Marketing

4/28/2026

Every company’s competitors are showing up in AI-generated answers, but do marketers know which ones, for which queries, and why? That’s exactly what AEO competitor analysis is designed to tell teams.

4/28/2026

When tracking share of voice for marketing teams, it’s often assumed to be a vanity metric — a number executives like to include in board decks but one that rarely influences strategy. In practice, that assumption doesn’t hold up.

4/28/2026

I’ve spent considerable time testing free answer engine optimization tools across dozens of brand audits, and the verdict is clear: you don’t need a five-figure tech stack to get meaningful AEO data.

4/28/2026

When I first started auditing content for answer engine visibility, I assumed the keyword research process was roughly the same as traditional SEO — just with a few tweaks. I was wrong.

4/28/2026

Your competitors are adjusting pricing, launching new ad creative, publishing content that outranks yours, and showing up in AI answers you didn’t know existed — often all in the same week. Competitor monitoring tools exist to catch those moves early, but most teams end up with fragmented data scattered across platforms, and by the time they’ve pieced it together, the window to respond has closed.

4/28/2026

This is part one of a three-part series on how HubSpot transformed with AI. Part two covers how we grow with Agent-first GTM. Part three is how we operate as an AI-first company.

4/28/2026

This is part three of a three-part series on how HubSpot transformed with AI. Part one covers how we build with AI. Part two covers how we grow with Agent-first GTM.

4/28/2026

This is part two of a three-part series on how HubSpot transformed with AI. Part one covers how we build with AI. Part three is how we operate as an AI-first company.

4/28/2026

The AEO benefits that matter most to marketing leaders have shifted from theoretical to measurable. As AI-powered search engines like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity handle a growing share of how buyers discover brands, the rise of AI-powered search results increases brand visibility; the teams investing now are seeing real returns in conversion quality, pipeline influence, and long-term authority.

4/27/2026

Your brand’s AI visibility score covers the part of the search landscape that traditional SEO rank tracking can’t see. Tracking it is becoming as essential as monitoring Google rankings — and a lot harder to pin down.

4/27/2026

Search behavior has changed dramatically, and teams need to learn answer engine optimization (AEO) best practices to keep up. While traditional search engines still dominate, people increasingly turn to AI tools like ChatGPT to answer their questions. Heck, with 79% of those who already use AI for search believing it offers a better experience, even Google has introduced AI overviews to stay competitive.

4/27/2026

A lot is going on in search today. Google still reigns supreme, but the competition and evolution coming from AI alternatives have many marketers wondering how to optimize for ChatGPT.

4/24/2026

AI search engine citation tracking helps measure brand visibility and authority in AI-powered search results. As AI-powered search experiences reshape how people discover information, evaluate vendors, and build shortlists, visibility inside AI answers is no longer a vanity metric. If AI engines aren’t citing your brand, you’re missing influence at the exact moment buyers are forming opinions.

4/23/2026

Generative AI is changing how people discover brands, products, and information. Because it disrupts the buyer journey, it requires new metrics, specifically GEO KPIs, that accurately reflect performance within these AI engines.

4/22/2026

AEO metrics every marketer should track in 2026 Answer engine optimization (AEO) is a marketing strategy designed to help brands appear more consistently and accurately within AI-driven answer engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Copilot.

4/22/2026

Research shows that 32% of buyers discover new B2B vendors using generative AI chatbots. This is why an answer engine optimization (AEO) strategy for B2B businesses is essential. AI-driven answer engines help buyers discover, evaluate, and shortlist vendors. The same research found that buyers start with an average of 7.6 potential vendors and narrow this to 3.5 before making their final decision.

4/21/2026

​​GEO — or, as HubSpot refers to it, AEO — has found its place in the search landscape, and it’s reasonable to think that the future of generative engine optimization is guaranteed. According to Datos’s State of Search report, Q4-2025 saw some interesting changes. For the first time, AI tools had a consistent 1.31% to 1.34% of visits in the U.S. In previous quarters and reports, traffic to AI tools was growing. This stability in traffic suggests that AI search tools may have found their place in the wider search landscape.

4/17/2026

While many are still skeptical, the global creator economy is expected to reach $1.18 trillion USD by 2032. And for minority creators and entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups, this moment is especially significant.

4/14/2026

Marketers use AEO and GEO interchangeably, but there is a difference, and that’s what will be defined and explained in this article. In brief, AEO optimizes content for answer boxes and voice search results, while GEO targets AI chatbot citations and generated summaries.

4/14/2026

Today, more and more buyers are beginning their journey with an AI-search. They may ask ChatGPT to compare products or use an AI-powered platform like Perplexity. Or, they're just Googling an offering and reading the AI Overview, all without clicking a link.  HubSpot realized that our buyers were moving from search engines to answer engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity — but we had no reliable way to measure AI visibility and understand whether our AEO plays were working.

4/14/2026

If you’re asking yourself, “How can I measure AEO success?”, AEO rank trackers should be your next investment. They gauge your brand visibility in AI-generated answers, considering metrics like citations, mentions, share of voice, and sentiment.

4/14/2026

By now, you know that everyone’s buzzing over answer engine optimization (AEO). So, just what is AEO in marketing? It’s a new way of ensuring your brand shows up in the places your prospects are using more and more: AI tools like Gemini, Perplexity, and ChatGPT. These AEO insights will catch you up on the most crucial information to get started now.

4/14/2026

There’s a lot of conjecture out there about how to show up in ChatGPT results, but if you want advice from a practitioner who’s actually done it, keep reading.

4/14/2026

Most marketing teams I talk to are doing genuinely good SEO, and yet when they open ChatGPT or Perplexity and type in the prompts their buyers are actually using, their brand is nowhere to be found. This is the exact problem the FSA Framework was built to solve.

4/9/2026

Every company I talk to right now is convinced they have an AI problem.

4/9/2026

An AEO strategy for SaaS won’t stray too far away from a good SEO strategy, but some tactics benefit AI search more than others, and it helps to know what these are. We all know that AI has shifted how brands earn visibility, and how visibility doesn’t equal clicks. But for SaaS, the way buyers conduct discovery and evaluation has changed disproportionately.

4/8/2026

Two-thirds of marketers say that marketing has changed more in the past three years than in the past 50. Understanding Loop Marketing versus traditional marketing has become essential for marketers in 2026. The two frameworks differ fundamentally in how brands reach, engage, and retain customers in an AI-driven world.

4/8/2026

A marketing forecast estimates future marketing results, such as leads, pipeline, and revenue, using historical data and conversion assumptions. Marketing forecasting connects planned activity to expected outcomes, helping teams understand what performance is likely to look like before campaigns are executed. This approach supports clearer planning, more predictable growth, and stronger alignment between marketing inputs and revenue targets.

4/8/2026

Maybe you’ve opened ChatGPT a handful of times, gotten subpar results, and moved on. Maybe you’ve sat through an AI training or two and thought, “Cool, but how does this actually apply to my job?” Or maybe you’ve bookmarked a dozen AI tools you saw recommended on LinkedIn and haven’t tried a single one.

4/7/2026

Search results used to be a doorway. You ranked, someone clicked, and they landed on your site. But today, that model is eroding faster than most marketing teams are equipped to move.

4/6/2026

AI-referred traffic has increased by 600% since January 2025, and marketers are racing to understand what that means for brand discovery. For teams seeking clarity on how AI impacts brand and pipeline means investing in new tools like Profound or Athena AI for Answer Engine Optimization (AEO).

4/6/2026

Workflow automation tools automate repetitive business tasks across systems using defined triggers and logic. These platforms link apps, CRM data, and communication channels to execute multi-step processes without manual handoffs — routing a new lead through email nurture, scoring it, and assigning it to a rep in a single automated sequence.

4/6/2026

Email personalization drives measurable revenue impact. According to HubSpot’s 2026 State of Marketing report, 93.2% of marketers say personalized or segmented experiences generate more leads and purchases, and nearly half are exploring AI to scale those efforts.

4/6/2026

Every few years, marketing headlines announce the demise of one foundational strategy or another. First, email; then blogging; then search engines. Now, with the rise of AI comes the question, “Is AI killing web traffic?” — But the curiosity is actually warranted.

4/2/2026

Email deliverability is cumulative, and AI email deliverability optimization works by reinforcing the sending behaviors that mailbox providers already measure over time. Mailbox providers evaluate authentication alignment, complaint rates, engagement patterns, and unsubscribe behavior across domains. In 2024, Gmail and Yahoo formalized stricter requirements for bulk senders, reinforcing a core principle: inbox placement depends on authentication, permission, and recipient behavior working together.

4/1/2026

Being a content marketer isn’t easy. You need to be a writer, designer, and editor; have knowledge of user experience, project management, analytics, your industry, and much more. With so many things to juggle, even the best teams are only as effective as the content marketing tools they have at their disposal.

3/31/2026

When I first started working in content and weaving SEO into my strategy, I treated Page Authority like a report card: the higher the score, the better I was doing. It took a few humbling ranking losses to a competitor with a lower PA score to make me reconsider.

3/30/2026

Consistency is key to achieving any goal. Want to learn to play the piano? Practice consistently. Trying to get in shape for a sibling's wedding? Exercise and eat healthily consistently. Want your brand to be seen and positioned as the premier choice in its industry by both your target audience and AI? Enter brand optimization.

3/30/2026

I've spent most of the last 10 years writing, managing, and improving content to reach internet audiences. But even for an ol' marketer like me, AI content optimization was hard at first. Thankfully, I’ve done a lot of the work, so it doesn't have to be for you.

3/26/2026

Every successful content strategy starts with a short list of simple words. Before I ever open a keyword research tool, I write down a handful of phrases that describe what my business does or what my audience searches for. Those phrases are seed keywords, and they do more work than most marketers realize.

3/23/2026

AI search is already influencing how buyers discover brands — and the results are measurable. According to the 2026 HubSpot State of Marketing report, 58% of marketers say visitors referred by AI tools convert at higher rates than traditional organic traffic. As platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini increasingly shape buying decisions, visibility inside AI-generated answers is quickly becoming a competitive advantage.

3/20/2026

Whether I’m looking for a new car, email marketing software, or pair of shoes, sometimes I wish I had a personal shopper — Someone to share a second opinion, make suggestions when I’m indecisive, and help find the best deal. In recent years, ChatGPT product recommendations and its Shopping Research feature have become this for many.

3/16/2026

Ambassadors, partners, creators, “squads” — whatever you call them, affiliate programs are a hot commodity for growing businesses.

3/11/2026

We trust simple promises more than long lists. When brands focus on one clear benefit, it feels more believable than trying to do everything at once. Take it from Google.

3/10/2026

Community marketing is a growth strategy centered on participation. It brings customers together to share knowledge, solve problems, and build trust. In the process, it drives advocacy, retention, and lower customer acquisition costs.

3/10/2026

Competitor analysis tools are software platforms that help marketing teams monitor and compare competitor strategies across SEO, social, PPC, and market intelligence. Think of them as marketer’s best friend: they expedite the competitor analysis process, so you can see where your competition is making moves (and where the gaps are wide open). The best tools work passively, updating in the background while you focus on moving the needle for your business.

3/9/2026

An enterprise SEO audit is a comprehensive evaluation of a large-scale website's search engine performance, technical health, and content alignment. This process identifies growth opportunities across thousands or millions of pages, requiring coordination between marketing, engineering, and product teams. Successful execution ensures that complex site architectures remain crawlable and competitive in high-volume search landscapes.

3/4/2026

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rewriting the playbook of so much of our lives — how we interact, how we learn, how we complete daily tasks, and sometimes even what we eat for dinner. So, of course, AI and the future of SEO are no different.

3/3/2026

Over the past year, I‘ve had hundreds of conversations with business leaders about AI. The pattern is always the same. They’re not short on tools or ambition. They're struggling with where to get started and how to get value.

3/2/2026

“What’s better: Claude or ChatGPT?” is the mind-boggling question every marketer is asking right now. As AI tools become essential to content workflows, understanding the differences between Claude and ChatGPT for marketing can mean the difference between a streamlined operation and a frustrating bottleneck.

3/2/2026

Marketing is set for its most transformative year in decades, according to major AI predictions for 2026. Currently, marketers struggle with fragmented customer journeys, declining attention spans, rising acquisition costs, and failed campaigns. Using AI in marketing will redefine how brands connect with consumers by using real-time data processing and predictive analytics.

2/27/2026

In times of growth, scaling a marketing team is often the last thing on a company's mind—but that, my friends, is a huge mistake. The lean marketing team that got a business off the ground is not the one that will help it scale. Trust me; as a serial marketing team of one, I’ve experienced the fallout firsthand.

2/25/2026

Every reliable tactic marketers now love, from video content to email marketing and blogging, was once a new experiment that early adopters tested and developed. Creating new marketing strategies is foundational to marketing, helping brands reach new customers and gather data that helps facilitate smarter business decisions.

2/24/2026

We have some big news: HubSpot Media is acquiring Starter Story, one of the most trusted and beloved media brands in the entrepreneurship space.

2/23/2026

As businesses adjust to the new AEO landscape, marketers are seeing increasing convergence with marketing automation—HubSpot's recent acquisition of Xfunnel signals this shift, bringing AI search optimization directly into the CRM ecosystem where attribution and revenue tracking happen.

2/19/2026

Despite what the headlines would have you believe, artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t new. The term and early technology date back to the 1950s, but generative AI (which emerged in the 2010s) is undeniably new terrain.

2/19/2026

Sharing content across channels is a top 5 marketing trend in 2026, according to HubSpot’s State of Marketing report. The brands that will do this successfully with the best ROI will focus on amplification, not just copy/paste repurposing.

2/18/2026

If you’re managing social media marketing without a social media scheduler, I’ve got one thing to say to you: You’re making your job harder than it needs to be. A social media scheduler eliminates the chaos of logging into multiple platforms, posting in real-time, and hoping you remembered to hit publish at the right moment — freeing you to focus on strategy instead of logistics.

2/17/2026

When we hear the word “organic,” we usually think natural, pure, and unadulterated. A delicious juice, perhaps. Well, the same goes for organic marketing — minus the juice part.

2/17/2026

In a past work life, I stole search rank positions #1 and zero and even featured snippets from much larger companies, including HubSpot. That’s why I firmly believe bootstrapped small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMB) can compete with big-budget corporations. Strategies like SEO, social media, and generative engine optimization for small business make it possible.

2/16/2026

I never thought I‘d see the day when "Googling" something and sifting through links would become passé. But, like many marketers over the last year, I’m seeing a massive shift in how people find brands, products, and answers online.

2/13/2026

An attribution window is the defined time period when a marketing touchpoint — such as an ad click, email open, or page view — can be credited for a conversion. Window length directly affects how conversions are counted, how channels perform, and how budget decisions are made. Platforms use different defaults, and these differences often create mismatches in data across tools.

2/12/2026

Marketing tech stacks often expand fast, leading to sprawl. The result is low tool usage. Gartner estimates that only 49% of marketing technology tools are actively used by teams. A marketing operations tech stack audit brings structure back to teams with bloated software.

2/10/2026

An AI engine optimization audit evaluates brand visibility, accuracy, and citations in AI-powered search engines. It highlights how a brand appears across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Bing Copilot, and identifies gaps in the facts, descriptions, and links these systems rely on. In contrast, a traditional SEO audit focuses on website rankings and technical health in classic search engines.

2/9/2026

Understanding answer engine optimization (AEO) vs. traditional SEO has become mission-critical for content managers and marketing leaders as search shifts toward AI-generated responses, voice results, and zero-click experiences. While page ranking on Google is still important (for now), success increasingly depends on whether a brand stays visible when an AI system summarizes an answer.

2/6/2026

The best marketing isn't chiseled in stone. Adaptive marketing is alive, responding to new tools, shifting consumer preferences, trends, and real-time data. Changing with the trends gives brands a competitive edge, if marketing teams handle it correctly.

2/4/2026

Here’s a (maybe) mildly spicy hot take: Email marketing reporting is the backbone of any performance-focused email strategy. Without it, you’re sending campaigns into a void, unable to see what’s working, what’s falling flat, and most importantly, what’s driving revenue.

2/3/2026

The Gap Between Output and Outcomes Over the past two years, I've had hundreds of conversations with business leaders about AI. The pattern is always the same: initial excitement about what AI can do, followed by frustration about what it actually delivers.

2/3/2026

The way consumers search for answers online has changed over the years. Instead of typing a keyword or query into search engines like Google, people are typing their questions directly into engines like ChatGPT to get direct, no-frills answers.

2/3/2026

A couple of decades ago, “voice search optimization” sounded like something out of a science fiction movie.

2/2/2026

If you‘ve ever wondered why B2B email marketing still dominates as a revenue-driving channel in 2025, you’re not alone. Despite the rise of new marketing platforms and AI-powered tools, B2B email marketing remains one of the most reliable ways to nurture leads, accelerate pipeline, and actually close deals.

2/2/2026

At 23, I walked into BlackRock‘s New York office fresh out of Wesleyan University, ready to conquer Wall Street. By 28, I had traded my corporate badge for a ring light and a mission to empower women through content creation. Along the way, I learned that the biggest impact doesn’t always come from the biggest institutions.

1/30/2026

Selecting an email marketing automation platform goes far beyond choosing where marketers will send emails. The right tool becomes the backbone of lifecycle marketing — powering personalized workflows and driving revenue. Email marketing automation platforms help businesses send targeted, personalized emails at scale by automating workflows, segmenting audiences, and integrating with CRM and ecommerce tools.

1/23/2026

HubSpot’s 2026 State of Marketing report uncovered some good news: 65% of marketers are meeting or exceeding their performance benchmarks. But that success doesn’t happen by accident. Behind those results are clear priorities, rigorous testing, and a sharp focus on the right metrics.

1/21/2026

“SMASH that like button,” the host says, and your eyes roll back so far you can see your own medulla. “And don’t forget to subscribe!”

1/20/2026

HubSpot’s latest State of Marketing data shows that 65% of companies exceeded their goals last year, and 93.7% improved lead quality. Should the industry celebrate and prepare for a relaxed 2026? Barely.

1/19/2026

Marketing funnels aren‘t cutting it anymore, and you’ve probably felt it in the form of declining traffic, scattered buyer journeys, and tactics that worked last year falling flat today. That's why HubSpot introduced loop marketing tactics, a four-stage framework designed to help you adapt and grow in the AI era.

1/16/2026

If you‘re familiar with the world of SEO, I probably don’t have to tell you there's been a serious shift in its landscape. Marketers are no longer just optimizing content for Google‘s traditional blue links; we’re now optimizing for AI.

1/16/2026

At its core, an SEO audit is a step-by-step review of your website’s technical health, content quality, and search visibility. An SEO audit identifies technical, on-page, content, and link issues on a website. It helps SEO teams identify, prioritize, and fix the issues that block traffic, rankings, and, importantly, conversions. Businesses and SEO teams should create audits to identify opportunities that advance business goals and growth.

1/13/2026

If you‘ve noticed your brand appearing less frequently in ChatGPT answers, you’re not alone. Savvy marketers are using generative engine optimization tools to address this issue. These tools help your content get cited by AI platforms, rather than being buried under competitors.

1/13/2026

Creating video for Instagram is one of my favorite marketing tasks.

1/13/2026

Like your weird uncle, nobody knows exactly how AI engines choose the sources they cite. But experiments are starting to point to ways you can get on their radar.

1/12/2026

I’ll say the hard thing nobody wants to admit: Creating “great content” isn’t enough; it’s time for a change. And that change starts with multi-channel content distribution.

1/8/2026

AI search visibility refers to how a brand appears in AI-generated results from tools like ChatGPT and AI-augmented search engines such as Gemini or Perplexity. Unlike traditional SEO, which tracks ranking positions and blue links, AI visibility measures how often your brand is mentioned, how your owned content is cited, and how those mentions are framed in model responses.

1/7/2026

Here’s a tough pill to swallow: The way buyers discover brands has undergone a fundamental change. Thus, answer engine optimization tools have emerged as essential technology for marketers navigating the new era of search, where AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews deliver direct answers instead of links.

1/6/2026

Emerging trends in answer engine optimization are reshaping how brands earn visibility, trust, and demand in AI-powered search. Answer engines like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Gemini now deliver fully synthesized answers directly to users, compressing the traditional customer journey. According to HubSpot's Consumer Trends Report, 72% of consumers plan to use AI-powered search for shopping more frequently.