Strategy

How to optimise your content strategy for AI engines – HubSpot x TMM

Rory Hope, Head of EN Growth at HubSpot and Laura Lane, Head of Marketing Northern Europe at HubSpot
When buyers search for information today, something very different happens. Many never reach a company’s website at all. The traditional inbound model that once powered modern marketing is no longer enough. That was the starting point of a Marketing Meetup session with Laura Lane, Head of Marketing for Northern Europe at HubSpot, and Rory Hope, […]
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When buyers search for information today, something very different happens. Many never reach a company’s website at all. The traditional inbound model that once powered modern marketing is no longer enough.

That was the starting point of a Marketing Meetup session with Laura Lane, Head of Marketing for Northern Europe at HubSpot, and Rory Hope, HubSpot’s Head of Growth. Together, they explored how answer engine optimisation (AEO) is redefining SEO, why website traffic is declining, and how HubSpot’s new Loop Framework helps marketers thrive in this new AI-driven search landscape.

Here is a summary of the main insights from the discussion. We’ve used an AI helper to write this with us, so please excuse any pesky errors 🙂

Table of Contents

Why the Old SEO Playbook No Longer Works

Laura began by reflecting on how inbound marketing has changed. For years, the formula was simple: create content, optimise it for keywords, rank on Google, and attract visitors through clicks.

But that model is breaking down. AI search engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini no longer display a list of blue links. Instead, they curate information from multiple sources and present users with a single, synthesised answer right on the results page.

In other words, the buyer journey often ends before a click ever happens. Google’s AI Overviews, now appearing in six out of ten searches, are cutting click-through rates by half. The result is what SEO experts call “the great decoupling” – impressions keep climbing while website visits fall away.

Laura calls this the alligator mouth: a widening gap between visibility and engagement. Even if your content ranks high, you may see fewer visitors because users get the answers they need before reaching your site.

The Rise of Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)

HubSpot’s response to this challenge is not to resist change, but to lead it. Rory introduced Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) – a new discipline that focuses on helping your brand appear inside AI-generated answers.

AEO is not a replacement for SEO but an evolution of it. The goal is for your site to be cited or referenced within AI answers as a trusted source. These citations build credibility and encourage users to visit your site later in their buying journey.

The data is promising. Visitors referred from AI engines are converting three times faster and spending more than traditional organic visitors. They are arriving informed, confident and ready to buy.

Understanding How AI Changes the Buyer Journey

Traditional marketing funnels were linear. Users discovered a brand through search, learned more via the website, and then converted. But that is no longer how people buy.

AI has scattered awareness across platforms such as TikTok, Reddit, YouTube and podcasts. People begin with AI tools to explore their options, then turn to social communities for validation. By the time they reach your website, they are not browsing – they are confirming.

That means the website is now the final stop in the buyer journey, not the first. Fewer visits no longer mean less success. Instead, marketers should focus on intent, not volume.

HubSpot’s Loop Framework

To adapt to this new environment, HubSpot developed a new growth playbook: Loop. Built for the AI era, Loop replaces the old campaign cycle with a continuous feedback system that blends human creativity and machine intelligence.

The framework has four stages: Express, Tailor, Amplify, and Evolve.

Express is about defining who you are and what makes you different. Brands that skip this step risk blending into the generic tone of AI-generated content.

Tailor is where you personalise your marketing, using AI tools to create content that feels relevant and authentic to each audience segment.

Amplify means showing up where your buyers are – from social platforms to forums – and encouraging others to recommend you.

Evolve is the final stage, where marketers test, measure, and refine continuously rather than relying on quarterly plans.

Loop turns marketing into a living system, where every campaign becomes smarter with each cycle.

Express: The Foundation of AEO

Rory explained that successful answer engine optimisation begins with the Express stage. Before creating any content, brands must define their tone, purpose and unique point of view.

This clarity provides context for both human readers and AI systems. Without it, AI-generated content risks becoming vague or irrelevant.

Rory calls this process context engineering – giving AI the information it needs to generate accurate and on-brand content. By mapping customer profiles and identifying the questions those audiences are likely to ask, marketers can guide AI to produce high-quality answers instead of generic text.

In short, express who you are before you amplify what you know.

How to Optimise Content for Answer Engines

Rory then explained how AEO works in practice. AI engines use a process called retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to build their responses. They pull passages – sentences, paragraphs or data points – from trusted websites and combine them into an answer.

To be included, your content must be easy for AI to find and interpret. That means clear structure, short paragraphs, subheadings and tables. Use plain language and visible HTML rather than hiding content behind scripts.

Rory recommends writing in semantic triples – short sentences that follow the pattern subject–predicate–object. For example:

“HubSpot provides marketing automation software for B2B companies.”

This structure helps AI associate your brand with specific solutions, improving your chances of being cited as part of an AI answer.

Hyperpersonalisation and the Query Fan-Out

AI engines do not deliver a single standard answer. They personalise results using a process called query fan-out, which generates multiple related questions based on the user’s profile and chat history.

For example, if someone asks, “How can I generate leads for my business?”, the AI might internally expand that to:

  • “How can I generate leads for a SaaS company?”
  • “How can I generate leads on a small budget?”
  • “How can I generate leads for a company in London?”

By anticipating these variations, marketers can create content that targets these long-tail queries. The more relevant questions your site answers, the more likely you are to appear in AI results.

Focusing on the Bottom of the Funnel

A key insight from the session was that awareness-stage content is less valuable in the age of AI. Many basic queries are already covered in the training data of large models. Instead, marketers should concentrate on evaluation and decision-stage content, where AI is more likely to retrieve fresh, authoritative sources.

That means optimising product pages, comparison guides, case studies and FAQs for answer engine optimisation. When your brand appears in responses to buying-stage questions, the traffic you receive will be smaller but significantly higher in intent.

Practical AEO Tools

To measure performance, HubSpot has created a free AEO Grader tool that shows how often your brand appears in AI-generated answers. Rory also mentioned paid tools such as Xfunnel, Caforia, and Dan’s Fan-Out Tool for deeper analysis of AI search visibility.

Tracking these metrics allows teams to identify which content is being cited and which questions to target next.

From SEO to AEO: The Mindset Shift

Traditional SEO focused on ranking for keywords. AEO focuses on earning citations inside answers. Where SEO measured success in clicks, AEO measures influence and trust.

The most successful marketers will be those who combine both: using SEO to maintain visibility in traditional search, and AEO to dominate AI results. The two approaches will coexist, shaping a more conversational, context-driven internet.

Conclusion

The future of inbound marketing will not be built on clicks alone. It will depend on answer engine optimisation, where brands earn visibility by being part of the conversation rather than just appearing beneath it.

HubSpot’s Loop Framework offers a practical guide for navigating this shift. By expressing a clear brand identity, tailoring content for audiences, amplifying across channels, and evolving through iteration, marketers can turn AI from a threat into an advantage.

As Laura and Rory concluded, the goal is no longer just to rank. It is to be the answer.