As a complementary add-on to our search engine optimization (SEO) services for law firms, 9Sail’s digital public relations (PR) offering consists of everything you would expect from traditional PR – just online!
Just as we seek to drive traffic – and qualified leads – to your website from Google search engine results pages (SERPs), our digital PR services strive to add an additional path to the customer journey. This is accomplished by leading traffic to your website from your thought leadership posted on a third-party outlet – whether an online publication, podcast or webinar.
Further, we ensure that your content and insight gets in front of critical influencers within your area of practice by sharing your alerts, press releases and other expert materials. This consistent communication with influencers, ranging from writers and bloggers to journalists and podcasters, guarantees that you’ll be top of mind if they’re ever seeking an expert source for an interview, commentary or guest column.
9Sail additionally leverages its deep understanding of SEO and SERPs to provide online reputation management services – helping to build, shape and control the narrative around your firm’s online presence.
Lastly, 9Sail’s digital PR services are fueled by client accountability which takes the shape of regular, transparent reporting and communication – all geared towards clearly demonstrating the ROI from our clients’ investment in a digital PR campaign managed by 9Sail.
What is Digital PR?
Digital PR is an emerging marketing discipline with a goal of proactive, planned and sustained communications to promote a business’s thought leadership and expertise. It provides a way to build an organization’s reputation and personality in the digital world. It works hand-in-hand with traditional media relations and other marketing disciplines outside of public relations.
At its core, digital PR is a form of marketing that uses third-party online sources to get your content in front of a wider audience than it could if limited to your own marketing channels. It is about building your brand and getting mentions for your brand online.
The goal of digital PR is to make sure that you are getting mentioned on different online publications, blogs and other media outlets. You can use certain strategies to ensure that you are successful in this form of marketing, including creating high-quality pieces of content to share with popular blogs or podcasts. Another strategy is leveraging tools like HARO or Muck Rack to find journalists who write about topics you’re an expert on and pitch them with a compelling story idea or trend that stems from your experience.
At 9Sail, we’re not just SEO experts; we’re also digital PR specialists. Unlike traditional PR agencies, our services are offered with the underlying objective of improving your Google rankings so you get the best of both worlds: your 9Sail SEO team is laser-focused on search, and your PR team is pursuing high-impact online press opportunities based on rigorous research. The result? A happy client with a reputable, respected online brand and a full sales pipeline due to the world-class tag team that SEO and PR can be when they are utilized in unison.
Paired with our SEO offering, 9Sail’s digital PR services can help increase your exposure and business leads by getting your content in front of the right audiences online – all at a fraction of the price tag that comes along with bringing separate agencies on board.
Why Your Law Firm Needs Digital PR
Faced with a complex competitive landscape, in this digital age, your law firm requires a strong online presence to break through a saturated marketplace composed of larger, institutional competitors upstream; smaller, potentially more nimble peer firms downstream; and the unknown of emerging alternative service providers. In this environment, you need digital PR strategies that will help cut through the clutter – building your brand and generating more leads for your business.
The traditional methods of generating “press” are through more analog marketing channels like TV, radio and print ads. But with digital media becoming more popular and accessible (not to mention, the leading means of content consumption), it has become the most effective way for law firms to reach their target audience.
Understanding the Components of a Digital PR Campaign
A PR campaign is usually composed of three parts: content creation, outreach and measurement.
Depending on our client’s needs and appetite for content generation, content creation may take the shape of blog posts, bylined articles, client alerts and even video clips, which segues into the next step: “Outreach.” Where does all of this content go to ensure it actually reaches your desired target audience? 9Sail’s PR team leverages a number of tools to research relevant journalists, reporters and other influencers within your area of expertise to pitch them on the value you can provide to their website. This outreach has the underlying goal of getting you published on their site with an SEO-boosting backlink. This approach also results in an opportunity for you to establish yourself as a thought leader with the website, podcast or blog’s readership and further develop your law firm’s brand.
Last, but certainly not least, comes measurement – in its reporting, 9Sail goes well beyond the basic impression count and clippings sheet traditional PR agencies have become known for. In fact, we strive to link media placements to needle-moving activities in the SEO realm – ultimately drawing a line to leads and revenue generated for our clients by our PR service offering.
The Impact of Digital PR on Your Brand
Digital PR is becoming an increasingly crucial part of law firms’ marketing strategies. It helps to build up your brand and create a reputation for your firm. Because of its SEO benefits, it also brings the potential to increase the number of clients that you have, as well as improve your bottom line revenue.
The impact of digital PR on law firms’ bottom lines can be seen in the increased number of clients they acquire, which leads to an increased number of legal cases being handled. It also helps with the reputation-building aspect of brand building – by getting mentioned in high-quality blogs, podcasts and other pieces of content, you establish a good reputation for yourself that will help you attract more clients in the future.
The Intersection of Digital PR and SEO
While traditional and digital PR are similar in that both are a means of sharing information and influencing public opinion, they differ in the ways in which they are presented. Traditional PR typically includes utilizing media such as radio, print and television, while digital PR efforts seek to establish and enhance a trustworthy online brand reputation, which can also benefit your SEO efforts. Both of these digital efforts seek to build and enhance your online authority, especially in the realm of content creation, so in working to improve one, so too do you improve the other.
In terms of specific action, digital PR can enhance your SEO strategy by offering opportunities to increase the amount and quality of mentions and links back to your website. These mentions and backlinks ultimately enhance your brand’s reputation and enable you to increase awareness of your brand, company, services or other key messages. The possibility for high-quality links also increases your organic search rankings.
Learn How 9Sail Can Take Your Digital PR to the Next Level
An SEO agency at its core, 9Sail has deep experience navigating the digital-sphere with the objective of boosting lead generation and revenue. This savvy extends equally into our digital PR capabilities! To learn more about our services, please contact us.
