[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":4620},["ShallowReactive",2],{"podcast-marketing-leaders-scott-wasserman-on-why-ai-search-rewards-trust-not-rankings":3,"header-articles":906,"updatesSection-all":2843,"updatesSection-all-team":3634},{"_path":4,"_dir":5,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":8,"description":9,"date":10,"audio":11,"episode":14,"minutes":15,"series":16,"authors":17,"guestimg":19,"guest":20,"guesturl":21,"iframe":22,"seotitle":8,"guestabout":23,"body":24,"_type":900,"_id":901,"_source":902,"_file":903,"_stem":904,"_extension":905,"category":5},"/podcasts/marketing-leaders/scott-wasserman-on-why-ai-search-rewards-trust-not-rankings","marketing-leaders",false,"","Scott Wasserman on Why AI Search Rewards Trust, Not Rankings","In this episode, Scott Wasserman discusses why traditional SEO metrics and MQL-driven marketing are losing relevance in an AI-first world. He explains how modern buyers research across AI tools, communities, podcasts, and dark social before ever reaching your website, and why brands that listen to their customers, build trust, and create valuable content across multiple channels are the ones AI is most likely to recommend.","2026-06-26T16:10:18.501Z",{"url":12,"length":13},"https://share.transistor.fm/s/3faa600a","69582903","223","58","Back on T-R-A-C-K",[18],"Kerry Guard","https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/fa48cad6-066d-4dac-99e5-25360efd2f19-Scott-Wasserman.webp","Scott Wasserman","https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottwasserman/","https://share.transistor.fm/e/3faa600a","Scott Wasserman helps B2B SaaS companies build revenue-focused marketing strategies that align sales, marketing, and AI-driven demand generation to create pipeline that converts.",{"type":25,"children":26,"toc":895},"root",[27,36,42,48,53,58,63,68,73,78,83,88,93,98,103,108,113,118,123,128,133,138,143,148,153,158,163,168,173,178,183,188,193,198,203,208,213,218,223,228,233,238,243,248,253,258,263,268,273,278,283,288,293,298,303,308,313,318,323,328,333,338,343,348,353,358,363,368,373,378,383,388,393,398,403,408,413,417,422,427,432,437,442,446,451,456,461,466,471,476,481,486,491,496,501,506,511,516,521,526,531,536,541,546,551,556,561,566,571,576,581,586,591,596,601,606,611,616,621,626,631,636,641,646,651,656,661,666,671,676,681,686,691,696,701,706,711,716,721,726,731,736,741,746,751,756,761,766,771,775,780,785,790,795,800,805,810,815,820,825,830,835,840,845,850,855,860,865,870,875,880,885,890],{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":30,"children":32},"element","h2",{"id":31},"overview",[33],{"type":34,"value":35},"text","Overview",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":38,"children":39},"p",{},[40],{"type":34,"value":41},"Scott explains why rankings have become a lagging indicator and why today's marketers should focus on becoming the trusted answer instead of simply winning search results. He explores how AI search, dark social, customer advocacy, and consistent messaging are reshaping B2B buying behavior, while emphasizing that listening to customers, creating valuable content, and building genuine trust are the foundations of sustainable growth.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":43,"children":45},{"id":44},"transcript",[46],{"type":34,"value":47},"Transcript:",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":49,"children":50},{},[51],{"type":34,"value":52},"Kerry Guard  0:11  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":54,"children":55},{},[56],{"type":34,"value":57},"Well, welcome back to the show, and welcome to our listeners. If you are here with us today, comment away. We want this to be a conversation, that's why I go live, and even if you are listening to this after it is already closed, or we are no longer live, whatever you want to call it, feel free to comment anyway, because we will get back to you. We are a sucker for a good comment, and we are here for the conversation. Before we get into it, a quick word on who's behind the show. I'm the CEO of MKG Marketing. Here's the thing: I'm proudest of Dan hiring us once, then he took us to five companies. Joanne hired us twice. Marguerite took us left, right, and center all over the shop, because every agency promises pipeline now, but that's the floor. What's hard to find is an agency that actually gets you, your category, your buyers, the way you work; that's the one that gets rehired, and it's a good lens for today's conversation. Being an agency or the brand that gets the buyer is exactly what it takes to become the answer they're looking for. This show is for the marketing and go-to marketer leaders, figuring out how to do more meaningful work, often with leaner teams, more tools, and a whole lot of noise about AI. It's that's you, you're not behind, you're probably just jumped into the middle. We're here to get you back to the beginning in the right order. And today I get to do one of my favorite things on the show. Welcome back, a returning guest, Scott Wasserman, is a fractional CMO for B2B SaaS and PE-backed companies. The founder of Wasserman Revenue Advisors and the founder of the AI Fix, he's spent his career building demand gen and dark social programs that create pipeline instead of just capturing it, and he's now working AI into every layer of the engagement, from the signal-based intent systems to rev ops workflows, less volume, more position, that's the Scott Wasserman way, and he is coming in hot today with a take I can't wait to dig into that. Rankings have quietly become a lagging indicator. The thing that actually matters now isn't where you rank, it's how often you're the answer, and AI chooses to surface, and he's not the one, he's got the receipts, a cybersecurity client that proves it out. Scott, welcome to the show. So glad you have it.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":59,"children":60},{},[61],{"type":34,"value":62},"Scott Wasserman  2:32  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":64,"children":65},{},[66],{"type":34,"value":67},"Thank you for the welcome back. Thank you, it was fun. Let's do it again.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":69,"children":70},{},[71],{"type":34,"value":72},"Kerry Guard  2:37  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":74,"children":75},{},[76],{"type":34,"value":77},"I know, I know, I'll have you back again and again.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":79,"children":80},{},[81],{"type":34,"value":82},"Scott Wasserman  2:40  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":84,"children":85},{},[86],{"type":34,"value":87},"I hope I can. I hope I can live up to that grand introduction that you just gave me.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":89,"children":90},{},[91],{"type":34,"value":92},"Kerry Guard  2:46  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":94,"children":95},{},[96],{"type":34,"value":97},"Well, honestly, I just do a big intro because I got to give people time to like get into the comments and come hang out with us. So, hopefully you're all here now for the real juicy bit where we're going to spill all of the tea. All right, real quick, Scott, for anyone meeting you for the first time, where are you now? What Wasserman Revenue Advisors does, and what the AI fix is. Sure, then I want to get right into the talk that you brought today.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":99,"children":100},{},[101],{"type":34,"value":102},"Scott Wasserman  3:12  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":104,"children":105},{},[106],{"type":34,"value":107},"Sure, I mean, what is.. let's see.. where do I start? I started. well, I was consulting many for several years, back from around 20 2016 to 2020 no, I'm sorry, 2008 to 2016 and it was basically when digital marketing first kind of was really rearing itself, and you could start seeing metrics for what they are, as opposed to tracking phone numbers, you know, old school marketing, and I sold the company that I owned, bought or built this new consulting company, not really knowing what I was doing, and you know, worked with all the content that HubSpot was putting out, because they were putting out so much training material as far as how to be a quote unquote inbound marketer, and I just loved it, and I love what, yeah, and I love working with, with all these new, different, different people. I would bring in agencies to help me do the things that I could not do, as a company brought me in within a month and a half of doing this. Somebody said, \"Hey, Scott, I got a referral for you, and I said, \"Okay, great, who is this? And they said, \"It, this is, you know, the company Foster Grant, the sunglasses, and I'm like, yeah, and they said, well, the VP wants to VP, and marketing wants to meet you out of the blue. Now, coincidentally, I was living in Rhode Island, in the northeast part, right outside of, right outside of Massachusetts, outside of Boston, and they happen to be, that's where their headquarters are, and I went in there, and the guy said to me, \" You know, do you? Okay, listen, here's the deal. We have three big sub brands, we're not just Foster Grant, we got these big time, you know, money makers, you know, they sponsor NASCAR, they do this, they do this. We need three websites, we, you know, can you do it? I'm not going to say no, I just didn't know how to do it. It, so I like, what do I do now? So, as the assistant literally just goes out, comes back, and hands me a check, that was it. And, yeah, I mean, okay, I'm like, this is a cool world, they like this. And I just reached out to a couple of friends of mine, and they referred me to a couple of agencies that wound up being able to do all the heavy lifting for me, and build the sides and do what I had to do, and start working on back in the day, which was like SEO and all that, all that other crazy stuff. So that's what I did for many years, and then I wanted to go back to an internal company, a company I was referred to as a consultant. They asked me to come on full-time, and I did that, and it was a blast. We, it was a total, totally away from everything I always did. This was a total bc. It was a company called Poseidon Expeditions. I'll give a little plug. It's a, it's a Arctic, Antarctic, almost expedition to the North Pole, South Pole, well, North Pole, Arctic, Antarctic, you know, all those different countries. West, I was in. They sent me to West Greenland on an expedition. ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":109,"children":110},{},[111],{"type":34,"value":112},"Kerry Guard  6:11  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":114,"children":115},{},[116],{"type":34,"value":117},"Actually, though, did you see penguins? I gotta ask, of course.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":119,"children":120},{},[121],{"type":34,"value":122},"Scott Wasserman  6:13  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":124,"children":125},{},[126],{"type":34,"value":127},"I saw penguins.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":129,"children":130},{},[131],{"type":34,"value":132},"Kerry Guard  6:15  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":134,"children":135},{},[136],{"type":34,"value":137},"Laura, you saw penguins.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":139,"children":140},{},[141],{"type":34,"value":142},"Scott Wasserman  6:16  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":144,"children":145},{},[146],{"type":34,"value":147},"I saw penguins. I did not. I never made the trip down to the Antarctic, but I learned a lot about penguins. I saw a video, yeah, penguins are penguins are fun, but actually it's funny, and I was not to get up totally off topic, like we always do, but that more recent thing, over the past month or so, or two months ago, when there was a ship-borne illness that people were freaking out about, and the ship that they kept calling it a ship and a cruise ship that people were getting sick from rats, and this and that. You remember all that stuff that was happening a few months ago. Well, they were actually an expedition company, not this one, I'm not going to name that, but a different one, and people didn't really like this. Is not a cruise ship; this is an expedition ship. We're talking not 5000 people on a ship, we're talking usually about 150 people on a ship, much, much smaller. So that was driving me nuts for a while, but anyway, it was an expedition thing. Went up there, saw the, saw the, what's whatchamacallit Aurora Borealis, and you know, you know, took those, took those little figure out the names of this stuff, those little black boats to shore from the ships, like they have when you watch like SEAL Team movies and stuff, those little black quiet boats, I hear what they're called, anyway, I know I'm going off on a tangent, but I was in, like, I said, around Boston, wound up moving down south, and you know, I basically stuck to getting back into more B2B, more tech, more SaaS, and I started working with smaller companies, working there internally, whether it be as a director of demand gen, or whether it be as a director of marketing, whatever, but as you know, with many small companies and many small startups, whether they be bootstrapped or whether they be PE backed, or you know, they get heavy funding, they don't always make it, you know, for whatever reason, they don't, they don't always make it, and you know, marketing, I've always said is you marketing is in many cases a lot, a lot of companies consider it a luxury. They may not admit that, but they consider it a luxury. They may be, maybe they start their business right. It is, and you know it's sad because everyone always knows they need sales, but the sales come from marketing. People don't buy the hard way. Used to, we all do. We all do. People don't buy the way they used to. They don't sit there, you know, when you're making, you know, sales people making cold call after cold call after cold email, and follow up, and all these things, trying to find that needle in a haystack, whereas marketing, if the job is done right, that they bring in those high intent leads, and you know, we've talked about this. I know we talked about this last minute. I'm sure we did about things like MQLs that really have just been watered down over the years, and people, you know, a company saying to the marketing team, \" Why aren't your MQLs high? And you know, when you get what they consider to be what they consider to be an MQL, they'll say, \"Well, just let the sales team call them. We need to get some things going. That's not how it works. And people don't buy like that. They buy in a new way. They, 87% of all C-level and VPs, exec levels will do research on what they're looking for before they even decide what company they're going to go with, and that kind of brings me back to your point about, and I'm not sure if this is what we talked about before we went live here, buyers do not buy the way they used to, you know, they do all their research, and like I said, getting back to your point, we were talking about AI and talking about how people like search in all.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":149,"children":150},{},[151],{"type":34,"value":152},"Scott Wasserman  9:59  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":154,"children":155},{},[156],{"type":34,"value":157},"These large models, Chat GPT, Claude, whatever, and they, that's where they do their lot of their search now, very, very common, very simple, and some people don't know how to use the prompts necessarily, but you can just ask the most simplest thing, I mean, I look at, you know, I use, I use Chat GPT for my everyday fun stuff, you know, just every day, you know, we have this, this, and this in the fridge, we need to, we're trying to find something to make. Give me a couple of recipes, and that's great. And I use Claude for all my heavy lifting, you know, and do everything else on that. Yeah, it's.. I just found it much better. I made that switch about six months ago, after being on ChatGPT for years. But you had mentioned how, you know, let's say you get a large company, you know, big, big, big, big, you know, they're, you know, all over the place, very well funded. They have everything; they offer so many different things. And then you have a smaller startup company, and maybe doing something similar, and in many cases, that smaller company will wind up beating them out as far as being found. That's what my research is showing.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":159,"children":160},{},[161],{"type":34,"value":162},"Kerry Guard  11:01  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":164,"children":165},{},[166],{"type":34,"value":167},"I'm doing a big research project. I look forward to sharing it with everybody shortly, but yeah, that's what I did. When I looked at cybersecurity specifically, I looked at six categories, and I wanted to know. My thesis was, is enterprise going to beat out the startups because they naturally have a huge, massive digital footprint that the scale-ups now need to go create, and funny enough, it's actually the opposite. Enterprise is their branded search is falling off a cliff, they're not getting mentioned as much, and the startups and the scale ups are are coming in with guns blazing, because they not only are building a digital footprint, but they're building like a targeted digital footprint, and they're doing it with a very specific message around the exact problem they solve with language that the buyers can pick up and use that ties it back to the brand, like abnormal AI created behavioral security, right? Things behavioral, or behavioral AI, it's something like that. But because they have this word \"behavioral\" in front of it, which has never been used before in the industry, people immediately understood what it meant, and now they're using it, and so they're actually like up and coming. So it's very interesting to, like, see that shift and be proven wrong. I was so sure that we were going to be in trouble trying to like go up against these guys, these enterprises, and that is not the case. ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":169,"children":170},{},[171],{"type":34,"value":172},"Scott Wasserman  12:31  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":174,"children":175},{},[176],{"type":34,"value":177},"I don’t think so at all. I mean, I actually think that again it goes back to that bureaucracy, big, you have to get so many things done to do something within a big company, whereas smaller companies that are more streamlined, that can, you know, just spin on a dime, just, you know, make changes as they need to make changes, and are willing to try, they're willing to try new things, they're willing to fail, it's not like they've been there for 100 years, they want to know what's going to work and what's not going to work, and they're going to go after the best and the brightest, and I'm not downing big, large companies by any means, but that's just, you know, sometimes the more people you get into a pot, the more people you get to deal with, whereas, yeah.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":179,"children":180},{},[181],{"type":34,"value":182},"Kerry Guard  13:15  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":184,"children":185},{},[186],{"type":34,"value":187},"Yeah, the other challenge is that as you build up your feature set, and as you solve more problems, you're now not solving any problems, you're, you're, you don't have any clear messaging that, like, why you're different and why you're better. It's actually why, like, a challenge we have as an agency, there are so many agencies out there, and pipelines become table stakes, you no longer can talk about, oh, we deliver pipeline, you better deliver pipeline, right? So it's like, why you, and you really have to do that deep work, and I think enterprises are now sort of coming to the realization that they have to get back to basics and get back to that work of like, what problem do they really solve for customers, and more importantly, why are they different? Why are they better, and why should people pick them? And they haven't done that work in so long.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":189,"children":190},{},[191],{"type":34,"value":192},"Speaker 1  14:10  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":194,"children":195},{},[196],{"type":34,"value":197},"Yes,",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":199,"children":200},{},[201],{"type":34,"value":202},"Kerry Guard  14:11  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":204,"children":205},{},[206],{"type":34,"value":207},"that they're out behind the curve. It's, it's, yeah, it's really interesting how, how this is sort of shifted.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":209,"children":210},{},[211],{"type":34,"value":212},"Scott Wasserman  14:20  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":214,"children":215},{},[216],{"type":34,"value":217},"But also, things go in cycles, you know, and this is a very common thing that we've all seen in the past. So, let's go back to, I don't know, the 90s hypothetical. I'm just going to give you an example. IBM was called Big Blue; nothing could touch it, you know, nothing could touch it. Well, as other companies started to come in and take away some of their market, as other companies would do things differently, they really stuck to that button-up. This is who we are. We are IBM, you know. And all of a sudden, IBM was losing and losing big and losing shares, and things were changing. Dramatically, they have all of a sudden to realize, what do we do? How do we keep up? How do we make these changes? But when you have these smaller companies that are easy to pivot and easy to move and easy to just get around these larger companies, it's the same thing. It's just different technology. It's just different technology, that's all it is. And it's a matter of just trying to stay acclimated and stay up to date, you know, when it gets back to marketing, a lot of marketers, especially at these larger companies, you know, they go in there because it's safe, they go in there because, you know, they can do what they know, they can do what they are expected, what's expected of them, but they're not always willing to make waves, they're not, they're a corporate person, yeah, exactly. They deal with the political, you know, the political nature behind a company, whereas they're not willing to stand up and say, you know, something, this may have worked a year ago, five years ago, 10 years ago, but it's not going to work today. And then having to have that conversation over and over and over again.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":219,"children":220},{},[221],{"type":34,"value":222},"Kerry Guard  16:01  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":224,"children":225},{},[226],{"type":34,"value":227},"Managing up as a, as you know, within your marketing team, and then as like the CMO to the board and to the founder, like that is a, that is a muscle and a skill that is just absolutely something you have to have when you're in that seat, especially now.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":229,"children":230},{},[231],{"type":34,"value":232},"Scott Wasserman  16:18  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":234,"children":235},{},[236],{"type":34,"value":237},"It's a skill I never had, it's, I guess you can call it patience, lack of, but I think you know, I'll tell you why. I think it's where I started. I was never ever.. I didn't start off like, oh, let me start off with this big company out of college. Well, I did. I was working for finance, American Express Financial directly out of college for a very short period of time, and it wasn't like I was working for the corporate end, I was working for a very small subsect, financial planning, which was originally called IDS, before it was changed to American Express Financial, and they bought it out, and but it was still a larger company, and just finance wasn't for me, that was like probably the biggest thing I ever did, and I'm sure you remember from our conversation my next jump from there, because I was losing my hair very, very young, was to, well, at least people in the States, the Hair Club for Men, you know? I wound up becoming a Hair Club client because I was losing my hair very young. It really worked amazingly. This is back around, I'm going to date myself, back around 9293, and you know, I was bringing some people to see me, and we were talking, and I brought friends in, and they said, \"Hey, would you be willing to work here? My father always had a breakdown when he said, \"Man, you were working for me, I sent you to school, you're working for American Express, and now you're going to go work for the hair club, are you kidding me? You know, but what I'm getting at is that I was always in a position working for a franchisee who owns several offices, working with a very small type of company, where you know we had an owner that people knew of. I'm not only the hair club president, but also a client size, Berlin. May he rest in peace. He's, you know, passed away several years ago. Um, great guy, that these were.. we were like a family. It was a smaller thing, but we had no problem opening up to each other, and we used to get into battles, you know, and discussions, and... but it was all like devil's advocate stuff. It was like, you know, we'd always kiss and make up.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":239,"children":240},{},[241],{"type":34,"value":242},"Kerry Guard  18:16  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":244,"children":245},{},[246],{"type":34,"value":247},"Important.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":249,"children":250},{},[251],{"type":34,"value":252},"Scott Wasserman  18:17  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":254,"children":255},{},[256],{"type":34,"value":257},"Yeah, and this is how we grew the business, and even Sai said, you know, I can't grow this anymore.\" And the funny thing was, it was when he finally decided to sell that it was a big change for the company. You know, it wasn't the same, and it was different. And I'm not saying, saying it hasn't finally, you know, grown and thrived over the years. It certainly has, after several owners beyond that. But, you know, this is the kind of company I was with all the time, and when I sold, I bought that franchise, sold it nine years later, and I wound up doing the independent consulting, like I mentioned, the digital marketing that was still working for myself, and then I wound up working with some smaller companies, I only wound up within one large bureaucracy years later, for no more than six months, it just wasn't for me. It was not for me at all. ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":259,"children":260},{},[261],{"type":34,"value":262},"Kerry Guard  19:08  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":264,"children":265},{},[266],{"type":34,"value":267},"I think that's.. I do think it takes a certain person. I'm in the same boat. I can work with clients, and I've figured out how to build those relationships and plant those seeds, and then, you know, from founder to founder, I think helps as well, that is, but I am managing up, so to speak, in educating them on how marketing works, and I've built a lot of trust there to be able to do it, but yes, when you have that pressure of being within a big conglomerate and you got lots of teams under you and you're then trying to convince the board of X Y and Z, especially in the changing.. we just had a client who's enterprise years ago. Their board showed up and was like, \"We want to be number one for all of these terms, go bid on them, so that we're number one. And like, the cost of that is insane. Yes, right. Like my point is, there has to be somebody in that seat. It takes a certain special person to be able to push back and to say this is why, and it takes time to build up that trust. But going back to something you said earlier.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":269,"children":270},{},[271],{"type":34,"value":272},"Scott Wasserman  20:10  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":274,"children":275},{},[276],{"type":34,"value":277},"Yeah.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":279,"children":280},{},[281],{"type":34,"value":282},"Kerry Guard  20:12  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":284,"children":285},{},[286],{"type":34,"value":287},"Regarding you, you sort of bought into the inbound HubSpot way of doing things.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":289,"children":290},{},[291],{"type":34,"value":292},"Scott Wasserman  20:22  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":294,"children":295},{},[296],{"type":34,"value":297},"Yes.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":299,"children":300},{},[301],{"type":34,"value":302},"Kerry Guard  20:24  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":304,"children":305},{},[306],{"type":34,"value":307},"It feels like because we were just talking about the MQL and gated content and all these other things, and you know, our previous conversation we had, we talked about this too, but it feels like that you've moved away from that. When was that moment for you where, like, sort of the just forgive the analogy, but that's sort of come to Jesus, like, oh, this is not what I thought it was, this isn't working anymore, if it ever worked. Where was sort of that moment for you when you said this.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":309,"children":310},{},[311],{"type":34,"value":312},"Scott Wasserman  20:57  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":314,"children":315},{},[316],{"type":34,"value":317},"Is when you said this is what I thought it was, meaning the type of work we were doing as inbound at the time.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":319,"children":320},{},[321],{"type":34,"value":322},"Kerry Guard  21:05  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":324,"children":325},{},[326],{"type":34,"value":327},"So I have the opinion, yeah. And you're gonna just maybe you're gonna disagree with me, which is gonna be great, because that's what makes this show so awesome. I love it when people disagree with me, but I'm of the opinion, and hindsight is 2020, right? Looking back on it, for sure, yes, but I have, I sort of have this feeling that inbound and lead gen and this chasing the lead sort of mentality, the MQL sort of broke marketing, and we're kind of like now in this bed that we have to lie in that we made and figure out how to fix it, and the fix is not some silver bullet that's going to show up and allow us to just, you know, flip the covers over, like this is a big brand build initiative that we have to get back to, and I'm just curious, where you feel like that shift happened, and you agree with me that that that is the case.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":329,"children":330},{},[331],{"type":34,"value":332},"Scott Wasserman  22:01  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":334,"children":335},{},[336],{"type":34,"value":337},"Yes, and I actually do agree with you more than you probably think. No, it's just true. You know, several years ago, I was working with a company, part of the demand generation team. It was for health, health tech stuff that we did, and you know, I was brought up, let's say, brought up, meaning from my days of, you know, HubSpot, I was, I was a reseller for HubSpot, I did a lot of early training with them, I did a lot of beta testing for their CRM when they were kind of breaking off with Salesforce at the time, and I, you know, would you know, MQLs were a thing, it made sense. It's like, okay, let's set up a scoring system, and let's say HubSpot, and you know, if they have this touch, this touch, this touch, they're going to get this point, this point, this point, and you know, when they hit a certain level, that's when, okay, boom, it's now an MQL, they show they're showing enough intent, let's toss them over the wall to sales, and let's see what they can do to get them to an SQL. Okay, made sense. It's, it's, you know, seems like common sense. Unfortunately, companies relied, especially people that don't understand marketing, rely on this term MQL, that this is a marketing qualified lead, and that marketing qualified lead sometimes turned into, wow, he downloaded an ebook last night, you know, that's what we used to do, top of the funnel, you know, let's put on an ebook on a paid ad, and you know, free download, ebook, yada yada yada, you know, and okay, and they do, and that was just supposed to be an initial boom, again, top of the funnel, the first touch, that was the idea behind it, and now you can open them up to email marketing. You can open up to a lot of different things, retargeting, and so on, so forth. So you could do all these things to just.. and the goal, what was.. what was the goal? Get them back to your website, show them the new blogs that you're putting out, put links, internal links in those blogs, so that you keep them on your website. Why? Because it will help with SEO. The more people who see your page, the more people who are on your page, the higher your rankings will be. At least that's what we were told, and that worked for a while, but over time, the buying structure changed. Google is no longer the only search engine out there, and I'm not talking about in comparison to, you know, Microsoft, or anything like that. I'm talking about using, and let's even talk about before Chat GPT, which, you know, basically just, you know, comes to search engines, but I'm talking about things such as LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a search engine, you know, TikTok is a search engine, Instagram is a search engine, YouTube is absolutely... they were all certain. There's a ton of them, and you know, they all have their own algorithms. You can go down any rabbit hole you want on them. You'll get stuck in a lot of these rabbit holes you can't get out of, such as me with cooking and stuff like that. Our foods and... and things that I start looking up. And, of course, once I got into a quad thing for a while now, it's all I see. They already have a million cloud prompts that they think they're going to change the world, you know, it's just a different rabbit hole. But my point is that people buy differently now. They're not just relying on Google; they're not relying on, okay, let's get to the first page of Google. Great, that's the goal. We're on the first page. Why? Because back in the day, we used to say, because over 90% of people don't click over to a second page, they see what's on the first page. So, initially, it was ads on the right-hand side of the screen, organic on the left-hand side of the screen, and that was it. Then they started putting ads at the top of the screen, so now it's pushing down what was the original, quote unquote, you know, top 10 on that first page. So then that happened.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":339,"children":340},{},[341],{"type":34,"value":342},"Scott Wasserman  25:40  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":344,"children":345},{},[346],{"type":34,"value":347},"Now we're moving to a point where Gemini is taking over what happens on the initial search when you go on Google, so getting on the first page doesn't even matter anymore. It really doesn't matter. I mean, yes, you can if you know how to click out of the Gemini thing, you can start to see more old school stuff, but that's not what it is, and that's not where people are always looking, you know. They used to come to your website and read your blogs, but now, if you're like, if your bounce rate is lower than 90%, you're doing well, you know. For a blog, you know, to get somebody seeing a blog, you know, was it launched? Should we do long, long blogs, or short blogs? I mean, I'm preaching to the choir, I'm sure to many in the audience here, but you know that's not what it's all about. It's putting that content in all different places, and not just in written content, in video, through podcasts, such as this, snippets of podcasts, you know. Then you get into the whole dark social thing, where you can't even see what's going on behind the scenes, but let's say you make your post, or I make a post, and you get a couple people that you know make comments in that post, and then maybe they like somebody likes a comment that somebody else made, and they reach out to them on the side. You can't track that. You have no idea how you're going to track that. So it goes back to that Gartner study, and I've mentioned it before, and before, and before, where you get people that you know, like I said, C-level and VPs that will do, I think it was like 87% of them will do their research before they even come close to a company, and the ones that are out there, like that, we talked about the smaller startups that are really out there, and they're all over, you know, all over the place, and they're found in AI, much bigger than larger than the big ones. They're going to sit there, and you know, somebody will eventually get to your website and hit that demo, or hit that request this, or request that.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":349,"children":350},{},[351],{"type":34,"value":352},"Kerry Guard  27:36  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":354,"children":355},{},[356],{"type":34,"value":357},"Front center.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":359,"children":360},{},[361],{"type":34,"value":362},"Scott Wasserman  27:37  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":364,"children":365},{},[366],{"type":34,"value":367},"Yeah, and say, I see you everywhere, I see you everywhere, and I know what I want, and I've.. and you don't know they've been discussing this in Slack channel, they've been discussing this in groups, they've been discussing this privately. Maybe they got on a call themselves, you know. How do you feel about this? Where do you feel about this? Have you heard of anybody? It almost goes back to, again, a full cycle prior to even the internet. You know, let's say you know you wanted a restaurant recommendation, you know, you asked your friend, you know, have you gone to a restaurant? Now a person will tell you one, a person will tell you one, \"Oh, I had a great experience at this restaurant, and you may go, but if they say, \"Oh, I had this worst experience at this restaurant, now not only will you not go, you're going to tell five friends, \" Don't go.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":369,"children":370},{},[371],{"type":34,"value":372},"Kerry Guard  28:21  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":374,"children":375},{},[376],{"type":34,"value":377},"It's true.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":379,"children":380},{},[381],{"type":34,"value":382},"Scott Wasserman  28:22  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":384,"children":385},{},[386],{"type":34,"value":387},"You know. It's the negativity of it, but we're back in a cycle now because this whole concept of dark social and not knowing where people are actually talking about you or how they learned about you, which gets back to putting a question on the form when they do go ahead and get to your site and ask, How did you find us?",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":389,"children":390},{},[391],{"type":34,"value":392},"Kerry Guard  28:42  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":394,"children":395},{},[396],{"type":34,"value":397},"You find us.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":399,"children":400},{},[401],{"type":34,"value":402},"Scott Wasserman  28:43  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":404,"children":405},{},[406],{"type":34,"value":407},"Yeah, you know, and old school, so you almost have, like, have to have, like, a manual attribution model, where it would say, you know, oh, you know, you know, YouTube or Insta, or, you know, TikTok, or LinkedIn, or whatever, you know, that's what they found you, they're not going to sit there and look at your website, is like, wow, that's a very good website, and they put up so much information just on your website, you know. No, they're still gonna, they might, they might see a couple pieces of content on there, but that's not going to be their final decision, it's going to be from whatever all the information they got from everybody else. So, when they get to you, they're basically high intent, 80% done, and, as I've always said, I'd rather, I'd rather get 20 solid high intent leads a week, and I'm just throwing that number out there, as opposed to 100 leads a week that maybe just hit that demo button for whatever reason, you know?",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":409,"children":410},{},[411],{"type":34,"value":412},"Kerry Guard  29:36  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":414,"children":415},{},[416],{"type":34,"value":277},{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":418,"children":419},{},[420],{"type":34,"value":421},"Scott Wasserman  29:38  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":423,"children":424},{},[425],{"type":34,"value":426},"That's it. Yeah.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":428,"children":429},{},[430],{"type":34,"value":431},"Kerry Guard  29:38  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":433,"children":434},{},[435],{"type":34,"value":436},"I mean, back, I mean, before with getting a download, right, you wanted as many downloads as you could get, because to your point, then it became all that nurturing, but now we sort of, this is where I think HubSpot, and the, and the inbound sort of notion broke, was not just in how buyers research, but in how they engage, they don't want it anymore. They're afraid to give us their email address because they know what's straight behind it, in terms of the onslaught of emails, nurture sequences, and newsletters, like they protect that with their life now. So, if they're giving it to you, it's because they are serious about potentially working with you. I actually had a prospect today. I made the short list. I was like, so excited, right, because when you know your marketing's work, like, you did a thing, like your own marketing as an agency is doing a thing, and somebody shows up and fills in that form. I have to add that field, by the way, I keep meaning to. I have no idea. I sort of figured out how she found us. I knew I was connected to somebody who had been on my podcast five years ago. I see her in my feed all the time. I'm always engaging with her content. I know she gets our newsletter, so I know that our marketing for the last five years has been hanging out with this person, and now that they're ready to engage with an agency, we made the short list, and so she filled in the form. We had this great conversation this morning, but it's like you just have to create this consistency now of building that trust up, because they're not this woman, she filled in the form, we sent her an email that said wonderful, we're looking forward to meeting you, book a meeting, she couldn't book a meeting because she's in Australia and we're in the US, so she actually emailed us, and I was like, she's serious, like she really wants to work with us, right? It's those intense signals of like when you really work, when you really hit somebody with your message, and you really make that connection, like that's that's where we need to get to, and I just feel like we've broken so much trust over the years with buyers, because of how this sort of marketing system, this gamification sort of happened, and now we are where we are. Let's get back to the AI search of it all.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":438,"children":439},{},[440],{"type":34,"value":441},"Scott Wasserman  31:51  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":443,"children":444},{},[445],{"type":34,"value":277},{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":447,"children":448},{},[449],{"type":34,"value":450},"Kerry Guard  31:52  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":452,"children":453},{},[454],{"type":34,"value":455},"And talk about, and dark social is sort of an indicator of this, too. We have to measure this differently, right?",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":457,"children":458},{},[459],{"type":34,"value":460},"Scott Wasserman  32:00  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":462,"children":463},{},[464],{"type":34,"value":465},"Yep.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":467,"children":468},{},[469],{"type":34,"value":470},"Kerry Guard  32:00  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":472,"children":473},{},[474],{"type":34,"value":475},"So it's the lead, the leading indicators have changed. It's not the MQL, it's not the click-through rate, it's not even sessions on a website, although your conversion rate is something you should definitely be checking out. ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":477,"children":478},{},[479],{"type":34,"value":480},"Scott Wasserman  32:14  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":482,"children":483},{},[484],{"type":34,"value":485},"See, of course.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":487,"children":488},{},[489],{"type":34,"value":490},"Kerry Guard  32:14  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":492,"children":493},{},[494],{"type":34,"value":495},"If that's actually gone up, fewer sessions but better conversions. To your point, so in your opinion, Scott, now what you know, we have that form fill, which I think is great. We need to all get that on our website. What other leading indicators should we really be measuring to know that, like, we're doing all of this activity, we're trying to show up as many places as possible now, and build that digital footprint? Is any of it working? How do we know? ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":497,"children":498},{},[499],{"type":34,"value":500},"Scott Wasserman  32:39  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":502,"children":503},{},[504],{"type":34,"value":505},"I think the best way to know if something is working or not is to ask them, is to ask that potential client, is to put that out there when you're putting your content out there, asking them what kind of content they want to read about, you know, these are things that I've kind of drifted away from, because I kind of get down these little rabbit holes of things that I love to, you know, really preach about, get on my soapbox about whatever, but you know, finding out what they want to learn about and finding out what they need to see, that is the way, again, like we said, people buy differently than they used to buy, you know, it's those days of, you know, like I mentioned, I worked in that, in that health tech company. You know, you get that lead just because the guy couldn't sleep at two in the morning and decided to download an ebook, and you know, just was interested, and he gets a phone call the next day, within, as they said, has to be within 24 hours. You know, I mean, that to me is off-putting. You know, it's, it's very off-putting, that all of a sudden it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, I just wanted to see something, you know, and it's like now this salesperson is going down this, you know, let's find a needle in the haystack kind of thing. So, how do you find out? Well, you know, you have to find out, first of all, where your audience sits. Well, they're not sitting on your website, you know, they're sitting in different places, they're as I mentioned, you know. How did you find us? You know, are we focusing too much on, you know, reels on Insta? Are we focusing too much, and I'm talking organic, are we focusing too much on there are so many different things, you know, focusing on just one thing too much, but finding out. Okay, put together this manual attribution model that says, okay, we're getting a lot of responses that people are seeing our live podcasts on YouTube, you know, that's where they're seeing us, or they're seeing us on LinkedIn, but nobody ever checks off TikTok, and nobody ever checks off Instagram. Okay, so well, we can put our stuff on there, but let's not focus too much on it, you know. Let's focus more on the other things, and that I think is just engaging in creative conversation with different people in different audiences, and at the same time understanding that you just, you don't. Put out things that you're trying to sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. You're putting out information that they can use, you know, for free. And people sometimes are afraid to do that. They think they're giving away the store, and I'm like, \"No, you're not giving away the store. If you're putting out content after content after content about what they can do and how they can do it, and this is what they should be doing, and this is, you know, the stuff they should try. Then, you know, people are going to listen, and they'll look at you as an expert, and then they say, you know, something. If they're putting out this kind of stuff for free, I wonder what they'll put out if I pay them, you know. So, I think that's probably the best way to do it it's not new, it's not new at all, but I mean, how many times do you get in mails or cold emails that give you a plethora list of, you know, everything that they do and what they've done, and all their examples, and all their use cases, and links to their calendars, and do you want to chat? Do you? I don't know who you are. Who are you sending this information to? I have no idea, you know. And then I go to look for you.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":507,"children":508},{},[509],{"type":34,"value":510},"Kerry Guard  36:10  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":512,"children":513},{},[514],{"type":34,"value":515},"I always start off with, like, trying to connect with you, of how they saw this case study, or they read the, yeah.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":517,"children":518},{},[519],{"type":34,"value":520},"Scott Wasserman  36:17  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":522,"children":523},{},[524],{"type":34,"value":525},"yeah, yeah.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":527,"children":528},{},[529],{"type":34,"value":530},"Kerry Guard  36:18  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":532,"children":533},{},[534],{"type":34,"value":535},"Feels so forced.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":537,"children":538},{},[539],{"type":34,"value":540},"Scott Wasserman  36:20  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":542,"children":543},{},[544],{"type":34,"value":545},"Yeah. And when I reach out, it's more, you know, I, I saw you here, I love, you know, I love that you commented on this, you know, love to chat with you, and just learn, not, no, no, and I always, I always tell it when I sit there and write it, I say, you know, you know, no, what's the wording I always use, you know, nothing, like there's nothing, I have, no, what's that?",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":547,"children":548},{},[549],{"type":34,"value":550},"Kerry Guard  36:42  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":552,"children":553},{},[554],{"type":34,"value":555},"Not pitching.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":557,"children":558},{},[559],{"type":34,"value":560},"Scott Wasserman  36:43  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":562,"children":563},{},[564],{"type":34,"value":565},"Yeah, it's.. I'm not trying to pitch anything, it's not.. I just want to learn more about what you're doing, how you're doing it, you know. Because I saw that it was a great post, you know, that's it. I mean, LinkedIn is great in so many ways, but one of the downfalls I think of LinkedIn, this goes back to the beginning, was that it was just.. just like, you know, it was just hooking up with anybody you can meet, you know, anybody that friend that try to connect with you, connect with, you know, and I connect with them. How many times has somebody come to you and said, \" You know, geez, Kerry, I see you know so and so, can you give me an introduction? You know, I know them, but just from connecting with them 10 years ago, I don't necessarily know who they are. Yeah, I'm happy to let them know, I guess you know. But now you're introducing someone you don't know to someone you don't know. Yeah.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":567,"children":568},{},[569],{"type":34,"value":570},"Kerry Guard  37:30  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":572,"children":573},{},[574],{"type":34,"value":575},"Yeah, I only try and do it for when, yeah, people are for people I know.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":577,"children":578},{},[579],{"type":34,"value":580},"Kerry Guard  37:36  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":582,"children":583},{},[584],{"type":34,"value":585},"who've been on the podcast or have some sort of connection with, and they're looking for a job, even if I don't really have a good relationship with the person I'm connecting them to, I always try to follow that through, because, man, job hunting, right now, that's a whole other podcast.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":587,"children":588},{},[589],{"type":34,"value":590},"Scott Wasserman  37:50  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":592,"children":593},{},[594],{"type":34,"value":595},"Well, that's a whole other story for people, absolutely, which is part of the reason I got back in. I started this up again, that was the exact reason I started up, because I was tired of being as much as I love working internally in startups, and I love working internally with small teams, you know, you're at the whim of the company, you know, and I was working with a company, as an example, that, you know, when I got there, there were, you know, like 15 marketers, a year later they were down to eight, you know, there were some issues. I was asked to kind of take over something that had to do with what should have been under customer success, but that customer success person had left, and I found out that we had customers who were just mostly miserable. They were, they were not happy, so as much as we might have been getting customers in the front door, they were walking out the back at the same time, and that's where Rev Ops, that's where things need to be fixed, and they don't, they say, \"Whoa, but we're not getting any new business. Well, maybe because we don't have any good business behind it, you know, meaning customers that are so happy that they're willing to be, you know, a, you know, an ambassador for the company, in a sense, you know, I mean, they, I found a few that were very, very happy, and that's great, but that's where companies say, oh, well, we got to cut back on marketing now, because marketing isn't doing their job well, but yeah, as a company, we have to do this whole thing together, it's, we're not, we should not be living in silos at a company, you know, marketing does this, sales does this, customer success does this, you know, we have to be able to put it all together and find out what's working and what's not. I was with this larger company briefly, and you know, I was running this whole, these major ABM campaigns from these multi million dollar contracts, I kind of came in at the very end of it, this more one to one reach out, and I would get messages from my, you know, from sales teams in Japan and other, some other places that I was working with, and they would say, \"Yeah, stop, stop with the message, stop the messaging to them, stop the messaging to them. I'm like, \"Why? I said that. A customer, they're already a client of ours, and they said, \"Well, because it was our new product, and he said, \"He said, 'Yeah, but the problem is they have a lot of issues, and they're really not very happy right now. So, you kind of want to stay away from that, and I ran into that so often, and you know that's just not cool. You know, I mean, I'm sorry, it's not cool if you have unhappy clients and unhappy customers. Sorry, you're not going to make it.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":597,"children":598},{},[599],{"type":34,"value":600},"Kerry Guard  40:30  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":602,"children":603},{},[604],{"type":34,"value":605},"That's one of the problems with how enterprises are functioning right now, and why they're also not showing up in AI: what their customers are saying about them, not always very good, is not aligned to what they're saying about themselves, and so because there's not that alignment, they're not getting recommended or mentioned, and so yes, you have to have fundamentally at your core, you have to have happy customers who are out there talking about your differentiators, and why you, because that's not going to align. So, man, people could get away with not having custom happy customers, maybe before, but they definitely need them. You need them now. If you are having a problem internally with your customers and your communication, and them not, you know, loving your product, definitely start there. Oh my gosh.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":607,"children":608},{},[609],{"type":34,"value":610},"Scott Wasserman  41:22  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":612,"children":613},{},[614],{"type":34,"value":615},"Because you know, what's interesting is that it's to your point exactly. You know, just as it's so easy now, let's say a customer is so upset, or they're upset about something, or they're just, they were asked a question. Let's say they were on a Reddit or this or something else, and made comments. Well, guess what? AI is going to pull from everywhere, and I have seen, like, when I sit there and say, well, you know, I might go into, you know, can you give me a quick background about this company, what people are saying about them, this and that. Well, you will see the positive, and you will see the negative. It's it puts it on, it pulls it off, it's so it's not even a matter of",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":617,"children":618},{},[619],{"type":34,"value":620},"Kerry Guard  42:01  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":622,"children":623},{},[624],{"type":34,"value":625},"Talk about",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":627,"children":628},{},[629],{"type":34,"value":630},"Scott Wasserman  42:02  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":632,"children":633},{},[634],{"type":34,"value":635},"Exactly, and that's the point.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":637,"children":638},{},[639],{"type":34,"value":640},"Kerry Guard  42:05  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":642,"children":643},{},[644],{"type":34,"value":645},"Yeah,",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":647,"children":648},{},[649],{"type":34,"value":650},"Scott Wasserman  42:05  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":652,"children":653},{},[654],{"type":34,"value":655},"And you nailed it. I mean, negative is so much easier, exactly. It's the same thing. People, well, I mean, come on, Yelp went through lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit about that, because you gave, you know, consumers so much power by sitting there saying, you know, oh, my bagel was bad the other morning, I'm taking you down, you know, kind of thing, or right? They went through a whole thing years ago about that. There were lawsuits involved, you know, regarding that. So I don't even look at any, and you know something, I used to, I, it's funny, I switched over to, you know, I always look at reviews. I love to look at reviews. Living is a quick example. Living in the South, you know, there are a couple of things that us northerners miss. It's Pete's good pizza, good bagels, and, sorry, good Chinese food too. You know, it's one thing that we miss, and you know you're always looking and trying to find, and you know what's out there and what's happening. Well, you know, I kind of, I tend to stay away from Yelp, and I started working more on Google reviews, and looking at those, but then I started realizing, especially since I was a part of it, because I was helping a company, you know, work on their brand, utilizing reviews, is that, and I'm sure you've gotten these, we've all gotten these, you go to go somewhere, could be a kerry, you know, your chiropractor could be the dentist, could be anybody, and they sit there and say, 'Hey, you know, did you like what you did? Would you be willing to give us a review on Google? They give you a link, boom, you do it, done. And I'm happy to do it in many cases, I really am. And I've actually, I've never given, I think, a bad review. I've just not given a review if it's bad, but this is how they get their five-star reviews. It's not because somebody's being, you know, somebody - if somebody's mad, oh, they'll get on there, and they'll knock the, don't knock the crap out of you, you know, without any, without anybody asking them to. ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":657,"children":658},{},[659],{"type":34,"value":660},"Kerry Guard  43:52  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":662,"children":663},{},[664],{"type":34,"value":665},"But yeah, they'll sometimes vote on the wrong profile, not even for us.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":667,"children":668},{},[669],{"type":34,"value":670},"Scott Wasserman  43:56  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":672,"children":673},{},[674],{"type":34,"value":675},"And sometimes it'll get pulled down because, you know.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":677,"children":678},{},[679],{"type":34,"value":680},"Kerry Guard  43:58  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":682,"children":683},{},[684],{"type":34,"value":685},"I can't get it. I can't get Google to take it down. Like, this has nothing to do with us, right? I even emailed the guy, I was like, \"Could you please take this down? But he doesn't know how, and he's in Ireland. He's, I think, in Ireland, but he ended up in the US. It was anyway. So now, now.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":687,"children":688},{},[689],{"type":34,"value":690},"Scott Wasserman  44:14  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":692,"children":693},{},[694],{"type":34,"value":695},"Oh, we have 505-star reviews. Well, that's because you asked 500 people who were, or actually probably 5000 people, to get those 500 that they were happy to please review, which is nice, but unfortunately, I think it skews it a lot. It's not independent, you know, and that's true. ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":697,"children":698},{},[699],{"type":34,"value":700},"Kerry Guard  44:32  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":702,"children":703},{},[704],{"type":34,"value":705},"You do like, well, even the G2 reviews aren't necessarily independent, right? Because the same thing, client, yeah, it's the same thing, so I, but you do need the reviews. Absolutely, I'm not saying initially now we're even thinking internally of like how we ask our customers who've been, you know, okay, you've been with us for three months, how's it going? Would you mind giving us a Google review if you've been with us for years? It's like, would you mind giving us a clutch review? Yeah. I mean, having a review system is imperative now, because again, you need that corroboration between what you think about you as a brand and what your customers are saying, so if it's skewed, it just needs to be part of the system exactly.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":707,"children":708},{},[709],{"type":34,"value":710},"Scott Wasserman  45:19  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":712,"children":713},{},[714],{"type":34,"value":715},"And one thing I mean, one thing I do love is that when I look at reviews, I do look at reviews, especially for restaurants. I'm a foodie, we love to go out, you know. I want to see, okay, what people are saying, and you know, I want to see the good and the bad, but I also take everything with a grain of salt, you know, meaning if you see, because what does everybody focus on? You know, you see all these great five star reviews, then you see a couple, two or three star reviews, and there may be a one star review in there, and they just get slammed, and you know, a lot of people look at those, go, oh, they're going to take the power of those three over the other ones, you know, I mean, you know, some people are just miserable, some people just will never, you'll never make happy, no matter what. ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":717,"children":718},{},[719],{"type":34,"value":720},"Kerry Guard  45:59  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":722,"children":723},{},[724],{"type":34,"value":725},"Looking at the date, like, you know, looking if, like, it was 10 years ago, it's the other way around, where all the good reviews are like from months ago, but then the bad reviews start showing up, and they're newer, right? So you definitely need to be, like, critical about how you read them, but AI's... I don't know that AI is taking all that into consideration, so having a good review system is definitely key. What is Scott? We've talked to, we've kind of danced around a lot of ideas in terms of showing up in AI. We've planted a lot of seeds in terms of foundation reviews being one of them, consistent messaging being another. We talked about some tactics, but out of all the things we've talked about, if somebody were leaving this podcast right now, they only needed to go do one thing to start building that digital footprint for a B2B tech business. What would you, where would you recommend they start?",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":727,"children":728},{},[729],{"type":34,"value":730},"Scott Wasserman  46:53  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":732,"children":733},{},[734],{"type":34,"value":735},"I'd recommend they start putting out content everywhere, and I'm not just talking written content, I'm talking taking content that you've written, I'm talking, doing videos, podcasts, such as this, guest podcasting, getting yourself into groups and chat groups, whether it be on Slack or different mediums, where you can sit there and talk to people you know that look up those messages, look at what people are saying when you post something, respond to them, you know. If they don't like what you say, if they disagree with what you say, don't get into a battle with them, but just make it, you know, get into a discussion with them. Maybe it's offline, maybe it's offline. It'll help teach you what you should put out, what you shouldn't put out. But all this stuff, if it's in the public domain, even though it may be on a private site, it will start to be pulled out. It will start to be extracted. People will start to share it, and once it's shared, it will start to make its way into this whole vernacular of AI. You know, it will happen, but the idea is you have to really keep your ear to the ground and see what's happening, and listen to what people are saying, and respect what people are saying, and be willing to make those changes, and ask them questions, and ask them what they would like, and what they would prefer. It's really engaging that audience, you know, engaging with them, not saying, \"this is what I am selling you, it's right here, do you want it or not? \" You know, it's like, \"no, what are you looking at? ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":737,"children":738},{},[739],{"type":34,"value":740},"Kerry Guard  48:18  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":742,"children":743},{},[744],{"type":34,"value":745},"Started a podcast, right?",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":747,"children":748},{},[749],{"type":34,"value":750},"Scott Wasserman  48:20  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":752,"children":753},{},[754],{"type":34,"value":755},"Yeah, you know, and that's why I love being, you know, a guest on a podcast. You know, what I listen to, what I say isn't the all-end-all be-all by any means. I don't think anybody has that end-all be-all. My process has always been that I'm not afraid to try new things, I'm not afraid to test new things, I'm unafraid to, you know, I embrace AI, but I don't. I'm not owned by AI, you know. I love it. I work with it. Yes. Do I write content with it? Absolutely. I'm not going to send people to say, \" Oh, it's not AI. You know something you can write if you prepare and you know what you're doing, where you can actually create an article that is all you, because you have built this thing up that it knows exactly what your thing is. I mean, I've plugged in my, you know, my emails, how I write and how I talk, what I say, and what my thought process is, so it knows me. Do I still review it? Absolutely. The problem is, there's something now, a term which, frankly, I didn't hear about until just a few months ago, called AI slop, you know, where people are just saying, oh, well, now I can post on LinkedIn 345, times a week, and they put up the stuff, and it's so obvious, you know, that I mean, I have gotten stuff emailed to me, email marketing stuff, you know, that just, what did you do? Just pull the whole thing from my LinkedIn page, is that what you did? You just pulled my LinkedIn page, plugged it in, and said, write them an email, you know, because this is obvious, you know, I mean, there's the telltale signs, of course, the em dashes and all that stuff, but I'm just talking about the personality and the content of it, you know.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":757,"children":758},{},[759],{"type":34,"value":760},"Kerry Guard  49:51  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":762,"children":763},{},[764],{"type":34,"value":765},"You can feel the tone of a total of where it's been well written, even with the even if it was the help with AI versus when it's here. Uh, AI, it's, but I love what you're saying, and I think it's so important, and I'm, I've been sort of shouting it from the mountaintops, even though we don't necessarily help with positioning and messaging, I have wonderful partners like yourself and some other people and some other fractional marketing leaders who do this, because it's just where you all like, where we all need to get back to basics. Even if you're an enterprise, you need to redefine your positioning and messaging in the new era of AI search. And I love what you're saying about listening.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":767,"children":768},{},[769],{"type":34,"value":770},"Scott Wasserman  50:32  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":772,"children":773},{},[774],{"type":34,"value":277},{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":776,"children":777},{},[778],{"type":34,"value":779},"Kerry Guard  50:33  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":781,"children":782},{},[783],{"type":34,"value":784},"If you can first.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":786,"children":787},{},[788],{"type":34,"value":789},"Scott Wasserman  50:35  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":791,"children":792},{},[793],{"type":34,"value":794},"yeah.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":796,"children":797},{},[798],{"type":34,"value":799},"Kerry Guard  50:36  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":801,"children":802},{},[803],{"type":34,"value":804},"Oh, if you can listen first to your audience and really hear what they're saying, like, I, you know, the world is shifting underneath our feet. I'm literally writing a book about how to build the marketing systems from the ground up, and what you need to do it, and the unsexy foundation stuff that just needs to get done to allow you to build on something strong that can compound right, and the position, the listening piece, and the positioning and messaging is really that first step that everybody skips because they want to get into market and they want to just start spending money for whatever reason, and then none of it works, and they don't know why, and, man, yeah, listening to your audience and really understanding what the problem is, and what, and what you saw, everybody's talking about, they're not talking about a, they're not talking about AEO, they're not talking about geo, they're not even talking about SEO, now it's AI search, that is what people are talking about, right now, I had to pivot all my messaging to match the markets, like what you were talking about before. I'm a small, small business, I can pivot on a dime, and I sure as hell am to meet the market and hear what they're talking about, how they're talking about it, and it's yeah, you have to listen. ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":806,"children":807},{},[808],{"type":34,"value":809},"Scott Wasserman  51:57  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":811,"children":812},{},[813],{"type":34,"value":814},"Yeah, listening is what it always is. As we interrupt each other, I interrupt you all the time. Listening is what it's all about. Yeah, you have to listen to what people are looking for, what people want. You can't just shove it down their throat and say, \" This is what we have to offer. Do you like it or not? And this is how we do business. Do you like it or not? You have to be willing to take care of these people. I mean, you know, customers are valuable, and your existing customers are even more valuable if you're not taking your existing customers. Forget about upselling them or cross-selling them, or whatever you do as a company. They're not going to be happy, and if they're not happy, trust me, they're going to tell their friends, you know, they're going to tell people they know. Do not do business with this company. Everybody has relationships with different people in the same industry, just to different companies, do not do business with this company. You know, why would you want that? You know, you want to be an ambassador for the company. You want people, you want your customers to say, \"Yeah, I love this company. You want them to be willing to do a video testimonial for you. You want them to be willing to come on a podcast with you. You know, hey, we have this person, this person, you know. Yes, we chose some of our customers, but they're the first people we want to, because, you know, they seem very happy. So we're not paying them for this. This is, they're happy, you know. Yeah, and that's what they bring you along.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":816,"children":817},{},[818],{"type":34,"value":819},"Kerry Guard  53:13  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":821,"children":822},{},[823],{"type":34,"value":824},"and they bring you along with them. They bring you along, yeah. That is, that has been our story, which has been the most amazing 15 years of just working with some amazing people who love what we do, leave the next company, and continuously bring us along. I just, that is what it's all about. ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":826,"children":827},{},[828],{"type":34,"value":829},"Scott Wasserman  53:30  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":831,"children":832},{},[833],{"type":34,"value":834},"Yeah, I love that. ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":836,"children":837},{},[838],{"type":34,"value":839},"Kerry Guard  53:31  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":841,"children":842},{},[843],{"type":34,"value":844},"One last question for you, where can people find you, follow along, and engage with your content and what you're doing?",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":846,"children":847},{},[848],{"type":34,"value":849},"Scott Wasserman  53:38  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":851,"children":852},{},[853],{"type":34,"value":854},"The best place is always LinkedIn, it's under Scott Wasserman on LinkedIn. I actually finally put up a website. Yes, you did. I did. Thank you, Claude. It's Wasserman revenue.com. It'll give you some basics. It also talks about something called the AI Fix, which I just kind of came up with out of a whim, but just because I used to see I was seeing these things and seeing what people were going through, and knowing what I've gone through over the years, as far as how to deal with, you know, the day to day stuff that AI can actually take away or take off their plate, in a sense, and they can focus on the things that need to get done, and I started doing that just as an additional thing, not just for B Texas asks, but for anybody that is overwhelmed with their day to day, you know, these emails that I have to send back, or these, you know, email follow-ups, content they never get to explain the same things over and over and over, and you know, admin scheduling, all that stuff, social media customers, you know, questions, customer support, you know, and they wind up doing this stuff like, you know, Sunday night or Friday night, because they just had no time during the week. I found a way to actually set up a system where one-shot deals, they, you know, come in, give me their biggest issues, we talked for a few minutes, I put the whole thing together for them, but all the promos. Together for them, show you how, show them how to use them, and it's done. And if it works, and it has, and the few, you know, this is fairly new, but the few people I've worked with on this love it have been so happy that it just saved them time. It saves them time, you know, which is kind of cool. When I, you know, I've always been in the business of helping people, whether it be through sales, like I said, I was part of the hair club. Look, what it did for me, not now, but look what it did for me. You know, and you know how it can make you feel, how it can make you look, all that stuff. Going forward in marketing, and I was, you know, I was a marketing major. Going forward in marketing, where you know what a marketer's job is, especially in demand generation. A marketer's job is to generate demand, a salesperson's job is to make sales, the sales team happy, you know, you make the sales team happy, everybody's happy, so you know, I guess it's called my people pleaser thing, I don't know, you know.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":856,"children":857},{},[858],{"type":34,"value":859},"Kerry Guard  55:52  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":861,"children":862},{},[863],{"type":34,"value":864},"No, I love it, I love it, and so head on over, check it out, if you have anything that you're constantly executing on time and time again, that probably could be automated. Hit up Scott, and he'll help you streamline that asap. The time is now. Make it happen, Scott. I'm so grateful. Thank you so much for coming back on.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":866,"children":867},{},[868],{"type":34,"value":869},"Scott Wasserman  56:12  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":871,"children":872},{},[873],{"type":34,"value":874},"Kerry. Thanks for the invite, that was fun. Always fun, always fun, always fun.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":876,"children":877},{},[878],{"type":34,"value":879},"Kerry Guard  56:16  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":881,"children":882},{},[883],{"type":34,"value":884},"All right.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":886,"children":887},{},[888],{"type":34,"value":889},"Kerry Guard  56:17  ",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":891,"children":892},{},[893],{"type":34,"value":894},"Yes, as you mentioned, you can find Scott Wasserman on LinkedIn and on his website. Go connect, especially if you're a founder or operator who needs a marketing leader who measures in pipeline, not activity. If there's one thing to take away with you, stop treating your ranking as the scorecard. Actually, I'm not going to read this, because we totally went off topic. And if there's one thing that you always do, this conversation, I know, but that's the beauty of it. I love it. There's one thing you need to take away from this: to listen to your customers, take care of your customers, and build a relationship with them, because they are your foundation and your fuel, and they will help you build up that marketing engine from the ground up, and take care of you along the way, while you do it. So be sure to, you know, go look internally and see where there's some opportunity that could be. It could be huge. It could be huge. I love this, and I haven't talked about this yet, so that's amazing. That's just, ah, amazing. This episode is brought to you by MKG Marketing. Dan hired us once, then took us to five companies. Every agency promises pipeline. Now that's just the floor. What you can't find is an agency that gets you, your category, your buyers, the way you work. That's the one that gets rehired. But thanks for being here. And we will catch you next time.",{"title":7,"searchDepth":896,"depth":896,"links":897},2,[898,899],{"id":31,"depth":896,"text":35},{"id":44,"depth":896,"text":47},"markdown","content:podcasts:marketing-leaders:scott-wasserman-on-why-ai-search-rewards-trust-not-rankings.md","content","podcasts/marketing-leaders/scott-wasserman-on-why-ai-search-rewards-trust-not-rankings.md","podcasts/marketing-leaders/scott-wasserman-on-why-ai-search-rewards-trust-not-rankings","md",[907,1268,1611,1934,2254],{"_path":908,"_dir":909,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":910,"description":911,"date":912,"img":913,"imgAlt":914,"body":915,"_type":900,"_id":1264,"_source":902,"_file":1265,"_stem":1266,"_extension":905,"category":909,"minutes":1267},"/blog/seo/stop-chasing-citations-why-native-llm-mentions-are-the-new-baseline-for-b2b-tech-visibility","seo","Stop Chasing Citations - Why Native LLM Mentions Are the New Baseline for B2B Tech Visibility","Working 60-hour weeks hunting backlinks for AI footnotes while your competitors steal the actual recommendations? Here is how to transition to Mention Engineering.","2026-06-24T17:18:05.329Z","https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/08d5ecca-00a2-434f-beda-688e14f036a8-mkg-blog-stop-chasing-citations-hero-image.webp","Stop Chasing Citations",{"type":25,"children":916,"toc":1255},[917,922,927,932,948,956,962,967,972,986,991,997,1002,1007,1012,1026,1033,1039,1052,1065,1100,1112,1118,1123,1128,1133,1140,1146,1151,1164,1197,1202,1208,1213,1227,1232,1238,1243],{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":918,"children":919},{},[920],{"type":34,"value":921},"You’re probably grinding through sixty-hour weeks, drained by the nonstop demands of today’s “answer economy.” Your calendar is a tangle of technical metadata reviews, schema rollouts, and aggressive backlink campaigns. Every working hour feels like a defensive scramble. You’re optimizing your digital presence for one narrow outcome: earning a tiny, hyperlinked citation at the bottom of a conversational engine’s response. That small, numbered source link has become the proxy for the value of your entire content program.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":923,"children":924},{},[925],{"type":34,"value":926},"But when you zoom out from local SEO dashboards and examine your actual revenue pipeline, the picture is flat. New customer growth has slowed, and your sales team is flagging a serious lack of high-intent enterprise deals.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":928,"children":929},{},[930],{"type":34,"value":931},"The real problem is unfolding where you can’t see it. While you double down on classic search tactics to secure a defensive citation, your top competitors are skipping the citation layer altogether. When an enterprise buyer asks a large language model which software vendor to choose, the platform doesn’t just point to a website. It writes your competitor’s brand directly into the core narrative. The model positions their product as the category standard, endorses their workflow approach, and quietly leaves your company off the short list.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":933,"children":934},{},[935,937,946],{"type":34,"value":936},"So when your founder or board presses you for an explanation of shrinking organic inbound, your legacy web analytics stack can’t provide a solid, data-backed answer. If you keep defending marketing performance with session counts and traditional indexing metrics, you’ll stay trapped in a loop of overwork and declining impact. To navigate this shift, B2B tech leaders must stop chasing superficial citations and adopt an integrated strategy centered on ",{"type":28,"tag":938,"props":939,"children":943},"a",{"href":940,"rel":941},"https://mkgmarketinginc.com/expert-digital-marketing-services/search-visibility-optimization/",[942],"nofollow",[944],{"type":34,"value":945},"Search Visibility Optimization (SVO)",{"type":34,"value":947}," and persistent, native mentions of their corporate brand.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":949,"children":950},{},[951],{"type":28,"tag":952,"props":953,"children":955},"img",{"alt":7,"src":954},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/c5f7302e-ce8a-4faf-b0ac-4815664ca413-mkg-blog-stop-chasing-citations-image-1.png",[],{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":957,"children":959},{"id":958},"the-footnote-mirage-and-the-illusion-of-traffic",[960],{"type":34,"value":961},"The Footnote Mirage and the Illusion of Traffic",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":963,"children":964},{},[965],{"type":34,"value":966},"The core error most modern B2B marketing teams make is treating conversational engine citations as equivalent to traditional search engine clicks. This structural misunderstanding creates a serious operational trap. Securing a citation link at the bottom of a summarized answer feels like a tactical win. It shows up in your reporting as a visible placement, reinforcing the belief that your digital presence is successfully intercepting contemporary buyer journeys.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":968,"children":969},{},[970],{"type":34,"value":971},"In practice, behavioral data shows that these footnotes are effectively invisible to today’s economic buyer. Conversational models are designed to function as final-answer systems, not as link directories. When a buyer is presented with a clean, authoritative, side-by-side comparison of enterprise software options, their information needs are met inside that single interface. They are not clicking through dozens of citations to review original sources; they consume the narrative, trust the model’s primary recommendations, and move directly into procurement evaluation.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":973,"children":974},{},[975,977,984],{"type":34,"value":976},"This exact shift is confirmed by macro performance data. Comprehensive user behavioral analysis published in ",{"type":28,"tag":938,"props":978,"children":981},{"href":979,"rel":980},"https://company.g2.com/news/g2-research-the-answer-economy",[942],[982],{"type":34,"value":983},"G2’s 2026 Answer Economy Report",{"type":34,"value":985}," reveals that 51% of business-to-business software buyers now completely bypass traditional search engine queries in favor of direct, conversational interfaces when building vendor lists.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":987,"children":988},{},[989],{"type":34,"value":990},"If your primary growth strategy revolves around capturing the last remnants of click-through traffic from tiny citation footnotes, you’re competing over a rapidly shrinking share of the market. Winning a link is irrelevant if the model’s main narrative is telling buyers to choose your competitor’s product. Achieving real visibility means redirecting your efforts away from shallow indexing metrics and toward a deliberate practice of Mention Engineering.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":992,"children":994},{"id":993},"decoding-the-core-engine-parametric-memory-vs-indexing",[995],{"type":34,"value":996},"Decoding the Core Engine: Parametric Memory vs. Indexing",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":998,"children":999},{},[1000],{"type":34,"value":1001},"To move beyond defensive, click-driven tactics, you first need to understand how a conversational engine actually forms a recommendation. Traditional search engines behave like directories: they crawl web content, map keywords, index your pages, and route users to your URLs. Conversational engines are fundamentally different. They don’t scour the open web in real time to surface a link for each basic query; instead, they rely on an internal network of weights, pathways, and associations—what we call Parametric Memory Seeding.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1003,"children":1004},{},[1005],{"type":34,"value":1006},"When a conversational engine answers a prompt, it taps into this pre-trained parametric structure to generate its response. If your product attributes, brand name, and real customer scenarios are not thoroughly encoded in those underlying weights, the model has no basis to naturally surface your brand story. It may occasionally surface your site as a transient citation via external search plugins, but it will not present your company as an inherent, trusted recommendation.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1008,"children":1009},{},[1010],{"type":34,"value":1011},"This underlying structure explains why traditional, stand-alone content production no longer drives meaningful pipeline results. Churning out keyword-loaded blog posts or purchasing low-quality backlinks does nothing to reshape a model’s internal parametric associations; these legacy tactics are effectively treated as background noise.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1013,"children":1014},{},[1015,1017,1024],{"type":34,"value":1016},"To fundamentally influence how an enterprise-scale model perceives your product, you need a unified architecture that simultaneously targets both its parametric memory and the live vector spaces underpinning the web’s primary data models. Making this transition means advancing beyond surface-level ",{"type":28,"tag":938,"props":1018,"children":1021},{"href":1019,"rel":1020},"https://mkgmarketinginc.com/expert-digital-marketing-services/generative-engine-optimization/",[942],[1022],{"type":34,"value":1023},"Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)",{"type":34,"value":1025}," and committing to deep, data-layer positioning.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1027,"children":1028},{},[1029],{"type":28,"tag":952,"props":1030,"children":1032},{"alt":7,"src":1031},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/6d0b1599-0f9a-4137-8b80-61959fb7a116-mkg-blog-stop-chasing-citations-image-2.png",[],{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1034,"children":1036},{"id":1035},"the-svo-blueprint-engineering-native-mentions",[1037],{"type":34,"value":1038},"The SVO Blueprint: Engineering Native Mentions",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1040,"children":1041},{},[1042,1044,1050],{"type":34,"value":1043},"Moving your SaaS platform from a hidden footnote to a primary narrative recommendation requires a strict, engineering-led approach to information distribution. You must treat the web not as a collection of human-readable web pages, but as an expansive training database. Your goal is to maximize ",{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1046,"children":1047},"strong",{},[1048],{"type":34,"value":1049},"Entity Co-occurrence",{"type":34,"value":1051},"—ensuring that whenever an engine processes data regarding your specific industry vertical, your brand name is consistently tied to the absolute highest-authority reference nodes in that space.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1053,"children":1054},{},[1055,1057,1063],{"type":34,"value":1056},"An effective, boardroom-ready ",{"type":28,"tag":938,"props":1058,"children":1060},{"href":940,"rel":1059},[942],[1061],{"type":34,"value":1062},"SVO ",{"type":34,"value":1064},"framework operates across three distinct data layers:",{"type":28,"tag":1066,"props":1067,"children":1068},"ul",{},[1069,1080,1090],{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":1071,"children":1072},"li",{},[1073,1078],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1074,"children":1075},{},[1076],{"type":34,"value":1077},"Unstructured Community Mapping:",{"type":34,"value":1079}," The models place immense trust in unfiltered, peer-to-peer technical validation. Your engineering documentation, product use cases, and deployment workflows must be deeply embedded into high-authority developer networks, open-source code repositories, and ungated technical forums where models systematically gather real-world consensus.",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":1081,"children":1082},{},[1083,1088],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1084,"children":1085},{},[1086],{"type":34,"value":1087},"Structured Data Layer Alignment:",{"type":34,"value":1089}," You must ensure that your company's core product attributes, security certifications, and pricing frameworks are formatted with absolute precision using clean, machine-readable schema structures across every public index. Any data fragmentation across external nodes lowers the model's confidence score, which can result in your brand being omitted from the final recommendation text.",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":1091,"children":1092},{},[1093,1098],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1094,"children":1095},{},[1096],{"type":34,"value":1097},"Referential Authority Network Building:",{"type":34,"value":1099}," Instead of pursuing a massive volume of superficial links, you must focus entirely on securing deep, data-rich analysis from verified industry authorities, research institutions, and independent peer-review registries. When a model discovers your data hardcoded into these highly trusted nodes, it reinforces your position within its parametric memory.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1101,"children":1102},{},[1103,1105,1110],{"type":34,"value":1104},"By executing this unified architecture, you stop chasing random algorithm changes. You systematically train the models to recognize your platform as an unassailable industry standard, driving your ",{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1106,"children":1107},{},[1108],{"type":34,"value":1109},"Share of Model (SOM)",{"type":34,"value":1111}," metrics upward and securing your place in the native text.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1113,"children":1115},{"id":1114},"shifting-from-vanity-clicks-to-share-of-model-som",[1116],{"type":34,"value":1117},"Shifting from Vanity Clicks to Share of Model (SOM)",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1119,"children":1120},{},[1121],{"type":34,"value":1122},"The biggest barrier to true marketing transformation is an organizational addiction to vanity metrics. Many B2B teams are stuck reporting keyword rankings, impression counts, and total site sessions to leadership. These charts look strong in internal reviews, but they rarely map to real pipeline growth because they track behaviors that are quickly disappearing.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1124,"children":1125},{},[1126],{"type":34,"value":1127},"A modern, enterprise-grade dashboard must discard these legacy indicators and adopt Share of Model (SOM) as the core measure of brand visibility. SOM quantifies the exact percentage of instances in which your company is natively recommended as a top-tier vendor across a defined set of commercial-intent procurement prompts.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1129,"children":1130},{},[1131],{"type":34,"value":1132},"Presenting SOM to your executive team fundamentally reshapes the budget conversation. Instead of apologizing for declines in surface-level blog traffic, you can show hard, financially meaningful evidence that your brand’s embedded presence inside critical conversational models is growing. You demonstrate that while competitors pour money into capturing accidental, low-intent clicks, your strategy is methodically securing the primary recommendation engines where modern software purchasing decisions are actually made.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1134,"children":1135},{},[1136],{"type":28,"tag":952,"props":1137,"children":1139},{"alt":7,"src":1138},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/a1c2b2c7-80fb-4fd6-9bfd-563ec134694d-mkg-blog-stop-chasing-citations-image-3.png",[],{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1141,"children":1143},{"id":1142},"operationalizing-svo-inside-stretched-teams",[1144],{"type":34,"value":1145},"Operationalizing SVO inside Stretched Teams",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1147,"children":1148},{},[1149],{"type":34,"value":1150},"As a solo marketing leader or a highly compressed growth team, executing a complete optimization pivot can feel operationally overwhelming. You cannot afford to add complex, multi-layered workflows to an already overloaded schedule. The secret to scaling an effective SVO system is not increasing your total working hours; it is ruthlessly automating your data layer management and eliminating legacy content production lines.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1152,"children":1153},{},[1154,1156,1162],{"type":34,"value":1155},"Maintaining an unfragmented, board-ready ",{"type":28,"tag":938,"props":1157,"children":1159},{"href":940,"rel":1158},[942],[1160],{"type":34,"value":1161},"SVO architecture",{"type":34,"value":1163}," requires establishing three non-negotiable operational habits:",{"type":28,"tag":1066,"props":1165,"children":1166},{},[1167,1177,1187],{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":1168,"children":1169},{},[1170,1175],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1171,"children":1172},{},[1173],{"type":34,"value":1174},"Automated SOM Monitoring:",{"type":34,"value":1176}," Establish a fixed weekly cadence with automated matrix scripts to audit your brand's placement across target industry prompts and document exactly where your competitors are winning native text placements.",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":1178,"children":1179},{},[1180,1185],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1181,"children":1182},{},[1183],{"type":34,"value":1184},"Data Schema Governance:",{"type":34,"value":1186}," Run monthly synchronization checks across all public product indices, partner ecosystems, and review nodes to guarantee your technical data, compliance tiers, and feature sets remain perfectly uniform.",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":1188,"children":1189},{},[1190,1195],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1191,"children":1192},{},[1193],{"type":34,"value":1194},"Community Syndication cadence:",{"type":34,"value":1196}," Convert your existing internal engineering documentation, product update logs, and customer support solutions into clean, open-source text files and distribute them systematically to high-authority developer reference nodes.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1198,"children":1199},{},[1200],{"type":34,"value":1201},"When these technical workflows are executed on an unfragmented, fixed schedule, you eliminate the need for surface-level, high-volume content campaigns. You transform your department from a creative production mill into a high-efficiency data operations team, building a permanent competitive moat around your pipeline.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1203,"children":1205},{"id":1204},"leading-the-svo-transformation",[1206],{"type":34,"value":1207},"Leading the SVO Transformation",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1209,"children":1210},{},[1211],{"type":34,"value":1212},"The ongoing transition from traditional search directories to synthesized conversational answers is a structural crisis for marketing departments that cling to obsolete multi-channel tracking manuals. However, for growth leaders who prioritize technical transparency, operational data discipline, and structural authority, it represents an unparalleled customer acquisition opportunity. It strips away the advantage from organizations that rely on content inflation and directly rewards companies that build clean, verifiable, and highly structured information networks.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1214,"children":1215},{},[1216,1218,1225],{"type":34,"value":1217},"We specialize in designing, engineering, and launching the advanced data layers and go-to-market dashboards that insulate technology brands from tracking gaps and traffic loss. By replacing fragmented, defensive ",{"type":28,"tag":938,"props":1219,"children":1222},{"href":1220,"rel":1221},"https://mkgmarketinginc.com/expert-digital-marketing-services/search-engine-optimization/",[942],[1223],{"type":34,"value":1224},"SEO",{"type":34,"value":1226}," habits with a unified, closed-loop visibility architecture, we ensure your organization’s true technical capabilities are clear, authoritative, and completely undeniable across the modern discovery landscape.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1228,"children":1229},{},[1230],{"type":34,"value":1231},"Do not spend another sixty-hour week chasing invisible footnotes that fail to drive pipeline results. Restructure your executive tracking tools, implement a rigorous Mention Engineering framework, and build an SVO engine that proves its undeniable revenue value on every single boardroom slide.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1233,"children":1235},{"id":1234},"summary",[1236],{"type":34,"value":1237},"Summary",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1239,"children":1240},{},[1241],{"type":34,"value":1242},"As B2B software buying shifts toward conversational interfaces, legacy click-centric search tactics are driving significant pipeline shortfalls. Marketing teams are pouring resources into backlink acquisition just to win marginal, rarely clicked citation footnotes at the bottom of AI-generated summaries. At the same time, those same engines explicitly name and recommend competitors in the core narrative itself.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1244,"children":1245},{},[1246,1248,1253],{"type":34,"value":1247},"To counter this, growth organizations must evolve from traditional SEO toward ",{"type":28,"tag":938,"props":1249,"children":1251},{"href":940,"rel":1250},[942],[1252],{"type":34,"value":945},{"type":34,"value":1254}," and Mention Engineering. By influencing an engine’s Parametric Memory Seeding and maximizing Entity Co-occurrence across high-authority developer ecosystems, structured indices, and trusted review networks, companies can intentionally grow their Share of Model (SOM)—shifting their SaaS product from a forgotten footnote to a default enterprise recommendation.",{"title":7,"searchDepth":896,"depth":896,"links":1256},[1257,1258,1259,1260,1261,1262,1263],{"id":958,"depth":896,"text":961},{"id":993,"depth":896,"text":996},{"id":1035,"depth":896,"text":1038},{"id":1114,"depth":896,"text":1117},{"id":1142,"depth":896,"text":1145},{"id":1204,"depth":896,"text":1207},{"id":1234,"depth":896,"text":1237},"content:blog:seo:stop-chasing-citations-why-native-llm-mentions-are-the-new-baseline-for-b2b-tech-visibility.md","blog/seo/stop-chasing-citations-why-native-llm-mentions-are-the-new-baseline-for-b2b-tech-visibility.md","blog/seo/stop-chasing-citations-why-native-llm-mentions-are-the-new-baseline-for-b2b-tech-visibility",8,{"_path":1269,"_dir":909,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":1270,"description":1271,"date":1272,"imgAlt":1273,"img":1274,"body":1275,"_type":900,"_id":1608,"_source":902,"_file":1609,"_stem":1610,"_extension":905,"category":909,"minutes":1267},"/blog/seo/the-board-ready-svo-dashboard-how-to-report-pipeline-when-traffic-disappears","The Board-Ready SVO Dashboard - How to Report Pipeline When Traffic Disappears","When top-of-funnel web traffic drops, legacy marketing reports make you look like you are failing. Here is how to present high-converting SVO pipeline data that wins over the board.","2026-06-17T17:31:07.350Z","SVO","https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/18b8f0c2-c43f-4536-a5c7-ac65d154018a-mkg-blog-the-board-ready-svo-dashboard-hero-image.webp",{"type":25,"children":1276,"toc":1599},[1277,1282,1287,1292,1297,1305,1311,1316,1321,1326,1331,1337,1342,1354,1387,1392,1400,1406,1411,1428,1433,1438,1444,1449,1464,1469,1492,1497,1505,1511,1516,1521,1554,1559,1565,1570,1575,1590,1594],{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1278,"children":1279},{},[1280],{"type":34,"value":1281},"As the lone marketing leader in a growing organization, preparing monthly updates for executive leadership can quickly start to feel like a defensive drill. You open your standard analytics dashboard to build the performance report, and the headline charts look alarming. Total organic website sessions have declined sharply over the past two quarters. Click-through rates on your core keyword targets have stalled. To a CEO or board that’s used to gauging marketing health by steadily rising traffic graphs, this data signals an unmistakable operational breakdown. The immediate assumption is that your acquisition engine is stalling and your marketing budget is being squandered.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1283,"children":1284},{},[1285],{"type":34,"value":1286},"But when you move beyond surface-level web traffic and examine the actual sales pipeline in your CRM, a very different picture emerges. Sales-qualified opportunities are stable. The total value of your active pipeline is increasing, and customer acquisition timelines are actually accelerating. The core problem isn’t diminishing market demand or poor execution from your team. The real constraint is that your existing reporting models are completely blind to where high-intent pipeline is being created before prospects ever land on your website.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1288,"children":1289},{},[1290],{"type":34,"value":1291},"Traditional marketing dashboards are built on a simple, linear multi-channel attribution story: a prospect clicks an organic listing, browses your blog, and submits a form. Today, that critical mid-funnel research phase has shifted almost entirely into conversational search environments.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1293,"children":1294},{},[1295],{"type":34,"value":1296},"High-value enterprise buyers are now getting direct vendor comparisons, validating integration requirements, and checking compliance criteria long before they visit a URL or show up in your SEO tools. If you continue trying to justify marketing’s impact with legacy traffic volume, session length, and top-of-funnel MQL counts, you will keep appearing to lose momentum, even as your true revenue influence grows. To withstand serious boardroom scrutiny, you must let go of vanity traffic metrics and adopt an executive reporting framework built squarely around SVO ROI.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1298,"children":1299},{},[1300],{"type":28,"tag":952,"props":1301,"children":1304},{"alt":1302,"src":1303},"Pipeline report","https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/b0f0d46f-904b-4a50-8853-f82738aeda04-mkg-blog-the-board-ready-svo-dashboard-image-1.png",[],{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1306,"children":1308},{"id":1307},"the-blind-spots-of-legacy-attribution",[1309],{"type":34,"value":1310},"The Blind Spots of Legacy Attribution",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1312,"children":1313},{},[1314],{"type":34,"value":1315},"To defend your marketing budget and protect your strategy from premature executive meddling, you first need to understand why legacy tracking tools fail to reflect the real high-value buyer journey. Traditional multi-channel attribution models are built on the idea that your corporate website is the primary hub for education and intent capture. As software purchasing moves away from simple click-through behavior, this assumption creates enormous data blind spots.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1317,"children":1318},{},[1319],{"type":34,"value":1320},"This measurement failure is at the heart of the Attribution 3.0 crisis. When an enterprise procurement leader turns to a conversational engine to compare your product’s deployment speed and API integrations with a competitor, the system pulls from thousands of distributed data sources to produce a single, authoritative recommendation. The buyer reads the synthesized insight, concludes that your brand is the best fit, and then goes straight to your site to book a demo.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1322,"children":1323},{},[1324],{"type":34,"value":1325},"By the time that lead appears in your CRM, legacy analytics tools label it as a direct visit or branded search. The pivotal mid-funnel research stage, the moment your technical optimization actually won the buyer’s attention, is completely invisible in your standard reporting.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1327,"children":1328},{},[1329],{"type":34,"value":1330},"If your executive updates continue to lean on top-of-funnel click volume, you are effectively punishing your marketing strategy for generating efficient, zero-click conversions. To reset this story in the boardroom, you must move beyond counting casual web sessions and start measuring Referential Authority. You need to demonstrate to leadership that marketing’s true value lies not in attracting passive visitors but in embedding your platform within the precise data ecosystems where buying decisions are made.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1332,"children":1334},{"id":1333},"building-the-board-ready-svo-metric-suite",[1335],{"type":34,"value":1336},"Building the Board-Ready SVO Metric Suite",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1338,"children":1339},{},[1340],{"type":34,"value":1341},"Replacing defensive, traffic-focused explanations with an objective growth framework requires a complete re-engineering of your executive dashboard. A board of directors does not care about individual keyword movements, impressions, or fluctuating organic search charts. They require clear, financial-grade evidence showing that your digital distribution strategy is systematically capturing market share and feeding the revenue engine.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1343,"children":1344},{},[1345,1347,1352],{"type":34,"value":1346},"As explicitly illustrated in your active pipeline analytics, looking at revenue value relative to acquisition cost completely re-frames the value of your marketing channels. A sophisticated, ",{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1348,"children":1349},{},[1350],{"type":34,"value":1351},"Board-Ready Metrics",{"type":34,"value":1353}," suite shifts the focus from traffic volumes to actual funnel efficiency by isolating three primary pillars:",{"type":28,"tag":1066,"props":1355,"children":1356},{},[1357,1367,1377],{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":1358,"children":1359},{},[1360,1365],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1361,"children":1362},{},[1363],{"type":34,"value":1364},"AI Share of Voice:",{"type":34,"value":1366}," This metric tracks your brand's presence across specific procurement prompts relative to your primary competitors. By systematically auditing target commercial queries across major language models, you calculate the exact percentage of time your platform is recommended as a preferred solution.",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":1368,"children":1369},{},[1370,1375],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1371,"children":1372},{},[1373],{"type":34,"value":1374},"Verified Citation Frequencies:",{"type":34,"value":1376}," Instead of tracking superficial impressions, you document the exact number of times a conversational interface explicitly links to your domain or your authoritative third-party profiles to validate its recommendation. This provides absolute proof that your content infrastructure is acting as a trusted source of truth.",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":1378,"children":1379},{},[1380,1385],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1381,"children":1382},{},[1383],{"type":34,"value":1384},"MQL to SQL Conversion Velocity:",{"type":34,"value":1386}," Rather than celebrating a high volume of cheap, top-of-funnel clicks, this metric shows that your conversational optimization is driving pre-educated buyers who convert at a significantly higher rate through the sales pipeline.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1388,"children":1389},{},[1390],{"type":34,"value":1391},"By centering your dashboard on these pillars, you completely change the dynamic of your executive conversations. You stop talking about the web traffic you lost and start showing the high-value pipeline share you actively control.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1393,"children":1394},{},[1395],{"type":28,"tag":952,"props":1396,"children":1399},{"alt":1397,"src":1398},"reports","https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/96600b7e-0c88-4723-84a4-6302d54d9c81-mkg-blog-the-board-ready-svo-dashboard-image-2.png",[],{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1401,"children":1403},{"id":1402},"analyzing-the-high-yield-channel-mix",[1404],{"type":34,"value":1405},"Analyzing the High-Yield Channel Mix",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1407,"children":1408},{},[1409],{"type":34,"value":1410},"A close examination of your performance data makes one thing unmistakably clear: the real business value lies elsewhere than traditional metrics suggest. Organic search may still deliver impressive traffic volume, but once you map each channel against pipeline value and cost per sales-qualified lead (SQL), the underlying structure comes into focus.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1412,"children":1413},{},[1414,1416,1426],{"type":34,"value":1415},"Conventional ",{"type":28,"tag":938,"props":1417,"children":1419},{"href":1220,"rel":1418},[942],[1420],{"type":28,"tag":1421,"props":1422,"children":1423},"u",{},[1424],{"type":34,"value":1425},"organic SEO",{"type":34,"value":1427}," often appears efficient on a cost-per-lead basis, yet it typically produces an oversized pool of low-intent visitors that converts poorly into a true pipeline. In contrast, optimization designed for modern conversational interfaces generates a smaller, highly concentrated stream of pre-qualified buyer intent. Prospects arriving through these paths have already completed their comparison research before they ever encounter your forms.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1429,"children":1430},{},[1431],{"type":34,"value":1432},"This behavioral shift is visible in your performance models. A traditional search visitor typically requires extensive nurturing through long, resource-intensive content sequences, whereas an SVO-driven lead advances from MQL to confirmed SQL at a significantly higher rate. In many enterprise environments, this conversion velocity surpasses traditional organic search by double-digit margins.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1434,"children":1435},{},[1436],{"type":34,"value":1437},"When you share these metrics with the board, you can show that declining raw web traffic is actually a sign of optimization. You are intentionally filtering out low-value, non-converting visitors while increasing your share of high-intent, high-value buyers. This reframes a traffic drop from an apparent marketing failure into a deliberate, highly efficient pipeline strategy.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1439,"children":1441},{"id":1440},"aligning-the-funnel-for-maximum-capital-efficiency",[1442],{"type":34,"value":1443},"Aligning the Funnel for Maximum Capital Efficiency",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1445,"children":1446},{},[1447],{"type":34,"value":1448},"The ultimate business validation of a fully optimized reporting architecture is a dramatic increase in mid-funnel conversion velocity and overall capital efficiency. When your digital footprint is designed specifically to feed modern answer engines, you eliminate a massive amount of friction from the standard buyer journey.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1450,"children":1451},{},[1452,1454,1462],{"type":34,"value":1453},"As clearly demonstrated in recent performance datasets, including ",{"type":28,"tag":938,"props":1455,"children":1457},{"href":979,"rel":1456},[942],[1458],{"type":28,"tag":1421,"props":1459,"children":1460},{},[1461],{"type":34,"value":983},{"type":34,"value":1463},", 51% of B2B software buyers now actively bypass traditional search engine queries in favor of direct, conversational interfaces when evaluating options.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1465,"children":1466},{},[1467],{"type":34,"value":1468},"Consider the operational divergence between two distinct corporate marketing frameworks:",{"type":28,"tag":1066,"props":1470,"children":1471},{},[1472,1482],{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":1473,"children":1474},{},[1475,1480],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1476,"children":1477},{},[1478],{"type":34,"value":1479},"The Traffic-Dependent Funnel:",{"type":34,"value":1481}," An organization spends heavily to maintain high-volume web traffic, driving users to gated content hubs and complex multi-page blogs. As user behavior shifts toward conversational search, click volume plummets, stalling lead metrics and forcing the marketing team to continually request more ad budget to sustain the pipeline.",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":1483,"children":1484},{},[1485,1490],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1486,"children":1487},{},[1488],{"type":34,"value":1489},"The Citation-Optimized Funnel:",{"type":34,"value":1491}," An organization focuses entirely on structuring its data for machine ingestion, deploying clean schema layers, ungated technical specifications, and consistent feature registries across the web. The brand is systematically surfaced at the top of every conversational procurement summary, routing highly educated, pre-validated buyers directly into the sales cycle.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1493,"children":1494},{},[1495],{"type":34,"value":1496},"This clear operational contrast explains why modern marketing maturity is no longer defined by how many visitors you drive to your website. It is defined by how effectively you position your company's core insights for synthesis by the platforms where your buyers already spend their time.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1498,"children":1499},{},[1500],{"type":28,"tag":952,"props":1501,"children":1504},{"alt":1502,"src":1503},"funnel","https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/a1923ed9-0c7c-4ff8-ac6e-03616b440fcd-mkg-blog-the-board-ready-svo-dashboard-image-3.png",[],{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1506,"children":1508},{"id":1507},"operationalizing-the-boardroom-presentation",[1509],{"type":34,"value":1510},"Operationalizing the Boardroom Presentation",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1512,"children":1513},{},[1514],{"type":34,"value":1515},"Transitioning to a highly structured pipeline framework requires a permanent shift in how your daily marketing operations are structured, tracked, and defended. As a solo marketing leader, you can no longer operate as a creative services hub; you must run your department like a data-driven financial operations center.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1517,"children":1518},{},[1519],{"type":34,"value":1520},"Defending your marketing strategy to the board requires anchoring your weekly execution around three concrete operational cadences:",{"type":28,"tag":1066,"props":1522,"children":1523},{},[1524,1534,1544],{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":1525,"children":1526},{},[1527,1532],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1528,"children":1529},{},[1530],{"type":34,"value":1531},"SVO ROI Alignment:",{"type":34,"value":1533}," Update your revenue dashboards to chart pipeline value directly against cost per SQL across all channels, ensuring high-yield conversational paths are clearly highlighted ahead of legacy traffic channels.",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":1535,"children":1536},{},[1537,1542],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1538,"children":1539},{},[1540],{"type":34,"value":1541},"Data Layer Governance:",{"type":34,"value":1543}," Implement strict internal protocols to ensure that all public listings of your technical features, security standards, and integration protocols match perfectly across your website, product registries, and press releases.",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":1545,"children":1546},{},[1547,1552],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1548,"children":1549},{},[1550],{"type":34,"value":1551},"Citation Node Auditing:",{"type":34,"value":1553}," Monitor how frequently major conversational platforms cite your domain or your independent user review profiles relative to your primary competitors in response to category-focused research prompts.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1555,"children":1556},{},[1557],{"type":34,"value":1558},"When these tracking metrics run on a fixed, uninterrupted schedule, your organization builds a permanent competitive advantage. You stop chasing unpredictable web traffic algorithms and start managing the foundational data infrastructure that governs modern business decisions.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1560,"children":1562},{"id":1561},"proving-marketing-value-in-the-new-boardroom-reality",[1563],{"type":34,"value":1564},"Proving Marketing Value in the New Boardroom Reality",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1566,"children":1567},{},[1568],{"type":34,"value":1569},"A sudden drop in website sessions is only a true crisis for marketers who depend on vanity metrics, inflated content volume, and outdated multi-channel tracking models. For leaders who prioritize technical accuracy, operational rigor, and precise pipeline attribution, this shift in analytics is a powerful competitive advantage. It removes the edge from rivals who chase shallow web clicks and instead rewards organizations focused on delivering deep, verifiable revenue impact.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1571,"children":1572},{},[1573],{"type":34,"value":1574},"We design and build the advanced data layers and go-to-market reporting systems that shield growth-focused organizations from tracking blind spots and traffic volatility. By replacing fragmented, traffic-obsessed reports with a unified, boardroom-ready pipeline framework, we make your real marketing impact unmistakable, authoritative, and impossible for leadership to ignore.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1576,"children":1577},{},[1578,1580,1588],{"type":34,"value":1579},"Don’t let your organization’s true pipeline value be buried by an obsolete web analytics model. Examine your digital footprint, rebuild your executive dashboards, and implement an ",{"type":28,"tag":938,"props":1581,"children":1583},{"href":940,"rel":1582},[942],[1584],{"type":28,"tag":1421,"props":1585,"children":1586},{},[1587],{"type":34,"value":1273},{"type":34,"value":1589}," reporting engine that wins the argument in every single boardroom presentation.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1591,"children":1592},{"id":1234},[1593],{"type":34,"value":1237},{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1595,"children":1596},{},[1597],{"type":34,"value":1598},"As traditional web tracking fails to reflect decentralized buyer research, solo marketing leaders are confronting a misleading reporting crisis: website sessions are declining, yet underlying sales pipeline performance remains strong. This disconnect exists because legacy attribution models cannot capture the critical middle-funnel validation that now occurs in modern conversational search environments. To preserve executive trust and safeguard growth budgets, organizations need a dashboard purpose-built for Attribution 3.0. By moving beyond raw traffic counts and focusing on financial-grade indicators such as AI Share of Voice, Verified Citation Frequency, and MQL-to-SQL Conversion Velocity, marketing leaders can definitively demonstrate SVO ROI and make a compelling case for clear market leadership.",{"title":7,"searchDepth":896,"depth":896,"links":1600},[1601,1602,1603,1604,1605,1606,1607],{"id":1307,"depth":896,"text":1310},{"id":1333,"depth":896,"text":1336},{"id":1402,"depth":896,"text":1405},{"id":1440,"depth":896,"text":1443},{"id":1507,"depth":896,"text":1510},{"id":1561,"depth":896,"text":1564},{"id":1234,"depth":896,"text":1237},"content:blog:seo:the-board-ready-svo-dashboard-how-to-report-pipeline-when-traffic-disappears.md","blog/seo/the-board-ready-svo-dashboard-how-to-report-pipeline-when-traffic-disappears.md","blog/seo/the-board-ready-svo-dashboard-how-to-report-pipeline-when-traffic-disappears",{"_path":1612,"_dir":909,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":1613,"description":1614,"date":1615,"img":1616,"imgAlt":1617,"body":1618,"_type":900,"_id":1931,"_source":902,"_file":1932,"_stem":1933,"_extension":905,"category":909,"minutes":1267},"/blog/seo/the-death-of-the-ten-blue-links-why-svo-is-the-only-survival-strategy-for-2026","The Death of the Ten Blue Links - Why SVO is the Only Survival Strategy for 2026","B2B search is shifting fast. Strong visibility now means showing up across Google, AI answers, and the discovery paths buyers actually use.","2026-06-10T16:08:09.873Z","https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/fc323672-061d-46ab-9bd0-60927e7379e5-mkg-blog-the-death-of-the-ten-blue-links-hero-image.webp","performance review sheet",{"type":25,"children":1619,"toc":1922},[1620,1625,1630,1642,1647,1654,1660,1665,1692,1697,1702,1708,1713,1718,1751,1756,1762,1768,1773,1778,1783,1788,1794,1799,1804,1827,1832,1839,1845,1850,1855,1887,1892,1898,1903,1908,1913,1917],{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1621,"children":1622},{},[1623],{"type":34,"value":1624},"You executed the playbook exactly as prescribed. You audited technical site infrastructure, identified high-intent target keywords, built comprehensive topic clusters, and maintained a consistent content production cadence. By conventional organic search indicators, your performance should be exemplary. Yet when you review your year-over-year traffic, unique visitors are down 40 percent. Your high-volume keywords still rank at the top of legacy search engines, but the actual pipeline has evaporated. To leadership, it appears to be a sudden breakdown in marketing execution—an internal failure where your strategies have simply stopped working.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1626,"children":1627},{},[1628],{"type":34,"value":1629},"The reality is far more structural and long-lasting. This is not a breakdown of tactics; it is the wholesale collapse of traditional search behavior. The era of the “ten blue links” has ended. For nearly thirty years, digital discovery was built on a straightforward exchange: a user entered a query, a search engine returned a list of destination websites, and the user clicked through to find answers. That journey has now been fully disrupted by conversational interfaces, multimodal engines, and automated answer summaries.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1631,"children":1632},{},[1633,1635,1640],{"type":34,"value":1634},"This shift is fundamentally altering the business-to-business procurement landscape. According to data from ",{"type":28,"tag":938,"props":1636,"children":1638},{"href":979,"rel":1637},[942],[1639],{"type":34,"value":983},{"type":34,"value":1641},", 51% of B2B software buyers now begin their vendor research inside an AI chatbot rather than a traditional search engine. Buyers are completely bypassing the click-and-browse stage of research. Instead of scanning individual vendor blogs to compare capabilities, they issue a single prompt to a large language model (LLM) requesting a definitive recommendation based on explicit parameters such as compliance, integrations, and user sentiment.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1643,"children":1644},{},[1645],{"type":34,"value":1646},"When your ideal customer profile (ICP) conducts this kind of research, traditional organic rankings become less relevant. If your brand is not explicitly mentioned in the synthesized response, your company is effectively removed from the evaluation process. To navigate this shift, organizations must move beyond keyword search volume and adopt a deliberate Search Visibility Optimization (BVO / SVO) framework. Survival in 2026 depends on evolving from conventional keyword tracking to actively managing your full brand presence across the entire conversational web.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1648,"children":1649},{},[1650],{"type":28,"tag":952,"props":1651,"children":1653},{"alt":7,"src":1652},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/90ef92e5-5d1d-4993-bf61-4daac6415448-mkg-blog-the-death-of-the-ten-blue-links-image-1.png",[],{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1655,"children":1657},{"id":1656},"the-structural-reality-of-the-answer-economy",[1658],{"type":34,"value":1659},"The Structural Reality of the Answer Economy",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1661,"children":1662},{},[1663],{"type":34,"value":1664},"To build a marketing engine that actually performs in this environment, you must understand how modern discovery systems process information. Legacy search engines optimized for page authority, using backlinks and click signals to decide which URL to surface next. Modern conversational engines function as inference systems. They do not rank pages; they synthesize information from thousands of public and private sources to produce a single, comprehensive response.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1666,"children":1667},{},[1668,1670,1680,1682,1690],{"type":34,"value":1669},"This evolution forms the core of ",{"type":28,"tag":938,"props":1671,"children":1674},{"href":1672,"rel":1673},"https://mkgmarketinginc.com/expert-digital-marketing-services/answer-engine-optimization/",[942],[1675],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1676,"children":1677},{},[1678],{"type":34,"value":1679},"Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)",{"type":34,"value":1681}," and ",{"type":28,"tag":938,"props":1683,"children":1685},{"href":1019,"rel":1684},[942],[1686],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1687,"children":1688},{},[1689],{"type":34,"value":1023},{"type":34,"value":1691},". These frameworks recognize that language models act as automated research assistants for B2B buyers. When an enterprise software buyer asks an engine to find a platform that complies with specific financial regulations and integrates seamlessly with their current software suite, the model scans its training data and real-time web crawlers to construct a customized comparison matrix.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1693,"children":1694},{},[1695],{"type":34,"value":1696},"If your corporate content exists only in unstructured formats, sits behind aggressive lead-generation gates, or is buried in vague, fluff-heavy marketing copy, conversational engines cannot reliably interpret your product features. Because these models are designed to minimize the risk of hallucinating information, they will skip over any brand whose product data is unclear, unverified, or internally inconsistent. Instead, they will fulfill the user’s request with competitors whose digital ecosystems are structured, transparent, and corroborated across independent platforms.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1698,"children":1699},{},[1700],{"type":34,"value":1701},"This creates a hidden crisis of competitive displacement. You can maintain perfect rankings on legacy search result pages, but if your brand is missing from the conversational shortlists where buyers actually make their decisions, your organic inbound pipeline will continue to erode. Visibility is no longer a traffic acquisition problem; it is a data-structuring and entity-indexing requirement.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1703,"children":1705},{"id":1704},"measuring-the-true-llm-footprint",[1706],{"type":34,"value":1707},"Measuring the True LLM Footprint",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1709,"children":1710},{},[1711],{"type":34,"value":1712},"Shifting your marketing organization away from legacy keyword volume demands a systematic, diagnostic approach to measurement. Continuing to evaluate visibility through search impressions or raw website clicks is an operational dead end. Instead, you need to audit your precise LLM Footprint to determine how conversational systems are interpreting and recommending your company.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1714,"children":1715},{},[1716],{"type":34,"value":1717},"A comprehensive brand footprint diagnostic focuses on three explicit phases:",{"type":28,"tag":1066,"props":1719,"children":1720},{},[1721,1731,1741],{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":1722,"children":1723},{},[1724,1729],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1725,"children":1726},{},[1727],{"type":34,"value":1728},"Procurement Prompt Baselining:",{"type":34,"value":1730}," Develop a highly standardized matrix of commercial intent prompts that match your ICP’s exact purchasing criteria. Run these prompts across every major model—including Gemini, ChatGPT, and Perplexity—to document your brand's natural inclusion rate, tracking how often your company is named as a preferred solution compared to your direct competitors.",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":1732,"children":1733},{},[1734,1739],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1735,"children":1736},{},[1737],{"type":34,"value":1738},"Citation Node Mapping:",{"type":34,"value":1740}," Analyze the specific external links, user review directories, and independent community spaces that conversational engines reference to validate their claims. Mapping these nodes reveals exactly where the models pull their authority data, allowing you to prioritize your brand distribution efforts.",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":1742,"children":1743},{},[1744,1749],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1745,"children":1746},{},[1747],{"type":34,"value":1748},"Semantic Consensus Auditing:",{"type":34,"value":1750}," Inspect how cleanly and uniformly your core product capabilities, pricing architectures, and compliance certifications are stated across the web. Inconsistent naming conventions or outdated documentation undermine the model’s confidence, leading to your brand being omitted from synthesized comparison tables due to data uncertainty.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1752,"children":1753},{},[1754],{"type":34,"value":1755},"By executing this technical audit, you replace defensive marketing explanations with an objective, data-driven roadmap. You reveal the exact structural gaps that keep your brand hidden from automated evaluation systems, allowing you to build an intentional plan for reclamation.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1757,"children":1758},{},[1759],{"type":28,"tag":952,"props":1760,"children":1761},{"alt":7,"src":1652},[],{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1763,"children":1765},{"id":1764},"securing-dominance-via-citational-authority",[1766],{"type":34,"value":1767},"Securing Dominance via Citational Authority",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1769,"children":1770},{},[1771],{"type":34,"value":1772},"The most effective remedy for a deficit in conversational visibility is the deliberate, aggressive cultivation of Citational Authority. For a language model to confidently present your brand as a trusted option, it must detect a clear, consistent pattern of authoritative validation across multiple independent sources. The model does not rely on what you claim about yourself on your homepage; it relies on the broader consensus of the public web.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1774,"children":1775},{},[1776],{"type":34,"value":1777},"Building this authority demands unwavering commitment to a consistent content rhythm. This is not about churning out large volumes of generic, AI-generated blog posts to chase superficial keywords. It is about maintaining a highly disciplined, regular cadence of deep technical insights, validated customer case studies, and original subject matter expertise. Your executive and technical leaders must reliably contribute substantive, non-commoditized insights to reputable developer repositories, trusted industry publications, and independent community forums.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1779,"children":1780},{},[1781],{"type":34,"value":1782},"When your brand maintains an uninterrupted cadence of high-value, expert data across the web, you continuously feed the exact informational nodes that language models crawl and index. This pattern of cross-platform validation tells the model that your company is an immutable category leader.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1784,"children":1785},{},[1786],{"type":34,"value":1787},"A short-term, campaign-driven approach fails completely under this new paradigm. You cannot buy your way into an LLM's next training or inference cycle with a temporary advertising blitz. The models are built to recognize long-term consensus and verified expertise. Maintaining a structured, disciplined distribution rhythm ensures your technical capabilities are permanently embedded in the underlying datasets used to generate vendor shortlists.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1789,"children":1791},{"id":1790},"transitioning-to-a-structured-knowledge-system",[1792],{"type":34,"value":1793},"Transitioning to a Structured Knowledge System",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1795,"children":1796},{},[1797],{"type":34,"value":1798},"The core advantage of an optimized brand presence is the velocity at which you can capture modern enterprise intent. When a buyer forces an engine to evaluate the marketplace, the system naturally routes toward the path of least risk and highest data integrity.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1800,"children":1801},{},[1802],{"type":34,"value":1803},"Consider the contrasting outcomes between two distinct operational approaches:",{"type":28,"tag":1066,"props":1805,"children":1806},{},[1807,1817],{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":1808,"children":1809},{},[1810,1815],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1811,"children":1812},{},[1813],{"type":34,"value":1814},"The Creative Brochure Site:",{"type":34,"value":1816}," A company relies on highly stylized, abstract copywriting hidden inside interactive web elements or gated PDF forms. The conversational engine cannot confidently extract technical metrics, deployment speeds, or API compliance standards. Fearing an inaccurate response, the engine excludes the brand from the user's answer.",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":1818,"children":1819},{},[1820,1825],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1821,"children":1822},{},[1823],{"type":34,"value":1824},"The Machine-Readable Knowledge Base:",{"type":34,"value":1826}," A company deploys advanced semantic layers, using clean schema markup, clear product tables, and consistent platform definitions across all channels. The engine instantly extracts, validates, and incorporates the brand's exact specifications, placing them at the top of the recommended shortlist with explicit trust citations.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1828,"children":1829},{},[1830],{"type":34,"value":1831},"This comparison illustrates why deep technical documentation has become a critical driver of middle-funnel conversion. API tables, integration matrices, and security registries are no longer merely passive references for post-sale support; they now serve as high-value entry points for automated vendor discovery. By presenting this information in a clear, structured way to machine web agents, you remove the friction that prevents your brand from being surfaced by automated evaluation systems.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1833,"children":1834},{},[1835],{"type":28,"tag":952,"props":1836,"children":1838},{"alt":7,"src":1837},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/23bac03b-041d-4119-842a-86228876c352-mkg-blog-the-death-of-the-ten-blue-links-image-3.png",[],{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1840,"children":1842},{"id":1841},"operationalizing-your-response-presence",[1843],{"type":34,"value":1844},"Operationalizing Your Response Presence",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1846,"children":1847},{},[1848],{"type":34,"value":1849},"Succeeding in this decentralized landscape requires moving past traditional organic search tactics and installing a repeatable, unified operational system. Marketing departments must stop operating as creative project centers and begin running like data-driven technical operations.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1851,"children":1852},{},[1853],{"type":34,"value":1854},"This requires aligning your weekly execution around three concrete operational areas:",{"type":28,"tag":1066,"props":1856,"children":1857},{},[1858,1868,1877],{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":1859,"children":1860},{},[1861,1866],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1862,"children":1863},{},[1864],{"type":34,"value":1865},"Citation Frequency Tracking:",{"type":34,"value":1867}," Monitor how frequently major conversational engines cite your domain or your trusted independent profiles relative to your primary competitors during category-focused research prompts.",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":1869,"children":1870},{},[1871,1875],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1872,"children":1873},{},[1874],{"type":34,"value":1184},{"type":34,"value":1876}," Implement strict internal compliance to ensure that every public listing of your features, security standards, and integration protocols matches perfectly across your website, product registries, and press releases.",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":1878,"children":1879},{},[1880,1885],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1881,"children":1882},{},[1883],{"type":34,"value":1884},"Review Stream Automation:",{"type":34,"value":1886}," Build a continuous customer feedback mechanism that feeds recent, highly detailed textual review data into third-party evaluation directories, keeping the engines supplied with fresh trust signals.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1888,"children":1889},{},[1890],{"type":34,"value":1891},"When these operations run on a fixed, uninterrupted schedule, your organization builds a permanent competitive advantage. You stop chasing unpredictable search engine algorithm updates and start managing the foundational data infrastructure that governs all automated business decisions.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1893,"children":1895},{"id":1894},"reclaiming-the-funnel-in-the-era-of-inference",[1896],{"type":34,"value":1897},"Reclaiming the Funnel in the Era of Inference",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1899,"children":1900},{},[1901],{"type":34,"value":1902},"The rise of conversational discovery is not an existential threat to marketing leaders who operate with deep expertise, operational rigor, and strong engineering discipline. It is a threat to organizations that depend on high-volume, generic content and unverified marketing assertions. If your digital presence resembles an unindexed corporate brochure, automated models will quietly exclude you from consideration.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1904,"children":1905},{},[1906],{"type":34,"value":1907},"We specialize in designing and engineering the modern technical architectures and go-to-market operational systems that keep organizations visible across the entire modern discovery landscape. By combining technical semantic layer engineering with disciplined execution rhythms, we ensure your brand authority is clear, verifiable, and undeniable to both human buyers and machine-learning algorithms.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1909,"children":1910},{},[1911],{"type":34,"value":1912},"Do not allow your organization to be quietly displaced from your ideal market segments by an information structure failure. Audit your digital footprint, structure your institutional knowledge, and implement a brand-visibility operating model built to dominate the modern synthesis.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1914,"children":1915},{"id":1234},[1916],{"type":34,"value":1237},{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1918,"children":1919},{},[1920],{"type":34,"value":1921},"The B2B buying journey has undergone a fundamental structural shift, with 51% of software buyers now beginning vendor research inside AI chatbots rather than on traditional search engines. This behavioral change creates a significant risk of competitive displacement for brands that do not appear in model outputs or are omitted from automatically generated shortlists. To safeguard your pipeline, enterprises must implement a rigorous Brand Visibility Optimization (BVO) strategy. By conducting systematic prompt diagnostics to assess Search Sentiment, maintaining a consistent cadence of expert content publication, and ensuring all product capabilities are clearly represented in LLM Training Data, organizations can secure automated market discovery and regain narrative control across every AI search interface.",{"title":7,"searchDepth":896,"depth":896,"links":1923},[1924,1925,1926,1927,1928,1929,1930],{"id":1656,"depth":896,"text":1659},{"id":1704,"depth":896,"text":1707},{"id":1764,"depth":896,"text":1767},{"id":1790,"depth":896,"text":1793},{"id":1841,"depth":896,"text":1844},{"id":1894,"depth":896,"text":1897},{"id":1234,"depth":896,"text":1237},"content:blog:seo:the-death-of-the-ten-blue-links-why-svo-is-the-only-survival-strategy-for-2026.md","blog/seo/the-death-of-the-ten-blue-links-why-svo-is-the-only-survival-strategy-for-2026.md","blog/seo/the-death-of-the-ten-blue-links-why-svo-is-the-only-survival-strategy-for-2026",{"_path":1935,"_dir":909,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":1936,"description":1937,"date":1938,"img":1939,"imgAlt":1940,"body":1941,"_type":900,"_id":2251,"_source":902,"_file":2252,"_stem":2253,"_extension":905,"category":909,"minutes":1267},"/blog/seo/invisible-by-default-why-your-growth-plateau-is-actually-an-ai-visibility-debt","Invisible by Default - Why Your Growth Plateau is Actually an AI Visibility Debt","Explore why strong B2B content may still go unseen in AI search, and how to improve discoverability across answer engines and buyer journeys.","2026-06-02T15:24:04.123Z","https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/e9858bf4-e35a-4936-afec-f847048cb846-mkg-blog-invisible-by-default-hero-image.webp","Invisible by Default ",{"type":25,"children":1942,"toc":2243},[1943,1948,1953,1958,1970,1982,1989,1995,2000,2005,2010,2015,2021,2026,2031,2064,2069,2076,2082,2097,2102,2135,2140,2147,2153,2158,2163,2196,2201,2207,2212,2217,2222,2226,2231],{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1944,"children":1945},{},[1946],{"type":34,"value":1947},"Scaling an enterprise to $5 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) reflects strong product–market fit, founder resilience, and effective early execution. By this point, your go-to-market motion often feels solidified: you’ve invested heavily in traditional acquisition funnels, built out a sales team, and watched organic search impressions grow. Yet many executive teams encounter an invisible ceiling at exactly this stage. Historical pipeline engines start to lose efficiency, customer acquisition costs rise, and legacy growth strategies begin to stall.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1949,"children":1950},{},[1951],{"type":34,"value":1952},"When you turn to your usual marketing dashboards to diagnose the slowdown, the numbers obscure the real structural issue. Website traffic appears steady, ad click-through rates look serviceable, and SEO tools report healthy organic rankings. But the breakdown isn’t occurring on your website or in the channels you’re measuring. The real risk sits where your modern buyers are actually making their decisions.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1954,"children":1955},{},[1956],{"type":34,"value":1957},"A major behavioral shift has fundamentally reshaped the B2B buying cycle. Enterprise procurement teams and decision-makers are no longer paging through traditional search results, hopping between blogs, or downloading gated whitepapers to assemble their initial vendor lists. Instead, they’re feeding complex procurement criteria directly into large language models and conversational search tools—and using the synthesized outputs to create their shortlists.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1959,"children":1960},{},[1961,1963,1968],{"type":34,"value":1962},"This behavior is a structural reality. Data from ",{"type":28,"tag":938,"props":1964,"children":1966},{"href":979,"rel":1965},[942],[1967],{"type":34,"value":983},{"type":34,"value":1969}," reveals that 51% of B2B software buyers now prioritize starting their vendor research inside an AI chatbot rather than a traditional search engine. When a decision-maker commands an engine to compare mid-market enterprise platforms based on specific compliance standards, deployment speeds, and past user sentiment, the platform delivers a synthesized, definitive response.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1971,"children":1972},{},[1973,1975,1980],{"type":34,"value":1974},"If your brand is entirely absent from that generated output—if the engine cites three of your primary competitors as the market standards while your company is completely omitted—you are invisible by default. This is not a standard search engine ranking issue; it is an accrued ",{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":1976,"children":1977},{},[1978],{"type":34,"value":1979},"Visibility Debt",{"type":34,"value":1981}," that actively suppresses your revenue potential. Overcoming this stagnation requires shifting away from legacy traffic metrics and executing a precise diagnostic audit to identify and close the brand-to-bot gap.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1983,"children":1984},{},[1985],{"type":28,"tag":952,"props":1986,"children":1988},{"alt":7,"src":1987},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/9d1f342d-2771-4e82-910f-1e49caca001c-mkg-blog-invisible-by-default-image-1.png",[],{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1990,"children":1992},{"id":1991},"the-reality-of-the-zero-click-funnel",[1993],{"type":34,"value":1994},"The Reality of the Zero-Click Funnel",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":1996,"children":1997},{},[1998],{"type":34,"value":1999},"To understand how a company can thrive in legacy channels yet remain invisible to an LLM, you have to examine the data structure of the Zero-Click Reality. Traditional search engines function as directories, sending human users to external websites where information lives. Success in that model is measured by traffic generation. Conversational search engines, by contrast, act as inference engines, synthesizing massive data repositories to deliver a complete, self-contained answer—without ever sending the user elsewhere.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":2001,"children":2002},{},[2003],{"type":34,"value":2004},"When a model receives a prompt from a prospective buyer, it looks for verified consensus, clear entities, and authoritative proof points across its training data and live web indexes. It effectively acts as an automated procurement officer, evaluating which solutions pose the lowest operational risk based on the buyer’s stated criteria.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":2006,"children":2007},{},[2008],{"type":34,"value":2009},"Many high-growth companies carry significant visibility debt because their digital footprint was created for human readers, not for machine consumption. They’ve invested in creative copy, design-heavy landing pages, and disconnected campaigns. While these assets may impress a human visitor, the underlying data layers are often unstructured, poorly indexed, or entirely absent from the authoritative repositories that language models rely on to validate brand claims.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":2011,"children":2012},{},[2013],{"type":34,"value":2014},"This operational gap leads directly to competitive displacement. Your product may be technically superior, your customer success scores may be higher, and your pricing may be more attractive than the alternatives surfaced by the model. But the engine cannot parse or verify that superiority if your institutional knowledge is locked inside a black box of unstructured formats. If the machine cannot confidently confirm your capabilities, it will exclude you from the narrative to avoid hallucinating your value.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":2016,"children":2018},{"id":2017},"calculating-the-brand-to-bot-gap",[2019],{"type":34,"value":2020},"Calculating the Brand-to-Bot Gap",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":2022,"children":2023},{},[2024],{"type":34,"value":2025},"Clearing your visibility debt begins with a structured, technical investigation into how conversational engines perceive your organization. You must audit the digital gap between what your company actually does and what the models say you do. This requires a rigorous diagnostic protocol that treats brand presence as a data-engineering problem rather than a creative messaging exercise.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":2027,"children":2028},{},[2029],{"type":34,"value":2030},"This diagnostic protocol focuses on three critical assessment areas:",{"type":28,"tag":1066,"props":2032,"children":2033},{},[2034,2044,2054],{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":2035,"children":2036},{},[2037,2042],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":2038,"children":2039},{},[2040],{"type":34,"value":2041},"Inference Share-of-Voice:",{"type":34,"value":2043}," Evaluate a comprehensive matrix of intent-based procurement prompts across all primary conversational models. Document exactly how often your brand is included in generated shortlists, which competitors dominate the recommendations, and what specific attributes the models use to justify their selections.",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":2045,"children":2046},{},[2047,2052],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":2048,"children":2049},{},[2050],{"type":34,"value":2051},"Source Citation Mapping:",{"type":34,"value":2053}," Analyze the underlying domains, review networks, and community spaces that the engines cite when generating responses for your category. Identifying these source nodes reveals exactly where the models pull their authority data, showing you where your digital footprint is lacking.",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":2055,"children":2056},{},[2057,2062],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":2058,"children":2059},{},[2060],{"type":34,"value":2061},"Semantic Entity Integrity:",{"type":34,"value":2063}," Audit how consistently your primary features, target verticals, and compliance standards are stated across the web. Disconnected information, shifting nomenclature, and outdated product registries confuse the pattern-matching algorithms of language models, leading to a complete omission of your brand due to data uncertainty.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":2065,"children":2066},{},[2067],{"type":34,"value":2068},"Transitioning to this diagnostic approach changes how you evaluate your competitive standing. You stop guessing why your sales pipeline is stalling and begin identifying the explicit technical and data-structure deficiencies that prevent your brand from being recognized as a market leader.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":2070,"children":2071},{},[2072],{"type":28,"tag":952,"props":2073,"children":2075},{"alt":7,"src":2074},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/0e789da1-7a18-466c-a46a-76c14cdbfb85-mkg-blog-invisible-by-default-image-2.png",[],{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":2077,"children":2079},{"id":2078},"implementing-generative-engine-optimization",[2080],{"type":34,"value":2081},"Implementing Generative Engine Optimization",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":2083,"children":2084},{},[2085,2087,2095],{"type":34,"value":2086},"Resolving an AI visibility deficit requires an intentional transition to ",{"type":28,"tag":938,"props":2088,"children":2090},{"href":1019,"rel":2089},[942],[2091],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":2092,"children":2093},{},[2094],{"type":34,"value":1023},{"type":34,"value":2096},". This framework is not about manipulating an algorithm or inflating surface-level metrics; it is about structuring your company’s real-world expertise, product specifications, and customer validation into machine-readable data layers that engines can easily ingest and trust.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":2098,"children":2099},{},[2100],{"type":34,"value":2101},"This structural optimization requires executing three precise operational phases:",{"type":28,"tag":1066,"props":2103,"children":2104},{},[2105,2115,2125],{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":2106,"children":2107},{},[2108,2113],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":2109,"children":2110},{},[2111],{"type":34,"value":2112},"Technical Semantic Architecture:",{"type":34,"value":2114}," Deploy comprehensive schema markups across your entire digital footprint. Ensure your product capabilities, pricing architectures, geographic availability, and security standards are explicitly coded, transforming your corporate website into a clear, structured knowledge graph for web crawlers.",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":2116,"children":2117},{},[2118,2123],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":2119,"children":2120},{},[2121],{"type":34,"value":2122},"Un-gating Institutional Knowledge:",{"type":34,"value":2124}," Redesign your content distribution strategy to prioritize data accessibility. Move critical technical specifications, API documentation, and detailed deployment case studies out of hidden, gated PDF downloads and place them directly onto clean, indexable pages that conversational web agents can completely crawl and process.",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":2126,"children":2127},{},[2128,2133],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":2129,"children":2130},{},[2131],{"type":34,"value":2132},"Decentralized Trust Syndication:",{"type":34,"value":2134}," Build a structured operational cadence to feed independent, authoritative third-party data sources. Language models heavily weight community discussions, technical forums, and third-party review platforms to validate corporate claims. Ensuring your brand has a steady stream of user validation on these independent nodes builds the cross-reference patterns that engines require to verify your authority.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":2136,"children":2137},{},[2138],{"type":34,"value":2139},"When these three phases are executed systematically, your digital presence shifts from a collection of creative marketing materials to an authoritative node in the web's knowledge graph. You give conversational engines the exact, high-integrity data points they need to confidently feature your platform on every enterprise shortlist.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":2141,"children":2142},{},[2143],{"type":28,"tag":952,"props":2144,"children":2146},{"alt":7,"src":2145},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/14fbaccb-7940-4e86-9deb-c443cc852444-mkg-blog-invisible-by-default-image-3.png",[],{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":2148,"children":2150},{"id":2149},"de-risking-your-long-term-growth-narrative",[2151],{"type":34,"value":2152},"De-risking Your Long-Term Growth Narrative",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":2154,"children":2155},{},[2156],{"type":34,"value":2157},"The primary benefit of clearing your visibility debt is the creation of a predictable, self-sustaining pipeline engine that scales entirely independent of rising advertising costs. When your brand is systematically hardcoded into the training data and inference models of your industry, your company becomes an un-bypassable option whenever a buyer initiates a research prompt.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":2159,"children":2160},{},[2161],{"type":34,"value":2162},"Consider the operational differences between an enterprise burdened by visibility debt and one optimized for generative discovery:",{"type":28,"tag":1066,"props":2164,"children":2165},{},[2166,2176,2186],{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":2167,"children":2168},{},[2169,2174],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":2170,"children":2171},{},[2172],{"type":34,"value":2173},"Capital Allocation Efficiency:",{"type":34,"value":2175}," While a burdened organization must continually increase its digital ad spend to maintain pipeline visibility, a GEO-optimized brand naturally captures a steady stream of high-intent buyers through automated shortlists.",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":2177,"children":2178},{},[2179,2184],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":2180,"children":2181},{},[2182],{"type":34,"value":2183},"Accelerated Sales Velocity:",{"type":34,"value":2185}," Prospects who discover your solution through a conversational engine arrive at the sales conversation with a clear, pre-validated understanding of your technical alignment, significantly reducing the overall deal cycle time.",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":2187,"children":2188},{},[2189,2194],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":2190,"children":2191},{},[2192],{"type":34,"value":2193},"Sustainable Market Authority:",{"type":34,"value":2195}," By embedding your subject matter expertise into the foundational datasets that power automated search, you build an enduring competitive moat that cannot be washed away by a competitor's short-term advertising blitz.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":2197,"children":2198},{},[2199],{"type":34,"value":2200},"For an organization aiming to scale past the $5M ARR milestone, true operational maturity means ensuring your visibility is insulated against shifts in buyer behavior. It requires building a growth framework in which your institutional value is completely clear to both the human executive who signs the contract and the machine-learning interface they use to discover you.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":2202,"children":2204},{"id":2203},"establishing-the-growth-engine-of-the-future",[2205],{"type":34,"value":2206},"Establishing the Growth Engine of the Future",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":2208,"children":2209},{},[2210],{"type":34,"value":2211},"The evolution of the B2B buying journey is a powerful opportunity for enterprise leaders who prioritize data integrity, technical transparency, and disciplined execution. It shifts the advantage away from brands that depend on high-volume, shallow content and instead rewards organizations that deliver clear, verifiable, and authoritative information.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":2213,"children":2214},{},[2215],{"type":34,"value":2216},"We design, build, and operate the modern data architectures and go-to-market systems that eliminate visibility debt. By replacing scattered, ad hoc marketing efforts with a unified, closed-loop growth engine, we ensure your organization’s real capabilities are visible across the full modern discovery landscape.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":2218,"children":2219},{},[2220],{"type":34,"value":2221},"Don’t let your hard-won market authority stay buried inside an unstructured black box. Audit your brand-to-bot gap, optimize your semantic data infrastructure, and build an enterprise growth engine that wins every synthesis.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":2223,"children":2224},{"id":1234},[2225],{"type":34,"value":1237},{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":2227,"children":2228},{},[2229],{"type":34,"value":2230},"Many high-growth B2B companies that have hit a revenue plateau are actually dealing with an unresolved Visibility Debt driven by major changes in buyer behavior. Today, 51% of software buyers use conversational AI interfaces instead of traditional search engines to create their vendor shortlists. As a result, organizations that still depend on legacy marketing structures are at immediate risk of Competitive Displacement.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":2232,"children":2233},{},[2234,2236,2241],{"type":34,"value":2235},"Breaking through this plateau means moving beyond superficial vanity traffic and implementing a holistic ",{"type":28,"tag":938,"props":2237,"children":2239},{"href":1019,"rel":2238},[942],[2240],{"type":34,"value":1023},{"type":34,"value":2242}," strategy. By running a technical brand-to-bot diagnostic, removing gates around key institutional knowledge, and embedding structured product data into LLM Training Data, enterprise leaders can secure their place in the Zero-Click Reality and build a highly visible, automated growth engine.",{"title":7,"searchDepth":896,"depth":896,"links":2244},[2245,2246,2247,2248,2249,2250],{"id":1991,"depth":896,"text":1994},{"id":2017,"depth":896,"text":2020},{"id":2078,"depth":896,"text":2081},{"id":2149,"depth":896,"text":2152},{"id":2203,"depth":896,"text":2206},{"id":1234,"depth":896,"text":1237},"content:blog:seo:invisible-by-default-why-your-growth-plateau-is-actually-an-ai-visibility-debt.md","blog/seo/invisible-by-default-why-your-growth-plateau-is-actually-an-ai-visibility-debt.md","blog/seo/invisible-by-default-why-your-growth-plateau-is-actually-an-ai-visibility-debt",{"_path":2255,"_dir":909,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":2256,"description":2257,"date":2258,"img":2259,"imgAlt":2260,"body":2261,"_type":900,"_id":2839,"_source":902,"_file":2840,"_stem":2841,"_extension":905,"category":909,"minutes":2842},"/blog/seo/monthly-search-industry-report-may-2026","Monthly Search Industry Report - May 2026","Stay updated on the May 2026 search landscape: May Core Update waves, Gemini’s new 1-billion-user conversational terminal, inline source citations, and prepping for ChatGPT Search Ads.","2026-06-02T14:26:32.875Z","https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/5da1685a-a7a2-4395-9652-0fff5237fa43-mkg-blog-seo-industry-overview-may-2026.webp","Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) Monthly Overview",{"type":25,"children":2262,"toc":2819},[2263,2272,2344,2353,2363,2384,2405,2413,2461,2470,2479,2500,2520,2529,2534,2585,2594,2614,2623,2632,2655,2664,2712,2721,2740,2749,2754,2759,2768,2801],{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":2264,"children":2266},{"id":2265},"executive-summary-the-tldr",[2267],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":2268,"children":2269},{},[2270],{"type":34,"value":2271},"Executive Summary (The TL;DR)",{"type":28,"tag":1066,"props":2273,"children":2274},{},[2275,2294,2315,2334],{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":2276,"children":2277},{},[2278,2283,2285,2292],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":2279,"children":2280},{},[2281],{"type":34,"value":2282},"Search Becomes an AI Assistant:",{"type":34,"value":2284}," At Google I/O 2026, ",{"type":28,"tag":938,"props":2286,"children":2289},{"href":2287,"rel":2288},"https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-pulse-google-launches-core-update-amid-i-o-ai-search-overhaul/575676/",[942],[2290],{"type":34,"value":2291},"Google officially shifted",{"type":34,"value":2293}," from a traditional link directory to an AI-driven assistant ecosystem. The classic search box is being replaced by a conversational screen that focuses on long, detailed prompts and uploaded files rather than simple keywords.",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":2295,"children":2296},{},[2297,2302,2304,2313],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":2298,"children":2299},{},[2300],{"type":34,"value":2301},"Core Update Waves Shake Up Rankings:",{"type":34,"value":2303}," Google launched its ",{"type":28,"tag":938,"props":2305,"children":2307},{"href":2287,"rel":2306},[942],[2308],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":2309,"children":2310},{},[2311],{"type":34,"value":2312},"May 2026 Core Update",{"type":34,"value":2314}," on May 21, right alongside major design changes to its AI Search. 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The ever-evolving nature of the work keeps me inspired and challenged.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":3742,"children":3743},{},[3744],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":3745,"children":3746},{},[3747],{"type":34,"value":3748},"Why I Chose MKG Marketing",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":3750,"children":3751},{},[3752],{"type":34,"value":3753},"I was drawn to MKG Marketing for its people-first culture. The company recognizes that we are all human, with lives outside of work, and fosters a supportive environment that values balance and well-being.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":3755,"children":3756},{},[3757],{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":3758,"children":3759},{},[3760],{"type":34,"value":3761},"Fun Facts About Me",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":3763,"children":3764},{},[3765],{"type":34,"value":3766},"I’m an avid traveler and love immersing myself in different cultures. Before having kids, my husband and I spent at least three months each year exploring the world.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":3768,"children":3769},{},[3770],{"type":34,"value":3771},"I take cooking classes with locals wherever I go and love scuba diving whenever there’s water nearby.\nMy kids are my world—seeing their faces light up when experiencing something new brings me the greatest joy.",{"title":7,"searchDepth":896,"depth":896,"links":3773},[],"content:team:alicia-antonow.md","team/alicia-antonow.md","team/alicia-antonow",1,{"_path":3779,"_dir":3637,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":3780,"description":3781,"name":3780,"jobTitle":3782,"team":3783,"images":3784,"ref":3786,"linkedIn":3787,"sequence":3788,"body":3789,"_type":900,"_id":3837,"_source":902,"_file":3838,"_stem":3839,"_extension":905,"category":3637,"minutes":896},"/team/avery-davis","Avery Davis","Avery Davis is an Account Superivor here at MKG Marketing.","Account Supervisor","Account Services",{"landscape":3785},"avery-davis.webp","avery-davis","avery-davis-114055191",59,{"type":25,"children":3790,"toc":3834},[3791,3797,3802,3807,3812,3816],{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":3792,"children":3794},{"className":3793},[3654],[3795],{"type":34,"value":3796},"\nAvery began his digital marketing career at a tech startup focused on ID scanning and facial recognition software. In addition to gaining a deep understanding of paid media and analytics, this peaked his interest in cybersecurity and tech in general. He then transitioned to agency life where he specialized in SaaS marketing.\n",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":3798,"children":3799},{},[3800],{"type":34,"value":3801},"Over the years, Avery has touched a variety of verticals including health and beauty, eCommerce, medical/pharma, education, and more. He is drawn to agency life because of the variety of clients he is able to work with and, in turn, learn from.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":3803,"children":3804},{},[3805],{"type":34,"value":3806},"Although he’s touched several areas of digital marketing, Avery feels most at home when doing Account/ Project Management as well as Copywriting.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":3808,"children":3809},{},[3810],{"type":34,"value":3811},"As is the theme with many of our staff, Avery was drawn to MKG because of our culture. In Avery’s words “MKG shares the same values as I do in both my professional and my personal life. When I saw that we meshed so well, this was an opportunity I couldn’t refuse!”",{"type":28,"tag":2354,"props":3813,"children":3814},{"id":3675},[3815],{"type":34,"value":3678},{"type":28,"tag":1066,"props":3817,"children":3818},{},[3819,3824,3829],{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":3820,"children":3821},{},[3822],{"type":34,"value":3823},"Avery is an avid racquetball player. Having first gotten into the sport in college, he’s had lots of fun playing over the years. He tries to get to the court at least once a week.",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":3825,"children":3826},{},[3827],{"type":34,"value":3828},"Avery is a hobby bartender and enjoys making, tasting, and learning about different drinks. He’s mainly a Kentucky bourbon guy but also loves Japanese whisky!",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":3830,"children":3831},{},[3832],{"type":34,"value":3833},"Avery is a black belt in Pasaryu. This is a Korean mixed martial art which includes karate, kung fu, and Taekwondo. He has also trained and competed with weapons: nunchucks and samurai sword just to name a couple!",{"title":7,"searchDepth":896,"depth":896,"links":3835},[3836],{"id":3675,"depth":2825,"text":3678},"content:team:avery-davis.md","team/avery-davis.md","team/avery-davis",{"_path":3841,"_dir":3637,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":3842,"description":3843,"name":3842,"ref":3844,"jobTitle":3845,"team":3846,"images":3847,"linkedIn":3849,"quote":3850,"quoteCite":3851,"sequence":3852,"body":3853,"_type":900,"_id":3900,"_source":902,"_file":3901,"_stem":3902,"_extension":905,"category":3637,"minutes":896},"/team/jared-gerling","Jared Gerling","Meet Jared Gerling, one of MKG Marketing’s thoughtful SEO Experts, bringing 10+ years of experience, intentionality, and creativity to the team.","jared-gerling","SEO Expert","SEO Experts",{"landscape":3848},"jared-gerling.webp","jaredgerling","The truth is, most of us discover where we are heading when we arrive.","Calvin (Calvin and Hobbes)",55,{"type":25,"children":3854,"toc":3898},[3855,3860,3865,3870,3875,3880],{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":3856,"children":3857},{},[3858],{"type":34,"value":3859},"Jared's journey into digital marketing started with answering a classified ad for a company looking for people with writing backgrounds for a position in SEO. As a graduate of Michigan State University with a degree in Creative Writing, this sounded like the perfect opportunity.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":3861,"children":3862},{},[3863],{"type":34,"value":3864},"This small agency taught him SEO from the ground up, and, after taking a break from digital marketing to receive his MA from DePaul University, Jared jumped back into the field at a medium-sized agency out of Chicago as an SEO analyst.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":3866,"children":3867},{},[3868],{"type":34,"value":3869},"Since then, Jared has worked for large and small marketing agencies for over a decade, providing expert SEO services in almost every industry that has a website on the internet. And with his background in writing, Jared feels most at home in the content and customer facing side of SEO and digital marketing.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":3871,"children":3872},{},[3873],{"type":34,"value":3874},"It was first and foremost the people that drew Jared to MKG. Everyone at MKG has been so in tune with his values and his personality, and they've made his time at MKG easily the best experience of his career.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":3876,"children":3877},{},[3878],{"type":34,"value":3879},"Fun Facts:",{"type":28,"tag":1066,"props":3881,"children":3882},{},[3883,3888,3893],{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":3884,"children":3885},{},[3886],{"type":34,"value":3887},"I love to travel with my wife. We've been to many incredible places over the years, and are always on the lookout for our next destination.",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":3889,"children":3890},{},[3891],{"type":34,"value":3892},"I was a college rower in my younger days. I rowed mostly eights as a port, and competed against some of the best schools in the nation...and lost to most of them.",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":3894,"children":3895},{},[3896],{"type":34,"value":3897},"I love a really good French Martini.",{"title":7,"searchDepth":896,"depth":896,"links":3899},[],"content:team:jared-gerling.md","team/jared-gerling.md","team/jared-gerling",{"_path":3904,"_dir":3637,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":3905,"description":3906,"name":3907,"jobTitle":3908,"images":3909,"ref":3911,"sequence":3912,"imageDescription":3913,"body":3914,"_type":900,"_id":3966,"_source":902,"_file":3967,"_stem":3968,"_extension":905,"category":3637,"minutes":896},"/team/kathy-obrien","Kathy Obrien","Meet Kathy O’Brien, MKG Marketing’s amazing executive assistant who consistently supports all of MKG across the many needs of the company.","Kathy O'Brien","Executive Assistant",{"landscape":3910},"kathy-obrien.webp","kathy-obrien",80,"Kathy O’Brien, MKG Marketing’s Executive Assistant, in front of a gray background | MKG Marketing",{"type":25,"children":3915,"toc":3963},[3916,3922,3927,3936,3941,3945],{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":3917,"children":3919},{"className":3918},[3654],[3920],{"type":34,"value":3921},"\nKathy loves details and has managed the finer details of business her entire career.  She started her career in Center City, Philadelphia working for several law firms.  After she was married and had her first son, she left the bustling city to work closer to home at an international publishing company.  In 1994, Kathy and her husband Bill moved with their two sons to Charlotte, North Carolina.  They eventually completed their family with two more boys born in Charlotte.\n",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":3923,"children":3924},{},[3925],{"type":34,"value":3926},"In 2000 they relocated to Chester County, a suburb of Philadelphia. After a hiatus and four sons, Kathy returned to work in Chester County. This time, she gave retail a whirl so that she could be home when her school age boys were home. She quickly found out Ann Taylor was employing one of their best customers. Kathy then spent the following 10+ years in the Non-Profit arena where she did whatever needed to be done to further the mission. No job was too big, small, or unimportant to tackle.",{"type":28,"tag":3928,"props":3929,"children":3930},"blockquote",{},[3931],{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":3932,"children":3933},{},[3934],{"type":34,"value":3935},"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.\nMother Teresa",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":3937,"children":3938},{},[3939],{"type":34,"value":3940},"By February 2020, Kathy was eager to build something for herself and her family. She set off on a new adventure of starting her own business when she was connected with Kerry, Mike, and MKG. Having commuted and worked outside of the home for 10+ years, she was ready to work from home and have a better life balance. She followed the rainbow and found MKG in her pot of gold. MKG is like no other firm or organization for which Kathy has worked. Their standard of people first is evident in every team member, every decision, every meeting, every interaction. They live their standard.",{"type":28,"tag":2354,"props":3942,"children":3943},{"id":3675},[3944],{"type":34,"value":3678},{"type":28,"tag":1066,"props":3946,"children":3947},{},[3948,3953,3958],{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":3949,"children":3950},{},[3951],{"type":34,"value":3952},"Kathy’s dislikes: fruit & chocolate together and Tuesday.",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":3954,"children":3955},{},[3956],{"type":34,"value":3957},"Family: Kathy met her husband Bill in Wildwood, New Jersey after their high school graduations during “Senior Week”. They have 4 sons and 2 grandsons. There hasn’t been a girl born in the O’Brien family in 32 years! You will often hear Kathy saying her boys are the best 4 gifts she’s ever been given.",{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":3959,"children":3960},{},[3961],{"type":34,"value":3962},"Special talent: Baking. Her boys’ (Bill included) favorites are Spritz Cookies and Chocolate Chip Cookies. There is a running family debate as to whether Ricotta Cookies are cookies or biscuits. At Christmas time, Kathy has been known to hide cookies to save some for guests.",{"title":7,"searchDepth":896,"depth":896,"links":3964},[3965],{"id":3675,"depth":2825,"text":3678},"content:team:kathy-obrien.md","team/kathy-obrien.md","team/kathy-obrien",{"_path":3970,"_dir":3637,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":18,"description":3971,"ref":3972,"name":18,"team":3642,"quote":3973,"images":3974,"twitter":3976,"isLeader":3646,"jobTitle":3977,"linkedIn":3976,"sequence":3777,"quoteCite":3978,"imageDescription":3979,"body":3980,"_type":900,"_id":4028,"_source":902,"_file":4029,"_stem":4030,"_extension":905,"category":3637,"minutes":3777},"/team/kerry-guard","Meet Kerry Guard, one of MKG Marketing’s founders. She currently fills the role of CEO of MKG as well as hosting the podcast, Back on T-R-A-C-K.","kerry-guard","I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness — it’s right in front of me if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude.",{"landscape":3975},"kerry-guard.webp","kerryguard","Founder & CEO","Brené Brown","Kerry Guard, MKG Marketing’s Owner/CEO, stands on a street in Guernsey with the Town Church behind her | MKG Marketing",{"type":25,"children":3981,"toc":4025},[3982,3988,4000,4013,4017],{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":3983,"children":3985},{"className":3984},[3654],[3986],{"type":34,"value":3987},"Kerry Guard (she/her) is a mom of twins - boy and a girl. She understands what work life balance really looks like and is on a mission to build a company that honors parents having a career and a life. She’s out to prove you really can have both with policies like ensuring 20 days of vacation each year, no client emails after 6PM or weekends, unlimited sick days, and everyday flexibility.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":3989,"children":3990},{},[3991,3993,3998],{"type":34,"value":3992},"She also hosts our podcast, ",{"type":28,"tag":938,"props":3994,"children":3996},{"href":3995},"/podcasts/marketing-leaders/",[3997],{"type":34,"value":16},{"type":34,"value":3999},", which brings eight digital marketing experts to your ears every quarter.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":4001,"children":4002},{},[4003,4005,4011],{"type":34,"value":4004},"Kerry is responsible for HR. If you’d like to join MKG where people are first and your expertise matter, Kerry will be with you through the entire interview process ensuring each candidate meets the necessary requirements and gets a fair shot. Want to join MKG and Kerry’s mission of bringing People First to as many people as possible? Check out our ",{"type":28,"tag":938,"props":4006,"children":4008},{"href":4007},"/about/jobs/",[4009],{"type":34,"value":4010},"Jobs page",{"type":34,"value":4012}," and see if we have a position right for you!",{"type":28,"tag":2354,"props":4014,"children":4015},{"id":3675},[4016],{"type":34,"value":3678},{"type":28,"tag":1066,"props":4018,"children":4019},{},[4020],{"type":28,"tag":1070,"props":4021,"children":4022},{},[4023],{"type":34,"value":4024},"Kerry now lives in Guernsey — a tiny nook in the world between England and France. Come visit for a spot of tea any time!",{"title":7,"searchDepth":896,"depth":896,"links":4026},[4027],{"id":3675,"depth":2825,"text":3678},"content:team:kerry-guard.md","team/kerry-guard.md","team/kerry-guard",{"_path":4032,"_dir":3637,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":4033,"description":4034,"name":4033,"ref":4035,"jobTitle":4036,"team":3708,"images":4037,"linkedIn":4039,"sequence":4040,"body":4041,"_type":900,"_id":4092,"_source":902,"_file":4093,"_stem":4094,"_extension":905,"category":3637,"minutes":896},"/team/leigh-snyder","Leigh Snyder","Meet Leigh Snyder, one of MKG Marketing’s amazing digital advertising experts, bringing 15 plus years of experience to the team","leigh-snyder","Digital Advertising Expert",{"landscape":4038},"leigh-snyder.webp","leighasnyder",50,{"type":25,"children":4042,"toc":4089},[4043,4049,4054,4059,4064,4069,4074,4079,4084],{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":4044,"children":4046},{"className":4045},[3654],[4047],{"type":34,"value":4048},"\nLeigh has over 15 years of experience of managing Paid Search campaigns. She started her career at Solid Cactus, a full service eCommerce agency in Wilkes Barre Pennsylvania. Having no experience in Paid Search, she learned as she went, starting out in the earlier days of Google Adwords, when Adwords Editor wasn't even being used yet.\n",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":4050,"children":4051},{},[4052],{"type":34,"value":4053},"Leigh loves to create accounts and watch them grow, even more she loves to take a poorly performing account and turn it around. Watching the KPIs increase from changes she has made or new ideas she implements, keeps her career exciting.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":4055,"children":4056},{},[4057],{"type":34,"value":4058},"Managing a wide variety of accounts that include local car dealerships, worldwide clothing stores, online supplement shops to plastic surgeons and much much more, Leigh brings a vast knowledge of creative ways in managing accounts.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":4060,"children":4061},{},[4062],{"type":34,"value":4063},"While working the majority of her career in local offices, the options for expanding her career were becoming less and less. She decided to apply for a remote job (before it was the norm) and was able to get experience that wasn't as prevalent in the smaller area in which she resides.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":4065,"children":4066},{},[4067],{"type":34,"value":4068},"After working from home for the past 6 years the opportunities kept coming and when MKG reached out to her, she knew that there was something special about them and decided to take the leap. The people first environment is not just talked about here, but it is practiced everyday. MKG Marketing is unlike anywhere she has ever worked.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":4070,"children":4071},{},[4072],{"type":34,"value":4073},"Outside of work, Leigh enjoys spending time with her husband Dustin, their blended family (Emma, Casey, Jake & Brayden) and their dog Millie.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":4075,"children":4076},{},[4077],{"type":34,"value":4078},"The kitchen is where you will always find her, she loves to cook and bake all things Gluten Free and no one ever knows. When they are not at a swim meet or a baseball game they love swimming in their pool, long walks on the local trails, renovating their house and binging shows.",{"type":28,"tag":2354,"props":4080,"children":4081},{"id":3675},[4082],{"type":34,"value":4083},"Fun Facts",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":4085,"children":4086},{},[4087],{"type":34,"value":4088},"Although it was just was a short time, at age 19 Leigh drove cross country from a small town in PA and moved to Hollywood Hills, CA. Her view from her kitchen window was the Hollywood sign. Not a bad first apartment.",{"title":7,"searchDepth":896,"depth":896,"links":4090},[4091],{"id":3675,"depth":2825,"text":4083},"content:team:leigh-snyder.md","team/leigh-snyder.md","team/leigh-snyder",{"_path":4096,"_dir":4097,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":4098,"description":4099,"name":4098,"imageDescription":4100,"ref":4101,"jobTitle":4102,"images":4103,"linkedIn":4101,"quote":4105,"quoteCite":4098,"sequence":4106,"body":4107,"_type":900,"_id":4181,"_source":902,"_file":4182,"_stem":4183,"_extension":905,"category":4097,"minutes":3777},"/team/marketing-leadership/celeste-jacroux","marketing-leadership","Celeste Jacroux","Meet Celeste Jacroux, a strategic GTM partner to MKG and Founder of Sweel Marketing Advisors. She leads Go-to-Market strategy for high-growth companies.","Celeste Jacroux, Founder of Swell Marketing Advisors and MKG Partner","celeste-jacroux","Fractional GTM Leader | Founder, Swell Marketing Advisors",{"landscape":4104},"celeste-jacroux.webp","A great product doesn't win on its own. It wins when the story, the strategy, and the sales motion all pull in the exact same direction.",7,{"type":25,"children":4108,"toc":4178},[4109,4122,4127,4139,4145],{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":4110,"children":4112},{"className":4111},[3654],[4113,4115,4120],{"type":34,"value":4114},"\nCeleste Jacroux is a Go-to-Market architect for companies ready to graduate from \"random acts of marketing\" to a predictable revenue engine. As the Founder of ",{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":4116,"children":4117},{},[4118],{"type":34,"value":4119},"Swell Marketing Advisors",{"type":34,"value":4121}," and a strategic partner to MKG, she brings deep expertise in aligning product, sales, and marketing into a cohesive GTM strategy.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":4123,"children":4124},{},[4125],{"type":34,"value":4126},"Celeste understands that for founders, the hardest phase is often bridging the gap between a great product and the market that needs it. She specializes in clarifying positioning, defining ideal customer profiles (ICPs), and building the strategic roadmap that turns vision into traction.",{"type":28,"tag":37,"props":4128,"children":4129},{},[4130,4132,4137],{"type":34,"value":4131},"At MKG, Celeste steps in as a Marketing Leader for our ",{"type":28,"tag":1045,"props":4133,"children":4134},{},[4135],{"type":34,"value":4136},"Marketing Leadership + Activation",{"type":34,"value":4138}," clients. 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