This article was originally published on The Michigan Manufacturing Magazine (https://www.flipsnack.com/7CA9EEAA9F7/mimfg-magazine-april-2026/full-view.html?p=1&td=Ym9va3NoZWxmOjFubDd5NHlpbHc%3D) and has been reproduced here with permission.
Recently, I’ve heard a common story in conversations with manufacturing and engineering leaders: “We used to rely solely on our sales team for growth, but new opportunities are harder to come by. People don’t know who we are. The field is crowded and we don’t stand out.”
I see this challenge every day. When it’s happening inside your own business, sometimes it can be difficult to recognize—and even harder to fix.
Today’s B2B purchasing cycle is increasingly complex. Buyers are well researched. They are self-educating and are often making buying decisions—or short-listing companies—based on third-party information they find online. In fact, Gartner’s Future of Sales 2025 report found that 83% of the B2B buyer journey is spent doing independent research, often before contacting sales. That means a strong brand presence, awareness, credibility and trust are no longer “nice to have.” They’re essential to modern business development.
Sales still matters, but how you prime the market before sales enters the conversation is often the difference between growth and decline.
PR’s role in brand building
If buyers are self-educating, then the content that shapes their shortlist is what they encounter in the market—analyst commentary, earned media coverage, customer reviews and third-party validation. PR is the engine that drives all of that. It shapes how you show up in that research stream with credibility. Earned media in particular matters because trust materially changes buying behavior—and “earned” formats like industry trade journals, podcasts, Substacks and business media are among the most trusted sources of information.
The external validation they deliver builds confidence in prospects long before the sales process even begins. And that increased trust improves conversion rates across every channel in your marketing mix.
Activating your thought leadership
Earned media focused on your leaders’ real expertise—insights into customer challenges, market shifts, and emerging trends—strengthens awareness and trust far more than product-focused messaging alone. Blogs, LinkedIn posts, videos and speaking engagements at conferences and trade shows position your leaders as authoritative voices in industry. When your experts share insights into trends, challenges and lessons learned, it humanizes your brand and builds familiarity over time. This steady cadence of content and executive visibility keeps your company top of mind when buyers go into “independent research mode.”
Influencing AI search results
As an added benefit, in this age of AI search, this mix of content also strongly influences how your company appears in LLMs and generative results. According to a 2025 MuckRack survey, as much as 82-89% of third-party generative AI citations come from earned media. Meaning LLMs give strong preference to brands that appear in highly credible, authoritative media outlets such as industry journals and reputable business publications.
In this complex business environment where brand trust is now a key purchase driver and AI engines like ChatGPT and Google Gemini are becoming the research tools of choice, PR is a lead efficiency multiplier that elevates the entire funnel by building trust at the exact moment buyers are researching you.
Keith Donovan is the CEO of Airfoil Group, an integrated communications and marketing agency serving the manufacturing industry. Keith can be reached at donovan@airfoilgroup.com.
