[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":4365},["ShallowReactive",2],{"podcast-marketing-leaders-theresa-potratz-on-why-unhinged-marketing-actually-works":3,"header-articles":793,"updatesSection-all":2499,"updatesSection-all-team":3381},{"_path":4,"_dir":5,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":8,"description":9,"date":10,"audio":11,"guest":14,"iframe":15,"series":16,"authors":17,"episode":19,"minutes":20,"guestimg":21,"guesturl":22,"seotitle":8,"guestabout":23,"body":24,"_type":787,"_id":788,"_source":789,"_file":790,"_stem":791,"_extension":792,"category":5},"/podcasts/marketing-leaders/theresa-potratz-on-why-unhinged-marketing-actually-works","marketing-leaders",false,"","Theresa Potratz on Why Unhinged Marketing Actually Works","In this episode, Theresa Potratz shows how data, storytelling, and unconventional thinking combine to build marketing that actually drives results, from hyper-personalized outreach with Clay to AI-powered workflows and demand-gen systems that let marketers scale smarter without losing the human touch.","2026-05-11T19:50:05.840Z",{"url":12,"length":13},"https://share.transistor.fm/s/2ba3c39b","45434679","Theresa Potratz","https://share.transistor.fm/e/2ba3c39b","Back on T-R-A-C-K",[18],"Kerry Guard","218","36","https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/aa0c1a40-523a-4583-a640-ee734bc9562a-Theresa-Potratz.webp","https://www.linkedin.com/in/theresapotratz/","Theresa Potratz is a growth marketer who blends data, storytelling, and curiosity-driven experimentation to build bold campaigns that drive demand and scale brands.",{"type":25,"children":26,"toc":782},"root",[27,40,46,55,60,65,70,75,80,85,90,95,100,105,110,115,120,125,130,135,140,145,150,155,160,165,170,175,180,185,190,195,200,205,210,215,220,225,230,235,240,245,250,255,260,265,270,275,280,285,290,295,300,305,310,314,318,323,328,333,338,343,348,353,358,363,368,373,378,383,388,393,398,403,408,413,418,423,428,433,438,443,448,453,458,463,468,473,478,483,488,493,498,503,508,513,518,523,528,533,538,543,548,553,558,563,568,573,578,583,588,593,598,603,608,613,618,623,628,633,638,643,648,653,658,663,668,673,678,683,688,692,697,702,707,712,717,722,727,732,737,742,747,752,757,762,767,772,777],{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":30,"children":32},"element","h2",{"id":31},"overview",[33],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":35,"children":36},"strong",{},[37],{"type":38,"value":39},"text","Overview:",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":42,"children":43},"p",{},[44],{"type":38,"value":45},"Theresa explains why effective marketing starts with curiosity, experimentation, and an understanding of buyer psychology, sharing how layered data enrichment and AI-powered personalization have dramatically improved email performance, while warning against over-automation without thoughtful oversight. She also digs into the shift from founder-led to system-led growth, the need for tight sales–marketing alignment, and how AI can reduce cognitive load without replacing strategic thinking—ultimately reinforcing that data is meaningless without storytelling that gives people a reason to care.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":47,"children":49},{"id":48},"transcript",[50],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":51,"children":52},{},[53],{"type":38,"value":54},"Transcript:",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":56,"children":57},{},[58],{"type":38,"value":59},"Kerry Guard  0:09  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":61,"children":62},{},[63],{"type":38,"value":64},"Kerry, hello and welcome back to Back on Track, the show where B-to-B tech marketing leaders pull back the curtain on what's actually working, what's not, and how we can keep moving forward together. I'm Kerry Guard, host of the show and founder of MKG Marketing, where we help B2B tech companies build the kind of marketing that creates a real pipeline, not just pretty reports. Today's episode is going to be a little different because my guest doesn't just have a growth strategy, she has an unhinged one, and apparently, that's why it works. Theresa Potratz is back. If you caught our first episode many moons ago, you already know she's the kind of marketer who looks at the problem differently than everyone in the room, and that's not an accident. Theresa has managed $2 million in budgets in AI robotics, built demand gen programs at early-stage startups from the ground up, and used tools like Clay to hyper-personalize email campaigns so precisely that she doubled open rates and tripled reply rates. She thinks data without storytelling is just noise, and she's proven it. She's also the host of a top 10% global podcast called The Unhinged History podcast, where she covers things like Napoleon getting attacked by bunnies and a whiskey flood in Dublin. I promise that it will make sense in about 10 minutes. Theresa, welcome to the show.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":66,"children":67},{},[68],{"type":38,"value":69},"Theresa Potratz  1:29  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":71,"children":72},{},[73],{"type":38,"value":74},"Thanks for having me. Kerry.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":76,"children":77},{},[78],{"type":38,"value":79},"Kerry Guard  1:31  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":81,"children":82},{},[83],{"type":38,"value":84},"Oh, I love having you. I'm so excited to have you back. So exciting. Before we get right on into it. Let's just give people a bit of history here. Your growth strategy has been described as unhinged, and I mean that as a compliment. I think that's what I you think outside the box, I'm here for it. But where does that label come from? And do you lean into it?",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":86,"children":87},{},[88],{"type":38,"value":89},"Theresa Potratz  1:55  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":91,"children":92},{},[93],{"type":38,"value":94},"Yeah, so I tend to look at everything as data points. If something works great, why if something didn't work? Awesome. Why? Like everything, you can learn from right? And so it tends to take me down some weird rabbit holes, and then understanding the back end of things, and then just going from there, right? Letting, trusting the process, so to speak.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":96,"children":97},{},[98],{"type":38,"value":99},"Kerry Guard  2:20  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":101,"children":102},{},[103],{"type":38,"value":104},"Sounds like you'd like to know how things work. ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":106,"children":107},{},[108],{"type":38,"value":109},"Theresa Potratz  2:23  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":111,"children":112},{},[113],{"type":38,"value":114},"Very much so, so much so that I think my high school, like we did the standard, what should you be when you grow up? Took the test and it said, mechanic. And I'm like, ew, no, but I think the truth is, I like understanding how the process works, maybe more of an engineer brain, but I decided to go into marketing. And so here we are.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":116,"children":117},{},[118],{"type":38,"value":119},"Kerry Guard  2:46  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":121,"children":122},{},[123],{"type":38,"value":124},"Here we are, here we are, speaking of here we are. You've got a top 10% Global History podcast and a career in B-to-B demand gen; most people would keep those worlds separate. Why don't you? Where do those points collide for you?",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":126,"children":127},{},[128],{"type":38,"value":129},"Theresa Potratz  3:03  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":131,"children":132},{},[133],{"type":38,"value":134},"I learn a lot from random things. Okay, so you want to learn about psychology, and that informs how you're a better marketer. And so there's no better way to understand psychology than to look at historical events. And so it could be something like last week's episode was about the epidemic of the meowing nuns. In medieval France, there was a convent where these nuns just broke out into meowing, and they would not stop. It went on so long that the city had the police go up and threaten the nuns with bodily harm, and that's when the nuns were like, we're done. And it was just like, I'm sorry, what? And but it just, it's those bizarre things and kind of going into, why would they happen? What would cause that? How do we know that that happened? Can we prove it? And then, you know, taking that same frame and going, Well, why did this email campaign work? Why did it not work? What can we learn from it?",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":136,"children":137},{},[138],{"type":38,"value":139},"Kerry Guard  4:01  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":141,"children":142},{},[143],{"type":38,"value":144},"We're going to our annual summit in two weeks. The countdown is odd. We're going to Philly. I'm so excited, but the idea is to look into the future of our jobs and see what they could be in the next three years. But before we do that, I'm going to go we're in Philly, like so much history there, and so we're going to go on a little tour. First of all, not only some Philly fun history, but also a look back on our own careers, of big moments that we sort of ever overcame in the way that the industry shifted. And, you know, you got to look back before you can look forward. So I really love everything you're saying, in regards to both, you know, that's, that's really what the history is all about, both from, like, you know, Italian nuns, to the data of, you know, in terms of what's performing. So yes, yes to all of it. Let's talk about clay. You used it to double email, open rates, and triple. Replies, I know that so many people are trying to crack this code now, right now, everybody knows that personalization is the thing that we have got to figure out at some sort of scale. You did it, it sounds like.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":146,"children":147},{},[148],{"type":38,"value":149},"Theresa Potratz  5:14  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":151,"children":152},{},[153],{"type":38,"value":154},"Yeah, I did it. And then I've also figured out why it worked and why it worked, the hurdle will be at another role, right? So the initial thing this the full background. There was, so we were marketing to realtors in the US, so that is a finite group. They are all registered as realtors, so you can get the list of them, and then it's like, okay, great to figure out their email, all of that stuff that's on their Zillow profiles, so you can build a clay sheet that makes an API call to Zillow, pulls in that relevant information that's up to date, and now you have pristine data. Then we did a step further right, because we were looking at the top percent of realtors that you know are in these markets. We then looked at the homes that they've had on market that have been on the market for just 10- 15% longer than their usual. So we had to do some math with that and build that into the algorithm. Then did another dive and just said, Why does the AI think that home has been on the market. And then how do we think our tool could help them with that? So then, after we have that payload of data, we enrich it and say, \"Okay, I'll come up with a 45-word email that would describe this,\" and it's, \"Hey, Kerry, I see you're having trouble selling 123, Main Street.\" Here's why we think that is. Click the link and let's learn more. That link takes them to a landing page. That landing page is a one-to-one and has a Hey, Jen, video where we have an avatar of our CEO, Kerry. Here's why we're seeing your house stay on the market. Here's how we think we can help you hit that book-a-demo button. We're going to show you it live. And we were able to send 2000 emails a day to scale that are hyper-personalized. And because the avatar video is so short, you don't have enough time to clock that it's AI.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":156,"children":157},{},[158],{"type":38,"value":159},"Kerry Guard  7:19  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":161,"children":162},{},[163],{"type":38,"value":164},"Right?",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":166,"children":167},{},[168],{"type":38,"value":169},"Theresa Potratz  7:20  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":171,"children":172},{},[173],{"type":38,"value":174},"And then it was just boom. And we saw the demo attendance rate shoot up. We saw, you know, open rates go up, because now it's like, yeah, why am I not selling that house?",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":176,"children":177},{},[178],{"type":38,"value":179},"Kerry Guard  7:32  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":181,"children":182},{},[183],{"type":38,"value":184},"Yeah, yeah, I mean, but that's very available data.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":186,"children":187},{},[188],{"type":38,"value":189},"Theresa Potratz  7:40  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":191,"children":192},{},[193],{"type":38,"value":194},"Yeah.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":196,"children":197},{},[198],{"type":38,"value":199},"Kerry Guard  7:40  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":201,"children":202},{},[203],{"type":38,"value":204},"yeah.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":206,"children":207},{},[208],{"type":38,"value":209},"Kerry Guard  7:41  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":211,"children":212},{},[213],{"type":38,"value":214},"right. So, real estate is a perfect example of that. You mentioned that you've learned a lot from doing this and getting it to work, but in terms of your next job, if it's a different audience, maybe with not so readily available data on a very different audience, who's maybe a little bit more behind the scenes. Behind the scenes. How are you thinking about that?",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":216,"children":217},{},[218],{"type":38,"value":219},"Theresa Potratz  8:05  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":221,"children":222},{},[223],{"type":38,"value":224},"So with that, it's looking at, you know, the data that clay inherently has. It's got a lower match rate than I'm comfortable with, like, when you do a manual scrape, you realize, oh, that person used to work at MasterCard, and so when I have it as MasterCard on the sheet, that's not wrong, but it's not currently correct, or they might still be listed there, but their headline says retired, or they've got the green banner. So maybe they have been laid off. Maybe they just want to go somewhere else. So that's not the best person to reach out to for a new project that you don't want to talk to about a tool. If they're not actually checked out, they are mentally gone. And so then it's like, okay, what can we do to layer on data to get complete enrichment and not fully rely on one singular tool? And right before this call, I was pinged with a message that is a lovely thread on LinkedIn. That's between me and several other humans, and one of them said that his CEO just published a video on how to replace clay and build your own thing that's better, faster, stronger, and cheaper from scratch. And I was like, Well, geez, I wish I didn't have anything else to do right now, because that's what I want to play with.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":226,"children":227},{},[228],{"type":38,"value":229},"Kerry Guard  9:28  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":231,"children":232},{},[233],{"type":38,"value":234},"Yeah, yeah. I mean, AI in terms of people building things rapidly right now and trying to figure out that they can do it themselves before buying another platform. Seems to be a trend that's happening. I know I'm experiencing it with my clients, doing the same thing. Are you seeing this? I mean, is this your first interaction with that? Or is this happening all over the place?",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":236,"children":237},{},[238],{"type":38,"value":239},"Theresa Potratz  9:50  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":241,"children":242},{},[243],{"type":38,"value":244},"I think it's happening all over the place. And I mean, my current role, we do observability and AI observability slash AI, rely. Ability. And so we're looking at model drift and all this stuff, and trying to surface it to the devs, the SREs, and the powers that be, so they can find and fix the problem before it becomes a huge thing. And when we think about how AI is automating things, we're going to need safeguards and guide rails in place to ensure that fraud detection doesn't cause everything to go sideways, or your system doesn't go down, or, you know, like you want to catch all of those hallucinations before they bite you.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":246,"children":247},{},[248],{"type":38,"value":249},"Kerry Guard  10:35  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":251,"children":252},{},[253],{"type":38,"value":254},"So I'm doing a lot of outreach on my own right now. I've stepped into the sales seat at mkg marketing for the first time, I've so reliant on my business partner, who did this for a very long time, and I'm so grateful for him, because now I'm doing it, and it's super hard, and I probably make it harder on myself than I need to, and I'm figuring out some systems that can be helpful, but it is that personalization, like the thing that takes me the longest is that data enrichment of making sure that I truly understand the person and the role they're in alongside the any data that I can bring to the table to say, Hey, are you experiencing this? Is this an opportunity for us to potentially help you? And it takes me forever to craft. I may send five messages a day.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":256,"children":257},{},[258],{"type":38,"value":259},"Theresa Potratz  11:22  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":261,"children":262},{},[263],{"type":38,"value":264},"You know, like to that point, like one of the cool things I did in a recent round, even though the personnel data is where things cracked, I went through and did such a deep dive that the prompt looks at the 10k reports of these Companies, interviews from the leadership teams, and then pulls in that entire payload and compares it against our model clients, and says, who's going to be a good fit and why? Where do we have the most when? And then it excludes people who aren't talking about our needs and how we would help. And I think if you have that payload. You can be like, what are the salient points I should mention in this email. It offloads a lot of that cognitive load, and would speed things up, but then you have to go through, be like, Does this person still work at this company?",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":266,"children":267},{},[268],{"type":38,"value":269},"Kerry Guard  12:15  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":271,"children":272},{},[273],{"type":38,"value":274},"Yeah, so I'm still very much doing it one-to-one, because I am going to figure it out manually, and then start building certain systems that are going to help take some of this off my plate. But it is, it is wild, and how AI can be helpful. And also like not save time, helpful, not helpful, as we like to say, where does hyper-personalization cross a line? Is there a point where it stops feeling thoughtful and starts feeling well, you know.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":276,"children":277},{},[278],{"type":38,"value":279},"Theresa Potratz  12:45  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":281,"children":282},{},[283],{"type":38,"value":284},"I think that's all in how you respond, right? I think if it's just like, when you have, like, the de-anonymizer on your website, it would be like, we see that you spent five and a half minutes on this one page. Does this mean you have a problem? You know? I think that if you get hyper-personalized, you spend 57 seconds longer than the average person. Maybe, maybe hammer it back a bit. Maybe at that point it's just like, hey, do you have a problem with what this page is trying to solve? We'd love to connect, you know, like, kind of veil it a tiny bit.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":286,"children":287},{},[288],{"type":38,"value":289},"Kerry Guard  13:21  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":291,"children":292},{},[293],{"type":38,"value":294},"Yeah? Like we know exactly what you're looking at and what's important to you, but we don't need to tell you you know your IP address.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":296,"children":297},{},[298],{"type":38,"value":299},"Theresa Potratz  13:28  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":301,"children":302},{},[303],{"type":38,"value":304},"Exactly, yeah.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":306,"children":307},{},[308],{"type":38,"value":309},"Kerry Guard  13:30  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":311,"children":312},{},[313],{"type":38,"value":204},{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":315,"children":316},{},[317],{"type":38,"value":309},{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":319,"children":320},{},[321],{"type":38,"value":322},"Yeah, that makes sense. You've said that. You've said data without storytelling is just noise. How does that philosophy show up in something as mechanical as email sequencing?",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":324,"children":325},{},[326],{"type":38,"value":327},"Theresa Potratz  13:44  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":329,"children":330},{},[331],{"type":38,"value":332},"So it's going to be like, you have to look at what are the open rates? What are the you know, show up rates to a demo? What are the like? First off, back up, when you're looking at an email sequence, what is the goal of that email sequence? Is it to get somebody to onboard quicker and use all of the features? Is it to get them to convert into a paying customer, or is it just to get them to respond to a sales email so they can get there for a demo once you establish the goal, and then you map out the steps you're going to take to hit it, now you look at what are the storytelling elements that human needs to feel confident in moving to that stage of the funnel. ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":334,"children":335},{},[336],{"type":38,"value":337},"Kerry Guard  14:24  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":339,"children":340},{},[341],{"type":38,"value":342},"It's that personalization piece that you're talking about and tying that back to the problem. It's basically problem-solving, right? What problem are they clearly trying to solve? And how are you the solution to that? And just succinctly, the succinct part.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":344,"children":345},{},[346],{"type":38,"value":347},"Theresa Potratz  14:37  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":349,"children":350},{},[351],{"type":38,"value":352},"It's a word that has a lot of like, yeah, I get you, yeah. ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":354,"children":355},{},[356],{"type":38,"value":357},"Kerry Guard  14:42  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":359,"children":360},{},[361],{"type":38,"value":362},"I try to one of those things that is just like one AI can't do it. I must have spent ages on my homepage trying to nail down the language, because it was just coming. It can't do punchy copy. It could certainly help write blog posts when you give it all of the context and all of the first-party data and. All of that. But when you're looking for that quick and snappy thing, how do you navigate that with email in particular, because people don't have time to read a novel, and it's got to be short, it's got to be quippy. It's got to get to the point is a like, if you feeding it all the state, is it pretty good about that? Do you have to really hone it? Like, how are you navigating that in terms of the writing part of the emails?",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":364,"children":365},{},[366],{"type":38,"value":367},"Theresa Potratz  15:21  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":369,"children":370},{},[371],{"type":38,"value":372},"Yeah, I think with that, the true thing is, you know, if I'm going to spend, if I've got eight hours to cut down a tree, I'm going to spend 60% of it really sharpening that AX. And that's the same with AI prompting. So I'm going to come up with a prompt, and I'm going to run it with a payload of data, and I'm going to see how it how it happened. You know what? What was the output? Does that meet my, my, my thing? If it surprises me, great. Now give it another payload. Does it still meet? And if you run it through about 10 or so and you're like, \"Okay, this hits the 90% mark, which means it's going to outperform me doing all of this myself.\" Now you run it at scale, are your emails converting? Are they doing what you hoped they would? No, try to figure out what's the piece right, and sometimes it could be as small as one word. So for one company, we were moving into a new vertical. We were going from fence serve to mortgage and lending, and things weren't working. We weren't seeing stuff do the right thing. And I had a conversation with a CSM at the organization who worked in mortgage and lending, and I showed him some of the ad copy, and he was like, \" Monitor. It's a dirty word you should be using: supervise. I'm like, those are synonymous, like, how is what? So, just a B testing, in that case, for social media, and you just saw a huge uptick in conversions. And you're like, hey, content team, we need to make an update to the wording here, because apparently, unbeknownst to us, we spoke, you know, in French, and not the nice kind.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":374,"children":375},{},[376],{"type":38,"value":377},"Kerry Guard  17:03  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":379,"children":380},{},[381],{"type":38,"value":382},"I had that happen yesterday, where I was listening to some calls with the sales team, and it was just a stupid word of, you know, they were trying to say, Hey, it's $100 for us to hold this appointment on a calendar, but they were using the word block. And I was just at the minute, I heard the conversation happened, and I heard that word block, I was, huh.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":384,"children":385},{},[386],{"type":38,"value":387},"Theresa Potratz  17:22  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":389,"children":390},{},[391],{"type":38,"value":392},"Yeah. ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":394,"children":395},{},[396],{"type":38,"value":397},"Kerry Guard  17:23  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":399,"children":400},{},[401],{"type":38,"value":402},"It sounds so negative. When we're trying to give them an open door to come and have this meeting, and the $100 goes towards them working with us, or they can have it back. It's just to confirm the meeting.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":404,"children":405},{},[406],{"type":38,"value":407},"Theresa Potratz  17:34  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":409,"children":410},{},[411],{"type":38,"value":412},"Secure your location.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":414,"children":415},{},[416],{"type":38,"value":417},"Kerry Guard  17:35  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":419,"children":420},{},[421],{"type":38,"value":422},"Secure your Yes, but that word block, it's, yeah, same thing, so crazy, the English language.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":424,"children":425},{},[426],{"type":38,"value":427},"Theresa Potratz  17:43  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":429,"children":430},{},[431],{"type":38,"value":432},"Well, it's that the color of a button can influence the conversion rate. And you're just like, really, really. You just want to look at humanity at large and be like, come on. But, yeah, hey, you know it's a data point, and that's what testing is for.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":434,"children":435},{},[436],{"type":38,"value":437},"Kerry Guard  18:01  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":439,"children":440},{},[441],{"type":38,"value":442},"Gotta love a good A/B test. For sure. For sure. There's a moment a lot of B2B companies hit where founder-led growth stops scaling. What does that inflection point actually look like from the inside, and how do you know when you've hit it?",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":444,"children":445},{},[446],{"type":38,"value":447},"Theresa Potratz  18:16  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":449,"children":450},{},[451],{"type":38,"value":452},"I think the point is when you see your founder trying to do everything all at once and struggling, like that's what it is. And so then, for founders, they kind of have, and this is me looking from the outside. I've never been a founder. This is me just kind of, you know, being the hired help who comes in, there comes a point where they need to do that soul searching of, do I trust this subject matter expert that I hired to do the thing, to do the thing, or am I treating them like an AI agent that I have to handhold? And I think some founders get it, and you see the scale. Some founders struggle longer than others, and so that little journey is really dependent on human rights. I mean, we all take different times to learn the amount of you know things we learn in a given day. And so, who among us? But I think that's really, you know, ultimately, what happens. And when you get somebody who trusts their hired leaders, and they go, all right, you've got this much of a leash, go and have at it, then you judge them by their results, and you go, Oh my gosh, this worked. Or, Hey, why do you think that didn't work? What can we do differently? Do we need to flush the rest of the budget down this train? Do we, you know, throw more good money after bad, or do we make a different bet?",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":454,"children":455},{},[456],{"type":38,"value":457},"Kerry Guard  19:32  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":459,"children":460},{},[461],{"type":38,"value":462},"Yeah, yeah. I think for me, because I'm the founder who's currently doing a lot of it, I have had, I haven't found help for very specific things. For me, it's finding, you know, we're a small service-based company, so it's always about budget, right? And finding the money to do it. And I'm, I'm finding more as I find more, I'm like, good, what else can I offload? And it's very exciting. It's, but how do you help founders, sort of, under. Understand that too, of the investment piece of it versus the overhead, like this is taking up my budget, versus you're investing in the company, and yet.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":464,"children":465},{},[466],{"type":38,"value":467},"Theresa Potratz  20:11  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":469,"children":470},{},[471],{"type":38,"value":472},"Yeah, I think, you know, and that's going to be a tough thing, and each founder is going to need something a little different. It's a struggle. There's a very British term that I've kind of used to encapsulate, it's being penny rich but pound poor. It's you want to hold on to all your funds. You're Penny rich, but because you're not making those bets or those investments, then you lose out on the potential growth. Right? The fear of loss is a greater motivator than the hope of gain, and so to really kind of get out of that mindset as a marketer, speaking to the founder, it has to be, hey, here is the potential growth based on this math, and here's how you can validate the math. And here are leading indicators that this is working. Here's when we're going to judge it, and here's when we're going to pull the plug. You know, if we don't hit these success metrics by x date, this is a failed test. But if I'm right.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":474,"children":475},{},[476],{"type":38,"value":477},"Kerry Guard  21:11  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":479,"children":480},{},[481],{"type":38,"value":482},"That's the thing, yeah, yeah, no, I know what needs to get done, and I know I need the help. So every time I find a penny, I'm like, \" Oh, where can I put this? I get very excited. What breaks would you try to systematize, something that used to live in one person's head and relationships? That's kind of like going back to the founder, piece of like founders doing all the manual stuff, and now you got to kind of try and scale what the founders doing, right?",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":484,"children":485},{},[486],{"type":38,"value":487},"Theresa Potratz  21:36  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":489,"children":490},{},[491],{"type":38,"value":492},"I mean, what breaks? I mean, the answer is probably a little bit of everything, right? And I think, when you come down to it, you need to understand that the founder could probably outdo the role of everybody at the company. The issue lies in that she can't do all of us. Like, it's a law of numbers. And so it's like, okay, great. And I think at that point you need to expect a certain level of atrophy in ability, because the founder is just like, hyper-focused, knows everything, knows every aspect. And you're like, Okay, if we can hit 80%, that's going to be incredible, and your output is going to be greater than what I could do for you, you know, trying to do everything. Does that answer your question? Because it's probably yes, everything, whether it's development or copy or communicating with a client, like everything.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":494,"children":495},{},[496],{"type":38,"value":497},"Kerry Guard  22:27  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":499,"children":500},{},[501],{"type":38,"value":502},"Yeah, it's a learning curve, right? Like, as you sort of hand anything off, not just for a founder, handing stuff off from a marketing or sales perspective, it's, it's, anytime you're trading people up, there's going to be a learning curve, and moments of failure and learning from it and picking yourself up and keep it on, keeping on.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":504,"children":505},{},[506],{"type":38,"value":507},"Kerry Guard  22:46  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":509,"children":510},{},[511],{"type":38,"value":512},"It's just, but you got to delegate folks. You just you can't do it. Can't do it all forever. Can't do it all forever. What does a system-led lead gen motion actually look like in practice? What are your core pieces, and what order do you build them in? ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":514,"children":515},{},[516],{"type":38,"value":517},"Theresa Potratz  23:02  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":519,"children":520},{},[521],{"type":38,"value":522},"Well, I think it depends on the organization, right? If you know that you're you've got to fill in the top of funnel, and you know, you've got to get the education there's an awareness piece, then you've got to do a ton to get your name out there, whether that's ads, whether that's being on the right podcasts, whether that's, you know, whatever that looks like, you know, you have to make sure that piece is at play. And then you need to figure out, you know, what are the pieces to get them to convert down that sales funnel, like, if you get a certain number of x, the output is y. And then just move everybody through the funnel and incrementally look at every segment of that sales funnel and say, How could this be 10% better? Or can it be? Is it logical to be like, if your landing page conversion rate is 12%, it's not logical to assume you could get it to 15? So focus on, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, it's really.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":524,"children":525},{},[526],{"type":38,"value":527},"Kerry Guard  23:54  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":529,"children":530},{},[531],{"type":38,"value":532},"Good conversion rate if you got 12%, hats off to you. ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":534,"children":535},{},[536],{"type":38,"value":537},"Theresa Potratz  23:58  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":539,"children":540},{},[541],{"type":38,"value":542},"That's find a different problem that'll be easier to fix.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":544,"children":545},{},[546],{"type":38,"value":547},"Kerry Guard  24:01  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":549,"children":550},{},[551],{"type":38,"value":552},"Absolutely? Yeah, I do love conversion rates, because there's even if you could find a half a percentage on something, you know, that's in more of the 3% range, that could be that, that could be huge. And I find with conversion rates, too, that it's more of an immediate impact if it's headed in the right direction and you don't break something, and it, you know, is a good impact versus a bad one. But you can notice very quickly which direction it's going to go, and it can have immediate results, which is not something that you can say about, you know, when you're looking at Google ads, or you're looking at svl, these things take time to actually see the results, where conversion rates a little bit more immediate, which is very handy marketing. Your marketing is a secret to sales alignment. Unpack that one for me, because a lot of marketers I talk to are still fighting the fight.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":554,"children":555},{},[556],{"type":38,"value":557},"Theresa Potratz  24:51  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":559,"children":560},{},[561],{"type":38,"value":562},"You have to have a really good relationship with the sales team, and that means they have to understand what you're doing, why you're doing it.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":564,"children":565},{},[566],{"type":38,"value":567},"Theresa Potratz  25:00  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":569,"children":570},{},[571],{"type":38,"value":572},"And so a lot of that at first is going to be, let's say, you've got two AES and a VP over them. You make sure that you talk to each of those three people individually. At first, this is very time-intensive; you're like, \" Hey, here's what I'm doing. How can I make this better? And that brings them into the conversation. And so then when you pitch to all three of them at the same time, here's what we're going to do, they already are bought it. You know, they're bought in before the meeting starts, and they feel that they've got ownership of your idea. Because they were asked their opinion on how to improve it. Not what do you think of this, but how can I improve it? They're like, Oh, that small tweak, maybe in messaging, maybe in demographic of the ad, you know. Maybe you have the wrong-looking human, you know, and you don't have a supermodel for an SRE, you need to have somebody a bit more down to earth. And you go, okay, great. And then it's just communicating what you're doing in advance. Think of it as a doctor. When you go to the doctor, you know they're going to listen to your heart, you know they're going to check your pulse. But if you have somebody come in and just grab your arm and put their feet, you'll be like, What are you doing? But if they're saying, I'm going to take your pulse, I'm going to put my hands here, okay, you know, I'm a listen to your heart, you tell them what you're going to do before you do it, so they've got more buy-in.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":574,"children":575},{},[576],{"type":38,"value":577},"Kerry Guard  26:20  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":579,"children":580},{},[581],{"type":38,"value":582},"I love that. I also find that that's just helpful in so many regards to building relationships across the org, is having those initial one-on-ones, and then bringing it to the full team. And you get that feedback, you get to iterate. And so when you present it, they could see their impact as well. It's just it is time-consuming, but for big moments where you know you need everybody on board. Totally, totally worth it. What's the one thing marketing does that sales almost never sees? And how do you fix that?",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":584,"children":585},{},[586],{"type":38,"value":587},"Theresa Potratz  26:52  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":589,"children":590},{},[591],{"type":38,"value":592},"Gosh, I feel like sales may not fully understand all of the testing that goes behind the scenes. Like when we say no, it has to be this color, it has to be this length, it has to be this they just may take that for granted, you know, and that that is what it is, to the point where at one org, we were able to automate all of the end of month emails that our sales team was sending out end of month. It's like, if your demo didn't close, you would send them this email. This email. We would provide sales with a template, and the expectation was they would take that template and modify it based on the call with the client that didn't happen. It was a copy, paste, and send because their sales, they don't have time, their expectation is to close more deals, get in front of more humans. And so they didn't see the time investment going back to clay, porting all that information in there, grabbing the transcripts from the calls, pushing that in there, and automating that outbound email. That really elevated it. And they saw people coming back to the table that had, you know, walked away, closing more deals there, and that's when sales goes all right, marketing, we see you, you know, like you just made my job easier. You took away something I didn't want to do, and gave me more money. And as a replacement, I like you.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":594,"children":595},{},[596],{"type":38,"value":597},"Kerry Guard  28:17  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":599,"children":600},{},[601],{"type":38,"value":602},"It feels like such a victory, like a lap win right there, when sales are, like, happy and you've done something, and you've, like, relieved the pain, yes, yes, that, Oh yeah, we're running out of time. Let me see if I can get through a few more of these, because this is just so fun. Okay, I have to ask Napoleon and the bunnies what happened, and what does it have to do with marketing risk?",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":604,"children":605},{},[606],{"type":38,"value":607},"Theresa Potratz  28:41  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":609,"children":610},{},[611],{"type":38,"value":612},"So I mean, marketing risk, it's gonna be a leap for me to get there. Napoleon ended up wanting to go hunting. He took a huge rash of rabbits because his team were like, well, we're gonna go for a rabbit hunt. And they ended up getting too many bunnies in too small of a space, and when they released them, the bunny saw one point of exit, and that ended up being right behind Napoleon, and so they just charged, yeah, and it's not what you would want. Now, how can I relate that to marketing? Ooh, this is going to be a massive, weird LinkedIn post, um, you know, I think it could be. You don't assume what could go wrong before you do a test, you know, whether it's a product launch, whether it's an email release, and you just, you just don't ask yourself, What if this doesn't work? And then you go launch, and suddenly something blows up. Maybe, that's, maybe that's the takeaway,",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":614,"children":615},{},[616],{"type":38,"value":617},"Kerry Guard  29:37  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":619,"children":620},{},[621],{"type":38,"value":622},"Yeah, maybe think things through for a hot second before just, you know, pouring bunnies all into one space and not in the right direction",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":624,"children":625},{},[626],{"type":38,"value":627},"Theresa Potratz  29:45  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":629,"children":630},{},[631],{"type":38,"value":632},"Expecting a good hunt.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":634,"children":635},{},[636],{"type":38,"value":637},"Kerry Guard  29:47  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":639,"children":640},{},[641],{"type":38,"value":642},"And, expecting a good hunt and looking forward, what's one thing B-to-B marketers are doing right now that they are going to look back on and cringe about in two years?",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":644,"children":645},{},[646],{"type":38,"value":647},"Theresa Potratz  29:57  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":649,"children":650},{},[651],{"type":38,"value":652},"I think it's going to be picking a side. On whether you're extremely pro AI or extremely anti AI. I think that's the wrong stance. I think it's how can I lean on AI to offload the cognitive tasks I don't want to do?",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":654,"children":655},{},[656],{"type":38,"value":657},"Kerry Guard  30:13  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":659,"children":660},{},[661],{"type":38,"value":662},"And it's really like, you should still be doing the bulk of the thinking. It's the system. Like I had it today, I was like, Oh my gosh, I need to comment on five people's posts, and I don't like anything in my feed because it's not they're not really relevant to what I'm trying to do. Yeah. So I sent AI on an excavator hunt and said, \" You know all about my company and me, what I'm trying to do, go find me five posts that are relevant, that I should comment on, like and off it went. And I got other things done, and they came back, gave me a little bright, little ding, and said, Here you go. And I said, \" Awesome. And I went through, and I made my comments, and off I went. So I think it's, you know, finding those moments, those in-between moments that could just kind of take stuff off your plate from an execution, nitty gritty, weeds, we still have to do the thinking. It gives us space to do more thinking. ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":664,"children":665},{},[666],{"type":38,"value":667},"Theresa Potratz  31:10  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":669,"children":670},{},[671],{"type":38,"value":672},"I think it's imagining AI as an intern. Intern. Go do this basic research. I'm going to make the decision, but I want you to tell me. What are the pros? What are the cons? What are the people on Reddit saying who have used it for five years? Good, bad, and different? Like, give me the dirt. And they can be like, \"Okay, so here are the issues.\"",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":674,"children":675},{},[676],{"type":38,"value":677},"Kerry Guard  31:29  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":679,"children":680},{},[681],{"type":38,"value":682},"Here's the tape.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":684,"children":685},{},[686],{"type":38,"value":687},"Theresa Potratz  31:30  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":689,"children":690},{},[691],{"type":38,"value":194},{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":693,"children":694},{},[695],{"type":38,"value":696},"Kerry Guard  31:32  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":698,"children":699},{},[700],{"type":38,"value":701},"Yes, it's so it there's so much it can do. And I think trying to say it's better to try and figure it out of what it can do for you today, and understanding how it works is you can't not. You just can't. You can't. Last question, Teresa, I could talk to you all day. Last question, what are you building or thinking about right now that you haven't really talked about publicly yet?",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":703,"children":704},{},[705],{"type":38,"value":706},"Theresa Potratz  31:58  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":708,"children":709},{},[710],{"type":38,"value":711},"Oh gosh, anything.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":713,"children":714},{},[715],{"type":38,"value":716},"Kerry Guard  32:02  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":718,"children":719},{},[720],{"type":38,"value":721},"We're anything.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":723,"children":724},{},[725],{"type":38,"value":726},"Theresa Potratz  32:03  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":728,"children":729},{},[730],{"type":38,"value":731},"I mean, I would love to say that I've got something formalized that I could be like, Oh, blank, but I mean, I know what I would love to do. There's a current Zapier workflow that's set up that is genius for me. And it looks at any new email that comes into my work inbox. And it looks at, you know, are there previous emails from this person? If so, what is that relationship? Then it does it back in search of the internet to get additional data, and then it drafts a response. It doesn't send the response, but it drafts the response. That has been a huge offload for me, because I can be like, No, I'm not interested in your tool, kick rocks. Or I can be like, hey, CEO, here is the information you asked for as per the previous email, and it surfaces it up without sounding snarky, because that would be career suicide. But I think like moving in and doing additional levels of that, like, how can I, you know, better, up that game, because Inbox Zero is a myth. It's a beautiful myth. But what can I do to actually get there more often than not and use AI to build personal relationships and maintain my own sanity?",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":733,"children":734},{},[735],{"type":38,"value":736},"Kerry Guard  33:11  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":738,"children":739},{},[740],{"type":38,"value":741},"Yes to that. And actually, get back to salespeople, even if it's not anything you should be using, I'm sure that they're incredibly grateful for that too.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":743,"children":744},{},[745],{"type":38,"value":746},"Theresa Potratz  33:19  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":748,"children":749},{},[750],{"type":38,"value":751},"Right? And the phrase kick rocks.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":753,"children":754},{},[755],{"type":38,"value":756},"Kerry Guard  33:23  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":758,"children":759},{},[760],{"type":38,"value":761},"Yeah, yeah, I know I got to pick it up. You're putting down. I'm not gonna go. I'm gonna go do that as well. I don't check my inbox nearly enough, and I definitely have client stuff that ends up in there, and I need to be more on top of it, so I'm gonna go steal that from you. Thank you, Theresa. I appreciate you. Oh my gosh. Where can people find you, Theresa, and learn more about how you're using AI to follow along, and maybe up their game from a personalization standpoint?",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":763,"children":764},{},[765],{"type":38,"value":766},"Theresa Potratz  33:49  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":768,"children":769},{},[770],{"type":38,"value":771},"For LinkedIn, that is where I talk about, you know, AI and work stuff beyond that, the socials in general, unhinged dot history pod tends to be the standard one for the crazy videos, and then also on TikTok and Instagram. I do my own personal versions that I don't bring my co-host in, and that's twiglyot, which is t, w, I, G, l, i o, t.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":773,"children":774},{},[775],{"type":38,"value":776},"Kerry Guard  34:15  ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":778,"children":779},{},[780],{"type":38,"value":781},"Thank you all so much for joining us on this episode of Back on Track. If you want to follow Theresa, as we mentioned, you should connect with her on LinkedIn and go to the unhinged History podcast wherever you listen. Fair warning, you will learn about the Dublin whiskey flood, and you will have opinions about it. This episode was brought to you by MKG Marketing. We turn B2B tech marketing into a pipeline. If your team is great at the product, but still figuring out your marketing, that's exactly where we come in. Give me a shout. We'd love to help you out. Thank you for listening to this episode of Back on Track. If this landed with you, share it with the parking leader who needs a little more unhinged in their strategy, and we'll see you next time. Thank you all so much.",{"title":7,"searchDepth":783,"depth":783,"links":784},2,[785,786],{"id":31,"depth":783,"text":39},{"id":48,"depth":783,"text":54},"markdown","content:podcasts:marketing-leaders:theresa-potratz-on-why-unhinged-marketing-actually-works.md","content","podcasts/marketing-leaders/theresa-potratz-on-why-unhinged-marketing-actually-works.md","podcasts/marketing-leaders/theresa-potratz-on-why-unhinged-marketing-actually-works","md",[794,1164,1593,1937,2192],{"_path":795,"_dir":796,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":797,"description":798,"img":799,"date":800,"body":801,"_type":787,"_id":1160,"_source":789,"_file":1161,"_stem":1162,"_extension":792,"category":796,"minutes":1163},"/blog/seo/the-synthesized-buyer-mastering-the-2026-brand-visibility-audit-for-llms","seo","The Synthesized Buyer - Mastering the 2026 Brand Visibility Audit for LLMs","If you aren’t in the training data, you aren’t on the shortlist. Here is how to master Brand Visibility Optimization (BVO) for the AI-driven buyer.","https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/73b38499-1c0a-46c3-aaaf-a824ff083005-mkg-blog-the-synthesized-buyer-hero-image.webp","2026-05-06T15:28:34.835Z",{"type":25,"children":802,"toc":1150},[803,808,837,842,847,858,863,868,873,878,883,889,901,913,918,928,933,938,973,978,984,996,1001,1006,1016,1021,1026,1060,1065,1071,1076,1081,1086,1092,1097,1115,1120,1126],{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":804,"children":805},{},[806],{"type":38,"value":807},"The B2B buying journey isn’t happening on search results pages anymore. For a long time, marketing success basically meant winning on Google: rank in the top organic spots, pick the right keywords, watch the clicks, and call more traffic “more authority.” But in 2026, something else is quietly running the show in procurement: large language models (LLMs).",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":809,"children":810},{},[811,813,828,830,835],{"type":38,"value":812},"This isn’t a distant trend; it is the current reality of B2B procurement. New research from",{"type":28,"tag":814,"props":815,"children":819},"a",{"href":816,"rel":817},"https://company.g2.com/news/g2-research-the-answer-economy",[818],"nofollow",[820,822],{"type":38,"value":821},"  ",{"type":28,"tag":823,"props":824,"children":825},"u",{},[826],{"type":38,"value":827},"G2’s 2026 Answer Economy Report",{"type":38,"value":829}," shows that ",{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":831,"children":832},{},[833],{"type":38,"value":834},"51% of B2B software buyers",{"type":38,"value":836}," now begin their research in an AI chatbot rather than a traditional search engine. These buyers aren’t paging through search results. They are using single prompts to ask AI tools to compare enterprise platforms based on specific needs. In that moment, the AI synthesizes an answer from the data it has already processed, effectively \"one-shotting\" the shortlist before a vendor is ever contacted. ",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":838,"children":839},{},[840],{"type":38,"value":841},"If your brand isn’t in that data, if you’re missing from high-authority industry conversations, technical communities, or archives of executive thought leadership, you’re effectively shut out of that synthesis. Buyers don’t see you, long before they even think about visiting your website. That means we need to rethink what brand authority actually looks like and how we measure it.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":843,"children":844},{},[845],{"type":38,"value":846},"To stay in the game, traditional SEO alone isn’t enough. You need to focus on Brand Visibility Optimization (BVO). BVO isn’t about gaming an algorithm; it’s about becoming a stable, trustworthy source of information that automated systems consistently recognize and surface. In practice, that means ensuring your brand appears in the internet’s most trusted and widely referenced data sources.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":848,"children":850},{"id":849},"the-transition-of-the-procurement-funnel",[851,856],{"type":28,"tag":852,"props":853,"children":855},"img",{"alt":7,"src":854},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/accd88f6-f3c6-4b91-bb0e-bb9642914996-mkg-blog-the-synthesized-buyer-image-1.png",[],{"type":38,"value":857},"The Transition of the Procurement Funnel",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":859,"children":860},{},[861],{"type":38,"value":862},"For years, traditional marketing treated visibility like a straight line: push out enough content and ads, and sooner or later, buyers would notice you. But that’s not how people actually buy today.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":864,"children":865},{},[866],{"type":38,"value":867},"Modern buyers lean on what’s often called \"dark social\"—recommendations, peer reviews, and technical back-and-forth that live in private Slack channels, Discord servers, group DMs, and niche community forums. None of this shows up in your typical analytics, but it heavily shapes who makes the shortlist.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":869,"children":870},{},[871],{"type":38,"value":872},"AI models are being trained on this messy, decentralized ecosystem. When they generate a recommendation, they’re effectively scanning for patterns: where is there consensus, and which brands keep getting mentioned in these communities?",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":874,"children":875},{},[876],{"type":38,"value":877},"That creates a real risk for lean B2B teams: cranking out large volumes of generic content that adds nothing new. If what you publish reads like a generic brochure, the model will treat it as background noise rather than a signal.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":879,"children":880},{},[881],{"type":38,"value":882},"To be surfaced and cited by an AI, your brand needs to contribute something specific and useful—unique, field-tested insight that helps the model justify its answer. In other words, you have to publish the kind of information the model relies on to feel confident that it’s right.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":884,"children":886},{"id":885},"establishing-the-pattern-the-consistency-cadence",[887],{"type":38,"value":888},"Establishing the Pattern: The Consistency Cadence",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":890,"children":891},{},[892,894,899],{"type":38,"value":893},"At the core of Brand Visibility Optimization is the concept of ",{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":895,"children":896},{},[897],{"type":38,"value":898},"Consistency",{"type":38,"value":900},". This is the factor that separates a single campaign from a reliable growth system. For a model to recognize your brand as an authority, it needs to see a persistent, high-quality pattern of information over time.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":902,"children":903},{},[904,906,911],{"type":38,"value":905},"Executive thought leadership is a critical technical asset in this process. Models prioritize data linked to verifiable experts and recurring themes. When your leadership team maintains a consistent cadence and regularly contributes technical insights to industry forums and reputable publications, you establish your brand as a primary source in the ",{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":907,"children":908},{},[909],{"type":38,"value":910},"LLM Training Data for Brands",{"type":38,"value":912},".",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":914,"children":915},{},[916],{"type":38,"value":917},"A short-term approach does not work here. You cannot establish authority in a training set with a single project. You must show up regularly and deliver a steady stream of professional insights. This approach ensures that when models are updated, your brand is a core component of the system's understanding of your category.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":919,"children":921},{"id":920},"the-brand-visibility-audit-where-do-you-exist",[922,926],{"type":28,"tag":852,"props":923,"children":925},{"alt":7,"src":924},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/9639ded1-86f0-4500-bb1a-c2ad511e205b-mkg-blog-the-synthesized-buyer-image-2.png",[],{"type":38,"value":927},"The Brand Visibility Audit: Where Do You Exist?",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":929,"children":930},{},[931],{"type":38,"value":932},"Mastering BVO begins with a technical audit of your brand's digital footprint. You must ask: if an automated agent were vetting this company, what evidence would it find?",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":934,"children":935},{},[936],{"type":38,"value":937},"The audit should focus on three primary areas:",{"type":28,"tag":939,"props":940,"children":941},"ol",{},[942,953,963],{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":944,"children":945},"li",{},[946,951],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":947,"children":948},{},[949],{"type":38,"value":950},"Community Mentions:",{"type":38,"value":952}," AI models place a heavy weight on community-driven platforms like Reddit and technical forums. Are practitioners discussing your product or solving problems using your documentation? Without community discussion, the model is unlikely to recommend you.",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":954,"children":955},{},[956,961],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":957,"children":958},{},[959],{"type":38,"value":960},"Expert Proximity:",{"type":38,"value":962}," Is your brand associated with recognized experts in your field? When your team is cited in third-party research or technical interviews, it creates a link that models use to determine authority.",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":964,"children":965},{},[966,971],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":967,"children":968},{},[969],{"type":38,"value":970},"Technical Transparency:",{"type":38,"value":972}," Models require structured, accurate data. If your technical specifications, API documentation, and pricing structures are inconsistent or difficult to access, the system cannot build an accurate profile of your business.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":974,"children":975},{},[976],{"type":38,"value":977},"Many brands are currently failing this audit because they are invisible in the places where information is synthesized. To fix this, stop treating social media as just a distribution channel and start treating it as a space to establish your brand’s technical authority.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":979,"children":981},{"id":980},"navigating-dark-social-attribution",[982],{"type":38,"value":983},"Navigating Dark Social Attribution",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":985,"children":986},{},[987,989,994],{"type":38,"value":988},"A significant challenge of the BVO era is that the most valuable interactions are difficult to track. ",{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":990,"children":991},{},[992],{"type":38,"value":993},"Dark Social Attribution",{"type":38,"value":995}," is often invisible to those who rely only on dashboards. A lead might appear as a direct search, but the reality is that the buyer spent months seeing your name in private communities and reading summaries of your executive's insights.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":997,"children":998},{},[999],{"type":38,"value":1000},"Because you cannot track every touchpoint, you must optimize the environment where the buyer spends time. This means providing human, relatable, and technical content that people want to share in private channels.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1002,"children":1003},{},[1004],{"type":38,"value":1005},"When your content is shared in a private group, it eventually reaches the public web through summaries and community archives. This is the long-term goal of BVO. You are establishing authority in private spaces that eventually informs the data models used in public searches.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1007,"children":1009},{"id":1008},"systematizing-authority-moving-from-reactive-to-rhythmic",[1010,1014],{"type":28,"tag":852,"props":1011,"children":1013},{"alt":7,"src":1012},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/fdbe942b-e9d7-4a74-8829-9e9587fdd7b6-mkg-blog-the-synthesized-buyer-image-3.png",[],{"type":38,"value":1015},"Systematizing Authority: Moving from Reactive to Rhythmic",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1017,"children":1018},{},[1019],{"type":38,"value":1020},"The transition to a BVO-focused strategy requires moving from reactive marketing to a systematic operation. A \"launch and leave\" mentality is no longer effective. You need a system that ensures your brand's data is constantly updated and reinforced.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1022,"children":1023},{},[1024],{"type":38,"value":1025},"This involves:",{"type":28,"tag":1027,"props":1028,"children":1029},"ul",{},[1030,1040,1050],{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1031,"children":1032},{},[1033,1038],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1034,"children":1035},{},[1036],{"type":38,"value":1037},"Executive Cadence:",{"type":38,"value":1039}," A strict schedule for your leadership team to contribute to external platforms.",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1041,"children":1042},{},[1043,1048],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1044,"children":1045},{},[1046],{"type":38,"value":1047},"Structured Knowledge:",{"type":38,"value":1049}," A website that acts as a hub of structured data that is easy for agents to crawl and understand.",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1051,"children":1052},{},[1053,1058],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1054,"children":1055},{},[1056],{"type":38,"value":1057},"Community Engagement:",{"type":38,"value":1059}," Participating in the spaces where your buyers live and providing value without expecting an immediate click.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1061,"children":1062},{},[1063],{"type":38,"value":1064},"When these elements are connected, marketing moves from disconnected tactics to a reliable system. You stop spending budget on ads that are ignored and start building brand authority that models are required to cite.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1066,"children":1068},{"id":1067},"the-future-of-b2b-visibility",[1069],{"type":38,"value":1070},"The Future of B2B Visibility",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1072,"children":1073},{},[1074],{"type":38,"value":1075},"The rise of the modern buyer is not a threat to brands that prioritize accuracy and consistency. It is a threat to brands that rely on generic, high-volume content. If your content sounds like a brochure, the AI will summarize the basic points and move on. But if your content contains specific tactics and operational honesty, you add value that the system recognizes.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1077,"children":1078},{},[1079],{"type":38,"value":1080},"We show personality through accuracy and tone, not through forced branding. In the world of generative search, being clear and authoritative is what gets your brand cited. It is about being professional and direct.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1082,"children":1083},{},[1084],{"type":38,"value":1085},"Recalibrating for 2026 is about returning to the fundamentals of building a brand that matters to both people and the systems they use. It is about moving away from short-term shortcuts and focusing on lasting authority.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1087,"children":1089},{"id":1088},"final-thoughts-the-path-to-synthesis",[1090],{"type":38,"value":1091},"Final Thoughts: The Path to Synthesis",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1093,"children":1094},{},[1095],{"type":38,"value":1096},"The B2B measurement gap is widening, and the ways we prove marketing value are changing. However, the goal remains the same: to be the most trusted and visible option for the buyer.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1098,"children":1099},{},[1100,1102,1107,1109,1113],{"type":38,"value":1101},"In 2026, that buyer is assisted by an LLM. By mastering ",{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1103,"children":1104},{},[1105],{"type":38,"value":1106},"Brand Visibility Optimization",{"type":38,"value":1108},", addressing the ",{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1110,"children":1111},{},[1112],{"type":38,"value":993},{"type":38,"value":1114}," gap, and maintaining a consistent output of expertise, you ensure that your brand is recognized.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1116,"children":1117},{},[1118],{"type":38,"value":1119},"Do not be the brand that is missing from the synthesis. Build the authority that makes your presence clear. The success of your growth depends on this systematic approach.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1121,"children":1123},{"id":1122},"summary",[1124],{"type":38,"value":1125},"Summary",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1127,"children":1128},{},[1129,1131,1136,1138,1142,1144,1148],{"type":38,"value":1130},"The 2026 B2B buyer journey has changed: 35% use AI tools for vendor selection. To remain visible, brands must adopt ",{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1132,"children":1133},{},[1134],{"type":38,"value":1135},"Brand Visibility Optimization (BVO)",{"type":38,"value":1137}," to ensure they are present in ",{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1139,"children":1140},{},[1141],{"type":38,"value":910},{"type":38,"value":1143},". Success requires navigating ",{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1145,"children":1146},{},[1147],{"type":38,"value":993},{"type":38,"value":1149},", the private channels where peer consensus is formed. By implementing a consistent cadence for executive thought leadership and treating the digital footprint as a data pattern for AI recognition, B2B teams can overcome inefficiencies and build authority in an AI-driven marketplace.",{"title":7,"searchDepth":783,"depth":783,"links":1151},[1152,1153,1154,1155,1156,1157,1158,1159],{"id":849,"depth":783,"text":857},{"id":885,"depth":783,"text":888},{"id":920,"depth":783,"text":927},{"id":980,"depth":783,"text":983},{"id":1008,"depth":783,"text":1015},{"id":1067,"depth":783,"text":1070},{"id":1088,"depth":783,"text":1091},{"id":1122,"depth":783,"text":1125},"content:blog:seo:the-synthesized-buyer-mastering-the-2026-brand-visibility-audit-for-llms.md","blog/seo/the-synthesized-buyer-mastering-the-2026-brand-visibility-audit-for-llms.md","blog/seo/the-synthesized-buyer-mastering-the-2026-brand-visibility-audit-for-llms",7,{"_path":1165,"_dir":796,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":1166,"description":1167,"_schema":1168,"authors":1169,"date":1170,"img":1171,"imgAlt":1172,"body":1173,"_type":787,"_id":1589,"_source":789,"_file":1590,"_stem":1591,"_extension":792,"category":796,"minutes":1592},"/blog/seo/monthly-search-industry-report-april-2026","Monthly Search Industry Report - April 2026","Stay updated with the April 2026 search landscape: core update impacts, back button crackdown, task-driven search, and the rise of agent-powered visibility.","default",[],"2026-05-05T16:25:00Z","/images/blog/mkg-blog-search-industry-overview-april.webp","Monthly Search Industry Report",{"type":25,"children":1174,"toc":1582},[1175,1184,1227,1236,1241,1326,1335,1340,1406,1415,1425,1438,1447,1481,1490,1500,1509,1514,1519,1552,1560,1578],{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1176,"children":1178},{"id":1177},"executive-summary-the-tldr",[1179],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1180,"children":1181},{},[1182],{"type":38,"value":1183},"Executive Summary (The TL;DR)",{"type":28,"tag":1027,"props":1185,"children":1186},{},[1187,1197,1207,1217],{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1188,"children":1189},{},[1190,1195],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1191,"children":1192},{},[1193],{"type":38,"value":1194},"March Core Update Completion:",{"type":38,"value":1196}," The major ranking update that began in March finished on April 8. It shifted traffic toward specialist sites and away from general content aggregators.",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1198,"children":1199},{},[1200,1205],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1201,"children":1202},{},[1203],{"type":38,"value":1204},"The \"Back Button\" Ban:",{"type":38,"value":1206}," Google officially labeled \"back button hijacking\" as spam. Sites that trap users by blocking their ability to return to search results will face penalties starting June 15.",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1208,"children":1209},{},[1210,1215],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1211,"children":1212},{},[1213],{"type":38,"value":1214},"Search as a \"Task Engine\":",{"type":38,"value":1216}," Google is adding agentic features, like AI that can call stores to check inventory or build travel itineraries, shifting the focus from clicks to completed actions.",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1218,"children":1219},{},[1220,1225],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1221,"children":1222},{},[1223],{"type":38,"value":1224},"GPT-5.5 Launch:",{"type":38,"value":1226}," OpenAI released its most capable agentic model yet, designed to perform multi-step work independently, further changing how users find professional information.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1228,"children":1230},{"id":1229},"algorithm-technical-seo-updates",[1231],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1232,"children":1233},{},[1234],{"type":38,"value":1235},"Algorithm & Technical SEO Updates",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1237,"children":1238},{},[1239],{"type":38,"value":1240},"The focus this month shifted from ranking keywords to punishing deceptive user experiences and rewarding technical efficiency.",{"type":28,"tag":1027,"props":1242,"children":1243},{},[1244,1263,1285,1307],{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1245,"children":1246},{},[1247,1252,1254,1261],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1248,"children":1249},{},[1250],{"type":38,"value":1251},"March Core Update Wraps:",{"type":38,"value":1253}," Google confirmed the March 2026 Core Update ended on April 8. Analysis from ",{"type":28,"tag":814,"props":1255,"children":1258},{"href":1256,"rel":1257},"https://searchengineland.com/march-2026-google-core-update-what-changed-474397",[818],[1259],{"type":38,"value":1260},"Search Engine Land",{"type":38,"value":1262}," indicates that niche, authoritative brands saw the most growth, while broad comparison sites lost ground.",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1264,"children":1265},{},[1266,1271,1273,1283],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1267,"children":1268},{},[1269],{"type":38,"value":1270},"Back Button Hijacking Policy:",{"type":38,"value":1272}," On April 13, Google introduced a ",{"type":28,"tag":814,"props":1274,"children":1277},{"href":1275,"rel":1276},"https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2026/04/back-button-hijacking?authuser=2",[818],[1278],{"type":28,"tag":823,"props":1279,"children":1280},{},[1281],{"type":38,"value":1282},"new spam policy",{"type":38,"value":1284}," targeting sites that interfere with browser navigation. If your site uses scripts to trap users or redirect them when they try to leave, you face automated demotions.",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1286,"children":1287},{},[1288,1293,1295,1305],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1289,"children":1290},{},[1291],{"type":38,"value":1292},"The 2MB Fetch Limit:",{"type":38,"value":1294}," ",{"type":28,"tag":814,"props":1296,"children":1299},{"href":1297,"rel":1298},"https://www.searchenginejournal.com/technical-seo-audit-new-layer/571583/",[818],[1300],{"type":28,"tag":823,"props":1301,"children":1302},{},[1303],{"type":38,"value":1304},"Search Engine Journal",{"type":38,"value":1306}," highlighted a critical technical threshold: Googlebot generally stops reading a page after the first 2MB. For tech companies with heavy code or long documentation, this makes code efficiency a direct ranking factor.",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1308,"children":1309},{},[1310,1315,1317,1324],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1311,"children":1312},{},[1313],{"type":38,"value":1314},"\"Read More\" Optimization:",{"type":38,"value":1316}," There’s now ",{"type":28,"tag":814,"props":1318,"children":1321},{"href":1319,"rel":1320},"https://searchengineland.com/google-adds-read-more-links-best-practices-474807",[818],[1322],{"type":38,"value":1323},"new guidance",{"type":38,"value":1325}," for content hidden behind \"Read More\" buttons. Google now recommends keeping key information visible on page load to ensure it is indexed for AI answers.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1327,"children":1329},{"id":1328},"the-geoaeo-frontier",[1330],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1331,"children":1332},{},[1333],{"type":38,"value":1334},"The GEO/AEO Frontier",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1336,"children":1337},{},[1338],{"type":38,"value":1339},"Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) is moving into the \"Agentic Era,\" where AI doesn't just find information, it performs tasks.",{"type":28,"tag":1027,"props":1341,"children":1342},{},[1343,1365,1387],{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1344,"children":1345},{},[1346,1351,1353,1363],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1347,"children":1348},{},[1349],{"type":38,"value":1350},"Google's \"Task Assistant\":",{"type":38,"value":1352}," Google launched new features that allow ",{"type":28,"tag":814,"props":1354,"children":1357},{"href":1355,"rel":1356},"https://www.lumar.io/blog/industry-news/seo-ai-search-industry-news-april-2026/",[818],[1358],{"type":28,"tag":823,"props":1359,"children":1360},{},[1361],{"type":38,"value":1362},"AI to call stores",{"type":38,"value":1364}," to check product availability and manage complex travel bookings directly in the SERP. This prioritizes structured data (Schema) over traditional blog content.",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1366,"children":1367},{},[1368,1373,1375,1385],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1369,"children":1370},{},[1371],{"type":38,"value":1372},"GPT-5.5 Agentic Workflows:",{"type":38,"value":1374}," Released on April 23, ",{"type":28,"tag":814,"props":1376,"children":1379},{"href":1377,"rel":1378},"https://www.artificialintelligence-news.com/news/gpt-5-5-is-openais-most-capable-agentic-ai-model-yet-at-twice-the-api-price/",[818],[1380],{"type":28,"tag":823,"props":1381,"children":1382},{},[1383],{"type":38,"value":1384},"GPT-5.5",{"type":38,"value":1386}," is built to handle real work, such as planning and tool coordination. This model is more likely to cite sources that provide clear, executable data rather than long-form prose.",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1388,"children":1389},{},[1390,1395,1397,1404],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1391,"children":1392},{},[1393],{"type":38,"value":1394},"Chrome's AI Mode Integration:",{"type":38,"value":1396}," Google is rolling out an ",{"type":28,"tag":814,"props":1398,"children":1401},{"href":1399,"rel":1400},"https://www.seroundtable.com/google-tests-enter-ai-mode-button-37145.html",[818],[1402],{"type":38,"value":1403},"\"Enter AI Mode\"",{"type":38,"value":1405}," button in the Chrome address bar. This allows the browser to answer questions by reading the user's open tabs, making on-page context more valuable than ever for brand visibility.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1407,"children":1409},{"id":1408},"strategic-implications-for-leaders",[1410],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1411,"children":1412},{},[1413],{"type":38,"value":1414},"Strategic Implications for Leaders",{"type":28,"tag":1416,"props":1417,"children":1419},"h4",{"id":1418},"what-to-ignore",[1420],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1421,"children":1422},{},[1423],{"type":38,"value":1424},"What to ignore:",{"type":28,"tag":1027,"props":1426,"children":1427},{},[1428],{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1429,"children":1430},{},[1431,1436],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1432,"children":1433},{},[1434],{"type":38,"value":1435},"Vanity Link Building:",{"type":38,"value":1437}," With Google's new focus on \"Experience\" and \"Task Completion,\" old-school guest posting for links is yielding diminishing returns. Focus on being the answer-first resource, ** ** the domain AI chooses to complete a user's task.",{"type":28,"tag":1416,"props":1439,"children":1441},{"id":1440},"where-to-pivot",[1442],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1443,"children":1444},{},[1445],{"type":38,"value":1446},"Where to pivot:",{"type":28,"tag":1027,"props":1448,"children":1449},{},[1450,1471],{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1451,"children":1452},{},[1453,1458,1460,1469],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1454,"children":1455},{},[1456],{"type":38,"value":1457},"Audit for \"History Hijacking\":",{"type":38,"value":1459}," Ensure your marketing or ad scripts aren't accidentally violating the new ",{"type":28,"tag":814,"props":1461,"children":1463},{"href":1275,"rel":1462},[818],[1464],{"type":28,"tag":823,"props":1465,"children":1466},{},[1467],{"type":38,"value":1468},"Back Button policy",{"type":38,"value":1470},". Even vignette ads can sometimes trigger these penalties.",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1472,"children":1473},{},[1474,1479],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1475,"children":1476},{},[1477],{"type":38,"value":1478},"Structure for Agents:",{"type":38,"value":1480}," To be hired by a Google or OpenAI agent, your business data (pricing, features, availability) must be in a machine-readable format, such as JSON-LD. If an agent can’t \"read\" your inventory, it will recommend a competitor with better-structured data.",{"type":28,"tag":1416,"props":1482,"children":1484},{"id":1483},"looking-ahead",[1485],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1486,"children":1487},{},[1488],{"type":38,"value":1489},"Looking Ahead:",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1491,"children":1492},{},[1493,1498],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1494,"children":1495},{},[1496],{"type":38,"value":1497},"The \"Side-Panel\" Habit:",{"type":38,"value":1499}," Watch how Google's new side-by-side view in Chrome changes click behavior. Users are now staying on your site while chatting with an AI on the side. In May, we expect to see \"Time on Page\" metrics rise, but \"Internal Clicks\" fall as the AI does the navigating for them.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1501,"children":1503},{"id":1502},"call-to-action-optimize-for-the-future",[1504],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1505,"children":1506},{},[1507],{"type":38,"value":1508},"Call to Action: Optimize for the Future",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1510,"children":1511},{},[1512],{"type":38,"value":1513},"The April updates signal a shift from a \"web of pages\" to a \"web of actions.\" For B2B and SaaS leaders, being found is no longer enough; your site must be optimized to help AI agents complete their work.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1515,"children":1516},{},[1517],{"type":38,"value":1518},"MKG helps VC-backed companies dominate this new landscape via:",{"type":28,"tag":1027,"props":1520,"children":1521},{},[1522,1532,1542],{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1523,"children":1524},{},[1525,1530],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1526,"children":1527},{},[1528],{"type":38,"value":1529},"GEO/AEO Gap Analysis:",{"type":38,"value":1531}," Identifying where AI agents are failing to \"see\" your core product data.",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1533,"children":1534},{},[1535,1540],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1536,"children":1537},{},[1538],{"type":38,"value":1539},"SVO Focus:",{"type":38,"value":1541}," Incorporating all areas of search into one, holistic and coherent strategy.",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1543,"children":1544},{},[1545,1550],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1546,"children":1547},{},[1548],{"type":38,"value":1549},"Full-Funnel Attribution:",{"type":38,"value":1551}," Measuring how AI Mode interactions contribute to your bottom line, even without a traditional click.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1553,"children":1554},{},[1555],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1556,"children":1557},{},[1558],{"type":38,"value":1559},"Don't get trapped by the old playbook.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1561,"children":1562},{},[1563,1576],{"type":28,"tag":814,"props":1564,"children":1567},{"href":1565,"rel":1566},"https://mkgmarketinginc.com/book-a-call/",[818],[1568],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1569,"children":1570},{},[1571],{"type":28,"tag":823,"props":1572,"children":1573},{},[1574],{"type":38,"value":1575},"Book a Discovery Call",{"type":38,"value":1577}," to secure your visibility in the agentic search era.",{"type":28,"tag":1579,"props":1580,"children":1581},"br",{},[],{"title":7,"searchDepth":783,"depth":783,"links":1583},[1584,1585,1586,1587,1588],{"id":1177,"depth":783,"text":1183},{"id":1229,"depth":783,"text":1235},{"id":1328,"depth":783,"text":1334},{"id":1408,"depth":783,"text":1414},{"id":1502,"depth":783,"text":1508},"content:blog:seo:monthly-search-industry-report-april-2026.md","blog/seo/monthly-search-industry-report-april-2026.md","blog/seo/monthly-search-industry-report-april-2026",4,{"_path":1594,"_dir":796,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":1595,"description":1596,"img":1597,"date":1598,"imgAlt":1599,"_schema":1168,"authors":1600,"body":1601,"_type":787,"_id":1933,"_source":789,"_file":1934,"_stem":1935,"_extension":792,"category":796,"minutes":1936},"/blog/seo/agentic-procurement-is-your-website-machine-readable-or-just-human-centric","Agentic Procurement - Is Your Website Machine-Readable or Just Human-Centric?","Procurement is moving to AI agents. If your site isn't optimized for agent readiness, you are invisible to the new buyer.","/images/blog/mkg-blog-agentic-procurement-hero-image.webp","2026-04-29T17:59:00Z","Agentic Procurement",[],{"type":25,"children":1602,"toc":1923},[1603,1608,1613,1618,1623,1630,1639,1644,1649,1654,1659,1668,1673,1678,1683,1688,1695,1704,1709,1714,1719,1752,1757,1762,1771,1776,1781,1814,1819,1826,1835,1840,1845,1850,1855,1864,1869,1874,1879,1884,1893,1898,1903,1908,1915,1920],{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1604,"children":1605},{},[1606],{"type":38,"value":1607},"B2B procurement is undergoing a fundamental restructuring. For the past twenty years, the B2B buying process has been defined by human-to-human interaction. Marketing teams built websites to persuade, inform, and nurture human prospects. Companies focused on mobile design, conversion paths, and lead forms.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1609,"children":1610},{},[1611],{"type":38,"value":1612},"That era of human-centric commerce is ending. By 2026, a massive portion of B2B spend will be mediated by AI agents. This is a shift in the fundamental infrastructure of the global economy.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1614,"children":1615},{},[1616],{"type":38,"value":1617},"In this environment, a website is no longer just a digital brochure for a human audience. It is a data source for an automated vetting process. When an AI agent is tasked with finding a vendor that meets specific security, price, and capability criteria, it does not analyze copy in a traditional sense. It does not assess branding or testimonials. It evaluates the site as machine-readable data. If a digital presence cannot be parsed, validated, and structured by an agent, the company does not exist in the procurement funnel.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1619,"children":1620},{},[1621],{"type":38,"value":1622},"This transition is the emergence of Agent Readiness Optimization (ARO). The winners in 2026 are the companies that stop treating their websites as destinations for humans and start treating them as dynamic, structured knowledge bases that AI agents can use to provide direct answers and make procurement decisions.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1624,"children":1625},{},[1626],{"type":28,"tag":852,"props":1627,"children":1629},{"alt":7,"src":1628},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/f48096ed-38dd-417b-a905-819c2602bc6e-mkg-blog-agentic-procurement-image-1.jpg",[],{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1631,"children":1633},{"id":1632},"the-reality-of-agentic-procurement",[1634],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1635,"children":1636},{},[1637],{"type":38,"value":1638},"The Reality of Agentic Procurement",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1640,"children":1641},{},[1642],{"type":38,"value":1643},"Agentic procurement is the process of delegating the vendor selection and vetting phase to an AI agent. Instead of a procurement manager spending weeks issuing requests for proposals and scanning websites, they provide an AI agent with a set of constraints and objectives. The agent scans the web, analyzes the technical capabilities of potential vendors, assesses compliance, compares pricing, and shortlists candidates.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1645,"children":1646},{},[1647],{"type":38,"value":1648},"This process is objective and data-driven. It removes the friction of subjective marketing claims and replaces them with an audit of the technical layer of a web presence. When an AI agent visits a site, it looks for specific, unambiguous data points to synthesize an answer. It needs to know API capabilities, pricing, uptime guarantees, and security certifications.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1650,"children":1651},{},[1652],{"type":38,"value":1653},"If this information is trapped inside an image file, buried in a document, or obscured by marketing copy designed for humans, the agent ignores it. It does not include instructions for inferring meaning from general articles. It needs structured, machine-readable data to provide a direct answer.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1655,"children":1656},{},[1657],{"type":38,"value":1658},"Many B2B companies have a disconnect. They have invested in high-end design, video, and storytelling. While these elements have value for human stakeholders, they are often invisible or confusing to an AI agent. The technical architecture of most corporate websites is designed for visual display, not for programmatic extraction. To succeed in the era of AI-mediated spend, companies must implement a strategy that prioritizes machine-readability.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1660,"children":1662},{"id":1661},"moving-beyond-seo-to-agent-readiness-optimization-aro",[1663],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1664,"children":1665},{},[1666],{"type":38,"value":1667},"Moving Beyond SEO to Agent Readiness Optimization (ARO)",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1669,"children":1670},{},[1671],{"type":38,"value":1672},"For years, SEO was the primary discipline for increasing visibility. Teams focused on keywords, search intent, and ranking in search results. Agent Readiness Optimization (ARO) is a different discipline. ARO is not about ranking for a search term; it is about providing the definitive, structured data that an AI agent requires to vet a vendor and provide a direct answer.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1674,"children":1675},{},[1676],{"type":38,"value":1677},"ARO requires a shift in how digital assets are structured. It requires implementing a technical semantic layer. A semantic layer acts as a translator between raw data and the AI agents that need to consume it. It ensures that when an agent asks, \"What are the core technical capabilities of this platform?\", it receives a direct, unambiguous answer, not a marketing description.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1679,"children":1680},{},[1681],{"type":38,"value":1682},"This involves several components. First, it requires using standardized schemas, such as Schema.org, to define the entities on a page. By marking up content, a company tells the AI exactly what each piece of information represents. Second, it requires that data be accessible and consistent across the entire web presence.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1684,"children":1685},{},[1686],{"type":38,"value":1687},"When a company treats its website as a knowledge graph, it maps the relationships between products, technical specifications, and organizational data. It creates a clear, interconnected structure that an AI agent can navigate to build its response. It moves from unstructured content to structured knowledge. This allows an AI agent to build a profile of a company without needing human intervention.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1689,"children":1690},{},[1691],{"type":28,"tag":852,"props":1692,"children":1694},{"alt":7,"src":1693},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/d42946f6-7f69-4eed-853f-c8f845347ce1-mkg-blog-agentic-procurement-image-2.png",[],{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1696,"children":1698},{"id":1697},"the-systematic-approach-treating-your-site-as-a-knowledge-graph",[1699],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1700,"children":1701},{},[1702],{"type":38,"value":1703},"The Systematic Approach: Treating Your Site as a Knowledge Graph",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1705,"children":1706},{},[1707],{"type":38,"value":1708},"The approach to this challenge is to move beyond the page-by-page content strategy and view the website as a comprehensive data system. It is necessary to focus on integrating services and technical architecture to create a resilient knowledge graph.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1710,"children":1711},{},[1712],{"type":38,"value":1713},"Superficial fixes are not effective. Instead, a technical audit of a site’s ability to communicate with AI agents is required. A company must analyze its ability to output structured data and ensure that technical documentation, pricing structures, and capability matrices are fully indexable.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1715,"children":1716},{},[1717],{"type":38,"value":1718},"This involves specific operational steps:",{"type":28,"tag":1027,"props":1720,"children":1721},{},[1722,1732,1742],{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1723,"children":1724},{},[1725,1730],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1726,"children":1727},{},[1728],{"type":38,"value":1729},"Intent-Based Categorization:",{"type":38,"value":1731}," Structure your content based on how an agent classifies information, rather than how a human visitor navigates a menu.",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1733,"children":1734},{},[1735,1740],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1736,"children":1737},{},[1738],{"type":38,"value":1739},"Data Prominence:",{"type":38,"value":1741}," Surface your most critical technical and commercial specifications within your structured data to ensure they are instantly discoverable during an automated audit.",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1743,"children":1744},{},[1745,1750],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1746,"children":1747},{},[1748],{"type":38,"value":1749},"Machine-Ready Compliance:",{"type":38,"value":1751}," Format your compliance documentation—including security protocols, certifications, and uptime logs—for machine-learning ingestion, so automated systems can verify your credentials without human intervention.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1753,"children":1754},{},[1755],{"type":38,"value":1756},"This approach requires collaboration between your technical and marketing teams. The marketing team provides the strategic narrative, while the technical team ensures it is translated into a language agents understand. By combining these perspectives, a brand ensures its authority is reflected in its machine-readable data.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1758,"children":1759},{},[1760],{"type":38,"value":1761},"When a company treats its site as a knowledge graph, it prepares the business for the future. It moves from a model in which it hopes marketing materials influence the buyer to one in which it actively supplies the data the agent uses to confirm fitness as a vendor.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1763,"children":1765},{"id":1764},"why-machine-readable-content-wins",[1766],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1767,"children":1768},{},[1769],{"type":38,"value":1770},"Why Machine-Readable Content Wins",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1772,"children":1773},{},[1774],{"type":38,"value":1775},"The primary advantage of having a machine-readable website is the velocity of the procurement process. An AI agent is not slowed by human schedules or traditional sales bottlenecks. When a site provides the answers a company needs immediately, that site becomes the direct, verifiable option.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1777,"children":1778},{},[1779],{"type":38,"value":1780},"Key advantages of machine-readability include:",{"type":28,"tag":1027,"props":1782,"children":1783},{},[1784,1794,1804],{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1785,"children":1786},{},[1787,1792],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1788,"children":1789},{},[1790],{"type":38,"value":1791},"Always-On Availability:",{"type":38,"value":1793}," Unlike human sales teams, AI agents operate 24/7. Your site is being vetted for procurement regardless of time zone or office hours.",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1795,"children":1796},{},[1797,1802],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1798,"children":1799},{},[1800],{"type":38,"value":1801},"Removal of Friction:",{"type":38,"value":1803}," AI agents do not wait for sales representatives to respond to emails or demo requests. They require immediate, self-service access to technical data to complete their vetting process.",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1805,"children":1806},{},[1807,1812],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1808,"children":1809},{},[1810],{"type":38,"value":1811},"Instant Verification:",{"type":38,"value":1813}," By surfacing specs, security protocols, and pricing in a machine-readable format, you allow an agent to confirm requirements in seconds, positioning your company as the most efficient and low-risk choice.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1815,"children":1816},{},[1817],{"type":38,"value":1818},"Contrast this with a competitor whose site is visually polished but lacks the technical structure required for indexing. That competitor is filtered out by the agent before a human ever sees their brand. This is an automated process of elimination. A company may not even know it was considered for a procurement mandate, nor why it was passed over.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1820,"children":1821},{},[1822],{"type":28,"tag":852,"props":1823,"children":1825},{"alt":7,"src":1824},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/4840c7d2-ba0e-4ce6-a9f7-3eb021a8fb44-mkg-blog-agentic-procurement-image-3.jpg",[],{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1827,"children":1829},{"id":1828},"the-competitive-advantage-of-structured-data",[1830],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1831,"children":1832},{},[1833],{"type":38,"value":1834},"The Competitive Advantage of Structured Data",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1836,"children":1837},{},[1838],{"type":38,"value":1839},"The transition to ARO is a competitive advantage. Companies that understand how to present data in a structured, semantic format will have an advantage in the automated B2B marketplace.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1841,"children":1842},{},[1843],{"type":38,"value":1844},"Consider the difference in how two companies present service levels. One company uses an infographic with text that an agent cannot parse. The agent cannot process the information, which creates a high level of risk. The company is filtered out. The second company uses a structured data table that clearly maps service levels to technical specifications, accompanied by schema markup that validates those claims. The agent ingests this data instantly, verifies it against the procurement requirements, and flags the company as a candidate with high confidence.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1846,"children":1847},{},[1848],{"type":38,"value":1849},"This second company wins because it made the task easier for the agent. It demonstrated operational maturity. In the era of AI-mediated spend, technical documentation is sales collateral. API references are landing pages. Compliance data is the brand story.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1851,"children":1852},{},[1853],{"type":38,"value":1854},"Organizations must build this infrastructure. They must move from a focus on brochures to a data-driven model. A website should act as a sales engineer, providing the data agents need to select a company as their preferred partner.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1856,"children":1858},{"id":1857},"recalibrating-your-digital-strategy",[1859],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1860,"children":1861},{},[1862],{"type":38,"value":1863},"Recalibrating Your Digital Strategy",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1865,"children":1866},{},[1867],{"type":38,"value":1868},"If a digital strategy is currently too human-centric, now is the time to recalibrate. This is not about sacrificing brand voice or the experience provided to human visitors. It is about adding a layer of technical rigor that makes the site work for both the human buyer and the procurement agent.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1870,"children":1871},{},[1872],{"type":38,"value":1873},"A structured approach to ARO involves a technical audit of the existing infrastructure. Companies must analyze where data is hidden, where structures are brittle, and where opportunities are lost because information is not parsable. They then implement a structured data strategy that enables knowledge to flow into the systems that drive the majority of B2B procurement decisions.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1875,"children":1876},{},[1877],{"type":38,"value":1878},"This is not a project that can be delegated to a generic agency. It requires a combination of technical capability, strategic oversight, and an understanding of how AI models consume information. It requires the discipline to treat information as a system.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1880,"children":1881},{},[1882],{"type":38,"value":1883},"By controlling the technical semantic layer, a company controls its future in the B2B market. It ensures it is not left behind as spend shifts to vendors who have built the infrastructure to support AI-driven answers.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1885,"children":1887},{"id":1886},"final-thoughts-the-new-era-of-visibility",[1888],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1889,"children":1890},{},[1891],{"type":38,"value":1892},"Final Thoughts: The New Era of Visibility",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1894,"children":1895},{},[1896],{"type":38,"value":1897},"The transition to AI-mediated procurement is a significant shift in the business environment. It requires a change in mindset—from how to persuade the buyer, to how to provide the data the agent needs to select a vendor.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1899,"children":1900},{},[1901],{"type":38,"value":1902},"We specialize in the intersection of services and technical architecture. We help clients navigate this shift by building websites that are robust, structured, and intelligent. We provide the technical backbone that allows a business to thrive in a world of automated decision-making.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1904,"children":1905},{},[1906],{"type":38,"value":1907},"Do not let a brand fall into the gap between traditional marketing and AI-driven procurement. Organize expertise, structure data, and build a digital presence that's future-ready. The era of the agent is here. Ensure you are ready.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1909,"children":1910},{"id":1122},[1911],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1912,"children":1913},{},[1914],{"type":38,"value":1125},{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1916,"children":1917},{},[1918],{"type":38,"value":1919},"The landscape of B2B procurement is shifting toward agent-mediated models. This transition necessitates a shift from human-centric web design to Agent Readiness Optimization (ARO), which prioritizes machine-readable content and structured semantic layers. By treating a website as a knowledge graph, a company allows AI agents to autonomously vet the business, verify technical capabilities, and provide direct answers for procurement mandates. The competitive advantage now lies in the ability to present pricing, specifications, and compliance data in a way that is easily consumable by the systems that drive the modern B2B economy.",{"type":28,"tag":1579,"props":1921,"children":1922},{},[],{"title":7,"searchDepth":783,"depth":783,"links":1924},[1925,1926,1927,1928,1929,1930,1931,1932],{"id":1632,"depth":783,"text":1638},{"id":1661,"depth":783,"text":1667},{"id":1697,"depth":783,"text":1703},{"id":1764,"depth":783,"text":1770},{"id":1828,"depth":783,"text":1834},{"id":1857,"depth":783,"text":1863},{"id":1886,"depth":783,"text":1892},{"id":1122,"depth":783,"text":1125},"content:blog:seo:agentic-procurement-is-your-website-machine-readable-or-just-human-centric.md","blog/seo/agentic-procurement-is-your-website-machine-readable-or-just-human-centric.md","blog/seo/agentic-procurement-is-your-website-machine-readable-or-just-human-centric",8,{"_path":1938,"_dir":796,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":1939,"description":1940,"img":1941,"date":1942,"imgAlt":1943,"_schema":1168,"authors":1944,"body":1946,"_type":787,"_id":2188,"_source":789,"_file":2189,"_stem":2190,"_extension":792,"category":796,"minutes":2191},"/blog/seo/google-is-cracking-down-on-back-button-hijacking","Google is Cracking Down on Back Button Hijacking","Google is penalizing back button hijacking. Learn what it is, why it hurts SEO, and how to keep your site compliant and user-friendly.\n","/images/blog/mkg-blog-back-button-hijacking.webp","2026-04-28T17:59:00Z","back button hijacking",[1945],"Jared Gerling",{"type":25,"children":1947,"toc":2181},[1948,1953,1962,1967,1972,1990,1995,2004,2009,2014,2032,2037,2046,2051,2065,2079,2087,2092,2097,2106,2111,2116,2121,2126,2135,2140,2145,2150,2155,2173,2178],{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1949,"children":1950},{},[1951],{"type":38,"value":1952},"Back button hijacking has always been a frustrating, if obscure, part of the web. Now, Google is making it clear: if your site uses it, your site could take a hit.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1954,"children":1956},{"id":1955},"what-is-back-button-hijacking",[1957],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":1958,"children":1959},{},[1960],{"type":38,"value":1961},"What is back button hijacking?",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1963,"children":1964},{},[1965],{"type":38,"value":1966},"Back button hijacking is when a website interferes with your browser’s back button, preventing you from easily leaving the page.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1968,"children":1969},{},[1970],{"type":38,"value":1971},"Instead of returning to the previous page, clicking “back” might:",{"type":28,"tag":1027,"props":1973,"children":1974},{},[1975,1980,1985],{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1976,"children":1977},{},[1978],{"type":38,"value":1979},"Reload the same page",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1981,"children":1982},{},[1983],{"type":38,"value":1984},"Send you to a different page on the same site",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":1986,"children":1987},{},[1988],{"type":38,"value":1989},"Redirect you to an ad or pop-up",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":1991,"children":1992},{},[1993],{"type":38,"value":1994},"It’s usually done with scripts that manipulate the browser’s history. But for users, it feels like getting stuck, or worse, being manipulated.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":1996,"children":1998},{"id":1997},"why-do-sites-use-it",[1999],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":2000,"children":2001},{},[2002],{"type":38,"value":2003},"Why do sites use it",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2005,"children":2006},{},[2007],{"type":38,"value":2008},"Sites use back button hijacking to force users to stay on their website longer, artificially inflating page views and ad impressions while preventing them from leaving.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2010,"children":2011},{},[2012],{"type":38,"value":2013},"The goals are usually:",{"type":28,"tag":1027,"props":2015,"children":2016},{},[2017,2022,2027],{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":2018,"children":2019},{},[2020],{"type":38,"value":2021},"Increase pageviews",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":2023,"children":2024},{},[2025],{"type":38,"value":2026},"Boost time on site",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":2028,"children":2029},{},[2030],{"type":38,"value":2031},"Push users toward ads or conversions",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2033,"children":2034},{},[2035],{"type":38,"value":2036},"It can make engagement numbers look better on paper. But it does that by forcing behavior, not by improving user experience.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":2038,"children":2040},{"id":2039},"googles-new-spam-policy-update",[2041],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":2042,"children":2043},{},[2044],{"type":38,"value":2045},"Google’s new spam policy update",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2047,"children":2048},{},[2049],{"type":38,"value":2050},"All that said, steps to curb back-button hijacking are finally being taken.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2052,"children":2053},{},[2054,2056,2063],{"type":38,"value":2055},"Recent ",{"type":28,"tag":814,"props":2057,"children":2060},{"href":2058,"rel":2059},"https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/google-punish-websites-browser-back-button-hijacking-annoying/",[818],[2061],{"type":38,"value":2062},"reporting",{"type":38,"value":2064}," confirms that Google is now treating back button hijacking as a policy violation.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2066,"children":2067},{},[2068,2070,2077],{"type":38,"value":2069},"In its official announcement, ",{"type":28,"tag":814,"props":2071,"children":2074},{"href":2072,"rel":2073},"https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2026/04/back-button-hijacking",[818],[2075],{"type":38,"value":2076},"Google says",{"type":38,"value":2078},":",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2080,"children":2081},{},[2082],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":2083,"children":2084},{},[2085],{"type":38,"value":2086},"“Back button hijacking is a deceptive practice that interferes with the user’s ability to navigate the web and creates a frustrating experience. Pages that engage in this behavior may be subject to ranking demotions or removal from search results.”",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2088,"children":2089},{},[2090],{"type":38,"value":2091},"What’s changed is the level of enforcement. Google has addressed shady UX tactics before, but this update clearly ties back button hijacking to search penalties. That means it’s no longer just a bad practice, but rather something that can directly impact visibility.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2093,"children":2094},{},[2095],{"type":38,"value":2096},"This also aligns with Google’s broader push to reduce manipulative behaviors in search. As its systems get better at evaluating real user experience, tactics that artificially inflate engagement are becoming easier to identify and penalize at scale.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":2098,"children":2100},{"id":2099},"why-this-matters",[2101],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":2102,"children":2103},{},[2104],{"type":38,"value":2105},"Why this matters",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2107,"children":2108},{},[2109],{"type":38,"value":2110},"This update is a clear signal about how Google evaluates site quality.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2112,"children":2113},{},[2114],{"type":38,"value":2115},"Back button hijacking works by blocking normal user behavior. When someone clicks “back,” they’ve already decided the page didn’t meet their needs. Preventing that action creates friction and frustration, which is exactly what Google is trying to avoid in its results.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2117,"children":2118},{},[2119],{"type":38,"value":2120},"It also undermines the reliability of engagement metrics. If users are being forced to stay on a site, metrics like time on page or pages per session no longer reflect real interest. That makes those signals less trustworthy, and makes sites using these tactics stand out for the wrong reasons.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2122,"children":2123},{},[2124],{"type":38,"value":2125},"There’s also a compounding effect. Poor user experience can lead to lower trust, fewer return visits, and weaker brand perception. Combined with potential ranking drops, the downside is much bigger than any short-term gain.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":2127,"children":2129},{"id":2128},"the-mkg-pov",[2130],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":2131,"children":2132},{},[2133],{"type":38,"value":2134},"The MKG POV",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2136,"children":2137},{},[2138],{"type":38,"value":2139},"Our view at MKG is simple: don’t use tactics that work against the user.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2141,"children":2142},{},[2143],{"type":38,"value":2144},"Back button hijacking tries to force engagement rather than earn it. That approach doesn’t hold up, especially now that Google is actively penalizing it.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2146,"children":2147},{},[2148],{"type":38,"value":2149},"If users are leaving a page, that’s useful feedback. It usually points to an issue with content, intent, or usability. Fixing those problems is what improves performance over time.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2151,"children":2152},{},[2153],{"type":38,"value":2154},"The safest approach is still the best one:",{"type":28,"tag":1027,"props":2156,"children":2157},{},[2158,2163,2168],{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":2159,"children":2160},{},[2161],{"type":38,"value":2162},"Follow Google’s guidelines",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":2164,"children":2165},{},[2166],{"type":38,"value":2167},"Focus on useful, clear content",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":2169,"children":2170},{},[2171],{"type":38,"value":2172},"Make it easy for users to navigate",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2174,"children":2175},{},[2176],{"type":38,"value":2177},"Shortcuts like this may offer a temporary lift, but they create long-term risk. Sites that stick to best practices are the ones that keep their rankings and their audience.",{"type":28,"tag":1579,"props":2179,"children":2180},{},[],{"title":7,"searchDepth":783,"depth":783,"links":2182},[2183,2184,2185,2186,2187],{"id":1955,"depth":783,"text":1961},{"id":1997,"depth":783,"text":2003},{"id":2039,"depth":783,"text":2045},{"id":2099,"depth":783,"text":2105},{"id":2128,"depth":783,"text":2134},"content:blog:seo:google-is-cracking-down-on-back-button-hijacking.md","blog/seo/google-is-cracking-down-on-back-button-hijacking.md","blog/seo/google-is-cracking-down-on-back-button-hijacking",3,{"_path":2193,"_dir":796,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":2194,"description":2195,"img":2196,"date":2197,"imgAlt":2198,"_schema":1168,"authors":2199,"body":2200,"_type":787,"_id":2495,"_source":789,"_file":2496,"_stem":2497,"_extension":792,"category":796,"minutes":2498},"/blog/seo/recalibrating-the-lead-bridging-the-2026-measurement-gap-in-paid-social","Recalibrating the Lead - Bridging the 2026 Measurement Gap in Paid Social","Click-through rates are shifting as buyers change how they browse. Here is how to audit zero-party data and bridge the CRM-to-platform gap.\n","/images/blog/mkg-blog-recalibrating-the-lead-hero-image.webp","2026-04-15T17:59:00Z","Recalibrating the Lead",[],{"type":25,"children":2201,"toc":2486},[2202,2207,2212,2217,2224,2233,2238,2243,2248,2257,2262,2267,2275,2282,2291,2296,2301,2306,2311,2320,2332,2337,2370,2375,2382,2391,2396,2401,2413,2422,2427,2432,2437,2444,2483],{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2203,"children":2204},{},[2205],{"type":38,"value":2206},"The B2B marketing landscape has outgrown traditional attribution. For years, paid social depended on frequent touchpoints and linear tracking: run an ad, get a click, capture a form fill, and mark a conversion. In 2026, that straight line is gone.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2208,"children":2209},{},[2210],{"type":38,"value":2211},"Buyer behavior on social has fundamentally shifted. People are browsing in a more filtered way, often using generative tools to summarize feeds and strip out irrelevant content. As a result, traditional click-through rates look different. Strong engagement metrics no longer guarantee a healthy pipeline. In many cases, lean marketing teams are pouring budget into disconnected tactics that perform well on-platform but fail to produce qualified leads in the CRM.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2213,"children":2214},{},[2215],{"type":38,"value":2216},"This is the measurement gap—the distance between what a social platform calls a “conversion” and what your sales team recognizes as a qualified opportunity. When those data points don’t match, your strategy becomes reactive. Closing that gap requires moving beyond surface-level metrics and anchoring your decisions in revenue. Metrics that don’t connect to the pipeline won’t revive a stalled funnel. It’s time to confront the data honestly and recalibrate your approach.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2218,"children":2219},{},[2220],{"type":28,"tag":852,"props":2221,"children":2223},{"alt":7,"src":2222},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/2a78ea2f-fa06-497a-ab2e-0d31c8caf9a1-mkg-blog-recalibrating-the-lead-image-1.jpg",[],{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":2225,"children":2227},{"id":2226},"the-evolution-of-the-b2b-buyer-journey",[2228],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":2229,"children":2230},{},[2231],{"type":38,"value":2232},"The Evolution of the B2B Buyer Journey",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2234,"children":2235},{},[2236],{"type":38,"value":2237},"In 2026, B2B buyers are more self-directed than ever. They complete most of their research before speaking with a brand, gathering information in small, scattered moments across multiple channels. By the time they reach your landing page, they’ve often already formed an opinion—shaped by automated summaries, peer recommendations, and private community conversations.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2239,"children":2240},{},[2241],{"type":38,"value":2242},"The problem begins when marketers try to force this non-linear behavior into an outdated measurement model. If you rely solely on last-click attribution, you overlook the most important parts of the journey. You see the final action but miss the steps that actually built trust. As a result, budgets get funneled into the last touchpoint while the early-stage awareness that started the process is undervalued or ignored.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2244,"children":2245},{},[2246],{"type":38,"value":2247},"Many teams respond by simply turning up the volume—more ads, more spend, more generic content. But more noise isn’t the fix. What’s needed is a consistent system that connects social engagement to real business outcomes.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":2249,"children":2251},{"id":2250},"bridging-the-crm-to-platform-gap-with-accuracy",[2252],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":2253,"children":2254},{},[2255],{"type":38,"value":2256},"Bridging the CRM-to-Platform Gap with Accuracy",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2258,"children":2259},{},[2260],{"type":38,"value":2261},"To bridge the measurement gap, we anchor on the Truth pillar of our operating system. This isn’t about tracking every pixel perfectly—it’s about aligning platform data with CRM reality. The goal is to ensure that leads from your social campaigns are highly likely to convert into revenue.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2263,"children":2264},{},[2265],{"type":38,"value":2266},"Most paid social failures in 2026 stem from misalignment between marketing and sales. Marketing optimizes for lead volume; sales is focused on real business opportunities. When those definitions don’t match, the data becomes misleading. The fix is to audit the full journey—from the first ad impression to the moment a deal closes.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2268,"children":2269},{},[2270,2272],{"type":38,"value":2271},"Doing this right requires technical reconciliation. CRM data must be sent back into your social platforms so their algorithms can learn what a qualified lead truly looks like, not just what generates the cheapest clicks. If you’re not connecting ad interactions to sales stages, you don’t have a clear view of performance. A senior strategist understands that if the data doesn’t lead to a sales conversation, it isn’t actionable.",{"type":28,"tag":1579,"props":2273,"children":2274},{},[],{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2276,"children":2277},{},[2278],{"type":28,"tag":852,"props":2279,"children":2281},{"alt":7,"src":2280},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/c69d4315-2cb2-45a2-9789-faec50b5cae7-mkg-blog-recalibrating-the-lead-image-2.jpg",[],{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":2283,"children":2285},{"id":2284},"beyond-the-click-auditing-zero-party-data",[2286],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":2287,"children":2288},{},[2289],{"type":38,"value":2290},"Beyond the Click: Auditing Zero-Party Data",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2292,"children":2293},{},[2294],{"type":38,"value":2295},"As traditional tracking methods, such as third-party cookies, have lost effectiveness, technical data has become less reliable. To find the truth in 2026, you have to prioritize why a prospect chose to engage with you. That’s where zero-party data becomes critical to your B2B tech stack.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2297,"children":2298},{},[2299],{"type":38,"value":2300},"Zero-party data is information a prospect willingly and explicitly shares. In paid social, this often shows up in “How did you hear about us?” fields on demo requests or lead forms. Automated tracking shows you the technical path; zero-party data reveals the professional reason behind the interest.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2302,"children":2303},{},[2304],{"type":38,"value":2305},"When we audit this data, we frequently uncover a disconnect. A platform may claim a lead came from a specific retargeting ad, while the prospect explains they’ve been following your team’s technical insights for months. Both views matter—but the prospect’s answer tells you how to actually replicate success.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2307,"children":2308},{},[2309],{"type":38,"value":2310},"By capturing this information, you move beyond superficial metrics and start identifying the real triggers that move a buyer from research to decision. It’s a practical approach grounded in the buyer’s lived experience, focused on insights that actually change business outcomes.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":2312,"children":2314},{"id":2313},"b2b-revenue-attribution-2026-the-new-standard",[2315],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":2316,"children":2317},{},[2318],{"type":38,"value":2319},"B2B Revenue Attribution 2026: The New Standard",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2321,"children":2322},{},[2323,2325,2330],{"type":38,"value":2324},"The standard for ",{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":2326,"children":2327},{},[2328],{"type":38,"value":2329},"B2B Revenue Attribution in 2026",{"type":38,"value":2331}," is a consistent discipline, not just a software tool. It is the practice of combining automated tracking with human observation. Leading with insight means admitting when data is unclear and having a specific plan to fix it.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2333,"children":2334},{},[2335],{"type":38,"value":2336},"To achieve marketing and sales alignment, your attribution model must include:",{"type":28,"tag":1027,"props":2338,"children":2339},{},[2340,2350,2360],{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":2341,"children":2342},{},[2343,2348],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":2344,"children":2345},{},[2346],{"type":38,"value":2347},"The Filtered Search Reality:",{"type":38,"value":2349}," Acknowledging that buyers use automated tools to screen content, making your brand’s technical authority as important as your direct ads.",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":2351,"children":2352},{},[2353,2358],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":2354,"children":2355},{},[2356],{"type":38,"value":2357},"Platform-to-CRM Sync:",{"type":38,"value":2359}," Ensuring every dollar spent on social media is tracked to a specific stage in the sales funnel.",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":2361,"children":2362},{},[2363,2368],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":2364,"children":2365},{},[2366],{"type":38,"value":2367},"Self-Reported Data:",{"type":38,"value":2369}," Using zero-party data to verify or challenge what the automated dashboards are reporting.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2371,"children":2372},{},[2373],{"type":38,"value":2374},"When these elements are connected, you move from reactive decision-making to a systematic process. You stop asking if an ad worked and start asking if a specific channel is increasing your revenue velocity.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2376,"children":2377},{},[2378],{"type":28,"tag":852,"props":2379,"children":2381},{"alt":7,"src":2380},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/5ced796c-d946-47cc-a283-fbe560a416e0-mkg-blog-recalibrating-the-lead-image-3.jpg",[],{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":2383,"children":2385},{"id":2384},"a-practical-plan-for-recalibration",[2386],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":2387,"children":2388},{},[2389],{"type":38,"value":2390},"A Practical Plan for Recalibration",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2392,"children":2393},{},[2394],{"type":38,"value":2395},"If your Paid Social performance is not improving, it is likely because your measurement model does not match how buyers behave today. You are dealing with technical inefficiencies caused by a disconnected system.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2397,"children":2398},{},[2399],{"type":38,"value":2400},"It is time to look at your strategy clearly. Recalibrating for 2026 is not about finding a new tool; it is about creating a reliable process for your data. It requires professional operations and a sharp strategy. We help marketers by providing a direct and practical plan to fix these issues.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2402,"children":2403},{},[2404,2406,2411],{"type":38,"value":2405},"The ",{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":2407,"children":2408},{},[2409],{"type":38,"value":2410},"Paid Social Measurement Gap",{"type":38,"value":2412}," is a risk only if it is ignored. By connecting your CRM and social platforms and making zero-party data a primary metric, you protect your marketing budget. You ensure your spending is a direct investment in the company's growth.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":2414,"children":2416},{"id":2415},"final-thoughts-from-clicks-to-reality",[2417],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":2418,"children":2419},{},[2420],{"type":38,"value":2421},"Final Thoughts: From Clicks to Reality",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2423,"children":2424},{},[2425],{"type":38,"value":2426},"The shift in 2026 has been a significant change for B2B brands. Using social media as just a digital brochure is no longer effective. Alignment between marketing and sales is now a requirement for any successful business.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2428,"children":2429},{},[2430],{"type":38,"value":2431},"Our team is focused on providing clear and direct guidance. We are here to help you manage this complexity. We believe that when your systems are functional and your goals are clear, marketing becomes a highly effective part of your business.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2433,"children":2434},{},[2435],{"type":38,"value":2436},"Do not let your budget be wasted because of a measurement gap. It is time to move from reactive tactics to a systematic approach. Build a strategy that is verified by your dashboard and reflected in your revenue.",{"type":28,"tag":29,"props":2438,"children":2439},{"id":1122},[2440],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":2441,"children":2442},{},[2443],{"type":38,"value":1125},{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":2445,"children":2446},{},[2447,2449,2453,2455,2460,2462,2467,2469,2474,2476,2481],{"type":38,"value":2448},"In 2026, B2B brands are facing a ",{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":2450,"children":2451},{},[2452],{"type":38,"value":2410},{"type":38,"value":2454}," as buyers change their browsing habits and research journeys. 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The band spent the entire evening trying to convince her, then 15-year-old, brother to drop out of school.",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":3436,"children":3437},{},[3438],{"type":38,"value":3439},"She once spent 3 hours convincing a famous country singer to get off his tour bus to shoot a commercial that her client had contracted him to be in.",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":3441,"children":3442},{},[3443],{"type":38,"value":3444},"Her family is a big fan of True Crime, and they binge Crime Junkie on every road trip.",{"title":7,"searchDepth":783,"depth":783,"links":3446},[3447],{"id":3423,"depth":2191,"text":3426},"content:team:alanna-moman-rawden.md","team/alanna-moman-rawden.md","team/alanna-moman-rawden",{"_path":3452,"_dir":3384,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":3453,"description":3454,"name":3453,"ref":3455,"jobTitle":3456,"team":3456,"images":3457,"linkedIn":3459,"quoteCite":3395,"sequence":3460,"body":3461,"_type":787,"_id":3522,"_source":789,"_file":3523,"_stem":3524,"_extension":792,"category":3384,"minutes":3525},"/team/alicia-antonow","Alicia Antonow","Meet Alicia Antonow, one of MKG Marketing’s saavy digital ads experts, bringing 15+ years of hands on execution and strategy to the table.","alicia-antonow","Digital Advertising Experts",{"landscape":3458},"alicia-antonow.webp","alicia-a-36459bb5",54,{"type":25,"children":3462,"toc":3520},[3463,3471,3476,3484,3489,3497,3502,3510,3515],{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":3464,"children":3465},{},[3466],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":3467,"children":3468},{},[3469],{"type":38,"value":3470},"How I Got Into Digital Advertising",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":3472,"children":3473},{},[3474],{"type":38,"value":3475},"With a background as a nurse, my journey into digital advertising began unexpectedly when I back to Ann Arbor, Michigan. A Google Partner approached me to assist with healthcare content and ads. I quickly discovered a passion for the field, and with Google Ads sales training followed by SEM training, I was hooked.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":3477,"children":3478},{},[3479],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":3480,"children":3481},{},[3482],{"type":38,"value":3483},"What I Love About Paid Search",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":3485,"children":3486},{},[3487],{"type":38,"value":3488},"Every campaign is like a unique puzzle, even within the same industry. Variations in geography, audiences, and keywords make each project different. I enjoy leveraging the full suite of Google products—Search, Display, Demand Gen, and YouTube—because they work best when integrated. The ever-evolving nature of the work keeps me inspired and challenged.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":3490,"children":3491},{},[3492],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":3493,"children":3494},{},[3495],{"type":38,"value":3496},"Why I Chose MKG Marketing",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":3498,"children":3499},{},[3500],{"type":38,"value":3501},"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":41,"props":3503,"children":3504},{},[3505],{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":3506,"children":3507},{},[3508],{"type":38,"value":3509},"Fun Facts About Me",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":3511,"children":3512},{},[3513],{"type":38,"value":3514},"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":41,"props":3516,"children":3517},{},[3518],{"type":38,"value":3519},"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":783,"depth":783,"links":3521},[],"content:team:alicia-antonow.md","team/alicia-antonow.md","team/alicia-antonow",1,{"_path":3527,"_dir":3384,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":3528,"description":3529,"name":3528,"jobTitle":3530,"team":3531,"images":3532,"ref":3534,"linkedIn":3535,"sequence":3536,"body":3537,"_type":787,"_id":3585,"_source":789,"_file":3586,"_stem":3587,"_extension":792,"category":3384,"minutes":783},"/team/avery-davis","Avery Davis","Avery Davis is an Account Superivor here at MKG Marketing.","Account Supervisor","Account Services",{"landscape":3533},"avery-davis.webp","avery-davis","avery-davis-114055191",59,{"type":25,"children":3538,"toc":3582},[3539,3545,3550,3555,3560,3564],{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":3540,"children":3542},{"className":3541},[3401],[3543],{"type":38,"value":3544},"\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":41,"props":3546,"children":3547},{},[3548],{"type":38,"value":3549},"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":41,"props":3551,"children":3552},{},[3553],{"type":38,"value":3554},"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":41,"props":3556,"children":3557},{},[3558],{"type":38,"value":3559},"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":3421,"props":3561,"children":3562},{"id":3423},[3563],{"type":38,"value":3426},{"type":28,"tag":1027,"props":3565,"children":3566},{},[3567,3572,3577],{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":3568,"children":3569},{},[3570],{"type":38,"value":3571},"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":943,"props":3573,"children":3574},{},[3575],{"type":38,"value":3576},"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":943,"props":3578,"children":3579},{},[3580],{"type":38,"value":3581},"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":783,"depth":783,"links":3583},[3584],{"id":3423,"depth":2191,"text":3426},"content:team:avery-davis.md","team/avery-davis.md","team/avery-davis",{"_path":3589,"_dir":3384,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":1945,"description":3590,"name":1945,"ref":3591,"jobTitle":3592,"team":3593,"images":3594,"linkedIn":3596,"quote":3597,"quoteCite":3598,"sequence":3599,"body":3600,"_type":787,"_id":3647,"_source":789,"_file":3648,"_stem":3649,"_extension":792,"category":3384,"minutes":783},"/team/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":3595},"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":3601,"toc":3645},[3602,3607,3612,3617,3622,3627],{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":3603,"children":3604},{},[3605],{"type":38,"value":3606},"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":41,"props":3608,"children":3609},{},[3610],{"type":38,"value":3611},"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":41,"props":3613,"children":3614},{},[3615],{"type":38,"value":3616},"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":41,"props":3618,"children":3619},{},[3620],{"type":38,"value":3621},"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":41,"props":3623,"children":3624},{},[3625],{"type":38,"value":3626},"Fun Facts:",{"type":28,"tag":1027,"props":3628,"children":3629},{},[3630,3635,3640],{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":3631,"children":3632},{},[3633],{"type":38,"value":3634},"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":943,"props":3636,"children":3637},{},[3638],{"type":38,"value":3639},"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":943,"props":3641,"children":3642},{},[3643],{"type":38,"value":3644},"I love a really good French Martini.",{"title":7,"searchDepth":783,"depth":783,"links":3646},[],"content:team:jared-gerling.md","team/jared-gerling.md","team/jared-gerling",{"_path":3651,"_dir":3384,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":3652,"description":3653,"name":3654,"jobTitle":3655,"images":3656,"ref":3658,"sequence":3659,"imageDescription":3660,"body":3661,"_type":787,"_id":3713,"_source":789,"_file":3714,"_stem":3715,"_extension":792,"category":3384,"minutes":783},"/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":3657},"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":3662,"toc":3710},[3663,3669,3674,3683,3688,3692],{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":3664,"children":3666},{"className":3665},[3401],[3667],{"type":38,"value":3668},"\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":41,"props":3670,"children":3671},{},[3672],{"type":38,"value":3673},"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":3675,"props":3676,"children":3677},"blockquote",{},[3678],{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":3679,"children":3680},{},[3681],{"type":38,"value":3682},"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.\nMother Teresa",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":3684,"children":3685},{},[3686],{"type":38,"value":3687},"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":3421,"props":3689,"children":3690},{"id":3423},[3691],{"type":38,"value":3426},{"type":28,"tag":1027,"props":3693,"children":3694},{},[3695,3700,3705],{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":3696,"children":3697},{},[3698],{"type":38,"value":3699},"Kathy’s dislikes: fruit & chocolate together and Tuesday.",{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":3701,"children":3702},{},[3703],{"type":38,"value":3704},"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":943,"props":3706,"children":3707},{},[3708],{"type":38,"value":3709},"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":783,"depth":783,"links":3711},[3712],{"id":3423,"depth":2191,"text":3426},"content:team:kathy-obrien.md","team/kathy-obrien.md","team/kathy-obrien",{"_path":3717,"_dir":3384,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":18,"description":3718,"ref":3719,"name":18,"team":3389,"quote":3720,"images":3721,"twitter":3723,"isLeader":3393,"jobTitle":3724,"linkedIn":3723,"sequence":3525,"quoteCite":3725,"imageDescription":3726,"body":3727,"_type":787,"_id":3775,"_source":789,"_file":3776,"_stem":3777,"_extension":792,"category":3384,"minutes":3525},"/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":3722},"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":3728,"toc":3772},[3729,3735,3747,3760,3764],{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":3730,"children":3732},{"className":3731},[3401],[3733],{"type":38,"value":3734},"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":41,"props":3736,"children":3737},{},[3738,3740,3745],{"type":38,"value":3739},"She also hosts our podcast, ",{"type":28,"tag":814,"props":3741,"children":3743},{"href":3742},"/podcasts/marketing-leaders/",[3744],{"type":38,"value":16},{"type":38,"value":3746},", which brings eight digital marketing experts to your ears every quarter.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":3748,"children":3749},{},[3750,3752,3758],{"type":38,"value":3751},"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":814,"props":3753,"children":3755},{"href":3754},"/about/jobs/",[3756],{"type":38,"value":3757},"Jobs page",{"type":38,"value":3759}," and see if we have a position right for you!",{"type":28,"tag":3421,"props":3761,"children":3762},{"id":3423},[3763],{"type":38,"value":3426},{"type":28,"tag":1027,"props":3765,"children":3766},{},[3767],{"type":28,"tag":943,"props":3768,"children":3769},{},[3770],{"type":38,"value":3771},"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":783,"depth":783,"links":3773},[3774],{"id":3423,"depth":2191,"text":3426},"content:team:kerry-guard.md","team/kerry-guard.md","team/kerry-guard",{"_path":3779,"_dir":3384,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":3780,"description":3781,"name":3780,"ref":3782,"jobTitle":3783,"team":3456,"images":3784,"linkedIn":3786,"sequence":3787,"body":3788,"_type":787,"_id":3839,"_source":789,"_file":3840,"_stem":3841,"_extension":792,"category":3384,"minutes":783},"/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":3785},"leigh-snyder.webp","leighasnyder",50,{"type":25,"children":3789,"toc":3836},[3790,3796,3801,3806,3811,3816,3821,3826,3831],{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":3791,"children":3793},{"className":3792},[3401],[3794],{"type":38,"value":3795},"\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":41,"props":3797,"children":3798},{},[3799],{"type":38,"value":3800},"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":41,"props":3802,"children":3803},{},[3804],{"type":38,"value":3805},"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":41,"props":3807,"children":3808},{},[3809],{"type":38,"value":3810},"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":41,"props":3812,"children":3813},{},[3814],{"type":38,"value":3815},"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":41,"props":3817,"children":3818},{},[3819],{"type":38,"value":3820},"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":41,"props":3822,"children":3823},{},[3824],{"type":38,"value":3825},"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":3421,"props":3827,"children":3828},{"id":3423},[3829],{"type":38,"value":3830},"Fun Facts",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":3832,"children":3833},{},[3834],{"type":38,"value":3835},"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":783,"depth":783,"links":3837},[3838],{"id":3423,"depth":2191,"text":3830},"content:team:leigh-snyder.md","team/leigh-snyder.md","team/leigh-snyder",{"_path":3843,"_dir":3844,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":3845,"description":3846,"name":3845,"imageDescription":3847,"ref":3848,"jobTitle":3849,"images":3850,"linkedIn":3848,"quote":3852,"quoteCite":3845,"sequence":1163,"body":3853,"_type":787,"_id":3927,"_source":789,"_file":3928,"_stem":3929,"_extension":792,"category":3844,"minutes":3525},"/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":3851},"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.",{"type":25,"children":3854,"toc":3924},[3855,3868,3873,3885,3891],{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":3856,"children":3858},{"className":3857},[3401],[3859,3861,3866],{"type":38,"value":3860},"\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":34,"props":3862,"children":3863},{},[3864],{"type":38,"value":3865},"Swell Marketing Advisors",{"type":38,"value":3867}," and a strategic partner to MKG, she brings deep expertise in aligning product, sales, and marketing into a cohesive GTM strategy.",{"type":28,"tag":41,"props":3869,"children":3870},{},[3871],{"type":38,"value":3872},"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":41,"props":3874,"children":3875},{},[3876,3878,3883],{"type":38,"value":3877},"At MKG, Celeste steps in as a Marketing Leader for our ",{"type":28,"tag":34,"props":3879,"children":3880},{},[3881],{"type":38,"value":3882},"Marketing Leadership + Activation",{"type":38,"value":3884}," clients. 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