Marketing School - Digital Marketing and Online Marketing Tips

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/

Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire

Neil and Eric dig into McKinsey shifting a quarter of its fees to outcome-based pricing and what that means for agencies built on billable hours. Then they run through seven AI marketing trends for 2026: hiring AI-pilled marketers, optimizing for agents instead of just LLMs, AI-built sites and landing pages, integrating directly into LLMs over chasing their traffic, the documentation boom, the backlash against using AI to market to AI, and why HTML artifacts are becoming the new way to package and share ideas.

Key takeaways

◾Outcome-based pricing is reshaping how agencies charge

◾Optimize for agents and integrations, not just LLM traffic

◾Using AI content to win inside LLMs will get discounted

Chapters

00:00 McKinsey goes outcome-based pricing

01:01 How outcome-based deals get structured

02:51 Quantum Black savings example

03:35 Why performance-based deals get renegotiated

04:53 Seven AI marketing trends for 2026

04:58 Trend 1: Hiring AI-pilled marketers

05:45 Trend 2: Optimizing for agents

07:57 ClickFlow AI SEO break

08:36 Trend 3: AI-built sites and landing pages

10:07 Trend 4: Integrating directly into LLMs

11:35 Trend 5: The documentation boom

12:32 Trend 6: Backlash against AI marketing to AI

14:15 Trend 7: HTML as a marketing trend

𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟

Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer.

🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts

Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial

Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel

📩 Free Resources

Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/

Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/

✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/

Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire

Neil and Eric open with a fascinating look at how human progress accelerated 50,000 years ago — not because our brains got bigger, but because we started trading ideas.

Key Takeaways

◾ Intelligence is a network property — the more ideas you trade, the smarter and faster you move

◾ 68% of Google searches now result in zero clicks, making brand citation the new ranking goal

◾ Seven AEO/SEO tactics still drive results: brand mentions, structured data, fresh content, longtail queries, third-party reviews, direct answers, and omnichannel

Chapters

00:00 Human brains haven't changed in 200,000 years

02:30 Trading ideas as the engine of progress

05:10 AI accelerating idea exchange

07:20 Isolation regresses intelligence

09:45 Gatekeeping information kills momentum

11:00 Anthropic calls for AI slowdown

13:15 Claude's Fable 5 model breakdown

16:00 Microsoft's 100K engineers cautionary tale

18:10 Google zero-click searches hit 68%

21:00 Being cited vs. ranking — the new SEO goal

23:30 Fan-out queries and why SEO still matters

26:00 7 AEO and SEO tactics that work now

26:15 Tactic 1: Backlink gap for brand mentions

27:30 Tactic 2: Robust structured data

28:20 Tactic 3: Update top content frequently

29:30 Tactic 4: Target conversational longtail queries

31:00 Tactic 5: Third-party reviews and sentiment

32:30 Tactic 6: Lead with direct answers

33:30 Tactic 7: Go omnichannel

𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟

Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer.

🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts

Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial

Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel

📩 Free Resources

Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/

Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/

✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Neil and Eric discuss the biggest AI bottleneck for companies: extracting internal knowledge and turning it into usable company context. They break down AI cost optimization, DeepSeek vs. frontier models, AI productivity guarantees, rising demand for AI implementation experts, and why channels like SEO, email marketing, SMS, direct mail, and live events still drive growth. They also cover how podcast mentions generate revenue and why AI is changing tasks more than eliminating jobs.

Key Takeaways:• Company knowledge extraction is the next AI growth unlock.• AI adoption is shifting from token usage to measurable business output.• SEO, email, SMS, direct mail, and live events remain powerful marketing channels.

Chapters:(00:00) AI’s Biggest Bottleneck(01:26) Knowledge Extraction Opportunity(02:09) AI Cost Optimization(04:43) AI Productivity Guarantee(06:02) AI Model Pricing Trends(08:48) Podcast Revenue Impact(10:21) AI Jobs And Hiring(12:37) Marketing Channels That Win(12:45) Direct Mail Marketing(13:11 Email) And SMS Marketing(13:51 Live) Events And Networking(14:17 SEO) And AI Overviews

Neil and Eric break down Google’s latest AI search guidance, AEO and GEO myths, AI search optimization data from Ahrefs, ChatGPT citation trends, Google AI Overviews, and why YouTube visibility may matter more than traditional SEO signals. They also discuss the future of AI-powered shopping, agency growth opportunities, global marketing events, and lessons from international business travel. Learn what’s changing in SEO, how AI search is evolving, and where marketers should focus next.

Key Takeaways:• SEO remains the foundation of AI search visibility.• YouTube mentions strongly correlate with AI brand visibility.• AI Overviews are reshaping informational search traffic.

Chapters:(00:00) Google AI Search & SEO(02:01) AI Search Optimization Data(05:08) Schema Markup & AI Citations(05:43) YouTube Visibility Insights(06:18) AI Shopping Search Future(09:57) Jakarta Business Lessons(12:33) Web Summit & Agency Growth(13:06) Creative Agency Economics(15:43) Travel, Health & Productivity(17:08) Final Thoughts & Wrap-Up

Neil and Eric discuss why AI may be creating more jobs than it replaces, breaking down new JOLTS job openings data, AI’s impact on engineering and marketing teams, the rise of AI-powered product development, and why businesses are hiring more to keep up with faster innovation. They also explore AI agents, bot traffic surpassing human traffic, and what marketers must do to optimize for the future of search and growth.

Key Takeaways:

• AI is creating new job categories while increasing productivity across teams.

• Faster product development is driving demand for more engineers and marketers.

• Businesses must optimize for AI agents, bots, and humans simultaneously.

Chapters:

(00:00) AI and the Job Market

(01:40) AI Creating More Jobs

(03:02) Free Tools Growth Strategy

(05:04) Engineering Productivity with AI

(06:34) Why AI Drives Hiring

(07:35) AI and B2B Software Growth

(09:11) Product Marketing Becomes Critical

(11:09) AI-Powered Team Communication

(12:33) Personality Tests and Team Alignment

(16:30) Should CEOs Be Deep in AI?

(20:03) Bot Traffic Surpasses Humans

(21:07) Optimizing for AI Agents