Getting press: A data-driven report on PR and marketing

For a while, a notion existed that PR operates in its own corner. 

But as marketing budgets tighten and AI noise rises, the lines between PR, SEO, content, and analytics are blurring fast. 

Journalists are growing less tolerant of fluff with every pitch. They want data, angles, and assets they can publish instantly. 

We’ve looked into some interesting reports that tell a story on how to master this approach and get covered. So prepare your chart-looking mode, we’re diving in.

What’s the easiest way to get a publicist interested in your business? 

Want to get your pitch out of the “I’ll read this later” folder, which is actually the trash? 
Turns out, it’s rarely about having a revolutionary product. It’s the pitch.

The data shows that relevance is just the entry fee. To get your pitch considered, you need to bring the goods.

• Compelling data or statistics is the #1 item on their wishlist (54%).
• This is followed closely by a unique story angle or point of view (49%). You can’t just be another company; you have to be an interesting one.
• 43% say just including contact information is key, and 36% want links to a website or press page to learn more. In other words, don’t make journalists hunt.

What we think: While you might be looking for ads, journalists are looking for stories. 

Data gives a story credibility, and a unique angle makes it newsworthy. Even a pitch might not be enough. A story kit on the other hand…

What you can do: Before your next PR push, find one killer statistic from your internal data or a customer survey. 

Build your entire pitch around that data point and a unique angle it reveals.

What’s the best content to share with journalists?

So, you’ve got some new data and an interesting angle. 

But what’s the best “wrapper” for that content? Are you sending a formal release, a casual note, or an invitation to a secret society?

It turns out, the classics are classics for a reason.

• Most (72%) of journalists want to receive news announcements or press releases. While the format has evolved, its purpose, which is delivering “new” information clearly, is still critical.
• The runners-up are all about value: Exclusives for stories (57%) and original research reports (55%) are right behind.
• Offering access to events (41%) or interviews with industry experts (38%) also scores high, as it gives the journalist something others don’t have.

The Crew’s take: Journalists are on a constant hunt for what’s new and what’s exclusive. 

A press release is the most direct way to say “this is new,” while original research or an exclusive gives them a competitive edge.

Actionable tip: Don’t just send a press release or a research report. Combine them. 

Use your press release to announce the key findings of your original research, and offer an exclusive interview with your in-house expert.

What media elements are likely to get published if you provide them?

In a world of infinite scrolling, a wall of text won’t cut it. 

You’ve sent the perfect pitch with the perfect content. But did you include the “eye candy?”

If you’re not including multimedia, you’re counting on the journalist to do extra work. And we’ve already established: don’t do that.

• Images are the undisputed champion, with 70% of journalists saying they’ve included them in their content.
• Data visualization/infographics (30%) are a strong second. Journalists want data and they want visuals. That’s clear at this point.
• Videos (25%) and web polls/surveys (25%) are tied for third, showing that dynamic content and visualized data are both valuable assets.

Journalists have to package stories for a visual, distractible audience. 

By providing high-quality images and infographics, you’re not just sending a story; you’re sending a publish-ready story.

Create a simple media kit for every single announcement. 

It should always include 3-5 high-resolution images and, if you have data, one simple infographic visualizing the main takeaway.

How are publicists feeling about AI pitches?

We all know AI is the new, shiny tool for… well, everything. 

But before you ask a chatbot to write and send 500 “personalized” pitches, you might want to see how that’s playing on the receiving end.

To put it mildly, they are not impressed.

A combined 56% of publicists are either strongly (27%) or somewhat (29%) opposed to PR pros using AI to generate pitches.

Only a tiny 18% (16% somewhat in favor, 2% strongly) are open to it, and that’s likely with heavy caveats. Even the 24% who are neutral aren’t exactly endorsing the practice.

Our take: The “R” in PR is for “relations”. A generic, robotic-sounding pitch is the fastest way to show a journalist you’ve done zero research and value their time at zero. 

It’s the opposite of relationship-building.

Try this out: Use AI as your research assistant, not your intern. 

Let it find 20 relevant journalists and summarize their last three articles. Then, you write the personalized, human pitch that shows you actually read them.

Is PR at risk of AI?

Okay, so journalists hate AI pitches. But what about the PR pros themselves? Are they sweating bullets, thinking AI is coming for their jobs?

The biggest risk isn’t that AI will replace PR pros, but that it will make them worse at their jobs.

The top concern among PRs already using AI (75%) is that younger pros will rely too heavily on tools and not learn the fundamentals.

Other major fears include unscrutinized AI output lowering the quality of content (62%) and content not being original or creative (57%).

There’s also a big client-side worry: 58% fear that clients will think they don’t need content creators anymore.

It turns out replacement is not the issue. Dilution is, on the other hand… 

The risk is that AI floods the market with cheap, low-quality, “good enough” content, making it harder for real quality and strategy to stand out.

Double down on what AI can’t do. Use it to handle the 20% of grunt work like drafting a basic outline or analyzing data, so you can spend 80% of your time on the human-centric tasks. Strategy, creative angles, and building real relationships.

How to increase the value of a PR company to clients?

Want to get that client to renew? It’s not about the schmoozing, it’s about the… proving. 

In a world drowning in data, “trust us, it’s working” is no longer a valid sales pitch. Just like in any other marketing area.

If you want to show your value to leadership, you have to speak their language. And that language is numbers.

• A massive 67% of respondents say producing measurable results is the best way to increase PR’s perceived value.
• All the “soft” skills, while important, are just distant runners-up. Delivering creative solutions (12%) and improving executive visibility (11%) barely break into double digits.

Even managing reputation risk (6%) scores surprisingly low, which just goes to show that proactive, measurable wins are valued far more than defensive plays.

The higher-ups speak in CPL, MQLs, and ROI. PR pros who can connect their media hits to actual business metrics are the ones who get to keep their budgets.

What should you do: Ditch the vanity metrics. 

Instead of just reporting “impressions,” use unique tracking links in your press releases and monitor referral traffic from your placements to show how PR is actually driving traffic and leads.

Which areas will become most important for PR in the next 5 years?

If you thought PR was just about press releases and cocktail parties, you might be in for a rude awakening.

The future of PR appears to be a hybrid of tech, marketing, and traditional comms.

• AI and automation are the undisputed heavyweight champion, with 59% of pros expecting it to grow most in importance. This is huge, especially since 77% are already using it in their work.
• The traditional pillars are still standing: Media relations (35%) and strategic planning (33%) remain crucial.
• But look at the rise of marketing-adjacent skills: Influencer marketing (28%), owned content or brand journalism (28%), and measurement and analytics (26%) are all clustered together, showing PR is becoming a full-funnel discipline.

The Crew’s Take: The future of PR is part publicist, part data scientist, and part content strategist. 

You start with getting a story. But you’re also expected to create, automate, and measure it.

What you can do right away: Pick one of those top-growing areas and master it. 

Start using AI for your pitch lists, learn to read a Google Analytics report, or build an “owned content” strategy for your company’s blog.

For what outcomes is PR most effective?

Ever had a boss ask, “But what does PR actually do?” 

Well, here’s your cheat sheet. And spoiler: it’s not just about “making us look good.”

Digital PR has a very clear job, and it’s all about the top of the funnel and SEO.

• Digital PR is, first and foremost, an SEO play. A massive 89.6% say it’s most effective for building backlinks.
• Right behind that is a core marketing goal: building brand awareness (83.2%).
• The link to SEO is solidified by the third-place finisher, driving organic traffic and rankings (77.5%).
• Interestingly, bottom-of-funnel goals like driving qualified leads (24.9%) and increasing sales (18.5%) are seen as far less effective outcomes.

This chart is the perfect ammo for your next budget meeting. 

Digital PR is the engine for your off-page SEO and the fuel for your brand’s top-of-funnel awareness. It’s a marketing function, not just a comms one.

This shows you should keep your SEO team close. 

Share your pitching targets with them to align on domain authority, and ask them for a keyword list to naturally weave into your press release copy.

Is digital PR more challenging to sell now than in the previous years?

If you feel like it’s harder to get buy-in for PR lately, you’re not just imagining it. 

The days of easy money might be on pause as clients get smarter and budgets get tighter.

It’s a tough crowd out there, and the pressure is on to prove your worth.

Nearly half of respondents (44.5%) say digital PR is more challenging to sell to clients or stakeholders than it was 12 months ago.

Only 15% feel it’s less challenging, which is a pretty small camp of optimists. A significant chunk (27.2%) report no change, suggesting that for many, the level of difficulty is simply the new normal.

Why the headwind? Tighter marketing budgets. When the economy gets shaky, “measurable results” like paid ads get priority over brand building like PR. 

This ties directly back to what we claimed before: Prove your results, or perish.

If you can’t get the budget for a big, creative campaign, re-frame your pitch. Sell PR as a high-authority “link-building service” for the SEO team. Sorry, PRs. Sometimes you just need to.

Where will PR firms invest their money?

Where’s the smart money in PR going? 

It’s not on fancier offices or bigger lunch budgets. It’s all about the brainpower and the brand.

PR firms are investing in their core product: their people and their ideas.

The investment areas are clustered super tightly, but creativity (16%) just edges out the top spot. This is the “secret sauce” that AI can’t easily replicate.

Right behind it are two critical areas: Staff training & retention (15%) and owned communication and marketing (15%). This means investing in their people and practicing what they preach.

Multimedia content production (14%) is also a key priority, showing that the text-based press release is no longer enough, as we discussed. 

This is smart. Firms know that creativity is their core product, their staff is their biggest asset, and their own marketing is how they prove their worth. 

They’re investing in the product (creativity) and the people (training).

So if you’re in-house, don’t wait for your company to invest. Invest in your own creativity. Take a storytelling workshop, learn a basic video editing tool, or read up on a new social media platform. 

Which marketing department works closely with PR?

We already said it. If you’re in digital PR and you’re not sitting with the SEO team, you might be in the wrong room. The data is in, and PR has a bestie.

This chart redraws the org chart for modern marketing teams. And a clear majority of 50.9% of digital PR pros work most closely with the SEO team.

The general marketing department, which you might assume would be #1, is a distant second at 22%. 

Even the PR team itself (presumably in-house or a separate branch) is only at 14.5%.

This is the final nail in the coffin for PR as a “fluffy” extra. Digital PR is an extension of marketing. For example, for SEO it is the primary driver for high-quality, relevant backlinks, which is the currency of organic search.

Schedule a monthly meeting with your SEO lead, or an external consultant.

Ask them for two lists: 

1) Target keywords they’re trying to rank for, and

 2) A “dream list” of high-authority sites they’d love a link from. 

Now you have a shared playbook!

The new PR playbook

No more flashy launches. Modern PR is about proving value with data, offering real exclusives, and building relationships with journalists to invest in. 

Pair compelling stats with visuals, measure everything, and get tight with your SEO team. 

Today’s digital world is crowded and noisy so you need a lot of creativity and credibility to win. Good luck.