The key to unlocking these opportunities is ensuring the writers and editors you are pitching to are the people you want to reach, and ensuring the opportunity is correctly prepared and framed.

From the point of view of firms seeking to work with their media, the survey confirms some well-established PR truths – despite the constantly changing media and technology landscape.

Every tech and specialised B2B PR campaign should start here: identifying and engaging with their vertical media - the rewards and credibility any resulting coverage brings repays the effort many times over.

Media comment and reviews continue to be highly influential among purchase decision makers, while social media posts relating to news coverage continues to draw some of the strongest traction among your social followers.

These are essential tools to build brand awareness, establish thought leadership, foster industry connections, gather market intelligence, generate leads, and attract talent within your target markets.

Positive coverage in the media can position a startup as a thought leader or disruptor in its industry, attracting attention and interest from potential customers, investors, and partners.

Building and maintaining a dialogue with the important writers and editors in your sector should be a key goal of every tech firms marketing communication programme in 2024.

By crafting a quarterly PR plan using the PESO model, you can ensure a holistic and adaptable approach to your communication strategy throughout 2024.

News and feature coverage doesn’t just “happen”. Journalists don’t ring up and ask for contributions to their latest feature. You have to seek it out and pitch for it.

Just like the engineers and entrepreneurs behind most companies, leading trade writers and editors are serious individuals, many with more half a lifetime of industry experience.

SME tech firms should begin to see the benefits of a targeted media campaign – media coverage, mindshare, social media engagement, and a live press page – within 6 weeks of an initial briefing, and sometimes sooner.

Nothing upsets a PR more than seeing ambitious tech companies waste their valuable news opportunities.

Your vertical trade media can crystalise your offering, and place it in the context of a real life market environment. They can bring it to life for your audience.

News and features coverage doesn’t just happen, it takes hard work to put a firm and its offering in front of the right sort of media influencers.