Category: News

In this blog, Hayley Goff, CEO at Whiteoaks, discusses:

  • Why visibility is only the starting point to being remembered by audiences
  • Why built environment brands need proof-led messaging that goes beyond generic claims
  • How strong differentiation comes from consistent communication that links technical expertise to buyer priorities

 

Many built environment brands are investing heavily in visibility. Far fewer are giving buyers a memorable reason to choose them.

Of course, visibility has an important role to play in a market shaped by economic pressure, regulatory scrutiny, sustainability targets and long buying cycles. It’s critically important that brands remain present in the conversations their audiences care about.

But visibility alone is just the starting point. Buyers rarely choose the most visible brand. They choose the one they remember and trust when procurement decisions are made. This is especially important because the market is so crowded. More brands are competing for attention across earned and owned channels. At the same time, it feels like everyone is talking about innovation, sustainability and digital transformation. Standing out from this crowd seems very difficult.

Visibility needs direction

More content, social engagement and a greater presence at key built environment industry events are invaluable, but only when they are connected to a clear point of view. Without it, the market may be aware of an organisation, but not see any reason to use its services.

Brands must be clear on what they want to be known for, which industry issues they have expertise to talk about and crucially, how that connects to the pressure their audiences are facing.

Without these traits, PR and marketing campaigns can sleepwalk into becoming a series of disconnected outputs, rather than a sustained effort to build influence. And without influence, there is little opportunity to be meaningful in the conversations that shape commercial decisions. Distinctive positioning is what effectively ties visibility and influence together.

The role of distinctive positioning

To be distinctive in the market and ultimately shape influence, organisations must stay well clear of the same tried-and-tested messaging. Sustainability, innovation, energy efficiency and digital transformation are all important themes, but often the default line of positioning in audience-facing communications.

To build influence, brands must decide what they want to be known for and which challenges they can credibly address. What proof do they have to back up their claims and the lasting memory they want buyers to take away after interacting with content?

As an example, instead of saying “we help create sustainable buildings”, brands should show how their initiatives support sustainability. Think of examples such as lower operational cost, better retrofitting, measurable carbon reduction, improved occupant experience or stronger asset value. These points should be backed by real numbers. If smarter building controls and ventilation systems lead to, for example, a 15% reduction in operational energy use, the impact these technologies have is immediately clear.

What strong differentiation looks like

Numbers are key to building proof-led messaging that cuts through the noise, especially when reinforced by case studies and customer reference programmes.

It is important that senior leaders communicate a clear point of view on a sector challenge – something they can do without sounding salesy or too technical. Audiences can otherwise be left with plenty of information but no clear reason to care. The strongest communications strategies are unique and always make complex propositions easy to understand, connecting technical strengths to business outcomes.

Executive visibility can give a built environment business the individual human voice it needs among customers, prospects, partners, analysts and investors. And if its leaders communicate consistently across media placements, social media, website, sales content and at in-person events, that expertise becomes more relatable and memorable.

If a business can increase trust via influence, it can also more easily achieve its goals, such as a stronger share of voice or more visits to its website. A clear, measurable example of impact is a shift up the rankings of top built environment brands from unprompted consideration among potential buyers – evidence that the organisation is front-of-mind.

A clearer approach

A strong built environment brand cannot rely on being visible alone. It needs to be trusted and remembered for something specific. A business competing in this sector must never run silent when the economic weather is dubious. It must move from generic, run-of-the-mill messaging to a clearer position that reflects and amplifies its unique expertise in the market.

Visibility may get a brand into the conversation. Proof-led positioning is what keeps it there. Discover more about driving influence by getting in touch with the Whiteoaks team.

In this blog, Whiteoaks’ Digital Content Manager, Natalia Kaczmarek, discusses:

  • How to improve LinkedIn engagement and reach for B2B brands
  • How executive visibility on LinkedIn supports PR and growth
  • How to measure LinkedIn performance and content effectiveness

 

“I grew to 10k followers in 90 days. Here’s how.”

You’ve likely seen some version of that post on LinkedIn. It usually comes with a familiar set of tips: be more visible, more personal. Be more ‘human’.

And while there’s a grain of truth in all of it, it doesn’t always sit comfortably for senior leaders who are thinking more carefully about their reputation, their role and the business they represent.

This type of popular guidance is designed to drive engagement in the moment, rather than build credibility over time, or supporting wider PR and commercial goals.

But when some studies suggest organic company-page content makes up just 2% of the LinkedIn feed, compared with 59% for creator content, you know you have to do something.

So yes, ‘posting more’ or sharing more of yourself is part of the solution, but there’s more to it than that, and this is what we’ll explore here in this blog.

1. Consistency builds visibility, but that doesn’t have to mean posting daily

One of the most common pieces of advice on LinkedIn is to post every day, but in practice consistency is less about constant output and more about finding the right cadence for you and, importantly, one you can sustain without compromising the quality of your content. 

For most senior leaders, daily posting just isn’t realistic, and when it’s forced, it’s fairly obvious – rushed, repetitive or disconnected from anything meaningful, which ultimately does more harm than good.

A more effective approach is to settle into a steady rhythm. That might be two or three posts a week, or a regular pattern of considered thought leadership. What matters is that it’s consistent enough for people to start recognising your perspective, without diluting the substance behind it.

It also aligns much more closely with how LinkedIn works in practice. Regular activity gives the platform clearer signals about your relevance, creates more opportunities for engagement and, over time, allows your reach to build cumulatively. 

So how does this connect with your wider PR activity? If you have a LinkedIn presence, it means you’re already going to be visible when a piece of coverage lands, giving your story more context and staying power. Your story or post won’t suddenly feel out of place but a natural extension of conversations you’re already having. Instead of a one-off spike, it becomes part of a broader, more credible narrative.

If you’re posting regularly, you’re also more likely to maintain momentum when campaign noise isn’t as loud. 

Where it often goes wrong is when people overcommit to posting on LinkedIn at the beginning, only to fall silent a few weeks later. Those bursts of activity followed by long gaps make it difficult to build any real momentum or familiarity with your audience.

2. Reach is driven by engagement 

It’s easy to assume posting regularly is the main driver, but really it’s only one part. What really expands your reach is how people engage with your content.

When your followers engage, whether through comments, reactions or shares, your post moves beyond your immediate circle and into theirs. The more meaningful the engagement, the more LinkedIn interprets your content as relevant and the wider it’s distributed. 

Recent LinkedIn analysis suggests a typical post reaches just 2-6% of followers in its initial distribution, while the platform increasingly pushes content to non-followers based on topic relevance. 

As you plan, consider the kind of posts that invite responses. What sparks conversation? What makes people want to add their perspective? Think of it as building a two-way interaction, rather than simply deciding what you want to broadcast. Because posting alone is not enough. LinkedIn no longer relies mainly on your follower base to decide who sees your content. It tests relevance first, so your content needs to feel relevant to the audiences you want to reach if you want the platform to keep distributing it further.

3. Employee advocacy works best when it’s built on perspective

At one end of the spectrum, some organisations don’t activate their people at all. Their LinkedIn presence sits almost entirely at brand level, which limits how far their content can travel and how it’s received, especially as organic reach for LinkedIn pages has declined.

At the other, employee advocacy is treated as simple amplification. Posts are reshared, sometimes word for word, across multiple profiles. While that might increase surface-level visibility, it doesn’t create meaningful engagement as it can feel repetitive and therefore easier to ignore.

Effective employee advocacy is about giving people the space and direction to share their own perspective. That means encouraging individuals to talk about the themes that matter to the business, but through the lens of their own experience, expertise and point of view. By all means give employees clear themes and direction, but don’t give them a script. 

Employee posts should add depth, context and personality to your organisation. People find it much easier to respond when it’s coming from a person, not being pushed out by a brand.

From a PR perspective, advocacy is particularly valuable. Instead of a single brand voice pushing out a message, you have multiple credible voices reinforcing it in different ways. That gives your activity more reach, more depth and more opportunity to resonate with different audiences.

4. Overuse of AI is flattening performance

AI has made it much easier to produce content at scale, and while we’re not against AI per se, it does become an issue when it starts to replace thinking rather than support it. As more people rely on it in the same way, LinkedIn’s content has started to feel very uniform. 

The same tones, formats and language patterns appear again and again, and when everything starts to sound the same, people stop paying attention.

It applies to engagement too; when comments are uniformly AI generated they don’t move the conversation forward, and they don’t signal meaningful engagement either. And this is so important because LinkedIn rewards relevance and interaction. So if content feels indistinct, it’s less likely to prompt a response. And without that response, it becomes much harder for it to travel beyond your immediate network.

Content that does perform well draws on specific experiences, clear examples and a defined point of view. It might include data or insight that’s either backed by evidence or comes from first-hand experience. It also needs to sound like it could only come from you. If a post could be written by anyone, it’s unlikely to perform meaningfully.

Measuring engagement and consistency on LinkedIn

Visible metrics such as likes, impressions and follower growth are easy to track, and do have value. They give you a sense of activity and reach at a surface level.

However, if you’re investing in consistent posting and building engagement, it’s just as important to take a qualitative view as well. 

For instance, study which topics are consistently prompting responses. What formats tend to hold attention and sustain reach? Who is engaging, and how often, and with what? It’s the patterns over time that matter, and when you post consistently long enough to see those patterns emerge, it enables you to measure it properly, and refine your approach.

Without that, it’s very difficult to assess and even less to build on.

This is also where LinkedIn starts to connect more clearly to PR-driven commercial outcomes. Look at how consistent visibility and engagement, driven by PR stories and content, are contributing to stronger inbound interest, more relevant conversations and, ultimately, opportunities that can be traced back to your activity.

Track which types of posts or content pillars are prompting discussion, whether certain individuals are helping to extend the reach of a topic and which themes are attracting engagement from your target audience. You might also look at whether media coverage, campaign moments or thought leadership pieces are generating follow-on engagement on LinkedIn, or whether specific formats are consistently driving responses.

This is the third blog in our “Turn Up the Volume” series, where we’ve been exploring how LinkedIn can be used to amplify B2B tech PR. We’ve already looked at how momentum builds and how PR stories travel, as well as the role LinkedIn plays as an amplifier. 

If you’re looking to turn LinkedIn activity into something commercially meaningful, our Executive Visibility Programme helps your leaders build a strong personal presence without adding to their workload, while reinforcing the PR you’re already doing. Get in touch to start building visibility which delivers more than just engagement.

In this blog, Whiteoaks’ Finance Director, Adam George, discusses:

  • Why clear financial communication helps agencies make stronger commercial decisions
  • How finance leaders turn data into insight that supports growth
  • Why comms skills are just as important as technical finance expertise

 

In PR, storytelling is everything. Agencies pride themselves on crafting compelling narratives that explain complex technical concepts, influence perception, shape reputations and drive action.

Yet when it comes to their own financial performance, many agencies still rely on spreadsheets and manually produced, data-heavy reports that fail to tell a meaningful story. This is where the role of the Finance Director must evolve from being solely a number-cruncher to a narrative-builder.

What is financial storytelling?

Financial storytelling is the ability to translate complex financial data into clear, relevant insights that people across the business can understand and act on.

For PR agencies, that matters because financial performance is never just about the numbers themselves. It is about what those numbers reveal about the health of the business, the pressures it is facing and the decisions leadership teams need to make next.

At its best, financial storytelling gives context to performance. It helps people understand not only what has changed, but also why it has changed and what that means in practical terms.

Why communication is vital in finance

At its core, PR is about communication. Agencies spend their days helping clients articulate the value of messaging and PR campaigns, as well as the impact they have on their target audiences and the wider market. The same principles apply internally. Financial information lands far better when it is presented in a way that connects directly to the day-to-day reality of the business.

A set of figures on revenue, profitability or utilisation may be accurate, but accuracy alone is not enough. People – especially non-financial stakeholders – need to clearly understand what sits behind those figures and what actions might follow.

From reporting numbers to explaining them

A Finance Director who can communicate numbers effectively brings that extra layer of understanding. Modern finance tools can generate real-time data and visual dashboards, but without interpretation, data remains just data. Instead of presenting statistics, a finance leader should provide context. Instead of focusing solely on what happened, they explain why it happened and, crucially, what should happen next.

Consider utilisation rates, a key metric in PR agencies. A report may show a decline across a quarter. A finance leader with storytelling capability will go further, linking that decline to specific client losses, account performance or staff availability. More importantly, they will frame the implication, showing how it impacts client delivery, present options for growth and client margins and propose a clear course of action.

Helping the wider business engage with finance

This kind of narrative-driven finance function enables better decision-making across the agency. Account Directors, for example, are more likely to engage with financial data when it is presented in a way that connects directly to their day-to-day responsibilities. When they understand not just the numbers but also the story behind them, they can take greater ownership of performance.

That is particularly important in employee-owned businesses, where success is shared more directly across the organisation. In that kind of model, commercial performance is not something that sits only with the leadership team or finance function. Everyone has a stake in the health of the business, so helping people understand how performance is tracking, what is influencing it and where they can make a difference becomes even more valuable.

Building a more commercially aware culture

There is also a cultural impact. Agencies often operate with a creative-commercial tension: balancing great work with commercial discipline. A Finance Director who communicates effectively helps bridge that gap. By framing financial data in relatable terms, they make it less intimidating and more collaborative. Finance becomes a partner to the business, not a policing function.

This is particularly important in times of economic uncertainty. When budgets tighten and clients scrutinise spend, agencies must be sharper than ever in how they manage resources and demonstrate value. Financial storytelling allows leadership teams to align quickly, prioritise effectively and communicate confidence, both internally and externally.

What agencies should look for in a Finance Director

Hiring for this capability requires a shift in mindset. Agencies should look beyond traditional finance credentials and prioritise communication skills, commercial awareness and the ability to influence stakeholders. The best Finance Directors in this space are those who can sit comfortably in both worlds: fluent in numbers, but equally fluent in the language of the business.

That has an impact beyond the agency itself as better financial communication supports better decisions on resourcing, investment and client delivery, helping agencies stay consistent, responsive and commercially strong for the organisations they work with.

If your business is thinking differently about profitability or financial leadership, get in touch with our team to discuss how stronger commercial communication can support better decision-making.

In this blog, Hugh Cadman, Interim Head of Content, discusses:

  • The growth of AI search online and the impact on B2B tech brands
  • Why press releases are now doubly effective at hooking attention
  • The new AI visibility metrics to be aware of

 

The press release – the cleverly-crafted copy that announces anything from a new product or service to research findings – is it still relevant in the era of AI search?

Unequivocally, the answer is yes. AI-powered search is transforming the effectiveness of the press release for brands seeking greater visibility because it hooks in readers and algorithms alike.

A good release grabs the attention of human audiences when they visit a website or read it in a publication. But what doubles is potency, especially in B2B tech PR, is that its format is ideally suited to AI models during a search engine’s retrieval and ranking process.

Many AI search models like press releases

That’s true for searches in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overviews. The latter are the AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of search results. Nobody can ignore the scale of AI search now.

ChatGPT has 700 million weekly users, while more than 2bn people engage with Google AI Overviews each month and Microsoft Copilot has 33m active users.

You might think that reliance on AI-generated summaries will reduce the impact of press releases. But releases follow a defined structure that signals reliability and makes it easier for AI to parse and understand. For a company wanting to boost its profile, this is a major benefit, helping its content and its name stand out when users ask AI-powered questions.

Google’s AI, for example, analyses content in the same way as traditional searches, following the E-E-A-T model (Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trust) which determines so much of the way brands or businesses are recognised online.

Visibility goes one way – upwards!

A business that publishes a release on its website and distributes the content through a network like PR Newswire, as well as relevant trade media titles, expands the content’s visibility by many factors because of its ability to feature in traditional search and AI-powered results.

A release that is linked to by other reputable sources also does more than drive traffic to a website – it helps validate authority – which is vital for brand elevation. High-quality backlinks bolster overall SEO performance and boost visibility, and they also increase the likelihood that your brand appears in AI-assisted results where provenance and credibility signals matter.

Making press releases even more visible

In Performance PR campaigns, there are other ways of enhancing the attractiveness of press releases to AI that go beyond adding bullet points at the top. The inclusion of multi-media elements such as video helps AI interpret content more effectively, for example.

And journalists have caught up – 1 in 3 explicitly want multimedia elements from PR teams, with more than half more likely to pursue a pitch if it includes visual assets with your story.

Reputable research is a mainstay of B2B tech PR and a release that provides reliable and original new data obviously adds credibility to a story and provides evidence audiences seek. But authoritative data also attracts AI, helping engines rank content more effectively. Therefore, when planning your next research project, it’s important to think about the media headlines from the very start.

New measurements of success

After a release has been distributed to media outlets, published on a company’s own website in line with GEO best practice, or disseminated through a commercial network, platforms such as Google News or Discover may highlight it as a featured result.

Yet in this new world of AI search, traditional metrics such as click-through rates and simple measurement of website traffic are no longer the primary indicators of success. A growing share of visibility now happens without a page visit. Buyers are discovering brands through summaries, citations and third-party references long before they arrive on a website.

That means measurement needs to broaden. Alongside coverage volume and quality, PR teams are increasingly tracking indicators such as share of voice on priority topics, the frequency and prominence of brand mentions across authoritative sources, and backlink quality. They are also interested in branded search demand over time, and whether the brand is cited in AI-generated answers for the kinds of category questions that influence early-stage shortlists.

Just as importantly, teams need to track the accuracy of how the brand is described, not only how often it appears.

This is where press releases play a bigger role than announcement mechanics. They help establish, and reinforce, the narrative a brand wants to own, so that when a company is cited, its story is interpreted in the right way and includes the key messages that matter most to the business. Consistency across releases, coverage, and owned content increases the chance that AI systems and human readers connect the brand with what it wants to be known for.

You need a steady flow of content including press releases

AI search engines are constantly evolving and can integrate new content and rank it within hours, underlining the need for regularly updated or fresh content. On a website this dictates the need for a steady flow of well-written pieces that meet the evolving requirements of AI search while hitting the mark with audiences reading them directly.

In a B2B tech organisation, the capacity to maintain that pace is often constrained by time, competing priorities and the reality that not everything warrants a press release. The goal is not a constant stream of announcements. It is a consistent flow of credible content, supported by media coverage. This gives search engines and AI systems enough high-quality signals to understand the market you operate in, the problems you solve and the proof that supports your claims.

These are all areas that Performance PR partners in the B2B tech sector can take care of, ensuring content is regular, relevant and optimised for AI search. With AI-powered search so rampant, the right partnerships and proactiveness from your PR team are essential.

If you need expert content and media support to meet the new requirements of AI-powered search, contact the team today.

In this blog, Maddy Birtles, Senior Account Director at Whiteoaks, considers:

  • Why PR is essential to sustaining success after an M&A deal
  • The dangers faced by merged or acquired businesses without consistent comms
  • The M&A advantages of preparation and experience in B2B tech PR

 

When a business completes an acquisition, it’s easy to assume the story ends with the announcement – but that’s a mistake. PR momentum after an acquisition is just as critical as before. An acquisition marks the start of an important new chapter, and it’s a crucial moment to ramp up communications, not slow them down.

In the B2B tech sector, acquisitions are an important way to access innovation, develop new partnerships and scale rapidly. But once the deal is announced, the market immediately begins asking questions – and this creates a window of opportunity to shape the narrative.

The post-acquisition moment is when a business lays out its vision and increases visibility for its people, products and services. It is the time to explain what the acquisition means for customers, investors and employees.

In the critical period after the announcement, companies should actively step forward with consistent thought leadership and profiling to solidify its leadership position and clearly communicate the identity of the expanded organisation. It’s not enough to be part of the conversation, a business must lead it, emphasising how the expanded company now has something new and even more effective to offer.

Doing nothing leaves a gap that competitors are quick to fill. Their narratives, unchallenged, will amplify and ultimately dominate share of voice. A cloud of uncertainty can then quickly gather around the newly-acquired or merged business.

Everyone wants accurate information

Right after an acquisition, of course, PR activity must reassure customers and buyers about product roadmaps, support-continuity, pricing and contract terms. When communication is limited or unclear, concern can quickly turn into frustration, particularly if stakeholders are unsure whom to contact to manage their account or address urgent issues.

Whether they’re a customer, employee or investor, everyone wants clarity about the timelines for handovers, service alterations or restructuring of organisational departments and territories. Something as routine as a change in invoicing can start the rumour mill going about bigger changes coming down the line.

If there are changes – anything from product rebranding to headcount reductions – the failure to communicate properly with the wider market could impact confidence. It is vital that investors do not perceive a lack of strategy, or that unanswered concerns leave partners asking themselves if they should scale back their relationship.

Internally, employees concerned about what the acquisition means for them could easily become demotivated and start looking for new jobs. As much as anyone, they need to know the vision.

Competitors will sense an opportunity

When a company goes quiet after an acquisition, competitors rarely do the same. A communications vacuum gives them space to reinforce their own position and leadership while you are absent from the conversation. They can reassure the market, emphasise their stability and present themselves as the safer choice while customers and partners are still trying to understand what the acquisition means.

In that environment, it becomes much easier for competitors to shape the narrative around your business. They may imply that support is uncertain, that price increases are likely, or that products are heading for the sunset. Even vague suggestions can be enough to create doubt in the minds of customers who are already unsure about the future.

Sales teams for the merged business may suddenly find they are constantly having to debunk rumours and re-establish credibility. A reputation for reliability and excellence built up over years can be impacted quickly.

The advantages of a trusted comms partner in M&A

If, however, an acquisition is supported from the outset by continuing communications from a B2B tech PR partner, all these pitfalls are avoided. Preparation and experience are everything. Senior leaders from the acquirer can rely on a Performance PR specialist to draft a coherent communications strategy that covers every aspect and possible consequence of their transaction. It will be in full alignment with the leadership’s long-term aims.

Experience of M&A activity makes it easier to integrate brand narratives and craft messaging that reassures customers, partners and investors.

An integrated campaign ensures the new business explains its strategy coherently across all channels including a programme of well-timed news releases in the right publications, social media to dispel gossip and briefings with the right journalists.

Communications will also address the information requirements of employees and partners – whether through tailored email campaigns or FAQ documents to help maintain morale and strengthen commercial relationships at a time of uncertainty.

A sustained, longer-term programme of articles, blogs and interviews in targeted publications, forums and broadcast media then builds on these foundations and leaves no room for doubt about the company’s progress and its leaders’ plans.

The continuing alignment of comms and business strategies after acquisition

This coherent communications strategy will ensure the new business is fully visible, well-understood and generates confidence in suppliers, customers and partners. Competitors will be far less likely to think they are being offered a big open-goal to aim at.

The key message is that the acquisition story doesn’t end with the deal – that’s when it really begins. Performance PR is what ensures the market understands the value, vision and purpose behind it, and is ready for exciting new developments in products, services and people.

If you are involved in an acquisition, or have just completed one, and need help with your PR strategy, get in touch with our experts to discuss your requirements.

 

In this blog, Richard Peters, Senior Content Creator at Whiteoaks, explores:

  • How to identify the right PR partner for your cyber security business
  • What a successful PR strategy should deliver
  • How to avoid misleading claims and manage risks in a heavily-scrutinised industry

 

Choosing the right PR partner is one of the most important decisions a cyber security business can make. You’re not just looking for coverage – you’re seeking a trusted partner who can help elevate your reputation, drive credibility through thought leadership and ultimately contribute to your bottom line.

In a market where vendor claims are challenged and miscommunication carries real consequences, your PR partners need to help you communicate responsibly and stay accurate under scrutiny.

But with so many agencies claiming cyber expertise, how do you ensure you’re choosing the right one?

Building trust in a high-stakes industry

Cyber security buyers do not reward vague promises. They reward evidence and clear language that reflects the reality of risk. That’s because they are not buying a product or a solution in isolation. They are buying confidence that your cyber business understands the threat landscape, communicates honestly about limitations and will stand up to scrutiny when it matters.

After all, the reputational stakes are high. In fact, recent research from Towergate Insurance shows that organisations are more concerned about reputational damage than any other outcome of a cyber incident, with 53% of respondents saying it was their greatest concern in the event of a cyber-attack.

That reality creates a unique set of communications challenges for your cyber security businesses. You need to stand out in a crowded market, but every message you put into the world can be questioned by journalists, buyers, analysts, partners or even legal teams, so precision and integrity are non-negotiable.

A strategic thought leadership programme is therefore vital, as trust is built through consistent, expert-driven insights. Those insights need to be grounded in narratives your business has earned the credibility to lead. The right PR partner will help you define the messages you can credibly own, based on your technical strengths, experience, customer context and the proof points you can stand behind.

Just as importantly, a PR partner will help you set boundaries on what you can say confidently and what should be avoided entirely because it creates the wrong impression. That discipline is what makes thought leadership effective in cyber. Choosing a PR agency, then, is not simply about finding a supplier of press releases. It is about finding experts that can help you build credibility and foster trust to drive long-term business growth.

Start with outcomes, not outputs

The quickest way for PR to miss the mark is when the brief focuses on activity rather than outcomes. “More coverage” is an output; a stronger brief defines what you want to change in the market over the next six to 12 months, and beyond, and what needs to be true for buyers to view you differently.

For one cyber security business, it might be recognition in a priority sector such as financial services or Critical National Infrastructure. For another, it could be shifting the brand perception from “tool provider” to “trusted partner”, making it easier to win longer-term managed services conversations.

A good PR partner will push for this clarity early. They will help you set outcomes that are realistic, measurable and tied to reputation and commercial goals.

This is where Performance PR approach can help. It focuses on setting clear, measurable targets from the start, then aligns activity to those outcomes. By tracking performance with transparency, you can assess whether PR efforts are truly driving change.

For example, our work with Bridewell and Red Helix shows how a sustained, integrated approach – combining research-led campaigns, thought leadership and media profiling – can drive long-term visibility and build trust with target audiences.

Look for an integrated programme, backed by accountability

In cyber PR, success rarely comes from isolated activities. A strong media coverage in a relevant industry publication should feed content, and content should strengthen social media and executive visibility. When these elements work together, they create a cohesive narrative that builds trust over time.

Integrated PR, combined with transparent measurement, allows you to track how your messaging is resonating with your audience. It demonstrates how research, thought leadership, and strategic profiling elevate brand awareness and deliver measurable business impact.

Choosing well means choosing credibility

The right PR partner will help your business stand out for all the right reasons – building trust through consistent thought leadership and measuring the impact of your efforts. It’s less about buying one-off outputs and more about positioning your business for long-term success in a competitive market.

If you’re reviewing agencies now, explore how an integrated Performance PR programme works for cyber security businesses on our cyber security PR services page, and see how our sustained, integrated approach can help you create measurable outcomes.

 

In this blog, Zachary Harford, Whiteoaks’ Associate Director, discusses:

  • Why analyst relations are important for all B2B tech businesses, including start-ups and scale-ups
  • Why analyst relations need to be part of an integrated campaign
  • How Performance PR drives maximum value from analyst interactions

 

In the B2B tech world, analysts play a key role shaping market perceptions of solutions and services by offering objective expertise in reports, summaries, predictions and paid-for consultancy.

They explain technology and outline benefits and pitfalls by cutting away all the hype. For any solution or service-vendor, they are an important route into the minds of potential customers and investors, establishing credibility.

Why analysts matter

Favourable reviews from respected analysts have obvious advantages, providing significant objective credibility. Conversely if your product is not in an analyst company’s solution category but your competitor’s solution is there – you’re losing out.

Analyst firms are not just about awarding review stars, however. Their influence extends beyond IT to important people in the boardroom who make purchasing decisions. Their reports carry significant weight with tech investors, banks and trade or sector-specific media organisations.

But if you are a start-up or scale-up in B2B tech, how do get on the radar of the respected analyst companies? With little or no track-record, it can be daunting. It’s why Performance PR campaigns offer analyst relations (AR) as one of their many elements.

Analysts offer their own insights

Any firm wondering about the value of AR should remember that relations with analysts are multi-faceted. Yes, you can get your message across in a briefing, if it is well-prepared and presented. But analysts offer their own overview. They have a unique level of insight into markets and technology trends that few other people have. That extends to knowing what different tiers of buyer are looking for, and where glitches and drawbacks are showing up in different products.

Influencing the B2B tech influencers

And analysts themselves are not above being influenced. A good briefing can persuade an analyst to view the market in a certain way and revise categorisations.

These are all reasons why analyst relations (AR) programmes are important. Yet to be effective they need to be part of a fully-integrated Performance PR campaign. If it was just a matter of ringing up for a chat, there would be no need for AR from a PR agency. The reality, however, is that analysts are busy and many people want to bend their ears.

Avoiding the pitfalls

Knowing who to contact, how and when, counts for a lot. Analysts value their contact with B2B tech PR specialists because gives them faster access to the information they need and the people they want to meet.

They may have longer attention spans than journalists and are more interested in the detail – but it must be the right detail. The presentation must be well-crafted and pitched at the right level to stimulate an exchange between people who are already well-informed.

There are many other pitfalls to avoid, which is why it is important to engage a B2B tech PR company with real AR experience

Guidance on AR for younger B2B tech businesses

A start-up or scale-up needs guidance from a PR company that has its own credibility among analysts. This will ensure both sides extract maximum value from a briefing. A B2B tech PR specialist will guide preparation and ensure that analyst relations fit in with the overall aims of a fully integrated campaign, delivering wider impact over time through follow-ups and continuing engagement.

Keeping the relationship alive for longer term tech credibility

AR is not an instant hit. Uncoordinated briefings here and there will not deliver real, sustained PR impact unless they are integrated into a Performance PR campaign. AR is about a longer-term set of relationships that will help shape perceptions over an extended period, building profile and credibility with real market impact.

As many well-established B2B tech businesses know, AR can pay real dividends in a way that is totally transparent, providing a major boost to any company’s credibility. It you want to explore how your business can build relationships with analysts, speak to Whiteoaks now.

In this blog, Hugh Cadman, Interim Head of Content, explores:

  • Why senior leadership insight carries weight in PR
  • Why consistency matters more than one-off thought leadership
  • How Performance PR partners make it achievable without adding to leaders’ workloads

 

In B2B tech PR, visible, credible senior leaders can have a powerful impact on how a brand is perceived. Most leaders recognise that and are actively looking for ways to raise their profile. The challenge is time.

With so many competing demands, it becomes difficult to prioritise the activities that genuinely build credibility and visibility, so marketing and PR inevitably slip down the list. This results in thought leadership that is sporadic and never quite builds momentum.

That’s why, when PR and marketing teams do secure time with senior leaders, it needs to count. Those conversations should generate insights that can be turned into much more than a single by-lined article. After all, a single article rarely shifts perception on its own.

Instead, it takes a steady output of content that consistently reinforces the same themes to help leaders not only become visible but also be seen as recognised and respected industry voices.

Why consistent leadership presence matters

Content from senior leaders carries authority that no corporate channel can replicate. Leaders sit at the intersection of strategy, customer reality, commercial pressure, regulation and operational constraint. They can connect those dots in a way that feels credible because it comes from the experience of decision-making rather than abstract commentary.

Consistency matters because B2B tech buyers rarely make decisions in a single moment. They encounter a company in fragments over time: a quote in the trade press, a LinkedIn post, a panel appearance, a customer conversation, a partner recommendation. When leadership shows up regularly with a recognisable point of view, those fragments start to join up. The market learns what the organisation believes, what it prioritises and how it responds when conditions change.

A steady leadership presence helps a brand stand out in a crowded category. When many companies say similar things about similar trends, leaders who are remembered are those with a distinctive point of view that appears consistently. That familiarity reduces perceived risk, which is often the deciding factor in complex B2B purchasing decisions.

It needs to be more than one-off articles

When leadership insight is confined to internal discussions, the organisation loses an opportunity to shape how it is understood in the market. Insight confined into a one-off article leaves a lot of value on the table.

The real distinction is between isolated pieces of content about a business leader and an established leadership presence. Isolated pieces of coverage work when there is a specific trigger such as a new product, a major announcement or a conference speaking opportunity. They are relevant to the event or hot topic target audiences are talking about, but they rarely build a lasting impression on their own.

A consistent leadership presence is different. It develops clear themes that have lasting impact and that audiences remember. In Performance PR, leadership insight is viewed as a strategic asset rather than something only accessible when a deadline is looming.

That distinction matters because it changes what content is expected to do. A one-off contribution can support a moment. A leadership presence shapes how the market understands a business between moments, when buyers are forming opinions, comparing alternatives and deciding which organisations feel credible.

Efficient use of senior leadership time to develop content

But to achieve the point where senior leaders provide the fuel for a stream of memorable content does not require a huge amount of time. The right Performance PR partners will establish regular touchpoints, matching the rhythm of the business year while working to ensure the themes and the messaging are spot-on. All without adding to a leader’s workload.

This is a more realistic route to building visible, credible leadership presence. It acknowledges that senior people will always be busy but refuses to accept that the consequence must result in sporadic thought leadership in the media and on social media.

A strategic PR partner uses time with leaders to refresh and elaborate themes. Regular conversations surface new examples, refine arguments and respond to what is happening in the industry rather than reinventing the same story each time.

Teasing out the distinctive perspectives

Thinking of leadership insight as a strategic asset changes the conversation. A Performance PR partner will not ask:  “Can you write something on this topic?” but say: “What are the perspectives only you can offer, and how do we bring those to the audiences that matter?” The focus shifts from generating copy to developing a point of view and a tone of voice.

Done well, this proactive approach creates clarity across the organisation. Leadership themes are anchored in business priorities and audience concerns, so different senior voices reinforce the same narrative rather than competing with it.

With clear KPIs and editorial standards, Performance PR keeps that leadership presence aligned to strategic goals, while ensuring every touchpoint strengthens both the individual’s credibility and the brand’s reputation.

Integrated PR for maximum impact

Senior leadership content should be part of an integrated PR campaign building a wider brand narrative. A media article, participation in a conference panel, a LinkedIn post, and a sales presentation are not separate activities. They are different expressions of the same underlying proposition and supporting key messages, adapted to the context.

Buyers do not experience media, social, events, and sales conversations separately. They build an impression from everything they see and hear, often through second-hand interpretation. Integrated PR ensures those touchpoints reinforce the same underlying proposition, so the leadership voice feels coherent wherever it appears.

None of this is about publishing for the sake of it. It is about being disciplined in how leadership thinking is captured and presented, so that the brand’s external voice feels coherent and confident.

Measuring what leadership presence changes

Leadership visibility is only valuable if it changes something. Performance PR treats leadership content as a long-term reputational asset, but it is managed with the same discipline you would apply to any commercial activity. That means measuring progress against outcomes, not simply counting outputs.

The aim is to understand whether leadership themes are landing in the places that shape credibility, whether the brand is being referenced with greater authority, and whether marketing and sales are gaining stronger material for higher-quality conversations.

When measurement is built in from the start, leadership content becomes less of a recurring drain on senior time and more of consistent way to stay visible and build credibility.

Achieving leadership impact

When leadership insight is treated as a strategic asset, curated through a clear set of themes, and consistently expressed across PR and marketing activity, it becomes more than occasional commentary. It helps shape how the market understands your business, what it associates you with and how much confidence it places in your expertise over time.

If you would like support turning senior leadership insight into a consistent, measurable PR programme, aligned to the themes that matter most to your audiences, get in touch.

 

In this blog, we discuss: 

  • LinkedIn’s role in extending the life and reach of stories beyond their initial coverage 
  • How LinkedIn’s algorithm influences distribution, visibility and engagement  
  • And the role of repurposed content, senior voices and integrated paid promotions has in giving PR activity measurable momentum 


Owned, earned and paid media form the PR and communications trifecta, but the real value isn’t just bringing them together, it’s making each one work as hard as it can. 

LinkedIn is one of the few platforms where they come together and give your stories the critical mass they deserve. 

And, when you understand how the platform works, its nuances, functionality and capabilities, you can plan how LinkedIn can act as the vehicle which keeps it moving. 

Why LinkedIn is built for momentum 

If momentum in PR depends on reaching the right people, earning their trust and staying visible long enough to influence decisions, LinkedIn is uniquely positioned to do that. 

The platform combines three critical factors: scale, seniority and trust. 

LinkedIn now has more than 1 billion members, including around 180 million senior-level influencers, 63 million decision-makers and more than 10 million C-suite executives. Four out of five LinkedIn members are involved in business decisions. 

LinkedIn’s audience is not passive – what that audience consumes translates into commercial outcomes; LinkedIn-influenced opportunities are 39% more likely to close, and its audience has twice the buying power of the average web audience. 

Buyers are three times more likely to choose a vendor recommended by someone they trust, and 87% prefer content from credible, informed sources. This proves decisions are shaped by peers, so when many of those peer conversations happen on LinkedIn, your presence there needs to work hard. 

When you understand how the platform works, its features and mechanics, you’re in a much better position to maximise the momentum of your PR stories. At Whiteoaks, our approach starts with one simple principle: work with the platform, not against it. That means understanding what the algorithm rewards. 

Understanding the LinkedIn algorithm  

Quality and relevance first
LinkedIn filters out low-value or overly promotional content, but if your posts offer a unique perspective or insight, they’re far more likely to keep travelling. This means you should lead with a clear, informed perspective which adds value to your sector conversation. 

Early engagement matters
Posts are initially shown to a small part of your network, but if people start commenting or interacting early, LinkedIn will take that as a signal to expand distribution. Therefore if you can coordinate early engagement from your network, it will help signal relevance. 

Conversation carries more weight than reactions
Post likes are always welcome, but think about creating content which prompts comments to get more reach. 

Attention is a signal
If your content makes people stop to read, watch or engage, it will travel further and continue to be surfaced over content people have scrolled past. When you’re planning your content, structure posts so they open strongly and make ideas easy to absorb. 

Relevance determines who sees it
LinkedIn prioritises showing posts to people who are likely to care about the topic based on their activity, interests and connections. Make sure you define your intended audience before posting and tailor it to their specific priorities. 

People as well as pages amplify reach 

Activity from senior leaders, employees and partners expands distribution because their networks create additional engagement signals. That’s why it’s important to have a strategy in place to encourage amplification. 

That’s also how the kinds of outcomes we explored in the first blog happen in practice: 

  • A founder resharing coverage leads to a DM from a target buyer 
  • A report’s data point becomes a standalone post and sparks new use cases in the comments 
  • A strong quote attracts a journalist and leads to a new media opportunity 


Those outcomes can be mapped to the actions which LinkedIn rewards. This then allows themes to land more than once, giving them time not only to reach different segments of your audience, but also allow your messaging to sink in. 

The material for momentum 

PR stories should never be single-use. A piece of coverage can be broken down and reused in multiple ways. You don’t change the facts, but you do in the way you present them.  

When you repurpose content, it allows your message to reach different segments of your audience at different moments and in ways that won’t feel repetitive. 

Repurposing content may be what gives you the raw material but momentum comes from how you release it. If you were to publish all of your planned, repurposed content at once – sure – you’d get a big spike, but afterwards activity would be quiet.  

However, when you space content out, a story has room to breathe and each angle has the opportunity to spark discussion again and again. People also dip in and out of LinkedIn, so a sequenced content release more accurately reflects how people use it. 

Momentum in practice 

Each year, our client InterSystems hosts the UK & Ireland Data Summit, a major two-day event bringing together customers, partners and community members. As its social media and content partner, we delivered on-the-ground support to amplify the programme, capturing content live, bringing in partner voices and posting consistently to maximise reach and impact. 

Video clips, image posts and commentary from speakers and attendees created a steady stream of material which helped impressions, interactions and follower growth to increase week on week. 

Crucially, some of the content captured continued to be used in the weeks which followed, helping to sustain engagement well beyond the two days themselves. As a result, InterSystems were able to achieve a 263% increase in engagement week-on-week and 149% increase in impressions. 

Measuring momentum 

Which metrics are the ones which indicate your story is travelling? 

LinkedIn’s native analytics can tell us how content is performing, and third-party tools add another layer of detail if you need deeper reporting. 

The key signals to watch include: 

  • Reach and impressions show how many people are viewing and seeing your content  
  • Comments and discussion, indicate whether it is prompting engagement 
  • Shares and saves, suggest people see value in passing on or returning to the content 
  • Profile visits and follower growth, show rising interest in your brand  

Boosting PR momentum even further 

LinkedIn should help to give your message scale, but organic distribution on its own can’t always be relied on to deliver it consistently. 

Part of the reason is structural. Social platforms regularly adjust their algorithms, and over the past year many LinkedIn users have noticed changes in how many people their posts are reaching.  

That’s why the most effective Performance PR campaigns treat paid social as part of the strategy from the outset. Paid social brings precision which strengthens the overall plan as distribution can become more targeted and closely aligned with the audience segments you really want to influence. It also helps you to reach decision makers who would be unlikely to encounter your content organically. 

If you’re not making the most of LinkedIn, speak to us to see how we can help boost your media coverage with the momentum it needs to meet your business goals. 

Next in the series, we’ll be looking at the role of consistent posting and engagement and how they help keep stories travelling on LinkedIn. 

In this blog, Zachary Harford, Associate Director, Whiteoaks, explores:

  • Why media training has an expiry date
  • What audiences now expect from B2B spokespeople
  • How to retrain executives to be confident, credible and inspirational across every channel

 

If your senior leaders last took part in media training before the pandemic, they were probably taught to do three sensible things: deliver a clear key message, stay in control when questions get tricky and keep interviews tight. Those principles are still sound. We teach them too, because message discipline and risk awareness protect accuracy and reputation.

The issue is the definition of success. If the only goal is to “get through it” with no surprises, leaders can come across as guarded or generic, even when they have something genuinely useful to say.

A new context for communication

The landscape leaders operate in has changed. Podcasts, livestreams and LinkedIn videos encourage longer, less scripted exchanges. Viewers expect leaders to think on their feet and speak naturally. Every clip can be shared, replayed and fact-checked in seconds, which means confidence now comes from how well someone handles follow-up questions, not just how neatly they deliver a headline message.

Trust is also a tougher starting point than many leaders expect. Ipsos’ Veracity Index shows only 31% of UK adults generally trust business leaders to tell the truth.

Given this level of wariness, heavily polished answers can sound like you are managing perception rather than sharing expertise.

From message delivery to real conversation

Classic media coaching often prioritised risk reduction. Repeating proof points, bridging away from uncomfortable lines of questioning and keeping answers short are valuable skills when you need to stay accurate and avoid getting dragged off topic

The missed opportunity comes when those techniques flatten the interview. For B2B tech brands, buyers are dealing with AI governance, cyber resilience and regulation. They expect senior spokespeople to offer in-depth insight and a point of view, not just safe phrasing. Employees and recruits notice it too, particularly when a leader sounds direct and thoughtful internally but formal and cautious externally.

This is where authenticity and rapport matter. Rapport comes from showing you have heard the question, recognising what is driving it and responding plainly before you return to your message. That approach still keeps you on track, yet it feels human, and it makes space for the expertise audiences are hoping to hear.

What modern media training needs to do

Media coaching now has to start with your wider B2B tech PR strategy. At Whiteoaks, we begin by clarifying what you want leaders to be known for, which audiences matter most and how interviews, podcasts and social content support Performance PR outcomes such as awareness, credibility and pipeline.

The emphasis then shifts from memorising lines to mastering conversations. Leaders still need clear messages, but they also need room to explain decisions and show how they are responding to genuine concerns.

It also helps to connect media coaching with executive visibility, because the same leaders doing interviews are usually posting on LinkedIn, appearing on panels and speaking in internal town halls. Training should help them adapt their delivery to different formats while keeping a consistent voice across earned media and owned channels.

If you want a sense of how we approach that, you can see how the Executive Visibility Programme is structured.

Where to start

The first step is a simple audit. When were your leaders last trained? Which formats are they most exposed to? And where are you seeing missed opportunities? For example, interviews that feel safe yet forgettable or podcast episodes that never quite reach the interesting insight?

From there you can build a refreshed programme that blends classic interview discipline with coaching on modern formats and social dynamics. Short, regular refresh sessions and integrated planning across PR, digital and social teams, with media performance linked to the same KPIs you use for wider campaigns, all help keep leaders sharp.

If you would like to modernise how your spokespeople perform across media, podcasts and social, take a look at our Executive Visibility Programme and integrated B2B tech PR services, or get in touch to talk about tailored media and social training that fits your leadership team.