Is AI's content Google friendly?

Happy TUESDAY! Today I talk about: cold calling, Google's treatment of AI generated content, and better email habits. Goal? Always to help you grow your SaaS faster.   - EveD.

SALES

Never pitch during a cold call

I’ll be honest. I’d rather pull my nails off than make a cold call, so I am not going to be dishing out my own advice in this regard. But Vidyard has a truly useful article with 5 tips to make cold calling easier, and it’s worth a read if this is an area you struggle with but need to master. For example: never pitch during a cold call. This is counter-intuitive, yet so valid.

Rather take the time to ask questions and gather information to figure out if you and the prospect are even a good match. When you narrow in on the details, your pitch (when it happens) can be more focussed and applicable, upping your chances of success. The call is about “finding their challenges and seeing if they align with your solution. If they’re excited, take the opportunity to book a meeting with them”. Read the full article here. 

ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE

Is AI generated content legit in Google's eyes?

Companies are jumping on the AI content creation bandwagon. This is not new, but is going to start becoming an issue. Sites like Bankrate.com and CNET Money are now generating AI content at scale (and declaring it as such).

What does Google think about this? Is it going to penalise content that is AI generated? I don't think so. Google has this to say:

In other words, Google does not care who generates the content, as long as it's useful to the reader. And given that AI learns from behaviour, it will always be able to generate SEO friendly and useful content faster and better than the average human content writer as long as there is existing content to learn from. (This is not different how human writers write - they do research and synthasise concepts into their own words).

But there is a huge problem with Google's statement above. It implies that content that is SEO optimised and content that is useful can be two different things. How can that be??? Surely a big part of the SEO value of a piece should be its usefulness to the reader. SEO "tricks" should only be used to have the content discovered by Google....once discovered, it's the content itself (not its SEO structure) that should determine its rank.

In any case, the way we discover content (and thus the way we create content) will have to change. At present, no mater what AI technology exists, there is only one top ranking article per keyword per reader per search. And since AI is going to be competing against itself (and against humans) for that spot, I am not sure how it will play out, or how it can play out. I have a sinking feeling it is not going to be with better content. Just more noise.

What should you do about all this? The question requires a deep-dive, but for now my advice is: if your startup creates content for rankings, then start investigating AI technology asap, and do it in-house. If you are hiring agencies or freelancers to write for you, bet your bottom dollar that they are doing that too. So understand the landscape asap, so you can have smarter and more informed conversations with your contractors. Should you abandon your human writers? No chance! You can't count on AI to generate the nuance that you need your content to convey, or to guarantee the quality and depth that a reader expects. The space will evolve, so stay on top of it, but don't do anything drastic. This is still playing itself out.

QUICK TIP

Never assume your email list knows who you are

It's understandable that since you live and breathe your startup, that you think people who are on your email list know who you are. That's a mistake. People get hundreds of marketing emails a week, and they opted-in to most of them. They are bombarded by fast moving tech news, and cannot keep up. Be graceful, and just introduce yourself briefly with each email sent en-masse. (If you are writing to segmented, engaged users who use your product you can skip this step).

Here's an example that dropped in my inbox recently. I had a vague recollection of what the company did, but nothing in the email gave me a hint.

GROWTH HELP

Growth Tools Guide

In about 3 weeks, the first edition of the Growth Tools guide is going live. All NMB subscribers get it in their inbox, free. The goal is for founders and growth teams to learn about new growth tools, new growth opportunities and alternatives to their existing stack. You can't lose out by reading it (on your phone, your desktop or...print it out!). Want to include your growth tool in the guide and be seen by 20,000 founders in 2023? Get in touch [email protected]

MY BOOK

Up and to the Right !

I wrote a book about SaaS growth! You can preview it on Amazon. It's a good read for any SaaS founder or growth team member, who wants to build sustainable growth for their VC- or self funded startup.

Themes: Acquisition. Retention. Monetization. Growth teams. Channels (looking at: social media, paid ads, sponsorships, events, webinars, community, SEO, personal brands, referrals, affiliates etc). And so much more. Best 10 bucks you'll ever spend.

THAT'S IT FOR TODAY :-)

See you tomorrow...

Let me know what you want to read here. Content I'm planning to write this week:

• I'll start including some growth tool deep-dives

• Different pricing models for SaaS, and how to figure out which one is right for you

• The importance of transparency in your sales motion

• and more...

Thanks for reading. Find me on Twitter @eved if you want to chat :-)