Make every storefront an AI-cited answer.
Markstead is the AI visibility partner for franchise and multi-location brands that need to become the recommended answer inside ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Perplexity, and the assistants replacing local search. Every engagement starts as a fixed-fee audit. Almost all convert into execution.
The runner is free and lives on this site. For a written playbook, write to us directly: markstead@polsia.app
- March 2026 · BrightLocal45%
of US consumers now ask an AI assistant to find a nearby business
- March 2025 · BrightLocal6%
asked an AI assistant for a local recommendation a year earlier
- 2026 · SOCi location index83%
of 350,000+ indexed restaurant locations never appear in AI local results
- Citation/source mix research48%
of LLM citations trace to third-party press rather than a brand’s own pages
In March 2026, the local-discovery funnel moved.
The 7.5× leap in AI-assisted local search happened in twelve months. The citation graph hasn’t caught up. Most networks are invisible to it.
Demand moved first.
A consumer who asks ChatGPT for “the best taco chain near me” is not the same intent as the one Googling it. The conversion is implicitly made before your storefront appears.
Supply hasn’t.
83% of indexed restaurant locations never show up in AI local recommendations. The graph is sparse, and most operators don’t know they’re missing.
Citations aren’t yours.
Nearly half of the sources LLMs cite are third-party press, listicles, and review aggregators — not your brand’s own pages. Owning the answer means owning the citation.
Not another dashboard. A retainer that moves needles on the four signal sources LLMs actually cite.
Marketing mix-model dashboards didn’t earn their keep in 2010. AI visibility dashboards in 2026 are the same mistake — telling you a ranking moved while nothing on the page changes.
Audit and unify NAP, hours, and category data across Google, Apple Maps, Yelp, and Foursquare — then close the gaps so every assistant sees the same business.
Publish FAQ-shaped, schema-marked answers to the questions real customers ask assistants — location pages stop being about you and start being about their intent.
A 90-day sprint designed to lift review cadence and sentiment across your network, because assistants re-rank venues whose review signal is moving, not just positive.
Secure placements in trade press, local outlets, and the kinds of third-party listicles LLM citation graphs lean on — 48% of answers don’t come from your pages at all.
Franchise CMOs and local marketing directors with a network to convert, not a tracker subscription to renew.
If your brand has 10–2,000 locations, a DMO/DMM team, and you’ve ever argued with leadership about why “AI” was on next year’s plan — this is the work that pays back inside two quarters.
- QSR, fast-casual, and coffee franchise groups
- Regional retail chains and mall operators
- Service brands with regional footprints — dental, fitness, home services
- Multi-brand holding companies consolidating entity data
The honest version of who we can’t help.
- You have one or two locations — most of this can be done in-house.
- You’re looking for a SaaS dashboard and an account manager who logs in quarterly.
- You want AI-generated blog posts as a substitute for entity hygiene.
- Your network data lives in eight spreadsheets and you can’t sponsor a cleanup.
A two-to-three-year arbitrage window. We’re positioning you to take it.
Ad inventory is rolling into AI answer surfaces. The brands that lock in answer-share now hold it through the roll-out. Markstead’s engagement model is built around the timeline, not a quarter.
- Week 1–2
Audit
Fixed-fee inventory across Google, Apple, Yelp, Foursquare, and the leading assistants. One written deliverable.
- Month 1–3
Foundations
Entity unification, schema coverage, and the first FAQ batch shipped to live locations.
- Month 3–9
Sprints
Review velocity, earned media placements, and continuous re-testing against the new assistants.
- Ongoing
Defense
Monthly re-citation, competitor deltas, and a quarterly strategy offsight — never a passive dashboard.
The audit is the cheapest part.
Most engagements price as a $750–$1,500 fixed-fee audit that converts into a monthly execution retainer scoped to your network size and the four signal sources the audit found under-served.
- No long-term contract on the audit. You own the deliverable.
- Retainers run month-to-month after a 90-day basis period.
- Single point of contact, weekly written updates, monthly retrieval tests.
One intake is the entire audit. Enter your brand, your category, and the cities or regions that matter — the runner executes twelve query phrasings across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode and lands you on a per-platform report.
Open the runner →For a written playbook, write to markstead@polsia.app — replies arrive from the same address, no sales SDR handoff.