Challenge
Building long-term brand strength by leveraging an emerging channel
When he partnered with GrowthX, Exec CEO Sean Linehan had a clear goal: move early and build a presence in AI chat as it reshaped the internet.
Search is one of the greatest businesses in history, and ChatGPT represents tremendous TAM expansion. AI chat is a new, 800M-user marketing channel. It was obvious to me that we had to be there.” — Sean Linehan
A digital marketing veteran, Sean saw an unprecedented opportunity in the emergence of AI chat. Because it responds to long, detailed prompts rather than short queries, Sean believed AI answers would spark a new era of hyper-targeted content to match.
To ride the wave early, Exec would target these highly niche queries with AI-assisted, high-quality content, published at scale. But this wasn't just an experimental GEO bet – it's the core of programmatic SEO (pSEO). “I wanted to own the generative engines for our niche, while simultaneously owning SEO in classical Google form,” Sean explains.
By targeting relevant prompts before competitors, Exec could aim to appear in LLM answers, while improving classic SEO discoverability. That would generate traffic, revealing intent signals and promising sectors to focus on.
To pull it off, Sean knew Exec needed AI systems and human talent, working in combination. He'd seen firsthand how variable human-only output could be, and couldn't risk harming the brand with low-quality, generic AI fluff.
Everyone’s making AI content, but it’s generic and not that good. We needed AI scaffolding to produce content that’s legitimately valuable and human-guided.
Solution
Scaling high-quality content through collaborative partnership and expert-guided AI workflows
To add AI chat to its portfolio of marketing bets, Exec needed a partner with proven AI and GEO expertise. “We knew what good looked like—we just didn’t have the capacity to do it ourselves,” explains Sean.
Sean had a longstanding relationship with GrowthX founder Marcel Santilli, and knew GrowthX was the clear choice. “I didn’t consider any other options,” he recalls. By partnering with GrowthX, Exec could elevate its team’s skills and knowledge rather than stretching them further.
GrowthX’s solution produces higher-quality content at scale than AI- or human-powered operations alone. GrowthX’s growth-driving power comes from three sources:
• AI-powered, human-guided GEO workflows: identify high-value AI prompts relevant to Exec's products, create a content strategy to target them, and monitor their presence in results as content gets published
• pSEO strategy, powered by AI and grounded in human expertise: GrowthX's proprietary technology publishes high-quality articles, guided by human experts, to target hundreds of high-intent keywords
• Personalized client relationships: built on deep domain understanding and a commitment to improve over time
Services like GrowthX live and die by how well they're able to understand who you are, what you do, and what matters to you. GrowthX put a lot of effort into understanding us, and doing multiple iterations to make sure the content was just right." — Sean Linehan
Rather than taking a cookie-cutter, content factory approach, GrowthX built workflows to ensure content was on-brand, helpful to readers, and created compounding traffic over time.
• Exec's content workflows are built around its brand identity: content reflects the company's unique positioning, voice, and target personas, becoming even more tailored over time as feedback is provided
• The GrowthX team custom-coded interactive elements, like mini-roleplay exercises, to embed into Exec's content
• GrowthX re-optimizes and updates content that dips in performance, gaining mentions by appealing to LLMs' preference for fresh, in-depth content
Thanks to the attentive, hands-on nature of the collaboration, Exec's team doesn't need to deal with the technical side of the process themselves. For example, Sean meets with his GrowthX account manager weekly to discuss results, strategy, and ways to improve.
GrowthX feels like an extension of my team. Instead of clicking buttons and tweaking prompts myself, I'm delegating to a real person who I have great rapport with, and wants to go above and beyond." — Sean Linehan
Results
Customers are "seeing Exec everywhere—even in ChatGPT
For Exec, GEO and pSEO were intertwined bets, all about long-term vision over short-term results. Even so, they've seen payoff quickly, with dramatic increases in LLM referrals, site traffic, and search visibility.
So far, Exec has seen wins like:
• 4,531% growth in LLM referral traffic in six months (16 to 741 sessions)
• 343% increase in URL clicks
• 307% increase in impressions
• 130% increase in #1 rankings
• 942% growth in top-10 rankings
• 31 demos + signups booked in 4 weeks
Exec's rise in bookings and demo requests isn't wholly down to its dual pSEO-GEO strategy. But AI chat has become an important component of Exec's portfolio of bets, alongside channels like LinkedIn and industry conferences.
Customers and prospects regularly mention that they've seen Exec in AI answers, leading multiple prospects to discover Exec's content and book demos. "People tell us, you're everywhere—even in ChatGPT," says Sean. "It's created a brand lift, and that's cause for optimism.
Beyond these bottom-line impacts, GEO and pSEO has become a way for Exec to gauge interest in potential new use-cases. Now, it's within reach to publish content targeted to new verticals, gauging traffic and developing new product variations based on learnings. pSEO becomes the 'foundation layer' of discoverability, enhanced by LLM citations and mentions in AI chat answers.
This strategy is only enabled by GrowthX's ability to put out high-quality content at scale. "How else would we put out a thousand pieces of content, to test a thousand niches?" asks Sean.
Moving forward, Exec has big plans. They'll keep improving their core product, launch more vertical-specific variations, and introduce entirely new AI-powered products. With a proven way to rank for valuable keywords at scale – while leading the way in AI chat – GEO and pSEO will be an important marketing channel for each new initiative.
Working with GrowthX accelerated our brand development. We'll do a big surge of content for every new product, and publish as a smoke signal to test interest from new sectors." — Sean Linehan
