By Look, I get it. The new world of a zero-click web, where search engines, AI tools, and social networks hoard traffic and send fewer and fewer visits out is scary. For a lot of businesses, especially those in publishing or those funded by CPM ads, it’s gonna get ugly. A world of declining traffic means many of us need to evolve.
But, it does not mean we no longer:
- need a website or email list
- need to publish content
- need to expend effort marketing that content on search engines, AI tools, and social networks
In fact, to have success on the web, you need those things more than ever. In this week’s 5-Minute Whiteboard, I’m walking through a big misconception about the new world of Zero Click Marketing: that it somehow precludes the value or importance of investing in digital channels that send declining traffic. The truth is that traffic was always a vanity metric—sales are what really matter. What’s changed is how (and where!) you optimize for them.
Transcript
Oh, we need to have a little talk marketing friends.
Yes. The funnel has changed.
Sure. This world of zero clicks and the end of traffic, it is here, but that doesn’t mean that all traffic is dead or all websites are useless or all conversions will cease. That’s not what’s happening. Let’s go back in time. I’m gonna use this example of of French Florist. They they do really lovely, beautiful customized flower deliveries, work with a bunch of high quality local florists. And, I don’t actually know whether they delivered to Ohio in twenty twelve, but that’s the example I’m gonna use.
So back then, Google was sending them maybe ten thousand searches each day, and social networks were sending another three thousand. Because remember, you used to be able to get traffic from social networks, and no one was getting answers from AI. If they wanted to figure out, you know, what to send, their mom for Mother’s Day, they they had to go to the website. They had to browse around and look around and get inspired by things that happened on the site.
But in twenty twenty five, thirteen years later, that’s not how it works. Right? People are going to Google and saying, does French florist delivered to Ohio?
I I don’t have to go to the site and, you know, click around the contact and about and delivery details. I just like asking Google. And I don’t have to go and get inspired by ideas on their website. I follow them on Instagram.
They have, like, ten thousand followers on Instagram, right, who see their posts and so they’re like, oh, I like this particular flower set. Lots of views, no traffic. They go to ChatGPT and they say, hey, what are the best flower options for my mom who’s in her sixties? She likes mid century design and she likes simple decor.
Boom. There you go. Right? You you get you get the answers. You don’t have to go and visit until it is time to actually transact, and then you still go to the website.
This is why it is still important to have the website itself, which informs the social content and the content that search engines put up and the content that AI tools give us answers.
But don’t think that you’re not gonna get the conversions just because the marketing is happening in these other places. Back in twenty twelve, sure, a million people per day were looking for info about that niche. And maybe the website was getting fifteen thousand visits and they were making four hundred sales. And in twenty twenty five, the funnel has changed. There’s still those same million people, probably even more because the economy’s grown, looking for info about your niche, but your website is getting far less traffic because people don’t need to go to your site to solve all their problems. Google and ChatGPT and all the social networks, they are solving those problems on the platform without sending a click, without you getting a single visitor.
And so you’re still making four hundred sales a day because when they get those answers in those places, people still come to you. Right? That’s where they’re they’re gonna transact.
And so the big differences, two big differences. One, optimizing for traffic is straight up dumb. It it’s just a bad idea. It doesn’t make sense. And number two, the way to improve is not to get more visits to the website, which was the way that we sort of pounded on things in in twenty twelve.
The way to improve is to improve your marketing and the experiences people have off of your website. So if I if I see a search like, what are the best options for high quality flower deliveries in Ohio?
I wanna change change that search. I wanna get more people searching for my brand.
Right? Not just asking generic questions. I’m trying to influence the searches. I wanna show up in this Reddit thread or I want the Reddit threads that say nice things about me to be the ones that show up there, which which again is a different kind of SEO than getting traffic to my own site. And I want Google to include my brand in these people also ask results or or whatever is showing up on the search results.
I want these social networks to have my content so that people are getting inspired and they are getting brand, impressions from me in the social media results. Right? I wanna be in these places. I wanna be at the top of Instagram with all the likes. I wanna be in the Pinterest results with a bunch of pins where people, when they click on those, are coming my site. Right? And I wanna be in the LLM answers.
Step one is figuring out which of these platforms you actually care about and have to care about. Right? So so Reddit, as we noted, is in your Pinterest is quite high. You can see chat GPT is in there.
These these make sense. This is for searchers of Florist in Ohio. And step two is actually be present in the places they pay attention. The right subreddits, the right threads, the right, websites and web pages, the right social now social accounts on the networks mentioning and talking about your brand.
This is zero click marketing.
NOT zero marketing.