How Marketing Leaders are Thinking About AEO

#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 (03:53) - Meet the panel: marketing leaders from Webflow, EagleView, and Piedmont Global (07:31) - How AI search is changing buyer behavior vs traditional Google search (11:14) - EagleView’s real approach to AI search, greenfield opportunities, and prompt tracking (14:21) - What “black hat” vs “white hat” tactics look like in AI-driven search (18:28) - Webflow’s take: integrated marketing, generosity, and building useful tools (26:25) - Getting past high-level advice and into real execution (31:25) - “Circle the buyer”: how content builds demand before buyers are in-market (35:08) - Why PR is back: long-form press, citations, and brand credibility in AI search (42:08) - 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/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - the AI platform for marketers. Build your own AI agents or pull from a directory of 50+ pre-built ones for marketing use cases. Their new Virtual Teammates can join meetings, complete tasks, support campaigns, and keep your website optimized. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive.Webflow - A website platform built for the agentic web, letting modern marketing teams build fully custom sites that perform in AI search with no developer needed. Learn more at webflow.com/for/exitfive.Zoom Webinars & Events – The virtual event platform built to help B2B marketers run webinars that actually drive pipeline, with branded registration pages, live engagement features, and built-in tools to repurpose sessions into clips and content. Learn more at zoom.com/exitfive.Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand gen agency helping high-growth cybersecurity and enterprise software companies show up earlier in the buying journey, combining AEO, modern paid advertising, and a dedicated go-to-market engineering team. Podcast listeners get two free media planning sessions to find out what channels are driving the best ROI. Learn more at compoundgrowthmarketing.com/exitfive. ***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