Luoana Negut

Would an AI trust your content enough to recommend it? I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. For years, as marketers, we’ve asked: “How do we rank higher on Google?” That question still matters, but it can’t be the only one driving content strategy anymore. A better question is: Would an AI trust our content enough to use it as the answer? That shift changes the brief. It means creating content that proves genuine expertise, not just content that targets keywords. It means answering the questions customers are actually asking, not just chasing search volume. It means becoming a trusted source, not just a visible one. That’s how I'm beginning to think about content. Traditional SEO still matters. It absolutely does. But AI search is changing how people discover, compare, and validate information. Some people no longer start with Google. They go straight to AI and ask for a recommendation, explanation, comparison, or supplier. That matters for every marketing team. Because the best content does not come from marketing alone. It comes from the expertise already sitting inside the business. The sales conversations. The technical questions. The installation issues. The product knowledge. The lessons learned from real projects. Marketing’s role is to capture that knowledge, structure it properly, and turn it into useful content people can trust. If we get that right, we are not just improving SEO. We are increasing the chance that a business becomes the source AI platforms reference when someone asks a question about our product, service, or industry. For B2B and D2C businesses, I think this is going to become one of the biggest conversations in marketing strategy over the next few years. Not “SEO or AI.” Both. The businesses that start educating their teams, sharing their knowledge, and building trust now will be the ones leading later. #ContentMarketing #SEO #GenerativeAI #MarketingStrategy #DigitalMarketing #B2BMarketing #AISEO #ThoughtLeadership

AI in marketing has started to feel like a dirty little secret... Everyone knows it is being used, but very few people want to admit how much of their work now involves AI-generated ideas, AI-assisted copy or adapting AI outputs. Perhaps that is because we are still working out where the line sits. Sometimes the answer is yes, AI is absolutely the right tool. And sometimes how you answer back to someone in your team that says "Why don't you just use AI for that, it's easier" has to be a calculated, "no, not for this". AI can be incredibly useful within a marketing team, but it can also be detrimental when it becomes the automatic answer to every task. Introducing AI properly is not as simple as giving a team access to a platform and telling them to start using it. There are risk assessments to complete, team training to deliver and clear processes to establish around confidentiality, accuracy, copyright, data protection, brand voice and quality control. We also need to train the language models we work with. That means giving them the correct context, teaching them how our brand communicates and helping them understand our products, services, customers and industry. Even then, every output still needs human review, professional judgement and accountability. As marketing managers and team leaders, we have a responsibility to make sure our teams understand how to use AI well. They need to know when it can improve efficiency, when it can support creativity and when it could damage the quality or credibility of the work. AI should not become the only answer, or the first place we automatically turn whenever a project lands on the desk. One thing it cannot replace is genuine human interaction. A great deal of marketing within construction and building materials is built through conversations, technical knowledge, trust and long-term relationships. It comes from listening to customers, understanding their projects and communicating in a way that feels informed and credible. We cannot allow AI to stop us from using the creative and talented minds already within our teams. Our designers, marketers and industry experts bring experience, curiosity, emotion and judgement. Those qualities are not inefficiencies that need to be automated. They are often the reason the marketing connects in the first place. AI is a tool. Used responsibly, it can make a strong marketing team more efficient and capable. Used without proper leadership, it can dilute the brand, weaken creativity and produce work that looks polished but says very little. #MarketingLeadership #AIInMarketing #MarketingStrategy #ResponsibleAI #CreativeThinking #HumanLedMarketing #BrandStrategy #MarketingTeams #ConstructionMarketing #BuildingMaterials #StoneIndustry #B2BMarketing #FutureOfMarketing #TeamDevelopment #DigitalMarketing

I will be honest, I never expected marketing stone to be this exciting... No joke! Joining Stoneworld Group as it celebrates 25 years is something quite special. I may be relatively new (7 months in) to the team, but it did not take long to see how much knowledge, care and genuine passion sits behind the products I market every day! Natural stone is sustainable, versatile and full of character. It connects architecture, landscape design, construction, craftsmanship and the natural world. My role is not simply to market a product, but to help people understand the material, where it comes from, how it can be used and why the right specification matters. Marketing within construction and building materials has its own tone. It should not try to copy the fast fashion, beauty or technology sectors. Our industry has real expertise, heritage and craftsmanship behind it, and that gives us far more meaningful stories to share. It doesn't need to feel intimidating or overly corporate. There are creative ways to educate architects, landscape designers, contractors, homeowners and other decision-makers about a product, service or material. I'm shaping that tone. To make stone marketing more engaging, more accessible and more human, while respecting the knowledge and traditions that have built this industry. It's an exciting time to be part of Stoneworld at such an important milestone, and what comes next. Here’s to 25 years of Stoneworld! #Stoneworld25 #NaturalStone #StoneIndustry #ConstructionMarketing #WomenInStone #Architecture #LandscapeDesign #BuildingMaterials #SustainableMaterials

A bad manager does not just make the job harder. Here are some signs your marketing manager was never trained to lead. In marketing, poor management can affect confidence, creativity, performance and the direction of an entire team. It can look like: 1️⃣ Correcting people publicly and calling it “clarity”. 2️⃣ Micromanaging every caption, email, campaign and decision until nobody feels trusted to think for themselves. 3️⃣ Making junior team members feel uncomfortable for asking questions, when asking questions is exactly how people learn. 4️⃣ Treating every task like an emergency, with no clear sense of priority. 5️⃣ Constantly changing the strategy and still expecting the team to deliver consistent results. 6️⃣ Avoiding difficult conversations, failing to coach underperformance and overlooking the people who are doing great work. 7️⃣ Playing favourites when it comes to opportunities, visibility and responsibility. 8️⃣ Disappearing when pressure is at its highest. Good marketing teams need direction, but they also need trust. They need space to test ideas, learn from mistakes and take ownership of their work. A title does not make someone a leader. Self-awareness, consistency, communication and the ability to support people properly do. The strongest marketing teams are not built through fear or control. They are built through trust. Save this or share it with someone who needs to hear it.

What a fantastic day at The Drift Golf Club for the Stone Federation Great Britain #Golf Day! ⛳ A huge thank you to Stone Federation Great Britain for organising such a brilliant event. With more than 60 members attending from across the UK, it was a great turnout and a valuable opportunity to catch up with familiar faces, meet new people and connect with fellow professionals from across the stone, design and construction industries. I absolutely loved taking part and playing alongside my team Laura Bateman, Steven Newbury & Rafael Aguiar. There was plenty of friendly competition, but the real highlight was bringing so many people from across the industry together in one place. Congratulations to Stone Cladding Systems Ltd. on taking home the trophy, and well done to all the teams and individual prize winners. Thank you again to everyone involved in making the day such a success. We are already looking forward to the next one! #StoneFederation #NaturalStone #StoneIndustry #ConstructionIndustry #Networking #GolfDay #Stoneworld

Last week, Ellie Parker, myself and Georgie Parker had the pleasure of hosting Women In Natural Stone to our Park Lane Bathstone mine. What an amazing experience it was. It felt really special to bring together so many talented women from across natural stone, design, stone masonry, architecture and construction, especially in an industry that has traditionally been so male-dominated. Natural stone, quarrying and construction are not always seen as spaces where women would naturally find themselves, let alone truly enjoy working. But that is exactly why events like this matter. They give visibility to the women already doing brilliant things in the industry, and show just how much opportunity, skill and passion there is here. The women who joined us, including myself and the team at Stoneworld, were genuinely excited to be there. From learning more about Bath Stone to seeing life inside an active mine, it was a proper reminder of how unique and rewarding this industry can be. A huge thank you to everyone who came along, and to the Park Lane team for making the day so insightful and welcoming. We are looking forward to hosting more events like this on a regular basis, so please keep an eye out for future invitations. Thank you Stone Federation Great Britain for helping organise this with us! #WomenInStone #WomenInNaturalStone #WomenInArchitecture #NaturalStone #BathStone #StoneMasonry #Design #Construction #Stoneworld #ParkLaneBathstone

Ellie Parker and I had the pleasure of attending the RIBA talk in #Oxford on sustainability in architecture hosted by Joanna Yarrow. It reinforced why natural stone has such an important role to play in the future of building and design. As someone who loves this conversation, and lives and breath this for marketing at Stoneworld, one of the biggest takeaways for me was how important it is to think beyond short-term solutions. True sustainability is not just about reducing impact, it is about creating places that last, serve people well and sit comfortably within their environment. Used well, stone is durable, repairable, low-maintenance and timeless. Whether it is used on a building façade, within an interior space, across landscaping, or as part of a wider public realm project, it has the ability to bring longevity, texture and a real connection to place. There is something powerful about specifying materials that are not only beautiful, but proven. Materials that age well, can be maintained, and can remain part of a building or landscape for generations. A brilliant evening of ideas, challenge and conversation from Hopkins Architects, Waugh Thistleton Architects, Make Architects and a strong reminder that the materials we choose today shape the places we leave behind tomorrow. #Sustainability #RegenerativeDesign #NaturalStone #Architecture #Placemaking Stoneworld