The Content Engineering Playbook with Josh Spilker

From Content Production to Content Engineering

Josh Spilker argues that the traditional SEO playbook—keyword research, brief creation, and manual writing—is insufficient for the current search landscape. He defines 'content engineering' as the shift toward building programmatic, AI-assisted workflows that treat content creation as a system rather than a series of isolated tasks. By using low-code tools and LLMs, teams can move beyond simple content volume to create 'frontier content' that provides unique insights and data-backed perspectives, which are increasingly favored by AI search models.

The Webinar-to-Growth Flywheel

Spilker emphasizes that webinars are a primary growth engine at AirOps. Rather than treating them as one-off events, he uses a structured workflow to maximize their value. The process begins with guest research, which informs the webinar title and planning notes. Once the webinar concludes, the transcript is processed through a workflow that automatically generates social media recaps, key takeaways, and potential lead magnets. This system ensures that a single high-value conversation is repurposed across multiple channels, maintaining brand consistency and authority.

Adapting to Mention-Based Search

As search shifts from click-based to mention-based, Spilker notes that brand authority and unique points of view are becoming critical. He advises teams to stop relying solely on keyword tools and instead look at the specific questions customers ask during sales calls. Because LLM queries are often more contextual and longer than traditional search terms, content must be grounded in a company's unique 'knowledge base'—a curated set of brand perspectives, competitor comparisons, and proprietary data—to remain relevant in AI Overviews.

Building Systems for Scale

Spilker highlights the importance of documenting processes as if they were instructions for a machine. He uses the analogy of teaching a computer to make a sandwich: because experienced marketers often perform tasks unconsciously, they must break down every step—from meta-description generation to article structure—into explicit, formulaic SOPs. This allows teams to maintain quality while scaling production, ensuring that AI-generated drafts are grounded in the brand's specific voice and strategy.