Research to Results: The Offleash PR Playbook
Legendary baseball player and coach Yogi Berra is often quoted as saying, “Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical.”
Here on the Offleash Research team, we may not be athletes—and we can’t support the bad math—but we couldn’t agree more with the sentiment.
We’d like to think that a successful PR program is 90 percent analytical. In the high-stakes game of PR, our research team isn’t just the commentator up in the broadcast booth, narrating the game and reporting the results; we’re the strategists in the dugout, using data-driven tactics to analyze every game-time move and coach our clients on the next one.
In the following sections, we’ll break down three of our key plays and show you how our analytical approach transforms raw data into game-winning strategies.
Our Unique Approach to SOV
At Offleash, Share of Voice Reporting isn’t merely a scoreboard of how you are performing against the opposing team; it’s a top-selling service that provides clients with a competitive edge, so they know when to take their big swing.
Our team’s methodology is unique. We use subscription tools to aggregate data, and then our team of database engineers carefully cleanses automated results using a proprietary technique. Data cleansing removes “dirty data” that can skew results, such as press release pickup, advertisements for market research reports, and bot content. Data cleansing ensures more accurate results than automation alone can provide.
Next, our trained research analysts take reporting to a level that automated tools can’t. Analysts add a deep level of qualitative analysis to the results and numbers. This analysis not only gives clients an ongoing assessment of their awareness against key competitors in their industry, but most importantly it:
• Uncovers strategies and tactics used by competitors
• Highlights opportunities for clients
• Equips clients with actionable insights and recommendations for growing mindshare
• Helps continually improve the quality of coverage
In daily operations, we use these insights to set impactful goals, recommend key focus areas, and track coverage trends over time, including seasonal patterns. This allows for strategic planning of product announcements, partnership announcements, corporate news, and thought leadership outreach.
Deep Dive into Competitor Messaging
Our Competitive Messaging Audits go far beyond standard audits that merely skim taglines and press releases. By understanding the ins-and-outs of the competition’s core product and corporate messaging, we help our clients elevate their own positioning and hit a line drive right up the middle.
Our trained research analysts and database engineers perform an extremely granular examination of every piece of publicly available marketing material, including corporate websites, product and technical data sheets, white papers, social media channels, blogs, news articles, and keynote speeches.
Analysts then summarize results into an easily digestible report that outlines each competitors’ value proposition, including leading promises, supporting statements, proof and pain points, added benefits, and strength of messaging.
In practice, we use these audits to:
• Guide clients on positioning that will fill the white space left by competitors
• Inform critical business and marketing decisions, from taglines to key product attributes
• Identify opportunities for clients to differentiate themselves in areas where competitors are lacking
Staying Ahead of the Curve with Trending Topics
For our Trending Topics Research, we identify hot media topics that are top of mind with a client’s distinct buying audience. What topics do CEOs, CIOs, CISOs, etc. care about most right now? That is the question that our research answers. By arming clients with this level of intelligence, we significantly lessen their chances of striking out with media.
Our analysts dig deep into media channels favored by target audiences, quantifying results with customized searches. Clients receive a report with a deep dive into hot topics that explains specifically how they are being talked about and why they are of interest to the target audience (i.e., the pain points that they map to.)
In our PR programs, we use this research to:
• Pivot and reevaluate our current thought leadership efforts
• Build new thought leadership platforms for crucial spokespeople
• Ensure clients are leading the conversations that clients and reporters care about most
• Provide a perspective that is valuable and relevant in the broader technology/media landscape
Bringing It All Together: The Winning Strategy
SOV Reporting, Competitive Messaging Audits, and Trending Topics Research are just a few plays in the Offleash Research playbook. A World Series-worthy PR program does not occur in a vacuum merely by evaluating your own team’s triumphs and challenges. By deeply understanding your opponents and broader market trends, you can give yourself a winning lead in the game.