There is a sea change afoot.
Can you feel it?
(More on this in a second…)
But first…
A few weeks ago, I started discussing the first few elements of this Sea Change when I revealed for the first time ever “The 4 Forces Reshaping Marketing Funnels Forever…”
And just yesterday, when I was catching up with a friend of mine, Gordy Bal, I gave him the following summary, which ICYMI – I thought you might find helpful for yourself:
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The 4 Forces Reshaping Marketing Funnels Forever
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1: The “Zero Click” Reality (~65% of all Google searches no longer result in a click to any website. A little talked-about by product of AI / LLM. SEO marketers have shifted to Paid Media, shifting supply/demand, and radically driving up the cost of advertising.)
2: The “MoFu Gap” (According to Google’s 98-page Landmark Messy Middle Study: Middle of Funnel is now the new Top of Funnel. Fewer clicks to lead magnets. And we now need more un-gated, in-channel micro-content to survive.)
3: The “3rd Party Data Wars” (GOOG, AAPL, META, AMZN withholding 3PD from each other – and, in turn, us. The accuracy of targeting has gotten worse, not better. They want us to “trust” their algos, as their guinea pigs. Zero-Party Data is the new Third-Party Data.)
4: The “Great Mobilization” of the Internet. (Quietly… 98%+ FB, 90%+ YT, and 60%+ of all internet traffic is now mobile (and growing). Your brand now needs to fit in your customer’s hand, not on their desk. That website you obsessed over is officially obsolete.)
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That’s the tl;dr version.
There is of course a LOT more discussion to each of those points.
But first, back to the Sea Change…
The QUESTION is this:
With the super soaker stream of these forces collectively hitting us all in the face right now…
AND as a result…
The outdated digital business playbook of the last 10 years no longer applying in 2024…
You might be asking:
What’s the answer???
And more importantly…
As we look ahead to the next 12-18 months…
Where do we go from here???
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Well…
As is often the case when there is a Sea Change afoot… the answer…
Is to Zig when they Zag.
Or to put it another way:
To choose the Road Less Traveled.
I’ll give you an example:
Right now, you have every pop-up guru telling you to do some variant of the following:
- Go to ChatGPT
- Tell it to give you 30 days of Social Media content
- Upload the results to Canva
- And BOOM! In 60 sec, you’ve got 30 Social Media posts!
I mean, c’mon.
Please.
Where do you *think* that’s gonna get you??
Think about it:
For every other person who does this – there’s gonna be some guy out there who says:
“What if I DOUBLE that, and do SIXTY social media posts, and post 2x every day!? That’s like… DOUBLE the content!”
Or the next guy who says:
“What if I create 3 social media profiles, post 2x every day, and create 30 days of content for EACH of them!? That’s like… SIX times the content!”
Or the next guy who says:
“What if I hire 100 people in India to manage 10 social media profiles EACH, posting 4x every day for every single one of them!? That’s like… FOUR THOUSAND times the content!”
Where does it end???
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And the worst part of it all?
Is that if you’re actually DOING this…
ALL you’re creating…
Your entire contribution to the world…
Is nothing but noise… noise… NOISE.
More unwanted, unneeded garbage…
And nobody wants that on their tombstone.
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SO….
What’s the Zig when they Zag move here?
Well, for starters…
How about… using ZERO AI in your writing…
(Blasphemous! I know, right!?)
How about focusing on quality over quantity…
How about hand-crafting every word yourself…
And instead of focusing on the reactional, transactional…
Commoditized, anonymized…
Click count…
What about…
(Stay with me here…)
Focusing on deepening your relationship with a much MUCH smaller group of “Human Beans” (Roald Dahl Easter Egg, you’re welcome) whom you actually get to know…
And who actually get to know you.
What Kevin Kelly famously describes as 1,000 True Fans.
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And how do we know this strategy works?
Well, you’re still reading this right now, aren’t you??
(Yeah, exactly…)
In an endless AI garbage-filled ocean of content…
This is the type of relationship and readership you want to create with your customers as well…
And the good news?
This is a simple Zig when they Zag strategy we can ALL employ…
All of us.
Including you.
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BTW – Speaking of working with a small number of customers…
If you’ve been reading my newsletters over the last few weeks, then you know that personally working with a small handful of businesses is something I’ve been considering…
Still not sure if I’ll do this (or what it might look like…)
But I’ve been considering making some space for this in my life…
Now – It won’t be cheap.
And it definitely won’t be for people who don’t already have a business.
(I haven’t yet decided what the revenue cutoff might be…)
But it WILL include regular, direct access to me in an advisory capacity…
Which is something I haven’t done in over a decade.
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NOW…
If this IS something YOU might be interested in…
Let me know by shooting me an email.
Tell me a bit about where you’re at in your business right now…
Where you’re at (roughly) revenue wise…
And what you’re trying to accomplish in the next 12 months…
Again, no promises – but I’d love to hear from you…
And more importantly…
If I DO do something like this…
And make a few spots available…
First dibs will go to those to express interest here.
So even if you’re just *possibly* interested, this would be a good thing to take 30 seconds to do.
Until next week,
Ryan :-)
