šŸ”‘ No more keyword stuffing

Author

Ian Ito
February 21, 2025 ā€¢ Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

ISSUE #265

This might be the new Search playbook.

While everyone's busy optimizing for Google, a Seattle dev figured out how to get future ā€œChatGPTsā€ to recommend your product. The secret? Feed it stories about your brand.

Speaking of stories, Moz's founder has a spicy take: think like a PR firm, not a blog farm. When AI owns search, your narrative will get you reach.

In this week's roundup, we cover:

  • The AI narrative wars: Training ChatGPT to tell your story

  • PR is the new SEO: Why storytelling beats content farms

  • From the trenches: When great marketing goes unmeasured

Let's dive in!

Ian at SaaS Weekly

INDUSTRY ROUNDUP

šŸ¤– AI SEO | Meet the dev training AI to be your biggest fan
A Seattle engineer just open-sourced a tool that floods AI training data with branded conversations ā€“ basically getting future versions of ChatGPT to recommend your product by feeding simulated customer convos. (Link)

šŸŽ¤ Marketing ā†’ PR | The comeback story no one saw coming
Moz's founder drops a bomb: Two-thirds of Google searches never leave Google, and AI models are eating the rest. His controversial fix? Go beyond your blog, and start thinking like a PR firm in 2025. (Link)

šŸ’ø Fundraising | The early-stage unicorn factory is back in business
VCs minted 39 billion-dollar startups at seed through Series B in 2024 (70% jump from 2023) ā€“ turns out FOMO is alive and well when you're building the next AI giant. (Link)

šŸŽÆ MarTech | Your stack is about to get a major AI makeover
Traditional CDPs and CRMs are becoming "truth layers" for AI agents to deliver hyper-personalized experiences ā€“ meaning your $1M tech stack might need a total rewrite for 2025's AI-first world. (Link)

FOR YOUR COMMUTE

FROM THE TRENCHES šŸ” 

šŸ‘· | Mike Northfield, Marketing first-principlist at Q-SYS
ā€œBuyers, not marketers, are in control of the buying journeyā€

Whatā€™s one growth lesson youā€™ve learned recently?

ā€œWe donā€™tā€”and canā€™tā€”control when a buyer is ready to engage. Theyā€™re making decisions long before they talk to us.

Buyers spend ~70% of their purchase process conducting independent research with their internal teams. By the time buyers start conversations with vendors, 81% have selected a favorite. They spend the remaining 30% of the buying process validating that decision.ā€

How did you put this lesson into practice?

ā€œGive buyers the keys to self-education. Buyers spend most of their purchase journey independently researching solutionsā€”they need access to material that answers every critical buying question they can consume on their own time.ā€

ā€œAccept that great marketing often goes unmeasured. Many of marketingā€™s most impactful moments (early influence) will never be seenā€”and often canā€™t be measured.ā€

LEADERS ON LINKEDIN

This new class of AI-native hypergrowth startups looks different.

We've seen crazy B2B growth beforeā€¦

ā€”

Adam Schoenfeld on LinkedIn ā†’

25+ startups. $250M+ raised. All from ex-Brex employees.

This tech mafia is younger than TikTokā€¦

ā€”

John KimJohn Kim on LinkedIn ā†’

GROWTH PLAYS IN PRACTICE

šŸ“– Product Marketing | 5 min read | Chris Bretschger at Product Marketing Alliance
Using the hero's journey to build your B2B brand story

In theory: While traditional marketing emphasizes product features and benefits, Campbell's "Hero's Journey" framework shows how to map brand storytelling to the customer journey.

Companies like Mailchimp and Warby Parker have used this structure to build authentic narratives that convert better than standard promotional content.

In practice:

  1. Map story elements to buying stages: Match each stage of the customer journey to a corresponding hero's journey phase. From problem discovery to becoming a champion, each piece of content should move the story forward.

  2. Weave the narrative across channels: Build a consistent story arc across your website, with founding stories on the About page, customer challenges on product pages, and transformation stories in case studies.

  3. Add emotional resonance triggers: Lead with customer conflict and build tension before revealing solutions. Show authentic struggles alongside wins to create relatable narratives that resonate with prospects facing similar challenges.

šŸ’½ Thought Leadership | 6 min read | Sophie Buonassisi at The GTM Newsletter
The playbook for viral data storytelling

In theory: B2B companies typically treat data as quarterly PDF reports and industry studies.

But Carta's rapid-fire data storytelling approach shows a better way: turn company insights into daily social narratives that spark industry conversations.

Their head of insights generates thousands of engagements by pushing out data stories 4-5 times per week, proving that frequency and relevance beat polish.

In practice:

  1. Focus on frequency over perfection: Post data insights 4-5 times per week on one platform (Carta chose LinkedIn). Block 30-40 minutes daily for creating one data visualization, even if early posts don't get traction.

  2. Mix ongoing and newsjacking stories: Balance predictable content (like quarterly valuation trends) with rapid responses to industry debates.

  3. Build trust through individual voices: Have team members share insights rather than posting from corporate accounts. People can take stronger positions, engage in comments, and build personal credibility that reflects back on the brand.

TOP READ FROM LAST WEEK

  1. The best automated GTM plays youā€™re not running (Link)

  2. Enterprise GTM Unpacked (Link)

  3. Agent by P&L Part II (Link)

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