Is Marketing Facing it's "Nuclear Apocalypse"
AI and digital marketing
Marketing may be on the precipice of a nuclear event.
Did you ever hear of those post-apocalyptic tales where society reverts to stone-age technology?
While that was science fiction, for marketing, it seems to be an increasingly likely reality.
The current practice, of having search engines respond to queries with a list of websites, will soon be a thing of the past.
ChatGPT has already launched their own search tool. Google and Bing are expanding their AI Overview section. It seems only a matter of time until no-click search will be standard.
This already impacts SEO, and as it evolves, will further erode traditional SEO as well as paid ads. After all, the reason paid search ads work, is because they masquerade as organic responses to queries. If there are no more organic responses, then paid search loses its value
So What Does That Mean for The future of Digital Marketing ?
What will the future of digital marketing look like
I watched a panel of 7 “top SEO experts” discussing this, and made some interesting observations
Google has had the technology to institute no click, AI search for a while. The reason they likely haven’t don so, is because they realize it is detrimental to their business model. competitors forced their hand.
Some companies, with unique, valuable content may benefit by blocking AI from scraping their content
In the past year, there has been more change in SEO marketing than in the past 10 or 20 years combined
No one really knows what the future of digital marketing will be
There’s a Lot of Sugarcoating From “Digital Marketing Experts”
“The Experts”
While it’s important to plan for the future, it’s also important to bear in mind that the future is not yet here; SEO and PPC advertising is still beneficial.
That being said, those same panel of experts also proposed solutions (they have to, their income depends on it). To be honest the proposed solutions have a lot of nuance, aren’t relevant for every industry, and leave a lot of questions unanswered.
I prefer the rip off the band-aid approach, in order, in order to find the correct solution you have to recognize the true scope of the issue.
Taking a Deeper Dive into “Future Proof” Digital Marketing Strategies
Proposed Strategy: The most popular strategy by far was to create original, authentic content that will engage followers and will build an audience. This was a common theme promoted by many experts.
Where this works: In some industries, this is easy to put in practice. The most obvious one being fashion retail. There are numerous ways to engage customers from advertising discounts to showcasing the latest products and styles.
The Challenge: This only works if there is an audience for your industry related content. Frankly, many industries just aren’t that interesting and don’t innovate based on your marketing timeline.
Creative wording and marketing can only get you so far, the content has to be engaging to build a following.
My Solution: Don’t limit your content to your specific product or service. Instead know your target customer, what their interests are, and create content focused on their interests.
Some examples:
If you are a title insurance company your going to have a hard time building a following posting blogs about title insurance. Sure they may be some occasional industry changes that may interest your customer’s, but they are few and far between.
instead, focus on your customer’s interests. If your customer base is commercial real estate investors, become an “expert” in real estate investment. it is relatively easy to consistently create useful content that will interest real estate investors. This will naturally grow your followers among your target audience.
If you run an ABA Therapy Agency. Sure you can write about how your service is unique and how you’re agency is better than others, and that should be highlighted and the focus of your website. But if you keep posting that same info in Blogs and Social Media, your followers will disengage.
Instead, focus on your target clients interests. in this case your target client would be the parents of autistic children. Content can include the latest research, tools to help them cope, resources available for them etc.
The old way of thinking is to write long form blogs in your specific industry, and mix in a lot of keywords to improve SEO rankings, and that may still work for now. But if your goal is to build a following, in many industries, you won’t build a following that way.
Don’t Sacrifice the Present, by Betting on the Future
Long sighted approach
Whiles search has seemingly taken an inevitable march towards a no-click AI future, the future is not yet here, and there are a few reasons to question whether it will ever fully arrive.
Monetization - No one has figured out how to monetize no-click search. ChatGPT Search is currently only available by becoming a paid subscriber. It seems they envision a world where the public is willing to pay a premium for AI Search and the cost of search shifts from the provider to the consumer.
After consumers have gotten used to free search, I have a hard time envisioning a future where Google, Bing and Open AI only offer search to paid subscribers.
I doubt Google is banking on that, and they are likely working on solutions for paid ads to be relevant even in a no click search future. At least for paid ads, free market capitalism will likely find a solution
Content Creation - In a fully AI generated, “No Click Search” world, there is very little incentive for anyone to create original online content. Why create content, only to have it scraped by AI without providing the creator any benefit?
If there is no new content, then inherently the value of search degrades. So by disincentivizing content creators, it will lead to decay in the value of search. For search to remain relevant and valuable, search engines will need to incentivize content creators.
Regulation - Many countries have passed laws where search engines and social media companies have to pay news agencies for their content. While that’s not the case in the U.S., imagine a world where all informational and service industry websites are made irreverent because of AI generated search, the pressure on congress to impose regulations would be enormous.
Trust - A lot of consumers will be hesitant to rely solely on curated, AI generated search results. This may change over time, but will be an impediment in the near feature for complete adaptation of no-click search.
In Conclusion
While it’s prudent to plan for the future, and adopt strategies for the long term, particularly when AI generative search is already being implemented, no one truly knows what search will look like even 2 years from now.
Basing your entire marketing strategy in the unknown is risky and can be costly.
It would be wise to take a balanced approach by applying current best practices while also investing in strategies to "future-proof" your marketing.