{"id":208984,"date":"2025-04-27T15:52:31","date_gmt":"2025-04-27T15:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/marketing\/right-now-strategies-with-andy-crestodina\/"},"modified":"2025-04-27T15:52:31","modified_gmt":"2025-04-27T15:52:31","slug":"right-now-strategies-with-andy-crestodina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=208984","title":{"rendered":"Right-Now Strategies with Andy Crestodina"},"content":{"rendered":"


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In Part 1<\/span><\/a> of my conversation with Andy Crestodina on The ChangeOver Podcast<\/span><\/a>, we explored strategic content allocation, the evolution of blogging, and how to create high-value content with limited resources.<\/p>\n

In part two, Andy shares tactical insights on adapting to AI\u2019s impact on search<\/span><\/a>, leveraging analytics in decision-making<\/span><\/a>, and creating more effective content through smart experimentation.<\/p>\n

As AI fundamentally changes the ways people access information, industrial marketers face new challenges in measuring effectiveness and demonstrating ROI. <\/strong>Andy\u2019s pragmatic approach focuses on strategic restraint, rigorous measurement, and continual experimentation to provide a framework for content marketers looking to win the long game.<\/p>\n

I recommend listening to the full episode to hear directly from Andy as he breaks down complex topics with his characteristic clarity. Pressed for time? Skim the blog to whet your appetite, and come back to the full podcast for a deeper dive.<\/p>\n

Check out episode 20\u00a0of The ChangeOver now, then subscribe on <\/span>Apple<\/a>, <\/span>YouTube<\/a>, <\/span>Spotify<\/a>, <\/span>Weidert.com<\/a>, or your favorite podcast app.<\/span><\/p>\n

Your New Website Visitors Aren\u2019t Human<\/h2>\n

Perhaps the most mind-bending aspect of our conversation centered on what Andy referred to as \u201cnon-human users\u201d \u2014 AI agents and bots that now visit your website alongside human visitors:<\/p>\n

There are two types of AI visitors to your website. One is a bot that\u2019s visited many times, just like Google bots do. It\u2019s trying to understand what you do. The other is the AI agent that clicks around, reports back to its human user, can fill out your forms. It\u2019s going to get weird.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When a prospect asks an AI assistant to research companies, their AI doesn\u2019t simply Google \u2014 it visits websites, clicks through navigation, digests content, and compiles data. Unlike human visitors, AI doesn\u2019t get tired or lose patience \u2014 it reads everything. This creates new \u201cAI accessibility\u201d considerations that demand websites with exceptional clarity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a potentially alarming problem looming for data-driven marketers: AI doesn’t show up in your analytics. They don’t accept cookies. At the same time, privacy laws don’t apply to this type of visitor \u2014 and very smart people are hard at work figuring a way around the problem.<\/p>\n

How to optimize your website for non-human users:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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  1. Prioritize clarity over aesthetics<\/strong>: Ensure your website communicates what you do, who you serve, and how you solve problems with absolute clarity.<\/li>\n
  2. Enhance your structured data<\/strong>: Implement comprehensive schema markup to make your key business information machine-readable.<\/li>\n
  3. Create a GA4 exploration for AI traffic<\/strong>: \u201cFirst thing you need to do is to go to GA4 and create a report. It\u2019s called an exploration that shows traffic from AI to your website. It\u2019s the fastest growing traffic to your website.\u201d<\/li>\n
  4. Answer all potential questions<\/strong>: \u201cYou need a site that answers all the questions because the agentic AI doesn’t get tired or lose patience. It will read every word.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Focus on informational completeness:<\/span> Include detailed specifications, pricing information, service areas, and other key decision factors.<\/p>\n

    Optimizing Content to Appear in AI Recommendations<\/h2>\n

    To <\/a>position your brand for AI recommendation<\/span><\/a>, Andy suggests focusing on distribution and promotion strategies that achieve widespread brand mentions, to increase the appearance of your brand within AI training data<\/span> (i.e., the internet) alongside the phrases you want to be associated with. He emphasizes that getting recommended by AI systems will be a critical move <\/span>for businesses in 2025 and beyond. His specific advice:<\/span><\/p>\n

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    Probably, a bunch of our content should be on other people\u2019s websites. Guest posts, press releases, a pitch, be present in roundups… webinars, live events. And then, when you have the chance in that context, make sure that you give the tiny elevator pitch for your business because that\u2019s what we\u2019re injecting into the training data.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    The Data Opacity Crisis<\/h2>\n

    We\u2019re entering a new period of what you might call a \u201cdata opacity crisis,\u201d where clean attribution models are disintegrating. While it\u2019s muddying the waters, it\u2019s worth asking how dependable attribution models have been in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n

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    This takes us back to marketing in the 1990s or 80s or 70s when you do the things, but you don\u2019t ever hope to connect it straight line. It was a weird era we were in when you could sort of get attribution on things like clicks, and that specific action led to the specific outcome. That\u2019s becoming much more difficult now.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    The multi-channel, AI-mediated customer journey is rendering traditional analytics increasingly inadequate. But that doesn’t mean measurement is dead \u2014 it means we need to dig deeper:<\/span><\/p>\n

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    If you don’t click two or three times on an analytics report, it’s not a good analytics report. You have to keep clicking on it, make a filter or create a secondary dimension, customize the report or create comparisons.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    How to adapt your analytics approach:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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    1. Stop focusing on top-line metrics<\/strong>: Never report on top line traffic alone. Drill down traffic from search to key pages.<\/li>\n
    2. Create customized reports<\/strong>: \u201cIf you don\u2019t click two or three times on an analytics report, it\u2019s not a good report. You have to keep clicking on it, make a filter or create a secondary dimension, customize the report or create comparisons.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n
    3. Look for patterns, not just direct attribution<\/strong>: Correlate changes in traffic to specific pages with sales activity.<\/li>\n
    4. Exclude irrelevant traffic<\/strong>: Consider filtering out those two or three random blogs that drive lots of traffic but have little to no business impact.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Focus on what matters most: Ask yourself what phrases still have \u201cvisit-website\u201d intent<\/span> \u2014 before you create a piece of content.<\/p>\n

      Advanced AI Applications: From Audits to Synthetic Personas<\/h2>\n

      While many marketers already use AI for content creation, Andy highlighted more sophisticated applications for marketing impact, like mini audits, content gap analysis, and synthetic persona creation<\/strong> using custom GPTs<\/strong>:<\/span><\/p>\n

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      Imagine. The end result will be that you have a synthetic member of your target audience that you can talk to day or night. You can get feedback on any asset.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

      To build AI personas that add value to your program, Andy recommended focusing on five key elements:<\/p>\n

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      1. Build comprehensive persona documents<\/strong>: Include hopes and dreams, fears and concerns, emotional triggers, decision criteria, and objections.<\/li>\n
      2. Upload supporting materials<\/strong>: \u201cYou can upload to AI. I\u2019ve got an ideal client persona profile, or I\u2019ve got some interview notes from my last 10 meetings, you know \u2014 or the SparkToro<\/span><\/a> reports.\u201d<\/li>\n
      3. Validate and refine<\/strong>: Remember, AI will miss something. You\u2019re still the expert, and accountable for the accuracy of your personas.<\/li>\n
      4. Use for asset review<\/strong>: Ask for feedback on your marketing strategy, on assets, on trusted channels for distribution.<\/li>\n
      5. Create targeted audit prompts<\/strong>: <\/span>Here\u2019s an example from Andy,\u00a0\u201cRate the extent to which this [content piece] meets or does not meet the information needs of the persona, or aligns or does not align with the emotions of the persona.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Paid Advertising: Strategic Resource Allocation<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

        When it comes to paid promotion, Andy advocates for a selective approach based on conversion data:<\/span><\/p>\n

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        If you have a page in Google Analytics, like one of your sales pages, that\u2019s got like a three or four or 5% conversion rate \u2014 yeah, let\u2019s buy some visitors to that, because when you\u2019ve found your best mousetrap, put some cheese on that baby.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

        Rather than spreading your budget across multiple campaigns, concentrate on pages with proven conversion performance.<\/p>\n

        The Stakeholder Persuasion Game<\/span><\/h2>\n

        In discussing how to secure buy-in from stakeholders, Andy revealed an underused strategy \u2014 applying marketing principles to internal audiences:<\/span><\/p>\n

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        Use FOMO to get approval from your executives by showing them that your competitors are pretty strong in these categories. Social proof is one of the most powerful levers for triggering visitor behavior. It’s also a very powerful lever for triggering stakeholder buy-in behavior\u2026 Use your marketing skills. Bring data, bring evidence, and trigger biases \u2014 it works.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

        This approach recognizes that securing resources is fundamentally a persuasion challenge<\/strong> \u2014 one that requires the same strategic thinking we apply to external marketing:<\/span><\/p>\n