Remember when marketing your firm was simple(r)? You’d write some blog posts, hire an SEO expert to research keywords and optimize your website, maybe buy a table at a conference—and watch the leads roll in.
Well, that world is gone.
Today, we live in a strange new era, and the strategies that worked for the last decade are fast becoming, if not irrelevant, less relevant. If you’ve noticed your website traffic taking a nosedive, you’re not imagining it. One recent analysis found that about 70% of searches today end without a visit to a website. Ouch.
So, what in the digital world is going on?
The Great Click-Through Heist
The main culprit is the very search engine we’ve all been trying to please. Google’s relatively new AI Overviews and Search Generative Experience (SGE) are now answering many of users’ questions directly on the results page.
Why is this a problem? Because your prospects no longer need to click your link to get their answer.
This has led to a terrifying new term—zero-click searches. Early data shows this shift could cause an 18-64% drop in organic clicks for some queries.
In short, Google is becoming an answer engine, not a link engine. The rules of the game are shifting. The goal isn’t just to rank #1 anymore. It’s also to be the source for the AI’s summary. This new discipline even has a name: generative engine optimization (GEO).
And how do you win at GEO? Google itself has given us the answer. They call it E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness).
Google’s AI is learning to value true expertise. It doesn’t just want a blog post. It wants a blog post written by a recognized authority.
This is where the entire marketing playbook pivots.
Welcome to the New PR
If you can’t rely on your website to be found, you have to go where your audience already is. This is where public relations (PR) comes in, but not the PR you’re used to.
The old PR model is also breaking. Traditional media is shrinking—mass layoffs and media consolidation mean there are fewer journalists to cover businesses like yours. At the same time, the number of PR specialists has ballooned, creating more competition for fewer media slots.
The new, smart PR strategy isn’t about chasing a feature in a shrinking national paper. It’s about digital PR and micro-media.
This might mean generating visibility in outlets like these:
- Niche industry podcasts
- Respected newsletters
- Guest spots on influential YouTube channels
- Speaking at virtual webinars
- Relevant, high-authority blogs
These are just a few general examples. In fact, the best way to find out exactly where you should be promoting yourself is to ask your clients what they read, watch and attend. The challenge, of course, is finding, reaching out and pitching these outlets. Many firms hire or outsource this specialized function—the digital PR specialist.
This new form of PR is less about getting coverage and more about building awareness and authority. It’s a content and thought leadership play, and it leads directly to the most powerful asset you have.
Your Superpower—The (Very Visible) Expert
If your corporate website is losing traffic and traditional media is too crowded, what’s left?
Your people.
The new world of professional services marketing is about building the personal brands of your top experts.
Buyers of professional services don’t trust a faceless firm. They trust experts. The more you can make your experts the face of your firm, the greater your potential to grow. While this may sound like a return to the traditional professional services marketing of yore—where relationships were built on the golf course and at networking events—it’s not.
The new marketing mandate is to stop hiding your experts and turn them into “Visible Experts.” This means:
- Empowering Them: Encourage them to build their own followings on platforms like LinkedIn.
- Promoting Them: Use your new “micro-media” PR strategy to get them on podcasts and webinars, not just your CEO.
- Connecting Them: Their authority is your firm’s authority. Their visibility is your firm’s new SEO.
The old model was to drive traffic to a website. The new model is to build a following around your people.
That’s not to say your website is unimportant, or that in-person networking doesn’t work. In fact, these—and many other traditional techniques—remain critical components of many firms’ success. However, it’s time to change the way you think about what builds engagement in a world of declining personal referrals and buyers’ increasing reliance on social media, micro media and AI to find and vet service firms.
In this strange new world, the firms that win will be the ones that stop marketing their services and start marketing their brains.
