Running SEO & PR Like 2025 - Marketing Envy Meetup Recap

Last week, I had the privilege of speaking at Marketing Envy’s meetup about the future of SEO and PR. While choosing to talk about such a rapidly evolving topic might have been a “terrible idea” (as my first slide confessed), the discussion helped crystallize some crucial insights about where marketing is headed.

Here’s the TL;DR of what we covered:

1. Gatekeepers Are Evolving: From AOL to Google to ChatGPT, the way people discover content keeps changing. Success means adapting to new curators of information.

2. SEO’s Fork in the Road: Brand presence and conversion-focused SEO are diverging. While showing up in AI results might help brand visibility, converting traffic requires owning demand through interactive tools and unique value.

3. PR’s New Reality: Traditional media is shrinking, but trusted curators (newsletters, niche podcasts, respected journalists) are more valuable than ever. Quality over quantity is the new norm.

4. Trust Is Everything: In an era of declining trust, credibility isn’t just nice-to-have – it’s survival. Building genuine expertise and human connections matters more than gaming algorithms. I wrote more about why trust is marketing’s biggest crisis. This is why content marketing fundamentals remain crucial.

5. The Path Forward: Success in 2025 means focusing on:

   • Creating interactive, data-driven content
   • Building relationships with genuine authorities
   • Prioritizing trust and credibility over quick wins
   • Adapting to new discovery mechanisms

Check out the full presentation below:

Want to discuss how these trends might affect your marketing strategy? Let’s chat.