How to Turn Customer Reviews into Solid Marketing Content

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If you have raving fans, it’s great to let potential leads know it! Customers take online reviews seriously, and the role it plays in consumer decisions continues to increase. Research from BrightLocal shows just how seriously potential customers take online reviews. 84% percent of buyers give online reviews the same weight in decision making as personal referrals. 

Online reviews are now starting to eclipse referral-based business. as Northwestern University finds that consumers are 270% more likely to buy a product or service with 5 positive reviews than a product or service with no reviews. That’s hugely significant! In order to harness the power of these reviews, use them in your marketing efforts to increase consumer trust and boost sales.

Use Customer Reviews To Enhance Your Website SEO

There are a few ways to do this. The first is simply to embed the code for Google Reviews in your website so that Google Reviews. This is a good option if the majority of your reviews are positive. Google’s search engine algorithm will recognize the embedded rating system and is likely to rank your site more highly as a result. 

The second way to utilize customer reviews is to include them on your website, either by using parts of the review text directly or by including graphics of the positive reviews on your site. (Don’t forget to change the alt text on these images so that they’re search-engine friendly) Google and Yelp hold a high trust cache with consumers, and citing positive reviews can help your brand leverage that trust. 

Use Customer Reviews on Social Media

You may also have the advantage of. Keep an eye on videos or posts that tag your brand. If you have a social media manager, have them proactively research any posts where your product or service is tagged. They can use tools like BuzzSumo or Mention to help with this. If they come across a positive review, have your team DM the content creator to ask if the review can be used  in marketing materials. 

Some reviewers are happy to offer their thoughts gratis, while others work as part or full-time product influencers. Both types of social media reviews can be helpful to weave into your marketing strategy. Screenshots and re-posts of positive reviews can build brand awareness on multiple platforms.  

Let Negative Reviews Spur Institutional Changes

Online reviews through Yelp and Google provide business owners with what they say they want most: anonymous feedback close to the point of sale. But business owners are also human, and harsh or negative reviews can leave a bad taste in anyone’s mouth. After you take some time to feel frustrated, see if you can find the kernel of truth in their words. The frustration may be about an inefficient process, an unhelpful team member, or a product flaw. 

Rather than stew in frustration, take specific actions to address the issue. However, don’t revamp your entire process over one negative review. Reflect and ask your employees if they’ve also seen evidence of what the review mentions. If it comes up several times, it may be time to analyze and address a potential pain point. 

Be Proactive about Interacting With Reviews

If you don’t have a Google My Business account or haven’t updated the account you have, you could be missing out on major opportunities to shape how your brand is perceived. One of these ways is by interacting with online reviews. Brands that interact with customers on Google cultivate a reputation for being proactive and conscientious. Plus, interacting with reviews often can allow you to pinpoint and identify possible customer needs or frustrations before they go viral. 

In the world of online reviews, negative feedback begets negative feedback. It shouldn’t go unaddressed, or you may see more of it. Instead, if you see a review that’s unfair or lacking context, you can provide that in your response to an online review. You can also offer to make it right, which goes a long way in securing customer loyalty. It says to potential buyers, “Even if we make a mistake, we will correct our error.”

Need Help Utilizing Your Positive Reviews?

Our strategic, full-service marketing team can help you plan and deploy an innovative marketing approach to court customers and build brand loyalty. Contact Green Apple Strategy today to schedule a consultation. Our team is happy to sit down with you to discuss your marketing goals and how we can help you achieve each and every one of them.

Defining Your Ideal Customer for Higher Lead Generation

Woman on Laptop
Hoping to improve your lead generation results? Knowing your customer on a deeper level allows you and your team to remain in alignment on the who, what, when, where, and how of your customers’ motivations. Your clarity in these areas allows you to build a strong lead generation strategy to guide your marketing and advertising efforts moving forward.  This article will explore how to define your ideal customer profile to better understand your customer’s motivations, needs, and challenges. We recommend that you take this information into account as you think through new ways to reach those customers and encourage them to take action. 

Understanding Your Customer: B2B vs. B2C 

Profiling your customers is helpful for both B2B and B2C clients—however, the approach is different for each. 
  • For B2B customers: Instead of imagining a single individual, you will be building a profile for the ideal business that you would like to work with. You may look at aspects of their business such as size, industry, values, and structure. These elements, and many others you might identify along the way, add up to paint a picture of what types of companies you prefer to work with, and why.  
  • For B2C customers: With B2C customers, you’re focusing on your customer at an individual level, identifying what types of people your products or services are for. Elements that you focus on may be their age, location, interests, needs, and several other factors. 
When determining who your ideal customer is, bring your team in on this conversation. Your perspective alone may not be enough to gather a comprehensive view of the types of customers you typically attract or the prospective customers you would like to target moving forward. 

Leaning On The Data

Your ideal customer isn’t merely a matter of perspective, opinion, or a shot in the dark. It’s also a matter of data. If you’ve been in business a while, you likely have metrics to reference when determining your typical customer. Look at your website, social media accounts, and email marketing statistics to gain an understanding of who your current marketing efforts are already attracting and where you might have an opportunity to expand your reach. 

Using What You Find

This is the best part—using what you discover. Once you’re ready, use what you’ve learned to build a robust lead generation strategy that hinges on your findings.  What does this mean? For example, suppose you found that your ideal customer is a young professional in your area who is motivated by excelling in their career. In that case, you might decide that the best way to reach that person is through targeted LinkedIn ads and face-to-face at local professional organizations.  Take what you now understand about that customer and use it to your advantage. You have the data you need to lead you straight to your ideal customer, and now it’s time to encourage them to take action with your company. 

Build a Lead Generation Strategy with Green Apple

If you want to dig into your customer’s characteristics even further, we recommend checking out our recent article “20 Questions to Ask Yourself that Will Improve Your Customer Profiles.” Green Apple Strategy can help you find your ideal customer and discover new ways to speak to their pain points. Ready to get started? Contact us today to schedule a consultation. Our team is happy to sit down with you to discuss your goals and how we can help you achieve each and every one of them.

How Enneagram Type Sevens Bring Energy to All They Do

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If you’re lucky enough to have an Enneagram Type Seven on your team, you probably already know the energy, playfulness, and innovation they can bring to a working environment. When you work with or manage a Type Seven, you’d like to empower them to use their talents in the most effective way possible. As you’re planning your next project, keep the following strengths in mind to provide your Seven with a role that best utilizes their unique skill set.

Type Sevens Embrace Empathy

Having a Type Seven on your marketing team means that you have access to a full-time cheerleader who can bring incredible energy to your work together. This is a huge asset when it comes to building a successful marketing strategy. In order to craft an effective approach, your team needs to cultivate enthusiastic empathy for your clients. Type Sevens are great at enthusiastically embracing a client’s mission, vision, and goals as their own. Their optimism and curiosity can bring energy to a new client’s needs or reinvigorate the approach to an existing client. 

Read More: How Understanding the Enneagram Can Help Your Customers 

Type Sevens are Quick Learners

Enneagram Type Sevens thrive when they’re learning new material and explaining it to others. If you need to master a social media platform or understand a new search engine algorithm, put your Type Seven on the case. In just a few days, they’ll be experts on the topic, whether it’s monetizing TikTok or doing a deep dive into more effective SEO. Once they’ve mastered the material, have them present their findings to the team. Then, activate a Type One or Type Three to craft a marketing strategy to implement based on this new information. Your Type Seven will feel appreciated and you’ll have new information to use in service of your clients. 

Read More: Enneagram and Marketing: How Type Sixes Stay By Your Side

Type Sevens are Client Whisperers

With their zest for life and notable social skills, Type Sevens truly shine in client meetings, even over Zoom. You can count on a Type Seven to present your marketing strategy in a compelling way that will engage your clients’ attention. After the strategy meeting, you’ll probably find them making plans for lunch, drinks, or dinner with the client. Sevens subscribe to Peter Drucker’s belief that, “more business decisions occur over lunch and dinner than at any other time”—and they’re not wrong about that! 

Read More: Enneagram and Marketing: What Makes An Enneagram Type Five a Marketing Asset

Type Sevens Bring Together Your Team

Sevens know that a team can do their best work when the members feel connected both to each other and to their shared professional goals. Sevens are great at fostering team spirit, especially among the shyer or more introverted members of a group. If you need to increase team cohesion, let your Seven plan a teambuilding activity or schedule a social gathering. They’ll build camaraderie and goodwill with impressive ease. Type Sevens believe the adage that “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” They know that groups that feel connected and empowered can crush business goals more effectively than a team that’s experiencing disharmony. 

Ready to Accelerate Your Marketing Strategy? 

Our team enjoys learning more about each other through Enneagram Types and Culture Index surveys to ensure that we communicate and work together effectively. In the end, this is all to improve our clients’ marketing strategies and use our small team to garner big results. 

Are you looking to see what full-service marketing can do for your brand? Contact Green Apple Strategy today to schedule a consultation. Our team is happy to sit down with you to discuss your goals and how we can help you achieve each and every one of them.

5 Ways to Attract Your Ideal Client to Your Website

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You have a great website. So, why are people not finding it? If they are coming across your website, why aren’t they staying? Are these visitors even your target audience? These questions may have crossed your mind as you’ve been navigating through your digital marketing strategy. It’s common for businesses to feel like they’re doing everything they can, with little to no result. That’s where we come in. To help you attract your ideal client to your website, we’re sharing five elements of your strategy that can make all the difference. 

1. Know Who They Are (In Detail)

Before you go looking for your ideal client, you must determine who they are. You may feel like you already know, but even if you do, it’s important to delve further into the details. An essential tool for this process is the client profile. By asking yourself deeper questions about who your clients are, you can paint a picture of your client that will guide your marketing decisions moving forward, such as where to advertise your website, for example. Need help coming up with questions? Take a look at our recent article, 20 Questions to Ask Yourself that Will Improve Your Customer Profiles.

2. Speak to Their Current Challenges

Understanding your clients’ pain points—their current challenges—you can speak directly to them, making them feel seen and heard. What keeps them up at night? What is that one thing they need to hear? If you can identify those elements, you can grab your audience’s attention by showing them that you can offer the solution they’ve been searching for. Utilize this messaging throughout your website, social media captions, blog articles, and more to attract the client who needs exactly what you’re selling.

3. Show them the Type of Results You Can Deliver

People are attracted to results, and rightfully so. They want to know that they’re spending their hard-earned money on a service that will deliver the promised results. Show your clients what you’re capable of. Create case studies and curate a portfolio so that your prospects can see what you’ve done for others. This way, they’ll be able to imagine what you could do for them. 

4. Provide an Excellent User Experience

When a prospect visits your website, you want to make sure that their experience is top-notch. This is sometimes their first impression of your business, and therefore should be a tool used to begin solidifying your relationship with this visitor. If they have a tough time navigating the site or aren’t drawn in by it, that might be all they need to know to begin looking at your competitors. 

5. Use SEO Best Practices

If your prospects can’t find your website, all of your effort could go to waste. It’s vital that you implement SEO best practices, such as adding keywords, metadata, and backlinks to your website so that you rank higher in search results. SEO can be a complex element of your digital presence, so it’s often essential to have a marketing team on your side, but there are a few tactics that you can implement yourself. Check out this article for a bit of guidance: 4 Steps Your Small or Midsize Business Can Take to Improve SEO.

Attract Your Ideal Client with Green Apple Strategy

We can help you reach your target audience through a comprehensive set of marketing tactics. Want us to join your team? Contact us today to schedule a consultation. Our team is happy to sit down with you to discuss your goals and how we can help you achieve each and every one of them.

Your Guide to a Healthcare Public Relations Strategy

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Are you in the healthcare field? Do you want to find your target audience and show them how you can help improve their well-being? Well, a public relations strategy just might be the key. Your audience can find you online, but we should never assume that they will. Even with excellent SEO, you might miss out on reaching that one person who is in dire need of your services without a solid PR strategy. If your marketing strategy is missing PR, we’re here to help. To get you started, here are a few considerations as you build a robust healthcare PR strategy.

1. Identify Newsworthy Content

Information is changing rapidly in the healthcare industry. Topics of conversation can sometimes change before you even have time to put out a story. That’s why you must stay on top of what is relevant and timely—because that’s what your audience needs to hear. Preferably, you would be the first to give them this information, allowing them to view you as a leader. 

Your PR team should always look for the most relevant information to share that will add value to your audience’s lives. Try to identify newsworthy and engaging content that people outside your organization either want or need to know. 

Make sure that all content fits the following criteria:

  • Timely
  • Relevant
  • Well-researched
  • Easy to understand

2. Build Relationships with the Local Media

Networking is a powerful tool in any type of business, and the media is no exception. Your relationship with local reporters, journalists, and media outlets can skyrocket the effectiveness of your overall PR strategy. When local media professionals know you on a first-name basis and understand the value you bring to the table, they are more likely to reach out to you with questions or to work with you on stories for their outlet. 

3. Become a Subject Matter Expert

You have experience and knowledge in your healthcare specialty that others will find helpful, but you have to find a way to share it outside of your office. One way to do this is to become a subject matter expert (SME) for different channels, such as local media, social platforms, and podcasts. Once you focus on becoming a thought leader in your industry and sharing what you know with those around you, your audience will begin to look to you as their go-to resource for information on that subject. Reach out to those in the media, letting them know what you specialize in and that you are flexible and available when they have questions.

4. Submit to HARO Requests

If you want to hit the ground running and offer advice now, you can subscribe to receive HARO emails. Each email will be a list of requests from media outlets asking for firsthand experience or thoughtful insight into particular subjects. Review the emails to see if there is an opportunity that you could contribute to and take the time to write to the journalists—submissions are usually fairly quick. When a journalist chooses your insight to feature, they will also cite you as the source and link your business, providing you with valuable backlinks that increase your SEO success. 

5. Consider the Channels You Will Use

Your healthcare content is only successful if you reach the intended audience. You want them to take action or learn something from your information, right? So, it’s important to consider where your target audience will be most likely to find your content. 

A few options are:

  • Online and print healthcare publications
  • Your website
  • Social media
  • Local or national news
  • Billboards or other public displays

PR doesn’t have to be intimidating with the right strategy. With these five tips, we hope that your team will feel confident to move forward with a PR plan that boosts the image of your healthcare organization. 

Design a Results-Driven PR Strategy with Green Apple

Could your healthcare office become a leader in your field? We think so. Contact us today to schedule a consultation. Our team is happy to discuss your goals and how we can help you achieve each and every one of them with PR and comprehensive marketing.

Enneagram and Marketing: Type Sixes Stay by Your Side

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“The Loyalist.” Enneagram Type Sixes are exactly the kind of people you want to work with, as they are known for being committed, reliable, and trustworthy. While a six might tend to overthink and seek reassurance to know that they can trust you, they are loyal until the end when they feel secure in their relationships with friends, family, coworkers, and clients. Let’s take a look at what makes sixes a great addition to your marketing team. Read More: Enneagram and Marketing: How Type Ones Accelerate Your Strategy

Type Sixes Are Loyal

Once a Type Six has accepted you into their circle, you’re in for the long haul. This person will be your loudest cheerleader, rooting for you during every personal and professional challenge. They’ll lend you their full attention as they provide you and your team with consistency, trustworthiness, and collaboration. Fiercely loyal, Type Sixes can often be the glue holding your team together.  Read More: Enneagram and Marketing: How Type Twos Strengthen Relationships

Type Sixes Are Planners

A Type Six can often overthink and overanalyze situations in their life, which helps them prepare for worst-case-scenario events in their personal and professional lives. They brace themselves, waiting for something terrible to happen. And, though it rarely does, you can be sure that your Type Six is ready and willing to handle whatever comes their way.  Read More: Enneagram and Marketing: How Type Threes Move Mountains

Type Sixes Make Calculated Decisions

You will never find a Type Six entering into a situation blindly. This person will look to their trusted friends, family, and mentors for advice on their biggest decisions. From the outside, this may seem like indecisiveness; however, a Type Six simply wants to be sure that they have all of the information they need before they move forward.  Read More: Enneagram and Marketing: The Creative Beauty of Type Fours

Type Sixes Are Realists

You might find that Type Sixes are suspicious of certain situations at work. It may even come off as pessimistic. But what you will actually find with Sixes is that they are realists who will not overly romanticize their new projects or client situations. They want to be positive, but they know that blind positivity won’t get the job done. In fact, they may even worry that being overly optimistic could help them to ignore potential problems coming their way.  Read More: What Makes an Enneagram Type 5 a Marketing Asset

Get to Know Your Marketing with Green Apple Strategy

We believe that knowing our strengths can help us build the perfect team for each of our clients. Ready to find a team designed just for your company? Contact us today to schedule a consultation. Our team is happy to sit down with you to discuss your goals and how we can help you achieve each and every one of them.

Meet the Team: Katie Shayotovich

Katie Jackson

Katie is a Hendersonville, Tennessee, native with a passion for social media and email marketing who loves to keep up with the latest trends, discovering ways that she can help our clients take advantage of emerging marketing opportunities. With a diverse background in social media and PR, Katie is well-versed in what it takes to improve a company’s brand awareness—and we’re elated to have her talent on our team. 

As Green Apple’s Digital Marketing Specialist, Katie will focus on social media marketing for all of our clients. “I’m really excited to work on social media. It’s something I’m extremely passionate about, and I love keeping up with the ever-changing landscape of what social media can bring to marketing to help grow businesses,” Katie says. 

Katie is a graduate of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, where she first began school as a pre-dental major. After changing her major her sophomore year, Katie became a public relations major in the College of Communications. She also got her Master’s in Sports Management while working in recruiting in the Tennessee Football front office. Additionally, she assisted the Director of Recruiting and Football Relations and the coaching staff with recruiting events and strategy. From there, Katie’s love for social media grew while she was involved in All Campus Events at Tennessee, where she led the social media efforts and helped recruit for different events around campus.

She explored that love through several marketing internships during her undergraduate career, including interning with Volunteer Traditions, Tennessee Athletic Marketing Department, Zander Insurance, Haslam College of Business, Allegiant Athletic Agency, Nashville Sounds, and Eli Lilly and Company. 

Katie found her new role after meeting Owner and Chief Marketing Strategist Samantha Pyle and inquiring about social media freelance opportunities. From there, she became part of our Orchard team and completely fell into step with the rest of the core team members. She says, “I was drawn to Green Apple because of how genuine, kind, and talented the employees are! I felt like I fit in seamlessly, and I loved working on a smaller team in a boutique agency setting. I look up to Sam a lot. We have similar personalities—being that we are both Enneagram 3s and Aries.”

When she’s not working on our clients’ social media, Katie is exploring one of her many hobbies. She enjoys watching sports, especially the Vols and Preds. She’s a huge Harry Potter fan and loves rereading the books and watching the movies. She is also passionate about her Peloton, saying, “I could talk about the cycling classes for hours.” She loves to draw on her iPad and has an Instagram dedicated to her digital art (@somethingnoteworthy).

Katie and her husband, Drew, live in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they love attending Charlotte Hornets games, as well as exploring the local brewery scene. She says she misses Martin’s BBQ in Nashville and frequently visits home to eat Martin’s wings with her dad before Nashville Predators games.

How Green Apple Adds Value to Our Clients’ Strategies

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When you hire a marketing agency, your primary goal is to add value to your business strategy. But, how do you know if a marketing team is adding the value you’re looking for? Let us take a few moments to share how Green Apple adds value to our clients’ strategies in hopes that it helps you determine how an agency might help you reach your business goals. 

We Provide Perspective

Have you ever felt like you can’t see something objectively because you’re too close to the situation? That’s how many of our clients feel when they come to us. By hiring a marketing agency, you add the perspective of a full team of people who can see creative potential and opportunities within your business that you may have never considered. 

The Green Apple team has the unique opportunity to add several different perspectives, as we work with our core team and an expansive team of Orchard members—contractors we work with who have been hand-selected based on their experience and expertise. 

We Share Years of Collective Expertise 

Our team is made up of seven professionals who excel in their respective fields—marketing strategy, PR, project management, social media, content writing—and we support our team with an additional team of contract professionals. So, when you’re hiring Green Apple, you’re getting a team with years of education and experience that have led us here, and it’s our pleasure to share that with our clients to create results-oriented marketing strategies. 

We Track and Share Our Progress

It’s easy to talk about the value we add, but our clients get to see tangible results that let them know that they’re making the most of their marketing investment. We send each client a monthly report, as well as an annual report, to show them exactly how our efforts are translating into web traffic, leads, and several other metrics. We enjoy creating and sharing these reports with our clients because it shows them where all of our dedicated efforts are going, and we love that the numbers can speak for themselves. 

We Bring in the Best Professionals for Your Project

As we mentioned, we use a unique agency model that includes a team of contractors whom we’ve chosen to work with based on their areas of expertise, experience, and industry knowledge. This way, we can provide our clients with a team built just for them based on their needs and goals. Our Orchard members work as an extension to our team—and an extension of yours as well. 

Make the Most of Your Marketing Dollars with Green Apple Strategy

By engaging with Green Apple, you have access to a team of professionals who can provide value to your business’ marketing strategy. Contact us today to schedule a consultation. Our team is happy to sit down with you to discuss your goals and how we can help you achieve each and every one of them.

B2B Companies: How to Get the Most Out of Your LinkedIn Presence

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Are you struggling to get engagement or reach on LinkedIn?  Social media strategies aren’t what they once were. The formula for success is no longer simply “post more often,” or “interact with your content,” which we’re sure you’ve heard countless times. Especially for B2B companies, social media is a different animal—it doesn’t play by the same rules as its B2C counterparts. Not to worry, though. With a well-planned LinkedIn strategy, you can increase your following, engagement, brand awareness, and even encourage teamwork among your employees.   Here’s what you’ll need to get the most out of your LinkedIn presence: 
  1. A current and engaging business page
  2. Digestible content that speaks to your audience’s pain points
  3. Diligent and proactive engagement with your audience
  4. An employee-centric content and engagement strategy
  5. A budget for strategic paid ads

How to Get the Most Out of Your LinkedIn Presence

1. A Current and Engaging Business Page
When was the last time you revisited your LinkedIn business page? Chances are, a lot has happened in your business since you first created the page. On top of that, standards for what makes a good business page have changed. Review your page to ensure that all your information is up to date.  You may also consider switching up your “About” content to speak directly to your audience. Rather than a simple description of what your business does, capture your audience’s attention by telling them how you can solve their problem specifically. Tell them who you help, what you do, and what your differentiators are. This allows your audience to quickly identify that you’re the right fit. Tip: LinkedIn only shows the first two lines of your description without the user having to click to read more. Make those two sentences count!
2. Digestible Content that Speaks to Your Audience’s Pain Points
This is always the tricky one, right? Engaging your audience through eye-catching content. You must find a way to speak to your audience’s needs, while also giving them content that they can quickly digest. That may include graphics, original blog content, thoughtful insights, or shared content from other reputable sources. Try to create (or find and share) content that your audience can learn something from very quickly as they scroll through their feed.  Tip: Always tag any relevant people or businesses in your posts. Also, make good use of your hashtags to help users find your content.
3. Diligent and Proactive Engagement with Your Audience
We know you’re busy and have very little time to watch over your social accounts. But, engagement is one of the most important elements of your LinkedIn strategy. Ensure that you always answer comments or proactively engage your audience in conversation by asking a question in the first comment on your post. To further encourage engagement, you may also consider tagging someone in the comment who you feel may have particularly good insight on the subject.   Tip: Set a calendar reminder to help you remember to check your LinkedIn and engage at least twice per day. 
4. An Employee-Centric Content and Engagement Strategy
Involving your employees is a great way to build teamwork, making your team feel more connected to your audience and to each other. Here are a few of the ways you can encourage your team’s help with your LinkedIn strategy: 
  • Request that each team member spends ten minutes per day engaging on LinkedIn
  • Tag team members in content they helped create or contributed to
  • Create branded cover photos for your team’s profiles 
  • Share content congratulating team members on their accomplishments
  • Tag team members to ask insightful questions 
Tip: Ask team members to create content of their own that they would be proud to share with their LinkedIn connections. 
5. A Budget for Strategic Paid Ads
Organic reach is always the goal, but in today’s social media environment, you often have to pay to play. Consider your business’s primary goals, and set a budget for each that you can use for paid LinkedIn ads. If that’s hiring, for example, you may boost a job advertisement. If it’s brand awareness, you may put your money behind case studies. Whatever you choose, make sure that your ad spend correlates with your team’s goals. Tip: To get the most out of your ad spend, you may prefer to hire someone to help you with this area of your strategy.

Ready to Build a Lead-Generating LinkedIn Strategy? 

Your LinkedIn content has the power to paint a picture for your clients, prospective employees, and anyone coming in contact with your brand. Let’s make it count. Contact Green Apple Strategy today to schedule a consultation. Our team is happy to sit down with you to discuss your goals and how we can help you achieve each and every one of them.

What is Digital PR (And Why Do You Need It)?

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It’s no secret that our world is more digital by the day. Advertising and media relations have completely shifted as the internet has grown and changed. And, of course, the exponential (and constant) growth of social media has completely transformed the way we communicate with our audiences. That’s why a PR strategy alone won’t quite cut it anymore. So, where do you go from here?

To stay ahead of your competition and remain present for your audience, it’s vital that you and your marketing team have a comprehensive digital PR strategy. In this article, we’ll cover what is involved in a digital PR plan and how you can begin putting yours together today.

What Does a Digital PR Strategy Include? 

In your digital PR toolkit, you’ll need: 

  • A customer survey tool to collect positive reviews
  • Backlinks in trustworthy publications
  • Proactive press releases and connections with the media
  • A comprehensive social media strategy

How Do You Put these In Place? 

1. A Customer Survey Tool to Collect Positive Reviews

One of the most important ways to build trust with your customers is through positive reviews. In fact, according to BrightLocal, 91% of customers from the ages of 18 to 34 trust online reviews just as much as personal recommendations. Knowing the power of reviews, it’s imperative that you have a strategy in place to collect them. We recommend that our clients use LoyaltyLoop; however, there are many other tools out there to explore to see what would serve your business best. 

Here are a few of the top ways to collect reviews: 

  • A survey tool, such as LoyaltyLoop
  • Instructing your team to encourage customers to leave reviews
  • Linking to your Google, Yelp, or Facebook pages in your email signature
  • Offer your customers an incentive 
2. Backlinks in Trustworthy Publications

Your digital PR strategy should also include ways to obtain backlinks on trustworthy sites. A backlink is when another site links to yours because you have relevant information to offer. One of the most successful backlink methods we’ve tested is using HARO (Help a Reporter Out) to submit helpful information to reporters. Though it can be time-consuming, responding to one or two requests per week could significantly increase the number of backlinks you have, and therefore boost your SEO. 

Another effective method is creating a guide packed with a lot of helpful, actionable information. A large guide is a time investment on the front end; however, it provides you with long-term results. Provide your audience with information that they want to share with others, encouraging them to link out to your guide, which may have tips, steps, statistics, or other information that would be especially helpful. 

3. Proactive Press Releases and Connections with The Media

To send out newsworthy content, your team must stay ahead of any upcoming stories so that they can be ready to have a timely press release out to the media. Think ahead to what you may be able to highlight in the upcoming weeks or months—events you may be involved in, charity work you plan to do, or big changes to your company. Does nothing come to mind? It might be time to make some waves! 

Make sure that you’re submitting your press releases to journalists who will be interested in what you have to say. You might consider looking for publications within your industry or focusing on reporters who specialize in your topic. Try making personal connections with these reporters when you can. Knowing someone on a first-name basis can go a long way in getting your story out there. 

4. A Comprehensive Social Media Strategy

Can you believe we waited this long to get to social media? Well, that’s in part because, although it’s important, social media isn’t everything. Your digital PR strategy should be well-rounded, including all parts of the picture. With that said, social media is an important piece of your plan. Work with your team to decide which platforms work best for your industry and your audience and what types of content you should be creating for each. Create a strategy that works for your business specifically. Tips on content and when and how to post can be helpful, but at the end of the day, you want to spend your time where you’re seeing the best results and getting the most value. 

Looking for a PR Agency to Get the Word Out About Your Business?

The landscape of marketing is changing so rapidly that if you aren’t staying on top of it constantly, you’ll fall behind quickly. We won’t let you fall behind. Contact Green Apple Strategy today to schedule a consultation. Our team is happy to sit down with you to discuss your goals and how we can help you achieve each and every one of them.