{"id":90844,"date":"2025-08-11T08:12:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T12:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businessesgrow.com\/?p=90844"},"modified":"2025-08-11T09:28:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T13:28:43","slug":"ai-signals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businessesgrow.com\/2025\/08\/11\/ai-signals\/","title":{"rendered":"Wide Range of AI Signals Will Determine Purchasing Recommendations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AI<\/p>\n

Marketing to customers through AI is kind of like selling diapers.<\/p>\n

The end user of the diaper does not make the purchasing decision. So we have to market to the caretaker responsible for the baby’s rear end.<\/p>\n

Similarly, millions of people are turning to AI for their purchasing decisions on everything from vacations to insurance. AI is the customer now in many cases. This means that somehow, we have to crack the algorithmic code and influence this new decision-maker. But how?<\/p>\n

In a new episode of the Marketing Companion, I sat down with Andy Crestodina<\/a>, a digital marketing pioneer and founder of Orbit Media<\/a>, to unpack what AI means for modern marketing. The big question we wrestled with: When AI is making decisions for our customers, and even becoming the \u201ccustomer\u201d itself, how do marketers adapt?<\/p>\n

You can hear this vital conversation here, including some exclusive bonus Q&A content:<\/p>\n

Click here to enjoy The Marketing Companion Episode 321<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n

Here are the biggest themes and actionable takeaways from our conversation.<\/p>\n

The Internet Just Got an Upgrade<\/h2>\n

Andy described the emergence of AI as adding a transformative \u201cmiddleware layer\u201d on top of how we interact with the internet.<\/p>\n

It enables a new kind of interaction, where people don\u2019t just search\u2014they converse, plan, and get advice that\u2019s holistic and personalized. I recently experienced this firsthand: I asked an AI to plan my trip to Paris, and it generated a comprehensive itinerary, including hotels, transit, museum hours, and even restaurant recommendations. It didn\u2019t just find answers; it made decisions, drawing information from sources I may never have found on my own.<\/p>\n

This shift means customers now move even further down the purchase funnel before a human marketer ever appears on their radar. AI is already vetting choices, answering comparison requests, and forming recommendations\u2014often before a prospect lands on any brand\u2019s homepage.<\/p>\n

Content Marketing\u2019s New Role: Training the AIs<\/h2>\n

So how does a brand make it onto an AI\u2019s shortlist? We\u2019re back to content marketing, but with an essential twist. Andy puts it succinctly: \u201cOur job now is to train AI to sort of be a sales rep for our brands by feeding it all of the important sales marketing messages.\u201d There are two core strategies here:<\/p>\n

1) On-site Content<\/h3>\n

Your website is still your strongest platform. AI language models train heavily on *owned media*\u2014your blog, your product pages, your case studies, your FAQs. It\u2019s never been more critical to be *ridiculously* explicit about:<\/p>\n