Most SaaS companies are sitting on a gold mine of customer data, but don’t know how to turn it into relevant media coverage.

This is a critical missed opportunity, especially as 11.4% of content teams plan to spend over $45,000 per month on content in 2025 — nearly triple the share from 2024.

With more brands competing for market attention, churning out generic content simply won’t cut it. Instead, smart SaaS marketers are transforming their proprietary insights into industry studies that journalists actually want to cover.

Conducting digital PR for SaaS brands isn’t about pitching product updates — it’s about using your data to create strategic research that drives highly relevant links, establishes thought leadership, and differentiates your brand in crowded markets.

At Siege Media, helping SaaS brands turn data into compelling narratives that earn coverage in highly relevant publications is our bread and butter. This approach enables SaaS teams to do more with less while building genuine authority that stands out in the age of AI.

In this article, we’ll cover why the time is now for SaaS brands to invest in digital PR, how to find and vet data that will make the most compelling stories, and how to package and share it with those who matter most to unlock organic growth

  1. Why SaaS Companies Need Digital PR
  2. How Digital PR Differs in the SaaS Industry
  3. How To Execute Digital PR for SaaS With Customer Data
  4. Where To Turn if You Don’t Have Proprietary Data
  5. SaaS Digital PR Examples
  6. Unlocking Your Growth With Digital PR

Why SaaS Companies Need Digital PR

When done right, digital PR becomes more than a link-acquisition tactic — it becomes a targeted organic growth strategy that builds both visibility and trust with the audiences that matter most.

We’ve found that product-led digital PR is one of the most impactful and scalable ways to build these high-value assets. By connecting PR campaigns to your core product and proprietary data, your research becomes an asset you can leverage across sales pages and marketing materials to drive brand authority and product relevance.

And the results speak for themselves. Keyword-driven blog posts that reference first-party data have:

  • 83% more traffic value
  • 51% more traffic
  • 34% more links

Zendesk’s CX Trends report is a great example of product-led digital PR in the wild. 2025 marks its seventh year of running proprietary research, giving prospective users a preview of what’s next in the customer experience space. This data ties directly to their CX product and could easily appear on sales pages, customer stories, and other pages across the site.

This report also serves as a hero asset and constant reference point across all content, with data being repurposed in their statistics, trends posts, and related guides.

How data can be infused across content with product-led diigtal PR

In the age of AI, successful digital PR campaigns also drive generative engine optimization, creating the co-citation patterns that inform AI search engines. According to Xfunnel.ai analysis, data studies rank as the second most cited content type in LLM responses, trailing only product roundups.

This means your proprietary research doesn’t just attract journalists  —it positions your brand as a go-to source for AI-powered search results.

From an authority standpoint, studies on new user behavior in search results found brand recognition critical as click-through rate (CTR) drops. Users are more likely to click trusted names when they recognize the source.

Investing in authority signal strategies like digital PR helps improve visibility and trust, making it a smart move for SaaS clients in competitive markets.

Lastly, as Google and other search platforms rely more on AI, websites need to provide genuine information to rank. Consistently generating unique first-party data is your most reliable path to getting cited in AI Overviews and ranking in AI search engines.

How Digital PR Differs in the SaaS Industry

There are three key distinctions of conducting digital PR for SaaS companies compared to other industries.

Frequency (1-2x Times Per Year)

Unlike consumer brands that might run monthly campaigns, SaaS companies should focus on conducting comprehensive studies once or twice a year, then maximizing the value through a product-led approach.

This reduced frequency prevents fatigue in niche markets where you’re targeting a smaller pool of journalists, publications, and industry experts. Burning out your media contacts with frequent pitches can damage long-term relationships and diminish coverage opportunities.

Market Relevance Over Mass Appeal

Successful digital PR for SaaS brands comes from securing coverage in industry-specific publications that your ideal customers actually read and are relevant to your solutions.

While a company like Slack might earn coverage in The New York Times, specialized contract management software like ContractSafe would be better served by focusing on legal technology publications, industry blogs, and business journals that serve its specific niche and signal relevance.

Target publications for SaaS companies typically include:

  • Industry-specific blogs and newsletters
  • Vertical news sites covering your sector
  • Technology publications focused on enterprise software
  • Business journals serving specific professional niches
  • Trade publications read by your ideal customer profile

Product Relevant Data Focus

SaaS digital PR campaigns must align closely with your product offering and ideal customer profile to drive genuine brand and product relevance. Research and insights need to directly connect to the challenges your software solves and the outcomes your customers achieve.

Consider Zoom’s Navigating the Future of Work: Global Perspectives on Hybrid Models and Technology report as an excellent example. This report provides extensive research on the rise of hybrid work, the growing need for flexible arrangements, and the strategic changes driving organizational transformation.

For Zoom’s ICPs and decision-makers, the report offers crucial insights that help them refine their approach to leading their organizations through the evolving work landscape. This not only positions Zoom as a thought leader but also directly connects to the solutions their platform provides for hybrid work challenges.

Similar to the Zendesk example, we leveraged product-led digital PR for Zoom and repurposed their proprietary surveys across content, featuring it highly in our piece targeting “hybrid work trends,” which has acquired 75+ links since publication.

Example of how Zoom infused data from their Future of Trends report into other SEO content leveraging product-led digital PR

How To Execute Digital PR for SaaS With Customer Data

We’ve covered the why, now let’s drill into the how.

1. Consolidate Available Customer Data

It’s best to gather data first and ideate from solid findings, as it’s much harder to force data into a preconceived title or storyline. Begin by conducting a comprehensive audit of your internal data sources.

Start by evaluating key data sources such as:

  • Sales and pricing metrics: Revenue patterns, deal sizes, sales cycle lengths, and conversion rates by industry or company size
  • Customer usage patterns: Feature adoption rates, user engagement metrics, workflow efficiency improvements, and success indicators
  • Survey and feedback data: Customer satisfaction scores, pain point analyses, and outcome measurements
  • Product performance metrics: System uptime, processing speeds, integration success rates, and performance benchmarks

See examples of each data source below and how you can start thinking about possible headlines and story angles:

Source Data set Angle / headline
Sales and pricing metrics for CRM software Average contract value (ACV) by industry segment and sales cycle length XX% Faster Deal Closures in Fintech: How Segmented Pricing Accelerates Revenue Growth
Customer usage patterns for a streaming service provider Timestamp and percentage where a user stopped watching content before completion XX% of Users Drop Off Before the First 10 Minutes: The New Golden Rule for Pilot Episodes
Survey and feedback data for a compliance monitoring software Industry survey around security and compliance XX% of Organizations Say a Vendor of Theirs Has Experienced a Data Breach Since Working Together
Product performance metrics for compliance software System uptime, productivity, and cost of delays How 99.999% Uptime in Compliance Software Saves Companies Millions in Audit Delays and Lost Deals

One of our clients, HouseCanary, had a predictive pricing analysis data tool where they could accurately determine which houses were most likely to be listed within a time period. We used this data to create a quarterly market trend report.

To simplify data sourcing, we made sure we understood the core metrics within their tool platform. While it might seem basic, understanding metrics like the housing price index (HPI) or projected listing rate helped conceptualize large datasets.

We also sent over a bulleted list of every data point we needed so it was seamless for the client to generate exact reports, avoiding delays with larger bulk exports to sift through.

2. Run Data Quality Assessment

Once you’ve identified possible data sources to explore, check that the data meets the following criteria to ensure it’s fresh, credible, and that publications will be interested in sharing.

Credibility

When leveraging data for your SaaS digital PR campaigns, clear documentation of your data sources, methodology, and sample sizes is crucial for establishing credibility and ensuring comprehension.

For the HouseCanary example, we made sure to explain the metrics behind our data and how we created our ranking system — for example, in HouseCanary’s post, the main ranking factor was projected listings over the next 90 days.

Data should be fresh to be credible (two years old max). If you can update the data each year, even better.

A common question we receive from clients is about the ideal sample size. For general population studies, a typical benchmark is around 1,000 individuals. However, because SaaS ICPs are often far more niche, the required sample size can be significantly smaller while still providing robust insights.

For instance, consider a procurement orchestration company like Zip. They could gain valuable insights from a targeted pool of ~200 procurement executives across enterprise companies. This focused approach ensures the data is highly relevant to their specific market.

When utilizing customer data, don’t overlook implementing anonymization and aggregation techniques, as well as data privacy, compliance (e.g., GDPR, CCPA), and ethical data handling. This protects individual privacy while still allowing for the extraction of valuable, large-scale insights that can inform your PR efforts.

Uniqueness

To truly differentiate your brand in a crowded market, your digital PR efforts must be fueled by fresh perspectives and proprietary insights your competitors cannot access or replicate. As you evaluate potential data pools, ask these critical questions:

  • What has already been reported on this topic? Understand the existing narrative to identify gaps and avoid simply reiterating common knowledge.
  • How is our data different or unique? Pinpoint what makes your internal data or research distinct. Does it offer a new angle, a deeper dive, or a specific demographic insight that others lack?

A good way to get a pulse on what’s been reported on in your industry is using content marketing tools like BuzzSumo, Semrush, or Ahrefs, and checking out Google News.

You can also interview internal subject matter experts (SMEs) by using open-ended questions to uncover unique insights and help inform unique story angles. Some questions we ask our clients’ SMEs are:

  • What are new or unexpected changes happening around INDUSTRY/TOPIC? Why is this more urgent or important for people in your industry?
  • What are the ways COMPANY and your peers in the industry are tackling this change/challenge?
  • What are the specific solutions or ideas you champion or would like to champion in your industry?
  • Who are other thought leaders you admire?

Utilize your data only if:

  • You can provide genuinely new insights based on your analysis. The goal is to uncover something novel and valuable to your target audience.
  • The insight directly and positively connects to your brand’s service or offering. The data should naturally lead back to how your product or service solves a problem or creates value, reinforcing your brand’s relevance and authority.

3. Identify Compelling Data Stories

Below is our framework for ideating unique stories from data.

We’ll walk you through this using the HouseCanary example.

To build the topic angle from the data, we applied the S.U.C.C.E.S. framework. The success method drills down to:

  • Simple: Can the insight be understood quickly?
  • Unexpected: Does it challenge conventional wisdom?
  • Concrete: Is it specific and actionable?
  • Credible: Is the source trustworthy and methodology sound?
  • Emotional: Does it resonate with your audience’s challenges?
  • Stories: Can it be presented as a compelling narrative?

The SUCCESs model framework, outlining principles for effective communication with Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotion, and Stories

During our brainstorming process at Siege, we use a sheet to organize topics by:

  • Story angle for promotion: Housing Market Predictions: Top 10 Cities Where Homes Are Most Likely To Sell in 2025
  • Data source: Home prices, which regions feature the most homes that are likely to sell (in the next quarter)
  • Content format: City study
  • Sample target market: A writer for The New York Times who covered a similar study

AI can help speed up inspiration and innovation. Try these prompts:

  • “I am [COMPANY DESCRIPTION]. I have [DATA POINT] showing [SPECIFIC INSIGHT]. Our data reveals [UNIQUE ADVANTAGE] that our competitors don’t have. What are some creative data study angles I can develop around this topic?”

In this stage, it’s important to identify a content format that will best showcase your data. Here are some common digital PR content formats for SaaS:

  • Data or industry analysis: Analysis of internal or third-party data (city study or data study)
  • Trends report: Roundup of unique and third-party data to showcase industry trends
  • Polling: Data gathered from industry experts or your client’s target audience via SurveyMonkey polling for the purpose of finding specific data or trends; the respondents are more specific than a general survey (i.e., Americans with a specific occupation)

Examples of high-impact content for digital PR, highlighting proprietary research, survey results like "Would You Date an AI Partner?", and geographical studies such as "The United States of Retirement

Lastly, map topics to journalists and markets. To find the publication that’s right for your business, balance the following factors:

  • Audience relevance: Ask yourself if the publication will reach your target audience or industry influencers. We like to call these publications “watering holes” for your ICP. For example, a company that offers supply chain risk management solutions might prioritize coverage in outlets like Supply Chain Dive over Wired.
  • Topical and brand fit: Will coverage from this brand feel relevant to the topic at hand or your audience? Is this site a positive reflection of your brand?
  • Domain Rating (DR) and SEO impact: While not the most important factor, you’ll want coverage from a site with a medium to high DR to pass valuable link equity (DR 50-80).
  • Referral traffic potential: Make sure the publication has significant referral traffic to send back to your site.

4. Connect to Search Volume When Possible

Our best practice or best-case scenario is ranking for a keyword through a digital PR asset. This is most effective when the keyword has strong search volume or high link intent, meaning its search intent is to cite data and link back to the source.

We find this often with data-seeking queries like “statistics” or “trends” posts. Specifically, we find that trends reports are a great repeatable strategy for generating thought leadership and 100+ links per year through a combination of ranking and email promotion.

For the HouseCanary example above, we connected the topic to “housing market predictions,” which had a similar “trends” intent, 7,600 SV, and a high organic link score of 33 (+30 showing solid organic link intent).

4. Include SMEs or Influencers To Bolster Expertise

Another gold mine SaaS brands have is their own subject matter experts. Including commentary from internal experts helps strengthen your research credibility and E-E-A-T. Partner with subject matter experts who can provide context and commentary that elevates your data beyond internal perspectives.

If you don’t have internal SMEs, no problem. Use tools like SparkToro to identify influential voices in your industry, then engage them as research participants or commentary sources.

This strategy enhances your study’s authority and expands your potential reach through the experts’ own networks and followers. Just be cautious not to include too many outside voices or opinions to decrease your site’s authority.

5. Package Insights for Journalists and Industry Publications

Journalists in the tech and business sectors are inundated with pitches daily, so cutting through the noise isn’t just about good content — it’s about smart delivery.

To stand out, your email pitch must be concise and impactful yet still provide enough compelling information for the journalist to grasp the story’s essence and why it’s relevant to their audience.

At Siege, we advocate for the AIDA method in crafting pitches, as it provides a proven framework for guiding the journalist through your message:

  • Attention: Hook them immediately with a compelling subject line and opening.
  • Interest: Build their curiosity by clearly stating the value and unique angle.
  • Desire: Make them want to cover your story by showcasing its relevance, timeliness, and unique data/insights.
  • Action: Provide a clear, low-friction next step.

By systematically applying the AIDA method, you naturally lead the reader through your pitch, increasing the likelihood they’ll take the desired action.

SaaS digital PR email template breakdown, showing how to grab attention with new data, build interest with survey results, create desire with study findings, and prompt action with a link

Don’t forget to customize your pitches to include data points most relevant to the journalist you’re reaching out to and consider the context around your data.

For the HouseCanary example, we prioritized including statistics from Florida for Florida-based journalists and looked for recent content from each journalist since our report included data for Q2 in 2025.

We use platforms like Muck Rack to build hyper-targeted media lists based on journalist beats, outlet relevance, and past coverage patterns. This helps us connect the content to writers and publishers who are not only credible but also aligned with the customers’ interests.

6. Incorporate Data Across the Site Using Product-Led Digital PR and In-Site Architecture

Once your DPR asset is live, look for ways to repurpose data across pages. For example, in our content marketing trends post, we can feature the data point, “95% of businesses are focusing on link building in 2024” on our Link Building Service page.

Similarly, the statistic, “Interactive content creation is on the rise, with 62.3% of companies investing in it 2024” could be leveraged on our Content Creation page.

It’s also important to feature your hero content in the site navigation to get it closer to the homepage and more discoverable. See how Vanta displays its State of Trust Report front and center in the Resources navigation.

Vanta's navigation drop down including links to their featured "State of Trust Report 2024

7. Measure ROI

We recently published an entire post dedicated to proving the ROI of digital PR, but for those looking for a quick overview, here’s a breakdown. Demonstrating the tangible value of your digital PR efforts requires a strategic, data-driven approach, moving beyond vanity metrics to showcase true business impact.

Before launching into campaigns, establish your baseline by determining:

  • Cost per link (CPL) for your industry vertical: This cost can range from under $3,000 to over $7,000, depending on competition.
  • Lifetime link value: This should be based on ranking improvements and traffic potential.

Once your campaigns are live, continuous monitoring and analysis are key to proving ROI. Focus on a blend of PR-specific and broader business metrics like:

  • Earned links and domain authority of linking sites
  • Brand mentions and searches (critical for AI-powered search visibility)
  • Organic traffic increases and engagement improves
  • Share of voice compared to competitors
  • Downstream sales enablement benefits and conversion impact

By meticulously tracking these metrics and continuously optimizing your strategy, you can clearly demonstrate the significant and often compounding return on your digital PR investment.

Where To Turn if You Don’t Have Proprietary Data

If you’ve scoured your company resources to no avail, don’t panic. There are plenty of ways to source proprietary data if you don’t have any accessible internally.

Source Data Using Third-Party Tools

There are several platforms that can help you generate original research, including:

  • Qualtrics: Enterprise-grade survey platform with advanced analytics
  • SurveyMonkey: User-friendly option with industry benchmarking features
  • Centiment: Offers more niche audience polling capabilities at a competitive price point
  • Wynter: Specialized for B2B message testing and customer insights

Separately, you can leverage your existing marketing channels to gather insights directly from your audience through social media polls, email surveys, and website questionnaires. This approach often yields higher response rates from your target demographic.

Conduct Industry Analysis Using Public Data

Conducting an industry analysis is useful when you can provide new insights based on the analysis.

Here’s a high-level process for running an industry analysis:

  • Identify what you’ll analyze and how you’ll efficiently source the data.
  • See if there’s an API you can leverage to pull interesting data points (example: Use the Core Web Vitals API to analyze page speed industry benchmarks).
  • Establish the criteria you’ll use to analyze and ensure they’re criteria you can analyze at scale (e.g., word count, image length).
  • Double-check that the criteria aligns with a story/angle that will earn links and align with your desired coverage.

Below is a great prompt to use to find data sources with AI:

  • I am brainstorming a data-driven promotable content idea in the INDUSTRY. What are current data sources in the INDUSTRY that were released in the last year that we could analyze?

SaaS Digital PR Examples

Below are some examples of successful digital PR campaigns for SaaS brands.

Vena

We analyzed third-party data to answer a data-seeking query, “what percentage of businesses fail?” and create a unique data study. This post has secured 55 links.

Example of a successfully executed digital PR asset for the SaaS brand Vena

Data: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

Key success factors: 

  • Identified a unique storyline from the data
  • Visualized the data to aid in storytelling
  • Answered a data-seeking query with high organic link intent

Zip

We ran a proprietary survey for Zip, a procurement orchestration software, and aggregated trends into a report optimizing for the keyword “fintech industry trends.”

Example of a successfully executed digital PR asset for the SaaS brand Zip

Data: Poll of fintech executives

Key success factors:

  • Includes quotes from internal SMEs and industry experts
  • Hyper-relevant data and trends for Zip’s ICP

Huntress

Similarly, we pooled insights from a proprietary survey for Huntress to showcase “cyber insurance trends.”

Example of a successfully executed digital PR asset for the SaaS brand Huntress

Data: Poll of IT security professionals

Key success factors:

  • Includes quotes from internal SMEs
  • Launched at the beginning of the year to kick off new brand awareness initiatives

Unlocking Your Growth With Digital PR

We help SaaS brands achieve organic growth through expertly crafted, link-worthy content and targeted digital PR.

At Siege Media, our focus isn’t just on securing placements, but on tangibly improving your visibility, driving more traffic, building through leadership and authority, and increasing revenue. Discover how we can partner to elevate your brand’s online performance.

Secret recipes sold here.

Fresh out of the oven.