A logistics firm in Rotterdam started publishing a monthly delivery-delay index in early 2025. Eight months later it had been cited by Lloyd’s List, two national newspapers, and a Bloomberg reporter who now emails the founder directly whenever a shipping route breaks. No celebrity tie-in, no viral quiz, just data nobody else was tracking, packaged in a way journalists could actually use.
That’s the disconnect in most digital PR advice: it’s written for brands people buy on impulse. Analyse what celebrities wear. Survey shoppers about their habits. Build a quiz. None of that applies if you manufacture industrial valves, run a logistics consultancy, or audit cybersecurity for a living.
B2B companies don’t have a boring problem. They have a translation problem: nobody has shown them how to turn what they already know into stories journalists want to write. The data and expertise sitting inside a typical B2B company is often more valuable to a journalist than anything a consumer brand can offer. It just isn’t packaged right. B2B stories that land tend to land hard, picked up by business press, trade publications, and national outlets, because they offer something rare: genuine expertise backed by real data.
Why B2B Companies Are Sitting on Better PR Material Than They Think
Your operational data is a bigger PR asset than your brand story. Consumer brands have product photos and lifestyle angles. B2B companies have proprietary numbers and deep expertise 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, from lead times to material prices to production bottlenecks. That’s the kind of data 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 isn’t. It just needs translating into a story that connects to something a broader audience cares about.
The B2B PR Landscape: Where Your Stories Get Published
Map the landscape before you pitch, or you’ll waste time on the wrong outlets. B2B media works differently from consumer PR.
Tier 1: Trade and industry publications. These are your bread and butter — Manufacturing Today, The Lawyer, Insurance Times, Computer Weekly, Supply Chain Digital. They’re hungry for expert content, data, and trend analysis, and their audiences are exactly the decision-makers you want to reach. Most B2B companies ignore them, so 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, and 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 somewhere 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. An industry podcast or a LinkedIn creator 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 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, showing 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 cited for months after publication. The key is publishing it on the same schedule every time, so journalists know to expect it.
Your version: What data do you already collect across your client base or operations that, 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 need a practitioner to explain the implications. This is reactive PR in its purest form, and it works especially 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), so when news breaks you’re customising in minutes, not writing from scratch. Full workflow, timing, and templates are in my newsjacking playbook.
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 policymakers cares about costs. Because you’re the one tracking it, every citation links back to you. Over time this becomes a permanent SEO asset, since 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: professionals and decision-makers, not consumers. A survey of 500 CFOs is worth more to a business journalist than a survey of 5,000 random adults. Short version for now: use a credible panel, ask questions that reveal trends, and keep your methodology transparent. I’ll publish a full guide on running surveys that get press soon.
5. The Data Visualisation Story
What it is: Taking complex B2B data and turning it into a visual 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, and a good visualisation cuts through that so journalists get a ready-made asset they can use immediately. The visual does the explaining so they don’t have to. This is your best shot at 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 AI adoption has actually increased demand for senior accountants by 15%, because companies need humans to validate and interpret AI outputs, backed by 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 — as long as you back it up. An unsupported contrarian opinion is just a hot take. A data-backed one is a news story.
The B2B Pitch: How It Differs From Consumer PR
Four things change when you pitch B2B instead of consumer.
Lead with the number, not the brand. Consumer pitches can 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” is a story. The brand comes second.
Target the beat, not the outlet. In consumer PR you might pitch “The Telegraph” broadly. In B2B, you pitch the specific journalist who covers supply chain, fintech regulation, or commercial property. Beat reporters are specialists. They’ll spot a generic pitch instantly, but they’ll respond fast to something 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 numbers. Make your in-house expert available, brief them on three key talking points, and 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.
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, including templates and timing, see my guide on how to pitch journalists effectively.
The B2B Content-to-PR Pipeline
This is the system that makes B2B PR sustainable instead of a one-off scramble.
Month 1: Audit your data. What do you collect operationally that, aggregated, reveals industry trends? What do clients ask repeatedly that a survey could answer? What do your experts get invited to speak about? Write it all down.
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. Give it a dedicated page on your site.
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, alternating formats: benchmark report, then reactive commentary, then survey. 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 never pitched. Your SEO improves as backlinks accumulate on your cornerstone content pages.
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, not by putting “thought leader” in your LinkedIn bio and writing opinion pieces for a company blog nobody reads.
Pitching product launches as news. Your new SaaS feature is not news. Your new manufacturing process is not news. Unless it’s a genuine industry first that affects the broader market, journalists don’t care. Wrap the product in a story instead: “This new process cuts production waste by 40%, and the data proves it.” 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 needs a glossary, 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 sectors are natural fits for data-driven PR. If you’re in one, you start with an advantage.
Financial services and fintech. Money data is always newsworthy. Lending trends, payment data, investment patterns, insurance claims all connect 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 numbers that quantify 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 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.
Not listed here? That doesn’t mean PR won’t work for you. It means you need to find the connection between your data and a story a broader audience cares about. That connection always exists, sometimes it just takes creative thinking to find it.
Measuring B2B PR Results
B2B PR metrics look different from consumer PR. The following five carry the most signal.
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 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 sales to capture “how did you hear about us” data. For B2B companies weighing 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. Manufacturing companies have earned 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 picks 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 gets 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 draws on research analyzing 5,272 media placements from a leading UK digital PR agency to inform Presslei’s 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.
