Episodes

This is a slightly different episode than usual, and, to be honest, slightly more self-promotional than usual, too. You see, I am very excited to share the news that my new book, Digital Reset: Driving Marketing and Customer Acquisition Beyond Big Tech is now available. This has been a labor of love over the last few years, informed by my experiences working with clients to drive direct revenues and lower the cost of customer acquisition. In this episode episode of the podcast, I focused on som...

According to Search Engine Journal, Apple might be thinking about replacing Google with ChatGPT or Perplexity as its default search engine in Safari. I know, I know, it sounds crazy. How in the world could Apple drop Google? Well, whether Apple dropping Google is likely or not isn’t the point. Instead, the point is that while any one member of Big Tech could (at least in theory) get pushed out of the club at any time, Big Tech itself will continue to roll right along. And that gatekeepers gonn...

My friend Mark Schafer just asked a brilliant question on LinkedIn about whether small and mid-sized businesses are destined to fall behind when it comes to AI. It’s a beautiful post and I’d highly encourage you to read it. Is it impossible for marketers and e-commerce folks to keep up with AI? Is your business doomed to fall behind? In one way, yes. But, in a more meaningful way, I’m not convinced. Instead, there are a few ways that marketers can keep up—and keep ourselves relevant. And those...

This is a huge week around here. I’ve just announced the release of my new book, Digital Reset: Driving Marketing and Customer Acquisition Beyond Big Tech. Which, yay, and all. I mean, good for me. But how does that help you? Instead, what you need to focus on is the animating idea behind the book. And that is that Big Tech wants to be a gatekeeper between you and your customers. They’ve admitted it again and again. The question you should be asking is how do you escape their web and bypass Big...

Google may have just told marketers they can never use AI to create content. Or… maybe not. Their actual recommendations are somewhat more nuanced than simply “AI bad” or “AI great.” What’s important about what they said, though, is that they’re being clear about what they’re looking for — and, more importantly, what your customers are looking for. And their guidelines make it relatively easy to understand when you can use AI, when you can’t, and what you should expect from your AI tools when c...

So, the economy has been going through it over the last couple months — and especially over the last week in particular. That’s a plain fact. But it’s more than just a tough economy. It’s a bizarre economy. It’s easy at times like this to get discouraged, distressed, or just plain confused about how you can make marketing and customer acquisition work in genuinely bizarre economic times. So how do you do that? What works when the economy is… strange? What can you do to connect with customers w...

If there’s one thing I hate to see, it’s marketers, e-commerce, and customer acquisition folks who talk about AI as if it’s going to solve every problem their business has. Yes, AI can be an incredibly valuable tool. But it’s only a tool. The fact is that AI can’t save your business from bad strategy. Only you can. Thinking about AI as a “magic bullet” is a big reason why so many businesses still aren’t seeing the returns they’d hoped for from their AI efforts. Instead, the businesses succeedin...

Artificial intelligence plays an ever-increasing role in marketing, e-commerce, and customer acquisition. Loads of companies and marketers use AI to plan, create, personalize, and measure their marketing activities. In general, that’s a good thing. AI can help you manage your marketing and customer acquisition more efficiently and effectively. So far, so good, right? However, when it comes to content marketing — still one of the most important parts of your customer acquisition process — there’...

I’ve long believed that AI won’t steal your job, but rather that smart people who put AI to work will. After all, marketing, e-commerce, and customer acquisition roles are simply too complicated to automate away. No business leaders would ever be foolish enough to turn these critical functions over to artificial intelligence, right? Well… let’s consider the alternative. I do believe that these roles will survive the age of AI. But, what if I’m wrong about AI in marketing and customer acquisitio...

Content marketing plays a crucial role in driving results for your business. Done well, it’s your organization’s 24/7/365 ” salesperson and your 24/7/365 customer service rep. But the emergence of artificial intelligence puts pressure on content marketing. Almost anyone can produce large volumes of content easily and cheaply using generative AI, making it tougher for your business to cut through the noise. How can you compete in such an environment? What can you do to stand apart from the compe...

I’ve long argued that artificial intelligence won’t take your job, but that smart people who use AI might. What you might want to think about though is what “smart people who use AI” looks like in practice. Because your future in marketing and e-commerce undoubtedly depends on using AI well. In this episode of the Thinks Out Loud podcast, we take a look at what “using AI well” in the future looks like. We also break down the skills needed now… and in the future. And, most importantly, we explor...

With all of the discussion around ChatGPT, generative AI, and large language models, you’d think that OpenAI’s tools — or those from Perplexity or Anthropic — are crushing Google. It would be easy to assume that search is dead. Here’s the thing, though: The numbers don’t back that up. If anything, Google’s position over the last few months has gotten stronger, not weaker. That’s great, right? If Google’s winning, then you just need to keep doing what you’re doing and business will keep pouring ...

Is it possible that clicks are overrated in digital marketing and in marketing more generally? Isn’t the point of marketing to drive revenue? I think so, in both cases. You absolutely can drive revenue without clicks. Great marketing has done that for years. But, if that’s the case, how do you measure the value of your marketing, and especially, of your content marketing? How do you stand apart in a sea of sameness? And what role does AI play in all of this? AI, content, and revenue — and why ...

There’s only one way to succeed this year & and every year. Success is more than just what you do in digital or marketing. Success goes far beyond just your business. Of course success in digital and marketing and your business matters. But, business success often follows from success across multiple areas of your life. Successful people may seem like they’re accomplished in many areas… because they are. They’re not focused solely on being “their best selves” only at work or only in part of the...

We’re living through an evolving landscape around content marketing in the age of AI. This evolution raises the question of whether AI will kill content marketing for customer acquisition. What do we think? Nope. No way. AI absolutely has its place. But quality content without human connection won’t work for customer acquisition. While AI can enhance content creation, it should not replace the human element that customers actively seek every single day. Personalization and community play a key ...

Google’s AI Overviews show up regularly for lots of search queries. Plenty of people also use ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and others for “search” (albeit, with different behaviors than we’ve long seen on Google). This reality has plenty of people asking how to ensure their website and their content shows up in search results. What can you do to drive website SEO for AI? It’s a great question. It’s one that’s worth paying attention to. It’s also not necessarily the first question I would ask. ...

Do you still need a website in an age of AI? More broadly, what is the point of your business’s website in an age of AI? As AI becomes more prevalent, we’re hearing more people suggest that maybe your website isn’t important any longer. To put it mildly, that’s a load of crap. In some ways, your website becomes more important in an age of AI. Why is that? What do you need your website to do for your customers, your brand, and your business now more than ever? Most importantly, what is the poin...

Artificial intelligence is part of marketing today. But, to hear most people tell it, it’s a frustrating part. AI is either the thing that will put all marketers out of work or it’s a useless collection of vaporware, continually overpromising and underdelivering. While it’s impossible for both of these to be true at the same moment, it’s clear that we’re facing a question: When will AI get good at marketing? When will it live up to the hype — or its potential — and deliver meaningful results fo...

“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” These words from one of the 20th century’s most sagacious philosophers, Yogi Berra, take hold of my mind every new year as I think about the days and weeks and months ahead. Far be it from me to reject Yogi’s wise words, but I’m not sure he’s right. Oh, don’t get me wrong the wrong. The future’s not always easy to see. But we can work to make it what we want. I generally think that instead of predicting the future for your business,...

Your business likely depends on Google, whether you like it or not. The whole reason I’m so focused on the role of gatekeepers — and how you can bypass them for marketing and customer acquisition — is because of their dominance in the marketplace. And no company is more dominant than Google. Most businesses get at least a plurality of their traffic and usually a significant chunk of their revenues downstream of Google. That could include traditional web search. It could include local search. It...

One of the big themes behind Thinks Out Loud over the course of its 400-plus episodes is how you can bypass gatekeepers and still grow your business. The emergence of artificial intelligence in marketing and customer acquisition introduces an entirely new way to approach that goal. Or does it? Does artificial intelligence provide you a tool kit that allows you to bypass Big Tech? Or does it allow Big Tech to place more gates between you and your customers? In this episode of the Thinks Out Loud...

As far as I’m concerned, there’s only one way to succeed next year. And, truth be told, it goes beyond success just in your business. I don’t mean to say that business success isn’t important. Of course it is. But, business success often follows from success throughout your life. Most successful people seem like they’re accomplished in many areas… because they are. They’re not focused solely on being their best selves only at work or only at a given hobby. It’s the idea of being your best self...

I’m having a ton of conversations lately about how AI will affect the future of work and employment. Many of these conversations start off with questions like “What will AI do to my job?” And, of course, “What happens to my job in the future?” AI is a big deal. No two ways about it. But, here’s the thing: AI is not the future. You are. You have control of what your future looks like. Sure, AI could affect pieces of your life. It already does. But you have lots of say in terms of what your life...

Google faces the most serious challenges in its history right now. And any stumble Google suffers also hurts your business. Organic search, paid search, local search, metasearch, product search, and all the rest depend on Google getting lots of traffic. If Google loses, even a little, you stand to lose too. So how does Google lose? How likely is it to occur? How does that loss affect your business? And what can you do about it to ensure that you win, no matter what happens to Google? That’s wha...