Navigating the PR Landscape: Top 10 PR and Marketing Trends for 2024
For PR professionals, staying ahead of the curve is crucial in an ever-evolving media landscape. With the integration of AI, a renewed focus on diversity and inclusion and shifts in media consumption patterns, 2024 will be a year of exciting opportunities. In this blog post, we will explore the top 10 PR and marketing trends for 2024 and discuss actionable strategies to leverage these trends.
Trend #1: Harnessing the Power of AI
AI has become an indispensable tool for PR professionals, but it must be used with ethics and responsibility in mind. From outline creation with tools like Chat GPT, to proofreading with Grammarly, AI-powered tools offer a range of benefits, but it's important to be aware that these tools scour the entire internet when generating responses. This could lead to unintentional plagiarism or inaccuracies. Therefore, every AI-generated output must be thoroughly fact-checked and heavily edited before presenting it to a client or sharing it with others online. What can you do?
AI programs are robots and don’t have the niche expertise, industry skills, storytelling ability and emotional intelligence that we do. That being said, this trend will never replace PR professionals, but it can be used as a tool to improve workplace efficiency. By integrating AI as a complementary tool, we can leverage its strengths to automate routine tasks, analyze vast datasets and identify trends, allowing us to focus more on high-value activities such as crafting compelling narratives and building relationships. When in doubt it is best to use it for inspiration rather than a final product.
Trend #2: Data-Driven Storytelling
The demand for compelling narratives is now accompanied by an essential need for supporting data to substantiate and validate key messages. As communication strategies become increasingly data-driven, PR professionals must blend the art of storytelling with the science of analytics to capture attention and build credibility in an ever-changing media environment.
Take this scenario for example:
What can you do?
PR professionals should integrate clear statistics and relevant trend data into pitches whenever possible. With the supporting data, we can craft comprehensive and compelling stories that connect your client's solutions with the issues outlined in the pitch.
Trend #3: SEO in PR Strategies
One of the most significant shifts in PR trends for 2024 involves incorporating Search Engine Optimization (SEO) into pitching strategies. By strategically integrating relevant keywords and phrases into your pitches, you increase the likelihood of your content appearing in search engine results. This means that journalists, influencers and potential partners searching for related topics are more likely to discover and engage with your pitch.
Additionally, SEO-driven pitches can improve the discoverability of your brand, product or service, ultimately leading to increased online presence, brand awareness and better chances of securing media coverage. In essence, embracing SEO in pitching strategies is a smart move to ensure your messages resonate with a wider audience in the digital age.
What can you do?
Knowing the best strategies to boost brand awareness through search is a significant advantage and will help your client reach their PR goals. Familiarize yourself with SEO tools such as SEMrush, Google Search Console and KWFinder to find keywords (related to your client) that have a high search volume but low search difficulty
Pro tip: When your keyword search generates results that are low-competition, high-traffic you’ve struck gold and should start crafting that pitch ASAP!
Trend #4: True Commitment to DEI
This trend is about genuinely committing to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. According to Harvard Business Review, audiences now expect to see DEI integrated at every level of a brand's operations, from the C-suite to entry-level, before pledging their support.
What can you do?
Move beyond superficial diversity and inclusion campaigns. Educate your clients about best DEI practices and how to integrate them into their initiatives. Demonstrating commitment to DEI in your workplace will encourage your clients to follow suit. Here are 5 things you can do to promote DEI in the workplace.
Acknowledge religious and cultural holidays
Encourage frequent employee feedback
Be aware of ageism and strive for a multigenerational workforce
Facilitate the use of pronouns
Hold each other accountable for implementing, seeing through, and continuously striving to improve diversity and inclusion efforts
Trend #5: Accuracy and Credibility
As always, accuracy and credibility are imperative, but with the amount of misinformation and clickbait in the media, accuracy is more important now, both factually and grammatically. According to Statista, over a third of Americans admitted to unintentionally sharing false content on social media in 2023. Being a supplier of accurate and grammatically sound information not only establishes trust but also distinguishes your brand from the noise, contributing to a more informed and discerning online community.
What can you do?
As PR professionals, it's our responsibility to ensure pitches (and all work we put out) are error-free through meticulous spell-checking, fact-checking and comprehensive research.
Pro tip: Download Grammarly as an extension to spell-check your work and check for other grammatical issues
Trend #6: Substack for Media Connections
Substack is an email marketing platform that is becoming increasingly popular with journalists to write newsletters and share their work with readers.
The platform is great for finding new contacts as well. As you develop media relationships, you can land newsletter-exclusive features to get clients in front of targeted and engaged audiences. As PR pros, we most likely won’t be posting on Substrack but referencing a personal story or interest a journalist shared in their newsletter shows that we’re an engaged and supportive media partner.
What can you do?
Explore Substack as a valuable platform for media connections. Create an account, connect with journalists, and stay engaged with topics relevant to your clients.
Trend #7: Providing Consistent Worth to Media
In 2024, there will be a strategic shift in the strength of collaborative efforts directly correlating with the level of assistance provided, creating a dynamic and mutually beneficial alliance in the fast-evolving landscape of media relations. As you actively engage in aiding media contacts with relevant information, resources and seamless communication, you not only streamline their work processes but strengthen relationships as well.
What can you do?
Establish meaningful and empathetic connections with media contacts, positioning yourself as a valuable resource.
Prioritize accuracy, timeliness and personalization in every pitch, tailoring it to the specific needs of the contact and their publication. Conduct thorough research on media contacts to ensure your pitch aligns with their beats and recent work.
Lastly, enhance pitches with multimedia, supporting documents and high-level details, aiming to “serve them the story on a silver platter” for seamless consumption by media contacts.
Trend #8: Straying Away from X (Twitter)
According to the University of Oxford, platform issues have prompted journalists to shift away from X (Twitter) and more towards LinkedIn and Instagram Threads for content creation.
Likewise, businesses are also directing their attention away from X, while consumers are embracing short-form video platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels, impacting media relationships, agency strategies and client operations.
What can you do?
Carefully vet and research the social media platforms you recommend to clients. Additionally, encourage them to start leveraging short-form videos on Instagram and TikTok to reach more consumers if they aren’t doing so already.
Research and document your current media contacts' preferred method of how they communicate with their audience. Are they using LinkedIn, Substrack, Instagram, etc.? By aligning your outreach with their preferred methods, you enhance the chances of successful and impactful interactions, fostering stronger relationships with the media community.
Trend #9: Demonstrating the True Value of PR to Clients
Going forward, companies will want to see the results of your hard work (and their budgets) laid out clearly in front of them. It can be difficult for numbers-driven people to wrap their heads around the social and emotional impact of PR without statistics. When clients can draw a clear line between PR efforts and upward trends in their data, they’ll better understand the value of PR.
What can you do?
Work with your clients to establish clear PR objectives. Identify key performance indicators (KPIs) and baseline metrics, including, but not limited to, the number of media placements and potential reach of a PR campaign. By jointly outlining these measurable targets, you not only ensure a shared understanding of expectations but also pave the way for an effective and strategic PR approach that aligns with the broader vision of your client's communication objectives. In addition, make sure the PR objectives align with the client’s business goals. At the end of the day, if you hit all the KPIs but don’t solve their problems, you have missed the mark.
Trend #10: Finding Short and Sweet Stories
In 2024, text-based content and videos will focus on short and sweet stories that captivate an audience. Journalists scour social media for stories just like we do, so using clients’ pages as an opportunity to showcase their brand and give valuable niche information to the media is key.
What can you do?
Use social media to uncover emerging trends and valuable content that can be turned into compelling pitches. Combining enticing content with storytelling creates press gold.
The Bottom Line
Embracing 2024 trends empowers us to deliver exceptional results to clients. By leveraging AI ethically, embracing data-driven storytelling and adapting to the evolving media landscape, PR experts can navigate the challenges and opportunities that 2024 brings with confidence.