Why Tool Marketing Is Killing Content Marketing (And What to Do About It)

The Feed Has Changed (And You've Probably Noticed)

Just scroll through your LinkedIn feed right now.

Don't worry, I'll wait here.

Notice anything? The posts crushing it aren't longform-posts anymore. And they're also not the "5 lessons I learned from failure" stories either.

The new winners are:

• Hyper-specialized prompts
• Custom GPTs
• n8n agents
• Interactive calculators
• Quiz Funnels

Your competitors figured something out while you're still grinding out content:

Tools beat text.

And yeah, it sounds weird at first, but makes total sense once you dig a little deeper.

Why Content Got Commoditized

What on earth happened? AI made it stupid easy for anyone to create text.

I'm talking about your cousin who couldn't write a decent email to save his life. Now? He's pumping out LinkedIn posts. Because ChatGPT (or better Claude) writes them for him.

The barrier to entry for "decent content" dropped to zero.

And when everyone can create decent content, decent becomes invisible. Everyone's saying the same things in slightly different ways. It's like watching 100 cover bands play the same song.

The consequences are destructive:

The market notices → People are scrolling faster → engagement is dropping.

That carefully crafted article you spent 2 hours writing? It now gets 3 likes and punished by the algorithm.

Meanwhile, someone's simple ROI calculator is getting shared across 50 company Slack channels.

That's what's happening (but few are noticing).

The Rise of Tool Marketing

So what's tool marketing?

Simple: instead of just talking about your service or product, you build micro-tools that actually deliver results. You give people something they can use, not just read.

And I'm not making this up. Outgrow's data shows that interactive tools have conversion rates of 30-40%, compared to 8-10% for regular landing pages. Some calculators are hitting 40-60% conversion rates. That's a 4-5x improvement.

I've experienced this myself. I built a simple quiz funnel — "What's Your Entrepreneur Type?" — and it converted at 55%. Compare that to a typical blog post that might convert at 2-3%. That's not a small difference. That's a different game entirely.

There's probably something evolutionary here. Humans are wired to love tools. We've been making them for millions of years. Give someone information and they might remember it. Give someone a tool and they'll actually use it.

Indie Hackers Know What You Don't

Let me show you how tool marketing looks in real life:

John Rush is a famous indie hacker who's built 26 apps. But here's the crazy part: 90% of his apps are completely free. They're lead magnets. Only 10% of his apps make money directly.

Yet this guy pulls in $3 million a year.

That's tool marketing doing its magic.

He's not out here writing blog posts about productivity. He built actual productivity tools. People use them, love them, and then naturally get sucked into his paid products. The free tools build trust, capture emails, and demonstrate value instantly.

You can't do that with a PDF checklist anymore.

It's simple math: one useful tool beats 100 blog posts. Because once you offer tools, you create a different relationship with your audience. They're not passive readers anymore. They become active fans that will share your stuff.

What Tool Marketing Actually Looks Like

I know what you're thinking: "Cool Rob, but I'm not a developer. I can't build apps."

Wrong.

Tool marketing isn't just about building the next Notion. It's way more accessible than that.

Here's what's actually working right now:

Prompts and prompt libraries. Package your expertise into reusable ChatGPT prompts. People would rather copy-paste a working prompt than read your guide on how to write one.

Custom GPTs. Takes 20 minutes to build. Solves one specific problem really well. Gets shared like crazy because it's actually useful.

Calculators and quizzes. ROI calculators, pricing estimators, assessment tools. They collect emails while delivering instant value. No coding required - tools like Typeform or Tally handle this.

AI agents and n8n workflows. Automate something annoying. Share the workflow. Watch it spread.

Micro-sites. Single-purpose web tools that do one thing exceptionally well. Think "headline analyzer" or "email subject line tester."

Notice a pattern? These aren't massive SaaS products. They're focused, specific, and solve one problem really well.

You can build most of these in a weekend. Some in an afternoon.

And you might have guessed it: AI can build most of this for you. Claude, ChatGPT, Lovable—they'll write the code, debug it, and even help you deploy it. You don't need to be a developer anymore. You just need to know what problem to solve.

The barrier to entry dropped to zero. Which means there's no excuse left.

Why Tools Outperform Content

So once again …

Tools deliver results. Content delivers information.

When someone reads your blog post about improving conversion rates, they think "that's interesting." When they use your conversion rate calculator, they get their actual number and know exactly what to fix.

See the difference?

The lead quality is insane. Someone who downloads your PDF might never open it. Someone who actively uses your tool? They're qualified. They have the problem you solve. They've already experienced your solution working.

Tools spread differently. Articles get a like and maybe a share. Tools get used, then shared with the entire team, then bookmarked, then recommended. They have built-in virality because they're genuinely helpful.

And here's the craziest part: tools collect data while they work. You're not just getting an email address. You're seeing exactly how people use your solution, what problems they're trying to solve, and where they get stuck.

That's marketing gold you can't get from a blog post.

How to Get Started (Without Being a Developer)

Alright, you're sold. Now what?

Start embarrassingly small. Don't try to build the next Figma. Build something you can finish this weekend.

Look at your best content. What post got the most traction? Can you turn that into a tool? If you wrote about "how to calculate customer lifetime value," build a CLV calculator. If you explained "how to write cold emails," create a cold email template generator.

And if you're too lazy for even that? You can literally ask AI for tool ideas. Use this prompt:

"I write about [your industry/niche]. What are 10 interactive tools I could build that would solve my audience's biggest problems?"

Let ChatGPT do the brainstorming for you.

Use no-code tools. Seriously, you don't need to code:

• Typeform or Tally for calculators and quizzes
• Custom GPTs for AI-powered tools (literally built into ChatGPT)
• Carrd or Webflow for simple micro-sites
• Make or n8n for automation workflows
• Notion or Airtable for interactive databases and templates

Ship it fast. Your first tool will be rough. That's fine. Get it out there. Get feedback. Iterate.

The biggest mistake you can do it to wait until it's perfect. It never will be. Make it useful first, perfect it along the way.

And trust me, I know what I'm talking about, I'm the master of over-perfection - (I'm German and a software engineer).

Think about it this way: you probably spent 2 hours writing your last blog post. What if you spent that same 2 hours building a simple tool instead?

The tool keeps working. The tool keeps generating leads. The tool keeps delivering value long after you hit publish.

The Future Belongs to Builders

Here's my bold prediction where content marketing is heading: hyper-personalized tools powered by AI.

We're moving past generic content into tools that adapt to each user. AI agents that know your struggles. Calculators that adjust based on your industry. Workflows that customize themselves.

Content alone can't compete with that level of personalization.

The it's going to get worse … as AI makes content creation even easier, the value of unique, interactive experiences goes up. Way up.

Your competitors are already building. Right now.

Look, I'm not saying you should stop creating content entirely. Content builds trust.

But content alone isn't enough anymore.

If you want to win big, do both. Use content to attract attention and build authority. Use tools to convert that attention into leads and customers.

Write the blog post about conversion rate optimization. Then build a simple conversion rate calculator.

Share your framework on LinkedIn. Then turn it into an interactive quiz.

Teach people how to do something. Then give them a tool that does exactly this.

The playbook's and the tools to build all of this are here, and the competition is still low. The market's rewarding builders over writers.

You don't have to choose between content and tools. Build both.