Stop Letting Google Think for You

Most content starts with Google.

That’s the problem.

Here’s what typically happens: You get assigned a topic (or assign yourself one). Your first instinct is to open a browser and type it into the search bar. You scan the top ten results, maybe click through to a few articles, and start taking notes. Before you know it, you’re synthesizing what everyone else has already said, rearranging the same ideas in a slightly different order, and calling it original content.

Except it’s not original. It’s derivative. And that just doesn’t cut it anymore.

The solution isn’t to stop researching. It’s to research backwards. Start with what you think, then use research to validate, challenge, and strengthen your perspective. Here’s how to do it.

Start With Your Own Take Before Looking Anything Up

This is the hardest part, because it goes against everything we’ve been taught about research. In school, you were probably told to “do your research first” before forming an opinion. In content marketing, the standard process is competitor analysis before content creation. But this approach has a fatal flaw: it guarantees you’ll think inside the box that everyone else has already built.

Before you Google it, ask ChatGPT, or any other AI tool, sit down and write out:

• What do I already know about this topic?
• What’s my gut instinct or first reaction?
• If I had to explain this to a friend over coffee, how would I say it?
• What experiences have I had that relate to this?

This forces you to think critically, not just accept what’s already out there. It surfaces unique perspectives you might overlook if you go straight into research mode. And it helps you recognize where your knowledge gaps are, so research becomes intentional - you’re looking for specific information to validate or challenge your thinking, not just filling space.

You don’t need to be an expert to have a valuable starting perspective. In fact, sometimes being newer to a topic means you see things experts have become blind to. Your confusion about something might be shared by your audience. Your frustration with how something currently works could be the seed of a genuinely helpful piece of content.

Example: You’re writing about “Why Most B2B Content Doesn’t Convert.”

The wrong way: Google “Why B2B content fails,” click through to the top five results, see that they all mention generic issues like “lack of clear CTAs,” “not understanding buyer personas,” and “poor SEO optimization.” You reorganize these points, add a few subheaders, and ship it. Your article now looks and sounds like every other article on the topic.

The better way: Before you Google anything, ask yourself, What have I personally seen that makes content flop? Maybe you’ve worked with clients whose beautiful, well-researched content gets zero engagement. Maybe you’ve noticed that the B2B content that performs best in your own reading breaks all the “rules.” You might realize: “Most B2B content is too safe and lacks a real point of view. It’s written by committee, optimized for search engines instead of humans, and says nothing controversial enough to be memorable.”

That’s a unique angle worth exploring. Now when you research, you’re looking for data and examples that support or challenge this specific hypothesis.

Find Gaps and Tensions in Existing Content

Once you have your own baseline thoughts, now it’s time to see what everyone else is saying. But you’re not reading to absorb, you’re reading to find opportunities.

Look for three things:

• Where do others agree? This is good for reinforcement. If multiple credible sources say the same thing, and it aligns with your experience, you can cite this as supporting evidence. Just don’t let consensus become your entire argument.

• Where do others disagree? Even better. Contrarian takes are inherently more engaging because they create tension. If you can articulate why the conventional wisdom is wrong (or at least incomplete), you’ve immediately differentiated your content.

• What’s missing? Often, the best content fills a gap no one is talking about. Maybe everyone is focused on one aspect of a problem while ignoring another. Maybe the conversation has moved on, but the content hasn’t caught up yet.

The key is to look beyond the usual suspects. Everyone Googles the same keywords and reads the same top-ranking articles. To find real gaps and tensions, you need to go where the unfiltered conversations are happening.

Where to look for content gaps:

Reddit and Twitter/X: These platforms capture what actual people are frustrated about, confused by, or excited about. Search your topic and read the comments. What questions keep coming up? What complaints are repeated?

Podcasts and YouTube comments: Experts often share off-the-cuff insights in long-form interviews that they’d never put in a blog post. The comments sections reveal what resonated with audiences and what they wish had been covered.

Sales and support teams: They hear real questions from customers every single day. These questions are gold because they represent actual problems people are willing to pay to solve, not just topics that rank well in search.

Industry Slack groups and forums: This is where practitioners debate approaches, share war stories, and complain about what’s not working. The conversations here are often years ahead of what’s been written about publicly.

For example, let’s say every article on your topic claims “B2B buyers don’t read long content anymore - everything needs to be short and snackable.” But then you dig into a Reddit thread in r/marketing and find 20+ comments from actual B2B marketers saying their longest, most in-depth content performs best.

Suddenly you’ve got a contrarian angle backed by real-world evidence: “Why Long-Form Content Still Wins in B2B (Despite What the Gurus Tell You).”

That’s the kind of tension that makes for compelling content.

Use AI as a Thought Partner

Here’s where most people get AI wrong. They treat it like a shortcut, a way to skip the thinking part of content creation entirely. They type “Write a blog post about X” and accept whatever comes out, maybe tweaking a few sentences before publishing.

This is how you end up with content that sounds like it was written by AI. Because it was.

The better approach is to use AI tools as a sparring partner. Someone who challenges your assumptions, offers alternative perspectives, and helps you stress-test your ideas.

Better AI prompts for original insights:

Instead of: “Write a blog post on why B2B content fails.”

Try:

• “What are 5 unconventional reasons why B2B content doesn’t convert that most marketers overlook?”
• “Challenge this idea: ‘TOFU content is more important than BOFU content for B2B SaaS.’”
• “Give me 3 strong counterarguments to the idea that ‘SEO is dead.’”
• “I think [your thesis]. What are the weakest points in this argument?”
• “What would a contrarian perspective on [your topic] sound like?”

See the difference?

This approach forces AI to think beyond the obvious, so you get more nuanced arguments instead of generic summaries. Use it as a jumping-off point for your own analysis.

The goal is to end up somewhere neither you nor the AI would have gotten alone.

Research to Validate and Strengthen Your Take (Not Replace It)

Now that you have a solid point of view, something you actually believe and can defend, it’s time to make it bulletproof.

This is where research comes in, but notice the order: opinion first, research second. You’re not looking for someone to tell you what to think. You’re looking for evidence that either supports your argument or forces you to refine it.

Use research to:

• Find data that backs it up. Numbers add credibility and make your argument harder to dismiss. If you’re claiming that B2B content is too safe, can you find statistics about engagement rates, conversion metrics, or surveys showing what buyers actually want? Quantitative data turns opinion into evidence.
• Find real-world examples. Case studies, company examples, and specific instances make abstract ideas tangible. “Here’s a B2B company that broke the rules and saw a 300% increase in engagement” is infinitely more convincing than “I think companies should break the rules.”
• Refine your argument. Sometimes research reveals that your initial take was close but not quite right. Maybe you discover a twist that makes your argument even stronger. Maybe you find a counterexample that forces you to add nuance. This is good — it means your final piece will be smarter and more defensible than your first draft.

Where to find deeper, non-Google research:

• Google Scholar and ResearchGate: Actual peer-reviewed studies, academic papers, and research findings — not just hot takes optimized for clicks. These sources carry weight because they’re based on rigorous methodology, not just someone’s opinion.
• Company earnings calls: Want to know what’s really happening in an industry? Read the transcripts of earnings calls. This is where executives talk candidly about trends, challenges, and strategies. It’s unfiltered insight from people with billions of dollars on the line.
• Industry Slack groups and private communities: What’s being debated behind closed doors? What are practitioners struggling with right now? These conversations haven’t been filtered through a content marketing lens yet, which makes them more honest and often more useful.
• Customer interviews and sales calls: Talk to the people you’re writing for. Ask them what they’re confused about, frustrated by, or trying to solve. Their language, their pain points, their real questions — this is what makes content resonate.

The goal isn’t to find research that tells you what to write. The goal is to find research that makes what you’re already writing stronger, more credible, and more useful.

Write It Like No One Else Has

You’ve done the thinking. You’ve validated your perspective. You’ve gathered evidence. Now comes the part where most people fumble: the actual writing. Because even with a great idea, if you present it in the same tired format everyone else uses, it won’t land. You need to make it interesting.

Frame it in an unexpected way.

Don’t just describe the problem. Reframe it so people see it differently.

“Why B2B Content Doesn’t Convert” is boring. It’s the title of no less than a thousand blog posts.

“Your B2B Content Is Too Safe — And That’s Why It’s Failing” is better. It has a point of view. It diagnoses a specific problem. It makes a promise: read this, and you’ll understand why playing it safe backfires.

The frame you choose determines whether someone clicks, keeps reading, or shares your work. Ask yourself: what’s the least obvious way to approach this topic? What angle would make someone stop and say, “Huh, I never thought about it that way”?

Use storytelling, humor, or analogies.

Abstract concepts need concrete language. Metaphors and analogies make complex ideas accessible and memorable.

“SEO is like dating — if you come on too strong, Google will ghost you.”

“Writing B2B content without a point of view is like being at a party and only saying, ‘Yes, I agree.’ Technically you’re participating, but nobody’s going to remember you were there.”

Humor works because it disarms people. It signals that your content won’t be another dry, corporate slog. And storytelling works because human brains are wired for narrative — we remember stories far better than we remember bullet points. You don’t need to be a comedian or a NYT best-selling author. You just need to sound like a human being who’s talking to another human being.

Make it bold enough to spark a reaction.

If nobody disagrees with you, your take isn’t strong enough.

This doesn’t mean being controversial for the sake of controversy. It means having enough conviction in your perspective that you’re willing to stake a claim. Mild, hedged, “on the other hand” content doesn’t get shared. It doesn’t spark conversations. It doesn’t change minds. The best content makes some people nod vigorously while making others want to argue in the comments. Both reactions are good. What you want to avoid is indifference.

Final rule: If your post could’ve been written by anyone else, go back and make it more you.

What experiences have shaped your perspective? What language do you naturally use? What examples come from your own work? Inject that into the piece. Your unique value as a writer isn’t that you know how to research a topic (everyone can Google). It’s that you have a specific lens through which you see the world, and no one else has that exact combination of experiences, opinions, and voice.

Use it.