Your strategy checklist: 

Set clear objectives: define what you need PR to achieve for your business. For your B2B PR strategy to deliver best results, these objectives should be linked to your wider business strategy. Is it about attracting talent into the company? Is it about being more visible in existing markets to build market share? Is it about entering new markets and/or launching new products?

Identify your audience(s): think about who you need to reach through PR activity, as this will inform the best tactics and channels to use for ongoing communication. If you’re looking to attract talent into the business: at what level? What skills do you need to bring into the team? Who has those skills? If you’re targeting prospective customers: what type of organisations are they? Where are they? Who are you targeting within those companies? 

Shape your messages: think about your target audiences. What will engage them? Consider their pain points, interests and preferences, as this will help you to tailor your messages to make sure they resonate with the right people.

Plan your PR tactics: think about where your business needs to be visible to reach and influence your target audience. Often, PR activity will include a mix of paid, owned, earned and shared content. Your campaign might include media relations – engaging with the right media outlets to secure ongoing coverage so that your company stays front of mind with key target audiences through news stories and features, technical articles and opinion pieces. It might include educational blogs and other content that positions the business as an expert in its field. It could include speaking at key industry events where your target audiences will be. And it may involve the business and key people within it being more visible on the relevant social channels. In short, your PR plan is about being visible where your target audiences are and having something worthwhile and interesting to say that aligns with your brand and values, to help build credibility.

Don’t forget crisis comms: crisis communications is a separate topic in itself, but planning for it should certainly form part of your wider strategy checklist. A crisis communications plan sits alongside your PR strategy and business continuity/disaster recovery plan, mapping out the way you will approach communications in the event of an incident that could result in reputational damage. 

Monitor, measure, refine: it’s important to understand what’s working – and what’s not. Tracking media activity and seeing how it impacts on web traffic; measuring branded searches; social engagement and audience growth, capturing the quantity and - importantly - quality of customer enquiries or job applicants – everything helps to evaluate the effectiveness of current activity and inform your future strategy.