Ashley Dennee
Sr Programme Director, B2B
Data has undeniably become the backbone of successful brand strategies, regardless of whether you’re a communications or marketing professional. The traditional PR approach, heavily reliant on thought leadership driven by assumptions, is now being challenged by a data-backed approach. This shift allows comms and marketing professionals to gain a deeper understanding of audience behaviours, preferences, and trends, leading to more integrated and effective strategies.
As we step into the ‘data era’, businesses are exploring how to harness insights more effectively. This article delves into the role of data in today’s comms and marketing landscape, driving a new era of integration.
From Traditional to Data-Driven PR: The Shifting Sands
Historically, thought leadership-driven comms relied heavily on intuition, experience, and gut feeling. PR professionals would craft creative campaigns based on assumptions about target audiences, often leading to inconsistent results. Earned coverage, frequently influenced by external factors like the news cycle, time of year, or compelling competitor stories, often lacked the necessary proof points to make a story resonate.
The advent of data and analytics tools has revolutionised this process. Now, when we create stories for media, social channels, or client channels, we can leverage data for more targeted and effective campaigns.
Understanding the Drivers: People, Preferences, and Trends:. The incorporation of data into our everyday work has significantly enhanced our understanding of audience behaviour, preferences, and trends.
Audience Behaviour: Data analytics enables PR professionals to segment target audiences based on various parameters, such as demographics, career information, and purchasing behaviours. This detailed understanding helps personalise campaign messaging, ensuring it reaches the right people in the right place, at the right time.
Social Listening and Media Monitoring: Social media is a treasure trove of personal data, enabling PR professionals to monitor conversations, track sentiment, and gather valuable insights into public opinion. Similarly, analysing media coverage for reach, impressions, and sentiment provides actionable insights for campaign recommendations and wider go-to-market plans.
Website Analytics: Incorporating web analytics through platforms like Google allows PR professionals to analyse website traffic, bounce rates, and user engagement. This helps gauge the effectiveness of outreach across channels, from awareness through media to lead generation through backlinks.
Driving ROI by Working Smarter Embracing data-driven communications efforts leads to better ROI for clients. Key to this is using tangible metrics to measure KPIs: web traffic, download rates, lead generation, dwell time, and overall brand awareness. These elements can be benchmarked and measured throughout a campaign’s lifecycle to track performance and pivot if necessary.
As comms and marketing continue to integrate, data will be pivotal in shifting the needle for clients looking to leverage valuable insights and make informed decisions. Understanding audience behaviour, preferences, and wider media and industry trends enables PR professionals to create targeted and impactful campaigns that not only drive awareness but also directly engage target audiences in a measurable and impactful way, rather than relying on assumptions and a quiet news cycle for coverage to land.