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Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Guide

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is transforming how brands show up in AI-powered search. Explore insights, strategies, and best practices to help your content rank and resonate across conversational engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Explore insights and strategies for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help your brand stay visible and discoverable in AI-powered search.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Blog Collection | Meltwater

Media monitoring helps organizations stay informed about what’s being said across online news, print, broadcast, podcasts, and other media channels. Whether you're tracking brand mentions, measuring PR performance, monitoring competitors, or identifying emerging trends, our expert guides, best practices, and industry insights will help you build a smarter media monitoring strategy and make more informed communications decisions.

Discover expert media monitoring guides, best practices, and industry insights to track brand mentions, monitor competitors, and stay ahead of the news.

Media Monitoring: Guides, Best Practices & Industry Insights

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.

Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

On our social listening category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around social listening and social media monitoring. Read more.

Social Listening Blogs | Category

Business Reputation Management: What does it take to add reputation management to your marketing strategy? More importantly, how do you keep your reputation sparkly and shiny? Here’s your all-access guide to online reputation management for the long term.

On our reputation management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around business reputation management. Read more.

Reputation Management Blogs | Category

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?

The key to success is branding & brand management!

On our brand management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around brand management. Build your strategy and reach your goals!

Brand Management Blogs | Category

Competitive intelligence and the act of collecting competitive data can be seen as growth drivers for a company. Our guide will help you understand the concept of competitive intelligence (CI) by answering questions such as: What is the definition of competitive intelligence? How is competitive intelligence useful to organizations? What is the goal of competitive intelligence? And more.

On our competitive intelligence category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around competitive intelligence. Learn how to stay ahead.

Competitive Intelligence Blogs | Category

Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.

On our customer journey category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Customer Journey Blogs | Category

How do customers interact with my newly launched product?

How do I increase the productivity of my employees?

How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?

We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

On our data analytics category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around AI and data analytics. Technical and still easy to understand.

AI & Data Analytics Blogs | Category

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.

So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

On our public relations (PR) category page, you find all our blogs covering public relations and communications topics. Step up your PR game.

Public Relations (PR) Blogs | Category

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.

But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!

But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

On our internal communications category page, you find all our blogs about internal comms topics. Learn about the intranet, internal newsletters, and more.

Internal Communications Blogs | Category

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.

Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

On our content marketing category page, you find blogs about content marketing topics. Learn about strategies, KPIs, tips, and more. Make your content king!

Content Marketing Blogs | Category

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.

We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

On our influencer marketing category page, you find blogs about influencer marketing topics. Build your strategy, find influencers, and measure results.

Influencer Marketing Blogs | Category

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.

Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

On our marketing category page, you find blogs about marketing topics. Learn about all the different angles and types of marketing and improve your results.

Marketing Blogs | Category

Building a following and using social media platforms to reach a wider audience requires a well-planned social media marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll be looking at why social media marketing is so essential and how you can make it work for your business.

On our social media marketing category page, you find blogs about social media marketing topics. Learn how to get the highest paid social ROI!

Social Media Marketing Blogs | Category

In the fast-evolving realm of digital marketing and public relations, utilizing the right tools is crucial for success. Our interdisciplinary category showcases all the pertinent tools for digital marketing & PR. These tools help in enhancing your online presence and effectively reaching target groups, whether through reputation management, influencer marketing, or social media management.

On our digital marketing and PR tools category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Digital Marketing & PR Tools Blogs | Category

Kim Cattrall takes the lead in a campaign celebrating the intelligence behind confident brand decisions.

Intelligence is always in style: Kim Cattrall stars in Meltwater’s new campaign

AI adoption is no longer the challenge—trusted context is. Most organizations have AI tools, but many still rely on disconnected, stale, or unverified data, limiting the quality and trustworthiness of AI-generated outputs. Meltwater MCP brings trusted, real-time intelligence into AI assistants.

Your Best Context is Already in the Room

See how one platform can power every decision across PR, communications, and marketing.

The Meltwater Blog

Blog Topics: Generative Engine Optimization, Media Intelligence, Media Relations, Social Listening, Consumer Intelligence, Influencer Marketing

Find out how you can leverage Facebook to boost your brand's online presence and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Facebook Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage Instagram to boost your brand's visual appeal and gain a competitive edge. Explore our category page today!

Instagram Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIn to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

LinkedIn Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage TikTok to elevate your brand with creative content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

TikTok Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage X / Twitter to engage your audience effectively and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

X / Twitter Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage YouTube to create engaging video content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

YouTube Blog | Meltwater

Consumer trends affect all industries, but perhaps none more so than fashion. Public sentiment drives purchasing decisions, and fashion brands need to know what consumers want before releasing their next range.

But while some brands get lucky with one or two particularly appealing designs, the top brands use data to anticipate and react to trends. This is part-science, part-artform. And to succeed in this hyper-competitive market, consumer insights need to be a central part of the business model.

So we’re going to look at a few examples of brands doing this well. More importantly, we’re going to see how other brands can adopt this approach to gives themselves the same advantage as their peers.

The importance of consumer insights for fashion brands

Customer segments or “tribes” in fashion

Social media is rich with consumer insights for fashion brands

Here’s an extraordinary statistic: In the last ten years, all of the profit in the fashion industry has come from only 20% of those companies. Most brands barely break even or actually lose money.

Research company McKinsey says this is now a “winners-take-all business.” You’re in direct competition with other fashion houses, and there’s only so much profit to go around.

You literally can’t afford to lose customers.

In that same report above, McKinsey looked for key drivers in the fashion industry. What separates that successful 20% from the brands that struggle?

Top brands rely heavily on data analytics, especially early in the creative process.

Industry leaders are quick to react, and release new products within eight weeks. This is vital if you want to react to consumer insights and trends.

That’s why global brands are heavily investing in market research and other sources of consumer insights; in order to succeed as a global fashion mark, you need access to good, timely consumer data. You also need to be able to put this data to use quickly, before a trend dies out.

We’re going to look below at how to get this data online. Since consumers spend so much time on social media and the Internet, these have become essential sources for insights.

But first, a quick refresher by taking a look at the consumer insights basics.

This is a mixed blessing for businesses. On the one hand, buyers are actively looking for new brands to wear. They no longer simply walk into a store and ask a shop assistant for help. They research, read reviews, and look for the perfect items to match their personality.

Having smart shoppers can clearly be a good thing. If you know people are looking for certain things, you have a good chance of reaching them in their search.

But at the same time, brand loyalty is now less of a guarantee than ever. In fact, Amazon is seeing huge retail success on the back of private labels. Many consumers don’t even care that their purchases are branded at all. As long as something looks the way they want, they’re happy.

And buyers’ options feel endless. They can have goods shipped from virtually anywhere, whenever they want them. The fashion world is at their fingertips.

So for brands, the only real solution is to take two steps:

Identify what consumers are looking for; and

Figure out how to offer products that suit them now.

You need to adapt products to suit current trends. You also need to change to match the way that people buy - better in-store experiences, simple online shopping, and reaching buyers through social media as they’re considering a purchase.

Your ability to find consumer insights will be vital. But more on this shortly.

First, let’s look at an example of the way that shopping habits are changing.

We saw above that quick reaction times are essential. Traditionally, fashion houses would try to project the coming trends. They would have a go-to-market lead time of up to one year, without much room to make changes before that.

“Fast fashion” has brought about a new mindset. The philosophy is that clothing needs to be produced quickly (and often cheaply), and that consumers should be quick to move onto the next item. Clothes aren’t meant to last seasons.

The brand has seen enormous success thanks to three key ingredients:

Short lead times. This keeps its range up-to-date with current trends.

Limited supply. Zara sells less of each item, but there is always a new item waiting to be released.

More styles available. Rather than selling more of each individual style, it brings out new ranges constantly. As in, more than twice a week!

The result is a clothing range that’s adaptable, always fresh, and lets buyers have “unique” looks despite being a mass-market retailer.

The chain relies on feedback from all stores: "Store managers communicate customer feedback on what shoppers like, what they dislike, and what they’re looking for. That demand forecasting data is instantly funneled back to Zara’s designers, who begin sketching on the spot."

This data tells it which items are the most popular on a daily basis. This gives tangible insights to help it plan the next release, based on what’s favored right now.

It couples these in-store insights with a highly active social media presence. Consumers are quick to comment and share their favorite new styles, and Zara can use these reactions to keep delivering successful products.

Zara’s sales have increased 12% per year for the past 15 years. And in an industry where brick and mortars are struggling, this is even more impressive.

And this isn't unique to Zara, most fashion brands understand the need to improve their speed to market efficiencies, and the importance of incorporating consumer insights in their decision-making:

Customer segmentation has always been a part of running a fashion brand. In many cases, the segments are obvious: we have different sizes and styles for men, women, and youth; certain retailers appeal to older generations or specifically to teens.

What has changed is the ability - the necessity, even - to identify specific “tribes” within these segments. Just as you don’t often create one-size-fits-all clothing for women, you can’t appeal with a one-size-suits-all brand image.

Fashion houses need to focus more than ever on tailoring (pun intended).

To help them identify trends and figure out their messaging, brands rely again on social media insights. This lets them see what specific customer segments talk about, care about, and want to see more of on social media.

Top brands couple this with in-store and online sales data, and let their talented designers create clothing that specific buyers love.

One such trend is the growing popularity of “dad shoes”. These chunky, retro-styled shoes have become a must-have fashion choice all over the world, and one of the fastest-growing items in the luxury market.

Arguably much of this growth has been led by social media, where mentions of dad shoes (and similar phrases) have shot up in recent years:

But they’re not for everyone. While sales are through the roof, plenty of shoppers are turned off by the bright colors and larger-than-life appearance.

Unlike other recent successes like Adidas’ Stan Smith or the Nike Free, dad shoes aren’t supposed to appeal to the masses. They’re too expensive, and too garish.

Onlines mentions of the trend come overwhelmingly from males aged 18-24. While these aren’t the only buyers, this is an ideal segment for streetwear brands to target. They know who they’re talking to, and can easily monitor these conversations to find out what buyers love about the shoes, and what would make them buy more.

We’ve just seen a couple of good examples of how valuable consumer insights can boost sales. The question remaining is, how can brands easily get these insights for themselves?

Tip: Download the Fashion Industry's New Era Report for free.

There’s no media as up-to-date as social. Shoppers share their latest purchases and deepest desires in real time with anyone willing to listen. In this case, that needs to be you.

Unlike traditional focus groups and surveys, social media gives instant buyer feedback on virtually any topic you can imagine. You’ll find not only comments on your latest products, but also common themes among your top target segments.

For example, a quick glimpse at Twitter conversations about the topic “leather jacket” provides a wealth of information:

Brands can quickly see who’s discussing this item most, their age and gender, and other key topics associated with the term.

You could also limit this search to only include women, for example, or Millennials, and see whether a leather jacket might appeal or offend this segment.

Likewise, you could monitor this segment for general terms like “fashion” or “clothing,” and look for the topics that keep coming up. For instance, among women Twitter users between 35-44, here’s what we find:

It may surprise retailers to learn that J.Crew and Michael Kors are talked about more on social media than Ivy Park or Zara. They can then dive into conversations about those specific brands try to identify the characteristics that make them more popular.

You can also find out what’s the most common occupations of your target segment, what’s their favorite online platforms, and other behavioral and demographic information that will help you better target them.

Measure against and learn from competitors

In fact, a close look at other industry brands can tell you a lot about your own. If you know what their customers say about them on social media, you can quickly figure out the best aspects of their product and marketing strategies.

You can also identify key segments that you might be missing out on. For example, if you discover that a competitor sees a lot of social media chatter in eastern Europe or Asia, you may consider increasing your efforts in these markets.

Another simple strategy is to look for spikes in conversations about your competitors:

Source: Meltwater consumer insights plaform

What caused this sudden jump in mentions?

And if they were positive, can you replicate their strategy for your own brand?

All of these conversations are out there in the open. You can easily learn exactly what motivates your competitors’ customers, which of their products they love the most, and which markets they’re having the most success in.

Social platforms are nothing new for top fashion labels. You already know how powerful social media influencers is for brands, and how effective social is to spread your marketing message.

Tip: See our lists of the top global fashion influencers and the top South African fashion influencers

That helps you speak out and get noticed. But have you noticed the wealth of data and insights available to you through social media?

What the latest fashion trends are, and soon will be

Consumer Insights for Fashion: How Top Brands Keep up With Consumer Trends

The term "customer experience" has been gaining more and more attention in recent years. But is this just another marketing buzzword, or does it actually carry some merit for your brand image and bottom line?

Given the latest research, we can confidently say it’s the latter. Studies show that customers are willing to pay more for an item or service if it means getting a better experience. Customer-centric companies are more profitable than companies that aren’t invested in the customer experience. It helps them retain customers, increase referrals, and maintain an edge over competitors.

It’s no secret that customer satisfaction is one of the main factors that determine a company's success. A great customer experience at every touchpoint can make a huge impact on a customer's perception of a brand and whether or not they will return.

There are several key elements to creating a great customer experience, but the most important is simply understanding your customers. Here’s your guide to customer experience and how to apply it in your business.

Definition: What is Customer Experience (CX)?

Common Customer Experience Misconceptions

Customer Experience as a Competitive Advantage

The Challenges of Creating Good Customer Experiences

How to Measure Customer Experience - 5 Ways

Customer Experience Management Tools to Support Your Strategy

Let’s start with the definition of customer experience (CX) — what exactly does it mean?

The abbreviation for customer experience is CX.

We define customer experience as the totality of how customers interact with your brand or company. This includes everything from engaging with an employee to using a product to getting support to exploring your branded content online.

In terms of the customer journey map, the customer experience includes every touchpoint, from how they discover your brand to purchase to what happens post-purchase.

Marketers often use CX interchangeably with similar terms, such as customer service, user experience, customer success, customer engagement, customer relationship, or brand experience. There’s some overlap with these terms, but their meanings differ slightly.

Customer service is proactive. It involves someone representing your brand actively serving your customers. It’s part of the bigger customer experience picture.

On the flip side, customer experience can be active or passive. It “happens” regardless of whether your employees are involved.

Tip: Learn more about social media customer service.

User experience (UX) is a term usually reserved for digital experiences. It might refer to someone using your website. Or, in a case like Meltwater, it could refer to a platform or digital product.

UX is measured with metrics like abandonment rate, on-page time, time to complete a task, and the number of clicks required to complete a task, among many others.

Like customer service, user experience is a slice of the bigger CX pie.

Customer success has some overlap with customer service and is also part of the total customer experience.

Customer success usually involves help from an employee to learn more about a customer’s goals and create an optimal solution or outcome.

Customer Experience vs. Customer Relationship

Customer relationships are built over time.

It’s the connection you build with each of your customers, starting with the initial discovery and lasting long after the sale or conversion.

In comparison to CX, a customer relationship is often defined by the quality of their experience.

Customer Experience vs. Customer Engagement

Customer engagement helps to strengthen a customer relationship, which ultimately shapes the customer experience.

We define customer engagement as the proactive effort to keep customers connected to your brand.

This might be via loyalty programs, social media content, email marketing, or user-generated content, for example.

Customer experience and brand experience (BX) share many characteristics. The main differences are the feelings they create and how each is measured.

For brand experience, the main goal is to make customers feel a certain way about your brand.

BX is measured through engagement metrics. CX is designed to make customers feel satisfied with your brand and is measured through customer satisfaction surveys, customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores, and NPS.

Customers are more informed than ever before. They’re entering the buyer journey at various stages of the traditional sales funnel, not just at the top. Digital technologies and the ability to discover, research, and compare brands have given buyers more power over their buying decisions.

Consumers now have more choices than ever. With so many brands competing for the same audience, a good customer experience can speak volumes.

By offering a great customer experience, you can help buyers take control over the customer journey. Make it easy for customers to explore their options, compare pricing, get answers to their questions, and discover new products and services. Being forward-thinking in this process can help you meet customers wherever they are in the journey and be ready to serve them before your competitors are.

Customer experience is also the key to earning repeat business and referrals. It’s no secret that customers share their great experiences with friends and family. But they’ll tell even more people about a bad experience. Bad news travels fast, and that doesn’t do you any favors when it comes to growing your business. When you intentionally create good experiences, you’re not only able to meet customer expectations, but also their glowing reviews and referrals!

Did you know? According to our latest Global Digital Report, getting recommendations from friends and family is one of the most important decision drivers for customers.

Things like pricing, product quality, and customer service might come to mind when you think of your competitive advantages. But customer experiences should be part of that list, too.

That’s because CX can (and should) control the entire customer journey. Brands need to take charge in guiding customers to the desired outcome. Being intentional about this journey, including the emotions it triggers, can help brands reinforce why customers should do business with them.

Given that CX is the sum total of all of a customer’s interactions with your brand, there are plenty of objectives for marketers to focus on. Some of the areas that affect customer experience include:

We'll talk about each of these points more in detail:

Price affects experience because it immediately communicates the value of your product or service. It’s not the only thing that signals value, but it does set the tone for the experience. That's also why it is part of the marketing mix.

For instance, if you were to walk into a store and notice all the handbags costs hundreds of dollars, you’d know you were in a high-end luxury goods store even if you weren’t familiar with the brand. In this case, you might expect personalized service, refreshments, gift wrapping, or large dressing rooms, for example.

If you walked into a large mass merchandise store with sale signs everywhere, you would expect to find some great deals on everyday items. You’d trade expectations of personalized service and refreshments for self-service and convenience.

A brand’s service and support options can help a customer feel confident about their purchase and even encourage them to pull the trigger. They know that if they have questions or issues, there’s someone they can reach out to for help.

In some cases, the presence of free support is a competitive advantage in its own right, but the type of support available can also create good or bad customer experiences.

For instance, brands may offer support via phone, live chatbot, email, or a self-help resource center. Each of these set unique expectations for customers, and each has the power to reinforce a brand’s commitment to customer centricity.

Is a product available to order, or it is often out of stock or on backorder? If it’s a digital product, such as a website or platform, is it available 24/7 or does it frequently crash? Does your e-commerce site offer fast shipping options?

When a customer needs an item, they want it to be available to them immediately. A lack of availability at critical moments can lead to a poor customer experience.

Convenience refers to how easy it is for customers to take advantage of your offer, product, or service.

Do they have to jump through hoops or meet several criteria, or can they quickly access your product?

Generally speaking, the less friction and fewer access restrictions, the more customer-focused the experience.

Customer Journey

Consumer Insights for Fashion: How Top Brands Keep up With Consumer Trends

What is Customer Experience? Definition, Challenges, Importance

How to Improve B2B Customer Experience [5 Steps]

What Is an Omnichannel Customer Experience? Meaning, Benefits, Examples

5 Best Practices for Customer Experience Analysis

What Is Customer Experience (CX) Design?

Customer Experience Dashboard Basics

How To Measure Customer Experience — Metrics, KPIs, Analytics

How Coca-Cola Collects Consumer Insights

How To Do Customer Profiling | Guide

What are Online Tribes (and Why Should You Be Targeting Them)?

What Are Consumer Insights? Meaning, Examples, Strategy

Customer Journey

Consumer Insights for Fashion: How Top Brands Keep up With Consumer Trends

What is Customer Experience? Definition, Challenges, Importance

How to Improve B2B Customer Experience [5 Steps]

What Is an Omnichannel Customer Experience? Meaning, Benefits, Examples

5 Best Practices for Customer Experience Analysis

What Is Customer Experience (CX) Design?

Customer Experience Dashboard Basics

How To Measure Customer Experience — Metrics, KPIs, Analytics

How Coca-Cola Collects Consumer Insights

How To Do Customer Profiling | Guide

What are Online Tribes (and Why Should You Be Targeting Them)?

What Are Consumer Insights? Meaning, Examples, Strategy

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