Digital PR

What Is Digital PR?

Digital PR sits at the intersection of traditional public relations and SEO. Instead of chasing links from blogs and directories, you create stories, data, and content that journalists genuinely want to cover. A single digital PR campaign can earn links from dozens of news sites simultaneously.

The average digital PR campaign earns 10-24 backlinks from unique domains, with top campaigns earning 50+ placements (BuzzSumo, 2024). These are not low-quality links. News sites like Forbes, BBC, Times of India, and industry publications carry DR 80-95, making each link extremely valuable for SEO.

HARO and Connectively

HARO (Help a Reporter Out) was the most popular platform for connecting sources with journalists. In 2024, it was rebranded as Connectively by parent company Cision. The concept remains the same:

• Journalists post queries when they need expert sources for articles
• You respond with your expertise, insights, or data
• If selected, you get quoted in the article with a backlink to your site

Connectively sends out 50+ journalist queries per day across categories like business, technology, health, and lifestyle (Connectively, 2025). The average acceptance rate for HARO/Connectively pitches is 5-10%, but well-crafted responses from genuine experts can reach 20-30% (Ahrefs, 2024).

How to Succeed on Connectively

• Respond within 2 hours. Journalists work on tight deadlines. The first quality responses get selected. After 24 hours, most queries are already filled.
• Lead with credentials. State who you are, your relevant experience, and why you are qualified to speak on this topic.
• Give a ready-to-use quote. Write 2-3 sentences the journalist can copy directly into their article. Make their job easy.
• Be specific, not generic. Share data points, personal experience, or contrarian insights. Generic advice gets ignored.

Building Journalist Relationships

The most successful digital PR professionals do not cold-pitch every story. They build ongoing relationships with journalists who cover their beat. Here is how:

• Follow them on social media. Twitter/X and LinkedIn are where most journalists share their work and ask for sources. 94% of journalists use social media for work (Muck Rack, 2025).
• Share their work genuinely. Amplify their articles before you ever ask for anything. Comment with thoughtful additions, not generic praise.
• Be a reliable source. When you provide a quote or data, be accurate and responsive. Journalists remember sources who make their jobs easier and return to them again and again.
• Respect their time. Keep pitches under 200 words. Journalists receive an average of 100+ pitches per week (Muck Rack, 2025). Make yours scannable.

Data-Driven Stories

Original data is the strongest currency in digital PR. When you publish unique findings, journalists have something new and credible to report. Types of data that earn coverage:

• Surveys. Survey your audience or industry peers. Even a survey of 200 respondents can generate newsworthy insights. SurveyMonkey and Typeform make this accessible to anyone.
• Data analysis. Analyze publicly available data in a new way. Scrape job listings, analyze pricing trends, or map industry patterns. BuzzSumo found that content with original data earns 2.5 times more backlinks than content without (BuzzSumo, 2024).
• Internal data.If your product or service generates usage data, anonymize and aggregate it into industry insights. Companies that publish annual reports from their own data (like HubSpot's State of Marketing) earn thousands of backlinks per report.
• Expert roundups. Compile expert opinions from 10-20 industry professionals on a trending topic. Each expert is likely to share and link to the piece.

Newsjacking

Newsjacking is the practice of inserting your expertise into a breaking news story to earn media coverage. When a major industry event happens, journalists scramble for expert commentary. Being fast and relevant can earn high-authority links within hours.

• Set up Google Alertsfor your industry's key terms and competitors. Speed is critical: 68% of media coverage happens within the first 48 hours of a story breaking (Newswire, 2024).
• Prepare templates. Have pre-written expert commentary frameworks that you can customize quickly for different types of news (regulation changes, market shifts, product launches).
• Pitch within hours, not days. The window for newsjacking closes fast. The best time to pitch is within 4-6 hours of a story breaking, before every other expert has responded.

Measuring Digital PR Success

Track these metrics for every campaign:

• Links earned: How many unique referring domains did the campaign generate?
• Domain authority of links: A link from DR 80+ is worth more than 10 links from DR 20 sites.
• Referral traffic: Did the coverage drive actual visitors to your site?
• Brand search volume: After a successful PR campaign, branded search queries often increase by 15-30% (BrightEdge, 2024).
• Secondary pickups: Did other sites link to the original coverage, creating a cascade effect?