The scrutiny of peers is more arduous to overcome than those not present in the same circles. This fact is what grants scientific reviews their legitimacy. It is also one reason businesses have to focus extra hard on their B2B PR plans. Those operating in the space understand that reaching out to executives is a whole different game altogether when compared to B2C.
When the stakes are high, mistakes will likely creep into the structure of the corporate PR strategy. Any campaign that gets run using that strategy is bound to fail. It is, thus, best to take stock of what could be going wrong with the PR campaign right in the planning stage and correct them before they wreak havoc.
Some of the most common mistakes made while planning a B2B PR campaign are:
No Focus On Customers
PR geared towards an erudite crowd like in a B2B setup must have every word of its scrutinized for best customer appeal. While there is a need for a more formal approach compared to B2C here, the content still needs to be engaging.
Customer engagement becomes easy if information about said customer is present beforehand. When the planning happens around this information, the campaign will net the results sought.
Professionals behind the planning must always pay attention to the changing needs of the target customer and adapt accordingly. Not doing so will make those executives lose interest in whatever you’re putting out to them.
Not Educating Them On Your Offering
Business workers are bombarded non-stop with sales pitches of all sorts. It’s natural to expect them to have developed a habit of dismissing them rather quickly. Planning your PR to resemble one can make it experience the same dismissal.
Instead, work to develop a plan that engages the target audience by educating them about your offering. Identify the needs, and inform them on how your product works and how it can act as a solution to it. Once they know the ins and outs of what your brand is about, they’ll likely want to be associated with it.
Not Having Content That Speaks Their Language
It doesn’t mean having content in their native tongue but having it in a manner that contains the business environment’s idiosyncrasies. PR filled with corporate jargon and not much else will come across as a poor attempt at sounding sophisticated while not being so.
PR content for B2B situations must be lacking in word salad and striking with how it brings forth its salient points. It must be concise, professional, and contain appropriate statistical information wherever necessary. Ultimately, it must showcase how their association with your brand can help grow their business.
Not Using Unconventional Approaches
It is normal to expect B2B content to get channeled through platforms deemed appropriate by conventional wisdom. Using Linkedin as opposed to Facebook is an example due to the latter’s more informal nature. However, this mistake can hamper progress.
Taking an unconventional approach, like using Facebook along with LinkedIn for PR purposes, can get your target’s attention as well. It could happen during their time off from work when they are browsing it casually. One could also get creative and add animated videos too, if possible, into the mix.
No SEO
Not having PR content optimized according to search engine ranking algorithms is a terrible mistake to make. The assumption that SEO is for purely web-based marketing content is false.
Well-timed PR content displayed to potential new customers during a random search will add to the effectiveness of the conventional marketing content. For that to happen, content must be optimized so that it gets found easily.
B2B is a very challenging yet also rewarding marketing path. B2B PR is one of its main components, and therefore, must be executed in a professional and mistake-free manner for maximum ROI.
