10 Free Digital PR Tools for Boosting Your Online Presence

• Connectively: Simplify PR with Targeted Media Outreach

• BuzzSumo: Discover Trending Content & Influencers

• Mention: Monitor Your Brand’s Online Presence

• Hunter.io: Find Key Contact Information

• Muck Rack: Manage Media Relationships with Ease

• PressHunt: Find Journalists for Your Stories

• Prowly: Manage Your PR Efforts Seamlessly

• Snov.io: Find and Verify Email Addresses

• ResponseSource: Access Journalist Requests

• Google Alerts: Stay on Top of Mentions

• Connect with Journalists, Influencers & Bloggers with these Free Digital PR Tools

Having an effective digital PR strategy can make all the difference in building your brand's reputation, gaining visibility, and driving traffic. Unfortunately, if you were to sign up to all the necessary digital PR tools, you'd be out of pocket by over $1k per month. Fortunately, we've combed the internet to find you a list of 10 free digital PR tools to boost your online presence! Here's a round-up of some fantastic free digital PR tools that can help you optimise your PR campaigns without breaking the bank. These tools will be a game-changer for businesses, especially in New Zealand, looking to connect with journalists, influencers, and customers while building their online reputation.

1. Connectively (formerly HARO: Help a Reporter Out)

Connectively is a valuable tool for building relationships with journalists, bloggers, and influencers. It allows you to discover media contacts and streamline your outreach efforts, making it easy to pitch your brand to the right people. Whether you’re promoting a new product or seeking media coverage, Connectively gives you the tools to connect with top-tier media professionals across various sectors.

• Use it for: Establishing media relationships and increasing press coverage.

1. BuzzSumo (Free Trial)

With BuzzSumo, you can identify top-performing content in your industry and track the influencers driving those trends. The free version of BuzzSumo gives you insights into the types of content that resonate with audiences, helping you tailor your outreach and content strategies for PR success.

• Use it for: Discovering trending topics and influencer outreach.

1. Mention (Free Trial)

Mention is a social media listening tool that helps you track mentions of your brand across the web. This tool provides real-time monitoring of blogs, social media, and news sites, helping you manage your online presence and quickly respond to any press or social conversations about your business.

• Use it for: Social listening and PR crisis management.

1. Hunter.io (Free Version)

Hunter.io allows you to find email addresses for journalists, influencers, and media contacts, making it easy to conduct PR outreach. It’s ideal for building a media list on a budget, and its free version offers a limited number of searches each month.

Use it for: Building a PR outreach list.

1. Muck Rack (Free Version)

Muck Rack connects businesses with journalists by providing a searchable media database. You can look for journalists by the types of stories they cover and pitch your brand directly to the most relevant contacts. This tool also helps you track your PR results and monitor news in your industry.

• Use it for: Connecting with journalists and media outlets.

1. PressHunt (Free Trial)

PressHunt is a fantastic alternative for digital PR professionals looking for a free tool. It provides access to a vast database of journalists, allowing users to filter by beat, location, and publication, perfect for sending targeted outreach to the right media contacts.

• Use it for: Finding journalists and building targeted media lists.

1. Prowly (Free Trial)

Prowly offers PR software that includes a media database, press release distribution, and analytics. The free trial allows you to get a feel for the platform and see how it can streamline your PR efforts, making it easier to run campaigns and connect with media contacts.

• Use it for: PR campaign management and media outreach.

1. Snov.io (Free Trial)

Snov.io provides email tracking, CRM integration, and lead generation tools, perfect for PR outreach and follow-up emails. Its free tier offers a limited number of searches but is useful for finding contact details for your PR outreach efforts.

• Use it for: Email outreach and follow-up automation.

1. ResponseSource (Free Trial)

ResponseSource connects brands with journalists looking for expert commentary, case studies, and PR collaborations. It’s a great way to quickly get press coverage and build your brand’s authority in your industry.

• Use it for: Securing press mentions and media collaborations.

1. Google Alerts

Google Alerts allows you to monitor the web for mentions of your brand, competitors, or relevant industry topics. By staying on top of media mentions, you can respond to opportunities quickly and manage your brand’s reputation in real-time. Plus, it’s completely free.

• Use it for: SEO, Reputation management and real-time media monitoring.

Connect with Journalists, Influencers & Bloggers with these Free Digital PR Tools

These free digital PR tools can help you build your brand’s authority, secure press coverage, and manage your online reputation without stretching your budget. With the right tools in hand, digital PR can boost your online presence and help you compete in an increasingly crowded marketplace.

SEO & SEM - Best Practises, Checklists & Measuring Performance

1. Introduction

2. What SEO is and how it works

3. SEO checklist

4. What is SEM?

5. SEM checklist

6. Conclusion

7. Get an SEO & SEM cost estimate via the brief builder

Introduction

Dig deeper into what SEO is, how it compares to SEM, the costs involved, and how it can benefit your business; whether you’re a seasoned business owner with decades of experience or just launching a startup – there's always more to learn.

What is SEO and how it works

SEO (search engine optimisation) is the process of optimising your website so search engines, like Google, can easily understand it and assign authority - resulting in higher in search result rankings for targeted keywords. However, it’s not just about hitting keywords - Google’s algorithms reward helpful, well-structured websites that deliver value.

SEO checklist

• Set clear and relevant page titles, and ensure your page titles are keyword-rich and describes your business accurately for search engines.

• Add compelling meta descriptions to each page encouraging users to click from search results, again make sure your target keywords are mentioned.

• Add relevant, keyword-focused content to each page that clearly explains what your website or business offers. Do not overstuff keywords in your content.

• Make sure search engines can index your homepage so it appears in search results. This can be managed in your page settings.

  
  

• Ensure your site is fully responsive and optimised for mobile devices.

• Connect your site to a custom domain builds trust and enhances brand recognition.

• Link your site to Google Search Console and request sit indexing to track performance, identify issues, and improve your SEO strategy.

• Add alt text to all images.

• Make sure you have plenty of internal links to various pages on your site.

• Make sure you also add plenty of external links to various pages outside of your site.

  
  

• Structure your onpage content in a way that is easily understood by search engines, by including relevant target keywords in your headers, and providing a hierarchy for sub headings

  • e.g. "what is a digital marketing agency" (H1)

  • "benefits of working with a digital marketing agency" (H2)

  • "SEO tools and tips" (H3)

• Increase site speed by formatting images into AVIF or WebP and compressing images them to small files if necessary.

• Add a logo and favicon to your website. Make sure your page sharing descriptions and images are also set.

• Add links to your social media profiles and vice versa. Post regularly from your social accounts, with links to your site.

• Create a blog and regularly post with relevant, helpful content.

• Create backlinking opportunities by setting up profiles on relevant business directories, review sites, and requesting mentions in other industry related blog articles. Write guest blog posts on other sites that point to your site.

  
  

• Create a Google My Business profile and link back to your site.

• Ensure your business info like address, and contact details are all consistent across your site, Google My Business profile, social media profiles, etc.
  

• Set up Google Analytics to measure performance.

What is SEM?

SEM (search engine marketing) is auction-based paid advertising on search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo to ascertain traffic from search result pages (SERPS) by bidding on various targeted keywords and demographics.

SEM is a great way to get traffic to your site quickly while you develop your organic authority. It's also a great way to test for keywords, audiences, content, and to collect data to measure and optimise performance.

SEM checklist

• Create an account on Google Ads (or alternative search engine), and create a conversion goal.

• For optimal data and conversion tracking, set up a Google Tag Manager account and integrate it with Google Analytics. Install a Google Tag to your site, and ensure it's correctly receiving data.

• Perform keyword research using Google Trends, and by searching for your keyword on search engines to identify similar search phrases as indicated from the 'People Also Search For" section on SERPS. Use the keyword planner on Google Ads to get volume and history.

• Create ads; narrow down your target audience, keyword list, and optimise campaigns as you regularly.

Conclusion

SEO is a must have for any website that wants to grow organic traffic - but it does take some time to achieve high SERPS. Go through our SEO checklist to make sure your site is up to speed, and pair it with SEM to achieve valuable short term results.

Want know how much SEO and SEM costs? Try our brief builder to get a free SEO & SEM cost estimate.

What is a Marketing Agency and How It Can Benefit Your Business

A marketing agency is a collective of nutty creatives and nerdy strategists who work together to help businesses attract audiences, convert them into loyal customers and eventually turn them into passionate brand advocates.

How do we do this? Well, usually the first step is content creation whether that be via a blog, social media, website copy etc. and the second step focuses on distributing that content through advertising, websites, billboards, tv (*cough* sorry I meant Youtube) – whatever makes the most sense for the business inquiring.

At TopTalent, we specialise in digital marketing, focusing on website development, SEO, social media strategy, paid advertising, and much more. We also organise events and tap into outdoor marketing opportunities to ensure your brand connects with your audience – wherever they might be.

What is the function of a marketing agency?

Marketing agencies work closely with businesses to enhance their marketing strategies, optimise processes, and manage the production of creative assets and campaigns. The process usually starts with a conversation about your goals, followed by a list of quick wins and long-term strategies for growth.

At TopTalent, our support includes everything from campaign ideation, production, and execution to event management, website upgrades, and paid ad management services - alleviating some of the workload and freeing up resources for other uses.

What are the benefits of working with a marketing agency?

Let’s talk talent. When you partner with a top-tier agency, you’re tapping into a pool of industry experts - whether it's SEO, social media, website optimisation, or paid ads. They bring fresh ideas, cutting-edge strategies, and the ability to execute them flawlessly. This means less time spent searching for the next big marketing trend, and more time seeing results.

A good agency helps you maximise your marketing spend by providing the best return on investment, boosting quality and accountability across campaigns, and elevating the customer experience at every stage of their journey. It’s about crafting an approach that turns leads into conversions, and conversions into long-term customer relationships.

Who needs a marketing agency?

If you have a capable internal team but feel stuck in a cycle of repetitive ideas, a marketing agency offers a fresh perspective. Breaking free from groupthink with the help of outside experts can be a game-changer.

Agencies also come in handy during tight budget periods or when teams are stretched thin, seamlessly taking over without missing a beat and ensuring your marketing efforts stay consistent.

Ready to ramp it up? Try our cost calculator or flick us a quick message, and we’ll be in touch to get the ball rolling.