Hello, Hello, and Happy Tuesday!
Did your Monday have that look on its face? Mines did. It's the kind of face where your inbox has 16 messages before 9 a.m., and your to-do list quietly added three things overnight.
I'll try my very best to keep this short because this week's news is important and could change what you should be doing with your marketing this month.
1. Google Just Changed Search. Most Businesses Haven’t Adjusted Yet.
Google’s AI Mode is now the default search experience globally.
Instead of showing a list of links, Google increasingly provides direct answers at the top of the page. For many searches, users get what they need without ever clicking through to a website.
For businesses that rely on search traffic, this is a significant shift.
Why It Matters
For years, marketers focused on getting people to visit their websites.
Now, Google is working to keep users inside Google’s experience.
That means fewer clicks, fewer visits, and potentially fewer opportunities to convert traffic you’ve spent years trying to attract. Crazy, I know.
The question will no longer be:
“How do I rank?”
The question is:
“How do I become a source Google’s AI trusts enough to reference?”
What This Means for Your Business
Businesses that consistently publish original insights, answer real customer questions, and establish a clear area of expertise are more likely to benefit from AI-driven search.
Businesses that sound like everyone else may struggle to stand out.
This isn’t just a marketing issue.
It’s a positioning issue.
L.A. Branding Perspective
I’ve said for years that strong brands create clarity before they create attention.
What we’re seeing now reinforces that idea.
When AI systems evaluate information, they aren’t looking for the loudest voice.
They’re looking for signals of trust, consistency, and expertise.
The businesses that know exactly who they serve and what they stand for are entering this next chapter with an advantage.
2. ChatGPT Ads Have Arrived. Here’s What I Think Business Owners Should Watch.
OpenAI has expanded advertising inside ChatGPT and introduced tools that make it easier for businesses to test campaigns at relatively low cost.
The platform is quickly becoming more than a productivity tool.
It’s becoming a discovery platform.
Why It Matters
People are increasingly asking ChatGPT questions they once asked Google.
Questions like:
- Who should I hire?
- What product should I buy?
- What company should I trust?
That’s a different type of marketing opportunity than traditional social advertising.
The user is already looking for an answer.
What This Means for Your Business
I wouldn’t recommend that every business rush to spend money on ChatGPT ads tomorrow.
But I would recommend paying attention.
Especially if:
- You sell professional services
- You offer consulting
- You solve specific business problems
- Your customers have high intent
L.A. Branding Perspective
Everyone gets excited about the next advertising opportunity.
Meanwhile, customers are still trying to figure out what half these businesses actually do.
If your message isn’t landing, a new channel just gives more people the chance to misunderstand it.
Clear positioning travels well.
Confusing positioning struggles everywhere. Everywhere? Yes, everywhere!
3. LinkedIn Just Sent the Clearest Content Signal We’ve Seen in Years.
This one slightly annoys me, but I digress. LinkedIn is giving significantly more visibility to native vertical video while reducing the reach of posts that contain external links.
At the same time, LinkedIn’s AI systems appear to be rewarding authentic expertise over highly polished, formulaic content.
Why It Matters
Many professionals still treat LinkedIn like a place to drop links and leave.
The platform is telling us it wants something different.
It wants people to stay, it wants conversation, and it wants expertise delivered directly on the platform.
What This Means for Your Business
If LinkedIn is part of your marketing strategy:
- Share insights before links.
- Teach before you promote.
- Experiment with short-form video.
- Focus on helping rather than broadcasting.
L.A. Branding Perspective
This trend doesn’t surprise me. It makes LinkedIn feel like every other social platform, but it doesn't surprise me.
Truth be told, the most effective content has always sounded like a person, not a publication.
People connect with people.
So a simple video of you sharing something you’ve learned this week may outperform a perfectly written article that nobody feels connected to.
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A Thought From Behind The Brand: "Anybody Can Follow the Recipe..."
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Last week I was talking with a friend who owns a life coaching business. For years, she’d done everything YouTube University for Marketing tells you to do. Consistent content. Strong SEO. Healthy website. Good backlinks. All of the bells and whistles.
Then her traffic started dropping.
At first, she assumed something was broken. It wasn’t. People were getting answers from Google’s AI before they ever reached her website. What caught my attention that helped me support her was noticing what didn’t disappear.
What was that, you ask?
It was her articles and videos that continued showing up, which were created from her own research. She had surveyed clients, collected insights, and shared findings nobody else had. Those pieces kept getting referenced.
It reminded me of something my mom says about homemade food. "Anybody can follow a recipe. Not everybody brings something unique to the table." (Mic drop. I know, my mom is as smart as she is a good cook.)
I think that’s where we are with marketing right now.
AI can summarize information. It can repeat common advice. It can gather what’s already been said.
What it can’t do is replace your experience, your observations, your stories, and the things you’ve learned from doing the work.
The businesses that stand out in the next few years won’t necessarily be the ones creating the most content. I think they’ll be the ones sharing something only they can share.
Call me biased, but I am here for that. I am all about championing the brilliance of your authentic voice, your creativity, and your products and services. You have something worth remembering and something worth repeating.
So here’s the question I’ve been sitting with for my clients and my business personally this week:
- If someone searched for a business exactly like yours and an AI platform summarized what you do, what would it say?
- Would it describe you as unique, memorable, and worth choosing? Or would it sound a lot like everyone else in your industry?
That’s a question worth spending some time with.
Quick Tips & Tricks
Move your LinkedIn links out of the post body and into the first comment. Write your post as a complete thought. It should be something worth reading on its own. Then drop the URL in a comment right after you publish. You'll stop triggering the reach penalty, and your post will circulate further before anyone clicks out. This single habit change can meaningfully restore the distribution you may have been losing. One tweak, same brilliant content, wider reach.
This Week's Dos & Don'ts
Do: Audit your customer journey by timing how long it takes a first-time visitor to understand what you do.
Don't: Assume your audience understands industry terms simply because you use them every day.
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Perplexity's Pages Feature
If you haven't used it yet, Perplexity Pages lets you create AI-assisted research documents that are publicly accessible and indexed.
Think of it as a public knowledge asset. Instead of posting another social update that disappears in the minds of a doomscroller, create something that demonstrates your expertise and can continue working for you long after it’s published.
Treat it like a digital whitepaper, not a social post.
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Trend Worth Watching
We’re entering an era where businesses will need to optimize for three audiences simultaneously:
- Humans
- Algorithms
- AI systems
Daunting, I know. After we release a heavy community sigh, let's get to work on creating clear, useful, and trustworthy content that all three can understand.
Clarity is becoming a scalability advantage, and you deserve to reap the rewards of what comes from it.
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Community Engagement Corner
This week's question:
What is something you know about your industry that you wish more customers understood?
Hit reply and share it with me.
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Remember...
The content that survived was the content nobody else could create.
See you next week!
Lena Anderson
Founder & Chief Branding Enthusiast L.A. Branding
