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George Kocher is an entrepreneur, speaker and the CEO of Brand North, a digital growth…
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When the Machines Outpace Us: Why quantum breakthroughs force a reckoning with AI, blockchain — and interpretability
When the Machines Outpace Us: Why quantum breakthroughs force a reckoning with AI, blockchain — and interpretability
The latest revelations from Google’s Quantum AI team signal a profound shift—one that has been simmering beneath the…
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George Kocher shared thisI was invited to speak with The Guardian Recovery team today at their marketing summit. It's been a pleasure getting to know Donald Prince, MBA, and their team over the last few months. They have a rare group of forward-thinking leaders, and I love that. I spoke about attribution, brand positioning, de-positioning, SEO and AEO. If you want to book me to speak or need growth marketing services, search for Brand North. #guardianrecovery #brandnorth
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George Kocher shared thisMore Websites = More Problems. This is a philosophy I've tried to impart to my clients for years, and everyone always looks at me like I'm crazy. "But my last agency told me I needed a separate website for our detox and our mental health program!" That thinking is deeply flawed in most circumstances. Not because it doesn't work. Plenty of times you'll get a pop from spinning up an extra site for a new service expansion. But in the long run, brand wins. Google and AI can't afford to understand every website on the internet, so they prefer real brands. Chop your brand into pieces and you've split the authority you're building through search and social across multiple sub-brands. Now you have to invest in each one like it's the only one. Most companies don't. Then they wonder why it failed. I'm actually in favor of building tons of microsites and authority properties to support the brand. Just don't split the brand itself unless you can manage each one like it's the only one you have. #SEO #AEO
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George Kocher shared thisI had the pleasure of spending time with my team this week on a video shoot. We are positioning and depositioning one of our clients to be the category owner in their field. “De-Positioning works by identifying the most critical problem your customer needs solved, exposing how your competitors fail to solve it, and making your brand the clear, inevitable choice. When applied with discipline, it renders competitors irrelevant.” - Marty It was such a pleasure to execute on this with Marty Marion Michael Rabin Shlomo Kugler.
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George Kocher shared thisGrowth you can't prove isn't growth! That was the heart of the panel I joined last week at the Recovery.com event in Madison, Wisconsin: marketing reporting in the boardroom. Daniel Krasner and Ryan Jackson brought down the house on what actually matters when you're in front of an executive team or board. Key takeaways: quantify marketing dollars against the right scale, and report consistently so there's no such thing as bad news, just trends you saw coming and already have a plan for. Surprises kill confidence. This conference felt less like a conference and more like hanging out with friends who happen to be really smart thought leaders. Very grateful.
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George Kocher reposted thisGeorge Kocher reposted thisSEO Case Study: Addiction Treatment Center in US Market | From 6–10 clicks/day to 200+ clicks/day. Content is King. But which content? We inherited a behavioral health site with hundreds of pages and almost no organic traction and not visible on any LLM platforms. The "fix" wasn't writing more content. It was removing most of what was there. Here's what we did: ▸ Content pruning based on multi-source analysis (GSC + LLMs + alternative search engines). If a page wasn't contributing topical authority, it was gone. ↳ That LLM audit paid off. AI referrals grew 7,300%. In a YMYL niche like addiction treatment, getting cited by AI is trust you can't buy. ▸ A complete URL and architecture rebuild: hub-and-spoke model, intentional internal linking, no orphaned pages competing with each other. ▸ New content built around single search intents. Not text walls that no one will read. Instead: one page, one question, one answer. Two core algorithm updates hit while we were mid-execution. Both times, rankings went up ,not down. End result: ↑ 6–10 clicks/day → 200+ clicks/day ↑ 3.61M impressions over 12 months ↑ Organic traffic from near zero to 7K+ daily visits ↑ AI referral traffic up 7,300% : cited across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini & Perplexity The biggest lesson? The sites winning today aren't publishing the most content. They're publishing the most relevant content and they're ruthless about removing everything that weakens that relevance. Most people build first. We proved that's the wrong order with George Kocher in multiple times. #SEO #BehavioralHealthMarketing #ContentPruning #AEO #AISearch
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George Kocher reposted thisGeorge Kocher reposted thisSEO Case Study: Addiction Treatment Center in US Market | From 6–10 clicks/day to 200+ clicks/day. Content is King. But which content? We inherited a behavioral health site with hundreds of pages and almost no organic traction and not visible on any LLM platforms. The "fix" wasn't writing more content. It was removing most of what was there. Here's what we did: ▸ Content pruning based on multi-source analysis (GSC + LLMs + alternative search engines). If a page wasn't contributing topical authority, it was gone. ↳ That LLM audit paid off. AI referrals grew 7,300%. In a YMYL niche like addiction treatment, getting cited by AI is trust you can't buy. ▸ A complete URL and architecture rebuild: hub-and-spoke model, intentional internal linking, no orphaned pages competing with each other. ▸ New content built around single search intents. Not text walls that no one will read. Instead: one page, one question, one answer. Two core algorithm updates hit while we were mid-execution. Both times, rankings went up ,not down. End result: ↑ 6–10 clicks/day → 200+ clicks/day ↑ 3.61M impressions over 12 months ↑ Organic traffic from near zero to 7K+ daily visits ↑ AI referral traffic up 7,300% : cited across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini & Perplexity The biggest lesson? The sites winning today aren't publishing the most content. They're publishing the most relevant content and they're ruthless about removing everything that weakens that relevance. Most people build first. We proved that's the wrong order with George Kocher in multiple times. #SEO #BehavioralHealthMarketing #ContentPruning #AEO #AISearch
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George Kocher reposted thisGeorge Kocher reposted thisThere's a waitlist for technology partners to get into our 3rd Annual Marketing Summit, but we still have a few spots left that we have earmarked for treatment centers. This is an exclusive event for treatment center executives, senior marketers and select Recovery.com partners. If you are one of those, this is the place to be in five weeks: https://lnkd.in/g7JzZ5kG It’s the first year we've offered sponsorships, and we are officially sold out as of today! The support from these sponsors is helping us make this year that much better: FURTHER for Behavioral Health & Anonymous Health, giving us massive support as Platinum Partners, Kipu Health & Dazos as Gold Partners, as well as Brand North, Scalable Growth, Growth Sherpa, ERPHealth, and LegitScript. Our speaker lineup is stacked this year, with major players from the industry sharing knowledge: Andy Crestodina (Orbit Media), Annie Peters, PhD, LP (National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers - NAATP), Donald Prince, MBA (Guardian Recovery), Zach Gross (MGMT Digital), Drew Powers (Rollover Rep), Amber V. (Cornerstone Healing Center), Grace Adams (Release Recovery), Wade Muhlhauser (Plugged In Recovery), Steve Donai (Growth Sherpa Consulting), Sariah Hopkins (Atlantic Health Strategies), Derek Hyman, MPH (Scalable Growth), Gary Garth (elev8.io), Adrienne Wilkerson (Beacon Media + Marketing), George Kocher (Brand North), Daniel Krasner (Sero Mental Health), Gregory Roselle (Recovery Unplugged), Ryan Jackson and Nicolas Portonova (Recovery Centers of America), Rebecca Pirillo (ERPHealth), DANIEL GEMP, and last but definitely not least Dan Fogarty (Talkbox). July 20 through 22 in Madison. I hope to see you there!
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George Kocher shared thisOn my way back from West Coast Symposium filled with gratitude. So grateful for our clients, vendors and the relationships I’ve kept over the years. We met some new great companies and I got to hang with Rampage. Excited to keep growing brand north™ and supporting our clients continue to increase their viability and grow their brand the right way.
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George Kocher reposted thisGeorge Kocher reposted thisWe work with some of the world's best behavioral health marketing agencies: Gary Garth, elev8.io Preston Powell, Webserv Derek Hyman, MPH, Scalable Growth Anthony Cibene, All In Digital Marketing Zach Gross, MGMT Digital Robert Aycock, The Digital Intellect George Kocher, Brand North What's really cool about these folks is there's an acknowledgment that our field needs to be better. Everyone is really open with sharing, and what I feel with all of them is an abundant mindset rather than scarcity. If this sounds like you and you'd like to be part of our agency partner program, message Signe Engelien.
George Kocher commented on a post
2d
Congratulations Rebecca Pirillo !!!
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George Kocher liked thisGeorge Kocher liked thisGoogle thinks a bot form fill and an admit are worth the same. You told it so. With no values set, every conversion looks identical to Smart Bidding. Price each step at what you can afford to pay for it. Say your targets are $10,000 per admission and $1,200 per VOB: → Admit: $10,000 → VOB: $1,200 → Qualified call, 5+ min of talk time (about 1 in 5 become a VOB): $250 → Form fill (1 in 6 become a VOB): $200 Set it in Goals → Conversions → each action → Value. Then switch bidding to Maximize conversion value, and add a target ROAS once it's stable. Base your targets on what you collect, not what you bill. The ratios matter more than the dollars.
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George Kocher liked thisI'm thrilled to share that I'm stepping in as CEO of ERPHealth, and I can't wait to build what comes next. First, a thank you to Eric G.. He built the category leader in behavioral health outcomes, and I'm grateful for his trust and partnership. As Chief Strategy Officer, Eric will be where he creates the most value: at the front of the market, shaping where outcomes go next. My job is to scale what our founders built. I couldn't be more excited to get to work with this team.George Kocher liked thisERPHealth was built to change how behavioral health defines success—and we’re just getting started. As we enter our next phase of growth, co-founder Eric G. is stepping into an expanded strategic role as Chief Strategy Officer, where he’ll focus on what he does best: building transformative partnerships, championing innovation, and pushing the behavioral health industry toward greater accountability through verified outcomes. Rebecca Pirillo has been appointed CEO, leading ERPHealth’s growth, operations, and continued expansion, supported by new growth capital. It’s an exciting evolution for ERPHealth—and an important next step in our mission to make verified outcomes the standard across behavioral health. Read the full announcement: https://lnkd.in/drkQrY3K #ERPHealth #BehavioralHealth #VerifiedOutcomes #HealthcareInnovationERPHealth Secures Growth Capital and Aligns Leadership for Next Phase of GrowthERPHealth Secures Growth Capital and Aligns Leadership for Next Phase of Growth
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George Kocher liked thisGeorge Kocher liked thisI’m excited to share that I’ve officially started my Marketing & Communications Internship at Hennessey Digital! I’m so grateful for this opportunity and for the chance to join such a talented team. I’m looking forward to learning, taking on new challenges, and making the most of this experience. Thank you to everyone at Hennessey Digital for such a warm welcome!
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George Kocher liked thisGeorge Kocher liked thisMy daughter is interested in becoming a BHT at a local facility in Tampa. Is anyone hiring? If so, you can privately message me or leave a suggestion. Thanks so much!
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George Kocher liked thisGeorge Kocher liked thisIt’s been roughly two years since my good friend James Boozan reached out to me with an exciting offer to work alongside him in an effort to build Blue Star Recovery LLC from the ground up. I walked into an empty building with bare walls and an empty census. Since then we have helped countless families and their loved ones, established an exciting culture internally and have successfully expanded geographically including Blue Star Mental Health Services, Blue Star Adolescent Services and soon to be Orion Recovery Center in Hamilton, Nj. This timeframe has allowed me to grow in many different professional capacities and has allowed me to diversify my skill set in ways that I could have never imagined possible. Over the years I have been fortunate enough to work for and learn from some of the most brilliant minds in Behavioral Health including Michael DeMasi as well as Jimmy. In addition to having a hunger to constantly grow, the caveat to being exposed to such great mentorship is that you now open yourself up to once in a lifetime opportunities. For most of the summer, I have reached out to a handful of people whose opinions I respect immensely (sorry if you’re reading this and I didn’t reach out to you 🥶). I’ve been bouncing the pros and the cons off of these folks about an opportunity that has come my way. I am here to announce that I am officially no longer with Blue Star Recovery as I have accepted an ownership and managing partnership opportunity with a well known behavioral healthcare company that includes an exciting expansion announcement. This was probably the most difficult and emotional decision that I have made in my career, but the writing is on the wall that this is the path I am destined to embark upon. Many of my friends and colleagues have known about this upcoming change and it feels really good to finally let go of this secret that I’ve been harboring. It’s been such a unique opportunity to finish out the summer with Blue Star and staff , with everyone knowing about my pending departure. I will always have benefited from this move not being abrupt and sudden. When you spend seven days of a week with your team in group chats, there is a level of intimacy and trust that becomes established. It’s not easy no matter how much conditioning goes into it. I will announce next week about my next move as I want this post to focus on how awesome Blue Star Recovery is and the entire staff from top to bottom. I’ve never seen a more equipped collective of professionals work together with such continuity and love. Forever wil be grateful for my time in Hazlet with this team! To new beginnings!!!
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George Kocher liked thisGeorge Kocher liked thisTL;DR: DIAL3D is the best AI voice and chat for behavioral healthcare websites and call centers. Bar none. Free trial, no monthly commitment. Try it and you're going to be blown away. I promise. Most of you know me as a serial entrepreneur, a technologist, and a battle-hardened behavioral healthcare marketer. Fewer of you know I co-founded DIAL3D. Here's why it exists, and a challenge. At Guardian Recovery we run a 24-hour admissions call center. Real humans, around the clock. But there's always one more call than we have people for. 5 PM or 5 AM, every treatment advisor is on a pre-assessment or checking benefits, and another call comes in. Think about what it took that person to pick up the phone. The fear, the anxiety, the pain. And then nobody answers. First those calls went to voicemail. Terrible. Then an answering service. Behavioral health specific, but really a human answering machine. Took a message, said we'd call back. No rapport, no program. Better than voicemail, barely. About a year ago real-time AI voice got good enough to build something better. Nine months at Guardian, a few thousand calls a day, training and refining. Over and over. What we got: A real conversation. The caller explains what they're going through, gets the basics handled, and stays on the line. A warm transfer to a treatment advisor the moment one is free. Conversions went up. Which is marketing talk for more people got into treatment. Then we did the same thing for chat. Chat has always taken a back seat to the phones. Our team's answer was always "can you call in?" But people choose chat for a reason. They're at work. They're hiding in the bathroom from their family. They can't be on a call right now and they still need help. So we built a full funnel on chat: Real insurance verification, not a form Salesforce mapping that creates the lead and carries the data into the opportunity A full pre-assessment Intake appointments scheduled for outpatient That's DIAL3D. The most integrated AI admissions system in behavioral healthcare, built by the most tech-forward operator in the industry. Yes, I'm a co-founder and I want you to use it. But you be the judge. Call the number. Use the chat. Run our mock treatment center site next to anyone else's. If theirs is better, use theirs. I'll take the Pepsi Challenge against anybody. One more thing. Twenty years of being pitched every platform in this industry taught me one question: if you believe in your product, why am I signing a six-month contract? So with DIAL3D there's no contract and no commitment. Try it and let the performance keep you. DIAL3D: https://dial3d.ai/ Test drive it on our mock treatment center site: https://lnkd.in/exUsQetJ Compare us against: Anonymous Health (no online demo I could find ) https://lnkd.in/eVeN2XMK FURTHER https://lnkd.in/ej_AnTCY RVK AI https://lnkd.in/eJurvBYS Sam S. Michael Audette
Experience & Education
Publications
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How To Streamline Your Communication And Engage Consumers
Forbes
See publicationIn a world where the number of digital consumers is growing and younger generations are trending toward an easier online buying experience, less contact is now the new normal. For example, just take a look at delivery services today: You don’t even have to physically swipe a credit card to make an order. Many restaurants will drop off food at your front door. People order online, and there never has to be a personal interaction.
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Using SEO To Lower Customer Acquisition Costs In 2020
Forbes
See publicationNext to repeat customers, referrals, brand ambassadors and strategic partnerships, organic search is one of the most cost-effective ways to gain new customers. I believe it is just as effective as Adwords, social media, lead generation and display advertising. No matter what your demographic is, everyone uses Google to find answers, products and services.
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