If we all have AI, what's a strategist for?

This week an SEO consultant sent one of our clients a content strategy. It had roughly 300 topics in it. I'd sent the same client a strategy with 12. The gap between those two documents is the whole point of this email.

In today's newsletter:

• Why a 300-topic content plan is a trap
• The reason "cover all of it" stopped being a strategy the day AI got good
• The four questions I use to kill 288 topics and keep 12

300 topics, 12 topics, one offer

The client wanted to launch a new offer and they needed to be visible for it in Google and AI answers. So we went digging. 

We checked recent YC fundings to see where the money and the demand were moving, and explore the specific examples of companies and their marketing messaging. 

Then we went to Ahrefs to see what was actually being searched and identify the opportunities for quick rankings. 

Then, we researched competitors and what they were publishing, to find the gaps nobody was filling. 

Out of all that came twelve topics with a reason behind each one. They all connect to something the company can prove. You can read the logic top to bottom.

The other document was 300 topics. A good chunk of them makes total sense. That's exactly what makes a list like that dangerous. It is long and it looks thorough, so nobody questions it. 

The consultant's answer to "which of these matter?" is: we need to cover all of it.

That sounds more like random acts of content than a strategy.

A strategist needs to answer what goes first and why

Coming up with topics used to be hard. Now it's free. You have Claude. I have Claude. The client has Claude. Any of us can produce 300 plausible topics before lunch. So when someone hands you 300 topics as the deliverable, they've charged you for the part you could have done yourself in a single prompt, given you pay for Claude and Ahrefs.

AI can automate it all, and we could write about everything, obviously. The value is in the decision: what goes first, and why.

Killing 288 topics and defending the 12 that survive: that's the job. 

It requires knowing this specific business, this specific market, and what this company can say that no one else can.

The filter that killed 288 topics

Here are four questions that kill what doesn't matter and help you prioritize your topics:

• Is there a momentum behind it? A funding wave, a demand shift, a buyer suddenly asking a new question. Or is it just a search volume?
• Can we say something here nobody else can? If a competitor could publish the identical piece, it's not a priority. 
• Does it connect to proof we already have? You need topics tied to client work first.
• Is it intent, or is it volume? High volume with zero buying intent is a vanity magnet. I'd rather rank for the thing 40 of the right people search than the thing 40,000 of the wrong ones do.

Next time someone hands you 300 of anything, ask them which ten come first. Then ask them why. Don't pay for prompts.

See you next week

How do you pick content topics these days?

Kate

P.S. If we aren't connected already, follow me on LinkedIn and Instagram. If you like this newsletter, please refer your friends.

P.P.S. Need a hand with content? Zmistify your content with Zmist & Copy.

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