Practical field notes on demand generation and marketing infrastructure
Gary Corriston writes for operators responsible for results after the strategy deck is finished. The library covers SEO, AI search, paid media, attribution, conversion tracking, budget pacing, marketing operations, and the discipline required to verify that a system works before trusting it with more spend.
Blog › corristonconsulting.com/blog/ai-coding-agent-failure-modesThe AI Coding Agent Told Me It Was Done. It Wasn't.
Six failure modes I hit shipping real code with an AI agent — what they looked like, how I caught them, and the discipline that fixes all six.
2026-07-12 › 9 min read › Demand Generation
Blog › corristonconsulting.com/blog/seven-ai-integrations-small-business-2026The 7 AI Integrations Every Small Business Should Have by End of 2026 (Ranked by ROI)
Every small business should have these seven AI integrations running by end of 2026. Not aspirationally — as line items on a bill someone paid last month. Here's what they do, what they cost, and how fast each one pays for itself.
2026-07-10 › 11 min read › Demand Generation
Blog › corristonconsulting.com/blog/digital-marketing-is-dead-ai-marketingDigital Marketing Is Dead. Long Live AI Marketing. (What Actually Changed in 2026)
Every era has its 'end of marketing' moment. This one is different. Here's what died in 2026, what still works, what the new stack looks like, and what any operator should actually be doing this quarter.
2026-07-10 › 10 min read › Demand Generation
Blog › corristonconsulting.com/blog/what-is-llms-txtWhat Is llms.txt? A Practical Guide to the Anthropic-Proposed Standard for AI Search
llms.txt is a proposed standard — Anthropic wrote the spec, Vercel and a growing pile of SaaS sites have already shipped one — that publishes a curated Markdown map of your important pages for AI models. Here's what it is, how to write one, whether anyone reads it today, and the format that actually works.
2026-07-09 › 8 min read › Demand Generation
Blog › corristonconsulting.com/blog/ai-recommendation-diagnosticHow to Tell If ChatGPT and Claude Are Recommending Your Business (And What to Do If They're Not)
Your buyers are asking ChatGPT and Claude for recommendations in your category. If your business isn't in the answer, you're losing deals you never knew you had. Here's a 15-minute diagnostic anyone can run, plus the five fixes that move the needle when you're invisible.
2026-07-09 › 10 min read › Demand Generation
Blog › corristonconsulting.com/blog/weekend-app-build-case-studyI Built a Production App in One Working Session. Here's What It Cost vs. Hiring a Dev Shop.
One working session. Roughly $20 in AI tokens. A production-deployed diagnostic tool with server-side URL fetching, HTML parsing, and a scored three-pillar output. Here's the file-by-file breakdown, what a dev shop would have quoted, and where AI-assisted builds still fall short.
2026-07-08 › 8 min read › Demand Generation
Blog › corristonconsulting.com/blog/seo-geo-aeo-trifectaSEO vs GEO vs AEO: The 2026 Search Trifecta (and How to Check If Your Site Has All Three)
Ranking on Google isn't the whole game anymore. You also need to get cited when ChatGPT and Claude answer questions in your category, and you need to own the answer snippet. Three jobs, one page. Here's how to tell if yours is doing all three.
2026-07-08 › 11 min read › Demand Generation
Blog › corristonconsulting.com/blog/signal-confidence-problem-ai-optimization-riskMost Marketers Don’t Have a Traffic Problem. They Have a Signal-Confidence Problem.
As AI optimization systems take over campaign decisions, conversion signal quality becomes the strategic constraint. This is the category: signal confidence.
2026-05-26 › 9 min read › Demand Generation
Blog › corristonconsulting.com/blog/budget-pacing-paid-media-frameworkBudget Pacing in Paid Media: A Framework for 2026
Most budget pacing advice is universal. Pacing isn't. Three tactics, when each applies, and the platform overage rules every operator should know.
2026-05-22 › 15 min read › Demand Generation
Blog › corristonconsulting.com/blog/hidden-cost-broken-conversion-trackingThe Hidden Cost of Broken Conversion Tracking: What a Real Healthcare Account Audit Revealed
An 8-hour forensic audit of a healthcare lead-gen account uncovered an estimated $26,000/year in attribution waste. Here's what I found, how I fixed it, and what it means for your accounts.
2026-04-29 › 8 min read › Demand Generation
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Frequently asked questions
What does Corriston Consulting write about?
The blog covers demand generation from an operator's perspective — paid media, SEO, marketing operations, fractional leadership, and the infrastructure decisions that determine whether a marketing program actually works. Most posts come from problems Gary encountered running $1M+/month in client ad spend, not from trends in the marketing press.
Who writes the Corriston Consulting blog?
Gary. Every post comes from 20 years of operator experience — real clients, real numbers, patterns I've seen in hundreds of accounts. We use AI as an assistant for grammar, spelling, structure, and research, the same way serious writers use tools in 2026. The thinking, the theses, the client stories, and every number you'll read are Gary's. No ghostwriters, no agency staff, no content farms.
How is this blog different from other marketing blogs?
Most marketing content is written at the strategy or conceptual level — frameworks, listicles, high-level principles. This blog goes one layer down into the operational decisions: how to detect saturation before you blow the budget, when to skip the Google Ads recommendation, what multi-touch attribution actually requires to work. Posts are written for people who make the calls, not people who approve the decks.
Can I republish or reference these articles?
Reach out via the contact form. Attribution and linking back are requirements; syndication is handled case by case.