Most B2B tech companies reach out to agencies for the same reasons: funding announcements, product launches and executive hires.
Those stories are fine, but they rarely break through. Meanwhile, many in-house PR teams are sitting on something far more valuable than any of those traditional milestones, and they don't realize it.
Internal data is a media goldmine that could drive Tier 1 coverage.
The Pattern That Keeps Repeating
Here's the typical scenario. A CEO wants to know why the company isn’t in the news more. The board wants brand visibility. So planning starts around the traditional milestones—product launches, executive announcements, funding rounds, maybe an office opening if we're really stretching.
These stories get pitched, and the response is tepid. Maybe a brief in a trade pub. Maybe a mention in a roundup. But the Tier 1 coverage that everyone wants? It's not happening. Because reporters don't care about company announcements nearly as much as companies do.
What reporters do care about are stories that help their readers understand what's actually happening in the market. And that's exactly what internal data can tell them.
The Opportunity Hiding in Plain Sight
Consider what most B2B tech companies have access to. A payment processing platform sees real commerce data across thousands of businesses. An HR tech company tracks hiring patterns and compensation trends. Supply chain software watches logistics shifts in real time.
This isn't aspirational marketing content. This is empirical evidence of market behavior. And journalists are hungry for it.
Think about the companies that consistently get coverage without constant product announcements. Stripe releases commerce data. Indeed publishes employment insights. Zillow shares housing market trends. They're not just lucky—they're strategic about surfacing the intelligence flowing through their systems.
Why This Doesn't Happen More Often
The reason most B2B tech companies don't pursue data-driven PR is simple: it requires internal coordination that's genuinely difficult to drive. It needs buy-in from data teams who are usually slammed with product and engineering requests. It needs legal and compliance sign-off. It needs subject-matter experts to help contextualize the findings. And it needs executive support to prioritize this when it's not directly tied to a product launch or sales goal.
This coordination challenge is exactly why many companies stick to the easier path of traditional announcements. But that easier path is also why breaking through becomes so difficult.
How to Actually Make This Happen
Start with a single conversation with the data team. Don't lead with a request for a full research program. Just ask: What interesting patterns are emerging? What's surprising? What questions are being investigated? Often, data teams have already spotted something newsworthy but don't think about it through a PR lens.
Look for the counterintuitive story. The best data stories challenge what people assume is true. If conventional wisdom says one thing but the data show another, that's the angle. These are the findings that make journalists' eyes light up.
Get legal involved early, not late. Too many promising data stories die in legal review at the last minute. Bring compliance into the conversation from day one. Frame it as "sharing aggregated, anonymized insights about market trends"—not "publicizing customer data." There's a path through this, but it requires partnership.
Build the narrative, not just the numbers. Raw data doesn't get coverage. Interpretation gets coverage. Work with product leaders, customer success teams, and executives to explain what the patterns mean. Why are small businesses behaving differently from enterprises? What economic factors explain what the data shows? This context transforms data into a story.
Think series, not one-off. A quarterly data release sounds like a lot of work, but it's worth it. Recurring releases build authority. Journalists start watching for the data. Changes can be tracked over time, which adds depth to every subsequent story. And the second release is way easier than the first because the internal process already exists.
Make it easy for journalists. Create clean visualizations. Write a clear press release that leads with the insight, not the company. Have spokespeople ready for interviews. Offer embargo options for priority outlets. The more friction you remove, the better the results.
What Success Actually Looks Like
When this works, the results compound over time. There's immediate coverage from the data release. Then analysts start citing the research. Then journalists reach out when they're writing about industry trends, even without being pitched. The company becomes a source, not just a subject.
The internal wins are significant, too. Sales teams use these insights in customer conversations. Marketing builds content around them. The CEO has something genuinely interesting to discuss in speaking opportunities. PR stops being the team that just pushes out announcements and becomes the function that's surfacing genuine market intelligence.
Companies can transform their media presence with this approach. Not overnight—this is a longer play than a funding announcement. But the authority that's built is far more durable than any single news hit.
The Next Step
Most B2B tech companies that are reading this probably have interesting data. The question is whether they're going to do something with it.
From an agency perspective, it's possible to help figure out what stories are hiding in data and navigate the pitch strategy and media relationships. But the internal coordination that makes this possible has to come from within.
The challenge: talk to the data team this week. Ask what they're seeing. Ask what surprises them. Don't worry yet about whether it's "ready" for PR—just start the conversation.
Because the news that companies are waiting to announce might not be nearly as valuable as the news they're already sitting on.