April 2, 2025
As a company, you want to get into the news through the media, but you may not always know how to approach this. It is important to have insight into the different strategies that are available to promote your brand. In this article, we will therefore discuss the difference between traditional PR and Digital PR. Both strategies can be important for your strategy. In this article, we compare these different branches of Public Relations (PR).
What is traditional PR?
Traditional PR has been used for years as a way to represent and promote a brand or organization. This can be done with press releases, news articles in print media, television interviews and events. The goal of traditional PR is to build and maintain a positive image in the media landscape through relationships with journalists, editors and influential media personalities.
A characteristic of traditional PR is that communication is one-way; companies send information to the media, but have limited control over how that information is presented. This can lead to broad media attention, but also to unintended interpretations of the message.
What is Digital PR?
Digital PR is an online PR strategy in which we create the ideal combination of good content supported by data, the right strategy and link building. With a sharp angle, a landing page and infographics, the goal is to stand out in the media landscape. By creating press releases with news value, the message is brought to the attention of journalists and editors and in this way the brand awareness and backlink profile are strengthened.
A characteristic of Digital PR is the possibility to conduct targeted campaigns based on data analysis and various tools. This increases the effectiveness and often also the chance that a campaign will be picked up after the right efforts.
Differences between traditional PR and Digital PR
1. Communication channels
Traditional PR uses print media, television and radio, while Digital PR focuses on social media, blogs and other online channels. As a result, Digital PR often reaches a broader and younger audience that consumes less traditional media. With traditional PR you can therefore more easily reach the group that has not followed the digital age.
2. Online PR is forever visible
A major advantage of an online publication is that it is permanently on the internet and can also be found via the various search engines. If you have an advertisement placed in a regional newspaper, for example, it can be bought by customers for about a week and then it usually ends up in the paper bin. An online publication, on the other hand, remains findable forever.
3. Measuring success
Digital PR makes it easier to analyze campaigns using tools such as Google Analytics. This allows you to see, for example, how often a campaign is picked up and the traffic on that page. Traditional PR is more difficult to monitor, since success is often measured by media attention and reach and you cannot properly estimate whether your article is actually read in that newspaper, since there are multiple articles in it.
4. Costs
Traditional PR can be expensive due to advertising costs and media purchasing. Digital PR is often more cost-effective, especially for small and medium-sized companies that want to optimize their marketing budgets. However, when you buy an offline article, you know for sure that it will be picked up in the newspaper or daily newspaper. With Digital PR, the article is usually picked up by many websites, but it can also be disappointing when there are only three websites that want to publish your article.
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Similarities between traditional PR and Digital PR
1. Objectives
Both forms of PR strive for a positive brand image and promoting the brand awareness of a company.
2. Relations with the media
Whether it concerns journalists or bloggers and influencers, in all cases building and maintaining media relations is very important. In this way, articles are taken over more often.
3. Storytelling
A good story is the core of both traditional and Digital PR. A captivating story that connects with the target group increases the chance of successful PR campaigns and a more positive image.
The future of PR
With the ongoing digitalization, Digital PR is becoming increasingly important. However, this does not mean that traditional PR is redundant. The best PR strategies combine both approaches. A mixed approach helps brands reach a wider audience and build a stronger image. When developing a PR strategy, it is important to understand how traditional and Digital PR can complement each other. Companies that combine both have a greater chance of long-term success.
Digital PR specialist
Tijn Bokma is a Digital PR specialist at Seeders. With a degree in communications and a specialization in journalism, he is skilled at recognizing newsworthiness and easily translating it into press releases and landing pages. Tijn enjoys brainstorming and helps clients get the most out of their campaigns!
