As leaders, doers and thinkers of public relations in the fresh produce industry, we understand how intimidating and oftentimes unreachable success can seem when sending a press release or a pitch into a journalistic oblivion and hoping for it to be published.  At DMA, we have a proven approach to both, so here, we feel a little less daunted and in fact, have built careers around positioning brands to be shared for media consumption.

In an effort to help those that may still have doubts, we’ve rounded up a list of 24 statistics from 2019 and 2020 that will reframe the way you think about the state of PR and hopefully motivate you to consider adding a new element of this craft to your marketing arsenal in the year to come.

24 Public Relations Statistics That Could Be A Game Changer in 2021

On the state of the industry:

1.  The global PR market is expected to grow 10.2% in 2021, primarily due to companies rearranging their operations and recovering from the COVID-19 impact. (The Business Research Company, 2021).

2.  59% of PR professionals feel that technology will drive considerable change to the industry. (USC Annenberg, 2019)

On content and planning:

3.  Nine out of 10 in-house communications team leaders experience regular challenges with content creation. (Holmes Report, 2019).
We understand the struggles of continuously generating newsworthy content for media, check out some of our tips HERE.

4. 59% of communicators say they have a communications strategy drafted, but only 45% admit to having a documented crisis communications plan (JOTW Communications Survey, 2019)

On pitching:

5.  94% of PR professionals said that individual, 1:1 emails are the most effective way to pitch journalists (Muck Rack 2020)
We note the type of news we recommend pitching media HERE.

6.  80% of PR professionals said personalization, customization, or suggesting a topic relevant to the journalist (Muck Rack 2020).
We have more tips for interacting with the media HERE.

7.  57% percent of consumers say they now pay more attention to how healthy the products are that they buy – an essential message to be applied along with your pitches in 2021 (PR Daily, 2020).

8.  Pitching an angle that resonates is the key to securing a placement.  One way to do this is to think outside the product you’re selling and look within. 65% of consumers said they were more likely to support a brand if they knew the company cared about the same social issues that they do (PR Daily, 2020).

9.  45% of PR professionals said that Tuesday is the best day to send a pitch. But among the dates journalists preferred, Monday was still the most popular choice (20%), with only 10% saying Tuesday (Muck Rack 2020).
More on our tips for pitching media can be found HERE.

10.  85% of PR professionals say morning is the best time to send a pitch, and 64% of journalists also said they preferred morning pitches (Muck Rack 2020).

On measurement and impact:

11. 72% of PR professionals said measuring business impact is currently the top challenge facing the industry (Muck Rack, 2019).

12. 54% of executive teams are briefed at least weekly on PR and communications activities, with a little over 1/4 briefed on a case by case basis (Muck Rack, 2019).

13. 98% of professionals are at least measuring their PR in some way, but a little under a third of them are looking at sales impact (Muck Rack, 2019).

14. 65% of PR pros said the ability to quantify “Big Data Analytics” will be the most important skill to the future of the industry (USC Annenberg, 2019).

15. 44% of pros said clients were likely to ask for media clippings; 22% said clients wanted engagement metrics (typically related to social media); 12% said awareness metrics were important to clients; 4% said clients wanted sales figures; and just 3% said clients were looking for advocacy metrics such as net promoter score (Holmes Report, 2019)

On maintaining relationships with journalists:

16. 54% of PR professionals either always or frequently follow journalists on social media before they pitch them (Muck Rack, 2019).

17. 91% of PR professionals like to maintain a relationship over email, while 47% also like to meet in person (Muck Rack 2020).

18. 84% of journalists also prefer email, while just 25% thought meeting in person was appropriate (25% also said Twitter) (Muck Rack 2020).

19. 93% of PR professionals say they follow the journalists they pitch on social media (Muck Rack, 2019).

On budgets:

20. 61% of PR professionals are concerned about tightening budgets in the future (Muck Rack, 2019). See HERE on why we think PR is worth your company’s investment.

21. 55% of professionals say their budget is set by the C-level, making it all the more important execs are kept in the loop (Muck Rack, 2019).

On tools of the trade:

22. Of all tools PR professionals use, 98% of them say they spend the most time using email throughout the day (Muck Rack, 2019).

23. 17% of PR professionals are not currently using any type of PR software (Muck Rack, 2019).

24. About 1/3 of PR professionals use social media, web analytics and/or email marketing software daily (Muck Rack, 2019).

After reading these statistics, which are surfacing as barriers or opportunities for your public relations efforts?  Whether you are interested in seeking support for press release writing, distribution and measurement or pitching to members of the press, the DMA Solutions PR team is ready to help.

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