How Manufacturers Can Start Using AI in Marketing – Without Big Investments

Updated: Oct 8

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a complex, unproven technology that you can simply ignore. Much like the debate about whether you needed a company website in the late 1990s or a corporate social media presence in the early 2010s, adoption is inevitable.

If you haven’t taken any action yet, here’s the good news – you have a low-barrier entry point into the AI era: your website.

What Makes Your Website Your Gateway to AI

Many manufacturers and industrial companies hesitate to dive into AI due to the perception of complexity or high costs of implementation. In reality, you don’t have to gear up for a massive transformation across many departments – your marketing team can kick off your AI journey.

Your website is your most visible digital asset, and you have full control over its content because you own it. AI tools rely on structured, optimized content, and you have the power to take the data hub and digital storefront that is your website and align it to be AI-ready. Because a website is never truly “finished” and should receive ongoing updates and refreshes, adopting AI readiness as a priority is a low-cost, high reward activity that can fit smoothly into marketing’s routine activities.

Why Manufacturers Should Care About Optimizing for AI

Your B2B buyers are already using AI, even if they don’t directly recognize it. AI-powered search, such as AI Overviews in search results, and tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot help people find what they are searching for every day. If your company’s information and products aren’t readily accessible for these tools to evaluate and include in their results, you are missing out on crucial leads.

The traditional B2B customer journey looks like this: long sales cycles, multiple touchpoints, and an emphasis on direct sales interactions. AI’s influence is helping potential buyers move further into their journey without contacting a potential vendor directly. Here’s how:

Self-Service Research: Buyers are doing more independent research using AI tools before engaging with a seller, with Gartner finding in a recent study that 61% of B2B buyers prefer to avoid sellers completely.
Direct Answers: AI Overviews give quick answers, reducing potential visitors to your website if your content isn’t optimized as a source.
Trust and Authority: AI prioritizes credible, expert sources and cites them, so optimizing the integrity of your content is critical.
Conversational Search: Buyers are asking more complex, conversational questions to AI tools such as ChatGPT, expecting comprehensive answers.

Where to Start: 5 Key Website Optimization Steps

Your new approach will extend traditional Search Engine Optimization (SEO) with the newer principles for Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). AEO fuels AI overviews within more traditional search engines, while GEO provides answers in AI-based search tools such as ChatGPT.

Here are five low-barrier activities to start optimizing your B2B website for AI-assisted search:

Become an Answer Hub (AEO focus)
AEO prefers highly extractable content for featured snippets, AI Overviews, and “people also ask” boxes, so you want to create and organize content that is easy to scan and pull. These are FAQ sections, How-To Guides, and detailed comparison pages that concisely answer questions your customers ask during their buying journey. Use clear headings, bullet points, and numbered lists.
Structure Your Content for AI Comprehension (GEO and SEO focus)
AI needs logical flow and organization to understand and synthesize information for its generated responses. Ensure your traditional SEO components are in order with clear HTML headings (<h1>, <h2>, <h3>) that explain your content’s structure and topics, and break down long paragraphs into shorter, easier-to-scan sections. Use schema markup (such as FAQpage, HowTo, Organization) where appropriate to explicitly tell search engines about your content. This markup helps AI understand your content more deeply.
Optimize for Conversational and Long-Tail Questions (AEO and GEO focus)
People tend to ask questions to an AI in longer form than a traditional search engine. Think about how a person would ask a question about your product type in natural language and use these questions in your headings and content. For example, think about using “What are benefits of cloud-based CRMs for manufacturing companies?” instead of “Cloud-based CRM”. This optimizes for AEO, capturing featured content for snippets of specific questions and GEO, making your content more relevant for conversational AI questions.
Build a Content Strategy to Highlight Your Brand's Credibility (Authority focus)
Google uses criteria called E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) to evaluate and rank content, which AI models heavily rely on to determine sources for their generated answers. Cite credible sources such as industry reports within your content and link to them. Feature customer testimonials, case studies, and awards you’ve received. Feature your experts that can provide thought leadership content and include bios (think product managers, engineers, trainers, and tenured field service staff). This type of content builds trust with both customers and AI.
Prioritize User Experience and Technical Website Health (SEO focus)
Don’t forget about foundational SEO best practices! You still need to ensure your website is fast, secure, and easy to use. Ensure your website is mobile-friendly to provide excellent experience on all screens, your page loading speed is fast with optimized images and browser caching, secure with HTTPS, and that navigation is clear for users and AI crawlers. These are fundamental SEO needs that directly impact how search engines (and AI) can crawl, index and understand your site, making your content more discoverable.

Conclusion

Updating your website is a smart, accessible first step into AI for any manufacturer. You can start small by auditing your site and picking one area to improve. Use analytics to track performance and iterate! As your site evolves and your improvements grow, you are positioning your company and its products to be found and understood by AI and by new customers.

Need a hand in evaluating your site’s readiness for AI-assisted search, or a boost in kicking off the project? Let us know – we’re happy to help.

Key Points Summary

What is a low-cost way for manufacturers to start using AI? Optimizing your website for AI-assisted search is a simple, affordable entry point. Focus on content structure, schema markup, and long-tail keyword questions.

What’s the difference between SEO, AEO, and GEO for manufacturers? SEO helps you rank on traditional search engines, AEO prepares your content for featured snippets and “People Also Ask” boxes, while GEO targets generative AI tools like ChatGPT.

How does AI affect the industrial buyer journey? AI tools help buyers find trusted information faster, often reducing direct sales contact. A strong digital presence makes your company easier to find.

What kind of content helps AI understand my manufacturing website? Structured content like FAQs, how-to guides, product comparisons, and expert insights using headings and schema helps AI evaluate your expertise.

How do we build website optimization for AI-assisted search into our already ambitious schedule? Websites are ongoing projects and never truly finished; extending your SEO with AEO and GEO best practices should be aligned with your maintenance plans. If your team is small and needs a resource boost or would benefit from expertise in strategic implementation, consider an outside partner that knows your industry and the demands of your field.