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✍️ how to rank for AEO, prove marketing ROI, and market to nerds
Frameworks you can actually use.
Well, that got weird.
We pulled your leg last week and appreciate y’all rolling with it. This week, though, it’s back to business.
Our Q1 grades are officially in, and the optimism of our 2026 marketing vision is meeting the reality of “please share your KPI updates in the quarterly all-hands.”
In our first quarter of 2026, we’ve seen what went according to plan (storyarb launched our 2026 AI report!), what did not work at all (RIP b’arb’s LinkedIn), and what new projects we want to add to the roadmap (ask us about our exec social aspirations…).
So today, we're bringing you a crash course in How to Be a Do-It-All Marketer. Dig in for some of our most popular frameworks, templates, and tactics from operators who've actually done the work when it comes to partnerships, AEO rankings, and proving ROI.
These are the folks who look reaaaaallllll good at their quarterly all-hands. And maybe a li’l smug.
Let’s get into it.
We care a lot about language. The phrasing. The structure. The line that makes someone stop scrolling and pay attention. We don’t want to be boring. We don’t want to repeat ourselves.
Until we name our playbooks.
How to this.
How to that.
How to everything.
…maybe sometimes, repetition is a strength? So yes. We’ve got a guide for that.
Here's the 4-dial system B2B marketers are using to get cited in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. (Turns out, good AEO is good SEO.) Plus, two template tweaks to make your long-form content more visible. Check it out.
Our favorite line*: “If you're not monitoring what LLMs say about you, you're letting them write your story.”
*Special mention to this baby: “Yes, the behavior is changing, but that doesn’t mean your strategy around optimization needs a full-on Pimp My Ride-level overhaul. A Princess Diaries-esque revamp is all you need.”
Bluecore's CMO built a measurement framework that took marketing attribution from 30% to 60% of pipeline — without measuring a single LinkedIn ad in isolation. Steal the framework.
Our favorite line: "Give finance what they need from a predictability standpoint, so you can get what you need from a budget and autonomy standpoint."
By mid-2026, most buyers will have locked in their AI platforms — and 95% go with their initial top choice. Here's how to make the shortlist before the window closes. Read the playbook.
Our favorite line: "People will switch. We're not loyal. We're in the playground right now, but by this time next year, people will pick their platforms of choice."
Air beat Apple + Squarespace at the Webbys by competing on culture instead of features. Here's the moonshot matrix they used to get there.
Our favorite line: "No one says, 'I f*** love Dropbox.'"
Headspace scaled a single audio project into a 45M-view franchise by building with Sesame Street and publishing where their audience already lived. Get the playbook.
Our favorite line: "Isaac Newton stood on the shoulders of giants. Morgan Selzer stood on the shoulders of Big Bird."
Experts Exchange turned their biggest marketing failure into a revenue-driving newsletter with a 47% open rate. All this while writing for an engineering audience that loves to fact check.
Our favorite line: “It’s basically the equivalent of a fourth grader pitching their baking soda volcano expertise to NASA.”
Campaigns that got us talking: This year, people had big feelings about brands pulling April Fools’ pranks. Some say we’ve jumped the shark into cringey waters. Some say it’s a great way to test interest in a real product. Our official opinion as marketers is that this was cute.
AI spotlight: OpenAI is shutting down Sora — prompting Disney to end its deal and a planned $1B investment. We’ll call it… relationship status: complicated.
Aw, beehiiv—we’re blushing.
We’re now a featured partner in their expert directory, recognized for helping brands turn newsletters into something people actually look forward to reading.
TL;DR: We help clients build newsletters that are sharp, consistent, and worth opening. Curious what that could look like for you? Let’s talk.
Companies that need a public comment section to process an invoice.
Six playbooks, all built from real-world work.
If even one of these changes what you do next, it did its job.
Shout-out to the very smart marketers in our network, who are so good at their work that they make us better at ours: Sarah Cascone (Appriss Retail), Sydney Sloan (G2), Ariel Rubin (Air), Morgan Selzer (Headspace, Canva), and Thomas Bernal (Experts Exchange). We love stealing your work.
See y’all next time.
— the storyarb writers’ room 🫡
Oh! And another thing...
WikiHow has a how-to guide for everything.
Including how to write a how-to guide.
Also: How to become a ghost. How to apologize to a cat. How to make ice cubes with an ice tray.
We checked. It’s thorough.
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