Welcome to the web version of our September 2026 newsletter.
It happened to me. A client mentioned that something I wrote sounded “a little AI” and I fainted dead away.
In all seriousness, though, it was great feedback. I was tiptoeing around the piece in question, afraid of getting anything wrong. And when you’re afraid to get something wrong, you’re sure as heck not going to get anything right.
Now let’s talk about why your brand is so dang important.
One thing I’ve been thinking about a lot is how trackable AI outputs really are. Whereas Google’s SERPs are (or were) more or less consistent, LLM outputs are not; every output is its own thing, influenced by the specific language of a user’s prompt.
That’s not all, though: every LLM generates responses via a slightly different mechanism (e.g., by relying on training data vs. searching the live web).
Per one recent analysis: ChatGPT searched the web 44% of the time (and cited lots of listicles), Gemini searched 74% (and surfaced vendor websites), and Perplexity searched 100% (citing a variety of content).
Not only that, but different models search the live web at different rates. As Lily Ray explains: better models search more (i.e., more tokens = more access to the live web).
So what should you optimize for?
Every piece linked above emphasizes the importance of brand. Increasingly, query fanouts (i.e., what the LLM searches after you type something like “what are the best taco seasoning packets”) include leading brand names.
“10 best” listicles worked well for so long because query fanouts used to include terms like “best taco spice packets,” “best seasoning mixes,” and so on. These days, though, those fanouts are more likely to include brand names (“McCormick,” “Old El Paso,” “Ortega,” etc.).
The takeaway: Ten years ago, Google was THE gatekeeper of attention. To optimize for any audience, you first had to optimize for Google.
Today, attention is more fragmented. If you want to know where to show up online, first figure out where your audience hangs out (this is something a tool like SparkToro can help with), then be there.
In August, ChatGPT citations of Reddit plummeted by 86%. The drop is related to the changing fanout queries I mentioned above: ChatGPT is increasingly searching specific brand sites in fanout queries rather than turning to listicles and Reddit.
Hopefully, if you’re reading this, you don’t care. Because hopefully, you’re focused on getting your message out to your audience and your strategy continues to do that regardless of what the LLMs’ latest algorithms favor.
I know there's a lot of pressure to show AI visibility right now and to have an AI strategy and to be “AI-first.” And yes: LLMs are likely one way your prospects can find out about you.
At the same time, AI visibility can be a shiny object. Given everything we know about the variability of LLMs (see above), building a marketing program around “AI visibility” is a bit like building around what's trending on social media.
The through-the-lookingglass reality that more and more studies validate is that the companies that are the most successful in AI visibility are those that focus not on visibility itself but on building their brands consistently, focusing on venues where their audiences hang out.
In other words: become a leading brand, and you start to get cited more by LLMs as a result (along with other benefits, naturally).
So if you’re tasked with deciding whether your company should get into Reddit or TikTok or whatever to boost AI visibility, bring it back to brand: will that support or dilute your overall brand efforts?
(If you want an excellent take on the “should we do video” question specifically, check out our recent interview with Matt Cornelison of Fungi Media, a video shop for B2B brands.)
“Being smart in public” is a great way to build your brand by building trust with your audience so that, when they’re ready to buy what you sell, they think of you first.
But being smart in public is hard.
For most of us, it’s hard because we’re busy and our primary job is not being smart in public and so we have to carve out time to think of smart things to write and then write them and then post them and next thing you know it’s six months later and you haven’t been smart in public even once.
So here’s my best hack: get some time on your calendar to share your thoughts. You can do this with a ghostwriter or your own little transcription bot. Do not cancel this call, even if you feel like you have nothing to say.
Give yourself a few questions to answer (“What concept do you keep explaining to prospects?” “What got on your nerves this week?” “What’s the last problem you solved for a client?” etc.). Start answering those questions.
I guarantee you’ll have gobs of material when you’re done.
Just recently, we had a call like this with an SME. He came on apologizing that he didn’t have much to share because he’d been so busy the last few weeks, then proceeded to lay down just absolute bangers for 30 straight minutes.
He even chuckled halfway through and was like, “Okay, I guess I did have a few things.”
Trust me on this one: you’ve got the thoughts to lead with. What you probably need is the space to get them out of your brain. Once you’ve translated them into words, they’re shareable. And all of a sudden, it’s much easier to be smart in public and your audience starts to think of you when they need the thing you sell.
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One last thing for you this month: wish you could convey important ideas faster? Content design might help. Mariana recently put together this deck showcasing what she / Propllr can do. If you’re interested in helping your messages land with more impact, take a look.