Turning Local Data Into a Competitive Advantage

Pizza searches are up 20% year over year, according to Google. But clicks to websites haven’t kept pace: across industries, brands are reporting that clicks are decreasing.But demand for pizza hasn’t gone anywhere. Customers are just making decisions before they ever reach a website, through driving directions, tap-to-call, menus, reviews, and increasingly, AI.For Pizza Hut, that gap between demand and measurable clicks is changing how the team thinks about content, measurement, and discovery. Young Troung, who leads content and organic growth, found that the answer isn’t a new trick. It’s building something genuinely useful. An the Pizza Hut Pizza Calculator, which helps customers figure out how much pizza to order for a family dinner or a party of 50, is now earning citations across AI engines because of it.In this episode of The Intelligence Brief, Chris Brownlee (SVP of Product, Yext) sits down with Young Troung (Content and Organic Growth, Pizza Hut) live from Envision in New York to discuss how brands can show up when AI sits between a craving and a purchase.One thing to double-check: the transcript’s intro is spoken by a narrator and the interviewer isn’t named, so it’s worth confirming Chris Brownlee also hosted this Pizza Hut conversation before publishing. Everything else in the copy stays the same.This episode breaks down:Why search demand is growing even as website clicks decline, and what traditional analytics miss before the clickHow a simple pizza calculator became a source of AI citations by being genuinely usefulWhy AI engines are evolving from search engines into decision engines, and what that means for content strategyWhy optimizing for helpfulness outlasts tactics built around algorithm changesHow to use AI to analyze massive data sets while fact-checking its output to avoid hallucinationsIf you’re a marketing or digital leader trying to understand where your customers are going when the clicks disappear, this episode offers a real-world look at how useful content, clean data, and a customer-first mindset keep your brand visible wherever people search.

People don’t choose a broadband provider on price alone. They search for the fastest network in their neighborhood, read what customers say about the service, and, increasingly, turn to AI to decide which brand they can trust.For Community Fibre, a London broadband provider with more than 450,000 customers, that shift is already showing up in the numbers. About half of its sales now come from digital channels, and a 4.7 Trustpilot score helps it stand out in a market where customer experience is often a pain point.But Chris Williams and his team found that being visible takes more than a strong rating. By pairing local landing pages, personalization, reviews, and help and support content, Community Fibre turned neighborhood-level searches into a growth engine.In this episode of The Intelligence Brief, Chris Brownlee (SVP of Product, Yext) sits down with Chris Williams (CIO, Community Fiber) live from Envision in New York to discuss how the company is adapting to the way customers find and evaluate brands.During their conversation, Chris shares how Community Fibre has optimized for AI search since the early days of its Yext partnership, why helpful content is often a prospect’s first touchpoint with the brand, and how his team is applying AI across the business — from procurement to customer service.This episode breaks down:How customers are shifting from traditional search to AI search to find and vet local providersWhy reviews are becoming a core part of how AI engines evaluate and surface a brandHow local landing pages and personalization help a London-based brand compete with national players, borough by boroughWhy help and support content doubles as a brand awareness channelHow Community Fiber is using AI to work more efficiently, and what its leadership expects the next 12 months to look likeIf you’re a marketing or digital leader managing a multi-location business, or competing for customers in a crowded local market, this episode offers a real-world look at how reviews, local content, and AI-ready experiences work together to drive visibility and growth.

Getting found is only half the battle for multi-location brands. Customers are discovering businesses through Google, Apple Maps, AI assistants, and countless other platforms. But what happens when the information they find is outdated, inconsistent, or simply wrong? And how do you get thousands of local franchisees working toward the same goal?In this episode of The Intelligence Brief, Chris Brownlee (SVP of Product, Yext) sits down with Lisa Hake (Chief Marketing Officer, Winmark) to discuss what it takes to modernize marketing across 1,750 independently-owned franchise locations.Lisa shares how Winmark, the parent company of Plato's Closet, Play It Again Sports, and Once Upon a Child, is tackling these challenges head-on. From discovering that roughly 80% of its Apple Maps locations had never been claimed to using competitive visibility data to motivate franchisees, she explains how Winmark is bringing consistency to its digital presence without losing what makes each local business unique.This episode breaks down: How national brands can align marketing priorities across thousands of locations Why inaccurate business information can cost brands thousands of potential customers How Winmark has brought together business listings, local pages, and reviews to help customers find accurate information everywhere they searchWhy showing local business owners how their visibility compares to competitors is more effective than just asking them to update their listingsHow automating repetitive tasks can help marketers on small teams focus on more impactful workIf you're a marketing leader managing multiple brands, locations, or franchisees, this episode offers a practical look at how to turn fragmented information into a more consistent customer experience — and make it easier for local teams to act on the insights that matter.

People don’t choose a financial advisor based on a single ad, search, or recommendation. Instead, they look at an advisor’s background, check their local reviews, and, increasingly, use search and AI to decide who they can truly trust. For First Command — where 78% of digital leads have search as their last marketing touchpoint — showing up was only part of the equation. But Scott Spidell and his team discovered something else: paid and organic marketing become much more powerful when they work together. By combining local pages, reviews, social engagement, and paid media, First Command was able to nearly double their conversion rates. In this episode of The Visibility Brief, Rebecca Colwell (SVP of Marketing, Yext) sits down with Scott Spidell (SVP of Brand and Strategic Marketing, First Command) to discuss the strategy behind those results.During their conversation, Scott shares how First Command built a repeatable formula for improving local visibility, the trust signals that help individual advisors stand out, and why marketers should stop treating paid and organic as separate strategies.This episode breaks down: How to identify the local signals that can turn visibility into stronger conversionWhy reviews, local pages, and social engagement became the foundation of its strategyWhat trust signals to include on local pages to help customers feel confident choosing your brandWhy paid media works harder when the right organic foundation is already in placeWhat marketers with distributed teams, locations, or representatives can do to improve visibility at the local levelIf you're a marketing leader managing locations, advisors, agents, or other local representatives, this episode offers a real-world look at what happens when paid media, local content, reputation, and social work together — and the measurable impact that can have on visibility and conversion.

The way people find physical businesses is changing. Traditional search, maps, and directories still matter, but AI is increasingly answering questions before someone ever clicks through to a website. And those questions are getting more specific: Where should I park? Is this location wheelchair accessible? What’s opening this weekend? What time does it close today? Right now, making sure customers can find accurate answers to those questions (regardless of where they choose to look) requires brands to think differently about the information behind every location and experience.In this episode of The Visibility Brief, Rebecca Colwell (SVP of Marketing, Yext) sits down with Patrick Flanagan (SVP of Digital Development, Operations and Strategy, Simon Property Group) to explore how one of the world’s largest retail real estate companies thinks about the customer experience.During their discussion, Patrick shares how Simon manages local information across a massive portfolio, keeps critical details accurate as experiences change from location to location, and uses millions of reviews to understand what shoppers are actually looking for. This episode breaks down: Why traditional search and maps are still important in the AI eraHow reviews can reveal what customers are really experiencingWhy hyper-local details matterHow Simon keeps local information accurate at scaleWhy declining traffic doesn't necessarily mean declining visibilityIf you’re a marketing leader responsible for hundreds or thousands of physical locations, this episode offers a practical look at what it takes to stay visible when customers can discover you anywhere. 

With over 1,500 independently-owned hearing clinics across the United States, Beltone knows that no two markets look exactly alike. A brand’s competitor in one city might not even exist another, and a tactic driving results for one location could be a waste of resources somewhere else. National performance metrics can show how the brand is performing overall, but they can hide which locations are winning and losing. So, how do you help local owners make better marketing decisions without overwhelming them with yet another dashboard? In this episode of The Visibility Brief, Rebecca Colwell (SVP of Marketing, Yext) sits down with Michael McCann (Senior Director of Marketing, Beltone) and Leonard Sullivan (Digital Marketing Manager, Beltone) to discuss what it takes to help a national brand compete — and win — market by market.Michael and Leonard share how Beltone used Yext Scout to understand local competitive performance, identify opportunities location by location, and turn that data into a plan owners can easily follow. This episode breaks down: Why your biggest competitor depends on where you areHow local data can reveal what averages missWhy the same marketing strategy won’t work in every marketWhat drives local visibility beyond reviewsWhy AI search makes your entire digital presence matterIf you’re a marketing leader responsible for local performance, this episode will help you move beyond one-size-fits-all strategies and use data to make better decisions market by market.

Today’s customers are increasingly using AI to research complex, high-stakes purchase decisions before they ever reach a brand’s website. At the same time, marketers are using AI to create content, optimize digital experiences, and make work more efficient. So what happens when AI becomes part of both the discovery journey and the work marketers are doing behind the scenes?In this episode of The Visibility Brief, Rebecca Colwell (SVP of Marketing, Yext) sits down with Reed Smith (SVP and Chief Consumer Officer, Ardent Health) to discuss how AI is changing both sides of the customer experience: how people find the information they need, and how marketing teams deliver it.Drawing on his work shaping patient experiences at Ardent Health, Reed shares a practical perspective on what’s actually changing and why the fundamentals marketers have been working on for years (accurate data, accessible information and human judgment) are becoming even more important as AI continues to revolutionize marketing. This episode breaks down: How AI is optimizing the way customers get answers Why more data isn’t necessarily betterHow zero-click experiences (like AI answers and direct scheduling) are creating new entry points for brands Why your technology partners matter more in an AI-driven worldHow AI is changing day-to-day work for marketers If you’re a marketing leader trying to figure out where AI can actually add value, this episode provides a helpful roadmap: use AI to improve the work, but don’t lose sight of the data, experiences, and human judgment that make the work valuable in the first place.

For years, technical SEO has powered search performance from behind the scenes. Most business leaders only noticed it when something broke. But now, as AI search becomes mainstream, those same technical foundations are becoming important in a new way.So, what does that mean for marketers? Is AI creating an entirely new set of technical requirements — or simply rewarding the brands that have been getting the fundamentals right all along?In this episode of The Visibility Brief, Rebecca Colwell (SVP of Marketing, Yext) sits down with Mark Stroud (Global SEO Lead, Specsavers) to explore why one of the most overlooked disciplines in marketing is suddenly getting some overdue attention. Drawing on more than 20 years of SEO experience and leading global search strategy across 2,000 Specsavers locations, Mark explains why technical SEO is having "a moment," how AI is changing the conversation around visibility and conversion, and why it’s time for marketers to double down on the basics. This episode breaks down: How AI is improving SEO workflows behind the scenesWhich technical signals matter most right now Why SEO fundamentals are still the foundation for search and AI engines  The biggest misconceptions about AI optimizationWhich SEO metrics marketers should (and shouldn't) measureIf you're a marketer trying to make sense of AI's impact on search, this episode offers a practical perspective on what's actually changing, what's staying the same, and where marketers should focus their attention next.

For Wells Fargo, it wasn't a flashy new AI initiative that unlocked better visibility. It was actually a 12-year-old ATM and branch locator. When the brand’s marketing team realized their location pages weren't surfacing consistently in AI search, they saw an opportunity to optimize those pages for both people and LLMs. But what started as a branch locator redesign quickly became a blueprint for how legacy brands can adapt their digital experiences for an AI-first customer journey.In this episode of The Visibility Brief, Rebecca Colwell (SVP of Marketing, Yext) is joined by Anna Vagnerini (Executive Director Digital Discovery, Wells Fargo) to explore how AI search is forcing brands to rethink some of their oldest digital experiences. Drawing on Wells Fargo's recent branch locator transformation, Anna shares how her team approached structured data, human-centered design, and AI visibility. This can’t-miss discussion reveals why sometimes the biggest opportunities are hiding in the experiences brands have overlooked for years.This episode breaks down: How to turn a utility into a high-intent customer acquisition channelWhy tried-and-true digital experiences deserve a second lookWhat "human and machine UX" really meansHow to measure success beyond traditional marketing metricsWhy AI visibility starts with consistent, trustworthy dataIf you're a marketing leader wondering where to start with AI search, this episode is a reminder that the answer may not be a brand-new initiative. Sometimes the biggest opportunity is taking a fresh look at the digital experiences your customers already rely on.

Customers aren't just searching for brands by name anymore. Instead, they're asking highly specific questions about products, services, locations, and experiences. Whether they're looking for "restaurants near Yankee Stadium" or "catering for a 50-person office lunch," AI models cite and surface brands that have built content around real customer intent.So, how do marketers create local experiences that satisfy both customers and LLMs? And what separates a high-performing local page from one that's nothing more than a store locator?In this episode of The Visibility Brief, Yext SVP of Marketing Rebecca Colwell sits down with Steve Wiideman, President of Wiideman Consulting Group to explore why local pages have become one of the most important assets in an AI-first search strategy.Drawing on nearly 30 years of SEO experience and work with some of the world's largest restaurant brands, Steve shares why local and intent pages are now a competitive advantage – and how marketers can use them to increase visibility across both traditional and AI search.The episode breaks down:Why local pages still matter in an AI-first worldThe difference between location pages and intent pagesWhat the highest-performing local pages have in commonHow AI is changing local content strategyLessons from restaurant brands that adapted quickly to changing customer behaviorWhat marketers should stop, start, and rethink when building local contentWhether you're managing hundreds of locations or just getting started with local SEO, you'll learn practical ways to build pages that help customers find exactly what they're looking for, wherever they're searching.