The content marketing industry is growing at a rapid rate, and it’s not hard to see why. People are more connected than ever before, and they are using technology to stay informed, entertained, and engaged. In the near future, the world of content marketing is going to be very different. The rise of AI will have a huge impact on how we create, distribute, and consume content, and it’s important for marketers to understand how they can adapt their strategies to fit this new era.
In this episode, the podcast host of the Long Game Podcast, Alex Birkett, is joined by Ali Orlando, Devin Bramhall, and Anum Hussain to discuss the current landscape of content marketing and where it’s headed. They emphasize the importance of adapting strategies to fit specific industries and audiences, building a strong foundation before trying out new content marketing tactics and understanding audience needs. They also discuss the potential of AI in content marketing, with some seeing it as an opportunity rather than a threat.
Topics
- What Are Your Marketing Superpowers?
- What Changed Devin’s Mind About Content Marketing Recently
- SEO As the Foundation of Content Strategy
- What HubSpot’s Content Approach Would Look Like Today
- The Meaning of Thought Leadership
- What a Strong Foundational Content Strategy Looks Like
- Is ChatGPT Going To Take All Our Jobs?
- What Many People Disagree About Content Marketing
Show Links
- Visit The Long Game for more amazing podcast content
- Visit Omniscient Digital for more amazing podcast content
- Connect with Omniscient Digital on LinkedIn and Twitter
- Connect with Alex Birkett on LinkedIn and Twitter
Listen to the podcast:
Key Takeaways:
[05:32] What Are Your Marketing Superpowers?
Most things are more possible than we imagine
“Right, right. I think I resonate more with that. And I did think on mine and I think mine might be that I’m delusional, uh, to a, to an extent. I think so one, one of the best and Allie and David would definitely agree with this, like I have um, a lot of belief in things that we can accomplish. And one of the best pieces of feedback that I got at HubSpot was in like our peer reviews. One of my colleagues was like, working with Alex makes me feel like anything’s possible. And oftentimes like the thing is, is probably not possible, but I look at things and I’m like, like, why couldn’t we do that? Or like, why couldn’t it be in this timeframe? And I always feel like, I dunno, I think most things are more possible than we when, than we imagine. Um, so I think that’s, that’s been pretty valuable. Um, what’s something that you’ve changed your mind on about content marketing recently?”
[07:15] What Changed Devin’s Mind About Content Marketing Recently
Animalz didn’t grow because of our website
“The blog post thing, like I just think that is a medium that’s not, um, it was like the be all end all for a while in terms of like it was the foundation of organic traffic growth. And now I think that because there is so much, so many different places to experience to gain knowledge and the type of knowledge that’s interesting to most people now is more on the, what I think a lot of people are calling a thought leadership, which is just like really bespoke ideas that are drilled into deeply. And that’s like a big differentiator that like the kind of stuff that you put that’s on a blog now is more like, you know, um, baseline education in the area that you’re in, but it’s not the thing that makes you stand out necessarily. Again, broad strokes here. Right? Um, and I think websites like even for me personally, like Animalz didn’t grow because of our website. Animalz didn’t grow. I haven’t, I don’t even have a website. I no one even barely knows what I do and I’ve been busy with work since I left. And so I think, and it’s because of the, the approach that I took. And so I think there’s just like, if we stop thinking about that as a center of everything, I think there actually is like some pretty interesting untapped opportunity if we just changed our mindset a little bit away from that thing.”
[16:31] SEO As the Foundation of Content Strategy
It’s not what you do; it’s how you do it
“Yeah. It’s like, it’s not what you do, it’s how you do it. I, someone asked me the other day about event strategy and I was like, well what are you doing at these events? And they’re like, well, we have a table. I’m like, guess what? You have a table in a room with hundreds of other companies where like the only thing you can do to stand out is like offer them a beer or like a bullet coffee or whatever is the, you know, start browser”
[19:45] What HubSpot’s Content Approach Would Look Like Today
Today SEO is so different than what it was then
“Um, today I think that SEO is so different than what it was then. Like even HubSpot had to completely evolve their strategy. So many brands have gone through and it used to be that you covered just about every topic on the face of the internet. And now it’s like, actually you need to show an expert expertise in a certain radius of topics. And so they’ve like deleted content or they’ve redirected content and they’re actually trying to show, we only want you to find us for these things, which is that’s how they’re growing. So all in all, I don’t think the HubSpot playbook would translate today, but I think there’s a ton in that playbook that’s really valuable. Like how do you think about new topics that emerge? How do you really only focus on the audience that matters to you? But there’s some mechanics there that also wouldn’t work today.”
[30:42] The Meaning of Thought Leadership
Thought leadership is bringing a unique story and perspective, differentiating how you will bring value to that topic from how everyone else is doing it.
“I think I, I gave my, uh, my little spiel not too long ago. Um, I think it’s bringing a unique story and perspective differentiating how you’re gonna bring value to that topic from how everyone else is doing it. Um, I don’t have, I don’t have a strict definition for it or documented or anything though. Now you’ve got my wheels spinning.”
[36:14] What a Strong Foundational Content Strategy Looks Like
We could be in a much more interesting place and have a lot more options available to us if we spend more time focusing on the work and less time focusing on trying to be allowed to do the work
“I mean, uh, uh, when I think about foundation, I think a little bit, um, like everything we’re talking about is like, to me makes perfect sense, right? It’s all logical, but I think one thing that comes up over and over among the marketers that I hear from and certainly me myself at various companies and working with other companies on marketing is the foundation is may we please execute a marketing strategy and can we have more than like one to two months, one to three months before something is forced upon us, some changes forced upon us and we can’t do it anymore. Or like without people meddling. Like I think that’s a really important, it’s one of those things that nobody talks about out loud because it’s like so foundational to our lives as marketers that we just don’t even think to bring it up. But I’m like, I think that we, that, uh, we could be in a very, in a much more interesting and place and have a lot more, uh, options available to us if we spend more time focusing on the, the work and less time focusing on trying to be allowed to do the work and then not having to resell it consistently over and over and over again.”
[40:46] Is ChatGPT Going To Take All Our Jobs?
Every time there’s a major change in the world, the people that take the time to embrace it as long as it’s safe and not mean they see the opportunity that can transform their business.
“Like that’s when I think it’s gonna start to get interesting, but we’re never gonna get there if we sit, if we like navel-gaze. Like, what about my job? Like, ask a better question. How can you use this to differentiate yourself as a marketer by coming up with some brilliant idea that I’m not smart enough to come up with. Right? It’s like position yourself on top of it. Like every time there’s a major change in the world, the people that like take the time to like embrace it as long as it’s like safe and not mean or whatever, you know, they see the opportunity and they’re like, I can transform my business. I can create a whole new line of business using this. Like that to me is a more interesting question is like, I really like the people who are sharing examples of how they’re testing it and seeing what’s possible. Um, because I’m like, not I need those examples. Like, I don’t even know how to bang on it. I’m just like, this seems cool.”
[52:43] What Many People Disagree About Content Marketing
There’s no one content strategy to rule them all
“I feel like I’ve said a lot of contrarian things already. <laugh>. Okay, fine. Well this was the thing that Allie and I were supposed to talk about, which is like, I don’t, and this is something that to be fair, Ashley and I have also talked about, I was like, I don’t believe in playbooks and she talks about sort of like Framework and the idea of Playbook Playbook versus Framework. Um, but I’ve just seen like things like the journey, right? Like that obscene journey map where it’s like the arrows of the various places and you have those like squiggly lines on top that like show you this like obscure customer journey. And it’s like, I think things like that is where I break in terms of, you know, like there’s no one content strategy to rule them all, I think is like, my thing is like, you can’t, it used to be that that was true.”
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