Learn how to identify trends, craft compelling narratives, and secure valuable backlinks by leveraging your unique data insights.
In recent years, there has been an explosion of data-led stories in the media, many generated by PR efforts. Revealing patterns, trends, and anomalies that aren’t apparent without in-depth analysis, this form of news appeals to journalists and their readers.
Looking at the latest news page on Google, a staggering 277 data-led stories are published daily in the UK, demonstrating their popularity. However, this also challenges marketing and PR professionals – standing out in an increasingly crowded field.
Data is at the heart of digital PR, fuelling creative content campaigns and giving journalists more reason to link to your site. The reader is interested in seeing further analysis.
The ultimate goal of getting backlinks from relevant publications with a high domain authority is to increase a website’s search rankings and raise brand awareness.
Successful campaigns have seen hundreds of links produced from a story, brought about by analyzing sources such as social media trends, survey-led market research, or publicly available government data.
Yet, one of the most valuable sources of data is often overlooked despite it paving the way for an angle that is trustworthy, relevant, and, above all, exclusive. The secret? Internal data.
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Leveraging internal data
Companies have access to an ever-expanding data pool in today’s digital-first world. While many marketing teams use this data to refine targeting and improve conversion rates, few realize its potential value for PR and marketing.
A company’s internal sales data, for example, often provides an early indication of shifting consumer preferences. When former England football manager Gareth Southgate’s waistcoat-wearing habit went viral, M&S noticed a corresponding rise in waistcoat sales – creating a perfect news hook for journalists reporting on the phenomenon.
Email and sign-up data can also inform on industry trends, a technique the Marketing Center uses to make the most of its extensive network of contacts. Polling nearly 2000 marketing decision-makers in SMEs across the UK could highlight a significant business and marketing planning gap in 2024.
These stories gave journalists fresh insights into topics that resonated with their readers, relying on company data that was not only credible but could not be sourced elsewhere.
Creating a narrative
It can be overwhelming to make sense of a vast amount of data, let alone identify its newsworthy trends and develop a wider story.
The process becomes simpler when you break it down into clear steps.
Start by asking yourself what problems your customers have or what their priorities are to ensure your focus is relevant to the audience you’re trying to reach with your campaign.
Next, consider the type of data that would showcase any trends, being conscious of anonymizing sensitive information to create a data brief. The more data you can pull, the better. This leaves room for your PR team to create angles that resonate with various media publications.
Trends will begin to emerge from this. Has there been a spike in sales for a particular item? Does year-on-year data show consumers’ preferences changing? Do habits differ by age, region, or gender?
An in-depth knowledge of the media landscape will allow you and your team to spot the news, making the link between your data and trending topics. This maximizes your campaign’s potential for long-term media coverage and organic backlinks.
Also Read: Marketing Priorities for 2025
Learning from what’s worked
We recently worked with a leading HR software provider serving over 2,000 SMEs to create an internal data campaign that provided a snapshot of workplace trends.
After agreeing on annual leave—a popular subject for mainstream and HR trade media -we used its data to uncover new trends and analyze what they would mean for organizations.
One key finding was that around 31.5 million working days are lost to work-related ill health every year, including 17.1 million for stress, anxiety, and depression (HSE). Employees not taking their full annual leave can lead to illness burnout and is detrimental to individuals and business performance.
This story generated over 100 pieces of coverage and secured over 80 backlinks to the report on the site while raising awareness of an important topic. Some publications even linked to the study five months after the campaign went live because it ranked in position one of Google for information-led topics.
Traffic from organic keywords has increased by 73%, owing to the breadth of coverage and the quality of links.
Maximizing potential
Regardless of industry, every company has a wealth of data waiting to be analyzed. Through collaborating with specialists to interpret and tell an accurate, engaging story, your internal data can help drive organic growth and PR success.
