Optimizing Your Marketing Strategy for AI: Key Tips and Actions

• Google is introducing AI overviews, which will speed what many fear is ‘the death of organic search.’ It won’t be an overnight change for B2B tech—the initial roll-outs are still in testing, even for technical topics, and some have seen some immediate pullback due to misinformation. It isn’t something we can ignore. It’s time to reverse your thinking.
• Most companies have focused on how AI can be used to create content—focus instead on how you can create content that is optimized for AI. Choose the few main topics that are critical to your marketing strategy, test out changes by republishing informative content with introductory summaries designed to suit the overview, and focus on the reviews that will be used as source for AI in the long term.

Incorporating AI into your marketing strategy

Change is a constant and Google rolls out algorithm changes multiple times per year. Many B2B companies have already experienced minor deterioration in their organic traffic. Work with your marketing team to continually evaluate SEO best practices and adapt. At this time in AI’s progression, many of the best practices of SEO apply to AI. Those companies producing long-form, educational content like white papers and application pages are already cited sources for ChatGPT.

Optimizing for Google AI Overviews

There are many ways you can optimize for AI overviews now without derailing your existing content strategy or reader’s experience. Incorporate a summary or TLDR at the top of each piece. Check your web and blog formatting to be sure you’re using header 1 styling, and use it effectively for keyword rich, informative headlines.

B2B tech companies typically have complex sales and complex products and have traditionally downplayed the usefulness of reviews. These will be a primary source of information for AI overviews. Create a strategy for building your reviews while improving your feedback loops regularly and systematically. Implement a customer survey or shift your survey platform from an internal tool to Google reviews. Update your Google Business profile.

GlassDoor employee reviews were always important feedback on organizational health but will now be used to inform AI. Assess your current reviews and ask current employees to submit a review. Useful keywords about the company and its products and capabilities can improve AI results. This is also a good time to benchmark your GlassDoor ratings and take action on the feedback—it is already impacting your ability to attract great talent and may offer great information to retain that talent and improve the organization’s productivity and clarity of vision.

Reddit and Google deal, and its impact to AI

You will notice Reddit discussion threads are already featured prominently in Google search results. A Spring 2024 $60M per year deal will make Reddit content available for training Google’s artificial intelligence models, as Reddit looks to monetize its growing audience. If Reddit is not already part of your omnichannel marketing strategy, start monitoring now for discussions relevant to your technology and company, while you begin to incorporate the platform into your social strategy. Reddit is already the #6 website worldwide, with rapidly changing demographics and robust technology discussion threads.

Will AI kill organic traffic & SEO?

Not yet. But it is already more dynamic and fast moving and will increase the need for a robust content strategy and original thought leadership. B2B tech marketing just got more complicated—update your marketing strategy for the changes happening now.

While you may not see impact off the jump to technical products, as AI is primarily being used for informational searches, you will see an impact to blog traffic, and later, to product searches. Allocate time each week to educate, publish new content, and update existing content to optimize it for AI and SEO.

Google AI overview example. These AI overviews will appear above Google ads, images and organic search results.

Actions you can take now

Optimize your existing content.

Add summaries at the top of existing content. Some platforms like Hubspot already have AI capabilities to generate these overview summaries from your original content.

Combine existing content into well-organized pillar posts.

Create content focused on 3-4 company-critical topics. Use question and answer format, and request reindexing whenever you publish new content. Prioritize blogs, FAQs, application pages and product pages with informational content. Keep it short and keyword-intensive. Redesign layouts and check your code for Header 1 formatting.

Increase & improve your online reviews.

• Verify your Google business page
• Seek Google business reviews from customers
• Look at your Glassdoor rankings and comments. Benchmark average 3.3.
• Ask for employee reviews – over time. Hit your keywords in the comments.

Update your omnichannel strategy--look at YouTube and Reddit; check your PPC

As search behavior changes, look at longer tail keywords. AI prompts and SEO are both tending toward longer, more detailed exact match phrases. 

Keep an eye on your Google ads, as cost per click creeps up and ads are pushed down the page. (Request an audit)

AI in Marketing Strategy Right Now

Reverse your thinking: it’s not using AI to create content but creating content to feed AI. We will be updating our guidance as this develops, but it is important to think through its implications to your plan right now and monitoring AI's impact to your marketing effectiveness.

We are happy to advise on your marketing strategy or help support your content marketing. Request a consult.