Samantha North

emigre

Human-centric AI automated systems that help B2B service businesses save time, save money, and grow faster.

AI Strategy Advisor

Digital Émigré

Advisor

SamanthaNorth.com

Founder

University of Bath School of Management

Exploring the various drivers of tribal political behaviour on social media, including automated activity, media framing and disinformation.

PhD Candidate

Brandwatch

Content Marketer

GoCardless

Managing content creation and strategy for the UK's leading Direct Debit provider, with clients including the Guardian, Sage, TripAdvisor, the Financial Times and Thomas Cook

Content Manager

Most founders sit in the messy middle: you’ve tried ChatGPT, grabbed a few quick wins…and now everything feels stuck. 

Tools don’t talk to each other, the team isn’t sure when, or why, to use them, and the gap between “interesting experiment” and “a business that runs on AI” just keeps widening.

emigre helps you bridge that gap.

With PhD-level research skills in data science, plus the scars (and wins) of first-hand business experience, emigre partners with founder-led service businesses to future-proof their operations. 

We start by mapping how your work really happens, then designing a tight set of AI moves that clear bottlenecks, multiply your best content, and come with clear ROI numbers that often surprise.

Those same founders say they’re tired of:
• Feeling overwhelmed by half-baked AI experiments with no clear next step
• Watching their teams struggle to choose the right tool for the job
• Wondering how to measure success or where to invest after that first “wow” moment

The AI Transformation Sprint finishes with a simple playbook the team can run, plus a short list of shiny ideas to ignore so you focus only on what moves the needle. 

If you’d like hands-on help, we can also implement and manage the new workflows for you, or you can run with the playbook in-house – it's your call.

Results clients see: 40+ staff hours freed each month, articles and videos repurposed automatically across channels, and capacity that doubles without new hires. 

emigre has worked with brands like BVNK, Brandwatch, GoCardless, Paddle, and ComplyExpress, on SEO, content, and early-stage AI projects – always keeping their voice and standards intact.

Ready to move from random ChatGPT experiments to an AI-first business?

Book a free strategy call here: https://cal.com/emigre-systems/strategy-call

I published 15 YouTube videos in 60 days. Here's what matters (+ what doesn't) 👇

Everyone obsesses over editing, thumbnails, and gear. I wasted months overthinking all of it. Then I tested what actually moves the needle... 

What doesn't matter:
❌ Fancy editing and transitions
❌ Perfect lighting setups
❌ Being polished or formal
❌ Monetisation through ads (unless you have 100K+ subscribers)

What actually matters:
✅ Clear audio (invest in a decent mic, not a new camera)
✅ 4K footage (phones work great)
✅ Having a script or structure so you don't ramble
✅ Talking to the camera like you're talking to a friend

And the biggest lesson I learned?? YouTube rewards consistency over perfection.

The algorithm doesn't really "get" your audience until you've published regularly for a while. 

I almost quit at video 3. But by video 12, things started clicking.

Here's what actually accelerated my growth:

1) The right software matters more than you think

I used to burn hours in editing hell. Now I just use Tella. When editing becomes easy (and even fun), you publish more. When you publish more, you grow faster.

2) YouTube isn't about ad revenue for most of us

It's about attracting your ideal clients and building your email list. One good client from YouTube beats months of ad revenue.

3) Cross-promotion compounds everything

Every video goes to LinkedIn, my email list, even WhatsApp groups (and I spam my personal contacts with endless videos ). Your network wants to support you - so why not let them?

4) Work with someone who's done it

I've learned more from Salma Jafri in 2 months than I would have in 2 years alone (her YES community is well worth checking out if you're serious about YouTube)

5) AI is a workflow multiplier

I use it for titles, thumbnail concepts, and scripts. My favourite workflow: voice-dictate notes into my phone, ask Claude to structure them into a script, deliver to camera = video done! 

The difference between 0 and 15 videos isn't talent (luckily 😆)
It's removing friction and showing up consistently.

What's your biggest barrier to getting on video?

Samantha North, PhD

AI transformation for B2B | PhD in social data science | On a 2nd passport mission

Freelance (Self employed)

I've worked on 10+ SEO projects over the past 4 years and helped grow several to over 100K visitors per month in different niches.

Search Engine Optimization Specialist

I was a freelance writer who specialized in the IT/marketing niches. Wrote blog posts, case studies, webinar copy and some email copy.

Freelance Writer

Mayo Clinic

Mentor: Chris Pierret, PhD
Responsibilities included:
•	Zebrafish husbandry
•	Scanning data for research experiments
•	Conduct research on STEM in our local communities
•	Organize laboratory rooms and transport microscopes to local schools

Research Assistant

Volunteered at these various positions: Brochures, Meetings and Menus, Information Desk, Wheelchair Roundup, Blood Donor Center, Department of Emergency Medicine, Hospitality, Department of Cardiology and Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery. As a volunteer in the cardiology department, I routinely helped offer hospitality services to patients with chronic and advanced cardiovascular diseases.

Mayo Clinic Young Volunteer

I was selected as one of the fifteen students who were selected in the clinical and translational track for the 2016 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship. During my tenure as a SURF fellow, I conducted science education research that examined whether there was a correlation between science aptitude and science standardized exam scores. 

Responsibilities included:

•	Design and conduct research for 10 weeks
•	Part of the Mayo Clinic Initiative for Maximizing Student Development
•	Attended education grand rounds and journal book clubs in clinical and translational science
•	Presented poster presentation at the annual SURF symposium at Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow

University of Minnesota

Pilot program by Dr. Martha Bigelow to provide mentorship for high school students by one history teacher and one youth worker. Worked as a youth worker for multiple ethnic minority high school students of East African descent. Endorsed and provided by Minnesota Department of Education, University of Minnesota, and Youthrive.

Youth Worker

Minnesota Youth Council 

My mentor and I represented the entire District 1 (Rochester) of Minnesota, voiced the problems of underrepresented youth in Rochester and reported them to senators and significant others in government offices in Saint Paul, MN. Visited the MN Board of Education and listened to the educational problems that minorities are facing in the various districts of Minnesota. We developed plans and ideas to try to reduce the achievement gap between regular and underrepresented high school students with the MN Board of Education.

Student Representative

SEO Specialist

Mostly posts about SEO and cool projects I'm working on.

Featured on TechnologyAdvice, Teachable, RingCentral and more.

Ali Ali

Small action to get more links: ask your partners to exchange contacts for new links when an exchange is done.

Usually, active quality sites do a handful of links each week and are talking to new domains you've probably never worked with.

There was a video I once watched about a sales rep who would do 5x the amount of sales his team did, and the only difference was he'd ask customers/prospects for referrals at the end of each call.

You can do the same with any prospecting-related task. Whether you get a yes or no, it takes less than a minute to ask if they know anyone else you can work with. Give it a try for a week and see if you get better results.

#seo #linkbuilding

Question for the link building teams/people out there doing 20+ links a month: 

How are you keeping track of exchanges, owed links, etc. 

I'm primarily using Google sheets manually. Interested in seeing what people are doing and if there’s a better way than what I’m currently doing, thanks!

#seo #linkbuilding

No matter how much I pay Ahrefs, I typically end up getting overcharged for the subscription I'm signed up on. 

I'm on the $249 monthly plan and I assumed that would cover my needs of just site prospecting for a handful of domains I work with, but I'm guessing I overused the credits if that's possible?

My main rationale was the previous plan I was on would run out after checking a certain # of domains and the $249 plan allows you to check in bulk. 

Anyone have success reducing their Ahrefs bill? I feel like checking a few hundred domains over the course of a month shouldn't cost $300. 

Open to any feedback, let me know what you guys think.

#seo #ahrefs

Practical way I use AI in my daily workflow:

Setting reminders on ChatGPT.

I prompted it a couple of months ago and it sends me an email at 9 PM each Sunday to do a task I usually forget to do.

Try it with any work-related task. It can send you an email reminding you of anything you need to remember.

#AI #productivity #seo

Simple Google Sheet template I use to track outreach and follow-ups.
Domain, contact name, 3 dates when I last contacted them.

If you use a web browser for Slack, you can copy and paste the link to your conversation directly. You can do the same for LinkedIn and email links as well. Wherever you're having the conversation, you can copy the URL and it will lead you directly back to it.

After the 3rd attempt, I just delete it from the sheet. I've tried a lot of other ways, but this has stuck with me for the last few months.

If you do it enough times, you'll get an accurate estimate of how much outreach you need to do to get a link. The majority of the time, it takes 4-5 attempts at least.

It'll help you prepare ahead of time instead of being frustrated when one contact hasn't replied when they said they would.
#seo #linkbuilding

Practical tip if you're struggling to find relevant placements:

Manually check a blog's content over the past year.

Most link builders usually just Google search for a query like this: domain.com blog "anchor"

Or use an LLM to search. If a site is in the same niche, that's usually enough to find a relevant placement.

I've found that ChatGPT or Claude will spit out an answer quickly, but it's impossible for them to thoroughly search through an entire blog and find the most relevant placement.

If a site has a blog (usually site.com/blog is the URL), you can just skim the titles to see if they would be a good fit.

9/10 times I get better placements if I manually check instead of relying on search results from Google or an LLM. Most sites publish fewer than 50 blogs in a year, so it's not incredibly difficult to sift through and takes just a few minutes per domain.

If you feel like you've been having more difficulty lately finding placements, try this method with 20 domains. I guarantee you'll have more and higher quality relevant placements. Taking your time to find one good placement is better than spending an hour skimming 10 and finding zero.

#seo #linkbuilding

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The Battle

Samantha North

Ali Ali

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taplio

The Battle

Samantha North

Ali Ali

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Samantha North's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreAli Ali's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreSamantha North's LinkedIn Performance