There is no getting around it. AI-driven search is replacing traditional Google and other search platforms. While ChatGPT and other AI searches account for less than 1% of searches today, that is likely to change rapidly as people begin to understand how to use AI search and the benefits it offers. As we discussed last month (“How AI Is Fundamentally Changing How Customers Find Your Business,” July 16, 2025), this shift has profound implications for how printers market their services.

What’s changing? Traditional SEO is not dead, but for the types of searches print customers are increasingly conducting, printers will need to think like an AI platform, optimizing content to appeal to the way AI “thinks.”

This is why Patrick Whelan, president of Great Reach Communications, which sells turnkey content marketing programs to printers, just launched AI search optimization program as part of his offerings. Recently, we spoke with Whelan about the program and how AI is changing marketing for printers.

WhatTheyThink: AI search has been around for a while. Why are you adding an AI program now? What’s behind the timing?

Patrick Whelan: We’ve finally found the best way to use AI to meet our clients’ needs. While we had explored its potential before (and even incorporated it in certain ways), we hadn’t yet found the perfect fit: something that meshed seamlessly with our other programs and delivered measurable value.

Every new product we’ve introduced—starting with print newsletters, then expanding to email newsletters, blogs, social media, and now AI optimization—has been about creating a unified solution where all the elements work together. Now we’re confident that we know how AI fits into that picture and how it can deliver on all of those criteria.

WTT: If your clients want to get found online, why not just launch a traditional SEO program?

PW: In many categories, SEO is already being eclipsed by AI search, and frankly, SEO has never worked well for most small to mid-sized printers anyway. It works for online printers, but not for the local or regional shop doing a wide range of commercial work. It’s certainly not effective unless you’re investing heavily in paid, promoted posts.

If you aren’t paying for placement, even with the best SEO, you’ll end up at the bottom of page one or buried on pages two through ten where nobody goes. On Google, the top listings are almost always advertisers. No matter how much you spend on organic SEO, it won’t get you anywhere near the top.

WTT: How has AI affected this dynamic?

PW: Google claims otherwise, but AI has made the problem even worse for organic search. Today, the top 25–30% of most Google search results pages are taken up by AI-generated summaries. That pushes everyone down, even paid promoted posts. Everyone is suffering. We’re seeing click declines of 48–50% for some top-paid placements.

Even when SEO does generate leads for printers, they tend to be low-value—business cards, letterhead, and stationery—categories where most printers can’t compete on price with Vistaprint and other online giants. Even if they were to win those jobs, those jobs aren’t typically big profit-makers for most printers anyway.

WTT: How is AI search different?

PW: With AI search, users type a natural-language query such as, “Give me a list of printers in my area who can put together a full range of displays for my trade show exhibit,” and get far more targeted results. This is because AI prioritizes good, high-quality content. It looks at businesses’ websites, other websites; and online reviews, then delivers a curated list of options, often with key features, review links, and comparison charts.

The result? If the user chooses your company out of the curated list, with all of the relevant information already there to help them make a decision, they are already partway (if not most of the way) sold. That’s why AI search results in significantly higher dwell times (time spent on the website) and better conversion rates. Best of all, you get those things plus all of the same brand positioning and SEO benefits you did before.

WTT: How is optimizing for AI different from SEO, or even thought leadership content?

PW: More printers than ever now understand the importance of content as part of their marketing. It’s how you support sales today. It’s not about cold calling and closing; it’s about giving buyers what they need so they reach out to you when they’re ready.

Website content, social media, email, print—they’re all part of it. AI gives printers the opportunity to take content marketing up a notch without relying on cookie-cutter AI text. A lot of printers are pumping out generic AI-generated content that “sounds” AI, and I believe it gets penalized by algorithms, whether or not the platforms admit it.

Marketing is about giving, not asking, and AI optimization fits right into that. AI wants to see natural language, highly targeted, expert content, and lots of internal links that cross-reference that expert content to “prove” that you are, in fact, an expert in your field. AI search also draws on social proof that users trust. By creating the right content—the kind that AI search prioritizes—you dramatically increase your chances of getting found by the right buyers, not just cleaning companies trying to sell you on their services.

WTT: Aww, come on. Cleaning services need to make a buck, too.

PW: True. Maybe there’s a joint venture in our future. AI finds the best leads, printers take the jobs, and cleaning services tidy up all the outdated marketing materials we just replaced. Everyone wins.