In most businesses, having a great product or service is just the beginning. If customers and partners don’t know about your company’s offers then how can they buy? There are many instances where products and services sold by a company with a high profile have outsold lesser-known but (arguably) better competing products from less well-known brands.
Good B2B PR highlights a company’s achievements, expertise and leadership, reaching out to potential customers, partners, suppliers, investors and industry commentators.
Public relations techniques help increase the profile of your brand, helping your company to get noticed while your competitors’ get overlooked. In the B2B context, PR often works better than advertising or selling; helping to build good relationships. A strong B2B PR agency can boost a company’s profile and credibility in the B2B marketplace, improving communications and contributing to overall business growth.
Influencing the influencers
Introducing your business to the specialist press and industry analysts is (in general) a good way to begin a B2B PR campaign. It is important to network and develop relationships with industry commentators – these could range from influential bloggers, to journalists and industry analysts. When building these relationships you (or your PR agency) should offer information that is of value to these influencers, usually in the form of unique content – news, opinion and insight that they can publish as well as offering access to leaders and experts within your business who usually don’t speak to the outside world.
From software to financial services, almost every industry has its own trade magazines and journals. Experienced B2B PR professionals know which media are the most influential and credible in the industry sectors they operate in and, crucially, how best to approach those journalists and editors. Having the right B2B PR expertise on board can be the difference that gets your company’s news published in an influential publication rather than one of your competitors.
Ranbir Sahota is a Director at Vitis PR, a B2B and technology PR agency.
