Traffic is soooo 2021

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Brands don’t care about organic traffic anymore.

(Some have stopped tracking it altogether).

But they’ll always care about:

• Building their brand

• Claiming mindshare

• Earning their ICP’s trust

So, that’s what the content we all create has to do if we wanna earn the big bucks.

The question is…

How?

Well, Devin Reed knows a thing or two about creating brand-building content.

During his time as Gong’s Head of Content Strategy, he helped:

• Grow the brand’s LinkedIn following from 12k → 150k 

• Grow the Gong Labs research blog to 1M+ readers

• Generate millions in pipeline and revenue across multiple organic channels 

And luckily for us, he revealed three questions that helped him drive those results in a recent piece for the HubSpot blog

Let’s get into them…

🥊 What assumptions can I challenge?

Most content on the internet is written to appease algorithms first and resonate with humans second.

But that’s never been a good way to build a brand. 

And in the age of LLMs and AI Overviews, it’s not even going to be a good way to drive vanity traffic…

So, what should we be doing instead?

Devin recommends asking these three questions about your ICP:

Y’know what you’ve got when you create content that legitimately answers those questions?

That most coveted of things – ✨ thought leadership ✨

Here’s what Devin says that looked like in action on the Gong blog:

And here’s an example from the wild – the intro to Better Trail’s piece on why merino wool base layers ain’t all that:

🧑‍🔧 What real problems can I solve?

Let’s face it:

TOFU content is soooooo 2021. 

But before you go all-in on comparison pages and case studies…

Check out this quote from Devin:

Devin is such a TOFU content stan that his team had a hard rule during his first year at Gong: No talking about our product. 

“Instead, our mission was to produce the most engaging sales content on the planet,” says Devin.

“And how tf did they do that?” you ask…

First, they mapped the buyer’s journey.

Then they zoomed in on all the micro-pain points along the way.

“Each one became a chance to create something helpful”, says Devin:

They also asked real subject matter experts (grizzled sales pros, in their case) questions like:

The end result?

Well, I’m no salesperson.

But it’s pretty obvious how content like this has made Gong one of the biggest brands in their space:

🍿 How can I turn this into a story?

Devin and his team scaled Gong Labs – the brand’s original research hub – to a staggering 1 million readers during his time there.

The secret to their success? 

A storytelling technique called “in medias res”, which drops the reader directly into the middle of a story.

“Instead of starting with ‘Here's what the data says,’ we'd begin with a relatable, high-tension scenario,” Devin explains.

Think:

“Then we'd pose the question, ‘Should you even be using slides at all?’,” says Devin.

Want to see this technique in action?

Check out the intro Devin’s piece on follow-up emails:

🤖 Future-proofing your career

“SEO content” is on its last legs.

Ask Devin’s three questions to make sure you’re creating the kind of content that still drives results in 2025:

• What assumptions can I challenge?

• What real problems can I solve?

• How can I turn this into a story?

Btw, I’ve just scratched the surface of what Devin covers in his HubSpot article here.

For the full scoop on how he helped grow Gong into the brand it is today, check out…

👉 How I applied the 95-5 rule to build Gong’s brand from the ground up by Devin Reed