From Old-School SEO to Zero Click Marketing (with Brendan Hufford)

11 snips

Mar 24, 2026

Brendan Hufford, a B2B growth and content marketing consultant who founded GrowthSprints.co, shares his shift from old-school SEO to audience-first, zero click marketing. He recounts building visibility through public projects and explains why zero click strategies work and are hard to attribute. Practical tips include measuring impact with self-reported attribution and making your brand the buyer’s favorite.

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INSIGHT

Choose Channels You Can Out-Execute Instead Of Outranking Giants

Don't try to win by playing the obvious competitive SEO game against category giants.
Brendan chose alternative channels (podcast, YouTube, email) because he couldn't outrank Neil Patel and focused on channels he could out-execute.

ADVICE

Build Credibility With A Public 100-Day Content Sprint

Do a public, consistent content sprint to build undeniable credibility quickly.
Brendan's 100 Days of SEO published daily blog posts, YouTube videos, and podcast audio and directly led to promotions and client opportunities.

INSIGHT

Naming Zero Click Marketing Made An Old Practice Understandable

Zero click marketing existed long before the term; naming it helps explain and sell the idea.
Brendan had been doing audience-driven touchpoint work without a label until the phrase 'zero click marketing' made it communicable.

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My buddy Brendan Hufford drops by! We talk about his journey from old-school SEO to zero-click marketing. We cover the early days of SEO, the content habits that helped him build a reputation, and why he stopped trying to win by playing the obvious game.

We also get into why zero-click marketing works, why it was happening long before it had a name, and why attribution gets messy fast in B2B. Brendan shares how he thinks about buyer journeys, self-reported attribution, becoming your audience’s favorite, and the simplest way to start measuring zero-click impact today.

This was a fun one because Brendan brings both the receipts and the realism. If you’ve ever struggled to explain marketing impact beyond first-click or last-click attribution, this episode is for you.

00:00 Intro
00:15 Brendan’s early path from teaching and side hustles into SEO
02:03 The SEO era when useful, original content started to matter more
04:54 The “100 Days of SEO” project and building a body of work in public
07:56 From SEO specialist to audience-first marketer
09:36 Why Brendan had been doing zero click marketing before it had a name
10:17 Why “zero click marketing” works as a phrase — and why naming matters
11:56 Rand’s earlier search for a term for “marketing to sources of influence”
13:14 Why zero-click marketing is effective but hard to sell internally
14:38 The rise and limits of software-based attribution
16:06 How Brendan talks to leaders about marketing impact beyond hard attribution
19:10 Why people buy when they’re ready — and why attribution gets messy
23:10 My take: make it easy for people to choose you when they’re ready
23:35 “Don’t be the best. Be their favorite.”
25:25 Brendan’s zero-click ask: follow his work and learn along the way
27:08 Brendan’s practical advice for getting started with zero-click measurement
28:30 Outro

This episode was edited by Share Your Genius (shareyourgenius.com)

Connect with Brendan Hufford and check out his work: LinkedIn | GrowthSprints.co for B2B SaaS growth | BrendanHufford.com for his personal site

Learn more: zeroclickmarketing.co

Connect with Amanda Natividad (@amandanat): LinkedIn | Substack | Instagram | Threads