While marketing budgets are being cut or shifted, many companies are holding on to public relations — especially B2B companies.  A recent story in BtoB Magazine, “Marketers stay in the conversation with PR,” tells the story of a company that relies on case studies as part of their public relations efforts. Since many of their customers conduct research as part of the sales process, the case studies promoted via public relations efforts are an instrumental part of their ability to attract new customers.

Public relations is more than press releases and media relations efforts to pitch journalists stories about companies. Public relations also involves building thought leadership, social media engagement, content development, internal company communications and many more aspects of corporate communications that affect marketing.

Due to the shift of advertising and publications online, newsrooms have been dealing with limited resources due to job loss and budget cuts for several years. The recession has not improved that situation and creates even more pressure for journalists to produce more content with fewer resources. Public relations and media relations efforts help meet that need for content by delivering story ideas, research, subject matter experts and resources.