[VIDEO] How to Build Trust in the Age of AI

Transcript:

Hi, I’m Dave of President of Arc Intermedia, a digital marketing agency, and welcome back to what am I working on today.

Today’s backdrop is Puerto Rico. Home of Roberto Clemente and the Pina Colada.

So today I’m doing an audit of our company’s online presence beyond our website. I’m using tools like SEMrush but then doing a manual review of where arc intermedia shows up, what is being said about us, how we engaged in conversations, and making notations on what we could be doing better as far as new or more detailed content and answers. I’ve covered a good many already – Google, Bing, and Apple business pages, Reddit, long form content on Linkedin, our youtube channel, and our ratings on Clutch – just to name a few. I will also run a report on websites linking back to our website to capture those opportunities in my audit as well.

So why am I concerned about content beyond our website? In 2 words visibility and credibility. People may still go to your website at some point in their journey – if you’re offering a product they just want to make sure it’s a good fit for them they may be double checking specifications and then how and where to buy it. If you’re providing a service they want to ensure that you provide that specific service, they want to see if you’re providing it to people and companies like them, and they want to find out who’s behind the curtain. But everyone knows that your website tells the perfect story, never a bad review and never an account of something that went wrong. Everything is Peaches and Cream. However, people want to buy the best and choose the best and they don’t want to get fooled again. Go figure. Therefore they go into hyper research mode which mostly happens beyond your website. We’re learning that customers for some of our clients are checking at least two or three other sources before they make a decision. They are looking at these other properties, similar to what I just audited for our agency to understand in a non-biased way can they trust to choose you.

So the focus here is TRUST. Even though marketing evolves, trust is still has a dramatic impact on the purchasing process.

Before you do anything, you should do a full assessment of your online presence Tools like SEMrush, screaming frog, birdeye, and Spark Toro will make this easier. Document where you appear, what’s being said, and a general assessment – is it positive, is it negative, or is just not enough content. What is the conversation about your offering on Reddit, Amazon, Linkedin, and social media? Is it positive? Are you engaged? Are you trusted in those communities? Did you make it through Wikipedia’s gauntlet of angry librarians? Your presence on Wikipedia matters again, as does Glassdoor, quora and yelp. How are your reviews and ratings? We all know to throw out the few, angry bottom reviews as well as the 5 star gushers posted by CEO’s daughter – but – is it generally a positive sentiment? Are there any long form articles written about your offering on industry sites and blogs? Are you included in the lists of the top 10 best? Are actual, real customers vouching for you?

All this content, conversation, and rankings beyond your website is not only telling your story, it’s doing something more – it’s being consumed by all the AI platforms. (add AIs graphic) The AIs are filling their large language models with content about your offering that could very well not be from your brand perfect website. The AIs synthesize all the info they have gathered across the web and tell their own story however they want. And depending what that story is, or if you show up at all, customers may never bother to visit your website.

Therefore, Part 2 of your audit is to do manual queries in AI platforms to see how you appear for phrases and questions that you want to be show up for, as well as phrases that specifically include your brand. You should do at least 10 to 20 queries. Document how you appear, how your competitors appear, and the sources from which this content was taken.

With a completed audit and a lot of puzzle pieces, you can now create a plan for which of these external sources you will focus on first – you can’t cover them all initially so prioritize what you should focus on, based on what may be negative, where you’re getting beat, where you have obvious gaps, and what would most impact your business. Then determine what brand compliant content needs to be developed for these platforms and your website. Develop a calendar for publishing this content, and assign responsibilities to your team with deadlines. You need to make this a formal project within your company. (Remove text)

This will be an ongoing process. We’re still learning how quickly the LLMs get flushed and replenished. What you have today in the AI platforms may be gone tomorrow. So get going with the goal of building trust beyond your own website. Good luck!

All this content, conversation, and rankings beyond your website is not only telling your story, it’s doing something more – it’s being consumed by all the AI platforms. The AIs are filling their large language models with content about your offering that could very well not be from your brand perfect website. The AIs synthesize all the info they have gathered across the web and tell their own story however they want. (remove graphic) And depending what that story is, or if you show up at all, customers may never bother to visit your website.

Therefore, Part 2 of your audit is to do manual queries in AI platforms to see how you appear for phrases and questions that you want to be show up for, as well as phrases that specifically include your brand. You should do at least 10 to 20 queries. Document how you appear, how your competitors appear, and the sources from which this content was taken.

With a completed audit and a lot of puzzle pieces, you can now create a plan (add text: The Plan) for which of these external sources you will focus on first – you can’t cover them all initially so prioritize what you should focus on, based on what may be negative, where you’re getting beat, where you have obvious gaps, and what would most impact your business. Then determine what brand compliant content needs to be developed for these platforms and your website. Develop a calendar for publishing this content, and assign responsibilities to your team with deadlines. You need to make this a formal project within your company.

This will be an ongoing process. We’re still learning how quickly the LLMs get flushed and replenished. What you have today in the AI platforms may be gone tomorrow. So get going with the goal of building trust (add text: Trust) beyond your own website. Good luck!