What is it like to have the freedom to create marketing campaigns that are so crazy, they're LITERALLY out of this world? Let's find out!

Andrew Davies, CMO of SaaS payment infrastructure provider Paddle, joins Ahrefs Podcast to discuss everything from their high production value video campaigns to the crossover between customer engagement and marketing to why you're probably using your blog section wrong.

If you're ready for a more advanced masterclass in marketing, you won't want to miss this discussion!

In this episode, we cover:

• Creating compelling brand stories
• Educating customers on your product offering
• Bringing customers into your marketing
• How you should be using your blog
• SEO vs paid media
• Creating out of this world creatives
• Content distribution game changers
• Upping your video production game
• Leveraging events for community buildingEmpowering teams to go on camera
• What is Account Based Marketing (ABM)
• Community empowerment as a marketing tool
• Inspirational marketers

_________________________________________________

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe!

Where to find Andrew:

X: https://x.com/andjdavies

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andjdavies/

Website: https://www.paddle.com/

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/

X: @timsoulo

Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

________________________________________________

Referenced in the episode:

Space campaign: https://space.paddle.com/

What happens when an SEO tool can't compete in SEO?

That's what happened in the early days of Surfer, an AI-powered content marketing platform. Surfer's Head of Marketing, Tomasz Niezgoda, joins the Ahrefs Podcast to explain exactly which strategies helped the company catapult to the 24th fastest-growing company in Europe and the #1 fastest-growing company in Poland.

In this episode, you'll learn:

- How to excel at product marketing

- Why Surfer does 1:1 onboarding calls (with EVERY client)

- Tracking customer responses to onboarding

- The benefit of educational videos - Where you should be distributing your webinars

- What the brand got out of redisigning their homepage

- Should you create a brand bible?

- Why SaaS certifications are valuable to clients and companies

- The secret to making your AI content actually good

_________________________________________________

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe!Where to find Tomasz:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niezgoda-tomasz/

Website: https://surferseo.com/

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/

X: @timsoulo

Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

How can you land big-name clients like Zendesk, Quora, Wordpress, and Shutterstock? And how can you shift to a better-paying structure as a consultant? Eli Schwartz reveals how coining the term "product-led" SEO and writing a book about it opened doors he never thought possible, why it's a mistake to charge by the hour instead of by the product, and why SEOs should be charging more than $100 per hour. He also discusses his 2024 predictions for Google SGE, ChatGPT as a search engine, and whether guest posts will pass any value in the eyes of Google. In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Introduction and Eli's background (02:15) Going Solo and Creating Product-Led SEO (18:16) Holistic SEO vs Product-Led SEO vs Programmatic SEO (24:42) Accepting Clients and Creating SEO Strategies (35:27) How Long Should Client Engagements Be? (39:39) Outbound Marketing and Client Acquisition (44:44) The Unexpected Success of Writing a Book (48:34) The Potential Impact of Google's SGE (56:39) Will ChatGPT Launch a Search Engne? (58:48) Will Google Announce That Guest Posts Pass No Value? (01:06:29) Does SEO Ever Change? (01:13:46) Company Size and Marketing Attribution Where to find Eli: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/schwartze X: https://x.com/5le Newsletter: https://productledseo.substack.com/ Website: https://www.elischwartz.co/ Where to find Tim: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/ X: https://x.com/timsoulo Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

Is content marketing dead? Peep Laja thinks most of it’s garbage. In this episode, the founder of Wynter and CXL breaks down why today’s B2B content fails, how to create messaging that actually converts, why testing beats guessing, and how to know when it’s time to pivot your business model.

***************************************

Where to find Peep:

LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/peeplaja/)

X: @peeplaja

Website: https://peeplaja.com/

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/)

X: @timsoulo

Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

***************************************

Ahrefs Podcast

Host: Tim Soulo

Podcast Producer: Michelle Lindner

Intro Storyboard & Video Lead: George Dolgikh

Intro Video Animations: Nikita Sych

#branding #brandclarity #brandmessaging #messagingframework #digitalmessaging #wynter

How different is marketing within large, complex teams than working with smaller brands? Tim Soulo chatted with David Fallarme about large-team marketing, fractional marketing, and why he decided to join Owner.com as VP of Marketing.

***************************************

Additional Resources

► https://www.linkedin.com/in/dfallarme/

***************************************

Ahrefs Podcast

Host: Tim Soulo

Podcast Producer: Michelle Lindner

Intro Storyboard & Video Lead: George Dolgikh

Intro Video Animations: Nikita Sych

#salesfunnel #digitalmarketing #revenuegeneration #fractionalmarketing #onlinebusiness #fractionalownership

When Dom Wells was teaching English, he never imagined that a few short years later, he’d be sitting on a $5M portfolio of digital assets. Tim Soulo dug in to find out how Dom’s portfolio is constructed, what he looks for in acquisitions, and how he runs his projects.

***************************************

Additional Resources

► https://onfolio.com/

► https://twitter.com/DomWellsOnfolio

► https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominic-wells-onfolio/

***************************************

Ahrefs Podcast

Host: Tim Soulo

Podcast Producer: Michelle Lindner

Intro Storyboard & Video Lead: George Dolgikh

Intro Video Animations: Nikita Sych

Rand Fishkin famously co-founded Moz, helped build it to a $67M company, and became one of the original SEO influencers in the process. But when he left the company in 2018 to found SparkToro, he didn’t just walk away from Moz; he also walked away from SEO in general.

So what happens when one of the original SEO influencers drops SEO as a marketing channel?

In this episode, you'll learn why you shouldn't fall into the trap of relying on marketing attribution, how you can leverage both online and offline interactions to increase brand awareness and drive conversions, and specific ways you can grow a company WITHOUT relying on SEO.

***************************************

Learn more from Rand:

► https://sparktoro.com/

► https://www.linkedin.com/in/randfishkin/

***************************************

Ahrefs Podcast

Host: Tim Soulo

Podcast Producer: Michelle Lindner

Intro Storyboard & Video Lead: George Dolgikh

Intro Video Animations: Nikita Sych

What is Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising, and how can it help you? Adam Singer, VP of Marketing at AdQuick, walks Tim Soulo through specific case studies on how companies can use offline advertising to make an impact even in digital spaces.

Before joining AdQuick, Adam was an Analytics Advocate at Google for 6 years. He left in 2018 to work with multiple startups both in-house and as a consultant.

So what are his go-to practices?

In this episode, you'll learn how offline advertising can help you increase your revenue, even if you're a digital-only company, how a founder brand can transform your social media and marketing strategies, and why your focus should be on marketing, not "growth hacking."

***************************************

Learn more from Adam:

► https://www.hottakes.space/

► https://twitter.com/AdamSinger

► https://twitter.com/dappermarketer/status/1488999529835757568

***************************************

Ahrefs Podcast

Host: Tim Soulo

Podcast Producer: Michelle Lindner

Intro Storyboard & Video Lead: George Dolgikh

Intro Video Animations: Nikita Sych

In 2014, Laura Roeder founded MeetEdgar, a social media scheduling software. She got around 100 signups on the first day of launch, and within just 11 months, the company was already making more than $1M in ARR.

Laura’s marketing playbook was so successful with MeetEdgar, that she was able to make a life-changing 7-figure exit within a few years. And then she repeated her success with her new coaching software, Paperbell.

So how did she do it?

In this episode of the Ahrefs Podcast, Laura reveals her biggest marketing secrets, including how SaaS companies can build brand hype before product launches, why you need to be building an email list, the hidden benefits behind attending industry events, and why you should never bid on branded terms for Google Ads.

***************************************

Additional Resources

► https://paperbell.com/

► https://lauraroeder.com/

► https://twitter.com/lkr

***************************************

Ahrefs PodcastHost: Tim Soulo

Podcast Producer: Michelle Lindner

Intro Storyboard & Video Lead: George Dolgikh

Intro Video Animations: Nikita Sych

Ready for a Masterclass in SEO and content creation? Today's guest is Glen Allsopp, founder of Detailed.com, the SEO Blueprint course, and gaps.com.

Glen is an absolute beast when it comes to his content output, and his thorough data studies are shared widely in and out of the SEO world when he publishes them. He also does $40 website audits that sell out immediately when they're open to the public.

Glen, who is notoriously private, doesn't normally do podcasts and he never speaks at conferences. That's why this episode of Ahrefs Podcast is audio only.

But one thing Glen isn't shy about is sharing his vast SEO and business wisdom with the world. In this episode, you'll learn:

(0:00) Intro

(01:45) Maintaining Privacy

(8:49) How does Glen make money

(10:41) What he focuses on

(17:03) What his team looks like

(23:47) Not scaling his agency

(28:01) What he gets out of his $40 audits

(34:29) Creating the Detailed SEO extension

(39:47) What to pay workers

(42:10) The evolution of Detailed

(47:12) Detailed research

(54:12) Promoting Detailed content

(1:00:10) How Glen approaches ideas

(1:06:07) iPhone link building

(1:10:17) Building relationships

(1:15:00) Super pixels

(1:26:10) How Glen stays organized

(1:31:25) The current state of SEO

(1:42:56) Gaps

(1:50:30) Who Glen looks up to

(1:52:56) Media companies

_________________________________________________

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe!

Where to find Glen:

X: https://x.com/ViperChill

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glen-allsopp-63084025/

Website: https://detailed.com/

SEO Blueprint: https://seoblueprint.com/

Gaps: https://gaps.com/

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/

X: @timsoulo

Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

________________________________________________

Referenced in the episode:

$40 website audits: https://detailed.com/audit/ Blog Tyrant: https://www.blogtyrant.com/SEO META in 1 Click: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/seo-meta-in-1-click/bjogjfinolnhfhkbipphpdlldadpnmhcBloggerJet: https://bloggerjet.com/Copyblogger: https://copyblogger.com/ProBlogger: https://problogger.com/Darren Rowse: https://darrenrowse.com/How 16 Companies are Dominating the World’s Google Search Results (2024 Edition): https://detailed.com/google-control/ TechRadar: https://www.techradar.com/pro/could-google-be-using-reddit-to-revive-an-ancient-failed-project-60000-redditors-may-well-be-mturking-for-google-answers-20TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/05/amazons-new-rufus-chatbot-isnt-bad-but-it-isnt-great-either/Mark Rofe (@iamrofe): https://x.com/iamrofeSiege Media: https://www.siegemedia.com/ Ross Hudgens: https://x.com/RossHudgensPomodoro technique: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_TechniqueSeeking Alpha: https://seekingalpha.com/Retro Dodo: https://retrododo.com/Brian Morrissey: https://x.com/bmorrisseyThe Rebooting: https://www.therebooting.com/Neil Vogel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilvogel/Joshua Hardwick: https://x.com/joshuachardwick

How do you take a company from pre-launch to millions in ARR through marketing? Andus Purde, founder of Outfunnel, a sales and marketing workflow platform, has done it twice. Andrus shares his insights on how he took sales CRM and pipeline management software Pipedrive from 0 to 70K paying customers in just a few years and what he did to repeat his success with his new venture. As well spilling which specific tactics worked for him, he also shares whether he thinks they would still work in 2024 and where he thinks the future of marketing is heading. In this episode, you'll learn: (O:00) Intro (06:03) Joining Pipedrive (11:20) Launching on AppSumo as a marketing tactic (17:03) Early marketing strategies at Pipedrive (24:00) When should companies start investing in SEO? (27:55) Experience vs confidence (29:57) Are marketing titles important? (36:56) Growth strategies as Pipedrive expanded (39:28) Emerging platforms for marketers and developers (43:59) Software review platforms as a marketing strategy (49:03) Creative marketing and taking risks (54:11) Marketing analytics and attribution (1:02:09) Does creativity in marketing decrease with scale? (1:07:14) What does Outfunnel do? (1:21:25) Ideas are worthless. It's the team that matters. _________________________________________________ If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe! Where to find Andrus: X: https://x.com/andruspurde LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andruspurde/ Website: https://purde.net/ Where to find Tim: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/ X: @timsoulo Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/ ________________________________________________ Referenced in the episode: Outfunnel: https://outfunnel.com/ Purde.net Kair Käsper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kair/ Klaus: https://www.klausapp.com/ Zendesk: https://www.zendesk.com Klaus acquisition: https://www.klausapp.com/blog/a-message-from-the-founders/ Pipedrive: https://www.pipedrive.com/ Skype: https://www.skype.com/ Google Chrome Web Store: https://chromewebstore.google.com/ Capterra: https://www.capterra.com/ TrustRadius: https://www.trustradius.com/ G2: https://www.g2.com/ Appsumo: https://appsumo.com/ Product Hunt: https://www.producthunt.com/ HubSpot: https://www.hubspot.com/ Convertkit: https://convertkit.com/ Mailchimp: https://mailchimp.com/ Little Red Book of Gambling Wisdom: https://www.amazon.com/Little-Book-Gambling-Wisdom-Books/dp/1616083921

If you're trying to grow your brand, you might be majorly missing out if you haven't looked into digital PR.

In this episode, Alex Nigmatulin, co-founder of PRNEWS.io shares what people get wrong with digital PR and how you can use it to your advantage.

Rather than bringing up vague concepts, Alex drills in on specific examples of how his clients have managed to drum up significant interest (including TV coverage!) through simple, effective strategies.

You'll learn:

(0:00) Intro (1:46) Sponsored content vs buying links (4:39) The cost of sponsored placements (6:33) Avoiding Google penalties (9:53) How AI has affected digital PR (12:32) Creating newsworthy stories (16:49) Finding websites for sponsored placements (21:03) How PRNEWS.io stays fresh (26:01) How links work with sponsored placements (30:03) Do sponsored links move the needle (34:16) Tracking sponsored content results (38:00) The REAL purpose of press releases (47:11) Additional PRNEWS.io services (50:00) Creating your own news (53:14) How Ahrefs could use PRNEWS.io (1:03:03) Where PRNEWS.io is heading (1:09:32) How does PRNEWS.io market itself _________________________________________________ If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe! Where to find Alex Nigmatulin: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigmatulin/ Website: https://www.aleydasolis.com/en Where to find Tim: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/ X: @timsoulo Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/ ________________________________________________ Referenced in the episode: B2Blogger : https://b2blogger.com/ Ann Smarty: https://www.seosmarty.com/ iForum (Ukrainian conference): https://2023.iforum.ua/en/ Ryan Holiday: https://ryanholiday.net Trust Me, I'm Lying: https://ryanholiday.net/trust-me-im-lying-confessions-of-a-media-manipulator/ Muck Rack: https://muckrack.com Roxhill Media: https://roxhillmedia.com/

Ahrefs Evolve: https://ahrefs.com/events/evolve2024-singapore

What are the SEO experts focusing on right now?  @CrawlingMondaysbyAleyda  is one of the most analytical, intuitive SEO specialists out there today. She’s the founder of Orainti, a world-leading boutique SEO consultancy, and has one of the biggest audiences in this space. If you want to know what SEO tactics are actually worth your time, Aleyda is the person to ask. We talked about what SEO tests she’s been running with her clients, what people get wrong about backlinking, how to harness AI effectively, and so much more. There is something for everyone in this conversation! (0:00) Intro (1:26) How Aleyda runs her SEO consultancy (7:07) How Aleyda manages her SEO clients (10:15) What does Aleyda test with her clients? (13:48) What tools can you use for SEO testing? (18:24) What SEO tests should well established companies be doing? (21:53) SEO strategies for startups (25:50) How to execute SEO without damaging other areas of the company (28:41) How to use backlinking effectively (36:18) How to actually use AI to your advantage (44:16) How to improve the FAQs on your website using AI (49:20) How to use AI without Google flagging you (52:30) How Google indexes content (54:45) What is an optmised page? (57:45) The need to be different (don't be lazy!) (1:03:49) Sites Aleyda recommends (1:06:37) Personal branding and community building If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe! Where to find Aleyda Solis: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleyda X: @aleyda Website: https://www.aleydasolis.com/en Where to find Tim: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/ X: @timsoulo Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

So you want to build a community around your business. What’s the secret to doing this effectively in 2024? Whether you're using social media, email marketing, SEO, or online spaces, there is an art to nurturing a self-sustaining community. And if you crack the code, this is a great opportunity to add more profit to your business. Today we’re breaking down exactly how to do this with help from SEO and community building expert Gael Breton. Co-Founder of Authority Hacker, Gael has worked for the likes of Macy's, Expedia and 99 Designs helping them to make their websites more profitable. He brings plenty of actionable knowledge to the table in today’s masterclass. 0:00 – Intro 1:27 – The state of the SEO community 5:17 – Community as a product vs community as an add on 7:00 – Passive vs active content consumption 7:38 – Community recommendations for SEO and marketing 8:33 – How search intent is changing on Google 10:30 – Effective methods for charging for courses 16:19 – Using affiliates to promote your services 16:45 – The changing landscape of content 23:22 – How to engage with your community 24:54 – Giving credit to your community 26:37 – The importance of using your own product 29:11 – The Google updates you need to know 31:51 – Google is rewarding forums 32:23 – Who is beating current Google trends? 34:02 – Spam problems on Google 35:56 – What websites are suffering? 38:15 – Get background info for your website 38:48 – Does Google punish those who don’t deserve it? 41:52 – How to understand topical authority 46:27 – Quick tricks to improve your SEO ranking 52:38 – Prioritise your website’s mobile version 54:41 – What tools help with SEO? 57:01 – Don’t look for tricks, focus on your business model Where to find Gael Breton: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gael-breton-78305118 X: @GaelBreton Website: https://www.authorityhacker.com/ Where to find Tim: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/ X: @timsoulo Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

What does it take to build a successful company to $600K as an indie hacker? Jon Yongfook Cockle says successful founders need to have resiliance. Jon Yongfook would know. In addition to attempting the well-known Indie Hackers challenge 12 Startups in 12 Months, he also went through 20-30 failed projects before striking the right product-market fit with Bannerbear, an image generation software. In this episode of Ahrefs Podcast, Jon Yongfook lays out: (0:00) Introduction (01:33) The state of the Indie Hackers community (03:19) Doing the 12 startups in 12 months challenge (09:24) Coming up with the idea for Bannerbear (14:06) Bannerbear design (17:02) Marketing week/coding week (19:44) Building in public (30:48) The current Bannerbear marketing strategy (34:18) Building free tools (41:04) Creating vs and alternatives pages (45:24) Modern growth hacking (48:53) Building and using ChatGPT wrappers (55:03) Using AI in marketing (56:37) Posting spicy takes on Twitter Where to find Jon Yongfook: X: https://x.com/yongfook Website: https://www.yongfook.com/ Where to find Tim: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/ X: https://x.com/timsoulo Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/ Referenced: Bannerbear: https://www.bannerbear.com/ Indie Hackers: https://www.indiehackers.com/ Pieter Levels: https://x.com/levelsio Danny Postma: https://x.com/dannypostmaa Ahrefs Backlink Checker: https://ahrefs.com/backlink-checker

JH Scherck is a growth consultant known for his expertise in developing effective content strategies for SaaS companies. He previously worked for companies like WP Engine and Docsend before striking out on his own with his SEO and content strategy agency, Growth Plays. JH is a wealth of knowledge about B2B marketing strategies, audience development, and SEO. Check out the full podcast to learn more about: (00:00) Introduction (01:47) Early career mistakes (11:34) Why targeting zero-volume keywords makes zero sense (15:54) How to market a product with no search demand (20:08) Owned vs earned media (26:46) Brand vs personal brand for social media (37:25) What is a community and how do you build one? (42:58) Why should you attend industry events? (51:07) Facilitating connections at events (55:39) When is marketing attribution useful? (01:11:31) Why AI will encourage uniqueness in marketing Where to find JH: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jhtscherck/ X: https://x.com/JHTScherck Website: https://growthplays.com/ Where to find Tim: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/ X: https://x.com/timsoulo Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/ Referenced: Docsend: https://www.docsend.com/ WP Engine: https://wpengine.com/ Salesforce: Marc Benioff: https://x.com/benioff Drift: https://www.drift.com/ Dave Gerhardt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davegerhardt/ Alex Poulos: https://www.linkedin.com/in/poulos/ MozCon: https://moz.com/mozcon Rand Fishkin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/randfishkin/ Sparktoro article (Provable Marketing Attribution Is a Boondoggle): https://sparktoro.com/blog/provable-marketing-attribution-is-a-boondoggle-trust-your-gut-instead/ Orbit: https://orbit.love/ Orbit model of community: https://orbit.love/model Olivier Pomel (CEO of DataDog): https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivierpomel/ Mattermark: https://mattermark.com/ Danielle Morill: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellemorrill/ Patrick Stox: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickstox/ https://x.com/patrickstox Joshua Hardwick: https://x.com/JoshuaCHardwick Ryan Law: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thinkingslow/ https://x.com/thinking_slow Jason Cohen (WP Engine): https://x.com/asmartbear Ross Hudgens: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosshudgens/ Wil Reynolds: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wilreynolds/ Hubspot: https://www.hubspot.com/ PubCon: https://www.pubcon.com/ Dmitry Gerasymenko: https://x.com/botsbreeder

Guillaume Moubeche is the dynamic and energetic co-founder and CEO of Lempire, a suite of SaaS tools for marketers, developers, sales teams, and designers. Guillaume launched his company in 2018 and just 3.5 years later, it was already valued at $150M. In this episode, we dig into the tactics he used to catapult his company into $20M ARR in such a short time. In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Introduction (04:13) The Myth of Product-Led Growth (10:08) Customer Acquisition and Inbound vs Outbound (20:06) How Trust Fuels Growth (23:50) Challenges to Community Building (30:32) Writing the $150M Secret (35:51) Turning down venture capitalist money for publicity (43:41) Current Lemlist Marketing Tactics (45:59) Getting Banned from LinkedIn (49:55) Why Marketing Attribution and Branded Traffic Are BS (1:01:00) The Secret to Making Great Hires (1:07:29) Mentorship and Networking Where to find Guillaume: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/profit-led-growth/ Website: https://www.lempire.com/ Where to find Tim: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/ X: https://x.com/timsoulo Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

John O'Nolan worked as the Deputy Head of UX for WordPress for several years before he got fed up with the direction it was taking. He decided to launch a non-profit, open source platform called Ghost in 2013, and the response was overwhelmingly positive. With so much to unpack, there was a lot to discuss, including: 01:25 What it’s like to work for Wordpress 5:25 Launching a Wordpress competitor 10:37 Using non-profit and open source to create interest 12:06 Why Ghost is better than Wordpress 20:33 Using Recommendations and Web Mentions 30:01 Passive ways of acquiring an audience 39:40 How Ghost is different than Medium 45:16 The problem with Quora (and Medium) 53:06 Ghost’s major competitors and customer base 58:04 Ghost’s priorities for publishers 1:03:09 Journalists vs creators 1:08:56 The Fediverse/Activity Pub 1:31:21 The Fediverse vs media companies 1:37:07 How to become a top publisher 1:44:12 Marketing Ghost 1:47:33 Why a personal brand isn’t everything 1:53:04 Will Ghost ever go “for profit”? We hope you enjoy our first in-person episode of Ahrefs Podcast! As always, be sure to like and subscribe (and tell a friend). Where to find John: X: @JohnONolan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnonolan/ Website: https://john.onolan.org/ Where to find Tim: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/ X: @timsoulo Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/ _______________________________________________ Referenced in the episode: Space campaign: https://space.paddle.com/ Anthony Kenneda: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akennada/ Goldenhour: https://www.goldenhour.net/ Adam Robinson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/retentionadam/ Marketing Against the Grain: Resources: Fediverse/Activity Pub: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fediverse Ev Williams: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Williams_(Internet_entrepreneur) MKBHD: https://www.youtube.com/user/marquesbrownlee

Bryan Harris first became known for Videofruit, his industry leading blog and online course business. But these days, he has shifted focus to his new business Growth Tools and scaling 1:1 coaching.

A master at organization, leadership, and customer generation, Bryan shared tons of gold nuggets during this episode of Ahrefs Podcast, including:

00:00 Introduction


01:02 Shifting from courses to coaching


06:30 Ascension ladder vs descension ladder


15:31 A cautionary tale about sharing revenue


17:45 Free tools as a growth strategy


19:41 How to scale non-commodities


23:45 Finding the right CEO-marketing director fit


31:07 How Growth Tools structures its marketing department


37:40 BOPA (Borrowing other people’s audiences)


42:22 Causes of stress and complexity in marketing


45:28 Guilt by association


48:30 Choosing what to promote


58:34 The key to generating customers


1:07:15 The right way to “Figure it out”


1:11:34 Bryan’s ChatGPT history


1:14:36 Outro

We hope you enjoy our first in-person episode of Ahrefs Podcast!

As always, be sure to like and subscribe (and tell a friend).

Where to find Bryan:

X: @Harris_Bryan

Website: growthtools.com/ahrefs

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/

X: @timsoulo

Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

_______________________________________________

Referenced in the episode:

Ryan Deiss: https://www.ryandeiss.com/

Russell Brunson (Dotcom Secrets): https://dotcomsecrets.com/getdcsfree-1


Nathan Berry: https://nathanbarry.com/

Brennan Dunn: https://doubleyourfreelancing.com/


John Lee Dumas: https://www.eofire.com/


Pat Flynn: https://patflynn.com/


Glenn Hill (Connection Codes): https://www.connectioncodes.co/


Jim Collins (Good to Great): https://www.jimcollins.com/index.html 


One Minute Manager: https://www.amazon.com/The-New-One-Minute-Manager/dp/8195246893/

Seth Godin (Purple Cow): https://www.amazon.com/Purple-Cow-Transform-Business-Remarkable/dp/014101640X


Noah Kagan: https://noahkagan.com/


Rich Dad Poor Dad (Robert Kiyosaki): https://www.richdad.com/


Supermensch: https://www.amazon.com/They-Call-Supermensch-Backstage-RocknRoll/dp/0062355953


Figure it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPa3E8yis0I


Is it actually possible to make AI content in one go with minimal human involvement that is as good as what a human can produce? Zac Harris, former Head of Demand Gen and SEO at Copy.ai and founder of Rankd., thinks so. But Zac does have a caveat: the input you give AI has to be far better than what your average marketer or writer tends to provide. Ever the AI skeptic, Tim Soulo sat down with Zac recently to discuss his workflows, how he scaled Copy.ai to 1M visits per month through free tools, and more. 00:00 Intro 1:40 Success with AI tools 16:02 The effect of mass-deleting content 20:04 Copy.ai’s content strategy 29:43 Where to find quality freelancers 34:12 Using feedback to create custom AI workflows and content 40:14 Marketing attribution, Markov chains, re-activations, and expansions 56:18 Leveraging influencer marketing for brand visibility 1:03:59 Link building tactics 01:13:12 The impact of mentorship 1:18:20 Why Zac left Copy.ai to build his new agency 1:38:17 Why teaching people how to use AI is important 1:39:50 AI vs human output competition 1:44:55 Building workflows for AI 1:55:04 Outro We hope you enjoyed this episode of Ahrefs Podcast! As always, be sure to like and subscribe (and tell a friend). Where to find Zac: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharris36/ Website: https://www.gorankd.com/ Where to find Tim: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/ X: @timsoulo Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

When Fery Kaszoni first ventured into the world of SEO, he had no idea that 10 years later, he would be the CEO of a thriving digital PR agency on track to make £10M per year.

Fery's success is largely driven by his personal brand, and his fun, goofy spoofs of popular songs have become a hit in the SEO community.

But it wasn't always that way. Fery shares his ups and downs as an agency owner, what he wishes he could have done differently, and how others can replicate his success.

00:00 Intro

00:59 Fery's background as a developer

04:00 First steps into the SEO industry

11:22 Finding the passion to create an agency

15:31 Shifting to digital PR

18:19 How to scale an agency to 8 figures

27:18 Success without eating your own dog food

30:13 The true ROI of sponsorships

37:49 Fery's competitive advantage

43:49 Finding and onboarding solid employees

50:38 Expansion and team structure

52:46 Fery's role at Search Intelligence

54:46 The value in creating viral videos

58:55 Balancing humor and seriousness

01:01:45 Four day work weeks

01:08:38 Are social media and brand building the future of SEO?

01:11:43 Outro

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Ahrefs Podcast! As always, be sure to like and subscribe (and tell a friend).

Where to find Fery:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ferenczkaszoni/

Website: https://search-intelligence.co.uk/

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/

X: @timsoulo

Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

How do you transform a brand into a household name, especially when that brand has a lot of regulatory restrictions? Steven Kalifowitz is doing just that right now with  @CryptoComOfficial . When he came on board as the Crypto.com CMO in 2020, he brought years of experience as an Emmy-winning production manager for HBO and lessons from being a Director of Brand Strategy for Twitter. Along with discussing his strategy for transforming Crypto.com into a household name, Steven and Tim also discussed: 00:00 Intro 01:29 Managing million-dollar marketing budgets 05:58 The importance of continued awareness for established brands 13:05 Understanding and nurturing casual vs heavy customers 19:02 Buying the Crypto.com name 21:24 Becoming CMO of Crypto.com 24:58 Are brand strategy blueprints necessary? 34:44 Marketing a brand vs a commodity 53:57 Using live sports as a marketing tool 56:29 Are competitor pages useful? 58:56 How the Crypto.com marketing team is structured 1:05:42 What does Steven do as CMO of Crypto.com? 1:10:43 Leadership and management skills 1:18:48 Advertising at the Sphere and getting around advertising restrictions 1:26:35 Sports partnerships 1:33:45 Celebrity brand films 1:41:54 Are NFTs dead? 1:45:53 Outro We hope you enjoyed this episode of Ahrefs Podcast! As always, be sure to like and subscribe (and tell a friend). Where to find Steven: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skalifowitz/ X: @skalifowitz Where to find Tim: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/ X: @timsoulo Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/ _________________________________________________ Referenced in this episode: Byron Sharp - How Brands Grow: https://brandgenetics.com/human-thinking/how-brands-grow-speed-summary/ CPG/FMCG: https://cdp.com/glossary/cpg-marketing/ https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fastmoving-consumer-goods-fmcg.asp Fortune Favors the Brave ft. Matt Damon: https://youtu.be/9hBC5TVdYT8?si=qrj6nOB-VDY1yY5W David Oglivy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ogilvy_(businessman) Andy Gove - High Output Management: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Output_Management Patrick Lencioni - Five Dysfunctions of a Team: https://www.tablegroup.com/topics-and-resources/teamwork-5-dysfunctions/ Dale Carnegie - How to Win Friends and Influence People: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People Andy Gove - Only the Paranoid Survive: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/66863.Only_the_Paranoid_Survive Inevitable ft. Eminem: https://x.com/Eminem/status/1783859123614052845 The Moment of Truth ft. Lebron James: https://youtu.be/xynQFsPBE3w?si=5Xxr_Q3qacsR6BpV

Neil Patel, one of the most recognized names in digital marketing, pulls back the curtain on how he scaled his agency, NP Digital, to over $100 million in revenue. Neil shares his insights into building and managing a global agency, transitioning from small business clients to enterprise giants like LVMH, Panasonic, ESPN, and CNN, and the strategies he uses to reduce churn and maintain client relationships. In this episode, you'll learn: 00:00 Introduction 01:12 How Neil makes his money 06:35 Why Neil doesn't sell courses anymore 15:04 How Neil scaled his agency 21:14 Shifting from SMBs to large enterprises 33:32 The mistake a lot of agencies make 42:08 How to land big enterprise clients 46:20 Customer acquisition strategies 55:15 Relationship building for customer acquisition 1:02:35 Taking the "Neil Patel" out of NP Digital 1:05:00 Personal branding decisions 1:10:54 Strategic vs tactical content 1:14:05 The role of a team within a personal brand 1:33:01 Neil's visibility and putting his face on "everything" 1:44:35 Partnership ( @marketingschoolpod ) with Eric Siu ( @LevelingUpOfficial ) 1:50:34 How Ubersuggest is doing 2:00:47 The time Neil spent $162K on clothes 2:04:52 Outro We hope you enjoyed this episode of Ahrefs Podcast! As always, be sure to like and subscribe (and tell a friend). Where to find Neil: X: @neilpatel LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilkpatel/) Website: https://npdigital.com/ Where to find Tim: LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/) X: @timsoulo Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/ ------------------------- Referenced: • Gary Vaynerchuk (Gary Vee): garyvaynerchuk.com  @garyvee  • Tony Robbins: tonyrobbins.com  @TonyRobbinsLive  • LVMH: lvmh.com • Dentsu: dentsu.com • WPP: wpp.com • Publicis: publicisgroupe.com • ByteDance: bytedance.com • Nestlé: nestle.com • Panasonic: panasonic.com • Philips: philips.com • ESPN: espn.com • CNN: cnn.com • Salesforce: salesforce.com • Tai Lopez: tailopez.com  @tailopez  • Sam Oh:  @AhrefsCom 

How can you rise to unicorn status in an industry dominated by legacy players? Jon Stona, VP of Global Marketing at B2B global payments processor Airwallex shares his insights into growing the company from a coffee shop in Australia to a dominant player in the fintech space. 

Today, Airwallex has a $5.6B valuation and handles $100B in processing volume. So, what's the marketing machine behind this financial challenger brand? 

00:00 Intro

01:29 What is the marketing budget for a $5B company?
02:55 Sponsorships and the theory of economic value
10:48 Celebrity partnerships

22:04 The mechanics of sports marketing
23:48 Bringing structure to a marketing team
26:53 The role of product marketing within a company
33:14 Transforming company culture
35:47 The difference between leadership and therapy
45:17 Building a sustainable brand
59:43 Measuring growth through branded search

1:06:20 Are operating principles important for a company?

1:12:01 Differentiating yourself as a commodity
1:14:08 Building out PMM teams for different products
1:16:57 Allocating SEO budget
1:18:48 The usefulness of industry reports
1:26:11 How to use case studies in marketing
1:31:04 Getting your name in the press
1:34:33 Driving growth through industry events
1:41:17 Industry awards

1:46:48 Outro

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Ahrefs Podcast! As always, be sure to like and subscribe (and tell a friend). 

Where to find Jon:

LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jstona/)

Website: https://www.airwallex.com/

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/)

X: @timsoulo

Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

-------------------------
Referenced:

McLaren: @mclaren
F1: @Formula1
Lando Norris: @LandoNorris
Shifted Perspectives: https://www.airwallex.com/airwallex-mclaren-racing-shifted-perspectives
Michael Murphy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Murphy_(sculptor)
Mere exposure effect (psychology): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere-exposure_effect
Forrester: @forrester
Edgar, Dunn & Company: https://www.edgardunn.com/
Skift: @skiftnews
YouGov: https://www.yougov.com/
David Fallarme: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dfallarme/)

Stripe Sessions: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcoWp8pBTM3CYTQho8i-a_lzx4cq7-ePh
Beyond Black Friday
eCommerce Champion Awards: https://www.airwallex.com/newsroom/amid-online-spending-resurgence-airwallex-unveils-inaugural-airwallex
Money20/20: https://www.money2020.com/

Cloud 100 list: https://www.forbes.com/cloud100/list/

Early-stage marketing can be full of challenges, but what if there were a playbook to follow?

Meet Madhav Bhandari, first marketing hire at Hubstaff and one of the first marketers at Close.io, and Weflow, all of which he helped to cross $10M+ in ARR.

He's currently the CMO of Storylane, where he has helped grow their ARR by 250% in 2024 alone.

In other words, Madhav has pretty much mastered the art of scaling SaaS companies from $5M to $15M+ ARR.

Here's what you'll learn in this episode:

(00:00) Intro


(1:01) Early-stage marketing playbook


(12:25) Why Madhav only scales to $15M

(15:42) The average tenure for a CMO

(19:50) The ideal CEO/CMO fit

(26:46) Earning your CEO’s trust

(36:01) Employee advocacy as a marketing tool

(49:10) Easing friction by bringing community together (Demo Days)

(56:16) Creativity in community awards (Demo Dundies)(1:05:40) 10xing traffic in 6 months through demo-led SEO(

1:13:36) Hot take on backlinks

(1:15:41) Strategies for growing a brand

(1:24:08) Defining and codifying a brand

(1:31:20) When rebranding makes sense

(1:34:18) Founder brand vs company brand

(1:40:50) Is testing multiple tactics in a short period of time a good idea?

(1:45:17) The best channels for early stage founders

(1:47:47) Fixing burnout in marketing

(1:52:45) Outro

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Ahrefs Podcast! As always, be sure to like and subscribe (and tell a friend).

Where to find Madhav:

LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/madhavbhandari/)

Website: https://earlystagemarketing.com/

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/)

X: @timsoulo

Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

-------------------------

Referenced:

• Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com

• Canva: https://www.canva.com

• Notion: https://www.notion.so

• HubSpot: https://www.hubspot.com

• Slack: https://slack.com

• Ahrefs: https://ahrefs.com

• Hubstaff: https://hubstaff.com

• Close: https://close.com

• Weflow: https://www.getweflow.com

What's the key to creating a viral marketing campaign? Meet Delbert Ty, CMO at Coffee Meets Bagel, a popular dating app that sets itself apart by courting only those interested in serious relationships.

Before joining CmB, Delbert worked as Head of Marketing at Circles.Life - a Singaporean telco - where he grew revenue to 9 figures in 5 years.

And even before that he worked at Procter & Gamble, where he was responsible for such well-known brands as Duracell, Tide & Pantene.

During his time at these companies Delbert has pulled off quite a few hilarious creative marketing campaigns.

Some of them failed, but others brought lots of new customers and tons of brand awareness.

In our interview, we discussed quite a few of Delbert's viral campaigns and tried to deconstruct what made them successful and how you could replicate that success.

In this episode:

(0:00) Intro

(02:17) Three biggest marketing campaigns


(06:44) Vandalizing a billboard

(11:10) Buying out telco contracts (failed)

(13:10) Coffee Meets Bagel tells users to leave

(16:30) "Free money" from a vending machine

(25:01) The cost (not in $$$) of viral campaigns

(30:10) Courage in viral marketing

(35:43) Setting objectives for viral campaigns

(41:13) Measuring the impact of viral campaigns


(47:20) When bad ideas are actually good ideas

(55:23) Structural elements of a viral campaign

(01:15:07) Physical vs digital creative marketing

(1:22:20) Split between creative marketing and other tasks

(1:24:01) Is viral marketing only for consumer brands?

(1:28:10) Why certain campaigns fail

(1:38:00) The difference between celebrity and brand


(1:47:25) Using AI for creative marketing

(01:51:42) Outro

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Ahrefs Podcast! As always, be sure to like and subscribe (and tell a friend).

Where to find Delbert:

LinkedIn

Website

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn

X

Website

-------------------------

Referenced:

Coffee Meets Bagel  @CoffeeMBagel 

Circles.life  @circleslifesg 

Calm app  @calm 

Kanye Super Bowl ad

Coinbase Super Bowl ad

Old Spice  @oldspice 

Drake "God's Plan" music video

Lenny’s Podcast with Lulu Cheng Meservey

Lulu Cheng Meservey

Supermensch

Shep Gordon

Data is Beautiful subreddit

WePay/PayPal stunt

Dan Price/Gravity Payments wages

Coffeezilla:  @Coffeezilla 

Paris Hilton for SodaStream

_______________

Ahrefs Podcast

Host: Tim Soulo

Podcast Producer: Michelle Lindner

Intro Storyboard: Michelle Lindner & Tim Soulo

Intro Video Lead: George Dolgikh

Intro Video Animations: Ilya Yakymchuk

Filmed at: Poddster Studios (Singapore)

Meet Magnus Grimeland - the founder and CEO of Antler - a one BILLION dollar venture capital firm dedicated to investing in startups at the earliest stages.

As of today, Antler has invested in over 14 hundred companies, making it the largest day-zero investor in the world. And they have an audacious goal to invest in 6 thousand companies before 2030.

In this episode, you'll learn:

(0:00) Intro

(02:36) Why are people more important than ideas? 

(06:04) Examples of iterating on ideas

(19:17) Hipster, Hacker, Hustler vs. Spike, Drive, Grit

(29:22) Can marketers be good founders

(34:39) Soft skills vs hard skills

(39:03) The role of marketing in zero-day investments

(46:07) What do experts get out of advising zero-day startups? 

(53:45) Borrowing other people’s platforms

(1:00:54) The first marketing steps for any startup

(1:05:42) Building a brand

(1:15:27) Founder brand vs. building local networks

(1:22:03) How Antler gets referrals

(1:29:52) Why VC firms don’t use SEO

(1:37:33) How Antler decides who to invest in

(1:40:06) Outro

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Ahrefs Podcast! As always, be sure to like and subscribe (and tell a friend).

Where to find Magnus:

LinkedIn

Website

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn

X

Website

-------------------------

Referenced:

• Zalora

• Lion

• Basket of goods

• G&A

_______________

Ahrefs Podcast

Host: Tim Soulo

Podcast Producer: Michelle Lindner

Intro Storyboard: Michelle Lindner & Tim Soulo

Intro Video Lead: George Dolgikh

Intro Video Animations: Ilya Yakymchuck

Filmed at:  @PoddsterSingapore 

Borko Kovacevic is the co-founder of Poddster, a fast-growing podcast studio network with locations in Dubai and Singapore, with upcoming locations in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. Borko is also the co-founder of podcast operations software, Podyx.

In this episode, Borko shares the behind-the-scenes story of building Poddster, the trends shaping podcasting today, and what it really takes to create a podcast that drives business results.

What you’ll learn:

1. Why podcasting is shifting from audio-only to video—and how YouTube is winning the game

2. How businesses and creators approach podcasts differently (and why only 5% of Poddster’s clients are full-time creators)

3. The biggest mistakes businesses make when starting a podcast—and why “interesting guests” aren’t enough

4. Why every small business owner needs to be a content creator in today’s world

5. The role of trust and authenticity in podcasting—and how mainstream media’s decline has fueled the format’s growth

6. The untold challenges of podcasting (hint: it’s way harder than it looks)

7. Why podcasting is the ultimate networking hack—and how it can be used as a business development tool

8. How production quality impacts discoverability and engagement

9. The surprising reasons 99% of podcasts don’t make it past 20 episodes

10. Much more

In this episode: (0:00) Intro

(1:25) Why podcasting is the wave of the future

(5:05) Who is podcasting?

(10:58) Creator vs business podcasting

(16:18) Motivations and goals behind business podcasts

(34:53) What makes a good podcast or podcast episode

(41:37) Common challenges in podcasting

(53:40) Zoom vs in-person interviews

(1:03:35) Different podcast strategies

(1:08:37) Types of podcasts

(1:16:12) How to market a podcast

(1:35:34) The benefits of video studios beyond podcasting

(1:38:31) Where to find quality studios

(1:46:47) Outro

Where to find Borko

LinkedIn

Poddster

Podyx

Where to find Tim

LinkedIn

X

Website

ReferencedMagnus Grimeland: https://youtu.be/6dNFsSWcQFY

Nir Eyal:  @nirandfar 

Gary Vaynerchuk (Gary Vee):  @garyvee 

Lex Fridman:  @lexfridman 

Joe Rogan:  @joerogan 

Scott Galloway (Prof G):  @TheProfGPod 

Steven Bartlett"  @TheDiaryOfACEO 

Tom Bilyeu:  @TomBilyeu 

What does it really take to drive scalable, data-informed growth in today’s competitive marketing landscape?

In this episode, we sit down with Tim Dalrymple — former Head of Growth Marketing at Notion and Director of Growth at Webflow — to unpack how elite teams are rethinking attribution, customer acquisition, and product-led growth from the ground up.

Tim shares lessons from leading marketing at two of the most iconic product-led brands and offers a clear-eyed look at how to build growth systems that actually move the needle. Whether you’re deep into performance marketing or looking to sharpen your measurement strategy, this conversation brings sharp insights into everything from SEO and user-generated content to ethical marketing and AI-driven decision-making.

Discover:

(0:00) Intro

(1:29) What is growth marketing (and how it differs from brand marketing)

(6:55) Where growth marketing sits on the org chart

(10:40) Tracking view-through conversions through YouTube

(20:20) Geolift tests: why you want them and how to do them

(23:34) Why platforms claim attribution

(26:57) Bidding on branded keywords

(31:25) Performance marketing on social media

(35:58) Who owns campaign ideation

(38:09) Creating brand videos

(47:39) SEO at Notion and Webflow

(51:22) Linkbuilding at Notion and Webflow

(54:18) Using agencies to forge channels

(56:27) The AI growth marketing co-worker

(01:03:43) Scaling growth at Roadway

(01:11:51) Outro

_______________________________________

Where to find Tim Dalrymple:

LinkedIn

Website

Where to find Tim Soulo:

LinkedIn

Website

-------------------------

Referenced:

Sean Ellis

Brian Balfour

Reforge - The Growth Series

Bryant Chou (Webflow Co-founder)

Monday.com

Tableau

Recast

Eppo

Rand Fishkin

Bruno Clay

Product Fit Article

Misha Vaughn

Graphite

Clay

Louis Grenier has built a reputation for calling bullsh*t on conventional marketing. In this episode, he delivers sharp, unfiltered insights on what it really takes to stand out in saturated markets. As the founder of Stand The F*ck Out and host of Everyone Hates Marketers, Louis breaks down why most branding efforts fail, how to create a truly unique positioning, and what marketers get wrong about differentiation and audience engagement.

Discover:

(00:00) Intro

(00:57) Parental advisory

(03:24) How do you know if your positioning is bad?

(07:02) Positiong vs product-market fit

(16:00) Step 1: Insight foraging

(40:02) Step 2: Unique positioning

(56:36) Step 3: Creating a distinctive brand

(1:12:59) Step 4: Continuous reach

(1:36:17) The book that cost him $36,000

(1:48:02) Outro

------------------------------------------------

Where to find Louis:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisgrenier/

Website: https://www.stfo.io/

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/

X: @timsoulo

Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

-----------------------------------------------

Referenced in this episode:

👤 People

Seth Godin

Website: https://www.sethgodin.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethgodin/

Gary Vaynerchuk

Website: https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garyvaynerchuk/

Neil Patel

Website: https://neilpatel.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilkpatel/

Jason Hennessey

Website: https://www.jasonhennessey.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonhennessey/

David C. Baker

Website: https://www.davidcbaker.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidcbaker/

Martin Neumeier

Website: https://www.martinneumeier.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinneumeier/

⸻

🏢 Companies & Podcasts

Hotjar

https://www.hotjar.com

Everyone Hates Marketers Podcast

https://www.everyonehatesmarketers.com

Duolingo

https://www.duolingo.com

Ryanair

https://www.ryanair.com

Dentsu

https://www.dentsu.com

VaynerMedia

https://www.vaynermedia.com

NP Digital

https://npdigital.com

Hennessey Digital

https://www.hennessey.com

HubSpot

https://www.hubspot.com

Compare the Market (UK)

https://www.comparethemarket.com

⸻

📚 Books

Stand the Fck Out* by Louis Grenier

https://link.stfo.io/amazon

The Business of Expertise by David C. Baker

https://www.amazon.com/Business-Expertise-Entrepreneurs-Firms-Clients/dp/1605440590

Zag by Martin Neumeier

https://www.amazon.com/Zag-Strategy-High-Performance-Voices-Matter/dp/0321426770

How Brands Grow by Byron Sharp

https://www.amazon.com/How-Brands-Grow-What-Marketers/dp/0195573560

As the creator of The Marketing Meetup, Joe Glover has built one of the most popular, respected, and emotionally resonant communities in the industry.

In this episode, he shares a refreshingly human take on community building, leadership, and the kind of cultural values that drive real engagement—both online and off.

Explore in this episode:

(00:00) Intro

(01:41) How do you know if you have a community

(04:20) What exactly IS a community

(11:37) Community is NOT a sales channel

(21:36) Don’t build a community; build a culture

(29:58) Finding the sprouts of community culture

(37:44) Getting people to keep coming back

(44:59) Can a community continue without its founder?

(58:04) Why is TMM an Events Company vs a Media Company(

01:02:21) Promoting events(

01:05:32) The role of storytelling in community

(01:07:47) The purposefully planning behind the first TMM conference

(01:10:51) The power of good (and bad) networking events

(01:23:57) Mobilizing a team of event organizers

(01:29:34) The 10 magic moments essential for event success

(01:36:34) Baiting Ryan Reynolds to join TMM

(01:38:43) Outro

------------------------------------------------

Where to find Joe: LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/josepheglover/)

Website: https://themarketingmeetup.com/

Where to find Tim: LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/)

X: @timsoulo

Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

------------------------------------------------

Referenced in this episode:

👤 People Mentioned

Dave Gerhardt (Founder of Exit Five)LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/davegerhardt/)

Website: https://www.exitfive.com

Crystal Carter (Head of SEO Communications at Wix)

LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/crystalcarterseo/)

Kelvin Newman (Founder of BrightonSEO)

LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelvinnewman/)

Event: https://brightonseo.com

#mentalhealth, #communitybuilding, #marketing, #selfawareness, #culture, #followership, #emotionalconnection, #communitydynamics, #community, #events, #culturalvalues, #engagement, #leadership, #storytelling, #humanexperience, #networking, #onlineevents, #eventplanning, #ai, #personalbranding, #localorganizers, #valueexchange, #generosity

What if your business could run itself...and actually get better over time? In this episode, we sit down with Amos Bar-Joseph, founder of Swan AI, to explore the future of autonomous business and what it means for marketers and SaaS founders. Amos shares how Swan is rethinking onboarding, support, and user engagement through the dynamic of human-AI collaboration.

From automation and content creation to go-to-market strategy and brand-building, this conversation unpacks the real potential (and limits) of AI as it reshapes how we build, grow, and support products.

We cover:

(0:00) Intro

(01:18) Can 3 founders scale to $30M ARR with AI?

(02:51) Automation is dead. Augmentation is the future.

(04:59) Why they said no to Intercom and built their own AI

(09:31) How support works when AI reads your docs

(11:44) Teaching AI like a teammate (not a tool)

(14:19) Could you build this with no-code?

(17:10) The only moats left: brand and user experience

(25:33) AI-led onboarding that starts without you

(28:40) Why high-intent leads skip the free trial

(34:21) How they turned LinkedIn into a pipeline engine

(39:41) Detecting ICPs in real time with AI agents

(44:12) Writing bangers on LinkedIn with Claude

(49:56) When AI freedom crashes your margins

(55:05) AI-powered research, outreach, and follow-up all in Slack

(1:07:41) What they’re automating next (and why)

(1:10:33) Why AI still sucks at web design

(1:13:25) Outro

------------------------------------------------

Where to find Amos:

LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amos-bar-joseph-5a665a142/)

Website: https://www.getswan.com/Where to find

Tim: LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/)

X: @timsoulo

Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

------------------------------------------------

Referenced in this episode:

🏢 Companies & Products

Intercom – “Fin” AI assistant: https://www.intercom.com

6sense (Lead & intent data platform) : https://6sense.com

HubSpot (CRM): https://www.hubspot.com

Slack: https://slack.com

Claude (Anthropic AI): https://www.anthropic.com/index/claude

ChatGPT (OpenAI): https://chat.openai.com

Gemini (Google AI): https://gemini.google.com

⸻

🛠️ AI, Automation & No-Code Tools

Anthropic (Claude models): https://www.anthropic.com

OpenAI (GPT models): https://openai.com

N8n (No-code automation platform): https://n8n.io

Relevance AI: https://relevance.ai

Make (formerly Integromat – automation platform): https://www.make.com

Unipile (LinkedIn scraping and automation): https://www.unipile.com

Generect (Real-time B2B data enrichment): https://generect.com

Apollo (Alternative B2B database tool): https://www.apollo.io

Lovable (No-code app builder): https://lovable.dev/

Bubble (No-code app builder): https://bubble.io

#ai, #automation, #swann, #customersupport, #humanaicollaboration, #businessscaling, #technology, #entrepreneurship, #saas, #innovation, #brand, #userexperience, #onboarding, #customerengagement, #contentcreation, #autonomousbusiness, #linkedin, #gotomarket, #websitevisitoridentification, #aiautonomy, #marketingstrategies, #businessgrowth

Everyone’s talking about AI in marketing. But most of it is hype, fluff, or screenshots of ChatGPT doing something useless. This episode is different.

Gael Breton ( ⁨@AuthorityHackerPodcast⁩ ) shows the real systems he’s using to replace time-wasting tasks, write high-performing content, and ship more work, without losing quality.

We’re talking about AI workflows that actually work in a lean, fast-moving marketing team.

We cover:

(00:00) Intro

(01:35) AI in marketing is broken. Here's how to fix it.

(03:22) Use Gemini to uncover B2B AI opportunities

(05:57) Why content still matters in the age of AI agents

(09:03) Auto-generate podcasts and deep research summaries

(11:27) Research video libraries with NotebookLLM

(15:31) Tim’s evolving take on AI-generated content

(18:43) Use AI to write high-engagement newsletters

(26:48) Feedback, refinement, and keeping AI content human

(31:33) Smarter, not spammy: Using AI like a creative calculator

(41:20) AI agents + MCP server to automate SEO tasks

(47:18:07) Outro

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Ahrefs Podcast! As always, be sure to like and subscribe (and tell a friend).

Where to find Gael:

LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/gael-breton-78305118⁠

X: @GaelBreton

Website: https://www.authorityhacker.com/

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/)X: @timsoulo

Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

_______________

Referenced in this episode:

Ahrefs – https://ahrefs.com/

Authority Hacker – https://www.authorityhacker.com/

Gemini (Google AI) – https://deepmind.google/technologies/gemini/

Claude (Anthropic) – https://claude.ai/

NotebookLM – https://notebooklm.google/

Perplexity AI – https://www.perplexity.ai/

Firecrawl – https://www.firecrawl.dev/

Make.com – https://www.make.com/

n8n – https://n8n.io/

CapCut – https://www.capcut.com/

Opus Pro – https://www.opus.pro/

Notion AI – https://www.notion.so/product/ai

Buffer – https://buffer.com/

_______________

Ahrefs Podcast

Host: Tim SouloPodcast

Producer: Michelle Lindner

Intro Storyboard: Tim Soulo

Intro Video Lead: George Dolgikh

Intro Video Animations: Ilya Yakymchuck

Filmed with:  ⁨@Riversidefm⁩ 

#ai, #automation, #businessscaling, #technology, #entrepreneurship, #saas, #innovation, #brand, #contentcreation, #marketingstrategies, #businessgrowth, #aiworkflow, #aicontentcreation

Nathan Barry (founder of Kit, formerly ConvertKit) joins Tim Soulo to break down one of the boldest rebrands in SaaS, and why it wasn’t just a logo change, but a complete overhaul of identity, voice, and vision.

We talk:

• Why they spent $260K with a top agency (and what they actually got)

• How to design word-of-mouth marketing that actually works• Using AI to scale brand consistency

• The Minimum Viable Personal Brand for founders

• Building creator flywheels instead of chasing funnels

• What Kit learned from celebrity newsletters (Tom Brady, Dua Lipa, McConaughey…)

If you care about brand, growth, or building in public, this is the episode to watch.

00:00 - Intro

00:54 - Why spend $360K for a rebrand?

06:14 - Using AI to stay on brand

10:28 - Acquiring a three-letter domain

16:05 - Business decisions beyond immediate profit

21:26 - Turning a rebrand into a marketing flywheel

26:06 - You can’t script word of mouth. But you can feed it

32:56 - Customers as marketing assets

42:30 - Funnels vs flywheels and landing celebrity clients

53:45 - Delegating like a CEO (but still showing up)

1:00:32 - Outro

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Ahrefs Podcast! As always, be sure to like and subscribe (and tell a friend).

Where to find Nathan:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanbarry/

X: @nathanbarry

Website: https://kit.com/

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/)

X: @timsouloWebsite: https://www.timsoulo.com/

_______________

Referenced in this episode:

🔹 People

Tom Brady — Referenced in relation to Kit newsletter visibility

https://www.instagram.com/tombrady/

Patrick Campbell — Founder of ProfitWell (acquired by Paddle)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickccampbell/

https://twitter.com/pattyc

Dua Lipa — Musician and creator, newsletter launched via Kit

https://www.instagram.com/dualipa/

⸻

🔹 Companies / Products / Platforms

Kit — Formerly ConvertKit, platform for professional creatorshttps://kit.com/

Koto — Design agency behind Kit’s $260K rebrandhttps://koto.studio/

Ahrefs — All-in-one SEO and marketing platform

https://ahrefs.com/

ProfitWell — Subscription analytics and retention toolhttps://www.profitwell.com/

Paddle — SaaS payment infrastructure company (acquired ProfitWell)

https://www.paddle.com/

Creator Network — Kit’s recommendation and newsletter growth engine

https://kit.com/features/creator-network

⸻

🔹 Books / Concepts“Do Things That Don’t Scale” — Paul Graham (essay from Y Combinator)

https://www.paulgraham.com/ds.html

Ahrefs Podcast

Host: Tim Soulo

Podcast Producer: Michelle Lindner

Intro Storyboard: Michelle Lindner

Intro Video Lead: George Dolgikh

Intro Video Animations: Ilya Yakymchuck

Filmed at: Content HQ, Miami

#branding #rebranding #marketing #emailmarketing #Kit #ConvertKit #domainnames #customerengagement #storytelling #businessstrategy #marketingstrategies #creatorplatforms #abtesting #directsales #networkeffects #teamprocesses #founderpassion

What if you could turn LinkedIn into your only customer acquisition channel and grow to $30M ARR...without spending a dime on paid ads?

Adam Robinson⁩ breaks down the exact playbook he used to build a magnetic personal brand, engineer high-engagement content, and make LinkedIn work like a growth engine. From bootstrapping three companies to millions in ARR to building a content system that turns credibility into conversions, Adam doesn’t hold back. We explored storytelling, content marketing, webinars, and the overlooked strategies that helped him scale fast without relying on traditional funnels.

In this episode:

(00:00) Intro

(00:50) Building a Personal Brand on Social Media

(06:09) Finding Your Voice and Content Market Fit

(08:50) The Importance of Authentic Storytelling

(11:46) Creating a Public Figure Through Content

(14:56) Strategies for Growing Your LinkedIn Audience

(17:55) Crafting Engaging Posts and Hooks

(21:00) The Art of Storytelling in Content Creation

(23:58) Tactics for Effective LinkedIn Posting

(33:27) Leveraging Credibility in Content Creation

(36:39) Maximizing Engagement Through Hooks and Templates

(41:36) The Role of AI in Content Generation

(50:25) Frequency and Interaction: Balancing Engagement on LinkedIn

(54:40) The Power of Video in Building Trust

(01:00:44) The Unique Appeal of Live Webinars

(01:02:39) Outro

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Ahrefs Podcast! As always, be sure to like and subscribe (and tell a friend).

Where to find Adam:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanbarry/

Websites: https://www.retention.com/

https://www.rb2b.com/

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/)

X: @timsoulo

Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

👥 People Mentioned

• Russell Brunson – Co-founder of ClickFunnels, early internet marketing influencer

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/russellbrunson

• Dave Gerhardt – Founder of Exit Five, author of Founder Brand

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davegerhardt

• Chris Walker – Growth marketing expert, LinkedIn creator

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriswalker

• Nigel Thomas – LinkedIn content creator known for post templates

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelthomas

• Tom Wolfe – B2B content creator and podcast guest

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomwolfe

• Rick Rubin – Music producer, quoted on art and perspective

(No specific profile link)

• Peter Conforti – Analyst who studied LinkedIn audience overlap

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterconforti

• Jeremy Horwitz – Guest on webinars, ABM expert

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyhorwitz

• Sam Parr – Host of “My First Million” podcast

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samparr

• Nathan Barry – Mentioned by Tim as podcast guest in this episode

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanbarry

• Paul Graham – Y Combinator founder

Website: http://www.paulgraham.com

⸻

🏢 Companies & Tools Referenced

• ClickFunnels – Sales funnel software (Russell Brunson’s company)

Website: https://clickfunnels.com

• Jasper AI – AI writing assistant tool

Website: https://www.jasper.ai

#LinkedIn #CustomerAcquisition #PersonalBrand #ContentMarketing #Storytelling #AudienceGrowth #SocialMediaStrategy #Engagement #Authenticity #MarketingTactics #ContentCreation #Credibility #AI #Video #Webinars #audiencebuilding

Is AI replacing marketers, or just helping bad marketers move faster?

In this episode, we're joined by Eric Siu, founder of Single Grain, host of  ⁨@LevelingUpOfficial⁩ , and advisor to some of the biggest SaaS companies, to debate how AI is changing marketing right now.

Eric breaks down the AI workflows his agency uses to cut content production time by 90%, including how they generated 21 blog posts in 30 minutes. But it’s not magic. We dive into where AI works, where it still fails, and why human editors are still a critical part of the process.

We discuss:

00:00 Intro

00:57 Growing an Agency in an AI World

05:23 What Can AI Actually Be Used for Right Now?

09:30 21 Blog Posts in 30 Minutes: Real or Slop?

13:11 The Role of Human Editors in AI Content

15:52 AI Tools Reshaping Marketing

23:54 Agency Value in the Age of AI

30:25 AI for Scheduling, Note-Taking, and Automation

44:03 Gamifying SOPs with AI

46:57 One-Click Internal Linking

50:53 The Personal Brand Machine (And How AI Supercharges It)

58:50 AI-Powered LinkedIn Ads & ABM

01:08:07 Outro

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Ahrefs Podcast! As always, be sure to like and subscribe (and tell a friend).

⸻

Where to find Eric:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericosiu/

X: @ericosiuWebsites: https://www.singlegrain.com/

https://karrot.ai/

https://www.levelingup.com/

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/)X: @timsoulo

Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

👥 People Mentioned

• Neil Patel – Co-founder of NP Digital, marketing influencer, frequent collaborator with Eric

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilkpatel

Website: https://neilpatel.com

• Gael Breton – Co-founder of Authority Hacker, SEO educator

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gael-breton-762b1515

Website: https://www.authorityhacker.com

• Nathan Barry – Founder of ConvertKit (now Kit), previous podcast guest

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanbarry

Website: https://nathanbarry.com

• Dmitry Gerasimenko – Founder & CEO of Ahrefs

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerasimenko

⸻

🏢 Companies & Tools Referenced

• Single Grain – Digital marketing agency founded by Eric Siu

Website: https://www.singlegrain.com

• Ahrefs – SEO and marketing intelligence platform

Website: https://ahrefs.com

• NP Digital – Marketing agency co-founded by Neil Patel

Website: https://npdigital.com

• Authority Hacker – SEO and content marketing education

Website: https://www.authorityhacker.com

• Lindy.ai – AI agent tool for task automation, including recruiting

Website: https://lindy.ai

• Manos – AI-powered recruiting automation (referenced)

Website: https://manos.so

• Reclaim.ai – Smart calendar management for scheduling and productivity

Website: https://reclaim.ai

• Hawie.ai – AI meeting scheduling assistant

Website: https://hawie.ai

• Granola – AI note-taking tool

Website: https://granola.so

• Gong – Sales intelligence and meeting recording tool

Website: https://www.gong.io

• Overlap – AI video clipping for short-form content

Website: https://www.overlap.so

• Opus Clip – AI video clipping tool for podcasts and YouTube

Website: https://www.opus.pro

• Descript – AI-powered video editing tool

Website: https://www.descript.com

• Bannerbear – Automated image and video generation (used for OG images)

Website: https://www.bannerbear.com

⸻

📚 Books & Ideas Referenced

• “Who’s Got the Monkey?” – Harvard Business Review article on delegation

Read it: https://hbr.org/1974/11/management-time-whos-got-the-monkey

Chris Cunningham, founding member of ClickUp, reveals the social media strategy that drives a staggering 150M monthly impressions. This is *the* exact strategy that's also attracted major clients like VaynerMedia (yes, GaryVee literally found them through social media).

Grab your notes. 📝 Chris shares his contrarian take on hooks and pattern interrupts, explains why hiring LA actors is a no-brainer for your social content, and walks us through his secret Trial Reels technique that consistently multiplies video performance.

In this episode:

(00:00) The Power of Humor in B2B Marketing

(00:57) Measuring ROI in Social Media Strategies

(05:10) How Much Does It Cost to Create This Type of Content?

(07:32) Finding and Hiring Talent for Content Creation

(12:57) Integrating Humor with Project Management Software

(17:25) The Creative Process: From Ideas to Execution

(18:40) Using Trial Reels to Test Impact(21:08) Brainstorming Creative Ideas(24:02) Balancing Fun and Product Promotion

(29:17) Breaking Marketing Norms

(33:30) The ABCD Framework for Content Creation

(38:33) Pattern Interrupt Techniques in Content

(43:18) Psychological Hacks for Converting Followers

(46:24) Building a Personal Brand Vs a Company Brand

(50:39) Types of Content for Brand Accounts

(53:44) Defining the ClickUp Brand

(57:10) The $15K ClickUp Album

(01:02:01) Influencer Marketing Strategies

(01:04:50) The Super Bowl Ad Experience

(01:07:35) AI in Marketing: A Critical Perspective

(01:11:54) Outro

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Ahrefs Podcast! As always, be sure to like and subscribe (and tell a friend).

⸻

Where to find Chris:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisclickup/

X: @ChrisClickUp

Website: https://clickup.com/

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/)

X: @timsoulo

Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

⸻

Referenced in this episode:

👤 People

Gary Vaynerchuk (GaryVee): https://www.linkedin.com/in/garyvaynerchuk/

Kyle Coleman (ClickUp CMO): https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylecoleman/

Adam Robinson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamsrobinson/

Gaurav Agarwal (ClickUp COO): https://www.linkedin.com/in/gaurav-agarwal-8278271/

Zeb Evans (ClickUp Founder/CEO): https://www.linkedin.com/in/zeb-evans/

Seth Godin: https://www.sethgodin.com/

Mr. Beast:  ⁨@MrBeast⁩ 

Clever (Artist): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clever_(rapper)

⸻

🏢 Companies & Brands

VaynerMedia: https://vaynerx.com/

Adweek (Adworld): https://www.adweek.com/

Groundlings: https://www.groundlings.com/

Copy AI: https://www.copy.ai/

Clari: https://www.clari.com/

BuzzFeed: https://www.buzzfeed.com/

Halligan Cinema: https://halligancinema.com/

HubSpot: https://www.hubspot.com/

Asana: https://asana.com/

Jira: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira

Wendy’s: https://www.wendys.com/

Apple: https://www.apple.com/

Windows (Microsoft): https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows

Morning Brew: https://www.morningbrew.com/

⸻

🛠️ Tools / Platforms

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/

Spotify: https://www.spotify.com/

Apple Music: https://www.apple.com/apple-music/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/

Claude (Anthropic AI): https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-3-family

ChatGPT (OpenAI): https://chat.openai.com/

Clay (Lead gen / enrichment): https://www.clay.com/

Is your marketing stuck in “competent” mode?

In a world where AI can generate endless content, being good isn’t good enough anymore.

In this episode, Tim Soulo sits down with best-selling author and marketing futurist Mark Schaefer to unpack why most marketing feels flat — and how to fix it. Drawing from his book Audacious, Mark makes the case for out-humaning the machines: creating content that’s emotional, unexpected, and deeply memorable.

You’ll learn:

• Why the real threat to your brand isn’t AI — it’s being boring

• How concepts like the handicap principle and pratfall effect make content feel more real

• What a $1,500 pig can teach you about word-of-mouth marketing

• Why Liquid Death isn’t selling water — they’re selling marketing

• How to measure the ROI of audacity in a spreadsheet-driven world

If your brand is playing it safe, this conversation will push you to think bigger, bolder, and more human.

Chapters:

(00:00) Intro

(03:06) The Concept of Audacious Marketing

(08:52) How to Out-Human the Machines

(11:39) Join Ahrefs Evolve

(12:18) Using AI in Marketing

(21:12) How a $1500 Pig Became a Marketing Sensation

(30:47) Breaking Bad Rules for Good Reasons

(37:12) Creating Awe to Break the Pandemic of Dull

(48:31) Using Controversy and Stunts to Create Awareness

(55:28) How Liquid Death Disrupted a Boring Industry Through Marketing

(01:05:15) Buying a Product vs Buying a Brand

(01:13:27) Measuring the Impact of Audacious Marketing

(01:21:01) Outro

Where to find Mark:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisclickup/

Website: https://clickup.com/

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/

X: https://twitter.com/timsoulo

Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

Referenced in this episode:

👤 People

Michael Krivica — https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelkrivica/

Dacher Keltner — https://www.linkedin.com/in/dacherkeltner/

Peter Drucker — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Drucker

Philip Kotler — https://www.linkedin.com/in/philipkotler/

Patrick Campbell — https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickccampbell/

Jonah Berger — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonahberger/

Bill Gates — https://www.linkedin.com/in/billgates/

Mike Cessario (Liquid Death Founder) — https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikecessario/

Stix Nielsen (ex-Liquid Death CMO) — https://www.linkedin.com/in/stixnielsen/

🏢 Companies & Brands

Ahrefs — https://ahrefs.com/

Coca-Cola — https://www.coca-colacompany.com/

Netflix — https://www.netflix.com/

Liquid Death — https://liquiddeath.com/

Pepsi — https://www.pepsico.com/

Powerade — https://www.powerade.com/

Gatorade — https://www.gatorade.com/

Elf Cosmetics — https://www.elfcosmetics.com/

Roblox — https://www.roblox.com/

monday.com — https://monday.com/

ClickUp — https://clickup.com/

Asana — https://asana.com/

BMW — https://www.bmw.com/

Audi — https://www.audi.com/

Mercedes — https://www.mercedes-benz.com/

ProfitWell — https://www.profitwell.com/

Mischief Agency — https://www.mischiefusa.com/

Taboo — https://www.taboo.com.au/

📚 Books

Audacious by Mark Schaefer — https://www.amazon.com/Audacious-Marketing-Humans-Machines-Dominate/dp/1119904791

Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger — https://www.amazon.com/Contagious-Things-Catch-Jonah-Berger/dp/1451686579

Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life by Dacher Keltner — https://www.amazon.com/Awe-Science-Everyday-Wonder-Transform/dp/1982172820

📚 Concepts & Frameworks

Handicap Principle — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handicap_principle

Pratfall Effect — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratfall_effect

Social Objects — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_object

Collective Effervescence — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_effervescence

Four P’s of Marketing — https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/four-ps-of-marketing.asp

🎬 Events

South by Southwest (SXSW) — https://www.sxsw.com/

Ahrefs Evolve Conference — https://ahrefs.com/evolve

Tim Soulo posted on LinkedIn asking if anyone wanted the full breakdown of the publishing process behind Ahrefs’ AI-written articles that actually ranked. Over 400 people commented “do it.”

This episode is the result.

Ryan Law, Director of Content Marketing at Ahrefs, walks Tim through the entire AI content workflow he built — from crafting detailed briefs to editing hallucinated links.

It’s not a “push-button” prompt. It’s a repeatable system that combines ChatGPT with real editorial oversight.

And the results are nearly indistinguishable from human-written content.

You’ll hear how Ryan builds outlines, adds expert-level insight, handles internal linking, and avoids the usual AI traps.

If you’re serious about using AI in your content strategy — and not just experimenting — this is the episode to watch.

LinkedIn post:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/timsoulo_we-built-a-10-step-process-to-create-ai-generated-activity-7348327597769953283-mpQW

In this episode:

(00:00) Why We Made This Episode

(01:03) How We Know This Workflow Works

(02:05) The Basic Setup in ChatGPT (Foundational Instruction Files)

(05:45) Setting up the Content Brief

(14:19) Join Ryan at Ahrefs Evolve

(16:03) Generating a Solid Outline

(19:36) Improving AI Output

(27:05) The Importance of Human Review

(29:33) Polishing the Formatting

(30:43) A Closer Look at the 7 Foundational Documents

(44:01) Outro

–––

Where to find Ryan:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thinkingslow/

X: @thinking_slow

Website: https://ryanlaw.me/

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/)

X: @timsoulo

Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

–––

Referenced in this episode

👤 People

Ryan Law

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thinkingslow/

Andrej Karpathy

https://karpathy.ai/

Barbara Minto

https://barbaraminto.com/

Gary Provost

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Provost

Patrick Stox

https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickstox/

⸻

🏢 Companies & Brands

Ahrefs

https://ahrefs.com/

Google

https://www.google.com/

Tesla

https://www.tesla.com/

McKinsey & Company

https://www.mckinsey.com/

⸻

🛠️ Tools / Platforms

ChatGPT

https://chat.openai.com/

WordPress

https://wordpress.org/

Claude

https://www.anthropic.com/product/claude

Replit

https://replit.com/

Google Docs

https://docs.google.com/

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/

GitHub

https://github.com/

⸻

📚 Frameworks & Concepts

PAS Formula (Problem–Agitate–Solution)

https://beomniscient.com/blog/pas-copywriting/

MECE Principle (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MECE_principle

Pyramid Principle

https://www.amazon.fr/Pyramid-Principle-Logic-Writing-Thinking/dp/0273710516

Information Gain (SEO & Content Strategy)

https://www.clearscope.io/blog/information-gain-seo

–––

#AIContent

#ContentMarketing

#SEOStrategy

#ChatGPT

#Ahrefs

#AIWorkflow

#ContentCreation

#DigitalMarketing

#AIforSEO

#AhrefsPodcast

Emily Kramer (Founder of MKT1 and the Dear Marketers podcast) has led marketing teams at Asana, Carta, and Astro (acquired by Slack).

After working in-house, she became an advisor, consulting with B2B startup founders on marketing approaches across growth stages, audiences, and GTM motions.

She’s seen it all.

We chatted about positioning fundamentals, product vs. content marketing, the growing founder-influencer trend, and her personally coined Fuel and Engine Framework that identifies which part of a broken marketing machine needs fixing.

In this episode:

(00:00) Intro

(01:38) How Will AI Change Startup Marketing and Advising?

(07:53) The First Steps to Startup Marketing

(14:56) Join Emily at Ahrefs Evolve

(15:35) The 12 Marketing Advantages Framework

(16:43) Getting Your Messaging and Positioning Right

(22:40) The Fuel and Engine Framework

(28:59) The 30% Juice Rule for Startups (DEBUNKED)

(34:57) The Difference Between Product Marketing and Content Marketing

(40:11) Examples of Ultra-Successful Campaigns & Measuring the ROI

(49:13) Category Creation vs Roles

(51:28) The Rise of Ecosystem Marketing

(59:34) Is SEO Dying?

(01:01:21) Founders as Influencers

(01:07:57) The Shortcut to Building Brand Influence

(01:14:10) Outro

We hope you enjoyed this episode of the Ahrefs Podcast! As always, be sure to like, subscribe, and tell a friend.

—

Where to find Emily:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilykramer/

Website: https://www.mkt1.co/

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/

X: https://x.com/timsoulo

Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

—

Referenced in this episode:

👤 People:

Dave Fallarme – https://www.linkedin.com/in/dfallarme/

April Dunford – https://aprildunford.com/

Dustin Moskovitz – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dustin_Moskovitz

Ryan Law – https://www.linkedin.com/in/thinkingslow/

Dmitry Gerasimenko – https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmytrogerasymenko/

🏢 Companies & Brands:

Owner – https://owner.com/

Carta – https://carta.com/

Airbnb – https://www.airbnb.com/

Clay – https://www.clay.com/

Asana – https://asana.com/

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/

Substack – https://substack.com/

🛠️ Tools / Platforms:

ChatGPT – https://chat.openai.com/

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/

Reddit – https://www.reddit.com/

TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/

Google – https://www.google.com/

📚 Frameworks & Concepts:

Fuel & Engine Framework – https://mkt1.substack.com/p/fuel-engine

Marketing Advantages – https://newsletter.mkt1.co/p/find-and-accelerate-your-marketing

Percent Juice Rule – https://newsletter.mkt1.co/p/high-impact-content

Category Creation vs Design – https://www.aprildunford.com/post/dont-let-customers-decide-what-your-product-is

Ecosystem Marketing – https://newsletter.mkt1.co/p/ecosystem-marketing

Business Potential – https://blog.timsoulo.com/business-potential-the-most-important-metric-in-content-marketing/

🌐 Other:

Hashtag Angels – https://www.hashtagangels.com/

—

#StartupMarketing #MarketingStrategy #EmilyKramer #Ahrefs #B2BMarketing #ContentMarketing #FuelAndEngine #EcosystemMarketing #PersonalBrand #MKT1

AI Overviews are changing search — but not in the way Google wants you to think.

In this episode of the Ahrefs Podcast, Tim Soulo sits down with Kevin Indig to discuss the real impact of AI on search behavior, website traffic, and SEO strategy.

Kevin analyzed over 5 billion search visits and found that while people are searching more often, they’re spending less time per session — and zero-click searches are on the rise.

But this isn’t just about traffic.

Kevin argues that SEO isn’t dying — it’s just entering a new investment cycle. The smartest companies are already shifting resources toward AI visibility, building tools, and rethinking how they show up in ChatGPT and beyond.

In this episode:

(00:00) Intro

(02:39) How is search changing?

(06:20) Revenue vs traffic

(10:30) How AI Overviews are changing

(13:46) Join Kevin at Ahrefs Evolve

(14:23) How to show up in AI Overviews (and is it even useful?)

(20:10) AI Overview volatility

(26:02) Queries vs prompts

(31:11) External validation: the key to ranking on AI Overviews

(35:13) Is SEO dead?

(42:50) Ranking in AI Overviews vs ChatGPT

(49:18) What you should be optimizing with AI

(01:05:42) Vibe coding in action

(01:07:21) Outro

We hope you enjoyed this episode of the Ahrefs Podcast!

Be sure to like, subscribe — and tell a friend.

Where to find Kevin:

LinkedIn: Kevin Indig

X: @Kevin_Indig

Website: mkt1.co

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn: Tim Soulo

X: @timsoulo

Website: timsoulo.com

Referenced in this episode

👤 People

Dmitry Gerasimenko

Ryan Law

Rand Fishkin

Eric Siu

🏢 Companies & Brands

Ahrefs

Google

OpenAI

Similarweb

ChatGPT

Ramp

🛠️ Tools / Platforms

Claude

Humata AI

AirOps

v0 by Vercel

Cursor

Relevance AI

📚 Frameworks & Concepts

AI Overviews (Google SGE)

Vibe Coding

Zero-Click Searches

First Mover Advantage

Information Gain (SEO Strategy)

#SEO #GoogleAI #AIOverviews #AhrefsPodcast #KevinIndig #SearchMarketing #DigitalMarketing #AIContent #LLMSearch #ZeroClickSearches #ContentStrategy #AIinMarketing #VibeCoding #MarketingAutomation #aiseo

Employee-generated content isn’t just a trend — it’s the future of marketing.

In this episode of the Ahrefs Podcast, we dive deep into the world of Employee Generated Content (EGC) and short-form social video with Melissa Laurie, founder and CEO of Oysterly Media.

Discover why authentic, employee-created video content published on brand channels is quickly becoming essential for companies that want to stand out. Melissa explains how to do EGC right — and why audiences are craving genuine interactions over polished ads.

She breaks down the powerful “Triple A Effect” of EGC:

Attracting top talent,

Retaining engaged staff,

And accelerating sales with real product showcases.

You’ll hear why Gen Z doesn’t magically know how to make great social content, how to structure a video that hooks attention in seconds, and why even the Singapore Police Force is jumping on the trend.

Melissa shares real-world frameworks, production tips, and success stories from companies like Hilton and Microsoft.

In this episode:

(00:00) Intro

(01:57) What is Employee-Generated Content (EGC)?

(03:32) Posting from employee accounts vs company accounts

(09:27) Using EGC to help with employee disengagement and recruiting

(15:35) Examples of successful Day in the Life videos

(21:00) Frameworks for EGC videos

(31:59) Does trend-jumping work for companies?

(35:36) Misconceptions about EGC

(41:26) Hacks for making solid short-form videos

(48:00) Consulting vs outsourcing for social media content

(50:13) The ROI of short-form video for businesses

(55:42) Making the shift from sales to social media

(58:15) Outro

We hope you enjoyed this episode of the Ahrefs Podcast!

Be sure to like, subscribe — and tell a friend.

Where to find Melissa:

LinkedIn: Melissa Laurie

Website: oysterlymedia.com

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn: Tim Soulo

X: @timsoulo

Website: timsoulo.com

AI search is exploding — and everyone wants to teach you how to show up in ChatGPT.

But in this new “Wild West,” who can you actually trust?

Meet Ryan Law, Ahrefs’ Director of Content Marketing.

Ryan and his team have carried out some of the largest studies on AI search, backed by millions of data points, to understand what actually works when it comes to Answer Engine Optimization (AEO).

If you’ve been waiting for a credible, data-backed guide to getting your brand and content visible in AI search — this is it.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

00:00 — Intro

01:06 — The Current State of AI Search

03:46 — 3 Ways to Influence Your AI Visibility

07:55 — The “Era of Off-Page SEO”: Why Mentions Are the New Backlinks

14:48 — Optimizing the Content Types AI Prefers to Cite

18:33 — How to Write for AI (and Humans)

25:51 — Finding and Fixing “Hallucinated URLs” from AI

27:18 — The Untapped Training Data Sources LLMs Love

28:37 — How to Perform a Content Gap Analysis for the AI Era

32:56 — The #1 Technical Mistake in Answer Engine Optimization

34:40 — Fan-Out Queries: How AI Actually Searches Google

39:50 — The Spam Strategy You Must Avoid

41:00 — A Simple 2-Category Framework for AEO

42:32 — AI Search vs. Google’s AI Overviews

44:50 — Outro

Connect with Ryan:

LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/thinkingslow/

X — @thinking_slow

Connect with Tim:

LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/

X — @timsoulo

Website — https://www.timsoulo.com/

If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to follow the Ahrefs Podcast and share it with a friend.

Referenced:

Ahrefs Brand Radar — https://ahrefs.com/brand-radar

Ahrefs Site Explorer — https://ahrefs.com/site-explorer

Ahrefs Web Analytics — https://ahrefs.com/webmaster-tools

Clearscope — https://www.clearscope.io

G2 — https://www.g2.com

Reddit — https://www.reddit.com

Quora — https://www.quora.com

If you want your brand to show up in ChatGPT, do you follow the same rules as ranking in Google—or is it a completely different game?

To settle the debate, we brought in Patrick Stox, one of the most experienced SEO professionals in the industry. Patrick’s been tracking the rise of “Answer Engine Optimization” (AEO) and has strong opinions about the advice new experts are spreading.

In this episode, we dive deep into how AI chatbots pull information, how to get your brand mentioned by them, and why AEO might not be as new as it sounds.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

(00:00) Intro

(02:05) Do AI bots render JavaScript? The surprising answer

(04:20) To get cited by AI, should your content be the same or different?

(10:18) How Large Language Models (LLMs) actually work

(15:10) The most important AEO tactic isn’t SEO—it’s this

(20:00) Actionable tactics to control what AI says about you

(26:20) Why a Korean search query might cite an English page

(29:39) AEO is bringing desktop optimization back—here’s why

(32:00) How to repurpose content for maximum AEO impact

(36:20) Why YouTube is a bigger opportunity than ChatGPT today

(41:20) Using communities, PR, and affiliates to shape your AI narrative

(44:10) The big secret: Answer Engine Optimization is just good marketing

Connect with Patrick:

X: @patrickstox

LinkedIn: patrickstox

Connect with Tim:

X: @timsoulo

LinkedIn: timsoulo

Website: timsoulo.com

Influencer marketing might be the most hyped growth channel right now. But here’s the problem: most companies are burning money on it. How do you know which influencers are legit and which ones are just gaming the system before you waste your budget?

Meet Jeremy Boissinot, founder of Favicon, an influencer marketing platform that has analyzed over 500,000 LinkedIn creators to understand the data signals behind real expertise vs algorithm hacks. In this episode, Jeremy breaks down the red flags that can save you from losing tens of thousands on a bad campaign.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

00:00 Intro

01:17 The rise of fake influencers in B2B

03:18 How LinkedIn influencers fake follower counts

07:10 AI-generated comments and the Dead Internet Theory on LinkedIn

11:33 The real motivation behind spam commenting

17:27 How to measure an influencer’s true authenticity

23:58 Are influencer engagement pods still a thing?

31:16 Trust is the new currency: separating experts from algorithm hackers

36:22 Can you spot AI-generated content?

39:27 How to measure content originality

44:12 Why 95 percent of influencer campaigns fail (and why it’s usually the advertiser’s fault)

50:15 Why Reddit is the next big B2B marketing channel

Where to find Jeremy:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyboissinot/

Website: https://www.favicon.com/

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/

X: https://x.com/timsoulo

Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

Referenced:

Justin Welsh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinwelsh/

Substack: https://substack.com/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/

Skool: https://www.skool.com/

Clay went from zero revenue to a 3.1 billion dollar valuation in just 2 years. Was it luck, skill, or are they just riding the AI hype bubble?

Meet Bruno Estrella, the Head of Marketing at Clay. He joined when the company was just 20 people and helped build one of the most effective partner and community-led marketing engines in SaaS.

In this episode, Bruno reveals Clay’s full growth playbook, from the influencer strategy that popularized the “GTM Engineer” role to the strategy behind their 7-figure campaigns.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

00:00 Intro

00:53 The GTM Engineer: How Clay created a new role through influencers

07:13 The story behind Clay’s iconic “Play-Doh” branding

09:55 How to split marketing for self-serve vs. enterprise

16:26 Clay’s programmatic SEO play generating 60 percent of their traffic

21:27 Why Clay uses Substack instead of a traditional blog

25:33 The playbook for scaling to hundreds of global events

31:09 How to get the right people to attend your events

38:20 Why adding a service arm accelerates enterprise revenue

40:57 How Clay uses its own product to grow

45:00 Clay’s social media and executive content strategy

51:31 The strategy behind Clay’s 7-figure billboard campaigns

55:41 Your brand is your advertising budget

01:00:28 The secret to hiring A-players

01:05:15 Clay’s single most effective growth tactic

Where to find Bruno:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brunoestrella/

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/

X: https://x.com/timsoulo

Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

Referenced:

Clay: https://www.clay.com/

OpenAI: https://openai.com/

HubSpot: https://www.hubspot.com/

Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/

Webflow: https://webflow.com/

Substack: https://substack.com/

Miro: https://miro.com/

Gong: https://www.gong.io/

ClickUp: https://clickup.com/

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/

Is Your Marketing Career Safe from AI? Ryan Law’s 6-Point Defense Plan

Sam Altman predicts that 95% of what marketers do will eventually be handled by AI, and Microsoft claims that copywriters are at the top of the replacement list. So, is your marketing career in trouble?

To answer this, we sat down with Ryan Law, our Director of Content Marketing. Ryan’s been experimenting with AI since the GPT-3 closed beta in 2020 and has developed a concrete plan for not just surviving—but thriving—in the age of AI.

In this episode, Ryan breaks down his 6-point defense plan to future-proof your career. We argue about the death of skyscraper content, why taste is more valuable than technical skill, and why marketers need to be more like rockstars.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

(00:00) Intro

(00:48) Ryan Law’s AI “Origin Story”

(04:56) Will AI take your marketing job?

(15:10) The Right Way to Use AI in Your Workflow

(22:24) Why “Taste” is Your Most Valuable Skill Now

(32:00) The Death of Skyscraper Content

(41:51) Using AI to Learn New Skills (Like Python)

(49:25) Be a Rockstar, Not a Session Musician

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Ahrefs Podcast! Be sure to like, subscribe, and tell a friend.

Where to find Ryan:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thinkingslow/

X: @thinking_slow

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/

X: @timsoulo

Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

Referenced:

OpenAI: https://openai.com/

Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/

Seer Interactive: https://www.seerinteractive.com/

AI is already better at writing than 90% of people. It’s faster, cheaper, and never gets writer’s block. Yet, most companies that try to fully automate their content end up with "AI slop" that tanks their engagement.

Meet Neville Medhora, the founder of Copywriting Course and SwipeFile.com. As an "OG blogger" who started in 1999 and a mentor to many top marketers, Neville has a front-row seat to the massive disruption ripping through the copywriting industry.

In other words, Neville isn't just watching the AI revolution. He's actively rewriting the playbook for how professional writers survive it.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this episode:

(00:00) Intro
(02:14) The 3 levels of copywriting (and who is safe)
(03:27) Why companies are regretting "All-AI" content
(07:19) The death of "How-To" blogs (and what replaces them)
(11:46) Neville’s "Voice Ramble" workflow for rapid writing
(17:39) Why "Prompt Engineering" is a waste of time
(25:29) Generating custom GIFs with Grok
(30:48) The new #1 skill: Developing "Taste"
(39:03) Using AI to aggressively repurpose winning ads
(46:24) Speed of ideation: Using AI as your "Junior Employee"
(55:12) The future of the copywriting profession

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Ahrefs Podcast! As always, be sure to like and subscribe (and tell a friend).

Where to find Neville:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neville-medhora-654749/
X: @nevmed
Website: https://copywritingcourse.com/
Swipe File: https://swipefile.com/

Where to find Tim:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/
X: @timsoulo
Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

Referenced:
• Copywriting Course: https://copywritingcourse.com
• SwipeFile: https://swipefile.com
• Grok (xAI): https://grok.x.ai
• Ahrefs: https://ahrefs.com

Early-stage marketing is often a race for reach, but Jay Acunzo argues that resonance is the only metric that actually moves the needle in 2026.

Jay is the former Head of Content at HubSpot and Google, a world-renowned keynote speaker, and an expert in storytelling. He has helped countless brands find their "Premise"—the distinct point of view that makes them irreplaceable in a sea of commodities.

In this episode, Jay breaks down why "being the best" is a losing game and why "being their favorite" is the ultimate competitive advantage.

Here's what you'll learn:

(00:00) Intro
(01:24) Why "Marketing More" is a trap in the AI era
(04:16) Why 100 fans beat 100,000 followers
(07:36) The Disney Strategy: Why you should stop trying to be "The Best"
(09:52) Using Unsolicited Response Rate (URR) to measure resonance
(13:50) How to close deals faster by making people care
(16:21) Why generic content is dead (and how to find your "Premise")
(24:13) Why brands need personalities to survive
(28:55) 5 steps to differentiate your brand
(34:38) The Wistia Example: Why your homepage copy isn't your message
(41:55) Future-proofing your content for 2026
(51:09) The right way to use LLMs in creative work
(59:40) Why you can't automate thought leadership

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Ahrefs Podcast!

Where to find Jay:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayacunzo/
Website: https://jayacunzo.com/

Where to find Tim:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/
X: @timsoulo

Referenced:
HubSpot, Wistia, Google, SparkToro, TopRank Marketing, Anthony Bourdain, Andrew Davis, Melanie Deziel.

Is SEO actually dying, or are you just listening to the wrong people?

While the media claims that AI is causing a 25% traffic collapse, data from 40,000 of the largest websites in the U.S. tells a completely different story.

In this episode, Ethan Smith (CEO of Graphite) joins Tim Soulo to perform SEO Necromancy — resurrecting search from the dead by debunking the biggest myths in the industry.

Ethan is widely regarded as the leading expert on Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), having built growth engines for brands like Instagram, Robinhood, and BetterUp. He doesn’t just share opinions; he shares data-backed insights from his recent study on how search behavior is actually shifting.

You’ll hear why the rise of ChatGPT isn’t the Google killer everyone predicted, how small websites are actually gaining traffic in the AI era, and the exact strategy you need to ensure your brand is cited by LLMs.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this episode:

00:00 - Intro

01:00 - Why AI isn’t actually killing the web

04:49 - Measuring the real traffic drop

07:31 - The winners and losers of the AI traffic shift

13:24 - How AI behaviors are expanding the search pie

18:18 - Cleaning up outdated and inaccurate citations

23:28 - Why SEO and AEO are the same thing

27:09 - Why your AI tracking is biased

38:33 - Mining sales calls and Reddit for high-intent prompts

41:29 - How to win the RAG citation game

47:29 - Why being #15 in citations is better than #15 in Google

51:04 - ChatGPT vs Gemini vs Perplexity: where to focus first?

Where to find Ethan:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanls/

Website: https://graphite.io/

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/

X: @timsoulo

Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/