The term “public relations” encompasses many areas of communications. B2B PR, although more specific because it involves businesses promoting their products and services to other businesses, still covers a lot of communications territory. These can include strategic communications, content marketing, social media, trade show planning, internal messaging and email campaigns, to name a few.
Of these, print and digital media relations are an important part of B2B PR. That’s because when they are done well, it means editorial gatekeepers accept your company as an authority in your field. And they are willing to position you as an industry expert in their pages and on their websites. Here are four things to keep in mind as you are building your media relations outreach.
1. Niche Can Be Nice
In B2B media relations, bigger isn’t always better. If a print publication has a circulation of 5,000 instead of 50,000, or a digital trade site gets 10,000 new visitors per month and not 100,000, that’s ok if it’s a good fit for your products and services.
If the publication is targets a small, niche audience that is a part of your key marketing demographic, that’s where you want your news to appear! These seemingly lesser-known trade journals or sites actually could be very well known among your customers and prospects.
In fact, most B2B news releases aren’t a good fit for mass newswire distribution. Rather than blast out press releases to a large number of generalized publications and news sites, it’s more effective to identify the best media fit for your news. This results in quality B2B PR placements that will reach your key audience.
2. Creating New News
Media relations isn’t just for promoting a new product or service. News can be any piece of information that a specific audience doesn’t know about. Even your current clients might not be aware of all of your company’s capabilities. In particular, you can catch an editor’s attention by positioning an existing product or service as a solution to a particular industry pain point.
Of course, this requires some homework, like researching challenges that your customers face in doing their jobs, and then explaining how your particular technologies can make their working lives a lot easier. It also helps to research the editorial topic needs of your target publications. That way, the editor knows that you are doing more than promoting your business. And that you actually care about providing helpful news and content.
3. Digging Digital Placements
B2B PR includes more options than making the print pages of a trade journal. Digital placements have become a valuable part of B2B media relations. Most print trade publications have content-rich websites or have become web-only in their own right. Digital media placements are valuable because they:
- Appear in internet searches
- Often provide a link to your website
- Let readers comment on your news
- Allow readers to easily share your content or news via social media and email
4. Earning Your Earned Media
Media relations is also referred to as earned media. To get noticed and receive placement in your target media, you have to earn it. That means building up your editorial relationships by offering pertinent, targeted content that is more informative than blatantly promotional.
But the hard work pays off. Media relations in B2B PR is an engagement and awareness initiator. Whether your content is in print, online or on social media, it boosts awareness of your company’s capabilities among your current clients, prospects, industry partners and business leaders.
All marketing tactics should be thought of as part of a larger whole, rather than separate pieces. By strategically integrating all marketing tactics, the marketing programs become more effective and cost efficient. As a B2B agency, we developed B2B 360 Integrated Digital Marketing to meet this improved performance need. To learn more about B2B 360 and how it will benefit your business, download our free eBook: B2B Top-Tier Tech Marketing.