How Bottom-of-Funnel Content Wins in AI Search (with Usama Khan)

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In this episode of Found in AI, I sit down with Usama Khan, a B2B SaaS content strategist, to unpack how bottom-of-funnel content is evolving in the age of AI search—and why clarity and real customer insight matter more than ever.

We cover:

• Why middle- and bottom-of-funnel content now drives the majority of AI search visibility
• The three proven formats every startup should prioritize: category, comparison, and jobs-to-be-done keywords
• How to use sales calls and product demos to write content that actually converts
• Why generic messaging confuses both readers and large language models
• The growing role of authority signals like Reddit mentions and G2 reviews in AI visibility

If you’ve been wondering how to adapt your content strategy for an AI-first search world — and how to make bottom-of-funnel content work harder than ever — this episode is for you.

📌 Mentioned in this episode:

• Bottom-of-funnel content frameworks
• Category, comparison, and alternative pages
• Jobs-to-be-done keyword research
• Content pyramid model (via Animals)
• AI search visibility metrics and authority signals

💬 Let’s connect:
LinkedIn → Cassie Clark | Content Strategist

Website → cassieclarkmarketing.com

Keywords: Bottom-of-Funnel Content, AI Search, B2B SaaS Marketing, Comparison Pages, SEO for AI, Generative Engine Optimization, Content Strategy, Thought Leadership, Jobs to Be Done, Authority Signals

Find the show notes and transcript here.

Transcript

0:15

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Welcome back to Found in AI, the podcast helping get your brand found in AI search. I'm your host Cassie Clark, a content strategist and CMO of ThoughtTree. This week I sat down with Usama Khan, a B2B SaaS content strategist who spent years perfecting bottom of funnel content that actually converts. We talked about what's changing in AI powered search, why clarity of messaging matters more than ever, and how startups can use comparison and alternative pages and turn them into their most powerful growth assets. Here's part of that conversation. Perfect. So Usama, tell me all about you. Give me a little brief intro. Sure. So I've been in the content marketing industry for about seven years now and shifted to B2B SaaS for about three years. And since then I've been working with startups and enterprises on their content marketing, SEO, writing, and specifically on middle and bottom of funnel content. So I was doing that long before AI was a thing. So it was pretty smooth for me to just focus on that once the LLMO and GEO, that sort of stuff rolled out. So yeah, I've been just continuing doing that and working with SEO agencies as well. Yeah. So we've been calling it the alphabet soup when we refer to SEO, GEO, AIO. Yeah. A lot of terms to keep a hang of now. Yeah. I'm not sure anyone has coined the right one, but they're all floating around. So I've been also in content for a while, but some of these questions when I ask them, just pretend I know nothing about content marketing. Okay. So they're going to sound kind of silly, but we're going somewhere with it. I promise. So when you say bottom of funnel content, what does that mean to you? And how has that definition shifted in the age of AI search? So bottom of funnel content specifically targets people who already are problem and solution aware. Like when I say bottom of funnel, I don't just mean like pricing pages or let's say X alternatives or X versus Y, X and Y being companies. I also consider, I like to divide this in three proven formats. So you could say category keywords, which is let's say best CMMS software for SMBs, people who are problem aware and now they're looking for a solution. And then there's the comparison and alternative pages such as let's say HubSpot versus Salesforce or monday.com alternatives. And then also jobs to be done keywords. So for example, if you are an HR software, you could say something like how to manage employee time off if that's a keyword. And then you present your product as a solution to that jobs to be done. Yeah. So I was talking about jobs to be done with someone else last week, I think. So one of the things that a lot of the guests have been talking about is adding in specific how-to pages. Are you noticing like an uptick in that from your clients who are asking for that kind of thing? I haven't been noticing that, but this is definitely a strategy that is still working because people obviously still have problems that they're looking for a solution for. And for me, what I've been noticing with clients is that their focus is more on category keywords and more and more comparison and alternative pages. There are a few mix of how-to jobs to be done keywords as well. But for me personally, I haven't seen a very sort of uplift on those. But one thing though is with jobs to be done keywords specifically, like I do think like focusing on communicating with the internal team, the product, the sales teams, that sort of gives you a lot of insights on what the target audience, the problems that they are facing. And then if you sort of take that as a guide to then do your keyword research, you can find a lot of solid opportunities for good jobs to be done keywords, which you otherwise might have missed. So that is one thing that I also sort of focus on and works well for my clients. Yeah. So why do you think so many companies are struggling with bottom of funnel content right now? Do you think it's like strategy problem or a messaging problem? Because you just mentioned internal teams. So I wouldn't say they are struggling specifically, but one thing I do notice is that and stay away from is just doing them for the sake of, you know, adding a page. So for my content, when I consult with clients, I always focus on being very specific. And for every bottom of funnel content, mainly I do have a conversation with the internal team sort of to understand when we are fulfilling the intent of that bottom of funnel content, or let's say writing on HubSpot versus Salesforce and just assume that our solution is a competitor for HubSpot versus Salesforce or an alternative, I would then ask them, what is it that these two software are lacking that you are doing better? What is it that, what additional features do you have and how do they cater to specific workflows your target audience are doing? And so the piece is then guided through internal knowledge instead of some just basic SERP analysis or research. And this is very time consuming at times, very resource consuming, which is why I would say companies that do not have enough budget would keep struggling with it. And that makes a lot of sense because it does take a lot of time. Like how, for the pieces that you're talking about, how much time would you think it takes to create a piece like that? So the major challenge is aligning on time because internal teams are super busy themselves. But once that is done, I think a week is enough to write a high quality bottom of funnel content. So just talking about bottom of funnel content and then you were talking about product pages, what's one underrated content format that startups should be investing in right now if they have the budget, bandwidth, time, that kind of thing? Like case studies, ROI calculators, what are you seeing that's working? Yeah, ROI calculators is mostly sort of a lead magnet, but I would say that you should be targeting every specific use case and making sure that it ties back to a specific keyword. If you have any specific use case or let's say a feature that solves a problem that your target audience faces, just make sure you have a page on that because there's a lot of opportunity and these people are actively looking for a solution and can work really well. So I would say to just be very sort of detail oriented when it comes to capitalizing on all the opportunities that your solution presents. Yeah, I think you're right there on that one. So if a startup has or a business or company, whoever has limited resources, like what would be the first bottom of funnel asset that you would tell them to create? Well, it depends on the overall landscape, but what my focus would be mainly on the comparison on alternative pages. So X versus Y and X alternatives, those would be because those people are already using a solution similar to this, but are shifting for whatever reason. It could be budget issues or it could be features that the software are lacking, but maybe your software has them. So they are already looking for a solution and are just ready to convert, but just making sure that the solution that they're currently in the market for searching for, those sort of tick all the boxes. So if you could find ways and write solid content on that, I think you could capitalize well on this opportunity. So have you seen examples of your content already being surfaced in AI answers? Yeah, I definitely have. And not just because I'm doing a lot of stuff different here, but see, there's a lot of hype on LLMO, GEO, but what I've seen is that what I like to call a content pyramid and animals has a beautiful blog post on this. And that sort of resonated a lot with me. So it's a three layer pyramid, right? So one is the strong SEO foundation. When we call, when we say your website should load fast and stuff like that. So that is one thing. Then middle layer is the context rich product centric content, which also means middle and bottom of funnel content because top of funnel is literally dead right now with Google AI overviews and perplexity being an exception because they still source top of funnel content. But I still wouldn't prioritize that because one, the conversion potential of those is very low. And research has, a study by HRFs have showed that they also get very, very minimal clicks. So it's just sort of wasting your energy on top of funnel content. And then the top layer in the pyramid is about trust and authority signals that can amplify credibility. Traditionally, we used to do this with backlinks, but now you must have heard that people are very sort of accelerating on the Reddit bandwagon and mentions in mentions in different platforms and making sure they have their G2 etc updated. So that is another part. Yeah. So that's coming up a lot when I talk with people for this show. It's get your G2 reviews ready, have Reddit mentions everywhere. That's coming up quite often. Exactly. Exactly. Especially Reddit. Every second post on my LinkedIn feed is about Reddit. And I'm still, I still haven't been able to make a very sort of solid decision on whether that works or not, because the thing with Reddit is that Reddit is sort of, if you're marketing and being a bit salesy, they can sense it from a mile away, right? So it's really not a platform where, where you sort of market your product, unless you are being valuable and adding real value to conversation 95% of the time, and maybe then 5% of the time you chip in a product, your own product, and that too, in conversation where users are having specific problems and then your feature needs to solve that problem. But again, I would say it's, it's rented space. There's, there's a huge risk specifically for backlash. So that is one thing that we need to look forward to if that is even a sustainable strategy in the whole SEO ecosystem for now. Yeah. So one of the things that I like to do when I'm writing bottom of film content is just go straight to Reddit, especially if it's like a comparison page. So what are the things that other than aligning with internal teams, are you doing to make sure those comparison pages are as accurate as possible? So one thing is that whenever we have sales calls, I always record them and have my own knowledge hub for those specifically. So a lot of things can get covered with time. But another thing is that when I'm discussing with them a specific topic, they sort of walk me through the product again, sort of like giving me a demo of how a specific workflow would work in the software itself that is relevant to the intent that we're targeting. So we cover those live and that also gives me an opportunity to sort of get some gifs out of it, some screenshots that could guide my content again. So that is how we usually do it to make sure that everything that we mentioned for our product is accurate. That's a really smart idea to do product like walkthrough product demos with your client. That is a brilliant idea actually. Yep. Yep. So how we usually do it is that when I onboard new clients, we do that for the main features together. It's usually like around 80 to 90 minutes demo. And then they also give me some sales calls that they have. And usually they also walk their clients through those demos. So that also gives some insights. And then when the topic is sort of very specific, so let's say for example, how to employ, how to manage employee time off, right? I would go there and have a meeting with them and then they would guide me through how, what are some relevant specific features in the software that lets our target or our ideal customer manage employee time off. So I want to switch gears for a second and kind of go back to just specifically talking about AI search. So do you think AI makes clarity of messaging more important than ever since machines and buyers are parsing through information faster? Yep. I think clarity of messaging is very, very important. And this again comes with sort of capitalizing on all the opportunities specifically for like bottom of funnel content. So if you're writing a content on let's say best CRM software, if you're a small business, you're very unlikely to show up on AI results because you must have a big brand to show up for something like best CRM software. But if you really know your audience well, you have done your research and you know your software is a good fit for let's say best CRM software for a law firm with less than let's say 30 employees, because that is how people are searching in these LLMs. And that is exactly how you will have a solid opportunity to sort of show up on an AI search. And another thing that I noticed is that a lot of these businesses have sort of very confusing messaging. They would say they are a perfect solution for let's say x, y and z on one of the product pages and a completely opposite thing on let's say on their home page. So that also sort of confuses these large language models. So that is where consistency is important. Yeah. So being as clear as possible and as specific as possible seems to be the way to go. Have you seen examples of companies, startups that are using like overly complex messaging and how it's already hurting their bottom of performance? Yep. So one client I onboarded a few months ago, they had sort of very vague messaging and they just expanded into an enterprise software as well. First, they were just targeting contact centers. And so all of their messaging was around contact centers. So when someone specifically searched for let's say best x, y, z software for contact centers, they were there. But when someone let's say said best x, y, z software for enterprises, they wouldn't show up even though they had some blog posts. So then covering a topic in depth and covering subtopics around it, the good old concept of topic clusters, that is also I think does play a part in it because it signals to Google that your content is covered very in-depth and that is where these LLMs also get their content from. So that is what I've noticed. Yeah. Yeah. So it seems like SEO principles still really apply when it comes to AI search. Exactly. In fact, research by Grow and Convert showed that if your page is ranking in the top 10 Google rankings, you have around 67 to 77% chance of a mention. And if it's in the top three, that bumps up to 72 to 82%. Yeah. I mean, I think we all knew that. I knew that. But AI search is like another layer to a well-rounded SEO strategy. So with that in mind, what skills do you think marketers need to build now to keep bottom of funnel content effective in the next two to three years as AI search evolves? So what I would say is that based on my experience, being as specific and as detailed as possible, not just doing some basic research, reading the first eight articles or five articles for the main keyword on Google, really understanding what problems your target audience is facing, because that is what bottom of funnel content is all about. And how you do that is through a specific long process, listening to sales calls, probably again, talking to a customer service representative maybe and a product manager maybe to get their point of view, talking to salespeople and gathering all of those insights to understand specific problems the target audience is facing. And then being very specific and clear in positioning your product as a solution to that problems that they are facing. That is what we need to do moving forward. And again, just being very specific and as detailed as possible. That was Usama Khan on how bottom of funnel content supports your AI search strategy. Here's what you can do today to implement his insights. Before you write another piece of bottom of funnel content, talk to your internal teams. Ask sales what questions they hear the most and ask product what makes your solution different than your competitors. Next, build your next comparison or alternative page around those real conversations and not just the keyword data. That's how you're going to start creating content that earns trust, converts and shows up in those AI search engines. If you want to make that process a little faster, check out Thought Tree. Thought Tree is an AI workspace that allows users to store prompts and templates that you can rerun over and over to uncover insights from those sales calls or customer interviews or research. And if you're anything like me, keeping up with the good prompts is a nightmare. Thought Tree solves that problem. We're still in beta and we're looking for honest opinions from marketers who create every day and do cool stuff. You can sign up at thoughttree.io to give it a whirl. We would love to hear what you think. And if you're ready to bring this kind of strategy to your own brand, connect with me, Cassie Clark, on LinkedIn or at cassieclarkmarketing.com. Thanks for listening to Found an AI. I will see you next week.