Every year, the marketing world produces a new list of things you’re supposed to be doing. Every year, a meaningful portion of those things turn out to be expensive, time-consuming, and largely ineffective for professional services businesses.
Here’s our honest take on what’s currently getting more hype than it deserves and a quick tip on where we’d put that energy instead.
AI-Generated Content (Used as a Shortcut, Not a Tool)
Let’s be precise here, because there’s an important distinction. AI tools like ChatGPT are genuinely useful when used as part of a thoughtful content process. Ahem, for brainstorming angles, drafting outlines, breaking through writer’s block, or stress-testing whether a headline lands. We use them in our own workflow.
What doesn’t work is using AI to generate finished content, slap your name on it, and call it marketing. The output is generic almost by definition. AI is trained on what already exists, which means it produces the average of existing content.
Read that again and find the key words: Average. Existing. Content.
For professional services businesses where trust, expertise, and voice are the product, that’s a real problem. Clients and prospects can feel the difference between content written by someone who lives the subject and content that’s been optimized to sound like it does.
The trend to ignore: AI as a replacement for human expertise and voice.
The tool worth using: AI as a brainstorming or research tool that helps your actual expertise come through faster.
TikTok (For Most Professional Services Businesses)
Short-form video is not going away. But “short-form video is popular” and “your firm should be on TikTok” are two very different claims.
Sorry, we just dropped our mic right there. One sec while we pick it up.
The professional services businesses that we’ve seen succeed on short-form video platforms put serious time and creative resources into it AND their audience skews younger and more consumer-facing. If you’re a B2B consultant, a commercial architecture firm, or an estate planning attorney, the ROI on TikTok content almost certainly does not justify the investment when compared to a well-maintained blog, a solid LinkedIn presence, or a consistent email newsletter. Know your audience and go where they TRULY spend their time.
Podcasting (Unless You’re Genuinely Committed)
Podcasting is one of those channels that looks accessible from the outside and turns out to be a significant ongoing production commitment once you’re in it. Equipment, editing, guest coordination, distribution, promotion — it adds up fast. And the bar for a podcast that will successfully build an audience is much higher than it was five years ago.
Yes, there are professional services businesses where podcasting makes real sense: firms with strong thought leadership positioning, founders with genuine public speaking chops, or practices targeting a niche audience that indexes heavily on podcast listening. If that’s you, great! If you’re mostly considering it because it seems like something you should be doing, redirect that energy somewhere with a clearer return.
Influencer Marketing (In Most Cases)
Influencer marketing can work for consumer brands moving physical products at scale. For most professional services businesses (law firms, architecture practices, wellness providers, B2B consultants, etc), it’s a poor fit. The trust dynamic is different. Your clients aren’t choosing you because someone with 200,000 Instagram followers mentioned your name. They’re choosing you because of your reputation, your referrals, and the credibility you’ve built through consistent, substantive content over time.
Your marketing budget almost always generates better returns through owned channels like your website, your email list, and your organic search presence than through rented attention via influencer partnerships.
Not sure which marketing channels are worth your time and budget? That’s one of our favorite conversations to have.
