Hi {{first_name}},
In November 2022, OpenAI launched ChatGPT.
Nobody was ready for what happened next.
In 40 months, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and their peers did something most people thought would take a decade. They unseated Google as the default place people go when they want to know something.
Google spent 25 years becoming the verb for search. "Just Google it" became a reflex. And then, in less than four years, millions of people started saying something different. "Let me ask ChatGPT." "I'll check Perplexity." "Claude gave me a good answer on this."
Today ChatGPT handles 2.5 billion prompts every day. Claude processes over a billion. Perplexity is growing at 20 percent month over month.
These are not niche tools for tech enthusiasts anymore. They are where your clients go when they have a question.
And here is what makes this different from Google.
When someone types a query into Google, they get a list of options. They scan, they click, they compare. The intent is there but the journey is not over.
That brings us to the focus of this issue. We look at the first piece of your discovery system and why it starts with a question.
When someone asks an AI tool a question, they trust the answer they get. They do not scan ten results. They read one response. The decision happens faster and the bar for being included in that response is higher.
This is why showing up in AI answers matters. It is the channel where trust is highest and decisions are made quickest.
And even Google has realized this and now offers AI overviews at the top of 20-60% of searches in the US, depending on the topic.
So how do you get there?
You start with questions.
Not the questions in your head, but the questions your clients are asking.
April (see Issue 7) knows this better than she realises. Every day, sitting across from a client in her chair, she answers the same questions.
Is balayage high maintenance? How often should I get my colour touched up? Can you fix box dye? What haircut works for thin hair?
These are discovery triggers.
When someone types one of those questions into ChatGPT or Perplexity, they are looking for a specific answer from a source they can trust.
If April's website answers that question clearly, directly, and in plain language, she becomes a candidate to be referenced in that response.
This is AEO.
Answer Engine Optimisation.
The practice of building content that answers the specific questions your clients are already asking, in a format that AI tools and search engines can extract and use.
The rules are simple.
One question per page. The answer at the top in plain language. No sales pitch or jargon. Answer engines hate that.
We sat down with April and asked her to list every question clients ask before, during, and after their appointment. She filled two pages without stopping.
That list is her AEO content plan.
Each question on that list is a page she can build. Each page is a chance to show up when someone asks that question to Google, ChatGPT, Siri, or Perplexity. Each answer that gets referenced builds her credibility as the expert in her field in her town.
This is not about writing blog posts for the sake of it. It is about being the source of the answer at the moment someone is actively looking for it.
One Practical Move
Write down every question your clients ask you. Not the big strategic ones. The everyday ones. The ones you answer without thinking.
Aim for ten. You will probably get twenty.
Once you have your list, type your most common client question into ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google. See what comes up. See who is answering it. If it is not you, that is your gap. And now you know exactly where to start.
One Tool
Go to answerthepublic.com. Type in your service and your town. It will show you every question people are actually searching around your topic, pulled straight from Google and Bing autocomplete.
It is the fastest way to go beyond the questions you already know and find the ones you never thought to answer.
Keep howling!
Fungai
Your Owwtreach Guy
Grow with Owwtreach
www.owwtreach.com