☠️Gonna let AI summaries steal your website traffic?

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Welcome to Humpday, where momentum goes to die. Not this time… so shake off St. Patty’s 3-day hangover. Today’s feature story gives you 5 ways to fend off the bite-sized AI summaries that threaten your website traffic. Then check out…

The Knowledge Base (includes a headline warning)
~~Self~~ Help (trees & peeps)
Facts & Stats (list toxicity, + security as a USP)
Get Hacking (smart AI use-case)

Now, let’s peel back this feature story.

SEO By Dragging Content Out is Over

Stringing people along won’t work anymore. No more starting blog posts with 12 repeated key phrases, then taking four paragraphs to get anywhere near the point. Example:

I get it. You have to throw in keywords to get Google bots to find your content so humans can then find it.

Here’s why that isn’t gonna work much longer. AI tools like Perplexity give searchers the answers they need in about five sentences – or less! Proof below:

These research/search tools will only improve. People will learn to use them more efficiently and tell other people how fast they are compared to Google (& Bing – for those weirdos😁).

So, please don’t make your audience dig for answers and solutions halfway down the page or five minutes into the video. Instead…

Reveal The Lead (Lede) 1st Thing (AI summaries do)

Give your audience what they came for. Don’t stall. They won’t wait once they figure out AI tools will never bury the lead or waste their time.

And sure, you’re worried that if you give answers at the start of the content, readers/viewers/listeners will bounce quickly. They sure will. But according to Axios, they’ll appreciate your brevity and return for more – because you did not waste their time!

Plus, it’s not like this is a new way to present content.

The Ole Inverted Pyramid – like AI Summaries

News articles have been stating the main piece of the story right away for decades! Often, all you need to know is right in the headline, so you don’t even have to read the article (only those who are truly interested will anyway).

It’s the inverted pyramid. The biggest (main) information is at the top of the article, then smaller details flow downward.

Trust me, this is the way forward. All you have to do once you give away the milk for free is drop teases that lure your audience to the intriguing, unexpected, likable cow awaiting them. Just follow these steps…

5 Proven Tactics for Keeping People Engaged

Write 10x better than any AI tool
Wake up curious!
Learn the art of the tease
Out-work other content producers
Trust your audience

Let’s break those down.

Writing more engaging content than an AI bot isn’t hard.

AI writers know about six metaphors and ruin articles with flowery language – it’s putrid. But it’s good enough for scanning to gather info. Your content needs to be better than good enough – 10 times better.

Next, build your curiosity muscles.

This takes practice, but the payoff is huge because you’ll find ideas and collect learnings others won’t even think to research. Start by noticing everyday things that no one pays attention to (i.e. when the first honey bee or lightning bug of the season appears – trust me, it’s good practice for paying attention). This relates to our ~~Self~~ Help section coming up in a minute.

The art of the tease, which I just showed off, isn’t hard.

Once you get insanely curious, you’ll discover cool stuff you never knew and can share it with others. All you gotta do is learn to tease it the right way – use gossipy language (i.e. “most people don’t know” / “anyone can do it, but don’t because of this one stupid thing”).

Out-working others these days is a piece of cake.

Writing’s hard work (BTW writing is the starting point for ALL content – videos, podcasts, slideshows, etc.). You can out-work other writers simply by out-focusing them. Most are too scattered to become great at writing – no wonder, the internet’s a scatterbrain factory. Also, you can blow past other writers by researching harder – simply ask better questions (to AI researchers – remember, Googling is so 2023).

Lastly, trust your audience to revisit your site.

They will once they see they can trust you for quick answers to their questions and fast solutions to problems. They’re smart people and will realize (more and more) they’re being played by old SEO tactics of piling word salads on top of answers at the bottom of the bowl.

Putting a Neat Bow on Battling AI Summaries

Take these 7 bonus tips for asking better questions during research to lift your content to a level that should keep your audience coming back to your site.

Clearly define the information you seek
Offer background information or context
Use keywords
Frame questions without assuming prior knowledge on topic
Break down complex questions
Ask open-ended questions
Request examples or data

Bonus, bonus😅 tip: Ask your AI researcher to “Prove that statement” if its sources seem sus. Works with Perplexity.ai and should with other bots. If not, let me know, and I’ll recant that and give myself a good tongue-lashing.

Brought to you by Smart Recognition

Website visitors fading out?

Two problems:

#1 Anonymous website traffic keeps you from retargeting interested shoppers.

#2 AI-generated summaries are reducing traffic to many websites already.

This makes it critical to stop letting visitors slip away who do take time to visit your website. A new platform called Smart Recognition is a solution that’s giving users a super-charged lead-generation tool while increasing conversions, too!

Schedule a demo and learn how to test it for free for 7 days.

*Need US traffic & roughly 15k monthly visitors

The Knowledge Base

💪Knowledge is power – so is hopeless CPR

Careful letting AI make your ad choices

6️⃣Wanna utilize gated content? (6 steps)

How to write (& use) memorable metaphors

🗞️99 problems with AI headlines – this is one

Coaches need leads too

💸What drives 80% of email revenue? (80/20 rule)

Save money on content creation like Friends did

📧Email marketing newbie? Terms & metrics to note

Self Help

I’ve brilliant thoughts sometimes – no, it’s true. Told the GF how dumb we humans are for walking right by trees without a thought of how miraculous they are.

Giant living creations that somehow climb into the sky. Plus, some trees have been around since Romans were running the world.

Me proclaiming, “This is the only planet with trees!” made me feel like a philosopher. Then the GF reminded me this is the only planet with people. Good point and humbling 😁. Still, the principle stands – we walk right by each other without a thought of how miraculous another creation like us is.

Inbox Hackers Shout-out:

📢Mary at Bolt Supply

📣Mike at Good Wheels Bikes

Facts and Stats

35% of retailers say list toxicity is a major issue for them (Email Insider)

Cybercrime has tripled since 2020 {iron-clad security should be part of your marketing} (Chartr)

Automated emails generate conversion rates 180% higher compared to batch blasts (VentureBeat)

Bonus: Increased political ad spending and higher growth from local CTV and digital platforms will boost U.S. local advertising by 9.3%.

Sponsored by Inbox Mailers

Mediocre marketing

The average email delivery rate is… too mediocre to show you.

Alright, alright, it’s 85.7% and even lower for Yahoo Mail. Yet, Inbox Mailers is keeping hope alive for email marketers through:

Triggered emails
Recent inbox activity data

Both options help ensure your email list stays clean, click volumes rise dramatically, and virtually guarantee you avoid SPAM traps and Honeypots! Check your email list for recent inbox activity for Free by uploading your list here (only pay if you want to download detailed results). *Current Inbox Mailers Members can access Activity Checker in your dashboard.

Want to demo our triggered emails (50-70% open rates & 3x click volume)? Schedule a demo.

Get Hacking

Today’s Hack is to let AI take down your competitors. Then you monologue over their demise… ok, maybe hold off on trash talk and simply use AI to compare your website to the competition. This can reveal holes in your content or copy. Compare individual landing pages, too. Pretty handy – an example below.

(ALT Hack: Have an efficient way to TEXT potential customers back. Amazingly, some businesses are still trying to leave voicemails, EVEN when potential customers ask for a text reply to an inquiry. Businesses might as well send ’em a fax.)

Share Inbox Hacking with your fellow marketers who need insights with a chuckle – we appreciate it.