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When it comes to developing successful digital PR campaigns, there are various steps to undertake. One of the important factors to decide is what data you want to collect, where you’ll find the data, and how you’ll utilise the findings to create a compelling narrative.
Whether it’s public data, paid surveys, gathering FOI responses, or using readily available internal data – ensuring you choose the right source of data for the campaign will provide credibility, strengthen the brand’s profile, and help support key messaging.
With this in mind, we’ve outlined six data sources you can take advantage of to create mind-blowing content:
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Public data
Getting hold of large quantities of data may seem daunting, but once FREE public data becomes your best friend, you’ll never look back. Granted, public data won’t work for every campaign; however, when it does, the correct use of accessible research can add so much value to your content.
Some of our favourite public data sources include:
Identifying the objectives of your digital PR campaign is important to solidify before beginning research for a campaign. For example, if the PR campaign is looking to draw attention to a specific issue and solution, using a data source which reflects the issue accurately will be a factor to consider when deciding on data options.
Recently we used the findings from a YouGov survey to create a unique PR campaign for e-commerce brand, The Kid Collective. The findings were carefully analysed and presented in a way which placed the toy retailer’s products as a solution to the survey’s findings.
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Internal company data
Utilising internal company data shouldn’t be overlooked. Using this type of data is an ideal way to create a compelling narrative unique to your brand and target audience.
Whether it’s sales trends, internal customer surveys, customer habits, or operational trends, this data can help showcase the brand’s expertise, and you can guarantee that no other organisation will have access to it.
For our client UKCaravans4Hire.com, we created a campaign utilising internal customer search data to create a unique data-led PR campaign looking at the most sought-after staycation facilities.
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Surveys
When carried out correctly, public surveys can provide substantial and reliable data for digital PR campaigns. Although surveys can come at a cost, the unique information that can be gathered from public surveys presents many unique possibilities and can increase the chances of high-quality coverage.
Surveys can work for any brand. However, for a journalist to see a survey as credible and valuable, they’d be looking for at least 1,000 to 2,000 respondents, which can come at a cost. So, before embarking on a survey-led campaign, ensure you have clarified to your client that this type of campaign would require extra budget.
It’s also important to use a valid and trusted survey provider such as YouGov or Census Wide. Working with healthcare management consultancy, Acumentice, we used survey data from GP Patient Survey to reveal the UK region’s easiest to get a GP appointment.
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Freedom of Information (FOI)
FOI requests are a free data source which is legally available to anyone in public circulation. If you’re looking for high-quality and robust data but you don’t have an extensive budget, FOI requests are an ideal option.
Whether it’s local councils, police constabularies, education sectors, NHS or a publicly owned business – the insights which can be gained from FOI requests can provide extremely interesting and valuable data to use for a digital PR campaign.
Working with sustainable waste management company, Envirovue, we sent FOI requests to UK councils to reveal the worst locations which were guilty of illegal fly-tipping between 2019-2022. This campaign received nine pieces of press coverage, with 45% of the coverage including a backlink to Envirovue’s website and a PR reach of over 2.5M.
Although FOI requests are a great option for many brands – It’s worth noting that responses can take up to 20 days, therefore, this data method won’t be suitable for all campaigns and can be time-consuming when analysing and logging data.
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Social media
As 60% of the world’s population uses social media¹, the data that can be gathered from social media platforms should not be underestimated. Moreover, as rising star TikTok is expected to have 1.8 billion users by the end of 2023² and is now becoming a highly popular search platform – using hashtags from the likes of TikTok and Instagram can be an ideal source of research when unpacking trending and current topics.
Social media data can give you a holistic view of current and emerging trends, making it an ideal research method. If you know what your audience is talking about, it’s a no-brainer to use this information, right?
Well, we did just that! Recently working with a holistic health client, we utilised TikTok hashtags as data for revealing the most popular TikTok diets – we then bolstered this with expert commentary, explaining which diets should be avoided.
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Spotify
Offering 100 million songs, Spotify is a goldmine of public data. So, you know the drill – we used this data in one of our PR campaigns!
For a UKCaravans4Hire.com campaign, we gathered popular song searches and created the ultimate summer road trip playlist.
To learn more about the types of digital pr campaigns that could raise your online visibility and brand profile, check out our news section and portfolio for recent results and advice.
Published date: 16/06/23
Sources
- Social media 2023 data, correct as of June 2023
- Social media 2023 data, correct as of June 2023