SEO is dead, long live SEO!<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how it feels, at least, as both AI-powered search and user-generated content take hold in our digital lives. Today\u2019s master in marketing knows a thing or two about user-generated content and how brands can make it work for them.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n (And read to the end to find out whether she thinks SEO is actually dying.)<\/p>\n Whatever your marketing channels are, don\u2019t reinvent the wheel.<\/p>\n One of the benefits that businesses can find in communities like Quora, Dolan says, is that there are a lot of conversations already happening. Instead of building a campaign anew, businesses can start where the users are, regardless of where that is in the funnel.<\/p>\n Even if it doesn\u2019t make sense for your marketing strategy to target users at every<\/em> point in the funnel, use existing conversations (on Quora or elsewhere) to meet your users where they\u2019re at.<\/p>\n Think about somebody who wants to learn a language, she says. Maybe it starts with, \u201cI want to go to Italy.\u201d Somebody else has been dreaming of a trip to Italy for months now, and they\u2019re starting their research with an idea of the specific tours they want to go on. And a third person has everything planned and is ready to start learning some Italian.<\/p>\n Dolan says that her most successful clients are the ones that can target all of those people \u2014 \u201dan awareness campaign paired with a retargeting campaign\u201d combined with genuinely helpful content (we\u2019ll get to that in a moment).<\/p>\n Now, about that genuinely helpful content.<\/p>\n Dolan says that brands can build authority and trust on public forums by genuinely answering people\u2019s questions \u2014 when they use a trusted individual, not a corporate entity, to do so.<\/p>\n She gives the example of a healthcare company running a marketing campaign on Quora. To answer user questions, they could use a licensed provider \u2014 not their CMO \u2014 whose expertise will build trust. The goal is to jump into those existing conversations with something that will solve problems, not promote a product.<\/p>\n (But keep it brand relevant. Please don\u2019t answer medical questions if your job is hocking used Crocs. \u2014ed.)<\/em><\/p>\n Honestly, it\u2019s a little bit how we think about the Masters in Marketing newsletter \u2014 we want to provide genuinely helpful, good advice on marketing. Self-promotion comes second.<\/p>\n Last year, Dolan started publishing the Quora Ads newsletter<\/a> natively on LinkedIn.<\/p>\n Existing subscribers to the newsletter already knew about Quora\u2019s ads platform, so Dolan went off in search of an unsaturated audience. She asked herself, \u201cHow can we draw in net new people who maybe don\u2019t<\/em> know that Quora even has ads?\u201d<\/p>\n Let\u2019s bring this full circle.<\/p>\n Part of this strategy stemmed from Dolan\u2019s own advice to find existing conversations and leverage individuality \u2014 she\u2019d noted the popularity of LinkedIn influencers who have a steady drumbeat of posts based on their own experience and expertise.<\/p>\n Find those existing conversations, think outside your usual channels, and look for a fresh audience.<\/p>\n Will SEO be obsolete in three to five years? <\/strong>\u2014Brian Morrissey<\/a>, Founder, The Rebooting Show<\/em> podcast<\/p>\n Dolan says: Honestly? Yes.<\/p>\n Traditional, organic SEO has always been a challenge \u2014 it required constant research and maintenance with no guaranteed returns, not to mention being beholden to an algorithm that could tank your strategy at any moment.<\/p>\n AI Overviews and zero-click search have made it 10 times harder to drive organic traffic, and in three to five years, there will be no reason for anyone to ever scroll through pages of results to find themselves on a company-sponsored blog post reading a long-winded, H2-clad overview of an industry topic \u2014 and I say this as a long-time company blog writer (with a heavy heart)!<\/p>\n I think about how my own information-seeking behavior has completely changed over the last year with AI, from finding quick answers and technical troubleshooting at work to making recipes and getting TV\/movie recommendations at home.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t have a technical background, but I get a daily behind-the-scenes look at the AI product the Quora team is building (it\u2019s called Poe<\/a>, and it\u2019s a central place to access every AI model and create your own customized bots). The biggest shock has been how quickly new models and capabilities roll out \u2014 announcements and launches are measured in minutes and hours, not days.<\/p>\n I think marketers \u2014 probably especially B2B marketers \u2014 are hyper aware of AI\u2019s capabilities and its impact on SEO, among other aspects of marketing, but it won\u2019t be long before the general public catches up and becomes accustomed to the deeply personalized experiences possible through AI.<\/p>\n Soon everyone will gravitate to their preferred method of finding and consuming information, whether it\u2019s scanning an AI Overview, messaging a chat app (which can already do so much more than chat), conversing out loud with AI, or referencing a handful of trusted sources.<\/p>\n In three to five years I think we\u2019ll be far away from scrolling through SERPs and much closer to a Her<\/em> [the 2013 sci-fi movie in which a man falls in love with his AI] situation.<\/p>\n Editor’s note: <\/strong>Kudos to Dolan and Morrissey for giving us an opening to tackle this very complex issue. If you haven\u2019t already, <\/em>subscribe to Masters in Marketing<\/a>, as we\u2019ll be exploring this question from different angles in the future. \u2014Curt del Principe<\/em><\/p>\nMeet the Master<\/h2>\n\n
Shelagh Dolan<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\nContent marketing lead, <\/span>Quora for Business<\/a>
\n<\/h3>\nLesson 1: Find conversations that are already happening.<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Lesson 2: Build authority by being helpful.<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Lesson 3: Embrace multichannel, multi-format distribution.<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Lingering Questions<\/strong><\/h2>\n
This Week\u2019s Question<\/h3>\n
This Week\u2019s Answer<\/h3>\n
Next Week\u2019s Lingering Question<\/h3>\n