I am coming to the conclusion that B2B PR needs a PR campaign to promote it.

It seems to need a campaign to increase understanding, awareness and a reputation for was it is …. a really engaging business area  which offers, day to day, interesting and pleasantly challenging activities for those who take it up as a career.

The thought started after researching candidates for an Account Executive role – applications welcome!

By a rough estimate, in London there seem to be about five times more candidates looking for consumer PR roles than are registered seeking B2B positions.

This follows a pattern seen when analysing speculative incoming enquiries from aspiring interns and those seeking graduate trainee roles.  Even though Clareville’s business is a mixture but predominantly B2B, around 80 per cent of those looking for jobs or experience are most interested in consumer PR, the other 20 per cent in political, financial and corporate. Nobody ever asks to be a B2B trainee. They are missing out.

The appeal of a career in consumer PR is easy to see. Whether it is food and drink, fashion PR, baby PR, housewares, celebrities, events, sport or media, dealing with products that we all know and relate to, with national press and broadcast, there can be an element of glamour and it is easy to engage with it.  But that is not always enough, day to day, when faced with selling into the often unwelcoming media.

But a closer and broader look at what B2B PR covers and day to day B2B PR activities shows that in their own way they can be equally engaging, and intellectually challenging and satisfying.

As a start, some people might think that B2B means engineering, IT, warehousing and various business services. It actually covers and means a lot more than that. At Clareville, for instance, we are currently working with clients whose businesses lead us to talk to the media and write editorial about a wide range of subjects that mean something to most of us; such as

·         the future of money,

·         how to motivate people,

·         how employers can effectively give their staff a pay rise using employee  benefits,

·         how to make meetings even more interesting,

·         where to hold a conference and

·         how business can be more environmentally friendly.

It doesn’t all have to be high-tech and full of jargon.

So, it’s time that B2B PR specialists put around more positive messages about how interesting  and intellectually satisfying B2B PR can be – some PR for B2B PR.