Welcome to What We're Reading, a weekly rundown of news stories, marketing columns, and B2B industry news that caught our eye.

The necessity of B2B boldness

Being bold implies a willingness to be brave and stand out from the crowd, but The Drum says the true risk isn’t in not standing out but rather dispassion. With B2B marketing having a tendency to fall back on conservatism and safety, it urges marketers to make differentiation and distinctiveness a strategic choice.

Rethinking B2B influencer relations

With today’s B2B buyers more empowered and independent than ever and external influencers playing a key role in a buyer’s decision-making process, Forrester examines why traditional approaches fall short in this new influence economy. It also talks about ways organizations can reinvent influencer relations.

A new search mindset

AI overviews, zero-click, and voice search are all reshaping search, but MarTech say it’s counter-intuitive to think of them as separate channels. “Opposing search engines and AI search against one another is a false choice,” it says. “These aren’t competing realities. They’re parallel streams of discovery that smart brands must master simultaneously.”

Mistakes to avoid when optimizing for AI search

On the topic of new search mindsets, Search Engine Land outlines three mistakes you should avoid if you’re planning on investing in AI search. It includes aligning AI search and SEO, as mentioned above, as well as reworking metrics and obsessing over prompts.

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