By Classic content marketing is dead. I don’t say that lightly. Most digital marketing techniques don’t truly die, but the old way of doing content marketing–finding high-volume keywords, then writing blog posts that target those keywords and trying to get your post ranking in Google for them; dead. Why? Because Google is no longer the primary or largest source of information consumption on the web. And we’ve got the data to prove it.
On the left are the web’s largest traffic referrers. And among sites that send direct clicks, Google dominates. But, on the right, we see where people spend time and consume content. And that’s a far more diverse, distributed group of properties, in which Google (and all other search engines) are a mere 10% of the pie. Put another way: Compared to all the major platforms, Google sends the vast majority of traffic. But fewer people are hanging out on Google; they’re mostly hanging out on social, news and productivity sites.
What does that mean? That it takes a lot more than just SEO to win in content marketing today. Your content needs to be present before people start searching for the brands and websites they’ve learned about. Before they seek out answers to their problems. Before their journey to a solution even begins.
Modern content marketing means being present in the places where your audience pays attention, consumes content, and learns about the problems you solve. In 2009, that might reasonably have been “mostly Google.” But in 2024, it’s barely Google. Google merely gets credit for the ideas, preferences, and information needs created somewhere else.
All this means is that you need more of a modern content marketing strategy — because more than ever, you need to win in areas that are broader than search.
A modern content marketing strategy is audience-first. The first step is discovering where your audience already hangs out, how they’re spending their time online, and how you can fit into the conversations they’re having and consuming. I know… it sounds exhausting. Fortunately, we have a guide to take you from start to finish, combining the best of both SEO and audience-first worlds.
Step 1: Uncover your audience’s sources of influence
Some audiences do very little outside of searching Google. Others are deeply active on specific communities inside particular social networks. Some have a rich, vibrant ecosystem of blogs, newsletters, niche publishers, and web forum communities. Others concentrate almost entirely around YouTube channels and podcasts. No two are the same. Your first job is figuring out what mix of sources already have your customers’ attention. Because without that knowledge, your content marketing is doomed to fail.
Thankfully, this is a straightforward process. There are three key tools at your disposal:
- Surveys
- Interviews
- Software with data at scale
Most content marketers are already familiar with one kind of audience research: keyword research tools. Google Trends, Ahrefs, Moz, Semrush, and dozens of others exist.
But if you want to know the:
- Social networks your audience uses
- Websites they visit
- Podcasts they listen-to
- Subreddits they read
- YouTube channels they subscribe-to
- Social accounts they follow
- Newsletters in their inboxes
Keyword research won’t do the trick. You need broader data sources. This is where surveys, interviews, and data at scale step in. Using a combination of these, you can answer the bullet points above confidently, with provable sources.
Obviously, SparkToro is one of these options, but even in the software segment, we’re not alone. The good folks at Brandwatch have a superb, enterprise-grade product for those with large budgets. Similarweb also offers a robust option for finding websites. Audiense (with an “s”) does a nice job for those focused on Twitter.
Whatever products or processes you choose, when it’s complete, you’ll have a far better understanding of what your audience pays attention to and consumes than most any competitor. That insight is the competitive advantage you need to proceed to step two.
Step 2: Find resonant topics that are likely to earn amplification.
The combined insights from keyword research, audience research, and social media listening will help you find the best topics. Try a keyword research tool like Moz or Ahrefs to help you find some high-volume (or at least, medium-volume) keyword opportunities. Then do some audience research and social media listening to get a sense for how to prioritize your topics, and what types of information to include in the meat of your content.
If I were you, I’d run a SparkToro query and head over to the Search Keywords and Trending Keywords sections. Remember: a keyword research tool will tell you what people are searching, but it doesn’t tell you who is doing the searching. Only SparkToro can do that. 🙂
After that, I’d get onto a couple social listening tools like Brandwatch and BuzzSumo to see what my audience is talking about online, if they’re talking about me, and to understand how I can join the conversation.
Having that overall understanding of the marketing opportunity of a given keyword alongside what people are actually searching for and talking about online will help you figure out some meaningful, relevant, and maybe even timely ideas. Here’s how I might apply this process to think of content ideas for my audience of B2B marketers:
- Moz: In Keyword Explorer, I’ll try a search for “B2B social media” as my first hypothesis is that anyone who actually works in B2B marketing isn’t actually searching for that term. They’re probably searching for marketing functions or tactics within the scope of their role. Some interesting keywords pop up: “content marketing examples,” “marketing strategy for b2b,” “social media calendar template google sheets,” and a bunch of other terms.
- SparkToro: I’ll run a search for the audience that uses these words in their bio: “B2B marketing,” since I’ll find people who work in the industry I’m trying to serve. This audience’s popular Google Search queries include: “market content,” “content marketing guides,” “how to create a content marketing strategy,” and more.
- BuzzSumo: I checked the Monitoring tab to see what people are saying about SparkToro. I see some articles citing our recent zero-click search study along with some advice for using Reddit in B2B content marketing, as well as marketing on a budget.
Already, a bunch of new ideas are teeming in my head: it’s interesting to see how much content marketing is coming up within these broader searches for B2B marketing, and it looks like there’s a lot of opportunity to write tutorial-like content and publish some helpful tools or templates.
(By the way, here’s about the moment where I’d go back and re-read one of my favorite blog posts by Rand, “Who Will Amplify This? And Why?” It’s an evergreen guide for what makes content amplification-worthy.)
Step 3: Select the right format.
I’m a writer, so I tend to think in blog posts. But I shouldn’t let that limit my choices in content format. Here’s where SparkToro helps me think outside the text editor:
I run a search for my audience. Let’s say it’s nutritionists. (Of course that SparkToro query is free!) When I click on Keywords > Search Modifiers, I can see the most common search query modifiers or topic filters among this audience. A lot of their modifiers are “for weight loss,” “for beginner,” “recipe,” and more.
Now, when I go to Keywords > SERP Features, I can see the most common features in their Google search results pages, and how they benchmark against average. Looks like nutritionists generally see images a bit less often than global internet users. And it looks like they see recipes a lot more often! All of these clues might signal to me it’s worth considering creating some new, easy recipes centered on weight loss.
Let’s look at another audience: people who search for the keyword, “customer retention.” (Another free SparkToro query!) This is probably a marketing-savvy audience. We can see their popular Search Modifiers include “template,” “formula,” “excel,” and more. We can also see that the SERP Features they’re often seeing are featured snippets and videos. Not so much knowledge panels. Maybe this audience tends to look for YouTube shows to stay informed. If you recall that of the Google searches that do end with a click, about 25% go to a Google-owned property, then you might be extra motivated to dig into that YouTube strategy. Bonus points if you produce a YouTube video that walks through valuable Excel formulas for customer retention forecasting.
Step 4: Keep an eye on the competition.
You’re a savvy marketer, so of course you keep a pulse on your competitors. The trouble is, it’s not often as easy to figure out who your content competition is. This is someone who ranks for a keyword you wish to rank for but might not necessarily be a direct competitor. For instance, HubSpot ranks for a bunch of marketing terms that would be nice if SparkToro ranked for. And while their CRM and our audience research tool might serve a similar audience, our software couldn’t be more different.
Enter: SparkToro’s Ranking Pages. Now you can see the pages that appear high in Google searches seen by your audience. Our example audience of nutritionists? They’re likely to see, “The Beginner’s Guide to a Whole-Food, Plant-Based Diet” and “Whole-Foods, Plant-Based Diet: A Detailed Beginner’s Guide.” Our other example audience that searches, “customer retention”? They’re seeing “Customer retention basics, 8 strategies, and metrics” and “23 Excellent Customer Satisfaction Survey Examples” in their SERPs.
Getting instant access to the top ranking URLs in your audience could help you ideate a whole lot faster. If nothing else, this gives you the clearest sense which brands are reaching your audience — and gives you a whole new outlook in terms of who you might pitch to write a guest post for or ask to do some co-marketing with.
Step 5: Distribute like a pro.
Like our friend Ross Simmonds says: “Create Once, Distribute Forever.” You now have some excellent content pieces — some blog posts, YouTube videos, recipes, templates, and more. You can’t just rely on search engines to send traffic your way.
Next comes your distribution strategy, which, like Ross says, never really ends. There are social channels for you to add zero-click value, not to mention repurpose your insights time and again. There are websites, publications, podcasts, and other social accounts that can potentially amplify your content. You might already have a few friendlies in your network who you could reach out to for a quick amplification favor or to partner with on a webinar. But chances are, there are additional brands to uncover.
Here’s a cheat sheet on how to find them in SparkToro:
Find backlink and/or guest post opportunities: After you run your SparkToro search, go to Keywords > Ranking Pages. In our example audience of nutritionists, sites like Forks Over Knives, Everyday Health, and EatingWell could be potential opportunities. But you don’t have to stick with just the top 5. If you scroll further down, you might find more realistic opportunities, like with Veggies Don’t Bite or Nutritious Life.
Uncover Hidden Gem social accounts: Maybe there are notable-but-not-yet-mainstream creators or brands in your audience. If you click on Social Accounts > Hidden Gems you’ll find a list of all those accounts! Maybe some of those brands could be your co-marketers.
Get a list of relevant podcasts: A niche podcast might be the opportunity you’re looking for. If you feel it’s unlikely you can secure a guest spot on a mainstream podcast, a niche show might be the perfect fit. Clicking on Podcasts will give you a long list of relevant shows to your audience, and you can consider pitching yourself as a guest, then mentioning your content in your episode and getting a link in the show notes.
Rinse, Repeat, Repurpose, and Recycle
You can go back to step one to conceptualize new content ideas. You can go back to step three to see if there are new content formats that you can repurpose your existing content into. And you should definitely go back to step five to revisit distribution channels every chance you get.
Your mileage may vary, but you should now have an easily repeatable process for creating and distributing content. Good luck out there!