What Should You Look for in a Digital PR Agency?

Hiring a Digital PR agency isn't like hiring someone to write a press release. You're trusting another company to tell your story, represent your business, and build relationships with journalists on your behalf. That takes more than a list of media contacts or a templated pitch.

Over the past few years, we've learned something that's become one of the guiding principles of our Digital PR work: the best pitches don't sound like they came from an agency. They sound like they came from someone who genuinely understands the business.

That's why choosing the right Digital PR agency matters. You're not simply hiring someone to send emails to reporters. You're choosing a partner who should understand your business well enough to recognize the stories worth telling, and know how to tell them in a way that's valuable to journalists and meaningful to your long-term marketing strategy.

Not every Digital PR agency works the same way

At first glance, many Digital PR agencies look similar. They all talk about media placements, backlinks, journalist relationships, and thought leadership. But once you look a little closer, the approach can be very different.

Some agencies focus on volume. Their goal is to send as many pitches as possible and hope a percentage of them land. Others focus primarily on press releases, distributing announcements to media outlets and measuring success by the number of publications that pick them up.

Neither approach is necessarily wrong, but it's also not how we think Digital PR creates the greatest value. At L&L Collective, we believe the strongest Digital PR strategies begin by understanding the business behind the pitch. When we know your industry, your customers, your leadership team, and what makes your business different, we can identify opportunities that feel authentic instead of forced.

Find an agency that wants to learn your business

One of the first things we tell new clients is that we'll probably ask a lot of questions. Not because we're trying to make onboarding longer, but because the better we understand your business, the better we can represent it.

Before we ever begin pitching journalists, we want to understand:

• What products or services do you offer?
• What questions do your customers ask most often?
• What trends are shaping your industry?
• What expertise does your leadership team have?
• What stories are worth telling?
• What are your long-term business goals?

We also spend time reviewing your website, understanding your messaging, and looking at how your competitors are positioning themselves. Every one of those conversations helps us recognize stronger opportunities.

The best media placements don't happen because someone sent another email. They happen because someone recognized the right story.

Look beyond media placements

A Digital PR agency shouldn't only be thinking about publicity. They should be thinking about how every placement supports your business. When we're evaluating opportunities, we're asking questions like:

• Will this build authority for your brand?
• Does this publication align with your audience?
• Could this placement strengthen your SEO?
• Will it support your long-term marketing goals?
• Does it position your leadership team as experts?

Those questions are why our Digital PR strategy is closely connected to the rest of our marketing work. A great placement shouldn't exist in isolation. It should strengthen your website, support your SEO, give your leaders something to share on LinkedIn, and give your sales team another reason to build trust with potential customers.

Ask how they measure success

Media placements are exciting, but they shouldn't be the only measurement of success. When you're evaluating a Digital PR agency, ask them how they define results. Do they only track the number of articles published? Or do they also look at:

• High-authority backlinks
• Website authority
• Referral traffic
• Organic search visibility
• AI search visibility
• Brand credibility
• Thought leadership opportunities

At L&L Collective, we care about placements because of what they create, not just because they happened. A great article published today can continue strengthening your business for years through backlinks, search visibility, and increased credibility.

Bigger isn't always better

This might be the most important thing we can share: a Digital PR agency doesn't need hundreds of clients to be successful. In fact, we've found the opposite is often true.

We intentionally work with a manageable client roster because understanding your business is one of the most valuable parts of our process. We'd rather spend time learning your industry, understanding your goals, and building relationships that lead to meaningful opportunities than send hundreds of generic pitches every week.

Digital PR works best when the person writing the pitch actually knows the company they're representing. We think that's worth protecting.

Questions to ask before hiring a Digital PR agency

If you're evaluating agencies, here are a few questions worth asking:

• How do you learn about our business before pitching?
• Who writes the pitches?
• How do you identify media opportunities?
• Do you customize every pitch?
• How do you measure success?
• How does Digital PR support SEO?
• Can you help position our leadership team as industry experts?
• How many Digital PR clients does each strategist manage?

The answers to those questions will tell you far more than a list of media logos ever could.

Our perspective

One of the biggest things we've learned is that Digital PR isn't really about pitching. It's about understanding. The better we understand your business, the stronger the stories become. The stronger the stories become, the more valuable they are to journalists. And the more valuable they are to journalists, the more likely they are to become placements that keep creating value long after they're published.

That's why we don't believe the best Digital PR agencies are the ones sending the most pitches. We believe they're the ones asking the best questions first.

Looking for a Digital PR partner?

If you're searching for a Digital PR agency, we hope you'll look beyond media lists and placement counts. Find a team that's genuinely interested in understanding your business, your expertise, and your long-term goals. Because the best Digital PR doesn't start with a pitch. It starts with a partnership.

If that sounds like the approach you're looking for, explore our Digital PR services or let's start the conversation.