The goal of digital marketing used to be to drive traffic to your website, which was optimized for lead generation and conversions.
But that doesn’t work as well as it used to. Getting people to click your call to action is increasingly challenging, and driving someone to your website should no longer be the North Star of your marketing because people are scrolling more than they are clicking.
It goes for social and for search.
AI snippets mean that 58% of Google searches end without a click. And social media platforms penalize anything with a link in an effort to keep people on their platforms. Which is frustrating, but here we are.
The goal now is to create a brand that people want to belong to, to give them opportunities to join your brand across various channels, to provide value across your channels, and to make it easy for someone to take the next step with you.
It’s about brand authority: positioning yourself as the only choice for your perfect-fit customers.
But bringing someone into your brand ecosystem takes time and many, many touches. You need to educate them, inspire them, showcase your vision, values, and vibe, open the doors to your community, and share your purpose. Then they may want to learn more and be part of it.
So how do you do that?
Enter zero-click content.
Coined by Amanda Natividad from Rand Fishkin’s company, SparkToro, zero-click content is about providing value where your audience and market are, and not asking them to click to go someplace else for the value.
For example, you share an insightful post on LinkedIn; or an Instagram carousel or reel that shows off your brand values or community, without asking people to do anything else. It’s about building your brand across the digital ecosystem, and letting people self-select whether it’s a good fit for them.
It’s the opposite of the heavy-handed, funnel-driven, traffic-optimized marketing of the last decade or so. As Natividad explains:
“For marketers, writers or creators, [zero-click content] means optimizing impressions without the goal of earning that click. It’s taking a leap of faith. Giving the juiciest information upfront, earning engagement so the algorithm rewards your post, and building enough goodwill that your audience remembers you next time, seeks you out later, follows you on the platform, or even clicks on your profile to go find your call-to-action.
“For the audience, zero-click content means less time wasted. You’re busy. You want the dopamine hit now, and then you’ll decide if it’s worthy of committing to reading a 2,000-word blog post, watching a 26-minute YouTube video, or listening to a 50-minute podcast. So if a creator is generous enough to give you the punchline or the three most salient takeaways, you know the long-form version of whatever it is they’re promoting is going to be worth it.”
Succeeding with zero-click content
Succeeding with zero-click content requires a clear understanding of your purpose, brand, values, and audience. It means being willing to forego short-term traffic for long-term trust and confidence. It means investing time and resources in quality content that truly serves your target audience.
It sounds wasteful to create value that you can’t track and may not lead to an immediate action. But, as Natividad says, “Have a little faith. Dare to be even more generous with your work than you already are … That’s the funny, counterintuitive nature of zero-click content. When you create content so valuable that it doesn’t need to be consumed off-platform, it becomes even more likely that your audience will like you, remember you, and trust you enough to eventually smash that CTA.”
📈 Level up your content game
Join us on October 23 for the first Coworking Creators Summit. You’ll get pro strategies on storytelling, content distribution, elevating your creativity, getting content momentum, taking great photos in your space, differentiating your space with content, creating a strong brand, and creating areas in your space that inspire creation.
