Learn when to use technical white papers versus blog posts for B2B lead generation, including gating strategies, SEO considerations, and how these content formats work together effectively.
Learn how B2B businesses can use Schema markup to build trust with Google, reverse engineer competitors using the Rich Results Test, and prepare for AI search results.
Discover why random marketing tactics fail B2B companies and how using a strategic framework like FADA provides a clear plan that gives purpose to marketing services.
Procurement managers are using AI to find logistics partners. I explain how Houston 3PLs can use Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and schema markup to become the trusted, cited source in these new search results.
Risk Aversion in Industrial Strategy Risk aversion is a very real facet of industrial business marketing and sales strategies, and it is one of the key differences that sets industrial marketing apart from consumer strategies. If I were shopping for a new pair of running shoes, I might find Amazon reviews satisfactory for my research and make a buying decision within an hour. It doesn't work this way when you sell excavators or mechanical engineering services. The High Cost of Perceived Risk You'll never know how many potential sales opportunities were lost, not because your website or digital presence said something wrong, but because someone else did it better. Someone else created content, ads, or social media content that mitigated the perceived risk factor of doing business with their company. For decision-makers in the industrial sector, trust and risk mitigation trump price in terms of influence. Buyers are risk-averse, unwilling to tie their personal reputation and put themselves at risk by making the wrong choice. Let's take for example the wealth of business opportunities created by an oil and gas plant turnaround. This single project opens up many opportunities for sub-contractors, service providers, and suppliers. However, turnarounds are risky projects. Delays and mistakes can be measured in millions of dollars. When prime contractors look for suitable service and product suppliers, they are putting their own reputation on the line. Cheap and fast still matter in some cases, but generally speaking, trust is a prerequisite to even winning the opportunity to make an offer, to respond to an RFP, or, better yet, an RFQ. Let's look at an organized approach with actionable steps that your industrial services or products company can take to pass the test of trust and win the chance to sell. For this, we will turn to the FADA Marketing Framework , a proprietary strategy developed by Mansfield Marketing. Already a proven and logical process for industrial and B2B marketing, let's adapt it to address the trust factor specifically. Foundation: Building Your Bedrock on Trust The Foundation component defines who you are and what you do; it is your digital presence across your website, social media, and business listings. For industrial businesses, a strong Foundation is your primary tool for establishing credibility and authority . It ensures that when a prospect looks you up, they find a rock-solid, professional company. Here are 5 actionable steps you can take to create a foundation built on trust and reliability: Engineering Your Website for Expertise: Your website is a sales tool, not just a digital brochure. Showcase your capabilities with detailed service and equipment pages, technical specification libraries, and case studies that prove past performance. Embrace Consistent Business Citations: Inconsistent information across the web erodes trust and can hurt local search rankings. Standardize your Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP) across all listings to send a powerful signal of trust to both users and search engines. Optimize Your LinkedIn Presence: For industrial and B2B, LinkedIn is a primary channel. Optimize your company and key personnel profiles to reflect your industry leadership and deep expertise, ensuring you look like the authority you are. Showcase Credentials and Certifications: Trust is built on tangible proof. Prominently display industry certifications (like ISO or API), safety records, and key professional credentials on your website to instantly mitigate risk for a potential buyer. Cultivate Online Reviews and Testimonials: Buyers look for social proof. Actively encourage and respond to customer testimonials and reviews to build an unshakeable reputation for reliability. Awareness: Establishing Trustworthy Brand Recognition Awareness makes potential customers know your business exists and repeatedly communicates the problems you solve. For a risk-averse industrial buyer, you must use Awareness not just to appear, but to appear reliable and trustworthy. Brand recognition is key in this endeavor. Here are 5 actionable steps to improve brand recognition and build awareness that establishes trust: Launch Integrated SEO+GEO Campaigns: Combine Search Engine Optimization (SEO) with Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to ensure your content is found in traditional search and new AI-powered search results. Being cited by an AI reinforces your authority and trustworthiness. Create High-Value, Technical Content: Develop content your ideal clients are actively searching for. This includes technical white papers and articles that solve specific industry problems, positioning you as a thought leader and subject-matter expert. Share Content on Professional Platforms: Distribute your valuable, technical content where decision-makers are active, primarily on LinkedIn and Google Business Profiles. Consistency here builds familiarity and trust over time. Focus on Consistency over Frequency: Consistent posting of high-quality content signals to customers that your business is active and relevant, which is a key component of building trust. Target Professional Networks with Advertising: Use targeted advertising on platforms like LinkedIn Ads to reach individuals by job title, company, and industry. This precision-targeting shows buyers you understand their context, building credibility. Differentiation: Compelling Reasons to Choose You If you have created a solid foundation and achieved awareness, you're off to a good start. But you still have a problem and you're not done yet. You must create compelling reasons as to why your solution is the right choice. Having passed the first two stages of FADA has not yet separated you from the pack. A misstep here is tragic. You risk expending valuable time and money in having educated your sales prospect, only to have them choose a different provider when it comes to making the buy decision. Being "family-owned" or offering "great customer service" are not going to cut it. You need real differentiators that are perceived to reduce the risk of hiring your company. Here are 5 actionable steps to strengthen your Differentiation by reducing perceived risk: Highlight Proprietary Processes: Showcase a unique method or technology that delivers superior, predictable results. This reduces risk by promising an outcome your competitors can't match. Niche Down Your Expertise: Instead of marketing as a generalist, specialize in a specific niche within your sector. For instance, a contractor specializing in "low-impact, remote-site oil and gas field services" is an instant authority, reducing the risk for a buyer with that specific need. Offer a Differentiated Guarantee: A strong guarantee can immediately set you apart from competitors who are unwilling to offer the same level of assurance, directly overcoming a buyer's hesitation. Focus on Value, Not Price: Your strategy must shift the conversation from "who is the cheapest?" to "who provides the most unique value?". Emphasize how your superior safety record or faster service minimizes the client's downtime and long-term costs. Use Client Case Studies to Prove Success: Go beyond testimonials and provide detailed, well-documented case studies that showcase how you solved a specific problem for a client. This is tangible proof of your abilities and a powerful risk reducer. Action: Making the Final Choice Easy and Low-Risk The final component, Action, is when a sales prospect enters your sales pipeline. This is more likely to occur when we format our website and digital presence with appropriate calls-to-action and channels for outreach. When it comes to the trust factor in the Action component, we have ways to improve our chances. For example, two companies have passed the first three FADA steps and are being considered by a buyer. One company's website has a generic "Contact Us" page. The other company has a well-written RFP/RFQ request page that speaks to engineers and buyers to collect important details about their needs. This communicates a sense that this company understands the buyer's journey and is making their job and decision easier to make. It has the effect of reducing the perceived risk. If even by a small amount, that's often all it takes at this stage of the process to be the winner. Here are 5 actionable steps to make the final Action a low-risk decision: Engineer for a Qualified Lead: The Action you want is a qualified lead, not just a click. Optimize your website to generate RFPs and quote requests from serious prospects by ensuring your forms capture the necessary information to start a sales conversation. Offer a Differentiated Action: Instead of a generic "Contact Us," offer a more valuable next step that reinforces your unique value. This could be a "Free 15-Minute Technical Strategy Session" or an "ROI Calculator for Our Process". Gate Your Most Valuable Content: Use high-impact sales collateral like white papers and online calculators as gated content . By asking for contact information in exchange for technical insight, you capture qualified leads who have demonstrated high-intent interest. Align the Ad with the Action: The link from any ad should go to a dedicated landing page that makes the call-to-action seamless. For example, if your ad promises an "Exclusive Industry Report," the landing page should deliver a simple form to access that report, eliminating friction and immediately converting the prospect. Provide Sales Collateral to Close the Deal: Equip your sales team with tailored collateral like pitch decks, presentation folders, and print materials. These physical "leave-behinds" reinforce trust, quality, and professionalism after a face-to-face meeting, which can be the deciding factor when a buyer presents your proposal internally. My name is Doug Mansfield and this is what I do for a living. If you have your own marketing team and manage this in-house, then I hope you find this information useful. If you prefer to delegate this process to a trusted and experienced source, then I hope you'll reach out and discuss with me how I can help you achieve these goals.
Navigating the Houston Industrial Landscape As the founder of Mansfield Marketing and a B2B sales expert with deep roots in Houston, I've seen firsthand how a little bit of strategic focus can yield huge results for local companies. If you're a Houston B2B professional or business owner, you know our market is highly competitive, especially in the industrial, energy, and professional services sectors. But, being in Houston also has advantages we can leverage. Building a Foundation for Modern Visibility The good news is that there are simple, actionable steps you can take today to increase the chances that decision-makers will find your company when they search for solutions you provide whether they are using Google, Bing, or new AI search tools like Google Gemini and ChatGPT. These methods form the "Foundation" of our proprietary FADA Marketing Framework, which is the necessary prerequisite for successful "Awareness" and "Action". They require having control over your digital presence, such as your website, business listings, and social media accounts. Even if you delegate the work, remember: these assets are too valuable not to own and access directly. Here are four simple but powerful tips to increase your visibility in the modern search landscape: Tip 1: Integrate the "Houston" Service Area into Your Website Strategy While you may serve clients across the state or nation, positioning your company as a Houston B2B marketing expert can be a significant differentiator, especially in competitive industries. Target Your Service Area, Not Just Your Address: Even if your physical address isn't in the city center, you can and should define Houston as your company's service area. It's important to know that these two things don't always align, and we can work with that. Leverage "Houston" in Key Website Areas: Strategically use "Houston" in critical SEO elements like your website's H1 titles, page titles, and meta descriptions. For instance, instead of "Industrial Fabrication Services," try "Industrial Fabrication Services Houston." This is crucial for local search and for positioning your business. Address Geographic Concerns: Some owners worry that focusing on Houston will alienate prospects in other regions. This can be a valid concern, particularly for a national e-commerce business. However, if you do not define your geographic location, you are competing globally by default , which makes the challenge of differentiation significantly more difficult. Publish New Content Weekly: Make a rule of thumb to publish new, relevant content to your website, such as blog posts or case studies, on a weekly basis to signal to both users and search engines that your business is active and relevant. Tip 2: Use Your Business Listings to Their Full Potential Many business owners treat their online business listings as a static, "set it and forget it" service. However, platforms like Google Business Profile (GBP) and Bing Places for Business offer valuable features to broadcast your "Awareness" and continuously reinforce your digital "Foundation". Don't Neglect Bing: While GBP is the most prevalent business listing directory, the Bing search engine still commands a sizable percentage of search traffic. It's highly recommended to add and optimize your listing on Bing Places for Business. Utilize the Posting Features: Both GBP and Bing offer features that allow you to post and disseminate new or existing website content. Make it a point to share updates, new content, or important company news here, ideally coinciding with your website content updates. Define Your Houston Service Area: Use the service area option within both listings to explicitly target Houston as the service area. This reinforces your geographic focus for both search engines and AI crawlers. Tip 3: Optimize Your NAP+W Across the Web for AI Trust Signals Beyond Google and Bing, there are dozens of business listing directories, known as "citations," that are vital for both SEO and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). The Power of NAP+W: NAP+W stands for Name, Address, Phone Number, and Website address. This information is your company's "digital fingerprint". When search engines and AI crawlers find consistent NAP+W data across multiple sites, it sends a powerful signal of Trustworthiness and Authoritativeness (key components of E-E-A-T), which is essential for successful GEO. Use a Third-Party Service: The task of manually creating, verifying, and managing dozens of business citations is incredibly time-consuming, but absolutely essential to build a rock-solid Foundation. Examples of NAP+W Services: Mansfield Marketing provides a service for Verified Business Citations. Other general third-party services that specialize in this include Yext, Moz Local, and BrightLocal. The Payoff: This practice, known as a NAP+W campaign, is on the short list of the most important things you can do to increase both organic search visibility and the accuracy with which generative AI represents your business. Tip 4: Turn LinkedIn into an Authority-Building Engine For a Houston B2B marketing company , LinkedIn is the undisputed hub of the B2B world. We leverage it as a primary channel for Awareness and lead generation, but it requires strategy. Watch Your Bubble: What you see in your personalized LinkedIn feed your "expert's bubble" is a skewed view of the market. Do not let this daily feed distract you from a core strategy. Maintain Brand Consistency: Ensure your company LinkedIn page has consistent branding and messaging that aligns with your website, especially your logo, tagline, and service descriptions. Reinforce your position as a Houston -based expert here. Prioritize Personal Profiles: Posts created by personal profiles have greater engagement on LinkedIN than posts from company pages. Weave in "Houston": When you or your team create posts, it's advantageous to get the word "Houston" into the content, especially when discussing market insights or industry news. Being the source of unique insights related to this massive industrial and business epicenter can give you a significant advantage over competitors who do not. Those of us who are lucky enough to serve the Houston region enjoy a very large market to sell our products and services. I have personally observed that it's quite common for businesses in other locations to specifically seek out Houston companies with a reputation for knowing and serving the local market. Take advantage of using "Houston" to differentiate your business, especially in competitive industries. I hope this helps you build a more powerful digital presence! Summary Acknowledgment I intentionally omitted the topic of schema markup from this article to keep the focus strictly on foundational, highly actionable steps that can be implemented by business owners with minimal technical expertise. The importance of structured data for advanced search engine and AI visibility is fully recognized and will be the subject of a forthcoming, separate blog post dedicated to the proper application of schema to a website.
The Common Struggle with B2B Content Marketing As a consultant for B2B companies, I've seen countless owners struggle with content marketing. They know they should be doing it, but the efforts often feel random, time-consuming, and disconnected from the one thing that matters: sales. A Simplified Approach to B2B Content Strategy Content marketing can be an incredibly effective tool for reaching new customers, especially in the B2B space. But it's not the same as B2C marketing. It requires a specific, structured approach to be effective. As I've learned from consulting with hundreds of business owners, it's simple to make marketing complicated, but difficult to make it simple. So, let's make it simple. Here is the effective content marketing strategy I use and advise my clients to follow. Start with a Clear Objective Before you write a single word, you must define your goal. For Service Providers: If you're like most of my B2B and industrial clients, your goal isn't a direct online sale. Your objective is to increase the number of viable sales opportunities, getting a qualified prospect to make a call, request a quote, or submit an RFP. For Product Sellers: If you sell products, especially through an e-commerce platform like Shopify, your goal is more direct: increase online sales. You must remain mindful of this objective. Let it guide every action you take and every piece of content you create. Find a Home for Your Content You need a place to publish new content regularly. A blog on your company website is the most common and practical solution. Don't get hung up on the word "blog." It's often mistaken for a simple company diary, a place for employee anniversaries or project announcements. While that's fine, we need to view it as a strategic marketing tool. If you prefer, call it "News & Updates" or "Articles" to fit your company's personality. If your website doesn't have a blog, you must add one. If your current platform makes that impossible, you'll have to create new, standalone website pages. The challenge here is avoiding clutter. Your website's main navigation menu should be reserved for pages designed to drive Action (sales). If you're struggling with these constraints, it may be time to update your website to a platform that features a blog and supports this strategy. Create a Realistic, Consistent Schedule Consistency is the key to a successful content marketing strategy. I suggest a minimum of one weekly content update. You should budget 1-2 hours for this update. Personally, I've been sticking to a daily update schedule for some time. This aggressive schedule is possible only because I have a content plan and have become proficient at the process. It will take you longer at first, but you will get faster as you get into a rhythm. Build Your Keyword and Internal Linking Strategy First, create a list of keyword phrases you want to target. These should be specific to your business, like "Houston machine shop" or "Houston logistics company." It is critical that your website already has pages designed for sales conversions aligned with these keywords (e.g., your main service pages). We need these pages because we are going to use a valuable internal linking strategy. Each time you create a new blog post, you will find a natural way to link from that new post to your main, "money" service page. This simple action is incredibly important. It informs search engines and AI crawlers which pages on your website are the most important and which keyword phrases they are relevant to. A best practice is to never write unnaturally just to fit in a link. But as you write about your expertise, you will naturally find opportunities to reference the core services you provide. This practice is a key part of building a strong digital "Foundation". The Two-Bucket Approach to Content I suggest creating two different forms of content that fall into two broad buckets. Bucket One (Sales): This content directly promotes your products or services. Bucket Two (Education): This content avoids sales-speak. Its goal is to showcase your expertise and provide genuinely helpful, educational information without a hard sell. As a rule of thumb, follow a 3:1 ratio: for every one sales-focused post you create, you should publish three educational posts. Why "Helping" is the New "Selling" (AEO, GEO, and E-E-A-T) That 3:1 ratio is suggested because of the rise of AI search. Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) are changing how customers find you. AI models, like those in Google's AI Overviews and ChatGPT, are designed to find and present the best answer to a user's question, not the best sales pitch. This is where E-E-A-T becomes relevant, a topic I've covered before. E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness . When you write helpful, educational content (Bucket Two), you are directly demonstrating your E-E-A-T. Here are a few tips to achieve this: Write about what you truly know from your hands-on work (Experience). Answer the complex questions your customers ask you every day (Expertise). Position yourself as a leader in your niche (Authoritativeness). Be transparent, factual, and accurate in your writing (Trustworthiness). This is how you become a citable, authoritative source that AI engines learn to trust. Using AI as an Assistant, Not a Creator It's very tempting to ask Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT or Google Gemini to write your content for you. Do not do this. These tools are trained on existing content from the web. If you rely on them to write everything, you will only produce generic content that mimics what's already out there. This will rank poorly in both organic and AI search results. Instead, use AI as your assistant: You, the expert, write a complete outline of the content. Include your professional facts, opinions, and unique insights. Then, use the AI tool to help you convert that expert outline into a more user-friendly, well-formatted post that is ready to publish. Amplify Your Content Once you hit "publish," your work isn't done. You need to amplify the reach of your content by sharing it on relevant off-site platforms. LinkedIn: This is the most important platform for B2B marketing . First, publish the content to your LinkedIn Company Page. Then, using your personal profile (and hopefully, the profiles of others on your team), share or repost the Company Page update. Company page updates are notorious for low engagement, but sharing them from a personal profile increases reach and associates a real human with your expert content. Other Platforms: You should also consider sharing your new content as a post on your Google Business Profile and your Facebook company page. Use X or other platforms as you may prefer. A Final Thought: Patience and Persistence Be patient and persistent. Unlike paid advertising, which can provide instant results, content marketing is a long game. But here's the difference: a paid ad disappears the moment you stop paying for it. Your content marketing is a long-term investment in your company's brand, reputation, and digital authority. It's an asset that can continue to pay off by attracting new customers for months, and even years, to come. This structured plan is how you turn a simple blog into a powerful engine for your B2B marketing strategy.
Why You Aren't Receiving the RFQ After consulting with hundreds of business owners here in Houston, I've seen a recurring pattern, especially in the oil and gas sector. Whether you're providing highly specialized products or essential field services, you share a common, frustrating challenge: how to win the opportunity to bid on, or even receive an RFP or RFQ from a prime contractor. The Industrial Sector’s Gatekeeping Problem You know you can do the work, but you're stuck outside the "club," unable to get your foot in the door. We're talking about a wide range of businesses that keep the energy sector moving. A range I broadly refer to as the industrial sector. You might fit into one of these categories as an example: Pipeline construction and fabrication Modular fabrication and process skids Drilling contractors Well construction and completion services Downhole intervention systems Engineering and operations supervision Heavy civil and industrial construction Maintenance and turnaround services Gas processing facility services Crude oil and chemical storage terminal services The challenge is that procurement managers at prime contractors are tasked with fulfilling project needs, and their default path is often the one of least resistance. How Prime Contractors Find You (and How They Don't) Let's start by acknowledging the challenging reality: a significant share of this business may be awarded based on pre-existing and long-standing business relationships. For a newcomer, these relationships can be very difficult to break. But here in 2025, that's not the full story. Prime contractors are under constant pressure to find better value, mitigate risk, and improve efficiency. They are actively revisiting their existing lists to seek out new subcontractors who can provide equal or greater value and—critically—can prove their reliability. Like many other B2B service seekers, they've found that targeted internet searches and professional communities like LinkedIn can uncover new potential candidates more effectively than in previous years. When a prime contractor’s procurement manager or engineer entertains bringing in new talent, they are evaluating you on a very specific set of attributes. They are risk-averse, and their checklist often includes: Impeccable safety record (e.g., TRIR, EMR) Proven reliability and on-time performance Deep, specific experience in the required service or application Technical certifications (ISO, API, etc.) Financial stability A qualified and stable workforce Ability to meet compliance and insurance requirements Understanding of the demanding O&G environment The "Managed" Path vs. The "Proactive" Path To de-risk this search, personnel tasked with finding subcontractors often turn to established workforce providers that service the oil and gas industry. These services pre-screen candidates for many of the attributes listed above. You may recognize names like: Bedrock Frontline Source Group NES Fircroft Clayton Services Primary Services Brunel However, this doesn't mean you can't stand out and win the opportunity. This is your chance to hone your industrial marketing skills. Risk aversion is so high that even when a candidate is presented by a trusted workforce provider, there is a high probability that the procurement manager will independently research that candidate to vet them. They are going to Google you. They are going to look at your website and LinkedIn page. This is your moment to make their jobs easier and stand apart from the crowd. This is where your digital Foundation —the first component of our FADA® Marketing Framework —does the heavy lifting. If visitors to your website and social platforms can't find the data they seek, you'll be passed over for an option that feels safer. Building Your "Shortlistable" Digital Foundation Your goal is to replace sales jargon with credible, verifiable facts. This isn't about "flashy" design; it's about building credibility. Here are the steps we take to help our industrial clients achieve this. Look the Part: You must have a polished brand. This means a professional website with a professional logo, backed by clear messaging that shows you have years of real experience. If your website looks like it was built in 2005, it signals a lack of investment and attention to detail—a major red flag. Make Your Proof Easy to Find: A procurement manager is not there to read your marketing slogans. They are on a fact-finding mission. Your website must be engineered as a sales tool that answers their specific questions. We recommend dedicating clear, easy-to-find sections or pages for: Safety: Don't just say "we're safe." Show it. Prominently display your TRIR and EMR scores, safety certifications, and a summary of your safety program. Certifications: Create a library of your key certifications (e.g., ISO, API, etc.) so they can be easily verified. Services & Equipment: Have detailed pages for your core services and list your key capital equipment. This proves your capability to perform the work. Key Personnel: Briefly profile your leadership and project management team to showcase their decades of experience in the industry. Showcase Your Project Portfolio (Even with NDAs): This is where you add real value. A project portfolio with details of work accomplished is invaluable. We know this is difficult in a world of restrictive terms and NDAs that prevent sharing project names or photos. But that doesn't mean you can't meet this challenge with thoughtful planning. Instead of naming the client, create a "case study" that says: "Partnered with a major midstream operator in the Permian Basin to fabricate and install 12 multi-stage process skids, delivering the project 2 weeks ahead of schedule and with zero recordable incidents." This one sentence proves your experience, capability, location, and safety record without violating an NDA. Final Thoughts The world of oil and gas subcontracting is already structured with services designed to make the job of prime contractors easier. That does not mean you should accept a passive approach and simply hope you get found. You should be be proactive. Take the steps to build a strong digital foundation that is loaded with the proof, facts, and credibility a procurement manager is looking for. Make their decision to shortlist you easy, safe, and a logical choice. My name is Doug Mansfield and this is what I do for a living. If you ever find yourself considering delegating this work to a qualified agency, then I would be pleased to be shortlisted. Simply schedule a consultation with me to determine if Mansfield Marketing is a good fit.
Competitor Envy: The B2B Owner’s Trap As a B2B business owner, you’ve probably felt it. I know I have. I call it "competitor envy." It’s that sinking feeling you get when you survey your market's landscape. You pull up a competitor's LinkedIn profile and see a flurry of activity, polished posts, and what looks like high engagement. You visit their website, and it seems newer, faster, or just better than yours.Before you know it, you’re down a rabbit hole, estimating the market share they must be capturing and wondering why you feel like you’re falling behind. The "Flashy" Marketing Trap: Why Looks Can Be Deceiving In the hundreds of consultations I've conducted with business owners, this is one of the most common and stressful topics we discuss. We’re wired to compare, but in the B2B world, this feeling of inadequacy often doesn't align with reality. Here’s the truth: your perception of your competitor is not your customer's reality. You see their activity, how often they post, what their site looks like. Your best sales prospects, however, are seeing the landscape through a completely different lens. They aren't tracking your competitor’s posting frequency. They’re looking for a clear solution to a specific, urgent problem. Your competitor’s "impressive" activity might just be process-driven marketing that fails to increase their own sales conversions, the very definition of a money pit. Emulate, Don't Copy This isn't to say competitor analysis is a waste of time. It’s a smart practice to identify your top three competitors and, as I like to say, "reverse engineer" their marketing and sales strategies. But the goal isn't to copy them. Your strategy must be built on your own authentic "Foundation". Instead, the goal is to emulate and iterate . By observing them, you can learn. Are they using a new line of messaging that seems to resonate? Are they reaching prospects on a channel you’ve ignored? Does their website answer a key question better than yours does? Use these insights to refine your own "Differentiation" and "Awareness" campaigns, not to create a carbon copy of theirs. The biggest problem with this kind of manual "spying" is that it’s based on perception, not data. This is where using the right tools becomes essential. They can help you analyze specific metrics and often uncover competitors you didn't even know you had. Tools for a Data-Driven Reality Check Instead of guessing, you can use powerful applications to gather actual data on your competitors' performance. Here are a few that I can suggest for getting a more objective look at the digital landscape. Most of these services have an entry-level plan which is probably the right place to start if you're still learning how they work. Some tools, Like Semrush come with a learning curve and require some education to be useful. SpyFu URL: https://www.spyfu.com Why it's useful: This is a fantastic tool, especially for seeing a competitor's advertising history. You can see the keywords they're buying on Google Ads, the ad copy they're using, and their estimated ad spend. It’s great for reverse-engineering their paid strategy. Semrush URL: https://www.semrush.com Why it's useful: This is an "all-in-one" marketing toolkit. You can plug in any domain and get a deep analysis of its organic search traffic, the keywords it ranks for, its backlink profile, and its ad performance. It’s one of the industry standards for a reason. Ahrefs URL: https://www.ahrefs.com Why it's useful: While also an all-in-one tool, Ahrefs is particularly famous for its backlink index. It's incredibly powerful for seeing who is linking to your competitors. This can give you a clear roadmap for your own digital PR and authority-building efforts. Similarweb URL: https://www.similarweb.com Why it's useful: Similarweb is excellent for getting a high-level estimate of a competitor's website traffic. It provides valuable insights into where that traffic is coming from—for example, direct, search, social, or referral—and which countries their visitors are in. Moz Pro URL: https://www.moz.com Why it's useful: Moz is another long-standing leader in the SEO space. It’s particularly well-known for its "Domain Authority" metric, which helps you benchmark your website's overall "strength" against others. Its keyword tracking and site audit tools are also top-notch. Let Data Be Your Guide It is dangerously easy to become fixated on a single competitor or a single channel for success, whether that's traditional SEO , LinkedIn engagement , or the new frontier of AI search results (GEO) . My advice is to stop the guessing game. Stop letting "competitor envy" based on random activity drive your strategy. Instead, gather actual data. Let that data be your guide to focusing your valuable time and money where they are best spent. A structured plan built on data is what provides a clear path to giving purpose to your marketing and ensuring it actually affects your bottom line.
The Evolution from SEO to AI Search As a B2B business owner, you’ve probably spent years figuring out how to get found on Google. Just when you had a handle on Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the entire landscape changed. Now, we're in a new era of AI-powered search, and it’s introducing a whole new set of acronyms, like AEO and GEO. Why Early Adopters Will Win the Market The current AI search landscape represents a pivotal moment, much like the early days of traditional SEO. Early adopters who invest now in a comprehensive AI search strategy will establish foundational authority and secure a significant, defensible advantage. Those who wait until the scales tilt and AI search becomes the predominant path to discovery will find themselves struggling in a far more competitive and saturated market, fighting for visibility that their proactive competitors have already claimed. By acting decisively, you position your brand to be the trusted, go-to source, capturing the sales and revenue that will increasingly flow through these AI-driven channels. I’ve had hundreds of consultations with business owners, and I know this can be frustrating. It’s simple to make marketing complicated, but it’s very difficult to make it simple. So, let’s do that. In simple terms, the ultimate goal of our services is to make your business visible to potential new customers who are searching for your solutions in unpredictable ways. The Three Paths a Modern Customer Takes Years ago, the path was simple. A customer went to a search engine, typed in a phrase, and clicked on one of the "organic search results," the classic list of blue links on the search engine results page (SERP). Today, your potential customer might take one of three primary paths. For our example, we'll primarily use Google, but it's critical to remember that the Bing search engine commands a sizeable portion of search traffic and cannot be ignored. The Organic Path: This is the traditional route. Your customer searches and chooses to click a direct link to your website from the list of organic results. The AI-SERP Path: Your customer searches, but instead of scrolling down, they engage with Google's AI-powered search results (often called AI Overviews) that appear at the very top of the page. If your business isn't mentioned or cited in this AI answer, you may lose the chance of ever being discovered by this person. The Direct LLM Path: Your customer bypasses search engines entirely. They go directly to a Large Language Model (LLM) like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or Perplexity to do their research, ask questions, and discover companies that can solve their problems. Our job is to ensure you are prominently positioned to be found, no matter which of these three paths your prospect chooses. SEO: The Minimum Price of Entry To be discovered, the minimum price of entry is having a website that is already well-optimized for search engines (SEO). This means your website is discoverable by search engine and AI web crawlers, and its content is well-structured. In many cases, a website with strong SEO might already be appearing in AI search results without you having taken extra steps, simply because Google's AI identifies it as a quality source. But this landscape is becoming intensely competitive. It is projected that AI search results will soon surpass organic search results in user preference. If you are serious about staking a claim to favorable positions in these AI results, basic SEO is no longer enough. Additional, specific steps are needed. This is where AEO and GEO come in. The Integrated Solution: How SEO, AEO, and GEO Work Together These three practices are not separate strategies; they are a single, concurrent process designed to position your website for success in this new, complex "discovery phase" of the buying journey. What is SEO (Search Engine Optimization)? This is the Foundation . SEO is the practice of making your website technically sound, fast, and full of high-quality, relevant content that provides the backbone for your entire strategy. It ensures that search engines can find, crawl, and understand what your business is about. What is AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)? This is the practice of structuring your content to be the single best answer to a specific question. AEO is specifically designed to get your content featured in "zero-click" scenarios like Google's AI Overviews, featured snippets, and voice search replies. It involves creating concise, clear, and "answer-first" content. What is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)? This is the practice of positioning your brand as a trusted, authoritative source that an AI model can use to create a new, synthesized response. The goal of GEO is not just to be the single answer (that's AEO), but to be cited and referenced within a more complex, conversational summary, like those from ChatGPT or in-depth Google answers. A good way to think about it is that AEO is the foundation for GEO. You first prove to the AI that you can answer specific questions (AEO), and over time, the AI learns to trust your brand as an authority on the topic as a whole (GEO). These practices are critical for B2B marketing . Your prospects are using these AI tools to do their initial research. If we miss the chance of being discovered in this discovery phase, your chance of being shortlisted as a reputable solution they will contact to inquire about products or services becomes slim to none. The correct solution is to accomplish SEO, AEO, and GEO concurrently. This integrated strategy is the only way to future-proof your B2B marketing efforts and ensure you are found, trusted, and chosen by your next customer. (Chart data source: https://www.semrush.com/blog/ai-search-seo-traffic-study)
Stop losing B2B sales. Doug Mansfield explains why 'great service' isn't differentiation in marketing and shows you how to actually stand out and close more deals.
Houston B2B owners: Spend your advertising dollars more carefully on Google and LinkedIn Ads. I'm Doug Mansfield, and I'll show you the "Warming up the audience" retargeting strategy to get more leads for less.
