The Rising Influence of PR and Comms in the C-Suite: 3 Strategies to Keep Your Seat

In recent years, C-suite members have increasingly sought guidance from PR and communications teams in navigating challenges to brand reputation and loyalty, such as consumer skepticism, AI adoption, misinformation, the 24/7 news cycle, and dynamic market shifts. Our 2025 Comms Report highlights this trend, with 84% of comms leaders acknowledging an increased demand from the C-level suite for their counsel. When it comes to the areas executives rely on them the most, nearly half of comms leaders (47%) say CEOs are holding them accountable for building sustainable growth and value for the brand. This is followed by the ability to respond to changing marketplace dynamics and opportunities (45%) and driving revenue (42%). 

It’s now clear that PR and comms teams have rightfully claimed their seat at the table, but you might ask yourself: How do you keep it? Further, how can you continue to grow your influence? 

1. Align Your Goals with Business Objectives

PR and comms teams get the best results when they share a unified definition of success with key stakeholders across critical departments like sales, marketing, operations, and finance. This alignment encourages collaboration, ensures consistent messaging, clarifies expectations, and guides meaningful focus throughout the organization. 

Once you’ve defined success in collaboration with your colleagues, you can establish key performance indicators (KPIs) for your team, making sure each measure is: 

• Aligned - What are you trying to accomplish as an organization? What does success look like, and which elements will drive progress?
• Informed - Use current and historical performance data to set ambitious but achievable objectives for your team. 
• Quantifiable – KPIs must be measured consistently and comprehensively to establish baselines, observe performance trends over time, and understand the impact of specific activities. 

2. Quantify and Spotlight the Impact of PR

Once you’ve identified the right KPIs, the next crucial step is to measure, track, and report on your impact. However, this process comes with its own challenges as highlighted by the 2025 Comms Report, where 37% of comms leaders struggle to measure impact effectively, and 36% find a challenge in identifying the best tools to do so.  

To address this struggle, start by evaluating your current media monitoring strategy and resources. Consider investing in a comprehensive, intuitive media monitoring platform, such as CisionOne. Quality platforms go beyond standard metrics like share of voice (SOV), sentiment over time, and coverage by media type – they also incorporate advanced PR metrics such as verified views, website conversions, and demographic and firmographic data.  

(Whichever platform you use, we have the perfect resource to help you learn more about creating effective media monitoring strategies and proving the impact of your PR efforts: The Complete Guide to Effective Media Monitoring for PR.) 

With this robust information, you’ll have a deeper understanding of your target audiences, messaging resonance, brand mentions, industry trends, and competitors, as well as early brand risk identification. Since these insights are presented in an easy-to-understand, customizable format, they can be instantly transformed into executive-ready reports, helping you tell a compelling story and making presenting to C-level executives easier.

3. Hone Your PR Measurement Skills

Having the right tools is essential, but the ability to analyze the data is crucial for making informed, data-driven recommendations. This reinforces your role as a strategic advisor to the C-suite members. According to the 2025 Comms Report, nearly 90% of our respondents answered in the affirmative when asked if they are relying on data and analytics now more than ever. However, 43% say they still struggle convert data into actionable insights. 

To make the most of your data, look for opportunities to sharpen and diversify your knowledge across high-impact capabilities such as media analytics, audience research, brand reputation monitoring, social listening, and AI applications. Continuous development of these skills through conferences, webinars, and mentorship is key to enhancing credibility, grow your influence, and adding value to your counsel. 

Keeping Your Seat

Your seat next to C-suite members is an opportunity to lead, shape, and redefine the narrative of your organization's success. Your influence is not just earned – it's perpetually earned and reinforced through strategic alignment, impact measurement, and a commitment to skill development. 

Interested to see how over 300 of your peers are maintaining their strategic influence? Download the 2025 Comms Report to find out how others are leveraging data, technology, social media, content, and more to inform their strategies – and see where you can apply it to your own approach.

To find out how Cision’s suite of solutions can help you keep your seat in 2025,  speak with an expert.

This article has been updated from an earlier version to reflect new data from our 2025 survey.