I remember I first heard about the Zero-Click Concept at a conference in Spain when Rand Fishkin presented about why so many websites lose their web traffic because of Google’s new upgrades.
But after a few years, this zero-click concept received a bigger importance because platforms started to behave the same; low reach to content with links that makes the user click and go away on another site. That means that native content (without any link attached in the primary post) that made the user engage on that platform was rewarded with bigger reach and impressions.
Amanda Natividad took the Zero-Click Concept to another level, and opened the eyes of every marketer, social media operator and entrepreneur that wanted to build an audience on a specific platform without losing all the impression, reach and engagements.
And the way Amanda showcased this concept is worthy to discuss about it from a B2B Creator stand point but also as an example on how to coin a term, associate your name with the company and use several other native content strategies.
Here are the lessons I took after doing the research:
→ Don’t invent a term; build on an already established theory.
→ Choose a primary platform to present and develop content around your ideas.
→ Collaborate and co-create to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.
→ Practice what you preach and preach what you practice.
→ Pay attention to the signals.
Now, let’s get deeper into every aspect of it:
1. Don’t invent a term; build on an already established theory.
The term “zero-click search” refers to a search result where the user doesn’t need to click on any of the search results because the answer to their query is displayed directly on the search results page.
This phenomenon has become especially prevalent with the rise of search engines like Google displaying featured snippets, answer boxes, and other rich results.
The concept of zero-click searches has been around for a while, but it gained significant attention in 2019.
One of the major contributors to popularizing the term is Rand Fishkin and his company SparkToro. They conducted a study along with Jumpshot on the increasing prevalence of zero-click searches, especially in the context of how they affect website traffic and online businesses.
It was a huge hit. SEO and digital marketers discussed it all over the internet.
But after 4 years, Amanda Natividad took the “zero-click” concept to another level, more common for the general digital marketer, and from the niched SEO professionals that started to worry about searches, now the digital marketers all around the world understood the term “zero-click content”.
Amanda wrote an article on Sparktoro’s blog in July 2022.
And since then, she continued talking, promoting and sharing insights and the importance of understanding why marketers, content creators and entrepreneurs must understand how to use this concept to gain better insights and results.
2. Choose a primary platform to present and develop content around your ideas.
Smart content marketers don’t just create content again and again and again. They have a very smart approach and use the re-create concept I saw in their strategy.
They are doing so much with what they already have:
→ Remix
→ Reuse
→ Revise
→ Repost
→ Reduce
→ Reinvent
→ Repurpose.
Let’s see how Amanda made the concept “Zero-Click Content” so popular.
Step 1: Choose one primary platform
She chooses one primary platform where she shared all the information marketers and founders need to know about “zero-click content”
It was a blog post, with specific visuals and a problem-agitation-solution approach.
Step 2: Remix → Repurpose the content
Then she took this article and started to create native content around this concept.
First, it was on X/Twitter and she received thousands of likes, hundreds of reposts and comments.
It’s important to notice that she didn’t just share the article with a link and a headline.
She created a thread around the topic, made it shareable, and gave all the information her audience needed in a very comprehensive native content.
Then she took the content and repurposed it in a different format on Linkedin.
And in a few weeks, she prepared a live webinar session with Rand Fishkin around the zero-click content topic.
Step 3: Repeat yourself over and over again
Amanda is best known for helping the marketing community get better results using content marketing strategies and social media tactics. And that’s why people started following her on Twitter, Linkedin, her newsletter and also because of her, people started to acknowledge the Sparktoro brand.
In only 6 months she was on over 30 podcasts and webinars and she discussed what she knows better: content marketing, copywriting, social media, growth marketing and b2b marketing.
Mentioning of course her concepts like Zero-Click Content or Permisionless Co-Marketing.
And being on so many online events, virtual summits, podcasts and webinars that people wanted to “pick her brain” to get all the info they can to share with their community around the topic.
Brands like Superside are using her content to get new leads:
Or brands like Metadata share her knowledge to educate their audience
Or being one of the top speakers at the largest Advertising conference – Ad World presenting content marketing hacks
3. Collaborate and co-create to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.
Amanda was always open to share, collaborate and co-create with other professionals to help the marketing industry and also to get Sparktoro in front of a new audience.
For example, she was one of the first persons who started a cohort course on Maven about Content Marketing 201.
Wes Kao ( also wrote about Amanda an article about her journey in content marketing
and promoted Amanda on her Linkedin with a great Linkedin post that generated hundreds of reactions and tons of comments and repost.
And also Amanda promoted Wes Kao’s work. For example, she took Wes’s concept about Spiky point of view and wrote about it on her X/Twitter, promoting Wes’s tweets too.
And when the co-founder of Morning Brew, Alex Lieberman, is asking for the best women in marketing, guess who’s the top recommendation from the community. You guessed it, Amanda along with other marketers like Katelyn Bourgoin, Wes Kao and April Dunford.
And she continues cheering up for the marketing community, appreciating their work and engaging with others.
Very friendly, and approachable.
4. Practice what you preach and preach what you practice.
The concept of zero-click content is something that Amanda not only discussed extensively but also put into practice regularly. She consistently created high-value content that viewers would consume directly on the platform they found it, rather than needing to click through to another site.
In the process, Amanda was gradually building her online authority and credibility. This was not limited to her words but backed by her actions that proved the effectiveness of the tactics she proposed.
For instance, her active and prolific presence on various marketing podcasts proved her understanding of the power of this medium, leading listeners to trust her insights and advice.
But also Amanda is doing exactly the words she wrote in that article.
So if you are going around her Twitter, Linkedin or Instagram, you will see exactly this: “valuable, standalone insights, with no need to click”.
Take a simple example from her Linkedin:
Or from her X/Twitter while she also promoted the Zero-click content concept:
That’s what Amanda’s doing so great, practicing what she is “preaching” about zero-click content and “preaching” what she is practicing at Sparktoro and her own platforms.
This genuineness, displayed throughout her interactions and content, builds trust and rapport with her audience.
“Zero-click content” wasn’t a high volume keyword, it was not a trend that she jumped into. She took it on her own, started to promote the concept and created a trend.
Amanda was courageous enough to believe so much in this concept that she prioritized it over chasing popular trends or optimizing every content piece for SEO.
This goes to show her commitment and deep belief in the value she provides through her work.
She rose to fame not simply by spurring internet trends or following SEO algorithms to the letter, but by providing carefully thought out and unique content that reflects her genuine belief in the power of zero-click content.
5. Pay attention to the signals.
In the creator economy, there are 2 rules that creators are playing by. Creating content worth consuming and sharing and listening to the audience feedback to shape the content based on their needs and preferences.
Amanda clearly followed these rules. She listened closely to her audience, allowing their responses to inform her content creation.
On platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, she was constantly responding to comments, acknowledging suggestions and above all, absorbing the feedback given to her.
For example, when one of her Zero-click content posts gathered unanticipated traction, she didn’t just see that as a mere spike of engagement.
She saw it as a signal of what her audience appreciated and found valuable.
This guided her subsequent content direction, adding more of such insightful and standalone posts into her content routine.
Think about that. She wrote an article, created native content on her Twitter and Linkedin, sent the newsletter about Zero-Click content and then started engaging in comments, replies and increased her social engagements.
By doing so, Amanda inadvertently started cultivating a community around her and a greater portion of her followers began regularly interacting with her content. This served not only to improve her visibility, but also enhanced the sense of community among other marketers.
Other publications started mentioning this concept in their newsletter. For example, Animalz, a content marketing agency that is serving SaaS companies shared about Amanda’s new approach in their newsletter.
And Amanda took the opportunity and mentioned them on her Twitter.
She started creating conversations around her posts that served as real-time feedback, helping her tailor her content to better meet audience needs.
This type of audience interaction carries a great deal of weight in the constantly evolving digital marketing landscape, and Amanda capitalized on this effectively.
From her interactions, it was clear she was not only interested in pushing her own viewpoints and content but was equally, if not more, committed to creating a responsive marketing community.
This solidified her position as a forward-thinking marketer who is proactive and alert, and this made Amanda Natividad the B2B creator every company would want to have her as an employee.
Today the “zero-click content” article is having hundreds of backlinks, thousands of social media mentions and is the first result on Google.
And Amanda can say in her About page that she coined the concept Zero-Click Content.
What Can B2B Creators Learn From Amanda
Here is a list of valuable tips every B2B creator can learn from Amanda Natividad’s approach:
1. Own Your Viewpoint
Be brave in promoting unique concepts, even when they are not high-volume keywords or trending issues.
It’s not wrong to go from trend to trend, but when something catches your attention, maybe it deserves spending more time analyzing it.
Just like Amanda did when she took her time to study the zero-click search beyond the SparkToro study and eventually came up with the zero-click content concept and shared it with everybody.
2. Stay True to Your Message
If you’re analyzing a concept or exploring a new one, explain it to your audience, but most importantly practice what you preach.
Show examples and case studies and prove the effectiveness of the concept. It’s important to build credibility and demonstrate that you’re not just sharing theories.
Then, push further and make yourself an example just like Amanda did with the zero-click concept proving her theories. She created content that makes people consume directly on the platform they’ve found it without clicking on an external site.
Then, continue to learn and share the new insights with your audience, collaborators, so that you can always stay ahead of the curve.
3. Engage with Your Audience
Establish two-way communication with your followers by responding to their comments, seeking their suggestions, and letting their feedback shape your content. Encourage them to share their knowledge as it might lead you to new perspectives.
Plus, building a strong connection with your audience can help you achieve success in the long run based on trust and loyalty.
4. Listen to Signals
Pay close attention to what content gets maximum engagement, just like Amanda did when she saw the spike in her zero-click content post that guided the future direction of her content.
When communicating with your audience, keep in mind their suggestions and their feedback, and guide your content to what they want to hear from you. Eventually, you’ll start seeing spikes of interest that may be a sign that your content is heading in the right direction.
5. Be Adaptive
Be responsive to the evolving dynamics and introduce new topics or you risk being irrelevant to your audience.
Amanda consistently grounds her topics in the needs and desires of her audience by engaging in ongoing discussions and seeking feedback and opinions from them.
By doing this, her audience stays actively involved with her content, while Amanda gains insights into fresh subjects, enabling her to further develop as a B2B content creator.
Final thoughts
I hope that this article has provided you with valuable insights into Amanda’s journey as a B2B content creator.
I hope it serves as an inspiration, encouraging you to follow her approach of analyzing concepts and crafting high-value content tailored to your audience.
With Amanda recently welcoming her second child and starting a new chapter, I wish her nothing but the best!