Top 5 PR Trends to Watch in 2025

Happy 2025!

The public relations landscape is evolving faster than ever. For startups, SMEs, and small business owners, staying ahead of these trends is essential to maintaining visibility and relevance in a competitive market.

This year, the emphasis is on integrating advanced tools, leveraging data for personalisation, and crafting authentic campaigns that resonate with targeted audiences.

Here’s a look at the top 5 PR trends to watch in 2025, and how coaches, founders and small businesses can capitalize on them.

1. AI as a Creative Amplifier

AI has become a critical tool for pitching to the media. 

Pitching stories is mainly about relevance to the journalist and news publication. The good news is that publicity is a game, and like all games we can optimise for performance once we understand the game master, rules, rewards, price, stakeholders and gatekeeper. 

The trick is this- once you can map out the process and rules of the PR Game, you can decide where to involve AI and where to involve human.

AI automates repetitive tasks like media monitoring, sentiment analysis, and pitch creation, enabling businesses to focus on creativity and storytelling. AI tools can also generate insights from data to help craft compelling narratives.

Example:
A Singapore-based fitness studio used AI to analyze customer feedback and discovered a growing demand for wellness programs tailored for busy professionals. They then launched a PR campaign highlighting their lunchtime fitness classes and targeted local media and wellness influencers.

Why It’s Important:
For coaches, experts and SMEs with limited budgets and teams, AI levels the playing field. It saves time, reduces costs, and provides actionable insights that help businesses craft impactful campaigns.

This is also what AI Visionary Society will double down on this year- to help more experts, coaches and small business owners do publicity with AI, without spending a fortune. 

2. Data-Driven Personalization

The era of one-size-fits-all campaigns is over. Data analytics- accelerated by AI- now allow PR professionals to hyper-personalize their messaging, making campaigns more relevant to specific audience segments.

Example:
A local boutique bakery analyzed customer preferences and found that vegan desserts were gaining traction. They crafted a PR campaign around their new vegan cake collection, pitching the story to health and lifestyle editors while partnering with vegan food bloggers.

Why It’s Important:
Personalized campaigns show that businesses understand their audience’s needs, increasing engagement and building stronger brand loyalty. Coaches, experts and SMEs can use data-driven strategies to deliver the right message to the right people at the right time.

3. Marrying SEO and PR

SEO is no longer just for websites—it’s now an essential part of PR.

By integrating SEO strategies into PR campaigns, businesses can ensure their content is discoverable online and aligns with what their audience is searching for.

Example:
A local cybersecurity startup optimized its press release around the trending keyword "solutions against deep fakes" and pitched it to local tech publications.

The press release gained traction and helped the startup rank higher in search engine results, increasing inquiries from potential clients.

Why It’s Important:
For small businesses, integrating SEO into PR maximizes visibility and ensures campaigns have a lasting digital impact. It’s a cost-effective way to drive organic traffic and establish authority in a crowded market.

4. Treasure In the Niche

The focus on influencer marketing has shifted toward working with micro- and niche influencers who have loyal and highly engaged audiences. Interestingly, many reporters and PR practitioners have also reported using substack to search for these micro-influencers with deep knowledge and passion in their respective niches. Reddit is also a goldmine for highly-specialised knowledge. 

Example:
A local sustainable fashion brand collaborated with a Singapore-based micro-influencer known for promoting eco-friendly lifestyles. The influencer showcased the brand’s versatile, minimalist clothing on Instagram, driving increased traffic to the brand’s offline events and boosting sales.

Why It’s Important:
Smaller businesses benefit from the authenticity and affordability of working with niche influencers. These partnerships create stronger connections with audiences who trust the influencer’s recommendations, leading to more meaningful engagement.

5. Data as the New Storytelling Currency

This is my personal favorite trend.

Data is becoming the backbone of effective PR campaigns. Coaches, experts and SMEs can use survey results, customer feedback, or internal analytics to craft stories that feel credible and resonate with their audience.

Remember though, that the data isn’t the story. Data is data—it’s a tool, a guide, a resource. What it does is invaluable: it tells you where to look for stories, what stories to tell, and even what stories you might be missing.

Data can shape and amplify your storytelling efforts, but it cannot be the story. Only a well-crafted narrative, rooted in human emotion and context, can truly captivate your audience.

Example:
A coworking space in Singapore surveyed its members and found that 70% felt more productive after joining. The business used this original data to pitch stories to local business publications, positioning the coworking space as a solution for solopreneurs and startups looking to increase productivity.

Why It’s Important:
For coaches, experts and SMEs, data-driven storytelling offers an effective way to stand out in crowded markets. Data lends credibility, providing journalists with hard facts that make pitches more compelling. By combining data with human-centric storytelling, small businesses can elevate their PR strategies and forge stronger connections with their audience.

The key is to let the data guide your narrative, not replace it—because only a story can truly be a story.

Final Thoughts

The PR industry in 2025 is about working smarter with AI. 

Coaches, experts and small business owners have unprecedented opportunities to integrate AI, leverage data, and forge authentic connections with their audiences, without paying a fortune. 

By staying ahead of these trends, we can craft impactful campaigns that drive results without requiring massive budgets.

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-Written with Love, WW!