News Archives - Whiteoaks PR

In this blog, Tara Williams, HR Director at Whiteoaks, explores:

Why employee ownership is defined by culture and behaviour, not paperwork
Why employee voice and visibility make the difference between symbolic and meaningful ownership
How an employee-owned business can translate into a better day-to-day experience for clients

Employee ownership has grown rapidly in the UK over the past decade. The latest available numbers indicate there were approximately 2,470 employee-owned businesses in 2025. That represents a 1640% growth in total business count since 2014, when the current legislation was introduced.

These figures are a sign of just how successful the approach has been – but spending two days at the Employee Ownership Association (EOA) Annual Conference was a timely reminder that the model only works for businesses if they embed it in their working culture.

The sessions and conversations I took part in reinforced a simple point. Employee ownership is not something you “have” because a legal structure exists. It is something a business ‘does’ every day, through the way people behave, communicate and make decisions.

Whiteoaks became employee-owned in 2021, and we have seen the benefits in increased engagement and shared accountability, but the conference pushed me to think even harder about what “good” looks like in practice and what clients feel when an employee-owned culture is working well.

Employee ownership is lived day-to-day

The strongest employee-owned businesses I encountered at the event had a shared sense of responsibility that was obvious the moment you spoke to people.

Employees understood how the organisation was performing and what success looked like. They were confident talking about priorities and trade-offs. They took responsibility because they genuinely felt like owners, not just employees with a different label.

That mindset matters for clients. When the people doing the work feel responsible for the long-term health of the business, you tend to see more care in the detail, more consistency in delivery, and more honesty when something needs to change.

No two employee-owned businesses look the same

Another theme that came through clearly was flexibility.

There is no single template for employee ownership. Some organisations build their approach around commercial awareness and education. Others put wellbeing and inclusion at the centre. Many prioritise innovation and continuous improvement.

That variety is a strength because it pushes organisations to be authentic. Employee ownership needs to match the values, operating style and people inside the business. When it feels bolted on, clients can tell but when it feels genuine, it turns into a real advantage.

Employee voice is key

If I had to pick one phrase that came up more than any other during the conference, it was “employee voice.”

The most impressive organisations weren’t treating employee voice as a slogan. They had practical ways for people to contribute ideas and influence decisions. Just as importantly, they could point to examples where listening led to action.

Visibility was another word that was mentioned repeatedly. In the strongest cultures, employee ownership was hard to miss. It showed up in inductions and in the stories people told about what ownership means in real terms.

That stuck with me because it’s easy for any organisation to assume people “just know” what employee ownership means. The conference was a reminder that it needs to be actively communicated and reinforced if you want it to stay meaningful.

What clients experience when employee ownership is working well

B2B organisations do not choose a PR agency purely because of its ownership model. They choose a team they can trust to deliver measurable business and PR outcomes, with a clear understanding of the pressures they are under.

Employee ownership can support that in practical ways.

A long-term mindset
When employees feel responsible for the future of the business, the work is less about getting through tasks and more about building strong relationships over time.

Stability and continuity
Lower turnover is not a nice-to-have. It affects momentum and knowledge. Continuity means fewer resets and more space to focus on delivery.

Better problem-solving
Empowered teams tend to raise issues sooner and challenge assumptions when something is not working. That strengthens partnerships, especially when business and campaign priorities shift.

More open communication
Many employee-owned organisations lean into transparency because trust inside the business matters. When that works internally, it often carries through into client communication too.

Employee ownership does not replace the basics. Work undertaken on behalf of clients still needs clear processes, strong leadership and proper measurement. Ownership simply increases the expectation that those foundations are taken seriously, because everyone has a stake in doing things properly.

How it connects to Whiteoaks and the way we work

Whiteoaks is an employee-owned B2B tech PR agency, and we work in a way that puts accountability front and centre. Our Performance PR approach is built around fixed fees for fixed outcomes. That model only works when the whole team feels responsible for the result, not just completing activity. Employee ownership supports that, because the quality of the work and the long-term health of the business are closely linked.

The conference left me feeling proud of our team and full of ideas on how we keep employee ownership visible and how we keep employee voice active, so the culture stays strong in ways our clients will notice in day-to-day working.

After all, employee ownership deserves celebration, and it also deserves focus.

For clients, the payoff is a partner that is invested in getting it right and delivering work people stand behind.

If you want extra context on the principles behind our approach, our earlier blog on employee-ownership and the Whiteoaks ethos offers just that. And if you’re weighing up PR partners and want to learn more about how we combine our Performance PR approach with the power of employee ownership, get in touch with us.

In this blog, Chief Client Officer John Broy considers:

How B2B buyer behaviour has changed
What this means for the tech sector
Why B2B tech companies need strategic PR partners

The B2B tech sector is highly dynamic and has undergone significant changes in the way buyers behave and what influences them before they make a decision.

As Performance PR specialists in this market, we see that buyers have become more cautious and research-driven. They place greater importance on the reputation of the companies they buy software and services from. This has been accompanied by shifts in procurement policy and greater emphasis on compliance and trust.

This steady shift means it’s likely that 2026 will be the year when B2B tech PR teams evolve, changing from purely output-focused vendors in the minds of their clients to become strategic growth partners. The emphasis will be on influencing the sales pipeline, raising levels of brand-trust and elevating a company’s position in the market.

2026 – a year of change for B2B communications

One of the most striking changes of recent times is how B2B buyers now behave more like B2C consumers, researching and reading content independently across all channels. Reputation has undoubtedly become a vital factor in their considerations.

Alongside that, buyers are looking for evidence that executives running the company are credible and trustworthy. The reputation of leadership teams and their experience matters more than ever.

Media landscape fragmentation

PR has to evolve to reflect these changes and significant shifts within the media. There are now fewer trade publications that command big audiences, because the number of channels has multiplied and the landscape is more fragmented. The rising importance of niche newsletters and the growth of easily consumable podcasts is very significant – indicating how audiences have less time and want content with a tighter focus.

It means, that as well as developing media strategies, businesses must also think about how best to communicate directly with audiences.

Build it in from day one

Throughout this series we have explored how PR is at its most impactful when PR, content and SEO work together rather than in silos. Paid social completes that picture. And the most effective Performance PR campaigns treat paid social as part of the strategy from the very start, not once the coverage exists.

The narrative, the assets and the distribution strategy should be shaped together so your story has the scale it needs. You should know who will see your message, not just who you hope will.

The level of certainty paid offers is important as it allows your story to be syndicated in the formats which perform best on the platforms your buyers use. It means your content has the reach to influence perception and support demand generation. And it means you are not relying on unpredictable organic visibility to deliver commercial impact.

This is also why budgeting for paid amplification is essential. It allows your campaign to deliver the measurable outcomes your board expects.

PR’s new strategic partnership role

To thrive in this changed world requires PR to shift into a strategic partnership role – a difference that is more than mere words.

While delivering the conventional range of press releases, by-lined articles, blogs, B2B strategic PR partner advises on a wholly integrated narrative strategy across product launches, sales initiatives and company leadership profiling.

This is a strategic partner with the expertise to identify where there is competitive whitespace that a client should occupy. It develops the necessary messaging that differentiates the company from all competitors and achieves the right positioning to influence buying committees.

Experience and a more strategic outlook enables the PR partner to become a core adviser to the company’s board executives and other key stakeholders across the business.

What B2B companies should expect from PR partners in 2026

Given these developments, this should be a year when B2B tech companies can expect more from their PR partners – a genuinely strategic approach to PR that encompasses many evolving elements. Narrative strategies should be driven by market and competitor intelligence, with greater emphasis on how to achieve differentiation in categories that are heavily saturated.

Messaging should be honed to resonate with specific stakeholders such as CIOs, procurement teams, end-users, investors and partners. Each group has its own priorities that messaging must address. This strategic approach to PR should embrace the key stage of pre-awareness reputation-building, crafting content to meet RFP criteria.

Building trust in a more visible executive team

With trust such a critical factor in buying decisions, it will be important to build the authority of leadership teams across all channels including online and social media, video platforms, and at events. Initiatives should integrate with account-based marketing and sales enablement, tailoring narratives to priority accounts. The topics covered must be talking points among senior executives and buying committees.

PR measurement relevant to revenue – not reach

Measurement is a distinguishing characteristic of the strategic approach, vital to ensure PR is in total alignment with business aims. In 2026 the focus will be on tying pipeline influence and share-of-voice metrics to the business outcomes that clients want. Content will integrate with marketing analytics to ensure it delivers by speaking the language of the CMO, CRO and CFO. This is part of an important shift of KPIs from being about the media, to being tightly aligned to those primary business outcomes.

2026 is a key moment for B2B PR

The ability to think ahead and work strategically will be critical for businesses in 2026 and beyond. Technology is the most dynamic market in the world and is now far too competitive and too complex for PR to remain stuck at the tactical level.

Strategic PR with its focus on business outcomes and proactive approach is what firms need in 2026 to achieve a real competitive edge for the long term. This is set to be the year when B2B tech PR is no longer optional and becomes a vital partner in a company’s continuing growth strategy.

If you want to make your PR more strategic to align with buyer behaviour, get in touch.

In this blog, we discuss:

Why B2B PR teams should build paid social amplification into Performance PR from day one, not as an afterthought

What declining LinkedIn organic reach means for PR visibility and campaign momentum

How paid distribution improves targeting, measurement and optimisation so PR impact is clearer to report

Organic performance across social channels is changing, and in B2B circles, LinkedIn serves as the clearest example. Many brands are seeing lower reach and fewer impressions on their company pages than they did a year or two ago and personal profiles are feeling it too.

That doesn’t mean there is no value in organic posting. Regular, consistent organic activity still matters as it is crucial for building credibility and a baseline presence your audience can come to recognise over time.

But it can still be a bit disheartening. You invest time researching and writing an in-depth thought leadership piece, post it, and it can feel like it doesn’t quite register. Then you open your feed and see a picture of a stranger’s office dog pulling in thousands of likes.

That gap between effort and visibility is exactly why paid amplification now needs to sit alongside organic, as part of an integrated Performance PR approach.

Evidence that LinkedIn’s organic reach is diminishing

Social platforms regularly tweak their algorithms, but over the past year many users have noticed changes in what’s appearing in their LinkedIn feed.

We are seeing a similar pattern with some of the B2B tech brands we work with, and there’s data to support this decline.

AuthoredUp’s analysis, based on more than 621,000 posts, shows that average reach fell by 34% in 2025. Alongside another expert’s algorithm research, the findings also point to a sharp decline in the visibility of organic company content, from around 7% of the feed in 2021 to just 1% on desktop and 2% on mobile in 2025.

As a result, achieving visibility through organic activity has become much harder. Feeds are more competitive and, with around 11% of it now made up of adverts as LinkedIn prioritises paid distribution, paid amplification has become central to maintaining visibility.

What does that mean for PR

Changes in organic reach affect your PR investment too. Your PR team puts time and budget into building strong narratives, they secure the right coverage. You then share the story on your LinkedIn page and the response feels much more muted than it should.

You expect your own channels to help build momentum. You want your audience to see the story in your words, at the moment the campaign is live. But the result is that stories do not always get the lift they need or deserve from organic distribution. Visibility can vary and momentum can be harder to sustain. Social should be there to help give your message scale, but organic reach on its own cannot always be relied on to deliver it.

Build it in from day one

The narrative, the assets and the distribution strategy should be shaped together so your story has the scale it needs. You should know who will see your message, not just who you hope will.

This is also why budgeting for paid amplification is essential. It allows your campaign to deliver the measurable outcomes your board expects.

Paid social offers precision to strengthen strategy

Once paid is built into the plan, the distribution becomes more targeted and aligned with your target audience. Your paid segments can mirror your personas and buyer groups.

You can reach decision makers who might not engage with traditional media and who would never see your content organically – simply because they don’t happen to follow your page. And you can place your story in front of people who have genuine intent and relevance.

It ensures your narratives reach the people who influence your pipeline and purchase decisions.

Measurable results

Integrating paid also strengthens your ability to prove impact. You can report on impressions, engagement, click throughs and conversions. You can see how PR content contributes to the pipeline. You can unify reporting so PR, content and paid social become one measurable activity rather than three separate ones.

For B2B tech teams asked to justify spend and show commercial value, this level of insight makes such a difference. It builds confidence with stakeholders. It strengthens the argument for PR investment and it shows your work is driving outcomes which matter to the business.

A feedback loop to help optimise

For your PR team, paid social also allows them to optimise your campaigns using real-time feedback. It allows headlines, message angles and creative designs to be tested before they are rolled out more widely.

It enables them to validate which themes resonate most with your audience and those insights can be used to shape media pitches, refine landing pages and improve longform content.

This creates a feedback loop between how your audience responds to a story and how the PR campaign evolves. It means your campaign can be honed so that it becomes more impactful and delivers improved ROI.

Across this series we have looked at what happens when you break the silos that hold PR back. When your story, your distribution and your measurement work together, everything becomes clearer and more effective. If you want a PR programme that is built this way from day one, and designed to support your commercial goals, we would love to show you what that looks like. Get in touch.

In this blog, Rebecca Stacey, Account Director at Whiteoaks explores:

Why storytelling for healthcare works best when grounded in human impact and clear language
How to humanise complex healthcare solutions without losing accuracy
Practical ways to build trust with decision makers through narrative

Healthcare communications often get lost in the weeds of clinical data, regulatory language and technical specifications. While accuracy is critical, this approach can make content feel distant and impersonal. To stand out in this field, brands need to combine demonstrating their specialist expertise with empathy and a clear link to patient outcomes and the human element.

Across the healthcare sector, storytelling that resonates emotionally strengthens credibility. When narratives are rooted in real outcomes rather than abstract features and functions, they cut through complexity and make it easier for clinical and commercial leaders to see why a change is worth backing.

For B2B healthtech brands, this calls for a more deliberate approach to narrative of which human stories at the centre. Evidence should remain central. The task is to present it in a way that connects to patient outcomes and day-to-day clinical realities.

Humanising complex healthcare solutions

Whether it is a medical device or a software platform, innovative healthcare solutions can have a real impact on patients and the professionals who care for them. Highlighting patient outcomes and the experience of clinicians or carers makes solutions tangible and relatable. When audiences can picture the people behind the data, technical capabilities feel more relevant, and it highlights that the brand understands the complex nuances of the day-to-day reality these technical solutions function within.

Healthcare decision-makers are professionals, but they are also humans with real world pressures and responsibilities. Stories that reflect their challenges and triumphs create trust and help brands stand out in a crowded, highly technical market. The goal is not sentimentality, it is to show that you recognise the reality of their world and the impact your solution has on patients, teams and budgets.

Case studies with a narrative arc

In line with this, customer success stories work best as narratives rather than lists of data points. Framing the initial challenge and the response in a simple story format allows prospects to see the human impact of your solutions, whether that is enhanced patient care or a calmer, more efficient working day for staff. The numbers still matter, yet it is the journey from problem to outcome that gives those numbers true resonance.

While technical knowledge is essential, especially in regulated healthcare environments, it’s important to remember that overly dense content can alienate readers. Getting to the ‘so what?’ early on, and explaining value in clear, relatable terms ensures your expertise shines while keeping content engaging for healthcare leaders who may not be specialists in every aspect of your solution. That could mean replacing acronyms with plain language, adding simple analogies or using visuals that show real world scenarios.

Amplifying stories across multiple channels

Emotional healthcare storytelling is not limited to case studies or long-form content. Short narratives can be used across social media, email and media commentary, reaching busy healthcare professionals via the channels they already use. When PR and digital content draw from the same set of stories, each touchpoint reinforces the same human impact instead of repeating disconnected messages.

For B2B healthtech organisations, this is where a joined-up approach to healthtech PR becomes powerful. A single strong story about a specific pathway or ward can underpin media relations, thought leadership, sales enablement and campaign creatives. The format changes, but the central narrative remains consistent, which makes it easier for stakeholders to recognise and recall your role.

A Performance PR model supports this kind of storytelling because it ties narratives to clear, measurable outcomes. Tracking how emotionally resonant stories contribute to visibility and the quality of opportunities coming into the business makes it simpler to justify ongoing investment in content for complex healthcare topics.

In B2B healthcare communications, credibility is non-negotiable. Evidence and regulatory requirements always sit at the centre of the story, yet on their own they rarely make a brand memorable.

By weaving empathy and human stories into messaging, healthcare companies can capture attention and build trust while supporting longer term relationships with decision makers. The most effective communications speak to both the mind and the heart, showing that solutions make a meaningful difference and turning complex offerings into stories people want to hear and share.

If you would like support to humanise complex healthcare stories without losing accuracy, speak to the Whiteoaks team about a Performance PR campaign tailored to your healthcare audience.

In this blog, Hayley Goff, CEO, Whiteoaks, explores why B2B tech businesses need to look beyond lead generation metrics in marketing, including:

Why it’s tempting to focus on lead generation

How this leads to short-term campaigns with no sustained impact

The importance of building credibility and trust over the longer term

In B2B tech marketing, it’s easy to fall into a cycle where everything revolves around lead generation. Targets are set, dashboards are checked and activity is judged on how quickly it produces conversions.

With so much pressure to demonstrate instant progress, lead generation becomes the default measure of success – even when it only creates short bursts of activity rather than lasting momentum.

The fixation is understandable. When the economy is struggling with growth at little more than 1% and marketing budgets are tight, results need to be visible. A channel that produces rapid, trackable outcomes feels like the safest option.

But when lead generation dominates the agenda, the long-term work that shapes how an audience perceives a brand – through credibility, trust and recognition – is pushed aside. Without this foundation, every new lead takes more effort to convert and more time to nurture.

The quick fade of performance marketing

One of the problems in any sector – and that includes B2B technology – is that potential customers have limited attention spans.

They are unlikely to buy from brands they cannot remember or do not immediately associate with anything positive, useful, transformative or just interesting. It means that once a digitally-driven ad campaign exhausts its budget, a brand can be left with precious little.

Performance marketing versus Performance PR

It is important to recognise that Performance PR is significantly different from performance marketing.

The former is a data-driven approach to advertising which focuses on lead gen metrics and immediate wins.

The latter is more strategic and ensures a company’s brand becomes part of the conversation in the right places.

That is not something that happens overnight after a pop-up ad campaign. It requires consistent, unrelenting focus on gaining recognition and respect among the right audiences.

The multiple tactics of Performance PR

Performance PR in the B2B tech sector builds authority for a brand through earned media, the quality of ideas and the way they are expressed in articles and other forms of thought leadership. It extends to briefings with journalists who are experts in their field and write for the most influential publications.

But it also breaks from the traditional narrow focus on media relations to cover social media content, support at events and creative work.

And it is fully integrated, so each element aligns with a brand’s stated aims.

Credibility is the path to conversion

This is how a reputation is built up, brick-by-brick until a business has established its credibility in the market. When levels of credibility are high, leads convert much faster and they are more likely to stay longer.

Without credibility, every sale has to start from establishing the basics of what the business is, where it comes from, what it does and why it should be trusted to deliver on its promises.

When confronted with the reality about lack of trust for their brand, the reaction of many B2B marketers is to compensate with yet more ad spend.

They ignore PR at their cost because they simply end up having to manage even longer sales cycles. And when there is an important shift in the market, their brand is likely to have little resilience.

Good times, bad times, Performance PR always wins

PR, and especially Performance PR, is not a nice-to-have in the good times – it is the foundation that makes sales and marketing work better.

With measurable outcomes it nurtures leads, rather than just raising awareness. It is the difference between being seen and being chosen.

If you want to find out more about how to build credibility through Performance PR contact the Whiteoaks team.

In this is blog – the first in our “Your Questions Answered” series – Senior Content Creator Hugh Cadman addresses an important point raised during Whiteoaks’ webinar on Global PR Growth Strategies for B2B Tech Brands.

He covers:

Why scale-ups should tell their story
The growth and investment benefits of telling it in the right way
Who can help them stand out in their market

It’s a tricky question – when exactly is the right time to invest in PR to propel your business into the stratosphere? As a start-up or scale-up, or when your company is officially declared a “growing business”?

Start-ups and the need for ignition

Most start-ups are busy with the task of establishing themselves, developing or finessing the product or service. They may worry they have no news to tell their audiences about and really should be focusing on generating investment or gaining customers.

But almost every start-up has an exciting idea at its core – and its founders are likely to have distinctive insights on the market, technology and the challenges they solve. All this could be the fuel for an effective Performance PR campaign, working to measurable outcomes to ensure scarce cash is not frittered away. Well-crafted articles, blogs or comments in the right publications can really ignite interest for a start-up in need of a profile in its market.

This is the most effective way to build the brand awareness needed for customer growth and to spur investor backing.

Scale-ups have a good story

For scale-ups it is a different story. With a fully-developed product or service, they always have important multi-faceted messages to communicate. Sometimes, amid all the pressures of expansion, they just haven’t got round to it. That can be a strategic error because competitors in a similar stage of maturity may already have launched PR initiatives. Established brands, on the other hand, will use PR to starve any challengers of oxygen.

Scale-ups seeking experienced investors may also find their lack of PR activity works against them. VC and private equity companies know that however brilliant your voice, singing in your own bathroom will not make you a star.

Timing is everything

Unsurprisingly, despite the best efforts of business schools, there is no calculus that can tell you if now is the exact point at which you should invest in PR.

As a B2B organisation, you need to take stock to see if you really have the product, solution, service and story to win an audience – and whether the timing is right. Are you ready to meet the demand or interest you may create? In most cases, the answer is surely yes.

The way Performance PR works for scale-ups

Almost all scale-ups need PR just to compete. With expert help from specialists in Performance PR, young companies can use their story to win more customers or fresh investment. Performance PR works just as well whether you’re seeking acquisition by one of the giants of any sector, or attempting to attract scarce talent needed to take the business into new areas.

Potential leadership frustrations

One fact that all leadership teams should take into consideration is that in the B2B tech sector, PR requires experience and a little time. This can be a step change for business founders or small leadership teams accustomed to explosive growth and rapid impact. While results can certainly show up quickly, long-term benefits from PR in the B2B tech sector need more than press releases drafted by LLMs like Copilot or ChatGPT.

Providing the fuel for PR requires collaborative work to determine the right messaging and most effective tactics to reach the right people. Some scale-ups find they have been working on assumptions – and it takes Performance PR specialists to identify the right audiences and how best to reach them.

The pain-free approach to B2B tech PR

This is where there is a huge advantage in using a Peformance PR agency. A specialist B2B tech agency working to Performance PR methodology will take the pain out of these processes. And it will measure results from a campaign. This is an approach that can pay dividends for young businesses in the B2B tech world, where informality, time-pressure and a certain amount of improvisation are part of everyday life.

The boards of young businesses should see Performance PR as a strategic investment that will help achieve growth and their critical objectives. So, if you ask yourself when it’s the right time to invest in Performance PR, the answer is usually NOW.

View the webinar that triggered this blog and get in touch to find out how we can support your business in achieving its growth ambitions.

As we come to the end of the year, it feels like the right moment to look ahead at what 2026 might bring for B2B tech and PR. As you might expect, AI does make a few appearances in this year’s predictions, but it’s far from the whole story. We asked a few of our team members to share the trends they think will matter most – and if you fancy seeing how last year’s forecasts held up, you can take a look at them here.

Trend one: Businesses can no longer afford to ignore AI search

Hannah Buckley, Head of Content and Service Development

“2025 has been the year when more and more B2B companies have begun to take notice of AI-driven search,” says Hannah.

“2026 will be the year when they begin to take it seriously.”

Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, are fundamentally designed for content generation, not information retrieval. However, more and more people are using them for recommendations and to answer everyday questions, sometimes bypassing traditional search engines altogether.

ChatGPT traffic is up 4.9% month-on-month, while Google’s fell 2.8% marking a sustained shift in user discovery habits. Even with a modest 0.24% traffic share, the growth rate signals behavioural change: more people are beginning their searches in AI platforms, especially in content-heavy industries like finance, news and tech.

“AI search isn’t going anywhere, if anything it’s just going to get more and more powerful in the coming years so now’s the opportunity for B2B companies to capitalise on it, waiting another year could be a costly mistake,” says Hannah.

“Businesses can’t afford to ignore the AI-search opportunity, it has completely changed how people access information, both personally and professionally, and failing to embrace this change in search behaviour will mean their competitors will begin appearing in their place.”

The shift won’t kill traditional SEO, but it will fragment it. Audiences are redistributing across Google, Bing and AI assistants like ChatGPT and Perplexity – meaning brands must adapt their PR and content to be found across all of them.

LLMs prioritise rich, expert-led sources, making earned media and owned thought leadership essential inputs for AI discoverability. Every credible article or citation now doubles as training data for tomorrow’s AI search.

Finally, Hannah says: “Businesses that fail to factor this into their plans will begin to lose out as decision-makers increasingly turn to ChatGPT, AI Overviews and other LLMs to do the bulk of the due diligence for them.”

Trend two: Visible leaders will drive LLM visibility

Sophie King, Associate Director

As AI search reshapes how information is found and trusted, it’s not just brand content that will matter – but who’s behind it. LLMs will increasingly summarise and surface expert voices, and as a result (and not without irony), credibility will need to be demonstrably human again. The names and profiles of founders, CEOs and senior leaders are now key inputs in how both people and algorithms decide who to believe.

“As LLMs become core to research and product discovery, brands need identifiable human voices to build trust and visibility,” says Sophie.

“This is placing even more importance on executive profiling, positioning founders and senior leaders as credible authorities. Executives are no longer just spokespeople; they’re part of a brand’s discoverability infrastructure across platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini.”

To influence both buyers and LLMs, B2B tech brands need to treat their senior leaders as strategic visibility assets. What does that look like in the real world? It means developing media-ready profiles, giving executives clear thought leadership pillars which support commercial priorities and ensuring they are contributing expert commentary to trusted industry outlets.

Brands with leaders who are regularly quoted, searchable and associated with specific areas of expertise will be more discoverable across AI platforms – and will also be more credible to human audiences.

Trend three: Engagement beyond your feed will fuel LinkedIn growth

Natalia Kaczmarek, Digital Content Manager

In 2026, LinkedIn will really put the ‘engage’ back into engagement. Posting consistently used to be the main driver of profile growth, but as the algorithm shifts away from passive signals such as likes and posting frequency, more weight will sit with those who actively participate. For brands, this means thinking beyond what goes on your own feed and developing a clear approach for how you interact with others.

“Thoughtful comments that go beyond polite nods, and reposts that add a clear point of view, will travel further than a simple ‘like’,” says Natalia.

With organic reach from company pages continuing to decline, growth will come from joining key discussions early, whether that’s with customers, partners or recognised industry voices.

“Brands should treat comments as content in their own right, not as housekeeping, and make them useful enough that others want to respond or reference them,” says Natalia.

Natalia explains that a simple daily routine is the most effective way to build consistent visibility. Start by identifying active threads where your expertise can add something useful or constructively provocative. Contribute there first, then publish your own post once you’ve already shown up in the conversation. This creates momentum and gives your posts a better chance of being seen.

Teams should also monitor the metrics LinkedIn now provides for comments, such as impressions and replies sparked, and link these to the profile visits and new followers driven by comment activity.

Meaningful, authentic interaction runs through all of these trends, so it’s no surprise that low-effort or AI-generated responses will be the first to have their reach limited.

Trend four: PR will become the starting point for your strategy

Hayley Goff, Chief Executive Officer

In 2026, PR will become the starting point for all campaigns – shaping the direction, narrative and creative ideas that everything else builds from.

“It’s no longer just about securing coverage, it’s about setting the tone for everything else,” Hayley says.

“PR defines the positioning, shapes the messaging and helps craft the creative ideas that carry across every channel, from media placements to blogs and digital advertising. It’s the glue that holds a campaign together.”

This shift mirrors a theme we’ve explored throughout our Silo Series: campaigns only work when PR, content, SEO, social and creative all move in the same direction. When those disciplines operate separately, the narrative becomes fragmented. When PR leads the thinking, those silos break down. The insight, message and creative direction are aligned from the outset, giving every channel the same foundation to build on.

Around 70% of B2B buyers now engage with video during their purchasing journey, which is why Hayley expects PR to take on a much larger role in multimedia storytelling. As audiences spend more time with video, animation and interactive content, PR will need to shape narratives that work across these formats too.

Trend five: Authentic video will rise above the noise

Mark Wilson, Creative Director

More than half of B2B marketers report that video generates the highest ROI. At the same time, AI-generated content is filling feeds, and viewers are becoming wary of anything which feels too slick. That combination puts real weight behind honest, human-led video.

Whiteoaks Creative Director Mark Wilson says brands shouldn’t worry too much about imperfect lighting or framing – those details can actually signal authenticity. The real opportunity lies in showing what AI can’t replicate: genuine people, unscripted moments and spontaneous, human-led content.

“This shift will increase the need for businesses to create relevant, authentic and real video content, as people still buy from people,” he says. If you prioritise honest, human-led video, you’ll build more trust and stand out in a sea of synthetic content.

What do you make of our team’s predictions? If you’re a B2B tech brand, how do these trends line up with your view of PR and your goals for 2026? If any of them reflect where you want to go next, we’d be happy to talk about how we can help you put them into action.

In this blog, Hugh Cadman, Senior Content Writer, at Whiteoaks talks about the battle marketers sometimes have when they need to boost brand awareness and visibility but have trouble persuading their boardrooms to back them with investment in PR.

It covers:

Where Performance PR can make a convincing case for investment
Two real-life stories of building brand awareness
The cost of inaction

We see the same scenario play out time and again. Senior marketing decision-makers within technology firms know PR raises awareness, builds authority and strengthens campaigns – and they typically want to move forward with it.

Yet, momentum stalls when the conversation reaches the boardroom. The investment is delayed because senior leaders are preoccupied with the short-term hit, especially if there is no immediate return in terms of leads and revenue.

It is short-term thinking that misses key steps in the journey. In B2B tech you must build brand awareness and visibility before you can deliver conversion.

Convince the boardroom to press GO with Performance PR

If they are to achieve their goals, marketers need to convince the board that by failing to press the “GO” button on PR investment now, they are missing out on the long-term financial gains of raising their brand awareness and visibility today.

After all, brand visibility translates into benefits further down the line. For instance, having case studies and customer-win stories gives the sales team tangible proof of real business benefits. These are not only useful to convert prospects into customers, but are also vital when moving into new markets or territories.

To convince the C-suite of the value of PR, marketers need to be able to commit to actionable results.

That is where Performance PR can play a key role, ensuring that KPIs are agreed at the beginning of every campaign, setting targets to build brand visibility fast through expertly crafted content that is specifically tailored to the business’ target audiences. That way, boards have the reassurance of knowing their investment will deliver measurable value over time as visibility builds.

Two cases to prove the point

Take the case of AspenTech, for example, the global leader in asset management software delivering optimisation and digital transformation in industry.

Whiteoaks created and delivered a campaign that eventually influenced Emerson’s decision to acquire AspenTech in 2025.

The PR programme had accurately reflected AspenTech’s genuine expertise and changed as the business evolved from focusing on process simulation and optimisation to asset performance management and industrial AI.

AspenTech first engaged Whiteoaks to increase its presence in EMEA, targeting top decision-makers while further enhancing its reputation as the international frontrunner in industrial software. The Performance PR programme homed in on energy, industrial data-management, power-and-utilities, and metals-and-mining.

Over 17 years Whiteoaks built an in-depth understanding of AspenTech, its technologies, business units and their markets. The UK market was foremost but Whiteoaks also led an international campaign to ensure AspenTech benefited from consistency of planning, brand promotion, messaging and reporting.

The campaign combined thought-leadership, press releases, expert commentary and media briefings. In the UK alone it achieved almost 800 pieces of coverage that included The Daily Telegraph, The Times and The Guardian. The entire campaign delivered high performance over the best part of two decades.

Bridewell – cyber security in CNI

Another good example of the impact of Performance PR is Whiteoaks’ work with Bridewell – now a major cyber security company specialising in the protection of critical national infrastructure (CNI) in the UK and US. Whiteoaks worked with Bridewell from 2019, aiming to increase brand awareness among CNI organisations and to highlight its managed services.

The keystone of the campaign was an annual report into CNI cyber security which filled an important gap and provided authoritative insights.

The report, Cyber Security in Critical National Infrastructure, attracted the attention of important decision-makers in CNI protection and became the standard trends barometer. It was supported by high-quality thought-leadership in top-tier media, along with corporate profiling.

The outcome of this campaign was that Bridewell elevated its brand awareness as the UK’s leading CNI cyber security services provider.

Research among 600 cyber security leaders found it had climbed from ninth place in 2023 into the top five UK CNI cyber security providers for “unprompted consideration”. In other words, being at the forefront of minds in its target audience.

Work out the cost of doing nothing

Businesses may nevertheless feel that when budgets are tight and market conditions difficult, postponing investment in PR is the safer option. Inaction, however, usually costs brand visibility, which comes with steady erosion of relevance and credibility.

All the while, competitors shape the prevailing narrative and grow in profile.

This is the hidden cost of doing nothing – which mounts up quickly.

Whiteoaks’ Performance PR approach addresses many of the concerns businesses have about cost and outcome. This focuses PR activity on what matters most, aligning with business goals and proving value through metrics that go beyond impressions to become part of the growth engine.

If your business is struggling to plant its flag and your board would benefit from a more strategic approach, read our eBook about the Hidden Cost of Inaction and get in touch with our team to find out how Whiteoaks can help.

New eBook!

When PR campaigns begin to stall, budgets get squeezed or goals shift, the answer isn’t “do more”. It’s to pause and reset. A deliberate reset helps clarify what’s working, what isn’t and where to focus so you can move forward with direction, rebuild and kickstart your PR into a high-performing trajectory.

Our new eBook, “Hit the button: The big PR reset”, is a practical guide to resetting and realigning PR with business priorities to deliver measurable results. Bringing together expertise from across our Senior Leadership Team, it covers everything from refreshing strategy and messaging, and resetting KPIs to securing leadership and finance buy-in.

Read the full eBook to:

Diagnose where PR is under-performing and, importantly, why
Learn how to integrate digital PR and Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) to build visibility
Turn owned data into stories that resonate
Prove impact with clear KPIs and CFO-friendly reporting

Ready to hit reset? Get in touch for personalised recommendations on how a Performance PR approach can help you align goals, prove impact and deliver lasting results.

In this blog, Tara Williams, HR Director at Whiteoaks, considers:

Where internal comms goes wrong
The consequences for engagement and motivation
Why this is the best time of year to put it right with expert help

Sharp, up-to-date and eye-catching internal communications are vital to motivate your employees, align them with your business aims and nurture the right culture that aids growth.

But are you sure your social media content, welcome packs, newsletters, training videos or handbooks are up to the job? Many communications teams keep putting off the task of updating their employee-focused content and the result is the HR equivalent of stale turkey sandwiches after Christmas.

Out-of-date, tired and repetitive – it may have been snapped up eagerly once but now gives everyone the impression the business is low on energy or lacks strong direction. Employees lose focus and trust drains away.

For many businesses (certainly not for all) the run-up to Christmas can be a period of lower intensity when there is time for HR or comms teams to take a fresh look at the content on all their internal channels.

Research shows internal comms need attention

Why? Well, the Institute of Internal Communication’s 2025 Index, surveyed almost 5,000 UK employees and found only 13% were prepared to award their organisation ten-out-of-ten for the way it communicates with them.

About a quarter (26%) of employees gave responses indicating they were “deeply disconnected” from the organisation and its leadership and 13% “wanted more”, some of them feeling their organisation’s leaders were unspontaneous and always scripted in their communications. The report emphasises the effectiveness of communications when employees feel they are genuinely from the CEO or departmental heads – especially when it comes to explaining strategy.

There is clearly work to be done on workforce engagement. This year’s Gallup State of the Global Workplace report found that only 10% of UK employees regard themselves as “engaged”. Of course, it is easy to find people willing to be negative, but these figures are too low for comfort and lead to poor retention. Three-in-ten UK employees told Gallup they were watching for or actively seeking a new job.

The after-effects of stale internal comms

The fact is – many internal comms materials are under-performing.

Badly-crafted internal coms make it more likely employees will rely on the internal rumour mill and their colleagues for up-to-date information. But there is a more deep-seated problem with loss of trust in everything from the HR department to the leadership. Employees may feel their leaders are ducking the real issues, such as AI and how it will affect their work.

On a purely practical level, out-of-date internal comms also increase business risk when employees are left in the dark about important changes to working practices, regulation or new initiatives.

Why now is the right time to collaborate on new content

The run-up to the festive season is a good time to overhaul internal comms if there is a slight drop-off in intensity, making it easier for comms professionals and HR to get senior leadership attention.

Working with people who are experts in content and know how to join all the dots together right across every channel, teams can start creating training videos that are more relevant. They can use senior executive input to sharpen up internal messaging on strategy. The aim is to craft content that is pin-sharp, up-to-date, captivating and motivating.

Perhaps the entire employee value proposition is overdue a serious refresh. Whatever it is, your internal comms will benefit from external, objective expertise in messaging and design.

Get everyone focused on the right things

With new ideas, the whole organisation will feel fully connected, with everyone working to the same goals and more aware of how they achieve them. If you work in HR, you won’t be scratching your head about why so many employees never seem on-message.

If November and December are quieter times in your business, now is the time to do it. Don’t be left with internal comms materials that are the equivalent of stale turkey sandwiches.

To find out more about how Whiteoaks can help transform your internal communications across social media, video, onboarding packages, HR policy audits, handbooks and the refreshing of your employee value proposition, book a meeting with me or with our creative director Mark Wilson.