The B2B Marketing and PR podcast

Sword and the Script Media on audio

About the show

This podcast covers B2B marketing, PR, communications and social media. We look at studies and data to find what's working and what isn't to help you stay ahead of the competition.

Episodes

  • Episode 156: 28 PR and B2B marketing statistics from studies published so far in 2026

    July 21st, 2026  |  10 mins 28 secs
    b2b marketing, b2b sales, brand journalism, buyers journey, content marketing, demand generation, earned media, earned media attribution, generative ai, marketing strategy, media relations, pr attribution, pr strategy, pr surveys, sales, sales-marketing alignment, ux/cx

    Mid-2026 data reveals AI delivering underwhelming returns while B2B marketing and PR grapple with fractured media, longer sales cycles, and the enduring value of trust and reputation

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    Episode 155: Gartner CMO spend survey shows marketing leaders have a third dilemma

    July 14th, 2026  |  5 mins 50 secs
    b2b marketing, b2b sales, buyers journey, demand generation, generative ai, marketing strategy, sales, sales-marketing alignment, ux/cx

    CMOs face a new ‘trilemma’ of delivering stronger growth with flat budgets while rapidly implementing AI; 70% of them are not ready

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    Episode 154: Legal, finance and procurement make for break B2B vendor deals

    July 7th, 2026  |  6 mins 30 secs
    b2b marketing, b2b sales, buyers journey, demand generation, generative ai, marketing strategy, sales, sales-marketing alignment, ux/cx

    Some B2B marketing shops don’t even think about these groups on a buying committee, let alone develop messaging; a study by LinkedIn and Bain shows why that needs to change

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    Episode 153: WSJ’s “revenge of the publicists” article; practical considerations for B2B leaders

    June 23rd, 2026  |  6 mins 38 secs
    brand, branding, communications, corp comm, corporate communications, corporate reputation, media relations, pr, reputation

    PR and communications executives are gaining C-suite power, amid AI demands and polarized audiences, yet there are practical implications for reporting structures, rare dual-skilled leaders, and the case for separate CMO and CCO roles

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    Episode 152: The growing problem of "no comment" and how it lets others shape public opinion

    June 16th, 2026  |  6 mins 15 secs
    brand, branding, communications, corp comm, corporate communications, corporate reputation, media relations, pr, reputation

    The public increasingly distrusts sources who decline to comment on news stories when asked; this allows someone else to frame the coverage

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    Episode 151: A seed to fix the growing public relations problem for AI companies

    June 9th, 2026  |  11 mins
    ai, ai's pr problem, communications, corp comm, corporate communications, crisis communications, media relations, pr

    Public sentiment sours on AI as companies reap the consequences of alarmist messaging on jobs, energy costs and failed initiatives; the fix doesn’t start with a messaging exercise – it starts with a listening tour

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    Episode 150: Does AI visibility provide PR with third-party validation?

    June 2nd, 2026  |  4 mins 35 secs
    brand, branding, communications, corp comm, corporate communications, corporate reputation, media relations, pr, reputation

    Voice interfaces are normalizing AI as an arbiter of truth in everyday conversations, and introducing a human behavioral change with significant implications for credibility and third-party validation

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    Episode 149: Should PR accept an interview with a publication that has a small audience?

    May 26th, 2026  |  3 mins 57 secs
    b2b events, b2b marketing, communications, corp comm, corporate communications, event marketing, events, media relations, pr

    “The AI systems will remember when you said nothing.” and “The editors will remember when you said no.”

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    Episode 148: How long does it take for B2B tech to close a deal – from first touch to deal-closed?

    May 19th, 2026  |  4 mins 46 secs
    b2b marketing, b2b sales, buyers journey, demand generation, generative ai, marketing strategy, sales, sales-marketing alignment, ux/cx

    The average B2B tech buyers required 62.4 touches on average, across of 3.5 different marketing channels – from first touch to deal-closed

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    Episode 147: The delay between gated content download and consumption

    May 8th, 2026  |  9 mins 7 secs
    b2b marketing, b2b sales, buyers journey, demand generation, gated content, generative ai, marketing strategy, sales, sales-marketing alignment

    Registrations for gated content dipped in 2025; prospects and customers download and read a week later

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    Episode 146: What journalists say about PR follow-up pitches

    May 5th, 2026  |  9 mins 36 secs
    communications, corp comm, corporate communications, media relations, pr, pr pitch, pr pitching, pr pitching tips

    Surveys of reporters consistently show that a majority say one follow-up, a few days later, is okay, but being too aggressive will get you blacklisted

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    Episode 145: Survey of reporters: 9 in 10 journalists say they delete these PR pitches

    April 28th, 2026  |  11 mins 8 secs
    communications, corp comm, corporate communications, media relations, pitching tips, pr, pr pitches

    It takes time to build familiarity and prove your relevance to journalists; no response to PR pitches isn’t the same thing as “not interested,” it’s more like a “not right now.”

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    Episode 144: The economic outlook for marketing from the latest CMO survey

    April 21st, 2026  |  17 mins 16 secs
    chief marketing officer, cmo, marketing budgets, marketing department, marketing economics, marketing leaders, marketing organization, marketing spend, marketing spending

    Marketing doubled down on customer marketing as economic optimism fluctuates; businesses see more value in marketing, as the functions influence and responsibilities grow

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    Episode 143: Signal AI acquires Memo for readership data [PR tech sum no. 64]

    April 14th, 2026  |  7 mins 45 secs
    communications, corpcomm, corporate communications, media monitoring, meltwater, muck rack, onclusive, pr, pr software, pr technology, pr tools, public relations, signal ai

    Muck Rack rolls out new AI features; Onclusive sews its acquisitions together; plus PR tech briefs and new vendor survey data

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    Episode 142: AI-generated content performs poorly in organic search [study]

    April 7th, 2026  |  7 mins 45 secs
    b2b marketing, demand generation, generative ai, marketing strategy, organic search, search marketing, seo, ux/cx

    An experiment using generative AI to produce a whopping 2,000 articles and evaluating the results over 16 months found that all that AI content generated a measly 1,062 clicks

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    Episode 141: 10 things PR teams need from clients to do good work

    March 24th, 2026  |  8 mins 53 secs
    b2b events, b2b marketing, communications, corp comm, corporate communications, event marketing, events, media relations, pr

    Good client management skills are essential; however, even the best PR professional in the world is only going to be as good as the client’s collaboration