Which kinds of PR actually win work for a B2B firm like ours?

You have probably paid for PR before. The agency sent a monthly report listing pieces of "coverage", a combined readership in the millions and a figure for what the coverage would have cost as advertising. Your sales director could not point to a single deal that came from any of it. When the contract ended, nobody noticed.

That experience is common, and it usually has the same cause. Most PR methods were built for consumer brands, where reach is the point. A B2B firm with £1m to £20m+ of revenue does not need millions of readers. It needs the few hundred people who could buy from it to trust it when they come to choose. Those people read a handful of trade titles, go to a few events, ask their peers and, more and more, ask an AI assistant: in G2's April 2026 survey of 1,076 software buyers, 51% said they now start their research in an AI chatbot, up from 29% a year earlier.

This guide sets out which kinds of PR do that job for founder-led B2B firms, which waste money, what it costs to buy, how to choose an agency and how to tell whether it is working.

#What is PR for in a B2B firm?

It is for making your firm the obvious, trusted choice when the small number of people who could buy from you are doing their research. Everything else is secondary.

B2B buying is slow, involves several people and carries real risk for the buyer. A finance director choosing an audit firm or a managing partner choosing an IT provider will be judged on the decision. So they look for evidence before they make contact: who is talked about in the trade press, who spoke at the conference, who their peers mention and who ChatGPT or Copilot names when asked. Thought leadership reaches the people behind the scenes too: in the 2025 Edelman and LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report, a survey of US executives, 64% of hidden decision-makers said they trust an organisation's thought leadership more than its marketing materials.

Good B2B PR puts your firm into those places, described accurately, often enough that you are on the shortlist when it is drawn up.

#Which kinds of PR win work?

Eight methods work for founder-led B2B firms. Most should pick two or three and do them well.

Expert comment is usually the cheapest route in and builds fastest, because every news story needs someone to explain it. We cover it in how to get trade journalists to call us for comment, and research in how to turn our own data into coverage in the trade press.

The founder's LinkedIn belongs on this list because AI assistants cite it. A Semrush study published in March 2026 found LinkedIn in about 11% of AI answers, with articles making up 50% to 66% of LinkedIn citations and many cited posts having only 15 to 25 reactions. Useful, specific posts count for more than popularity.

Reviews belong here because buyers weigh them. In the same G2 survey, 45% of software buyers said citations of review sites were the most confidence-inspiring signal in an AI answer. For B2B firms that means G2, Clutch, Trustpilot and Google reviews, whichever your buyers use.

For example, a hypothetical commercial insurance broker specialising in logistics might choose expert comment and research. Its founder becomes the person the transport trade press calls about insurance costs, and each year it publishes a short, anonymised study of claims trends. Logistics buyers researching brokers keep meeting the same name in the titles they already read.

#What does not work, and why do firms keep paying for it?

These methods persist because they are easy to report on, not because they win work.

• Press releases about yourself, sent to everyone. New hires and anniversaries sent to thousands of journalists rarely get covered, because they are not news outside your firm.
• Reach and advertising value figures. A total readership or an estimate of what the space would have cost as advertising looks impressive and means little. One piece in the title your buyers read beats a hundred on sites they never visit. We compare the two approaches in digital PR or traditional PR for a B2B firm.
• Paid placements and link packages. Buyers do not read them. Google's spam policies treat paid articles with links that pass ranking credit as link spam, and in Muck Rack's study paid and advertorial content made up 0.3% of links AI tools cited.
• Sponsorship without a speaking slot. A logo on a lanyard rarely changes what buyers think. Negotiate a talk or a hosted roundtable, or keep the money.
• Publishing only on your own channels. Your blog reaches people who already follow you. Independent coverage builds trust with people who do not know you yet.

#Can PR help my firm get recommended by ChatGPT?

Yes, and it is one of the strongest inputs. Assistants cite what others say about you far more than what you pay for: in Muck Rack's May 2026 analysis of more than 25 million links cited by ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, earned media made up 84% and journalism 27%. Why that is so is covered in whether ChatGPT trusts press coverage more than our website.

Coverage alone is not enough. Assistants also need a page of yours that answers the buyer's question. When we started work with ID-Pal: "AI could describe ID-Pal. It never recommended it." After the pages were rebuilt: "Where a page has been rebuilt, ID-Pal appears. Where it has not yet, it does not, which tells us exactly what to build next." (ID-Pal case study). Coverage makes an assistant sure of you; pages give it a reason to recommend you.

You can now pay for space next to the answer. ChatGPT has shown labelled ads to UK users on its Free and Go plans since 11 August 2026, and OpenAI says the ads do not change the answer itself. Being named in the answer is still earned.

#How much does a B2B PR agency cost, and what do you get at each level?

Prices depend on scope, seniority and how much founder time the agency saves, so ask each provider for a written quote against the same brief. What differs most is what you get:

Whoever you use, commit to a steady year rather than a short burst. Our own prices are on what it costs.

#How do we choose a B2B PR agency?

Start with who your buyers are, and judge the agency on what it will report. Ten questions to ask:

1. Who do you think our buyers are, and what do they read?
2. Which titles, events and people would you target first, and why?
3. Who will do the work each week, and how senior are they?
4. What do you need from our founder, in time and responses?
5. How will you find requests for comment in our sector?
6. What will you report each month, and how will you show enquiries and AI answers?
7. Can we see an anonymised monthly report?
8. What is the minimum term and the notice period?
9. Who owns the media list, drafts and research if we leave?
10. Which clients in similar sectors can we speak to?

Red flags: reports built on reach or advertising value, link packages or paid placements sold as coverage, and guarantees of coverage in titles the agency does not control. Be wary of anyone guaranteeing a place in ChatGPT's answers; nobody can guarantee what an AI assistant says. A provider can guarantee effort, activity and reporting.

A good first-month report shows the target list and why, every request answered and pitch sent, replies received, coverage won with links, and a baseline of what AI assistants say about you now.

#How do we put a PR plan together?

Keep it to one page and run it for a year.

#Step 1: Define who you need to reach

Describe the people who buy from you by role, sector, size and region. Ask your best clients what they read, which events they attend and whose opinions they trust.

#Step 2: Choose three to five topics to be known for

Pick the subjects where your firm has real expertise and your buyers have real problems: a regulation, a recurring cost, a technical change.

#Step 3: Pick two or three methods

Choose the ones that suit your people. A founder who enjoys speaking should speak. A firm sitting on useful data should publish it. Most start with expert comment.

#Step 4: Set a steady rhythm

Decide what happens every month: requests answered, journalists contacted, articles due, events pitched. Steady and modest beats ambitious and occasional.

#Step 5: Agree how you will judge it

Set the measures before the first report arrives, so nobody is tempted to count reach.

#What results should we expect in the first six months?

Quotes, replies from journalists and perhaps a published article in the first quarter, then journalists coming back and the first requests that arrive unprompted. Assistants that search the web live can reflect new coverage within weeks; answers from a model's own memory change only when it is retrained, which takes months. Enquiries usually follow later. The quarter-by-quarter picture is in how long PR takes to work and what a year should look like.

#How do we tell whether PR is working?

Measure what buyers would notice, not what an agency can count.

• Coverage in the titles that matter. Count pieces in your target titles only, and note whether you were quoted, featured or merely listed.
• What buyers say. Ask "How did you hear about us?" on your enquiry form and in first meetings.
• What AI assistants say. Put a fixed list of 20 to 50 buyer questions to the main assistants several times a month, in a clean session, and count a win only when it repeats. See how to find out whether ChatGPT is recommending our firm.
• What your sales team notices. Prospects who already know your founder's views and ask fewer questions about credibility.

#What to do this month

1. Ask five of your best clients what they read, which events they attend and whose opinion they trust in your field.
2. Write down the three to five topics your firm should be known for, and your founder's view on each.
3. Stop any press release distribution, paid placement or sponsorship with no clear link to your buyers.
4. Ask three happy clients for a review on the platform your buyers use.
5. Choose two methods from the table above and set a monthly rhythm you can keep for a year.

#Frequently asked questions

#Is B2B PR worth it for a small specialist firm?

Often more so. In a specialist market there may be only a few trade titles and a few hundred buyers, so a modest amount of consistent coverage can make you the recognised name. Journalists covering niche sectors also have fewer sources, so a founder who is helpful and available gets quoted more easily.

#Should we use an agency or do it ourselves?

Usually a mix. The relationships and expertise have to come from your founder and senior people, because journalists want the expert. An outside team adds the list, the preparation, the pitching, help with writing and the discipline of doing it every month when everyone is busy.

#Do press releases still have any use?

Yes, as a way of giving journalists the facts. For real news, such as an acquisition, a new study or a client win the client is happy to announce, a clear release sent personally to the relevant journalists is useful. Routine internal news sent to large distribution lists is not.

#How is PR different from content marketing?

Content marketing is what you publish on your own channels. PR is what others publish about you, or publish from you after choosing it: quotes, features, bylined articles and talks. Both matter, but only PR provides the independent endorsement buyers and AI assistants treat as evidence.

#Can PR help if we have had negative coverage in the past?

Yes, over time. Deal with the issue, then build a steady record of accurate coverage so the old piece is no longer the main thing people find. AI assistants summarise what the weight of trusted sources says, so a year of good coverage changes the balance.

If you want PR measured by who knows and trusts you, and by what AI assistants say about you, that is what Reputation That Wins is built to do. If you would rather start with an outside view, the free Growth Review gives you three fixes in writing.

#Sources