Consultant helping B2B SaaS companies establish and grow their Content Brand | SaaS marketing leader | Dad x5 | Shoots 85% from the free throw line
For certain subject areas, I don't even go to Google. The search is unnecessary. If I want to know/learn anything about video, I go to Wistia because I want to see how people like Chris Lavigne approach the work, learn the tools/gear he recommends, read the latest from the Wistia team on creative trends in video, etc. If I want to know/learn anything about pricing/SaaS, I go to ProfitWell. I want to see Patrick Campbell's latest analyses and whatever new campaigns and/or creative resources the PW team put out. This is the ultimate goal –– to make the search unnecessary within your niche. But how do we do this? From my observation, content that achieves this does the following: 🏆 It leads, not follows: So much of SEO is focused on following –– what your competitors are doing/writing about, what keywords they rank for, the keywords people search for, etc. But content from these brands is driven as much by what they find interesting/important and not just what the data might say. As a result, they’re leading discussions and trends, not hopping on them. 🏆 It’s personal: The content from brands like these is as much about the people creating it as the actual content itself. Why else would I watch Patrick say “churn” 100k times? Because I like him, I trust him, and I know I’ll learn more from him than any listicle created in a lab to rank. 🏆 It’s subjective: Some of the best content brands make their worldview clear. Rather than try and blend in, they have clear, strong, and (most importantly) well-educated opinions influenced by their own experience. Sure, we all search for answers. But, we’ll end up spending a disproportionate amount of time with content created by people and brands we trust. Ones that lead the discussion and have a subjective worldview that helps us make sense of everything. Again, why else would I spend 5 minutes watching Patrick Campbell say “churn” but bounce from a Google result within seconds? It’s not just about the content. It’s about the people, the creative, and the approach. Make the search unnecessary.
This is the nicest thing someone has ever said about me and our mission. Thank you so much, man. Sincerely. Let me know if I can help with anything. Indebted.
ProfitWell is one memorable content brand. ✨️
Yes, people’s individual perspectives on things can persuade me that I want to learn from them and explore their knowledge. I can read their posts and consider their worldview and know I can trust them with my business and that they’ll understand the kind of person I am and how to get the best out of me. I know all the people I’d go to for help with SEO, branding, web copy if I don’t want to write my own for my website, I know exactly who I’d go to for funnel knowledge, auditing and business coaching. This of course is individual businesses rather than larger companies but the process is the same.
These are beautiful points — especially in focusing on what other people AREN’T doing in SEO, not what they are, and seeking to create your own category of terms, as opposed to following the trends. I love that you brought up the individual behind the content mattering just as much as the quality of the content itself — I don’t think that’s highlighted as much, but I believe it’s why the “creator economy” in tangential subsectors of business is blowing up. People want to learn and buy from people they’ve been able to build trust in, by following their content for an extended period of time, and seeing them show up time and time again with evidence backed information and educational guidance.
Agreed, but it's a two-way street. The "searcher" needs to be educated on how to consume information in such a manner. I think we're still giving 99% of our attention to how algorithms work and how to create content for them. But we fail in educating ourselves on how we should work with those algos and contents.
People end up writing for an algorithm and when that algorithm has censorship built into it, people are then self censoring and entire chunks of subject matter get scattered in the wind.
The power of the brand, but probably explained better than most definitions of it out there. It helps prospects skip most of the steps and go directly to you when they have a need. It's VERY hard to compete against that.
John Bonini Indeed. Those contents are clearly written from years of practical experience and in-depth research. What more can google results offer you?
Growth Advisor 🚀
1yThe best search is one that never happened. Read that on Kevin Indig's blog. And it's so true. #brand