The ways people discover and decide to hire a business or service have changed in just the last 6 months. The traditional Google search to find your website is quickly diminishing in popularity. Instead, customers are discovering businesses through video content or getting direct recommendations from AI tools.
Strategy 1: AI Deep Client Research
- The key to effective marketing is to speak in customer language, not industry jargon or technical lingo. Your customers are thinking about their problems and outcomes. That gap in language is huge. So, when you bridge that gap and start using their words, your marketing improves, practically overnight.
- So, here’s what you do: Open up ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google Gemini and tell it all about your business. Give it a detailed description.
- Make sure you are using the Deep Research option, then ask it to search through real forums, reddit threads, and review sites to find out exactly how clients talk about their problems and their dream outcomes.
- We are looking for exact words and the specific problems they are trying to solve.
- You will receive an amazing report that shows you their exact words, the problems they need to have solved and the emotional triggers to make them take action.
Strategy 2: Search Smarter
- Google Search is fading fast, but it doesn’t mean people stop searching, they just change where they look.
- Young adults now use social sites like Tik Tok, and Instagram as search engines.
- Almost everybody uses YouTube to learn new stuff.
- And video conferencing is powerful, because clients can actually see your face, hear your voice and decide if they trust you. Let people see the real YOU – that’s what builds trust!
- You can also make simple videos that answer questions your clients already ask.
- When it comes to Tik Tok or YouTube which one do you choose? Tik Tok might get you immediate awareness, but YouTube content sticks around forever.
Strategy 3: AI Recommendation Engine Optimization.
- This one is huge and almost nobody is talking about it yet.
- Many people are skipping Google entirely now, and just asking AI questions like: “Who’s the best bookkeeper in East Gosford?” Or, “What’s a good local plumber that won’t rip me off?”
- AI does not show a long list of options like Google does that you have to personally investigate to pick the best one. It’s going to recommend specific businesses, provide you with their contact info, and list their special services and expertise.
- How do you ensure that you get picked as a recommended business?
- First you need to make your Google Business Profile as good as it can be.
- Fill in every section, add as many photos as possible and questions in the Q and A section, this is where AI tools get a lot of their information.
- Second – you’ve got to get more reviews. AI wants to recommend businesses with lots of 5-star reviews.
- Set up a simple thank you system. Send out a text message that goes out after you complete a job for a client that prompts them and just says: “I would appreciate if you could leave a Google review for my services, thank you.”
- Be super clear on your website about exactly what you do and who you help. AI will definitely scan your website so don’t be vague
- More and more people will start using AI, so if you are the first in your niche, you’ve got a head start!
Strategy 4: Using AI Image Generation for Creative Work.
- This helps you look more polished and professional than your competitors.
- Your own professional photos will appear more genuine than stock photos, and AI can position them in layouts and ads to provide superior results. Or, AI can generate images from prompts.
- It’s like having a graphic designer on call 24 hours a day working that doesn’t cost you any extra and works just by describing what you want.
- Think about all the visual things your business needs: social media posts, ads, website images, maybe even a logo refresh.
Strategy 5: Vibe Marketing
- It’s basically having an entire marketing team that works for you for free!
- Instead of learning all the technical marketing skills yourself, you just tell AI what you want, and it does all the heavy lifting.
- For example: “I need an ad for my plumbing business targeting homeowners with old pipes. Show a split image – rusty leaky pipes on one side, and beautiful new plumbing on the other. Make it feel urgent but trustworthy.”
- You don’t need a copywriter anymore. Just describe your AI prompt and it’s going to write all your pages. If you want to change the tone, just say: make this sound more friendly, or less salesy. Fix it!
- You can test multiple versions and drop those that are least effective.
- Tell AI exactly what your clients are worried about, and what results you want to promise them.
Conclusion:
- AI is not going away anytime soon, so jump in and start using it to increase your market share and customer reach.
Source article: Wes McDowell. June 2025.
