Your Brand Story Extends Beyond Your Website
Your next customer may form an opinion about your company before visiting your website or speaking with anyone on your team.
They might hear your CEO at an event, read an article, check reviews or ask someone they trust for a recommendation. They might also ask an AI tool to explain what your company does or compare it with a competitor.
Each encounter contributes to their understanding of your brand. Your marketing communications and PR team needs to consider how those pieces fit together, including the ones published years ago.
That is where I see a growing part of the team’s value: connecting media coverage, executive communications, website content and customer experience so people encounter a company they can understand and believe.
An AI answer can draw on more than your latest message
Google explains that its AI search features can run multiple related searches across topics and sources to develop a response. The pages supporting an answer can extend beyond the page a company would most like a prospect to read. developers.google.com
For a brand, that creates a practical concern. An older company description or outdated service page may remain publicly accessible long after the team has adopted new messaging. A third-party profile may describe an audience you no longer serve. An interview may contain a claim you have since revised.
AI tools differ in what they retrieve, and they do not review every source or reliably identify contradictions. But outdated information gives people and systems more opportunities to encounter an inaccurate account of your business.
Publishing a new homepage does not update everything else people can find.
Consistency requires agreement inside the company
A clear brand story begins with decisions about the business. Who do you serve? What problem do you help solve? What can customers expect? What evidence supports those promises?
If leadership, sales and marketing give different answers, a copy edit will only get you so far.
A company might describe itself as an adviser in one place and a software provider in another. That combination can make sense, but someone needs to explain how the services connect. Otherwise, a prospect has to decide which description to believe.
The same applies to claims about results. If an executive promises something the product team cannot support, the inconsistency reaches beyond language. It becomes a customer expectation the business may struggle to meet.
Review what people can find
Start with the questions a prospective customer would ask. Search for your company, executives, services and competitors. Review the sources that appear. Ask AI tools a consistent set of questions, record the answers and inspect any cited sources.
Treat those responses as samples. An answer can vary by tool, wording and date. A single accurate response does not establish that your brand is represented accurately everywhere.
Then review the material behind those first impressions. Include older web pages, downloadable PDFs, executive biographies, company profiles, media coverage and reviews. Compare them with the business you operate today.
Prioritize errors that can affect a buying decision: discontinued services, unsupported claims, obsolete pricing, incorrect leadership information or descriptions aimed at the wrong customer.
For content you own, update what remains useful. Date historical material so readers can understand it as a record of an earlier period. Remove or redirect obsolete pages where appropriate. Ask third-party publishers to correct factual errors, recognizing that editorial decisions remain theirs.
Cracker Barrel’s 2025 logo reversal offers a reminder of how connected a brand’s parts are. Customers interpreted the redesign through their existing feelings about the company. My takeaway is that a single change can prompt people to reassess a much larger story. goodmorningamerica.com
Make maintenance part of communications
A review only helps if someone takes responsibility for the findings. Assign an owner to each correction and agree on when it will be addressed. Include updates to biographies, profiles and older sales material when the business changes.
Give executives and customer-facing teams a shared explanation of the company, with evidence they can use. Adapt the language for different audiences and formats, keeping the underlying promises accurate.
Clear content and sound technical practices can help discovery. Google continues to recommend established SEO practices for its AI search features; appearance in an answer is never guaranteed. developers.google.com
Communications leaders can still improve the quality of what is available. We can publish clear explanations, support claims and address contradictions. We can listen when customers describe an experience that differs from our promises.
Your brand story continues wherever people encounter your company. Keeping those encounters accurate and connected is an ongoing responsibility, and a valuable contribution your marketing communications and PR team can make.