Short answer: PR for B2B companies is not just worth it, it’s essential. 

Where B2C is very advertising and marketing led, B2B is heavily reliant on PR because you are trying to get across complex business challenges and how your business solutions resolve them.

PR is worth it for B2B companies because it builds credibility, trust and long-term visibility in a way paid media can’t. Buyers don’t make decisions based on ads alone; they look for proof, perspective and third-party validation. At its best, B2B PR helps companies:

• Be seen as experts, not just vendors
• Stay visible throughout long sales cycles
• Influence buyers before they’re in-market

At The Digital Voice™ we see PR work best when it’s treated as a strategic growth channel, not a box-ticking exercise or a one-off press hit. The tools we use are thought leadership, case studies, heavy social presence and above all press releases of your latest news, partnerships and wins.

A startup needs PR earlier than most founders think, but don’t go too early. PR works exceptionally well for startups, as you can see immediate results and brand awareness in a short time. You’re going from zero to a hundred very quickly by getting out there in the news both as founders and as a company.

Startups often use PR to build credibility, attract talent, support fundraising or stand out in a crowded niche. Waiting until you’re ‘big enough’ usually means missing the moment when attention is easiest to earn. The key is clarity, not business size.

However, don’t start before you're absolutely clear on what you’re saying, what you’re offering and how you’re going to do it. PR becomes valuable once your startup has a story to tell and you can clearly explain the problem you’re solving, why it matters and who it should matter to.

The difference between PR and marketing is very simple: marketing is paid, PR is earned. 

With marketing, you get to be completely 100% self serving - you’ve paid for it, so it’s your opportunity to talk only about your company and solutions. Meanwhile, PR should be focused on your audience's needs and challenges, or on wider industry issues that are impacting your clients and customers. PR is the storytelling, whilst marketing is the hard sell. 

Marketing is about driving demand for your business, whilst PR is about building trust and belief in your business. Marketing typically focuses on channels that you can control, including ads, email, social and your website, with clear calls to action.

PR operates in spaces you don’t control. With PR, you earn attention through credibility rather than spend. In B2B especially, PR often makes marketing more effective by developing customer trust, authority and relevance. The two work best together, but have very distinctive approaches and require different expertise. 

Within a sales pipeline, there’s plent of different touchpoints that lead to the sale. PR is one of those elements, and an essential one at that, because it builds trust, tells the story of what you do, and it creates FOMO when you’re announcing all the partners who have already bought in. All those things combined make it an important layer for sales success.

PR doesn’t specifically close sales, but it does help significantly with closing them faster. By creating strong trust and familiarity with your brand before a sales conversion even begins. After seeing your leadership team quoted, your thought leadership shared by respected publications and your company name featured, prospects are typically warmer, more confident and less skeptical. 

Sales teams often feel the impact of PR indirectly with fewer objections, better quality leads and easier conversations. Above all, PR shortens the trust gap, which can be the hardest part of selling.

Adtech is complex. The biggest challenge is making it simple, relatable and understandable to your potential clients. 

Adtech companies also have to fight hard in a very competitive space for a small slice of the pie. A specialist adtech PR agency like The Digital Voice™ can help amplify your voice, your story, your product and your thought leaders across every possible platform.

Those that succeed in adtech are those that have clever tech that solve problems and that above all, deliver ROI. Get it right with the right PR team on your side, and you’re adtech golden.