If you rely on SEO and information-based content to grow your audience, it’s time to rethink your approach to personality content.
Informational content used to be the method of choice for building brand awareness and driving growth. And it was a pretty simple process: rank for key search terms, attract web traffic, and convert leads.
But with the growing capabilities of AI, this category of content has become commoditized – easy to generate, widely distributed, and harder to distinguish from competitors. As a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult for brands to maintain a unique voice and stand out in an oversaturated market.
Here is personality-oriented content comes into play. By leveraging storytelling and the human experience, it connects with audiences in ways that AI simply cannot. But what exactly is personality content and how can you incorporate it into your marketing playbook?
In one current episode from Marketing against the grainKieran and I are exploring the shift from informational content to a personality-focused approach. We also share five practical tips to help brands take back control of their narratives and create content that stands out from AI-generated material. Let’s dive in.
Information content vs. personality content: What is the difference?
Information-based content Content, also known as “educational content,” is about providing facts, data, and answers to specific questions. Think of assets such as instructions, tutorials or product comparisons. But since AI tools can now generate these answers in seconds (and even more accurately than Google), this type of content has lost value and is much harder to rank in search results.
Personality-oriented contentwhereas, connects with the audience through storytelling and real-life experiences. These can be videos that go behind the scenes and provide insight into your brand’s culture, opinion pieces from industry thought leaders, or influencer-inspired stories that build trust by featuring familiar faces.
Particularly as attention spans shrink and competition for audience engagement increases, personality-driven content gives companies a strategic advantage by fostering authentic, emotionally driven connections and making them more memorable.
Practical tips for building a personality content strategy
Are you interested in implementing a personality-driven content strategy? Kieran and I have identified five key tactics that will help your brand thrive – even as AI-generated content continues to grow.
1. Revamp your hiring strategy.
One of the best ways to boost your personality-driven content strategy is by Rethink how you structure and hire your marketing team.
Take Mohak Nahta, a travel industry founder, for example. He realized that SEO-driven content that addressed common travel questions – like visa applications and logistics – was losing impact because AI could easily produce this type of information.
Instead of continuing with the same approach, he turned to a personality-driven strategy and hired internal influencers to share their personal travel experiences on the company’s marketing channels.
Not only did this make it difficult for AI to replicate the content, but it also helped the brand grow its audience on community platforms like TikTok.
2. Create incentives for your YouTubers and influencers.
Creators and influencers are some of the most trusted voices today, but collaborating with them can be challenging.
Many prefer to build their own platforms rather than fully commit to a brand, especially if they have the skills to grow their own channels. Therefore, influencers willing to work with brands are often either early in their careers or even less established. To close this gap, it is crucial to provide the right incentives.
One approach is to Hire aspiring influencers as in-house influencers Content creator and invest in their development. The better they are, the more training and opportunities they receive.
Alternatively, you can attract established influencers by offering incentives such as revenue share models, exclusive brand offers, or access to premium experiences that align with their personal brand.
Whichever path you choose, the key is to align success with your brand’s goals, ensuring a win-win situation for both parties.
3. Differentiate yourself in key areas.
Instead of trying to compete for web traffic everywhere, focus on one or two places where you really can win. This means focusing on a few key areas – be it a platform or a specific style of content – and becoming the best in those areas.
As Kieran points out in the episode, the market is even more saturated because you’re no longer just competing with brands, but also with individual influencers. So you really have to know: Where am I unique? Where is the differentiation?
By narrowing your focus, you can develop content that stands out from the competition and resonates with your audience in ways that AI-generated content cannot.
4. Own your content infrastructure.
Modern B2B creator marketing should be structured like the Marvel Universe. For example, just as Marvel owns the intellectual property, characters and storyline, companies must own their most valuable assets – social accounts and platforms, strategic playbooks, content libraries.
The creators themselves, like actors, can come and go. Depending on the project or message, different people may take on the role, but the core infrastructure and brand identity remain consistent.
5. Deepen your specialist knowledge.
Deep expertise is what separates truly valuable content from the rest. At HubSpot, for example, we divided all of our informational content into categories and identified the pieces that were most defensible.
From there, we go deeper and add unique value to these posts in ways that AI can’t easily reproduce – Video, customer statistics, interactive functions — This ensures that our content remains highly specialized and unique to our brand.
Personality content is the future of content marketing.
Personal content is the key to survival and success in the face of AI. By focusing on authenticity, differentiation and strategic use of creative, marketing managers can protect their brands and maintain control of their narrative.
To learn more about personality content, check out the complete episode from Marketing against the grain below:
This blog series is a partnership with Marketing Against the Grain, the video podcast. It delves deeper into the ideas of marketing leaders Kipp Bodnar (CMO of HubSpot) and Kieran Flanagan (SVP, Marketing at HubSpot) as they craft growth strategies and learn from outstanding founders and peers.