Digital PR
Earned coverage that drives trust
Digital PR isn’t paid coverage (that’s advertorial, and it’s both obvious to readers and toxic to rankings). It’s the work of placing genuinely useful, newsworthy, or data-backed contributions in the press — local, regional, industry — that link back to you because they deserve to.
Honest expectations
1-3
local press hits per year
Quarterly
regional hits (with survey cadence)
Opportunistic
industry press via expert quotes
Retainer
included in Growth tier
What actually works
Four approaches that produce real coverage
Original local data surveys
A short, original survey (20-30 tradespeople answered) on a real question — average response time, average price, biggest seasonal peak. Press cites these because the data is local and they don’t have time to collect it themselves.
Expert quote placement
Journalists covering trades for local / regional press need quotes. Sign up to ResponseSource / Featured.com / Qwoted. When a relevant query drops, respond with a quotable one-liner. Editorially earned links, not paid.
Local news hooks
New regulation, a recall on a product you install, seasonal weather events that spike service demand. Founders who comment first on these get covered. The dashboard tracks when something relevant surfaces.
Supplier / partner announcements
Your business partnered with a new supplier? Your platform grew? A community initiative you’re running? These are inherently newsworthy if framed correctly. The dashboard has a place to log these.
What we don’t do
The traps we don’t fall into
- Fabricating “comments from our spokesperson” — that’s the path to becoming a junk-PR agency.
- Paying for coverage in genuine press (Google’s spam policies and the journalist’s own reputation both kill you).
- Submitting the same boilerplate “we are delighted to announce” press release to 200 outlets.
Digital PR FAQ
Honest answers
No. Digital PR is earned coverage — a journalist chose to cover your story because it was newsworthy. Paid advertorial is paid placement, often labelled “sponsored” in the publication. They produce very different trust signals with readers and very different ranking effects.
Backlink building targets link opportunities directly — a directory listing, a resource page, a listicle inclusion. Digital PR targets editorial coverage and produces links as a side effect. The two overlap (a digital PR hit usually delivers a backlink) but the framing is different.
Retainer, included in Growth tier. The work is relationship-based and the result is editorial coverage that may or may not deliver a link; charging per hit would incentivise volume over relevance.
Local press coverage when something genuinely newsworthy surfaces (1-3 times a year, on average, depending on how often your business has anything newsworthy happening). Regional press for original-data surveys (quarterly if you commit to the survey cadence). Industry press for expert quote placement (opportunistic).
Digital PR is a Growth-tier deliverable.
If a regional press hit is something you’d want to see in your next 90 days, raise it during the free audit. We’ll tell you honestly whether it’s achievable for your situation.
Get a free audit