Paula French Talks AI Search Branding on The Near Memo Podcast
August 21st, 2026 by
Brand used to be the thing you built after you nailed the fundamentals. Now it might be the thing that decides whether an AI system knows you exist at all.
Search Influence Director of Sales and Marketing Paula French joined a panel of local search practitioners on Episode 269 of The Near Memo, a podcast produced by Near Media and hosted by Mike Blumenthal and Greg Sterling. The episode, released August 14, is the fifth installment in a series on brand building, and this one brought together an agency panel: Paula alongside Joy Hawkins of Sterling Sky, Andrew Shotland of Local SEO Guide, and Matt McGee of SEO Savvy Agent.
What the Panel Covered
The conversation centered on AI search branding: what actually builds the kind of recognition that AI systems reference when generating answers to local, best-in-category queries. Panelists pointed to third-party mentions, citation consistency across business directories, and video content as factors that increasingly carry more weight than review volume on its own.
Breaking Into a Crowded Category
Paula’s contribution centered on a specific case study: how Search Influence broke into the higher education marketing space, a category she described as crowded and competitive.
Rather than leading with the agency’s own credentials, Paula explained that Search Influence partnered with a respected industry association (UPCEA) to produce original research aimed at the people making the decisions: university administrators trying to understand how prospective students search for and evaluate programs.
“A lot of people don’t even know what they want to be known for, or they want to be known for too many things,” Paula said on the podcast. “Getting really clear about what you want to be known for, and who you want to know you for that, is a big hurdle a lot of brands have to get over.”
Paula traced that clarity back to Search Influence’s earlier work with Tulane’s School of Professional Advancement in New Orleans, which gave the team a close view of how adult learners search. That relationship became the foundation for a larger partnership: four rounds of co-produced research examining adult learner search behavior, program discovery patterns, and university enrollment costs. The research has since been distributed through webinars, landing pages, and a series of blog posts on higher education marketing statistics.
The approach reflects a broader principle in AI search branding: research and content built to help an audience make decisions tends to carry more weight with AI systems than content built primarily to promote the organization producing it.
Learn More About AI Search Branding
Paula closed her portion of the panel with a note on how any business can apply this. “You have more control over your AI visibility than you realize. There are a lot of things you can test and try. You just need to start getting stuff out there, talk about your programs or services in a clear, focused way, and see what magic happens,” she said.
Want the full conversation? Listen to “Tactics for Building a Local Brand in the Age of AI Search — An Agency Panel” today.
