How to Create an Effective B2B PR Strategy + Your Free B2B PR Plan
Building an effective B2B PR strategy requires time, dedication and planning. It is not enough to simply send out pitches and hope for media coverage. So, how can you build a successful B2B PR strategy?
The first step should always be to set SMART objectives. You need to decide on what you want to achieve through PR before you start, whether it’s increasing brand awareness or thought leadership. After you have set your goals, you should consider your stakeholders, who you are trying to educate and influence, develop a press kit and build a targeted media list.
Read on for a more detailed breakdown of all the steps involved in creating an effective B2B PR strategy.
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Creating an Effective B2B PR Strategy
Your exact approach to PR will depend on the needs of the business and what you want to achieve. However, there are still several hallmarks of a good PR strategy that you can follow to get the most out of your efforts.
Below we’ve covered the nine most important steps that contribute to an effective PR strategy.
1. Set SMART Objectives
Every marketing campaign should begin with clear objectives and a B2B PR campaign is no exception. You should ensure your objectives are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound). They should also align with your wider business objectives.
Here is an example of a SMART goal for a B2B PR campaign:
Increase organic website traffic by 15% within the next year by securing 15 media placements in targeted publications.
Secure coverage within a title read by key stakeholders which has a verified readership of more than 10,000.
If you’re unsure what a PR campaign is, check out our beginner’s guide, ‘What Is A PR Campaign?’.
2. Create Comprehensive Buyer Personas
B2B buyers typically have much longer purchase cycles than B2C buyers. So, it is important to fully research stakeholders to help you understand your target audience. This helps you create a PR campaign that appeals to your audience’s pain points and needs. Your research should be based on real data and insights about your customer base, rather than assumptions.
3. Develop a Press Kit
Creating a press kit early in your PR efforts will increase the likelihood of you getting coverage for your company. A press kit should act as a reference point for all brand communications. Although a press kit shouldn’t replace a targeted and personalised pitch, it is still an invaluable tool to have on hand.
Here are some elements you should include in your press kit:
Business goals and objective
Key messages
History and factual information
Visual assets
Quotes
Press releases
Awards and recognition
Contact information
4. Build a Targeted Media List
It can be incredibly helpful to have a targeted media list based on your PR goals and target audience. You can use this list when you have a press release or story that you need to send out.
Your media list should media contacts that cover your industry and location, including:
Reporters
Journalists
Bloggers
Podcasters
Influencers
Media outlets
The list should include information about each contact, such as their specialism, location, contact information, news outlet, website and social media profiles.
5. Be Proactive With Media Monitoring
Sometimes media monitoring is considered to be a reactive rather than proactive PR strategy. However, this isn’t necessarily true. Media monitoring is an essential part of any successful PR strategy. In the simplest sense, media monitoring involves listening to what people are saying about your organisation. This helps you understand the current perception of your brand, which is particularly important if your campaign’s goal is to improve brand reputation. Google Alerts can help enormously.
6. Integrate PR and Social Media
You shouldn’t think of your PR strategy as isolated from the rest of your marketing efforts. Integrating your PR and social media efforts allows you to reach a much wider audience in a much shorter time frame.
Here are some tips on using social media to enhance your B2B PR efforts:
Add social share buttons or embed social media links to your press releases to make them easily shareable.
Partner with relevant influencers with high authority and expertise in your industry or niche.
Make the most of hashtags to boost your PR efforts and help you monitor the consumer conversations around your brand.
7. Write Personalised Pitches
Pitching stories to journalists and media outlets is an essential part of any PR strategy, but it is also one of the most challenging. According to PR research, the two most important factors in a pitch to journalists are relevance and personalised content. So you must do your research and take the time to personalise your pitch to ensure that the journalist will be interested in your story.
Here’s how you can create the perfect personalised pitch:
Personalise the subject line - Avoid generic subject lines. Instead, mention the highlight of the story you’re pitching to them.
Reference their previous articles - Mentioning something they have written previously that links to your organisation or industry is a great way to show them you’ve read and appreciate their work.
Make a personal connection - If the pitch allows and you share a similar interest with the journalist, you can highlight this as well.
8. Make Your Press Release Compelling
When you are crafting your press release or story to send out, you should ensure that it is compelling and will resonate with your target audience.
Here are some of our expert tips on how to create an effective B2B PR piece:
Ensure that your tone of voice is consistent and aligns with the rest of your branding.
Include a clear and compelling headline and an introduction which summarises everything the reader needs to know.
Avoid unnecessary technical language or industry jargon.
Include newsworthy data, interesting facts, and relevant quotes.
Summarise what your business does in a boilerplate at the end of the press release.
For more information on writing an effective press release, have a look at our blog, ‘What Is a Press Release?’.
9. Measure Your Results
It can be challenging to measure the results of a B2B PR campaign and you’ll likely need the help of a media monitoring tool. These tools track all publicly available mentions of a brand, product or service and analyse the data.
Here are some other ways to measure the success of your B2B PR campaign:
Use Google Analytics to measure your organic website traffic and where it comes from. This will tell you if press coverage is translating to an increase in traffic.
Measure engagement with your social media accounts, through likes, mentions, comments and followers. You can also use a social sentiment software to track and analyse this data.
Keep track of how successful your pitches are. This will help you streamline your targeted media list and improve your pitching strategy which will hopefully improve your future response rates.
Our Top 3 B2B PR Examples
1. Storekit’s Pint Map Of London
StoreKit’s Map of London Underground by the Cheapest Pint is an incredibly creative example of B2B PR. The campaign started with the idea to build a map showing the cheapest pint in an independent pub closest to every London tube station. StoreKit started a conversation with hundreds of pub owners through their research, putting the company on the radar of their target audience.
The map itself received extensive media coverage, once again putting the StoreKit brand in front of their target audience of pub owners and helping to amplify brand awareness.
2. Spotify’s Wrapped For Advertisers
Spotify Wrapped has been incredibly successful in the B2C space so to capitalise on that success, Spotify introduced Wrapped for Advertisers to support their B2B marketing strategy. Wrapped for Advertisers includes data visualisations, trends and actionable insights on advertisers’ target audiences across 14 key demographic segments.
By understanding and listening to their advertisers’ needs, Spotify created a powerful tool that connected with their target audience by solving their pain points.
3. IBM’s Every Second Counts campaign
IBM’s award-winning Every Second Counts campaign encouraged IT leaders and Chief Information Officers to improve their cybersecurity. The aim of the campaign was to educate businesses on the detrimental impact of data breaches through real-life stories.
The promotional videos were supported by thought-leadership articles in media outlets that their target audience visited and live events where IBM simulated real cyber-attacks, helping to further expand the reach of their B2B PR campaign.
Download Your Free B2B PR Plan
Click the button below to perfect your B2B PR strategy with your FREE B2B PR Plan. This link will open a link to copy our Google Sheets template so that you can make it your own!
Build Your B2B PR Strategy with Altitude PR
Altitude PR are experts when it comes to building effective and successful B2B PR strategies. We’re an award-winning PR agency, honoured to be named New PR Consultancy of the Year 2023 by the Chartered Institute for Public Relations (CIPR) in its annual Excellence Awards. Whether your goal is to build brand awareness or become a thought leader in your industry, you can rely on our expert team to create an innovative PR campaign that delivers the results you want.
If you’d like to learn more about how we can help you with your B2B PR strategy, we offer a free 30-minute consultation to help you get started. Get in touch with a member of our team today to start your journey with Altitude.
B2B PR FAQs
What is B2B PR?
B2B PR stands for “business-to-business public relations”. This involves PR professionals promoting their business, products and services to other companies:
Building relationships with media outlets and journalists.
Securing media coverage in relevant publications.
Crafting quality content that speaks to their target audience’s pain points.
Establishing themselves as thought leaders in their industry or niche.
For a more detailed B2B PR definition, read our blog, ‘What is B2B PR’?.
What is The Difference Between B2B and B2C PR?
There are two main types of PR: B2B PR and B2C PR.
B2B PR stands for “business-to-business public relations” and involves PR professionals promoting their organisation to other companies. This is likely to include establishing trust with other businesses and building long-lasting relationships to make them more likely to buy your products or services.
However, B2C PR stands for “business-to-consumer public relations” and involves PR professionals promoting their brand, products or services to consumers. This involves promoting your products or services in a way that appeals to the target audience through advertising campaigns or other marketing channels.
Have a look at our blog, ’Different Types of PR: Your Ultimate Guide’, for more information about the difference between B2B and B2C PR.
Why is B2B PR Valuable?
PR is an incredibly useful tool for B2B companies. Having a clear B2B PR strategy helps businesses:
Establish themselves as thought leaders and experts in their industry, building trust and credibility with other businesses.
Improve brand awareness, by creating high-quality, targeted messaging and securing relevant media coverage from publications and outlets.
Reach more of their target business audience by utilising different channels and respected publications.
Be proactive by getting ahead of any negative press and managing the organisation’s reputation.