Digital PR for bloggers is about boosting your online presence through digital media opportunities, including interviews, podcasts, expert quotes and more. It’s a powerful blog promotion strategy, and this digital PR guide for bloggers shows you how to do it effectively.
For bloggers, it’s a strategic way to increase your visibility, strengthen your credibility, and position yourself as a trusted voice in your niche.
The SEO bonus is that you can get backlinks with digital PR. Getting mentions online is becoming increasingly important for AI search results as well.
If you want to be visible in AI search results, you need Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). You’ll need authority signals, backlinks and visibility across more than just your platform.
As somebody who’s worked in PR roles professionally for over 18 years, I see how digital PR can help bloggers create awareness of their blogs, drive traffic and scale up to the next level.
In this beginner’s guide to PR for bloggers, you learn how to build a digital PR strategy, the tools you need and a few examples of how to do it. You’ll have the insights you need to confidently get started creating a digital PR strategy for your blog.
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What Is Digital PR For Bloggers?
Digital PR is a process in which you build online relationships with journalists, other bloggers, podcasters and others, to get strategic visibility on their online media outlets your target audience uses, and grow a positive reputation.
Where digital PR differs from traditional PR is the focus on online visibility.
- Traditional PR covers things like physical newspapers, magazines and TV coverage, which can spill over into online.
- Digital PR is solely focused on online coverage. It also boosts your content’s reach, driving traffic back to your site. Additionally, digital PR helps with building backlinks for your SEO.
With “do follow” links and mentions, Google and AI tools pick up on cues that your content is of good quality.
The types of digital PR coverage you can get include:
- Online magazine interviews
- Expert quotes in articles
- Guest posts
- Inclusion in roundups – e.g., “10 Best…”
- Podcasts, vlogs
While you may sometimes be invited to do an interview, as I did for a New York Times article, it’s better to be proactive and pitch yourself to online journalists and bloggers.
Learning blogger visibility strategies is a blogging skill that takes things to the next level.
Why Digital PR Matters for Bloggers
There are several reasons why having a blog digital PR strategy is important for bloggers:
- Build your authority and credibility faster. You’re actively looking for quality links and mentions that signal your blog’s niche authority. Building blogging authority is a top reason.
- Generate quality backlinks to your blog. You aren’t leaving backlink building to chance with only poor-quality sites linking to your blog. Having a few quality backlinks for your site is more important than many poor-quality ones.
- Get discovered beyond search engines. You get interviews, mentions and links in podcasts, video interviews, social media and roundup posts.
- Grows your blog brand’s “touchpoints.” This increases trust and traffic back to your site.
- Stand out among other bloggers. This is important if you’re a new blogger and want to quickly build your presence.
You can see why PR for content creators is a powerful strategy. Now, let’s continue with this digital PR guide. We’ll look at how to use PR to grow a blog.
How To Build Authority With A Digital PR Strategy For Blogs
There are several steps to running an online PR campaign that generates results. As you’ll see from the following steps in this digital PR guide for bloggers, you’ll need to set time aside to run this project.
The good news is that once you get the fundamentals set up, you’ll be able to proceed with just pitching and doing interviews.
Here’s what a good blog digital PR strategy consists of:
1. Defining Your PR Goals
Ask yourself why you want to do digital PR. The most common reasons bloggers undertake this strategy are:
- Building brand awareness for their blog/themselves as niche experts
- Growing blog traffic
- Developing backlinks for SEO
- Building niche authority
Once you’ve got your goals set, your next step is create your brand messaging.
2. Clarify Your Brand Messaging
When pitching yourself or your blog to media and other bloggers, you need to convey your brand messaging succinctly.
To do this well, if you haven’t done this already, you’ll need to determine:
- What you’re known for
- Your unique angle/approach
- Your expertise pillars
In marketing speak, you’re asking yourself, “How am I uniquely positioning myself to stand out from competitors?”
For example, here’s mine:
Margaret Bourne is a blog coach for beginner and intermediate bloggers, helping them learn blogging skills and build the foundation they need to scale their blogs into online businesses. With both professional and blogging experience in digital marketing, content generation, SEO, and branding, she brings a unique, strategic perspective and real-world insights into starting and growing a blog business.
Think of this part as an elevator speech. How can you succinctly convey what you do as a blogger?
3. Create A Media Outreach List: Identify The Right Media Opportunities
Pitching the right media outlets is your next step. Your goal is to get media mentions and coverage that reaches your target audience.
Media outlet types to consider include:
- Blogs (aim for those with a higher Domain Authority – DA than yours for SEO)
- Podcasts/vlogs
- Online magazines
- Influencers (interviews, reviews of your unique products)
- Newsletters (same as for influencers)
- Journalists (cross over with traditional media)
Your list should include those that are most relevant to your niche and are popular with your target audience.
For example, a food travel blog might work well with a digital nomad magazine.
To get featured online, the best options for beginner bloggers are working with other blogs and podcasts/vlogs.
Once you’ve developed an online reputation for your niche, it’s easier to pitch interviews with online magazines, influencers, newsletters and journalists.
4. Create Pitch Outreach Assets: Your Media Kit
To pitch journalists and other you’ll need a media kit. These are assets that help provide background information on you as a niche authority and about your blog.
Pitch assets for your media kit include:
- Short biography
- Topics you can speak on
- Social proof to build credibility (your experience, media mentions, testimonials, data and results, etc.)
- Headshot
- Media page on your blog (optional)
This is a must-do step in your digital PR strategy. Approaching opportunities professionally sets you apart from those who haphazardly seek online media coverage.
Related: Business Etiquette Tips For Bloggers
5. Pitch Journalists And Online Opportunities Strategically
For your digital PR strategy, pitching requires more than just sending a pre-written standard email.
For the most success:
- Follow your pitch contacts for a period of time before pitching them.
- Engage with them on social media or their outlets: likes and genuine, thoughtful comments go a long way.
- Share their content on your socials (optional)
Make yourself known to them before sending the email pitch (without appearing like a stalker).
Your email pitch should be strategic:
- Research their online outlet, topical focus and audience
- Draft your pitch to align with their focus
- Include a few relevant key insights from your media kit
- Provide a link to the full media kit for further information (PDF format works best)
PRO TIP: In my past life as a PR professional, I pitched thousands of journalists. Their number one tip always was to share the most important info in the first paragraph. They have only a few seconds to skim through the top part of your email pitch. Make it worthwhile.
6. Track And Follow-up On Your Pitches
A successful digital strategy for bloggers includes one last step: tracking your pitches and follow-ups. Your initial email pitch may not get a response at first. You will need to send a follow-up email.
However, how many emails are too many?
Avoid pestering your contacts with your pitches. Two pitches (initial and follow-up) are OK for your digital PR strategy. Sending more is annoying and may get you blocked.
Leverage Your Online Coverage
What should you do with coverage from your blog digital PR activities?
- Share it on your social media
- Add it to your media mentions page
- Share it in your newsletter
- Add it to your media kit
This extends your authority and credibility building among your readers.
Digital PR Tools For Bloggers
To implement your digital PR campaign, you’ll need tools for researching opportunities, conducting interviews and tracking your activities.
The good news is that digital PR for bloggers does not require expensive tools. Here are your best options:
- Research Tools: Social media, ChatGPT, Google, LinkedIn
- Conducting Interviews: free Zoom account, microphone and webcam
- Tracking Opportunities and Coverage: Google Sheets
For interviews, at a minimum, consider getting an affordable Yeti Microphone, and the Logitech C922 PRO webcam – a good quality entry one if your laptop’s camera is not so great. I use it for my blog coaching calls and interviews, and it’s easy to use with a clear video quality.
Common Digital PR Mistakes Bloggers Make
Avoid making these digital PR mistakes:
- Sending generic email pitches. Customize them to the contact and media outlet.
- Not pitching the right person. Ensure you’ve got the right contact, especially when you’re pitching a larger online magazine or newspaper.
- Having unclear messaging. Your pitch should clearly identify the opportunity you’re presenting and your credentials.
- Giving up too quickly. Sometimes the initial pitch doesn’t attract interest. Give it some time and come back to your contact with a new pitch a few months later.
- Not using coverage for content marketing. Don’t just leave it with the backlink. Use the coverage for social media, newsletters and more.
- Thinking that success will happen overnight. Your blog digital PR campaign is a long-term project. It takes time to nurture online relationships with online media contacts, other bloggers and influencers.
As you can see from this digital PR guide for bloggers, this activity is not rocket science. However, it requires organization, time and perseverance.
This Digital PR Guide Is Just The Beginning
You now understand how having a digital PR strategy can be beneficial to bloggers.
Key benefits include:
- Building backlinks
- Boosting your online niche authority and credibility
- Improving discoverability in AI searches
Having trouble determining your goals, positioning and media kit? Let’s connect – as a blog coach for bloggers and solopreneurs and a PR professional, I can help you create a kickass foundation for your digital PR toolkit.
Need Expert Help? Time To Work With A Blog Coach!
Hey – it’s Margaret here. I’m a blog coach, working with new bloggers like you, helping them launch and grow their blogs. Learn more about my blog coaching services.
Learning how to do digital PR is an invaluable blogging skill. Start as soon as you can to grow your blog faster.
QUESTION: What are your goals with a digital PR strategy for your blog?
