Creating “zero click” content
Creating “zero click” content As I mentioned a few weeks ago, a growing problem with Google is the number of “zero click” searches on there — searches that don’t lead to another click, because Google answered the question for you. It’s generally a good thing for users, but it’s a bad thing for companies wanting to get more website traffic. In the case of Google, there’s not much you can do. In other cases, though, it might be best to just lean into this trend. Most social media sites quietly ...
Grateful in the macro and the micro
Grateful in the macro and the micro When you ask someone what they’re grateful for, you often get the same kinds of things – health, family, friends, etc. Those are all wonderful things, and we should all be grateful for them, but being grateful for smaller things can sometimes have a bigger impact. In a recent episode of “My First Million”, the hosts (Sam Parr and Shaan Puri) interviewed Gary Vaynerchuk and it was a fascinating conversation. I encourage you to listen/watch the entire thing w...
Shortform for long books
Shortform for long books I’ve been using Blinkist for some book summaries for a few years now, and it’s great! However, I’m noticing a growing problem in the gap between long books and Blinkist, in that the “Blinks” just aren’t long enough to really share the heart of the book. Blinkist and most related platforms are proud of the fact that they give you “15 minute summaries”. Those are a fantastic way to get an overview of a book, but then they leave a bit gap between that 15 minute summary a...
Creating “zero click” content
Creating “zero click” content As I mentioned a few weeks ago, a growing problem with Google is the number of “zero click” searches on there — searches that don’t lead to another click, because Google answered the question for you. It’s generally a good thing for users, but it’s a bad thing for companies wanting to get more website traffic. In the case of Google, there’s not much you can do. In other cases, though, it might be best to just lean into this trend. Most social media sites quietly ...
Grateful in the macro and the micro
Grateful in the macro and the micro When you ask someone what they’re grateful for, you often get the same kinds of things – health, family, friends, etc. Those are all wonderful things, and we should all be grateful for them, but being grateful for smaller things can sometimes have a bigger impact. In a recent episode of “My First Million”, the hosts (Sam Parr and Shaan Puri) interviewed Gary Vaynerchuk and it was a fascinating conversation. I encourage you to listen/watch the entire thing w...
Shortform for long books
Shortform for long books I’ve been using Blinkist for some book summaries for a few years now, and it’s great! However, I’m noticing a growing problem in the gap between long books and Blinkist, in that the “Blinks” just aren’t long enough to really share the heart of the book. Blinkist and most related platforms are proud of the fact that they give you “15 minute summaries”. Those are a fantastic way to get an overview of a book, but then they leave a bit gap between that 15 minute summary a...
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The problem with the purple cow
21 years ago, Seth Godin wrote a short (and very popular) book called “Purple Cow“. If you’ve not read it, here is a very quick snippet that explains the premise:
“The world is full of boring stuff—brown cows—which is why so few people pay attention…. A purple cow… now that would stand out. Remarkable marketing is the art of building things worth noticing.”
It’s good advice, but it can be taken to bad places and I think we’re seeing a lot of it with Google. In recent weeks, they’ve unveiled some very impressive “purple cow” ideas, like they do every year. The problem is two-fold:
They often bring these new ideas at the expense of more effective but less flashy improvements.
Most of these new things just don’t last (or maybe never even come out). For example, in 2017 Google showed an impressive demo of removing a chain link fence from in front of an image, and seven years later it still hasn’t been released.
If you use Google products, you’ve seen the core issues with things like Google My Business (often too difficult to “claim” your own business) or the overcomplexity of Google Analytics 4. It wouldn’t be exciting for Google to announce that they’ve added more staff to help with business profiles, or that Google Analytics was now more streamlined for the average user. Instead, they chase the purple cow at every turn, and then quietly move on once the hype has died down.
I’m not against purple cows, but if you’re bringing them out at the expense of your brown cows, you’re eventually going to end up without any cows at all.
The problem with the purple cow
21 years ago, Seth Godin wrote a short (and very popular) book called “Purple Cow“. If you’ve not read it, here is a very quick snippet that explains the premise:
“The world is full of boring stuff—brown cows—which is why so few people pay attention…. A purple cow… now that would stand out. Remarkable marketing is the art of building things worth noticing.”
It’s good advice, but it can be taken to bad places and I think we’re seeing a lot of it with Google. In recent weeks, they’ve unveiled some very impressive “purple cow” ideas, like they do every year. The problem is two-fold:
They often bring these new ideas at the expense of more effective but less flashy improvements.
Most of these new things just don’t last (or maybe never even come out). For example, in 2017 Google showed an impressive demo of removing a chain link fence from in front of an image, and seven years later it still hasn’t been released.
If you use Google products, you’ve seen the core issues with things like Google My Business (often too difficult to “claim” your own business) or the overcomplexity of Google Analytics 4. It wouldn’t be exciting for Google to announce that they’ve added more staff to help with business profiles, or that Google Analytics was now more streamlined for the average user. Instead, they chase the purple cow at every turn, and then quietly move on once the hype has died down.
I’m not against purple cows, but if you’re bringing them out at the expense of your brown cows, you’re eventually going to end up without any cows at all.
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