Business to Business (B2B) PR agencies face an ongoing challenge to keep their client messages fresh. In the first of our “How to – Why do?” guides, we explore its impact and explain how research-led content boosts your authority and strengthens your drumbeat.
Fresh is not new
Content creation is not a new issue. B2B Brands have always faced the problem of finding something new to talk about. In an evolving digital marketplace, this is even more challenging. Target audiences are also consumers, and brands compete fiercely to ensure their media activations get results. For slower moving sectors, with products in long development cycles, it’s even harder to ensure their messages stay fresh.
For brands, and their earned media agencies, getting that activation has serious consequences. Before you gain consideration, purchase and advocacy, you have to build awareness of the brand. More time and resources are now required to mature the customer funnel. It’s an easier route with significant funding. But there’s only a small proportion of the market that can spend their way through the problem.
Agencies face the additional pressure of justifying continued retainer fees for a perceived lack of results. In order to “stay fresh”, particularly in the B2B space, brands will switch agencies as a way of revamping their content. This results in higher retainer fees, which can feed into an avoidable cycle of perceived poor performance and increased costs.
The benefits of research
This is where research comes into its own. It brings credibility to any argument and removes opinion bias. It allows a brand to broadcast their expertise on a topic(s) and become the “influencers” in their space. Because of that, research-led content is always a more attractive proposition for B2B publications. And that means the first metric of PR success – coverage – is easier to achieve.
Make research your strategy
We see research-led content as a strategy to help clients identify and own a white space in their chosen sector or topic. In our experience, this works best when it’s planned for from the outset. Right at the beginning of the pitch. Agencies that adopt this approach in their campaign strategy are more likely to win the retainer from the client. They will also successfully deliver against their objectives and retain the client’s earned media business for a longer time.
Delineate specialises in research-as-content. A number of global brands have already benefited by publishing white papers and content we’ve created for them. If you’re a client-side professional seeking better brand coverage, or an agency-side professional that wants to win and retain more business, let’s get in touch and we can share our success stories.
