💸 How to Tie PR to Pipeline (Yes, You Can)

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Let’s be honest: saying “PR drives pipeline” can still feel like a stretch - especially to a CFO or RevOps exec. But it does. Not directly like a demo button. But in the way a respected third-party quote, smart trend story, or podcast hit can move a buyer from “never heard of you” to “that name sounds familiar.”

The key? Making earned media work for revenue… without turning it into something it’s not.

Here’s how:

Loop in Your Sales Team from Day One
PR shouldn’t happen in a vacuum. Your sales team knows which headlines would actually help close deals. Use that intel to reverse-engineer your media targets and pitch angles. (Think: “The Real Cost of Engineering Burnout” for a devtools startup, or “How CMOs Are Rethinking Attribution” for a MarTech brand.)

Bonus: If your AEs wouldn’t send the link to a prospect, it probably doesn’t need to be a target.

Productize Your Coverage
Your coverage shouldn’t be treated like a trophy. It should be a tool. Every hit should turn into:

• Sales email blurbs

• Social proof assets

• LinkedIn carousels

• Slides for your next board deck

Embed them in HubSpot. Drop them in Gong snippets. Make them part of your sales muscle memory.

Track What Actually Moves the Needle

You can’t tie PR to pipeline without tracking the right metrics. Forget impressions and “ad value equivalency.” Start here instead:

1. Branded search lift
Look for spikes in Google Search Console around your brand or exec’s name within 48–72 hours of a hit.

2. Direct traffic spikes
Use Google Analytics (GA) or your attribution tool to flag jumps in direct traffic (especially to demo or pricing pages) post-coverage.

3. Referral traffic from media
Obvious, but still under-tracked. UTMs help—when they don’t get stripped—but even raw referrers in GA can surface patterns.

4. CRM influence
Tag inbound leads who mention they “saw you in TechCrunch” or “heard you on that podcast.” Build a PR-attributed lead view in Salesforce or HubSpot and treat it like your own mini-funnel.

5. AI visibility audits
Check if your coverage is showing up in ChatGPT, Perplexity, or search result summaries. If your competitors are being cited and you’re not, that’s a gap PR can fill.

The Bottom Line
PR works best when it’s part of your revenue strategy, not decoration after the fact. Done right, it shapes perception, builds credibility, and shortens the path to trust.

If you want to tie PR to pipeline, stop thinking of it as top-of-funnel fluff—and start treating it like the trust engine it actually is.

📱 New in non-traditional media

Tracking the newsletters, podcasts, and creators reshaping media influence.

📰 In the news

• 🛡️ Reuters – EU sticks with timeline for AI rules
  Despite pushback from major tech companies like Google and Meta, the European Commission confirms it will enforce the AI Act as scheduled in August 2025—a signal of regulatory resolve and the growing need for transparency in AI systems.
  

• 🚨 Axios – Publishers facing existential threat from AI, Cloudflare CEO says
  Cloudflare CEO warns publishers are struggling as AI-generated summaries reduce referral traffic, underscoring the urgent challenge of maintaining discoverability and credibility in the AI age.
  

• 📉 PR Daily: #1 Comms Surprise of 2025 — Generative AI’s Explosive Impact.
  Communicators on LinkedIn flagged generative AI’s rapid rise as the top surprise of 2025. This shift isn’t just about writing – it’s transforming whether and how earned media builds credibility.

🎤 Spotlight on SaaS Creators

The latest and greatest of the SaaS-focused newsletters you should be reading. 

📧 SaaStr Weekly

• Curated by: Jason Lemkin

• Focus: Tactical advice, benchmarks, and insights from SaaS founders and operators.

• Why Subscribe: SaaStr isn’t just content—it’s a community. The newsletter surfaces trends before they hit TechCrunch and offers quote-worthy advice for positioning B2B companies with sales-led or PLG motions.

📧 Every.to

• Curated by: A collective of tech and business writers

• Focus: Essays on business, AI, productivity, and tech trends—through a founder and operator lens.

• Why Subscribe: Every.to blends sharp analysis with personal perspective, making it a go-to for comms pros looking to understand how insiders are thinking, building, and storytelling. Great for spotting emerging narratives in SaaS, AI, and the modern work stack.

 📧 The Leverage

• Curated by: Evan Armstrong

• Focus: Sharp, deeply-reported insights into tech market movements—no fluff, just real opportunity spotting.

• Why Subscribe: Evan breaks down complex tech trends—like startup bubbles or AI shifts—with clarity, wit, and a bit of dry humor. With over 36,000 subscribers, this Substack is where operators and investors turn for forward-looking analysis that shapes strategy, not just headlines. Perfect for communications teams aiming to understand the currents behind the news and craft narratives that matter.

⭐️ Favorite story of the week:

• “Everything Millenial is Cool Again” – The New York Times

  TikTok, that relentless arbiter of taste, has spoken: millennials are back. From side parts to statement necklaces, the internet’s favorite punching bag is being reclaimed - not ironically, but earnestly. As Gen Z weathers adulting and a sluggish economy, they’re turning to the last generation to do recession-core with flair.

  This piece isn’t just a rundown of aesthetic comebacks—it’s a signal. Trends move in cycles, but what we’re seeing here is more than nostalgia. It’s a cultural reappraisal of a generation that helped define the first influencer wave, built the blogosphere, and lived through the social-to-societal shift. And in this full-circle moment, millennial relevance is less about revival—and more about long-overdue recognition.

⚡️ [Under Embargo] -  The Colab Expands

We've been working on something behind the scenes, and it's almost ready. 

The Colab Academy is our way of sharing what's actually working in PR right now. We're tired of seeing the same outdated advice everywhere, so we're creating a space for weekly insights, real strategy breakdowns, and honest conversations about building visibility when everything feels scattered - AI, influencers, algorithms, you name it.

Want in early? We've got a waitlist open now.

This is for the comms leads, brand builders, and strategy people who'd rather be ahead of the curve than scrambling to keep up.

Don’t want to wait? Start creating your AI awareness strategy today.  Say hello. 

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