5 Signs Your PR Agency Doesn’t Get Digital
If your business employs a PR agency claiming to deliver an integrated digital PR service, but you’re not seeing the results you want, alarm bells may be sounding. Look out for the following signs that your PR is lacking in the digital department:
1. Your press releases don’t make it any further than newswire services
There are still those who take a scattergun approach and send your news out on any old newswire. They may even convince you to pay for the service, assuring you the volume of pickups will aid your SEO as well as your brand visibility.
This just isn’t the case, as - aside from the fact that it’s the quality of content above all else that will boost your SEO - publishing content on the same sites again and again can in fact harm your search rankings.
2. Your copy is not keyword-optimised
Whether it’s your media releases or the copy on your website and blog, if it’s not written with relevant keywords in mind, you’re missing a trick.
Any digital PR agency worth its salt will familiarise itself with your business, research the keywords you should be targeting, and optimise all copy to make sure you climb the all-important Google search rankings.
3. Your PR agency displays anti-social tendencies
If social media is seen not as an optional afterthought and not an integral part of your communications campaign, it might be time to reconsider your digital PR agency.
Social communities like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook should be used both as networks through which to engage with customers and influential industry figures and as tools to boost the reach of your shareable online content.
4. Where is the blog?
If you want to be seen as an expert or influencer in your field, there are few more effective ways of achieving this than a well-executed, well-maintained blog.
It can be built into your company’s website, positioning your brand directly as the guys in the know, or it can be a separate website, building its independent standing while still acting as a lead generation tool.
When prospective customers land on your page, you can direct them to your blog where they can learn more about your offering and be impressed by the wealth of knowledge your spokespeople have on the subject. Guest blogging on other relevant and influential sites is another great way of extending your network and boosting your brand’s reach.
5. No video in sight
Video is one seen by many as one of the most important forms your online content can take. Concise and eye-catching, it can help you get your message across to an engaged viewer with power and efficiency.
If video - with its impressive click-through rates and the lead generation potential it can unlock - hasn’t at least been suggested for your PR presence, then it’s clear your comms agency hasn’t fully embraced digital, and your brand is missing out.
[rms] Ralf Skirr’s comment: An amazing number of PR and internet marketing agencies uses outdated methods AND fails to add new methods. That is especially true for small agencies and 1-man-shows / 1-woman-shows.We’re a small agency, too, and I can easily understand how it happens. You setup a workflow, and you’re so getting used to it, that you just never make the switch to a new way of doing things - even if you learned the new stuff. Your workflow has become habitual.
Second, for a small biz it can be quite impossible to add the new thing. For example, someone who did SEO via optimizing TEXT for years may not have the in-house capacity to add VIDEO marketing to its digital PR arsenal.
The things-do-do are so diverse that a small biz can’t handle it all anymore.
I believe the solution to this problem will be small agency networking. Agencies focused on different specialties will team up to serve their customers best. But there’s a long way to go until this is a widespread reality.