How Success Almost Killed A Startup

Our reading notes on Rand Fishkin

• Rand Fishkin: “How Did You Hear About Us?” Is Lying to You

  Fishkin recounts a survey in which customers gave a well-known food personality credit for a brand the person had never mentioned. An answer to a discovery question can reflect a plausible association the customer already has in mind. Hudgens and Fishkin discuss how a test of incremental impact asks a different question from a survey about memory.

• 20 Zero Click Marketing Questions Everyone’s Asking

  Fishkin answers questions that arose around his and Amanda Natividad’s book on marketing that can reach people without a website click. The Q&A distinguishes the purpose of a channel from the metric a dashboard can conveniently count. The appropriate measurement depends on what the reader is trying to accomplish.

• Is AI Visibility a Marketing BoonDoggle?

  Fishkin examines three analyses of visits from AI assistants. He distinguishes a referral that appears in analytics from a recommendation someone sees before searching for the brand elsewhere. Measuring the first is easier. It leaves the second unresolved, which matters when a team is deciding how much to spend.