Three ways B2B PR can boost your sales funnel

Written by Simpatico PR

Posted on 2025-09-02

B2B PR is all about image - right? It’s inconsistent – right? It’s difficult to measure – yes? Wrong, wrong and wrong again.

B2B PR is a sales driver, it just works differently to other channels and activities such as SEO.

If you were to AB test your B2B marketing over two years, with one year running marketing lines like SEO, LinkedIn, events budget, marketing content etc. and then the following year adding proactive PR (that is to say – proactively enhancing the reputation of your business – not just the odd press release), all other things being equal, you will find the second year will have performed better by a big margin.

That is why PR investment increases year-on-year – worldwide, it is projected to reach $304.73bn by 2033 up from $128.92bn in 2024, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10.03% from 2025.

Those who have invested in PR strategically and have orientated their businesses to proactively enhance their reputation see consistently better conversion rates. They are well known for good reason.

X3 B2B PR activations across the funnel

So, here’s a brief guide to how B2B PR can help optimise growth in different ways from awareness through to targeted prospecting and conversion.

No 1.

Upper funnel – brand builder

Most business leaders will associate PR with brand building. The basic formula includes:

• A clear proposition and growth plan (prospecting strategy)

• Defining key supporting messages

• Mapping expertise (your spokespeople), IP and business POVs

• Packaging the above as engaging thought leadership ideas

• Mapping and monitoring for opportunities

• Go-to-market media relations using thought leadership above

• Align with press office and other marketing output

A good brand-building B2B PR agency will add enormous value to your business, in four stages:

A. Awareness (taking an audience with zero or very low awareness of your business to good or high awareness = media visibility)

B. Understanding (accurate knowledge of what you do, offer, how you lead, why you’re successful = good messaging, engaging thought leadership)

C. Resonance (an emotive perception of you – a buzz if you like – affinity, a desire to work with you = nuance + consistency + accreditation + leadership)

D. Recall – (Even if a prospect isn’t ready to buy now, they’ll have remembered/can find what you said/did/do when they decide six months later = creativity, originality and credit with earned media)

No 2.

Mid-funnel – AI-prospecting with added credibility

Most B2B marketers using PR, align media relations out-reach with business development. If you don’t do this, you are missing a massive trick.

On a simple level this might be creating media articles promoting brand, team, POVs to different industry verticals – finance, retail, automotive etc. as they are being engaged with email and social content or through speaker platforms.

AI is potentially presenting the opportunity to do this in a far smarter, more timely and personalised way. According to this analysis – early adopters of predictive AI solutions say they improve marketing ROI by over 35%, while also achieving a 42% reduction in customer acquisition costs by identifying "conversion-ready" buyers.

Feed this information into a B2B PR agency team and if your content is good enough, they can identify more tightly which media these targets are likely to be reading. And yes read, they do – Edleman’s most recent analysis found 52% of business decision-makers and 54% of c-suite spend an hour or more each week reading thought leadership.

No 3.

Bottom funnel – at tender, pitch, sealing the deal

And then they have to make a decision – it’s you or the other guys. If it’s a big contract buyers will weigh the pros and cons of each supplier in detail. But the humans behind the service or proposition can still swing it, especially if they are saying things about the market that resonate with or inform the buyer. And those things are credible.

Affirmation of decision-making can be one of the most powerful (and hard to define) attributes of the ROI that media-relations based PR delivers. But using PR to create a psychological nudge right before the point of sale is a powerful tactic.

A highly targeted article in a specific media outlet timed to coincide with the conclusion of a sales process can deliver the swing in your favour at the end of the funnel. All you have to do is involve your B2B PR agency in good time.

We know it’s possible because we’ve done it.

Being a thought leader

All of this depends on creating thought leadership. What is thought leadership? Here’s a link to an article that gives you a basic, better, best on thought leadership based B2B PR.

Remember, earned media is the only marketing you can do that wins vetted credibility with an audience because journalists filter and approve it. Not speaker opps (most are paid), not awards, LinkedIn or owned marketing content or even case studies.

And yes, as Google roles out AI search, AI will make PR more important – here’s why.

Getting you and your business PR-ready

There are caveats. Maximum PR ROI is achieved when your product/service is innovative, timely, or disruptive. And, you have media-savvy spokespeople with expertise, confidence and credible opinions.

It also works best in a competitive space where trust is a differentiator – i.e. buyers need thought leadership to help them consider and buy. And, as said above, you integrate PR into your broader content and demand generation strategy.

A footnote: LinkedIn’s role in the B2B funnel

It’s worth considering LinkedIn in comparison to earned media. LinkedIn content has some notable strengths:

• Direct access to target audience: Especially effective for niche B2B audiences, decision-makers, and buyers.

• Control over messaging: You craft the narrative, tone, and timing.

• Engagement metrics are trackable: You can monitor reach, clicks, likes, comments, and leads.

• Scalable via employees and paid amplification: Employee advocacy and LinkedIn Ads extend visibility.

• Faster feedback loop: Test and learn what content resonates.

But, LinkedIn has considerable limitations

• You need a network at scale of the right people aligned with your prospecting data.

• It is disposable – posts disappear in a matter of hours.

• LinkedIn is cluttered compared to curated earned media. It is becoming ad-dominated (both paid and organic) most marketing teams are using it in effect as an advertising network mixed up with some personal stuff and corporate culture messaging.

• It is un-measured environment – although you can see clicks and likes etc. there is virtually zero visibility on engagement and message environment.

• It offers weaker credibility due to ease of access and zero editorial vetting.

To find out more about our B2B PR agency approach to thought leadership visit www.simpaticopr.co.uk