on popular topics. Sometimes you have to hire both a content creator and an editor then scale up, depending how big your company is.

PR/Media/Blog Relationship Manager: People are switching jobs in media all the time so it’s hard to maintain relationships. Having someone that is consistently focused on managing these connections is invaluable. They have to focus on staying in touch, rather than traditional public relations cold pitching. A good intern could make a cold call. This manager isn’t just someone that can maintain relationships with publications because these days brands that you partner with need a more personal approach.

SEO Expert: Since SEO is such a massive part of how people find thought leadership, having someone on your team that makes sure the site is set up well and manages aspects like keyword research, intent research, and has the relationship to get natural placements to compliment the PR efforts above is necessary. If you have both PR related placements happening at the same time as SEO placements then you can really move the needle on your thought leadership.

The elements above are important if you are building your own team. If you want this taken care of by an agency, then they should have all the above covered. You don’t have to have them take over everything though. If it’s a good agency they will look to compliment your efforts and fill in gaps. Book a call with a Relevance strategist here, and they can help you identify the best resources for your company.

Launching a Thought Leadership Strategy

The first step with any strategy is defining your goals. You have to establish why you’re pursuing thought leadership in the first place, and you should make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons. Effective thought leadership strategies build trust and share new ideas.

An effective strategy also requires bold content. If you or someone on your team is an expert in their field, they can’t be timid in their perspective. Media is full of articles and interviews where individuals avoid being portrayed as biased one way or another. If you take a stand and are confident on a subject matter, people will see you as a thought leader and come to you for your expertise.

Once you’ve determined your goals and embraced your values, you want to create content to push out ideas and ideally get others thinking. Review existing thought leadership within your company to make sure you stay consistent and authentic. If previous ideas don’t align with your business’s current values, address that. As much as you appreciate honesty and transparency, so do consumers and your clients.

Most thought leadership content consists of articles or blogs, but video content, presentations, and research are other options you could consider, like a webinar or whitepaper. Different information benefits from different presentation formats. If your thought leadership area of expertise focuses on artistic concepts, visual formats will likely prove beneficial. However, if your ideas can be expressed relatively easily in words, articles and blogs are accessible and work well to spread information.

Remember once you’ve created a thought leadership piece, you need to distribute it to a wider audience. As great as your information is, it can’t make an impact without reaching other people. Promoting on your own website and social media channels is a great place to start, but you also have to direct people to your owned media before they’ll read that content.

This distribution stage is where those resources mentioned earlier, specifically a relationship manager, come in handy. Utilizing relationships with publications and different media outlets can help you get your message across to more people. Pitch your ideas to journalists, offer to be a guest speaker for related events, collaborate with other thought leaders who share your values. If you have the budget, you can also consider paid promotions and sponsorships.

Thought leadership is about engagement and creating a conversation, so once you’ve distributed content, make sure you check how it’s received. If additional topics come up as consumers respond, be there to answer questions and offer new ideas. Part of being a thought leader is providing your audience with your perspective. Measure your engagement. As with any strategy, it’s important to see if the steps you took successfully met your initial goals.

If your goals are met, keep looking for ways to improve and continue offering unique perspectives and valuable insights. If your ideas were not well received, reevaluate your goals and strategy. It may be useful to talk with other thought leaders or reach out to industry experts.

What Executives Should You Include in A Thought Leadership Strategy?

When deciding who to include in your thought leadership strategy consider who aligns with your company values, has innovative ideas, impactful knowledge, and is willing to publicly share their thoughts. Aside from asking those foundational questions, it’s important to take into consideration a couple aspects:

1. Do these executives have time to spare for these initiatives?

If they are too busy, they will be unresponsive, and it can be like pulling teeth to get their thoughts down. While you can look at their schedules to try to judge if they have capacity, it’s usually best to ask people directly whether they have time for these plans.

2. Does the executive seem to cooperate, and are they easy to work with?

Time is one barrier, but so is the executive that is so controlling you can never get approval or every word published will be picked apart. When executives function as thought leaders that needs to be their number one priority. Nit-picking every comma and colon is a job for an editor, and strategists should be allowed to focus on the big picture.

Benefits of Thought Leadership

Thought leadership can help you increase your brand positioning, enhance your market visibility, and improve brand loyalty. Delivering authentic and genuine content can also boost your brand credibility and authority. Incidentally, it can also strengthen your SEO profile.

The thought leadership approach is typically considered effective when an organization earns loyalty from consumers, that encourages them to advocate for a company to the people in their social circles. This often stems from a shared value, not simply a product or service the business provides. This action can ignite a chain of positive reactions.

SEO

While it isn’t an SEO strategy, thought leadership can often unintentionally generate backlinks and increase shares and mentions. It’s clear that Google and other search engines are rewarding real thought leaders rather than the SEO hacks of old. While you have to earn these days, it is an amazing opportunity for companies to lead their industry in the long-term. If you are successful with your thought leadership and align it with the right SEO strategies, it will show up in the right places and bring revenue in the door.

PR

Contributors and journalists don’t have the same time on their hands they used to. Newspapers and other publications are often working with smaller budgets. Nowadays, they are searching around for existing articles to source. If you are viewed as a thought leader in your industry, then you can consistently get free press, and it’s a compounding effect that can consistently grow. Being able to offer quotes and provide information for articles will continue to help you be seen as an expert in your wheelhouse.

Recruiting

People want to work for the companies they believe are the best and treat employees well. Thought leadership can be used to nurture recruits and connect on a human level. If a leader of a company uses thought leadership to promote their way of thinking and core values that will likely attract like-minded people to join their team and their audience base.

Paid advertising

Take a moment to think about this: If you see a company showing up in a search result as a leader in the space are you more likely to click on their ad? Absolutely. Also, if you click on the ad and go on their site and engage in the content, are you more likely to spend? Definitely. Companies that have higher trust scores and thought leadership convert well on paid campaigns.

Sales

In B2B thought leadership is a massive asset. Your sales people can send articles where your leaders are quoted. One of my favorite magic tricks is for a sales person to ask a potential customer to search in their phone and see that there’s an article from your site ranking for the keyword they type in. Thought leadership shows potential clients that you are an industry leader.

Specific Niches of Thought Leadership

Thought leadership can be slightly different in different verticals, but here are common niches that use thought leadership as a consistent strategy. Really every niche should be investing in thought leadership since it builds trust and can enjoy the benefits listed above, but here are a couple examples:

Finance

Thought leadership is consistently used as a strategy to differentiate from competitors, and this is no less true amongst financial services. There are opportunities for financial services firms that can equip their clients with the insightful, well-supported, and timely content. Finance is a unique industry for thought leadership because those generating new ideas here can influence investing choices, guide clients through uncertain financial times, and use specific content to outshine competitors by gaining trust.

Technology

As technology is continuously seeing advancements and the digital world we live in evolves, leaders in the technology industry can’t simply recycle what others are saying. Technology influences every other industry, as companies turn to tech to understand emerging trends. So original ideas are crucial. Identifying and articulating new ideas in technology influences consumer’s trust, which is especially important in tech, as consumers consider the security of their personal information and how to avoid cyber attacks.

Marketing

Going back to the problem of being too gimmicky, the marketing industry can be especially guilty. Marketing is all about ensuring your organization stands out, so it makes sense that fighting the herd-mentality through thought leadership positively influences this sector. The content you publish can elevate your brand in the eyes of your target audience. Additionally, genuine thought leadership can drive traffic to your site, convert leads, and build brand authority.

Healthcare

Similar to tech, healthcare is an industry that is constantly seeing updates and information is always changing. Consumers often feel confused and intimidated in these types of spaces, so there are many benefits that come from making yourself a trusted resource. Utilizing thought leadership in healthcare can be difficult, as professional standards and expectations for credibility are high. However, if you can be successful, you’ll see returns.

B2B vs. B2C

Thought leaders influence the marketing world from idea generation to purchasing power. In fact, it can even generate business. According to a 2021 LinkedIn-Edelman report, more than half of company decision makers say thought leadership provides proof that an organization genuinely understands their specific business challenges. This trust, in turn, often converts to sales.

B2B Thought Leadership

In the B2B marketplace, if your brand has nothing to say, it often means you’ve lost the race. You likely didn’t even make it to the line up. Since a lot of B2B sales are based on trust, to be considered, you have to broadcast your knowledge. Buyers conduct a larger percentage of their research on a company before they reach out, so it’s important your message reflects well. There are a lot of opportunities to spend big dollar amounts in the B2B world, so people want to work with the best and people that they feel are experts.

B2C Thought Leadership

Is a bit more qualitative initially because you are focused around building a brand from which people will want to buy their product. However, it can make a massive difference on sales conversions, SEO results, and PR opportunities, so it’s important to make some level of investment.

Ready for Next Steps?

When you’re just starting your journey with thought leadership, it can be a lot to consider, and it may even seem overwhelming. Gathering information to learn more about thought leadership is a great way to prepare to create your own strategy. Remember to be genuine and recognize the resources you have available within yourself and within your business. Big ideas can have a big impact. If you’re ready to get started putting this information into action, download your free simple thought leadership template here!

Small businesses begin in various ways, one of which is by doing ample research to gain an in-depth understanding of everything involved. And of course, many of us want to become our bosses. So, it can be a desirable investment for professional individuals with flexible hours and a tremendous growth opportunity.

However, starting your own business is a challenging and often daunting task. Many don’t know where to start, who to speak with, how to network, etc. This can turn many away from the entrepreneurial path.

Fortunately, several resources are available to those to help you become your own CEO. Below are the top publications to help entrepreneurs navigate the confusing landscape of starting their own businesses.

Table of Contents

What Makes a Good Small Business Publication?

Entrepreneur

Under 30 CEO

Killer Startups

Small Biz Technology

Inc.

Franchise Times

Small Business Trends Magazine

Foundr

1. Entrepreneur: Specifically targeted towards business owners.
2. Under 30 CEO: Starting your own business while still young? Start here.
3. Killer Startups: If you're looking to crush your industry, this is the publication for you.
4. Small Biz Technology: Do you find tech overwhelming? SBT has accessible info.
5. Inc.: Tips and tricks, tools, and services to help expand your business.
6. Franchise Times: Need guidance about running a franchise? Here you go.
7. Small Business Trends Magazine: Keep up-to-date about current trends in business.
8. Foundr: Articles, podcasts, and several courses to help you stay ahead.

What Makes a Good Small Business Publication?

Each of the publications listed below is an excellent resource for entrepreneurs. These each hit vital points that make them great. In general, each small business publication should be:

• Straightforward. Entrepreneurs don’t have a lot of extra time to research. The information provided in each publication should be easy to find with the essential facts.

• Credible. Reputable sources should back every article to ensure each reader has access to the most relevant and accurate information.

• Innovative. Entrepreneurs are no strangers to innovation. That is what makes their business thrive. The publication should prioritize innovation and be reflected in its work.
• Helpful. Each article that is published should serve a direct purpose for the reader. Fluff pieces should be few and far between.

1. Entrepreneur

As the name implies, Entrepreneur provides all the information you need to know about starting your own business. You can find articles about starting your own business, growing your current one, franchising, and entrepreneur inspiration. This is an excellent collection of resources if you want a publication targeted explicitly toward business owners.

2. Under 30 CEO

If you want to start your own business young, this is your publication. Under 30 CEO is an excellent resource for entrepreneurs because it provides the necessary support to start and run a successful business. You can stay up to date with the latest tech and business trends to create the most efficient company. This is an excellent publication to include in your roster.

3. Killer Startups

Creating a startup can be challenging — but Killer Startups provides all the information to make that process as smooth as possible. It also made the our Top Finance Publications list as well this year. Here you can find startup tools, reviews, and featured founders to help guide you through the process. Check this publication out if you are interested in dominating your startup.

4. Small Biz Technology

New and innovative technology is often at the forefront of being an entrepreneur. However, with the constantly changing patterns of the tech industry, it can be more challenging for small business owners to keep track. Small Biz Technology is there to provide entrepreneurs with a shortcut regarding technology trends. You can find articles about customer service, content marketing, financials, and more.

5. Inc.

Specifically targeted toward business owners, this publication is an excellent resource for entrepreneurs. Here, you can find tips, tricks, tools, and services to help expand your business. Inc. understands the struggles that are often faced by small businesses and provides resources accordingly.

6. Franchise Times

Running a franchise can be complicated and costly. However, a proven successful business model can be very attractive to entrepreneurs. Franchise Times understands the ins and out’s of running a franchise and is there to provide information that helps you through the process. In short, if you need guidance about running a franchise, this is a great resource.

7. Small Business Trends Magazine

You are constantly stepping into new roles when you run your own business. Keeping up-to-date on the trends in industry can be tricky, especially when the list of tasks an entrepreneur has can be never-ending. SBT also made our Top Technology Publications list this year. So, Small Business Trends Magazine takes the work out of the equation and provides you with all the relevant trends to make your business successful.

8. Foundr

Foundr is an excellent publication for everything surrounding starting your own business. You can find articles, a podcast, and several courses to become the most successful entrepreneur. Marketing, leadership, and business building are just a few topics covered in these resources - making this a tremendous full-circle publication.

Looking for other publication, here are a few to pay attention too:

• Tech Publications
• Top Finance Publications
• Top Marketing Publications

Naturally, we all want our products and services to enjoy an excellent reputation and increased visibility. However, many of us have been in the PR digital strategy game long enough to know that the best values don’t always rise to the top or appear on “Page One” of niche-specific online searches.

Additionally, there is so much competition and “noise” in the digital realm that cutting through the clutter requires specialized skills and near-constant monitoring. Truly effective PR now requires a digital strategy that helps businesses differentiate themselves from competitors.

Of course, individual businesses are as unique as fingerprints. There is no one-size-fits-all digital PR strategy. You can’t just download a template and start checking off all the boxes. Instead, you’ll need to do both external and internal research examining your place in today’s marketplace. After that, you’ll use that information to draw out the positive aspects of your business, specific products, and service distinctives unavailable anywhere else.

All that being true, there are still some industry-tested principles you can use as you evaluate and plan. Other businesses (of all sizes) that have significantly boosted their presence and revenue utilizing a PR digital strategy tend to follow several of the following ten practices. Tweak them as you move forward with your business model, but be slow to toss any of them aside as “not relevant” to your needs.

1. Commitment to Quality and Transparency

Anyone engaged in online PR or digital marketing will quickly agree that a worldwide audience is both a blessing and a curse. One thing everyone agrees on these days is that unsubstantiated hype quickly falls to the very bottom of the pile. Worse, making false claims online is discerned rapidly and almost always called out for some social media shaming.

You will likely generate more loyal customers by being a straight shooter and fulfilling your niche. Before doing anything else, write out your commitment to quality, integrity, and a no-hype approach. Start out under-promising and over-delivering…and stay that way. Make sure everyone you currently employ or hire embraces that fundamental commitment.

2. Clearly-Defined Objectives

Some people shorten this recommendation to “Keep your ‘why’ close by.” It’s a catchy mnemonic device and can serve as part of a helpful internal monologue as you work with others to develop your digital PR strategy. Frequently your objectives become fuzzy, and you are tempted to compromise as events unfold. That might be the right call, but you should always go back to your source document and make sure it stays updated.

Why are you seeking to build a comprehensive digital PR strategy in the first place? Are you merely trying to raise sales? Or do you hope to move one of your company superstars into a spokesperson role or that of a thought leader? In all likelihood, you will have more than one goal — most do — but you will also need to undergird every objective with actionable, measurable tools for evaluating your level of success as you move forward.

3. Target Audience Defined by Personas

Personas are fictitious amalgamations that represent large segments of your core constituency. If, for example, your product or service appeals to both young and old, you will want to build at least one character per age demographic. Before you start, limit the number of personas in your digital PR strategy to more than one but less than 10. Too few, and your message becomes too narrow over time. Too many and your creative team will struggle to stay fresh.

Personas should have names but not remain static. Over time, your products and services are likely to evolve. Likewise, the demographics of your customers are subject to change. As your digital PR strategy comes together, the personas will be helpful for messaging. Your creative team will ask questions like, “How would ‘Martha’ hear this message? What about ‘Luther’?” Having personas helps your team think outside their heads and zero in on your target audience.

4. Filtered and Prioritized List of Media Outlets and Contacts

The best digital PR strategy would be all for naught were it not for communication channels. In days long gone, the available choices were print and broadcast. Nowadays, the available options can quickly get overwhelming. Divide your choices into two primary categories, then focus on your top choices. It’s normally better to “start small and build.” In other words, pick a few priority channels and establish a good groove. After that, branch out.

• Traditional Channels: These include print, broadcast, PR professionals, publicists, events, speaking engagements, trade shows, conferences, celebrity spokespeople, and online media purchases.
• Digital Media: Increasingly powerful channels include topic-specific blogs, podcasts (both audio-only and video), social media interactions, online advertisements, virtual reality “real estate,” and other evolving digital technologies.

5. Agreed-Upon ‘Voice’ for Messaging

Audiences expect an established investment firm to “sound” different from a fast-food restaurant or energy drink. That’s just common sense. We want investment companies to speak confidently, optimistically, and authoritatively. Energy drink ads are often sassy, snappy, and filled with bright, colorful characters. Similarly, before embarking upon any PR campaign, you should decide who you are addressing and how your consistent voice will sound.

Suppose your digital PR strategy team consists of multiple players. In that case, it’s easy enough to 1) have one team member go off script or 2) create a bottleneck, i.e., one person who oversees every message. Since neither of those outcomes is desirable, it will pay dividends to construct a style sheet spelling out how your messages ought to sound to the average person.

6. Content Production and Delivery Calendar

Today, there is no shortage of calendaring apps and other tools businesses can use to get started developing a PR production strategy. Many are free! The one to go with is the one that works for every member of your PR team. Of course, you don’t want every employee using a different tool, so you’ll have to draw the line somewhere. For many businesses — large and small — what seems to make sense is a centralized online tool everyone can view and update.

For the visual thinkers in your midst, it might make sense to set up a large video screen in a central location that updates frequently and informs passersby throughout the day. Whatever delivery channels work best for your company, it’s vital that your message is planned, produced to a deadline, and doesn’t stall out for lack of conveyed clarity or “missed memos.”

7. Content That Differentiates

Why should anyone choose your business over your competitors? In today’s media landscape, differentiation reigns supreme. Companies of all stripes are increasingly showcasing their businesses in light of what is unique about their products or services. You know that there are features of your business that are not offered elsewhere. Now make sure your PR digital strategy conveys these points accurately (and repeatedly).

One way to “cheat sheet” your way into content that differentiates is to comprehensively study the messaging offered by the competition. The last thing you want to do is parrot someone else’s PR. The point instead is to analyze your competitors and ask yourself what you can offer that they cannot. Personalized service? Discount pricing? Proprietary content unavailable anywhere else? Differentiation should be a consistent drumbeat backing up all your messages.

8. Feedback Channels and Benchmarks

No one launches a PR digital strategy on a lark. Businesspeople need to see results in clear, measurable outcomes. Your preferred outcome will vary depending on your niche — increased sales, a boost in followers, local market penetration, whatever — but the loftiest goals need to establish benchmarks for performance.

How will you determine your return on investment (ROI)? For any PR endeavor, you will want more than anecdotal evidence and positive feedback from your friends and family. Choose variables that are both measurable and actionable. Establish your baseline and desired goals for improvement, and plug in that data at regular intervals. To help you determine your goals, perhaps the most critical exercise is formulating pointed questions you want answered at the end of any digital marketing. Examples might include the following.

• Is there any noticeable bump in gross monthly sales? How much?
• What is the week-ending number of social media channel followers?
• Do website analytics show any change? Up or down, and by how much?
• How many requests for speaking engagements this quarter?

9. Resources Allocated for Ongoing Engagement

More than one company has launched a well-planned PR digital strategy only to find that they had to hire additional staff in a hurry. Of course, no one likes to hire under the gun. In our digital age, one of the most helpful staffing strategies is to employ a stable of utility players, i.e., employees who can pivot from answering one need to another without breaking a sweat.

When you move into the digital realm, there is always the possibility that your PR efforts will be successful beyond what you had planned. True, this is a terrific problem to have, but it’s a problem nonetheless. Consumers today expect and demand a high level of personalized attention. Providing that level of care and concern presupposes that your business has the people in place to provide a warm, welcoming human presence that backs up your customer care claims.

10. Roadmap for Future Scaling

When you finally unleash your digital PR strategy on the world, your goals might be modest, and that’s fine. However, it’s in everyone’s best interest to ensure that you have at least a rough draft of what it might look like to scale your business upward. This could be as simple as adding stock to your warehouse or as involved as constructing a franchising plan.

Many businesspeople daydream about their content going viral and their sales going through the roof. However, many others simply want to increase foot traffic in one local store and call it good. As you prepare to penetrate deeper — at whatever scale — be aware that the response could underwhelm despite your best efforts. However, the opposite is true, too. Be ready for either outcome by setting aside time to tweak your digital PR strategy regularly and simultaneously keeping a plan for scaling up handy.