Amir SohailMINNEAPOLIS and SEATTLE, (ZEEST MEDIA) — Plat4orm and Edge Marketing today announced a strategic partnership to help organizations in regulated industries adapt to changing buyer research and vendor evaluation behaviors emerging across AI-powered search and discovery environments.
The firms are introducing the Trusted Answer Growth System™, an integrated strategic framework that aligns strategic communications, earned media, content strategy, answer engine optimization and demand generation into a coordinated market visibility approach. The objective is straightforward: help organizations become the trusted answer wherever buyers seek guidance.
The partnership reflects a broader shift occurring across enterprise buying behavior. As platforms such as Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini become increasingly embedded into how buyers research and evaluate technology and service providers, organizations are finding that credibility signals such as earned media, third-party validation, digital reputation, analyst commentary and authoritative content are playing a larger role in shaping visibility and trust during the earliest stages of vendor consideration. Gartner recently reported that more than 95% of links surfaced in AI-generated answers come from nonpaid sources, with earned media playing a growing role in how authority and trust are established.
The Trusted Answer Growth System™ was developed to help organizations better align those functions around how modern buyers increasingly discover, validate, and shortlist vendors.
The process begins with a Trust Signal Review™, an evaluation of how an organization currently appears across search, media coverage, digital channels and AI-assisted discovery environments. From that baseline, the firms develop coordinated visibility, authority, and positioning strategies using services and capabilities both firms already actively provide today, including:
• Strengthening visibility across AI-driven and traditional discovery environments
• Building third-party credibility and authority signals that influence buyer trust
• Improving consistency across communications, content, media visibility and positioning
• Better aligning market visibility efforts with evolving buyer research behaviors
“AI is reshaping how organizations establish trust and authority in the marketplace,” says Amy Juers, CEO of Edge Marketing. “Buyers are increasingly conducting independent research long before direct engagement with a sales team occurs. Visibility across media coverage, analyst commentary, digital reputation, search environments, and third-party validation is becoming more embedded in how organizations are evaluated. Companies can no longer afford to treat communications, content, visibility, and demand strategy as entirely separate disciplines.”
Forrester’s 2026 Buyer Insights reinforces the shift: 94% of B2B buyers now use AI in their purchasing process, with generative AI ranked as a more meaningful information source than any other channel. An independent analysis of more than one million citations from top AI models found that 89% of sources came from news articles, expert interviews, and trusted third-party coverage, not paid placements or owned content.
“Many CMOs are redesigning their marketing stack for the way buyers research today,” says Valerie Chan, CEO of Plat4orm. “AI-powered discovery synthesizes an organization’s credibility and market visibility to who’s quoting you, who’s citing you, whether authoritative sources treat you as the answer in your category. The organizations that win the AI-driven consideration stage are the ones that have built real authority across earned, owned, and third-party channels. That’s what we help CMOs do systematically.”
Together, Edge Marketing and Plat4orm combine expertise in strategic communications, visibility strategy, earned media, demand generation, positioning and market narrative development to help organizations strengthen authority and accelerate growth in complex and regulated markets.
As AI-mediated search and research behaviors continue reshaping how organizations are discovered and evaluated, Plat4orm and Edge Marketing will invest in ongoing research, integrated visibility strategies, and market positioning programs that track how those shifts are influencing enterprise buying behavior for companies across professional services, technology, and regulated industries.
For more information, visit: https://edgemarketinginc.com/trusted-answer-growth-system/
About Plat4orm
Plat4orm is a strategic communications and advisory firm specializing in legal technology, cybersecurity, AI and regulated industries. The firm advises organizations on market positioning, strategic communications, thought leadership, media relations, and go-to-market strategy to help complex technology and service providers build trust, visibility and long-term market credibility.
About Edge Marketing
Founded in 1997, Edge Marketing is a strategic communications and marketing agency serving organizations across legal, accounting, technology, and other regulated and high-stakes industries. The firm helps clients strengthen market visibility, authority and business growth through integrated public relations, thought leadership, digital marketing, and strategic advisory services.
Media Contacts:
Jessi Adler, Managing Director
jessi@plat4orm.com
Vicki LaBrosse, Managing Director, Director of Global Public Relations
vlabrosse@edgemarketinginc.com
Publication Partner:Zeest Media
