Did you know that PR is 90% more effective in influencing purchase decisions than advertising?*
If you’re reading this, chances are you’re looking to boost your hotel tech company’s visibility and reputation.
As public relations experts specializing in proptech and hospitality technology, at Abode Worldwide, we understand how overwhelming it can be to navigate the PR world.
How do you know if your company is ready to invest in PR, and how should you go about building an effective campaign?
At its core, B2B PR is about building trust, and you can’t put a price on trust and reputation. In this guide, we’ll break down the essentials of PR for hotel tech brands and share our top tips for creating a strategy that works.
Are you a hospitality tech startup looking to build your brand’s reputation through strategic PR? Drop us a line.
What is B2B PR?
B2B PR, or business-to-business public relations, is the management, improvement, and promotion of your business’s reputation and success in the eyes of other business owners and decision-makers. Notably, your customers, prospective customers, strategic partners, investors, and even talent pool.
Good B2B tech PR can bring more customers and success—more accolades, clients, and revenue—to your business. Bad PR (or none) can do the opposite, dramatically tanking your reputation and revenue.
Successful B2B media relations or PR builds a good perception of your business and ensures that your customers have a good opinion about your products and services. They’ll see your team (or your CEO, for example) as an influential thought leader, and trust your services and opinions.
This brings in more leads and clients, enables you to charge more, and distinguishes you positively from your competitors.
How is B2B PR different from B2C PR?
B2C or business-to-consumer PR appeals to individual consumers rather than people representing a business.
For example, in the hospitality or hotel tech industries:
- B2B PR: PR by hotel tech companies designed to appeal to other businesses, such as hotels. For example, a property management system (PMS) company targeting decision-makers and stakeholders at large chain hotels. The purchasing cycle is typically much longer than for individual consumers, with a higher level of consideration, and higher budgets.
- B2C PR: PR by hotel tech companies aimed at individuals and consumers. For example, an online travel agency (OTA) looking to attract travelers to book hotels through their platform or join their guest loyalty scheme.
What’s the difference between PR, marketing, and advertising?
You may have heard these terms used interchangeably, but there are some important differences.
Marketing
Marketing is about understanding your target market and deciding on advertising strategies or campaign targets.
Your marketing strategy might include ways to generate positive PR, but it’s more about making decisions to increase brand awareness, set a budget, decide on your social media or website blog roadmap, and generate interest in your product or service.
Your marketing is how you will get leads, so you need to be where your customers are. This might include going to events and conferences and focusing on your pay-per-click advertising spend.
Marketing can be best understood as the planning, budgeting, and strategy that goes into an advert or PR effort.
Advertising
Advertising is a direct form of marketing. It typically refers to a specific advert or campaign that’s designed to evoke a specific response, emotion, or action as a direct result of the advert.
It’s less about reputation (although it can contribute to it), and more about informing, persuading, and convincing people to buy a particular product or service. It might include a digital banner or a short social media advert. It’s only ‘on’ when it’s turned on, which typically means when you are paying for it. When you stop paying for it, it turns off.
PR
PR is less overt than advertising. It’s sometimes seen as happening under the radar or passively, although it’s an extremely powerful element of marketing.
PR sits across all the marketing and advertising you might do, but no amount of advertising will build the trust and credibility that PR will.
Examples of good B2B tech public relations include:
- Insightful content (e.g. data storytelling and thought leadership articles) demonstrating your expertise.
- A partnership with another software company in your industry.
- Regular LinkedIn updates showcasing your unique point of view, opinions, and takes on industry trends.
- A monthly advice column authored by your CEO in a trade magazine.
- Conference panel or podcast discussions by a senior team member to show industry knowledge.
B2B public relations strategy is about leading a conversation in the industry. It’s about providing insight or opinion that nobody else is, to help people see things in a different way. It’s also about being brave and leading from the front.
You might say things that are more controversial or disruptive. PR is about really making people stand up and take notice.
What is the value of B2B PR for proptech and hotel tech companies?
Strategic public relations can help you shape how your company is perceived and elevate your corporate reputation—which translates into more sales and higher conversion rates.
The trust and credibility you can build through strategic B2B PR distinguishes you from your competitors and directly influences your business results.
Depending on your goals, PR can help you:
- Generate awareness about your brand and showcase why your tech product is the best in its field.
- Increase your conversion and retention rates, leading to increased revenue.
- Help you to raise more investment capital for innovation and expansion.
- Attract top talent and improve recruitment to drive success.
The real value is in brand recognition. It’s about creating awareness and credibility, and hitting the large percentage of your target audience who are not ready to buy, but will be in the future.