I've been in marketing for 8 years and its never felt this off. Heres why

we've had years of every guru drilling in the same idea, that going viral fixes everything. more reach, more followers, more impressions. and somewhere along the way we stopped asking whether any of it actually turns into money.

so here is my honest take after eight years of this.

one, everyone is obsessed with traffic and impressions and barely anyone is watching leads and sales. views feel good, they look great in a screenshot. but a million views that convert nothing are worth less than a few hundred that actually buy.

two, we take the audience for granted. people are so comfortable pumping out mediocre ai generated content now and then act shocked when it doesnt bring any roi or doesnt get any interests. the audience can tell when you didnt care.

three, we're too focused on the algorithm and we forgot theres a real person on the other end of it. we optimize everything for the machine and then wonder why nothing actually connects.

none of this is new, it just stopped being called out and now it feels like the default. anyone else seeing the same thing or am i shouting into the void here.

Comments

AlonAshk•2 days ago•2

Delivering value to the user costumer is the winner. The key to success is the value your product or service offers, the UVP , marketing is the means to let the potential costumers feel it. I insist with my clients that the content must always support that value and deliver value going viral is a mean not an end, better reach x with the right message than 10x with the wrong message

Mohit007kumar•2 days ago•2

I agree with a lot of this. One thing I'd add is that vanity metrics have become easier to achieve, while business results haven't.

AI makes it easier than ever to produce content at scale, but that also means average content is everywhere. The brands standing out are the ones that truly understand their audience and measure success by leads, revenue, retention, and customer trust—not just views and impressions.

Reach gets attention, but relevance and conversions are what grow a business.

brainopixel•3 days ago•1

You’re absolutely correct, however… the change from SEO to AEO is also shifting things. Let’s face it, people still search, and that’s often how a business is discovered. But increasingly we see people asking an app “where’s the best place to…” and getting an answer that came from a black box. There are basic AEO principles based on SEO, but each provider has a different method of calculating “best,” thus making awareness a lot easier to focus on that conversion.

Jabburr•3 days ago•1

A social media app here. Quality video content wins everyday.

There has to be a process to create, test, modify and test again to get content where users respond. It takes time, effort and skill.

Most clients don't understand the process and many marketers pump out banner photos because it's quick. Video converts at about 20x that of banner photos.

On Jabburr, users who create quality videos get seen and grow fast. Jabburr doesn't throttle posts with algorithms. Users who lazily create junk get ignored.

ayecl•2 days ago•1

I think the control is to define what a post has to earn before it ships. Is it answering a real customer question, proving a claim, handling an objection, or creating a useful conversation? If it only fills the calendar, cut it. Then judge results by replies, saves, qualified clicks, and sales conversations, not just whether the feed looks busy.

DiscoLego•2 days ago•1

Who needs sales when you're getting such great "Engagement"?

Queasy_Caregiver4928•2 days ago•1

I agree with your point, but I wonder if it has become difficult to generate only highly qualified leads through digital marketing.

That’s why I feel we may have no choice but to collect leads more broadly, even if some of them are less qualified.

Of course, if there is a method that can consistently generate only highly qualified leads, that would be ideal.

ReliefAble4983•2 days ago•1

Don’t forget that open rates in email marketing is actually a scam and is not a certain metric anymore. It gives false hopes. People are just finding out about this but having sent newsletters and seeing 40%+ open rates, I immediately knew it can’t be right for the audience that I was targeting. Such a waste of time and money imo.

Twosocks41•1 day ago•1

I haven’t been in marketing in decades, ever since I became an educator. I remember competing with my peers to create the best campaign. Most of what is missing today is that special something that AI will never have. A heart. AI will never duplicate what a human being can do. Creativity, care, love, the ability to relate to another human being…cannot be duplicated by a machine.

This is what’s missing.

tunnelfunnels•1 day ago•1

Small company here of 35… we only do things if they bring us leads so we do quality posts and our website copy and story matters. But I am tired of reading AI content - thought it would be cool to do a version of Twitter where every post had to be handwritten photos but then everyone would just handwrite what AI came up with so ♻️

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