Why Marketers Make Content for Dashboards (Not Their Audience)

Your Marketing Stack Is About to Get Smaller

The best-of-breed marketing stack made sense when traffic was cheap. But in a zero-click world, every lead is harder to earn — and every tool handoff is another place for that lead to die. In this episode, I make the case for rethinking bloated marketing stacks, explain why small teams may need fewer tools instead of "the best" tool for every job, and share how Typeform’s Growth Flow turns forms into richer workflows for capture, enrichment, automation, and reporting. Timestamps: 00:00 — The best-of-breed era is ending 01:00 — How we got from monoliths to unbundled SaaS stacks 04:30 — What changed in a zero-click world 07:00 — The hidden cost of handoffs 11:00 — Typeform Growth Flow and built-in enrichment 14:00 — The DTC skincare quiz funnel example 18:00 — Five places a lead can die 23:00 — The new question: “What’s the fewest tools I can run this through?” For the full DTC workflow, read my newsletter, "Your Marketing Stack Is About to Get Smaller [https://amandanat.substack.com/publish/post/199391487?r=4mdh0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true]." This episode is sponsored by Typeform [https://www.typeform.com/growth/?utm_source=influencer&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=growthwave1&utm_content=amandanatividad%20]. It features my honest take on Growth Flow. Learn more: zeroclickmarketing.co [https://zeroclickmarketing.co/] Connect with Amanda Natividad (@amandanat): LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandanat/] | Substack [https://amandanat.substack.com/] | Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/amandanat] | Threads [https://www.threads.com/@amandanat]

A Form Fill Is Not Demand Generation

Here's my new rule for demand generation: Ungate the argument. Gate the utility. Ungate the point of view — and ungate the template, tool, deeper cuts, or genuinely useful live experience. Buyers now have more ways to get answers without entering your funnel: AI search, Reddit, YouTube, private communities, and competitors’ ungated posts. And if your best educational content is locked behind a form, it's not shaping your public record. The better question isn’t “should we gate this?” It’s: what should be freely available so buyers can understand, trust, remember, cite, and share your ideas — and what is valuable enough that someone would reasonably trade their information for it? Because in a zero-click world, changing someone’s mind without relying on clicks and form fills is the whole game. Timestamps: 00:00 — The old B2B bargain: email address for the thing 02:04 — Buyers have more ways to get answers without you 03:03 — AI search makes the gated content problem more obvious 04:00 — Why the public record matters in a zero-click world 05:00 — Ungate the argument, gate the utility 06:00 — Buyers want to engage on their own terms 07:07 — A form fill is not the same thing as demand 07:26 — Three questions to ask before gating content 08:05 — Good gates vs. lazy gates Sources & Tools: What is Gated Content? And How to Make It Discoverable to AI Bots [https://www.conductor.com/academy/gated-content-ai-discoverability/] by Conductor Gated Content and AI Search: Why It’s Invisible [https://ziptie.dev/blog/gated-content-and-ai-search/] by Ziptie Gartner Sales Survey Finds 67% of B2B Buyers Prefer a Rep-Free Experience [https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2026-03-09-gartner-sales-survey-finds-67-percent-of-b2b-buyers-prefer-a-rep-free-experience] 10 Minute Email - 10minuteemail.com [http://10minuteemail.com] SparkToro - sparktoro.com [http://sparktoro.com] Alertmouse - alertmouse.com [http://alertmouse.com] Pre-order the book: Zero Click Marketing [http://zeroclickmarketing.co/book] (zeroclickmarketing.co/book) Learn more: zeroclickmarketing.co [https://zeroclickmarketing.co/] Connect with Amanda Natividad (@amandanat): LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandanat/] | Substack [https://amandanat.substack.com/] | Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/amandanat] | Threads [https://www.threads.com/@amandanat] This episode was produced in partnership with Share Your Genius www.shareyourgenius.com [http://www.shareyourgenius.com]

GEO Is What Happens When Search Becomes Zero-Click

AI search is changing SEO, but not because SEO is dead. It’s changing because search is becoming more zero-click. In this episode, I explain GEO — Generative Engine Optimization — and why it’s less about chasing AI hacks and more about making your content easier to retrieve, understand, cite, trust, and remember. I break down four practical mechanics of GEO: retrievability, extractability, credibility, and public evidence — and show why good AI visibility still starts with good marketing. Timestamps 00:00 Why AI search is changing SEO 01:35 What GEO actually means 03:10 Why GEO is a zero-click marketing problem 04:30 The four mechanics of GEO, beginning with retrievability 08:30 Extractability: can your content be understood and reused? 11:00 Credibility: why generic SEO content falls short 13:30 Public evidence: why your brand’s off-site record matters 18:45 Why GEO is not magic — it’s good marketing Resources: * Ahrefs study: AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 58% [https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overviews-reduce-clicks-update/] * Pre-order the Zero Click Marketing book [https://zeroclickmarketing.co/book] (yes, there’s a chapter on AI marketing!) Learn more: zeroclickmarketing.co [https://zeroclickmarketing.co/] Connect with Amanda Natividad (@amandanat): LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandanat/] | Substack [https://amandanat.substack.com/] | Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/amandanat] | Threads [https://www.threads.com/@amandanat] This episode was produced in partnership with Share Your Genius www.shareyourgenius.com [http://www.shareyourgenius.com]

Announcing: Zero Click Marketing — The Book!

Zero Click Marketing: How to Build Brands and Earn Customers on a Traffic-Starved Web [https://zeroclickmarketing.co/book] is officially available for pre-order. YOU HEARD RIGHT, CUTIES! I announce my and Rand Fishkin's upcoming book, explain why pre-orders matter, and tell you how to claim the pre-order bonuses. Pre-order the book at zeroclickmarketing.co/book [https://zeroclickmarketing.co/book]. Learn more: zeroclickmarketing.co [https://zeroclickmarketing.co/] Connect with Amanda Natividad (@amandanat): LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandanat/] | Substack [https://amandanat.substack.com/] | Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/amandanat] | Threads [https://www.threads.com/@amandanat]

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 [http://sparktoro.com]. Learn more: zeroclickmarketing.co [https://zeroclickmarketing.co/] Connect with Amanda Natividad (@amandanat): LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandanat/] | Substack [https://amandanat.substack.com/] | Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/amandanat] | Threads [https://www.threads.com/@amandanat] This episode was produced in partnership with Share Your Genius www.shareyourgenius.com [http://www.shareyourgenius.com]