Proven Strategies for B2B Answer Engine Optimization

By Andrea Duffy-Cabana, Senior Director of Paid Media at Anteriad

The B2B buyer journey is changing. Research finds that 60% of B2B buyers incorporate AI tools in their search. Not only does this reroute where buyers go to research potential products and services, it alters the buyer process as well. AI speeds up and widens the vendor search, and quickly gathers information from a huge variety of online resources in one place.

As more buyers turn to AI search engines for product research, B2B marketers need to ensure that their website and content is presented to maximize their presence in AI answers. This is more complex than it sounds. Based on what a buyer is searching for, B2B marketers need to make sure their brand is listed in the right competitive set, associated with the right needs, problems and solutions, and that positive content is surfaced.

B2B marketers need to consider AI answer engines with the same level of strategic thinking and tactical maneuvering as SEO. 

Create The Content You Want Quoted

Hope is not a good AEO strategy. B2B marketers need to take control of the content that is surfaced by answer engines. First, B2B marketers should audit what’s already online, on their own site and on other sites. Answer engines need clear, direct information such as concise definitions, comparison tables, specific numbers and FAQs. This content needs to be placed prominently, on the top of web pages.

When it comes to providing content for vendor searches and product descriptions, B2B marketers need to ditch nuance for clarity. Marketers need to provide very clear lists of problems buyers have and how your product delivers the solution, and why the solution is superior in the market. Short, quotable descriptions that speak directly to natural language questions are best.

Thought leadership has its place, but content that’s short, full of data and relevant to popular key words, needs and problems will get a lot more traction than lengthy, meandering content that’s not clearly associated with any specific topic. B2B buyers can increase authority with research and data, especially if the content is available on multiple websites. This is where guest blog posts or thought leadership created with a partner can add value.

And don’t forget to ensure the most important content is freely available on the website, LLMs can’t read gated content.

Maintain a Human Voice

It can be tempting to generate all of this new content using AI, but B2B marketers need to ensure that content sounds authentic to the brand voice and doesn’t contain too many AI giveaways. It also needs to be consistent across different sources, even other websites. 

Readers notice when text sounds generic or robotic. It’s better to create a style guide and either train AI with the guide and edit AI content accordingly or write it out when it matters most.

If content doesn’t pass muster, readers won’t react to it, and it will be “punished” by AI algorithms going forward. 

Improve Third Party Content

Sites like Reddit, G2 and Capterra are mined frequently by LLMs and have high authority. Any content that exists on this site is at least as important as content on your own site. The content on those sites might be “third party”, but you can still have a lot of influence over it. 

First, marketers need to claim a profile and make sure it’s clear, consistent with website content and accurate. If anything in threads and conversations is outdated or incorrect, comment with correct information. Update pricing, product descriptions and other details. This makes sure old and wrong information gets pushed to the bottom.

Marketers can also send new people to these sites to improve their overall presence. Recent happy customers and close partners can write up case studies and reviews that help the company’s standing with LLMs. 

Other third party content resources like blogs and podcasts also serve as sources of information to LLMs. Marketers can either use paid sponsorships or pitch customers and executives to be guests to generate relevant content about your company and offering.

Track Progress and Build

Optimizing for LLMs, much like search engines, is an ongoing process, not a one-time project. After your initial audit and update, create a monthly plan for tracking and maintaining a presence. As the market evolves, the questions buyers ask will, too. For example, if there is new regulation or a technical innovation. Content needs to be created for these new queries and updated to be relevant for existing ones.

To gain visibility, marketers can use a tool like Profound, Scrunch or one of the many others that have flooded the market to see how LLMs and chatbots are talking about the company. Next, identify competitors and key themes and establish a baseline. With this insight, marketers can focus on areas of weakness and create plans for tackling them over time, so they can make continued progress, rather than fall behind.