Answer: the one you will actually do.
No one needs to elaborate any more than this, but I will write like wild anyway because I’m a human who writes, not AI laying out perfect jargon-rich, wicked efficient, or segment and funnel-based marketing scheme to make business owners coo but not necessarily get results like real money in their pockets when it matters. That was my specialty.
And like most writers on the web, I’m going to be kind of ‘over the top’ below, so that you are CLEAR that I am human. Can you imagine needing to say that, even 5 years ago?
Alas.
Also I want to weave into this post a bona fide promo link to a VERY smart marketing friend who has helped hold Google Search and run real and well performing ads up for years, to REAL people, and could use a proper hit.
And to clue you in how some of us are doing, I became a slightly annoyed marketing pro over the past 3 years or so. So get ready for some spicy, salty talk about my field below. Then there will be a few tips for this new landscape, so you can avoid falling into the “everyone’s doing it” trap.
Before 2023, I donned the ‘digital marketing pro’ moniker because I had a habit of listening to, then reflecting my customers well online, by figuring out what was needed for THEIR business, and delivering it on time. I also tried to make things I put on the web make sense to lots of different kinds of people, and to be beautiful, and to be found easily, with welcoming language as well. Writing like that is a skill, and can be learned.
Some people are only attracted by language of snark, others by beauty and style. Some need to be invited to show up at your offering or join your community. So, welcoming works on the web: it helps get folks into your brick-and-mortar store, or grass-and-stages kind of spaces, or even to join your social channels. Some folks want “in” but won’t push for it. That’s where friendly marketing is best. It takes time.
I hate to say it now, but maybe I was not quite a professional contractor in the classical sense. Like what Scorsese movie contractors do. See, I care about my people, and their people too. You know, sharing the love and opportunitiestoo. Oh yeah, and amping up stated missions to the moon! That too. Because it is fun.
Making stuff get really big in the public’s awareness (IE amazing impressions) works well and doesn’t get its due, because it’s not instant. But if you do it well, and present the buy right at the right time, people will want in, or, if they can’t afford it, maybe they’ll plan for the following year. So you are working on a multi-year build. Fun until some machine-part optimizer comes along and f’s stuff up for shortsighted industrial aims.
Oh well that playbook is as old as the hills.
Odd but true business secret: not everyone is in it for the money.
I did not get to where I was as a 20+ year self-employed marketing pro by flashy jargon or confusing techniques, or even massive efficiencies (although I employed many, efficiencies were the only way I could get a day off).
I think I’ve told you plenty here, that I came from a service background, both in terms of food and hospitality and in terms of spiritual “serve or suffer” sentiment. You know 12th of 12 astrological pie slices, and that sign’s constellating1 credo.
And to keep just laying in layers, if you like astrological symbols, you can see my astrology color profile here.
And – from my friend’s metaphysical system getting a glowing reboot later this year – you can also get your own free color-scope. There are over 1400 of them. So yeah, waayy more unique than 1 in 12.
Like Ms. Nina Simone here (nothing but mad respect for this woman), your scope is also some kind of bold bullseye and powerfully graphic. Yours might look lovely as a profile pic.
Okay back to my “I’m not doing marketing the regular way anymore” screed: I’m nearly done with the “grow money for everyone” high-yield, mindful sales grind on steroids. But I kind of want to do this one more time for something really worth the love, and to directly benefit my family.
So for now, I’m weaving together a teaching and advising role on how to approach this entire industry – how it is best used by real people, how things currently work, and how this field is interfacing with AI. And handling practical Q&A about how precisely you may want to interface with it, if you do at all.
And this starts by typing here. Plus, I’m still working on landing some quality copywriting work, until my subscriber base for this here EMMpress.com grows enough to shift on over.
Getting there…
So, AI leaders and lead agent trainers, you need advisors like me. I have concerns, humanity, and make real art, and REAL marketing, and I think for myself based on real knowledge and personal experience. And, I know the web technology to date. The history is rich, so are the caveats and opportunities.
I have some questions brewing for you all too. Like at what point you’ll decide AI is consuming too much water and electricity, you know, collectively.
AI appears to have captivated folks who want to sell each other stuff and crank out slop, while people turn to AI services and AI “agents” to serve instead of to people. Don’t get me wrong, AIs do some cool stuff too, including supporting this slap-dash theme I’ve got running. It looks good but is not built perfectly. So, good enough!
People need to serve… but not serve tech, commerce, or their AI agents. They need to serve each other.
More on AI, for folks feeling the change
If AI’s derivative edicts about marketing actually gain traction in shifting how money moves through our culture, AI would soon be directing our country’s commerce and marketplace activities.
Do you want that?
If you are like me, you’d probably prefer be on top of your own money-making and money-moving activities, and not under the influence of AI.
I use this phrase on purpose, because it’s easy to get drunk on so much cool tech and so many words, but AI requires a load of water to perform, and ridiculous stretches of land turned into server farms.
Server farms don’t feed people or even grow flowers. And they don’t serve.
The way I see it, the new marketing era is a time for more authenticity and letting go of “hidden knowledge” of first-person omniscient brand-speak, not for adopting more of it.
Brands that speak in first person omniscient? I’m done. Brands that act like they are better than the lowest person on the company totem pole, also bunk. Brands are what you put on cattle, not what make owners money. People make money. Literally generate it through their work. It’s just that simple.
Okay, so now for my best advice based on 2026’s quickly shifting marketing landscape.
If you want good social media. Guess what? You need some person on the ground, in your business, committed to your vision, who cares, and has reasonable camera and video showcasing your real place, people and products. And you need to empower them and trust them… and talk to them if you change your mind. Social media loves ADHD: practically made for it. Embrace the variety, shout out to good folks, write for real… share the account even. I’m not kidding.
If you want a great website that does something (helps people find you and all you offer so they buy tickets, products, sign up for stuff, and give you money), you need it to be authentic, for the links to work, and for it to be available all over where the public goes online… all roads leading to Rome, so to speak.
And you need for your writing, your configuration of information, your navigation and ux, and your photos to accurately (or aspirationally) represent what you are about.
And yes, there is room for an aspirational view of yourself in your marketing, but not a fake one. There’s a difference. Some call this scaling (when talking about bandwidth and numbers), I call it grounded aspiration: growing your business at exactly the rate you want. Not everyone wants to blow up overnight or automate everything.
Blowing stuff up is what gets us in trouble. But I digress.
Who to bring in from the ‘outside?’ Is there such a thing? Hire talented contractors in to do photography, writing, planning, advertising and maybe even tech services for you, while they help you SEE who you are and where you are going. They can help you reflect yourself well while the work gets done. Talented contractors are worth their weight in gold. They know how to do things, and do them.
And if you want better SEO, read this piece co-authored with my lovely and marketing-smart friend (then hire her for some damn fine foundational web stuffs and Google Ads. She freaking KNOWS things).
If you want more word of mouth business, you need consistency, great service, and to actually listen to your people when they talk, then show up for meetings and personal get-togethers too. Yeah, COVID is over people. Show up in person once in a while.
And this could mean tuning into your TEAM-MATES as such: mates (as in Australian “g’day mate!”). Everyone who works with you is a friend of one kind or another. If they weren’t they wouldn’t be there.
Think about this for a second…
ANNNDDD for those of you who want to follow, not jump over the trend, if you want to feel like you are“doing marketing,” then by all means pull down some chat GPT smoke-up-keister positivity, listen to some glossy tech co’s sell you on magic, fit yourself to them, and execute.
But honestly, I’d see rather YOU do your marketing than your marketing DO you.
From someone who’s been feeling a little road weary, and choosing ever so carefully how and where I work next, you all got this. If you want to talk, I can happily advise and can do walk-throughs on individual services. Hourly.
And I welcome these gigs because I’m still working on funding my art, travel, sharing, and generosity habits. Oh yes, and food too.
The new web marketing era IMHO, is real people talking to real people, offering genuine human knowledge, while growing ideals for our culture, and telling stories of the day.
In my world this means keeping economic power in the middle class, helping small businesses stay handily intact, and re-engaging a mentor-apprenticeship model (with good pay) in most work situations.
It also means saying the quiet parts a little louder, with kindness and class, and focusing our time and efforts around things that matter, like the arts and sciences, education and community, reasonable governance and taking good care of human beings at every possible turn.
Email for a consult.
FOOTNOTES & SUB-SUBTEXT 😉
- Gotta love this word: constellating. If you want to feel as big as the universe, then you can constellate around something meaningful and loving in your life. ↩︎