The next 12 months could see much private equity (PE) activity in B2B tech. Globally, a $2 trillion PE mountain of “dry powder” (the amount of cash that a PE firm reserves) is said to be waiting for an investment home.
Any influx of PE investment in a B2B scale-up focuses on achieving growth within a specific timetable. That may demand a significant rethink about brand image, profile, customer base and partnerships.
PR is vital, but done the traditional way, it is unlikely to offer much return on investment. It is easy for scale-ups to fritter away cash on retainer-based campaigns that lack focus or incentives.
There is a better way, so here are some questions that businesses with new private equity backing should ask when examining PR proposals.
Is there anything measurable in this campaign to give us confidence?
In the traditional retainer model of PR, little apart from the constantly ticking hourly rate will be measured in a way that matters.
It’s true that PR isn’t an exact science – but there is plenty you can measure meaningfully, such as engagement rates on shared articles or website traffic resulting from articles and comments in the trade or mainstream media.
Using our Performance PR model of fixed fees for fixed outcomes, every piece of work will contribute metrics, whether that’s podcasts and webinars or email campaigns. All these measurements of visibility, engagement and impact can be aggregated to form KPIs. Those KPIs help give you confidence about how your PR campaigns are helping to achieve your business goals.
How does the proposal meet our specific requirements?
KPIs should align with business objectives, not offered as a standard bill of fare. This requires collaboration between you and your PR team to tease out where the emphasis in a campaign should be and who it should target.
Is the priority establishing brand awareness, reinforcing trust, boosting a reputation for innovation or getting in front of senior decision-makers at potential partner organisations or big-name customers?
Fixed fees for fixed outcomes sounds inflexible – is it?
No, it is exactly what you need. The KPIs can be adjusted, as can the focus of campaigns.
When the business you are scaling needs to shift its focus because of market conditions or what competitors are up to, Performance PR will respond and adapt quickly.
How much experience of B2B tech is there behind this proposal?
Some PR agencies are newly-arrived in the B2B tech sector. Others like Whiteoaks, have been providing results-driven PR for a vast array of clients for 30 years and more.
An agency with a long heritage has the reputation and relationships to be trusted by the highest quality media – organisations that really matter to ambitious scale-ups. Experience counts for a great deal in understanding audiences and addressing them in the right way.
What sort of in-house capabilities does this agency have?
Any campaign needs the full range of skills across creative work, marketing, news and thought leadership content, media relations and social media.
Those capabilities should be transparently available in-house so the service clients receive is fully integrated, responsive, adaptable and provided by specialists who talk to one another. That’s specialists in each area rather than “all-rounders”. Fads in communication come and go, but quality always counts.
Is this a truly integrated campaign and why does it matter?
PR and marketing should be fully integrated to ensure delivery of business objectives. Campaigns need to be multi-faceted because today’s audiences are not monolithic.
A B2B business needs to meet them through different channels wherever they are, but without wasting effort and money on initiatives that address the wrong people. Finding the right balance – being ambitious but realistic – takes experience.
Is this PR campaign likely to boost brand awareness or growth within our timelines?
If a campaign is crafted to deliver the right messaging to the right audience consistently, it will raise awareness and persuade prospects to move along the sales funnel.
Campaigns can be structured to feature key landmarks along the way. Triggered interventions such as email campaigns, newsletters or dissemination of eBooks can tip the balance of audience awareness at key moments.
That’s enough questions for now. All the best answers for private equity sponsors of B2B scale-ups are to be found in Performance PR.
Get in touch with us now if you want to find out more.
