Ever worry that optimizing your copy for search and AI will make it sound like a robot wrote it? I hear that fear from journalists all the time, and I get it. After training more than 150 journalists in the newsroom, I’ve learned the opposite is true: Writing for your busy readers is optimizing for search and answer engines. Here’s why that matters to marketers and how to make it work for you.

Why do journalists resist writing for engines? 

One of the things I hear most when I train journalists on search engine optimization (SEO) and answer engine optimization (AEO) is, “I don’t want to write for an engine. I want to write for my readers.” 

I completely understand, and I agree with the sentiment. Who wants to write for a robot? I want real people’s eyeballs on my work. But I also have to accept that the people I want reading it are extremely busy, need solutions and need to know I’m writing exactly for them. 

I give marketers the same advice. You may worry that optimizing will make your copy stiff or generic, but writing for your audience, the humans with the eyeballs, is optimizing. We just rarely think of it that way. 

Why does this matter to marketers? 

Because your buyers are busy, and they’re asking questions before they ever talk to you. Increasingly, they ask search engines and AI assistants, and those tools reward the same thing buyers do: a fast, clear answer written for someone like them. If your copy buries the answer or never says who it’s for, readers bounce and engines skip you for a source that does it better. 

Here’s how to do it: 

• Find the questions your buyers are asking. Look through Reddit threads, social media posts, customer support tickets and sales call notes, or ask your sales reps what customers raise most often. Google’s “People Also Ask” boxes, Google Search Console and your own site search are also good sources.
• Use those questions as subheadings (H2s). Write them the way your buyers would say them.
• Answer in the first sentence or two beneath each one. Then add context, nuance and proof.
• Use your audience’s words, not yours. Internal product names and company jargon rarely match what buyers type into a search bar. 

How do you make sure the right buyer knows it’s for them?

Say so. Calling out your audience means letting them know that a message, thought leadership piece or product is meant for them. 

To put this into perspective, there are myriad types of media companies and people who work in them. If you read a headline that says, “The Top 10 Media Trends,” your interest may be piqued, but you may not have the time or the inclination to click through to see if it’s talking to you, the B2B brand marketer. Now imagine the headline read, “U.S. B2B Brand Marketers Explain the Media Trends They’re Seeing.” You’d know right away who it was aimed at: you. And it’s far more likely to contain what you need to do your job better. 

I’ve worked with plenty of journalists who resist this. They feel readers should know the content is for them because they landed on the site and can see the tagline. But searchers and answer engine users often land deep inside a site, on a single page, without ever seeing a tagline. 

There’s another problem. Unless you’re new to the product or brand, you probably know your company’s website backward and forward. You know every spec sheet and product description like the back of your hand. That makes you an atypical audience for your own website. Marketers call this the “curse of knowledge”: You know far more than most of your visitors do. To optimize for your audience — and the engines — you need to think like someone who isn’t familiar with your product or brand. 

Here’s how to do it: 

• Define who you’re writing for. What’s your ideal customer profile (ICP), meaning the type of company that’s the best fit? And what’s the buyer persona, meaning the specific role at that company who researches, influences or signs off on the purchase?
• Name them in your copy. Is this solution meant to help IT managers, OT engineers or the CTO? Say it.
• Put the callout where people look first: the headline, the subheading, the opening paragraph, the meta description and the email subject line.
• Give it a cold read. Show the copy to someone outside your team. If they can’t tell you who it’s for within a few seconds, keep editing.