Nothing quite cheers up a dreary Manchester morning than 400 digital industry professionals gathering to hear from some of the best. The Digital PR Summit saw journalists, SEO professionals and Digital PR experts taking to the stage to share industry insights and advice.
With virtual events held in 2019 and 2021, the Digital PR Summit was hosted for the first time in person at Manchester’s Stoller Hall, and the line up promised a great day of learning and networking.
Here are just some of my key takeaways from the day.
Collaboration is everything
In 2024, siloed working should be a thing of the past, and it was great to hear this echoed across many of the talks. From digital PRs working closely with SEO teams, to amplifying campaigns with paid and organic social, and building valuable two-way journalist relationships, collaboration is key.
SEO expert, Sanjay Purewal took to the stage in the morning to issue a sincere apology for ignoring the value of Digital PR for many years (the ‘I’m sorry’ cat memes seemed to do the trick in gaining forgiveness). Bringing the collaboration message home, Sanjay used ‘the SEO house’ analogy to showcase the power of collaboration, and how without technical (the foundations), content (walls) and digital PR (the roof) working together, the structure of the house falls apart.
Furthering the conversation around collaboration, Sophie Brannon, Director of SEO, delivered insights on what SEO teams would benefit from seeing from digital PR’s and some key technical aspects to consider when conducting campaigns.
While technical knowledge can vary from one Digital PR to another, and creativity often takes front stage, as Digital PRs we need to remember the goal, and technical insights should underpin campaigns and activity to see true results.
Metrics that matter
From a round of applause for saying DR and DA are made up by tools, to a cheer for ‘there’s no such thing as no follow and do follow’, and a claim that if you think DA influences sales, you probably believe in horoscopes… it was clear the way digital PR’s are looking at metrics has changed over the last few years.
A few speakers throughout the day touched on the different KPIs and reporting metrics we should be considering in 2024, and a detailed talk from Stephen Kenwright kicked off the late afternoon sessions. The key theme; stop counting links.
Building and measuring brand, dominating share of search and paying attention to your brand funnels are much more valuable.
Relevancy and brand
A topic which has been at the forefront to digital PR in recent years, brand relevancy remains a talking point in the industry. Founder of Digitaloft, James Brockbank took to the stage to ask one question, would you still care about that link if Google didn’t exist?
While search engines remain a driver for visibility, it’s important to consider where you gain link placements, and around which topics. Are you actually building a strong brand reputation online, because ultimately ‘EEAT is just reputation’.
Insights from journalists
You’ve got technical reasoning, you’ve used creativity to ideate and draft that perfect campaign… and then it sits dormant in an inbox. Journalist relationships are key to successful Digital PR campaigns, and we heard from some fantastic contributors at the journalist panel and during a solo talk from Laura Silverman, Deputy Editor at Country Living.
Covering all things exclusivity, how to get noticed in their inbox and even how to get the all-important link, the day was full of valuable insights. As ever, the core takeaways are to be clear and concise, be transparent and open when it comes to promising a journalist something and do your research. There’s no excuse to pitch a food story to a sports journalist!
The power of digital PR
Two talks in particular stood out when it comes to discussing the power of digital PR, and for a data fan, surprisingly it wasn’t the technical talks! It was both Harriet Stanger who talked about mastering PR for a start-up, and Bettie Moran who discussed commercial awareness and what corporate CEOs really think about digital PR.
Both sparked thoughts around how we communicate the value of PR to different stakeholders, and importantly to those who may never have heard of Digital PR before. Bettie conducted a range of research and found 70% of corporate CEO’s don’t know what Digital PR is, and as such, how can they know the value they’re missing out on.
It comes back to clear conversations around ROI and in turn the metrics we report on.
If you want to find out more about the value of Digital PR, drop us a line at digital@hatch.group
