Field Notes

How much does a marketing agency cost for a small business in 2026?
Typical marketing agency costs for small businesses in 2026: freelancer rates, project pricing, and retainers compared, plus when hiring makes sense and the red flags to avoid. Read more...
Attention is not a pipeline. The minimal lead capture setup for a small store.
Likes and visits disappear. A list compounds. Here's the smallest lead capture setup that actually works: one form, one welcome email, and a rhythm you can sustain. Read more...
Stop chasing reach. Small brands grow in micro-communities now.
A few hundred engaged people in the right community beat thousands of disengaged followers, with reported conversion rates 5 to 10 times higher. How a small brand picks one community and shows up properly. Read more...
AI sends fewer visitors than Google. They buy more. Here's why.
Visitors referred by ChatGPT reportedly convert at around 7% versus 5% from Google, and stay nearly twice as long. Why AI referrals arrive pre-sold, and how to spot them in your analytics. Read more...
You can rank #1 on Google and still not exist to AI.
The overlap between top Google results and the sources AI engines cite has reportedly collapsed from 70% to under 20%. Here's what that means for a store that spent years on SEO, and what transfers. Read more...
Reputation is the new ranking. What actually makes AI recommend a brand.
Roughly 85% of brand mentions in AI answers come from third-party pages, and Reddit alone is the most cited domain in Google's AI Overviews. Here are the five signals that decide whether AI recommends you. Read more...
Email returns about 40 to 1. Most stores still only send discounts.
Email remains the best-paying channel a small store has, but discount-only senders train customers to wait for sales. Four email types that build a list people actually want to read. Read more...
AI fatigue is real. Small brands can win because of it.
Over half of consumers report AI fatigue, and big brands are pulling AI-generated ads after public backlash. Here's why that's an opening for small brands, and where to draw the line with AI in your own marketing. Read more...
People are asking AI what to buy. Here's how to check what it says about you.
Around one in five shoppers now research products through AI tools. Here's a 15-minute audit to find out whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google recommend you, your competitors, or nobody. Read more...
Shopify added an "Agentic" sales channel. Here's what it actually is, and what to do about it.
That new "Agentic" channel in your Shopify admin connects your products to AI assistants like ChatGPT. Here's what it actually is, and why being switched on isn't the same as being recommended. Read more...