Content Marketing 2.0 ⚙️

Hello, fellow marketers,

Welcome to AI Marketing School, your go-to source for the latest in AI-powered marketing insights.

This week, we’ll discuss how to create authentic, high-quality content that thoroughly departs from the norm. I call it Content Marketing 2.0.

It’s time to forget what you think you know about content and SEO.

Let’s dive in.

Reinventing content marketing

With the rise of AI-generated content and Google's seismic algorithm updates, it's clear that marketers need to adapt to stay ahead of the game.

I’ve been following a few threads of evidence to understand what’s going on here.

First, I questioned what kind of content had won from Google’s recent algo changes. 

Last November, Google said it was trying to bring to the surface ‘hidden gems’ that involve first-hand experience and authentic subjective insight. 

Now, research is showing that shorter articles, around 800 words long, are overperforming in the SERPs compared to those before March.

Then I read Bernard Huang, Co-founder of Clearscope, explain, "It's time to unlearn what you know about SEO,” and it clicked. 

Huang argues that vast skyscraper articles (long articles that attempt to cover more topics than competitors) are crumbling in value, leaving a vacuum for those ‘hidden gems’ to fill. 

At face value, it really makes sense. Digging out an answer from a 5,000-word skyscraper article is hard going. 

I also have a sneaking suspicion that overly long articles don’t merge well with AI search, again, because they don’t deliver answers in a succinct format.

Sure, long-form content still has value if it’s created and distributed properly, but a new paradigm is emerging where content is more subjectively driven.

Here’s what I mean:

Break down big topics 🧩

Begin by extracting content clusters that cover large topics from more granular or specific angles, providing genuine value to users at each stage of their journey. 

Think of dividing a skyscraper into smaller, more bitesize topics that can be enriched individually. This isn’t really 

You’re focusing on developing fresh topics rather than driving content from individual keywords. 

…and build new ones from the ground up 🏗️

This also involves you thinking – as an expert (or getting into the head of one) – about what your audience might be interested in that doesn’t yet exist. 

Google calls this ‘knowledge gain’ – they’re looking to spotlight content that isn’t just a rehash. 

Fresh, original topics may not be researchable with conventional SEO tools. Instead, anticipate new topics using trends, audience research, and intuition, and proactively create content around them.

Then polish your gems 💎

When you produce your content, you need to embed evidence of quality, stretching from the content itself to research, assets, and other on-page elements.  

1. Showcase Your Expertise: If you have an opinion on your topic – which you should if it's your own project – then use it. If you’re working on another’s project, find ways to integrate their expertise into the content. 

2. Original Research: Add more quotes and views from news and recent publications too. Think about it – sure, AI can give the impression of having an opinion, but will it equal that of synthesizing your own perspectives based on what’s happening in your niche/topic right now?

3. Invest in Unique Visuals: Stand out from the crowd by creating custom images, infographics, and videos that effectively illustrate your points and engage your audience, rather than relying on generic stock assets.

4. Credentials go above the fold: Authorship boxes with linked social profiles have been linked with Google’s E-E-A-T. Place these where they’re visible to instantly convey that you’re a human writing for humans. 

I also want to briefly mention how content produced in this style is ideal for social media. It taps into conversations and debate – direct, provocative, and human-centric. And people will actually bother reading it.  

Where does AI fit into this? 🤖

Do these new methods leave AI in the lurch? Certainly not. AI’s purpose, in essence, is to extend our own abilities. 

By carefully integrating AI tools into your workflow, you can accentuate your own skills. Last week, I sent a link about someone who wrote a book in 30-days with AI – which might sound shocking at face value. 

But if you’re judicious about how you leverage your own skills, views, and experience and place these center stages, then AI becomes an extension rather than a replacement. 

The 3 best links

Here are a few great AI marketing resources and tools I’ve encountered recently. Enjoy!

1. Real recognizes real 

The influx of cookie-cutter AI-generated content on the internet places more power in those who thoroughly differentiate as humans. [Click here to learn more].

2. AI gives shelter dogs a glow-up

Here’s a wonderfully positive application of AI. Dog nutrition brand Pedigree built an AI system to create eye-catching ads for shelter dogs up for adoption. Noting the often drab photos taken by dog shelters, the campaign, Adoptable, has been publishing its impactful ads on large-scale billboards. [Click here to learn more].

3. Can’t choose what LLM to use? How about all of them

Poe is an incredible new AI platform that integrates multiple LLMs (including the open-source Mixtral and Llama models, which is interesting) and image generation models into one interface. There are tons of custom bots available, too, and you can summon bots with @ to tag-team in one conversation. [Click here to learn more].

That’s all for this week. Hope you enjoyed it.

If you’re hungry for more AI marketing insights, check out last week’s edition. 

Until next Thursday! Happy marketing.

The AI Marketer