DEV Community: appierun

How to Get AI Assistants to Describe Your Product Correctly

appierun — Sun, 18 Oct 2026 15:43:15 +0000

When an AI assistant gets your pricing wrong or mixes you up with a company that has a similar name, the cause is usually on the open web: old pages, inconsistent descriptions, or no clear statement of what you are. The durable fix is to publish one clear source of truth and make every other mention of you agree with it.

First, check what AI assistants actually say

Don't guess. Write 5 to 10 questions a real buyer might ask, such as:

"What does [your product] do?"
"How much does [your product] cost?"
"What are alternatives to [your product]?"
"Is [your product] the same as [similar name]?"
"What's a good tool for [the job you do]?"

Ask each question in the AI assistants and answer engines your buyers are likely to use. Record the answers in a spreadsheet:

Use one row per answer, with these columns:

Date: when you asked
Assistant: which assistant or answer engine you used
Question: the exact question you asked
What it said: the answer, copied in full
Wrong facts: anything incorrect, such as an old pricing model
Confused with: any other company or similarly named app it mixed you up with

This is your baseline. Without it you can't tell whether anything you change makes a difference.

Publish one plain source of truth

Create or rewrite a single page on your own site that states the basic facts plainly. It doesn't need to be clever. It needs to be clear and easy to quote.

Your source-of-truth page should include:

What the product is, in one sentence
Who it's for, and who it isn't for
What it does not do (this prevents assistants from guessing)
Your current pricing model, with the date it was last updated
Where the company is based
Basic founding facts: when you started and who runs it
Your official name, with the exact spelling and capitalisation

Say the disambiguation out loud

If your name is close to another company's, say so on the page in plain words: what you do, what the other kind of product does, and that you aren't connected. You don't need to criticise anyone. A clear "not to be confused with" statement gives both people and machines something to repeat.

Make your site easy for machines to read

A few low-effort technical steps help software understand the page:

Organization structured data (schema markup) with your name, description, logo and official profiles
Consistent site metadata: the same name and one-line description in page titles and meta descriptions
An llms.txt file that summarises your key pages in plain text
An up-to-date sitemap that includes the source-of-truth page

None of these guarantees a particular answer. They make your own description easier to find and harder to misread.

Make every other mention agree

AI answers draw on many sources besides your website, so outdated copies elsewhere can outweigh your new page. Audit:

Directory and marketplace listings
Social media bios and company pages
Your docs and help centre
Old blog posts and press releases
Pricing pages, including old versions that are still live

Outdated pricing is the most common problem in this list. Update it everywhere, or redirect old pages to the current one.

Earn a few independent, accurate mentions

AI assistants also lean on third-party sources. Accurate comparisons, guest posts, podcast notes and helpful community answers all count. When you take part in a community thread, say who you are. One honest, well-informed mention is worth more than many thin ones.

Re-check monthly and keep a change log

Ask the same questions once a month and add the answers to your spreadsheet. Keep a short log of what you changed and when, so you can link fixes to changes in the answers. Some assistants search the live web and others rely on older data, so improvements arrive at different speeds.

FAQ

Why does AI describe my company wrong?
Usually because the web describes you inconsistently, out-of-date pages are still live, or your name is close to another company's.

Can I ask an AI company to correct an answer?
Some offer feedback options, but the lasting fix is making your own pages and third-party mentions clear and consistent.

Does an llms.txt file help AI answers?
It's a cheap, low-risk summary for machines. Treat it as one signal among many, not a guarantee.

How long does it take for AI answers to update?
It varies by assistant and by whether it searches the live web. Re-check monthly rather than daily.

Publish one clear source of truth, then make every other mention of you agree with it.

How to Plan Event-Triggered Email Sequences From Your Product's Events

appierun — Sun, 18 Oct 2026 04:52:58 +0000

Triggered emails usually break because the events behind them are vague, not because the copy is bad. Before you build another sequence, write a one-page event plan: the event name, when it fires, its properties, which sequence it starts, and what stops it.

Pick the handful of events that matter

You don't need to track everything to send useful emails. Start small and add events only when a real sequence needs them.

Common starters

user_signed_up: an account was created
first_key_action_completed: the user did the first thing that shows real use
cart_item_added: something went into the cart
cart_abandoned: the cart was left without checkout for a set time
order_completed: payment went through
user_went_inactive: no sessions for a set number of days

One custom event for your "aha" moment

Every product has a moment when a new user first gets value: the first report generated, the first teammate invited, the first project published. Name it, track it, and use it. It is often the most useful trigger you have, because it separates people who are getting value from people who need help.

Name events and properties consistently

Pick one convention and use it everywhere. A simple one is object_action in the past tense: cart_abandoned, invoice_paid, report_exported. Use the same property names across events, so plan, order_value and currency mean the same thing wherever they appear.

Write the plan as a simple list that both the growth team and engineering can read:

user_signed_up: Fires when: Account created and email confirmed; Properties: plan, signup_source; Owner: Growth
cart_abandoned: Fires when: Cart has items and no checkout after a set wait; Properties: cart_value, item_count; Owner: Engineering
order_completed: Fires when: Payment confirmed; Properties: order_value, currency; Owner: Engineering
report_exported: Fires when: First export of a report; Properties: report_type; Owner: Product

Spell out "fires when" precisely. "User signed up" can mean form submitted, email confirmed or first login, and each choice sends a different set of people into your sequence.

Map each event to one sequence, with exit rules

One event starts one sequence

If user_signed_up starts both a welcome series and a nurture series, new users get two streams of email in the same week. Give each starting event exactly one sequence. If you need branches, branch inside that sequence based on later events.

Write exit rules

Exit rules matter as much as triggers. Many events exist only to stop or redirect a sequence:

order_completed stops the cart reminder sequence
first_key_action_completed moves someone from "getting started" help to "next steps"
An unsubscribe stops everything marketing-related, straight away

Put the exit event next to every sequence in your plan so nobody gets a reminder for something they already did.

Write the sequence

Keep each sequence short, two to four emails, and give each email one job: remind, help, answer an objection, or ask a question. Send from a real person's name, write in your brand's normal voice, and make it easy to reply.

Test before you trust it

Before launch, run through this checklist:

Send each event from a test account and confirm it arrives with the right name and properties
Check what your email tool actually received, not what you think you sent
Walk every branch of the sequence with a test inbox, including the exit paths
Trigger an exit event mid-sequence and confirm the remaining emails stop
Check timing, time zones and what happens if an event fires twice

Consent and privacy basics

For contacts in the US and Europe: email only people who have agreed to hear from you where the law requires it, honour unsubscribes promptly, and collect only the event data you actually use. Transactional emails such as receipts follow different rules from marketing emails, so keep them separate. Check your GDPR, ePrivacy and other obligations with your own advisers.

FAQ

What events should trigger marketing emails?
Start with signup, your "aha" action, cart abandoned, purchase and inactivity, then add others only when a sequence needs them.

How many emails should an abandoned cart sequence have?
Two to four is a sensible starting range, each with one job, and every one stops as soon as the order is completed.

How do I stop a sequence when the customer has already bought?
Make order_completed an exit rule on the sequence, then test it by buying from a test account mid-sequence.

How should I name product events?
Use one pattern everywhere, such as object_action in the past tense, with the same property names across events.

Write down the events first, and the emails become much easier to get right.