Faster research can create room for better strategy
Competitor analysis can involve hours of research across websites, pricing pages, reviews, social conversations, and other sources. AI gives Matt a way to collect and organize much of that information faster, leaving more time to focus on what it means.
Pricing is one example. Matt can use AI to gather competitors’ packages, prices, and included features, then organize the results for comparison. A process that might have taken hours manually can happen in minutes.
He also looks at customer sentiment. Reviews, blog posts, testimonials, Reddit discussions, and other public conversations can help reveal what customers value, where they’re frustrated, and how they describe their experiences.
Together, those sources create a broader picture of the competitive landscape. For Matt, that research ultimately serves a larger purpose: finding meaningful ways to stand out.
“How do you actually get differentiation so that when a customer or potential customer comes to your website, you don’t look like just another WordPress host?” Matt said.
That question becomes especially valuable in crowded markets where competitors may offer similar features. Understanding how others position themselves, what their customers say about them, and where patterns emerge can give you a stronger foundation for deciding how to position your own product. That makes the quality and relevance of the information you give AI especially important.
Better AI work starts with better context
“The AI is only as good as the context that you give it,” Matt said.
For competitor research, Matt starts by building a collection of sources rather than relying on AI to decide what information matters. He uses Google’s NotebookLM, an AI-powered research tool that works with a collection of sources, to gather and organize research from across the web. He then brings that research into Cursor, an AI-powered code editor that Matt uses as a workspace for analyzing the collected information and connecting it with other data sources.
“I want to own that context,” Matt said. “I want to have it here locally and say, don’t go searching everywhere for this information. Look at this stuff that I’m giving you right here.”
Matt can then bring other sources into the analysis, including Google Analytics and Search Console data. This gives him a defined body of information to work from and more control over what informs the results.
Context can also come directly from the person doing the work.
Matt demonstrated this with a client’s product page. He wanted to evaluate its information gain, or the useful and distinctive information the page contributes beyond what’s already available elsewhere. To prepare for that analysis, he uses a “grill me” skill, a set of reusable instructions that guide AI through a specific task or workflow.
The skill asks Matt questions about the page, what it needs to accomplish, and what he knows about the subject. His answers bring experience and perspective into the process that the AI wouldn’t have otherwise.
Matt then uses AI to identify where the page offers something distinctive and where it could provide more value. Those findings become the foundation for a detailed content brief, which he reviews and refines before making changes to the page.
“None of this is a one-shot effort,” Matt said. “These are the normal marketing tactics that a human would have done manually in the past.”
For one client page, that process led to changes in the messaging, structure, and visual presentation in about 30 to 40 minutes. The workflow gives AI more to work with at every stage: stronger source material, clearer direction, and knowledge from the person closest to the work.
Build AI around the work that matters
Once Matt finds an AI-assisted process that works, he looks for ways to make it repeatable.
One way he does that is by building skills for processes he expects to use again. His content brief skill, for example, defines what information needs to be collected, the steps to follow, questions to ask when information is missing, and what a finished brief should include.
Matt has put significant work into that particular skill because he’s found a strong content brief more useful than asking AI to do the writing for him.
“I like taking a brief and writing it myself a lot more than having AI write it, and then me edit AI,” he said.
Skills can also work together. Matt designs some outputs to become inputs for the next stage of his process, allowing research, content briefs, and information gain exercises to build on one another.
As those workflows become more sophisticated, Matt keeps an eye on how much time he’s spending on the tooling itself.
“I found that sometimes I can get in a rabbit hole where I’ll spend an hour or two hours just working on Cursor and then feel like, but I didn’t actually get work done.”
That experience has shaped the advice he gives marketers who are starting to explore AI: start with one familiar task you want to make faster. Working from a process you already understand gives the AI workflow a clear purpose and lets you build from there as the need becomes clear.
The value of those efficiencies becomes clearer when you look at the broader marketing challenges facing product businesses for WordPress.
Standing out requires more deliberate marketing
The value of these efficiencies becomes clearer when you look at the broader marketing challenges facing product businesses for WordPress.
Matt points to WordPress.org, WordCamps, and local meetups as channels that historically helped products reach new users. For years, product companies could rely on the visibility created by the plugin and theme ecosystem alongside a busy calendar of in-person events.
Those opportunities have changed. WordCamps and meetups in the U.S. have struggled to return to their pre-pandemic frequency, reducing the number of in-person opportunities for product companies to meet potential users and build awareness. WordPress.org also offers a much more crowded marketplace for products competing for attention.
Matt sees the result as a greater need for product companies to take an active role in creating their own visibility.
“If you’re not marketing really well, really hard every single day, then you’re going to get left behind,” he said.
AI can help product teams take on more of the research and preparation behind that marketing. The opportunity is to use that additional capacity to understand the market more clearly and create work that reflects what makes the product worth choosing.
That applies especially to content.
Matt still sees value in the fundamentals of SEO, even as search behavior changes and zero-click searches make earning website traffic more challenging. His focus remains on creating useful content:
“Doing the right types of content for the right audience, for the right reasons, is still the way that it has to go today,” Matt said.
The tools available to marketers are changing quickly. Understanding your market and having something distinctive to contribute give those tools useful direction.
Start with one workflow you already understand
Matt’s approach to AI starts with work he already knows how to do. That knowledge helps him decide what information to gather, what questions to ask, where AI can save time, and where his own judgment needs to guide the process.
For marketers exploring AI, that creates a practical place to begin. Look at the work you do regularly and identify where research, organization, or repetition takes up time. Then experiment with using AI to improve that part of the process.
As Matt put it, “Start with what you know. Start with something that could make your life easier and go from there.”
Choose one workflow you already know well and see where AI can take on the research or repetition. The tools will keep changing, but your judgment about what to look for and what to do with it is what makes the results worth using.