How Marketing Leaders are Thinking About AEO

47 snips

Jan 27, 2026

Guest

Clare Schmitt

Clare Schmitt, VP at Piedmont Global, focuses on globalization and cross-cultural marketing. Marcy Comer, CMO at EagleView, leads revenue-driven SEO/AEO strategy for property intelligence. Dave Steer, CMO at Webflow, emphasizes site strategy for humans and AI. They discuss how AI changes search behavior, prompt tracking and PR’s renewed role, structured content and practical AEO tactics for teams.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

ADVICE

Track Prompts, Not Just Keywords

Track AI visibility by identifying top prompts your buyers use and monitor your position over time.
Use tools and dashboards to measure prompt rankings and competitive intelligence.

ADVICE

Avoid Black‑Hat Shortcut Tactics

Avoid manipulative 'black hat' tactics like paying to alter source content or gaming citations.
Focus on white-hat content and credible third-party citations to influence LLM outputs.

ADVICE

Be Generous With Helpful Tools

Be generous with helpful content and build tools like free AEO assessments to educate your audience.
Create resources that diagnose customer needs and recommend clear fixes.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

#324 | Dave is joined by three marketing leaders from different industries to talk on a live session about AI and SEO and what they've learned over the last year. Dave Steer (CMO at Webflow), Marcy Comer (CMO at EagleView) and Clare Schmitt (VP, Marketing & Communications at Piedmont Global) break down how buyers are learning about products through ChatGPT and why traditional SEO fundamentals still matter. The group shares real examples of how they’re approaching content, prompt tracking, PR, and brand authority, plus advice for marketers on where to focus, what to ignore, and how to guide their teams through this search shift.

Timestamps

(01:06) - Why AI + SEO is the hottest (and most confusing) topic in B2B marketing right now
(05:11) - Meet the panel: marketing leaders from Webflow, EagleView, and Piedmont Global
(08:49) - How AI search is changing buyer behavior vs traditional Google search
(12:32) - EagleView’s real approach to AI search, greenfield opportunities, and prompt tracking
(15:39) - What “black hat” vs “white hat” tactics look like in AI-driven search
(19:46) - Webflow’s take: integrated marketing, generosity, and building useful tools
(30:09) - Getting past high-level advice and into real execution
(35:09) - “Circle the buyer”: how content builds demand before buyers are in-market
(38:52) - Why PR is back: long-form press, citations, and brand credibility in AI search
(45:52) - What to do if you’re a startup with no budget: focus on positioning first

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/

***

Brought to you by:

AirOps - The content engineering platform that helps marketers create and maintain high-quality, on-brand content that wins AI search. Go to airops.com/exitfive to start creating content that reflects your expertise, stays true to your brand, and is engineered for performance across human and AI discovery.

Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.

Convertr - The enterprise lead data management platform that sits between your lead sources and your CRM, automatically validating, enriching, and standardizing every lead before it touches your systems. Check them out at convertr.io/exitfive.

Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand generation agency that helps high-growth cybersecurity, DevOps, and enterprise software companies drive more pipeline through AI SEO, paid media, and go-to-market engineering. Visit compoundgrowthmarketing.com and tell them Dave sent you.

***

Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.

They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.
Visit hatch.fm to learn more