September 23rd, 2025

Want More Client Business? Stop Being Invisible

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Are you a UK advisory business, professional services firm or practice that is marketing to ‘clients’ rather than ‘customers’? If so, this bite-sized episode is for you, whether you are a solicitor, accountant, insurance broker, architect, vet or any other type of business.

It’s all about helping to prevent you becoming invisible, particularly in an age of AI search.  It’s about preventing your expertise remaining unappreciated by prospective clients and about stopping your professional services or financial services firm or practice being in the shadows, whilst competitors gain great profile.

It’s also intended to prevent the conclusion that often follows this – a lack of client prospects and enquiries, lack of growth and stagnation and a paucity of opportunities within a sector.

With the arrival of AI search, both within traditional search and search on chat bots, it’s also an episode that explains how to tackle this threat to your client-serving practice, firm or insurance brokerage.

Jane, who has spent her entire career preventing B2B and B2C companies from remaining in the shadows and being hidden gems, has put this episode together.  She aims to  help professional services practices, brokerages and  businesses leverage the knowledge Catapult PR has acquired and which can be the solution to the issue.

She explains how many SME businesses have allowed themselves to get into a position where they are now virtually invisible to their prospective client or customer. They have done nothing to work with the strategies that search engines have used for a few years ago.  They have never had a PR campaign in place and  now lack the core ingredients that both traditional and AI-search engines have to see in place, if they are to direct the enquirer to your door.

Jane explains the concept of EEAT and why it is fundamental to every SME’s marketing.

She talks through the strategies that should be in place, the roadblocks that have prevented brokerages, practices and businesses from implementing them and the pressing need to start to put that right.

She then highlights how this can be done and the roadmap that can be followed, if the core requirements are in place.

However hard it may seem, Jane suggests how she can help build a business profile that will show up everywhere and achieve all of the goals that financial and professional services firms, vets and architects – as well as many other firms – may currently have.

With over 70 career awards in the PR, content and copywriting world in the UK, Jane is well-placed to help guide you with B2B or B2C PR and content.  Listen in today and take the next steps towards strengthening your client-focused service.

Transcript

[00:18] Speaker A: Hello, thank you for joining me.

[00:20] Welcome to the Catapult PR show. Today we’re going to talk about being visible.

[00:25] If you run a services based business,

[00:28] being visible is usually pretty fundamental, isn’t it?

[00:31] You might be a solicitor needing to attract local clients.

[00:36] You could be an architect hoping to demonstrate a talent for creating outstanding homes or commercial buildings,

[00:43] or maybe an independent vet working in a practice that’s competing against national chains.

[00:51] Your service could be tourism related as a hotel, a destination or a visitor attraction.

[00:58] But it doesn’t matter because whether you are a local insurance broker or a financial advisor,

[01:04] or maybe a provider of nursery care or a training company,

[01:09] the issue is the same.

[01:12] You need to bring people to your door.

[01:15] You need some sort of pull strategy that’s going to attract their attention and have them find you picking you out from all the other options out there.

[01:27] Now, word of mouth referrals are one way and we certainly rely on that heavily.

[01:34] An on street presence might be another if you’ve got premises.

[01:38] But the majority of us have been heavily reliant on the Internet, haven’t we?

[01:44] The problem is that things have evolved dramatically over the past five years or so and many businesses and firms and entities have not realized that.

[01:58] And to compound this issue,

[02:00] we now have AI driven search,

[02:03] with AI answering queries for customers on the spot without any need for them to ever click on a website or to have their query resolved.

[02:14] And this is now happening both on Google and in AI tools like ChatGPT.

[02:24] Now, let’s leave it at that for now, although there is more,

[02:28] but for now we’ll focus on what I’ve just said.

[02:33] So let’s look at what businesses like yours perhaps should have been doing even before AI search arrived.

[02:43] Now, the key thing related to keywords.

[02:46] And far too many businesses believed that stuffing keywords into virtually every sentence was the way to be found online.

[02:54] Now at one stage that worked, but it hasn’t worked for several years now.

[02:59] And it’s actually been detrimental to websites since. Search engines changed what they were looking for.

[03:07] So what is it that they’re looking for?

[03:10] In a nutshell, it’s evidence that you know what you’re talking about.

[03:15] The search engines started to place great store on helpfulness.

[03:21] This meant that they wanted to see websites providing answers or solutions or delivering things that the site visitor wanted to know or or be entertained by.

[03:31] It wanted to see user satisfaction,

[03:35] and it still does.

[03:38] They also began to look for certain lengths of page copy and particular page structures,

[03:44] setting rules about what authority looks like.

[03:48] In this regard,

[03:50] and then they moved on. Further into the picture came eeat.

[03:57] Now, this quickly became an acronym on the lips of gurus in the world of search across the globe, with EEAT standing for experience,

[04:07] expertise, authority and trust.

[04:11] Demonstrations of EEAT became paramount well over a year ago.

[04:18] So how can you demonstrate EEAT online?

[04:23] Well, basically your blog or your news area does a lot of heavy lifting here.

[04:30] It needs to carry material that ticks all the boxes of eeat.

[04:36] It needs to answer the queries that members of the public may have if they are interested in your type of service.

[04:45] And it needs to be of a length that has gravitas in terms of the search engine rules.

[04:53] All too often businesses think that brevity is best and it really isn’t in this instance and can lead to you being penalised by the search engines.

[05:03] But the really big issue here is that as a PR consultant who’s been heavily involved in crafting copy for blogs for many years,

[05:13] I can tell you with my hand on heart,

[05:16] and it’s been a really hard sell for me and catapult PR to try to get businesses to realise the importance of online content.

[05:27] Those that have, have really flown,

[05:30] those that haven’t have been saved somewhat by the backlinks and authority that I’ve generated for them through pr,

[05:38] but have really put themselves in a bit of a straitjacket and could have achieved so much more.

[05:45] And this applies to any kind of business,

[05:48] whether it’s a hotel, a visitor attraction, a retailer or even a dog walking enterprise.

[05:55] If you don’t have a vibrant content strategy for your website,

[05:59] you are shooting yourself in the foot.

[06:03] And I’m going to broaden this out a little bit beyond blogs and articles,

[06:07] because for those who do listen to my advice,

[06:09] I also create what we call content downloads,

[06:13] helpful content booklets that the public can access,

[06:17] which are on your website.

[06:19] So it drives web traffic as well.

[06:21] And these can be anything from what you think, what we’ve done, a guide to dog friendliness at a castle hotel,

[06:28] to details of how to take up a business opportunity with a B2B client.

[06:36] Furthermore, I use Catapult PR’s channels to help clients have podcast content because this provides another means of them reaching out into the ether through audio and demonstrating eeat.

[06:53] Again, there’s much more to this, but let’s just stop there.

[06:57] And I’ll tell you what I’ve encountered.

[07:01] In very many cases,

[07:02] businesses, perhaps even yours, have just completely dismissed the need to have articles or blogs.

[07:11] A very large proportion don’t even have such an area on their website.

[07:16] And if they do, they put articles that stretch to maybe 200 words at best into that section and think that’s sufficient.

[07:27] Some businesses dismiss this part of their online presence because they associate blogs with personal storytelling,

[07:36] what I call the yummy mummy hangover from early blogging days,

[07:41] when a lot of women started a blog and started talking about juggling life with a child and that sort of thing.

[07:49] So that means that there are loads of SMEs out there who don’t see blogs as a vital business tool.

[07:57] Then there are others who have simply hired a copywriter to write their articles and they’ve left it at that.

[08:04] And whilst that’s better than doing nothing,

[08:07] there’s a glitch here too.

[08:09] And I can sum that up in one word, strategy.

[08:14] What do I mean by that? Well, think of it as having the phone without the charger.

[08:20] Copywriters create copy, you put it on the website,

[08:24] job done, isn’t it?

[08:26] Well, no, it never has been.

[08:28] And now we’re seeing the real error in that.

[08:31] And why is that?

[08:33] Well, with the arrival of AI,

[08:35] we’ve now got two ways of searching for a business like yours,

[08:39] via chatbots and the traditional search engines.

[08:44] We think first about the traditional search engines that we’ve come to know and love.

[08:49] On there, it’s pretty much about what you say about yourself that gets you the ranking.

[08:56] But if we focus on AI search,

[08:59] it’s about what others say about you.

[09:04] So if all a business has done is create copy,

[09:07] there’s a gaping big hole to fill in their marketing,

[09:10] as they haven’t generated the PR articles in the media that demonstrate eeat to a major degree.

[09:20] They haven’t leveraged the thoughts that are in those articles to really bring home the bacon by becoming a thought leader.

[09:28] There’s been no strategy behind it to put them in a really good place in the world of AI search by creating a leading media presence for them.

[09:38] And that’s something that Cat support PR does for clients every single day.

[09:44] Let’s think about yesterday.

[09:45] We generated four pieces of thought leadership instantly around a topic of wood dust and its flammable nature.

[09:54] On Monday, if I think back to Monday,

[09:57] we had GB News filming for a full day at the Switfire Visitor Centre in Blackpool.

[10:04] And Wednesday the Daily Express went down there and spent all day there.

[10:09] So there’s a piece coming out this weekend.

[10:11] So we are continually putting things out into the media and getting results.

[10:18] But PR is more than just about PR articles,

[10:22] it’s about leveraging opportunities for clients and positioning them as experts.

[10:28] Credibility can also be boosted by awards. And that’s another thing that we craft for clients here.

[10:33] In fact, we’ve got a fantastic success rate in getting clients onto the podium as winners of awards in their own industries.

[10:40] And of course, we win a lot of awards for our campaigns for them as well.

[10:45] Now,

[10:46] PR can be the driver behind white papers.

[10:50] It can also be the catalyst that leads to industry research that helps you put your business out there as an expert because you’ve got owned research findings at your fingertips.

[11:01] Unfortunately,

[11:02] too few businesses have developed an expert voice.

[11:07] They haven’t even whimpered, to be honest,

[11:10] PR has for far too long been seen as the poor relation in the marketing mix.

[11:17] But hallelujah, not anymore. Because if there’s one thing that companies need nowadays,

[11:23] it’s actually pr,

[11:25] which is the driver of everything.

[11:28] But some words of caution.

[11:30] As I said, having an expert voice is crucial.

[11:33] And that relies,

[11:35] however,

[11:36] on having an expert craft. One,

[11:39] not someone who’s really pretty in experience,

[11:41] sitting in a full service agency,

[11:43] or who isn’t even really a PR specialist or has very few years under their belt.

[11:49] You need somebody who’s got a bit about them.

[11:53] Also,

[11:53] a lot of businesses now perhaps panicking because they don’t have online content.

[11:59] I’m rushing like lemmings to the edge of a chatgpt cliff. I’m jumping off it.

[12:04] And the answer is not to create a load of AI generated text,

[12:08] because very many people can detect that a mile off.

[12:13] And I’m not talking about EM dashes here, because I’ve used EM dashes in my copy for many, many, many years.

[12:20] I’m talking about the tone, the feel,

[12:23] the almost perfect nature of some of the copy that comes out of ChatGPT.

[12:29] It’s sterile.

[12:31] If you look beyond it, it might look like a perfect bit of copy. It’s absolutely sterile. It’s got no personality and it has no human touch.

[12:40] It will tell you that it gives you a brand voice.

[12:44] But what I would say is it never gives you an authentic voice.

[12:49] And that’s a bit of an issue, isn’t it?

[12:51] If we’re trying to build that T of E E A T I E the trust.

[12:58] And we’re not actually using our own voice to create those articles.

[13:03] And that voice and that voice, as I said,

[13:07] should be carried into media relations and PR work.

[13:11] So this whole marketing exercise is a holistic one.

[13:15] And please don’t think that AI generated copyright is necessarily accurate.

[13:20] There could be some horror stories lurking within it that will come back to Bite you.

[13:26] Now, I’ve kept intimating here that there’s more to all of this and there is.

[13:32] People are now searching for businesses like yours on social media channels too.

[13:37] So you ideally need to show up on some of those too.

[13:40] With the right sort of content.

[13:43] It’s all about,

[13:45] how can I put it? Putting pieces of the puzzle together and having one holistic picture emerge.

[13:52] Now, this is really what we call our PR for SEO plus service when we construct a campaign here at Catapult PR that reaches across traditional and digital media,

[14:04] online blogs and downloadable content, and social media too.

[14:09] But it’s more than just being a load of services I’ve just decided to lump together.

[14:14] What distinguishes what we do is what I would describe as intent.

[14:20] We devise the strategy and the creative idea that acts as the momentum and the defining principle for the entire growth and reputation building exercise whilst controlling the brand voice and the messaging.

[14:36] So this delivers communications clarity across all channels.

[14:42] And this matters more than ever because AI search engines are creating a game changer and being visible to those chatbots that are avidly working out who can best answer a customer’s query is absolutely crucial.

[14:59] If you’ve never tackled eeat,

[15:03] you’ve got to catch up fast because this is now eeat 2.0 and you could disappear from view.

[15:11] So what’s the takeout on all of this?

[15:15] Well, number one,

[15:16] if you Google yourself and you don’t find yourself coming up very visibly as,

[15:22] I don’t know, the best broker in Brighton, or a good local family law expert, or maybe even a trusted vet near to me or any of the terms, in fact, that you think should naturally make you found online,

[15:37] you’ve got a problem.

[15:40] Number two,

[15:41] if you haven’t built your authority or your business’s authority as a thought leader,

[15:48] you may well be under that famous Harry Potter invisibility cloak.

[15:53] Number three, if you don’t act on this, things are going to get worse, not better.

[15:59] As they say, out of sight is out of mind.

[16:03] And that has never been more true since the search engines began to rely on AI.

[16:11] So what’s the answer to all of this?

[16:14] Well,

[16:15] you know, you may be listening to this and thinking it sounds like a really insurmountable problem right now,

[16:20] but we like a challenge here.

[16:23] And if you do honestly have the components that make up eeat,

[16:29] and let’s just recap on that,

[16:31] so that’s experience,

[16:33] expertise, authority and trust.

[16:36] And it’s just a case that you are not making that known to the outside world,

[16:42] then we are here to help, and we probably can help you.

[16:46] And even if you don’t think that you have eeat in your business,

[16:51] we can probably identify that because it’s probably something that you do every day,

[16:57] but you don’t actually view that as being E E a T because you’re too close to it.

[17:04] Do remember that this, what I’ve been telling you today,

[17:08] applies to any business,

[17:10] but is perhaps particularly crucial to some of those types of business less inclined to have a strong external voice.

[17:18] And maybe that’s financial and professional services firms,

[17:23] maybe it’s vets,

[17:24] insurance brokers, architects.

[17:28] I often try to define this sector as companies who describe the people who pay them as clients rather than customers.

[17:38] My advice would be to really ponder this,

[17:41] look into it much more,

[17:43] and we’ve got some help here. You can download our Catapult PR booklet on the topic of showing up everywhere for more guidance.

[17:53] You can find this in the content download section of our website@catapultpr.co.uk under the about tab.

[18:02] And it’s called why your business needs a show up everywhere strategy.

[18:08] And that’s because that’s what you do need right now.

[18:12] So if you take nothing else away from this,

[18:15] this is what you need to be doing.

[18:16] Showing up as an expert, an authority and a trusted business that’s brimming. An experience that you can bring to the party.

[18:26] If you’re really tired of being in the shadows, if you’re tired of seeing that competitor getting some column inches and talking in the media and coming across as a thought leader that you think you could be,

[18:38] email me@janetapultpr.co.uk alternatively, you can DM me on LinkedIn or you can book a discovery link on LinkedIn via the link that’s on my profile and that link can also be found on our website.

[18:57] Let’s explore what you’ve got.

[18:59] Even if we come to the conclusion that you don’t have any eeat and there isn’t much that we can do, which would be quite rare, I would say that we would come across a company like that.

[19:10] Isn’t it better to know how many clients you could bring to your door with a bit of effort?

[19:15] Isn’t it better to think how effective this marketing could be at a relatively low cost?

[19:21] Especially if you’re spending absolutely masses on Google adverts?

[19:27] Try to do things organically,

[19:29] come across as a really genuine company and you’ll be surprised at what the results can be.

[19:37] So I hope that’s left you with some insight.

[19:39] Until next time, take care of yourselves and keep on marketing the right way.