The great unclick 📱

Hello marketers. Welcome to AI Marketing School, where we dish out the latest and greatest in AI-powered marketing.

In this week’s issue:

• The Stack: Deep research + visuals

• AI Marketing Update: Zero-click in the age of AI

• AI Events: Our recommended AI marketing events for networking and connections

Onwards!

THE STACK

Creating flashy infographics + the ridiculous power of Claude 4 Opus

Claude has been able to create infographics for some time through Artifacts, but Gemini has been quietly building its own Canvas feature for a while. Interestingly, this is one area where ChatGPT has slipped down the pile a bit. 

Here’s a demonstration of using Gemini (the free version) to conduct in-depth research and transform it into a modern infographic. 

It will likely use Tailwind CSS by default, a tool for building websites that look clean and modern. Instead of writing custom code for every minor style, Tailwind provides ready-to-use building blocks that you can mix and match directly in your HTML.

In the top right, you’ll find the ‘Create’ button, where you can select ‘Infographic.’ It can take some time, but by the end, you’ll have a squeaky clean infographic to copy onto your site. You can specify style, color hex codes, font, and other details.

As for copying it out, you can manually take a screenshot of the graphic, or you can copy the code into your site. If any web developers have a super-quick method for adding them to WordPress, please comment in the feedback section so I can include it in the next newsletter!

Now, the honest truth is that I haven’t copied one of these interactive infographics onto a WordPress site, but I suspect it would be fairly straightforward.

Simple images suit most use cases anyway. You could give them to designers on Fiverr as mock-ups to have them made into something more unique. The significant accomplishment here is transforming in-depth research into visually appealing graphics that appear professional, and it takes just seconds.

By the way, if you click ‘Share,’ you can get a full-screen version.

We can bring this to another level yet with Claude 4 Opus.

I used deep research to delve into a ridiculous 400+ websites using this prompt, surveying numerous industry publications, journals, and other resources. I cut the crap to home in on high-quality references.

It would take hours to find all of this without AI. Indeed, some of those PwC and McKinsey reports, etc, can be tricky to find at all.

From there, it’s wide open. You can turn your research into blog posts or articles, with citations linked directly as hyperlinks. Or you can pull out key insights and themes to build infographics — much like you'd do in Gemini — making the information both engaging and easy to digest.

Here’s a full-blown report built from the stats (ask it to include sources as hyperlinks):

You could also use your research to list stats by theme for other projects:

And here’s an infographic created from the research. I’m not sure why it didn’t use the existing research. I’m sure it would if requested — but it’s not like you need 400 sources anyway!

One key limitation: Claude’s deep research uses up a significant portion of your chat length, so you won’t be able to generate unlimited articles or posts from a single session.

That said, you can still get a few solid blog posts, some social content, and more from one in-depth research run.

While I’m focusing mostly on content creation here, this kind of workflow is just as valuable for market research, learning, academic work, and beyond.

AI MARKETING UPDATE

Zero-click isn't new, but AI just fed it on steroids

We've heard a great deal in 2025 about how AI is set to transform marketing, so let's explore one of the key topics within that conversation: zero-click content.

A recent study by Bain found that 80% of consumers now rely on "zero-click" results in at least 40% of their searches, resulting in a 15% to 25% reduction in organic web traffic. The study specifically calls out how "generative AI is turning the customer journey into an algorithm-driven narrative."

Zero-click content happens when users get what they need directly within the platform they're using.

Think Google search results that answer your question completely, LinkedIn posts that teach you something without requiring a click, Instagram carousels that give you the full tutorial, TikTok videos that solve your problem in seconds.

Now, we’ve discussed this a fair bit, so I’ll spare some of the formalities.

But essentially, with Google’s AI snippets, ChatGPT integrating into search and shopping, and tools like Perplexity gaining traction, the shift toward platform-native answers, where users get what they need without ever having to click, is only accelerating.

The path from thought to answer is shortening, cutting out lots of marketing middle-man. 

. The timeline looks a bit like this:

• 2008: Instagram launches with no external linking in captions

• 2014: Google introduces featured snippets - the first taste of zero-click search

• 2016: TikTok builds its entire model around native, consumable content

• 2017: 54% of Google searches end without clicks

• 2020: Zero-click searches hit 65% globally

• 2022: Marketing pro Amanda Natividad coins "zero-click content" for social media

• 2024: Mobile zero-click searches reach 75%

• 2025: AI accelerates everything - Google AI Mode, ChatGPT shopping features launch

As we can see, platforms have been engineering this behavior for over a decade. They make more money when you stay within their ecosystem. 

The real game-changer, though, is that platforms are now becoming full commerce destinations. 

Google launched "agentic checkout," which allows you to set price alerts and automatically purchase items for you when they reach your target price. ChatGPT will soon offer payments through its interface. 

Does that render marketing obsolete, or will it? No, because there is no destination without marketing.

Marketing = building visibility and awareness at its most fundamental. AI doesn’t change that.

The silver lining (that most marketers are missing)

While everyone's panicking about lost traffic, some smart publishers are actually seeing increased visibility from AI citations.

AI Overviews typically cite 5-6 sources compared to featured snippets that highlight just one. That means more brands get mentioned, not fewer.

And here’s the key: When users do click after reading an AI Overview, they're pre-qualified - the AI has already sold them on your credibility.

Once you're in that position, it may be difficult for competitors to displace you. 

So, what can we do to thrive in this shifting terrain? 

We've been examining platform behaviors, successful zero-click campaigns, and AI system preferences to determine what actually works. 

Here are four core strategies:

1. Building broad influence

Despite channels such as Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, etc, acting as silos, AI actually draws upon many ecosystems when looking for sources to cite.

That’s because when you ask a question to ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, it will nearly always look at multiple channels.

The key insight is that AI systems can take a cross-section of your expertise from different platforms to build a comprehensive picture of your authority.

ChatGPT might pull your Reddit comment and YouTube video, Grok could reference your X thread, Google's AI draws from your blog - but they're all contributing to the same expertise profile.

And don’t forget forums! They’re showing a lot in AI citations. It’s a bit of a throwback to early SEO, where being in the right place at the right time (with something genuinely useful to say) can earn your brand unexpected visibility.

This means your zero-click content across platforms isn't competing with itself, it's compounding. Your TikTok video explaining a concept reinforces your LinkedIn analysis when AI systems evaluate your overall credibility in that topic area.

So:

• Build platform-specific authority that reinforces your overall expertise signals

• Create content that showcases knowledge without requiring clicks to prove value

The ultimate goal is to become recognizable as an expert across multiple data sources that different AI systems access.

2. Technical LLM optimization (LLMO)

Not long ago, we looked at research involving inserting ‘strategic text sequences’ into your copy, which wraps up key information into one easily digested piece of text. 

The study demonstrated how embedding specific phrases, such as "cost-effective" or "saves time," into product descriptions enabled AI systems to recommend those products for relevant queries, even when better options were available. 

AI systems pick up on specific phrasing that directly aligns with user intent, but these comments or questions do differ from long-tail keywords. 

• Embed strategic phrases that match common AI queries in your field

• Use problem-solving terminology in product descriptions and content

• Write in the language people actually use when asking AI systems

Read more about creating STS here. More on LLM-friendly content here. There is also a tutorial on creating STS available here.

3. The citation strategy

Getting cited by AI is the new link building, but AI systems need extractable, attributable information they can quote and reference.

A food blogger writing about sourdough shouldn’t just say "fermentation improves digestibility." 

They should write "wild yeast fermentation breaks down 80% of gluten proteins in wheat flour over 24 hours, making sourdough easier to digest for people with mild gluten sensitivities." That includes the process, timeline, specific outcome, and source.

Three key points here:

• Structure information so individual insights can be extracted and cited separately

• Include research sources, specific outcomes, and methodologies for any claims

• Write definitive statements rather than hedged marketing language

4. Your brand, everywhere 

Ok, point one basically said this, but the importance of branching out can’t be underestimated.

Marketers need to promote their brand as much as possible across every possible touchpoint because, even though distinct ecosystems aim to build walls, AI has a knack for reaching over that wall and picking the best bits.

The good news is that AI helps you scale. Utilise AI to transform your long-form content into concise, short-form videos for TikTok and YouTube Shorts. 

Turn your expertise into Medium articles, LinkedIn newsletters, podcast appearances, guest posts, Reddit AMAs, X threads, and consider free and paid collaborations…just maximize your brand’s surface area. 

Think volume and variety. Your yoga tutorial becomes a TikTok video, a Medium article about flexibility science, a LinkedIn post about workplace wellness, and a Reddit comment helping someone with back pain.

Notice how expertise transfers across multiple domains??

• Use AI tools to repurpose one piece of content across multiple formats and platforms

• Focus on platforms where your audience actually spends time, not just where you're comfortable

• Experiment with new channels rather than doubling down on declining ones

When one door closes, others open. The brands winning in zero-click are those spreading their expertise as widely as possible.

AI MARKETING EVENTS

🗓️ Recommended AI marketing events

Whether you’re building with AI, leading a marketing team, or just trying to stay sharp in a fast-moving space, events are still one of the best ways to plug in.

Great events do more than just deliver content — they give you context. You get to see what other teams are testing, what’s actually working, and where the market is headed.

They’re also one of the few places where you can meet like-minded people, talk shop with folks solving the same problems, and build a network that isn’t purely algorithmic!

Some top events to check out:

•  AI Agents Summit (Virtual) — September 18–19, 2025: Laser-focused on AI agents, copilots, and autonomous systems. If you're experimenting with automating parts of your marketing workflow or interested in agent-based design, this one’s worth attending.

• AI for Marketers Summit (Virtual) — November 13–14, 2025: Created specifically for marketing professionals. From prompt engineering to campaign automation, it’s a practical look at how AI is being used right now in real teams.

• Data + AI Summit (San Francisco) — June 9–12, 2025: Hosted by Databricks, there’s plenty of marketing relevance here — especially around LLM workflows, AI tooling, and future-proofing your stack.

• Ai4 2025 (Las Vegas) — August 11–13, 2025: A big-picture AI conference covering finance, healthcare, retail, marketing, and more.

Hope you enjoyed this week’s issue. If you missed the last newsletter, you can read it here.

If you found it useful, please recommend it to a friend or colleague.

Until next time. Happy marketing.

—The AI Marketer