It’s a tale as old as time. Every fall, editors get flooded with predictions for the coming year. But let’s be honest: Many of these “predictions” are thinly disguised product pitches or straight-up boring.
In this episode of SaaS Half Full, Kelsey Sowder, VP of Client Relations at PANBlast, shared how to get your thought leaders to share perspectives worth running.
Why Prediction Season Still Works
Predictions season runs from October to April every year. The trend has stood the test of time. Why? Because everyone wants to know what’s coming next.
“It continues to be something editors ask for again and again. When we’re experts in our industry, we’re always looking for what’s the next thing? What’s the next big tech disruptor that we need to pay attention to? What’s the next best practice that we need to implement to create a stronger business? So those things are wonderful for predictions.” — Kelsey Sowder
Industry leaders read trade publications to spot emerging technology disruptors and operational best practices. Editors also use predictions to spot trends. If they get a single pitch, it’s an isolated thought. If they receive the same idea from 50 people, it might be a trend to look into.
The benefit for PR folks is that forward-looking takes are a reliable way to secure some quality coverage, from quote inclusions to roundups to contributed content.
The challenge is making those ideas interesting and unique enough to capture the media’s attention.
The 4-Step Playbook to Generate Genuine Predictions from Executives
Many executives like to play it safe with their statements. Others want to talk about their product and how it solves emerging problems. These inclinations make sense, but they’re not going to make waves.
PANBlast tries to dig deeper. We set up thought leader story mining discussions in September, with the goal of extracting three to four polished quotes per SME. There are four best practices for getting profound ideas.
- Know your SME’s interview style: Some executives need tight, highly specific questions to spark an idea, while others thrive when given a blank canvas and broad questions. Tailor the interview format to the individual.
- Find the white space first: Conduct background research across industry trade outlets, competitor coverage, and Reddit discussions before the interview. Pinpointing what has already been said allows you to steer executives toward unaddressed angles. We also love a good “What is the industry getting wrong?” prompt.
- Strip away hedging language: Executives often default to diplomatic, guarded language. Media editors do not publish lukewarm hedging; they want bold perspectives.
- Push for “why” and “how”: Never let an executive stop at a surface-level opinion. Everyone else can and will say the same thing. Dig deeper with prompts like “Tell me more about that,” “Why is that happening?” or “How will that actually play out?” The questions pull out the real substance behind their forecast.
The single fastest way to get a prediction rejected is pitching a product feature masked as an industry forecast. Editors and readers are savvy. They’ll spot it from a mile away.
Four predictions for PR in 2027
Of course, if we’re going to goad our clients into saying something bold, we’ve got to do it, too. Kelsey provided four predictions for the year ahead.
Prediction 1: Customer proof will become the new credibility standard
We’re living in a world full of AI slop and distrust. The more the brands can humanize themselves, the more they’re going to build trust with their audiences. Traditional case studies are great, but naming customers is the new trend.
Prediction 2: PR and comms move to the front lines of brand protection.
Brand protection cannot function like grabbing a fire extinguisher after the house is already ablaze. PR leaders need a seat at the table during ordinary operational decisions, such as executive hires, pricing updates, or customer policy changes, so they can spot potential reputational tripwires early.
Prediction 3: Newsletters are gold (for now)
Independent newsletters written by top journalists are having a huge moment. But not all of them are going to thrive. A market correction is inevitable. However, there are plenty of great ones out there, and they are a great channel for B2B brands.
Prediction 4: Companies will figure out more isn’t always more
Creating human content is at the heart of reaching customers, and AI can’t do that. Period. A lot more organizations are going to figure out automating their writing just isn’t going to work.
“I would expect to see more AI slop content, comma, but when it comes to SaaS and B2B companies who are trying to be more intentional about their marketing strategies, I think everyone’s starting to wise up and figure out more isn’t more. More is just more noise.”
Watch the full episode to dig deeper into these predictions.
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Episode Transcript
This has been generated by AI and optimized by a human.
[00:00:00] Kelsey Sowder: media are savvy, readers are savvy. An executive probably wouldn’t be interested in a thinly veiled product prediction for another company either. So it’s kind of reminding them, what would you find value in as a reader, and how can we actually get to an industry-facing perspective rather than one that is self-serving? Hey, and welcome back to SaaS Half Full, the only show serving B2B SaaS and AI marketers. I’m Lindsey Groepper, EVP at PANBlast, and I will be both your host and bartender today. Had an awesome conversation with one of my dear friends and colleagues, Kelsey Sowder, who is the VP of Client Relations at PANBlast.
[00:00:42] Lindsey Groepper: Today we are talking all things industry predictions. Part one of the conversation is how you can extract interesting industry predictions from your executives to pitch to the media, and part two is Kelsey and our agency’s own predictions as it relates to B2B PR and comms. If you care to grab a drink, please do and join me as I speak with Kelsey
[00:01:05] Lindsey Groepper: Hey, Kelsey. Welcome to SaaS Half Full
[00:01:08] Kelsey Sowder: Thank you so much. I am so excited to be here. It’s been a dream, truly
[00:01:12] Lindsey Groepper: my gosh, long time listener, first time caller.
[00:01:15] Kelsey Sowder: Mm-hmm. When we launched a podcast, I remember be- thinking like, “Oh, I wanna do that. I wanna do
[00:01:21] Lindsey Groepper: And here we are.
[00:01:23] Lindsey Groepper: We, I know, we, we don’t have, like, a ton of guests on from the agency, but usually, like, I don’t know, twice a year we do, so excited to have you. I don’t actually know if you said, like, raise your hand and said, “I wanna be on,” or if Julia from our team was like, “Kelsey, you’re being asked to go on.”
[00:01:40] Kelsey Sowder: Julia did voluntold me, but I was obviously a, a happy, happily chosen participant, though I am nervous to be here
[00:01:50] Lindsey Groepper: Well, I, you should be because this is like definitely gotcha culture, hard-hitting, I’m
[00:01:58] Lindsey Groepper: gonna try to expose you as much as I possibly can on
[00:02:02] Kelsey Sowder: I’m gonna have to use all my media training tips
[00:02:05] Lindsey Groepper: No, the last guest that I had, I think, I can’t remember, the episode goes live soon here, um, maybe even this week. But we literally got on this like three minute, which in a, a podcast is a long time, but a three-minute random side conversation about dinosaurs.
[00:02:20] Lindsey Groepper: Like any, you know, any, anything goes and
[00:02:24] Lindsey Groepper: Yeah
[00:02:25] Lindsey Groepper: we’re, we’re gonna go in all different places today. Um, but we’re primarily gonna talk about industry predictions. We’re gonna dive that, into that in a second.
[00:02:33] Lindsey Groepper: But before we do, Kels, can you give us an overview of your role at the agency, your history with the agency, because it’s actually quite lengthy now.
[00:02:43] Lindsey Groepper: Um, but what you do for our clients at PANBlast.
[00:02:46] Kelsey Sowder: Yeah, it, it– I am reaching 11 years in December at PANBlast, formerly Blast Media. Um, I started as an account executive, and I have worked my way up through all of the positions that we have. So I guess that br- helps bring a unique perspective to my role. I have been in the seat where my AEs are before.
[00:03:08] Kelsey Sowder: I’ve been in the same seat as my directors, so I can counsel them appropriately. What I do today as a VP of Client Relations is partly new business, bringing new clients aboard. I work with a set of current clients to ensure their program success. So that looks like having oversight of all plans and deliverables to ensure that everything that we are doing is going to lead into the client’s overall marketing strategy and goals as brands.
[00:03:39] Kelsey Sowder: And then I also do run a team, so there is a people component of my work as well. And I also run our team media. I have an interest in the changing media landscape and the way media operates, so I have a small subset of a team. What we do is specialize in pitching and having a really in-depth understanding of media moves, what media is covering, how to get in touch with them, best practices, things like that
[00:04:07] Lindsey Groepper: And I had the distinct honor of interviewing you when you were an AE
[00:04:12] Lindsey Groepper: 11 years ago. I remember it like it was yesterday. I literally knew right off the bat while you walked out of the room, and I was like, “We, we should hire her.” So, um, thank you for sticking with us for 11 years. Really appreciate it.
[00:04:26] Lindsey Groepper: Um, n- like I do with every guest,
[00:04:28] Lindsey Groepper: we give you the opportunity to order a cocktail or a mocktail kit to share a drink with me on the show. Um, what did you mix up today?
[00:04:36] Kelsey Sowder: I have a mocktail margarita because if anybody knows me, if I have one sip of alcohol, I can no longer, I can no longer speak. It’s already happening, and this is a fake cocktail. So this is what I went with. And it’s pretty good
[00:04:51] Lindsey Groepper: I think you just get even more fun.
[00:04:53] Lindsey Groepper: I, I, lo- I, you know, love how you speak. Um, I’m drinking because I always do. I always stay true to process. We are six years in. There’s only been two episodes where I didn’t drink. Does not matter time of day, day of week, time of year, I do the thing. So, uh, I’m actually drinking a tequila blanco
[00:05:13] Kelsey Sowder: Uou
[00:05:14] Lindsey Groepper: soda, but it’s like a, it has a weird…
[00:05:16] Lindsey Groepper: For those of you that are looking, it has a weird hue to it ’cause it’s like this, like a raspberry lime situation. Um, and it is better than I thought it was going to be, which is good because last episode, my cocktail I mixed up was literally horrible. Um, and I, I mixed vodka with a, oh, what’s it called?
[00:05:37] Lindsey Groepper: Not a poppy. It was
[00:05:38] Lindsey Groepper: something. A bloom, a
[00:05:40] Kelsey Sowder: or
[00:05:40] Lindsey Groepper: a bloom. And the bloom usually how to have a can, when you pour it, it is
[00:05:44] Lindsey Groepper: literally highlighter yellow, and I couldn’t get past it.
[00:05:47] Lindsey Groepper: So this is actually way better. So
[00:05:49] Lindsey Groepper: cheers. Thank you for joining me
[00:05:51] Kelsey Sowder: Cheers
[00:05:53] Lindsey Groepper: One of the things Kelsey mentioned is that she’s on Team Media, uh, which keeps up with all things new media, where the industry is headed. so we are tackling a couple things today. One is talking about the overall PR strategy that is pitching industry predictions, which is something that we do for our clients. And then we’re going to move also into what are Kelsey’s predictions for the comms industry as it relates to B2B SaaS and AI companies. So looking forward to both of those things. But we call this really time from September-ish through the end of the year, prediction season at PANBlast and for our clients. Talk to us about what is prediction season, uh, and why it is still alive and well 11 years later. We’ve been doing this a long time
[00:06:38] Kelsey Sowder: I know it’s really lasted the test of time, and it continues to be something editors ask for again and again, I think for a couple purposes. So like Lindsay said, the beginning of Q4 to the end of Q1 is really what we do consider prediction season. You will see predictions run up until April of the, the next year, so 2027 for this year.
[00:07:03] Kelsey Sowder: Predictions serve a purpose for editors because they’re, of course, searching for content. They’re looking for things to share with their readers. And that look ahead, I think satisfies a curiosity for readers. You know, when we’re experts in our industry, we’re always looking for what’s the next thing?
[00:07:23] Kelsey Sowder: What’s the next big, you know, tech disruptor that we need to pay attention to? What’s the next best practice that we need to implement to create a stronger business? So those things are wonderful for predictions. And then editors can also use predictions to trend spot. So if they get a prediction about a certain idea and it’s a one-off idea, okay, it’s a thought.
[00:07:49] Kelsey Sowder: But if they get predictions, like 50 predictions on the same idea, then they know, “Okay, this is something that I need to look into deeper and potentially add to my editorial calendar in the year ahead, because my readers and industry experts are clearly interested in it and seeing it in the field
[00:08:11] Lindsey Groepper: And this in practice looks like when you literally, whatever you’re le- reading, watching, listening to, it’s like the future of X, five experts weigh in, or it might be a quote around that by, you know, by 2035 we expect, or 2027, 2027 is gonna be the, the year that X ends. These are all, like, types of predictions.
[00:08:34] Lindsey Groepper: They come in various forms. So for our clients it might look like a quote as part of a larger trend or, trend story, that five experts weigh in scenario. It could be a full, like, op-ed perspective piece that is really going in depth about the future of whatever it is. Um, and it could be also interviews.
[00:08:51] Lindsey Groepper: It could be a podcast interview, um, could be a written Q&A. It takes a lot of, um, different shapes and forms.
[00:08:57] Lindsey Groepper: but for those of you that are managing comms, whether that’s in-house or you’re agency, Kelsey, can you walk us through just how this works in practice? Like,
[00:09:05] Lindsey Groepper: how do you approach this with a client or an internal exec?
[00:09:08] Lindsey Groepper: And then how do you ensure that what you’re actually getting from a prediction standpoint is interesting? It’s a prediction, so you can’t … There’s not necessarily, like, research you can do to, like, it’s not true or not, you know, true or untrue, but, like, how do you extract something that’s actually interesting?
[00:09:25] Kelsey Sowder: Mm-hmm. So because we have been doing this for so many years, we do have the process down to, you know, what I’d say is running like a well-oiled machine. Our teams know when it comes to September, we start getting story mining calls on the calendar with our subject matter experts. We hold those calls, ask our questions, and then typically the output is three to four polished quotes that are predictions that we can send standalone for quote inclusions, we can use as the basis for larger pieces like contributed content, or seed those in as ideas for potential podcasts or interview opportunities.
[00:10:05] Kelsey Sowder: Now, once those are complete, that’s the easy part.
[00:10:10] Kelsey Sowder: So when it comes to getting an actually meaty prediction, there are a couple of best practices. I would say there’s four. So number one would be asking the right questions and knowing your SME. At this point, with our SMEs, we typically know when we’re dealing with an exec that needs a really specific question versus one that does well with a broad question.
[00:10:34] Kelsey Sowder: So knowing those things, setting up the questions accordingly. Number two would be doing your industry research and finding the white space, which is no different than something we’re always doing for our clients. We are looking at trends, we’re looking at Reddit conversations, we’re looking at competitor conversations in those industry pubs, seeing what’s already being said and identifying areas that our client can enter the conversation.
[00:10:59] Kelsey Sowder: Number three would be polishing those quotes and stripping away, words that are hedging. So sometimes our executives do like to, present things in a more diplomatic manner. But our job as media experts are to create things that we know media will be interested in, and those are bold, finite ideas.
[00:11:25] Kelsey Sowder: So our job is to strip away that hedging language and create something really strong. And then going back a step into the actual conversation with our execs, I would say that asking why and how are very important in those actual physical conversations. not letting an exec get away with a, a medium lukewarm answer.
[00:11:47] Kelsey Sowder: Asking them something like, “Tell me more about that,” or, “Why XYZ?” or, “How will that actually happen?” really pushes them further into their own thought process for us to get a hold of the meat of what they’re actually predicting.
[00:12:02] Lindsey Groepper: Mm-hmm. it’s been a minute since I was, uh, actually working on clients and predictions, but I do remember that many clients, especially from the executive standpoint, their inclination is to, like, push product and it’s, like, veiled as a prediction. It’s like if I’m a, like, you know, like a influence orchestration platform, it’d be like, “In 2027, we, we predict that the, you know, the marketing platforms that will rise to the top will be those that orchestrate influence.”
[00:12:29] Lindsey Groepper: And you’re like, “Bro, that is literally your, your product.” How do, how do you, like, push beyond
[00:12:35] Lindsey Groepper: the desire and, like, constant need to, to, like, work, like, product or self-serving, um, language into the predictions?
[00:12:44] Kelsey Sowder: Yeah. I think number one, saying that sometimes is a- appropriate in those conversations. And then also just reminding the executive that media are savvy, readers are savvy. An executive probably wouldn’t be interested in a thinly veiled product prediction for another company either. So it’s kind of reminding them, what would you find value in as a reader, and how can we actually get to an industry-facing perspective rather than one that is self-serving?
[00:13:15] Lindsey Groepper: Awesome.
[00:13:25] Lindsey Groepper: All right, I want to move into some of our own agency predictions that you and the team collected, uh, as it relates to, um, to comms and, and there’s some, there’s broader marketing, ones as well. one of the, the areas that we touched on in terms of a prediction is that, customer proof will become like the new credibility standard. and we all know that we’re living in a, in a world of complete mistrust with AI, and that the more that we can humanize our clients, the more the brands can humanize themselves, the more they’re going to build trust with their audiences. Talk to us a bit about the sort of the leaning into the customer proof and how clients can do this.
[00:13:54] Kelsey Sowder: Mm-hmm. So I have seen a large shift in the way customer stories are being told in media over my time in PR. The traditional customer story used to look like company A uses company B to achieve 20% X ROI. That’s still a story that’s out there, but what I’m seeing far more is large companies simply citing their largest customers as those proof points.
[00:14:25] Kelsey Sowder: So they’re saying, you know, “We have Uber, we have Chase Bank, we have NVIDIA as customers,” and, you know, as they’re able to. That’s not possible for every client that we have. So if you can’t list those largest customers that you have, there are some workarounds that we like to use to kind of massage clients into being able to talk about customer proof without actually naming customers.
[00:14:54] Kelsey Sowder: One of those ways is aggregate data over a set of customers. So looking at 200 customers, we identified trend X. Another way would be to talk about more of the customer’s credentials without actually naming them. So in that I mean saying something like, “A Fortune 100 retailer achieved X with our product.”
[00:15:21] Lindsey Groepper: That rhymes with warget.
[00:15:24] Kelsey Sowder: Exactly, or Mall Mart. Um, so now are those things going to lead to a top-tier piece of coverage? Probably not, but in owned content and things like LinkedIn posts, like those are stairsteps to greater credibility and eventually that tier one interest.
[00:15:46] Lindsey Groepper: those are great points because what I’m gathering here is like, it’s not that deep. Like a lot of times people hear like customer proof, customer stories and, and we get, I, you know, we get this too where it’s like, they’re, I’m telling you right now, there’s no way that any of my customers are gonna talk, especially if our clients are in like a highly regulated, regulated industry where like nobody wants to talk about their like shitty security posture before they worked with this company, which totally get it. But from what you’re saying, there are some workarounds. There are other ways that you’re able to leverage customers as credibility proof points that don’t involve like an, a formal like stamp of approval case study on I used this vendor.
[00:16:24] Kelsey Sowder: Correct.
[00:16:25] Lindsey Groepper: Okay. Love that. If you can get that, we’ll take it.
[00:16:29] Kelsey Sowder: I will absolutely take it.
[00:16:31] Lindsey Groepper: Yes.
[00:16:31] Lindsey Groepper: Awesome. We like that.
[00:16:33] Lindsey Groepper: moving on to another prediction was the, through the changing role of, uh, PR and comms professionals moving more into like the front lines, in a number of different ways, but a lot in brand protection. we all know that internal comms are no longer internal comms.
[00:16:51] Lindsey Groepper: Everything that’s internal can soon be external. But talk to us about, sort of this path forward that you see with, PR teams taking more of a frontline.
[00:16:59] Kelsey Sowder: Yeah, we’ve absolutely seen the emergence of the chief communications officer. There’s a lot of discourse about where that person actually sits within an organ- organization and who they report to. We are sometimes seeing them report directly into the CEO, which is something new, but I would say is absolutely part of, you know, business’ necessity these days.
[00:17:23] Kelsey Sowder: I actually was on Reddit the other day reading the PR subreddit and saw this horror story of this poor PR person who, you know, crisis came up at their company. the CEO and other executives debriefed on it, had comms set to go out, and the thing turned into a much larger disaster because the comms person wasn’t in the room from the beginning of the issue.
[00:17:51] Kelsey Sowder: So it’s kind of like trying to put out a fire without having a fire extinguisher in your house. Like, we need to be prepared for what’s going to happen before it actually does. So ultimate brand protection is about just that, being prepared in advance and having those people in the room even when you’re doing things that might feel insignificant.
[00:18:14] Kelsey Sowder: Things like bringing on, you know, new executives. Is it pricing changes? Are there customer conversations that are happening that a, a brand person might be able to preempt or, you know, put out proactive comms about?
[00:18:31] Lindsey Groepper: Yeah, ’cause as comms people, we, we always have an ear out for interesting stories. And there’s countless times with our clients where they’ll, and just in the course of a normal conversation, they’ll disclose something, move on, and then we’re like, “Whoop, back up.
[00:18:47] Lindsey Groepper: Whoa, what was that?” And we’re like, “That’s really cool.
[00:18:51] Lindsey Groepper: That would make a really interesting story. Tell us more about that.”
[00:18:55] Lindsey Groepper: But if you don’t live in our, in the world of storytelling, there’s so many things that are happening within your organization that you wouldn’t necessarily think are newsworthy. And for, especially in this age where we’re trying to humanize and build trust, these little things that are happening within the org can sometimes be really great credibility and trust builders. but unless you sort of are wearing that hat day-to-day, it’s not something you’d stop and talk about.
[00:19:20] Lindsey Groepper: and I’m glad you brought up not just it from a crisis standpoint, but just being in the rooms so that we can do our jobs and extract the interesting things that are happening, uh, within or that we know are gonna resonate with the media. and those things are often not the, the big initiatives or the new announcements and things like that. Yeah, that’s awesome.
[00:19:49] Lindsey Groepper: Um, you, uh, mentioned Reddit. This is a not, certainly not new media, right? It’s been around for quite some time. there’s a million reasons why it is, like, super popular right now, however. but this brings me to the new media discussion
[00:19:56] Lindsey Groepper: because one of the predictions that our, agency had was around newsletters.
[00:20:01] Lindsey Groepper: everyone’s got a newsletter.
[00:20:03] Lindsey Groepper: there’s just anyone and everyone and their mother and brother can write a newsletter. There’s a million different newsletter platforms. I don’t recall who at the agency specifically said this, but basically
[00:20:14] Lindsey Groepper: that
[00:20:14] Kelsey Sowder: it was me.
[00:20:15] Lindsey Groepper: it was you, ooh,
[00:20:17] Lindsey Groepper: talking to the right person, uh, that 2027 was gonna be the year of the newsletter reckoning.
[00:20:23] Lindsey Groepper: I love it. That sounds very intense. that being said, newsletters are a part of our PR strategy as part of this new media
[00:20:34] Lindsey Groepper: outreach that we do. so talk to us about newsletters and why you think it’s gonna be a reckoning.
[00:20:40] Kelsey Sowder: Yeah. I will first start off and say I am a huge consumer of newsletters. I subscribe to probably, I get 10 a day or something like that, and I love them. I think they serve a wonderful purpose. They bring the news that I am actively interested in into my inbox. So big fan, big fan overall of newsletters.
[00:21:01] Kelsey Sowder: Do I think the reckoning that I predicted is happening today? No, I don’t. I, I think it’s still to come because we are still seeing that proliferation of media. We’re still seeing a lot of media contacts decide to go out on their own and build their own platforms. Some have been more successful at it than others.
[00:21:21] Kelsey Sowder: I’m looking at you, Alex Conrad, Chrissy Farr, like they’re incredibly successful right now. But I do think it’s a hard business model for anyone to take on on their own and not be associated with a traditional media outlet. So the importance of newsletters though for our clients still remains. what we do is take a look at a newsletter’s audience and ensure that it aligns with what our client is, you know, trying to express from a thought leadership standpoint, and that the newsletter is actually PR friendly.
[00:22:00] Kelsey Sowder: Some are, some are not, and that’s up to us to find out. Now, newsletters can range in interest from some want product announcement updates, some want more succinct soundbites from CEOs, and some are more interested in data. And that’s up to your PR team to figure out how to best get into that medium and present the information to the editor of the newsletter in order to get that placement.
[00:22:29] Lindsey Groepper: What do you feel like has been the response with our clients when you bring new media opportunities forward? Because certainly all of our clients like to be in recognizable media outlets, but we are oftentimes bringing them, maybe it’s a Substack newsletter from a former reporter they never heard of or an influencer that they’re f- not familiar with and, you know, there’s, there’s not hundreds of thousands of subscribers. What’s the appetite? And if there’s not an appetite for it, how are you getting around that?
[00:23:01] Kelsey Sowder: I would say there’s more frequently an appetite than there is not. Once we explain the value of what the placement could be or the opportunity is, most clients are on board. Clients are excited about new ways to get in front of high-intent audiences. That was actually a point I was gonna make when I was talking about my love of newsletters, is that somebody who’s reading a newsletter is somebody who’s actually, like, high intent, has a high propensity to convert.
[00:23:31] Kelsey Sowder: They are asking for this information, and yes, you know, click-through rates, et cetera, we were aware of those. But, like, the people that are reading it are engaged and interested. So I find them a very valuable medium, and our clients recognize that as well, which is great to see
[00:23:49] Lindsey Groepper: Good. Good. because I know there’s, there’s a new definition of, of earned media. A lot of marketers still think of that as, like, traditional media that, you know, that’s earned that we’ve all heard of.
[00:23:59] Lindsey Groepper: But the LLMs have a much broader definition of what earned media is. and even if you look at Substack specifically, Pan did research that showed that almost half of general consumers subscribe to at least one Substack, and that that is growing. And so the, it is a viable, to your point, opted-in audience that is saying, raising their hand and saying, “Yes, I want this information.” And also we’re, we’re seeing that newsletters like Substack, for example, do index in LLMs. So there is value, in not only being, having those buyers be very interested in, in opting into that, but also from the bot perspective.
[00:24:39] Lindsey Groepper: So there’s, like, both bot and buyer value in that. I would throw in my own prediction here that at, maybe not by next year, but I would imagine that by, like, 2035, that what the LLMs are defining as earned media is gonna become everyone’s broad definition,
[00:24:56] Lindsey Groepper: that those new media are gonna
[00:24:59] Lindsey Groepper: outpace the traditional media that we all know. and like, what we’re doing as PR professionals is gonna fundamentally shift, and it already has. I mean, that’s what we’re seeing with
[00:25:07] Lindsey Groepper: our clients as well.
[00:25:08] Lindsey Groepper: coming off the heels of newsletter and how everyone can create one, there’s tons of newsletter, platforms you can leverage. everyone’s creating more content.
[00:25:15] Lindsey Groepper: Everyone has the ability now to create more content. Do you think that more content is officially out as a content strategy for 2027? Or do you predict that we’re gonna continue to see an insane amount of AI slop in the battle of creating more content continue?
[00:25:33] Kelsey Sowder: Overall, in the cultural, cultural zeitgeist, I would expect to see more AI slop content, comma, but when it comes to SaaS and B2B companies who are trying to be more intentional about their marketing strategies, I think everyone’s starting to wise up and figure out more isn’t more. More is just more noise.
[00:25:59] Kelsey Sowder: And I am seeing more and more clients and, you know, also speaking with our own content specialists talk about just the importance of human at the crux of the content. And that is no different from anything we’ve said f- over the past 10 years. You know, creating content with humans at the heart of it, you know, that was the SEO strategy back in the day, and now it’s going to be the LLM strategy here forward.
[00:26:26] Kelsey Sowder: Creating intentional content that answers human questions and gets to resonate with actual human readers is, is just still gonna be paramount.
[00:26:37] Lindsey Groepper: Yeah. I agree with you on that. I, I feel the more content as the content strategy is gonna get worse
[00:26:44] Lindsey Groepper: before it gets better. I mean, I feel like we’re just,
[00:26:46] Lindsey Groepper: like, just in the wave of badness.
[00:26:49] Lindsey Groepper: Like, it’s just gonna continue to swell, swell, swell,
[00:26:52] Lindsey Groepper: um, before it finally breaks. And I, you know, I feel like it’s gonna be quite a few years at that. are there any other predictions that you wanted to throw into the mix? I know we gathered these a while back, as it relates to earned media or AI viz. anything else that you wanna throw in there?
[00:27:06] Kelsey Sowder: Yeah, good question. I do think that earned media, specifically media relations, will still continue to be a part of PR strategies moving forward. We’ve seen with both AI visibility and just brand awareness that third-party credibility continues to be a component that is looked at as part of, you know, how a brand appears to prospective customers.
[00:27:34] Kelsey Sowder: Like, earned media is fueling LLM answers. We don’t know exactly how much. According to Muck Rack, it’s quite a bit. According to others, it’s not as much. I think there will just always be a need for earned media, and specifically an objective and free press for, you know, the good of the American public
[00:27:57] Lindsey Groepper: I completely agree. what would you say to a client let’s say you secured, let’s say they’re like a ad tech client,
[00:28:04] Lindsey Groepper: and let’s say you secured a, a feature story in, Ad Age, which is,
[00:28:10] Lindsey Groepper: you know, tier one for them, and they said, “Well, what was the point? I don’t see it indexed in any LLMs.”
[00:28:16] Kelsey Sowder: Hmm. That’s a great question. I would say please wait because it doesn’t necessarily work that quickly. Yes, owned content can be cited very quickly in LLMs, which is a great signal, and I, you know, I love citing that to clients when we make it happen, comma, but old content is also appearing in a lot of LLM search results.
[00:28:47] Kelsey Sowder: So content from years ago is even driving LLM answers today. So I would say try to be patient, and then I would also go into, you know, the wonderful things about Ad Age, Adweek, and their readership and what that kind of third-party validation will do to bolster their brand. And then I would also talk about how they can reuse the piece of content in their own sales efforts, social strategy
[00:29:18] Lindsey Groepper: Yep, I totally agree. And I, I, I asked that question because I do feel like we get that, and I’m on the front lines of, you know, new client acquisition. And, there’s just such an, like an over-indexing on LLM
[00:29:30] Lindsey Groepper: visibility, and it really, it really is dual track. And so I, I mean, obviously we agree because we work at the same company and, um, you’re on the front lines of our client stuff. but that there is so much– It’s the wrong question.
[00:29:42] Lindsey Groepper: You know, there is still immense value in a feature story in a trade outlet,
[00:29:48] Lindsey Groepper: even if it doesn’t index in LLMs. And you’re right on that data. That same MuckRock report shows that half of traditional earned media coverage is older than 12 months old.
[00:29:59] Kelsey Sowder: It’s, it’s wild. It’s, it’s a long game for LLM visibility. It’s not something you can just spin up in a month and expect to see results
[00:30:09] Lindsey Groepper: Right. Um, and we’ll say that Muck Rack report is chock-full of good data. The reason we bring it up is that it’s really just that the first headline that earned media drives eight, you know, 85% of all, you know, ad, AI sources. That is the one that kept getting passed around and people didn’t dive into the data.
[00:30:29] Lindsey Groepper: And when you really dive into the data that is in that report, it just paints a very different picture.
[00:30:35] Lindsey Groepper: so that’s why we continue to cite it. it’s great because it’s, it’s brought, uh, at least for me, a lot of fodder, on LinkedIn, and conversations that I’m having. Um, but Kelsey, this has been awesome.
[00:30:45] Lindsey Groepper: Is there anything that you want to tackle that we didn’t get a chance to cover today?
[00:30:49] Kelsey Sowder: Gosh, I can’t think of anything.
[00:30:51] Lindsey Groepper: Okay. Well, hopefully you did your homework on SaaS Half Full because as I end every episode, I ask my guests if they have a signature or favorite toast to send us out
[00:31:03] Kelsey Sowder: There is one coming to mind, but it’s only like the h- the last half of it, and it’s from like Southern, somebody from Southern Charm. And it’s
[00:31:12] Lindsey Groepper: for it. I don’t watch it, so even if you butcher it,
[00:31:14] Kelsey Sowder: the the, best ships are friendships, and then everybody cheers this. The, I told you I forgot the whole,
[00:31:20] Lindsey Groepper: I like that the best ships are friendships. Cheers
[00:31:25] Kelsey Sowder: Cheers.
[00:31:26] Lindsey Groepper: Thanks again to Kelsey for joining me on SaaS Half Full.
[00:31:29] Lindsey Groepper: It was a lovely conversation. Always love to hear from her and happy that she finally joined us on the show. Hope you took a couple things away from this conversation for your own predictions pitching, and until next time, bottoms up.