Most marketers use AI to write generic emails.

Kieran Flanagan used it to increase sales meetings by 30% and build a “Chief of Staff” that manages his 350-person team.

Kieran is the SVP of Marketing at HubSpot, where he has helped scale the company from 250 to over 7,000 employees.

He is also the co-host of the popular “Marketing Against the Grain” podcast.

In other words, Kieran doesn’t just theorize about AI; he is actively “vibe coding” custom internal tools to overhaul HubSpot’s entire go-to-market motion.

In this episode, Kieran opens his laptop to show exactly how he builds custom AI agents that extract viral talking points from video, automate complex management reporting from Slack, and personalize outreach at massive scale.

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

• The “Vibe Coding” Strategy: Why building your own simple tools beats buying off-the-shelf software.

• 30% More Meetings: The exact email workflow change that drove massive sales efficiency.

• Management Automation: How to use AI to summarize weekly team activity and identify blockers across 350 employees.

• The Death of Prompt Engineering: Why “context grafting” and intent matching are replacing complex prompts.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 - Introduction

00:30 - Managing a 350-person team at HubSpot

04:05 - How AI drove a 30% increase in sales meetings

08:07 - Building custom data sets for personalized outreach

14:47 - Demo: Kieran’s custom “Viral Talking Points” tool

21:18 - Why “Vibe Coding” is the future of marketing workflows

25:49 - Turning video transcripts into high-performing LinkedIn posts

30:45 - The evolution of prompt engineering (and why it’s dying)

38:37 - The “Shakespeare Trap” of using AI for feedback

42:30 - Using AI agents for deep research and storytelling

50:28 - Automating management: Summarizing Slack and identifying blockers

59:05 - Why AI makes creativity more valuable, not less

01:02:40 - The #1 trait Kieran looks for when hiring

01:03:15 - Sneak peek: AI agents inside Google Sheets

Where to find Kieran:

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

X: @searchbrat

Website: https://www.kieranflanagan.io/ , https://www.hubspot.com/

Podcast: @MATGpod

Where to find Tim:

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

X: @timsoulo

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

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/

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.

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

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/

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/

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/

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

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

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