← LibraryCase No. 06
Medium stakesYour own employer (vertical fintech) · In-house SEO scope expansion

A Competitor Just Got Cited Above Us

Your CMO forwards a ChatGPT screenshot at 8am. Wants a plan by lunch.

Based on real client experiences, but anonymized and dramatized to protect identities and confidential relationships.

The setup

Your CMO Slacks you a ChatGPT screenshot: your top competitor is cited multiple times in the answer, your brand is not mentioned once. "This is bad. What are we doing about this today?" You're Head of SEO. AI visibility hasn't been formally in your scope until now.

The three data points
  1. 01Competitor placed several thought-leadership pieces on Tier 1 trade sites in the last quarter
  2. 02Your brand published only on the company blog — zero third-party citations
  3. 03Your brand presence ~40% on category prompts; competitor ~70%
How you pitch

3 minutes to respond to your CMO. Don't promise a quick fix you can't deliver. Use the moment to win budget and PR partnership you've been quietly asking for.

What makes it exciting

Burning-platform moment inside your own company. The CMO is finally paying attention to AI surfaces. Land the strategic shift now or the window closes for another year.