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Posted: Mon 22nd Jun 2026
Last updated: Mon 22nd Jun 2026
10 min read
I want to talk about the fact that marketing is dead – but it really isn't. So I'll tell you why the old style of marketing is dead.
Small businesses are posting more content than ever before. Yet many are hearing crickets, and actually seeing very little from the effort they're putting in.
In this blog, I explain why your generic content isn't cutting it anymore and how to develop a more human and audience-led style of marketing.
Marketing is 100% psychology. It's you knowing what you have to do to make people trust you – and then buy from you.
Because people don't buy on logic alone. They buy when something makes sense emotionally and practically.
People haven't stopped buying, nor have they gone anywhere. But they have become better at ignoring the noise, because there's so much more noise to overcome.
As audiences, we're all feeling overwhelmed. Our social media feeds are full, and when we ask Google a question, we get a million answers that generally make us more confused than we were before.
Our attention is very stretched, and we feel like we're being sold to a lot more than we used to.
So the issue isn't that marketing is dead, but that generic marketing just doesn't work anymore.
People aren't going to buy from you because you've posted another Canva graphic. But they will buy from you if they see you've understood them and their pain points.
This is where a lot of businesses get stuck. They're creating loads more content, but missing the all-important connection. They're showing up, but nothing is landing. They're visible, but not memorable.
I've always said that people buy from people. Marketing is simply a conversation. That's all it is.
A lot of business owners are simply doing what they're told to do – being consistent.
They're posting, sharing, creating and trying desperately hard to keep up. But the results aren't matching the effort.
Don't get me wrong, consistency is really important, because you do need to keep feeding the machine. But it's almost like fuelling your body – if you fuel it with the wrong things, eventually it stops working.
Most business owners I speak to are knackered. They're putting so much into it and getting nothing back. And they're becoming disheartened.
But maybe all that effort is going into content that doesn't say enough, mean enough or connect deeply enough with its audience.
Which moves me on to the biggest mistake I see businesses making – posting to themselves.
Businesses often create content around what they want to say. They might use industry jargon that only they understand, or focus on what their competitors are doing.
Instead of creating content around fears, frustrations, desires, doubts and the emotional connection their audience is seeking, they post what they think they should post.
We're in a brilliant position to help our audiences make buying decisions. So we need to look at a new way of marketing that addresses those things.
The questions your audience is asking – and the questions you need to answer – are:
Can you help me?
Do you understand what I'm struggling with?
Can I trust you?
Is this even for someone like me?
Do I feel safe taking the next step?
When you have a few minutes, look at your last three social media posts and ask yourself – did I write these from my point of view or the audience's point of view?
Because making that little shift can really change the way your content performs.
I've had to look at my own business, which I've been running now for 15 years. I'm an audience psychologist, and my strength is understanding what audiences want. It's where my passion lies.
But buying behaviour has changed. Marketing now is in a very different place to when I first started. Back then, I didn't have AI or tools like Canva.
All these amazing tools have enabled business owners to try and do marketing themselves. Whether they're doing it effectively is a completely different argument.
We don't need more content – we need more connection. The content that cuts through is very rarely the loudest, but, interestingly enough, it's the content that feels most relevant.
People are tending to scroll past perfection now. What stops them is something that makes them feel human.
Imagine a social media ad or post that says, "We provide bespoke business support solutions."
Fine, it tells you what the business does, but it doesn't tell you anything more than that.
If it said something like, "Are you at the point where you know your business needs support, but you don't know where to go? Or you're too tired to explain it to somebody again?"
That lands more because it speaks to a real feeling. And that's the difference when you bring emotion and feeling into the content you're posting.
Generic content is easy to ignore. It sounds like this:
"We're passionate about helping businesses grow. Get in touch today." Why should I get in touch today? You've not given me a reason to do that.
"We pride ourselves on excellent service." That's great, but I need more proof, because it's only you saying that at the moment.
This isn't awful content, but it's forgettable. And it doesn't make anyone feel anything.
I want you to think about something your clients or customers might say behind closed doors that they wouldn't say publicly. For my business, it might be things like:
"I know I need to post, but I feel ridiculous doing it."
"I'm embarrassed that I still don't understand Instagram."
"I'm scared of getting it wrong."
"I don't want to look desperate."
"I know my business is good, but I don't know how to talk about it."
If you're thinking more about your audience's pain points and how you can help fix those problems, your content will stand out.
Because you're the USP (the unique selling point) in your business. Your business isn't like anybody else's.
In trying to sound professional, businesses are accidentally removing the very thing that makes them interesting – their voice, opinion, humour, honesty, experience and humanity.
Safe content is safe to create. I get that. But it doesn't land. It just disappears and that's what makes it risky.
I teach people how to use AI (artificial intelligence) because it isn't the villain it's made out to be.
The businesses that win in marketing will ultimately combine this technology with their own humanity.
AI has already changed marketing. It can create graphics and captions, help you generate ideas and repurpose content. It can give you structure and speed the whole process up.
But it can't replicate you, or your knowledge of your audience.
I've talked about emotions and people buying from people. AI doesn't fully understand human behaviour or build genuine trust. And that's the problem with it.
You're the person who's out networking, meeting people, having one-to-ones and coffees, so you have that understanding. Don't move away from that.
Lots of people now are using AI in exactly the same way, which means they're all producing exactly the same content.
Then we end up with this "wallpaper" that doesn't stand out to anybody – the same captions, the same graphics and more beige content.
If you put generic thinking into AI, you get generic thinking out – just a lot faster.
Old marketing was almost about broadcasting. Not broadcasting in a TV and radio sense, but broadcasting to an audience through social media. Selling, talking at people, posting for visibility only.
New marketing is more about conversation, connection, putting your audience first, building trust, showing honesty and using your personality. Because you're brilliant at what you do.
Don't be afraid to let that shine through in the right kind of way. Audiences want useful, human content and contact.
The businesses that stand out in this day and age understand their audience deeply.
They can say what their audience is thinking.
They can name the frustrations and assuage the doubts.
They can make people feel seen before they actually try to sell anything.
The world doesn't need more copy-and-paste marketing. It needs businesses brave enough to sound like themselves.
There's a little exercise called the "human content check". Before you post something, ask yourself:
Who is it really for?
What are they feeling before they read it?
Does it sound like something I'd actually say? Is it coming from me?
Is there a clear point to it?
Does it help reassure, challenge or connect?
And the most important one is this – could any other business post exactly the same thing?
If any other business could post it, it needs more of you in it.
I'll leave you with one final thought, because I think this is really important.
People will forget perfect, over-polished content, but they'll never forget how you made them feel.
Marketing isn't dead. Social media isn't dead. Your audience hasn't disappeared.
The future of marketing is more understanding, more honesty, more humanity and more content that sounds like it came from you, with something useful to say.
If your marketing feels a bit noisy, inconsistent or disconnected, I'd love to have a chat with you.
