For the fourth of my series of vodcast interviews with the bosses of high ranking B2B and corporate PR agencies and Digital Marketing agencies, I decided to interview Laurence Knopf, the co-founder of a highly respected Search Engine Marketing (SEM) agency.
The focus of our conversation was on the changes to the world of Search hastened by the rise of AI, including falling CTRs (Click Through Rates) from organic search listings which have already reduced as much as 50% for some companies. According to Laurence, CTRs are only going to get worse. His view is that companies are going to need to double down on ensuring strong presence in Google 'real estate' like Maps and Listings, while adjusting content to gain more inclusions in AI overviews and increasing focus on high quality content and media coverage to increase presence in the GenAI platforms' LLMs.
This was over an hour's discussion which got into the meat of the changes which are happening in Search with the rise and rise of AI . Thank you again for your time Laurence.
Top Tips for Increasing your AI Visibility as CTRs decline
Leading Search agency Optimistics confirms that PR, Thought Leadership Content and Third Party Advocacy content which exposes your expertise and endorses your good work is key to building 'AI Visibility', that is gaining inclusion in relevant Google AI Overviews and in the platforms' LLMs.
My premise for this vodcast series was to ask PR and Digital Marketing Agency bosses what changes they were already seeing as a result of the rise of the use of Generative AI for business research and procurement decision-making. At least this is where the discussion started with the interviews I've carried out over the last five months.
However, what also happened is I was able to zero in on different areas of specialism for each of the agency executives I've interviewed. For Graham Reed of Ice Blue Sky we focused on the role of content as well as Gen AI platforms in Account Based Marketing (ABM) and Sales Enablement.
With Sarah Lafferty of Round Earth Consulting we focused on the importance of Customer Advocacy in building brand and the increasing importance of customer and/or partner advocacy content as part of effective comms plans.
And in the third inteview or 'vodcast' with Steve Earl of BOLDT BPI we focused on the widening and deepening role of PR in measuring the effectiveness of communications activity in a much more granular way than was possible in the past. Steve also highlighted the power of Earned Media if we broaden our thinking around 'Earned' to emcompass comms with all manner of stakeholders and influencers which are key to enabling brands to build their reputations, get their message out there, and ultimately thrive.
I hope you enjoy this latest conversation with Laurence Knopf of Optimistics. In many ways it offers the most practical take-aways for marketers and PRO's alike. Search is vital to making sure your company, its products and services are presented favourably to your prospects. Regardless of where in that sales decision-making funnel they are, your presence online is critical to winning your next batch of clients. As a result I ran the session for a full hour. I hope you find it as useful as I did.
