Intelligence Brief

People don’t choose a broadband provider on price alone. They search for the fastest network in their neighborhood, read what customers say about the service, and, increasingly, turn to AI to decide which brand they can trust.For Community Fibre, a London broadband provider with more than 450,000 customers, that shift is already showing up in the numbers. About half of its sales now come from digital channels, and a 4.7 Trustpilot score helps it stand out in a market where customer experience is often a pain point.But Chris Williams and his team found that being visible takes more than a strong rating. By pairing local landing pages, personalization, reviews, and help and support content, Community Fibre turned neighborhood-level searches into a growth engine.In this episode of The Intelligence Brief, Chris Brownlee (SVP of Product, Yext) sits down with Chris Williams (CIO, Community Fiber) live from Envision in New York to discuss how the company is adapting to the way customers find and evaluate brands.During their conversation, Chris shares how Community Fibre has optimized for AI search since the early days of its Yext partnership, why helpful content is often a prospect’s first touchpoint with the brand, and how his team is applying AI across the business — from procurement to customer service.This episode breaks down:How customers are shifting from traditional search to AI search to find and vet local providersWhy reviews are becoming a core part of how AI engines evaluate and surface a brandHow local landing pages and personalization help a London-based brand compete with national players, borough by boroughWhy help and support content doubles as a brand awareness channelHow Community Fiber is using AI to work more efficiently, and what its leadership expects the next 12 months to look likeIf you’re a marketing or digital leader managing a multi-location business, or competing for customers in a crowded local market, this episode offers a real-world look at how reviews, local content, and AI-ready experiences work together to drive visibility and growth.

Getting found is only half the battle for multi-location brands. Customers are discovering businesses through Google, Apple Maps, AI assistants, and countless other platforms. But what happens when the information they find is outdated, inconsistent, or simply wrong? And how do you get thousands of local franchisees working toward the same goal?In this episode of The Intelligence Brief, Chris Brownlee (SVP of Product, Yext) sits down with Lisa Hake (Chief Marketing Officer, Winmark) to discuss what it takes to modernize marketing across 1,750 independently-owned franchise locations.Lisa shares how Winmark, the parent company of Plato's Closet, Play It Again Sports, and Once Upon a Child, is tackling these challenges head-on. From discovering that roughly 80% of its Apple Maps locations had never been claimed to using competitive visibility data to motivate franchisees, she explains how Winmark is bringing consistency to its digital presence without losing what makes each local business unique.This episode breaks down: How national brands can align marketing priorities across thousands of locations Why inaccurate business information can cost brands thousands of potential customers How Winmark has brought together business listings, local pages, and reviews to help customers find accurate information everywhere they searchWhy showing local business owners how their visibility compares to competitors is more effective than just asking them to update their listingsHow automating repetitive tasks can help marketers on small teams focus on more impactful workIf you're a marketing leader managing multiple brands, locations, or franchisees, this episode offers a practical look at how to turn fragmented information into a more consistent customer experience — and make it easier for local teams to act on the insights that matter.

People don’t choose a financial advisor based on a single ad, search, or recommendation. Instead, they look at an advisor’s background, check their local reviews, and, increasingly, use search and AI to decide who they can truly trust. For First Command — where 78% of digital leads have search as their last marketing touchpoint — showing up was only part of the equation. But Scott Spidell and his team discovered something else: paid and organic marketing become much more powerful when they work together. By combining local pages, reviews, social engagement, and paid media, First Command was able to nearly double their conversion rates. In this episode of The Visibility Brief, Rebecca Colwell (SVP of Marketing, Yext) sits down with Scott Spidell (SVP of Brand and Strategic Marketing, First Command) to discuss the strategy behind those results.During their conversation, Scott shares how First Command built a repeatable formula for improving local visibility, the trust signals that help individual advisors stand out, and why marketers should stop treating paid and organic as separate strategies.This episode breaks down: How to identify the local signals that can turn visibility into stronger conversionWhy reviews, local pages, and social engagement became the foundation of its strategyWhat trust signals to include on local pages to help customers feel confident choosing your brandWhy paid media works harder when the right organic foundation is already in placeWhat marketers with distributed teams, locations, or representatives can do to improve visibility at the local levelIf you're a marketing leader managing locations, advisors, agents, or other local representatives, this episode offers a real-world look at what happens when paid media, local content, reputation, and social work together — and the measurable impact that can have on visibility and conversion.

The way people find physical businesses is changing. Traditional search, maps, and directories still matter, but AI is increasingly answering questions before someone ever clicks through to a website. And those questions are getting more specific: Where should I park? Is this location wheelchair accessible? What’s opening this weekend? What time does it close today? Right now, making sure customers can find accurate answers to those questions (regardless of where they choose to look) requires brands to think differently about the information behind every location and experience.In this episode of The Visibility Brief, Rebecca Colwell (SVP of Marketing, Yext) sits down with Patrick Flanagan (SVP of Digital Development, Operations and Strategy, Simon Property Group) to explore how one of the world’s largest retail real estate companies thinks about the customer experience.During their discussion, Patrick shares how Simon manages local information across a massive portfolio, keeps critical details accurate as experiences change from location to location, and uses millions of reviews to understand what shoppers are actually looking for. This episode breaks down: Why traditional search and maps are still important in the AI eraHow reviews can reveal what customers are really experiencingWhy hyper-local details matterHow Simon keeps local information accurate at scaleWhy declining traffic doesn't necessarily mean declining visibilityIf you’re a marketing leader responsible for hundreds or thousands of physical locations, this episode offers a practical look at what it takes to stay visible when customers can discover you anywhere. 

With over 1,500 independently-owned hearing clinics across the United States, Beltone knows that no two markets look exactly alike. A brand’s competitor in one city might not even exist another, and a tactic driving results for one location could be a waste of resources somewhere else. National performance metrics can show how the brand is performing overall, but they can hide which locations are winning and losing. So, how do you help local owners make better marketing decisions without overwhelming them with yet another dashboard? In this episode of The Visibility Brief, Rebecca Colwell (SVP of Marketing, Yext) sits down with Michael McCann (Senior Director of Marketing, Beltone) and Leonard Sullivan (Digital Marketing Manager, Beltone) to discuss what it takes to help a national brand compete — and win — market by market.Michael and Leonard share how Beltone used Yext Scout to understand local competitive performance, identify opportunities location by location, and turn that data into a plan owners can easily follow. This episode breaks down: Why your biggest competitor depends on where you areHow local data can reveal what averages missWhy the same marketing strategy won’t work in every marketWhat drives local visibility beyond reviewsWhy AI search makes your entire digital presence matterIf you’re a marketing leader responsible for local performance, this episode will help you move beyond one-size-fits-all strategies and use data to make better decisions market by market.