key takeaways | the marketing funnel is dead, AI is to blame, and branding is our only hope
The marketing funnel is dead. The traditional marketing funnel—awareness, consideration, decision—is no longer an effective model because the consumer journey is no longer linear or predictable.
AI is a new, untrackable audience. AI models are now acting as a “middle man” for consumers, summarizing information and making recommendations—but marketers can’t target AI with traditional methods like SEO or retargeting. Instead, they must focus on being relevant enough to be included in AI’s reasoning.
Branding is the new marketing funnel. To be relevant to both humans and AI, businesses should focus on three key areas: digital presence, online reputation, and brand perception.
Consumers are exposed to somewhere between 4,000 and 10,000 marketing messages a day, and yet business owners still expect them to travel neatly down a well-defined marketing funnel. Awareness, consideration, decision…right? Well, the truth is: the marketing funnel is dead, and it has been for some time now.
We posted about this last week—a bold graphic that read simply: “THE MARKETING FUNNEL IS DEAD.” But someone left a comment that caught my eye. “If the marketing funnel is dead, then where do people go?”
Well…nowhere and everywhere.
Today’s consumer—on an aggregate level—is too multifaceted and unpredictable for marketing funnels. The journey from awareness to purchase is nonlinear. We used to talk about 3–5 marketing touchpoints. Then we talked about 8–11 touchpoints. Now we’re talking about 1–50 touchpoints! ONE TO FREAKING FIFTY! That’s basically the marketing industry as a whole throwing up its hands and saying, “Hell if we know.”
That’s basically the marketing industry as a whole throwing up its hands and saying, “Hell if we know.”
So, instead of predictably and passively following your funnel, they’re side-stepping your every move. They’re reading reviews. They’re checking you out in online forums. They’re looking at comparison charts, and evaluating the way you engage with your audience on social media. Hell, they’re even assessing the type of people who follow you on social media to see if they even want to be associated with your brand!
And what’s more? AI is playing a massive role in compiling all of this information for consumers, essentially bifurcating your target audience. Surprise! You’re targeting humans AND bots now. May the odds be forever in your favor…
AI, the funnel-killer
Here’s the deal: AI is intercepting your marketing, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. AI summarizes answers for your audience, makes personalized recommendations, and even facilitates purchases. And unlike the measurable and data-driven approach most marketers are used to, we don’t have visibility into AI. There’s no dashboard or attribution model. We can’t track clicks. There are some tools that promise to track whenever your brand is mentioned in AI, but impression metrics don’t really tell us anything valuable or actionable.
AI is inferring solutions to your audience—it’s playing the “middle man”—and yet you can’t target it with SEO keywords, or drop it in a nurturing sequence, or retarget it, or pick up the phone and call it. You can’t state your case. You can’t pitch the benefits. And there’s no deal to close.
Instead, your challenge is simply to be relevant enough that AI models include you in their reasoning. And being relevant enough really just boils down to a few important factors:
whatever you do, be awesome at it
Have an amazing product or service that your clients are passionate about. Respond to their feedback. Innovate. Meet your audience’s needs better than anyone else in the game (or at least TRY to).
make customer satisfaction your top priority
Reputation is a huge influence on AI models, but it’s not just about your Google reviews. A rogue review left in an obscure chat forum or a passing mention of your business on LinkedIn can impact the way AI “sees” your brand.
make sure your brand is everywhere your audience is
And make sure it’s memorable, consistent, authoritative, confident, and—to reiterate—memorable.
It’s basically as if your marketing arm’s been cut off, and you now have to rely solely on your business’s own merit to earn new customers. And if that scares you, well…you’ve got bigger problems than AI hijacking your marketing strategy.
call it whatever you want, but the solution is branding (with a dash of content marketing)
In the past, marketers have tackled their biggest challenges by being louder, or by chasing clicks. Today, those strategies won’t work. Instead, marketers need to weave their brands into the fabric of the web as a whole.
Brands need to be everywhere their audience is—and, remember, AI models are one of your audiences. But it’s not enough just to be there. Brands need to be there consistently, with the same message, speaking in the same voice, until it becomes a default assumption.
Some experts call this creating “data layers”—and hey, we can always use a fancy new buzz word, right? But at its core, this is just branding with a twist: we don’t just need to persuade human decision-makers, but we also need to reinforce AI models. And, we need to recognize that human decision-makers probably won’t read much of what we write (and they probably won’t remember much of what they read), but AI models are going to read and remember every last word, and they’ll pick and choose how much of that information makes it to the consumer.
So, where should your brand focus its branding efforts in order to make the biggest impact on both of its audiences? Here are 3 areas to focus on:
digital presence
Where is your brand mentioned or cited? Are these credible sources? Does your website content go beyond blogging to include schema markup, FAQs, or transcripts, etc.? Are you posting new content consistently, and is it coming from a place of authenticity, or are you using AI to generate drivel just to get something posted? Are you actively engaged in digital PR? Are you posting regularly to social media? Keep expanding your digital footprint (and keep your message clear and consistent) and AI models will be sure to take note.
online reputation
Think of the various places your business is mentioned online. Are you described consistently across all of these sources? You may think you can’t control the vernacular around your brand, but you can…by offering a quality product or service that effectively meets the needs of your customers, and delivering it with impeccable customer service. That is the best way to ensure a stellar reputation across the entire World Wide Web.
brand perception
Who are your competitors and partners? Are they credible and authoritative? Or are they spammy and gimmicky? Surround your brand with trusted voices, even if they are in competition with you. After all, a rising tide lifts all boats.
These kinds of traditional brand-building strategies are foundational to succeeding in a world where AI plays a core role in the consumer decision-making process. Marketers will need to get comfortable being uncomfortable with the lack of measurability or meaningful analytics, but AI isn’t going away. Might as well get in on the ground floor and adjust your strategy now. Otherwise, you’re destined for irrelevance.
make your marketing the most memorable (to humans AND bots)
If you want to be seen and remembered (and remembered fondly), we can help. Contact the marketing experts at Birdhouse Marketing & Design and learn how we can help shield your brand from irrelevance.
