How do we turn our own data into coverage in the trade press?

You have sent out press releases about a new hire, a new office and a tenth anniversary. None was picked up. Meanwhile the trade magazine your buyers read quotes your competitors, usually citing a number from something they published.

The gap is usually not expertise. Journalists write about what is new, and an announcement about your firm is only new to you. A finding about the market, with numbers behind it, is new to everyone. A small, well-run piece of research gives a journalist a story they can stand behind, and puts your firm's name in the article as the source.

That coverage now works twice. It reaches buyers directly, and it is the kind of source AI assistants cite: in Muck Rack's May 2026 analysis of more than 25 million links cited by ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, earned media made up 84% and journalism 27%. Why your own research builds that trust is covered in whether publishing our own research helps ChatGPT recommend us. This guide is about the press side: choosing the question, running the study, packaging it and pitching it.

#Why do journalists write about research and ignore announcements?

Because they need stories their readers do not already know, and evidence to stand them up. Research does both jobs. An announcement does neither.

A trade editor's inbox is full of promotions, contract wins and launches that interest nobody outside the firms involved. What readers want is something about the sector: costs rising faster than expected, a regulation nobody is ready for, a skills gap in a region. Bring a finding like that and the piece becomes about the market, with your firm as the source of the evidence and your founder explaining what it means.

Research also lasts. A story about your office move is forgotten within a week. A figure about the sector gets quoted again by other journalists, trade bodies and people's presentations, each time with your name attached.

#What data does a firm like ours already have?

More than most founders think. Before commissioning a survey, look at your own records.

• Your operational data. A firm that has done a few hundred pieces of work holds patterns: how long projects take, how costs have moved, which problems clients bring most. Summarised and anonymised, that is a story nobody else can tell. Check client contracts and data protection obligations first.
• Public data nobody has joined up. Companies House filings, Office for National Statistics releases, job adverts, planning applications and tender notices are free to analyse. Two public sources side by side, explained for your sector, is often a story.
• A survey of your market. A short online survey through a panel provider or your own contacts. The most flexible route, and the one that needs most care.
• Interviews. Twenty or thirty structured conversations can produce findings and quotes a survey cannot, where the group is small, such as heads of legal at a particular kind of company.

#What makes a finding newsworthy?

A finding is newsworthy when it tells decision-makers in your sector something specific they did not know and would act on. It helps if it surprises them, and it must not read as an advertisement for what you sell.

• It is about the market. "How firms like ours get chosen" is a story. "Why clients choose us" is a brochure.
• It surprises, or settles an argument. A gap between what people say and what they do is the classic headline.
• It is specific. "Many firms struggle with hiring" is not a finding. A named role, region and time period is.
• It is useful. If a reader can take the number into a board meeting, an editor will want it.
• It does not simply argue for what you sell. A cyber security firm concluding that everyone should spend more on cyber security reads as marketing. Showing which controls prevented incidents reads as evidence.

Example: here is how one study might fit together. The figures are invented to show the shape, not real results.

#How much does a study cost, and how long does it take?

It depends mostly on who you need to hear from. Your own records cost only your team's time; a panel survey of senior or niche B2B decision-makers costs the most per response, in our experience, because they are harder to reach. Ask two or three providers for a quote on the same brief before you decide.

Most of the time goes on the question, the questionnaire, the analysis and the packaging, not the fieldwork.

#How do we run a small study properly?

You do not need a research department, but you do need discipline.

#Step 1: Pick one question your buyers argue about

Choose a question that comes up in sales meetings, where there is disagreement or no good UK data. Write it as one sentence.

#Step 2: Choose the method that fits

Use your own records if they answer it, a survey if you need to know what a group thinks or does, and interviews if the group is small. A survey plus a few interviews gives you numbers and quotes.

#Step 3: Write fair questions

Avoid leading questions such as "How concerned are you about rising costs?", which assumes costs are rising and the respondent is worried. Keep a survey to about ten minutes. Ask role, sector, size and region so you can split the results. Test it on five people first.

#Step 4: Collect enough of the right responses

Who answers matters more than how many. A few hundred finance directors of UK firms beats several thousand members of the public for a B2B story. Use a provider bound by the Market Research Society Code of Conduct, and screen out anyone outside your target group.

#Step 5: Write the method note before anything else

Pick the three to five clearest findings. Then write a short method note: who you asked, how many, when, how they were recruited and whether results were weighted. If you cannot write that paragraph plainly, the findings are not ready.

#What sample size does a survey need to get press coverage?

There is no single threshold. Journalists judge the sample against the claim: a few hundred respondents from the right group supports a claim about that group, and a few dozen can support a snapshot if described as one.

For example, the textbook margin of error for a result near 50%, at 95% confidence, shrinks slowly as the sample grows:

Online panels are not random samples, so treat these as a best case. Splits matter most: 500 responses across five regions is about 100 per region, so plan around the smallest group you want to quote.

#Which survey companies do UK journalists trust?

Journalists care more about whether the method holds up than about the brand. When members of the British Polling Council publish a poll, they must disclose the client, fieldwork dates, method, the population represented, sample size and coverage, and put full tables online within two working days (BPC rules). Firms in the Market Research Society's Company Partner scheme are bound by its Code of Conduct, whose current edition took effect on 15 May 2023.

Whoever you use, ask for the full data tables, publish the method note and name the provider. A study you can defend line by line is one journalists will quote.

#How do we package the findings so a journalist can use them in an afternoon?

Put the findings on a proper web page first, with a PDF as a download at most. A PDF is hard to link to, quote from or update.

A good findings page has:

• One citable sentence per finding, with the figure and its base, for example "40% of the 300 finance directors surveyed said..."
• A chart for each finding, with the sentence as text beside it, and the full method note and data tables on the page.
• A reuse licence. A licence such as Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 lets anyone share and adapt the findings, even commercially, provided they give credit and link back. That is what you want.
• Dataset markup. Google supports Dataset structured data, which needs a name and description and recommends fields such as creator, licence, temporal coverage and the variables measured. It helps search engines read the study correctly; it is not a ranking trick.
• A stable address for each edition, so last year's coverage still links to last year's figures.

Alongside it: a one-page summary, a spokesperson available that day, and a personal note to each journalist leading with the finding that matters to their readers.

#How do I write a press release for survey results?

Lead with the finding, give the base in the first paragraph, and put the method in the notes to editors. A release about the market gets read; a release about your firm does not.

1. Embargo line, if there is one: "EMBARGOED UNTIL 00:01 [day, date]".
2. Headline: the finding, in plain words, with no firm name.
3. First paragraph: the headline figure, its base ("of 300 UK finance directors surveyed"), and who ran the study.
4. Second paragraph: one or two supporting findings, including any surprise.
5. Quote: your founder on what it means for decision-makers, in two or three sentences.
6. Notes to editors: the method note, a link to the findings page and tables, and the spokesperson's direct contact details.

#What is a press embargo, and how long should it be?

An embargo is an agreement that a journalist receives the research early but publishes nothing before a set time. It gives them time to write a better piece, and it rests on trust, so agree it with each journalist before you send anything.

In our experience a few working days is enough for most trade titles, with more for monthly print titles whose deadlines fall well before publication; ask the journalist what they need. Put the embargo line at the top of every document and in the email subject. If a title breaks it, tell the other journalists who had it that the story is out and they may publish, then deal with the title that broke it privately, and think twice before trusting it with the next one.

#How do we pitch research without being ignored?

Pitch it personally, with an angle for each reader, and give one title a head start.

• Offer an exclusive first. Give the title your buyers respect most the research a few days early, under embargo, on the understanding it publishes first. If it declines, offer it to the next.
• Then pitch the rest with their own angle. The regional split for a regional paper, the sector split for a sector title. Five pitches with five angles beat one release sent to five hundred addresses.
• Time it sensibly. Avoid weeks dominated by big news, such as a Budget, and tie the release to a date in your sector's calendar.
• Follow up once, then move on. More than that damages the relationships described in how to get trade journalists to call us for comment.

#How does one study keep working for a year?

Write a short article on your site for each main finding, offer a trade title a guest piece, present the findings at a client event, and give your sales team the one-page summary.

Then repeat it with the same questions. The second edition is a better story, because now there is a trend, and journalists who quoted you last year look for the update. Keep every edition live at its own address. When we rebuilt arum's website, "215 articles, research pieces and news items moved across, going back to 2014", and "Every old address redirected, so years of rankings carried over." (arum case study). That steady presence is what what twelve months of consistent PR looks like describes.

#Which mistakes get research ignored or distrusted?

Leading questions, small samples presented as "what UK businesses say", a hidden method, the best number buried on page seven, and only publishing findings that suit you. Research that sometimes surprises its sponsor is more credible, and more quotable, than research that always agrees with it.

#What to do this month

1. List three questions your buyers argue about in sales meetings where nobody has good UK data.
2. Check whether your own records could answer one of them, and what you would need to anonymise first.
3. If they cannot, draft a ten-minute survey and ask two or three providers to quote on the same brief.
4. Choose the trade title you would most like to break the findings, and find the journalist who covers that subject.
5. Put a date in the diary for a second edition twelve months after the first, so the study is a series from the start.

#Frequently asked questions

#Should we use a research firm or do it ourselves?

For a survey, a panel provider is usually worth paying for, because finding the right respondents is the hard part. For your own records or client interviews, doing it yourself is often better. Many firms write the questions themselves and pay for recruitment and an independent check of the analysis.

#What if the results are not what we expected?

Publish them anyway, framed plainly. Unexpected results are often the better story, because they challenge an assumption. Firms that only publish findings in their own favour soon find journalists stop taking their research seriously.

#Can we use client data in published research?

Often yes, if it is aggregated and cannot identify any client, but check your contracts and data protection obligations first and take advice where there is doubt. Some firms also ask a few clients to be named alongside the research, which gives journalists real examples to follow up.

#How long does a piece of research stay useful?

In our experience a study is quoted until something newer exists on the topic, then journalists want current numbers. That is why a repeated annual study is worth more than a one-off: each edition refreshes the figures and adds a trend, and older editions become the baseline.

#What if a competitor has already published research on the same topic?

That shows the topic matters to journalists. Ask a different question, survey a different group, or cover a region or sector they left out. Repeating their study with a smaller sample does not work.

If you want help choosing the question, running the study and getting it in front of the right editors, that is part of Reputation That Wins. We usually start with the questions your buyers already ask in sales meetings.

#Sources