Influencer marketing is out, employee-generated content is in
📰 NoGood News | Vol. 89
Hi NoGoodies,
Before we jump into another round of the NoGood News, here's a quick TL;DR of what's below:
Influencer marketing is losing its touch — so what’s next?
Brand awareness is a marathon, not a sprint
Explore key strategies to enhance your brand’s presence and recognition
Last week our team came together for our quarterly NoGood onsite!
Did you know that nearly 58% of searches in the US end in zero clicks?
Set yourself up for success and learn how to develop an AI Search strategy
Ready? Let's get into it.
📱 Influencer marketing is losing its touch — so what’s next?
Read about the rise of employee-generated content
Employee-Generated Content (EGC), aka content created by a company’s current employees, is the new driving force of influence in 2025.
EGC gives audiences a more engaging look at company culture, workplace experiences, and employee perspectives on the brand’s product or service.
Why your brand needs to implement EGC into a content marketing strategy
Builds trust & authenticity: employee perspectives compose a more authentic image of the company culture and core values — the narrative is less performative when it’s shared by an “insider”
Humanizes the brand: employee voices and experiences molded into a content marketing strategy inherently allow a brand to appear more relatable, approachable and genuine
Attracts top talent: EGC helps organizations stand out amongst competitors and serves as the deciding factor for candidates in the final stages of the hiring process
💡 Brand awareness is a marathon, not a sprint
Explore key strategies to enhance your brand’s presence and recognition
Not many business founders start off with the goal of creating a timeless brand that will outlive them for centuries.
Instead, most have one goal in mind: Grow!
But, no matter where your business resides in its lifecycle, to reach the next step, you’ll likely need to increase brand awareness. U
nfortunately, “brand awareness” often turns into a buzzword that leads to wasted spend on PR fluff with no increase in the bottom line, and ultimately costs many marketing heads their jobs.
Here are the four stages of brand awareness
Brand recognition requires a customer to have been exposed to the brand and understand what the brand offers.
Brand recall means that a potential customer can remember the brand, either when aided (“Whose logo is this?”) or unaided (“What are some good brands for sunglasses?”).
Registering as a top-of-mind brand means consumers think of the brand first when considering a good or service.
Brand preference, the final step, comes when the brand has nurtured its relationship with consumers to the point that they would prefer it over any competitor – think of your favorite toilet paper or toothpaste, for example.
🎉 Last week our team came together for our quarterly NoGood onsite!
Here’s to knowledge-sharing and team-building
From knowledge-sharing sessions to team-building activities, we spent the week learning from each other as experts and coming together to build better collaboration and rapport as a team.
Events like these remind us how valuable it is to connect beyond chatting at our desks — to share ideas and enjoy each other's company at the office and (sometimes) after hours. 🙌
🔍 Did you know that nearly 58% of searches in the US end in zero clicks?
Set yourself up for success and learn how to develop an AI Search strategy
Search is not what you know it as anymore.
Users are adapting to immediate, context-rich answers.
As AI search engines become more central to that process, it’s time to rethink how we, as marketers, maintain brand visibility in the age of answers.
Join us as we partner with Maven to bring you our latest AI Search & Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) course!
This course will cover:
✅ AI Search & Impact on Organic Growth
✅ AI Search Strategy & Future-Proofing
✅ Mastering AEO
✅ Measuring & Tracking Performance
Join our FREE introductory course today!
Free Introductory Session:
📅 March 25th at 12PM EDT
Course Dates:
📅 April 29th-30th
We’re accepting a limited number of students for this cohort—secure your spot now!
🎙️ Q&A with an expert
A bi-weekly interview series with the best in the game
Q: How did employee-generated emerge as a new strategy for social media marketing?
A: We're witnessing a massive shift of the "stars" of content marketing and it's happening faster than ever. Celebrity endorsements lost ground to influencer marketing around 2020, driven by a pandemic-fueled craving for authentic connection. Now, in the age of trust and transparency and influencer fatigue running rampant, employees behind the brand are surfacing as genuine ambassadors for companies/organizations across all industries. Their material gives audiences a more engaging look at company culture, workplace experiences, and employee perspectives on the brand’s product or service. By recognizing and nurturing this organic content creation, companies can unlock a wealth of opportunities to enhance their brand image and attract both customers and top talent.
Q: What types of brands and companies can benefit from EGC?
A: My short answer is, any type of company and/or brand. B2B or B2C it doesn't matter. Remote organizations, cost-conscious, focused on DEI and/or battling PR crisis' can benefit the most from EGC.
✍️ We wish we wrote this
A curated list of the past 2 weeks’ must-read articles:
Could we potentially see OpenAI create a Samantha from the 2013 movie Her?
Trends are now tiring and overwhelming to Gen Z
Pepsi acquires Poppi — soda meets prebiotic soda?
👀 Keeping up on the socials
Because we know you like to stay in the know:
Does size matter?
FMK: TikTok Instagram, Youtube
Bbno$ was never supposed to go viral
Shutting down Skype was not on our bingo card this year
🔥 Trend Radar: Blow up or fall behind
The trending topics, sounds, and formats to key and eye on:
Grammy winner Doechii dropped Anxiety
It’s a temporary setback
A moment that felt like Hozier’s yell
And what gave you the confidence?
🚀 Ready to meet your NoGood partner?
Tell us where you are and where you want to be — and we’ll help get you there.
This shift from influencer-driven to employee-generated content feels like a long-overdue course correction. We’ve glamorized outsiders for so long that we forgot how much more compelling it is to hear from someone on the inside—someone who actually knows the heartbeat of the company. EGC not only boosts trust and transparency, but it puts the spotlight back on substance over spectacle. Excited to see more brands lean into this deeper form of storytelling. Thanks for highlighting the pivot.
Are we finally tiring of influencers in favour of more authentic, meaningful content? We can only hope.