February 4, 2025
In the last few years, interest in digital PR has grown almost 30%. With this extra attention on digital PR, we thought it would be a good time to take an in-depth look at the industry as it is today.
Thankfully for us, BuzzStream recently released its latest report on the state of digital PR, with data collected from industry professionals in late 2024. Here are our main takeaways from the report and what we think it says about the current state of the digital PR industry.
Before we dive in, here’s a quick overview of what digital PR actually involves.
‘PR’ of course stands for ‘Public Relations’, but ‘Digital PR’ is a marketing strategy used to essentially increase a brand’s online presence and manage how the public perceives that brand in the online space. There are also often secondary objectives tied to SEO and link building which include securing valuable backlinks for a clients’ website from relevant and authoritative third-party sites.
‘Traditional PR’, however - which involves building relationships with journalists to primarily get print media coverage and manage general consumer brand perception - has been around for decades, but since most brands now have an online presence, digital PR has become increasingly popular.
That said, there are also overlaps between the old and the new and common shared ‘PR’ tactics include:
From an online perspective though - and since Google has put more emphasis on rewarding content from credible, authoritative, and reliable brands - digital PR is more important than ever. Plus - to return to a key point - the majority of businesses and brands are now online.So, now you have a clearer picture of what digital PR looks like, here are a few interesting insights into the state of the digital PR industry today from the BuzzStream report:
Almost all respondents (94.8%) reported using data-led content as part of their PR work. This comes as no surprise considering how valuable data is in terms of creating credible, reliable, and original content - something journalists love.
Other commonly used tactics were:
There was some divide between the importance of press releases in PR, with 68.8% using this tactic. In the report, Linkifi cofounder, Chris Panteli, commented that this might be because “press releases often fail to perform well unless they are highly relevant to the current news cycle and resonate with a broad readership”, whilst Propellernet Digital PR Director, Abi Bennetts believes press releases “are an efficient and easy way to present press materials, data, and quotes in an easy-to-digest way”. Social media was the least used, with only 13.9% using social media posting as part of their PR efforts.
66.5% of respondents reported a budget of less than $10,000 per month, with around half of those having a budget of less than $5,000 per month. Only 4% of respondents had a budget of over $20,000 per month.
When it comes to the average cost of a link, it’s interesting to note that over half of PR professionals are unaware of this data. This could be due to PRs not having any, or very little, involvement in the financial side, or because they feel this metric is less relevant.
The most used tool for building media lists is Muck Rack (39.9%), followed closely by BuzzStream (38.2%).
28.9% of PR professionals build lists manually, with no assistance from tools. In this case the most used tool was Google Sheets.
89.6% of PRs note that building backlinks has been the most effective outcome of their PR efforts - although only 18.5% said it increased sales.
The role of digital PR is to increase and control brand awareness. So, whilst a limited amount said it boosted sales, effective PR strategies will contribute to sales by building brand awareness, improving the authority of a website, and driving traffic.
Compared to last year, PR professionals have found digital PR more challenging than the previous year (2023). There seems to be a few main reasons for this:
Building relevant media lists is a pivotal aspect of digital PR. However, many find this task difficult, and one of the primary reasons for this is that the contact information provided is either incorrect or outdated.
Whether it’s a client’s lack of understanding of the importance of backlinks or difficulty deciding which metrics to track, analyse, and report on, measuring impact was reported as the most difficult challenge in PR.
Almost half of PRs have changed their strategies in response to Google’s recent updates - such as the Helpful Content Update and numerous core updates. Google has made some significant changes to its algorithm, and as it continues to do this, finding the right strategy can be difficult to keep up with.
Despite feeling more challenging, 48.6% of PRs think their efforts are more effective than they were 12 months ago. This could be down to the fact that Google has been putting more emphasis on providing users with helpful, high-quality, and relevant content - something that digital PR strives to achieve.
A big takeaway from all of this though, is that despite it being a more challenging industry right now, digital PR is proving even more effective than ever. Ultimately investing in digital PR can be a great way to enhance your brand awareness, build a credible reputation, and increase the authority of your brand. If you aren’t already including digital PR in your marketing strategy, it’s definitely worth a shot!
If you’d like expert help with digital PR, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us today.
