{"id":38660,"date":"2024-04-16T10:19:15","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T10:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prowly.com\/magazine\/?p=27188"},"modified":"2025-05-28T12:48:27","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T12:48:27","slug":"digital-pr-inhouse-pr-collaboration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prowly.com\/magazine\/digital-pr-inhouse-pr-collaboration\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Integrate Digital PR with In-House PR Successfully"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The evolution of Digital PR<\/a> has been quite a journey, from the early 00s days of shifty SEO link-building<\/a> tactics to today\u2019s proud industry that delivers campaigns that help get your brand front of mind and at the top of Google. Whilst an e-commerce or SEO team may fully appreciate the value of good Digital PR activity, those unfamiliar with the nuances and intricate details of its evolution may mistrust or disregard Digital PR completely.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the biggest lessons I\u2019ve learned in my 12-year career in Digital PR is the importance of a successful working relationship with your client\u2019s in-house PR team<\/a>. However, that relationship only works when both sides understand what the other team does and why.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this post, I will summarise some of the lessons and tips I\u2019ve picked up on how best to communicate with, educate, and learn from your client\u2019s in-house PR teams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ready to take your PR efforts to the next level? Prowly helps you manage and track your campaigns in one place, making collaboration with in-house teams seamless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Understanding each other\u2019s objectives<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Successful integration between a Digital PR<\/a> agency and a brand\u2019s in-house PR team starts with understanding the in-house PR team's key objectives and how they differ from the objectives the Digital PR team will be working towards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve shared and compared some of the key KPIs of each team in the table below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital PR Objectives<\/strong><\/td>In-House PR\/Brand Objectives<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Improve awareness and authority of a brand online<\/td>Aid in brand name reputation and protection both online and offline<\/td><\/tr>
Securing coverage, which includes brand mentions and links to their client\u2019s websites on high DR and relevant websites  <\/td>To reposition a brand or associate a brand with a specific attitude or value<\/td><\/tr>
Creating stories that will get as much coverage\/links as possible - while remaining true and relevant to the brand\u2019s values and expertise<\/td>Drive brand awareness<\/a> that leads to sales, website traffic, sign-ups, subscribers, and more social following.<\/td><\/tr>
Report on search engine organic ranking results for key terms (typically, but not always, e-commerce terms), organic traffic and resulting conversions, brand search-uplift<\/td>Increase market share<\/td><\/tr>
Identifying and securing coverage on specific publications by analyzing which titles are linking to a brand\u2019s competitors but not the client\u2019s brand<\/td>Drive conversation and \u2018buzz\u2019 around a brand<\/td><\/tr>
Building links to the sections and pages of a brand\u2019s website that are most commercially lucrative <\/td>To educate consumers or change consumer behavior<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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MANAGE YOUR PR WITH EASE<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Successful campaign key points for large brands<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Digital PR <\/a>campaigns need to hit three key points: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Be newsworthy and attract the attention of multiple titles and reporters. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Have SEO relevance, e.g., the story must clearly relate to the page or company it\u2019s driving links to. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Deliver the right tone and message for that brand. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    When working with larger, well-established brands, the third point <\/em>is the one that requires collaboration<\/strong> and buy-in from the in-house PR team the most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    They will have put in a lot of time and effort to build a brand reputation they want to protect<\/a>, or they may be working to reposition the brand with new messages. It\u2019s important to them that any communications that the brand puts out all align with the messages and tone they\u2019ve worked hard to put in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Case study: optimizing your pitch through feedback<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    For example, once upon a time, I worked with a travel brand specializing in walking expeditions. While working with them, the crazy popular film \u2018Cocaine Bear\u2019 started to cause a stir online. We suggested a reactive tips-based piece<\/a> on how to avoid bear encounters when walking in North America, as we knew that the timely hook could work well in attracting lots of coverage, and relevance-wise, it certainly tied in with the brand\u2019s expertise in walking tours. However \u2013 it was a hard no from the brand and PR teams. And understandably! From their point of view, they didn\u2019t want to scare potential customers or associate their brand with danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Pitching the idea<\/a> and hearing the feedback was extremely useful in growing our relationship with the in-house PR team. It helped us make future idea pitches more efficient as we knew their boundaries \u2013 and our respect for those boundaries helped the PR team see that we were collaborative and keen to help with their objectives. Our next idea took on their feedback and involved creating an online tool that helped you compare your travels to David Attenborough\u2019s - a campaign that hit all our objectives and theirs and solidified us as an asset to the PR and e-commerce teams.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When you land stand-out online coverage<\/a> with a Digital PR story that the PR Team endorses, make a big deal about it! Take the time to include them when you report on results<\/a>, and include PR-friendly stats such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n