Not long ago, brands could count on SEO and strong storytelling: ranking for valuable search terms while connecting with consumers through compelling narratives.
Generative AI has disrupted both sides of that playbook. It’s fragmenting the search landscape and the audience journey, becoming the primary interpreter of information through chatbots, voice assistants and new retrieval channels. The result? Many brands are back at square one in reaching key audiences.
What matters now is ensuring your story is clear and consistent wherever it lives — so AI surfaces the version of your brand you want audiences to see.
Today’s AI-driven brand perception
GenAI is built on large language models (LLMs), which can process and synthesize vast amounts of data. The resulting distilled summaries and even longer-form narratives are now the dominant driver of brand perception.
But genAI can be an inadequate go-to source for your brand narrative. A Columbia Journalism Review study found that top genAI tools were incorrect more than 60% of the time. GenAI is only as good as the information it gets and unreliable sources abound on the web. Poor sources with outdated, incorrect or malicious content can result in misconceptions in the market and reputational damage for your brand.
To counter this risk, make sure your brand narrative is consistent across all digital assets:
Your website.
Blog.
Executive profiles.
Social channels.
The more consistent your brand’s story is across your assets, the more genAI will value them and cite them as authoritative sources. This helps boost your brand perception against content that weakens it and allows AI to give consumers the right story.
Dig deeper: GenAI is telling your brand’s story — with or without you
Strategic control: How to own your brand story within AI
Our client study at Terakeet found that brands can strongly influence AI-generated narratives. Here are some best practices for global brands to manage those narratives.
Intent-driven content strategy
Creating and optimizing content that anticipates what people will ask AI tools about your brand is essential. Just as intent-driven SEO connects with audiences in organic search, generative engine optimization (GEO) does the same for genAI.
One of the best ways to do this is with clear, accurate language. GenAI favors straightforward, well-structured content and using it consistently across your owned assets increases the chances of being cited. Those citations drive impressions, clicks and authority for your brand.
Technical optimization
Our research found that higher performance in Google rankings correlates with an increased likelihood of being cited in genAI. While not a direct AI inclusion signal, optimizing technical site components may contribute to visibility in AI platforms. Some elements that help organic search include:
Clear navigation.
Internal linking.
Mobile-friendliness.
Schema markup.
Dig deeper: Why visibility is now the most important marketing metric
Monitoring and iteration
Once you’ve implemented this strategy for your brand, it’s time to track performance in genAI summaries over time. Consider monitoring brand affinity and control metrics, including:
The frequency of searches for your brand within genAI.
The percentage of sources you own and control that genAI uses in its compositions relates to your brand.
The ratio of favorable and unfavorable content and narratives about your brand that genAI is surfacing.
By monitoring discussion of your brand and its competitors, you can identify gaps and inaccuracies in your brand’s online story.
Then you can address the opportunities for improvement, creating a constant feedback loop of new iterations to deploy.
Dig deeper: How to turn SEO wins into GEO dominance
Seizing the opportunity
You can strengthen reputation, sentiment and control across channels by:
Optimizing your brand story across owned assets.
Refining technical performance.
Monitoring results.
The search landscape is shifting, but your brand’s visibility doesn’t have to. Generative AI has changed how audiences discover solutions and engage with brands. But you can stay ahead. Success still comes down to clear, consistent, strategic storytelling.
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