https://marketingopswithsam.com I build AI and marketing automation systems that save businesses time and money. Nine years in marketing ops with n8n, Claude, HubSpot and Salesforce. en-AU Fri, 23 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/competitor-ad-research https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/competitor-ad-research Fri, 23 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Every competitor's live ads are sitting in public libraries, free, no login. Here's the 10-minute competitor ad research routine, the AI prompt that turns screenshots into a one-page brief, and how to put it on a weekly schedule. Marketing Ops https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/ai-automation-agency-vs-consultant https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/ai-automation-agency-vs-consultant Sat, 17 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Gartner reckons only about 130 of the thousands of agentic AI vendors are the real thing. So before you hire an AI automation agency, run this 5-question test and send the scope template below. AI Agents https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/workflow-automation-examples https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/workflow-automation-examples Thu, 15 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT The n8n template library now lists more than 13,000 workflows, which is exactly why most teams never build one. Here are seven workflow automation examples worth stealing, and a quick score to pick your first. Automation https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/ai-receptionist-cost https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/ai-receptionist-cost Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Almost half of calls to businesses never reach a person. Here's what an AI receptionist actually costs in Australia, what drives the price, and a one-week test to see if it pays for itself. AI Agents https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/block-gptbot-or-allow-ai-crawlers https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/block-gptbot-or-allow-ai-crawlers Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Training bots and search bots are different crawlers with different jobs. Block the wrong one and you vanish from the answers you want to be in. AI Search https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/utm-naming-convention-ga4 https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/utm-naming-convention-ga4 Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Messy UTM tags split one channel into five rows and push real traffic into Unassigned. One naming convention, enforced when the link is made, fixes it. Marketing Ops https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/404-page-best-practices https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/404-page-best-practices Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT ChatGPT and friends invent links to your site. Each one is a buyer who arrives at a dead end. Here's the 30 minute fix and the weekly check that keeps it working. AI Search https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/what-is-dmarc https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/what-is-dmarc Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook now expect every business that sends email to prove it's really them. Here's what DMARC is, and the 10-minute setup that keeps your emails out of spam. Marketing Ops https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/lead-enrichment-automation https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/lead-enrichment-automation Thu, 08 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT A form fill gives you a name and an email. Here's how a free workflow turns that into a short brief before sales ever opens the record. Automation https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/share-of-llm-ai-visibility https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/share-of-llm-ai-visibility Wed, 07 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT AI answers change every time you ask. Here's how to measure your share of LLM honestly: 50 prompts, a few runs each, one weekly percentage. AI Search https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/fake-leads-crm-filter https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/fake-leads-crm-filter Tue, 06 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Fake leads cost you in two ways: the junk itself, and the real leads your team misses while chasing it. A cheap three-layer filter fixes both. Marketing Ops https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/how-to-get-cited-by-chatgpt https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/how-to-get-cited-by-chatgpt Mon, 05 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Nearly half of the page types ChatGPT cites are 'best X' lists. You can publish one for your own category, as long as you build it the way the AI (and your buyer) will trust. AI Search https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/how-to-rank-in-ai-overviews https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/how-to-rank-in-ai-overviews Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT When an AI Overview shows, the top result loses more than half its clicks. The fix isn't more content. It's rebuilding your best pages so Google can lift a clean answer straight out of them. AI Search https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/thank-you-page-examples https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/thank-you-page-examples Sat, 03 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Everyone who fills in your form lands on a thank you page, and most say 'Thanks, we'll be in touch.' Here are six better uses of the moment, plus how to automate them. Marketing Ops https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/wake-up-dead-leads-identity-email https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/wake-up-dead-leads-identity-email Sat, 03 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Every CRM has a graveyard of leads who went quiet. One email that reminds them who they are, not what you sell, brings a surprising number back. Here is the template and the automation. Automation https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/why-most-brand-humour-fails https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/why-most-brand-humour-fails Tue, 22 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT There is a specific kind of cringe that only exists in corporate content. The problem isn't the joke. It's that most brands are writing from outside the room. Marketing Ops https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/ai-marketing-agents https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/ai-marketing-agents Sun, 20 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Your team has ChatGPT open in one tab and the CRM in another. That is not AI automation, that is copy paste with better grammar. Here is how to build agents wired into the stack so the work happens without someone babysitting a spreadsheet. AI Agents https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/marketing-automation-evolution-2026 https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/marketing-automation-evolution-2026 Wed, 09 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Six marketing platforms shipped AI agents between April and July 2026, and all six used the word agentic. Here's what each one actually does, and the two things they all have in common. Automation https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/ai-should-only-do-3-things https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/ai-should-only-do-3-things Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT AI should only do three things: save you cost, save you time, or help you work faster. Here's the data behind why most AI spending misses all three, and the 3-question test I use to cut what doesn't. AI Agents https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/company-data-after-ai-at-work https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/company-data-after-ai-at-work Sat, 06 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Employees are pasting company data into outside AI tools every day. Microsoft Scout runs inside your 365 environment with traceable identities and existing compliance baked in. AI Agents https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/people-use-ai-every-day-and-dont-trust-it https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/people-use-ai-every-day-and-dont-trust-it Sun, 10 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT People use AI every day and still don't trust it. Habit and trust are not the same thing - and the brands pushing AI into customer-facing moments are finding out the hard way. AI Agents https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/age-of-the-marketing-agent https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/age-of-the-marketing-agent Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT AI agents are not chatbots - they take action unsupervised across your stack. Here is what's working, what's failing, and what marketing teams should do in 2026. AI Agents https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/ai-discount-finder https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/ai-discount-finder Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Build a private AI-powered system that tracks prices and alerts you to deals without subscribing to newsletters or giving away your data. Automation https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/marketing-ops-2026 https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/marketing-ops-2026 Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT In 2026, marketing operations will be the backbone of predictable growth. This playbook outlines five priorities that separate high-performing Marketing Ops teams from the rest. Marketing Ops https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/lead-qualification-speed-to-lead https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/lead-qualification-speed-to-lead Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Most lead qualification systems focus on adding more layers. In practice, what matters most is not how much information is collected, but when the first real interaction happens. Forms capture interest. Calls reveal truth. Marketing Ops https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/lead-generation-workflow-small-business https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/lead-generation-workflow-small-business Wed, 14 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT What would a lead generation workflow look like if it were designed from scratch today? Not to scale aggressively. Not to blast inboxes. But to reduce friction. This post documents that experiment. Automation https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/n8n-voice-assistant-elevenlabs https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/n8n-voice-assistant-elevenlabs Sat, 10 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Build two n8n voice setups: Telegram voice-in voice-out replies and a real-time ElevenLabs conversational agent that calls an n8n webhook for researched answers. AI Agents https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/personal-ai-newsletter https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/personal-ai-newsletter Sat, 10 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Most newsletters are written for a broad audience. What if the newsletter was written for you, not for an audience? That became the idea behind a personal AI newsletter. Automation https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/from-faq-bots-to-real-ai-assistants-built-for-production https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/from-faq-bots-to-real-ai-assistants-built-for-production Fri, 09 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Most website chatbots are just FAQ scripts. Here is what changes when you design a real AI assistant for production, starting with paper-first thinking. AI Agents https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/invoice-processing-workflow-n8n https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/invoice-processing-workflow-n8n Thu, 08 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Manual invoice processing is one of the most time-consuming tasks in any finance or operations workflow. This workflow removes that repetitive admin work entirely using n8n, AI-powered extraction, and automated email notifications. Automation https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/the-art-of-lead-scoring-in-the-age-of-ai https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/the-art-of-lead-scoring-in-the-age-of-ai Fri, 05 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT In marketing operations, we deal with endless data. Every click, every download, every page visit creates noise. Lead scoring helps make sense of the noise. It shows you which signals matter and which people are actually interested. Marketing Ops https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/the-hidden-buying-trends-that-are-reshaping-pipelines-everywhere https://marketingopswithsam.com/blog/the-hidden-buying-trends-that-are-reshaping-pipelines-everywhere Fri, 05 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT Modern buyers do not follow the old funnel anymore. In this post I break down the hidden buying trends that are reshaping pipelines everywhere and how companies can respond with behavior based scoring, AI, intent signals and a shift from lead volume to lead value. Marketing Ops