Zero Click Marketing

Amanda Natividad
  • 5.0 (11)
  • MARKETING
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Zero Click Marketing is a marketing strategy podcast about content marketing, audience research, and how brands grow when clicks matter less. Hosted by Amanda Natividad, Chief Evangelist at SparkToro, the show explores how marketers reach audiences, build influence, and earn attention in a zero-click internet. New to the show? Start with Episode 2: What Zero Click Marketing Actually Is.

  1. Why Marketers Make Content for Dashboards (Not Their Audience)

    1D AGO

    Why Marketers Make Content for Dashboards (Not Their Audience)

    Marketers say they want good strategy. Then they optimize for whatever’s easiest to measure. This episode is about why easy-to-see metrics like traffic, likes, attributed pipeline, and rankings can create false confidence. Instead, better measurement can look like this: off-platform sharing, stronger sales conversations, customer education, adoption of your language, and content that does more than one job. In a zero-click world, the easiest metric to report is not always the one that matters most. Timestamps 00:00 Why marketers optimize for what’s easiest to measure 01:36 How SEO gets too much credit for capturing demand 04:23 The Fitbit B2B example and content as a service 06:09 Better ways to judge content quality 07:54 Why the best content does more than one job 11:12 What better measurement looks like in a zero-click world You can do audience research with all kinds of tools and networks like Google Trends, Exploding Topics, Reddit, and of course, my employer, SparkToro. You can create an always-free account and get 5 reports per month on sparktoro.com. Learn more: zeroclickmarketing.co Connect with Amanda Natividad (@amandanat): LinkedIn | Substack | Instagram | Threads This episode was produced in partnership with Share Your Geniuswww.shareyourgenius.com

    14 min
  2. The End of the “Ultimate Guide” Strategy

    APR 28

    The End of the “Ultimate Guide” Strategy

    For years, marketers were told to create the ultimate guide: one page that covers everything on a topic. That advice worked when the goal was to rank, earn the click, and keep people on your site. But that era is coming to an end. In this episode, I walk through new research on Google and ChatGPT that points in the same direction: broad, catch-all content is getting weaker, while focused, hard-to-replace value is getting stronger. I break down what winning websites actually have in common, why relevance now beats comprehensiveness, and how to rethink your content strategy for a zero-click world. Research cited in this episode: 5 Data-Backed Features of Websites Winning Google in 2026 by Cyrus ShepardThe Fan-Out Effect: What Happens Between a Query and a Citation by Kevin Indig and AirOps Timestamps:00:00 Intro00:21 The rise of the “ultimate guide” playbook00:53 Why broad, catch-all content is getting weaker01:00 What Google’s winners have in common02:19 The difference between reading and doing02:36 Why destination sites win02:57 Brand vs. discoverability03:52 What ChatGPT actually rewards04:30 Why answering one question beats answering five04:56 The new standard: defensibility + focus05:55 How to rethink your content strategy06:36 Why brand matters more than ever07:00 Final takeaways Learn more: zeroclickmarketing.co Connect with Amanda Natividad (@amandanat): LinkedIn | Substack | Instagram | Threads This episode was produced in partnership with Share Your Geniuswww.shareyourgenius.com

    7 min
  3. The Beige of Marketing

    APR 21

    The Beige of Marketing

    Best practices can help you avoid obvious mistakes — but they can also make your marketing forgettable. In this episode, I explain why the real problem isn’t best practices themselves, but using them without personalization, taste, or audience insight. Drawing on my experience at Fitbit, I’ll show you how audience research leads to stronger content, smarter channel choices, and more compelling marketing — plus a few practical ways to get started without spending much money or time. This episode is an expansion of my blog post, “Best Practices Are Meaningless Without Audience Research.” Timestamps: 00:00 How best practices turn into beige marketing 01:27 The antidote: audience research 02:01 The Fitbit example and the real B2B challenge 03:43 Good marketers have always done some version of this 05:08 More examples: marketers, skincare, and sports betting 06:36 How to start doing audience research 07:40 How to spot patterns faster 09:38 Best practices only tell you the format 10:05 How audience research improves taste 11:02 Best practices get you on the field. Audience research helps you win. You can do audience research with all kinds of tools and networks like Google Trends, Exploding Topics, Reddit, and of course, my launch sponsor, SparkToro. You can create an always-free account and get 5 reports per month on sparktoro.com. Learn more: zeroclickmarketing.co Connect with Amanda Natividad (@amandanat): LinkedIn | Substack | Instagram | Threads This episode was produced in partnership with Share Your Geniuswww.shareyourgenius.com

    11 min

  4. APR 14

    A Playbook for Shaping What the Internet Says About You

    Before someone clicks your website, they may already have formed an opinion about your brand from the public record — snippets, Reddit threads, reviews, and AI answers. So today, I’m sharing a 7-step playbook for shaping your brand’s public record. I’ll help you audit what’s visible, identify weak claims versus strong facts, publish more credible proof, make that proof easier to retrieve and cite, and track whether the public story around your brand is getting stronger over time. It’s a practical episode about reputation, visibility, and what marketers can still influence in a world of fragmented discovery. This episode pairs nicely with the previous week’s “Why Better Attribution Won’t Fix Your Measurement Problem.” You might want to check that one out after this one. :) Timestamps: 00:00 Why your brand’s public record matters 02:00 The 7-step playbook 02:35 Audit the story the internet is already telling about you 04:00 Treat third-party services as an extension of your brand 05:25 Separate weak claims from strong facts 07:22 Make your content easy to retrieve, cite, and summarize 09:01 Measure whether your public record is getting stronger Resources: Wil Reynolds’s “GEO Experiment: How AI highlighted the 1 bad review we got in 24 years”Ross Simmonds’s “Reddit’s Impact on B2B Search” studySearch Engine Land’s “Why your content doesn’t appear in AI Overviews”Alertmouse for brand monitoringSparkToro for audience researchLearn more: zeroclickmarketing.co Connect with Amanda Natividad (@amandanat): LinkedIn | Substack | Instagram | Threads This episode was produced in partnership with Share Your Geniuswww.shareyourgenius.com

    11 min
  5. Why Better Attribution Won’t Fix Your Measurement Problem

    APR 7

    Why Better Attribution Won’t Fix Your Measurement Problem

    A lot of marketers say they want better measurement. Usually, what they really want is cleaner attribution. In this episode, I argue that those are two different jobs. Attribution tends to reward the channel that captured demand once the buyer was already in motion. SparkToro's latest research proves that influence happens everywhere. So what we really need is better measurement — to help us understand lift: are more people searching for you, remembering you, mentioning you, and showing up ready to buy? If you confuse the two, you’ll keep overvaluing what’s easiest to credit and underestimating what actually drives demand. Timestamps: 00:00 The real problem: buyers are influenced before the click 01:41 Attribution vs. measurement: two different jobs 04:33 Stop giving the wrong channels all the credit... 05:10 ...because influence happens everywhere!  08:05 Why measurement needs to get broader and simpler 09:30 Why we (accidentally?) end up starving our demand creation channels 10:47 Measurement needs to grow up. 11:24 Next week: influencing the public record Learn more: zeroclickmarketing.co Connect with Amanda Natividad (@amandanat): LinkedIn | Substack | Instagram | Threads This episode was produced in partnership with Share Your Geniuswww.shareyourgenius.com

    12 min
  6. ZCM Field Notes: Search Is Now an Evidence Game (Ugh, Thanks, AI)

    APR 2

    ZCM Field Notes: Search Is Now an Evidence Game (Ugh, Thanks, AI)

    Today I'm sharing my notes on recent news/research in the worlds of AI and Google Search.  I'm breaking down 3 key pieces: Ross Simmonds of Foundation Inc shows how Reddit influences buyer discovery earlier than many marketers realize. Cyrus Shepard of Zyppy Signal argues that clicks still matter — not as a vanity metric, but as a signal of relevance and satisfaction. Wil Reynolds of Seer Interactive offers a brutal real-world reminder that if you don’t publish defensible facts about your brand, AI may fill in the gaps with whatever scraps it can find.If you want a more polished version of this episode along with a spiffy graph, read my blog post. Timestamps:00:00 Intro00:27 Why these three studies belong together01:05 Ross Simmonds on Reddit’s growing role in SaaS search03:05 Cyrus Shepard on why clicks still matter04:18 Zero-click does not mean clicks stopped mattering06:10 Wil Reynolds on AI surfacing an old negative review07:26 Why “the truth is out there” is not enough if it isn’t published09:08 What marketers should do now Big thank you to my launch sponsor, SparkToro, the makers of fine audience research software. Rand Fishkin/SparkToro did the research that also supports the ideas in this episode. ZCM Field Notes are short reactions to news or observations of what’s happening in the field. Learn more: zeroclickmarketing.co Connect with Amanda Natividad (@amandanat): LinkedIn | Substack | Instagram | Threads

    11 min
  7. The Difference Between Fine and Good

    MAR 31

    The Difference Between Fine and Good

    A lot of marketers confuse polished with effective. Or they confuse consistency with substance. But neither one guarantees the work is actually good. In this episode, I make the case for a higher bar: usefulness. In a zero-click world, your content has to stand on its own. So before you worry about making it prettier or posting more often, ask whether the idea is actually strong enough to deserve attention. New here? Start with Episode 2: What Zero Click Marketing Actually Is Join us next week — I’ll break down why marketers overvalue what’s easiest to count. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 00:37 The tension between polish and volume 01:24 Why polish can signal care but not guarantee value 02:02 Why volume can create momentum but still say very little 02:38 The real bar: usefulness 03:15 Respecting your audience by assuming they’re smart 04:54 A simple test: strip away the design and ask whether the idea still holds up 05:20 What Amazon’s memo culture gets right 06:30 What to do when the idea itself is the problem 07:01 Three signs a piece of content is ready to publish 09:28 The hierarchy of useful marketing content 11:03 Why this matters even more in a zero-click world 11:46 The question to ask before you publish 12:15 Next week: why marketers overvalue what’s easiest to count Learn more: zeroclickmarketing.co Connect with Amanda Natividad (@amandanat): LinkedIn | Substack | Instagram | Threads Produced in partnership with Share Your Geniuswww.shareyourgenius.com

    10 min
  8. From Old-School SEO to Zero Click Marketing (with Brendan Hufford)

    MAR 24

    From Old-School SEO to Zero Click Marketing (with Brendan Hufford)

    My buddy Brendan Hufford drops by! We talk about his journey from old-school SEO to zero-click marketing. We cover the early days of SEO, the content habits that helped him build a reputation, and why he stopped trying to win by playing the obvious game. We also get into why zero-click marketing works, why it was happening long before it had a name, and why attribution gets messy fast in B2B. Brendan shares how he thinks about buyer journeys, self-reported attribution, becoming your audience’s favorite, and the simplest way to start measuring zero-click impact today. This was a fun one because Brendan brings both the receipts and the realism. If you’ve ever struggled to explain marketing impact beyond first-click or last-click attribution, this episode is for you. 00:00 Intro00:15 Brendan’s early path from teaching and side hustles into SEO02:03 The SEO era when useful, original content started to matter more04:54 The “100 Days of SEO” project and building a body of work in public07:56 From SEO specialist to audience-first marketer09:36 Why Brendan had been doing zero click marketing before it had a name10:17 Why “zero click marketing” works as a phrase — and why naming matters11:56 Rand’s earlier search for a term for “marketing to sources of influence”13:14 Why zero-click marketing is effective but hard to sell internally14:38 The rise and limits of software-based attribution16:06 How Brendan talks to leaders about marketing impact beyond hard attribution19:10 Why people buy when they’re ready — and why attribution gets messy23:10 My take: make it easy for people to choose you when they’re ready23:35 “Don’t be the best. Be their favorite.”25:25 Brendan’s zero-click ask: follow his work and learn along the way27:08 Brendan’s practical advice for getting started with zero-click measurement28:30 Outro This episode was edited by Share Your Genius (shareyourgenius.com) Connect with Brendan Hufford and check out his work: LinkedIn | GrowthSprints.co for B2B SaaS growth | BrendanHufford.com for his personal site Learn more: zeroclickmarketing.co Connect with Amanda Natividad (@amandanat): LinkedIn | Substack | Instagram | Threads

    29 min
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5
out of 5
11 Ratings

About

Zero Click Marketing is a marketing strategy podcast about content marketing, audience research, and how brands grow when clicks matter less. Hosted by Amanda Natividad, Chief Evangelist at SparkToro, the show explores how marketers reach audiences, build influence, and earn attention in a zero-click internet. New to the show? Start with Episode 2: What Zero Click Marketing Actually Is.

Information

  • Creator
    Amanda Natividad
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Amanda Natividad
  • Show Website
    Zero Click Marketing

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