digital-pr
What’s the Difference Between Proactive and Reactive Digital PR?
Published: 28/08/24 - Updated: 23/10/24
UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENCES
In the landscape of digital PR, choosing the right strategy and tactics can make or break a brand’s reputation and visibility. ‘Proactive’ and ‘reactive’ PR are two fundamental approaches, each serving distinct purposes and requiring different tactics.
Understanding the differences between these two strategies is crucial for effectively building a successful and sustainable digital PR strategy, ensuring that communication efforts are both impactful and timely.
So, what’s the difference between proactive and reactive PR?
Proactive digital PR
Proactive digital PR should always start with a well-defined strategy that aligns with the brands wider marketing goals. The beauty of a proactive PR campaign is that it can be planned in advance to capitalise on topical events that we know will happen, such as the school summer holidays or the festive period.
A proactive digital PR campaign will thematically align with a brands offering whilst also capitalising on key seasonal moments and trends to create newsworthy, story-led PR campaigns designed to educate, entertain, and engage, proactively fostering a positive reputation.
Proactive PR for SEO purposes
For all types of digital PR it’s crucial to identify keywords primed for growth and analyse a site’s backlink profile to understand the publications, niches and topics that will be most beneficial for a brand to gain coverage and backlinks in.
This information should be combined with a brand’s overall marketing goals to create relevant PR campaigns focused on obtaining backlinks from key target sites that will have the most impact on driving rankings in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page).
Owning the news agenda
One of the best things about proactive PR is that through planned content campaigns and press announcements, PR’s are able to create the news we want to put out into the world and put our brands at the front and centre of the media where their audience resides.
Regularly pitching relevant stories, securing authoritative media coverage around key brand moments, and engaging with media contacts on an ongoing basis helps keep the brand in the public eye and ensure consistent positive exposure.
Reactive digital PR
On the other side of things, reactive digital PR is all about responding to events, breaking news stories and trends as soon as they arise. It allows PR’s to craft quickfire, engaging content, data and commentary on topics relevant to a brand, positioning them as industry leaders.
Monitoring the media for reactive opportunities
Reactive PR requires constant media monitoring across relevant news outlets, social media, and tools that allow us to spot trending topics such as Google Trends and Reddit.
Our digital PR team at Kaizen is constantly monitoring the news for reactive trends relevant to our clients, making sure we’re the first ones to spot opportunities and positioning our clients as leaders in their industry.
As well as regular media monitoring and utilising journalist request tools such as Response Source, staying up to date with social media is one of the best ways to spot trends as soon as they start to emerge.
TikTok and Pinterest are two platforms that our team have had huge success with. TikTok has been the source of inspiration for many reactive ideas spanning industries from automotive to beauty. Besides staying up to date with current trends on your ‘for you page’, TikTok also has a creative centre where you can browse what’s trending now and even filter it by country and industry.
Pinterest is another key site to monitor for reactive opportunities that brands can capitalise on. The social media platform has a trends page where you can view trends with increased search volume over the last seven days to predict what’s about to blow up. You can also search by keyword to find related trends and popular pins to spark further creative ideas for your brand.
Speed is everything
The biggest differentiator between proactive and reactive PR is the speed at which a reaction is required. Reactive PR opportunities often live and die within the space of 24 hours so responding promptly to opportunities is everything.
Strong relationships with journalists are vital for effective reactive PR. This includes promptly responding to journalist enquiries, providing accurate information, and facilitating expert commentary and interviews.
The strongest strategies combine reactive and proactive PR
Both proactive and reactive PR are essential components of a robust digital strategy.
Proactive PR helps build and maintain a strong, positive brand image through planned campaigns, supported by a strategic and targeted approach to SEO growth. Meanwhile, reactive PR positions brands as industry leaders by placing them at the heart of conversations that are relevant to their audience.
Balancing both strategies allows for a diverse and natural backlink profile, a key building block of sustainable organic growth. Just as brands have their individual strategies, online publications also have theirs. Whereas some publishers are more likely to feature story-led campaign content, responding to reactive trends and PR requests can open up coverage opportunities on additional high-authority sites that proactive activity cannot. By understanding and effectively combining both approaches, brands can ensure resilient and sustainable organic growth.
Shakira Sacks
Shakira is an experienced senior PR leader with 9 years experience in the industry building brands organically through PR strategies combining data and creativity. Joining the agency in early 2024, Shakira leads on the creative and reactive PR offerings here at Kaizen, focusing on new business, product development and innovation.