Author: Julia Kendrick
The aesthetics, beauty, and wellness industries are extremely crowded and it’s easy for brands to get lost and fail to stand out against the fierce competition. The continuous shift in media and consumer behaviour into the digital world means that more brands must put a heavier focus on their online presence. A winning Digital PR strategy can be a game changer for brands with ambitions to develop an excellent reputation and strong commercial growth.
In this article, Julia Kendrick answers key questions about Digital PR in the aesthetics, beauty, and wellness industries and explains how to create a winning digital PR strategy to support your business and PR goals.
What is a digital PR?
“Digital PR is the process of managing public relations for a brand through the use of digital channels such as websites, social media, email newsletters, etc.”
When your brand, products or services are featured online via a third party channel (e.g. a media website or social channel) and it isn’t paid for, that is digital PR! Digital PR is very similar to traditional PR, as it seeks to nurture a good brand reputation, gain prime media coverage, and raise brand awareness.
What is digital PR strategy?
A digital PR strategy is a brand’s overarching plan to help reach objectives such as increased brand awareness, revenue growth, enhanced social media profile, and improved SEO performance. Each online PR campaign and digital PR activity will actively contribute to help a brand reach its digital PR goals.
A winning digital PR strategy combines elements of content marketing and traditional PR to create engaging campaigns that connect brands with their target audiences online.
How does digital PR support traditional PR?
Just like traditional PR, the key goals of digital PR are to increase brand awareness (and demand) among target audiences and influence what they say, think, or feel – with the eventual aim of influencing purchasing behaviour. However, the advantage of an effective digital PR strategy is that it enables a highly targeted approach to specific audience demographics and platforms which are harder to reach through ‘traditional’ PR and media relations.
A winning PR strategy for aesthetics, beauty, and wellness brands should encompass both traditional and digital PR tactics. When offline and online campaigns work in synergy, brands can expect stronger results such as an increase in brand awareness, trust, product sales, new customers or followers, print and digital media coverage (with website backlinks) and more Google visibility.
How can digital PR help get your brand noticed?
Digital PR is a powerful strategy which can increase a brand’s online presence and visibility, helping it to reach and engage target audiences who may not be easy to access offline. Traditional PR strategies have shifted more focus towards digital media and securing coverage on news websites, online magazines, blogs, and with social media influencers, in order to keep up with trends of increased social media usage among consumers and brands alike.
Digital media editors, journalists and leading social media influencers have the power to boost a brand’s digital presence by sharing it with and endorsing it to their audiences. With this in mind all brands in the beauty, aesthetics and wellness industry should seek to attract their attention and build strong media relationships either directly or via a reputable beauty PR agency.
What are the main benefits of Digital PR?
Digital PR is a proven way to help brands in the aesthetics, beauty, and wellness industry achieve great things. The key benefits of digital PR that we see for our clients at Kendrick PR include:
- Increased brand awareness online amongst target audience segments
- Strong credibility and trust with all stakeholders from suppliers to customers
- Long lasting impact as digital media content is accessible over long periods
- Growth in sales and/or bookings (with a long-term digital PR strategy)
- A standout brand proposition versus the competition!
- Strategically nurturing a good brand reputation.
- A boost in website traffic and organic search rankings via valuable backlinks
- Enhanced content marketing activity with more engaging and interactive digital content
How to create a digital PR strategy
Now you’re aware of the role and attractive benefits of a digital PR strategy it’s time to consider how to devise one! Below are 6 key steps we recommend to create a winning digital PR strategy for your brand or business in the aesthetics, beauty, and wellness industry:
- Set your goals: Always begin by defining what you are trying to achieve from your digital PR campaigns. Consider who, what, where, when, and how – then formulate your answers into a list of 2-3 clear goals. When analysing success always refer back to these goals.
- Define your target audience segments: Whether your target audience is B2C or B2B, creating a persona which details their needs, pain points and goals will significantly help you shape a more effective digital PR strategy. When devising your digital PR tactics and campaigns always do so with at least one target audience segment in mind.
- Analyse the competitor landscape: Take some time to gain a thorough understanding of your nearest competitors. Review their strengths and weaknesses from a brand, product or service, target audience, and digital PR perspective. With a clear view of their activity expect ideas of how to make your activity more impactful and successful.
- Write a media wish list: Conduct research online to find the right digital media editors and journalists and social media influencers for your brand. Think big and aim high for the most popular titles and accounts but also consider more niche profiles that may have influence over your target audiences.
- Create compelling content and messages: Create and share content that builds trust, educates, and aligns with your brand values. Remember you’re trying to a build a good brand reputation so define messages that are credible, authentic and resonate with your target audiences. Sales and promotional messages should be used sparingly. When it comes to content type, press releases and thought leadership quotes are great for the aesthetics, beauty, and wellness industry. However, you should also get creative and integrate video, sound, and animations into your digital PR campaigns to really stand out.
- Pitch perfectly to key digital media: Those on your target digital media list likely received hundreds of emails a week from brands and their PR representatives. So how do you ensure your message to them stands out? In this situation, existing media relationships really add value as an email or call from a friend or personal contact is more likely to be read or heard. Nurturing and building media relationships takes time so be patient if you’re taking a direct approach. Start with a personalised email that relates to the recipient and their platform and share an enticing message that explains your brand’s value to their audience. Follow up with a phone call or two but don’t be too persistent.
- Monitor your results: All digital platforms capture data in a very accessible way so there’s no excuses for not monitoring and understanding the results and impact of your digital PR activity. For example, you can track website traffic by referral source, article views, social media engagement rates, and more!
How important are digital media relations?
Strong media relations are crucial to the success of any digital PR strategy for an aesthetics, beauty, or wellness brand. Once the right digital media editors, journalists and social media influencers have been identified, nurturing a strong relationship with them should become a top priority in your digital PR strategy. When these influential people feature and endorse your brand to their audiences you can expect to reap the benefits discussed previously. However, nurturing strong media relationships and securing coverage takes time – so be patient!
Tip! For maximum impact and fast results consult with a well-respected PR agency like Kendrick, our team have excellent media relations and a great reputation in the beauty industry.
We create winning PR strategies
At Kendrick PR, we thrive on creating winning formulas of strategic and tactical PR support for premium beauty brands, aesthetic clinics, practitioners and entrepreneurs. From influencer marketing to product launch events and, brand strategy to PR consultancy and, everything in between – our comprehensive range of beauty PR services are designed and delivered by our expert team to drive real success.
Founded in 2015 by award-winning communications expert Julia Kendrick, Kendrick PR are an experienced and passionate team who thrive on creating tangible success for every client. Since launch, we have delivered outstanding results for some of the industry’s most innovative brands and exciting entrepreneurs, such as Debbie Thomas, The Private Clinic, Oxygenetix and Medik8 – and we’d love to support your brand. Please do get in touch to book your complimentary discover call with our expert team.