LinkedIn Content Strategy for B2B Tech PR Agencies | Netwarm
LinkedIn playbook · Case study
LinkedIn content strategy for B2B tech PR agencies: how a Los Angeles PR agency founder reached 140 founders, CEOs and marketing leaders in 4 weeks
We read the reactions on 29 posts from a Los Angeles B2B tech PR agency founder. 948 people, 140 founders, CEOs and marketing leaders. Here is what brings buyers, what brings peers, and the 5 posts we’d publish next.
Max Sawyer · Netwarm··12 min read
The creator in this case studyA Los Angeles B2B tech PR agency founder
Followers25,490
Posts~7 a week
These numbers are from 1 November. Your audience has already moved.
New founders, CEOs and marketing leaders turn Hot every week and others go quiet. Run your free scan to see today’s version, with the names.
SellsMedia relations and PR for mid-market and enterprise B2B SaaS companies, with a newsletter (The Upside Case) and a weekly live show
PeriodOct 4 – Nov 1
Ideal client: founders, CEOs, CMOs and heads of marketing and communications at mid-market and enterprise B2B SaaS companies that help people and the planet.The challenge: The agency founder has never sent a cold pitch: every client comes through a referral. The memes reach thousands, up to 4,172 reactions on one post, while the PR stories get a few dozen. Which posts reach the founders and CMOs who hire a PR agency?
Key takeaways
1 in 7 readers is a buyer.140 founders, CEOs and marketing leaders reacted in 4 weeks: 14.8% of the 948 people who reacted. 21.3% are ghostwriters, writers, coaches, freelancers and other content people.
PR stories bring almost 2x the share of memes.PR stories and lessons reached 25.0% buyers, memes 14.2%. The memes bring the reach: 11 buyers per post, against 3 for PR stories.
13 of them keep coming back.They reacted to 3 posts or more. One of them reacted to 6 of the 29.
01
Who actually reads you, and what the LinkedIn algorithm changed
The agency founder posted 29 times between 4 October and 1 November: memes and work jokes, PR stories from client work, The Upside Case newsletter and the weekly Friday Feed live show, and personal posts.
The LinkedIn algorithm shows a post to the people who reacted to the last ones, then to people like them. A meme that takes off reaches thousands of people who will never hire a PR agency. Reach can’t tell them apart from a CMO. Who reacted can. We sorted every person who reacted by role.
29posts in 4 weeks
948people reacted
140founders, CEOs and marketing leaders
13came back 3+ times
Audience by roleThe 948 people who reacted, by roleFree
A fifth of the people who react write, coach or freelance for a living. Most of the rest come in through the memes, from every industry and role. They push reach, and they rarely hire a B2B PR agency.
The 140 buyers are founders, CEOs, VPs and marketing and communications leaders. About a third work in marketing, PR and media, and about 30% in tech, SaaS and AI.
SeniorityAll people who reactedFree
Founder, owner, C-level15.4%
Director, VP6.6%
Manager9.5%
Independent8.2%
Other60.2%
IndustriesFounders, CEOs and marketing leaders onlyNetwarm
Marketing, PR & media33.6%
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Core audience13 founders, CEOs and marketing leaders engaged 3+ times · 4 engaged 5+ timesNetwarm
13 founders, CEOs and marketing leaders keep coming back. One of them reacted to 6 of the 29 posts.See your regulars
Engager company sizeEveryone who reacted, by company sizeNetwarm
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See which company sizes your founders, CEOs and marketing leaders work at.See company sizes
02
What to post on LinkedIn to reach founders, CEOs and marketing leaders
Most agencies judge a post by its reactions. A PR agency that sells to founders and CMOs should judge it by who reacted.
We tagged each of the 29 posts by topic, then measured the share of founders, CEOs and marketing leaders among the people who reacted.
Your topicsWhat your 29 posts were aboutFree
29posts
Memes and image jokes8
Newsletter and live show promos8
Work humor in text5
PR stories and lessons5
Personal stories3
Topics that attract founders, CEOs and marketing leadersShare of each topic’s reactions from founders, CEOs and marketing leadersNetwarm
PR stories and lessons25.0%
Newsletter and live show promos21.9%
Work humor in text15.6%
Memes and image jokes14.2%
Personal stories10.3%
One topic brings almost 2x the share of buyers of another. See which.See which topics
PR stories bring 1.8x the share of founders, CEOs and marketing leaders that memes do (25.0% vs 14.2%). But memes bring the volume: 11 buyers per post, against 3 for PR stories, which get far fewer reactions.
Posts that brought the most founders, CEOs and marketing leadersShare of founders, CEOs and marketing leaders in each post’s reactions1 of 5 open
#1B2B deals and babies are the only things we monitor and communicate about in months36.8%
#2I’m going live with Chris Westmeyer to talk about his upcoming book34.6%
#3This week, Chris Westmeyer joins us for the most important stories in PR33.3%
#4I’ve never sent a cold pitch. Not once.30.8%
#5I ended my pitch to a new reporter with "no presh."27.8%
For comparison, the most-liked meme had 4,172 reactions and reached 6% founders, CEOs and marketing leaders. The IYKYK meme (939 reactions) reached 10%. Shares are measured on posts with 10 or more reactions.
6 rules for LinkedIn engagement from founders, CEOs and marketing leaders
These rules come from what worked on the agency founder’s own profile, and from the best-performing posts by PR agency founders and comms strategists over the last 3 months.
1
Tell the PR story from the inside. A pitch that broke the rules, a reporter’s reply, a placement that almost didn’t happen. Founders and CMOs want to see how the work gets done.On this profile: the "no presh" pitch post brought 28% founders, CEOs and marketing leaders. PR stories average 25.0%, the highest topic.
Make the joke about your buyer’s world. Humor works when a founder recognizes their own week in it: deal cycles in months, press releases with no news. A joke about pajamas reaches everyone; a joke about B2B reaches buyers.On this profile: the deals and babies post brought 37% buyers. Across the niche: Yazan Radaideh’s list of what PR people get asked to do got 2,789 likes.
Tell the hard client story, straight. A CEO who overruled the whole team, a client you had to let go. Honest stories show buyers how you think when things go wrong.On this profile: the logo rebrand story brought 24% founders, CEOs and marketing leaders. Across the niche: Parry Headrick’s fired-client post got 1,161 likes and 179 comments.
Say how you work. Referral-only, no outbound, no sales team. Telling buyers how you choose clients makes them want to be one.On this profile: the cold pitch post brought 31% founders, CEOs and marketing leaders.
Use memes for reach, then follow with a PR story. Memes fill the feed with new people. Most aren’t buyers, but the algorithm will show your next post to them. Make the next post one that speaks to the founders among them.On this profile: memes brought 14.2% buyers but 11 per post, the most of any topic. The biggest meme (4,172 reactions) brought 6%.
Speak to the CMO’s problem. The CMO is often the one who hires the agency and answers to the CEO for it. Posts about that tension speak straight to the buyer.On this profile: the live show about what owners really pay for when they hire an agency brought 35% founders, CEOs and marketing leaders.
When founders, CEOs and marketing leaders read: the best time to post on LinkedIn for B2B tech PR agencies
We compared the share of founders, CEOs and marketing leaders by the day each post was published (Los Angeles time). Posting hours vary too much, with fewer than 3 posts in most 2-hour slots, to compare by hour.
Share of founders, CEOs and marketing leaders by posting dayAmong the people who reacted to each postFree
20.3%
Mon
17.1%
Tue
17.1%
Wed
13.4%
Thu
17.5%
Fri
8.8%
Sat
16.5%
Sun
Monday brought the highest share (20.3%), then Friday (17.5%), Tuesday and Wednesday (17.1%). Saturday was lowest (8.8%), and Thursday (13.4%).
Put the PR stories and client posts on Monday, Tuesday and Friday. Keep Saturday for the memes: they will bring reach whatever the day.
05
5 posts ready to publish to target founders, CEOs and marketing leaders
Each post follows the rules above, in the agency founder’s voice. Swap in your own details before posting: the real story is what makes it land.
1Ready to postPR story
The press release we talked them out ofRule 1: tell the PR story from the inside. Modelled on the "no presh" pitch post (28% buyers).
Hook
A client asked us for a press release last month. We talked them out of it.The news was a product update. A good one! But no reporter was going to write about version 4.2. Let’s be honest, their own customers were barely going to read about version 4.2.So we asked a different question: what does the CEO think about the thing every reporter on their beat is already writing about this week?Turns out, she had a strong opinion. A slightly spicy one. Exactly the kind a reporter can build a story around.We sent three short pitches with her take. No attachment. No "for immediate release." Two replies. One placement, with her quoted by name and the product update in the last paragraph.The press release would have gone out on the wire and died there.The opinion got the coverage, and the update came along for the ride.Not every announcement deserves a press release. Every CEO deserves a point of view.
Visual · Text onlyNo visual, or a screenshot of the placement with the outlet visible and the client name hidden if needed.Check before postingUse a real client story with their OK: the version number, the three pitches and the outcome are placeholders for what actually happened.
PR words, translatedRule 2: humor about the buyer’s world, not just yours. Modelled on the deals and babies post (37% buyers) and Yazan Radaideh’s PR list (2,789 likes).
Hook
PR words, translated for founders:"The reporter is interested." = They opened the email. We think."Let’s keep it on background." = Please do not quote the CEO’s hot take about the competitor."It’s a soft launch." = We have no news, but we have a blog post."We’re building a drumbeat." = One great story, then a lot of follow-up nobody sees."Thought leadership." = The CEO has opinions. We make them printable."Tier one." = The outlet your board has heard of."Can you get us in TechCrunch by Friday?" = No.Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
Visual · Single imageA two-column card: "What we say" and "What we mean", in your brand colours.Check before postingAdjust the lines to the ones your team really uses. Keep it light: the joke is on PR, not on clients.
Why we say no to some clientsRules 4 and 6: say how you work, and speak to the CMO caught between the CEO and the agency. Modelled on the cold pitch post (31% buyers) and Parry Headrick’s discovery call post.
Hook
We turn down more PR clients than you’d think.Every client at Hudson Davis comes from a referral. No outbound, no ads, no sales team. Which sounds great until you realize what it means: one bad fit, and we lose the referral that came with it.So on every discovery call, I listen for three things.1. Does the CEO want coverage, or a conversation? Coverage is a result. A point of view is what gets you there.2. Does the CMO have air cover? If the CMO is stuck between a CEO who expects the Wall Street Journal in week one and an agency that can’t promise it, everyone loses.3. Is there a story beyond the next announcement? A funding round gets you one great week. We need something to say in week six.If the answer to all three is yes, we’re in.If not, I’ll happily send you to someone in my network who’s a better fit. That’s how referrals work in both directions.
Visual · Text onlyNo visual. If you want one, a photo of you on a call, no screen visible.Check before postingMake sure the three questions are the ones you really ask, and keep the tone generous: this post should make CMOs want to be the client you say yes to.
After the funding announcementRule 3: show one client result as a story, step by step. Built on the unicorn client post, which brought buyers on only 11 reactions: it deserves a fuller version.
Hook
A funding announcement gets you one great week.One of our clients had just raised a round that made them a unicorn. They’d built something remarkable in other countries, and now they wanted the US, where most buyers had never heard of them.The funding story landed. Then the news cycle moved on, the way it always does.Here’s what we did with that one week:1. We used it to open doors. Every reporter who covered the round got a follow-up, not a pitch: what we could offer them next.2. We gave the CEO a beat. Three topics she could speak to every time the industry news touched them.3. We kept showing up when there was nothing to announce. Data, commentary, a quick quote on someone else’s story.4. We made sure our client was the story, not the footnote in a competitor’s piece.When they made the Inc. 5000, the reporters already knew who they were.The round got them noticed. The drumbeat got them known.
Visual · Single imageA simple timeline: funding week, then the months of coverage after it.Check before postingCheck with the client what you can say. Replace the four steps with exactly what your team did, and add one result you can share.
The "no presh" pitchLead magnet built from the "no presh" pitch post, offered as a one-page template. Modelled on Colin Hung’s five pitch fixes and Jules Davies’s playbook (261 comments).
Hook
The pitch that landed our best placement this quarter ended with "no presh."To an upper tier reporter. A first impression. By every rule I was taught, it shouldn’t have worked.But reporters read hundreds of pitches that sound like they were written by a committee. Or by AI. Or by a committee using AI.A pitch that sounds like a person stands out.So here’s how we write a first pitch now:1. One line on why this reporter, specifically.
2. One line on the story, not the company.
3. One line on why now.
4. What we can offer: a person, data, an exclusive.
5. A sign-off that sounds like you. Yes, even "no presh."No attachments. No "I hope this email finds you well."I put it on one page, with three real pitches that got replies (names removed). Comment PITCH and I’ll send it over.
Visual · Document previewA one-page preview of the five-line pitch template, blurred below line two.Check before postingHave the one-page template ready before posting, and remove client and reporter names from the example pitches. Share it through a Reveal link to see which founders and CMOs download it.
Our pick for you: “The "no presh" pitch template”Built from the pitch the agency founder already wrote about: five lines for a first pitch to a reporter, with three real pitches that got replies, names removed. Offer it at the end of post 5 with a Reveal link, to see which founders and CMOs download it.With a Reveal link, every person who downloads it is shown by name, with their role and how warm they are. Your first Reveal link is free.Create your free Reveal link
07
From reactions to clients
Content brings founders and CMOs to the profile. It doesn’t say when to reach out. Most never comment, so they stay invisible, and a referral-only agency only hears from the ones who ask a friend first.
On LinkedIn, the right moment to start a conversation is when someone keeps coming back. We call that Hot: 5 or more points over 90 days, where a reaction counts 1, a repost 2, a download or a reply 4.
Hot right now4 founders, CEOs and marketing leaders · not contacted yetNetwarm
4 founders, CEOs and marketing leaders are Hot. See who to message first.See who’s Hot
First messageAn opener for each Hot person, based on the posts they readNetwarm
Hi David, you’ve followed the PR stories closely this month. Are you planning any announcements for Q1?Hi Sarah, I saw you reacted to the "no presh" post. How are your pitches landing with reporters these days?
A first line for each of them, ready to send.See the openers
Netwarm sends nothing for you. It tells you who and when, and you write the message. It also works inside Claude and ChatGPT: ask “Who’s Hot today?” and get the list.
08
FAQ
For this agency founder, PR stories and lessons reached 25.0% founders, CEOs and marketing leaders, against 14.2% for memes. Tell the PR story from the inside, make the jokes about the buyer’s world, and use memes for reach.
For this agency founder, Monday brought the highest share of founders, CEOs and marketing leaders (20.3%), then Friday (17.5%) and Tuesday and Wednesday (17.1%). Saturday was lowest (8.8%).
This agency founder posts about 7 times a week, and 13 founders, CEOs and marketing leaders came back 3 times or more in 4 weeks. Daily posting keeps reach up; the PR stories are the posts that bring buyers.
Look at who reacts, not how many. A meme had 4,172 reactions and 6% buyers; the "no presh" pitch post had 18 and 28%. Group reactions by role, measure the share per post, and follow the people who keep coming back. A free Netwarm scan does this for you.
Yes. Netwarm only reads public reactions to your own posts. It never logs in as you, never asks for your password, and never messages anyone for you.
How we made this playbook
We read the public reactions on 29 posts published between 4 October and 1 November 2026, up to the first 100 people per post, and sorted the 948 people by role. Reposts and posts written by other people were left out. Comments were not counted, so engagement figures are a floor. Many posts had fewer than 30 reactions, so single-post shares are indicative.
Niche rules come from top posts by PR agency founders and comms strategists over the last 3 months. Role groups are approximate; a Netwarm scan matches people to your own ideal client.
