From the acquisitions of news outlets to the intense retractions and resets that came with the pandemic, and bitter disputes we’ve witnessed on social media, it’s been a chaotic time across both traditional and social media. Wild swings in ratings have taken place in fewer than two years. Newsrooms across the spectrum of media outlets laid off reporters and editors and then furiously restaffed in 2021.
Even outside the realms of political or cultural issues, media’s reporting priorities have been dramatically shifting to keep up with economic, technological and global events. It’s safe to say: The last two years have been a dizzying time.
Yet, amid the rapid-fire, chaotic news cycles and the rearrangement of the media landscape, innovation companies have been busy advancing new platforms. Many of these innovations leverage increasingly sophisticated technologies that are poised to transform their sectors — taking days, weeks and months off data processing, providing access to previously inaccessible information and creating new processes that are hyper-efficient.
Meanwhile, B2B tech marketers are seeking to rapidly grow awareness of their platforms to the markets they can reshape.
5 Ways to Leverage PR to Your Advantage
Amid the chaos, here are five ways tech marketers can leverage PR to their advantage in 2022:
Lean into trends
Marketers can leverage the cacophony of news angles to communicate the advancements their platforms bring to their markets. With workforce shortages, rising costs of goods and the increasing demand for personalization, marketers can hook into high-profile trends to bring greater relevance and urgency to their platforms’ capabilities. The impacts of high-profile issues can push innovative technologies to the forefront, including advanced supply chain platforms, cybersecurity and automation-based solutions.
Cast a vision
Right now is a great time to go heavy on thought leadership strategies and help target audiences interpret the impact of trends to their markets. Beyond positioning the product, companies can expound their vision for how their markets will reshape as a result of the current shifts. If done with true vision, today’s thought leadership can serve as a way to help customers navigate the factors that are directly impacting their industries. It’s prime time for meaningful thought leadership.
Go targeted
While big media has shifted rapidly, trade media has also been on a rollercoaster ride with fluctuating workforces from the pandemic, recovery and the Great Resignation. It’s time to reconnect to trade outlets serving strategically important audiences. We receive significant feedback and supporting evidence from our marketing executive clients that extremely focused trade media results often deliver the best top of funnel leads. To boot, earned media placements in these outlets have a longer shelf life. So, go deep and specific with use cases and concepts that matter, and reconnect with news reporters covering issues that matter most to important niche audience segments via trades.
Go bigger with less agenda
As it’s time to reconnect with trade, it’s also time to position as a resource to Tier 1 business media that covers specific issues in technology or health care. Reporters cannot keep up with the influx of shifts and therefore need expert insight to clarify key innovations and business impacts. Via cordial briefings, in anticipation of upcoming news or more pointed thought leadership efforts, innovation company SMEs can form relationships that will convert to results in the future. While ROI is important across marketing, we recommend focusing on collaborating with reporters covering complex technology advancements as part of your strategy.
Carve out niches in social
While social selling was buzzworthy years ago, in today’s hyper-noisy social environment, marketers can go ultra-deep on finding the industry groups packed with potential customers. By investing in a subject matter expert-driven campaign via LinkedIn, marketers can penetrate some interesting groups for leads. These strategies should be driven not by corporate social channels, but via an SME or CEO. Individual and expert thought leadership on social media is a powerful tool. Deliver quantifiable ROI by finding micro-social networks that are targeted to key audiences. This can also help keep companies from all the things they may want to veer away from.
In 2022, the news may not be great, but as media outlets reconfigure and news cycles remain hyperactive, innovation companies can make significant impacts. Both Tier 1 and leading trade media are clamoring for meaningful insights to help their audiences to not only comprehend the current environment, but also understand how industries and business will be taking shape throughout the next several years in order to address the innumerable challenges we are all reading about.
Our team is deeply experienced in leveraging PR in creative ways to help innovation companies and their marketing leaders take advantage of the chaos and turn it into coverage that speaks volumes for your business. Get in touch to request a briefing today to learn more about how we can create major coverage to advance your new platform.
