Picture this: A C-level executive forwards you a screenshot of an AI-generated industry overview, featuring your competitor as the leading authority. The accompanying note is brief: "Why aren’t we showing up here?"
This scenario is no longer hypothetical. By now, most of us have seen the AI overviews that popular search engines provide as a result to our online searches. And many of us have used AI platforms to get questions answered in a much quicker and more efficient way than with traditional online search. Here’s the thing: your stakeholders, including your clients and potential customers, are doing the same. And the potential impact to your business could be huge.
The buyer journey is shifting
Critical stages of the buyer journey, such as awareness and consideration, are increasingly taking place within Large Language Models (LLM’s) such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and search engine AI overviews. According to Forrester[1], 89% of B2B buyers already use generative AI for independent research during their purchasing journey, often without a single click to another website. In just a single AI chat, a potential client can ask to identify leading vendors for a product, compare features for different products, and gain insights into the sustainability rankings of various suppliers at the same time. It’s important your company gets mentioned in the right places in the right way. Unfortunately, this doesn’t just happen by itself.
Why Public Relations is key to showing up in AI answers
So how do you make sure you show up in these answers that LLM’s are serving up to your potential clients? According to a recent study by MuckRack[2], earned media is the key contributor. More than 89% of sources being cited by AI are from earned media such as journalism, as well as blogs and thought leadership content published on 3rd party websites. This puts ongoing public relations programmes front and centre for creating the right amount of visibility in AI platforms.
Your website needs optimisation
But don’t forget about your own website. Owned media still has its value and place. First of all, because owned media do show up in search results. Secondly, your website serves as the primary training material for LLM’s to understand your company, which in turn increases chances of your brand being mentioned in AI answers. And thirdly, because your website is quickly becoming the final touchpoint in your buyers’ decision making process. In the end, your website may get up to 50% less traffic[3], but people that do land on it through LLM’s and AI overviews are 4.4 times more valuable[4] and have higher conversion rates.
Technical optimisations are foundational, such as restructuring your content into Q&A’s/FAQ’s, using schema markup, and so on. But it all comes down to answering the real questions your potential buyers have, instead of the questions you think they have. If you are willing to take this a step further, you can even think about comparing your products or services to those of your competitors, a format LLM’s are particularly drawn towards. But stay honest and objective, because if your comparisons don’t align with what more influential sources are saying, LLM’s will likely dismiss your content.
Why strategy, not hacks, is key for AI optimisation
Which brings us to the final point: strategy. There is a huge amount of content being published on how to optimise for LLM’s. Most of it is very tactical. There’s nothing wrong with that, except that there are no hacks or quick fixes. And if there are any, they might be gone tomorrow. Players like OpenAI and Google constantly test new ways to surface content and change their algorithms. Your competitors are also catching up. Taking a strategic approach to Generative Engine Optimisation or Answer Engine Optimisation, ensures you are setting a clear direction of where you need to go, no matter what happens. Start with doing an audit to understand where you are right now. Then look at creating or updating your personas and stakeholder journey maps. Parts of these journeys will shift to AI answers. Once you have figured out which parts and which questions belong to which channels, then start your optimisation journey. And keep monitoring for the results, because things can change quickly.
