You know what’s officially out in 2025?
Forced funnels. 🚫
Fake urgency. 🚫
“Value” stacking like it’s 2012. 🚫
And what’s in?
Building trust ✅
Creating connection. ✅
Thinking like real freaking humans. ✅
Today, I’m breaking down 5 marketing trends for freelancers, service-providers and small business owners who actually care about their audience and customers – and want to build a business that makes a lasting impact.
If you want more REAL TALK marketing advice like this, don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter.
Alright, let’s count them down – starting with Marketing Trend #5.
#5. CONTEXT > CONTENT
Content is DIRT CHEAP.
It used to be true that if you could just produce MORE content, post MORE FREQUENTLY on social media, put out MORE videos, MORE blog posts.
That was how you won attention and trust and built a successful business fast.
But now? Anybody – and I mean anyone – can go to AI tools, like ChatGPT, Claude, whatever and generate content in SECONDS.
People can use A. to generate 100, 1,000, a BILLION pieces of content.
So if ANYONE can produce content that fast – how are we supposed to win that game? What’s the play here?
This is where context over content comes in.
AI doesn’t have context, it doesn’t have taste, it doesn’t have perspective.
It doesn’t have YOUR unique point of view and it does not have your experience-based insights.
So here’s what this means for your content:
Instead of putting out more listicles and more how-tos – start looking for ways to showcase more context.
This is what I like to call “show, don’t tell marketing”.
What is valuable today RIGHT NOW is real experience, real data, and real insights.
My Subject Line Split-Test Report is a perfect example of “show, don’t tell marketing”.
My team and I analyzed over 100 subject lines – we split tested them, we came up with the winners, and then we analyzed why we think they work and put it all into a free guide.
And this is one of my top-performing lead magnets right now in terms of landing page conversion rate.
Because insights feel INVALUABLE in the information overload world we’re living in today. Insights feel ACTIONABLE and REAL.
And that’s what people are craving.
You’re going to see me doing a lot more of this “show, don’t tell marketing”.
Like in this post. And this one. And this one.
Alright, next up:
#4. THE MESSENGER > THE MESSAGE
I’m going to quote my friend Ryan Levesque here.
He said: We’re entering into an era where the messenger is almost more important than the message.
Why? Well because messages can be copied, they can be faked – they can be AI baked.
But the messenger (aka – you) cannot be replaced.
This is exactly why you hear me talk SO MUCH about the importance of building a personal brand.
EVEN IF you’re “just” a service provider.
EVEN IF you don’t want to be “Instagram famous” or an influencer.
EVEN IF you don’t give a shit about the number of followers you have.
Building a personal brand is so important today because in order for ANYONE to want to do business with you.
They want to KNOW who you are. YOU are the messenger for your business.
Now – before you freak out,
I am NOT saying that you need to start posting every day on social media.
I am NOT saying you need to start creating educational content.
I am NOT even saying you need to promote yourself online AT ALL.
But, if you want to build an online business, you have to BE PRESENT online. Show people you are, in fact, a REAL human being.
Now, I’m not going to dive too deep into this topic because I have TONS of videos specifically about this topic that you can read after this post.
I’d recommend this 10-day Instagram Challenge for a ridiculously EASY and FAST way to start showing up online and building your personal brand.
Next up:
#3. CONVERSATIONS > AUTOMATION
Do you know what happens when we try to over-automate everything?
We remove connection. Which, ding, ding, ding, destroys trust.
Now I’m not saying that you shouldn’t automate anything in your business.
I’m a BIG FAN of automation and I’ve been using it in my business for years.
If you follow me on social media then you have probably seen some of my automations.
I use ManyChat to instantly send links to anyone who says they want it. It’s 100% automated and SUPER convenient for my customers.
I also have SEVERAL email sequences that are 100% automated.
Every time a new lead signs up to my list or grabs a free resource, they’ll receive an automated email.
These automations start conversations and get people engaging with me and my brand – which helps to BUILD trust.
So the problem isn’t using automation. The problem is over-automation.
I hear people bragging about replacing their entire customer service team with AI.
And my first thought is always – great, you’re saving a lot of money on labor, but what are you COSTING your business in terms of trust?
Because it’s these 1:1 conversations that create more trust than anything else.
Here’s a perfect example – I recently opened applications to my $10,000 REIGN mastermind.
I’ve been running this mastermind for five years.
And for four of those years, I have tried ALL kinds of automation and application processes.
It’s always felt like swimming upstream to get people in the door this way. It just wasn’t working.
And at the same time, I noticed that I would often have people reach out to me throughout the year – when applications were NOT open, asking me about REIGN.
We’d chat 1:1 about it for a while, usually with a few voice messages and BOOM – they wanted in.
And almost ALL of my members came from a simple 1:1 conversations like this with me or my team. No sales calls, no gatekeeping information, no fancy funnel. And a $10,000 sale just like that.
So for the first time this year, I changed my entire application process to NOT involve any sales calls, no webinars, no forcing people down a funnel.
The application process was simple: complete this application and if you’re a right fit for the mastermind, I’ll send you a PERSONAL EMAIL (yes, FROM me, not my team) with all the details and information up front – including the investment amount. Absolutely no gatekeeping.
And then I went to their Instagram account and I sent them a personal voice memo too.
Me. Not AI. Not a generic message that could be sent to 100s of people.
I opened my phone and I talked to them like the real human they are – letting them know I got their application, a few reasons why I thought they were a great fit for REIGN and I’ll let them know I sent across an email with the details.
The feedback from this process was amazing.
AND the conversion rate was WAYYYY higher than we have EVER seen using any kind of automation.
Now – with that said – this is a high-ticket, $10,000 mastermind. So the lemon was worth the squeeze here.
Am I going to do this for a $27 mini-course and send thousands of personalized messages every single month?
Of course not.
Only YOU know when and where it makes sense to automate and where it makes sense to keep the conversation REAL and PERSONAL.
The key is that you are not automating absolutely everything – because people are starving for connection.
Ok, just two more left – and they’re big ones.
#2. TIME SAVINGS > VALUE STACKING
Remember when marketers would throw in $17k worth of “bonuses” for a $297 course? Guiltyyyyyy.
Yes, I’ve done this for pretty much every single one of my digital course launches in the past.
But the truth is – it is NOT WORKING as well as it used to.
People don’t want more.
More content to consume, more hours they need to dedicate to learning something, more videos to watch, more lessons, more, more, more.
More is overwhelming. More things to do is the opposite of what we want in our lives.
I don’t know about you, but I can barely keep up with the tasks on my to-do list as it is.
Let alone consume all $17,000 worth of BONUSES you just included.
So the question I’m asking myself now is: “How can I add more value through helping people save time, not giving them more things to do?”
Don’t get me wrong. Bonuses are great. We love bonuses.
But “value” is no longer defined by “in-depth, time-consuming content”.
So instead of including hours of additional content or training – I’m thinking about including TOOLS that actually save them time and fast-track their transformation.
So that might mean including some bonus AI prompts.
Or copy-and-paste swipe files.
Or a laser coaching call with personalized advice.
Now THAT is valuable. So ask yourself what you can do to cut your customers time in half and make it feel EASY versus more time-consuming.
And lastly, and this is the big one:
#1. TRUST IS THE NEW CURRENCY
You’ve heard me say it before – Trust. Is. Everything.
This is nothing new. Trust has ALWAYS been incredibly important for marketers and business owners.
I like to say that – after attention – trust is the most powerful currency that we have in marketing.
In fact, right now, we’re in the BIGGEST trust recession I think we’ve EVER seen.
This is a marketing emergency.
According to the Edelman Trust Barometer – which has been measuring trust in key institutional areas and across multiple countries for 25 years.
The Global Trust Index is at an ALL TIME LOW.
The lowest it has EVER been since they started measuring trust 25 years ago.
68% of people believe that business leaders are lying to them – that number is up from 56% in 2021.
Wild right?
And in response to the questions: “I trust AI” and “I am comfortable with the use of AI by businesses”.
Over 80% and over 70% of respondents expressed moderate to HIGH grievance in relation to those questions.
Which of course is fueling even more distrust.
And even WITHOUT looking at this data, we can all FEEL that this is true.
I mean, YOU feel this too, right? Collectively, everywhere, all the time – we have our guards up.
We’re waiting for – expecting – someone to come along and try to scam us, mislead us, and dupe us.
Let me tell you what this means for you:
Stop trying to “hack” your growth by replacing the TRUST-BUILDING activities in your business with AI.
Look – I am a BIG FAN of AI – my team and I use it all the time.
We even have an entire free guide with over 90 AI prompts we use and LOVE, which you can grab a copy here.
But we NEVER use AI to write any of our content.
Because here’s the thing.
Your content, communications and customer experience are how you build trust – I’m talking your social media captions, your emails, your blog posts, your programs, free guides, customer service.
THIS IS THE STUFF THAT BUILDS TRUST.
And if it’s not YOU or another human doing it – how in the world do you expect ANYONE to trust ANYTHING you say?
You’re claiming to be an expert or help someone solve some sort of problem, but it’s not even YOU giving the tips or advice?
How does that make ANY sense at all?
And this comes into play in more areas than JUST using AI.
Building trust means that you stay true to your word.
You deliver on your promises, better than that – you underpromise and OVERDELIVER.
You don’t make overhyped claims that you can’t back up.
You don’t say an offer is limited just to try and “trick” people into buying now.
You use REAL social proof only.
And if you have a team working for you – you’re 100% honest about WHO is writing your content.
I write or review every single piece of content my team puts out.
However, there have been a few times that I’ve been out of the office when I haven’t been able to hop online to review an email or social captions.
And in those cases – those emails are ALWAYS signed off by “Team Posse”.
NOT Alex.
These things might seem like common sense.
Or they might seem so small and insignificant.
But these are LITTLE THINGS that build BIG TRUST.
ALRIGHT,
So to recap:
Automations pretending to be you? Nope. 🚫
AI generated content? Pass. 🚫
“More is more” marketing? That’s out. 🚫
Real trust. Real people. Real results. ✅
REAL MARKETING that comes back to actually helping people. ✅
These 5 aren’t just “trends” — they’re essential strategies for building a brand that lasts.
Which one hit the hardest for you? Let me know on the YouTube video – my team and I read every single one.
Yes – REAL PEOPLE read your comments, like them and reply to them.
Crazy right? 😉
Make sure to subscribe to my newsletter for more no-BS marketing strategies every week.
And stick around for the next video from me, where I’ll walk you through my 10-day Instagram Challenge that is SO EASY and beginner-friendly.
I’ll see you next week with a brand new post.
Until then, I’m Alex. Ciao for now.
