CMO, PR, or Agency?
public relations, B2B Tech, B2B Technology, Go-to-Market Priorities, CMO or PR, Communications priorities Illka Gobius public relations, B2B Tech, B2B Technology, Go-to-Market Priorities, CMO or PR, Communications priorities Illka Gobius

CMO, PR, or Agency?

Explainer for B2B tech founders to inform their go-to-market strategy: what to prioritise, if they should hire a CMO or a PR agency to “get us out there”. The decision lies in the maturity of their messaging.

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Roundtables: Why Should You Use Them?
B2B Technology, public relations, Roundtables, Thought Leadership Illka Gobius B2B Technology, public relations, Roundtables, Thought Leadership Illka Gobius

Roundtables: Why Should You Use Them?

For enterprise technology and deep science brands, breaking into a new market or launching a complex solution presents a steep uphill battle. You cannot simply cold-email a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), a Chief Information Officer (CIO), or a Data Innovation Officer and expect them to sit through a product demo. These high-value decision-makers are aggressively guarded by corporate gatekeepers and possess a natural allergy to transactional sales pitches.

To capture their attention, you have to change the sandbox entirely. You must transition away from direct selling and move toward a sophisticated stakeholder management and communications approach.

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To sell a strawberry, build trust locally, then sell internationally
Engendering Organisational Trust, public relations, Reputation Management Illka Gobius Engendering Organisational Trust, public relations, Reputation Management Illka Gobius

To sell a strawberry, build trust locally, then sell internationally

Build trust locally, then sell internationally

What can we learn from Korean strawberries? And from other great examples of building trust in Asian markets?

Trust is earned first in a small circle, then it radiates outward, carried by the people at the centre, writes Illka Gobius AMIPRS in her essay for the IPRA International Public Relations Association thought leadership series.

"Today, to earn trust, the practitioner's job is not to find the right channel. It is to find the right person. A node exists in every market, every category, every stakeholder universe. Finding them, earning the right to work with them honestly, is at the heart of modern communications."

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300 hours writing proposals
public relations, proposal writing Illka Gobius public relations, proposal writing Illka Gobius

300 hours writing proposals

This year, for the first time ever, I estimated the time I had spent on proposals. The grand total? Three hundred hours in four months.

One hundred of those hours went into a single brief—a large retainer pitch where we made it to the final two, only to lose. We didn’t lose because our strategy was weak. We lost because we intentionally left something out, believing it didn't belong in that stage of the process. The client disagreed.

That’s the kind of loss that keeps you up at night. It’s not like getting clearly outgunned by a competitor; it’s the sting of realising you are wrong…

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