B2B Tech PR
A comprehensive guide to Public Relations for B2B Technology.
How to approach public relations and maximise your investment, and why external agency support helps your in-house team deliver value to the business.
B2B technology public relations (PR) is about defining a brand’s strategic communications efforts. It’s often thought of as a function for sourcing media mentions, but it offers so much more than that. It guides the public perception of an organisation and enhances its brand reputation. It places brand storytelling at its heart, ensuring the right message, told through the right story is effectively disseminated through the right channels.
This guide brings together everything you need to know about PR, from how it helps with the challenges in B2B Tech Marketing to how to maximise your PR agency reputation and on to how you can leverage it to support sales and marketing.
We complete the guide by exploring how artificial intelligence - and especially generative AI - is impacting the public relations industry.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
What is B2B technology PUBLIC RELATIONS?
Public Relations (PR) in the B2B tech world is a strategic communications function that shapes and maintains the perception and reputation of tech companies among business customers, potential investors, partners and the industry at large. It places brand storytelling at its heart, ensuring the right message, told through the right story is effectively disseminated through the right channels.
At its core, B2B Tech PR is about establishing credibility, authority and trust. B2B Tech PR’s role is to reach and influence a targeted and highly informed audience. These are senior decision-makers who look beyond flashy campaigns to the substance, business logic and technical credibility of the message.
In the B2B tech landscape, PR is not just about getting your name out there. Awareness is important, but it’s about awareness with your target audience. PRing B2B tech is also focused on demonstrating thought leadership and industry expertise to build credibility and trust. It’s a strategic effort to ensure your innovations, solutions, and case studies are part of the industry's larger conversations. This is achieved through a variety of means, from corporate news, opinion pieces, feature stories, research white papers and case studies, to speaking engagements at leading industry events, roundtables and fireside discussions.
For senior communications and marketing professionals, B2B Tech PR is a vehicle to drive the corporate narrative, build and manage reputation, and engage with a community of peers, competitors, and collaborators.
It’s a way to articulate the company's vision, communicate complex technological advancements in an accessible language, and position the company as a forward-thinking leader.
B2B Tech PR and the Media Landscape
Effective B2B Tech PR requires a deep understanding of the media landscape and how it intersects with the tech industry. It’s about identifying the right journalists, publications, and influencers who can amplify your message to the right B2B audience, whether that’s decision makers in banks for a fintech product, or innovation leaders in retail for a retail tech product. It’s also about leveraging digital platforms, from social media to corporate blogs, to create a consistent and compelling online presence.
Here’s a selection of top business media and technology media sites in the UK and US:
Top Business News sites
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Top Tech News Sites:
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Top US News Sites
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Vertical publications
Vertical business news publications, also known as niche business publications, cater to specific industries or business sectors rather than providing a broad overview of the business world. These publications offer in-depth coverage of industry trends, news, and analysis, catering to the specific information needs of professionals within those industries.
Broadcast: TV and Radio
While traditional broadcast news and radio may not be the first mediums that come to mind when considering B2B Tech PR, they can play a valuable role in reaching target audiences and achieving marketing goals. These mediums offer several advantages for B2B Tech marketers, including:
- Broad Reach: Business Broadcast news and radio have a large and diverse audience, including many B2B tech decision-makers.
- Credibility: Broadcast news and radio are trusted sources of information, which can help to establish your company's credibility in the B2B tech market.
- Targeting: Broadcast news and radio stations often have specific programming or segments that target B2B tech audiences.
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The B2B Tech Marketing Challenge
Navigating a Crowded Marketplace
B2B tech markets are fiercely competitive, brimming with voices vying for attention. In such an environment, creating a resonant brand message that cuts through the din is a significant challenge.
It's essential to recognise the right channels where your voice is not just another echo but a clear, distinct sound. This is where judicious marketing spend becomes vital.
A selective approach, prioritising channels that offer a blend of reach and relevance, can be more effective.
Strategic placements in esteemed tech publications, for instance, can contribute significantly to brand visibility and thought leadership without overextending the budget.
Aligning ROI with Marketing and Sales
In the B2B tech sector, the importance of measurable ROI cannot be overstated. The interplay between marketing and sales, particularly in account-based marketing, is intricate. It demands an approach that not only aligns with target account strategies but also justifies each investment.
Here, the role of a B2B Tech PR Agency transcends traditional publicity, venturing into lead generation and conversion tracking. By tailoring content and campaigns that resonate with target accounts, PR initiatives can directly contribute to the sales pipeline, offering clear indicators of ROI to justify budget allocations.
Crafting Distinctive Brand Identities
With services and solutions often appearing similar on the surface, distinguishing your brand is critical. Crafting and disseminating high-quality, fresh content is key. Content that articulates your value proposition with clarity and creativity can elevate your brand's profile.
High-quality content serves dual purposes: it captures leads by providing valuable insights and nurtures them by establishing a brand as a thought leader.
PR and SEO
In this respect, PR and SEO go hand in hand—optimised content that ranks well in organic search not only draws in a targeted audience but also supports them in their self-guided research, subtly guiding their perceptions and choices.
In conclusion, four pillars—understanding buyer behaviour, standing out in a crowded market, measuring ROI, and creating brand differentiation—are foundational to the strategy of any B2B Tech PR Agency aiming to make an impact. It's about being tactically present where it matters and ensuring that when your audience seeks, they find you first, and they find you credible.
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Find out moreThe Benefits of B2B Tech PR
Cultivating Top-of-Funnel Awareness
For B2B tech firms, establishing top-of-funnel awareness is important to attract and engage potential clients and partners. Your B2B Tech PR agency should excel in broadcasting the innovative facets of your brand, ensuring that these messages resonate with the intended audience. By leveraging media relations, authoritative articles, and pervasive content marketing, PR strategies propel brand visibility, fostering initial awareness needed for nurturing leads.
This strategic dissemination of brand-centric narratives educates potential customers on your offerings and kick-starts the development of trust. With a robust top-of-funnel presence, your brand becomes a familiar name, setting the stage for deeper engagement in the customer’s buying journey.
Reinforcing Brand Credibility
In the self-directed research phase, the credibility forged by a dedicated B2B Tech PR programme is invaluable. Through securing coverage in business and tech publications and earning the advocacy of industry pundits, you will cultivate trust and expertise for your brand. Content, ranging from articles to detailed case studies, builds credibility, guiding prospects in their awareness and consideration stage of the buyer journey.
These strategic placements not only inform but also serve as an endorsement, underscoring your brand’s positioning and successful track record in the tech sector.
Boosting Account-Based Marketing Strategies
A B2B Tech PR programme augments account-based marketing (ABM) by pinpointing and engaging with publications read by your target accounts.
Customised content in these publications ensures your messaging resonates deeply with the specific interests of key accounts, thereby elevating the relevance and impact of your campaigns.
The alignment of PR activities with sales supports a unified approach that nurtures prospects through bespoke interactions. Visibility in trusted publications helps direct marketing efforts and shapes the brand’s image as a frontrunner in its sector.
Advancing Marketing and Sales Integration
B2B Tech PR is about more than awareness and building credibility. It can help wider marketing and sales. The relentless promotion of pertinent content through PR initiatives supports the sales funnel by cultivating qualified leads and helps speed the sales process. E
Supplying sales teams with PR materials, such as media mentions and case studies, equips them with tools to illustrate the brand’s value proposition. Moreover, by staying abreast of industry trends and monitoring competitors, the your PR programme ensures that both marketing and sales tactics remain dynamic and responsive, enabling the brand to capitalise on emerging opportunities and adapt quickly in the fast-evolving market.
the Value OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
Press coverage can serve as a powerful tool for creating evergreen content that builds credibility, reputation, and trust for individuals, brands, or organisations. Here's how:
- Demonstrates Authority and Expertise: Positive press coverage, especially from reputable sources, can be leveraged to showcase expertise and authority in a particular field. Highlighting such coverage on a website or social media channels can reinforce the perception of being a leader or expert.
- Enhances Trustworthiness: When a third-party source like a respected media outlet features you or your organisation, it acts as an endorsement, enhancing your trustworthiness. Media is generally viewed as an unbiased and credible source.
- Improves Brand Image and Awareness: Press coverage can significantly boost brand recognition. Continuous mention in the media keeps the brand in the public eye, enhancing its image. Moreover, positive coverage can shape public perception in a favourable way.
- Provides Content for Marketing: Press mentions can be repurposed into various forms of content such as social media posts, website banners, and email newsletters. This not only maximizes the reach of the original coverage but also ensures that the message remains consistent across all platforms.
- SEO Benefits: Featuring press coverage on your website can improve search engine optimization (SEO). It can increase inbound links from reputable sites, which is a critical factor in search engine rankings. Additionally, the inclusion of keywords and phrases commonly associated with your brand in press articles can improve search visibility.
- Long-Term Value: Good press coverage can have a lasting impact. Unlike some marketing content that may become outdated, a well-written press article can remain relevant and continue to add value over time.
- Storytelling and Connection: Press coverage often tells a story, which can humanise a brand or individual. This storytelling aspect can help forge a stronger emotional connection with the audience, making the brand more relatable and authentic.
- Crisis Management: In times of controversy or crisis, positive historical press coverage can help balance the narrative. It can serve as evidence of past good behaviour or success, which might mitigate the impact of current negative perceptions.
Message cut-through: Make sure you are understood
The unique challenge in B2B Tech PR is making sure that the message is not just heard, but also understood and appreciated by a highly discerning audience. This involves translating complex technical features into tangible business benefits.
For example, it’s not enough to announce a new software update; a B2B PR agency needs to bring to life how this update will streamline operations, improve security, or enhance user experience for businesses.
How PR agencies complement your in-house comms
Offering a Fresh Perspective
In-house teams are inherently close to the brand, which, while beneficial for brand consistency, can sometimes lead to a myopic view of the company's messaging. This is where B2B Tech PR agencies shine, bringing an external perspective that helps in 'seeing the forest for the trees.' Agencies can provide a fresh take on the brand's storytelling, identifying unique angles and untapped opportunities that internal teams might overlook. This outside viewpoint is crucial for devising innovative campaigns that stand out in the crowded tech market. Agencies can challenge assumptions, push creative boundaries, and provide critical insights that stem from a diverse range of client experiences, ensuring that your communications strategy remains dynamic and engaging.
Expanding Reach Through Established Contacts
One of the primary advantages of engaging a B2B Tech PR agency is the breadth of their media contacts. Such agencies cultivate and maintain relationships with journalists across various beats and publications, which in-house teams might find challenging to match due to constraints in bandwidth or resources. Agencies often have dedicated personnel whose sole focus is to engage with the media, ensuring your brand can capitalise on a multitude of opportunities for exposure. This network is not built overnight; it is the result of persistent nurturing of relationships, attendance at industry events, and a continuous presence in the journalistic community. As a result, your news can find a place in a wider range of outlets, from niche industry publications to mainstream media, greatly amplifying your reach and bolstering your brand’s presence in the market.
Bringing Ideas and Strategies
The diversity of thought and experience that a B2B Tech PR agency brings to the table is invaluable. Each team member contributes a different perspective, leading to a richer pool of ideas and strategies. These can range from tried-and-tested methodologies to cutting-edge tactics that an in-house team may not have the resources to explore. The agency’s exposure to a wide array of campaigns and challenges equips them with a robust toolkit to address any PR task effectively. Moreover, the collaborative nature of agency work means that strategies are often peer-reviewed and refined, ensuring a high level of innovation and precision. In this way, the agency acts as a crucible for creativity, complementing the in-house team's strengths and providing a catalyst for transformative communication strategies.
Top tips for Maximising Value from your PR through your PR agency relationship
1. Establish Clear Objectives
Define clear, measurable objectives before engaging with your PR agency. Whether it's increasing brand visibility, generating leads, or establishing thought leadership, objectives should align with your broader business goals. This clarity enables your PR agency to tailor their strategy effectively and ensures all efforts are directed towards tangible outcomes.
Your PR agency should help you in identifying goals, laddering up to marketing goals.
2. Open Communication
Maintain open lines of communication with your PR agency. Regular updates, feedback, and brainstorming sessions can lead to more personalised and successful campaigns. A transparent relationship encourages the agency to fully understand your brand's voice and values.
3. Leverage Their Expertise
Trust your PR agency's expertise. They have the experience and industry insights that can be pivotal for your brand's exposure. While your in-house knowledge is invaluable, the agency's external perspective can uncover unique opportunities for your brand's growth.
4. Provide Access to Resources
Ensure your PR agency has access to all necessary resources and information. From the latest product updates to insights into company culture, this information is crucial for them to accurately represent and advocate for your brand.
5. Integrate Efforts
Integrate your in-house marketing activities with your PR agency's efforts. A cohesive strategy ensures that all marketing communications are aligned, reinforcing the brand message across all channels and maximising the impact of your campaigns.
6. Measure, Review and Adapt
Regularly review the results of PR campaigns and be willing to adapt strategies as needed. The digital landscape changes fast, and the flexibility to pivot in response to campaign analytics or market shifts is key to staying ahead and maximising ROI.
7. Utilise Their Network
Make the most of your PR agency’s extensive media network. Encourage them to leverage their contacts for your brand’s advantage, not just for immediate press releases, but for building a sustained presence in relevant publications. This can also include arranging interviews, guest articles, and speaking opportunities, among many other avenues for generating exposure for you..
8. Be Collaborative in Planning
Involve your PR agency in your planning process as early as possible. Early collaboration in the strategic phase allows for a more integrated approach, where PR can complement product launches, event schedules, and other marketing initiatives, ensuring cohesive messaging and timing.
9. Encourage Creativity and Innovation
Give your PR agency the freedom to be creative. Encourage them to come up with innovative ideas that can set your brand apart. While staying true to your brand identity, innovative approaches to PR can often lead to better engagement and more impactful results.
10. Set Regular Review Meetings
Schedule regular review meetings to discuss progress, results, and the way forward. This not only helps keep the agency accountable but also provides a forum for continuous improvement and adjustment of strategies to ensure that your PR efforts are always aligned with your evolving business objectives.
How to create a PR Strategy that drives impact
Building brand differentiation through storytelling
Defining Impact in PR
Impact in the context of a PR strategy signifies the tangible results driven by communication efforts that align with and contribute to a company’s overarching business goals. This can encompass enhanced brand recognition, lead generation, increased market share, or the establishment of thought leadership within the industry.
A potent PR strategy must not only generate media coverage but also support business growth, shape public perception, and support stakeholder relationships. To achieve this, the strategy should be designed to resonate with the target audience, convey compelling messages, and be measurable against specific key performance indicators (KPIs).
Crafting a Result-Oriented PR Strategy: Impact-driven PR
To ensure your PR strategy is result-oriented, begin with an in-depth understanding of your target audience. Research and define the demographic and psychographic profiles of the stakeholders you aim to influence. Tailor your messaging to address their pain points, aspirations, and the channels they frequent.
Integrate your PR objectives with your business goals to ensure that every piece of communication is purposeful and contributes to the larger vision of the company. Employ a mix of traditional and digital media platforms to disseminate your message for wider reach and engagement. Monitor media trends and align your content to remain relevant and appealing to your audience and the media alike.
Measuring PR Outcomes
The efficacy of a PR strategy is determined by its measurable outcomes. Establish KPIs such as media impressions, share of voice in the market, website traffic referrals, SEO, and lead generation metrics that can be directly attributed to PR activities. Utilise analytical tools to track these metrics and gather insights into the performance of different channels and content types.
This data-driven approach enables you to fine-tune your strategy, focusing on high-performing tactics and adjusting or discontinuing those that do not yield the desired results. Regularly revisiting and revising your strategy based on these analytics will keep your PR efforts aligned with business outcomes, ensuring continued impact and value addition from your PR investments.
Message cut-through: Make sure you are understood
The unique challenge in B2B Tech PR is making sure that the message is not just heard, but also understood and appreciated by a highly discerning audience. This involves translating complex technical features into tangible business benefits.
For example, it’s not enough to announce a new software update; a B2B PR agency needs to bring to life how this update will streamline operations, improve security, or enhance user experience for businesses.
Using PR to support your Sales and Marketing
Aligning PR with Sales Objectives
To effectively support sales, PR activities must be meticulously aligned with sales objectives. This begins with understanding the sales cycle and the unique selling propositions (USPs) of the tech solutions on offer. PR can then craft narratives that not only highlight these USPs but also address common pain points and challenges faced by prospects. By generating informative and persuasive content such as case studies, white papers, and thought leadership articles, PR efforts can nurture leads and support the sales team in moving prospects through the funnel. Additionally, media coverage in reputable industry publications can provide sales representatives with conversation starters and collateral that demonstrate the company's expertise and success stories.
PR as a Marketing Multiplier
PR extends the reach of marketing campaigns by amplifying their messages across a broader array of channels. By securing earned media placements, a PR strategy can enhance the visibility of content marketing efforts, thus extending the lifespan and reach of each piece of content. This not only increases the number of touchpoints with potential customers but also adds a layer of credibility to the marketing messages through third-party endorsements. In addition, PR-generated content can be repurposed across social media, email newsletters, and other marketing platforms, ensuring consistent messaging and maximising the return on content investment.
Tracking and Leveraging PR Insights
The insights garnered from PR campaigns offer valuable data that can inform both sales and marketing strategies. Tracking media mentions, engagement rates, and the sentiment around coverage provides a clear picture of brand perception in the market. This data is crucial for refining key messages, identifying the most impactful media outlets, and understanding the narratives that resonate with the target audience. By continuously analysing the outcomes of PR efforts, businesses can make data-driven decisions that align PR closely with the goals and tactics of sales and marketing, creating a cohesive approach that drives business growth.
Why Public Relations is the perfect complement to Account-Based Marketing
Enhancing Personalised Engagement
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) thrives on its personalised approach to engaging high-value accounts, and Public Relations (PR) can significantly amplify these efforts. A strategic PR plan can be tailored to the interests and media consumption habits of the stakeholders within these accounts, ensuring that your messaging resonates on a personal level. By crafting targeted media pitches and securing placements in publications that your key accounts value, PR can reinforce the personalised communications and customised content that ABM relies upon. This dual-strategy approach not only enhances the brand’s visibility but also solidifies its reputation as a leader attuned to the specific needs and challenges of its clientele.
Driving Thought Leadership
A fundamental aspect of ABM is establishing and nurturing trust with key accounts. Public Relations supports this by positioning your company as a thought leader in your industry. By leveraging PR to publish insightful articles, in-depth research, and forward-thinking commentary in esteemed publications, you provide value to the decision-makers of your target accounts. This thought leadership content serves to educate and inform, building a narrative of expertise and authority around your brand that is essential for the trust-based relationships ABM seeks to create.
Facilitating Coordinated Campaigns
Integrating PR with ABM ensures a coordinated campaign where every touchpoint with a key account is an opportunity to reinforce your brand’s narrative and value proposition. PR can extend the reach of ABM by bringing stories to life through different formats and channels, from news articles and features to events and speaking opportunities. By aligning the PR content strategy with ABM initiatives, companies can ensure consistent messaging across all platforms, delivering a unified brand experience that is compelling, cohesive, and likely to convert high-value prospects into loyal customers.
PR’s place in an increasingly automated world - how AI is impacting PR
The Evolution of AI in PR
Artificial Intelligence has been part of the Public Relations landscape for years, primarily through automation and analytical tools. The landscape, however, is undergoing a significant transformation with the advent of generative AI. This advanced form of AI is capable of producing original content, from written articles to creative images, which opens up new avenues for ideation and execution in PR campaigns. It's not just about automating repetitive tasks anymore; it's about augmenting the creative process. This leap in AI capability is revolutionising how PR professionals approach campaigns, from initial brainstorming to final content distribution.
Generative AI and Creative Ideation
Generative AI holds immense potential for assisting with creative ideation in PR. It serves as a catalyst for creativity, suggesting concepts and approaches that might not be immediately apparent to even the most seasoned professionals. This technology can generate a wide array of ideas, headlines, or angles based on a set of input parameters, vastly expanding the ideation process. It also assists in content creation, providing initial drafts and templates that can be refined and personalised. Generative AI acts as a springboard, allowing PR teams to jumpstart the creative process and explore a broader spectrum of ideas more efficiently.
The Human Touch in AI-Enhanced PR
Despite the strides made in AI, PR remains an inherently human field, reliant on emotional intelligence, empathy, and the human touch. AI is proving to be an invaluable assistant in the PR domain, enhancing efficiency and productivity. It takes over time-consuming tasks, allowing PR professionals to concentrate on strategy and relationship building. However, it's the human insight, understanding of nuance, and strategic thinking that bring AI-generated ideas and content to life. At Resonance, we recognise that while AI can provide the tools, it is the human expertise that hones and directs these into effective PR outcomes.
Integrating AI into PR Workflows at Resonance
At Resonance, we are at the forefront of integrating AI into our PR workflows. We utilise AI to summarise coverage quickly, assist with in-depth reporting, and create initial drafts of social media posts. This adoption of AI allows us to be more responsive and provide more strategic insights to our clients. By letting AI handle preliminary drafts and data analysis, our team can focus on adding strategic value and personalisation to each piece of communication. This blend of AI efficiency and human expertise ensures that our clients receive high-quality, impactful PR services that are both innovative and responsive to the fast-paced tech industry.
The Resonance Way
Creating Strategic Partnerships for the Data Economy
At Resonance, our approach transcends the conventional; we provide not just services but holistic solutions tailored to the exigencies of senior marketing and communications professionals in the B2B technology sector. Recognising the unique challenges of the data economy, we operate as strategic consultants and partners. Our commitment is to go beyond the mere execution of tactics. We aim to comprehensively address the particular challenges that Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) and communications specialists encounter, offering a synergy of technical know-how and innovative PR strategies to bolster your business success.
Deep Tech Expertise and Data-Driven PR
Assembled with deep tech understanding at its core, the Resonance team comprises not only seasoned PR professionals but also accomplished developers and data scientists. This blend of expertise ensures that we truly grasp the intricacies of your tech landscape, enabling us to craft and deliver customised PR solutions that resonate with your objectives. With a profound commitment to a data-driven methodology, our PR initiatives are informed by insights from Resonance's Data Labs. We utilise data storytelling and a proprietary measurement dashboard, focusing on precision in both development and execution to ensure impactful outcomes.
The Resonance Guarantee
Integrated Multidisciplinary Consultancy
Beyond traditional PR, Resonance stands as a multifaceted consultancy, striking a balance between strategic planning and proactive execution. We integrate our comprehensive knowledge of marketing fundamentals, the intricacies of the sales funnel, and platforms like HubSpot, along with our prowess in Inbound Marketing, Analyst Relations, and Social Media & Content. This holistic approach ensures that every action is not only deliberate but also contributes meaningfully towards measurable results.
Your PR Hub
Resonance is positioned to act as your central hub for UK, European, and Global PR activities, offering a seamless experience by centralising communication through one agency instead of multiple. Our established European network of trusted agencies and consultants ensures wide coverage while maintaining a unified strategy. Regular weekly check-ins with our partners guarantee alignment, maximising the reach and localisation of our hub content, and providing a coordinated, consistent message across all fronts.
Building Brand Reputation with Precision
Our PR programmes are meticulously crafted to communicate the right message, through the right media, to the right audience. We take pride in our transparent operations and our dedication to delivering tangible results. By consistently measuring our progress, we ensure that every step we take is strategic and effective. Central to our ethos is the enhancement of your brand's reputation—fostering trust with your target audience and heightening the likelihood of securing sales. We strategise to ensure that when prospects search for your brand, they encounter quality coverage that resonates and engages, positioning your news and successes prominently and crafting thought leadership content that carries genuine significance.
"Resonance's unique blend of PR, Marketing, and Communication expertise made our analyst relations program a success"
Leonardo Uego
NTT DATA
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