There are 4 MAJOR forces that are CHANGING the online marketing landscape today…
Whether you’re a business owner trying to grow your business and make more sales, or you’re a copywriter trying to learn how to BEST HELP your clients grow their business and make more sales…
You NEED to read this, because some of these stats will shock you.
Hey, Posse! What’s up? It’s Alex.
Coming at ya this week with some super juicy insights on the future of marketing…
And what that means FOR YOU right now.
We’re going to jump right into it today.
But first, you know what to do.
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Now, here they are… the 4 MAJOR forces that are CHANGING the online marketing landscape today…
#1: Mistrust In Advertising Is ON THE RISE
With algorithm changes, spammers, and impersonators out there – the Internet is quickly becoming a place of frustration for a lot of customers and content creators.
Not to mention data breaches and leaks…
Scammers taking advantage of vulnerable people online…
The sheer bombardment of ad messaging with contradictory statements and false claims…
The influx of AI-generated content, “deepfakes”, and the list goes on and on…
In fact, a recent study shows that 69% of consumers distrust brand advertising.
And It’s a growing problem too as 43% claimed to trust advertising less than they used to.
Consumer trust is at an all-time low. Luckily, there is a solution to this.
Which I’ll talk about in just a minute.
But first, let’s talk about the second major force that’s changing the game in online marketing…
#2 Linear Marketing Is Dead ☠️
Marketing USED to be SO simple.
It looked something like this:
- Person sees ad in the newspaper or hears ad on the radio or television…
- Person buys or doesn’t buy…
- Done.
This became the backbone of traditional DIRECT RESPONSE marketing. You take an action, you get a DIRECT response. You measure results and if you made more than you spent, awesome. You do good marketing.
When the Internet exploded and marketing became “digital”, much of the same direct response marketing principles applied…
- Person sees ad online…
- Person clicks ads and goes to a landing page…
- Person opts-in for free offer…
- Person gets email that sends them to a sales page for the offer…
- Person buys or doesn’t buy…
- Done.
Well, TODAY, marketing is TOTALLY different.
Don’t get me wrong, this sort of traditional funnel is still used ALL of the time. I use this exact funnel in my business…
But what’s different is that customers are no longer ONLY moving LINERALY through a funnel.
Ad, landing page, sales page, buy…
Instead, customers are interacting with brands across multiple platforms and places BEFORE making a purchase.
While it has been widely accepted in the past, that it takes 7-8 touchpoints to make a sale…
Research suggests that in 2024, the actual number of touchpoints before a sale varies massively, depending on where the prospect is on their buying journey.
- Inactive customers still need 1–3 touches on average
- A warm inbound lead will need 5–12 touches
- A cold prospect can require 20–50 touches
In fact, the average Copy Posse customer interacts across 4 MAJOR touchpoints before their FIRST purchase.
They might click on an ad – there’s touchpoint #1…
Then they might click on an email – there’s touchpoint #2…
Then maybe they click on a social link – there’s touchpoint #3…
And finally, they might click on a Google search or opt in on a landing page – touchpoint #4 – before they convert into a customer and actually buy something from my brand.
And keep in mind: that’s just the actions we can TRACK with a “click.”
The number of actual touchpoints is likely WAY higher once you consider all the views and impressions these people are having with my social media channels (where no click is tracked).
And this describes something known as the messy middle.
In their recent study “Decoding Decisions – Making Sense of the messy middle”, Google defines this as “the space of abundant information and unlimited choice in between the first trigger (or touchpoint) and the final purchase decision or sale”…
So what we do know is “there is a complicated web of touchpoints” happening within this messy middle.
And business owners are left scratching their heads about how to navigate this as it doesn’t really fit into the traditional brand marketing or performance marketing buckets…
Here’s a quote from the report…
“The messy middle is a good way to describe how marketing has evolved over the past decade or two, with the polarization between branding and direct response creating a gap into which all sorts of valuable consumer behavior goes unrecognized and underserved.”
So we know this “gap” exists…
But the problem is, it’s becoming HARDER and HARDER to track marketing initiatives in the messy middle web of touchpoints…
Which means, as marketers, our job just got a lot harder.
Because if we can’t TRACK what’s happening in the messy middle…
Then we can’t understand it. How do we know if our marketing is good or bad?
Therein lies the dilemma, which makes one thing abundantly clear: Marketing is no longer linear, and if you’re only focusing your efforts on linear marketing funnels…
And DIRECT RESPONSE MARKETING…
Then you are leaving a LOT of money on the table because you’re ignoring your customers and leads during the most important part of the buying journey…
And this leads me to …
#3 People Are Taking LONGER To Buy
Customers are savvier than ever. And while in the messy middle, they are exploring and evaluating their options…
Because of that exploration and evaluation stage, people are taking 9 days longer on average to make purchase decisions in 2019 compared with 2015 – and that number is even longer now.
And that’s because the internet has transformed from a tool for comparing prices to a tool for comparing everything.
Take the terms “cheap” and “best.”
Worldwide, search interest for “best” has far outpaced search interest for “cheap”.
People are evaluating options CONSTANTLY and trying to find the best option for them. Price is less important.
All of this means that people are not making buying decisions as quickly as they did before.
At the Copy Posse, we’re seeing longer sales cycles too, with the average customer taking 46 days before they buy from us.
Which begs the question, WHAT ARE THEY DOING IN THOSE 46?
They are waiting and watching and evaluating you…
It takes time (and repeated exposure) in order to build the know, like & trust factor when there are just SO many other options out there…
Which leads me to…
#4 Social Is Becoming The New Search Engine
While there’s no denying search engines are still dominant, social search is growing in popularity.
With 24% of consumers turning to social media to search for answers to their questions and a massive 46% of Gen Z’ers using social as their primary search engine…
So if you’re ONLY relying on search and/or paid traffic to come to your website, you are MASSIVELY missing out.
NOT ONLY are you missing “messy middle” opportunities to nurture leads and get them to know, like and trust you…
But you’re ALSO totally ignoring a huge number of people who could DISCOVER you for the first time through a social search.
So with these MAJOR forces shifting the online marketing landscape…
How can you leverage these trends to grow your business?
THE SOLUTION: Connect With Social, Sell With Email
Having a social media presence is more important now than ever before…
Customers practically DEMAND it.
They want to check you out, follow you, and take their time getting to know you before they buy…
It doesn’t mean you have to post EVERY DAY. But don’t be a ghost. Be present, build trust and think LONG TERM.
Now, there’s another VERY important part to the puzzle. While it’s true – social media platforms have revolutionized the world of digital marketing…
It’s not necessarily where you make MONEY…
Nope – your money will be primarily made in the INBOX.
Without a direct line of email communication to your audience, you can’t confidently grow your business and predict your income.
Because while social media is becoming an INVALUABLE tool for growing your audience and building brand awareness + trust…
But when it comes to making money and bringing in consistent profits?
Well, that’s where social gets wonky and unreliable.
Not only are you at the mercy of the constantly changing algorithm that can disrupt your reach at any moment, but even with “good” reach, only an average of 10-20% of your followers will even see your posts.
And all it takes is for one of these giant platforms to crash or for your account to get hijacked.
And all that time, effort and money you put into building your audience can disappear in an instant.
Luckily… your email list is different. You own it.
YOU get to decide how often your subscribers hear from you and you get to dictate exactly what messages they see.
Plus, when it comes to email… 99% of users check their email every single day
Including 58% of Gen Z’ers who check their email multiple times a day!
And with over 4.48 billion email users and counting — email marketing remains one of the MOST effective ways to sell online.
Even as my social platforms have skyrocketed to over 500K, my email list still remains the #1 money maker in my business, bringing in 600% more revenue than all of my social platforms combined.
BUT, BUT, BUT… and this is important: I couldn’t have built my list into what it is today without social media.
I’ve said before, I’ll say it again… It’s not Social Media vs Email Marketing…
It’s “YES AND”.
You need both.
Social media to grow your audience, build trust during the messy middle, and grow your email list…
And an email list to keep a DIRECT line of communication, interaction and relationship-building so that you can EASY SELL.
And if YOU need help with the email list part of that…
Don’t worry, I got you covered!
You’re invited to join me for a TOTALLY FREE email marketing training where you’ll learn my 3-step formula for planning a profitable email promotion…
And discover the list of monetization strategies that have already helped thousands of business owners and copywriters absolutely Own The Inbox.
This training is Day 1 of my wildly popular Own The Inbox email marketing challenge…
And for the first time EVER, I’m inviting you to join for FREE.
You can click the link now to save your spot at this FREE training now.
I hope to see you there!
Thanks for watching. Until next time, I’m Alex. Ciao for now!
