Is Keyword SEO Obsolete in the Age of AI Conversational Marketing?
An emerging phenomenon within the marketing world — a dramatic shift that is challenging traditional Search Engine Optimization (SEO) practices.
The Emergence of Chat Experience & Generative Media
As opposed to traditional search engines, generative AI, primarily manifesting as chatbots, offers a chat experience. This smart technology heralds a pivotal shift in the way we interact with the web — and the customers — in a few fundamental ways.
- Within the framework of chatbot or conversational AI, the interface possesses a degree of cognitive ability, enabling it to comprehend natural language, user intent, and preferences. This AI-powered interface acts as your intermediary with the sea of information available, sourcing, processing, and delivering data in a seamless, natural language, and yet far more efficient than any human. All this while dispersing promotional messages in a contextually relevant and non-intrusive manner. Ultimately, it distributes marketing information to potential customers in a more organic and referenced manner — Mention.
- Comparatively, conventional search engines require users to distill their needs into keywords, conforming to the constraints of machine processing. These engines match and deliver information based on link rules and keyword occurrence probabilities, making optimization a strategy of manipulating these matches to achieve marketing objectives.
Distinguishing Chat Experiences: Open vs Closed
An important distinction needs to be made first. The chat experience I’m referring to pertains to conversations within an open network environment, rather than within a closed knowledge system:
- Open, flexible, and constantly updated information acquisition is pivotal for AI-driven marketing to reach potential users, very akin to large-scale personalized messaging. Here, chat mention becomes the cornerstone of arousing user attention and interest. An example being the information retrieval experience on platforms like New Bing.
- On the other hand, chats within closed systems, revolving around specific products or services, lean more towards sales, persuasion, or customer support. These interactions are with users who’ve already pre-filtered their choices and you are, at least, an option on their list. A typical instance would be the experience of seeking assistance through a vendor’s automated customer service.
Pillars of Generative Media: Four Essential Components
In essence, the core working principle of chat experience has evolved from mechanical keyword-based rules to providing information support within the context of a user’s questions or needs.
When navigating the path of generative media marketing, one must take into account four essential cardinal directions — Who, What, When & Where, and How. Understanding these coordinates not only brings clarity to your marketing campaigns but also increases the likelihood of your product or service being mentioned by generative media.
Let’s illustrate this through a hypothetical marketing campaign for our new fitness app — FitLife+
- Who: The cornerstone of any campaign is identifying the target demographic. For “FitLife+”, this might be “Urban-dwelling millennials with a growing interest in health and fitness but struggling with regular workout routines due to time constraints”.
- What & Why: Here, we define the objective that our product aims to fulfill for the target customer. For our app, this could be “Providing a flexible and diverse range of at-home workout routines, enabling busy millennials to maintain a healthy lifestyle”. The motivating factor (Why) behind this might be “Millennials’ increasing consciousness about their health and fitness amidst a fast-paced lifestyle”.
- When & Where: The context or scenario where the product comes into play is crucial. In the case of “FitLife+”, this could be “During any free time at home or on-the-go, making fitness routines accessible anytime, anywhere”.
- How: This specifies the unique way the product fulfills the customer’s need. For our app, this could be “Through offering customizable workout plans, tracking progress, and providing virtual coaching, FitLife+ allows for a tailored fitness journey that accommodates the user’s schedule”.
We are at the precipice of a marketing revolution. One that beckons a reconsideration of our tried-and-true SEO practices. As we tread into this brave new world of AI and generative experiences, it’s paramount to stay ahead of the curve.
