By Mattie Van Gundy, Account Director, Professional Services  

There’s a moment that happens in almost every PR kickoff. Someone says, “We need a big story.” 

And someone else, usually with the best intentions, slides a list across the table: product features, executive bios, a few customer logos, maybe a mission statement that’s been edited so many times it now reads like it was written by committee. 

Everyone nods. Everyone wants it to work but the truth is: most “big PR stories” don’t start in a brainstorm. They start in what your company already knows — what your customers are doing, what they’re asking for, what they’re struggling with, what’s changing in your category — and what you can prove. 

That’s data. Not the intimidating kind. Not “let’s build a dashboard for dashboards.” The kind you already have quietly sitting in CRM notes, support tickets, product usage, search intent, sales calls, and renewals. 

If you’ve ever felt like your PR is “fine” but not inevitable, this is usually why. You’re trying to create a story from scratch when you’re already sitting on evidence. 

PR without data is guesswork dressed up as strategy 

PR teams are famously scrappy. We can find angles, craft narratives, and make magic out of limited inputs but there’s a difference between creativity and clairvoyance. 

When you don’t use client data, you tend to build campaigns around assumptions: 

• We think this message will resonate. 

• We feel like this is the trend. 

• We believe the market is ready. 

Sometimes that works. Often it doesn’t because journalists aren’t just looking for “a good story.” They’re looking for proof that the story is true, proof that it matters, and proof that it’s happening now. Data gives you those three things without turning your brand into a spreadsheet. 

What “data” actually means in a PR context 

Let’s make this plain: PR doesn’t need a data lake. It needs signal. Here’s the kind of “client data” that consistently produces pitchable stories and smarter campaigns: 

Customer signals 

• Review themes (what keeps showing up—both love and frustration) 

• NPS feedback patterns (not the score; the words) 

• Onboarding drop-off reasons 

• Win/loss notes (what sealed the deal, what killed it) 

Product and usage signals 

• Features customers adopt fastest 

• Use cases that surprised your team 

• What customers do right before they upgrade 

• What they stop doing before they churn 

Sales and pipeline signals 

• Industries heating up (and why) 

• Objections that are spiking 

• Deal cycle changes (shortening, stalling, splitting into phases) 

• Language buyers use when they’re “ready” vs. “curious” 

Support and community signals 

• Most common “I’m stuck” moments 

• Recurring questions in your community 

• What customers are asking for before competitors talk about it 

Web/search signals 

• Highest-intent pages (and what people do after) 

• Search terms leading to conversion 

• Content that gets read by buyers vs. content that gets shared by peers 

This isn’t about surveillance. It’s about listening, at scale, to what your market is already telling you. 

Data doesn’t replace storytelling. It makes it believable. 

Here’s the mistake companies make: they treat data like the story. They publish a report. They add a couple charts. They call it “thought leadership.” And then they wonder why the media response is… polite. Data is not the story. Data is the receipt. The story is still human: 

• What’s changing? 

• Who’s feeling it? 

• What’s at stake? 

• What should someone do differently now? 

Data gives you the confidence to answer those questions with specificity and specificity is what turns “interesting” into “I have to cover this.” 

The three ways data makes PR dramatically better 

1) It gives you stronger story angles that don’t feel invented 

The best pitches aren’t “we’re excited to announce…” They’re: 

• “We’re seeing a shift.” 

• “Something is breaking.” 

• “A long-held assumption is wrong.” 

Client data helps you identify patterns you can stand behind. Instead of: “Businesses are prioritizing efficiency.” You can say: “In the last two quarters, we’ve seen onboarding time drop 28% in teams that adopt X workflow—because they’re standardizing sooner.” 

Instead of: “Consumers care about transparency.” You can say: “The number-one reason customers cancel isn’t price. It’s confusion. Here are the three points where they lose trust—and what fixes it.” 

Even if you don’t publish the exact numbers, knowing them changes how confidently you can build the narrative. 

2) It improves targeting (because you know who cares most) 

A surprising amount of pitching fails for a simple reason: wrong fit. Data helps you segment your story by audience and outlet: 

• Trades want specificity and impact on the category. 

• Business outlets want scale, stakes, and the “why now.” 

• Lifestyle wants emotion, relevance, and behavior. 

If your data shows healthcare buyers are suddenly adopting a workflow faster than any other industry, that’s a healthcare trade story. If your data shows leadership teams are making decisions differently because of AI risk, that’s a broader business story. You pitch less. You land more. 

3) It improves timing (because you can see the wave forming) 

Timing is the difference between riding a trend and chasing it. Internal data often gives you early indicators, the “before it’s obvious” signals: 

• support volume rises around a new pain point 

• a new objection appears in sales calls 

• a feature suddenly becomes sticky 

• a certain type of customer starts converting faster 

That’s the moment to build your narrative. Before competitors write the same blog post. Before the media cycle is saturated. PR gets easier when you’re early. 

A simple framework: Turn internal signals into a headline-ready story 

If you want one repeatable system, use this: 

Step 1: Find a pattern 

Look for spikes, drop-offs, repeat questions, new behaviors. Ask: 

• What’s happening more than it used to? 

• What’s happening less? 

• What’s surprisingly consistent? 

This can be as simple as: “We’ve gotten 40% more questions about X in the last 60 days.” 

Step 2: Add context 

Patterns become news when they connect to something bigger: 

• regulation changes 

• economic pressure 

• AI adoption 

• talent shifts 

• consumer fatigue 

• security concerns 

Context turns “a thing we noticed” into “a thing the market needs to understand.” 

Step 3: Humanize it 

This is the piece many data-driven campaigns miss. 

Ask: Who is this affecting? 
Give it a face—a persona, a job title, a moment. 

• “Ops leaders are being asked to deliver more with fewer people.” 

• “Marketers are under pressure to prove ROI, not just reach.” 

• “IT teams are drowning in vendor sprawl.” 

When you name the human tension, you create emotional gravity. 

Step 4: Build the headline first 

If you can’t say it in one sentence, it’s not ready. 

Examples: 

• “The #1 reason customers churn isn’t cost—it’s confusion.” 

• “AI is changing buying cycles: more stakeholders, fewer meetings, faster decisions.” 

• “Your category is shifting from X to Y—and brands acting like it’s still 2022 will lose.” 

A good headline forces clarity. And clarity makes pitching easier. 

Step 5: Package it for the press 

Journalists don’t need your entire dataset. They need a clean, credible snapshot. 

What works: 

• 1 chart (simple, readable) 

• 3–5 bullet insights 

• 1 quote from a leader who sounds like a person 

• A short methodology note (“We analyzed X across Y time period, anonymized and aggregated.”) 

This is how internal truth becomes external credibility. “But we can’t share our data.” You usually can, if you’re smart about it. Most companies can use data in PR without exposing anything sensitive. The keys: 

• Aggregate and anonymize 

• Remove identifiers 

• Focus on trends and patterns, not individual behavior 

• Get legal/compliance involved early if you’re in a regulated industry 

• Choose a narrative where the data supports a broader market insight—not a proprietary brag 

You can also use derived insights: 

• “What we’re seeing across hundreds of customer conversations…” 

• “The most common onboarding failure points we observe…” 

• “The top three objections we hear from buyers this quarter…” 

You’re not leaking secrets. You’re translating the market’s reality. 

What this changes about measurement (and why leadership will care) 

Here’s the underappreciated benefit of using client data: it makes PR easier to evaluate. When your story is built on measurable signals, you can connect PR outcomes to real business outcomes: 

• Coverage drives qualified traffic to a high-intent page (not just homepage spikes) 

• A narrative shifts the conversation in sales calls (“we’ve been hearing about your perspective on…”) 

• Thought leadership improves conversion on a specific use case page 

• Recruiting improves because candidates already understand what the company stands for 

• Partnerships happen because your point of view is clear 

PR becomes less about “how many hits did we get?” and more about “did we influence the right audience in the right way?” That’s the conversation decision-makers actually want. 

A quick gut-check: Are you sitting on a story pipeline? 

If any of these are true, you probably have PR angles waiting inside your data: 

• Support is seeing the same question repeatedly 

• Sales keeps hearing a new objection 

• One customer segment is converting faster than others 

• A feature is getting adopted in a surprising way 

• Churn reasons are clustering 

• Customers are using unexpected language to describe their problem 

• Your category is changing faster than your messaging 

That’s not just operational information. That’s narrative fuel. 

The best PR partners don’t just pitch. They translate. 

The most effective PR today isn’t “more outreach.” It’s better raw material and the best raw material is already yours. Your client data can show: 

• what’s true 

• what’s changing 

• what’s urgent 

• what’s misunderstood 

• what the market needs next 

Which means your best story isn’t stuck in a brainstorm deck. It’s in the places your company already learns from every day. The only question is whether you’re willing to treat those signals like strategy, not just noise.Bottom of Form