If you’re managing a franchise-driven brand, scaling your content while maintaining local relevance can feel like an impossible puzzle. You may already have hundreds of assets — but are they doing what they’re supposed to? Are they performing well? Are they even being used?

That’s where strategy — and smart use of machine learning — can come in. By combining generative AI with human expertise, brands can audit what’s working, uncover what’s not and start optimizing their content libraries for both performance and efficiency.

That’s what we did for Goldfish Swim School Franchising, LLC (GSS). With almost 200 franchise locations across 34 states, GSS is a fast-growing, go-to brand for parents with young children. But with growth comes complexity, especially when content becomes a key part of the marketing engine.

GSS had plenty of content on their blog. What they lacked was clarity. What was working? And how could content better support their goals around brand awareness, lead generation and customer retention?

To solve that challenge, GSS partnered with Foundry 360 and launched a new content strategy — one powered by our content optimization tool, Content Acclaim. I shared the process and results of that work at the recent ANA AI and Technology for Marketers Conference in Austin, Texas. This event, with more than 40 speakers and nearly 1,000 attendees, explored where AI is headed and what marketers can do to keep up.

Enter the AI-Human Tag Team

Like many brands, GSS had amassed a sizable content library — more than 300 blog articles aimed at nurturing both current and potential customers. But much of it was reactive, that is, more FAQ than funnel. It supported existing members, but it wasn’t driving growth.

“We use long-form content as a way to educate and inform members and answer questions for potential members,” said Shana Krisan, chief marketing officer at GSS. “But we weren’t using it to get new members.”

Rather than use generative AI to create new content — which can result in errors, search penalties and a “sea of beige” (as our team likes to put it) — the real opportunity was using AI to help humans analyze, summarize and scale insights about current content.

Jason Anthony, our executive editorial director, worked with Dotdash Meredith’s technology team to develop Content Acclaim. This proprietary tool can audit and help optimize troubled content at scale. It’s powered by OpenAI’s LLM as well as editorial insights from Dotdash Meredith, which is America’s largest publisher.

With this hybrid approach, GSS was able to:

  • Evaluate every blog post against brand tone, editorial clarity, SEO performance and strategic alignment.
  • Assign an objective score (out of 100) to each article to guide smart prioritization.
  • Identify content gaps based on parent motivators like water safety, skill-building and early childhood development.

Key Discoveries

After auditing more than 300 of the highest traffic posts, three key insights emerged:

  • Limited invitations to act. Most pieces didn’t encourage readers to learn or do more, and only about half mentioned high-value actions.
  • Lack of trusted sources. Just 8% of articles cited expert opinions, which can erode trust in a category where parental confidence is critical.
  • Timeliness gap. Nearly 90% of content was evergreen, missing chances to connect with seasonal swim needs and relevant cultural moments.

There was good news, too: About 90% of posts reflected GSS’ warm, family-first tone, and 77% scored high for SEO and structure.

“We also saw a lot of missed opportunities around emotional language and addressing parents’ feelings about swim lessons,” Anthony said. “This is a goldmine for the second stage of Content Acclaim, where AI helps writers go in tactically and make the articles better and more useful to the company.”

The Strategy

The project helped kick-start ideas about what to do with the GSS content library, both with existing content and future content. A three-part strategy laid out the following targets:

  1. Build a funnel, not just a library. Content should no longer just be used to answer member questions — it should be used to attract new audiences and generate leads.
  2. Geo-target and personalize. Add location-based content to improve local search visibility and help the brand connect with audiences where they live.
  3. Evolve the editorial playbook. Create new visual and editorial guides to help creators align with voice and mission, and tackle topics like confidence, safety and child development in ways that connect emotionally with parents.

The Human Side of the Equation

AI handled the heavy lifting — structure, scoring, pattern detection — but the humans on the team (editorial, strategy and SEO specialists) crafted the initial inquire, interpreted the data and turned the final analysis into strategy.

Today, GSS has a more focused, scalable and impactful approach to content — one that supports growth and remains true to its mission of helping kids become safer and more confident in and around the water.

Why This Matters

If you’re overwhelmed by the size of your content library, or unsure where content fits into your broader marketing mix, GSS’ journey offers three key lessons:

  • Content isn’t just support — it’s a growth engine. But only if you treat it like one.
  • AI is a tool, not a crutch. When paired with smart humans, it unlocks game-changing insights.
  • Audit, then optimize. Whether you have 30 pieces or 3,000, content needs a regular gut check to stay relevant.

I closed my ANA talk with this thought about the new AI landscape: The real race isn’t man versus machine. It’s man and machine versus man without machine.

To that, Krisan added: “This process showed me where our content could work harder — and how to make that happen. Moving forward, we’re using these insights to guide new content development, improve local engagement and better support franchisees.” In short, she noted, “We now have the data to tell us we’re on the right path.”

If you need help figuring out what’s working and what’s not with your existing content program, please get in touch.

Author Bio

Robin Riddle is the lead content marketing strategist at DDM Content Solutions. He works across B2B as well as B2C and specializes in financial services, insurance, and health care. Prior to his time here, he led content marketing businesses at both The Economist and The Wall Street Journal. A passionate advocate for the value of content marketing, Riddle is also heavily involved in industry issues and speaks at many events on the topics of content marketing and native advertising.