August 19, 2022
6 minutes
Mastering your digital PR strategy and delivery relies on a host of tips, tricks and tactics to help you with everything from measurement to ideation, content and prospecting. There are a few key digital PR tools that every link-building marketer needs in their arsenal, but here are a selection of some of our absolute must-haves here at NORTH.
Google Trends is one of the most important tools when it comes to monitoring the news agenda and looking out for reactive campaign opportunities. It’s free to use and you can even make use of Google’s free training courses to use the platform. Simply type in your topic of interest, region and time frame to see what people are searching for. You can also see trending topics and real-time search trends to really keep your finger on the pulse.
This is a must-have digital PR tool to supercharge your Google Trends research. Acting as a Chrome extension, install Glimpse to see actual search volumes, trend trajectories and even longtail searches of related topics. We’d recommend setting up tracking alerts on relevant topics so you’ll be the first to know when a trend is on the rise!
👉 Glimpse
When it comes to building out your campaign content, it’s a great idea to see what people are searching for around your topic. Do some broader keyword research on Semrush to see what questions and queries you can answer through your campaign.
👉 Semrush
We love a good TikTok campaign at NORTH, so it will come as no surprise to see the social platform is one of our most-loved digital PR tools. Follow relevant creators and hashtags for your industry and see what videos are on the rise for quick and easy reactive inspiration.
👉 TikTok
It’s easy to forget about more traditional PR tactics when it comes to your digital PR strategy, but never overlook the power of a journo request! Using their Journalist Enquiry Service, you can monitor requests from journalists at top tier publications looking for everything from expert comments to product suggestions and fresh data insights.
Twitter is a digital PR’s best friend and can help with everything from reactive campaigns to networking, prospecting and looking out for journo requests. We recommend using Tweetdeck to keep an eye on relevant #journorequests with the most relevant keywords set up.
There are so many fantastic digital PR and content pros providing great insights and tips to follow and help master your digital PR strategy. Follow relevant accounts for digital PR inspiration like @DigitalPREx and @DigitalPR_Tips where you can see some of the best campaigns being outreached and stay on top of the latest industry developments.
This free tool from Pinterest is an easy way to see what users are searching for on the platform. As well as giving you trending searches and a preview of the most popular pins for that term, you can search by keywords or phrases and see how searches compare to each other in any given period. The tool can be used to see user behaviours in the UK, US and Canada.
This is a must-have for any digital PR pros who are hoping to secure international coverage. When researching relevant media outlets for your chosen country, be sure to enable Nord VPN to be connected to a local secure server. This way when you’re sifting through Google for outlets you’ll get the most relevant contacts to add to your media list.
👉 Nord VPN
This is one of the best digital PR tools to provide inspiration for more outlets to outreach to. Simply install the Chrome extension and when you’re browsing a website SimilarWeb will not only give you key engagement stats but will also show which countries the site’s core audience are in. Even better, you can use the tool to find the site’s top competitors to make sure you’re adding in more contacts who may also be interested in your pitch!
There are tonnes of media databases out there to choose from depending on your preference, but we enjoy Vuelio’s quick access to UK and international journalist contacts. As well as using this for manual searches to find the correct email address for contacts, you can also use the search feature to find prospects based on the publication country and topic of interest as well as the individual’s job title and more.
👉 Vuelio
One of the most time consuming aspects of digital PR has to be outreach. Of course, building a well crafted media list means that you should only be contacting relevant journalists for your pitch but on any given day you could still be outreaching to hundreds of journalists with a range of stories.
Buzzstream is our chosen outreach tool and allows you to bulk send to larger media lists, personalise your outreach and automate any follow ups. We love the ability to see key metrics on our emails like open rate and click through and it proves really handy when keeping track of those journalists who are showing interest in your story.
As well as using it for outreach you can also install the Buzzstream Chrome extension to make use of the BuzzMarker to add key contacts directly from web pages and articles they’ve written which makes making media lists even easier. The platform also includes a handy backlink checker tool to perform a quick search and see if any of your contacts have covered your pitch.
While there’s lots of ways to keep an eye on any new coverage, we find that using Ahrefs can help to identify coverage that you may have missed on Google. We recommend using this essential digital PR tool to keep an eye on your backlink profile to see any new links that you’ve landed. And what about unlinked brand mentions? Make the most of Ahrefs’ content explorer tool and type in your keywords and brand name to see any coverage that may have come through without a link.
👉 Ahrefs
Another handy time saving extension! This handy SEO tool will automatically highlight any no follow links at first glance to save you the time of inspecting the page. This means you can also easily spot a lovely follow link as they come in and keep time spent tracking links down to a minimum.
Probably one of the simplest ways to keep an eye on any incoming coverage, Google Alerts can be set up whichever way works best for you. Customise the mentions you’d like to receive notifications for and get any updates directly sent to your inbox. We’d suggest having your core brand mentions set up regularly as well as any brand word + keyword combinations which you can use to track your campaigns.
Try out some of these helpful tools next time you’re working on your digital PR ideation, outreach and measurement. If you’re looking for a hand or just want to learn what digital PR is all about, browse our digital PR services or get in touch!