I’m fortunate to talk with a lot of smart people on my video podcast, PR Explored. They’re experts in their field and always share helpful, practical advice.
In case you’ve missed these interviews, I’ve pulled some insight from 26 of my guests to help as you prepare your marketing and PR plans for 2026.
PR and Marketing Lessons to Take Into the New Year
Here is some of the best advice from some of the brightest minds in the business, in no particular order:
1) Think you sound like a broken record? Keep repeating yourself.
“One of the things that I tell my clients is you need to repeat yourself over and over again when you are sick of hearing yourself say the same things over and over again because you feel like you’re being a broken record.
You feel like you’re being redundant. That’s when your audience starts to hear you. So when you can’t stand yourself anymore, that’s your signal to keep going.
It feels really counterintuitive, but not everybody is going to see everything that you put out there because everything is so noisy and because there are so many channels.
Once you’re sick of hearing it, keep talking. That’s something I have to remind myself of, as well, because. I always feel like, oh God, I can’t talk about that again. You absolutely can, and you should.”
-Sunny Hunt, founder of Hunt Interaction, offering Free Marketing Fridays
Listen to the episode – How PR Fits Into Customer Buying Decisions
2) LLMs are forcing companies to reckon with silos.
“One of the things that I think is interesting and positive is that LLMs (large language models) are almost forcing people to reckon with the silos, because a lot of the LLM-focused strategies cannot work unless multiple departments are working together on it.
It’s not just PR, it’s brand, it’s SEO. They’re all just operating these independent areas, and this is not how it’s supposed to be. So if LLMs are demanding people to care about third-party authority signals, they have to care about PR, and suddenly, SEO and PR are more connected than they ever have been, or they’re moving in that direction.”
-Amanda Milligan, Consultant and Founder, Brand Authority Club
Listen to the episode – How to Leverage Brand Authority in Your PR Strategy
3) Don’t practice random acts of PR.
“Have a sense of what you want the outcomes to be. Have some goals in mind. I always say don’t practice random acts of PR.
We’ve all been in that position where someone comes to you and says, I want to be in The Wall Street Journal, or whatever it is. Why? What are you trying to accomplish? What are you trying to achieve?
And, really make sure that you’re aligned on that, whether you have an internal PR person or you’ve hired somebody, make sure you have some clear goals in mind, too.”
-Kathy Casciani, principal of Azul PR + Communications
Listen to the episode – PR for Startups
4) Take the mystery out of PR through education.
“I think we make our best effort to explain to clients and people that we’re working with about what goes on behind the scenes. But I still think there’s a lot of mystery about exactly what it is we do.
And I sometimes think I’ve written really great pitches that landed great coverage. It took me hours to write that pitch by the time I researched, watched a couple videos, or read other articles that reporter had written to make sure it was awesome.
I do think there’s this misconception out there that publicists just have this little black book that we can use to call in favors and make quick phone calls. But there’s so much stuff that goes on behind the scenes – and it takes time.”
-Crystal Richard, publicist & president of Crystal Richard & Company
Listen to the episode – What to Expect When You’re Expecting PR
5) Accessibility is more about making progress than being perfect.
“Don’t consider accessibility about perfection. It’s all about progress.
You are going to make mistakes, and what matters is that you’re trying, you’re listening and you’re improving. That’s the big takeaway.
There’s so much opportunity in this space, not just to do good, but to do better work.”
-Matisse Hamel-Nelis, ADS, CPACC, award-winning accessible communications and marketing consultant, trainer, professor, and speaker, https://matissenelis.com/
Listen to the episode – Accessibility in PR and Communications
6) Public relations is not a widget business.
“Public relations is not a widget business. We’re not stamping out cookie-cutter PR product. This is not how public relations works.
All good PR work is custom. It is based on the proprietary knowledge of the client. It is based on the creativity and the intellectual capacity of the public relations executive to take that proprietary content and craft something unique, to connect with unique stakeholder audiences and build unique brand relationships.
This is not something that you can press a button and voila, we’ve got great PR, and that’s part of the education process. I think our industry has done a woeful job in educating business decision makers and business executives about really what public relations is – and what it is not.”
-Mary Beth West, consultant, https://www.marybethwest.com/
Listen to the episode – Select Ethical PR: Navigating Trust and Responsibility
7) The best way to prepare for crisis communication is to study how others in your industry have handled crises.
“Why wouldn’t you take a crisis that’s happened to somebody else and identify those lessons that they learn, and apply them in your own planning and approach? Why would you repeat the same mistakes?
I’m sure there are examples in just about every single industry that you could pull out and show to leadership to back you up and prove your point. There’s something out there you could find and dissect, and this truly is the best learning.”
-Shawna Bruce, principal of M.D. Bruce & Associates Ltd.
Listen to the episode – Crisis Communications: EVERY Organization Needs a Plan
8) Once you take time to create content, share it – more than once.
“It takes a lot of time to produce a good piece of content. And I think if you share it only once on social media, you are missing out on a huge opportunity to get your story out there. I think you’ve got to look at multiple ways to post in multiple formats, multiple times.
You could pull a quote out of a piece, or you could just take the headlines out of a piece. You could make it a carousel, or you could turn it into a podcast episode. There are so many ways that you can take a piece of content and share it.”
-Ayo Abbas, built environment marketing consultant & host of The Built Environment Marketing Show, Abbas Marketing
Listen to the episode – How to Bring “Boring” Industries to Life
9) Podcasts generate a lot of valuable content.
“Why should brands think about a podcast? Because it spawns.
How many social media posts can you write? From one episode? A lot.
Generate a blog. You could write a newsletter. Do 10 episodes and you’ve got 10 chapters of an ebook.”
-Doug Downs, podcast producer specializing in podcast development, analytics, and marketing, and the host of Stories and Strategies
Listen to the episode – Why Podcasts Should Be Part of Your PR Strategy
10) Proprietary research supports thought leadership.
“If you have a really strong perspective and you want to have some external validation, then you can use proprietary research.
The research itself is not the thought leadership, but all of the content that you’re going to be able to create, the stats that you’re going to be able to pepper into those presentations that you’re giving or into those ebooks that you’re going to create.
Research can be this amazing fodder and foundation for a really rich, thought leadership content later.”
-Erika Heald, B2B content marketing expert and consultant, https://erikaheald.com/
Listen to the episode – How PR and Content Teams Can Work Together to Maximize Thought Leadership
11) Better news hooks – and brevity – result in better media pitches.
“When engaging a journalist, there are a few things to consider. One is to determine what the story is. Probing your client, sitting down with your boss and saying, what’s so special about this? What are the superlatives? Is this the first time that it’s been done in the industry? And so on. So, it’s figuring out what the news hook is.
The second thing is, how do you articulate that? And what I’ve been using is Smart Brevity, which was created by Axios. It’s a very simple template that recognizes that recipients of your email are not going to read your whole email.
So you need a clever opening sentence, three bullets and an ask and that’s it. If you can’t capsulize what your pitch is in that format, you’re not doing your client a service.”
-Peter Himler, founder of Flatiron Communications
Listen to the episode – How to Stay on Top of the Evolving Mediaverse
12) Know what’s being said about your organization.
“When something bad happens, it’s going to move a lot faster (than something positive). The best advice I would give is to invest in monitoring tools. Have a good, solid set of systems in place to ensure that you are staying on top of everything that’s being said about your organization.
You might find that you need a combination of tools. Some tools will work better for one organization or sector than they will for another.”
-Steve Ryan, Assistant Professor of Instruction & Program Director of Public Relations at Temple University, https://www.linkedin.com/in/skryan/
Listen to the episode – Beyond Writing: Essential PR Skills
13) Breaking down silos between PR and social media.
“In terms of breaking down silos, I think in any situation, whether you’re going into a completely different industry or situation or even discipline, understanding the lingo within that area is crucial.
On the social side, it’s understanding what the goals, objectives and key things are that PR needs to know. How do we work together? The biggest thing is understanding lingo.”
–Karen Freberg, professor of strategic communication at the University of Louisville and social media expert
Listen to the episode – Unlocking the Synergy Between PR and Social Media
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14) Focus on a single point for more effective executive communication in media interviews.
“We all know that less is more. We don’t always know that more is less.
Something I like to say is that if I tell you a lot of things, you’ll remember none of them. If I tell you some things, you’ll remember some of them. If I tell you one thing, you will remember it.
So try to stick to one big idea, pushing the likelihood that the reporter will highlight that idea or use it.”
-Joel Schwartzberg, workplace communications and presentation coach, keynote speaker, executive communications professional, and author of Get to the Point!, https://www.joelschwartzberg.net/
Listen to the episode – Media Training Advice for Better Executive Communications
15) Focus more on social media conversations, less on content.
“I think people are still looking at social media as a content channel, and it’s really a CX channel, a customer experience channel.
I think we need to stop focusing on content and start focusing more on conversations.”
-Brooke Sellas, consultant, B Squared Media
Listen to the episode – Managing a Social Media Crisis: How PR & Social Teams Can Work Together
16) Companies that take care of their employees perform better.
“The companies that still focus on the well-being of their people are going to be higher performers. They’re going to outperform those who don’t take that into consideration. Because if you’re focusing on your people, they won’t get as burned out easily. They’ll be more productive. They’ll be happier at work.
When that happens, your company’s productivity goes up, and energy stays higher. That translates outside of the company. Customers will see that, external stakeholders will see that, shareholders will see that. If it’s a public company, people will take note.”
–Bo Breuklander, M.A. Principal of Breuklander Communications
Listen to the episode – ESG in the Age of AI
17) Include video in your content strategy to take advantage of AI-based search (GEO).
“If you’re a marketer, you want all the information about your brand to be ingested by AI and to be in the AI knowledge sources and training data.
For marketers and brands, a flood of garbage content is an opportunity. The response is obvious: differentiate with quality. Create things that AI can’t easily create.
AI bots can both read transcripts and extract the language from audio and video. So make sure you have a video component in your content strategy and appear on every podcast you can. Speak your value proposition in simple language when the mic is on. That mini-elevator pitch will make its way into the AI training data.”
-Andy Crestodina, co-founder & chief marketing officer, Orbit Media
Listen to the episode – AI-Based Search for PR with Andy Crestodina
18) Care about AI recommending you? Invest in PR.
“If you care about AI understanding your business and recommending you, then your biggest investment should be in public relations.”
-Christopher Penn, Co-Founder and Chief Data Scientist at TrustInsights.ai
Listen to the episode – PR’s Role in AI-Based Search with Christopher Penn
19) Companies that offer flexibility will attract the best talent in the industry.
“Working from home is really an expectation on most people’s part. But there are CEOs who think that people should be back in the office, and they have good reasons for it, because I think culturally it’s probably better for the company. But from a morale perspective, we have found that people are happier having this flexibility.
When we asked people in the PR industry if they’d take a pay cut (to work remotely), a lot of people said yes, they would. Especially younger people.
I think companies that offer flexibility are going to have an advantage in attracting the best talent in public relations, in agencies and corporate settings. I think that people want and expect to have some sort of flexibility in their schedules these days. And they’re not gonna give it up easily.”
-Fred Cook, director of the USC Annenberg Center for Public Relations and chair emeritus of Golin, https://www.linkedin.com/in/fredhcook/
Listen to the episode – The Future of the Public Relations Industry
20) Communicators should be data-led.
“If you don’t know what questions to ask or how to ask questions, you can’t get insights into what you’re trying to understand. It really is critical to be able to get into that headspace and to be able to be confident.
That’s what data does for communicators. It makes them more effective because they can be data-led, and they can have that confidence.”
-Johna Burke, CEO and global managing director of AMEC (the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication)
Listen to the episode – PR Measurement is Not Optional
21) Effective speaking requires clarity.
“The act of writing a speech or a presentation forces you to seek clarity.
As you go through that process of what information is most relevant, think, what do I really want to say? What do I want people to know after they hear the presentation? That starts to really bring clarity to the message.
You start to eliminate unnecessary words and phrases and focus on what really matters to you, whether it’s a specific message or your company’s vision. And again, that goes back to the purpose of the talk. Is it to motivate, to educate, to inspire?”
-Tricia Richards-Service, founder of I Need a Speaker
Listen to the episode – How Public Speaking Can Boost Your PR Efforts
22) Diversify your media list.
“We’re shifting our thinking around traditional media relations and thinking about who the people are that are influencing the people that we want to connect with and the people that will buy from us, and that’s where you should be spending your time.
You might have podcast hosts, newsletter writers. There are all sorts of YouTube influencers. There are all sorts of places that you should be looking.”
-Gini Dietrich, founder of Arment Dietrich and Spin Sucks and creator of The Peso Model, https://spinsucks.com/author/gini-dietrich/
Listen to the episode – Exploring the Refreshed PESO Model with Gini Dietrich
23) To write better pitches, read what the journalist writes.
“How can those sitting in the PR seat do a better job of writing pitches that don’t sound like every other pitch a journalist might get?
Number one, don’t use AI. And I get that a lot nowadays. I get a lot of AI pitches.
If you read how they write, see what they write about and see their style, you’ll be able to craft a pitch that will resonate with them.”
-Lou Covey, consultant and editor of Cyber Protection Magazine, https://www.linkedin.com/in/loucovey/
Listen to the episode – Telling Stories That Stand Out
24) When it comes to PR, the basics still matter.
“No matter how the world changes, AI or otherwise, basics matter.
What’s a good hook for the journalist? What’s going to get the clicks? What’s going to get the views? And then brands need to retrofit their campaigns, whether it’s B2B, B2C, or a hybrid. What’s a compelling story? And if you have that, you can win.”
-Bill Byrne, co-founder & managing director of Remedy Public Relations, https://www.linkedin.com/in/billbyrne/
Listen to the episode – Mid-Year Check on PR Trends to Watch
25) Social media burnout is real.
“It takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to regain deep focus after being distracted by your phone or any interruption.
It’s essentially one-third of our lives right now being spent digitally on a device. Seven of those years are spent on social media.”
–Breanne A. Mertz, DBA, Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Tampa
Listen to the episode – Burnout in PR and Social Media Marketing
26) Remember – the mic is always on.
“Be careful what you say. The mic is always on. Take a breath. Look to your PR and comms team to help you.Always have your thoughts together and gain clarity before you speak. You can’t speak off the cuff. We go into interviews, and they’re not off the record. Nothing’s off the record.”
–Jennifer McGinley, the founder of JLM Strategic Communications
Listen to the episode – How to Develop Effective Communication Strategies in the Misinformation Age
Takeaways for Every PR and Marketing Pro as We Head into 2026
And there you have 26 pieces of insight from 26 of my guest experts. Truly something for everyone from these bright folks.
To catch up on any episode, visit the PR Explored podcast page.
I’m always looking for input on who I should invite to be a guest, as well as topics you’d be interested in hearing discussed, if you have ideas to share.
Want to build public relations momentum in 2026? Get your efforts off to a strong start.
Learn more about my freelance PR consulting services here. Book a no-obligation call to talk about your needs here. Buy my book here.
About the author: Michelle Garrett is a B2B PR consultant, media relations consultant, and author of B2B PR That Gets Results, an Amazon Best Seller. She helps companies, especially those in manufacturing and technology, create content, earn media coverage, and position themselves as thought leaders in their industry. Michelle’s articles have been featured by Entrepreneur, Content Marketing Institute, Muck Rack, and Ragan’s PR Daily, among others. She’s a frequent speaker on public relations and content. Michelle has been repeatedly ranked among the top ten most influential PR professionals.
100% of this blog post was written by me, the human.
Featured image is courtesy of Adobe Express.
