Taking control of your B2B brand’s online ecosystem

Imagine your B2B brand is a shiny goldfish swimming in a bowl. When people look you up online, they have a 360-degree view of your brand — they can see everything at once, and your goldfish has nowhere to hide.

There have always been multiple sources of information about brands available online, but before AI converged with modern search engines, the journey to gather that information required more steps. You might have to use specific search terms or click through to the second page of results (gasp!) to find something.

Now, AI-assisted search engines can comb through all that intel at once and neatly arrange it into an answer at the very top of the page. No clicking required. That means everything in your brand’s online presence — the good, the bad, and the ugly — is up for grabs.

To have that strong, positive representation of your brand, you need to be authentic and honest about who you are. Lisa Kemerer, President & CEO at Motum B2B

Think of it as an ecosystem. With AI search, all those separate elements come together to paint a picture of your brand, and it may not be the picture you had in mind. The good news is that if you adopt that 360-degree perspective, you can cultivate your brand’s ecosystem to create a consistent, unified image.

First impressions can make or break a sale

A recent report found that 47% of B2B buyers use AI tools for market research and discovery, and 38% use them to vet and shortlist vendors. Another survey revealed that 85% of B2B buyers purchase from a “day one” list of vendors, or companies they already had in mind before starting their search.

In this landscape, first impressions are everything. Anything and everything in your brand’s online ecosystem can show up in AI search results, and if you aren’t paying attention, you risk falling off that day one list.

“You have to think about all the different touchpoints where everyone is talking about your brand, because it’s all being pulled into that summary,” says Lisa Kemerer, President & CEO at Motum B2B. “It was easier to control that narrative before — ‘This is who we are, this is what we do.’ Now, with AI, how do you responsibly manage the reputation of your brand?”

Critically, your website isn’t the only available source of info about your business: think social media, Google business reviews, conversations on Reddit or online forums, your employees’ LinkedIn pages, and reviews on sites like Glassdoor.

You can’t control all those sources, but you can be proactive about your brand’s online presence.

“It’s about understanding the elements that are being drawn into that search,” Lisa explains. “If you know them, you can get ahead and adjust anything that may not be good for the broader picture.”

Do others see your brand the way you see it?

When you start digging into this ecosystem, you may notice a discrepancy between how the brand sees itself and how others see the brand.

For example, you might have overall positive reviews of your product online, but a negative comment on social media — something that would likely be buried in the former SEO landscape — could also be pulled into AI search results.

“You’re no longer always in control of the message,” says Jeanette Thompson, Marketing and Brand Strategist at Motum B2B. “It may not be in your control to repair things, so you should focus on improving.”

Improvement, Lisa adds, requires dedication from the company. You can respond to reviews and ask questions about the user’s experience, then take steps to fix it. You can also encourage happy customers to leave positive feedback online. “It’s all data. If you keep flooding it with more, you get a higher likelihood of driving a positive result.”

“It’s not what you think about your brand, it’s what others think about it,” Jeanette says. “It’s about monitoring and making intentional contributions to its image. It takes work to generate the most consistent, unified perception of your brand.”

Part of that means understanding the new role of trust and authenticity in the AI-driven search landscape.

“To have that strong, positive representation, you need to be authentic and honest about who you are,” Lisa explains.

Connecting the internal brand to the external brand

Consistency is a necessary element of authenticity, so any content you release into your online ecosystem needs to align with your brand. That work starts from within your company.

“It’s important to have a strong foundation to establish ‘who’ your brand is; to have unified guidelines around what to say and how to say it,” Lisa says.

That foundation could include brand guidelines that outline the visual representation of your brand and logo, tone and voice documents that explain how your brand speaks and sounds online, or a description of your brand’s core characteristics, culture, and values.

Jeanette adds that this work should be shared internally as often as possible, so everyone who creates external content for your brand is aligned on the basic guidelines. “If you overlook that, your brand core is subject to interpretation.”

“It’s very important to have a structure for how things are shared,” Lisa agrees. “There’s a magnifying glass on brands now, because there is so much access to information. Your brand information should be embraced as a philosophy within the company.”

Overall, their best advice is to be clear about who you are, communicate it often, and empower your people to speak on behalf of your brand in a consistent way.

Considering all the different lenses buyers use to see and evaluate your business, that’s easier said than done. You’ll need the right tools to monitor the online ecosystem, keep your contributions consistent, and reevaluate your efforts.

If you can take the time to do it right, you’ll have a better opportunity to make it to that buyer’s day one list.