Today, Google’s search results still look (mostly) like lists of snippets and links, e.g. But, plenty of search marketers and industry observers suspect we’re in the closing days of this format, and the future holds something closer to how AI-tools like ChatGPT and Bard answer user-inputted prompts, e.g. If that’s the case, what can/should marketers
Why the Least Measurable Marketing Channels Tend to Perform Best: 5-Minute Whiteboard
By Content marketing, social media, events, PR, and marketing through sources-of-influence have consistently produced remarkable results for the companies I’ve run, and yet, most big businesses invest 1/1,000th the effort and dollars in these tactics that they do in digital advertising. Why? Measurability and scalability. Let’s dig into this challenge (and how you can invest better)
The 3 Big Problems with Asking “How Did You Hear About Us?” | 5-Minute Whiteboard
By Marketing attribution is dying. Ad blockers. Privacy laws. The death of third-party cookies. Keyword (not provided). Dark social. It’s an attribution-trained marketer’s nightmare. Knowing which channels and tactics truly had an influence on every sale is next to impossible. Unfortunately, many folks think the remedy lies in a simple survey question at the end of
If Your Marketing Mix Doesn’t Match Your Customer’s Journey… You’re Gonna Have a Bad Time | 5-Minute Whiteboard
By Imagine that you have perfect knowledge of how every potential customer starts their journey to learn about the kinds of solutions your business offers. And that in that hypothetical, 25% of those potential customers learn about solutions in your space by typing keywords into Google. That’s a pretty reasonable average across most industries, but… guess
We Analyzed Millions of ChatGPT User Sessions: Visits are Down 29% since May, Programming Assistance is 30% of Use
By Generative AI, and ChatGPT in particular have been catnip to the tech press, the mainstream media, and the conversations of professionals in nearly every field. How is it going to disrupt your work?! Will AI replace you? Are Hollywood writers, real estate agents, dog walkers, and anesthesiologists even useful anymore? In concert with the fine
Two Announcements: SparkToro V2 Coming Soon and Brendan Hufford (Temporarily) Joining the Team
By How is it only August? It feels like two years since January. Especially here at SparkToro, where the year’s had so much upheaval, despite our attempts to maintain Chill Work. Shortly after our pricing change in February, Twitter/X’s new owner announced a bevy of pricing and access changes to their API, including the deprecation of
Why the Worst Search Marketers Start Content Strategy with “SEO Keywords” — 5-Minute Whiteboard
By I’m worried. Worried that thousands of agencies, in-house practitioners, and even marketing leaders who should know better are STILL prioritizing their content efforts based primarily or entirely on keywords for search. I get it. 10 years ago, that practice worked. It still technically works in a number of fields. Prioritize keywords, create content, publish, get
Modern Content Marketing: Your New Growth Flywheel
By Many of us know the classic content marketing strategy to a tee. You use an SEO tool like Moz or Ahrefs to identify high volume keywords, ideally with low difficulty, you write the content that satisfies the query for those search terms, and then over time, you rank for keywords, improve your search rank, and
4 Ways to Distribute Content on Social Media | 5-Minute Whiteboard
By Tactically, there’s an infinite number of ways to promote via social media. But, when it comes to distributing content, there are just four categories of promotion that every technique fits under. What are they? Which one should you use? Should you adopt a mix or stick to a single system? Find out in this week’s
5-Minute Whiteboard: Is Generative AI in Search Results the SEO Apocalypse?
By In the not-too-distant future, we’ll look back at the days when a full 1/3rd of Google searches resulted in a free click to the open web and marvel at how good we had it. For the last few months, Google’s been telegraphing that generative AI answers will soon appear in search results. These pieces of