Your backlinks aren’t driving citations

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👀 Link building is old now

Standard SEO workflows have founders building resource-page outreach to earn backlinks. The work still moves Google rankings. 

The deeper shift is that 85% of brand mentions in AI engines come from off-site sources where traditional outreach doesn't work: forums, Reddit threads, third-party comparison sites, podcast transcripts, and community posts. You can't email Reddit to add you to a resource page.

Audit Where AI Engines Are Pulling Brand Mentions In Your Category

Run buyer queries through ChatGPT and Perplexity and trace the sources each engine cites. The citations link to specific URLs, and the URLs reveal the off-site surfaces driving AI visibility in your category.

For most categories, the breakdown lands at 30-40% Reddit and forum content, 20-30% third-party comparison sites, 15-25% podcast transcripts and YouTube content, and only 10-15% brand-owned content. 

Traditional link building targets the 10-15% lane. The 85% lane requires a different operating model.

Build Presence In The Off-Site Surfaces Driving Citations In Your Category

Off-site presence isn't outreach. It's participation. Founder's presence in relevant Reddit communities. Customer reviews are seeded into third-party comparison sites. 

Podcast appearances where transcripts get indexed. Community posts written by employees, not PR teams.

The work is operationally heavier than email outreach because it requires sustained presence, not one-off asks.

Redirect Link-Building Budget Toward Off-Site Signal Generation

If 85% of citation lift comes from off-site, the budget allocation should reflect that ratio.

The reallocation isn't shifting all SEO budget to off-site. Backlinks still matter for Google. The reallocation is bringing off-site signal generation up to match its AI citation impact, which usually means doubling or tripling the current off-site investment. 

Running an off-site signal program at this scale is operationally heavier than most teams can sustain manually. On June 11, growth leaders from Chime, Bitly, and Udemy are showing how they moved past one-off prompts into agentic Playbooks that run, improve, and maintain themselves. You can secure your free spot here.

The link building wasn't wrong. It's no longer where the citation lift lives.

Together with HubSpot

Quick gut check: how many of your marketing tools actually talk to each other?

If the answer is "not enough," you're losing context every time a signal moves between platforms.

HubSpot's updated Essential Apps for Marketers collection pulls together key apps from TikTok Lead Syncing to Canva to Amplitude that connect directly to your CRM, so insights, leads, and creative all live in one place.

Less tab-switching, more context, and AI that actually knows your business.

⚡Retention Expands Acquisition Economics More Than Lower CAC Does

 This post argues that many brands over-focus on lowering acquisition costs while underinvesting in customer retention. Improving repeat purchase behavior increases lifetime value, which in turn allows brands to spend more aggressively on acquisition while remaining profitable. The real growth lever is often customer value, not customer cost.

Why it works: Higher LTV improves payback periods and margin flexibility. Brands with stronger retention can afford higher CACs, outbid competitors, and scale more sustainably because existing customers generate additional revenue over time.

Where it needs balance: Retention cannot compensate for weak acquisition indefinitely. Brands still need a healthy flow of new customers to grow. The strongest businesses optimize both acquisition and retention rather than treating them as competing priorities.

🎥 Reel of the Day

What Works:

The Reel Doesn't Capture Attention, It Hijacks It - Viewers stop scrolling to fix the fake hair on their screen, turning passive content consumption into active participation before noticing the product.

The Product Benefits From Borrowed Attention - People spend more time staring at the pastry while trying to remove the hair, creating retention through distraction rather than desire.

The Comments Prove The Creative Worked - Thousands admitted wiping their screens, proving the reel generated the exact same reaction repeatedly which is far stronger than passive engagement.

Create a harmless problem viewers instinctively want to solve because urgency consistently generates stronger attention than beauty alone.

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Thanks for reading this edition! Keep pushing boundaries, testing ideas, and staying inspired. See you in the next edition with more ways to ignite your marketing success. 🥰