Harnessing Data to Amplify your Media Relations Impact

If you’re a public relations practitioner and you’re not taking advantage of data to pitch media, you and your brand are missing out.

Data helps to reinforce a brand’s messaging and perspectives on a topic or trend. It can be used to educate and interest key audiences. It can be used as a form of thought leadership for your brand, helping position its leadership as an authority. And it can be maximized across a variety of functions and channels – from traditional to social media, and media relations to digital marketing.

In media relations, data reigns supreme.

Why Use Data in your Public Relations Efforts? 

You Make your Pitches More Credible and Relevant

When reaching out to media, it’s easy to write a pitch and tell the journalist that your topic is important to their audience. But telling and proving are two different things. Instead, find data that shows your topic, or narrative is of interest to their audience. For one of my clients, a child charity, I often pitch stats about the prevalence of child poverty or mental health issues to the media and highlight if there have been shifts that their audience will want to know about.  

You Make it Easy for Reporters to Cover your Story

PR is a crowded space, and reporters get hundreds of pitches a day. Once they decide which pitch they will work on, the first thing they will do is research to substantiate your story. By doing all the legwork, you make it easier for them to write your story. I don’t know about you, but if I had a choice between two stories to work on and one had all the prep work done while the other meant I would need to do hours of prep, I would choose the easier option (with the understanding that they are both equally good stories). By making a reporter’s day easier, they will not only be more likely to cover your story, but they will want to work more closely with you moving forward. This is a win for both your PR agency and your client.

Pitches that include data are seen as more credible.

You Develop Thought Leadership Opportunities

The same rings true for your clients. If a reporter knows they can turn to your client as a resource, they’ll become a go-to authority for their future stories, because they can count on your client providing important or engaging data during the interview. Sharing data-driven stories is a good way to establish your client as a credible interview source in the long run (not just one story today) and build ongoing brand awareness.

This serves a second purpose. As your client gets to know reporters, these relationships are ones you can leverage should your client ever face a crisis. Fostering good media relationships is integral as part of your reputation management and crisis communications strategies. 

Want help leveraging your data to create an impactful media narrative? Contact us at info@amplifyonline.ca.