Psychology Meets Marketing: The ELITE Method with Rai Hyde Cornell

In this episode of the Unscripted SEO Podcast, host Jeremy Rivera interviews Rai Hyde Cornell, founder of Cornell Content Marketing. With a background in psychology and criminology, Rai shares how she applies behavioral science principles to content marketing to help companies change buyer behavior without increasing ad spend.

Key Takeaways

• Marketing should focus on the internal experiences of potential buyers, not just their behaviors
• Empathy is crucial to SEO because Google is all about intent matching
• Quality human-created content is more valuable than ever despite AI advancement
• Create feedback loops between marketing, sales, and customer support
• Looking beyond keyword research tools helps understand the humans behind the searches

The ELITE Method Breakdown

Psychology in Marketing

Rai introduces her unique approach applying the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) triangle to marketing. "Our thoughts affect our emotions, which affect our behaviors, which affect our thoughts... Most marketers just focus on, 'I want to get them to buy. I want to get them to opt in.' They focus on the behavior," she explains. This approach neglects the complete internal experience of potential customers.

Beyond the Traditional Sales Funnel

The "Learn" phase of Rai's method goes deeper than traditional marketing frameworks. She applies the "stages of change matrix" from psychology to understand where customers are in their journey: Are they aware they have a problem? Are they looking for solutions or trying to handle it in-house? Do they have other priorities?

"You have to look at the internal experience that's going on for them to see where they are in a much more robust model than what the sales funnel provides," Rai says.

Jeremy highlights how SEO professionals often neglect this human element: "We jump right to the keywords and keyword research and we forget there's humans behind those keyboards." He shares a conversation with Michael McDougald about the importance of understanding who you're trying to reach.

The Living Organism of Content

Rai emphasizes that content strategy must be a "living organism" that evolves with market feedback. "Too many companies just think, we've got our website done, we've got two or three dozen blog posts, we're done, let's go just focus on sales. That's not enough."

Jeremy agrees, citing his work with Save Fry Oil: "Your site needs to breathe." He points out how SaaS companies often focus on creating content for new audiences while neglecting existing users, despite recurring revenue being "the holy grail."

Breaking Down Silos

The "Enhance" phase creates feedback loops between departments. Rai recommends monthly meetings between marketing and sales, with quarterly meetings between marketing and customer support.

Jeremy relates this to Classic City CPR classes: "If you're running CPR classes, you want to have a connection between your marketing team and the instructors, because you know they have questions all the time."

Human Content in an AI World

When asked if content marketing is dead due to AI, Rai strongly disagrees: "That's a fatalistic perspective... And that's a huge mistake because if everyone else is taking that approach but you actually put in the effort, then you're gonna be the one that ranks."

She concludes with a powerful exercise: "Sit in your desk chair, turn off your email notifications, turn off your monitor, turn off your cell phone, and just sit there for 15 minutes and think, the people that I want to connect with, what is their day-to-day life like?"

"If you can practice that empathy exercise... you're going to be ahead of the curve because you are going to be tapping into those internal experiences and providing content and messaging that resonates on a level that AI never can."

Connect with Rai Hyde Cornell on LinkedIn or visit Cornell Content Marketing.

Listen to more episodes of the Unscripted SEO Podcast with host Jeremy Rivera.