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Is your brand showing up when people ask AI for information on a product or service?

Many people are skipping Google and going straight to tools like ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude when they have a question about a product or service. If your brand is not being mentioned in those answers, you are missing warm leads.

In this episode, HMC director Heather Claycomb and HMC senior account manager Vicki Jones unpack what AI search means for business leaders and comms people. They talk about how LLMs pick up information, why depth and clarity beat clickbait, and what you can do this week to improve your chances of being named in AI answers.

You will hear practical ideas, not tech jargon. From checking your own visibility in incognito mode to tightening up your website, social channels and media coverage, this is about getting your house in order so AI cannot ignore you.

Key takeaways

• SEO and AIO matter. Do not just optimise for Google. You need to show up in AI search results too.
• AI tools like clear, detailed, trustworthy content, not fluffy marketing speak.
• Consistent messages across your website, LinkedIn, media stories and other channels make it easier for AI to recognise and trust your brand.
• Use incognito mode and test AI searches for your key topics. See who appears. If it is not you, you have work to do.
• A simple communication plan that focuses on quality content in a few strong channels will put you ahead of many competitors.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• HMC
• ChatGPT
• Gemini
• Claude
• Google

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Here we go.

Today we're going to be talking to you about AI search.

Sitting with me is Vicki Jones.

She's one of our senior account managers.

And I'm Heather Claycomb, the founder of hmc.

Every business leader should be asking themselves, are they showing up in AI search?

Because AI search is taking over search online, people are tending to skip Google for searching if you're not aware of that.

But then going right to ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, whatever their favorite LLM is, and whether that's finding a product, a service or comparing products and services, AI seems to be doing the hard yards.

We're really finding that AI search is sort of the gap between curiosity and conversion.

So it's really becoming part of your business development process really very quickly becoming that way.

So, Vicki, if we talk about like AI search is changing, what do we mean by that?

It feels like it's becoming sort of much more of a dialogue.

You just don't put in a question and it spits out one answer.

The fact that you can sort of interrogate and go a little bit deeper, compare answers across different platforms over the same question, I think just feels like it's giving it a lot more depth and breadth and eventually as these things get even better.

A trusted resource.

Yeah.

I think a key thing to be thinking about too is like Google is still important.

People are still using Google to search.

But I think probably the difference now is people go to Google kind of when they know what they want, you know, when they need to buy something and they're just going to go shopping.

But ChatGPT is somewhere where they go.

They really want to get deep into the search, isn't it?

Yeah.

And it also feels now that it's more about sort of content and context than it is about creative because it's not just about the imagery and the eye popping ad.

It's around about sort of a good clear message that helps explain and enhance your brand.

Exactly.

It's grunty stuff.

You know, ChatGPT isn't serving up your cute little online ad, it's, it's serving up good information about your product.

So I think a really good thing for you to do if you haven't done this yet is go into your browser Put it in incognito Mode, go into ChatGPT and pretend that you are a person searching for your sort of business service or product.

Ask it some really in depth questions and see if you pop up in the search.

So that's always a good place to start.

So if we understand that that search is changing, I guess like how do we get you to pop up in those AI searches, How do you get served up in say a ChatGPT search?

LLMs like ChatGPT are looking for information online that's public, that's high quality and that's reliable and it will summarize basically what it finds online so that if you don't have that content out on the Internet somewhere that LLMs find reliable and consistent, you're not going to be served up.

So that's really, really important to know.

So I guess what else are they looking for when they serve up content?

There's AI search engines.

It seems to be again, it's around about being on brand.

I think it's starting to sense when something is a little bit off piste stories not relevant to the audience or discussion.

So a focus and a consistency, as you said before, to keep on brand is really valuable to help it do its job.

Yeah.

What LLMs also want to see like a chatgpt when you do a search is they want to see your consistent messages on multiple channels.

So this isn't just about having a really great website where you have lots of information.

That's not enough anymore.

You've got to have your information out there on many different platforms and on.

Trusted and relevant platforms as well.

I mean there's, there's that balance, it seems, between breadth so that you can cover all bases and making sure it's the right ones that it knows are relevant to your audience and your message, not just some random site for the sake of it.

Yes, for sure.

Yeah.

Just to add to that, I suppose it's like if you have a media story, you know, getting something in the Herald or stuff is going to be seen as much more authoritative to a chatgpt than your tiny little community paper sort of thing.

So yeah, just be thinking about that.

The word authentic used to always be the buzzword and it still is really important in this context, I think.

But the word you use just then around about authoritative seems to be where a lot of this will be going because we've all had that nervousness about can we trust these platforms?

Because there is some inaccuracies sometimes because it's a fake human.

But the More that it can find a reliable resource to feed up whatever your search demands is the better.

Yeah, for sure.

Right.

We understand AI search changing, we understand sort of how LLMs feed up that information.

So how can you be found?

That's the most important thing, right?

You know, it sounds a bit boring, but it's true.

You need to start with a plan.

You know, most corporates have a communication strategy, but you know, if your business has not created your communication strategy, you really need to be doing that because that will define what kind of content you're going to be putting out there.

And most importantly, a part of your comms plan will be putting together your key messages because like we've been talking about that consistency.

Develop those key messages and then repeat, repeat, repeat everywhere.

So, Vicky, if we're getting down to the tactics, when we're talking about like being found on multiple channels, what are we talking about?

What are some of those tactics that should be included?

So tactically, blog posts, examples from thought leadership in your space, FAQs are a really good method to do this as well because that helps mirror the questions that your searches might be looking at.

If you can hand it up to them on a plate, then you've definitely got an advantage as well as the typical things of listings on industry websites and explainer videos and how tos those kind of things.

Yeah, for sure.

And definitely media articles is a huge one.

There's been some studies out recently that show that the vast majority, majority of stuff that LLMs are feeding up in their search results come from those media sources.

So that's really important as well.

And yeah, just like we've been saying all along, just that strong consistent messaging in multiple channels of authority, you know.

A plan is never done in some ways that just remembering that this is a really fast moving environment just to assess, just as you would do, say with your social media plan in that changing space, is this still relevant?

Are my key messages still relevant?

Is the world changing and do I need to reflect on.

Yeah, for sure.

And yeah, like you said, it's fast changing.

So continually tweaking as you go.

For sure, yeah.

So we've been talking about how AI search is changing, how people search for things online and how you can be found.

And of course, if you want us to give you some help in figuring that out, just give us a call.

Thanks for joining us today for Crunch, brought to you by New Zealand PR agency hmc.

Be sure to tap the follow button so you don't miss our next episode.

See you next time.