News, by definition, implies something new! So how do you bring something new to the media that enables them to write a story which shows your brand in a good light and you as an expert in the sector? One answer is to do your own research. At this point PR managers in tech companies usually scream: “we have no budget for external surveys and it’s a big gamble! What if we don’t get any coverage?”
Research data within your business
Don’t get me wrong, surveys can be a great tool, but before you put in the bid for extra budget, ask yourself: What data do we have within the business that other people might find interesting and insightful? In the cyber security world for example there are whole teams of researchers looking into online threats as part of service. There will also be data coming out of the process of monitoring networks and cloud infrastructure. By analysing this information you will find stories on trends and predictions that the media will find valuable. And it’s free because you are doing it anyway.
Ask the experts
As well as pure data from your business processes, you also have the knowledge and insight of your in-house experts. Their experience and opinions put them in a good place to make predictions and offer advice on countering threats in the case of cyber security, improving the customer experience in the case of e-commerce software or driving down waiting list in the healthtech sector.
Create a news event
This kind of research data combined with expert comment is a sure-fire way to raise your profile in the media. For a start, you can produce a report which is a news event in itself. Then you can jump on any request for media comment about breaking new stories not only with an opinion but with some hard facts and figures to substantiate your statements.
Gold dust in your by-lines
When it comes writing thought leadership by-lines for the media or blogs for your owned content then research-based data is gold dust and gives you a far higher level of credibility than opinion and comment alone. The investment in time that you make to produce the research is a gift that keeps on giving. We see data from reports produced years ago continuing to be used in news and feature articles today.
Driving lead generation
And finally, thinking beyond media relations, when you produce a report this can form an essential part of your lead generation process. As well as making the report accessible via a download from the website, it can be transformed into blogs posts to fuel your social media and could form the basis of webinars and podcasts.