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Late Night Internet Marketing and Online Business with Mark Mason
Late Night Internet Marketing and Online Business with Mark Mason
Lessons from Social Media Marketing World 2025: AI, Tiny Offers, and Content Strategy [LNIM274]
Fresh from my role as Emcee at Social Media Marketing World 2025, I've returned with game-changing insights that are already reshaping my approach to business. These aren't just theoretical concepts—they're practical strategies that can transform your entrepreneurial journey, especially if you're balancing a side hustle with other responsibilities.
The AI revolution has arrived, but not in the way many feared. Rather than replacing marketers, artificial intelligence is amplifying our capabilities in remarkable ways. For solo entrepreneurs who don't have teams for brainstorming, AI fills the ideation gap brilliantly. It's not just about working faster—it's about producing higher quality work with less effort. From content planning to podcast workflows, the right AI implementation can elevate your business while reducing your workload.
Paid advertising is undergoing a seismic shift as Meta and Google lean heavily into AI-driven optimization. Soon, you'll simply provide your creative assets and their algorithms will handle everything else. The specialized knowledge once required for effective advertising is becoming less necessary, making sophisticated campaigns accessible to everyone. For side hustlers with limited time, this democratization of advertising represents a huge opportunity.
Perhaps most eye-opening was learning about "tiny offers"—products priced between $27-$97 that serve as perfect entry points for cold traffic. These self-liquidating offers allow you to connect with potential clients, establish relationships, and cover advertising costs simultaneously. It's a refreshing alternative to the high-ticket, all-consuming hustle promoted by many marketing gurus, and it's ideally suited for those building businesses alongside other commitments.
The overarching message became clear: sustainable success requires working smarter, not harder. You simply cannot hustle around the clock indefinitely—something has to give. By implementing strategic AI tools, embracing content repurposing, and creating accessible offer structures, you can build a thriving business without sacrificing your sanity.
Join my free VIP community at vip.markmason.com where I'm sharing more detailed strategies and providing personalized guidance to help you implement these approaches in your unique situation.
Resolutions off the rails? You’re not alone. But there’s still time to turn things around. The ALIGN Productivity Challenge is a proven system to help you achieve your goals in just 90 days—no fluff, no overwhelm. Head to AlignProductivity.com and start your comeback today.
Episode 274. Late Night Internet Marketing. This week, on the Late Night Internet Marketing podcast, I'm going to tell you all about my takeaways from being an MC at Social Media Marketing World 2025. These are the takeaways that are impacting my business and I bet they'll impact your business too. All this and more on the Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast.
Speaker 1:The Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast, and now broadcasting late at night from a little studio in the big state of Texas, your host, mark Mason. Hey, hey, hey. How is everyone doing? I am your host, Mark Mason, coming to you live. Well, not live because it's a podcast, but I am in the little studio in Dallas, texas, safely back from my sojourn to the country of California. Actually, it's really Texas, that's sort of a separate country. California is just way different and man do I love it.
Speaker 1:Social media marketing world I try to go every year, but I don't make it every year because for years the last couple of years my son's been playing baseball but he blew up his UCL and for those of you that are familiar with baseball, that's the Tommy John surgery ligament, so we weren't playing baseball this spring. Sadly, he's a senior in high school and he's sitting watching the other guys play, because his elbow is just a big pile of mush, but you know he's all good. We got everything that we wanted to get out of baseball. We're so thankful for that experience and he's turning the page and heading to university next semester. We're excited about that. But the good news about that is really that freed me up to return to my very favorite social media conference, my very favorite business conference. My brothers from other mothers go there social media marketing world. It was super cool because I was able to emcee the paid social media track there, which is really cool. I enjoy the emcee role because it allows me to interact with the speakers, which I love. It allows me to interact with the audience, which is cool because I'm a big ham like most podcasters, and it doesn't require the enormous amount of work that is needed to prepare a talk for social media marketing world, because the standard for presenters there is incredibly high and so you really have to bring it if you're going to speak at social media marketing world. I made lots of meaningful connections there, lots of really deep conversations that I'm still enjoying that have continued in my DMs on Facebook Messenger and Instagram. It's really great. I love that part of the show and I went with an implementation focus. You know, I'm really at a point where I'm getting towards the end of my engineering career at the incredibly large semiconductor company that I work for here in Dallas and I've loved that career, but it's coming up on 35 years and I'm getting to the point where I'm ready to make a transition here in the next let's say 10 years in case they're listening but sometime in the near future I'll be making a transition and you can bet that when that happens I'll be doubling down on the late night internet marketing brand and all the stuff that's going on at markmasoncom, and it was super exciting this year as well because of the AI buzz man. I really enjoyed that. I do a little AI in my day job. I do a lot of AI at late night internet marketing and around the markmasoncom brand, and so it was super exciting for me to talk with other creators about what's going on for them in AI. You know the AI takeover is happening and it's happening in a good way. I think this was an incredibly positive take at social media marketing world and really it's the first thing I want to talk to you about.
Speaker 1:Ai is not something to be feared as a marketer, because it has a lot of very positive impacts. You know, for me personally, it's really helped me tremendously with content planning. Ai really kind of streamlines my ideation. It allows me to create ideas and to come up with ideas that I might not have otherwise. I think this is super important for solo entrepreneurs. You know, in my day job, ideation is less of a problem because the people on my team are all smarter than me. They're amazing engineers and scientists and they have more ideas than there are minutes in the day, literally about how to take the company forward. But when you're a solo entrepreneur, you don't have that, and so, from my point of view, ai is not replacing us, it's really amplifying us. It's certainly making me better, and I know that if you approach AI with that mindset, that will help you, and so if you feel challenged or threatened by AI, I want to encourage you to really look at it more. As Cliff Ravenscraft would say, what does this AI make possible? And the things that AI makes possible are literally infinite, and so I want to encourage you to think about that. Of course, for me particularly, I'm doing a lot with my podcast workflow and in fact, in the next episode I'm going to be talking about all the ways AI has reduced the friction in my workflows around my brand, and hopefully we'll give you some actionable ideas in the next episode coming next week that you can take.
Speaker 1:But a lot of people were talking about this at the conference about how AI had impacted their workflows and just how they were able to get more work done, and that work was done of a higher quality. See, a lot of times when we hear about AI, we hear well, it wrote me a terrible blog post, but using AI the correct way, and a lot of creators were talking about this. We hear well, it wrote me a terrible blog post, but using AI the correct way, and a lot of creators were talking about this at the conference. It actually not only allows you to do things faster, but also at a higher quality, and I think that's really the way you need to be using AI. That is the standard Going faster. You get that for free. You've got to go faster with higher quality, and I think AI makes that possible. This was an example I bet a hundred different ways in the conference where people were talking about how AI was not just making them faster, but it was making them better.
Speaker 1:And then, being in the paid social media track and emceeing that, I learned about a lot of things that I didn't really know about or was sensitive to but didn't have the latest data. So a lot of the people that are buying ads were talking about how Facebook, meta in general and Google are both leaning in even more heavily to ai for ad optimization. It's really clear to me after hearing the talks at social media marketing world that there will be a time where you just give google or meta all your creatives whatever you've got, and it will take that and just optimize your campaign for you. There will be little that you need to do. This practice of targeting audiences and optimizing keywords and all the things that we've done in paid advertising for the last 10 years it is absolutely going away. I don't think there's any question about it. It's happening. Meta is already starting to deprecate targeting features. We see performance max on Google. This is happening, folks, and so the days of Performance Max on Google this is happening, folks. And so the days of needing an ad specialist to run ads for you at a level that will be helpful to you is going away, and it's happening now.
Speaker 1:The other thing that I saw was what AI looks like when you apply it to a tool that should be like GA4. And that was when I saw a presentation on Microsoft Clarity. I hadn't really used Clarity, but if you're a person who hates Google Analytics 4, and I know there are a lot of people like that out there you used to love GA3 because it was easy to use and it made sense and then GA4 came in and you hate it Let me encourage you to check out Microsoft Clarity. It's absolutely free. This was a big takeaway that I got from Chris Mercer at the conference. He had a fantastic talk about Clarity. He is the data measurement guru. You probably have heard of Chris before Really super great guy and I really enjoyed his talk. Recommend another action for you out of the podcast you go take a look at Microsoft Clarity. It's free for you to use.
Speaker 1:The other thing that I would say about the conference is it made me even appreciate more the value of repurposing. You know I've talked about that a lot, but I really think the thing that makes sense for people like me, who don't have an infinite amount of time to create an infinite amount of content, is to create one single, solid piece of content without fail and to use AI tools and repurposing and automation to get that content chopped up and placed out in ways that people can use it automagically. You know there's lots of AI tools coming now. Opus is a tool that I use that I really enjoy. That takes long form content and turns it into reels. Descript is bringing AI punch to the editing process. There's just so much stuff going on with AI now that facilitates repurposing.
Speaker 1:I've got automated workflows Again, we'll talk about this a little bit next week that automatically take the transcript from the show and do various things with it. It's really amazing the way that not only you can use automation, like we always have, but with an AI intelligence built into the automation, you can make decisions as part of the automation flow. That's really the key unlock Before everything was programmed. If this, then that Now in automation flows, you can ask AI what it thinks you should do with the content that you have. Automation flows you can ask AI what it thinks you should do with the content that you have. That's a super huge unlock. And if you're not repurposing your content or if you're just feeling completely overwhelmed by the content that you feel like you have to create. I want to encourage you to think about okay, what if I only did one thing and used that thing to do other things? What would that look like? I think that's more than ever now possible and I recommend that approach.
Speaker 1:For most of you that are side hustling like me, also super clear to me that video is still the king man. You know, when it comes to discovery, short form video drives new audiences. That was really clear. There's another thing that drives new audiences that I'll talk about here in a minute. But when it comes to organic, it's really hard to beat short form video for discovery. I talked to some guys on the side about how I could involve a two camera setup where I've got a front facing camera, how I could pull that automatically into script and cut back and forth to a side facing camera to give a little higher production value. And it turns out that tools like Ecamm, which I've had a subscription to forever but hadn't used all that much, they're perfect for this kind of multi-camera setup where you're trying to record the screen and your face and the side of your face all at the same time. That's working amazingly well with Ecamm and that Ecamm set of files goes directly into Descript and can be edited directly with easy camera switching Really cool setup. If you're looking to up your video game, I really recommend that you look into the combination of Ecamm with Descript. Really recommend that you look into the combination of Ecamm with Descript Super powerful combination for capturing all the video you need and then editing that in post easily with Descript's new amazing scene templates Really good stuff.
Speaker 1:Here was a big hit for me. You know my very favorite session was from Allie Burke. Now you know her name has too many consonants in it. It's B-J-E-R-K and I'm saying Burke, and she might say something else and her mom might say yet something still, but this is what I'm saying. She is the inventor of the trademarked tiny offer and she's actually quite famous for tiny offers. She's a member of Russell Brunson's two comma club and she sold literally millions of dollars of tiny offers. These are things that cost between 27 and $97. And they are a way for you to get quick wins in front of cold traffic, in front of people that have never heard of you before, and establish a relationship with them and pay for the cost of the ads.
Speaker 1:These are known as self-liquidating offers, and I've been a fan of the self-liquidating offer forever. I mean, it's a thing you see in grocery stores. Ali actually uses the example of Costco. You go in for a $4 rotisserie chicken. That's their self-liquidating offer because that chicken costs them at least $4. By the time they cook it and package it and put it on for sale, they're probably losing money on that chicken. But if you're like me, when you go into Costco for something like a rotisserie chicken, you come out with a pallet of stuff literally a rolling platform full of stuff to load into your SUV. This is the idea of a self-liquidating offer. Whatever it costs you to make and advertise that chicken, you get that money back because your average cart value is more than the cost of the ads that you're buying, and so that's an amazing thing.
Speaker 1:This is not new, but Allie makes it wonderful. She has a very clear idea not only about tiny offers, but about what marketing should look like. Whatever a bro marketer is, you know, you hear about all these bro marketers like Russell Brunson and those guys that have these hundred thousand dollar masterminds and these big ticket items. That's great. Love those guys, love Russell, love Mike, feel same. But there's another way to do this and for side hustlers like us it's really hard to be that all in bro marketer dude. It's really more sensible to be someone who offers small packages to get new clients for whatever their main offer is, whether that's a signature course or coaching to help people. This makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1:If you're interested in checking out Allie, go to markmasoncom slash tiny. I've got some uh an offer for you there. It's my affiliate link to Allie's system and I recommend that you check it out, or you can just Google Allie Burke. I mean, I just love what she's doing, but see, if you're going to Google it, you're going to have to remember how to spell it. So maybe it's just best if you go to markmasoncom slash tiny to check that out. I really like Allie. She's really cool down to earth marketer who's perfect for us, the side hustler.
Speaker 1:You know I'm working on a tiny offer plan right now and you'll see this in action. I recently launched the Align productivity framework. That's a tiny offer. This was before I got a chance to see Allie, and then now I'm working on the Expert Ignited platform. That's gonna be another tiny offer and I love that because it's going to help people just like you get started making money selling things that they know about. Helping people do the things that you know how to do. I think that's the perfect literally the perfect thing for a side hustler to do, and the expert ignited framework will help you do that. That's my next tiny offer, and right now I'm working on creating that content and that will be coming to expertignitedcom very, very soon. I'll look forward to telling you about that.
Speaker 1:So those are my key takeaways from the conference. Really, ai amplification is what I'm calling it. Ai is here to make you better and that's the mindset you need to have, or you're going to get mown down. Okay, you have got to have the mindset that AI is here to make you better and you have got to get on that and do the things that make that true. Speak that into reality in your business, and that will keep you ahead of this amazing wave of AI and allow you to take advantage of it. Recommitment to content on my part here I am on the mic and you'll see this content repurposed on a social media channel near you and I hope you enjoy that. I'll have audio, I'll have video on YouTube, I'll have shorts, I'll have reels All those things coming from this piece of content. That's definitely how side hustlers like us need to roll.
Speaker 1:And, of course, as we talked about Allie's tiny offers, kill markmasoncom, slash tiny. I think you really might like that. Go check it out. Final thoughts and encouragement. So here's some actions for you. Think about being smarter in your business. I know there's a tendency to to take the Gary Vaynerchuk approach to this and just work harder, and let me tell you, as a guy who's been doing this for more than a decade side hustling for more than a decade out of love for the day job you cannot hustle all the time. It does not work. You cannot sustain it. You will go for a few months and then you'll fall over and die. So you have got to find a smarter strategy. I think AI can help you do that, and thinking more strategically, like in the case of tiny offers, can help you do that as well.
Speaker 1:Let me also say that you're not alone. People are here to support you and I feel so strongly about that. As I mentioned recently, I've started this new VIP community at VIPmarkmasoncom. It's free. There will be some paid parts eventually, but I'm not there yet and right now it's super quiet where you need some help from a guy who's been doing it for a long time. Go over to vipmarkmasoncom and join and ask me a question. The crazy thing is, I will answer it because there are very few people in there. I think we've got 22 members right now, including me and my wife and my dog. There's 22 members, so now is the perfect time.
Speaker 1:By the way, all of these things start like this, so you know, the things you hear about are when people start something like maybe pat flynn, who has a million youtube followers, start something and on day one, 50 000 people join. That's what you do when you have a giant platform. But when you're a small side hustling entrepreneur, everything starts small and that's okay and that's not something you need to feel self-conscious about. Maybe this is a whole nother podcast. Like you don't want to do this thing because you're afraid nobody's listening.
Speaker 1:Look, if your intent is right and my intent is to help you it doesn't matter that no one else is listening. If you can help one person, if one person joins your whatever or hears your whatever or reads your whatever and you help them, that's mission accomplished. If you proceed with that philosophy, that's going to help you do everything that you need to do. So let's talk about it. Come on over to vipmarkmasoncom, check it out, let me know what you think, and let's talk about tiny offers or AI or consistency in your business, or whether or not the approach that you've got makes sense to me, because I'll give you my honest opinion about the path that you're on and what you might do to make it better. All right, that's what I have for you today.
Speaker 1:I hope that your week is absolutely fantastic. I also hope that a week from now, you hear my smiling face. Can you hear me smile? I'm smiling right now. You can see that. If you're over on YouTube, you hear my smiling face telling you about the friction that I've been able to remove from my business. If you're a person who is having trouble just getting all the things done in your side hustle, I have some ideas for you that I think will help you, and I'm going to show you actual examples from what I'm doing in my business that are helping me be more productive what I'm doing in my business that are helping me be more productive. So, until next week, I hope that everything that you do is fantastic and encouraging and helpful, not just to you but to other people. See you next week.
Speaker 1:Ciao, you've been listening to the Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast. You've been listening to the Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast. Be sure to visit LNIMpodcastcom today to leave feedback for Mark, download special bonus content, access the show notes and more. See you there. Until then, go and make some great progress on your internet business one night at a time. One night at a time.
Speaker 1:Okay, if you're new to the show, this is the show after the show, part of the show. You know I usually have some unscripted comments. Actually, the whole show is unscripted. You probably feel that I have an outline on a teleprompter that I'm looking at and actually for this episode I've got a whole new thing going on in social media marketing world of taking my outline and feeding it to gammaapp to create slides and actually just speaking from the slides and using Ecamm to not only record my face and the side part of my face hello, over there side part of my face, the side part of my face, so I could do some editing. Also, I'm recording the screen with the slides on it, so we'll see how this comes out. If you go over to YouTube sometime a few days after this episode releases, you'll be able to see what I came up with.
Speaker 1:I'm doing this now, not because I can fully automate that, but I do expect that Descript will fully automate camera cuts for solos. Right now, they've implemented a full automation for multicam when there are multiple speakers, and I'm expecting that they'll do that for solo podcasts as well in the future, and I think this will help me a lot. For now, whatever I do will be manual. So, because I'm in a huge, big hurry all the time, there won't be a lot of amazing edits, but I expect them to do that. And I expect them to do automated B-roll as well, where they take something that sounds cool and they put in some B-roll automatically.
Speaker 1:And then the third thing I'm expecting from Descript in 2025 is that they'll automate jump cuts. You know how when someone says something important here's the point I want you to understand something like that and all of a sudden it jumps to a zoom, I'm expecting that Descript will also add those jump cuts in where they're context aware and automatically doing that. Those three things in combination the ability to cut between cameras automatically, the ability to automatically insert B-roll and the ability to do jump cuts would completely automate my YouTube production and make that just at a much higher level. So that's super exciting. I'm looking forward to that. So that's what I've been working on this week, and I hope to talk to you next week. Until next week, be cool, bro. Ciao.
