Inbound

October 30, 2025

What Neil Patel Says Marketers Are Getting Wrong About AI, Email, and Content

On the Main Stage at INBOUND 2025, Neil Patel, co-founder of NP Digital, came with hard data that challenged where we're all spending our marketing time and energy.

His topic: 30 Charts That Will Change the Way You Do Marketing.

His message: Most companies are focused on the wrong things and missing real revenue opportunities because of it.

If you’re navigating search behaviors, AI-generated content, or performance plateaus, here’s what you need to know from Patel’s session and how to act on it now.

AI TRAFFIC IS SMALL, BUT IT CONVERTS BIG

Don’t overlook low-volume channels that produce high-value outcomes. While AI platforms may not generate volume comparable to Google, what they lack in scale, they make up for in purchase intent. AI users are often further along in their decision-making process, making them highly valuable from a revenue standpoint.

Patel’s agency found that platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity already account for 9.7% of digital revenue in B2B and 11.4% in B2C despite generating just 1% of traffic.

“You're not going to get the traffic you're looking for from AI platforms but the conversion is extremely high.” — Neil Patel

If your analytics show little traffic from AI, that doesn’t mean it’s not worth your time. These platforms are increasingly influencing early discovery and high-intent decisions, especially at the top of the funnel.

YES, BLOGGING STILL MATTERS

…Just not in the way you think. Blogging may not drive top-of-funnel traffic like it used to, but it does drive citations, trust, and revenue via AI platforms.

Most marketers have dialed back blog production under the belief that it’s no longer worth the effort. But Patel says that blogs are now foundational content, not for search engines, but for training large language models and earning citations in AI responses. This is the new front door to brand discovery.

“If you want to get cited by ChatGPT, you’ve got to do two things. One, make sure you have a Wikipedia page, and two, blog.” — Neil Patel

Google’s SGE, Perplexity, Claude, and ChatGPT all favor well-structured content, original data, and long-form posts with research and comparisons. Not blogging means not showing up in AI answers and that’s where buyer journeys increasingly begin. “Blogging may not drive the traffic that it used to, but it does drive a lot of revenue through these AI platforms, and search is all moving towards it,” Patel added.

SEARCH IS FRAGMENTING, NOT SHRINKING

While most marketers are fixated on Google vs. ChatGPT, Patel pointed to the real volume battles happening in places like Instagram (6.5B daily searches), LinkedIn (3.2B), and YouTube (3.3B). Yes, those channels are search engines too.

People are still searching. They’re just not doing it where you're used to. From B2B decision-makers to Gen Z shoppers, audiences are turning to social and visual platforms to explore brands, ask questions, and find content. These are searches with commercial intent yet they’re often overlooked in strategy planning.

And here’s what those platforms prefer: video, then blogs, then podcasts. Text still matters, especially to AI, but video is winning the engagement and sharing game.

EMAIL IS STILL THE STRONGEST CONVERSION CHANNEL

Email remains the most powerful channel for lead quality: 11 times better than social, according to Patel’s agency benchmarks.

While teams continue to chase viral reach and engagement on social, email quietly delivers results. Why? It’s familiar, permission-based, and high-converting, especially when it comes from a sender your audience trusts.

“Email converts extremely well. Don't forget about it. And if you had to optimize for one thing with email, it's the sender.” — Neil Patel

Patel’s tip: focus more on building recognizable, trustworthy sender identities and less on things like send time.

YOUTUBE DESERVES A FIRST-PUBLISH STRATEGY

You might get more views on Instagram or LinkedIn, but Patel’s data shows YouTube consistently drives more conversions, even with fewer views. It also has longer watch time per session, deeper engagement, and a higher trust factor.

He emphasized that teams often deprioritize YouTube because it seems slower to generate momentum. But in terms of ROI, it's unmatched. It may not win the impression game, but it consistently outperforms on revenue and customer acquisition.

Give YouTube a first look in your publishing workflow, especially for long-form content that supports buyer education and product discovery.

MORE CHANNELS = HIGHER ROI

One of the final charts Patel shared showed a correlation between channel diversity and overall marketing ROI: Brands that activate six or more marketing channels see, on average, a 7.5% lift in ROI across all channels.

Fragmented attention spans require marketers to show up in more places, more often, with more tailored content.

No single platform is a silver bullet; it’s about touchpoints. And the average buyer now needs 11+ of them before they make a purchase.

WHAT TO DO NEXT

Here’s where Patel recommends putting your energy right now:

Invest in longtail content. People are searching in 10–12-word queries now. Meet them there with specificity and structure.
Repurpose relentlessly. Turn every blog into a video, and every video into a post. Feed the ecosystem, not just one channel.
Build your sender brand. Whether it's your name or your company, trust converts more than clever copy.
Optimize for AI platforms. Structure, citations, and blogs are your way in. Focus on formatting that LLMs can parse and cite.

Catch Neil Patel’s full INBOUND 2025 session below.