Why research is PR’s secret sauce

We all know journalists are a skeptical bunch. They get dozens — if not hundreds — of pitches from PR people every day promising a “great story” that will “really resonate with your audience,” though those leads hardly ever pan out. Why? Because our PR pitches often miss that little extra something that indicates the news we are sharing really will resonate outside the four walls of our organization.

Doing consumer research is a great way to add that context, but it’s often underutilized.

Working at an insights company, I’ve had the opportunity to follow how different organizations use research to inform their storytelling—and try a few different strategies myself. Here, I’m sharing a few strategies that have stood out. All are relatively easy to do, quick, inexpensive, and applicable to organizations of every size.

Strengthen an announcement

Announcements that include statistical proof points tend to land more powerfully than ones that don’t. People bring a naturally wary lens to press and marketing materials, but believe that numbers are harder to spin.