Future Proof Your PR: Digital PR Strategies for 2025

What defines PR and how best to go about it is ever-changing because so is media. But as you look forward to 2025, what PR strategy should you keep in mind? Digital PR strategies for 2025 can help future-proof you against the changing tides of today’s media landscape. Today’s media signals provide some great hints into the future direction of media and PR, both near and far.

Integrating SEO and PR: Core Digital PR Strategies for 2025

SEO is changing, PR must respond. Our PR meetings are increasingly including SEO teams, at least occasionally. That’s great to see because they overlap and can support one another. Today, there is no PR without digital PR. Personally, I couldn’t be more excited about this. When Avaans Media was first founded as Akamai Marketing, we were primarily a digital communications firm; ultimately, I shifted our focus to PR  but seeing media types blend is so satisfying. Today, there is no PR without digital PR.

Content Creation and PR

Modern PR includes an entire media suite that could consist of paid, earned, and influencer content. Always with content, it’s critical to remember the overarching strategy for said content. For example, some of your content will be created primarily to support SEO (we’ll get into that more in a minute); so long as it isn’t negatively affecting your brand or creating other reputational pressure, PR should be at the table for these planning meetings, but only to articulate potential opportunities. The same is true in reverse. SEO should not control PR content, but it should be included. Another example of this crossover is when your company wins an award. Each team might have different ideas about how to share and celebrate that award. Both are valuable and contribute to different goals; doing them all is probably great.

• Include your SEO team in a monthly or quarterly PR meeting
• Be very clear about the intent of any content and let that be the driving force behind the positioning, the voice, and execution of the content
• Make sure to include SEO in any and all news
• Reader experience will be #1

Brand Authenticity and Trust: Essential Digital PR Strategies for 2025

Brand authenticity and brand trust are going to become invaluable because this is the one currency that everyone can agree on. To the extent that anyone agrees on what’s trustworthy anymore. If you’re working with an SEO firm, they’re probably driving you to create more external content. And unlike the days when they just wanted ANY link to your website, the emphasis is on relevance; brand presence is PR’s specialty. Digital PR requires diversification of media presence. With SearchGPT and other large language models (LLM) entering the search space, we don’t know how each of them will evaluate quality content, but you can be sure that none will give you bonus points for low-grade content or easy-to-obtain content. Podcasts, awards, and interviews, especially when you get a link, even if it isn’t do-follow, will contribute to your brand reputation, which will help you become more credible across search engines and help you become more trusted to journalists and your customers.

My view is that some LLMs will prioritize answer-type content like one of our best-performing pieces, “How Much Does a PR Firm Cost?” But deeper down the funnel, you’ll see content like this that contributes more to the conversation than a top-10 list does, and I think this is personally more relevant for B2B PR. PR for consumer brands will especially need to include visibility from very credible sources. Google has hit the brakes on low-quality affiliate sites. However, sites like NYTimes Wirecutter will be fine, and Wirecutter just announced a podcast, too, so there is an additional example of content diversification that your PR needs to keep up with.

Keep your brand placement options as open as possible. Photos and videos not used on your website are especially welcomed by media. If you can, when you send a clip, also send a voice recording of it. (I think voice search is also set to explode, and having voice will be an advantage one day.) but for now, it allows media outlets to include the voice quote on YouTube or podcasts. The most popular age group for voice search is 18-34, with 77% using voice search on smartphones, so tomorrow’s customers expect voice-based content. Future-proofing digital PR strategies for 2025 means embracing AI, adapting to new search algorithms, and diversifying media content

• Diversify your digital presence across platforms and formats
• Start creating voice-based assets

Future Proof: Be Creative, but Not Short Sighted

When you think about the driving force behind content, it’s to deliver the most relevant, helpful information to the people looking for that information. With this in mind, be creative about ways you can engage emerging platforms. Be on the lookout for partnerships like the one LinkedIn and Perplexity just announced and think thoroughly about what this could mean for your brand presence. But I don’t think that suddenly spamming LinkedIn is a good idea. In the short term, that might work, but in the long term, you may get penalized. Play the long game with digital PR and digital PR will reward you. 

To inspire ideas and new ways to use new and existing platforms, use an emerging AI platform that can create an agent that concisely articulates information that may spark ideas. If you’re unfamiliar with agents, you need to get up to speed, and a great place to start is Google’s Notebook LM. As with all the free AI platforms, be wary of uploading anything that isn’t already public or confidential. Privacy conditions (such as they are) are prone to change, and there’s just no saying how free platforms are using the content uploaded to their AI, but you can bet they are using it.

• Engage authentically and think about ways to use the changing tides to your advantage
• Keep your eye on AI agents and LLM so you can address those changes in your digital PR planning today

Digital PR During Crisis

I’m sure you’ve thought about or maybe even survived it: a media crisis that spins out of control online. Every marketing executive I know, myself included looks at these as learning opportunities and also sends major empathy to the PR and marketing manager on the front lines.

The PR you earn today can save you or punish you in the future. What’s online is virtually permanent, and changes made to content can be easily identified with existing tools. So use PR today to build your trust bucket. AI is getting excellent already at parsing out content intention. Pretty soon, I won’t have to use the term “CMO” or “Vice President of Communications” on my website anywhere – AI will know those people can most appreciate content like this and serve it up in a more targeted way.

Stay agile with your crisis communication planning. As the PR landscape continues to evolve, I suggest reviewing it every six months. Remember that a true crisis response may require a cross-platform reaction, so sit down and think about what platforms will be most important in different scenarios. Also, identify whether communication with media will be through platforms or whether you will leverage your PR team to work with media for interviews.

• Be ready to issue statements in a cross-platform format.
• Review and update your crisis communication plans internally every six months.

Looking forward, digital PR strategies for 2025 will require brands to adapt to evolving technologies and media landscapes. Companies can build lasting trust with audiences by aligning PR with SEO efforts and keeping brand authenticity at the forefront. The most effective PR strategies are those that evolve alongside the digital landscape, prioritize credibility, and foster genuine engagement. With this approach, your brand won’t just adapt to the latest trends—it will set the standard for innovative, impactful PR in a rapidly changing world and even future proof your brand.

 

PS: In honor of voice-first ideas, this podcast has been converted to a podcast in two different formats: 

Google’s Notebook has created a conversational breakdown to this article, two totally natural voices here:
And, at the top of the page, we have Linda reading this article.