AI is killing engagement, organic web traffic and, as a result, many of the classic online-marketing methods as we know them.
Why?
Because the internet is increasingly littered with AI-generated stuff nobody really wants to read. I mean, who gives a damn what AI “thinks”, really? When I want to read something, I want to read something that contains some “filtering” through individual thinking, perhaps some personal views, and life experience of someone writing it. Same when I buy a book. So-called AI, on the other hand, may or may not be acceptable when I am trying to retrieve information from a database — and it’s a nice-to-have when I can do that easier using some NLQ instead of Boolean operators people may find inconvenient. Anyway, AI-generated content (of any type) just in order to be able and put “yet more clickbait” out there is nothing that anybody in their right mind wants. And, perhaps surprisingly, internet users still are in their right mind it seems — as the large majority of them objects to wasting their time on empty nonsense that’s not worth reading.
The result?
They’re reading less, they’re following less, they’re enerally pretty tired of clicking or “finding out more, using that link below” and similar. So (unless you really got great content and are able to put it in front ot the exact right audience, so even the dumb algo gets it and jumps on board helping you to promote it) droppers-by reading your stuff and then following whatever link you throw at them will hardly work. This trend had been visible for some time, but has only gotten worse with AI and resignated users thinking it’s not worth it anymore too often!
The solution?!
New approaches in marketing are needed. Researchers from Gartner to Forbes Magazine and popular marketers from Neil Patel and Russel Brunson and Gary Vanerchuk all the way down to the lesser-known but equally smart ones are pointing it out increasingly often:
Change your methods now or you’ll be left in the dust from 2025 on out!
And how do you do that? There are actually several very good approaches to solving the problems caused by AI pollution and resulting user-behavior changes. We will spell out a few below. It’s not just that you can simply run paid ads instead of garnering organic traffic (well, maybe you can but it’ll be darn expensive as prices have also been distorted as a result of the above AI thing nearly across the board — only the really smart advertisers finding popular but under-valued search terms and tweaking their paid-ads campaigns expertly and diligently may still be able to navigate these waters successfully and profitably — so it costs Joe Sixpack a lot more to get paid traffic than may make sense for him and his offers. So the better (or at least complementing) strategies would be
- don’t build a website when you don’t need one
- market through customer conversations
- set up the tools to engage your audience
- build sales funnels instead of showcasing offers or bragging about your services, skills, education (full-blown website) no one bothers reading unless you are Nike, Coca Cola or Netflix.
- direct your marketing flow into real assets (things you own that put money in your pocket), like mailing lists, audience data you can access whenever you want & more
Follow these steps either by doing it yourself or by getting an expert deploying these and additioinal measures for you, and your marketing and business will be fine — even in light of these changes! When you adapt to changes, these can ultimately even be a blessing in disguise — especially for the ones adapting faster than the rest.
You will then be ahead of the crowd and profit.
