Karen Martin on AEO, dental marketing, and the agency we wished existed.
This is where I write, where I speak, and where I publish work in progress. If you want to argue with any of it, you'll find me on LinkedIn.
Karen Martin
Founder & Lead Strategist, Thorli
I built Thorli to be the version of a dental marketing agency I'd send a friend to. AEO-first. Month-to-month. Pricing published. You own everything. The Bill of Rights is the standing public commitment that attaches to every engagement letter — and I write here to explain why every line in it exists.
If you run a dental practice and the marketing-spend conversation has started feeling like a 5× markup with a lock-in, the writing on this page is for you. Most of it is free. None of it is gated. I publish at least one new piece a month and I commit to that in writing.
What I'm publishing this year.
Long-form on AEO, dental marketing, and the operating choices that make or break a small agency. Commitment: at least one new piece every month, written by me, not generated.
- May 13, 2026 The Bill of Rights every dental practice should demand Every Thorli engagement comes with a Bill of Rights — ten written promises that override any conflicting contract terms, every one of them written because we watched a…
- May 12, 2026 AEO for All-on-X implant practices: how to beat ClearChoice Full-arch implants are the highest-dollar dental sub-niche and the most contested. ClearChoice dominates Google paid and organic with a national ad budget that no independent practice can match.…
- May 12, 2026 AEO for orthodontists: the playbook Orthodontics is one of the most AI-search-heavy dental sub-niches in 2026. Adult patients researching Invisalign trigger Google AI Overviews on 80–90 percent of informational queries, and ChatGPT now…
- May 12, 2026 Why month-to-month dental marketing contracts matter Most dental marketing agencies still require 12 or 24-month contracts with cancellation fees. The reason is simple: it protects them from being fired in month 5, which is…
- May 11, 2026 AEO vs SEO for dentists: same signals, different optimization AEO and SEO share a foundation — clean technical setup, schema, GBP, fresh content — but they diverge in how content is shaped, which off-page signals matter, and…
- May 10, 2026 The 50-point AEO audit framework we run on every dental practice The full 50-point AEO audit framework we use on every dental practice that comes to us — seven pillars, scored individually, weighted into a single composite. AI Visibility,…
- May 9, 2026 How ChatGPT picks dental practices to recommend When a patient asks ChatGPT "best dentist in Dallas," the model does not pick at random and it does not (mostly) read your website. It walks a specific…
- May 8, 2026 What is AEO and why every dental practice should care in 2026 AEO is Answer Engine Optimization: the practice of getting cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews when patients ask which dentist to see. AI engines now…
Where I'll be next.
No speaking history to publish yet — Thorli launches in 2026 and this page will fill out as conferences book and podcast invitations land. If you run a dental marketing podcast, a state-society conference, or a CE event and want a working-session talk on AEO, email karen@thorli.com.
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