(BPT) - Have a question and want an answer fast? With a quick online search or visit to an AI platform, milliseconds later you'll receive a handy summary with answers. No clicking needed.
New tools and features like Google's AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity are now how people discover and trust content. This change means a new goal for brands: Get into AI summaries and overviews as much as possible.
Where does AI get answers?
AI-enhanced search and AI overviews often contain link symbols and website citations. These are what the AI crawlers have deemed credible and pulled from to write the answer for the search query. This is where brands want their key messages to appear.
"People are no longer scrolling," said Lisa Jilek, CEO at Brandpoint. "It's all about the AI summary and positioning your brand's information to be selected as credible and cited by the bots. This is what people are now seeing and interacting with online."
The challenge? No single strategy guarantees you show up in AI overviews. But there are things you can do to position your brand for success and make your content more appealing.
How to write content for AI search
Since AI is crawling content online to create responses, start by revamping how you write and publish communications like press releases, blog posts, sponsored content articles and social media posts.
The communications experts at Brandpoint share the following tips to help you write to appeal to AI search and summaries:
1. Organize content in readable formats
- Q&As
- FAQs
- Numbered lists with subheadings
- Bylines with credible sources
2. Choose intent-rich angles
- Anticipate audience search queries
- Answer questions
- Solve customer pain points
- Consider topical approaches
3. Select strong visuals
- Infographics
- Listicles
- Lifestyle images
- Include metadata and descriptions for all visuals
4. Use authentic voices
- Customer stories
- Testimonials
- Subject matter experts
- Avoid jargon
5. Create parsable snippets
- Strong headline
- Short, clear and well-formatted content
- Subheadings
- Bullets or numbering when appropriate
Revamping how you create content is a critical first step. To make sure your content is as visible as possible to AI crawlers, you also need to consistently get it on credible websites.
How to guarantee media placements
Branded content is one way to control your message and get it published on high-quality websites. Branded content refers to paid placements that are distributed on media sites, such as a sponsored article on a newspaper website or an infographic on a television page.
"Brandpoint distributes branded content for clients on our network of high-quality publishing partners," Brandpoint CTO Adam McBroom said. "We have seen some of our clients' content appearing in AI summaries, which is promising. AI crawlers are looking for credible content on credible websites. The value and frequency of those placements will reenforce a brand's message and goals."
USA Today is an example of just one of the high-quality publishers on Brandpoint's publisher network. To learn more about their robust publisher network visit Brandpoint.com.
The benefits of AI overviews for businesses
While AI presents new challenges to businesses big and small, it also provides new opportunities. When people get to your website, they are typically further down the conversion funnel. This means they often come in with more information and closer to taking action.
In fact, according to Semrush, the average AI search visit is 4.4 times as valuable, based on conversion rate, than the average visit from traditional organic search.
To learn more about AI search and how you can craft and publish appealing content, check out the recent webinar, "Branded Content in the Era of AI & GEO: Myths, Truths & Trends."
