Recent years have seen a quiet shift in consumer behavior from using search engines like Google and Yahoo to primarily using generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek and Perplexity to find answers to the questions about products and services. I mean, why sift through seemingly endless results when ChatGPT can give you a curated list of the top three recommended options specific to your listed criteria?
For all organizations offering a product or service, including associations, this change in behavior requires a significant marketing pivot. Traditional Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is still important, but so is understanding the new arena of Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Associations now need to find the best way to tell their stories online in a way that generative and answer-oriented search can pick up and respond to.
We covered the “what and why” of AEO and GEO in the article “From SEO to AEO to GEO: What Does It Mean for Associations?” The next step is exploring the current state of your association’s AEO and GEO to inform your marketing efforts. Here are 3 questions to jump start your exploration.
1. Have you searched for your organization recently?
The best way to see if your association is showing up in AEO and GEO results is to search for it yourself! Experiencing what your members and other stakeholders are finding is a great way to assess the current state and identify opportunities. It also gives you a glimpse of what kind of story the generative search tools are sharing about your association.
Go to ChatGPT or your preferred LLM and ask a simple question like “What top 5 associations are available for my profession or industry?” (Fill in specific words to describe what your association offers.)
This brief insight gives you a starting point. Are you on the list? What is being said about your organization? Does it seem accurate? What audience would it appeal to? Is that the right audience?
2. How is generative search evolving?
The AI industry is still in its infancy and just now gaining traction with the general public. That means the companies creating and selling these generative AI search platforms will continue to evolve them, add to them, refine them, and ensure they meet the growing demand of their audiences. As such, the answer-oriented and generative search results for your association may differ over time. It’s important to keep track of those changes so you can similarly evolve your marketing strategies where necessary.
You can think of it like an experiment. Each time you search for your association using an LLM, keep track of what you find. Note your prompt/question, the date, and how the LLM answered. Repeat this test over time and with different generative AI tools. Repeating a similar test regularly will help you spot trends and learn what may shift.
Keep in mind that the tools you use will learn your habits and interests, so you will also learn and experience how generative AI search evolves as it gets more familiar with your inputs.
3. What marketing strategies can you adopt to optimize generative AI search results for your association?
Unlike traditional SEO, LLMs don’t tend to reward a web page for backlinks or keyword density. Instead, LLMs prioritize the ability to synthesize information they find into a digestible prompt response. This means:
Your web content should prioritize leading with direct answers and not spend a ton of paragraphs leading up to them. Don’t bury the lead, or the LLM will likely move on.
Your association’s brand information should to be consistent everywhere it is posted online to ensure the LLM can identify patterns in how your association is presented across outlets.
Your association should be mentioned frequently and in locations where LLMs are looking for information, including community forums and social media like LinkedIn and Reddit.
Credibility is also helpful to improving AEO and GEO. As an association, you have a unique opportunity to highlight your members' knowledge and credibility. This strategy fits with what generative AI wants to share with users: answers. Identify your areas of expertise and build credibility with every web update and social post by adding titles and degrees, respected references, and other authority-boosting details.
Showing up where your members and prospective members are searching for you has always been a top marketing priority. Adapting your association’s web content for answer-engine and generative search is a necessary step to ensuring your ideal audience can still find you.
We have experts who can help.
Impact’s team of association professionals have years of experience developing and executing strategic marketing initiatives to help associations reach their target audiences.
Impact clients see an average 55.96% increase in membership and an average 89.6% membership retention rate (2024) as compared to the median membership renewal rate for U.S. professional societies of 81% (according to the MGI 2023 Membership Marketing Benchmark Report).
Reach out to start the conversation about increasing your association’s visibility and operational success.