The new media visibility strategies to ensure your brand is both seen and heard
Generative artificial intelligence has weaved its way deeper into the marketing scene, latching onto search browsers and acting as a search engine on its own account.
But these AI developments aren’t just a spectator event, they now require brands to make a strategic realignment on how they market themselves to be visible by not just human eyes but also by the machines that run search engines such as Google and its AI overviews. With help from Content Marketing Institute’s recent article, we explore the three key ways brands can realign their marketing strategies to not only be seen but heard in the current online landscape:
Rise above the artificial clouds with earned media
Over the past year, we’ve been tracking the significant shifts in consumer online behaviors and how they impact a brand’s ability to benefit from them. For instance, a recent Adobe study found that 77% of U.S. people surveyed use ChatGPT as a search engine, with almost one-fourth (24%) making it their first stop for search – so how can brands react to this change and make sure their visibility is not lost to bots?
The first step to regain/maintain visibility is by validating authority with the power of earned coverage created by credible subject matter experts. When a leader is online and visible, customers and employees are often more interested in what they have to say – and now so too are the AI search bots! In fact, a Muck Rack study that analyzed 1 million links cited by AI tools found that 95% of citations came from non-paid media[JKI1] . More specifically, 89% of them came from earned media! This demonstrates why earned media still plays a key role in the new era of AI visibility and why paid media is certainly still no visibility shortcut!
One and done and you’re toast for a bot’s breakfast!
Brands excelling in the age of visibility uncertainty are ditching sparse approaches that aim for quick wins and instead are focusing on playing the long-game by expanding synergised campaign coverage opportunities.
The whole always was much much greater than the sum of its parts!
Many organizations do owned media and PR, but they’re so often following a multiple-siloed channel-specific strategy and not necessarily connecting all of them to blaze the trail. The key to updating marketing strategies requires unification—whether in socials, earned media, or PR, the brand messaging and output need to be consistent to enhance brand visibility.
In an age where machines are taking over, human-centricity still rules
For PR and communication professionals one thing remains clear: people-centric strategies are the key to success.
In writing terms, humans are the necessary component for driving authenticity that AI simply can’t replicate. But that’s not to say autonomous systems aren’t great support tools. However, these technologies fall short at what PR pros can achieve in guiding audiences on a tour from the unknown to filling in the blanks with context and thought leadership that drives originality, credibility, intrigue, urgency, and then action to follow.
AI systems haven’t booked their ticket on this journey yet! Technology can facilitate connections between people, but it can’t replace genuine human interaction.
Written by humans because it is being read by humans, who make the decisions
Ultimately, human insight is the necessary component in any marketing campaign to know when to push a PR strategy, when to hold action items, and when to media spotlight content at the right time.
But that’s not all. The readers on the other side of the marketing story are human. It’s a human that makes prospects aware of a brand, develops and maintains a connection with them, and (hopefully) some will buy or talk about the product. Prospects crave the humanized element of marketing that a manufactured AI overview simply can’t provide.
Making sure you’re a hit with the humans and AI
While the playing fields for marketing and PR continue to evolve, brands that are flexible enough to make the necessary strategic realignments will thrive in the new media age.
AI will continue to grow in capabilities, but the battle for PR and marketing pros is to ensure content can be repositioned to be both human-friendly but machine-readable.
Daniel Bellamy is Graduate PR Executive at IBA International.
