Adapting to LLMs Start with C-Level

Whether the CMO knows it or not, companies are facing a crisis.

Love them or hate them, Large Language Models (LLMs) have upended the internet in a variety of ways. Companies that used to see leads coming from Google Search aren't (to the same extent). Teams that functioned with a performance-first mindset are starting to see the need for change (much of which came along with Google's algorithm cutting out traffic beyond anything to do with LLMs).

Teams are now scrambling to "optimize" for LLMs, which is not only the wrong approach, but it can't even be properly executed. The latter of which is almost entirely the fault of the CMO or VP of Marketing.

If you are a CMO or VP of Marketing, this post is going to be painful, but it's meant to be helpful.

The Problem with "Optimizing" for LLMs

We, as marketers, see something and then try to optimize for it.

Like flies to a light.

We see a social media platform gaining traction, and we try to optimize for impressions. We see a search engine, and we try to optimize for traffic. We see LLMs and we try to optimize for visibility (or traffic, which I am going to just say this... LLMs are not interested in sending your website traffic).

This knee-jerk reaction to "optimize" as a marketing strategy is not only outdated, but it is the total opposite of what you should be doing and, more importantly, how you should be thinking.

The optimization mindset essentially sees the digital world as a conglomerate of channels. The job of an "optimizer" is to try to leverage that channel to the fullest extent possible. Inherently, there's nothing wrong with this, and it worked for a long time. (Don't get me wrong, a lot of horrible practices and content were developed because of this outlook.)

The problem is, the entire idea of looking at the internet "in parts" doesn't align with how LLMs look at the reality on the web.

The channel approach to marketing, from an LLM point of view, is outdated if not archaic.

What platforms like chatGPT are trying to do is understand topics, people, companies, etc. in their totality. They are trying to understand what "it" is. When it comes to your company, an LLM (to varying degrees depending on the LLM) is trying to understand who you are, and it is looking at everything you and anyone else has ever said about you online to answer questions.

It's trying to make sense of the chaos. And what matters most isn't your website, or your social media, or even the links and mentions from other websites. What matters is all of it. What matters is how consistent it all is.

Think of it like you're trying to get to know someone. You're not just looking at what they do for work, or what their hobbies are, or even what their friends say about them. You're looking at everything and trying to synthesize it all together, all at once.

LinkedIn and Instagram can understand who you are on their platforms. Google can understand if your page is relevant or not. LLMs can (to a very limited extent) synthesize it all together.

This runs counter to the entire "optimization" mentality. Yes, you should be optimizing for LLMs... by "optimizing" your entire web presence.

Don't get me wrong, LLMs are a technology, and there are things they focus on and things you can do to help nudge them a bit.

When I say there is no "optimizing" for LLMs, I am not saying there are not actionable things you can focus on within your locus of control to put your finger on the scale. What I am saying is that getting stuck on that and overemphasizing it via the "optimization" mentality (that until now has been prevalent in performance marketing) runs counter to the entire idea of LLMs.

What's needed is a more aligned and broader communications strategy to send the right signal out across the web and then reinforce those signals so that LLMs take note.

Which leads us to our main problem: You (or your boss).

Internal Alignment Is Key to LLM Success

I saw a crazy stat from Danny Goodwin on Search Engine Land. It blew my mind.

54% of companies are looking to their SEO/digital marketing teams to "lead AI search initiatives."

That is the wrong thing to do. It's not even a question. It's very much a remnant of the "channel optimization mentality" I described above.

What' worse, according to the article, just 7% of companies have leadership or C-suite taking the helm. Heck, only 8% of companies are having PR/comms take on LLMs. Even that would be a better option than the SEO team (not traditional PR, but a good comms team would be the second-best option here).

I almost feel like, because the word "search" is part of the equation, companies have turned to their SEO teams.

Part of the issue is that too many companies see LLMs as a search engine in terms of immediate ROI. The return here is going to be longer. It's going to take more touchpoints and more reinforcement to see results. And the results are not going to look like the results you've seen in the past. That's just the nature of LLMs and the beast that they are.

I don't want to get distracted with that point, because that's a whole other article.

If LLMs are trying to synthesize everything they can about your company, what do you need most? It's a pretty simple answer: Alignment, unification, and consistency.

What you say on your blog, in your landing pages, and on social all have to align. We all know, however, the people responsible for all three of the aforementioned assets work on different teams and do not talk to each other outside of an all-hands meeting.

Not only that, but how people talk about you, how they reference you, and how they understand you need to be aligned for LLMs to synthesize you advantageously.

In the last ten lines of content, we've already mentioned roles and responsibilities that fall under the following teams:

• SEO

• Brand & Creative

• Social Media

• Inbound

• PR

Can your SEO team sync with all of these teams to create a unified and consistent presence across the web?

That is obviously beyond their scope and the scope of any of your teams.

You know whose scope this isn't beyond? Yours.

You are the key player. Yet, according to Search Engine Land, just 7% of you are taking the lead.

As someone who sat on the SEO side for a long time, and this is nothing against SEOs, their way of thinking is literally channel-focused. But as we've talked about here, the entire equation is now beyond "the channel."

Having your SEO team tackle LLM success is like trying to move your boat upstream without a paddle. It's not what they are equipped to do.

What I would recommend you do instead is place everything under comms. Every team should live under the comms team (if you don't have one, create one). You, as the CMO or VP of Marketing, etc., should be at the head of that.

Meaning, SEO falls under comms. Social, under comms. Paid media, under comms. And you, the CMO (etc.), need to be intricately involved to ensure:

• This unified comms strategy gets implemented

• Internal politics doesn't result in realignment

• That the message is consistently reinforced... everywhere.

Leadership, Your Role Is Changing

It's not the same. I do very much get it. You've focused on increasing efficiency and performance, as you should have been. And I am not saying you can't ever go back to that. However, there's an emerging need that needs to be filled, and you are the only person in your organization who can fill it.

You are the only person in your company who unites all the teams under one strategy with total alignment and cohesiveness. No, it's not simple. It will 100% take more micro-managing than you are probably used to. You will probably need to be aware of more of the nitty-gritty content output than you would like to.

Think of it like an emergency.

You need to stop what you've been doing, get everyone on the same page, and direct the ship to safety.

Doing that means you will probably need to be more focused on the communications side of things than you may have been in the past. Doing this means you may need to hand off some of the data and growth analysis to someone else. Because right now there has to be one leader who can thread everything together.

And that leader is not your SEO team. It's you.