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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

From media coverage and social conversations to audience insights and campaign performance, communications teams have access to more data than ever before. But collecting information is only the beginning. The real challenge is knowing what it means, what matters most, and how to respond with confidence.

Data-driven communications turns scattered signals into actionable insights. By using data to understand audiences, identify trends, measure impact, and guide decisions, communications teams can create more relevant strategies and demonstrate their value across the organization.

Learn how data-driven communications helps teams understand audiences, measure impact, identify trends, and turn media, social, and AI signals into action.

Data-Driven Communications: Insights & Strategies | Meltwater

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 customer experience (CX) has long been emphasized in business-to-consumer (B2C settings). But CX plays just as important a role in business-to-business (B2B) environments. Anytime you want to earn a customer’s business, maintain their loyalty, and transform them from customers to brand advocates, their experiences with your company come into play. 

Even if you’re already delivering a top-notch customer experience in B2B, there’s always room for improvement. Let’s explore how you can enhance your B2B customer experience management and stand out from your competitors.

Why Is Customer Experience Important in B2B?

What Is Customer Experience Management in B2B?

5 Steps to Improve B2B Customer Experience

The Best B2B Customer Experience Examples

What are Good B2B Customer Experience Solutions?

We define B2B customer experience as the sum total of how a customer interacts with your brand and its products and services. 

Customer experience B2B sounds a lot like customer experience B2C. There’s not much difference between the two, the main one being the target audience you’re serving. 

But consider that a B2B audience may have vastly different priorities than the average consumer. What’s more, the buying journey is usually longer in a B2B setting, involves more decision makers, and may face unique challenges that aren’t seen in a B2C setting.

With these nuances in mind, you can cultivate a customer experience B2B clients will appreciate and remember.

Good customer experience in B2B has increasingly become a competitive advantage. In fact, it’s impactful enough for two-thirds of companies to compete on experience alone. 

Most importantly, customers expect a great customer experience. Salesforce B2B customer experience insights show that 80% of customers believe CX is just as important as the products or services a company offers. People will pay more for a better experience, and that’s something every business can get on board with.

These increasing expectations from customers are arguably set by B2C companies. Think about it: Every B2B customer is also a consumer outside the workplace. As consumers, we do business with a variety of companies every day. We know firsthand the frustrations of complex transactions or a lack of information, a need for an omnichannel customer experience, and a desire for seamless customer service. We take notice when we have great experiences with some businesses and poor experiences with others. We become accustomed to these experiences, and those expectations carry over into the workplace.

When you deliver a great B2B customer experience, you’re sending a subtle yet powerful message that your customers matter. This gives them even more reasons to choose to do business with you and even refer you to others.

Creating a strong customer experience in B2B doesn’t happen by accident. Rather, it’s the byproduct of dedicated customer experience management B2B clients will surely notice.

We define B2B customer experience management as the intentional and ongoing act of crafting positive customer experiences. It involves collecting feedback from employees and customers, examining processes and touchpoints, and making data-driven improvements to your operations.

Making CX a priority gives you more control over how your experiences look and function. When managed well, B2B companies can continue meeting customer expectations and create a customer-centric image of your company.

Successful B2B firms are always on the lookout for ways to improve their image in their customers' minds. Want to make a difference in your B2B CX?

Discover how to improve B2B customer experience in these five steps.

Before you can improve these experiences, you first need to understand what these experiences are. The customer journey gives you direct insight into how your customers engage with your business before, during, and after making buying decisions. 

Each stage of the customer journey caters to customers with different needs and priorities. Someone in the awareness stage will not be as familiar with your brand and what you do compared with someone who has already bought from you.

Different customers may expect different things and experiences depending on where they are in the buying process. Learning more about their journeys allows you to meet them wherever they are in a way they’ll recognize and respond to.

2. Gain Consumer Insights into Each Step of the Customer Journey

Consumer insights are data-driven interpretations of how a customer thinks and feels about a business. Companies can use consumer insights to learn more about what their customers like and dislike throughout the customer journey.

For example, Meltwater's Radarly platform scours social media and other digital media to learn what customers are talking about and the context in which they’re talking.

It uses AI technologies like natural language processing to uncover the meaning behind what’s being said. This allows brands to act more quickly on addressing their customers’ needs and provide better experiences in real-time speed.

By looking more closely at the customer journey, brands can gain a better sense of where friction occurs and what turns customers away from a brand.

For example, you might notice that a significant number of customers drop out of your sales funnel at the same stage. This may tell you there’s something amiss here, giving you a way to better focus your B2B CX improvement efforts.

3. Collect Feedback from Customers and Internal Stakeholders

There’s nothing like hearing about your customers’ experiences directly from their mouths — that’s why collecting customer feedback is so important to the process.

Customers are vocal when it comes to sharing negative experiences. But keep in mind that only about one in 26 customers will lodge a formal complaint. Some may leave bad reviews online for others to read, regardless of whether they’ve notified you about the problem. Others simply won’t come back, leaving you to wonder what happened.

Some good news, though — lots of happy customers will also willingly share their experiences with you. More than seven in 10 customers say they will leave a review for a business if asked. The key is remembering to ask!

Creating a system for continuous customer feedback will give you the insights you need to make valuable customer experience B2B improvements. Also, make sure that system includes insights from customer service team members, sales reps, and any other customer-facing roles. They’re on the front lines of your brand and can share customer feedback that hasn’t been formally captured but may prove valuable.

B2C has certainly upped the ante when it comes to personalized B2B experiences. Consumers expect personalized offers and messages from the brands they do business with and even become frustrated when brands don’t deliver. 

Taking time to personalize interactions in a B2B setting can go a long way in improving your CX. Similar to B2C customers, your B2B buyers will feel seen and heard and more likely to keep doing business with you.

How AI-driven customer personalization is driving the top line

The Power of Personalized PR: Top Tips for Comms Pros

How to Make Audience Segmentation Truly Personal

5. Leverage Technology to Improve the B2B Customer Experience

Technology provides the ultimate B2B customer experience solution. It makes things like personalization, mapping the customer journey, and collecting feedback more streamlined and systematized without sacrificing the human element.

Use technology to learn where your customers are engaging and where they talk about your brand. Discover all of the touchpoints a customer uses to connect with your company. Keep track of your customers’ communication preferences and historic purchasing and behavior data to improve your connections over time.

How does your customer experience B2B stack up against some of the top companies renowned for their CX?

Let’s explore some customer experience B2B examples that might inspire your own CX strategy.

Tip: Here you find important CX statistics, more customer experience examples, and CX trends.

As one of the largest eCommerce platforms in the world, Amazon has truly changed the game when it comes to setting higher customer expectations. In response to the company’s mega success, a number of other retailers have adopted Amazon-like perks, mirroring the retail behemoth’s model of two-day shipping, memberships, and personalized product recommendations.

Tip: Learn more about customer experience in retail.

Amazon offers a special program for companies, called Amazon Business. Program users can gain special discounts on volume orders, free shipping, discounts on recurring orders (similar to Amazon’s Subscribe and Save for consumers), and other perks.

The company created the program to cater to the unique needs of business owners, giving them a better way to manage tail spend, save money, and quickly get the items they need.

B2B office supplies retailer Quill knows the urgency businesses experience in stocking their offices at all times. The company delivers on high B2B customer expectations by providing rapid shipping times on all orders, low order minimums to get free shipping, and non-category-specific coupons.

The Meltwater Blog

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

How to Improve B2B Customer Experience [5 Steps]

How to Use a Customer Data Platform to Master Your Data Management

But I Have Nothing to Share: The Clueless Marketer’s Guide to Repurposing Content

Using Alternative Data & External Signals for Decision Making