Anatomy of a data story that earned 41 links
No budget for a survey, no proprietary data, one analyst and one writer. What we built, how we pitched it and what we would change.
Key takeaways · Digital PR · 7 min read
- Test three headlines before building anything
- A transparent methodology is what makes reporters comfortable citing you
- Pitch 80 people by hand rather than 800 by template
The brief
A small hotel group in the Texas Hill Country wanted links from travel publications. It had no customer data it could share and a modest budget. That describes most businesses, so the method is widely reusable.
Step one: the angle test
We wrote three possible headlines and checked each against the last six months of coverage. Two had been done recently. The third, a ranking of Texas towns for a two-night trip, had not been covered with any data behind it.
This step takes a day and saves weeks. If none of the three survive, write three more.
Step two: public data, honestly combined
We scored 30 towns on five measures, all from public sources.
- Lodging availability and median nightly rate
- Number of independent restaurants per thousand residents
- Annual event calendar density
- Drive time from the four largest Texas metros
- Trail and park access within 20 minutes
Step three: the pitch
Each of 86 emails was written to a named reporter and led with the finding most relevant to their region. Four sentences, one chart, a link to the methodology and an offer of the full dataset.
Forty-one publications linked to the study. Twelve asked for a local cut of the data, which we supplied the same day.
What we would change
We published the methodology as a PDF, and several reporters could not open it on a phone. Next time it will be a web page. We also underestimated how many local outlets wanted a town-level quote, so we now prepare one for every place in the ranking before pitching.
Four sentences, one chart, a link to the methodology and an offer of the full dataset.
Written by
Mateo Vargas
Digital PR lead. A former regional business reporter who knows what an inbox looks like on deadline. Pitches by hand, one editor at a time.
Illustrative photos. Figures and examples in this article are sample content.
