Recently we published our Natural PR guide – containing what in our opinion are the top ways of foraging in your business to find its most authentic and credible stories (haven’t seen it yet? Download HERE!) As a specialist B2B PR and content agency we’re constantly helping non-household names to tell their real story and believe a natural approach is the way to go.
Of course the value delivered by a natural story goes far beyond great media coverage. What we’re finding is that these stories are increasingly needed across the full owned, earned and paid media spectrum by B2B organisations who are opening their eyes to inbound marketing.
That said, we know that in some B2B organisations campaigning for a new approach or marketing budget can be a tough challenge. So we thought we’d share our view of the top five benefits or justifications for natural storytelling, in the hope it helps B2B marketing managers and directors out there to focus on what matters.
Boost SEO – Natural stories have the strength to build higher domain authority links (from high quality sites) in earned media while optimising the richness and relevance of your owned media – both website and social platforms. Natural storytelling is more genuine and unique and therefore more likely to be viewed as relevant by the likes of Google.
Top coverage – Beat your competition to the most sought after media coverage in your sector, hugely boosting your brand. Forget being a filler story; natural stories will be more accepted by the media because they are real and will also make the grade for the best possible slots and page positions.
Extend social reach – What better way to ensure that you have more good stuff to talk about across all of your feeds and platforms, to boost followers, likes, shares and subscribes. Natural content is more interesting and engaging and more likely to become part of social conversations because audiences can relate to it.
Inbound marketing – Create more compelling content assets that will get noticed and downloaded, enhancing lead generation and nurturing. Its authenticity means natural content will offer people genuine information, advice and solutions to their business problems and challenges, rather than the void-filling marketing of your competition.
Bang for buck – Now we’re talking: Reuse – Reduce – Recycle! Natural content can be repurposed in so many ways, driving additional value from your marketing budget and its ‘shelf life’ is often longer than that of fabricated stories which burn out after 2.5 minutes of fame.
So there you have it. We hope you find this list of natural PR and content benefits for B2B companies relevant and useful. Drop me a line at rob.skinner@skoutpr.com if you have any views or feedback.
Rob Skinner is MD of Skout PR and has worked in B2B and tech PR agencies for 20 years. He always wants to blog more often than he does!