SAS Viya: B2B Platform PR Wins for 2026

Securing earned media for platform engineering initiatives requires a strategic approach, particularly in the competitive B2B field. As organizations increasingly adopt platform models, the demand for visibility and credibility for these complex solutions intensifies. This tutorial outlines how to use the SAS Viya platform’s integrated marketing and analytics capabilities to identify, target, and cultivate relationships with key media contacts, ensuring your thought leadership resonates.

Step 1: Onboarding Media Contacts and Identifying Influencers

The foundation of any successful earned media strategy is a well-curated list of contacts. In SAS Viya, this process begins within the Customer Intelligence 360 module.

1.1 Importing Contact Data

1. Navigate to Data Management > Data Sources.
2. Click New Data Source and select “External File Upload.”
3. Choose your CSV or Excel file containing reporter names, publications, email addresses, and beats. Ensure columns are clearly labeled (e.g., “Reporter Name,” “Publication,” “Primary Beat,” “Email Address”).
4. Map your file columns to existing or new data items in Viya. For instance, map “Primary Beat” to a custom attribute named “Media_Focus.”
5. Click Upload and Import.

Pro Tip: Integrate your CRM system (like Salesforce or HubSpot) directly with SAS Viya for automated contact synchronization. This ensures your media list is always current and reflects the latest interactions. A recent IAB report indicated that 78% of B2B marketers use integrated CRM and analytics platforms for media outreach by 2026.

1.2 Segmenting Media Contacts by Interest

Once imported, segment these contacts to personalize your outreach. This is where Viya’s analytical power becomes evident.

1. Go to Audiences > Segments.
2. Click New Segment.
3. Drag and drop your “Media_Focus” attribute into the canvas. Create conditions like “Media_Focus contains ‘Platform Engineering'” or “Media_Focus contains ‘Cloud Infrastructure’.”
4. Further refine by adding conditions based on publication tier (e.g., “Publication contains ‘TechCrunch’ OR ‘ZDNet'”).
5. Name your segment (e.g., “Platform Engineering Reporters – Tier 1”) and click Save.

Common Mistake: Relying solely on publication names. Reporters frequently cover multiple beats. Use their recent article topics (which you’ll analyze in the next step) to inform segmentation more accurately.

Step 2: Analyzing Reporter Interests with Text Analytics

Understanding what reporters write about is paramount for effective B2B PR. SAS Text Analytics, a component of Viya, excels here.

2.1 Ingesting Reporter Content

1. Access SAS Visual Text Analytics from the Viya main menu.
2. Create a new project and select “Import Data.”
3. Point to a data source containing URLs of recent articles by your target reporters. You might need a web scraping tool to collect these URLs, or manually curate them.
4. Configure the text parsing node to extract content from the specified URLs. Ensure you’re pulling the main body text, not just headlines.
5. Run the data extraction process.

Pro Tip: Focus on articles published within the last 6-12 months. This provides a current snapshot of their interests. Older content, while informative, might not reflect their present editorial priorities.

2.2 Identifying Key Themes and Sentiment

With the content ingested, use Text Analytics to uncover patterns.

1. Within your Visual Text Analytics project, add a Concepts node.
2. Define custom concepts related to platform engineering (e.g., “microservices architecture,” “DevOps pipelines,” “internal developer platforms”). Use Boolean logic to capture variations.
3. Add a Sentiment node to gauge the general tone of their past coverage on these topics. Are they critical, neutral, or positive? This informs your pitch angle.
4. Visualize the results in the Interactive Categorization or Topic Discovery nodes. Look for clusters of reporters frequently discussing specific aspects of platform engineering.

Expected Outcome: A detailed understanding of each reporter’s specific interests within platform engineering, allowing you to craft highly targeted and relevant pitches. For example, you might discover Reporter A consistently covers developer experience within platforms, while Reporter B focuses on the business impact of platform adoption.

Step 3: Crafting and Distributing Pitches with Customer Intelligence 360

Armed with insights, it’s time to build and deliver your thought leadership content.

3.1 Developing Personalized Email Campaigns

1. Return to Customer Intelligence 360 > Campaigns.
2. Create a New Email Campaign.
3. Select the audience segment you created in Step 1 (e.g., “Platform Engineering Reporters – Tier 1”).
4. Design your email template. Importantly, use dynamic content fields to personalize the subject line and body based on the reporter’s interests identified in Step 2. For example, “Subject: Your recent article on [Reporter_Interest] & Platform Engineering Trends.”
5. Include a clear call to action: an offer for an exclusive interview, a briefing, or early access to a new report.
6. Set up A/B tests for subject lines and call-to-action phrasing. This is where a lot of B2B PR efforts falter. Without testing, you’re just guessing.

Editorial Aside: Many PR professionals still rely on mass email blasts. That’s a mistake in 2026. Reporters are overwhelmed. Personalization isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s a requirement for even getting an email opened. According to HubSpot research, personalized emails generate 26% higher open rates.

3.2 Automating Follow-Up Sequences

Persistence pays off, but it needs to be smart persistence.

1. Within your email campaign, navigate to the Orchestration tab.
2. Add a Wait step (e.g., “Wait 3 days”).
3. Add a Decision step. Condition: “Email Opened = No.”
4. For contacts who haven’t opened, create a new email variant with a slightly different subject line and a concise reminder.
5. Repeat this process for up to two follow-ups. Beyond that, you risk annoyance.

Common Mistake: Sending generic follow-ups. Each follow-up should add value or offer a slightly different angle. Maybe the first follow-up references a new piece of data. The second offers a quick demo of your platform engineering solution.

Step 4: Monitoring and Measuring Earned Media Impact

Measuring the effectiveness of your efforts is non-negotiable for proving ROI.

4.1 Setting Up Earned Media Dashboards in Visual Analytics

1. Open SAS Visual Analytics.
2. Create a New Report.
3. Import data from a media monitoring service (e.g., Cision, Meltwater) that tracks mentions of your company, spokespeople, and platform engineering keywords.
4. Create visualizations:
   • Line Chart: Track mentions over time.
   • Bar Chart: Compare share of voice against competitors.
   • Word Cloud: Identify frequently associated terms with your brand in media coverage.
   • Gauge: Display sentiment score (positive, neutral, negative) for mentions.
5. Add filters for publication tier, reporter, and specific campaigns.

Pro Tip: Integrate social listening data into your Visual Analytics dashboard. A mention on a major tech blog often leads to social media amplification, which you should also be tracking.

4.2 Analyzing Attribution and Impact

Connecting earned media to business outcomes is the ultimate goal.

1. Within Visual Analytics, use Attribution Models to see which earned media placements correlate with website traffic, demo requests, or lead generation.
2. Link specific articles to spikes in web analytics data. Did that feature in ZDNet drive a noticeable increase in visits to your platform engineering solutions page?
3. Generate a Performance Report summarizing key metrics for stakeholders. Include sentiment, reach, and any attributable business impact.

Expected Outcome: A clear, data-driven understanding of which media outreach efforts generate the most valuable earned media, allowing you to refine your strategy and allocate resources more effectively. This goes beyond simple clip reports. It’s about demonstrating tangible value.

Mastering earned media for platform engineering requires more than just good content. It demands a data-driven approach to targeting, personalization, and measurement. By using SAS Viya’s integrated capabilities, B2B PR professionals can move beyond guesswork, ensuring their thought leadership genuinely resonates and drives measurable impact.