How to Communicate PR & Marketing Results to Decision Makers and Internal Stakeholders

Peggy Tierney Galvin, Chief Strategy Officer 

2024 was another year of mixed economic signals for tech, leading to caution from investors and downstream belt-tightening and staff reduction measures. Venture capitalists in the Bay Area, for instance, are “bleeding cash” due to “a perfect storm of economic, regulatory and industry factors [that] has mostly blocked tech startups from…cashing out through acquisitions” or IPOs. And the Wall Street Journal recently reported that venture-firm profits have hit a historic low.  

In times of economic uncertainty, marketing and communications budgets are often among the first to be cut. But the opportunities in 2025 are massive for B2B tech companies that can show their business benefits for delivering ROI and ARR and those that can successfully tap into the funding boom around enterprise AI. 

Marketing, comms and PR are necessary and critical for maintaining a competitive edge in a noisy market – especially during economic instability. It’s easy to think, “Why are we pushing our products out to a market that’s not buying?” But that’s just the kind of thinking that can lead to bankruptcy. As it turns out, marketing during this time is perhaps more important than ever. The phrase “Out of sight, out of mind” applies here; buyers are apt to forget you exist when your competitors are jockeying for market share while you stand back and watch. 

By integrating quantitative metrics with qualitative impacts, you will have a comprehensive framework for articulating the tangible benefits of PR and marketing efforts, fostering informed decision-making, and enhancing strategic alignment within your organization. 

Read on for key strategies for translating complex data into actionable insights, ensuring alignment with organizational goals and presenting results in a way that resonates with diverse stakeholder audiences.  

A comprehensive marketing and PR strategy 

Marketing leaders need to connect the ROI of the marketing budget, like PR, to their management and executive leadership team using the same metrics and KPIs their managers are using. When you meet with your manager about planning, ask, “What does success look like? What metrics are you judged on?” 

When speaking with the sales team, connect marketing campaigns directly to their corresponding sales metrics and terminology in results dashboards and reporting. Tying marketing spend directly to sales conversions in your reporting, conversations, planning and presentations makes the case for maintaining and even growing the marketing budget. This also connects the dots for how marketing spend directly impacts the goals of the business. 

For many companies, the fiscal year starts soon. This event usually heralds the coming of the annual sales kickoff (SKO). It’s a time to set sales goals, decide on the key performance indicators (KPIs) for those goals and which companies to focus on in terms of region, market, size and so on. It’s essential to align your team’s strategies and tactics with these goals and KPIs so that everyone succeeds – and sees the critical nature of your work in that success. 

Part of your strategy must be a focus on customer retention. You don’t want to merely hit your numbers and then watch customers jump ship as it becomes clear that they are just that –numbers – to you. The care and feeding of customer relationships will yield long-term gains as your sales team can then “land and expand” with them. 

Marketing and public relations are primarily responsible for showing your customers the ROI your business offers so they will want to stay with you. PR and marketing can help with customer retention in these three primary ways: 

• Provide joint opportunities: You will add value to the relationship when you find joint PR and marketing opportunities through a customer reference program. Find out where they’d like coverage and then shine the spotlight on their creative solutions using your product or service. 

• Eliminate buyer’s remorse: Customers will have greater confidence in having chosen your company when they see your executives’ thought leadership pieces and other industry coverage of your business and solution. It’s all unbiased confirmation that your customers made the right choice. 

• Invite them to your customer advisory board: Create the opportunity for customers to give solution proposals and feedback. This is also a venue for customers to interact and exchange best practices. If you follow through on their suggestions, customers feel vested in your solution – a sentiment that bolsters retention. A board of this kind is a great way to find customer champions who will act as references for prospects or as potential participants in media outreach.  

Investors need confidence in your business, too. An analyst relations program is a key way to encourage investors and shareholders. Holding analyst briefings shows how your company stands out compared to competitors. And as a bonus, you may get tips on possible customers or acquirers.  

Media relations is another important play here. In the investment world, no news is NOT good news. Investors may shy away from a company that’s gone dark, as it portends trouble. Letting up on media relations, then, is not a good look. Instead, keep up the steady drumbeat of news at the customer, partner, product and corporate levels – and make sure it’s published in the places investors look to get information about their portfolio companies. 

Create and communicate results 

As organizations look ahead to 2025, executive leadership must weigh competing budget priorities with continuing market uncertainties driven by macroeconomic policy shifts with the new administration, a cooling IPO market, and the long-tail retrenchment of capital after the heady ZIRP days of 2021. 

With big market changes and opportunities coming in 2025, B2B tech companies have a major chance to position themselves for scale and growth. To do this, marketers need to speak their businesses’ language, not just to external audiences but also to internal stakeholders, to effectively make the case for their work and the impact marketing has. This ensures everyone succeeds in 2025.