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0:00Today, I want to talk about a problem
0:03that I think every founder in this room
0:06is feeling but might not have the words
0:08for yet.
0:10You keep hearing that content compounds,
0:13SEO is a long game, and that if you just
0:17keep publishing, the traffic will come.
0:20But, if search sends fewer clicks,
0:24social media suppresses links, and AI
0:28answers your prospect's question before
0:30they ever reach your site, and more on
0:32that later,
0:33you can't just publish content and hope
0:36for the best.
0:37So, I'll show you what's actually
0:39happening on the web, why the old
0:42playbook is broken, and what you can do
0:44about it starting next week or when you
0:46whenever you get back to your desk.
0:48So, I will start by painting a picture
0:51of the world that we all grew up in as
0:53digital marketers.
0:55So, for years, digital marketing's
0:58superpower was supposed to be
1:00measurability.
1:02For search engines, right, we would
1:03optimize signals, get rankings and
1:06clicks. For social networks, you know,
1:08we used to post links to draw traffic.
1:11For, you know, news media and blogs,
1:13you'd pitch coverage to get links and
1:15traffic.
1:17For ad networks, we would just buy the
1:18traffic.
1:20Now,
1:21you measured all of it with traffic plus
1:25attribution to sign-ups, sales, and
1:28revenue.
1:29The squishy stuff, like impressions,
1:32share of voice, that was for the
1:34channels where you couldn't really get
1:36credit, right? This was This was a tidy
1:38system. It was predictable, legible to
1:41your CFO.
1:43But, here's the problem now.
1:46We call this the alligator graph.
1:50Impressions rise, clicks decline.
1:53The jaws keep opening.
1:55The core problem now isn't that nobody
1:58sees your marketing, it's that more
2:00people see it, but fewer of them click.
2:04So, if this looks like your Google
2:05Search Console,
2:07you're not alone.
2:11So, this is from The Financial Times,
2:13right? Condé Nast CEO says, you know,
2:16well, major publishers are seeing the
2:18same trend, right? Impressions up,
2:21clicks down, across the board.
2:24This is a structural shift in how the
2:27internet works now, and it's not a
2:29problem with your content.
2:31So, you might be thinking, well, search
2:34is dying and everyone is using ChatGPT
2:37and maybe this particular problem
2:38doesn't matter, but search is not dying.
2:43In fact, it keeps growing.
2:46So, this is um this is from the State of
2:49Search Q4 2025 report by Datos and
2:53SparkToro, my company.
2:55So, since about this time last year,
2:58traditional search,
3:00AI tools, and e-commerce search have all
3:02grown.
3:04But, and this is this is the important
3:06part,
3:07a bigger share of searches now end
3:10without a click.
3:12The pie is getting bigger,
3:14but the slice that reaches your website
3:17is getting smaller.
3:19And that changes what winning looks
3:20like.
3:22And when we say search, right, most of
3:25us picture Google, but search is now a
3:29behavior. It's not a channel, and it's
3:32happening everywhere, right? Traditional
3:34search engines still dominate, right?
3:36About 81% of all searches, Google alone
3:39is like 74%.
3:41But look at the rest. Commerce platforms
3:44like Amazon and I think eBay, it's like
3:4710%,
3:48right? Um social networks like YouTube,
3:52Facebook, Instagram, 5%. AI tools, like
3:55ChatGPT and Claude, it's about 3% and
3:58it's growing fast.
3:59So, that means roughly one in five
4:03searches is happening somewhere other
4:06than a traditional search engine.
4:09And on every single one of these
4:10platforms, that zero-click problem
4:13applies.
4:14And what site doesn't want to send you
4:15traffic? Why would it, right? It wants
4:17you to buy in the platform. YouTube
4:19doesn't want people to leave.
4:21So, when I say zero-click problem, I'm
4:24not just talking about Google. I'm
4:25talking about everywhere people go to
4:28find answers.
4:30And when they do search Google, by the
4:31way, here's what actually happens.
4:35So,
4:36in 2024, or yeah, we looked at at over
4:40at SparkToro and at Datos, we looked at
4:42the clickstream data of 2024, we found
4:45what happened after Americans searched
4:47on Google.
4:49So, out of every Google search, 41.5%
4:54resulted in one or more clicks.
4:56Okay?
4:5737.1% resulted in nothing. The browser
5:00session just ended. Person Googled, "How
5:03old is Paul Rudd?" 57. Can't believe it,
5:06he looks so young.
5:07They don't need to learn learn more,
5:08right?
5:1021.4%
5:12resulted in another search.
5:14But that means that 58.5%
5:18of all Google searches are zero-click
5:21searches.
5:22And so, of the clicks that do happen,
5:24that 41.5% column there,
5:2770.5%
5:29go to organic results.
5:3128.5% go to Google-owned properties,
5:34like YouTube, Maps, Google Images.
5:37And just 1% goes to paid ads.
5:40So, put another way,
5:42for every 1,000 US Google searches,
5:46only 360 clicks went to the open web.
5:51That's you and me, Bessie. That's us.
5:53Those are our websites. Everyone in this
5:55room is competing for 360 clicks out of
5:581,000.
6:00And the traffic that does make it
6:01through,
6:02unfortunately, is shrinking.
6:06So, this is from Ahrefs global traffic
6:08panel of nearly 75,000 websites. I think
6:12the goodish news is that traffic to
6:15these sites dropped only about 5% in the
6:17last 18 months.
6:19Um paid and direct seem to be making up
6:21for some of the losses in search and
6:23social.
6:24But here's the thing.
6:26Pretty much all these websites are
6:27trying to grow their traffic, right? A
6:29lot of them have marketing teams using
6:31Ahrefs. So, if these sites that are
6:33trying are losing traffic, imagine
6:37what's happening to everyone else.
6:39Here's another angle, same story.
6:41Now, this is Bloom's analysis.
6:44Zero-click searches keep climbing. AI
6:47overviews have doubled.
6:49Traffic is down 10%.
6:51Meanwhile, searches are up 15%.
6:55And somehow search is still the largest
6:58traffic referrer.
7:00More searching, less clicking.
7:03That is the world we live in now. And
7:04it's not just search, right? This is
7:06Meta, too. Now, this is Meta's own data.
7:09I just made the chart. This is from
7:10their most widely viewed content
7:13reports, so from 2021 to 2025.
7:1797.3
7:19of all US post views on Facebook go to
7:23updates that do not include a link that
7:25sends people out.
7:26All right, Facebook is burying posts
7:28with external links.
7:30Their own Meta Business Suite, they
7:32started advising business accounts to
7:35put links in the comments. Yeah, my
7:37friend here is nodding. Yeah, I did
7:38that. And here we thought that was just
7:41what the LinkedIn bros did, right?
7:43LinkedIn comments.
7:44The platforms don't want to send you
7:46traffic. They want to keep people on
7:48platform.
7:49So, let me zoom out and show you what
7:51the rest of the web looks like.
7:53So, this one is from SimilarWeb's global
7:56panel in January 2026. Right, at
8:00SparkToro, we looked at the top 5,000
8:03most visited websites on the web and
8:06grouped them into five buckets.
8:09Google alone, that's the first bucket.
8:12They get roughly as many visits as the
8:15next 13 sites combined. Those next 13
8:18sites are like YouTube, Facebook,
8:20Instagram, ChatGPT, X, Reddit,
8:22Wikipedia.
8:24All of them together roughly equal
8:27Google.
8:28Then the third category, it's about 170
8:30more sites.
8:32And then about 1,300.
8:35And then the remaining 3,500 sites.
8:38The concentration at the top is
8:40staggering.
8:42And most of us, we're in the bottom
8:44tier.
8:46Here's another way to see it. Same data.
8:49It's Google versus literally everyone
8:51you think is big online. And this is the
8:53playing field. This is where your
8:54startup lives. Somewhere in that long
8:56tail competing for the scraps.
8:59So, if the old game was optimized for
9:02traffic,
9:03we have to acknowledge
9:05that we're now competing for
9:07increasingly scarce attention from
9:10increasingly dominant platforms.
9:14But here's what I actually want you to
9:16take away from this data.
9:18It's not that the web is dying. It's
9:20that your homepage has changed. This is
9:23your homepage now.
9:24A Google search result.
9:26This is where people find it. They form
9:28their first impression of you. It's not
9:30your beautifully designed website.
9:32Search snippet.
9:33This is also your homepage. A ChatGPT
9:35answer. Your prospect asks question, AI
9:38gives them the answer that may or may
9:40not mention you. You didn't get a click,
9:42you didn't even get a visit.
9:44Your brand was either there or it
9:45wasn't.
9:47Oh, and by the way, I saw our friend
9:49Cole from Formspree.
9:51I'm a customer. Um
9:53I'm a customer via Claude. I I saw you
9:57in a Claude response. I didn't go to
9:59your website. I mean, I did eventually
10:00to make my account, but I was just like,
10:02"Nope, got it in Claude. I'm going to
10:04become a customer, right?"
10:08This is
10:10Yeah.
10:11This is also your homepage, right? What
10:13you and your employees and your
10:15customers say about you in social media,
10:17your founder's LinkedIn post about why
10:19you built the product, your customers
10:21tweet about how you solved their
10:23problem.
10:25Right?
10:26The point is, your brand's first
10:29impression now happens across dozens of
10:33surfaces before anyone ever visits your
10:36.com.
10:38Sorry, Cole. I have no idea what the
10:39Formspree website looks like.
10:42So, you need to be present and credible
10:44on all these surfaces. That's the game
10:47now.
10:48Our new zero-click reality. Platforms
10:51suppress links because they want users
10:53to stay.
10:54Now, we at SparkToro, we consistently
10:56see about 10x the reach on posts that
10:59don't contain any links. And this is
11:01true across Facebook, LinkedIn, X,
11:04Threads.
11:05Your content has to deliver value in the
11:08feed itself, not behind a click. The new
11:11game is earning attention through
11:13resonance, not clickbait.
11:16And I'm not saying never share any
11:18links. No, I'm saying don't make click
11:21your only mechanism of value.
11:24We'll come back to this.
11:26Okay, so the web has changed, but
11:27there's a second problem that makes all
11:30all this even harder for startups. And
11:32it's about measurement.
11:34For 25 years,
11:36marketers convinced executives to invest
11:39in digital channels because, unlike
11:41offline, we could precisely measure the
11:43ROI.
11:45We trained our CEOs and our CFOs
11:48and our boards to believe that every
11:50conversion could be attributed to the
11:52channels and tactics in that buyer
11:53journey.
11:54That's over.
11:56Here's why.
11:56>> Hey, Rob Walling here. If you're
11:58watching this and thinking, I wish I
12:00could be in the room for talks like
12:01this. You can and you should. So much of
12:04the magic at our events happens in the
12:07hallway track. That's where you connect
12:09with two to 300 like-minded founders who
12:12are trying to solve many of the same
12:13problems you are. I hope you'll join us
12:15at our next event. Head to
12:16microconf.com/events
12:18to grab your ticket. Our next one is in
12:20Iceland in September of 2026 and then
12:23we'll be in Austin in April of 2027.
12:26>> Four reasons, I'll try to go fast.
12:28First, cookies.
12:30Only about 30% of users accept cookies
12:33and Safari rejects third-party cookies
12:35by default. Your tracking's already
12:37missing most people.
12:38Second, ad and analytics blockers.
12:42Somewhere between 20 and 60% of browsers
12:44block analytics tracking entirely.
12:47For tech-savvy audiences, which I'm
12:49guessing is a lot of your customers
12:51here, it's my audience, too.
12:54That's probably closer to 60%.
12:57Be honest here. How many of you use an
12:59ad blocker?
13:01Yeah, look at us. We are the worst. We
13:03all do it.
13:04>> [laughter]
13:06>> Third, multi-device
13:08journeys. There are about 3.6 devices
13:11per person worldwide.
13:13Forget about tracking individuals
13:14pre-login across all those devices.
13:18Fourth, privacy regulation. GDPR, CCPA,
13:22LGPD.
13:24What's possible and legal in the US is
13:26not legal most anywhere else.
13:28The compliance burden alone, that makes
13:31persistent tracking impractical for most
13:34of us here.
13:36And that's before we even get to the
13:37really messy stuff like dark social.
13:40So last year,
13:41we ran an experiment at SparkToro. We
13:44sent over 1,100 visits across 11 social
13:47networks and measured what Google
13:49Analytics reported.
13:51100% of the traffic
13:54from TikTok, Slack, Discord, WhatsApp,
13:57and Mastodon, if you care,
13:59were were reported as direct.
14:02No referral information at all.
14:05So your analytics literally cannot see
14:08where those visitors are coming from.
14:1075% of Facebook Messenger traffic was
14:13hidden.
14:1530% of Instagram DMs. Even LinkedIn
14:19hit it 14% of the time.
14:21So if you have a Slack community, if
14:23people are sharing your stuff in
14:24WhatsApp, like in the MicroConf group
14:27here,
14:28if your product gets mentioned in
14:29Discord, you'll never see it in GA. It
14:32just shows up as direct. And you've no
14:34idea what's working.
14:36And then, there's the platforms
14:38themselves taking credit for the sales
14:40that they didn't create.
14:44Now this is from a peer-reviewed paper
14:47that was published in IEEE Access just
14:51last month. This is the Dropbox study.
14:53Just curious, who who knows about this
14:56study?
14:58Oh, interesting. Breaking news. Okay, so
15:00this is this is
15:01this couldn't have come at a better
15:02time.
15:04So Dropbox ran month-long blackout
15:07experiments. They turned off entire ad
15:10channels and measured what actually
15:11happened. So mobile advertising,
15:14this showed an attributed return on ad
15:16spend of 1.53.
15:20Search engine marketing looked even
15:21better. About 2x.
15:24And that actually this looks pretty
15:25healthy.
15:27But, when they measured the causal ROAS
15:32for mobile ads, it was 0.7.
15:35That means that their own mobile ads
15:38were literally destroying value, not
15:41creating it.
15:42It's not that dissimilar from their SEM
15:44performance. Causal ROAS was 0.92, still
15:48underwater.
15:50Now, that's the difference between a
15:51channel touching the sale and a channel
15:54actually creating the sale.
15:58So, in Dropbox, they they reallocated
16:00$25 million
16:01away from low incrementality spend.
16:05Their portfolio lifetime value to
16:07customer acquisition cost improved by
16:1053%.
16:12Incredible. So, this is a publicly
16:14traded company with rigorous methodology
16:17that attributed outcomes
16:19can overstate causal impact by two to 10
16:22times.
16:23Okay, so
16:24the web sends fewer clicks, the
16:27platforms keep the audience,
16:30and the measurement tools that we built
16:32our industry on are unreliable.
16:36What do we do about it?
16:39This is the part where we talk about
16:41what we can do on Monday.
16:44Or whenever you get back to your desk.
16:45Five things.
16:46Build on rented land. Yep. I know for
16:50years we've been told, "Don't build on
16:52rented land." And I look, I get it. My
16:55colleague, Rand Fishkin, he had over
16:57462,000
16:59Twitter followers, built over 16 years.
17:02I grew my account there to over 130,000.
17:06Then Elon Musk came along and you know
17:08the rest. I'm pretty salty about it.
17:10But, here's the reality. For every like
17:13one visitor to your website, 100 people
17:16will get to know you on platforms that
17:17you don't control.
17:19That's where the attention is, and you
17:21have to be there.
17:23Now, what this means practically,
17:25you need to publish native value on
17:27platforms where your audience already
17:30pays attention.
17:31Write posts that teach without requiring
17:34the click.
17:36And where you do this depends on your
17:38audience, right? Maybe it's LinkedIn,
17:41it's X, Reddit, YouTube. This is
17:43important. No two companies marketing
17:45mix should be the same, even in the same
17:48sector, right? Because you have to
17:49figure out where your specific audience
17:52pays attention.
17:54Number two,
17:56keep one owned channel strong. And I
17:58would argue that that channel is email.
18:01Look at this data.
18:02Email open rates in 2005, 30%.
18:07In 2024, 34%.
18:10Click rates have bounced around between
18:122 and 4% for 20 years.
18:1520 years everyone's saying, "Email is
18:16dead. Slack is going to kill email. Gen
18:19Z doesn't use email."
18:21But these stats are pretty much
18:22unchanged. Email is the one channel
18:25where you control the relationship.
18:28The algorithm can't suppress your reach.
18:31The platform can't hide your content. I
18:34I mean, actually,
18:36you could get stuck in the Google
18:37promotions tab, which is not great, but
18:39hopefully most of us are marketing to
18:41other business emails, and maybe that's
18:42not as big of an issue, I don't know.
18:45But you own the list. That's the point.
18:48So, yes, build on rented land, but make
18:51sure every rented land effort feeds your
18:54email list.
18:56Number three is about how you measure
18:58all this.
19:01Drop traffic as a KPI.
19:03Measure what matters.
19:06Traffic can be a fine secondary metric,
19:09but it's a bad thing to optimize for
19:11unless you sell CPN ads and I'm guessing
19:13most of us here don't sell CPN ads.
19:16Here's one of my favorite examples. So,
19:18HubSpot's organic search traffic dropped
19:2180%
19:23after Google's algorithm updates and AI
19:26overviews rolled out. This is the last
19:27year.
19:2880% It sounds catastrophic.
19:31And yet, HubSpot's Q4 2025 revenue hit
19:36an all-time high.
19:38The stock jumped. Right? Traffic and
19:40revenue are not the same thing.
19:44So, if you're judging your marketing by
19:45traffic, you're measuring the wrong
19:47thing.
19:49So, what do you measure instead?
19:52Here's a framework across content
19:54platforms, search, social, and your
19:58website. Track four layers. Audience.
20:03Followers, keyword volume, viewers,
20:05listeners, returning visitors. Are you
20:07building an audience?
20:10Reach.
20:11Impressions, visibility, views, minutes,
20:14email subscribers.
20:16Are you being seen?
20:18Interest.
20:20Engagements,
20:21product page views, comments, shares,
20:25branded search.
20:26Are people engaging with you?
20:30And then sales. Conversions and
20:32conversion rate.
20:34All the things above,
20:36these are all leading indicators that
20:38should eventually lead to sales.
20:41Incremental sales lift, that is your
20:43primary KPI. Everything else should tell
20:46you whether you're on track.
20:49Now you're thinking, how do I prove this
20:51to my board or how do I know it's
20:53working?
20:54You can't fully attribute, but you can
20:57correlate.
20:59Track the leading indicators alongside
21:02business outcomes.
21:03So, here's a simplified example.
21:06Let's say your LinkedIn your LinkedIn
21:08impressions from no link posts went up
21:1152% this month. Okay? Well, did branded
21:15search volume go up?
21:17Did email subscribers grow grow?
21:20Did demo requests increase?
21:23Right? You're looking for patterns over
21:25time, not single touch proof.
21:28I spit. Did we Do we do more of X this
21:31month and did it did Y go up?
21:35Right? For us at SparkToro, we know that
21:38zero click social content for us is
21:41strongly correlated with sign-ups over
21:43the next two to four weeks.
21:45We can't attribute it in GA, but we can
21:47see the correlation clearly.
21:50Right? There's this other um B2B SaaS
21:51company, Dreamdata. Right? This was
21:54maybe last year, 2 years ago, they
21:56started their employee advocacy program
21:58where
21:59employees were empowered to just post as
22:01thought leaders on LinkedIn. They post
22:04about sales, you know, attribution,
22:06revenue,
22:07um
22:08life at Dreamdata.
22:11And since doing that, their
22:13number of demos booked increased by a
22:16lot.
22:17Right? They don't they don't know like
22:18which post drove X amount of demo
22:21requests, but they know that this
22:22program has resulted in a lot more
22:25people reaching out to learn more about
22:27the product.
22:29So, this is how you report to your
22:31board. And I think that this is a more
22:33honest way
22:35to do it. It's more credible.
22:37And it also proves that your organic and
22:39brand teams are doing their jobs well.
22:42All right. Number four is the one that
22:43I'm most excited about.
22:45Remember that search captures demand,
22:49but the public evidence creates it.
22:52This is So, what I'm about to show you,
22:54this is a more realistic buyer journey
22:56that you're never going to see in
22:57analytics.
22:59Okay, step one. Someone sees your
23:01LinkedIn post.
23:02Then they hear you or your founder on a
23:04podcast. Then they read you in a
23:07newsletter mention.
23:09Maybe a peer drops your name or your
23:11brand name in a Slack group.
23:15Then they Google your brand name
23:18and convert.
23:19Google gets the credit cuz your
23:21analytics will say organic search,
23:24but steps one through four created the
23:27demand. Google just captured it.
23:30So your job is not just to rank, it's to
23:33influence the public record.
23:36Reviews, forums, discussions, search
23:38snippets, third-party mentions, and the
23:41pages AI systems cite and summarize.
23:44Because if you if you don't influence
23:47the public record,
23:48someone else will.
23:52Okay, two stories.
23:54First one.
23:56My friend Ross Simmons over at
23:57Foundation Inc., he analyzed B2B SaaS
24:01search results and found that Reddit
24:04outranked every vendor simultaneously on
24:0850 to 66% of shared keywords.
24:1277%
24:14of the search volume that Reddit won
24:15came from generic category keywords. So
24:18not best or review or alternative terms.
24:22And as queries got longer,
24:25Reddit's advantage grew even more.
24:28So what does this mean for you? It means
24:32buyers are forming opinions in
24:34subreddits before they ever visit your
24:36website. So if you're not part of that
24:39conversation,
24:40authentically, not spamming, right?
24:42You're invisible at the moment of
24:44decision.
24:46Second story. My friend Will Reynolds
24:49over at Seer Interactive, he discovered
24:52that one negative review theme, it was
24:54high account high account manager
24:57turnover.
24:58That was servicing 67 times in branded
25:02AI outputs.
25:03Perplexity, ChatGPT, all of them are
25:05repeating it. And by the way, he's had
25:07his agency for like 24 or 25 years. That
25:10was from one negative review, which at
25:13the time when he saw it years ago, he
25:14was like, "Oh, that's one person."
25:17But AI systems go deeper than humans do.
25:20So, AI treated that one data point as a
25:23trend and amplified it.
25:26Sucked.
25:27So, what did Seer do about it?
25:30They started publishing real employee
25:32retention data. And after just two
25:35citations, the LLMs stopped referencing
25:39the negative one.
25:41Now, I'll I'll admit that this wasn't
25:43super durable. Like, if they didn't
25:45refresh
25:46If they didn't refresh this data every
25:48like several weeks or so, LLMs would
25:50pick up the the old negative review. But
25:54the overall lesson is
25:56if your strongest proof points are
25:58trapped in Slack, in your finance
26:00reports, or they're in your head, then
26:02they're not part of the public record.
26:04And if they're not published, they're
26:06not helping you.
26:09Number five, this is how we do it.
26:12Treat content as a service.
26:15Right? We're all SaaS cuties here.
26:17Hopefully, we like this CAS.
26:19Now, this is how I've run content teams
26:21across both B2B and B2C. Every piece of
26:26content has a job to do and a client it
26:29serves. Case study, that's for sales.
26:32Success metric,
26:33win rate and cycle time. A how-to guide,
26:36that is for customer success. Metric,
26:39ticket deflection and feature adoption.
26:41Benchmark report, that is for corporate
26:43comms
26:44and biz dev.
26:46The metric is backlinks and speaking
26:48invites.
26:50If your content can't tell you what job
26:52it does and who it serves,
26:54it's not ready to ship.
26:57So, when I ran I used to run content
26:59over at Fitbit B2B, this shift was the
27:02real unlock. Because once we started
27:04doing that, sales started coming to us
27:08first instead of last. And our output
27:10ended up going down because in having
27:12that tighter loop, we didn't have to
27:14create as much stuff, but our impact
27:16went way up.
27:18There were like days, months where I
27:20only focused on creating case studies,
27:22which sounds kind of lame if you're a
27:24content marketer, right? But they ended
27:26up moving the needle a lot more because
27:29our biggest money came from enterprise
27:30accounts. Enterprise accounts don't care
27:32about your how-to blog post, right? They
27:35want the case study that shows them that
27:36your product actually works.
27:38So, here's the intake form that's going
27:40to make this operational.
27:43Use this for every asset, 10 fields. If
27:46you and your internal client can't fill
27:48this out, then you can't make the asset.
27:52Client team,
27:54so sales, CS, product, corporate comms,
27:58two, job to be done,
28:01audience, so the role that you'll
28:04customer profile, right, what stage
28:06they're at.
28:07Number four, desired asset type, moment
28:10of use, desired action, you know, what
28:12you want your what you want the consumer
28:14to do,
28:16source material and subject matter
28:18experts,
28:19success metric and target, distribution
28:22plan, shelf life and refresh trigger.
28:25Right, this is a lot,
28:27but the point is, this will help you
28:30optimize for actual business outcomes.
28:34So, if you can't do all this, you know,
28:35with your internal stakeholder,
28:37then you don't get to make the content.
28:39Now, let me tie all this together into
28:41something, you know, tightly actionable
28:43that you can start doing next week.
28:45Here's the weekly loop, five steps. One,
28:49pick two to three channels where your
28:51audience actually pays attention. Not
28:54where you wish they would click, where
28:56they actually hang out.
28:58Uh wink wink, nudge nudge, you could
29:00probably create a SparkToro account um
29:02that would tell you where your audience
29:04hangs out. Anyway, step two, publish one
29:08to two zero-click assets per week.
29:11Standalone value, no click required.
29:15Three,
29:17repurpose each idea into multiple native
29:20formats.
29:21So, one insight, maybe it just starts
29:23with a LinkedIn post, maybe you get some
29:25pretty decent engagement that causes you
29:28to think about other things. So, then
29:30you then flesh that out into a longer
29:32blog post.
29:34Then maybe you also repurpose that for
29:36your newsletter.
29:38And then maybe you also repurpose that
29:40for a podcast talking point.
29:44Four, capture demand.
29:46Email sign-up, branded search, demo
29:48request, direct traffic.
29:51That's how you collect the value from
29:54all that rented land activity.
29:57Five, review it monthly, look at your
30:00correlation dashboard,
30:02repeat this weekly, review it monthly,
30:05adjust channels quarterly.
30:08This is something a founder with no
30:10marketing team can start doing on
30:12Monday.
30:13Now, one more mental model before I
30:15close.
30:17Think of your content strategy
30:20as a banking system. Right, every
30:23zero-click post that delivers standalone
30:26value is a deposit. You're building
30:29algorithmic capital, right? Goodwill
30:32with the platform and trust with your
30:34audience.
30:35The insight, the data point, the story,
30:38the how-to, the hot take,
30:40those are all algorithmic deposits.
30:44And then every once in a while, you make
30:46a withdrawal.
30:47Subscribe to our newsletter.
30:49Book a demo.
30:51Create a free account.
30:53That ratio is roughly five deposits for
30:56every one withdrawal.
30:58Earn the goodwill and then spend it
31:01wisely.
31:02Don't make the click your only mechanism
31:05of value.
31:06Make the value obvious in feed.
31:09Make the action obvious with a link.
31:13Let me leave you with this.
31:15The job of marketing
31:17is no longer just to drive the click.
31:20It's to create understanding,
31:23trust,
31:24recall, and preference
31:27wherever your buyer already is.
31:30The founders who embrace this early will
31:33grow faster
31:35because they will have started building
31:36influence across the services where
31:38their buyers actually spend time.
31:42The companies that win will not be the
31:44ones clinging hardest to old
31:45attribution.
31:47They'll be the ones building influence
31:49across the modern discovery journey.
31:51>> [clears throat]
31:53>> All right. That's all I have.
31:55Uh
31:56best way to keep in touch is my
31:58newsletter. The QR code is there. Uh I
32:00send it out every Tuesday, so you'll get
32:01tomorrow.
32:03Where there you'll also get updates on
32:04my zero-click marketing podcast. If you
32:06have any questions or want my slides,
32:09or if you want to send me hate mail,
32:11don't worry, I read them all. Um you can
32:13email me at [email protected].
32:15Um is there too many calls to action on
32:17one slide? You know how the cobbler's
32:19children don't have shoes? I apparently
32:21have too many shoes, so.
32:24And I'm early, so if you have questions,
32:27>> [applause]
32:29>> Amazing. The best marketer in the world,
32:33and she came to hang out with us. I love
32:36this for us.
32:36>> The worst.
32:37>> And now I'm just going to steal your
32:38shine cuz here I am with you.
32:40>> Yeah, hello. Want to answer questions
32:41together? Do we have time?
32:42>> No, but what I want to know first, like
32:44real quick cuz we only have time for
32:45three questions, is uh when was the last
32:47time anyone in here like posted on
32:49LinkedIn as a founder? Like within a
32:51week?
32:52>> This morning.
32:52>> This morning, of course. I mean, this
32:54Alex Boyd, everyone. Uh okay, it was
32:57like 10 people. So, you need to be doing
32:58it all the time, right? Cool.
33:00>> Actually, I have more to say on this.
33:03Ideally, you'll be doing this like two
33:04or three times a week.
33:06I think people used to think, "Oh,
33:07LinkedIn, you got to post twice a day."
33:09No, post less because LinkedIn, the way
33:13their algorithm works, is they're trying
33:15to find They're trying to give the right
33:18content to the right person.
33:21Like they're trying They're kind of
33:23trying to tamp down virality in exchange
33:26for higher quality engagement. And so,
33:29part of that kind of means like high
33:31signal to noise.
33:33Um the other thing is, if you post twice
33:35within like 18 to 24 hours, your
33:38previous post is going to get throttled.
33:40So,
33:41>> Yikes.
33:42>> You're If you're intimidated about
33:43LinkedIn, just think of it as like you
33:44only have to do it three times a week.
33:46That's it.
33:47>> Yeah, and you signed up to do all of
33:48this. Anyway, maybe now we only have
33:49time for two questions. Uh
33:51we have our question boxes. We have a
33:53question right there.
33:54>> Yeah, speaking of LinkedIn, is it
33:56important or better to post as a person
34:00or as a business profile?
34:02Which is most effective?
34:06>> You know, what It depends, right? If If
34:08you are just looking for raw engagement,
34:11a person's page will always perform
34:13better. Like people want to engage with
34:15people, not brands.
34:17Um so, the way I do it is I treat the
34:20company page as sort of like the news
34:23feed. Everything the company does just
34:25goes on that page.
34:27And then my personal page is a little
34:28bit more of my perspective of that
34:31company news.
34:33If that if that kind of helps. That way
34:35you kind of look as the company page is
34:37sort of the de facto, like this is the
34:39record of things, and your personal page
34:41might be you don't announce everything,
34:43right? Like you don't talk about every
34:44single blog post your company does, but
34:46it's a little bit more point of view
34:48led.
34:51>> Nice. What else we got?
34:54>> Okay.
34:55>> Just a quick follow-up, video or text?
34:58>> Depends on the platform. Um use of uh on
35:01the platform, like
35:03the one that is video or text first,
35:06right? So like Instagram is probably
35:08going to prefer video and images.
35:12LinkedIn, like
35:14I've been seeing that
35:17I mean, obviously an embedded video will
35:19perform better than like a YouTube link,
35:21but I will see that my reach on an
35:24embedded video is like 10x lower or 8x
35:27lower than a text-only post. So I would
35:30say, I think especially if you're just
35:32getting started and you you just need to
35:33get it done, just do text because it's a
35:36lower barrier to entry.
35:38Yeah.
35:39>> Founders hate being on video. That's me
35:41all day.
35:41>> video's the worst.
35:43>> [laughter]
35:43>> I hate it.
35:44>> Do we have one more?
35:45>> one more.
35:46>> Yes, right here. Working on it?
35:50Thank you, Justine.
35:53>> Thank you. Um do you have any
35:54recommendations on how to use AI to
35:57create content? I got I'm sure all of us
36:00here use it, but does it get
36:03de-prioritized now by platforms or is it
36:06more like people don't want to engage
36:08with that because it's built made by AI?
36:12>> I I see it as I think the platforms are
36:15trying to be smarter about detecting
36:18what is and is not AI-generated. So I
36:21think it's like LinkedIn, for instance,
36:23they've been pretty big in talking about
36:25their algorithm is trying to reward
36:27high-quality engagement. And
36:31an AI-seeming post that just kind of
36:33restates the post is not going to be
36:35deemed as high quality.
36:36So, there's a little bit of that.
36:38Um
36:39if you're asking to about like how do
36:41you create content or marketing stuff
36:45with the AI,
36:46I would say with caution,
36:49but use it as
36:51an editor who can give you feedback.
36:54Like what I like to do is I'll give it
36:55like a finished a finished asset and be
36:57like, "Hey, poke holes in this theory.
37:00Where do you think I need more examples?
37:02Where do you think it gets confusing?"
37:03And sometimes it'll point out like,
37:05"Actually, this is kind of weak. You
37:06need a You need a clearer example for
37:08this claim." Stuff like that. So, I
37:10would say do that.
37:12>> But the copywriting itself is is you,
37:14right? Like
37:15>> Yeah.
37:15>> Okay.
37:16>> Yeah, that's the big thing. I think
37:18>> I love that so much.
37:19>> Yes. Yes. Copywriting has to be you. I
37:21think the the dangerous thing is that if
37:23you start using AI to create good enough
37:27content, you're just going to forget
37:29what good actually is because it'll
37:32because it's supposed to please you,
37:34right? The LLMs are
37:36like they're they're literally designed
37:37to give you the next like statistically
37:40likely word. So, it's supposed to look
37:42good. So,
37:44it's important for me to maintain my
37:47voice and my IP and just use it as like,
37:50"Hey, can you stress test this concept?"
37:52>> Thanks so much for saying that. I'll
37:53Venmo you later.
37:55>> [laughter]
37:56>> Also, hire Leanne if you need to
37:57copywrite.
37:58>> GOD, WHAT WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?
38:00>> The best [laughter] copywriter in the
38:01world, guys. She's here in the room with
38:03us.
38:05>> This Well, this has really worked out
38:06for me being up here. Can we give it up
38:08for Amanda one more time?
38:09>> [applause]
38:11>> I've been running MicroConf for more
38:12than a decade, and the thing I hear from
38:14attendees more than anything else is I
38:16wish I'd come sooner. Not because of any
38:19single talk or tactic, but because they
38:21finally found their people, founders who
38:23get it, founders who were building the
38:25same way they are. At our events, it's
38:28not just about the talks. In Portland,
38:29we organized waterfall hikes, food
38:32tours, happy hours, real time with other
38:34founders outside the sessions. And those
38:37relationships don't end when the event
38:38does. They turn into the people you text
38:40when something breaks or when something
38:42finally works. If you've been thinking
38:44about coming, I hope you'll join us in
38:46Iceland and Austin. Get your tickets at
38:48microconf.com/
38:50events. If you got something out of that
38:51talk, make sure you hit subscribe. We're
38:53putting out more of these every week.
38:56And that wasn't the only great talk from
38:58Portland. Go watch this one next.

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