Most digital PR advice is written for consumer brands. “Analyse what celebrities wear.” “Survey 2,000 people about their shopping habits.” “Create a viral quiz.”
That’s great if you sell shoes. Not so great if you manufacture industrial valves, run a logistics consultancy, or provide cybersecurity audits.
B2B companies have a PR problem, and it’s not that they’re boring. It’s that nobody has shown them how to translate what they know into stories journalists want to write. The data, expertise, and industry insight sitting inside B2B companies is often more valuable to journalists than anything a consumer brand can offer. They just don’t package it right.
I’ve spent years studying what earns media coverage. After analyzing 5,272 placements across industries, I can tell you this: B2B stories that land tend to land hard. They get picked up by business press, trade publications, and national outlets because they offer something rare — genuine expertise backed by real-world data.
Here’s how to make that happen.
Why B2B Companies Are Sitting on Better PR Material Than They Think
Consumer brands have product photos and lifestyle angles. B2B companies have something more powerful: proprietary industry data and deep expertise that journalists can’t get anywhere else.
Think about it.
A manufacturing company knows exactly how supply chain costs have shifted over the past 12 months. They have data on lead times, material prices, and production bottlenecks — the kind of numbers that business and trade journalists build entire articles around.
An accounting firm sees patterns across hundreds of clients — which sectors are growing, where margins are tightening, what compliance changes are causing the most confusion. That’s a quarterly trend report waiting to be published.
A logistics company tracks delivery times, shipping costs, and cross-border delays in real time. When the Suez Canal gets blocked or port strikes loom, they’re the expert source every journalist needs.
A cybersecurity firm handles incident data that, anonymised properly, tells the story of what’s actually happening in the threat landscape. “We saw a 340% increase in phishing attempts targeting CFOs in Q1” is a headline.
The mistake B2B companies make is thinking their data is “too niche” or “too technical” for the press. It’s not. It just needs to be translated into a story that connects to something a broader audience cares about.
The B2B PR Landscape: Where Your Stories Get Published
Before we get into tactics, let’s map the media landscape for B2B companies. It’s different from consumer PR, and understanding it saves you from wasting time pitching the wrong outlets.
Tier 1: Trade and industry publications. These are your bread and butter. Every industry has them — Manufacturing Today, The Lawyer, Insurance Times, Computer Weekly, Supply Chain Digital. They’re hungry for expert content, data, and trend analysis. Their audiences are exactly the decision-makers you want to reach. And because most B2B companies ignore them, competition for coverage is lower than you’d think.
Tier 2: Business and financial press. The Financial Times, Bloomberg, Business Insider, Forbes, City AM, The Economist. These outlets cover B2B topics when the story has broad business relevance. “Supply chain costs hit a 5-year high” is a B2B story that’s also a business story. Your data can be the source.
Tier 3: National news with a business angle. When B2B topics cross into public interest — energy prices, hiring freezes, cybersecurity breaches, regulatory changes — national outlets pick them up. Your expert commentary can land in outlets you’d never expect.
Tier 4: Podcasts, newsletters, and LinkedIn-native media. This tier didn’t exist five years ago. Now it’s where many B2B decision-makers actually consume content. Industry podcasts, Substack newsletters, and LinkedIn-native creators with 50K+ followers can deliver more qualified attention than a national newspaper.
Building a journalist database for B2B means covering all four tiers, weighted toward Tier 1 and 2 where your placements compound into real authority over time.
6 Campaign Formats That Work for B2B
I’ve written about PR campaign formats broadly, but B2B needs its own playbook. These six formats consistently earn coverage for companies that don’t sell directly to consumers.
1. The Industry Benchmark Report
What it is: A quarterly or annual report that uses your proprietary data to benchmark industry performance.
Example: A recruitment firm publishes “The Q1 2026 Hiring Confidence Index” based on data from 400 client companies. It shows hiring intent by sector, region, and company size. Trade press covers it. Business press picks up the headline number. HR publications dive into the sector breakdowns.
Why it works: Journalists need data to anchor their stories. A well-structured benchmark report becomes a go-to reference that gets cited repeatedly, often for months after publication. The key is consistency — publish it on the same schedule so journalists know to expect it.
Your version: What data do you collect across your client base or operations that, when aggregated and anonymised, reveals industry trends? That’s your benchmark report.
2. The Expert Commentary Reactive
What it is: Providing expert quotes and analysis when news breaks in your industry.
Example: A new regulation is announced. Within two hours, your compliance director has a 150-word comment in a journalist’s inbox explaining what it means in practice, who it affects most, and what companies should do first. That comment appears in five articles by end of day.
Why it works: B2B expertise is exactly what journalists need when complex stories break. They understand the headline, but they need a practitioner to explain the implications. This is reactive PR in its purest form, and it works exceptionally well for B2B because the expertise barrier is high. Not everyone can comment credibly on supply chain disruptions or accounting standard changes. If you can, you’re valuable.
Setup: Pre-approve 5-7 topics your experts can comment on. Draft template quotes for predictable scenarios (rate changes, regulation updates, market shifts). When news breaks, you customise in minutes and send. I’ve laid out the full newsjacking workflow including timing and templates.
3. The Cost or Price Index
What it is: Tracking and publishing how costs in your industry have changed over time.
Example: A construction materials supplier publishes a monthly “Building Materials Price Index” tracking costs across 15 common materials. When timber prices spike or steel costs drop, they’re the source journalists cite. Property journalists, business reporters, and construction trade press all use it.
Why it works: Price data is universally newsworthy. Everyone from homebuyers to policy makers cares about costs. And because you’re the company tracking it, every citation links back to you. Over time, this becomes a permanent SEO asset — journalists Google “construction materials price index UK” and find you.
4. The Survey With a Business Angle
What it is: Surveying decision-makers in your industry on a topic that connects to broader business or economic trends.
Example: A cybersecurity firm surveys 500 IT directors on their biggest security concerns for 2026. “72% of IT directors say AI-generated phishing is their top concern, up from 31% last year” becomes the headline. Tech press, business press, and national outlets covering the AI story all want it.
Why it works: Surveys let you create data where none exists. The trick for B2B is surveying the right audience — not consumers, but professionals and decision-makers in your space. A survey of 500 CFOs is more valuable to a business journalist than a survey of 5,000 random adults. I’ll be publishing a detailed guide on how to run surveys that get press soon, but the short version: use a credible panel, ask questions that reveal trends, and keep your methodology transparent.
5. The Data Visualisation Story
What it is: Taking complex B2B data and turning it into a visual story that makes the trend immediately clear.
Example: A trade finance company maps global shipping route disruptions, showing which corridors are most affected and how alternative routes have lengthened delivery times. The interactive map gets embedded in business and trade publications. Broadcast journalists use the visual on screen.
Why it works: B2B topics are often complex. A good visualisation cuts through that complexity and gives journalists a ready-made asset they can use immediately. The visual does the explaining so the journalist doesn’t have to. This works especially well for getting TV and broadcast coverage, which most B2B companies never even attempt.
6. The Contrarian Take
What it is: Publishing a well-evidenced opinion that challenges the prevailing industry narrative.
Example: Everyone says AI will replace accountants. Your firm publishes an analysis showing that AI adoption has actually increased demand for senior accountants by 15% because companies need humans to validate and interpret AI outputs. You back it up with your own hiring data and client feedback.
Why it works: Journalists love a contrarian angle because it creates debate. “Everyone thinks X, but the data shows Y” is a story structure that practically writes itself. The key is backing it up with evidence. An unsupported contrarian opinion is just a hot take. A data-backed contrarian position is a news story.
The B2B Pitch: How It Differs From Consumer PR
Pitching a B2B story requires adjustments to the standard approach. Here’s what changes.
Lead with the number, not the brand. Consumer pitches can sometimes lean on brand cachet. B2B pitches can’t. “Our client, a leading provider of enterprise solutions…” means nothing to a journalist. “Manufacturing costs rose 23% in Q1 according to data from 400 UK factories” — that’s a story. The brand comes second.
Target the beat, not the outlet. In consumer PR, you might pitch “The Telegraph” broadly. In B2B PR, you pitch the specific journalist who covers supply chain, or fintech regulation, or commercial property. Beat reporters in B2B press are specialists. They’ll spot a generic pitch instantly. But they’ll respond enthusiastically to something that’s genuinely relevant to their beat. Use your journalist database to track beats, not just outlet names.
Offer the expert, not just the data. Business journalists often want to interview the person behind the data. Make your in-house expert available. Brief them on the three key talking points. Make sure they can explain the data conversationally, not in jargon. A 15-minute phone interview with a credible expert can turn a brief mention into a feature story.
Provide context, not just facts. “Shipping costs are up 23%” is data. “Shipping costs are up 23%, the highest increase since the 2021 post-COVID surge, suggesting companies face a second wave of supply chain inflation” is a story. Journalists need you to do the interpretation because they’re often generalists covering your specialist topic.
For the full mechanics of pitching, including templates and timing, see my guide on how to pitch journalists effectively.
The B2B Content-to-PR Pipeline
Here’s the system that makes this sustainable, not a one-off.
Month 1: Audit your data. What data do you collect operationally that, aggregated, reveals industry trends? What questions do your clients ask repeatedly that a survey could answer? What topics do your experts get invited to speak about? Make a list.
Month 2: Build your first campaign. Pick the format with the lowest barrier — usually the expert commentary reactive or the industry benchmark. Build the asset. Create a dedicated page on your site to host it.
Month 3: Pitch and learn. Send to 20-30 targeted journalists across Tier 1 and Tier 2 outlets. Track responses. Note which angles resonated and which fell flat. Refine.
Month 4-6: Build the cadence. Aim for one campaign per month. Alternate between formats — benchmark report one month, reactive commentary the next, survey the following. Each campaign builds on the journalist relationships from the last.
Month 6-12: The compounding phase. Journalists start recognising your name. They come to you for quotes. Your benchmark report gets cited in articles you didn’t pitch. Your SEO improves as backlinks accumulate on your cornerstone content pages.
This is the same compounding dynamic that works for ecommerce PR, just with different source material and different target outlets.
Common B2B PR Mistakes
“Our CEO should be a thought leader.” Thought leadership is an outcome, not a strategy. You become a thought leader by consistently publishing useful data and commentary that journalists cite. You don’t become one by putting “thought leader” in your LinkedIn bio and writing opinion pieces for your company blog that nobody reads.
Pitching product launches as news. Your new SaaS feature is not news. Your new manufacturing process is not news. Unless it represents a genuine industry first that affects the broader market, journalists don’t care. Wrap the product in a story — “This new process cuts production waste by 40%, and here’s the data” — and now you have something.
Ignoring trade press. Some B2B companies only want coverage in the Financial Times or Forbes. That’s like only wanting to score goals in the Champions League final. Trade publications are where your buyers actually read. A placement in your industry’s top trade publication, seen by 20,000 decision-makers who can actually buy from you, is worth more than a passing mention in a national outlet seen by millions who can’t.
Overcomplicating the data. Journalists are smart but they’re not specialists in your field. If your press release requires a glossary to understand, you’ve lost them. One clear finding. One clear number. One clear implication. That’s your pitch.
Waiting for perfect data. Your Q1 data doesn’t need to be audited to within 0.1% before you publish a trend report. Directional data from a credible source is enough for most journalists. Get it out while it’s timely. Perfection at the wrong time is worthless.
B2B Industries Where Digital PR Works Best
Some B2B sectors are natural fits for data-driven PR. If you’re in one of these, you have a significant advantage.
Financial services and fintech. Money data is always newsworthy. Lending trends, payment data, investment patterns, insurance claims — all of it connects to stories the business and national press want to tell.
Technology and cybersecurity. Threat data, adoption statistics, breach trends. Tech and business journalists are perpetually hungry for data that quantifies what’s happening in the digital economy.
Recruitment and HR. Hiring trends, salary data, workplace surveys. This sits at the intersection of business, lifestyle, and personal finance — giving you access to all three media verticals.
Construction and property. Building costs, housing data, commercial property trends. Connects to the housing story that every national outlet covers constantly.
Supply chain and logistics. Shipping costs, delivery times, trade corridor data. Became front-page news during COVID and has stayed there as geopolitical disruptions continue.
Professional services (legal, accounting, consulting). Regulatory insight, compliance data, market analysis. These firms advise hundreds of companies and can aggregate that insight into industry trend reports.
If your B2B sector isn’t listed here, that doesn’t mean PR won’t work. It means you need to find the connection between your data and a story that a broader audience cares about. That connection always exists. Sometimes it just takes some creative thinking to find it.
Measuring B2B PR Results
B2B PR metrics look different from consumer PR. Here’s what actually matters.
Placements in target publications. Are you appearing in the 10-15 trade and business outlets where your buyers read? Track this monthly.
Backlink quality and quantity. Each placement should earn a link to your site, ideally to a specific content page or thought leadership hub. Track domain ratings of linking sites using Ahrefs or Moz.
Share of voice vs competitors. How often are you quoted vs your competitors in your industry’s key publications? This is the metric that maps most directly to brand authority.
Inbound journalist requests. Once your PR programme matures, journalists should start coming to you. Track how many inbound requests you receive per quarter. This is the strongest signal that your authority-building strategy is working.
Pipeline influence. The hardest to measure, but the most important. Are prospects mentioning your media coverage in sales conversations? Are they arriving via articles that featured your data? Set up UTM tracking on all press links and work with your sales team to capture “how did you hear about us” data. For B2B companies considering this investment, I’ve laid out what digital PR typically costs to help set realistic budgets.
Frequently Asked Questions
Our industry is “boring” — can digital PR really work for us?
There’s no such thing as a boring industry, only boring angles. I’ve seen manufacturing companies earn national coverage with supply chain cost data. Accounting firms land in the Financial Times with tax trend analysis. A waste management company went viral with data on what cities throw away the most. The story is never about your industry. It’s about the human or economic insight your data reveals. If your data connects to money, jobs, lifestyle, or safety, journalists care.
How many placements should a B2B company expect from a single campaign?
For a well-executed campaign targeting the right outlets, expect 5-15 placements. Trade press will pick it up most consistently (3-8 placements). Business press is more selective but higher impact (1-4 placements). National coverage is a bonus, not a baseline (0-2 placements). The compounding effect matters more than any single campaign — after 4-6 campaigns, journalists recognise your brand as a reliable source and coverage becomes easier to earn.
Should we use our internal data or commission external research?
Start with internal data. It’s free, it’s unique to you, and it’s more credible because it comes from real operational activity rather than a commissioned survey. Supplement with surveys when you need to explore topics your internal data doesn’t cover. The ideal approach combines both: “Our data from 400 client companies shows X, and a survey of 500 industry professionals confirms Y.” That combination is extremely hard for journalists to ignore.
Ready to earn editorial coverage that actually builds authority? Presslei delivers 8-14 placements in DR 70+ publications per campaign. No retainer. No risk. Book a free strategy call and let’s see if reactive PR fits your brand.
Salva Jovells is the founder of Presslei, a reactive PR agency based in Zurich. He’s spent 12 years in ecommerce SEO and has analyzed 5,272 media placements to build a data-driven approach to earning press coverage.
About the Author
Salvador Jovells
Founder of Presslei. 12+ years in ecommerce SEO across international markets. After a decade of link buying for Hockerty and Sumissura, I reverse-engineered 5,272 earned media placements and founded a reactive PR agency that builds authority through data-driven stories journalists actually want to publish. Based in Zurich.
