This Old Marketing - News Podcast Weekly with Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose

Special "Ask Us Anything" Episode (517)

Jan 30, 2026

They answer listener questions about how backlinks, citations, and original research can work together for search and answer visibility. They debate what content to gate for memberships versus what should stay public. They discuss whether AI will replace human strategists and how consultants can stay relevant. They examine entertainment content boosting sports brands and whether to separate audience-building from sales content.

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INSIGHT

Make SEO And AEO One Strategy

SEO and AEO are the same game with different outputs; focus on original research and a differentiated point of view to earn citations.
Distribute content on other people's audiences so AIs learn from your work and it also helps classic SEO rankings.

ADVICE

Publish On Trusted Third-Party Sites

Extend your content footprint by publishing on reputable external sites to increase citations and answer prevalence.
Use those placements to occupy more search result slots and build domain authority via backlinks.

ADVICE

Treat Your Site As A Functional Product

Decide how much expert content to gate based on searchability versus member value and rethink your website as a functional product.
Put unique templates, frameworks, and practical case studies behind membership to create exclusive utility.

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In this special episode, Joe and Robert answer all the questions from the This Old Marketing audience.

How do backlink strategies (SEO) and citations (AEO) work together, and what unified content strategy can help brands earn both?

In the age of GEO, how should membership organizations decide what content to keep free versus behind a paywall, especially when balancing search visibility with exclusive expert value?

As AI takes over more execution, will small businesses and solopreneurs still need and pay for human marketing strategy, and how can independent consultants differentiate and stay relevant in an AI-first world?

Did the Netflix series about the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders measurably impact the team's brand or game viewership, and is it a model for how entertainment content can elevate a sports franchise's marketing?

Should marketers clearly separate "content marketing" (audience-building) from "sales enablement content" (purchase support), and does lumping them together lead to bad strategy and wrong KPIs?

If you were starting from zero today, with AI flooding every channel, what would you build first to create real audience trust and attention over the next five years, and what would you completely ignore that most marketers are still chasing?

Thanks to all of you for your questions and support.

Subscribe and Follow: Follow Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose on LinkedIn for insights, hot takes, and weekly updates from the world of content and marketing.

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Get all the show notes: https://www.thisoldmarketing.com/

Get Joe's new book, Burn the Playbook, at http://www.joepulizzi.com/books/burn-the-playbook/ Subscribe to Joe's Newsletter at https://www.joepulizzi.com/signup/.

Get Robert Rose's new book, Valuable Friction, at https://robertrose.net/valuable-friction/ Subscribe to Robert's Newsletter at https://seventhbearlens.substack.com/

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This Old Marketing is part of the HubSpot Podcast Network: https://www.hubspot.com/podcastnetwork