B2B Tech Archives

PR Tips

B2B Social Media in 2023: Six Noteworthy Trends

Social media has become an integral part of our lives. About 4.74 billion people use social media worldwide, 59.3 percent of the total population. The average time people spend on these platforms is two hours and 27 minutes daily. Needless to say, social media is an essential tool for businesses to connect with customers and prospects. The social media landscape is ever-changing, making it important to stay on top of the latest trends. With 2023 only

Adele Barbles November 9, 2022

Uncategorized

Catapult PR Celebrates 22 Years in B2B Tech and Enterprise Software

Boulder-based PR firm prospers by helping tech firms develop industry narratives that position them as category leaders BOULDER, Colo., Sept. 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Catapult PR-IR (www.catapultpr-ir.com), a narrative-driven public relations agency for B2B tech companies, today announced 22 years in business. Catapult provides strategic public relations programs and narrative services to B2B tech firms around the world and helps clients generate awareness and leading market positions, especially within the Agile and DevOps space. “It has been an honor

Christin Jeffers September 9, 2021

Uncategorized

How to Prepare for Your First Day at a PR Firm

A new job is a fresh start for many people. Whether you’re moving to a new state, starting at a new company or landing your first job after college, it’s an exciting time. For me, I landed my first job out of college at a boutique PR firm in Boulder, CO. Like many people, I had been dreaming about this day for a long time and the hard part was finally over, I got a

Megan Boudreau August 27, 2019

Strategic Narrative

Elements of Strategic Narrative Marketing for Category Leadership

‘Strategic Narrative Marketing’ elevates company positioning and messaging to help B2B organizations become category winners through their industry narrative BOULDER, Colo., June 12, 2019 — Catapult PR-IR (www.catapultpr-ir.com), a high-tech public relations and Strategic Narrative Marketing agency, today released the four elements for building a strategic narrative focused on industry megatrends, insights, vision and category definition. The four elements help companies discover their narrative for the industry so they can tell a story that is

Christin Jeffers June 12, 2019

Strategic Narrative

Strategic Narrative Marketing: Four Lessons Learned

It has been a couple of years since we (Catapult) formally launched Strategic Narrative Marketing. What a roller coaster ride it has been to introduce something totally new to the PR market! If one thing is clear today- it’s that Strategic Narrative Marketing is our true differentiator as a PR firm. Along with our journey, we’ve had the opportunity to refine and adapt Strategic Narrative Marketing. If you’re new here, Strategic Narrative Marketing is an

Guy Murrel April 16, 2019

Thought Leadership

The Recipe for Landing Your First (PR) Job

The holiday season is a wonderful and magical time. It’s a time for making lasting memories, and a wonderful time for spending time with loved ones. Can it be a magical time for landing your first real job? Yes! From personal experience, I am most grateful for my new job during this holiday season at Catapult PR in Boulder, one of the top B2B high-tech PR agencies. Some of you may have been wondering why

Jacob Harvey November 29, 2018

Market Leadership

The DevOps Industry Narrative Journey

Narrative leads every industry forward. For the software industry, two major movements — driven by narrative — has led to the rise of Agile, and more recently, DevOps, from concept to mainstream practice. From the Agile Manifesto (Feb., 2001) and Marc Andreessen’s famed 2011 WSJ column “Why Software is Eating the World,” to the much used motto “Building Better Software Faster,” narrative stories have helped lead both practitioners and vendors alike to collective benefit. Last

Guy Murrel November 14, 2018

Strategic Narrative

We’re Celebrating Our 19th Anniversary as a High Tech PR Firm

Wow – it’s hard to believe that we’re celebrating 19 years in business. Time flies when you’re having fun – and boy do we know how to have fun. As we reflect over almost two decades of hard work and success, we can’t help but feel a sense of pride as we think about all the good work we’ve done to help our tech company friends build awareness, thought leadership and create attention-grabbing positioning and

Terri Douglas September 11, 2018

Market Leadership

Catapult Adds Zype to B2B High Tech Client Roster

We are pleased to announce that Catapult has been retained by Zype, a video content and distribution company out of New York, for PR and Strategic Narrative Marketing services. Through our Narrative Practice service offering, we will help position Zype as a market category owner in the rapidly growing direct-to-consumer streaming video market. Zype CEO, Ed Laczynski, shared his thoughts on this new partnership: “We’re excited to position Zype as an industry leader with Catapult’s narrative

Christin Jeffers August 30, 2018

Strategic Narrative

Brand Leadership And The Narrative Economy

The following is an excerpt from an article by Guy Murrel titled, “Brand Leadership and the Narrative Economy,” that was originally published on Forbes.com While just “words,” the power of narrative is now a force to be reckoned with — from politics and pop culture to social movements and business. All too often, we now see narrative take down the mighty and powerful and, at the same time, expose the once obscure to great fame.

Guy Murrel August 28, 2018

Top Quotes on PR and Narrative from Catapult

In a previous blog, I shared some tips on what I learned from my first couple of weeks in the PR industry. One thing I learned after joining the Catapult team is that, “Tips from co-workers are the best… if a co-worker gives you any information on how to make your time more productive or to make others in the office happier, take it. Many of my co-workers at Catapult have helped me with this.” Shouldn’t

Megan Scharf August 22, 2018

Market Leadership

Collaboration: the Ultimate Win/Win for Everyone

Think about it. What is it about certain people or environments that make you enjoy your work more? You probably feel empowered, that there is an open exchange of ideas, and encouragement to express your thoughts, ideas and suggestions. Whether it’s personal or in the business world, it is clear. The more collaboration, the greater the trust, learning, growth and innovation. According to Wikipedia, collaboration is “the process of two or more people or organizations

Terri Douglas August 15, 2018

Market Leadership

Narrative + PR = Category Winner

It’s harder than ever to stand out — with most companies saying the same thing as competitors. It’s even harder to seize the top spot within your given category. Despite all the digital automation and intelligence available to marketers, effective public relations still provides the most credible path to winning the market positioning battle, especially for startups and B2B tech firms. Don’t get me wrong… Growth hacking is great. As is paid digital marketing that

Guy Murrel June 27, 2018

Strategic Narrative

How Communications Pros can get the Whole Company Excited About Category Building

Communications and PR people get the importance of narrative. You don’t need to convince us, it’s the world we live in. Stories shape and redefine our companies, our clients, the industry we are in and the industries we represent. Our day-to-day work involves digging up those narratives, editing them, analyzing them and acting with the story as the backbone of our activity. Therefore, when the marketing team creates a plan or the PR agency comes

Laura Balboni May 29, 2018

Market Leadership

Why You Shouldn’t Leave it up to the Industry Analysts to Define and Claim Your Market Category

If you are in the tech space, you are familiar with all the industry research firms who tout their worth and value when it comes to defining who your company is and where you fit within their various market categories. Companies pay a LOT of money to get on analysts’ radar screens and utilize their advice and services. There’s nothing really wrong with this approach. There is definitely certain value you get out of paid

Terri Douglas May 24, 2018

Thought Leadership

We’ve Come Full Circle: Email is Dead.

I’m not one to jump on trends. If something brings actual value, then I’m all for it. If it feels like it’s all style over substance, it probably is. Business development in the B2B tech sector for public relations companies is often a timely convergence of need, trends and luck. In the age of email lists – bought and sold like bizdev currency – it is tempting to get stuck in the blast loop, trying

Charles Trowbridge May 9, 2018

Market Leadership

Dear CMO, What’s Makes a Tasty Marketing Recipe?

There is no one correct way to make my favorite dish of all time – macaroni and cheese. With a plethora of options — from cheese selection to noodle type, in addition to different cooking methods involving butter, eggs or cream — the beautiful thing about making “mac and cheese” is that no matter what ingredients you use, the combination of pasta and cheese usually tastes good no matter what (though there are still ways

Jeremy Douglas April 19, 2018

Strategic Narrative

Introducing the Strategic Narrative Assessment

Today we are excited to announce the launch of our Strategic Narrative Assessment that is now available on Catapult’s new and improved homepage. The assessment looks at a company’s core messaging and offers feedback and a scorecard detailing how it translates to the market, stacks up to competitors and addresses industry mega-trends and leadership. And, it’s completely free of charge! Here’s what our co-founder Terri Douglas shared about the assessment: “Strategic Narrative Marketing helps companies change

Christin Jeffers March 14, 2018

Market Leadership

Narrative Spotlight: Mavenlink

The narrative movement is gaining traction among industry leaders. An industry narrative is higher-level than storytelling and that alone forces companies to think differently. By participating in this movement, companies have the opportunity to offer a unique voice and contribute to the overall betterment of the industry. What we’re talking about rises above products and services. It is the essence of who a company is and its vision for the industry. Many companies that have

Christin Jeffers February 14, 2018

Strategic Narrative

It’s Budget Time. . . .

And you know what that means. Looking at what you spent last year and seeing what worked, what didn’t (and why) Investigating ways to streamline resources, budget, yet get more impact Seeing where to invest to ‘move the needle’ so your organization/company can get more sales, be acquired, raise more money Let’s be honest. It’s stressful. Boards want justification for the money you (your company) spent and why. Investors want the same, but, they want

Terri Douglas November 20, 2017

Strategic Narrative

“Stranger Things” in Public Relations

Public relations can expose some interesting, challenging and even spooky situations. Oftentimes, PR professionals can feel lost when it comes to delivering (and measuring) results for their clientele. Unless specific goals and key performance indicators are set and understood from the start, trouble can arise. Additionally, the call to quantify public relations’ value for the boardroom can seem never-ending. Many are even starting to eliminate some (or all) of the PR line item from budgets

Jeremy Douglas November 15, 2017

Thought Leadership

Starting My Career in the PR Industry: What I Did That Helped & What I Wish I Would Have Known

Well, I’m straight out of college and have my first job in the public relations industry. Catapult PR gave me a home after graduation, and I couldn’t be more thrilled! Now that first week jitters have come and gone it’s the perfect time to reflect on my thoughts from this past couple of weeks. Arriving at Catapult on my first day wasn’t at all bad. I had met everyone throughout the interview process, so seeing

Megan Scharf October 3, 2017

Strategic Narrative

Content Marketing – Too Much of a Good Thing?

Most B2B marketing practitioners understand the value of good content. The “2017 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends, North America” report states that 89 percent of B2B marketers practice content marketing. As a result, this is driving a big chunk of marketing budgets as organizations glom onto content marketing’s promises for lead gen, ROI and tangible results. This is all good –at Catapult we firmly believe in the power of content. In fact, content

Christin Jeffers August 31, 2017

Strategic Narrative

Catapult Wins TWO National Industry Awards for Strategic Narrative Marketing

We are honored to share that we recently received two national awards for our Strategic Narrative Marketing (SNM) messaging framework that helps organizations define and own categories. We are now the proud owners of a Gold Stevie Award for PR Innovation in the 2017 American Business Awards™, and Silver for New Products and Services in Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations in the 2017 Golden Bridge Awards. “This is a big milestone for Catapult as we work

Christin Jeffers August 18, 2017

Strategic Narrative

Join our Webinar: Finding Your Narrative in a Crowded Content World

We are teaming up with Chief Marketer to present a webinar on our new messaging approach – Strategic Narrative Marketing. Join us to learn how to create industry-level messaging that is 100 percent unique, helps align organizations toward a higher, singular cause, and serves to lead the advancement and success of the overall industry. This approach can be leveraged to drive content development, social media, and general PR/marketing. “Finding Your Narrative in a Crowded Content World,” will

Christin Jeffers June 5, 2017

Market Leadership

How a CrowdChat Can Bring Your Industry (and Narrative) Together

In the world of PR and marketing, it’s always crucial to keep a pulse on the latest and greatest tools and technologies. Why? These present new and innovative ways to help bring your client’s or your company’s messages and strategies to market. If you’re a Twitter person, like me, perhaps you’ve stumbled onto an application called CrowdChat – a social chat platform where a crowd creates the content through engaging conversations and a gamified experience.

Jeremy Douglas May 4, 2017

Market Leadership

The (Only) Three Questions to Ask Your PR Firm

After being in the PR business for more than 30 years, it’s been an interesting ride to see how it’s evolved, morphed and changed. Yet, while PR has been around for a while, it still is a mystery for many CEOs, CMOs and marketing folks. Oftentimes, they don’t understand what kind of results they should expect and, if they are hiring a PR firm, how they operate. We often get asked the standard questions when

Terri Douglas May 1, 2017

Market Leadership

Strategically Targeting Analysts as Key Influencers: AR is a Two-Way Street

Analyst relations (AR) and public relations are usually closely paired within the marketing functions of today’s businesses. At Catapult, we run AR programs for most of our clients, in addition to PR. This makes sense because in some ways, analysts function like journalists—although more technical, specialized and usually with prior firsthand industry experience. Analysts formally report on the movements they see within particular markets. They evaluate and review vendors, provide recommendations and forecast future growth

Laura Balboni April 26, 2017

Thought Leadership

Accelerate Your Career Path by Becoming a Messaging Expert

We (PR and marketing pros) have the freedom to create our own unique vision for success. As we pursue our individual careers, there’s a good chance we’ll have some big highlights to reflect upon when we reach retirement age. On the other hand, there may be seasons where we feel stuck or uninspired, when direction is murky and movement is limited. While we are creating our career paths, we’re also likely to run into stiff

Christin Jeffers April 4, 2017

Strategic Narrative

Demand Grows for Strategic Narrative Marketing Services

Today Catapult PR announced strong momentum for our new Strategic Narrative Marketing services after launching our book, “A Practical Guide to Strategic Narrative Marketing.” Strategic Narrative Marketing (SNM) is a new approach to market positioning that focuses on higher-level industry vision and category-building, giving organizations unique, compelling and useful messaging to communicate to the market. Read the full press release here to learn more. To learn more about the SNM Workshop, visit: http://www.catapultpr-ir.com/strategic-narrative-messaging-workshop/

Guy Murrel March 21, 2017

Strategic Narrative

Championing a Narrative in the On-Demand Economy

The ability to have immediate access to goods and services through a digital marketplace is in turn causing radical, disruptive effects on businesses across the world. What’s more? My generation (Millennial) and the generations hereafter are starting to (almost) exclusively use on-demand services for numerous facets of our lives – from shopping and transportation to news and entertainment. Previous generations are making the migration as well. So, how are businesses leveraging public relations in the

Jeremy Douglas March 17, 2017

Market Leadership

Strategic Narrative Marketing from Launch to Adoption | Part 12

Strategic Narrative Marketing (SNM) is a new approach to company positioning and messaging. If you’ve been tracking along with our blog series, you probably have a decent grasp on what it’s all about (newcomers – start with Part 1). You’ve learned how to truly think and act like a leader in your industry and perhaps you are considering developing and launching a market category or framework for your organization. Recently, the series covered how to

Guy Murrel February 1, 2017

Market Leadership

The New Standard for Quality Content

My son, a kindergartner, is learning how to read and write. He tends to rush through his assignments so he can move on to more important things, like recess. His teacher, on the other hand, is a big proponent of “quality work.” She encourages him to take his time. My husband and I (also supporters of quality work), make him slow down when we practice with him outside of school but, he doesn’t quite get

Christin Jeffers December 16, 2016

Market Leadership

Five Ways to Get More Value from your PR Firm

After you’ve selected a PR firm to help your organization define and share a strategic narrative with the world, you need to make sure you get the most value for every PR dollar spent. The success of a PR initiative is not completely dependent on the agency, however. While a good agency knows how to work around unique quirks or challenges a client brings to the table, there are a number of decisions and actions

Laura Balboni December 9, 2016

Market Leadership

Strategic Narrative Development: Elements of Success |Part 7

In our previous Strategic Narrative Marketing Series post, we discussed the value of conducting a discovery workshop to uncover raw, honest insights into your company’s view and vision for the industry. Without having any experience, these discovery sessions can be difficult to conduct and it’s easy to fall off course. We highly recommend looking into an expert third party to conduct the workshop for you. But, if you are determined to go at it alone,

Guy Murrel December 8, 2016

Market Leadership

Three Reasons to Adopt a Social Media Strategy

At Catapult PR, we offer a wide variety of services to our B2B tech clients. From analyst and media relations to content development, to capturing speaking and award opportunities there isn’t much we can’t do. While programs such as these are pretty painless in terms of getting clients on board, there is one initiative that is often a struggle: social media. Perhaps it’s because of how new social media is in terms of being a

Olivia Heel November 29, 2016

Market Leadership

The DevOps Enterprise Summit San Francisco Was Everything We Hoped For and More!

We (Catapult PR) just returned from an action-packed three days at the 2016 DevOps Enterprise Summit San Francisco (DOES16) where 1,300 DevOps luminaries, business leaders and practitioners united to unpack current DevOps trends and predictions, share success stories and collaborate for the betterment of Dev and Ops practices at large, complex organizations. The conference featured a jam-packed schedule including speakers from some of the world’s biggest brands, such as Target, Verizon and Disney, who shared

Terri Douglas November 17, 2016

Market Leadership

Get to Know the Mind Behind, “A Practical Guide to Strategic Narrative Marketing”

A few weeks ago we announced a new book by Catapult co-founder and principal, Guy Murrel. The book, “A Practical Guide to Strategic Narrative Marketing,” is a brief ‘how-to’ guide for those looking to lead their market and stand apart from competitors while embracing a new messaging strategy. I asked Guy a few questions this week to get his perspective on what Strategic Narrative Marketing is and what it means to the PR and marketing

Terri Douglas November 2, 2016

Market Leadership

What Is a Strategic Narrative Workshop?

As you’ve been reading in our blog, Strategic Narrative Marketing is an entirely new approach to what some folks refer to as “storytelling” or traditional “positioning and messaging.” Strategic Narrative Marketing elevates both of these to a much higher industry level that gets companies out of talking about themselves, their products, services, bits and bytes, and instead focuses on important issues taking place in their industries. It is a way for companies to not only

Terri Douglas October 12, 2016

Market Leadership

Find Your Voice with Strategic Narrative Marketing | Part 1

How loud is your company’s voice? No matter the industry, I’d be willing to bet that the vast majority of us are seeing heavy saturation when it comes to online publishing and content marketing. The noise has its advantages and disadvantages. While you have the opportunity to disrupt the marketplace on platforms that can reach big audiences through PR and marketing, you might find it difficult to make an impact amongst the noise. Here’s an

Guy Murrel October 6, 2016

Market Leadership

Strategic Narrative Marketing – A New Marketing Category To Help Companies Stand Out & Be Noticed

Today is a special day at Catapult. Strategic Narrative Marketing After years of helping our clients develop their stories and turn them into narratives and entire market categories, we have taken our own good advice. We have formally packaged up this proven service offering and are now making it available to clients, small and large. We call it “Strategic Narrative Marketing.” It’s a new marketing category designed to help lift organizations up above the fray

Terri Douglas September 27, 2016

Market Leadership

Strategic Narratives: How Industry Vision Creates Leadership and New Messaging Spaces

All too often businesses struggle with having something unique and compelling to say in their marketplace. Now, with the rise of content marketing as a means of connecting with customers and standing out in the market, the challenge of “what to say” seems to increase daily. If you’re looking for new, fertile messaging ground to build your story, *stop looking inward* and at “how to” topics, and look upward at the larger scope of your

Guy Murrel September 22, 2016

Market Leadership

Life of a Ghostwriter

In a crowded, self-publishing digital world an organization will be noticed if they present a strong industry narrative through quality content. Most marketers would agree that good content goes a long way – and other stakeholders within organizations are starting to recognize its value as well. This is evident in the time and resources directed towards content development and marketing across industries. For many businesses, the content marketing strategy calls for thought leadership content “from”

Christin Jeffers September 16, 2016

Market Leadership

Cheers to 17 Years for Catapult in the high-tech PR trenches!

Today Catapult PR is celebrating 17 years as a boutique public relations firm in the high-tech B2B market. Since 1999, this agency has ridden the highs and lows of the tech industry. We’ve helped numerous companies lead markets, build and own categories and, in many instances, get purchased or lead to successful IPOs. Over the years, we’ve become a leader in developing our clients’ strategic narratives; increasing their visibility among industry influencers and their audiences;

Jeremy Douglas September 9, 2016

Market Leadership

Is your marketing content helping you lead your market?

Whether you are a content or digital marketer, branding guru, PR professional or C-level executive, the content you put out there matters. You probably want your content to be seen. You might even want your content to be strong enough to secure leads and engage your audience. If all those things are true, I’m willing to bet that you want to be recognized in your industry as a leader. So how is it going? Has

Guy Murrel September 9, 2016

Market Leadership

Telling the Same Story? Look Higher at an Industry Narrative

Every brand has a story to tell. Content and digital marketing teams spend hours toiling over ways they can capture the hearts of their audience through storytelling. While there is a clear value in storytelling when it works, it’s not easy to come up with a compelling, sustainable and unique story that will grab your audience’s attention and make a difference in the marketplace. This is especially true for many B2B tech companies. Despite the

Christin Jeffers September 1, 2016

Recent Posts:

get in touch