Hiya!

Thanks for stopping by. Test your knowledge and gain insight on the digital marketing industry’s hullabaloo.

We give you the category and clue/answer — you choose the question!

1. Category: SAIO for 100 points

Clue: This person said “Generative engine optimization (or whatever the new acronym is for optimizing for AI search experiences) is the same core work SEOs have always done: creating unique, valuable content for people and providing a great page experience.” What is the question?

a. Who is Danny Sulivan?

b. Who is Danny Godwin?

c. Who is Rand Fishkin?

d. Who is Marc Engelsman?

2. Category: Digital Marketing Tools for 200 points

Clue: Flodesk. What is the question?

a. What is the name Progressive uses for its Customer Relationship Management program?

b. What is the name of a new AI agent program management tool?

c. What is the name of a tool that can automatically segment your email audience?

d. What is the name of a new AI search platform?

3. Category: Content Marketing for 300 points
Clue: Fan-out Queries. What is the question?

a. What is the strategy Major League Baseball is using to get fans to take surveys?

b. What is a problem/solution approach to content that targets searchers who want more information than what AI chatbots deliver in their synthesized answers?

c. What is the name Google is testing as the AI Overviews alternative to the “People Also Ask” SERP feature?

d. What is the name WordPress is testing for expandable content block widgets for use on AI-friendly FAQ pages?

• For my visual learners, check out the diagram in this blog: Traditional Search vs. AI Search: The Side-by-Side Comparison. The graphic shows when we tend to use search engines over GenAI platforms and vice versa. Spoiler alert: The percentage use of traditional search engines dramatically exceeds use of AI search tools.

• Here’s an interesting take on How AI reads your brand and why meaning matters most. The POV, you ask? “AI systems don’t rank logos — they surface meaning. Clear, consistent signals of trust determine whether your brand appears in AI-driven recommendations.” The author believes the emphasis should be on the brand meaning over what your product does. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that reviews, user-generated content, and overall social proof matters to AI bots when they’re so important in everyday life.

• Humans still win the content race, as EMARKETER claims. Thirty-five percent of their survey respondents felt AI is not real art. There’s a caveat though: “over half (57.3%) of millennials and 49.5% of Gen Zers say knowing an ad or piece of sponsored content was created by AI makes them like it more, according to an April 2025 EMARKETER survey.” What we know: the human element enhances the trustworthiness of content in the eyes of traditional and AI search bots.

• AI’s progress on accomplishing SEO tasks has been underwhelming according to SEL. Mistaken URLs, going over character counts, and falsified reports remind us that AI can aid, but not replace, human optimizers.

• ChatGPT is showing fewer sources links in responses, especially for free users. We started seeing this in our research, but ChatGPT traffic volume in GA4 still displays upticks for our clients throughout the later half of September. Our take: people still need to fact check answers, so they will look up the supporting links.

• TikTok is staying put in the U.S., but ByteDance will have no more than 20% stake in the U.S. version. We will have to see if this slows TikTok’s growth, allowing for competing platforms time to innovate.

• Fractional CMOs and start-ups could be a match made in heaven… IF the right CMO is chosen. Lillian Pierson, P.E has an excellent article on how to find the most well-rounded CMO.

• A partnership has been struck… between the little green owl that spams your push notifications and your LinkedIn profile. You can now feature your Duolingo score on your LinkedIn profile AND it will automatically update! (To satiate your curiosity: yes, I have a 1077-day Duo streak. It’s okay — you can hold your applause. Я знаю, это впечатляет.)

• Jumping on the bandwagon is all fun and games until someone falls off. That seems to be happening with influencer marketing. A creator is a human, and humans are volatile. Brand safety should be a top priority in the influencer vetting process. 

Smile Farms has become a nonprofit leader in creating meaningful jobs in agricultural settings for adults with developmental disabilities, almost none of whom have worked before.Their founding story is super sweet, too. Jim McCann, Founder/Chairman of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc., had a brother living in Independent Group Living Home (IGHL), a residence for people with developmental disabilities, so he teamed up with the home’s CEO, Walter Stockton, to create this program. Learn more about what they’re doing: Smile Farms.

… find this week’s insights on LinkedIn 😄

Keep slaying the game, y’all!

Natalie

1: a) Danny Sullivan, Google’s former search liaison, made that quote. Though he could have been quoting Marc Engelsman who said similar things when we introduced SAIO (our acronym for optimizing for AI search experiences) over two years ago. (100 points)

2: c) Flodesk is the name of a tool that can automatically segment your email audience. (200 points)

3: b) Fan-out Queries is a problem/solution approach to content that targets searchers who want more information than what AI chatbots deliver in their synthesized answers? (300 points)

4: We wanted you to win the daily double so a), b), and d) were all correct answers. If you answered c) 63% now ask AI to answer survey questions like this then you were probably using AI to answer this quiz. (400 points)