{"id":270,"date":"2025-04-18T21:58:25","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T21:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.soapandseife.com\/?p=270"},"modified":"2025-04-19T23:34:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T23:34:22","slug":"the-new-rules-of-brand-awareness-in-the-ai-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.soapandseife.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/18\/the-new-rules-of-brand-awareness-in-the-ai-era\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Rules of Brand Awareness in the AI Era"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hello and welcome to The GTM Newsletter by GTMnow <\/strong>– read by 50,000+ to scale their companies and careers. GTMnow shares insight around the go-to-market strategies responsible for explosive company growth. GTMnow highlights the strategies, along with the stories from the top 1% of GTM executives, VCs, and founders behind these strategies and companies.<\/em><\/p>\n

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In 2024, Sydney Sloan<\/a> (CMO of G2, former CMO at Salesloft and Drata) noticed something strange. Traffic from search was down 10%. Then 20%. Then 25%.<\/p>\n

At first, it looked like a blip. But then came the shift:
\nLLMs like Gemini started answering questions before users even clicked.<\/p>\n

For a company like G2 that is built on ranking in search and capturing intent, this was an existential shift. Since then, it has also become one for most companies and is a common challenge we see.<\/p>\n

Go-to-market teams need to rewrite the brand awareness playbook for a world where content marketing, SEO, and PPC all look very different. Here is Sydney\u2019s framework for what no longer works and what to do instead.<\/p>\n

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\"\u2705\" Recommendations<\/strong><\/h4>\n

ZoomInfo\u2019s GTM25 virtual conference on May 7th<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The future of GTM is AI-powered. <\/strong>Join us and thousands of revenue leaders at ZoomInfo\u2019s GTM25 virtual conference on May 7th to explore how high-performing teams are leveraging Go-to-Market Intelligence and AI to fuel their GTM strategies that help top teams crush their revenue goals. You\u2019ll hear from industry experts, connect with peers, and learn about the latest AI advancements. Beyond insights, you\u2019ll walk away with proven AI tactics that you can directly implement for your GTM team.<\/p>\n

Save Your Spot<\/a> \u2013 <\/strong>see you (virtually) there!<\/p>\n

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1. SEO and PPC are breaking (and most teams are still operating like it\u2019s 2019)<\/h2>\n
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\u201cContent for the sake of content is dead. The rise of AI has changed the game \u2013 and not in the way most marketers hoped.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Sydney saw it firsthand at G2 and Drata. Gemini answers started showing up at the top of search results. Click-through rates dropped by 25%. Even well-optimized SEO programs (like HubSpot\u2019s) saw traffic fall by as much as 70%.<\/p>\n

Why? Google\u2019s UI has changed. Sponsored results are pushed below the fold. Organic results are buried. The \u201canswer box\u201d is the only thing that matters.<\/p>\n

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Writing content just to rank doesn\u2019t work like it used to. Instead, start writing to serve personas and jobs to be done.<\/p>\n

2. Enter AIO: AI Optimization > Search Optimization<\/h2>\n
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\u201cWe used to write for keywords. Now we write for what the persona is trying to solve and how LLMs summarize it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Teams are now strategically feeding LLMs content that gets cited in answer boxes.<\/p>\n

These are two tactics that are working:<\/p>\n