In 2025, digital PR has become an ouroboros—a serpent eating its own tail. What was once a tool for crafting compelling brand narratives has devolved into a mechanical process of low-quality placements, AI-generated fluff, and a desperate race for “mentions” that mean nothing.
You’d think in an age of sophisticated attribution, smarter platforms, and narrative-driven marketing, brands—especially in SaaS—would evolve their approach to public relations. But instead, many are falling into a death spiral of quantity over quality, reach over resonance, and automation over authenticity.
The Press Release Machine That Won’t Die
Let’s start with the walking corpse: the SaaS press release.
In the past 18 months, it’s become nearly impossible to distinguish one B2B SaaS press release from another. All follow the same format, the same headline template, and the same jargon-soaked announcements. “Industry-leading,” “cutting-edge,” “AI-powered,” “empowering teams”—the language is antiseptic, robotic, and painfully interchangeable.
Worse, many of these releases are no longer even written by humans. A significant portion of the tech industry’s PR content is now generated by AI tools and lightly edited before distribution. These releases are then blasted to outdated media lists or dumped on PR wires where no journalist actually reads them.
The outcome? Zero resonance. Zero impact. A bloated archive of SEO detritus that nobody wants to link to, quote, or even skim.
Metrics That Don’t Matter
A key culprit here is vanity metrics. Too many digital PR efforts are driven by the wrong KPIs: number ofplacements, estimated reach, or impressions.
Here’s the dirty truth: A generic mention on an obscure affiliate blog with no audience isn’t worth the effort—even if your PR dashboard lights up with metrics. Being “featured in 50 publications” sounds impressive on a pitch deck, but if not one of those placements influences a potential customer or builds credibility, it’s just noise.
And no, a backlink from a content farm or a site with zero editorial standards doesn’t move your brand forward. It may even erode it.
The obsession with numbers has led to the rise of what I call “ghost coverage”—mentions that exist only to check a box. The PR industry has built an entire shadow economy around these outputs. But ask any founder or CMO: do these placements change perception, drive sales, or generate inbound? Rarely.
The Rise of “Influencer Theatre”
In 2025, influencer marketing has bled into the PR world, often with disastrous consequences.
Tech brands are now paying niche LinkedIn influencers to mention them in contrived, inauthentic posts. Think: “Just used [X SaaS tool] to 10x my workflow!” or “Here’s why [BrandName] is crushing it in the AI space!”
These posts are often coordinated, copy-pasted across accounts, and flooded with suspiciously fast engagement. In short, influencer theatre—where everything looks like buzz, but nothing is real.
Audiences are catching on. The best digital PR doesn’t try to manipulate networks—it earns them. Instead, companies are burning trust for temporary impressions.
AI Is a Tool, Not a Storyteller
Let’s talk about generative AI. It’s a powerful tool—but too many brands are relying on it to create stories rather than support storytelling.
The result? A flood of bland, regurgitated thought leadership and boilerplate content that lacks any human insight or edge. “5 Ways to Boost Productivity with AI” or “How Remote Work Is Changing SaaS” are topics so overplayed they’ve become parodies of themselves.
Just because AI can generate 500 blog posts or outreach emails a week doesn’t mean it should. Most companies are polluting their digital footprint with derivative sludge.
If your PR output can be entirely replicated by ChatGPT with a few prompts, you have no voice. No differentiation. No brand.
The Forgotten Art of Relationships
What’s been completely lost in this noisy digital PR mess is the human relationship—the very thing PR was founded on.
In the frenzy to automate everything, SaaS brands have abandoned meaningful journalist relationships, thoughtful pitch personalization, and genuine story development. Instead, they fire off generic pitches to massive lists, hoping for a bite.
Journalists—already overwhelmed and underpaid—are ignoring more of these pitches than ever. Why? Because they’re not tailored. They’re not relevant. And they’re not coming from people who care about thestory, only the placement.
Good PR takes time. It means building long-term credibility with writers, editors, and even your audience. That can’t be bought with software or scaled with templates.
What Better Digital PR Looks Like in 2025
We need a reset. And that reset begins with meaningful storytelling and disciplined execution. Here’s what better digital PR looks like today:
- Fewer stories, better stories
Don’t pitch everything. Focus on stories that actually matter—to your audience, not your ego. - Real people, real relationships
Hire PR professionals who can build trust with media, not just spam press inboxes with AI blurbs. - Metrics with impact
Track actual influence: inbound leads, sentiment shift, quote pickup, or inclusion in analyst reports—not just impressions. - Own your voice
Create founder-driven or expert-led narratives. Thought leadership only works when the thinking is original. - Quality over speed
Crafting a single, high-quality placement in TechCrunch or Fast Company does more than 100 mentions in random affiliate blogs.
If 2024 was the year digital PR became fully automated, then 2025 is the year it became intentional again. The world doesn’t need more content. It needs more clarity, courage, and creativity.
