B2B PR

B2B Public Relations is the discipline which looks after a company’s reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour with a business audience and selling products between two businesses.

PR is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its audiences.

B2B PR includes press release campaigns, where companies send out news to influencers who write about them such as journalists and media relations, where companies communicate with reporters to help them develop stories about technology, which then reference the company.

Other types of B2B PR could include thought leadership articles and comments and speaking at events.

The best approach to is to work with a B2B PR agency that can help you develop a holistic strategy, incorporating all available news outlets and platforms and underpinning your business objectives.

There are different types of B2B PR, from gaining positive news coverage in the media, to communicating to employees and how you handle a crisis.

Solid B2B PR campaigns take a holistic approach across all of the different platforms, including social media.

Your campaign will need to be strategic, so it is important to plan with your B2B PR agency and understand who your audience is and what action you would like them to take so that you can decide which outputs best suit your needs and which people you need to reach.

There will be different audiences for you to speak to with both external and internal stakeholders included.

Press releases are one way to get your brand reported on in the media. They are short, compelling news stories sent to targeted members of the media with the aim of attracting the interest of a journalist or editor to write about the story and your company.

B2B PR tactics also include media relations, where your PR partner builds relationships with journalists and influencers to secure media coverage for your brand.

By nurturing positive, long-standing relationships with the people who write about you means they will be more likely to turn to you for a quote or industry insight, and may choose to write a case study about you or include you in a feature length story.

This helps establish you and your business as industry leaders. And if you and your organisation are honest, open and available, media outlets are much more likely to publish positive news stories about you – even during a time of crisis.

Crisis communications is another aspect of B2B PR tactics and is needed when disaster strikes, from having to recall a product to a leaked story from a disgruntled ex-employee.

A situation of this kind must be addressed quickly, openly and honestly and the key is preparation.

You should work with your B2B PR agency to have a crisis comms plan in place from who will be the key spokesperson, to messaging and how the message will be distributed.

You need to also consider your internal stakeholders and how you will communicate to them.

B2B digital PR in the form of Social Media plays an important role today, with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok fast becoming channels of choice for marketing new products and services in the consumer world. LinkedIn is the channel of choice for B2B PR strategy, but bear in mind that business PR trends eventually follow mainstream, so you should be prepared to embrace all options.

Social Media has driven a change in the B2B digital PR landscape, blurring the line between PR and marketing through an emphasis on content, at the heart of any successful PR strategy.

It is a fast and effective tool to connect with audiences, but because of its speed, things can go wrong so it is important to carefully choose the best platforms for your brand and to make sure there is a proper strategy and purpose behind any activity.

People are the most important part of any business and successful recruitment and retention are therefore invaluable.

Internal PR is the business of making your staff feel valued and could include anything from organising employee events and awards, to launching an employee newsletter.

Why use a B2B PR specialist?

Professionally run B2B PR campaigns and B2B digital PR campaigns will support you to achieve your business objectives.

By raising awareness and information about your brand, you will be paving the way for effective sales and avoiding the need for cold calls. The more your brand is mentioned in the media, the more credibility you will achieve when customers or potential employees search for you on the internet.

You will be building a reputation through a mixture of media placements, speaking opportunities, thought leadership articles, and events ensuring your brand is represented in the right places and that you are presenting the right messages.

Press releases and media articles are valuable content, which you can recycle to use on social media. They will distinguish you as a thought leader and by sharing news stories about winning business, new staff or expansion builds trust and demonstrates commitment to a marketplace.

A B2B PR agency will ensure you have a healthy presence across the media in a trusted context with effective third-party endorsement.

B2B PR campaigns help to build staff morale and encourage teamwork and supports your brand’s ethos and company culture.

PR can help your employees to feel proud of working with you, when they are out and about and meet people who know your company as having just won a major contract or opened a new office.

Staff retention is boosted and your company becomes known as a good place to work, attracting the best talent to join you.

Choosing a specialist B2B PR consultancy.

A specialist B2B PR and digital B2B PR consultancy understands the business world and can cut through industry jargon to ensure that your message is understood by your target audiences.

Raising brand awareness relies on close relationships with the writers and influencers reporting on your sector and a specialist B2B PR agency will have built an extensive network of the right people to speak to.

A B2B PR consultancy understands your story in the context of your sector but can also translate it into meaningful messaging for a broader group of stakeholders when needed.

A professional B2B PR consultancy has the right expertise to devise strategic communication plans with solid B2B PR tactics supporting your business objectives in the context of your industry.

You should check that your B2B PR partner has demonstrable qualifications in communications, with innovative B2B PR ideas and a track record of successful B2B PR tactics.

Your partner should have experience in public relations campaigns and preferably an affiliation with a recognised trade Association, which has an accredited Code of Conduct as part of its membership.

PR is a fast-moving industry, and your chosen partner should be able to demonstrate that they are up to date with the latest B2B PR ideas and trends, especially with regards to online communications.

What to expect from a B2B PR company.

Your specialist B2B PR consultancy will have solid experience of working in the business world and will understand how to communicate to your specified audiences.

Your partner will prepare a PR strategy for you, which will support your business objectives by developing clear communication objectives and defined outputs to achieve these.

Outputs might include press releases and media relations, for example.

You will set clear targets and your PR partner will report regularly based on your objectives to ensure that your brand awareness is raised in the way that you want it to be.

A B2B PR agency will become a virtual member of your team, giving regular support and communicating with you on a regular basis.

Our B2B PR consultancy embraces new ideas and develops solutions to suit all stakeholders, including hosting client news portals, which include archived press releases and news stories, plain text download features, and picture libraries to help journalists.

We have invested in software to deliver interactive clippings books, which include tailored metrics to give us better insight into the outcomes of our campaigns. We look at KPIs including brand mentions, reach, domain authority, tone of voice, and social coverage.

B2B PR vs B2C PR

B2B public relations focuses on targeting a business audience and selling products between two businesses, while B2C public relations focuses on targeting the general public and presenting a product directly to them.

What buyers want

Different buyers – whether business or consumers – want different things. This means their buying decisions are motivated by different sets of thoughts and feelings.

Speaking in general terms, consumers buying for themselves are motivated to buy products that will improve their lives in some way. We’re simple creatures, really. We want to be happy, healthy, and perceived as ‘cool’ and successful. Oh, and we like stuff that tastes good.

How do B2B and B2C goals differ?

B2B stands for Business to Business, as opposed to B2C which stands for Business to consumer. In the B2B world, a business sells services or products to another business, in the B2C world the products or services are sold directly to a consumer. In B2C PR, the aim is most often to grow sales. B2B PR usually has a number of goals, from increasing sales, to recruiting and retaining staff, establishing thought leadership, and seeking investment or partnership opportunities.

B2B PR success stories

Meantime founders Emma and Julian have a combined 44 years’ experience of working for, and with, the tech, fintech, transport and supply chain industries. Both are trained journalists with experience on local and national newspapers and magazines, as well as and journalism qualifications.

Over the last 12 years we have built up a dedicated database of specialist writers globally and are in regular contact with them to talk about our clients.

Meantime has over 20 clients based in 12 countries covering Europe, the USA, Asia, and Africa Meantime has over 20 clients based in 12 countries covering Europe, the USA, Asia, and Africa and including Europe’s fourth busiest cargo hub, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol Cargo, the operator of the world’s biggest plane, Antonov Airlines, and Africa’s leading drone operator, Astral Aviation.

In 2020 alone, we distributed 86 press releases and secured 2470 articles for clients, reaching 981.9m people worldwide. We help B2B customers to launch new brands, raise awareness of their existing brand, reach new markets and customers and encourage talented employees to join them.

We are up to date with the latest online trends and curate and create content for all of the main social media platforms, which we also track and report on. Our success stems from careful planning and strategic thinking, as well as our specialist media contacts, training, and supply chain public relations expertise.

We are in constant contact with clients to ensure we have a clear understanding of their business objectives so that we can develop communication objectives which support their desired outcomes. We are proud to be a part of the team. We work seamlessly with our clients’ logistics marketing team.

We regularly report back on outcomes to check that the strategy we have in place is aligned with our clients’ business. Armed with an in-depth understanding of B2B PR combined with a knowledge of our customers’ industry, we develop innovative campaigns to set our client’s brands apart from their competitors.

Our sustainable business model means we are privileged to support a number of charities and volunteer our time and expertise to help our community.