Narrate Creative

Representing yourself on social media and controlling your narrative has never been more important. AI is everywhere, but it’s no match for the real you. 

A Founder’s network and influence are proven to be the biggest levers for growth available to companies of all sizes, especially to early-stage startups. 

But posting thought-provoking social media content every day is hard, and you have a lot of other areas of your business to worry about. 

That’s why we have a process to collect your thought leadership, in your words, to help you show up consistently on social media with content that will resonate with your specific ideal audience. 

Our systemized approach will help you start more sales conversations and earn more revenue. 
Want to use LinkedIn content to create more sales opportunities? I will create you a week’s worth of content — in your own words — FREE. No commitment required and no hard sell. 

Here’s how it works: We’ll meet for a call, and I’ll interview you to create a week’s worth of video and text posts and help you schedule them on LinkedIn.

Sound good? Message me on LinkedIn to chat about it.

The Lean Marketing for SaaS Podcast

Host of the Lean Marketing for SaaS Podcasts, featuring guests that include SaaS founders, marketers, creators and more. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJhJq-ikqELM84mS3_2CXWf0ostuPAPFG

Host

Tell Ten Friends Marketing

Tell Ten Friends is a new media marketing company, specializing in using web-based tools to grow your customer base, and building your website to be a complete sales tool.

Owner

Hootsuite

Manager of blog and social team. Senior Editor of HootSuite blog, strategist and lead social media manager for marketing on all of the major social networks: Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook and Instagram.

Lead Storyteller/Content Manager

Work at Play

Accounts and Strategy professional with an emphasis on social media and professional sports.

Account Executive

Strutta

Strutta is a software platform for online photo and video contests, that has worked with some of the world's largest brands and ad agencies. 

In the capacity of Director of Community Relations and later Director of Marketing, I have led Strutta's marketing from pre-launch to cash-flow positive status. Site content, sales materials, staffing, training, CRM management, agency and client relations, project management, assistance with "productizing" our software and many other business operations fall under my stewardship. 

Strutta continues to be a leading technology provider for multimedia contest campaigns on Facebook, and self-hosted. Contact me if you are interested in the power of contests with social media.

Director of Marketing

Fulcrum Agency

Public Relations and Marketing Manager for a firm specializing in Sales Training and Business Coaching. Specializing in online marketing initiatives, email campaigns and business blogging.

Manager of Marketing and Public Relations

CHUM Television

Producer, copywriter and editor of local advertising and promos for Victoria television station. Also managed several annual marketing events throughout Vancouver Island to promote the station.

Commercial Producer

Island Publishers, The Business Examiner

Advertising Consultant

Peak Publishing

Managing a large client base as a Display Advertising Rep for a semi-weekly newspaper and special sections.

Marketing Consultant

We do thought leadership social media content for Founder-led sales. In just two 30-minute interviews a month, we create one post per weekday for you, and help you start more sales conversations.

Founders, social sellers and thought leaders: I can help you book more meetings from your social media content.

I’ll help you build a simple, time-effective workflow that will help you build your influence on LinkedIn with content (in your own words) and fill your inbox with sales leads automatically.  

We’ve helped dozens of tech startup founders with founder-led sales. Our systems help them grow their qualified leads and revenue. I use the same system to book 5-10 qualified leads a week. 

Happy to walk you through the systems on a quick call. Click the link below my name above; my calendar loads on that page.

Jordan Behan

STOP saying these words and phrases in your content. 

Here are three examples of things that I try to edit OUT of my client's content (recorded in their own words), to make them sound smarter: 

1. "So." I don't know when it happened, but so has become an overused filler word. Sometimes it adds useful context, but most of the time, a sentence is stronger without it. So stop it (see what I mean?). 

2. "At the end of the day." This one has just become too popular an idiom. See also: "ultimately." It's a useful phrasing ("after [x], [y] happens"), but it's overused. Instead of suggesting a substitute, I challenge you to be more specific. Tell us what [x] is, specifically. This approach might NOT be as succinct, but it will help you sound more like yourself and less like everyone else. 

3. "I think." You are, therefore you think (hat tip to Descartes). You don't have to tell us every time. The problem with this one, especially starting a sentence with it, is that you sound unsure of yourself. I think you'll sound more confident without it (see?). 

What other examples can you think of that we can do without in our writing, especially as it applies to LinkedIn content?

Give me two 30-minute meetings a month and I’ll make your personal social content kick ass. Done-with-you content production for CXOs, in your OWN words.

I could sell just about anything. 

And no, I'm not talking about "sell me this pen" sales skills, though I'm surprisingly good at that, too. Try me some time. 

What I mean is, my agency services could be very diverse. We could "do it all" and "sell to everyone." 

But we don't. We sell and deliver one service, to one specific type of buyer persona. That's it. 

Why so specific? Because that's all I can afford to do. If I try to appeal to everyone and promise to do anything, I'll appeal to no one and sell nothing. 

By focusing on one business problem, with one solution, and one price, my messaging resonates. Because it's consistent and strikes a chord with its intended audience. 

I know exactly what lists to build. What topics to write about. What pain points my prospects are experiencing. 

And best of all, that consistency comes with proof. A growing list of testimonials from C-Suite clients (ask about these). 

Momentum in the sales process. Every day I get better at communicating my offer, because I'm only sharpening one saw. 

Here's a lesson here for you, dear reader. How clear are you being about what you do? Are you still making the mistake of thinking that taking a "mile-wide, inch-deep" approach to marketing actually works? 

Try going an inch wide and a mile deep. Specialize. Focus. It works, trust me. It's counterintuitive and scary, but it works. 

If you've "tried marketing" and "nothing worked," have you thought about why? What have you ACTUALLY tried? 

Also PS: Yes, I tried one of those AI headshot tools. I would never use the suit pic as an actual headshot, so I'm using it as a throwaway here. It's giving me "Harvey Specter from Suits, but much older and ordered from Ali Express," with a side order of uncanny valley. Do you agree?

An AI-assisted head-shot of Jordan wearing a suit, which he very rarely does. 

LinkedIn content reach is way down, and here's my hot take: So what?  

Posts that used to get 1000s of impressions are now lucky to get a few hundred at best. Panic time? No. 

My advice for how to beat the algorithm in an era of AI slop, false promises and manufactured controversy?

Don't even try. Instead of trying to "go viral," go NICHE (pronounced "neesh," and I will die on that hill). 

The goal with LinkedIn content is to get attention or start discourse around an idea, I'll grant you that. 

But there's not much benefit to doing that with a large group of random strangers. It's good for the ego, but likely not good for the actual business outcome you were hoping for. 

Instead of creating content that you hope will appeal to the masses, create something of value for your specific ideal audience, and create it YOURSELF. 

Need an AI assist? That's fine, but the more humanity, vulnerability, and "handmade" creativity you put into it, the better. Your goal should be to make someone think or change their mind about something. 

Someone. Even just one person. Creating your LinkedIn content for an audience of one will have better long-term results than chasing likes and impressions. 

Caveat: You still have to be interesting. You can't change minds without something unique to say and by grabbing attention. But think about whose attention you want and create for them. 

If you've read this far, I invite you to roast me on the irony of using an AI-assisted headshot in this post to stop the scroll. I go to the gym 3x per week, but it's been a little generous with the shape of my biceps, I mean, really. 

Maybe a good time to remind people that an algorithm is not our enemy. We aren't trying to crack a code; we are trying to capture the attention and curiosity of a specific type of person. In that sense, using an AI-filtered selfie is not ironic at all. After all, if my hook didn't grab your attention and get you to read, you didn't even make it this far.

Jordan in front of a harbour, a headshot that was sent through an AI filter. 

In the past 24 hours I've seen no fewer than three CEOs post food pics with funny captions on their LinkedIn feed. 

You know what this means, right? That LinkedIn is becoming...

A more human networking site. Keep up the good work, everybody. 

*My first ever Shake Shack chicken burger (and yes, I said chicken burger! 🇨🇦) for attention*

My clients' content almost never goes viral on LinkedIn and neither does mine. Is it because I suck at this? 

By now you know me better than that. I'm keenly aware that I am very fucking good at this. 

And my clients are good at what they do. 

Distributed marketing (huh?). Food commercialization. EV charging network monitoring. Trust and estates automation. Cybersecurity. 

Not exactly fodder for LinkedIn virality. But the reeshes are in the niches, if you catch my meaning though my Canadian accent. 

All of those topics need a champion. And every one of those champions has a different goal. 

Yes, most of my clients are doing founder-led sales. But some have no lead generation motives whatsoever. Like the CTO who's "walking the walk" as a way to attract talent. Or the supply chain expert who needs more partners (literally looking for vendors to buy from). 

When their content gets 500 impressions and a few dozen engagements, it's not unheard of. It's the norm. And we consider it a win.

When was the last time you were in a room with 500 people? That's like three or four large weddings worth of people. That's four full breakout rooms at a conference. It's a full house at a minor league hockey game. It's nearly a sold-out show at Cirque du Soleil. 

This post is long on purpose. And hand-typed. The only use of AI was in creating that terrible image that's made me look 10 years older and is not at all like the reference image.

500 of you might see this, and I'm giving it a 50/50 shot that it's fewer than that. And I can live with that. It was made just for you, if you're one of the faithful few who made it this far. 

Keep going. This stuff works, and sometimes all you need is a bit perspective about what 'working' looks like. 

Oh and if you're looking for an AI for HR framework, or a way to automate your processes at your trust and estates firm, I know a guy.

An AI-generated, animated style image of Jordan, podcasting, that makes him look a full 10 years older than he is. 

Every year I post a version of the same joke on American Thanksgiving.

Something like: Hey Canadians, happy “get a lot of work done with fewer meetings” day to all who celebrate. 

But the joke won’t seem as clever when LinkedIn shows you this post three weeks from now 🤷🏻‍♂️

No alternative text description for this image

I replaced my entire AI workflow with 100 SDRs and now we’re generating eleventy-billion in top line revenue without a single prompt. 

If you want get a copy of the exact sequence and workflow we’re using, comment “SICK” below and I’ll DM you the playbook, and as a bonus, a real estate listing for an amazing bridge that just came on the market. 

#sickofthisshit

I yelped quite loudly, complete with an F-bomb, and my teenage kid came running downstairs to see if I was ok. 

The funny thing is, I just sharpened my chef's knife the day before, and here it was, sinking into the flesh of my thumb while I was cutting a bagel. 

I was a bit embarrassed and also a bit glad to have one of my kids show genuine, immediate concern. 

'Twas but a scratch, and I'll live. And here's what it taught me about B2B sales: 

Ok, ok, I joke. But the preceding story is true, and I share it to illustrate a point. The point is that this is a story about something that happened to ME. 

MY flesh, being incised by my own knife. My struggle to get to the Band-Aids and patch myself up. 

As good as my custom GPT is, it could not have told you this story. 

At least, not without being prompted by me, and that prompt would have had to contain details of my story. In other words, I would still have had to tell a story. 

This is what AI can't yet replace. My anecdote. My feelings in the moment. They are genuine, and my hope is that they've captured your attention, even if only for a fleeting moment while you scroll. 

As I write this, a grammar checker highlights my spelling and usage errors. I could also run this text through my various prompts to clean it up further (I won't, but I could). But the original tale was mine to tell, and I hope you agree that a machine could not have told it this well. 

Even if it could, that's not my point. My point is that there's value in sharing my first-hand experience. Even if I have an assist from AI to do so. 

My mistakes, my lessons, my insights and my questions(Holy shit that sounds like an AI wrote it but it was me, I swear). 

This is the drum that I've been beating for several years now. Telling our authentic stories, sharing our unique insights, inviting feedback and conversing as humans... this still has value, and I'm wagering my entire business on the idea that that value won't diminish. 

The bots will get better at sounding like us. They will save us plenty of time (I've been writing this for 24 minutes already). But it will be a while before they're asked to join us around the campfire. 

Consider this my invitation to you to share more of your own stories. Embrace your humanity and the everyday experiences that make you uniquely YOU. 

People will appreciate and connect with your message much more than they would with some AI slop or a message prepared by a marketing team. 

Let's agree to stay in touch with what makes us human, and use the tools for what they are: tools. 

Normally I would tie this back to my work and what I do, but my call to action for you today is much simpler: Tell more stories.

How the heck did I end up in marketing? First, I had to fail as a sportscaster. 

When I was in high school, that was the dream. 

My guidance counsellor told me I'd better get some work experience, which is how, at the tender age of 16, I was hired into a weekends-and-evenings job as a sports reporter/photographer for my local newspaper.

After two years of community college, the reality of working in broadcasting seemed daunting and competitive. 

I still ended up putting in a few years at a TV station, but just like my hockey career, there came a time when I had to accept that I wasn't gonna go pro. 

In my short-lived TV career, I transitioned from news to creative services. 

Writing and editing advertisements. I spent a year in Toronto as a production assistant for film commercials before coming to Vancouver (my "Goldilocks" city), with a goal of working in marketing. 

As a fledgling marketer, I became fascinated with "Web 2.0." The democracy of it. The fact that I could break all of the "rules" I was taught in news and be my own publisher. I knew that meant that everyone could, and I knew damn well that everyone WOULD. 

ICQ. Blogger. Twitter. MySpace. I carved out little corners of the web and met some amazing people with similar interests. I got jobs at startups, including Hootsuite, which was in hypergrowth. By that point, I was already one of the "grown-ups" in the room; my internet hobby had given me valuable work experience. 

Eventually, the siren's song of entrepreneurship lured me. I'm leaving tons of detail out of this story for brevity, but that's more or less how I became a "social media" guy who turns 50 this year. 

I've even struggled with calling myself a social media guy. I'm not a famous influencer or tv personality, but I've been in this game a long time. I've never been the leading scorer, but I make a heck of a player/coach. 

One of my superpowers is predicting how people (the vox populari) will react to an idea, a campaign, or even a single piece of content. Which is how I know this post will flop 😆 

But it makes me good at writing subject lines, or asking questions in interviews, and writing hooks for my clients (a skill I can't seem to master for myself, alas).

I write this from the cozy confines of my home office. No broadcast make-up or fancy suit required. Decades of experience in my rearview and no signs of stopping anytime soon. And I know I'm in the right spot. 

The path to get here meandered, but it was all meant to be. Professionally, nothing pleases me more than sharing my knowledge with my clients, hyping them up and seeing them thrive. 

If you want to come on this journey with me, drop me a follow or send me a DM. I'll share my knowledge and make YOU a social media powerhouse. 

If you've read this far, tell me: What was your high school dream, and did you achieve it, or pivot? 

*Pic: Me in 2013; a keynote at Hootsuite. Photo by Bob Garlick

START using these words and phrases in your content: 

*(My most popular post from the past six months is one with words I said to STOP using, so this is the antidote)

1. Rad. I don't know when it happened, but the word "rad" seems to have fallen out of fashion. Take it from a Gen-Xer, this one is underrated, and it WILL make a comeback. Be the first to start the trend. 

2. Antediluvian. The word rad is thought to be antediluvian, and I think it's anything but. Let's bring it back. (Means "old-fashioned," by the way) 

3. Cattywampus. I had to look up the spelling of this one, but it's a perfect example of a word that bots aren't likely to use, so sneak it in when you can. Plus, it's fun as hell to say. 

4. Ineffable. It's tempting to think that this one means "Not to be f*d with," but it actually means "too great to be described in words." What's a better word to use than that? 🤣 

5. Civil disobedience. I should probably write something political here, but instead I'll use it in a sentence: The engagement on my post about what words to STOP using was a form of civil disobedience. 

What am I missing? What popular words or phrases should we be using more often? (Welcome all ye copywriters and wordsmiths)

New intro video for my landing page just dropped 📽️

Thought I'd share it here too. I'll add a link to the landing page in the first comment.

I'm long on human-generated content with an AI assist. 

Need proof that human authenticity is still a differentiator? 

The biggest GenAI companies (OpenAI, Anthropic et al) are paying human content creators salaries of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Case closed.

Do you believe in manifestation?

I read Mind Magic recently, and I figure there's no harm in saying this out loud: 

Before the end of year, I want to start TWO more engagements with companies that have several executives looking for social media coaching and content production. 

(But is it even "manifesting" if I write about this publicly and then start doing human-powered outbound to find those clients? Tag a company in the comments and I'll give you the credit, not my mind or the Universe)

I bought a 3D printer, and I love it. 

Not since the Nintendo Entertainment System have I been this giddy about a piece of tech. 

My friend John Biehler was an early adopter of 3D printing, and I had SO MANY questions that, rather than keep blowing up his phone, we sat down to record a podcast so I could ask them all. 

My biggest concern: Will the novelty wear off? "I don't think so," says John.

If I was in a crisis that required a carefully planned response and communications plan, I'd call Carla S. Shore.

If you're in a jam, not only can you call Carla, but you can sign up for her crisis communications bootcamp and be ready BEFORE the unthinkable happens. 

Details in Carla's post below.

Senior communications specialist; Post-secondary instructor

Is your organization ready to communicate when a crisis hits? Because it will, and you should plan ahead. I'm giving a workshop this Thursday in Vancouver: Crisis Communication Bootcamp: Build Your Response Plan. It's by donation so incredibly affordable. 

https://lnkd.in/gdU25YKW

Method and Metric SEO Agency #crisiscommunications #publicrelations #vancouver

Open article: Crisis Communication Bootcamp: Build Your Response Plan by eventbrite.com

Crisis Communication Bootcamp: Build Your Response Plan

No one will see this post, but in case you do, a quick poll to get your opinion:

Should I rebrand to Social CXO? (I own the domain) Or is Narrate Creative still the best option? 

The author can see how you vote. Learn more

GTM for Early Stage SaaS | Co-founder @ Datapad | SaaS Growth Advisor | Reforge | 1x Exit |

I’m a marketer, 2x entrepreneur with 1x exit, and helped companies to go from 0 to 8 figures.

My achievements:

- Built 2 VC backed startups with one exit

- Built a 7 figure productized marketing agency

- Became a mentor in top accelerators such as: 500, Plug and Play, Techstars

- Got to work with the portfolio companies of amazing investors such as A16z, Craft Ventures, YC

- Built a podcast with 20k downloads in a year-figure

- Transformed my body more times than Christian Bale ☺️

John Ozuysal

Hiring Alert: I am looking for a GTM engineer (contactor)

This is not a client-facing role; you will not be running campaigns for clients, but you will be helping me run internal fun experiments. No middleman, just 1-1 with me.

You have to be good at: Clay, Smartlead, Instantly, Trigify, etc...

Your main responsibility will be to run internal campaigns with me to test different offers

Most importantly, you should be able to catch up with my tempo :) 

I will be in Dubai for the next couple of months, and ideally, you should be in a similar time zone.

If you want to learn from someone who has built and exited SaaS companies and scaled agencies to 7 figures, DM me and I will send you more info.

Generate Pipeline from AI Search | Founder @ House of Growth | 1x Exit

3 skills that helped me go from $0 to $30K/month in 3 months when I first started my agency.

You need to learn these skills to go $30k+ per month

1. Create a cold offer people can't ignore

Stop with the "30 leads in 90 days or I work for free" nonsense.

My inbox gets flooded with that exact offer 10 times a day.

You need something so compelling that saying no feels stupid.

2. Master free traffic generation

You don't have a budget for ads yet.

That means you'd better get good at:

LinkedIn DMs that get responses

Cold emails that get replies

Content is going to help, but in the short term, your best friend is cold outreach

3. Learn basic account-based marketing (ABM)

The easiest way to close high-ticket sales:

Identify prospects who need your services → Build relationships with them → Engage with their content → Create resources specifically for them → Make your offer

It's basic relationship building that most people skip.

Here's what I'm assuming:

You're already good at what you're selling, and you've nailed your market positioning.

If you haven't, fix those first.

These 3 skills only work when you have a solid foundation.

Running a service business is not just about getting good at what you deliver. It's also about mastering getting attention and closing

Here is the 4-week plan I would follow to get AEO visibility in 4 weeks

👇

I can't say that I cracked the code, I think no one can but below is the plan I am using the get results fast

👉 Grab the full play here for FREE: https://tally.so/r/jaDPl9

WEEK 1: IDENTIFY LOW-HANGING FRUITS

First, we identified the high-intent prompts that we should go after. We found several Reddit threads being cited. We created content on these threads and pushed our comments up for more visibility.

We initially started with 4 Reddit threads.

WEEK 2:UPDATE EXISTING PAGES

We updated some of the BOFU pages to make sure that the content is optimized for Google and AI search engines.

Pages were terribly structured, so we did rewrites first ( if the team is reading, sorry, but you know I mentioned this before we started to work )

After the rewrite, our updates were focused on:

- Adding data and statistics

- Query fan-out optimization 

- Entity optimization under every H2 

- Adding fresh information (recency is very important for AI)

- Tables for product comparison

WEEK 3: 5 HIGH INTENT PAGES

2 alternative pages against their top competitors ( we like to start with vanilla alternatives content, and we verticalize the alternatives articles by creating them for each persona)

2 three-way comparison articles

We also did a competitor pricing review article ( this one actually landed us a demo with a big enterprise co. They did not book a demo, but we identified the visitor and reached out )

WEEK 4: OFF-SITE MENTIONS

- We worked on repurposing our 2 pieces of BOFU content and uploaded them to YouTube. 

- Secured 3 mentions where LLMs were citing the source

- Added 4 more Reddit mentions - we are using Scrunch to keep track of threads that are influencing the prompts we are going after

-----

👉 Grab the full play here for FREE: https://tally.so/r/jaDPl9

The current situation of AI search greatly reminds me of a concept in B2B sales called ''The Dark Funnel''.

The dark funnel consists of all of the touchpoints you can't track that lead up to a customer deciding to book a demo with you (e.g., saw your LinkedIn post or a coworker mentioned it).

I noticed the exact same pattern in AI search, where I saw myself making decisions inside of AI search engines like ChatGPT before I reach out to the tool.

And now there's someone who proved that this was not only a behavioural change in me: Profound's study on consumer behaviour found that 79.7% of buyers now rely on AI search engines like ChatGPT for ≥50% of their decisions.

What that means for us SEOs is that we aren't able to track regular site visits, where users are shopping around and then leaving.

Our LLM traffic tracking is most likely way off from people who actually found us through AI search as well.

Here are my thoughts and recommendations:

1. We'll have to switch our north star metric from ''traffic from LLMs'' to ''LLM visibility'' - we need to make sure that we're in the decision-making process, and not only if we get traffic from that conversation.

2. Ask users how they found you for better attribution. Even better: ask them what prompt they used to find you if they mention that they found you through AI search.

3. Continue investing in content marketing (both YouTube and articles) and getting brand mentions to own your categories. The goal will be to be present when the buying decision happens.

You can find the full research under comments

One of the clients ($5M+ ARR) is generating 25% of their pipeline from AEO

Here are all the things we did for them

SaaS companies interested in AEO:

Here are my learnings from my last 3 case studies 👇

1. Identify high-intent prompts

Find which prompts you should fight for. You need to pick your battles by identifying prompts with high intent. You can ask your most recent customers if they found you through LLM search, and if so, what were the prompts they used? This is going to give you a good set of questions to go after

Pro Tip: Make sure that you are going after grounded prompts, not ungrounded. If AI is not citing any sources to respond to your question, you can't really do much to influence it. You need to go after prompts where AI is sourcing that information from external sources

2. Make sure your site has clear messaging.

If you can't understand what your product does and explain it properly on your website, how do you think AI can read it? Make sure that you have clear messaging explaining what you are doing. the persona you are going after, problem you are solving, etc (Most of you don't have this part nailed)

3. Owned Content

You should have content for each prompt you are trying to win. LLMs still source data from SERPS, so it's important that you are getting visibility here. A big part of your strategy will be about owned content, and the other part is about getting visibility on other sources

4. Identify the most cited sources and try to get visibility

Use one of the AEO tools to identify which sources are getting cited most often in your niche. We use our own internal tool for this, but you can use any/Set clear goals to get your brand mentioned on those top domains and pages. But don’t stop there-expand the list and look for more places to get featured.

5. Fresh content

LLMs put heavy emphasis on content freshness. I used to run content updated every quarter, but now I am doing it more often. Some of our content is getting refreshed monthly

6. Information gain score

Writing great content is still important. Make sure that your page has more information than any other page out there. Also, make sure that your writing is no fluff and NLP-friendly. Longer content is not better content!

7. Research content still works

Statistics articles used to be good for passive link building. Now they also work well for getting AI visibility. Most of my clients get big chunk of their AI traffic from statistics articles. I don't have 1000 clients to get a decent sample size, but I still wanted share that it's working for the small sample size.

8. Be active on UGC platforms.

Engage in real conversations on Reddit and Quora. These sites are AI favorites for citations. Never spam-add real value.

9. Invest in YT.

Perplexity loves citing YT. Make sure to invest in video. Start by mapping your features to JTBD. Create "how-to " videos around the features of your product. Embed the videos into articles and share on social media

A solo marketer asked me last week:

"How am I supposed to compete with companies that have entire content teams when it comes to AI search?"

Fair question.

She's one person. Her competitor has 12 people cranking out content.

But here's what I told her:

You're not trying to out-content them. You're trying to out-smart them.

And there's a shortcut nobody's talking about.

It starts with one simple question: What do people type into ChatGPT right before they're ready to buy?

Not "what is project management software."

More like "Asana vs Monday vs ClickUp for marketing teams."

Those comparison prompts? That's where buying decisions happen.

And if you're not in that answer, someone else is controlling your narrative.

So here's the play for small teams:

Step 1: Find the high intent prompts. The "vs" searches. The "alternative to" queries. The ones that signal someone's actually evaluating options.

Step 2: Write those comparison pages. Not fluff. Real perspective. Own your positioning before your competitors do it for you.

Step 3: Drop those prompts into a visibility tracking tool. It'll show you which Reddit threads are influencing those AI answers.

Step 4: Go to those subreddits. Add value. Answer questions. Build credibility in the exact places AI is pulling answers from.

That's it.

You're not trying to rank for everything. You're showing up in the 5-10 prompts that actually drive revenue.

Big teams are still playing the old game. Writing hundreds of blog posts. 

Chasing traffic.

Small teams who get this? They're winning the prompts that matter.

You don't need more content. You need better positioning in the right answers.

I am looking for a GTM engineer a part-time or project basis

This is not a client-facing role; you will not be running campaigns for clients, but you will be helping me run internal fun experiments

You have to be good at: Clay, Smartlead, Instantly, Trigify, etc...

Most importantly, you should be able to catch up with my tempo :)

Imagine losing deals because ChatGPT doesn’t even know your product exists

Here is the story of an invisible SaaS:

Your competitor just taught ChatGPT what to say about you.

And you weren't even in the room.

Here's what happened:

Last week, a prospect searched "best email marketing tools" in ChatGPT. Your product didn't show up. Your competitor's did.

Not because their product is better.

Because they own the pages about their category and competitor review content. You didn't.

I see this constantly with early stage B2B SaaS. They spend six figures on ads and PR, then wonder why AI is recommending their competitors.

The answer is brutal: you left the door open.

LLMs are scraping everything right now. Every product page. Every comparison chart. Every "X vs Y" article on your site (or your competitor's site).

If you're not publishing this content, you're not in the conversation.

Here's what you should do:

Write a "best [category] tools" article

Create comparison pages for every competitor. 

Don't forget to add three-way comparisons, too

Done? Go and turn these into videos and publish on YT as well.

Because if you don't explain what you do and how you are different than competitors, someone else will write that and control the narrative.

It's about being present when the buying decision happens.

My clients start seeing traffic from AI sources within weeks. Not months. Weeks.

The best part? Your competitors probably aren't doing this yet. They're still waiting for someone to write about them.

Control your narrative, or watch someone else write it for you.

We helped Juma close 6-figure deals from AI search

Get the playbook for free (no need to comment) 👇

This is the same playbook we used to create a pipeline for all of our clients. You can take it and implement it in your business straight away.

Our AEO playbook includes:

- Everything we know about AI models' recommendation algorithms

- Differences between Google and AI search behavior 

- How to ensure models can properly access and read your content

- Best practices to get recommended on AI models (including brand mentions, BOFU content creation, and more)

- Real examples of content that works (and what fails)

👉Grab the playbook from here:https://tally.so/r/jaDPl9

I watched one of our competitors disappear in AI search 

Not because they got penalized. Not because their SEO team quit.

They just hit pause.

Three months later, their biggest competitor owned every ChatGPT answer in their category.

The company that paused? They're still trying to catch up.

And here's the part that keeps me up at night:

They thought pausing was the safe move. Budget cuts. Uncertain ROI. Let's wait and see.

But in AI search, there is no neutral.

Every day you're not feeding the machine, your competitor is.

Every article they publish trains ChatGPT to recognize THEM as the authority.

Every brand mention compounds their lead.

Every Reddit thread you miss is an opportunity for a competitor

And the gap doesn't just grow. It accelerates.

Because freshness wins now. And whoever shows up consistently becomes the default answer.

Your buyers only used Google to start their searches, not that they are switching to LLMs

And if you're not in that conversation, you don't exist.

Standing still isn't playing it safe. It's surrender.

The companies winning right now aren't the ones with the biggest budgets.

They're the ones who understood 6 months ago that AI search isn't coming.

It's already here.

Warmly, ($5m +ARR ) generates ~25% of its pipeline from AI search.

We have been running their SEO / AEO, and here is the playbook 👇


1. What we've been doing so far: Large-scale BOFU content creation:

- Competitor alternatives content: [Competitor] Alternatives
- Category keywords: Best [Category] Software
- 3-way comparisons: [Competitor] vs. [Competitor] vs. Warmly
- Pricing guides: [Competitor] Pricing (These guides work wonders for competitors that do not disclose their pricing on their website).

Covering the same competitors in these 4 formats allows us to build what I call competitor topical authority to help us rank better for competitor-related keywords.

Plus 

I am still a big fan of focusing on "information gain score," so we always aim to create content with more relevant information than competing pages.

2. What we've been focusing on in Q3 2025: 

Vertical comparisons + Reputation management/building + Adding schema markup + Updating BOFU pages that rank lower than position #3 on Google

VERTICAL COMPARISONS

Focusing on creating highly-specific BOFU content for certain ICPs (e.g., marketing agencies).

Example: [Competitor] Alternatives for Marketing Agencies. 

I know this does not have a reasonable search demand to go after it. But our big bet here is that users are going to provide context about their solutions when evaluating alternatives and solutions on the market.

Especially when using ChatGPT's ''Deep Research'' I've seen from user interviews (yes, I actually ask people we work with to share their prompts) that they share information about their industry or profession so they can get a more tailored answer.

Hence, why we're going to give them the answer to what is the best competitor alternative is for each persona we go after

REPUTATION MANAGEMENT & BUILDING

With OpenAI making deals with Reddit and mentioning Quora or other media publishers in its sources section, we cannot sit idle and expect people to happily discuss us.

This is why we'll be doubling down on these 4 channels

- Reddit.
- Quora.
- YouTube.
- Media publishers.

The goal will be to get mentioned there and explain what makes us stand out from our competitors.

SCHEMA MARKUP

We're planning on implementing schema markup on our website on our existing and future content to better explain our organization and product to both Google and AI search engines.

CONTENT FRESHNESS

After a bit of experimenting, I've noticed that AI search engines really like to favor fresh, up-to-date content that's been updated recently.

The same goes for Google nowadays as well. The more we update our content and keep up with the latest information (e.g., updated pricing, new features, new competitors), the more likely crawlers are to pick up our content and recommend it.

Listicles help with getting AI search visibility or no?

Here is the research 👇

Ahrefs have just done and published a research piece on AEO that all of us knew but couldn't prove:

Self-promotional listicles (best X software/agencies) are one of the best ways, if not the best way, to be the #1 recommendation spot for a solution comparison.

According to Glen Allsopp's research that analyzed 26,283 source URLs on AI search:- “Best X” blog lists represented 43.8% of all page types.

- Placing higher on multiple comparison lists likely increases your chances of being recommended by ChatGPT (which is why I've started doing outreach to get mentions).

- Across 1,100 blog lists used as research sources, 79.1% were updated in 2025 (which only confirms how important content freshness is).AI search for SaaS brands and agencies, put in the most simple way possible, consists of 3 core pillars:- Owned content, which covers comparison guides, where you explain what makes you the #1 option in the industry or for a specific use case.

- Mentions, which covers having visibility on other comparison lists, review platforms (e.g., Clutch and G2), and community forums like Reddit.

- Content freshness, which I think is AI search engine's ''sanity check'' if your content is outdated or recent.Here are a few examples of owned content:

- Top 10 [Competitor] Alternatives For ITSM In 2026.

- Top 10 Project Management Software For Start-Ups In 2026.

- 10 Best Marketing Agencies In Dubai For SaaS Brands In 2026.

And then positioning your solution or service as the #1 choice, clearly explaining why, and then covering other competitors in the space.

Glen's research also found something I have been thinking about for some time but could not prove:''35% of cited best lists were published on low authority domains.''Start-ups and low domain authority domains CAN WIN in AI search, and should not be scared of competing against established players on the market.

This research confirms the trends we have been seeing with the portfolio companies of House of Growth - AEO Agency

Link to research under comments

Your competitors are guessing AI search prompts. You could just ask.

Here is how 👇

No tool is going to hand you the exact prompts your customers are typing into search.

But you can figure it out without paying for a single piece of software.

Looking back, my best keyword ideas did not come from keyword research tools. 

They came from customer interviews and simply asking, “How did you find us?”

Right now, everyone is trying to hack their way into uncovering the most valuable LLM search prompts.

Go back to the fundamentals.

Here is what I tell my own companies:

 1️⃣ Ask every new customer if they found you through an AI search engine.
 2️⃣ If yes, ask exactly how their search started.
 3️⃣ Repeat this for your last 100 prospects.

You will start spotting patterns and those patterns are your high intent prompts.

Once you have that list, track your visibility for those prompts and work to win those spots.

This is how I am doing it. You should try it before your competitors figure it

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