How to Stay on Top of PR Trends + Be Successful Long-Term

Are you staying on top of evolving PR trends in your industry? You don’t want to be caught unprepared. If you want longevity in your business, you need to watch trends, get ahead of trends, predict what’s coming or at least be on the early end of what’s happening and changing in your industry.

You want a business that’s going to be here for the long run. One that will sustain you and earn you a great income. 

I’ve had my business for 15 years and still love it! And I still love my clients and the work I do. 

I want to show you how you can create the same long term business even amidst the changing landscape.

Past Changes In PR Trends And How Things Have Evolved

You’ve probably noticed that the PR industry has been changing fast over the years. When I started 15 years ago, print magazines were everything. But now many publications are folding or becoming part of other publications. 

The way people consume media now has disrupted that age-old tradition that most PR leaders have learned to rely on. 

A lot of bigger agencies try to ignore these changes. They’re sticking their head in the sand. They think the changes and PR trends are going to blow over because these changes happen so fast. They decide that they don’t need to adjust their strategies for the new trends because it’s going to be a thing of the past.

A smaller agency is going to be quicker to respond to clients’ problems about the evolving trends. Many clients want to work with a team who can help solve their problems quickly. 

Agencies that are slow to respond end up watching their profits dwindle, and they're in for a really rude awakening. 

This is not something that will blow over. Changes will continue to evolve because of the rate technology is accelerating. If you don’t keep up, it will just get worse for you. And it’s not just social media, it’s all of the changing media landscape. 

5 Steps To Take To Protect Your Revenue This Year and Beyond

1. Create Systems

You might be wondering what do you do to protect your agency and your revenue in this ever-changing landscape.

The biggest thing that you can do right now is create systems in your business that keep clients coming in.

You want to have a solid pipeline of consistent client leads and recurring retainer revenue. You don’t want to stress about where your next client is coming from. 

2. Price Your Services Based On Value

You want to have results in this changing landscape, but you've also got to put food on the table. It's about cash flow in your agency, and getting to that place where you’re charging at a minimum, for example, 3,000, up to 5,000 a month.

Get into the mindset that you’re providing a service that’s worth that much and higher. 

You’re pricing your services based on value, not based on the time that goes into it. Your value includes being confident that you know what to recommend to your clients. It’s best to specialize in a few things and become excellent at them. 

It means niching down to get clarity on who you can help and how to help them. And this is how you can approach those types of clients who will support your fees that you deserve. 

Related: How to Know Your Value and Finally Charge What You’re Worth

3. Find Out What Clients Are Asking For

Pay attention to what clients are asking and why they’re asking it. Keep track of the trends they want to know more about. 

Think about why they’re asking. Is it something they’ve heard or is it something they really want.  Is it the right fit for their business or is something else a better use of your time as the expert or their financial allocation?

You’ll notice that right now there is an overall increase in the general confusion and chaos that’s happening with clients and agencies. Clients don’t always know what they need. They may have heard about nano influencers but you may think they don’t need that. You have to listen to what your clients are commonly asking for.

What they need from you is leadership. 

They need a leader who has confidence in their expertise and is able to make recommendations. They need someone to give them an unpopular opinion that goes against what they're asking for, who is able to stand firm and know, as the expert, what is the right approach for them.

4. Niche Down

To stay on top of trends is to really laser in and know what’s happening in your industry. Because when you niche down it’s easier than trying to be all things to all people. You don’t want to end up doing research for 50 different niches or service offerings. This would mean you’re trying to do too much while everything is changing around you. It’s too hard to keep up with too many options. 

Instead, go deep into your expertise. Have a few key places you’re reading and searching for trends in your industry. This will help you stay on top of what’s happening so that you can pitch it and sell it and make your clients feel like they’ll be working with an expert. And expert who understands what they need specifically. You’ll be able to make recommendations to them based on what is happening in the media landscape and you won’t freak out over trends that don’t apply to them. 

If you jump in every direction of evolving trends, without really understanding what they mean or how it impacts your client, you're going to be scattered all over the place.

Niching down on what you offer and who you serve helps you go deep in your expertise. 

5. Pay Attention To Results

Keep track of the results you get with clients. You want to know what has worked and converted really well and what had a huge impact. 

Then you can do more of those types of things. Get a deep expertise on the things that worked well and then that becomes part of your services that you offer. As you go deeper into the areas that brought results and had an impact for your clients, you can then confidently sell those services. 

The insights you learn and glean from what you’ve already done for some clients is what you can apply to other clients. 

Having expertise gives you the ability to charge more. This gives you the solid foundation you need to build a business that sustains you in the long run. 

To stay on top of PR trends and be successful long term in your industry takes a combination of asking for what you deserve, being the expert, and having a deep expertise of your specific clients and what you offer them. 

If you try to do everything, you won’t have the depth of knowledge and wealth of information you need to help your niche. Without that depth of knowledge, you won’t have anything for anyone. 

Become the go-to expert so that you’re sought after by your dream clients. That’s how you stay on top of the evolving PR trends and how you can be an industry leader.