How Zen Media Became The Go-To PR Agency For Tech-Driven B2B Companies

The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga.

The average PR firm is the same now as it was a decade ago, yet communications and technology have changed all the rules. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the world of B2B where influencers, not just analysts, drive decisions and LinkedIn is the new trade show playground. 

What B2B brands need today is a PR agency that can bring their strategies into the current moment. Instead of a PR pro who swears by press releases and interviews, they need a nimble team that gets their leaders on live streams and podcasts, orchestrates social media takeovers, and amplifies Tier-One press coverage with a strong digital strategy. 

One agency that’s doing all of that and more is Zen Media, a B2B public relations firm founded by Shama Hyder, an early pioneer in social media and a well-respected and entrenched figure in the digital marketing space. Zen Media isn’t just disrupting the space, they are quickly becoming the go-to PR agency for fast-growth tech-driven B2B brands around the world. 

And, it’s working. They are racking up clients and well-deserved praise in the space. As one B2B enterprise SAAS client shared, “Within the first 3 months of working with Zen Media, we have spoken with The Wall Street Journal, NBC, The Harvard Business Review, Digiday, Ad Age, Ad Week, The Financial Times, Forbes, and many others. Our article in the Harvard Business Review took off and was trending on LinkedIn for a few days, and our contribution to AdWeek got us the visibility we needed to secure our own column in the publication. Our account manager is incredibly smart and truly understood our business from the first conversation. Four months later and he can probably tell our story better than half of our team.”

Here are four ways Zen Media is disrupting the status quo: 

1. No more one-year contracts. Where most B2B PR agencies require clients to sign on for a year, Zen starts clients with 90-day contracts, which then transition into month-to-month. Most clients achieve at least five major press hits within those 90 days—which helps drive a 92% client retention rate, unheard of in the PR industry. 
2. An in-house content team. Their in-house content team does all the heavy lifting and creates content that they know the media will like. Zen uses what they call a “Bullet Points and Blessings” methodology: the client provides bullet points, the content team works with the PR department to create media-friendly content, and the client gives their blessing. This makes the content creation process faster and smoother than the typical placement-only service of many PR agencies. Plus, it takes a lot of the pressure off the client—after all, most executives don’t have the time to pen opinion pieces or come up with six different quotes on six different topics on a day’s turnaround.  
3. Strategy is always digital-first. The agency got its start in digital—in fact, it was one of the world’s very first social media marketing agencies. For perspective, Hyder did her thesis on Twitter when it only had about 2,000 users. Why does this matter? Well, the Zen team is also digital-first. In addition to the traditional outlets that PR pros have always turned to for press coverage (the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fast Company, the Harvard Business Review, etc.), they’re also tuned in to the B2B PR opportunities of the online world, which includes everything from live streaming with LinkedIn influencers, to conducting Product Hunt campaigns for new products, to being interviewed on podcasts or YouTube shows. 
4. Amplification. For most B2B PR agencies, once the press hit comes in, their work is done. For Zen, that’s where their work really begins. Using the deep marketing background, when that press hits come in, the team gets to work amplifying them: sharing them on social media, repurposing them into owned content, and using them to attract additional opportunities. This is a critical step in today’s PR landscape, and yet, so many agencies simply leave this to the clients to figure out.

The PR industry is due for a shake-up, which is why Zen is working differently from so many other agencies. They’ve proven their methods with everything from product launches, to thought leadership campaigns, to reputation management. B2Bs everywhere, regardless of industry, will want to take note.
Images Sourced from Zen Media

The preceding post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.