Eight Key Questions about B2B PR for Agencies in 2026 - Answered

Written by Simpatico PR

Posted on 2026-02-23

With AI changing how we buy everything from socks to B2B services, I addressed the challenges of agency PR with Spencer Gallagher of Bluhalo.com in our webinar: The increasing importance of PR in Agency Marketing in 2026.

Below is a summary of the answers to those eight questions. You can listen to the full webinar recording here.

Q1. What is the Biggest Misconception About PR and Agency Growth?

Ask most agency leaders what PR does for their business and they'll say awareness. They're not wrong — but they're only half right. The more powerful, and widely misunderstood, function of PR is affirmation.

Awareness gets you seen. Affirmation directs existing demand towards you. It is PR's hidden superpower — and for agencies competing in increasingly crowded markets, it is the function that matters most.

Affirmation works like this: consistent, high-quality PR coverage signals to prospects, partners, and potential acquirers that your agency is ahead of the game, has something valuable to say, and is the kind of business they cannot afford to ignore. It creates a gravitational pull. The more you do it, the more authority mass builds — and that mass amplifies every other marketing and business development effort you make.

PR is not about the next 12 months. It is about the next three years. It is about building the kind of sustained authority that commands a premium when you sell the business, powers a strategic new business push or repositioning. Agencies are not IT firms or law practices. They sell service plus exceptional — and thought leadership is the clearest expression of exceptional.

Q2. How do you Create Credible Thought Leadership?

One of the most common blockers for agency PR is a lack of confidence among leaders to have a point of view. The good news is that credible thought leadership does not require you to be omniscient — it requires you to be curious, honest, and willing to take a position.

Thought leadership comes in two primary forms: original data and strong visionary points of view. Both are achievable for most agencies with the right process in place.

In an era dominated by AI-generated content, the human touch is more valuable than ever. Personalise your content. Add cultural references. Ask questions. Propose a hypothesis. Use analogies. Make it super topical. Journalists are constantly seeking informed perspectives on the future — and that is something no AI can manufacture authentically.

Practical steps to build a thought leadership pipeline:

• Identify ten questions about your sector you would genuinely like answered

• Ideate as a team and assign ownership of emerging themes

• For big strategic issues, define a vision of what should, could, or might happen

• Thinks and write from a consumer or client point of view

• Read widely — books, media, research. Stay ahead of what is happening.

• Bring in external content creators with media relations expertise if needed

• Commission research if budget allows — it does not have to cost the earth

Q3. What are the Four Stages of PR Success?

PR builds reputation in stages. Do not expect to be immediately interesting unless you have an exceptional story or a genuinely breakthrough insight. Success follows a predictable gradient:

Stage 1 — Introduction: Establish why your agency matters. Define your positioning and begin building relationships with relevant journalists.

Stage 2 — Add Value: Become useful to the media. For agencies, three things add genuine value to journalists: news their audience will care about, fresh insight and expert thought leadership with real vision, and exceptional or innovative creative work.

Stage 3 — Sustain: Keep working at media relationships. Get to know journalists. Be reliably useful. Consistency is everything.

Stage 4 — The PR Success Loop: You have established brand authority and personal reputation. Inbound requests begin. You are cited repeatedly. Other agencies reference your thinking. New business meetings start with "I've been following your work."

Twelve months is a typical minimum to reach the top of this gradient. Then the work is to stay there.

Q4. What Media Exposure Should I Expect? – Working Across the Media Spectrum

Be realistic about where you will achieve coverage — and build from a strong foundation outward.

Start with core trade media. Always-on thought leadership and commentary in the publications your clients and prospects read is the bedrock of agency PR. From there, develop vertical sector content aligned with your new business strategy — what do your target clients want to know? What guides and insights would genuinely help them?

When budget and ambition allow, develop data-led projects specifically designed to win high-value trade or national coverage. Creative agencies should also think about work that is PR-able by its very nature — projects with built-in amplification potential.

Complement earned media with a strong parallel programme of social publishing and platforms like Substack. Enter national business awards. Best Places to Work listings are underrated for agency credibility. And ensure your owned content — website, LinkedIn, published articles — is always aligned with what you are saying in the media.

Q5. Is it Possible to Achieve PR Authority Without Permanent Self-Promotion?

Many agency leaders are reluctant to invest in PR because they associate it with constant personal visibility. This is a false choice.

Effective agency PR is not about making one or two people famous. While recognisable faces help from a client and prospect perspective, the strongest agencies build thought leadership as a team effort. The ideal number of spokespeople for a small to medium-sized agency is four to six. An agency that centres its PR entirely on one individual looks fragile — and prospects and M&A buyers are buying the team, not the founder.

Founder stories and business culture content have a role, but they should be secondary to ideas-led content projected by a diverse team of voices. Build authority for the collective, not just the individual.

Q6. Why do Some Agencies See PR ROI and Others Don't?

The difference between agencies that see a clear commercial return from PR and those that don't is rarely about budget. It is almost always about execution and commitment. Common barriers include:

1. Leadership doesn't understand journalism — what journalists want and how they think

2. No long-term commitment — PR is treated as a short-term experiment rather than a sustained programme

3. Wrong output mix — defaulting to a press office approach and forgetting to add genuine value

4. Lack of participation — PR teams need material, ideas, and access to leadership

5. No integration — marketing, new business, and PR operate as separate silos rather than a cohesive annual plan

6. Not being ready — starting PR before the conditions for success are in place

On that last point, it is worth doing a simple readiness check before investing in PR. Ask yourself: do you have enough to achieve authority? Unless you offer a very high-value strategic service, have famous figures on board, or publish original research, you need a combination of household name clients or interesting challengers, strategic points of view, work of note, a distinct culture, and a headcount of at least 30.

On the in-house vs. agency question: a PR agency at £4,000 per month delivers a higher level of skill and delivery capability than the equivalent cost of a fairly junior in-house hire and provides a vital external sounding board and credibility check. For most growing agencies, the ROI case is clear.

Q7. Does PR Authority Matters More Than Ever in the AI Era?

Here is the shift that changes everything: LLMs operate like journalists. They seek credibility. They want to cite and reference people and companies with proven, verifiable authority.

Research from Muck Rack suggests PR exposure accounts for over 80% of what AI searches for on a given business subject. Trade media is a hugely important reference point — it is used as training data. AI searches for media references, research papers, and third-party citations, then cross-references them against your owned channels.

This means your website and LinkedIn are secondary reference points — still important, but checked against earned media, not the other way around. PR is the initial authority builder. Owned channels are the corroboration.

For agencies, this changes the strategic importance of PR fundamentally. Two emerging frameworks are worth understanding:

AEO — Answer Engine Optimisation: Optimises content to answer direct questions. "Name the top creative advertising agencies in the UK." Useful for simple factual enquiries and local business services.

GEO — Generative Engine Optimisation: Helps a business be cited in complex, conversational LLM responses. "Compare the best commerce agencies for a CPG brand." More complex — and arguably more relevant to most agencies.

The implications are significant. Quality of content will matter more than ever. PR and content development must be tightly aligned with website strategy and social channel management. Technical AEO and GEO optimisation of owned channels is less than half the story — you must have a communications strategy with clear messaging and quality content to carry those messages into the media.

Q8 What does Good Look like? Three Agencies That Got It Right

the7stars — A classic challenger scenario. Simple, consistent messaging, sustained over years. Leveraged independence and genuine innovation — including being the first agency in the industry to offer a bottomless holiday allowance. Built excitement that translated into long-term authority and growth, trebling in size over three to four years.

Fjord — The service design company that leveraged high-level thinking and genuine expertise to become the world's number one in its space. Highly engaged leadership with constant availability and great insights. Two years into the PR programme, they were acquired by Accenture. The programme continued for a further five years.

Landor — A heritage brand in branding that faced being left behind in the digital age. Highly engaged leadership, strong commitment to thought leadership, topical commentary, and original research. Business development actively used PR content. The result: exceptional growth and renewed sector leadership.

Summary: How to invest successfully in PR in 2026

1. Understand the new relationship between PR and answer engines — how clients and prospects now find you — and develop a strategy around it.

2. Put quality content at the heart of your growth marketing — get the leadership team genuinely engaged and committed.

3. Review your resource allocation — examine the ROI of LinkedIn and event investments and rebalance accordingly.

4. Aim to publish a minimum of three thought leadership articles per quarter — quality over quantity, always.

5. Set up a measurement framework that tracks the touchpoints nudging a prospect through the funnel — from awareness to influence to affirmation.

Patrick Barrett is Founder and Editorial Director of Simpatico PR, a specialist B2B PR agency working with marketing, media, design and technology businesses. Simpatico PR’s Book of Ideas© framework drives thought leadership campaigns for clients across the UK, US, EMEA, and APAC.

www.simpaticopr.co.uk