Episode 1
· 01:53:01
Oh, maybe I can hello, everyone. Hello, everyone. We are live. This is Brick Marketing It's Tuesday, March 17. Happy Saint Patty's Day to everyone that's watching.
Nick Stamoulis:We wanted to just welcome everyone, and we are gonna dive in. We have a lot of amazing topics, articles, industry information for us to go through today. So we're gonna dive in. We'll just get started. So first article we're gonna look at today is from Martech and this is a really cool article where they basically decided to, as a test, create a ninety day plan on how to build authority.
Nick Stamoulis:And it's great. Like it's definitely, if you have a moment, take a look at this article. It breaks it down by months, give different phases. They have a human phase, trade shows and videos. They have an email and paid ads.
Nick Stamoulis:The multiple touch engine. So I think the big takeaway here is yes, it's a ninety day example type of strategy to build if you're looking to get AI citations but the takeaway that I got from it is what we've been saying to our clients, we've been saying publicly which is to do well in AI search or searching on Gemini or ChatGPT, you need to market your business a lot of different ways to build citations. It's not as simple as just you know, being active in social media or all the traditional SEO things that used to work. You do all of that plus more and actually market the business properly. So what do you guys think?
Nick Stamoulis:Really quick.
Katherine Tsoukalas:I like the framework nature of it because it breaks it down very well. I I think people should check it out. You don't have to take ninety days for it. You could just go through it. Or, honestly, building authority should be ongoing, but it's a very, very good Kickstarter plan.
Nick Stamoulis:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's great. Anything to add, John?
John Tiglianidis:Yeah. And it it's good to be sort of, like, vindicated in that, like, oh, we've been doing this. This is kind of our strategy. It's very similar. And we we are doing the right things.
John Tiglianidis:We're seeing results. And it's Yes. It's good to see that other people are finding the same exact things as we are.
Nick Stamoulis:Yeah. Yeah. So again, so go definitely go check that one out on how to build a AI citations in a ninety day plan. Moving on, next. But this was an interesting, article from Search Land.
Nick Stamoulis:We actually have quite a few from Search Engine Land today. They just produce just excellent articles. So we we love reading Search Engine Land, and have for years. So this was interesting and this was talk about how to protect your brand in AI search. And what's interesting is AI search is all about brand.
Nick Stamoulis:And so it was very interesting talking about how SEO is more of a defensive play in today's world and we're actually seeing that. We're having a good SEO presence. It's We believe that it's been It's transitioned. So it's transitioned from a lead generating vehicle to still maybe somewhat but it's more now a brand play. That it's kind of like if you're not there organically, why not argue with there organically, right, for the various searches that, you know, that matter to your business.
Nick Stamoulis:So I just thought it was great for defensive SEO. Catherine, anything to add on this?
Katherine Tsoukalas:Very nice way to frame it because we have been saying that, at least for the time being AI search and SEO are working together. But to think of it from the defensive terminology is it it helps you understand its current place a little bit better than if we were to think of it in the older way that we used to think about SEO as being, like, the only way to get organic visitors.
Nick Stamoulis:Yeah. I mean and that's something that I think businesses need to understand. We're gonna keep saying this, by the way, for those of you listening, over and over and over and over again. AI search, generative engine optimization, AI SCR, AEO, AIO, whatever term you wanna call it, people searching on the LLMs and the AI platforms, if your business isn't there, you're invisible. And moving forward, this is the time to invest in it because for brands and companies that invest in it this year into next year, you're gonna be positioned very well as a explosive growth that is coming.
Nick Stamoulis:Whether we like it or not, it's coming. So anyway, so let's move on. Let's move on. Next is another article from search engine land talking about, again, SEO and it's talking about how Google AI overviews have put search clicks down by 42%. Yeah.
Nick Stamoulis:So it's interesting. This is exactly what we've been continuing to talk about, that even though websites are losing organic search traffic, other types of traffic like news traffic, stuff like that for publishers have increased organically from SEO. But again, this just goes to show you why, like we just said, and we'll just continue to say it, how companies and brands need to get involved in AI search now. They need to market, have a coordinated strategy around it because this type of behavior, these type of headlines are gonna continue, and we're gonna see it continually. So, Katherine, John, anything to add on this?
Katherine Tsoukalas:For me, it's very telling that it that this article is about Google's AI overviews. Because for the longest time, we've looked at Google as the premier search engine.
Nick Stamoulis:Right.
Katherine Tsoukalas:And they know that the tide is changing. They're the ones that implemented these AI overviews. And why did they do that? It's because they feel and the market and the users are showing that people might be mentally ready for this shift, and that's why things have been changing so rapidly.
Nick Stamoulis:Yeah. Yeah. I think so. John, anything to add?
John Tiglianidis:Yeah. It's I I think it's kind of, like, obvious, like, why this is happening in that in the, like, you know, you're losing clicks sort of way. Because Mhmm. If I'm looking up some basic question
Nick Stamoulis:Mhmm.
John Tiglianidis:That I trust AI can answer correctly. I'm not gonna go past the AI overview search. Like, I don't need to click on someone's website to I don't know. Something simple. Like, I I don't need to do further research, and I trust that AI can get some things right.
John Tiglianidis:And I think that people who are gonna still see clicks are people who are going more in-depth about topics or answering more niche questions.
Nick Stamoulis:Right. Yeah. Absolutely. And and again, you know, businesses, what we're seeing with our clients from AI generated traffic from search and from AI is they're very good quality people. There's very good quality business leads.
Nick Stamoulis:They tend to be more end of sales cycle. It's almost like AI has created referrals basically for businesses. Like that's that's the level of you know, for those of you that have referral based businesses, you know what I'm talking about. Referral businesses can often be great, but we're seeing that same behaviors with AI generated leads. So moving on.
Nick Stamoulis:This is an article from a marketing tech, why traffic numbers look different in the age of AI search. And yet again, we're talking about AI search. We're talking about that a lot today, but so let me tell you what we're seeing that numbers look different. So in the age of old, pre AI, you would see often a site that would have a good presence, might have a good number of a direct traffic and then you see Google as 50% of the traffic, search 60%, maybe email marketing is maybe another 10 or 15% and then various referring refer traffics or other ad campaigns or things like that will make up the rest. Now what we're seeing is Google is still a majority but that majority is diminished.
Nick Stamoulis:In fact, we're seeing a lot of clients that have direct traffic as number one referrer because what's happening is, first and foremost, for instance, for those of you that use Google Analytics, it's been for a while that you don't actually see a lot of that Google traffic sometimes to be contributed will show up in direct traffic, but what we're seeing is the brand traffic is increasing. Branded searches are increasing. Direct traffic is increasing. But why is that? If you do a good job of your generative engine optimization or your AI search, those are people that are finding your brand, your company, your products, your services and are typing in the domain directly that may not click through ChatGPT.
Nick Stamoulis:If they're using Clot, if they're using Copilot, they may not click, but they've retained that research coming back to it and then they do a search on that. So that's where what we're seeing, and this is interesting because this article talks a lot about that, of how the numbers look different in today's world. I think it's important for people to understand that when you're looking at your your analytics data for your website, unders and especially if you're which you should, building an AI search presence, it's the numbers are gonna be different. You can't compare apples to apples anymore. You know, those days, I believe, are all over.
Nick Stamoulis:Catherine, John, quickly, if you guys wanna chime in on
Katherine Tsoukalas:that. We need to reframe how we think about the numbers that we're seeing. Because in the early days of these changes that we're seeing in search patterns and behaviors, For example, the likes of the zero click searches were panic inducing. Why is our organic traffic down? Oh my gosh.
Katherine Tsoukalas:So the impulse was to think, okay. It's taking away business. But what's really happening is something else entirely. That old mindset needs to shift because AI search is changing things, and you can frame it to be changing for the better. And this article does a really nice job at just outlining what these changes are and what they mean for our businesses.
Nick Stamoulis:Yes. Agreed. Sean, anything to add?
John Tiglianidis:Yeah. I agree. I I think that seeing the number goes like, going down is scary, but I don't think you're necessarily doing worse because, like you said, your leads are more qualified. They're more Right. You know, along there.
John Tiglianidis:So you might even be doing better.
Nick Stamoulis:Yeah. Absolutely. So true. Absolutely. Alright.
Nick Stamoulis:Moving on. Next article. Interesting article from Fast Company. B2B purchases aren't made by individuals. So what this article, it's a fascinating article.
Nick Stamoulis:A lot of it, Angel, as marketers, we study demographics and we study generation and buying patterns of, for instance, what works, how baby boomers research information and purchase is different for Gen X, is different from Millennial and is different for Gen Z and Gen Alpha. And they all respond differently. They're different generations. So as marketers, we study this stuff all the time. But I thought this was a really great article because it zeroed in on B2B.
Nick Stamoulis:And specifically what it said that there's a Forrester Research study that indicates that 71% of the buying group for B2B now, business to business, are millennials and gen z, which I found fascinating. I thought it would be the opposite, but it's not. And the key difference here is millennial and gen z tend to be more collaborative in how they purchase, specifically on the b to b side. Traditionally in the past, we would think like, we're gonna sell to if you're b to b and you're selling in your manufacturing company and you're selling to the c suite. You might say, okay, I'm selling to the CEO, the CFO and maybe a handful of decision influencers in the company.
Nick Stamoulis:What's changing when this article shows it based on Forrester Research data is that the buying patterns are actually shifting where it's now it's more of a collaborative approach. Right? This is why for our clients, our B2B clients, content marketing is huge. Different types of content. Not just articles.
Nick Stamoulis:Right? Because not everyone's gonna be reading. Not everyone's going to be and people are gonna be watching video content. Not everyone wants all their their white papers gated. Right?
Nick Stamoulis:Have ungated content in addition to the mix because that stirs collaborative approach, that is now working, with these with these demographics. So, really quick, Katherine, what do you think on this? Yes. Know you study this stuff too.
Katherine Tsoukalas:Yes. So when we think about who the buyer is, we don't necessarily need to do this, and it might be done unintentionally, but we tend to think of the buyer as one entity or one person. But this article was eye opening because it shows you that your buyer is actually a collection of people from within the company across multiple positions, even across multiple generations. And so that is something to take into account when we're putting together our messaging on how to reach this audience or these because the audiences are a lot more diverse than we might realize. And the one part that I really loved was a sentence in here.
Katherine Tsoukalas:According to Gartner, b to b purchases now involve five to 16 people across as many as four functions all coming to the table with different perspectives, needs, and pain points. And that just about sums the whole idea up to me.
Nick Stamoulis:Yes. It does. And I'll tell you, content too isn't just how you market. It's your visuals too. Like, we're very big in diversity and showing different groups, different types of individuals because in any corporate setting, you're gonna have different ages, different ethnicities, different genders.
Nick Stamoulis:So it's important in your b to b marketing from an imagery perspective as well to kind of have that come through. John, anything to add?
John Tiglianidis:Yeah. I I think that in general and I don't know if this is just something because right now, millennials and gen z are the younger ones in the generation or, you know, in in in the workspaces. I think that just in general, people are looking for, like, outside perspectives or outside, like, influence on decisions they're making. I think people are a little bit more uncertain because of how fast things move that they wanna make the right decision. So I think that's why you see, like, it going through so many people to make one purchase or one decision for a company.
Nick Stamoulis:Yeah. So the advice there is for your b to b marketers, be persistent, consistent, don't give up.
Katherine Tsoukalas:That's right.
Nick Stamoulis:Because it takes a lot. It takes a lot these days. All right, moving on. This is a really cool article from Marketing Dive talking about how Dove, the brand Dove, the soap company turned Reddit products feedback into a real world campaign. And this was just I'm not gonna get into the specifics.
Nick Stamoulis:I just thought this was an interesting read because what it showed is often many times B2C brands tend to They sometimes, they'll do surveys and secret shoppers and all sorts of research basically before they make product decisions. But I just thought it was fascinating that they turned to Reddit, not their own social media platforms, could be skewed in one way or another, not to cheerleaders or fans that are product ambassadors or product advocate fans. They cheer to Reddit. So I I that was great because I haven't heard of the b to c brand really utilizing Reddit to this capacity. So just an interesting article.
Nick Stamoulis:An interesting article. Not not we don't have to talk too much about it, but I just thought it was very interesting. Interesting one for sure.
Katherine Tsoukalas:Very.
Nick Stamoulis:Moving on. Next. HTTP's default and premium model search the web differently. So this is an article from Search Engine Journal. Again, I thought was absolutely fascinating but I also wasn't surprised.
Nick Stamoulis:And let me tell you why I'm not surprised. But I'm not surprised because Google has always been this way. Right? If you're using Chrome, if you're logged in or out of your Google account, you have the personalization of search, you have the geo targeting aspects of search that often would skew what a search kind of landscape looks like from rankings, lack of a better word. That should be T is following a similar path but where the premium, your paid users versus your non paid users are seeing different results.
Nick Stamoulis:In general, the results are different. It's not AI searching different than modern SEO. For those of you that aren't in the industry, don't maybe understand that. Modern SEO, it's algorithmic based that looks at all these variables from a website, from and in a page by page level, ranks based on intent of specific keywords that are that a user puts in. With AI search or general engine optimization searching on any platform, know, ChatGPT or in this example, those results of what shows up in the prompts, even if the prompt, you're prompting it the same, you're gonna see different results.
Nick Stamoulis:The moral of the story that I took away from this, I say, okay, that's great that they're different, right? The paid versus not paid for ChatGPT. But the reality is the same. You still need to market. You still need to do your on-site optimization for AI search.
Nick Stamoulis:You still need to have your content marketing strategy. You still need to build citations and market the business lots of ways. That is why it's imperative to market lots of ways so that your brand, your product and your company can come up in the conversation for those non paid visitors that don't have a paid ChatGPT account and your paid premium subscribers as well. So now for John, what do you guys think on that?
Katherine Tsoukalas:I have seen firsthand the difference because I have had a paid account for a while for ChatGPT, and I was using it alongside on on a vacation alongside people who did not have the free account. And I could do more advanced things with it, such as I was in Greece and I had to translate signs and the free users could not do that. So, they they they throttle your usage just a bit in ways that you might not realize until you're in the middle of a situation where you realize I should get the paid version. And I just had access to better information when I was looking for information for things, even sightseeing stuff.
Nick Stamoulis:Yeah. John, what do you think on this? And I'll I'll I'll share one more thought on this, then we'll move on. But, John, what do you think?
John Tiglianidis:I think I've sort of just assumed this that, you know, that premium users are getting a better model. It is it fair? Is it necessarily right? I don't know. But I think it just makes sense that the paying users are gonna get a better product.
John Tiglianidis:Oh, yeah. You can't Mhmm. It it uses more power, of course, and then you can't give the most power using thing to someone who's not paying because you're gonna end up losing money on that.
Nick Stamoulis:Well, I mean and I mean, you talk about losing money. Chatuchiki's already lost losing money. Oh, you're you're They're they're believing they're believing. Right. Yeah.
Nick Stamoulis:So so it's kinda like I agree. I mean, you know, again, people I recommend having paid accounts from these platforms. If you're gonna use it in a professional setting, yes. Paid accounts for sure. Yeah.
Nick Stamoulis:Yeah. It's it's interesting. It'll be interesting to see how this how this evolves for sure. Mhmm. Alright.
Nick Stamoulis:Moving on. This one, scary headline, shock value headline for sure from Adweek Mhmm. That 65% of marketing jobs may not survive AI. And that is basically an anthropic, which is Quad, the parent company. They did a survey on this.
Nick Stamoulis:And I found it fascinating. And again, this is scary because we're all marketers here. We own a digital marketing agency. They were saying, geez, our jobs may not survive. I don't believe that.
Nick Stamoulis:Because here's one thing. If you are a marketer let me just break it down. Here's my opinion. If you're an in house marketer and you work in a marketing department, make AI your mission to learn everything you can and as much as you can and be the expert in your organization for AI. That's how you survive and you have a job and then you become a bigger asset for your organization.
Nick Stamoulis:On the flip side, if you are, again, if you're an AI, I would say if you're a in house marketer and let's just say you don't want to be the expert in AI, you just want to use it. Show, demonstrate you can use it for productivity to increase your own productivity. Do you do your job better? And so that's where I see. I see AI.
Nick Stamoulis:And again, this is scary. It is scary. But it doesn't have to be if you embrace it and you use it and say, okay, this is a tool. We're talking internally about a project that we just recently launched for our own company that would literally take maybe three months to do. We did in one week because we had AI help us.
Nick Stamoulis:That's one example. And so the point is learn to use AI and then if you're in the camp, if you're a marketer and you're more old school and you say, yeah, I don't wanna do it. I don't believe it. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Well then you may be part of it.
Nick Stamoulis:You may not have a job, quite frankly. I mean, it's cold to say but it's it's kinda like the analogy I use is and I'm old enough to remember this. When the Internet didn't exist and the Internet came first came out in the nineties, you had a slew of jobs that went away. Travel agents, they still exist, but they're nowhere nothing like they used to be. You had travel agents, map makers.
Nick Stamoulis:One was a cartographer. When was the last time you heard someone being a map maker you go to Google Maps. So it's like those jobs went all the way. But what innovation and technology does is it breeds a whole another segments of new jobs. Like all of us here, yes, we're marketers.
Nick Stamoulis:We went to school for marketing. We have marketing backgrounds. If internet did not exist, if digital did exist, would we work in marketing? Yes, we would. But would we work to the extent that we did?
Nick Stamoulis:Probably not. And so that's my point. My point is this doesn't have to be scary if you don't let it be scary and embrace change. This is happening whether we like it or not. So, you can fight it as much as you like.
Nick Stamoulis:And I tell people this all the time. You can fight it as much as you like. But those who embrace it and just keep their eyes forward and just continue to evolve with it and move with it will grow and will be in a really good place long term. So, Katherine, John, what do you guys think on this?
Katherine Tsoukalas:Yes. I was gonna say the same thing, and I have a personal story that goes along with this. When I first started my writing career, and I was a writer before I transitioned into marketing and and have this job now, it was during the time where copywriters were still writing direct mail packages. Yeah. And it was really lucrative for a freelancer, for example, to do that.
Katherine Tsoukalas:Well, midway through, like, my second year in the business, that virtually disappeared as a profession and as an offshoot of copywriting and was slowly being replaced by Internet work. Right. And and that's that's this.
Nick Stamoulis:Right.
Katherine Tsoukalas:I transitioned. I said, oh, okay. Well, everything is different. Now I have to learn a new thing. And so I did, and I had that business for, like, twelve or fifteen years before I worked here and learned marketing along the way.
Katherine Tsoukalas:And the more adaptable you are, the better. Because the headline looks scary, but there's a however. How many jobs will be created? If you're a marketer that learns the new way, you're gonna not you're gonna be looked at as indispensable because now
Nick Stamoulis:you're Absolutely.
Katherine Tsoukalas:That's gonna help navigate the company in this new era.
Nick Stamoulis:Yeah. John, what do you say? Because you're you're kind of coming into this during this period of time.
John Tiglianidis:I have I have a lot of thoughts about this. I agree that it's it's gonna end up cutting a lot of jobs. I think that marketing teams are gonna become smaller, and larger companies are gonna, you know, trim the fat, so to speak, right, and fire a lot of people for people who might be willing to use AI and be more productive because of it. But I also wonder because a lot of companies want to create, like, AI marketing agents. Right?
John Tiglianidis:I do wonder if marketers are going to be replaced with people who know computer science because, right, you need somebody to create those AI systems. A traditional marketer's not gonna know how to do that. So who are they gonna hire to run those AIs? Right?
Nick Stamoulis:Well well, let me let me put you this way, John. I agree, but also I'm like, well, maybe not because how many times have we seen we've seen this. We'll work with a client. We'll say, oh, your content looks interesting. Who wrote your content?
Nick Stamoulis:Oh, my web developer put my content up there. Mhmm. Right? It's a similar analogy to that where it's almost like, okay. I agree with you.
Nick Stamoulis:They could, but you're still gonna need strategists. You're still gonna need someone that understands business
Katherine Tsoukalas:Yeah. And
Nick Stamoulis:great well.
John Tiglianidis:Yeah. And that's where and that's where, like, the trimming of the fat comes in where
Nick Stamoulis:it's like, hey.
John Tiglianidis:It's going to be maybe you'll have, you know, somebody who created these, you know, AI agents, and then you have a couple of marketers that know what they're doing. And then everyone else basically is somewhere else now.
Nick Stamoulis:Who knows what they're Yeah. So the goal is to be one of those marketers that know what they're doing and embrace the That's literally here. And we're doing that as an agency, right? So we're doing that. We're a digital marketing agency.
Nick Stamoulis:We do everything traditional for digital marketing. But we've embraced AI, but we know where the lines are. We're not going to use AI to give strategic direction. That's our jobs. As someone that, you know, like, you know, like, I've been doing this for almost thirty years, twenty eight years.
Nick Stamoulis:Crazy to say it. Calif has been doing it for probably just as long. So the point and we have other members in the team that that have been here just as long. So the point is we're embracing the new, but yet we're leveraging our skill set of our experience. And I think that's the key here in order to survive if you're a new house marketer.
Nick Stamoulis:And if you're in an agency that's not adapting to any of this, then you may want to proactively look for a new job. Well, quite frankly, because that agency is not going be around long unless you adapt. You know? So, again, we could talk about this one topic for an hour, but we have a lot of other topics we wanna get to. So alright.
Nick Stamoulis:Moving on.
Katherine Tsoukalas:Yep.
Nick Stamoulis:Next. Interesting article from Marketing Week. Anthropic sticks to its guns annual twenty twenty six year in the AI layoff. So here we go again. What's what's we'll talk about AI and AI layoffs really quick.
Nick Stamoulis:So there a lot of companies have laid massive amounts of people off right now and they're saying, Oh, it's because of AI. But if you look deep in the data, a lot of those companies, and I have actually, a lot of those companies aren't utilizing AI to its fullest capability. I mean, we offer AI agents, for instance, as a service, but it's clunky. It's not good yet. It's not smooth integration.
Nick Stamoulis:And if we're like that, I can only imagine larger companies, okay, have more resources so they implement these agents. But if it's clunky for one, it's clunky for all. And so it's kind of like for them to say we laid off 2,000 people as an example because of AI, I call BS on that because I say, you know what? Okay, maybe 200 is because of AI, but the other 1,800 is probably mismanagement. You over hired during the pandemic.
Nick Stamoulis:And now you're using it as an opportunity to remove overhead from your balance sheet. That's literally what it is. And so I think that there will be layoffs, but I don't think they're gonna come in waves and they're gonna be gradual, fast but gradual. They're not gonna be these knee jerk reactions that the media talks about quite a bit. Because if you look at the actual data underneath, like, okay, what are all of the job functions of these people that you've laid off?
Nick Stamoulis:And you're not utilizing these tools to their fullest capabilities unless you have a whole in house AI development team, you're developing your own platforms where some of them might, right, for a lot of these functions, I just I just don't see it yet. So what do you guys think on this?
Katherine Tsoukalas:Same. I feel like one has to wonder if the numbers on some level would will be getting padded as you alluded to because I've seen I've seen it happen. I've been I don't go to protests, but I've been adjacent to protests observing them as a passerby as as it would happen, and I was there by accident.
Nick Stamoulis:Okay.
Katherine Tsoukalas:Anyway, I I, with my own eyes, saw maybe 40 people there. And then I'd look at the news article about it, and they said hundreds turned out. Well, does that count the people that were shopping at the store that was next to the shop like I was? Right. Am I counted as one of those numbers that I was just trying to go in and buy a greeting card and the protest was in front of the store?
Katherine Tsoukalas:Like, is it like that? I think I think we're gonna see a lot of that, a lot of number padding because people are trying to encourage this narrative of let's be afraid of AI because it's gonna change everything.
Nick Stamoulis:Exactly. And and also, it could even be too if they're like a large enterprise public company. Right? Public companies, I mean, why do we think you know, for those of you anyone that's watching that that follow stocks. Right?
Nick Stamoulis:Like, I I follow quite a bit in business. But why is it when you have a big company and say, oh, we missed earnings numbers that we've laid people off that the stock goes up? Because no, investors know, oh, okay, even though earnings were off, right, the layoffs now have saved overhead. So now the bottom line is going to be better for that company. So then the stock goes up.
Nick Stamoulis:So it's of like very I think it's a little bit of a manipulation to a certain extent. And they're like, oh, that's like the scapegoat of the of the of the day, basically. Like, oh, let's just say it's AI layoffs and just stick everyone under that. So Mhmm. John, any thoughts before we move on this?
Nick Stamoulis:Any any thoughts
John Tiglianidis:on this? I I I think that for the most part, people aren't really getting laid off yet for AI. Maybe maybe less hirings because you already have people and you don't need more people. Right. But I I don't think anyone's using AI to the extent where it really is replacing people.
John Tiglianidis:So No. Yeah. Not at those large numbers.
Katherine Tsoukalas:No. No. Agree. Somebody still has to power the AI.
Nick Stamoulis:Yeah. Exactly. Exactly.
Katherine Tsoukalas:Correct. Everyone go.
Nick Stamoulis:No. No. Alright. Moving on. Interesting topic new topic from the Content Marketing Institute.
Nick Stamoulis:This was an article on their website. Read content signals that earn LLM visibility or visibility from the AI platforms. But I'll just read what they are and we'll talk about Signal one, keep content fresh. Signal two, publish comparison content. And signal three, show up on YouTube.
Nick Stamoulis:So I found this was interesting because, again, these are these are strategies that we recommended before AI existed. Before LLM visibility and and GEO and AI SEO even existed. And that is keeping your content fresh. Of course you do. You want to become that thought leader and expert in your industry, in your niche basically.
Nick Stamoulis:Keeping your content fresh is important. Publishing comparison content, that's new for AI search. I think it's good to a certain extent but I also feel like brands can also get carried away with that. Like why do I want to We've always been a positive marketers. Not that there's any negative marketers, but positive in marketing, meaning I don't want to put comparisons, for instance, of Brick Marketing to our competitors.
Nick Stamoulis:First of all, I don't wanna promote our competitors or even mention our competitors. Why would I mention our competitors? Number one, right? To give potential clients an idea or existing clients like, oh, what's this other company they're comparing themselves to? Why would I wanna do that?
Nick Stamoulis:And then secondly, I don't want to say anything bad about a competitor because we're all in the same industry, like for Brick Marketing. We're all marketers, we're professionals. There's plenty of clients to go around where, okay, one client may not be a good fit for us, but maybe they're a good fit for someone else. So it's not, to me, I like negativity. And then the third piece was for YouTube, which I think is fascinating.
Nick Stamoulis:I really do. And we're seeing that actually quite a bit where specifically Google Gemini is pulling obviously. Why wouldn't they pull from YouTube? YouTube is owned by Google. So of course, they're gonna favor you know, videos that have, you know, you know, excellent, you know, content in, like, you you know, YouTube shorts and traditional YouTube as well.
Nick Stamoulis:So Mhmm. John, I'll start with you on this one first because I know you're you're the you're the YouTube video guy. So let's put it here on all this.
John Tiglianidis:Said, I think it just makes sense especially for Gemini or, you know, Google's AI search to pull from YouTube because it's just I I don't remember the number, but it's like thousands of hours of content are uploaded to YouTube every minute or whatever, something like that. It's you have such a large amount of information on there that it is something that, you know, they're gonna pull from from time to time. And what I I do think that it is a good place to put yourself because it is being pulled. Right? Yep.
John Tiglianidis:So whether it's, you know, you're making YouTube shorts, you're making long form content, you know, you have to have the right tags, the right descriptions, all that sort of stuff so that you do get, you know Right. You you do get, you know, cited within your LLMs.
Nick Stamoulis:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anything to add on this?
Katherine Tsoukalas:Yeah. I love articles like this because for me, what it does is brings attention certain search behaviors in AI that I may that or uses for AI that I might have explored using it for not realize that this actually is translatable. For example, the comparison thing. Sometimes I'll be it's not just comparing customers or whatever, different companies. Mhmm.
Katherine Tsoukalas:Sometimes you wanna know, like, the difference between one package to another, like, in within an actual company. And I've used AI to help me analyze that. But, also, I like these articles, but we have to be careful because there's a difference between strategy and tasks or
Nick Stamoulis:thinking. Yeah. That's a good point.
Katherine Tsoukalas:And we can't, like, look at an article like this and be able okay. YouTube is the strategy. No. YouTube is not the strategy. YouTube is part of a task.
Nick Stamoulis:That that that that's a great point. Yeah. That that's a good point. And you're right. You're 100% correct.
Nick Stamoulis:There are companies out there that are just gonna read this and say and just hand it to their intern, not to make fun of interns, but someone that doesn't have experience doing this. Right. And we'll just say, go ahead and implement this. We gotta do this right now. But if it's not a coordinated strategy as part of a larger thing, it it and now what you're doing is you're chasing the next shiny object.
Nick Stamoulis:Mhmm. And we don't believe in that. You know? What we we we recommend to clients is do all of it. Mhmm.
Nick Stamoulis:Have excellent pillar content. Have excellent authoritative content on your site. Have excellent blog content. Create excellent video content. Get active on podcasts and podcasting.
Nick Stamoulis:Seriously, different types of content. Have long form research content, white paper content, both gated and ungated. The point is that's a comprehensive content strategy, what I just described. Not just but I like this article just because it brought some of those things to light and then tied it into the LLM visibility. So moving on.
Nick Stamoulis:Next one. So this is interesting. I love research. So we're working on our our we're gonna be starting some surveys. Then we're actually gonna be launching industry surveys.
Nick Stamoulis:And so stay tuned in April. We should have our first one for the spring and summer, and then we're gonna do twice a year. But this is one from eMarketer, which I thought was crazy. So the question that was asked was top reasons marketers in North America might decide to pass on a new agency. Now it doesn't qualify what type of agency.
Nick Stamoulis:So whether it's a digital marketing agency, marketing agency, creative agency, design agency, it really doesn't qualify what type of agent because the word agency is huge. Media agency, PPC agency, SEO agency, it keep going, right? But what it does is it gives a really nice high level overviews from this of some of the underlying reasons why marketer may not hire an agency. So those of you that are watching that are fellow agencies, this may be some of the reasons why you're getting clients. Who knows?
Nick Stamoulis:So in this, they said, underwhelming creative quality. So that leads me to believe that a lot of the study may be more creative. Maybe the lens was from creatives. But what's interesting is the number two to me. Lack of experience in my category.
Nick Stamoulis:Culture, chemistry mismatch, which makes sense. Weak strategic thinking. That makes sense. So let's unpack. I want to unpack the lack of experience in my category.
Nick Stamoulis:So let me explain to those of you that don't understand what that means. The thought is sometimes companies want to, for instance, I'm a real estate agent. And I say, I wanna work with a marketing partner that only specializes in real estate clients. Problem with that is that diminishes and almost gets rid of the creative part because part of great marketing is being strategic in thinking, which is the weak strategic thinking, which is the number four on this list. So it's all ties together.
Nick Stamoulis:So the weak strategic thinking comes with getting an agency that only does one type of client. So we have clients all the time, potential clients. Oh, have you done had clients in my industry? And I said, yeah, we have. We've worked with almost 600 at this point clients in our twenty one years that we've been in business.
Nick Stamoulis:But just because we haven't worked in a specific industry doesn't mean we can't or shouldn't because it's almost like someone that it's a good singer, someone that can sing really well. Someone that can sing well can say anything well, whether it's jazz music or contemporary pop music or rock music or country music, they can sing. So it's the exact same thing with excellent strategic marketers. You don't need to found this was interesting. But also, for those of you that are looking for an agency that there's a specific type of industry, I would that's not a good way to hire an agency.
Nick Stamoulis:You want someone that has a varied amount of experience that can be a jack of all trades. That's another thing that I've talked about in my own videos too, where we went from the specialist mindset and now we're back to the generalist mindset because in order to do well today with AI specifically, think about it, you need to have great usability, a great website, great content, great social media presence, citations, which are marketing. You get to market in a lot of different ways and a good SEO presence. So, it's kind of like you need all of it together. So that that I mean, anyway, that's my advice.
Nick Stamoulis:I can keep talking about this, but that's my advice based on this eMarketer survey. So, Katherine and John, I wanna get your opinion on this. It's it's a good one.
Katherine Tsoukalas:I mean, for me, it just goes to show you that when you're pitching or when you're when a business it shows that when a business is looking for a marketing agency or somebody to work with, that to put your best face forward. Yeah. You gotta bring you gotta be the type of agency to that has everything going for it. Now that may sound a little bit scary, but what I mean is a good visual presentation, a nice creative approach to strategic thinking. And most of all, it's about connecting with the audience and making sure that they feel heard about what they need, and they feel heard because your pitch and your delivery aligns with that.
Katherine Tsoukalas:And I think that's important. And the survey shows how important that is, I I feel.
Nick Stamoulis:Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. John, what do you think on this based on this?
John Tiglianidis:I think when it comes to, like, looking for an agency that specializes in one type of business, I I think that you have to think about that, like, all of that marketing is gonna look the same, and you're gonna look like all of the other, for example, real estate agencies out there. Yep. You have to find somebody who at least can be creative. And if you find someone who's a jack of all trades, they'll take from they'll take from here, they'll take from there, and you'll have a very unique strategy yourself.
Nick Stamoulis:I agree. Mhmm. I'm pretty sorry. Well said. Well said.
Nick Stamoulis:Alright. Moving on. This is an interesting article from Marketing Brew, AI and Marketing, the Shift from Novel to Necessary. So yet another public article, industry article about how important AI is in marketing and the shift from a novelty, which it was two, three years ago, to a necessity, specifically about AI automation, the benefits. The article also talks about how AI powered analytics with human powered strategy.
Nick Stamoulis:I think that was a really key key point. And that's the approach that we take with AI marketing is leveraging our strategic experience as strategists with AI as a wonderful tool to help us scale and to provide good quality data. And then as far as third party voices, it says boost trust in AI. I mean, that's literally Literally, that's talking about AI search and generative engine optimization. How if a brand, product, or service shows up in AI search, it's gonna convert.
Nick Stamoulis:It's gonna do really well organically. So that's really it on that. I don't think we need to get too deep into it. I thought this was a really good article. It's interesting.
Nick Stamoulis:Next, Stamoulis, who is the OpenAI or ChatGPT founder, talks about he has a human verification startup that leads a consumer brand. So this is an article from Wall Street Journal. I found this fascinating for one reason because Sam Altman from OpenAI, the genius that he is, I think he is, I really do, the fact that he wants to and is creating a human verification startup tells me that the AI creators know that the human element is gonna be very important moving forward. That's what I took away from this. So I thought it was just a just a great article about it.
Nick Stamoulis:But the one thing that I really just resonated with me was specifically that the human aspect of AI, regardless of how we utilize it in business and marketing, I think it's it's gonna be very important moving forward. So, Catherine, John, anything to add on that?
Katherine Tsoukalas:Not really. It just goes to show you that what we're craving out of the AI culture is a sense of trust.
Nick Stamoulis:Yeah. Yep.
Katherine Tsoukalas:And and using it for the human good
Nick Stamoulis:Mhmm.
Katherine Tsoukalas:Is really telling, and it can help build that sense of trust and can help narrate the dialogue in the collective to look at AI as a as a positive thing with merit.
Nick Stamoulis:Yep. John, anything to add on that?
John Tiglianidis:I think it's, you know, it's that that's just it. Right? Where it's you you need, you know, human stuff. Right? I talk about this all the time going online.
John Tiglianidis:You see something that is AI generated. All the comments are about that. Every single one. Right? So I I think that I I don't know what a human verification startup would really look like.
John Tiglianidis:But I mean, you're right. I if the AI, you know, CEOs are seeing that, then then at least, you know at at least the people who are in charge of, you know, what people are so worried about are seeing it as well.
Nick Stamoulis:Yeah. I agree. I agree. So so we are live people. And so Catherine just, for some reason, her camera went off.
Nick Stamoulis:Who knows? I don't mean to laugh, but so we'll try to get Catherine back. We'll we'll continue live here.
John Tiglianidis:I mean, she has a link. I'm I'm sure if something went wrong, she'll send a text, but we can, yeah, just keep going.
Nick Stamoulis:Yes. Maybe she's coming back. Alright. So we'll continue here. So this next one you're back, Catherine.
Nick Stamoulis:Can't hear you now. Yeah. Can't hear you. Anyway, I don't I don't think she she knows that we can yeah. I just basically told her here, can't hear you.
Nick Stamoulis:Would you turn your your mic back on? Okay. She's the one that's okay.
John Tiglianidis:Yeah. She'll figure
Nick Stamoulis:it out. So here's an article that I thought was great. And so it's from the drum, why are exhausted and what we need to fix first. So here at Brick Marketing, we offer, you know, three different types of our business. We have the services.
Nick Stamoulis:We have the training. But then we also have consulting. And when we say consulting, we've done like hourly consulting compliance, stuff like that. But we've also been we offer a fractional CMO service. And what that is is we're almost like a part time chief marketing officer for companies that need that strategic guidance.
Nick Stamoulis:And what I thought this was fascinating with this article is specifically, it says that why marketers are exhausted. And I hear you, right? Like we wear many hats as marketers. We do. Like we have to be able at least on our end as marketers, think of the short term and long term at the same time.
Nick Stamoulis:Understand the strategic focus throughout. All these new marketing mediums with everything linked to AI, we need to ramp up fast on everything. So I understand why marketers are exhausted. And what's interesting is this article gives advice to chief marketing officers or marketing strategists of how to realign their workload and prevent burnout and prevent from being exhausted. And several key points I think really resonated with me which I thought were very interesting is it says, one is it's a CMO who knows the direction of travel and is truly connected to the CEO.
Nick Stamoulis:I think that's number one. I mean, you have to be connected. If you're a CMO, a fractional CMO, VP of marketing, even a director of marketing, you need to be connected direct to management of that company to know exactly where the ship is headed. Right? And if you don't agree with where the ship is heading, that's not your place to disagree with it.
Nick Stamoulis:Your place is to embrace it and help those goals come true essentially from a strategic marketing perspective, from a sales perspective, from a lead gen perspective. So that's our job as marketers. So by being aligned with the c suite helps reduce that level of exhaustion. Another is a leadership team aligned on what actually matters. Part of our job as strategic marketers, and this goes for CMOs, marketing managers, it goes for agencies like us, is education.
Nick Stamoulis:Right? We we assume that a president of a company, a a CEO of a company is a marketing person, and they're not. They're just they're not marketers. They don't care enough. I mean, they do care, obviously.
Nick Stamoulis:It's their company, but they don't care about the details enough to know to wanna know the nuances of every minuscule detail of why something is happening. So it's our job as marketers to help educate the C suite in a positive manner that gives them chance to be able to isolate just what they need to know to help get the mission accomplished, the goals achieved, and us as marketers to help us do our job successfully as well to reduce friction so we can keep things moving. That's what Those are some of the things that Another thing that said, I'm gonna talk about this one because this was there's two other points. One, says stable goals that anchor short term pivots. I thought that was great because goals from a C suite need to be stable.
Nick Stamoulis:But so many times we've worked with clients. We've worked with hundreds of clients that are C suite, older companies, presidents, CEOs, CFOs, midsize companies, larger companies. And they'll come in and say, well, we want you to do this, x. And sometimes that X, what they ask you to do, isn't really mission critical? Doesn't really fit into the under all goals that you've been tasked with.
Nick Stamoulis:So as marketers, we need to be able to do that without abandoning the things that are really important and not just shifting all our attention away from the things that are actually important. Last thing is the context behind change, not the change itself. Don't get bent out of shape, if you're a marketer, of of changes need to happen. Change is part of what we do. It's evolving, it's adjusting, it's changing, especially in the age of AI.
Nick Stamoulis:But we have to understand the context behind it, but not just the change. It means to understand why something is happening. So these are some points that this article said. It's a great article. It's one that's unique that I don't often see a lot talked about for marketers and C suite, CMO level marketers.
Nick Stamoulis:So I thought it was great. So, Catherine and John, if you guys could chime in on this. What do guys think? Can't hear you, Catherine. Yeah.
Nick Stamoulis:We can't hear you. John, while she's getting sorted, what do you think on this?
John Tiglianidis:Yeah. I mean, I I feel like definitely right now, things are just, like, so quick that you constantly need to be, you know, learning, reading articles, coming with new solutions, and it it can be exhausting for sure. Even as somebody who is, you know, only, who who's in I'm in school and my books from last semester are on different topics, or or saying completely different things from the books that I'm reading this semester. You know? So Right.
John Tiglianidis:It's exhausting to keep up. But, I mean, it's it's I I think it's just a time, it it's, like, kind of at its height. I think eventually it'll slow back down again. Once you know everything that, you know, you need to know
Nick Stamoulis:Then there's more stuff to know, John. Well, there's more
John Tiglianidis:experience. But maybe it's not maybe it's not 500 new things a day, and maybe
Nick Stamoulis:it's a 100 new things a day. I know. I know. I know. Absolutely.
Nick Stamoulis:Alright. Let's move on. Next is so this is an interesting article from Martech. Say goodbye to busy work. Rethinking marketing workflows for a smarter future.
Nick Stamoulis:Here's another industry topic which I thought was awesome. It literally was was talking about, you know, that basically, it's talking about that, like, strategy is a new bottleneck. So this is interesting. We've worked in and I know, Catherine, you're trying to get your audio to work and I'd love for you to chime in on this stuff. No.
Nick Stamoulis:We can't hear you. So but, you know, maybe if you wanna try closing everything and then coming back. Yeah. Let's try that. So this is an interesting one because what's interesting is we've worked with so many different types of marketers at so many different levels.
Nick Stamoulis:In house, there's other agencies, fractional partners, companies themselves. And there are times where sometimes we spend so much time in the strategic side of things that nothing actually gets done. And so I think that there's a balance between being strategic, defining the strategy, spending enough time defining it. Because if the strategy is not solid, everything else you do is gonna have holes and not be solid. But I think the goal here is to not overthink.
Nick Stamoulis:And that's kind of what this article was alluding to, is essentially to not overthink and sometimes just keeping things simple. The old keep it simple, stupid type saying it's true. Sometimes a lot of this stuff doesn't need to be overcomplicated. And I think sometimes, at least sometimes in the agency world, agencies will try to overcomplicate things to show value, and it doesn't need to happen. The results speak to themselves.
Nick Stamoulis:Results speak louder than busy work and rethinking wheel spinning type activities. So, John, what do you think on that?
John Tiglianidis:Yeah. I think keeping things simple, going step by step, breaking things up into smaller parts just kinda helps helps you stay, like, aligned with what you have to do. I I think that, you know, that will help with, you know, cutting down on busy work and time to do projects. Yeah. Yeah.
John Tiglianidis:I wanna say, did you notice that this article was written by AI?
Nick Stamoulis:I didn't.
John Tiglianidis:It is.
Nick Stamoulis:It is. Look at the bonnet. Alright. Alright. So this is our first rib may I didn't even pick up on that.
Nick Stamoulis:So this, that goes to show you great content is great content regardless of where it comes from.
John Tiglianidis:Yeah. They they say, I pasted I I saw the byline. I was like, oh, interesting. And they say, you know, that they go in and they editorialize it. You know, they They make changes and whatever.
John Tiglianidis:And that's fine, of course. I think it's an example of how you can kind of I don't think that the right thing to do is to have AI write a whole article, but you can definitely find ways to implement AI to make the maybe busy work, you know, take a little bit less time.
Nick Stamoulis:Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. No. Definitely.
Nick Stamoulis:That was interesting. That was very interesting. Alright. Next. You see relative theme here for marketing week.
Nick Stamoulis:What is different from need? Are marketers drowning in their tech stack? So I thought this was very interesting. Again, you're talking about spending time on unnecessary tasks. I mean, I've always said that great digital marketing tools, and we've gone through evolution of tools.
Nick Stamoulis:So in the early days, you had all these SEO tools, then you had all the social media tools, then you had all the analytic tools coming out, right? And and now you have all these AI tools. I think as marketers, my advice is don't waste your time on all these new tools that you think are shiny new objects. Or sometimes these tools mask themselves as this will create efficiency. But then sometimes we might say, oh, well, let's just do it.
Nick Stamoulis:We'll be lazy a little bit and say, Okay, let's say try to save time. Let's use all these tools to do work that we need to do manually. That's different than automation. I'm talking about tools. So I think the point is here, like with us, we use, we test every tool we can but we don't let it occupy so much of our time and so much of our brain space that we're literally spending all our time in these new tools that are unvetted, untested, and we're not actually doing work for our clients and teaching and helping consulting and doing things that we love doing that we're good at doing.
Nick Stamoulis:So I think that that's where it is. It's kind of like get rid of the noise a little bit, focus on the tools that proven that you actually have a need for and just don't arbitrarily test random tools just for the sake of it's gonna waste time. So that would be my kind of take on this.
John Tiglianidis:Yeah. I have a good example of this. We do a lot of video content. Right? And we've tried before, have a tool cut it up for you.
John Tiglianidis:And I find that I am fighting with the tool for longer than it would take me to go in myself and just cut, cut, cut. You know? Yeah. No. Are different tools that are helpful that might cut down on how long it takes me to write a caption.
John Tiglianidis:But when it comes to you you don't wanna overcomplicate it. Right? If a tool is gonna take you longer to use, just do the work. Right?
Nick Stamoulis:It'll it'll I agree. I agree with you. Oh, and that that's a really good point. You know, like, you know, there there might be these AI tools, and they're like, oh, use this AI tool. It's gonna save you time.
Nick Stamoulis:But like you said, by the time you do it, it may you should get it. It's finicky, and it may not do what you needed to do. You could have just done it, you know, and and it's done. Mhmm. So, Katherine, what do you think on that?
Nick Stamoulis:You're back. What do you think?
Katherine Tsoukalas:I'm back. Okay. So I feel like it goes back to what we always say that no matter what tool exists, we have to know how to do it ourselves. And then in the knowing of how a process needs to occur for anything marketing related, we can be a little bit more discerning about the tools. The tools will never replace us.
Nick Stamoulis:Right. Yep. Yep. Well said.
Katherine Tsoukalas:All I got because I missed part of this.
Nick Stamoulis:Yes. No. That sounds great. Moving on. Next.
Nick Stamoulis:So this is an interesting interesting article from Demand Gen report. So OpenAI's Dane Vahi urges b to b marketers to adopt a builder mindset. I thought this was fascinating and very accurate because as b to b marketers, for years, that's been our mindset is to build. So for instance, you get your foundation. Right?
Nick Stamoulis:Whether that's having good usability, your website, good SEO presence, now good AI search, a geno, good citations, a good content marketing strategy, good social media strategy. Have it all interact. And when you get results, you just don't say, Yay, the results are good, and just let it go. You say, Results are great. No, let's continue to build.
Nick Stamoulis:Let's How do we scale our GEO or AI search? Let's get better results there. You know? Oh, okay. You know, we're getting good return on this investment.
Nick Stamoulis:Let's not just sit back. Let's double down on it. Let's test some advertising campaigns, different digital ad products, different different maybe do some sponsorships. Let's do some more events. You see what I'm saying?
Nick Stamoulis:So the point is, as from the b to b perspective, I agree with this a million percent. I've been saying this for decades literally, is you just don't put I think that you don't put all your eggs in one or two baskets in marketing. And I think that as marketers, I've been saying this over and over. I'll go down saying it. For the last twenty years, myself included, we've been complacent to a certain degree and we've all been a little bit lazy depending on SEO and PPC to drive all our growth and all our lead gen efforts.
Nick Stamoulis:And I'm not talking about going and just going crazy at everything, but we're at a point now, an inflection point where real marketing comes back And the building building assets and building layer upon layer and compounding it in a consistent manner is where we're at. And I thought this article was great to hear OpenAI say that publicly for b to b marketers. You know, my thought was like, you know, thank goodness. Someone agrees with me. I mean, I'm sure a lot do, but, you know, this has just been my experience.
Nick Stamoulis:So, Katherine, John, you guys could chime in on this. I don't know. You and I you and I have talked about this for years. We have, really.
Katherine Tsoukalas:Well, that's what I was gonna say. The builder mindset, if you think about it, is the one constant. No matter what is going on in the industry, no matter what trends people are observing, no matter what technology exists, having a builder mindset causes you to focus on your foundational elements, and that's what's gonna help you transition from one phase to the next, one change to the next with ease and without really hurting your business because you'll be able to turn the page because you had a strong foundation.
Nick Stamoulis:100%. 100% true.
John Tiglianidis:Yeah. Yeah. You you you gotta keep keep moving forward all the time. Otherwise Yeah. You know, you're gonna fall behind.
John Tiglianidis:You just have to when you're done, when you think you're done, you're not done. There's always more.
Nick Stamoulis:Well, you know what it is? And we've always said this too. It's not a race. It's a marathon, period.
Katherine Tsoukalas:Mhmm.
Nick Stamoulis:Seriously. Seriously. Moving on. From our text, seven ways to revive dormant email lists without wrecking deliverability. I thought this was great because it's nice to find an email marketing article in in the world of AI topics and these AI search and SEO topics.
Nick Stamoulis:And so it was really nice to see something email marketing related. And so this article talks about all the great things on and definitely check it out if you have a list maybe that's older, an in house list that's stagnant. Maybe you haven't emailed to them for a long time. It gives you some really kind of good actionable ways to essentially bring that list back to life. And without getting into the details of it, I would say at a high level, email marketing I think is definitely still an effective medium.
Nick Stamoulis:And we've always recommended building your in house list and consistency. I think how you can get a list from not going dormant is by being consistent with it. Creating some sort of a newsletter, whether it's a quarterly, monthly, weekly, whatever makes sense. Have something of value to send to your in house list. Not just when you're trying to sell something.
Nick Stamoulis:And not just the I saw this from some people today. And sorry if this offends anyone. But I got a bunch today where it was a holiday at St. Patrick's Day. And some of you may see this in social media weeks from now.
Nick Stamoulis:Fine. Plug in Easter there. Plug in spring. Plug in Mother's Day. Whatever.
Nick Stamoulis:Any holiday, you don't need to send it out if you're like b to b. You get a bunch of b to b emails where it said, Happy Patties at St. Patrick's Day. I was like, and? Thank you, but ands.
Nick Stamoulis:If your email marketing gets like a waste, you're using a wasted opportunity basically. You're tying a product to a holiday that doesn't make sense like It's not Those are ways to get your list, keep your list from not performing well. But when we talk about consistency, we mean actual good content thing and something that's gonna be sustainable for you to implement. Nothing that's gonna take so much time that you can't do it consistently. So enough on that.
Nick Stamoulis:We'll move on. Here's an interesting one. So this is a new news source, which is the AI marketing news site. And so new rule of search. AI AI mentions you or you don't exist.
Nick Stamoulis:I mean, brutal title but pretty darn accurate. And I thought it was great because what
John Tiglianidis:it is
Nick Stamoulis:and so this this is a mindset, and we've talked about this over and over, is generative engine optimization or AI search or AI SEO is here, it's growing and it's coming. Businesses that have depended on SEO and PPC and for their all their leads in the past are in for a rude awakening and what's coming. Seriously. And this is not a scare tactic. This is, you know, three years from now, I want you all to watch this in social media and listen to what I'm saying here because I'm probably gonna be close.
Nick Stamoulis:No one's right all the time. I may be off by a year or two. But the point is the point is AI is changing how people search. And if your brand, your company, your products do not come out in the conversation to your potential customers when they're researching, you are invisible to them. They will not you will not get business.
Nick Stamoulis:And more and more people are using this and it's a growing marketing medium and this is the time to invest in it. Now is the time to invest in it. It does not make sense to wait. It just doesn't. Because if you wait, here's what's gonna happen.
Nick Stamoulis:You wait, we saw that. I saw this firsthand with SEO. I've started in this industry when SEO was an infant. Seriously. Email marketing was the way to market.
Nick Stamoulis:And banner rounds was the way to market and that was it, in the late 90s. And I saw it and I saw it with social media. People that got in social media early for their brands. Built up a solid presence. Right?
Nick Stamoulis:It's an earned medium. The same thing applies with AI search. It's an earned marketing medium. And if you start now, two years from now, by the time your competitors wake up and say, oh, I gotta deal with this. I'm losing business.
Nick Stamoulis:Then it's gonna be, you won't be too late, but now you're gonna have to spend more money, do a lot more citations, go in a lot more marketing and a lot of ways to catch up. But if you started now, you started in 2026, it's gonna make your life a lot easier. Don't wait for your leads to drop. Don't wait for your business to plateau and start to lose business and wonder why am I losing business from SEO and search and, you know, PPC, get involved in this from now. Don't abandon the old things, but incorporate the new, the AI search and GVL now.
Nick Stamoulis:So, Katherine, John, any anything to add on that?
Katherine Tsoukalas:AI is not here to mess with us. It's a new technology. It can be fun. It can be helpful. People have embraced it, and it's changing search behavior.
Katherine Tsoukalas:And it really just is what it is.
Nick Stamoulis:Yes. It is.
Katherine Tsoukalas:We need to adapt or the future of the business is going to be in question. Yep. Absolutely. Anyone's businesses.
John Tiglianidis:It's just, yeah, it's just a fact that people are using AI. So you have to you have to be there if you and and it's only gonna grow more, I think, you know, over the next few years, AI just get more and more and more users. So it's I don't know if it'll completely replace, you know, Google 100%, but it's definitely gonna be a like, Google's gonna be a smaller and smaller share. So Mhmm.
Nick Stamoulis:And you you know what, John? My opinion again, is just my personal opinion. No one has to agree with me, but I've seen the trend on how Google has interacted with its products over almost thirty years. And I'll bet you, eventually, we're gonna go and it's gonna happen to be in beta. It'll get rolled out across different different geographic regions first.
Nick Stamoulis:But I'll bet you there's gonna be a day where we go to Google and it's only Gemini results. And you will not see blue links and pages and PPC ads like it search results like it looks now. That's coming. That day is coming. Yeah.
Nick Stamoulis:I mean I mean, look at look look at ChatGPT. They don't have any blue links. Alright? Look at Copilot. They don't have any blue links.
Nick Stamoulis:Look at Claude. You see blue links there? Seriously, look at perplexity. Not in there either. So I think that we're it's just a matter of time and that's coming.
Nick Stamoulis:And it's but it's gonna be abrupt. And the brands that are aren't doing this now, the the companies that aren't investing in this now, they're gonna be blindsided, man. If you think what you spend on SEL and what you spend on PPC and acquiring a business was expensive now, just wait if you don't do this and that fall, that foundation gets removed and changes, just your cost of acquisition is going to be exorbitant because now everyone's going to flock to advertising. Everyone's going to try to compete more and more in AI search and general manager optimization. So and I'm a doomsday guy at all.
Nick Stamoulis:This is just realistic based on experience and talking from here. I might be totally wrong. And if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I don't believe so, though.
Katherine Tsoukalas:Here's the thing.
Nick Stamoulis:Saying it. I'm publicly saying Google
Katherine Tsoukalas:has been in the AI game for a lot longer than it might appear because they've been incorporating AI elements into their algorithms.
Nick Stamoulis:It has.
Katherine Tsoukalas:Feel like they have seen this coming
Nick Stamoulis:Oh, yeah. For a while for a long longer than we Here's another thing here's another thing, Katherine. So you and I were talking about this the other day. So there was a member John was it John Mueller at at Google, who was one of the head techs of search.
Katherine Tsoukalas:Yes.
Nick Stamoulis:Basically publicly came out and said that don't worry about disavowing your links. Okay. So for those of you that don't understand what disavowing means, disavowing is a tool through Google Search Console that allows brands and company owners to disavow basically when, you know, you're looking at a late portfolio, inbound links from other sites. These links aren't relevant to my business. So I'm gonna tell Google, don't penalize my website.
Nick Stamoulis:Do you disavow them? And it's a suggestion tool. It's been best practice for us for years in the SEO world. For him to come out and say, don't worry about it, that tells me, first of all, I'm not gonna stop doing it until SEO completely changes, like I said. But secondly, that's also an indicator to me.
Nick Stamoulis:If they don't think it's important, why is it not important? Is the algorithm is the algorithm all of a sudden so smart that it can determine, you know, 20,000, you know, blogspot, spammy links from Vietnam? Seriously. You know, that or a footer wide lake on a site that shouldn't be there or a a cloaked link or a site that, you know, is is plagiarizing and copying entire website content. And now all of a sudden, those links that should be disavowed, there's there's a reason why he came in and said that.
Nick Stamoulis:It's the
Katherine Tsoukalas:algorithm as we know it going away. Is that why he said it? Question mark.
Nick Stamoulis:That's and then that brings me to Gemini. Gemini is not algorithmic. No. It's an LLM. Right?
Nick Stamoulis:So, anyway, we can keep talking about this. It's a great fascinating topic.
Katherine Tsoukalas:Yes.
Nick Stamoulis:It's just it's great. But so it's interesting.
Katherine Tsoukalas:So have to see how it plays out in the end. We can talk and have opinions all we want, but we're living it.
Nick Stamoulis:Yeah. Absolutely. Next. Really cool article from Wired, the new AI marketing playbook. So two key points here that I thought were great.
Nick Stamoulis:One is it says that give traditional marketing an AI upgrade. So what that that right there says it all to me is traditional marketing still works, but utilize AI for scalability. To me and that what we've been saying all along that these AI platforms allow us to do our jobs better as marketers. We can be more efficient, we can scale, we can increase our output of work to achieve better results faster than we did three or four years ago. Seriously.
Nick Stamoulis:So I think that was one key point I pulled out of this this Wired article. Another was double down on human human recommendations. I thought that was fascinating because here it is, an AI marketing playbook and it talks about human part of it. This is what we've been saying all along. That we believe, like the way we approach AI in marketing is we have the human elements as strategists leveraging our experience.
Nick Stamoulis:But we utilize AI on layered on top of that to produce an amazing result. And so, Katherine, John, if you guys could chime in on that. Anything?
Katherine Tsoukalas:Yeah. So I love this article because it just goes to show you that it it did a nice job summarizing how AI can be used as a tool to enhance our jobs and to make marketing better. And it it had a very positive tone to it. It didn't have the doom and gloom.
Nick Stamoulis:Oh, not at all.
Katherine Tsoukalas:Mindset, it said, hello. These are what you can use AI for, and this is what you should be doing as marketers. And it was nice. It was like a breath of fresh air because it's just so much better if you turn the page and embrace it and learn how to use it and learn how to use it to make your job easier and how to get your business shown in it. That's what it's all about.
Nick Stamoulis:Yep. It really is. John, anything to add?
John Tiglianidis:Yeah. Like, figure out where you can use AI, you know, effectively within your job, and then you hopefully get the, you know, the freedom to do the more, you know, creative, the more fulfilling stuff after.
Nick Stamoulis:Mhmm. That's good advice. Great advice. Alright. Moving on.
Nick Stamoulis:So here's an interesting article, social media article. It's from social media today that Instagram, LinkedIn, and threads engagement declined in 2025. I thought that was very interesting. Not surprising at the same time. I feel that Instagram, the demographics of Instagram, LinkedIn and threads are different.
Nick Stamoulis:Instagram to a certain extent are very similar demographics to threads because obviously threads is owned by Meta and it's integrated in with Instagram. But I thought it was interesting and the article basically talked about how the engagement rate essentially, I mean, it decreased significantly. It decreased by almost 15% on Instagram. LinkedIn didn't decrease that much. The ones that were up were interesting.
Nick Stamoulis:Pinterest was up in 2024 to 2025 engagement. TikTok was up slightly and x, Twitter was up actually significantly from one year to another year. So I just thought it was a very interesting article just talking about engagement rates. You know, I'll tell you for us, for our clients, we do professional social media management. And engagement, think, is an is very important.
Nick Stamoulis:It's an important variable to look at. But also social media, the way we view it, is not siloed. It's part of a larger strategy. So it's like for us, social media supports your brand and supports your content marketing efforts, your promotional efforts. It's like the communications vehicle for your for your brand and your company.
Nick Stamoulis:And so that might mean that some videos, some posts, some stories, some reels go get a little bit more engagement than others, but that doesn't mean the other ones that you're saying, even if the engagement isn't all that good, you're still getting your your brand and your audience eyeballs on there. You know? And it's it's just a good representation for your brand. So, anyway, I just thought this was an interesting article. You have those of you that are interested, check it out on social media today.
Nick Stamoulis:But, Katherine, John, if you guys can just chime in on this. Yeah. Look like
Katherine Tsoukalas:For me, this goes to show you that a foundational mindset is best. If you have the foundational mindset, you'd be on every single one of the platforms mentioned in this article. And then engagement dipping in one, if engagement's increasing in the other,
Nick Stamoulis:the net result is that
Katherine Tsoukalas:your business is not entirely affected. You're just adapting. That's it.
Nick Stamoulis:Yep. Yep. Yep. That was great. Yeah.
Nick Stamoulis:John, any thoughts?
John Tiglianidis:Yeah. I agree. You should typically be everywhere. I mean, I I have to wonder, you know, why, you know, specifically Instagram, LinkedIn, and threads are down. I think threads maybe just because it's basically copy and paste Twitter.
John Tiglianidis:People aren't as interested in it.
Nick Stamoulis:Right.
John Tiglianidis:LinkedIn, I feel like I feel like LinkedIn, my issue with it right now is it feels like everything's AI written.
Nick Stamoulis:Well, I'll tell you. It's interesting. I well, we're gonna talk about LinkedIn. We're gonna be learning. So Okay.
Nick Stamoulis:End. So yeah. This is it was good on LinkedIn. Yeah. Yeah.
Nick Stamoulis:Yeah. And I thought x going up is interesting because that mean you wanna know why my theory yes, theory is the controversy the controversy of Elon is subsided to a certain degree. Because people tend to have short term memory just in general. The media is not talking about everything that everybody about The whole Doge thing that happened a year ago, that's in the past. Right?
Nick Stamoulis:And think about it. Right? All the controversy of people not liking Tesla all of a sudden, that just stopped. So people might be like, oh, we'll just go back to x and just kinda check it out gingerly. Who knows?
Nick Stamoulis:I mean, that that's just a theory.
John Tiglianidis:Have I have two things kinda to say about that. I think that I'd like to see the analytics on x because I feel like it is a lot of bot activity.
Nick Stamoulis:So is. I know it is.
John Tiglianidis:It it but it definitely could be up because I feel like people see Twitter as the
Nick Stamoulis:or
John Tiglianidis:sorry, x as the place to go for news, and there's a lot of news right now. So maybe that's Maybe.
Nick Stamoulis:Good point. Good point. Yeah. Alright. Moving on.
Nick Stamoulis:Next is an article in search engine land. Yahoo adds personalized homepage to its Scout AI search engine. I thought this was interesting. And there's actually there's another article we're gonna talk about later that talks about Yahoo. I just wanted to add it in because, you know, we all forget Yahoos exists.
Nick Stamoulis:So
Katherine Tsoukalas:I was just gonna say that.
Nick Stamoulis:And so I just I just wanted to just talk about it. And, you know, and I mean, I don't personally use it, but Scout AI is basically like an assistant essentially that helps, you know, with, you know, people that utilize Yahoo. People still use quite a bit of Yahoo honestly. Like Yahoo email still is used quite a bit. Yahoo finance is used quite a bit.
Nick Stamoulis:Yahoo like fantasy sports, people that are into fantasy sports still use it quite a bit. So I wouldn't and it started to lead on the top 10 that visited sites in The United States. So let's not bash Yahoo too much because it still gets a lot more video than many of us have for our website. Anyway, so it's just really to talk about here. It just it was just it was just just to mention mention that one.
Nick Stamoulis:Next one is from from Performance Marketing World that talks about AI usage is growing far quicker than estimated global data reveals. So I thought, again, this was great. And this one, you actually I think you have to purchase a subscription for and register. But so I I read most of it and I and I was great. Did the the the summary here in this data, and I encourage you to go and you read it, that it even says here that 45,000,000,000 monthly sessions, about 56% of search engine volume.
Nick Stamoulis:So what that means is globally, we're not just talking United States, we're talking the world usage. 56% of usage of AI is basically, is at 56% of search engine growth. What that tells me is we will be at search engine level growth for AI within two years. Well, that's why I said to where we've been talking over and over and over, if you're a company, I'm sounding like a broken record but I'm gonna keep saying it. But if you're a company and you're not investing to have your brand show up properly in AI search results when someone prompts any LLM, any AI platform, you are gonna be behind.
Nick Stamoulis:If you don't invest in this within the next year, you will be behind. Period. This is just another article, another set of data that proves that. It's growing at such a rapid pace that this is the time to invest in it and get involved in it. Alright.
Nick Stamoulis:Moving on. We'll have to talk about this because I we talked so much about this. Another one from Retail Dive. What's essential for AI shopping assistance success? So I thought this was interesting because it was in a different article talking how that eventually We've talked about this before where eventually AI agents are gonna do shopping on consumers' behalfs.
Nick Stamoulis:We're not there yet. I don't think we're the agianic web, I don't think we're there yet at all. I don't think people are not comfortable with that yet, but I think that we're leaning towards that. And this article talks a lot about AI shopping assistance that basically are, you know, for lack of a better word, almost like a live chat that's AI focused. Go to Amazon.
Nick Stamoulis:Go to Walmart. Go to Target. Some of these brands that do have that and it essentially will help assist that purchase while you're there. Not making the purchase for you, but I feel like growth of this, AI shopping assistance, is the first step leading toward the agenic web and eventually agents, you know, actually purchasing, you know, on your behalf. So what do guys think on this one?
Katherine Tsoukalas:I feel like if things are headed that way, I mean, launched its shopper assistant attempt. Right. And I I don't know. People yes. AI is growing and people are starting to embrace it, but we're starting.
Katherine Tsoukalas:Using AI for shopping for shopping assistance is a more advanced function of it. And I think a lot more trust has to be built up before
Nick Stamoulis:Right.
Katherine Tsoukalas:They let AI do something like that for them.
Nick Stamoulis:Yep. Yep. John, what do you think?
John Tiglianidis:Yeah. I I I agree with Katherine. I think it'll take a bit of time before people are open to it completely.
Nick Stamoulis:Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, still interesting. Very interesting for sure. Next, from DigiDay.
Nick Stamoulis:AI doesn't fix measurement. It raises the stakes for CMOs. So, this was interesting because essentially what it's saying, the gist of this article, and I encourage everyone to read it, essentially it's saying that if there's something that's fundamentally not correct within your marketing, whether it's your strategy, your website, your content, your SEO is not in place, your PPC isn't converting like it should, whatever it is, your social media doesn't tie into the other things that it should, then AI doesn't fix it. What it does is it exacerbates it. It exposes it even more.
Nick Stamoulis:So I guess for for those of you that think AI that you can autonomously run all of your marketing using AI, think again. It's not gonna solve these problems for you. Like, you know, we actually we had a town hall event not too long ago and there was someone that asked about using AI for strategy. And I don't remember what our exact response was but we basically said, okay, if feeding it, let's just say you have a free account. Heck, let's just say you have a paid account to any of the LLMs.
Nick Stamoulis:It doesn't matter which AI platform. And you put a prompt that's three pages long. It gives all the backstory, all the data, all the information. Ask me, what do you think I should do? And then follow what it does.
Nick Stamoulis:Point by point by point by point. First and foremost, there are so many intangibles in that three page prompt that you prompted it. There could be two or three or four things or a dozen things that you didn't describe correctly in that. Holes in all of that, which then is gonna come through in the strategy that it presents. So the point is, AI is a tool to help you scale, help you do your job better.
Nick Stamoulis:If there's cracks in the foundation, if something isn't working well, AI is only gonna make it worse and or expose it, not resolve it for you. So what do you guys think? Catherine, John, what do you think on that?
Katherine Tsoukalas:I think that it it aligns with what we have been saying that AI is a good tool to use, but it's never gonna replace Yep. Your own human mind thinking of the strategy and things like that. You just have to be in the mindset of using it as an assistant. So it's not gonna actually fix your problems. The the human is gonna fix whatever is going on.
Katherine Tsoukalas:Yep. And AI is just you can make it be aligned with with you, but you have to know what's going on.
Nick Stamoulis:Right. Absolutely. Don, what do you think?
John Tiglianidis:Yeah. If you blindly use AI, like you said, it's gonna, like, amplify any issue. It's not gonna know that you accidentally put in 1,000,000 instead of 100,000, and it's gonna give you a strategy based off of that number. Right? Mhmm.
John Tiglianidis:And you you and if you're not in there looking, you know, super, like, critically, you might just follow it, and then you might find that you've spent too much money or you Yep. Completely I don't know. You've you've you've done something completely incorrectly and it's too late now.
Nick Stamoulis:Yeah. Right. Yeah. So true. So true.
Nick Stamoulis:Alright. Moving on. Two more for today. This is an interesting one. Content Marketing Institute.
Nick Stamoulis:Why earned media belongs at the core of your AI search strategy. So we agree with this million percent. And so let's explain to those of you who don't understand the basics of AI search but then how this fits in. Basics of AI search, you wanna look and see how your brands are representative in the AI platforms, correct anything that's incorrect with the messaging behind your brand, look at the sources they're pulling from, do a scheme analysis of the site, improve the scheme on your website, make sure your content is clear on your site, you have a decent traditional SEO presence. Then what this is is essentially you need to build your citations.
Nick Stamoulis:And citations come from how are you marketing the business? And earned media is exactly what it says. So earned media could be videos. You're earning that. Your assets you're building and you're earning those citations.
Nick Stamoulis:Could be static content, having a blog, sharing that in social media, could be research, any data, any white papers, and that could be all earned media. Getting citations from other sites, being on podcasts, being speaking at industry conferences and events if you're b to b. If you're b to c, doing cross promotions with businesses that are lateral to you. Doing sharing businesses, doing going on each other's live, know, on social media, doing cross promotions, sending a press release out. That's all earned media.
Nick Stamoulis:That is what at the core of what we all need to do as marketers moving forward to do well in AI search. And it's what all of you should be thinking if you have a business. And as you're building, that's the mindset. That's the type of work we do for clients. But that's and if you don't, that's the type of marketing medium that those are the strategies that work.
Nick Stamoulis:So having earned media is huge. So Catherine, do you wanna talk about that? Then, John, wanna get your thoughts on that quickly.
Katherine Tsoukalas:Yeah. This is not a new concept if you think about it. It it goes along with what our general mindset is that as marketers, we need to have our foundation in place. What is your foundation? It is your earned media.
Katherine Tsoukalas:And what are citations if not earned media and foundation? So these may sound like all new concepts, but in my thinking, they are the same things that we've always been doing, rebranded in its importance.
Nick Stamoulis:But
Katherine Tsoukalas:if we have been doing our job as marketers and if if our businesses have been around for a while, we might be in better shape than we think. But now it's more important than ever because this is how AI search finds you.
Nick Stamoulis:Right. Absolutely. John, anything to add?
John Tiglianidis:Yep. I I think that people who have been around for years and have been building citations and have been, you know, everywhere all over the Internet or in person or, you know, been been advertising themselves and getting out there are going to do better in AI search because they already have those citations set up. And, you know, people who are just starting a business now might have a harder time because they have so few, they're not credible yet, you know? Mhmm. So I think that yeah.
John Tiglianidis:I AI definitely takes that into account when, you know, generating responses.
Nick Stamoulis:Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And like you said, for newer businesses newer businesses, it's never too late to start. It's actually not late to start.
Nick Stamoulis:That's why we've been saying what we've been saying and this is the time to start building these assets and trusting. But you all be rewarded if you do it right and it's coordinated and it's done properly. Moving on. Interesting. Martech, we had a few more for today.
Nick Stamoulis:Brands that win are clear, not louder. I thought this was great because what this is saying, again, with the lens of AI search and JingYo and AI in a larger level is essentially what this is saying is clarity in your brand, clarity in your messaging, clarity in what you wanna accomplish as a company and a brand and what the like, what products or services do you offer and how clear is it to that audience. Those are the brands and companies and services and products that are gonna win long term. Doesn't matter how much money dump in advertising. Advertising doesn't move the needle today.
Nick Stamoulis:It doesn't. Advertising is so important. Having a digital a PPC campaign, having digital ad campaigns, yes, it's important. It supports the brand, but it all has to be cohesive. And just because you put more money in advertising doesn't necessarily mean you're gonna resonate with the right audiences through AI search.
Nick Stamoulis:So, Katherine, John
Katherine Tsoukalas:Yes.
Nick Stamoulis:Anything to add on that?
Katherine Tsoukalas:Here's what we've been seeing. Brands that already have a clear presence are the ones that are navigating this all these changes with AI a lot more effortlessly because chances are pretty good they're already getting shown in AI AI search. But there's a negative side to a brand that is not clear, and that is AI search might be drifting.
Nick Stamoulis:Right.
Katherine Tsoukalas:You could ask ask AI what it thinks your company is. Right. And if you ever see a little piece of information and you're like, what is this? Well, that means your brand was not clear. It means that somewhere, somebody mentioned your brand in that way.
Nick Stamoulis:Right.
Katherine Tsoukalas:It might have been you because ten years ago your brand might have been different, and you didn't change it in a listing somewhere. And that's where the lack
Nick Stamoulis:of clarity will really Oh, yeah.
Katherine Tsoukalas:Negatively impact you.
Nick Stamoulis:It's almost like we we're like, part of our job is to be clean up crews for a lot of that too at first. That's like the first phase. You gotta clean up everything and then start building. So, John, what do you what do you think?
John Tiglianidis:Yeah. You need to, you know, keep your channels in check. Remember, you know, write down where you've been, where you've posted things, where your, you know, company's listed, and then always be updating it. You know, every time you make a big change or even a minor change, go back and make sure that everything is aligned because otherwise, AI is not gonna know what what you're about and they're gonna feed false information because they just don't know.
Nick Stamoulis:Right. Exactly. Absolutely. Exactly. Moving on.
Nick Stamoulis:We have a few more. We actually have a few from Search Engine Land. This was interesting. Prompt research, the next layer of SEO and GEO strategy. I thought this was great.
Nick Stamoulis:And essentially, what this says is that there's a difference between traditional keyword research that analyzes search queries, ranking opportunities, and competition within the results page. Prompt research focuses on the prompts that lead AI systems to explain topics, compare options, or recommend specific tools, products, or brands. So this literally sets into everything we've been saying about AI search and general venture optimization. This is why you're a content audit, content gap analysis, static pages of your site, creating a content marketing strategy is so important as part of not only your SEO, traditional SEO, but for GEO and your AI search, it's essential. Because if you have content and you have a breadth of content, really good authoritative content that resonates with your audience, it's gonna be completely natural in how it's being presented.
Nick Stamoulis:When we do, we do prompt research to an extent. The challenge is a lot of the tools aren't great yet. Even some of the paid tools that say they're great still aren't great yet. So what you gotta do is you kinda have to this is where it comes to traditional marketing and under being a marketer to understand this is and a strategist. You have to understand and say, okay, this is the type of content my audience wants.
Nick Stamoulis:This is the type of content we're gonna develop that will help in the sales cycle, but also an underlying benefit is that it's gonna do really well in prompts when people are searching on an AI platform. So I thought this was great. But it was great because it differentiated this article between traditional keyword research and prompt research. And but the prompt research, in my opinion, isn't really there yet. It's all theory.
Nick Stamoulis:There's not a lot of data from LLMs direct to actually be conclusive. Like, there's keyword level data that goes decades back that you you can look historical information in Google. Mhmm. So, yeah, for John, anything to add?
Katherine Tsoukalas:I think that people, when AI first came out, thought that props needed to be programmatic Yeah. And extremely well thought out. We were we were seeing a lot of, oh, here's a prompt pack Right. To get AI to do the marketing thing for you. Right.
Katherine Tsoukalas:And it's like then you kinda realize you don't need to. And I don't know about anybody else, but my prompts lately look like one giant thought dump.
Nick Stamoulis:Oh, yeah.
Katherine Tsoukalas:Yeah. I'm gonna probably evolve. Other people are gonna evolve. Right. We need the data so that we can see what really is going on because I think a lot of what people are doing are just feeling things out right now.
Nick Stamoulis:I think that's a that's a good point. And like like some of these paid tools that we use a lot of them have prompt recommendations for your brand. Mhmm. Every recommendation that I've seen for our some of our clients and our brand, I'm like, Those are just not good. Like like like we've talked about before, like comparison content.
Nick Stamoulis:I don't want to promote our competitors. Why would they wanna do that? So that when someone is looking to decide between us and the competitor, we come up in the conversation. I'd rather be I'd rather be organic through our own merits
Katherine Tsoukalas:Same.
Nick Stamoulis:As a company. You know what I mean? And that's so that's that's an example of that. So, John, anything to add on this?
John Tiglianidis:Yeah. Like like Catherine was saying, I think it's interesting how the way people are using AI is already changing, and it's already so new. It's become a lot more informal. I think that's because it does a better job of remembering what you've already talked about, kinda like that style. So I think it's just gonna keep changing.
John Tiglianidis:So, you know, something to keep an eye on how AI works, how people are interacting with it, and how you can Yep. You know, take advantage of that. Exactly.
Nick Stamoulis:Next, Google Maps turns exploration into a conversation with Ask Maps, search engine land. I thought this was cool. Again, was just nothing to really talk about, but I just thought it was really cool that Google Maps had an upgrade and is now using an AI powered kinda conversational recommendation that's built into Google Maps. I thought it was great. I think and again, this just shows innovation, honestly.
Nick Stamoulis:I just think it's great because we all we all use Google Maps. We all use it for the navigation, but this is just another layer. But what I think will be interesting for businesses on this is to see how it plays with your Google Maps listings from business perspectives and how that interacts with reviews, with information in in Google Maps. It'll be interesting to see on that. So I have a few more and we'll wrap it for today.
Nick Stamoulis:Now that there's another one, Yahoo. I I wanted to talk about Yahoo again because I I thought this was interesting. Is the Yahoo CEO said that Google AI mode is the biggest threat to web traffic. And you can see here it says, you know, I think that the LLMs are one big reason that they're under threat. It's AI mode and Google being the biggest challenge.
Nick Stamoulis:Those publishers deserve traffic and we're not gonna have the content to consume to give great answers if publishers aren't healthy. This is a great take on this. So what they're talking about here is a published Put it this way. Millions websites, all these sources that we're quoting here that we talk about in Brick Marketing Live, these are publishers. These are publishers of content that are industry topics that we love.
Nick Stamoulis:I mean, we're talking about them. They're great. But these folks have depended on organic SEO traffic for decades to build their brands and sustain their businesses. And AI search, AI Answers from Go for instance, is really chiseling down and significantly decreasing the amount of organic traffic and that's unfortunately hurting a lot of these brands. I mean, we've seen it.
Nick Stamoulis:There's been publishers that big news sites that have laid off legitimately. Ease of people because they don't have the ad revenue that's coming in anymore. We've seen it. We've seen it with with some clients. We've seen it that are publishers and stuff.
Nick Stamoulis:It's hard. So my thought on this is I don't know where this is going. Don't because I truly don't. Are we gonna get to a point where these publishers have to gate all their content? If they gate all their content, now they can't charge advertising.
Nick Stamoulis:The question is because we as people that read all sorts of information, we're accustomed and used to free, minimalism, free daily. Look at all these sources, all free. There's been a few that are gated and needed accounts. But if they all of a sudden put paywalls behind all of them, removed all ads, first of all, we wouldn't find these articles because how do they find these articles? By researching in Google.
Nick Stamoulis:And there's some of these sites that are brand. So it's a secular thing. I'm not really sure how it's going to play out. And I do feel for these publishers. I really do.
Nick Stamoulis:Because it's brutal having your ad revenue just drop and now all of sudden you have to lay people off. You have to not now you're not creating the excellent content that you used to and have built your company because you can't because you're taking such a huge SEO hit from AI. So I don't This is a load this is a loaded one. I mean, thought this was interesting that the Yahoo CEO came out and said and that means that it's killing them too. If they came out and said that, that's that's telling, unfortunately.
Nick Stamoulis:Because they're a big big content producing site. So, Katherine, John, what do guys think on this?
Katherine Tsoukalas:My thought is one has to wonder if we're actually headed in a direction where links are going to be better represented in AI search results, so to speak. Because I recall in the early days of ChatGPT, it's the first platform that I started to use with any regularity. I use a lot of them now, but ChatGPT was the first, and I believe that is when version three or whatever was out. And in those early days, I remember that links were never mentioned and other brands were not released as were mentioned in the in the results. But with each iteration and each update, more and more links are now present in the some of the searches that are returned.
Katherine Tsoukalas:And I'm wondering if a lot of businesses are feeling that. I wonder if people are going to start asking, can I have a list of links?
Nick Stamoulis:Right.
Katherine Tsoukalas:Because once once that evolves in search behavior because right now, it's very piece of mail. If you actually need a link for something, an AI engine is is very kind of like stubborn in giving you the links. Right. Right. Are the users gonna evolve and push back on this?
Katherine Tsoukalas:Now this is all philosophical, but I can foresee that maybe links in the future are going to be better represented in this search.
Nick Stamoulis:It's good. It's a great it's a great observation. John, what do you think?
John Tiglianidis:I wonder if the reason it has a hard time getting links is because it is just, like, a giant mess of everything it's researched online. So it might not be getting all of its information from one place. So when you ask, oh, where did you get this source from? It might be telling you, like, for example, it it might have gotten 50% of that response from that source. And that's why I can't give you a direct link.
John Tiglianidis:You know? But I think that over time, links I mean, I have seen a few links. I've gotten a few links before. But I think over time, it'll it'll adapt to that and maybe get better. Mhmm.
Nick Stamoulis:I agree. I agree. I mean, I think the one thing that I really like and I think is is definitely a differentiator, you know and again, you know, Gemini doesn't do this all the time is when they have their links that show off like on the right hand side. Then if you if you see the result of your prompts in Gemini and then you see the links. I find that helpful because the person like, I wanna actually go to that site.
Nick Stamoulis:You just recommended these services, these companies, whatever, these products. I wanna go there. I don't wanna have to go let's have to go copy paste, go to Google, search for it or type it in an address bar or respond to that prompt and say, can you please put me a list of links for all of these that you just gave me? It's you know what I mean? So I think you're both right.
Nick Stamoulis:I mean, it'll be interesting to see how it plays out. Mhmm. Let's see. Let's see. Because, again, these are big things.
Nick Stamoulis:Like, if all these huge insights go dark, industry sites of all these industries could be now they're not generating revenue. I mean, it's gonna be tough. It's gonna be tough to say. Mhmm. Alright.
Nick Stamoulis:Moving on. Last one for today. This is an interesting one because we don't often talk about LinkedIn. And as b to b marketers, we love LinkedIn. We do quite a bit.
Nick Stamoulis:I mean, I've been using LinkedIn professionally since 2005. And so what's interesting is the association with search engine land. LinkedIn updates feed algorithm with LLM powered ranking and retrieval. So I think this is interesting. You know, what I I mean, I I see it.
Nick Stamoulis:I mean, I use LinkedIn quite a bit. And I see like or know, a lot of the a lot of people's updates and posts are written by AI. But on one hand, do you blame them? Like, right? LinkedIn was one of the first social media platforms to actually say, write this with AI.
Nick Stamoulis:Generate this this message with AI. So on one hand, we can't really say, okay. It's a successful AI generated post. When LinkedIn integrated, they were one of first to do it. I remember when they did it, was like, really?
Nick Stamoulis:You guys didn't allow that? Like, alright. Right? So so like so that was one thing. But on the flip side, I think it's gone out of hand.
Nick Stamoulis:I mean, I think I see so many of these posts. I think that's what this algorithm changes make is is is gonna change. And I hope they do. I but you see these people posting and it's just like this this title that's crazy, a rant of negativity. And then it says, I created this system, I created this procedure, this process, share it and comment some sort of word and I'll DM you this research.
Nick Stamoulis:To me, that is junk. That is complete junk. I don't care how much engagement. All the people get angry at me. Seriously, LinkedIn.
Nick Stamoulis:I don't care. I could take it. Get angry at me. I'm making money. Engage it.
Nick Stamoulis:Great. I don't care. I want to promote our content so it's appropriate. If we get good quality feedback, great. If we don't have high engagement, great.
Nick Stamoulis:Since people saw it, we move on. So but these people are doing it in a way where I feel is very spammy. I just I don't think it's a good approach. I don't think it's good for their brands. I think it's just it's all like, you know, bait and switch.
Nick Stamoulis:Almost like clickbait. And then and now what you're doing is you're trying to get more connections in people's email addresses. Like, I I just I don't I don't think it's a good approach at all. So I'm glad LinkedIn is doing this algorithm update where it's only after that nasty garbage post. I just think they're just terrible on LinkedIn.
Nick Stamoulis:So what do you what do you guys think?
Katherine Tsoukalas:For me, this is an example of using AI technology for good.
Nick Stamoulis:Yeah. That's what we do. Yeah. We we summarize our content that we created. Like, we're not asking it to come up with new topics that that we haven't created.
Nick Stamoulis:Like, we we you know?
Katherine Tsoukalas:We all know what an AI post looks like when we see it too. Mhmm. Just has this certain language and it's not aligned. Right. That's where the human element comes in.
Katherine Tsoukalas:But Right. This is something that you you take this new technology and you incorporate it into an existing concept to clean things up and make things better, and this is a lovely use for it. I mean, if I go on LinkedIn and I'm proven to read certain articles clicking off from the site or whatever that have been shared or proven to engage with certain people, I do want to see more of that. And to be honest, I have that's one of the frustrations in the past I've had with LinkedIn that I'll maybe briefly see an article I was interested in. And then it'll disappear, and then I won't see it again.
Katherine Tsoukalas:And then I won't even see any more of it unless it miraculously comes up in my feed again.
Nick Stamoulis:I agree. I agree. Like, you know, on LinkedIn, like, I'm I'm connected to I honestly, I think too many people. Just I've been using it for so long. I'm like, connects to, like, over 20,000 people.
Nick Stamoulis:Mhmm. So, like, I can't sometimes see in my feed. It's just so cluttered with garbage
Katherine Tsoukalas:Mhmm.
Nick Stamoulis:That, you know and and a few years ago, we went and cleaned out, but I cleaned it, but it's just so much. So Mhmm. I don't know. John, what do you think on that?
John Tiglianidis:LinkedIn is honestly my least favorite social media platform. Whenever I go on there, it is just every post I don't know. Maybe maybe I'm, like, adverse to, like, super, like like, corporate speak in some ways, and I just I don't see it as genuine. So anytime I go I agree. It just feels like I'm always being sold something, and then
Nick Stamoulis:I know. It just doesn't
John Tiglianidis:feel it doesn't feel authentic. So I don't know. Yep. I I when and then when I see like an AI post that's just completely just AI generated, it turns me off at even more. And so hopefully, they use AI now in a way that maybe filters that out for me so that I don't have to see stuff like that as often.
John Tiglianidis:Mhmm.
Nick Stamoulis:Yeah. Yep. I agree. I agree. Alright.
Nick Stamoulis:So that's it for today. So it was a long one today. We went we went through a lot of a lot of articles, great articles today. Great discussions. Thank you, Catherine.
Nick Stamoulis:Thank you, John. Good. Thank you. And thank everyone who joined us and listened and kinda popped in and out. We really appreciate it.
Nick Stamoulis:So we have a few events the next two weeks on Tuesday. So our next Brick Marketing Live will be on Tuesday, April 7 at 3PM eastern. And I promise we won't be as long on that one. I'll try not to, but there's so many good, great things to talk about. In the interim, we have a webinar happening next week, next Wednesday on March twenty fifth.
Nick Stamoulis:Just go to the Brick Marketing website and register. It's free free webinar. And then, of course, we have our our next full day training on SEO, AI search, GEO, and content marketing is on April 22, virtual and in person options on that. Again, do thank everyone and I hope everyone has a great rest of the day.
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