4 Ways to Elevate Your B2B Game With Creative PR Tactics
Throughout my 20 years of working in PR, I’ve witnessed first-hand how powerful B2C marketing can be. This summer, I had the pleasure of deep-diving into some of these powerful PR strategies on B2B Creatively.
During my eight years with SAP Concur, I helped build TripIt’s high-performing PR and social program from the ground up. The PR strategies we developed for our B2C brands also helped shape our B2B brands.
Here’s what I learned: B2B marketing doesn’t have to be boring.
Although many B2B brands have historically relied on traditional marketing approaches, they are now using some of the same innovative PR strategies that B2C brands have used over the years to scale powerful brands consumers love.
In this article, I’ll explore four proven creative PR tactics popular among B2C brands that B2B companies can adopt to boost brand awareness and attract new customers.
1. Interactive Social Content
It goes without saying that social media is a powerful marketing tool. Almost 94% of businesses use social media to promote their products and services.
By building personalized relationships with customers through engaging content, you can also gain valuable insights into consumer behavior. This data can be leveraged to identify which content marketing campaigns resonate best with audiences, leading to more effective and targeted brand marketing campaigns.
Here are a few types of PR tactic examples B2B businesses can use to connect with their customers:
Light-hearted Content: B2B businesses are recognizing the value of creating casual, trendy content to connect with today’s audiences, helping companies feel more relatable to its consumers.
Educational Bite-sized Video Shorts: Platforms like YouTube are a great way for businesses to show their audience how their products can solve customers' everyday needs.
Live Q&A Sessions: Engaging with audiences through scheduled live Q&A sessions is an effective market research tactic for B2B brands seeking to understand their consumers and address their customers’ most pressing questions in real time.
2. Appearing as a Guest on a Podcast
The podcast industry is a booming market.
If you’re a founder, CEO, or investor of a B2B company, appearing as a guest on a podcast allows you to share deeper insights into your industry that resonate with customers. It also helps consumers understand your product and services in a broader context.
Being a guest on a podcast in your niche also helps others discover your brand. This PR tip is a great tactic to generate potential leads for your business.
Think of a podcast interview as an excellent opportunity to gain third-party validation. Sharing your knowledge and expertise on podcasts signals to your audience that you’re a trusted and valuable source.
Additionally, being featured on a podcast can lead to additional promotion through the host’s social media channels, helping you reach an even wider audience.
Thanks to AI-powered platforms, we have had the pleasure of helping our clients reach wider audiences by landing interviews for our B2B clients with podcast hosts and producers in their niche.
3. Partnering With Influencers
It’s important to consider influencers not as isolated entities but as powerful components of a broader media landscape.
Freelance writers often wear multiple hats, serving as both influencers and consultants for various companies, making them valuable allies for B2B businesses seeking to enhance their brand image through feature stories.
Brands with strong personalities have an advantage, as their unique voices can make their content and merchandise more memorable to audiences, which in turn makes them more appealing for influencers, such as on-air talents, to feature and promote on their social platforms.
While some influencers may seek paid partnerships, many are also open to creating engaging content, such as short social videos, especially when they find a B2B’s product or service compelling.
Formal partnerships and collaborations with influencers have become increasingly popular. For example, think of celebrity influencers like Ryan Reynolds, who invests in tech startups, helping to enhance their brand visibility and credibility in the public eye.
4. Writing Bylines
In a polarized media landscape, fresh perspectives and distinct points of view can help your B2B brand stand out from the rest.
Through bylines, op-ed pieces, and thought leadership, B2B brands should aim to contribute to industry publications in their niche, as this can help amplify their visibility and credibility.
If you have a unique outlook on a saturated topic that you think would benefit potential customers, incorporating bylines into your brand strategy helps position you as an expert in your field.
A timeless principle in PR is to stay attuned to the news cycle and formulate your perspective on current events. By actively reading and consuming media, you can develop well-informed opinions that resonate with journalists, making them more likely to feature your insights in their stories.
This PR tactic also helps with SEO, as it enables potential customers to find your product or service faster, thus boosting your visibility as a brand.
If you’re ready to put these PR tips into practice, attract new customers, and elevate your B2B brand.
