The Power of PR and Content in B2B Marketing
By Matt Serra, CEO, Mulberry Marketing Communications
Public relations (PR) and content marketing are core disciplines for business-to-business (B2B) marketers. When developing a B2B marketing strategy, it’s imperative to consider the buyer’s journey and how your prospects seek information about the products and services you offer. To effectively influence prospects, you must connect with them consistently and frequently across numerous communications channels.
B2B PR and content marketing are ideal disciplines for getting prospects in, and driving them through, the sales funnel. They both generate content that can be shared and promoted across multiple communications channels and can be used to position your business as an expert while promoting your products and services. With a well-crafted strategy built around a strategic communications calendar, organizations can reach prospects and customers consistently, and strategically, to drive leads and grow business.
The benefits of PR and content marketing in a B2B marketing campaign include:
- Builds Awareness: A strategic PR and content marketing campaign allows you to build awareness through owned and earned media channels, helping you to quickly build awareness of your brand. Whether it’s social media, e-mail campaigns, a webinar series or an event, owned media ensures you have 100% control of the message and allows you to target specific audiences. PR is a broader approach, allowing you to reach prospects outside of your owned channels through highly credible media placements. Together, businesses can quickly build awareness and drive trust in their brands.
- Establishes Credibility and Trust: Because PR placements are published by journalists, they are seen as more credible than a typical advertisement or marketing asset. Therefore, PR efforts can help establish and enhance a company’s reputation, creating a sense of credibility and trust among B2B clients and prospects. PR is also ideal for building trust and credibility with employees, communities and investors. Content marketing allows businesses to showcase their expertise through valuable and informative content, further building trust with target audiences.
- Positions as a Leader: PR and content marketing provide platforms for showcasing industry knowledge and thought leadership. By positioning a company and its executives as industry experts through media placements and insightful content, B2B businesses can attract attention and influence target audiences. Providing valuable information that helps your customers solve their business problems is critical in positioning your brand as a leader and building brand loyalty.
- Educates about products/services: B2B transactions often involve complex products or services. Content marketing allows businesses to create in-depth, educational content that helps potential clients understand your value proposition and product/service benefits. This content can also be used to enable sales teams, helping them to further move prospects through the sales funnel, and to educate journalists to get them interested in covering your solutions.
- Engagement and Relationship Building: Content marketing encourages engagement with target audiences through comments, social media interactions, and sharing of content. PR efforts, including media interviews and events, provide additional opportunities for direct engagement. Building relationships with key stakeholders is crucial in B2B marketing, and both PR and content marketing contribute to this.
- Measurable Results: Both PR and content marketing campaigns can be measured using key performance indicators (KPIs) such as media coverage, website traffic, lead generation, and conversion rates. This allows for data-driven decision-making and optimization of future campaigns to ensure marketing efforts are helping to achieve business goals.
PR and content marketing can have a lasting impact on the perception of a B2B brand. While PR helps manage and maintain a positive image through earned media, content marketing creates a library of resources that can continue to attract and educate potential clients over time. These resources can be used to fill owned media channels and repurposed for PR opportunities.
PR and content marketing complement each other in B2B communications by increasing awareness, building credibility, fostering thought leadership, educating target audiences and facilitating engagement. These activities help drive prospects through the sales funnel and can have a long-term impact on the success of any B2B organization.