🐊 Editor's Note
Hey there,
Welcome back to another Don’t Feed The Algorithm, your weekly dispatch from Averi — where we explore the intersections of marketing, AI and the future of work.
For years, content marketing was treated like a grind. Write more. Publish more. Post everywhere. Hope something sticks.
Then AI showed up and removed the hard part: execution.
Now anyone can generate content. Which means the advantage has quietly shifted.
The teams winning in 2026 aren’t creating more content — they’re building content engines. Systems that turn insight into output. Strategy into consistency. Ideas into momentum.
This week’s feature breaks down how to do exactly that:
How to build an AI-powered content engine that grows your startup without burning out your team or drowning in tools.
We’re pairing it with two critical pieces for what comes next:
• A breakdown of the SEO + GEO trends that defined 2025 — and what LLM-driven search is rewarding now
• And a hard look at the marketing tools B2B SaaS teams actually need in 2026 (spoiler: it’s fewer than you think)
Because the future of content isn’t about writing faster. It’s about building a system that ships — week after week — while everyone else is still chasing the algorithm.
Let’s build engines, not hamster wheels.
— ZC & The Averi Team
⚙️ Straight Outta Dev
Build Your GEO/LLM Search Optimized Content Engine in Q1 2026
Content is still the biggest growth lever for early-stage startups, 62% cheaper than traditional marketing, generating 3x more leads.
But the playbook has changed fast.
50% of B2B buyers now start in ChatGPT, not Google. AI-referred traffic is up 527% this year alone.
Averi built a GEO-optimized content engine that increased our organic & LLM referred traffic by 6000% in 6 months.
We’ve now created that platform for you - in one cohesive workflow. Built for startup speed & flexibility.
Want to be a part of our free Beta?
— Averi Team
📝 The Good Sh*t
How to Build an AI Content Engine That Grows Your Startup
Here's a stat that should keep every founder up at night…
70% of marketers report that content creation remains their biggest operational challenge, even as the average B2B organization now produces 13x more content than they did five years ago.
Something doesn't add up.
We have more AI tools than ever. More automation. More templates. More "content at scale" solutions promising to solve all your marketing problems with a single prompt.
And yet, only 29% of marketers say their content strategy is effective. 12% say AI actually decreased the quality of their content.
The tools aren't the problem. The approach is.
12 SEO + GEO Search Trends That Defined 2025 (And the Playbook for What Comes Next)→ Read online
Top 10 Marketing Tools Every B2B SaaS Company Needs in 2026 → Read online
🔥 In Case You Missed It…
Half of consumers now use AI search tools during product discovery — Roughly 50% of consumers are relying on AI-powered search to research brands, products, and services — a shift that’s already reshaping how marketing teams think about visibility beyond classic SEO.→ Explore the trend
AI isn’t slopping the internet — but the backlash is real — “AI slop” — low-value, high-velocity AI content — continues flooding the web, drawing criticism and sparking debate about quality vs. quantity in the creative economy. → Get the context
78% of U.S. CEOs say AI will transform workplace efficiency and innovation in 2026 — According to a new study, nearly four out of five executives believe AI is no longer a fad but a critical lever for growth, efficiency and product evolution. That vote of confidence signals doubling down, not dialing back. → See the full report
Samsung teases its AI vision at CES 2026 — “Your companion to AI living” — Ahead of CES, Samsung announced a major “AI living” keynote, hinting at a future where AI isn’t just a tool — it’s integrated into daily life in intuitive, ambient ways. → See the teaser
Helium AI launches new tools for marketing & presentations — Helium AI released two new enterprise tools designed to streamline brand-compliant content creation and marketing workflows, giving teams faster, more cohesive outputs at scale. → Check it out
Wall Street is watching an AI bubble form — and betting on what might pop it — As venture capital recalibrates and markets price risk into AI valuations, investors are watching the tech world balance boom, bubble, and bottleneck dynamics heading into 2026. → Understand the landscape
🕵 Marketer’s Anonymous
We all know the industry loves to pretend it’s got it all figured out.
But here?
We tell the truth.
Every week, we’re asking you to share how things really work behind the scenes. Because getting better starts with getting honest.
Don’t worry, it’s a safe space.
Drop your vote.
What's your biggest focus in 2026?
But seriously though… how is it ALREADY 2026?
📺 The Algorithm Could Never
Apple — “Shot on iPhone: Little Garlic”
Apple didn’t release a product video.
They released a short film.
“Little Garlic” is a quiet, intimate story told through small, human moments — family, food, memory — all captured on an iPhone without ever shouting about specs, features, or megapixels.
It’s warm. It’s restrained. It trusts the audience. No overlays explaining what you’re seeing. No CTA begging for attention. No algorithm-chasing hook in the first three seconds.
Just confidence.
Why We Love It:
Because this is what taste looks like when it’s fully baked.
An algorithm could tell you what performs.
It could suggest jump cuts. It could optimize the opening frame.
But it couldn’t decide to slow down.
It couldn’t choose understatement over spectacle. It couldn’t trust silence to do the work.
Apple didn’t try to convince you the iPhone is powerful.
They showed you — and let the feeling linger.
That’s not optimization. That’s conviction.
And conviction never comes from a model.
Do we dig it?
Want to see more of the best marketed companies on the planet? 👇
🗓️ Make Friends
NRF 2026: Retail’s Big Show — New York, NY | Jan 11-13 | → Register
Samsung “The First Look” Pre-CES Event — Las Vegas, NV | Jan 4 (Pre-show) → Register
AI for Strategic Communications Virtual Conference — Virtual | Jan 21-22 | → Register
International Conference on Virtual Multidisciplinary Research (ICVMR) — Chicago, IL | Jan 1 | → Register
Digital Marketing 2026: Staying Ahead in the Age of AI | Virtual Webinar | January, 15, 2026 | → Register
International Conference on Recent Challenges in Engineering & Tech — New York, NY | Jan 2 | → Register
Agentic AI Summit
Understand where AI should sit within your business and who should be leading these transformations for the most effective integration across the whole business.
Date: Jan 26-28th, 2026
Location: Miami, FL
Link: Register
CES 2026
This is where global brands get business done, meet new partners and where the industry's sharpest minds take the stage to unveil their latest releases and boldest breakthroughs. Get a real feel for the latest solutions to the world's biggest challenges with immersive activations and demos. Engage with the greatest minds and most impactful brands of our time.
Date: Jan 6-9th, 2026
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Link: Register
🦄 Averi Stories & Startup Spotlight
Attio: The AI-Native CRM Built for Modern Teams Who Actually Move Fast
CRMs were never designed for how teams work today. They’re rigid, over-engineered, and filled with fields no one wants to update. Attio flips that model — building a CRM that feels more like a living system than a database.
The Backstory: Founded by ex-Stripe operators frustrated with legacy CRMs, Attio was built around a simple insight: relationships aren’t rows in a spreadsheet. Early adoption exploded among startups and modern SaaS teams who needed flexibility, speed, and a system that adapts as their business evolves.
Key Innovation: Attio combines a powerful data model with AI-assisted workflows — automatically enriching contacts, surfacing relationship insights, and letting teams build custom views, pipelines, and automations without breaking flow. Instead of forcing process, it molds itself to how teams actually operate.
In a world where growth teams are expected to move faster with fewer tools, Attio represents the next generation of systems: intelligent, flexible, and built for momentum — not maintenance.
💡Ask Averi
AI + Human Marketing Tip
"Don’t ask AI to create until it knows why."
Most content engines fail because they skip the thinking layer.
Before you ask it to write a blog, post, or landing page, ask it to answer three questions:
Who is this really for?
What problem are we helping them see more clearly?
What do we want them to believe or do differently afterward?
AI is incredible at turning clarity into output.
It’s terrible at inventing clarity from chaos.
Humans provide intent.
AI provides acceleration.
When you combine the two in the right order, content stops feeling forced — and starts compounding.
Strategy You Can Steal
The “One Insight, Many Assets” Engine
This is the workflow smart teams use to build leverage without burning out:
Step 1: Capture One Real Insight
Pull a sharp takeaway from a founder convo, customer call, Slack thread, or sales objection.
Ask Averi: “What’s the underlying insight here that most people miss?”
Step 2: Pressure-Test the Insight
Ask: “Why does this matter right now?” “Who will disagree with this — and why?”
This is where taste shows up.
Step 3: Build the Anchor Asset
Use /create Mode to turn the insight into one strong piece: A blog post, a newsletter section, or a POV-driven LinkedIn post.
Step 4: Multiply, Don’t Rewrite
Ask Averi to repurpose the anchor into:
• A short email
• A carousel
• A video script
• A landing page hook
• A GEO/LLM-friendly explainer
All tied back to the same idea.
Step 5: Save & Reinforce
Drop everything into Library so future content builds on past thinking instead of starting from zero.
One insight.
Many assets.
A content engine that actually compounds.
— Averi
💼 Don’t Let AI Replace You
OpenAI
Position: Growth Paid Marketing Platform Engineer – San Francisco, CA
A full-stack engineer role on the ChatGPT Growth team building marketing/infrastructure systems for paid acquisition, attribution, and experiment pipelines. → Apply Now
OpenAI
Position: Data Engineer, Marketing – San Francisco, CA
Leads building pipelines and core marketing datasets (spend, CAC, ROI, etc) powering growth and GTM strategy. → Apply Now
OpenAI
Position: Product Marketing Manager, ChatGPT Consumer – San Francisco, CA
Strategy & messaging for ChatGPT’s consumer product: go-to-market planning, positioning, adoption. → Apply Now
Carbon Robotics
Position: Field Marketing Manager — Remote / USA
Details: Carbon Robotics is hiring a Field Marketing Manager to lead regional events and campaigns for its AI-driven robotics hardware offerings — a good fit for someone with both tech curiosity and marketing chops.→ Apply Now
OpenAI
Position: Product Marketing Manager, Developer Platform – San Francisco, CA
GTM for OpenAI’s API/developer platform: launch planning, narrative development, driving adoption. → Apply Now
OpenAI
Position: Growth – Performance Marketing & Growth Optimizations – New York City, NY
Full-funnel growth role (paid acquisition, optimization, AI-driven workflows) for ChatGPT’s expansion. → Apply Now
Profound
Position: AI Marketing Engineer
Location: Remote / USA
Profound is hiring someone to build marketing workflows and automation systems that help enterprise marketers optimize their AI visibility. → Apply Now
C3 AI
Position: Multiple roles (Enterprise AI Applications)
Location: Redwood City, CA / USA
C3 AI is looking for engineers and technologists to build and deploy enterprise AI solutions—including marketing & analytics‐adjacent work. → Apply Now
Liftoff
Position: Digital & Content Marketing Strategist – Remote
Location: USA (Remote)
Liftoff is seeking a strategist to oversee global content strategy, optimize AI-driven content discoverability, and manage digital campaigns. → Apply Now
Nasuni
Position: Manager, Content Marketing – Hybrid (Boston, MA)
Location: Boston, MA / USA
Nasuni is recruiting a senior level content marketing manager with experience in AI, big data and cloud infrastructure to lead editorial & creative operations. → Apply Now
Hiya
Position: Senior Product Marketing Manager, SMB Audience + Digital Growth
Location: Seattle, WA / USA (Hybrid)
Hiya is looking for a product marketing leader to manage go-to-market strategy and growth with a strong digital/AI-driven orientation. → Apply Now
Looking to fill an open role on your marketing team? Averi can help!
We have access to the best marketers in the world at our fingertips.
Fill out the form below and we’ll work with you to find great candidates for your roles.
Did You Know? — Brands that structure content into clear topic clusters and authority pillars are 4× more likely to be cited by LLMs than brands publishing standalone posts — even when their total content volume is lower.
In the age of AI search, structure beats scale.
Til next time,
