This NotebookLM Perplexity Workflow Will Cut Your Research Time by 50% (or More)

Both NotebookLM and Perplexity just got some amazing updates, and I found that they actually make a powerful combo when used together for research or learning. So, you have Perplexity's real-time search capability combined with NotebookLM's deep analysis. In this video, I'll show you six incredible ways you can use Perplexity and NotebookLM to level up your research or learning process to a whole new level.

Let's go! So, why do we need to use both and not just one of them? Perplexity can do web searches and find sources, but the limitation is that every time you ask a question, it will trigger a new search and use different sets of sources.

Even if you upload your own knowledge base to the Perplexity Space, it may still use some pre-trained data to answer your question. This is why NotebookLM is useful: it will only give you answers based on your sources, and the source reference will not change unless you import a new source. It’s better to organize your notes and insights with its closed database.

First, use Perplexity to gather specific sources based on your prompt, or create a Perplexity space for collecting relevant sources like reports, studies, videos, and articles. Then, select the most valuable sources and import them into NotebookLM. Quality over quantity is key here.

In NotebookLM, ask questions to extract insights or patterns. Use its audio features to discuss your research and organize different research projects. Finally, which is optional, you can go back to Perplexity to validate your new insights against open web data and do cross-checking.

There are six amazing ways you can use this workflow. The first one is doing market trend analysis. Oftentimes, as marketers, you will need to understand market trends to better plan content and thought leadership pieces.

This is where Perplexity's space is so useful because you can use it to organize your mini-project and set up custom instructions to semi-automate the process. Let's say I'm doing market research about responsible AI. In Perplexity, go to space, create a new space, and let's name it "Responsible AI Market Research," and then pick the AI model.

For the custom instructions, I would set up two task codes. The first one is to search for reports about responsible AI from reputable consulting firms like Deloitte, McKinsey, and BCG. The second task code will focus on finding research papers about AI risk assessment.

The magic happens whenever you type the task code or the number. Perplexity will automatically perform the prompts for you, double-check each source, and get the source link that you would like to import to NotebookLM. To get the links easier, you can use the copy functions on Perplexity and paste them into a notepad, allowing you to have a list of source links ready.

Then, repeat the task for research papers from tech companies. Now, on NotebookLM, create a new notebook and import all the sources, or any of your own sources if you have them, and then start asking questions. For example, "What are the major shifts happening in responsible AI?

" It will pull the trends it is seeing, like increased adoption and awareness, human-in-the-loop oversight, and it will only retrieve from the sources, unlike Perplexity. If it can't find anything related in the sources, it will say no, which I appreciate because it minimizes the level of hallucinations. You can also ask other questions like, "What is driving companies to invest in this topic?

" so you will know what they care about. Ask it to propose some content ideas for content creation or any specific topics you want to know more about. The next use case is product enhancement research.

If you're a product startup founder, this will be useful. One of the powerful ways to use Perplexity is to source real user feedback and do competitive analysis. You can find real user pain points and identify potential product improvements or new product ideas to develop.

It doesn't have to be a direct competitor; you can research some top well-known products in your niche to get ideas. Let’s say you are planning to enhance your email marketing automation tool. First, go to Perplexity to identify the top software providers in email marketing automation.

It will show a list of the top 10 email automation tools like ActiveCampaign, Klaviyo, and MailChimp. Now, let’s say we pick ActiveCampaign as the research target and ask it to find all the review links about ActiveCampaign from G2, Product Hunt, TrustRadius, or any other B2B software review sites that you know. You will see it pulls a summary table for you, which is great.

You now have a list of review links to import into NotebookLM, but we are not done yet. You can actually use the focused search to narrow down to just Reddit or YouTube, which may have more in-depth user reviews to secure more source links. And again, click "show all" and review every source to select just the relevant ones to import into NotebookLM.

I recommend searching for related industry reports in this niche so you can understand the trends shaping your product development. Now, on NotebookLM, import all the sources. For demonstration purposes, I imported just one competitor, but I recommend importing at least two to three competitors' review data so the analysis will be more accurate and you can fully utilize the power of NotebookLM.

First, ask, "What are the common pain points mentioned across these sources? " You will discover some weaknesses that competitors fail to deliver, which may be your opportunities to fill gaps in your product, such as technical issues, email design limitations, or customer support. Next, ask for specific features that users consistently mention as missing.

In this case, that information comes from ActiveCampaign. This is super useful because you will identify the exact features users are looking for, which you can then explore adding to your product or use for inspiration. Lastly, inquire, "What are some technologies we should be aware of when developing this product?

" like AI for personalization, lead scoring, and customer data management—these are all great ideas to consider. shape your product development. And if you want, you can even upload your website product page and ask it to give you an improvement plan on the features or messaging.

The next is audience research. Audience research is a very important part of digital marketing. This helps you understand your audience better for your campaign and craft your messaging.

By combining Perplexity and NotebookLM, you can conduct a much more in-depth audience research analysis. For example, let's say I have a childcare service business, and I want to understand more about my target audience—modern parents. First, on Perplexity, we can ask for recent survey studies about parents' needs for childcare.

This will focus more on survey analysis from our ideal customers. Again, use search operators to narrow down the timeframe; browse through the sources and save the links. Then, also ask for research reports about parent childcare needs, which will focus more on the research findings in the industry.

Additionally, search for recent studies about how parents choose childcare services. It’s not necessarily required to be in PDF report format; it can also be a webpage. If you know any reputable media sources, use the search operators to narrow the scope as well.

And we're not done yet. Now, turn on focus search mode for videos and search for expert interviews about the childcare industry. This will give you multiple perspectives from industry practitioners.

Then, on NotebookLM, import all the sources. First, we can ask about the biggest challenges that target customers mention regarding childcare. This will give us more insight into their pain points, such as availability, quality childcare, and learning.

We can be more direct and ask what considerations they have when choosing a childcare service. You will see it will provide specific details like cost, location, convenience, and the branding of the childcare facility. Now, a powerful way is to import your own business website and request an improvement action plan.

Let's say this is my childcare business website. Import it to NotebookLM and ask for the top three changes to the homepage messaging based on the research. It will provide some good suggestions, such as promoting flexible and extended hours.

We can also ask about needs that are not mentioned on the website so we can highlight them, such as a specific learning philosophy or staff qualifications. We can even take it a step further by asking for specific services to highlight more. You will receive some excellent ideas, such as different schedule options—Full Day/Full Week Schedule.

I appreciate how it bolds some of the responses to emphasize their importance. The next area is podcast research. Podcasting will surely continue to be one of the trending content formats in the coming years.

If you're planning to start a podcast, you can actually use Perplexity and NotebookLM to conduct more in-depth podcast research, understand what your audience is looking for, and gather content ideas on how you should position your podcast before you start. For instance, let’s say we’re planning a new podcast on leadership. First, we will ask Perplexity for the top 10 leadership podcasts launched in the past year with the highest listener ratings on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Most importantly, include the podcast show links. Note that I have used the search operators to focus solely on searches from ListenNotes. com, which is a very popular podcast search engine.

In case there is no podcast show page, you can directly search the podcast name on ListenNotes and find the link. For each podcast show, download one of the most recent episodes for later analysis. For example, with the podcast "No BS Leadership," you can find the recent episodes and then click to download the audio.

I suggest downloading at least five sample episodes for analysis purposes. Next, ask Perplexity to search for the user review links for these top podcast shows. Note that this time, I'll request it to focus on the Pod Paradise website, as it has podcast reviews.

Sometimes Perplexity may not be able to find the review page link, but if the podcast is popular enough, you can search Pod Paradise and access the reviews on the show page. Now, on NotebookLM, import all sources—reviews, sample episodes—and then ask how these podcast shows describe their ideal listeners. Look for specific roles, experience levels, or company types mentioned.

You can see it will provide lots of details about the target audience for inspiration. You can further ask it to summarize the target audience into five categories, giving you clarity on the top five target groups you should be focusing on, such as aspiring leaders or executive coaches. Moreover, you can compare the podcast show pages to determine the unique angles and positioning they emphasize.

This is helpful for brainstorming ideas and determining your own podcast's positioning. Ask it to summarize the top five positive aspects and five negative aspects from the podcasts’ reviews so you can capitalize on the positives and avoid the negatives, such as the lack of episode numbering. You can also ask for top content ideas that would resonate with the audience if you were to create a new podcast.

These ideas might include topics like "Building a Culture of Feedback" or "Time Management for Leaders. " You can also dig deeper into the podcast style and summarize best practices. I would say this is incredibly useful if you're planning your new podcast, as you can draw inspiration from successful podcasts.

What best practices should you follow? This could include giving actionable advice, focusing on a specific theme, and sharing self-assessment tools. All these are valuable guidelines.

Next, let’s discuss learning a new subject. I can't stress enough how AI research tools help speed up my learning process. With NotebookLM, you can even learn anything faster.

Its interactive audio mode allows you to join conversations, enhancing the overall learning experience and making it more engaging. For instance, if I’m doing self-learning about the topic of Marketing Psychology, I would first search on Perplexity for detailed guides or learning materials about marketing psychology. We can also use the .

. . Search operator "INTITLE" to narrow the search results with only marketing psychology in the title.

Again, browse through sources and pick the ones that are the most relevant and trustable. Then, search for the top five podcast episodes on the topic. Episodes like "The Psychology Behind Effective Pricing" and other popular episodes are great sources for more in-depth knowledge.

Search for these episodes on ListenNotes or PopParadise and download them. Now, we can also search for academic studies about the topic, so save all the good source links. I also recommend finding expert interviews and lectures about the topic using the focus search mode on YouTube.

This way, you can ensure your sources are more well-rounded before you import them to NotebookLM. Now, on NotebookLM, import all the sources. The easiest way is to use the pre-built prompt to generate a study guide and FAQ to quickly get an idea about the topic.

What are some commonly asked questions? Now, we can ask it to give a beginner-friendly overview of the subject using simple language and real examples. Then, it will provide you with a brief overview of what it is and why it matters.

Next, we can ask it to summarize the top marketing psychology principles and how to apply them in marketing. This is useful because, within a few seconds, you can get a quick understanding of the core marketing psychology principles like scarcity and anchoring bias. We can also ask it to show examples of how companies use them.

Now, import the childcare business website we just demoed and ask how these psychology principles can be applied. You can see the suggestions are great, like highlighting limited enrollment and asking parents to create profiles to personalize their experience. The powerful thing here is that you can always learn something new and directly apply it to your own projects or business campaigns, and ask NotebookLM to link all the sources together and find the linkages for you.

To elevate the learning experience further, you can generate the audio overview so we can customize it to focus on the marketing psychology principles targeted at someone who is a complete beginner. You can then download it and upload it to Google Drve so you can listen and learn on the go. Another way is to use the interactive mode.

Once you click, you can stop playing the conversation, interrupt it, and ask questions by clicking "Join. " For example, let's ask, "What makes a good anchor price when using the anchoring pricing bias principle? " based on the audio overview.

If the generated audio overview didn't mention anything related to the question, it won't be able to answer, even if it appears in the imported sources. Next, speaking and presenting as marketers or working professionals, I believe we come across scenarios where we need to present to stakeholders or deliver pitches for different audiences. Speaking and presenting are important skills for most professionals, and we can actually use Perplexity to find some successful speeches and presentations for us, with NotebookLM as our speaking guide.

First, on Perplexity, search for the most viewed TED Talks of all time using the focus search mode with YouTube, or, if you have specific speaking topics or scenarios like delivering a product launch keynote, startup pitch, or graduation speeches, you can specify that in the prompt to tailor your search results. Now you will get a list of TED Talks, and they're all amazing talks. For example, the first one, "Do Schools Kill Creativity?

" One thing to note is that some of them are from a long time ago, so you might not be able to import them to NotebookLM, like in this case. You can use a free transcript generator to grab the transcript and import it to NotebookLM as pasted text. Let's say we have imported all the talks; then I can ask for common elements in the presentation's opening because openings are usually the most important.

It will give you ideas like asking questions, direct addressing of the audience, and audience engagement. Then we can also ask it to analyze the storytelling structure for each of the talks, like how they usually begin with a personal anecdote or question, followed by research or a case study with details. This will give you ideas on how to deliver a successful presentation.

If you want, you can always dig deeper into a specific speech and summarize the top five speaking techniques across these talks. I would say this is a best practice that you should follow. Now, copy this response to somewhere else or save it as a note, as we're going to use it again.

Let's say I have created this Perplexity page about the "Future of Work Trends," and I need to deliver a speech. Now, publish it and get the link, and then on NotebookLM, create a new notebook and re-import the link. The reason for this is that I found even if I deselect the source, NotebookLM will still use it to generate the audio overview.

Now, import the summarized speaking techniques you just copied to its knowledge base and ask it to summarize the top five speaking techniques again, but within 200 characters, as we will use some of the keywords to customize the audio overview. Now, click customize and ask it to apply the speaking techniques it analyzed and also host one to focus on presenting and host two to highlight the speaking techniques, demonstrating them to you. I won't play it all here, but you can hear how it is following my instructions using the speaking techniques, and host two highlights the techniques used.

Of course, this is not perfect, but by customizing, you can tailor the audio overview generation to your specific learning needs. There are more ways you can customize the audio overview generation, which I share on my community. You can find the link in the description to join.

Alright, make sure you try these use cases using both tools. For more inspiration, join my community; you can also ask me questions there. Before you go, I also recommend you check out my other video about smart prompting.

Techniques you can use on Perplexity or SearchGPT. I'll see you next time.