B2B PR: Why (& When) Should You Invest in It?

I’m often asked by B2B brands ‘when’s the right time to start PR?’. And my answer is almost always ‘yesterday’.

That’s not only because building a brand or reputation takes time – it’s also because PR can offer so many benefits to B2B businesses. Once you get going and start feeling those benefits, you’ll always wish you’d started sooner.

Let’s cover this off early. While the tactics deployed might vary, B2B PR and consumer PR are broadly the same. Both are about a business or brand reaching a particular audience with a message, in order to influence what that audience thinks and does. But to ensure clarity throughout this blog, I’ll refer to it as ‘B2B PR’.

There are so, so many reasons to deploy B2B PR. Let’s take a look at the top benefits:

• Drive sales revenue by improving your visibility and reputation
• Speed up B2B sales cycles by de-risking the buying process
• Enter new markets with targeted PR launches
• Protect your margins by building brand trust
• Aid recruitment and training with a stronger employer brand
• Support wider business plans and activities
• Attract investors by growing your media profile
• Ready your business for sale by increasing real and perceived value

B2B companies sell more with PR. That’s because the PR helps a business stand out, and in crowded ‘me too’ B2B markets, standing out is important. PR also ensures that people not only hear about a business, but hear good things about it – building the brand’s reputation. Added to all this, it drives search visibility – both traditional and AI – and all the tangible, commercial benefits that come with it.

PR also helps B2B companies sell faster. B2B sales cycles  are notoriously long and are getting longer – according to Dreamdata the average is 211 days. But PR can help shorten them.

By explaining a company’s offering, building third-party endorsement and trust, PR de-risks a would-be buyer’s decision-making.  And PR can be cleverly devised to reach the many different people who these days influence and potentially block a buying process. When risk is removed and all potential parties are reached and reassured, everything goes more smoothly and sales cycles shorten.

PR is invaluable for taking a company into new markets. Many B2B companies tell me that they can manage very well without PR. They’re already known in their core markets, where their sales team knows all the buyers. But this strategy soon falls apart the minute the company decides to target a new sector or geography where they’re a complete unknown. Suddenly customers are harder to reach, and those sales doors don’t seem so easy to open.

It’s at this pivotal moment that so many companies turn to us. They know PR will help them conquer new markets and forge new relationships by turning their unfamiliar brand into one that is not simply known but even trusted.

Businesses with a good reputation find it much easier to protect their margins. Indeed, research shows that 87% of customers are willing to pay more for products or services because they trust the brand. PR builds perceived value, quality, expertise into the brand. And B2B buyers will pay more for the reassurance these bring.

One of the top challenges for many businesses – especially those operating in the seemingly less sexy’ B2B space – is attracting and retaining good talent.  Again, this is where PR’s reputation and visibility-building powers help. After all, if people have heard good things about a company, they’re much more likely to want to work for it.

Even in niche B2B sectors, where many business brands are not household names, (and frankly don’t need to be), being the best known and therefore perceived market leader conveys kudos and can make a huge difference to recruitment and retention.

According to Harvard Business Review, reputation can cost a company as much as 10% more per hire, not least because to make up for reputation shortfalls, companies may need to compensate talent in other ways, offering higher salaries or better benefits.

PR can be deployed to support a B2B organisation’s wider business plans. For instance, expanding a site. B2B companies often fly under the radar in their communities; people don’t know who they are or what they do. So, when a company wants to expand its operation there may be local resistance. But good regional PR will smooth the way.  Such PR, which explains what a company does, how important its work is and that it is a good local employer, will make it easier for such companies to garner local support when they need it.

Similarly, B2B companies looking to attract new distribution partners find having strong PR really helps. It gives would be partners confidence that the business is serious and its products/services are well-supported. So they’re much more likely to come onboard.

Investors will often check out a company’s media profile before investing in it. They’ll want to see the right media talking about it. After all, this will be a good indicator that it’s a market leader or has real potential and is worth getting behind.

Last but by no means least, B2B companies with a strong profile find it much easier to attract would-be buyers. And when they do sell, they are more likely to secure a bigger multiple, because the business’ brand has value; there is more goodwill built into the business and the balance sheet.

As mentioned at the outset, I’d always say as soon as you possibly can. After all, why wouldn’t you want to start supporting your sales process, driving your search performance, protecting your margin, supporting your business plans and more easily and affordably taking your business into new markets.

Similarly, brand and reputation building takes time. It requires a sustained long-term effort, particularly in B2B businesses. So you simply can’t start too soon.

And my final reason for getting on with it? It’s what we call the power of ‘relative advantage’, a huge consideration for business-focused sellers. Many B2B companies do not deploy PR, they’ve got by without it and don’t see why they should start. This means that if their competitors do, every £ that is spent has a relatively bigger impact.

If you invest in PR, the potential to grow a significant gap between your brand and your more inert competition is huge. Handle your PR well, and when they finally wake up, your competitors will have to spend a small fortune to close the gap on you. So don’t delay.

Are you a B2B business needing PR? Or perhaps you’re not sure your current PR is delivering all the benefits you need? From engineering to energy, telecoms to technology, we’ve got 30 years’ expertise across B2B. Get in touch at susannah@energypr.co.uk to see what results we can drive for you.