The ability for a firm to be found via AI assistants may be improved using public relations, due to how press work feeds AI answers.
TL;DR: test AI prompts that target LPs would use regularly.
Boosting brand visibility through AI Search is a key marketing strategy today, otherwise known as generative engine optimisation (GEO).
Fittingly, outreach platform BuzzStream has set out to prove that public relations has a huge impact on being discovered through AI assistants, explaining how machine-readable press writing is.
Namely that it is largely original research to earn citations, its third-party coverage reinforces how a brand is perceived, backlinks are included, and the language is, by nature, engineered to boost brand awareness.
Likewise, research that actually delves into its audience’s challenges is cited as more valuable by the AI (and readers, too) than data that simply relates to the company. Repeating brand descriptors through every press release and pitch helps models categorise a business correctly.
So, what does this mean for fund marketers?
Whenever an allocator or consultant uses AI to search for credible managers across selective strategies, the answer will be assembled from what the industry says about you in trade press and databases. The quality, relevance and accuracy of that citation relies on the coverage it absorbs.
This does pose advantages for funds as they regularly produce proprietary research, from investor surveys to market outlooks and white papers. And despite there being the caveat that anything promoting performance could skirt close to compliance issues – FCA rules in the UK, and the SEC Marketing Rule in the US – this places an onus on funds to produce more thematic and educational content, which will get further reach product-led pieces.
A recommended GEO marketing strategy could look as follows.
Use an agreed fund descriptor everywhere
Creating a standard ‘line’ makes it easy to describe and differentiate your firm across releases, bylines and award entries, to be used by any employee responsible for outreach. For example, “a London-based specialist in emerging market debt”.
Build an annual ‘client painpoint’ research asset
Financial markets change, and customers’ challenges will as a result. Conducting an allocator survey to discover their barriers, or writing a study about the problems clients face, will earn more citations than re-pasted content based on your own fund data.
Assess your AI visibility
Even before target investors hit AI assistants, it is worth testing out 15 to 20 realistic prompts they would ask each month across the main assistants to see how your firm comes across.
Separate PR coverage and AI metrics
Media placement is not proof of AI Search impact. PR clippings and changes in AI citations should be tracked and reported separately for the board to see which contributes to successful brand awareness.
Fold compliance in immediately
Once thematic research and a reusable library is approved, PR can start pitching a fund quickly without needing another sign-off for every journalist request.
Educational, expert material works well in long institutional sales cycles to build trust, especially when AI models can pull a lot of weight in promoting it to online prospects.
Source
BuzzStream, “PR for GEO: 4 Ways It Can Influence AI Visibility” (via TLDR Marketing)
