It’s Time for B2B Tech PR to Get Creative

When it comes to tech PR, consumer brands have long evolved beyond the predictable cycle of product launches, press releases, and media tours. They're chasing big creative plays that spark emotional connection with consumers. For B2B tech brands, however, it can feel like the ingenuity and creativity of consumer peers is off limits. But that’s just not the case.

Here to bust B2B myths and share some tech PR wisdom are Praytell’s Tech Practice leads, Erika Morgan and Jennifer Velez.

Erika kicked off her tech PR career in San Francisco, where she found a passion for storytelling. Her brand experience spans from Dell to Salesforce, ADT, Transferwise, Hatch, Revolve, DroneDeploy, and more. Jennifer is a PR pro, having worked with a wide range of consumer technology, fintech, B2B, and retail brands. She brings a knack for emerging earned strategies including affiliate marketing and owned content.

We chatted to Erika and Jennifer about how B2B tech brands can spark a deeper connection with customers, and what’s on the horizon for the tech industry at large.

You two are known for being organization mavens at Praytell. What’s at the top of your (immaculately written) tech PR agenda these days?

It’s an exciting time to be at the forefront of technology; there’s so much innovation coming down the pike. But oftentimes, the language used to describe this technology can be really dry and complex. We love taking complicated concepts and breaking them down into digestible, compelling stories that people can get excited about.

We’re rethinking B2B storytelling in particular. For many of our B2B clients, their primary audience is fellow brands. But to meet goals for sales, growth and hiring, they still need to find captivating ways to tell their story.

Tech is a competitive landscape, and whether we're talking B2B or consumer, it’s always people we need to win over. We challenge our B2B partners to cut the jargon (aka, speak like a human!) and create campaigns where their ethos and personality shine through.

Brands should feel empowered to embrace personalities that resonate with the modern business person. We don’t need our banks to be comedians, but they can definitely be pithy and playful.

We find that some tech brands hesitate to speak to broader topics affecting their category or industry.

What are brands and comms pros overlooking right now when it comes to tech PR and Creative?

Tech brands—especially in the B2B space—often let jargon and product specs take over. But what media want to hear about is the technology's tangible impact in our life, work, and culture. We always need to look at the stories we’re telling through the lens of: why should our audience care?

For example, we find that some tech brands hesitate to speak to broader topics affecting their category or industry. Usually because they feel their product or service doesn’t fit the mold perfectly. But to capture media interest in today’s landscape, we need to show how a brand is impacting their industry at large. Where do they sit among their competitors? What’s their role in a broader sea change? To land a clickable headline, brands need to constantly think more out-of-the-box about where and how they show up.

In the creator economy, we’ll see new players emerge to support creators more holistically—from payment processors to social apps.

What's got your attention in the tech industry right now?

There's been quite a bit of movement in the past couple of years, but we think the creator economy will see major changes by year's end. There are entire companies that have been built to support creators. (The most successful are even turning creators into millionaires.) We’re also seeing social apps amping up their creator funds and payments solutions to keep pace with this shift.

It's a fascinating space to watch as the Instagram aesthetic goes out of vogue and "realness" gains traction. To drive engagement, each social platform requires a specific content style. This means that creators are investing more time into tailoring their content—and they’ll want to be compensated for the effort. It will be interesting to see how platforms adapt to support this more involved process. We expect new players to jump into the market to support creators more holistically—from payment processors to social apps to brands that rely on influencers.

Want to add some color to your B2B PR playbook? Reach out to our team at hello@praytellagency.com.