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In The PR Insider newsletter this week, we were able to talk to the fantastic Mady Lanni, Digital PR Strategist at Journey Further. Mady takes us through the key steps she follows to create impactful data-led campaigns tailored for the US market. Whether you’re looking to secure headlines or make your data more relatable to everyday readers, her insights will help you stand out in this competitive space. Make sure you give it a read below!
If you want your data-led PR campaign to make waves across the US, it's about more than just crunching numbers and sending out stats in a pitch. You need to think strategically about how your data will hit the headlines, stand out, and resonate with real people. Here are some of my top steps for doing just that:
Step 1: Think Headline-Drive First
Before you dive into collecting data, take a step back and think about what kind of headline will grab people's attention. The best campaigns start with a killer headline idea. Think of what's trending or what hot topics are buzzing right now, and frame your data to fit these angles. Thinking of headlines up front will help your data collection, but it will also help your PR outreach, as you'll already be strategizing and thinking about the media from the get-go.
Step 2: Explore Multiple Data Sources
Diversifying your data sources to give your campaign a unique twist can help your data campaigns stand out in the US Market. There are many publicly available data sources, from US Government data to scraping social media sites. Some data sources do better in specific verticals than others, so evaluating the news in each vertical is essential to know what resonates best with those journalists. For example, TikTok trends have become an influential part of fashion and retail coverage but may not do as well in the career/HR vertical, whereas we see survey data covered almost daily in the career headlines. Also, consider using internal data from your client if it's available—like a retail brand's sales data—to provide authority and credibility. The more varied and authoritative your data, the more it will catch the eye of both journalists and your target audience.
Step 3: Be Relevant
The data campaigns you create must make sense coming from your client. Imagine if a shoe company put out data on AI in the workplace—totally off-brand and irrelevant, right? A journalist would think that, too. Instead, they could focus on how different types of shoes impact work productivity or comfort.
Producing relevant data will also help you gain relevant coverage. Securing relevant coverage is the best way of proving your relevancy and authority to Google. It can have a much more significant impact on overall organic performance than the quantity of coverage and links.
It’s also important to make sure that your ideas are not too narrow in the type of publications to reach. Making sure your angles are relevant, but also have multiple angles for outreach will help with the overall success of your campaign. A simple example of a way to do this in the US is by adding regional elements when it makes sense to - this essentially gives you 50 angles you can outreach with as you can have bespoke data for every state in the country.
Step 4: Finally, be relatable!
At the heart of a successful data-led campaign is relatability. Your data needs to connect with people's everyday lives and experiences. Think about making your data story resonate with the average reader.
Ask yourself: How does this data affect people personally? Why should they care? For instance, if your data shows how remote work affects productivity, frame it in a way that highlights real-world implications, like "How Working from Home is Making 75% of Americans More Productive."
Put yourself in the journalist's shoes. How can you make their job easier by giving them a compelling, relatable story? The goal is to create content that's not just newsworthy but also engaging and easy to understand and will resonate with their readers the most, making them more likely to share the data.
As you ideate for data-led PR campaigns, answer these questions before starting "Why should I care?" "What's the headline?" "What makes this relatable?" If you check the boxes on these, you're already heading in the right direction for your data-led campaign in the US media.
Make sure you and follow Mady on LinkedIn.
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