Maven Marketing with Brandon Welch

Don’t Advertise in 2026 Without This

• Frank & Maven

Share episode

Send us a text

Most businesses will waste money in 2026. Here’s how not to be one of them.

In this Maven Monday, Brandon Welch and Caleb strip marketing back to what actually works after years of chaos and shiny objects.

This episode isn’t about trends, hacks, or predictions. It’s about the foundational decisions that separate businesses that grow steadily from those that constantly feel behind.

This conversation was sparked by a simple question Brandon posed to a business owner who felt overwhelmed by marketing: “If this were the last advice I ever gave you, what would actually matter?”

What followed became a practical, long-term framework for navigating 2026 with confidence.

If you’re tired of chasing the noise, second-guessing your spend, or feeling like marketing should be working better than it is, this episode will help you reset your perspective and focus on what truly compounds.

No shortcuts, just the principles that still work when everything else settles.

#MarketingStrategy #SmallBusinessMarketing #BusinessGrowth #Entrepreneur  #MarketingPlan #BusinessOwner #MarketingAdvice #LongTermGrowth #MarketingTruth #2026Planning #LeadershipInBusiness #BusinessMindset

Our Website: https://frankandmaven.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frankandmavenmarketing/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@frankandmaven
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/frank-and-maven/

Host: Brandon Welch
Co-Host: Caleb Agee
Executive Producer: Carter Breaux
Audio/Video Producer: Nate the Camera Guy

Do you have a marketing problem you'd like us to help solve? Send it to MavenMonday@FrankandMaven.com!

Get a copy of our Best-Selling Book, The Maven Marketer Here: https://a.co/d/1clpm8a

Brandon Welch:

Welcome to the Maven Marketing Podcast. Today is Maven Monday. I'm your host, Brandon Welch, and I'm here with Caleb. Happy 2026 AG.

Caleb Agee:

It's starting right now, basically.

Brandon Welch:

Right now, you don't know how far back in time we recorded this, but by the time you're listening to it, it's dang near 2026. And I had a meeting with an awesome business owner yesterday. And I just remember thinking like there is they're just so like freaked out by marketing and all the things and all the shiny objects. And for whatever reason, I said, like, hey, if I never talk to you again, which is definitely not the plan, but I said, if I never talk to you again, let me just give you some things I would want you to think about.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah.

Brandon Welch:

And if you are listening to this podcast uh for the first time, this is uh this is a place where we eliminate waste in advertising so you can grow your business and achieve the big dream. We are like unreasonably excited about the big dream of uh not just all the things that happen when you grow and you get you know abundance in your personal life, but like what happens when businesses grow and become legendary forces in a community. Um we have had the honor to work with so many companies like that across the country, and over uh over the period of my career, um we've just seen so many things tried and didn't work, and so much pain at this at the at the level of like marketing and like how do I grow? Or I spend a bunch of money and I don't know if it will help me or not, or I'm kind of growing, but what's working? And so I just said, Um, you know, we have a book, we have you know 15 years of doing this in our agency. And um I just said, what if we started from the beginning? I said if if I were to give you 26 things to do in 2026, yep, what would that sound like?

Caleb Agee:

I never talked to you about marketing again.

Brandon Welch:

Yeah, if you never heard from us again, this is this is our very best advice after growing uh some really remarkable companies to really remarkable levels of revenue and impact. And so we're just gonna jump right into that, and this is our gift to you. Um and this is learned from real stuff that's working on the streets. So here we go.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah, so we're gonna start with the category of strategy. Um, that is where all good things start. And uh we're just gonna dive right into it. First, your yesterday customer will always be your most profitable and the easiest. Yeah. So here at Frank and Maven, um, we believe there's three types of customers today, tomorrow, and yesterday. Specifically, your yesterday customer is the person who has already done business with you. You can stay in their life, be a friend, and um get them to come back for repeat or referral business.

Brandon Welch:

There are people that bring multi-million dollar ad budgets to our conference room and they say, help us make this better. And we always start. Everybody's obsessed with this new customer and how do I get more new? And it's like we always start with, are we getting the most we can with yesterday's customer? Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Caleb Agee:

Everybody knows it's the cheapest to reacquire, but it's also the cheapest to market to. Somehow it's not the shiniest.

Brandon Welch:

And we all and I don't think most people actually believe that. They just they just sort of assume that the hunt and the real growth comes from tomorrow's customer or the customer that's like looking today. That is true. We're gonna talk about that, but you will you will never ever ever regret focusing on your past customers more.

Caleb Agee:

Yep. So email them monthly, if not at least email them weekly more ideally. You should text them, you should have events, uh, VIP events, you should continue adding value to their life. It should be the thing you are amazing at, find that thing and just keep adding value, keep sharing that with them. Um, show up, donate to the things that they care about.

Brandon Welch:

Buy the Girl Scout cookies, put your business name on their kids football jerseys, do all the things like just give and continue loving on your past customers. They will be a force for you that advertising could never compete with. That's right. So uh that's the yesterday customer. That's always where we're gonna start. Second, um I want to talk to somebody who is very smart and who is very uh intentional and trying to be a good steward of money. And what happens oftentimes when we go really deep in that lane is that we focus on metrics, metrics, metrics. I just want to tell you, my friend, you are not your metrics. Your business is not your metrics. Uh, your metrics are simply telling you what's already happened. They're not telling you who you are or how you can even be more impactful. Uh, if you are not seeing success in your metrics, there's really only two reasons why. It's that you're not giving that much impact, so you're not that great, or people just don't know about you yet. And usually what happens in marketing is we look at metrics for like this ultimate guidance, and it causes um a lot of people to pull the plug before it could actually work for them. And so if you just are certain that you are making a difference and you're certain that you're doing it a certain way for a certain type of customer, and you are providing value and goodness and like impact towards a certain type of person, if you were doing that, it is only a matter of time before the world finds out and you will grow. But if you want it to happen faster, find um find a way to help people see that faster and see what's in it for them. So um focus on who you are first. That is the foundation of every good marketing campaign. And if we never talk again, just focus on who you already are and just find a way to tell that story well.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah. And then number three, closely related to that, kind of adds to it. Companies with strong vision, values, and vows will always outperform the ones that don't have those. And that is where you take the who you are, the heart of your country, the heart, the origin story, the you know, the superhero origin story where you have this thing you had in the world, you saw it, and you want to change it. You boil that down to its essence and you put it on paper. And you share exactly why you're changing the world, you share how you're changing the world, and then you share the values, the promises you make that you will stand on. That's vision, values, and values. And you share that definitely with your team. It should ooze out of your team at every at every moment. But then it also comes out into your marketing. It becomes it becomes a piece of that. It may not come out in those exact words every time. Um, and it should show up even in your client conversations. All of this should be solidified and should be strong.

Brandon Welch:

Mark Twain said that the two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you found out why. I think this is uh also true for businesses. The day your business was born and the day you started to articulate why. Uh so if you don't know how to do that, uh, the Maven Marketer is a book we wrote uh on the most foundational things that our biggest, fastest growing, and most successful clients have done with their marketing. Spoiler alert, it the the entire point of the book is that nothing matters as much as who you are and and the strategy that you put in place. Uh so if you go ahead and fast forward to chapter 18, there's a um basically a worksheet of how to identify your vision, values, and vows. And with those things, um, Roy Williams said writing good ads is easy when you have something to say. That is your something to say. People will bond with you when they understand who you are, um, and if you are like them, if you are after the same things that they are after, if you are fighting and believing and spending your uh energy and your efforts going for the same world that they want, the world that you're trying to create through your business, uh they will they will bond you. And then from that, it's just a matter of helping them see that often.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah.

Brandon Welch:

And then and then sometimes just waiting for them to need you.

Caleb Agee:

So that leads us perfectly into point number four, which is spend 70% of your advertising time, money, and energy talking about your vision, values, and vows. You need to connect. Uh, we're talking about really the tomorrow customer here, that 70% ratio. Yeah. Um uh this there's a big research study. We talk about this often. Uh Les Bennett and uh Peter Fields, yeah, they found by studying thousands of ad campaigns that the ideal ratio is that you should spend 60 to 70 percent of your marketing on long-term branding relational things.

Brandon Welch:

Well, what are you gonna make people feel good about you?

Caleb Agee:

Yeah. What are you gonna talk about? Yeah, your vision for the world, yeah, the values you have for the product you see.

Brandon Welch:

This is not this is not a time to go be like overly philosophical, but it's like um, I believe that uh when you get your car repaired, that should not be an inconvenience for you. Should be easy. Yeah, that is that's a real thing that a uh a mechanic might say. I believe that if your roof doesn't need replaced, I'm never going to propose that it does. And these are values from real customers of ours. And it talking about the product, especially when you're in a long-term buying cycle, is usually never the thing. Like I know if I need a roof, I'm gonna call a roofer. I know if my car breaks, I'm gonna call a mechanic. But um, so you can't just go on and say, we have great mechanic service and we have great roof service and all the other insert your type of service in there. But when you talk about broad things and the way the world ought to be, most people will listen because they'll go, yeah, that's the way the world ought to be. And so you want to do it in such a way, um, and often, and we say the biggest percentage of your ad budget should go to helping people understand who you are, how you roll, what you stand for, and the life you're trying to create for them one day when they need you.

Caleb Agee:

Yep.

Brandon Welch:

But that leads to point number five, you want to do that in an entertaining way. So do it over and over in the same places. Um you basically want an audience to develop an impression of you like they do their favorite sitcom or TV or book or movie characters. Yeah. Um if you do that consistently and they know who you are and they know what you believe, it's just a matter of time before you seem like the more real guy or gal, or the more interesting guy or gal, or the more trustworthy, likable guy or gal. And that is that's when they're magically gonna choose you, probably without even going to a search engine.

Caleb Agee:

Yep. And then so we focused on that 70% of our time on that tomorrow customer. We're gonna spend the other 30% of our time and money and energy uh giving people a reason to buy now instead of later. We're gonna make it very easy to do business with us. Yep. And uh that's that's as simple as it is. We want to make sure that we, when somebody looks for, I need that mechanic. Well, we're gonna pop up on the list. Seems like the obvious one, but I think a lot of people invert these percentages. That's only 30% of the time. We're gonna spend the mo most time building relationship. We're gonna spend a little bit less of the time uh being ready right at the finish line.

Brandon Welch:

Yeah, entertain them, inspire them, jab, jab, jab. And then uh Seth Godin says that or sorry, this is actually jab jab jab left hook. Left hook uh was uh Gary V. Jab jab jab left hook. If I got that wrong, call me out in the comments. Yeah, Seth Godin or Gary V. Who said it? Who said it? Um and the left hook is like, oh yeah, you remember me? Yeah, you feel good about me. Well, hey, uh no, you weren't probably gonna buy now, but if you are, this is a great time, and let me tell you why. And it's an offer, it's a promotion. Uh, I'm gonna save you time, I'm gonna make this easier, then somebody else is about to make it easier for you. And so um that's what you want to do. You want to do a 70-30 split. Um here's number seven. If you catch yourself saying we in an ad, pause and say, Can I turn that into a you statement? We or I or our company or insert company name at blankety blank, you know, at blankety blanks, you know, every time you say that, try to flip that around and turn it into a you statement. Um, attention is the most important currency in advertising, and people will always give you more attention when you're talking about them instead of you.

Caleb Agee:

We're gonna talk about a little hint, a little preview. We're gonna talk about this next week, actually. Yes. The power of personalization and attention to the person.

Brandon Welch:

Yes. Uh there's uh there's a universal life hack that is gonna be revealed next week on the Maven Marketing Podcast. Bring it on. So number eight, uh closely with that, if you do talk about we, me, or I, uh make sure that it's about a promise. So we believe. Yeah, we believe, or we always guarantee that you'll get this.

Caleb Agee:

We never.

Brandon Welch:

Yeah. Another we never um allow you to have your time wasted, or we will never share your email address, or we will never uh bother you, or ask you ask you to do something that we wouldn't have our own mom do, right? Um so make it about them very quickly. There's a time to like stand up and say, and that's why we don't do this, or that's why we always do this, but make sure it's around some guarantee or tangible. So that's number eight.

Caleb Agee:

Number nine, when you talk about yourself or a product feature, say which means after that, so that you can tell them how the benefit makes their life better. This is a copywriting hack. Actually, it's a verbal hack too, if you're in a conversation. Uh, when you say something complicated, you have permission maybe to say something inside the box, right? You're an expert, but you need to quickly follow that with which means, and then you connect that to me as the customer.

Brandon Welch:

Yeah. At Frank and Maven, we always start with strategy, which means you'll never wonder where your advertising dollars are going what they're supposed to be held accountable to, right? We always start with a strategy session, which means you'll never be wasting money on random things, right? So um always put a which means when you drop a product feature. Uh number 10 is commit back to 70% of your time, money, and energy in advertising to broad audiences. So we talked about what you need to be doing, like what you're talking about. We're talking about your vision, values, and vows. But that usually, when you're talking about those who we are, what we stand for, while you're entertaining them, do that in broad audiences. Uh, this is back to the Les Bennett and Peter Field study. Uh, the companies that did the best put 70% of their advertising into the tomorrow customer, what we call, or what they call priming, making people already like you. Uh, and you're gonna use broad media to do that. Today, in 2026, for audiences 40 plus, TV and radio are still in a local market. They're still by far the best way to do that. That's gonna surprise some people, but that is just where the largest audiences can be had for the littlest amount of money.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah. Check out our video on CPMs, which is the gas mileage of your media. That is the great equalizer in all medias, and that's how you can boil down any media to its efficiency as far as this, we're talking about large reach.

Brandon Welch:

And you want to buy those in such a way that you're showing up daily or multiple times daily to the same audience because it takes um a long time to get them primed to you, but once you have them primed, now you're just waiting for them to come around and need your product or service. Um, quick side note on that. If if you're certain that your best and most ideal customer is not in the 40 plus crowd, uh some of the next most efficient medias include YouTube uh and meta video ads. So you're not reaching as many people and it's not as intrusive, but sometimes um now that's the best way to reach them just because there's changing behaviors and the way that the younger folks uh consume their media. Yep. Yep. So right after that, you've spent 70% on broad audiences.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah. Number 11 is commit 30% of your time, money, and energy to targeted audiences. So these are people who are looking for what you sell. And we're catching them right now. Right now. This will be pretty obvious, but search engines are exactly where you'll find these people because they uh typed in, I need a roofer near me. I need car mechanic, help me fix broken tire, right?

Brandon Welch:

Sometimes the people that you've been talking to in tomorrow campaigns, they will recognize you when they see their name and they'll go, Oh yeah, that company. Uh but sometimes they need the media, you need the search engine or the Facebook ad to pop up and help them remember, help them recall your name, especially if you're newer to tomorrow marketing.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah. Sometimes Brendan just mentioned this, you can use meta ads, maybe in a lead generation format, um, to also help move forward at the same time.

Brandon Welch:

Secretly find people who are secretly looking for what you do and you can reach them a little bit sooner than you would uh when they finally go to the search engine and look for people to start calling.

Caleb Agee:

This is the shiniest customer to chase after. We call it the today customer around here. Everybody wants them. They are the most expensive. That is why 30% of your budget should go to them. Yeah. But I want to encourage you who are used to the instant gratification of paying way too much money for a today customer, invest in a tomorrow customer, and watch the efficiency change.

Brandon Welch:

They're as much as 500 times more expensive to reach, literally. So you're not going to get very far with your budget if you're only trying to go after these people. Um, you want to get people already liking you and then reach the ones who finally start to start start to reach out in that moment. Um, cool. So 70-30, broad versus targeted audiences. That was 10 and 11. Number 12 is every good book, play, movie, and TV show have a memorable character. So should your business. Build a character or set of characters that talk, look, and act and believe the same things that you do. Sometimes that is you uh as the owner or spokes uh owner or founder or like CEO of the business, uh, which is number 13. The owner, founder, and CEO often makes the strongest character. Regardless of what your business is or how good or bad you think you look or sound or want to be on TV, um, you are still putting them in a character mode. If it's you, you're putting yourself in a character mode. Um, Newsflash, Caleb and I are characters on this podcast. That's right. Um, I know you think we must be this handsome and interesting everywhere we go, uh, but but we put on a little bit of a shtick.

Caleb Agee:

Uh Nate the Camera Guy helps us out. He helps us look way better than we actually do in real life.

Brandon Welch:

So yeah. So Nate the Camera Guy is another character. You don't ever see him, but he's behind the scenes.

Caleb Agee:

That's a good point.

Brandon Welch:

Yeah, that's right. Thank you, Nate the Camera Guy. So um, point is you need a character. The founder, owner, or CEO is often the best character because his or her heart is and the guarantee that they carry around is directly implied when they speak. I would not say things that are not true or or aligned with the thing I want to provide you for you for my company. Um, and then secretly, when when you can flash it up on the screen or they somehow know, oh, this is the guy who founded the company, they know you mean it and they're not being hired to say it. Um, there is a time and a place where you want to hire somebody else, but that takes a lot more energy, time, and money. So even if you aren't into being on camera, use that advantage whenever possible. Even if you aren't a good talker, put your humanness and your clunky words and your, you know, put your hillbelly butt on TV if you have to. Um third-party spokespersons or ambiguous VOs will never instill the confidence as quickly as the owner, as long as they're being a consistent character.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah.

Brandon Welch:

So it doesn't mean you have permission to go on and talk about yourself, but you just carrying that message and you being that real life human that is the founder.

Caleb Agee:

So number 14, the first step in knowing how to grow your business with advertising is to know how much it costs you to acquire one customer.

Brandon Welch:

Yeah. A lot of people are like, I want to grow 40% next year. And I'm like, great. What's it cost you to acquire a customer? I have no idea. And then we figure that out.

Caleb Agee:

Quick way how many customers do you have? Total marketing budget.

unknown:

Yeah.

Brandon Welch:

Pretty quick. And I would nuance there. How many new customers did you get last year? Yep. Like you really can't give cash customers credit for that. Yep. How many new customers did you get last year? Divide that into your total marketing budget. You might find out it cost you$2,000 a pop to get new customers. And you would go, holy smokes.$2,000. Yeah. Multiply that times you know the 40%. Yeah, the thousand that you need to get to your goal. Then it's like, oh, there's a two million dollar advert advertising budget. I don't think I have two million dollars to spend on ads. So that's where you get a little bit more realistic. Now that's not waterproof math, but that will get you close.

Caleb Agee:

It's the first step.

Brandon Welch:

Yeah.

Caleb Agee:

Uh but it leads us to step 15, which is divide your revenue goal by your average value of a customer. And then multiply that number by your average cost per acquisition of a customer. Break that down for me, Brandon.

Brandon Welch:

Yeah. So take take um the revenue goal that you have next year. So let's just say it's a million bucks. Yep. Um and then divide that by my average customer's ten thousand dollars. Yeah. Your ten thousand every customer spends ten grand with you. So what is that? Uh that is a thousand customers union, right? A thousand ten thousands equals a million. So then you go, okay, well, that's about um a hundred and something a month or maybe eighty-ish a month that I have to have. Um and then you multiply that times your cost per acquisition of a customer. Let's just say it was a thousand dollars, you'd need to spend eighty thousand dollars a month on advertising to get that many customers. So um, if that math is confusing, it's just going, what did it cost me to get what I have now? And then if I want to get a percentage more of that, I gotta multiply that times what it's costing me to get them now.

Caleb Agee:

Now we hope marketing becomes more efficient as time goes on, and it typically does.

Brandon Welch:

If you're doing that 70-30.

Caleb Agee:

Yes, if you're doing the 70-30. If you're chasing the finish line, ooh, you're gonna, it's gonna go up next year, I promise.

Brandon Welch:

Yes, sir. So that uh that was strategy and some messaging. Uh, we're gonna talk about some specific media tactics because these are relevant for 2026. Uh, some things have not changed and won't change for a long time. Some things are absolutely changing right now. One thing that is very relevant is that short form video, even for your law firm, even for your service company, you don't have to be a TikTok influencer to go start doing reels. Those are very, very productive for a couple of reasons. They're really cheap. Facebook and YouTube both are subsidizing their algorithms to push short form video because they're a little bit freaked out at how much viewing time TikTok has taken from them. That's right. So they're trying to build their own version of TikTok inside these giant platforms that got a little sleepy over the last couple years. So you can take advantage of that, and even stuff that they may not have previously thought was worthy of putting in their feed. When you uh are the HVAC person and you do a 13-second video of how to change your air filters uh or uh a tip for how to change the humidity on your you know nest thermostat, uh, or you are a mechanic and you're showing some really cool thing you fixed, or some like time-lapse video of what you did, you have permission to do that now. And you will actually, it's actually worth the time and money to do it because before a lot of that stuff was just crickets, you weren't reaching many people. Now they're actually pushing it locally, and they're actually pushing it into people that didn't ask to see that sort of stuff, and local businesses can really benefit.

Caleb Agee:

It's showing up in the organic search results as well. It's literally a tab in Google, short video. Yes, and so that is that's really powerful because it's coming up quite a bit. But then also the algorithms have changed for that. So it's not really the power of your page or your followers in short form video, it's the power of that individual video. Now, there is some probably some juice that comes from your page and and how good you've done in the past. But if that video is uh is rocking and people are watching, it will go to the moon like overnight. And that's how you have all these overtime overnight TikTok stars happening.

Brandon Welch:

So use short form video. Uh, and we have an episode on how to do that specifically. Uh, it's a few episodes back. Um, short form video. Just look at that the Maven Marketing podcast and you'll find it. So uh number 17 are multiple creatives are being rewarded. When you're doing these social media platforms, something that um has kind of always been a thing, but it's really a thing now, is that the platforms as it relates to your ads and your social posts, they want to have multiple options to push. So, especially in meta uh and meta ads, you need to have multiple creatives in there. Don't just put one creative in and set it and forget it. That is changing as we speak. Um they are using there whether they tell you or not, they're using you know AI-driven things to try to guess um why this video was better and what video is gonna be next, but they have to have things to test to sort of satisfy the appetite of their algorithm. So that leads me to speaking of AI, that number 18 is beware of AI. Okay. Um, it's happening, they're gonna do it to you, and I'm not, we are not in any way, shape, or form the you know anti-AI anti-AI people. But there's a lot of promise and shininess to ooh, AI is gonna do it now, and AI is way smarter than humans, and there may be some truth to that. AI can see patterns with larger amounts of data very quickly. Um, but Google and Facebook specifically are pushing AI automation. Um, PMAX and Google and like automated bidding stuff in Google, and then in Meta, you'll see the advantage plus. They're almost forcing you unless you know how to uncheck it.

Caleb Agee:

It's like it's now it's tucked into like a down arrow and then a button, and then it warns you are you sure you want to potentially have less results by not using our AI at the end of the yeah.

Brandon Welch:

Yeah, and you're like, well, I don't want less results. So the reason for that is uh I think I think in time, um, and and by the way, in some campaigns, if you're spending enough money and you're giving it enough data, I I suspect it might be better. Yeah. It will I suspect this year there will be some strong actual like local business results, but you're probably spending$10,000,$20,000,$30,000 a month before you're seeing the true A-B test where AI did a better job. The problem with Advantage Plus on Facebook is that it's trying to write copy for you and it's trying to guess, oh, let's throw five things that you didn't think to say in there. And it's like they're not very good at understanding who you are, especially if you're a local or service business. It's probably working better in e-comm, but I would steer clear of AI and A and Advantage Plus if I'm a local business trying to generate leads, uh, especially if my budget is less than$10,000 a month. Google, just steer clear of P Max unless you're e-comm or you're doing shopping ad feeds. But for good old-fashioned like small business search, yeah, stay away. Um beware.

Caleb Agee:

Number 19, don't let AI write your ads.

Brandon Welch:

Yeah.

Caleb Agee:

AI alone has not replaced the copywriter. No. At this point in time.

Brandon Welch:

It's not that it can't write stuff that is pretty or polished or sometimes even entertaining. Uh it's that it will be misaligned with who you probably actually are. It is putting all of the things it knows about your category in a blender and then spitting out some random, like averagized version of that. Yeah. And you that's a that's a technical term. Averagized. I like that. We'll just say homogenized version of that. And and you are not getting the uniqueness, you're not getting the um the things that really to date only a human is capable of going. Tell me more about that, tell me more about that, and getting back to your origin story and why it is that you and your business are doing things a certain way. AI cannot do that. Therefore, AI cannot write good campaigns that are based in reality.

Caleb Agee:

It will, it will be, like Brandon said, white bread, it'll be hotel art, it will be the most unoffensive pieces. And our job as a copywriter is to bring smiles, fists, and tears. And if we don't, it will fall on deaf ears.

Brandon Welch:

AI by design does not do smiles, fists or tears. It does not. So um now, make no mistake, AI can help you research, find angles, it can help you um get really good data on what your customer, your target customer may be feeling or thinking or talking about on the internet. And so it can be a good angle finder, uh, but it is not a good copywriter. Yep. So um so let's go to number 20. Google LSAs are better than they were a year ago, but they are still not likely as profitable as good old-fashioned Google search campaigns. The reason for that is that they are highly automated and that you can't filter out the stuff that you don't want to show up for. Also, Google LSAs do not allow your brand to be seen as uh a unique and special result on the list. They look the same. Every LSA result looks the same.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah.

Brandon Welch:

It looks like here's the company, here's how many reviews they have, click to call. And it doesn't let you put in brand phrases and statements that make your brand come alive and the things you've always been as a company, and the guarantees and the promises, and the unique part of town you're in, and uh the unique slogans and phrases that you've had that remind people who you are, it doesn't let that come to the party. And so, especially if you're a well-branded company, um, LSAs are just gonna fall flat um unless your name itself is like just remarkably big in your local market.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah, a lot of clients that we've had, we've seen LSAs be maybe a necessary evil at the beginning and something they wean themselves off of when their uh long-term branding matures as well as their today marketing really strengthens.

Brandon Welch:

It will be a cheaper lead, but it is a low quality lead simply because the rest of your brand didn't get to participate on that platform. Number 21, if you're looking to rank NGPT or modern SEO and AIO, the answers that people are actually asking, answering questions people are actually asking is the hack to that game. Key being has to be questions people are actually asking, not questions you wish they would ask. Uh people are not asking, like, how do I get a free consultation? Or what are the uh estimated large price ranges of your product? No, they want to know exactly what the average home repair costs. They want to know exactly how long they're gonna wait. They want to know exactly um the product details and specifications. And the problem is for the longest time we've been allowed to fluff and like generalize this in blog articles. And so we're used to not having to give the proprietary behind the scenes information until the consult call. AI and GPT are the replacement of a lot of your consult call. And so your customer wants to come to everything smarter so that they're not threatened by the knowledge that only you can have. That's that's gone.

Caleb Agee:

It's gone.

Brandon Welch:

How you hack, yeah. How you hack that is you put these FAQs, you put the real answers to the real questions that you previously would only do in the in the consult, you put them on your website.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah.

Brandon Welch:

And then you get a nerd to code them in FAQ schema so that the search engines and GPTs can see it.

Caleb Agee:

Yep, that's good. Uh number 22, we call this shiny object syndrome. SOS is at an all-time high. Um, you will always be further ahead to improve on what you're already doing rather than starting and chasing some shiny thing that showed up just yesterday.

Brandon Welch:

Yep. I want to see if there's something truly new. I want to see a case study of somebody in my industry who's spent what I have to spend, who is in a population that is similar to the population I'm serving and has a product that's very similar in value positioning that I have. And I want to see a case study. Uh, and I'm talking about things like OTT, I'm talking about things like uh streaming and a lot of these fancy like follow your customers around type thing, and you're suddenly going to be rich. Ask them to prove it to you. It's okay to not be uh an early adopter of these things because if they're truly wonderful, they will become mainstream and you can take advantage of them probably actually as the cost goes down. So just beware that AI is both calling and projecting and trying to get you to think that there's some magic silver bullet to get customers, and really humans have not changed and won't change for hundreds of years. They will do the things they'll do the things that they're interested in when they are interested in them.

Caleb Agee:

Yep.

Brandon Welch:

And they tend to do things in business with people they know, like, and trust. That leads us to number 23.

Caleb Agee:

Which is talk to one person at a time in your ads. If you are talking to everyone, no one will hear it. But if you think about that one person that needs what you're selling, you talk directly to them, it's a strange thing, but everyone gets to hear it.

Brandon Welch:

Even the people who don't need that thing right now. Yeah. Neuroscience continues to prove that when you are talking in a real dialogue that a human can secretly detect, oh, that's a real human talking to a real human, the eavesdropper effect, just like when you overhear somebody, a stranger in a coffee shop on a stranger conversation, you're like, you can't help but not listen to it. That's what you want your ads.

Caleb Agee:

Piece together the conversation, you figure out what they're talking about in four seconds. Yes, it works, it's insane.

Brandon Welch:

Which also leads to number 24 be unpolished and clear over being creative and brilliant. You probably aren't a list talent, and that's totally okay. Matter of fact, if you can't harness the talent to be some really, really specific character off script, the best character you can be is the one that is you with all of your flaws and imperfections and your humanness. Uh, people have literally reduced their attention spans to 0.4 seconds before they decide if they're gonna stay around and watch. And if it's fake or it smells anything like fake, they're gone. But if it's real, they're like, I kind of want to see how this plays out. So be unpolished and clear. Don't spend a lot of time and energy trying to be something that you are not unless you are a professional actor.

Caleb Agee:

I'm gonna make a prediction that this wave of AI, maybe not next year, but in the close years following, a wave of authentic, real, rugged things will be like a huge surge in 27 and beyond. Everybody's gonna look for handcrafted, handmade, prove that it's not real or not fake. Yeah. It's made by human hands.

Brandon Welch:

Uh they're gonna be looking for the badge and the guarantee, and that is gonna that's gonna play. Yeah. Which leads us to number 25. Wouldn't you know it? Reviews are more important than ever. This may sound obvious, but reviews aren't just the tool that people like check right before they buy now. It's actually informing search engines and AI and in entire um algorithms um internet-wide when you have a high review count. So it is affecting way more than it ever has before. And tools like Bird Eye and Podium, which we did an episode on a few episodes back about how to get five-star reviews, uh, help you automate that review um asking process. It's more important than ever to ask, and people are more willing than ever to do it if you just make it simple for them. So helps an S uh SEO, AI, conversion rates everywhere. Everywhere.

Caleb Agee:

So number 26. Number 26 always is tell more stories. Uh tell stories about real people, tell stories about how you change somebody's life, uh, and then drop the mic. Yeah.

Brandon Welch:

We are story hungry machines. We bathe our children in stories. We are always looking for a story, we will always stop whatever we're doing to listen to a good story. And so this can be a story about how and why you found out what you do is important. It could be about a life you changed, it could be a story about somebody else that had nothing to do with your actual product category, but you pull a metaphor and a lesson, and then you say, and that's why I believe this. That is the ultimate, ultimate hack to getting more attention. Attention is the ultimate hack uh to getting more traction and conversion and profitability with your ads, and that is a major effect in growing your business. And that is why we are here, and we'll leave you with a bonus number 27. Find somebody who will tell you the truth. This podcast, our business, our book, everything we've learned and taught and found out to be productive in the way of marketing is all centered around the idea that somebody else uh can probably read what's going on outside the bottle more than you can. You are uniquely unqualified to see your business as the customer will see you. So find somebody outside that will tell you the truth and will help you guide your marketing, your messaging, and your strategy in a direction that is in line with what the customer who doesn't know all that you know wants. You will encounter a lot of good ideas on your own. You'll encounter a lot of things that sound fun, that sound uh exciting, and you'll you'll find people who want to sell you advertising that'll agree with you so that you'll spend money on their platform. But it's not about the good ideas. There are hundreds of good ideas. There are a handful of great ideas, and you want to attach your business to the great ideas, and so don't do it alone. Find somebody who is um has no other incentive than to tell you the truth, except for for your own good. Um if they have an agenda to sell something or it's self-serving them in any way, that gets skewed. And so you can do that a number of ways. It could be with good friends, good partnerships, good cohorts, sometimes with a consultant, and sometimes with an ad agency who, if they don't grow you, they get fired. And that is who we are. Uh, that is what we do inside these four walls, and that's what we attempt to do uh for you on this podcast. You can get our book, you can listen to the podcast, you can join our um marketing mastermind. Um, you can take our free marketing audit at frankandmaven.com, but we're not the only ones. There are a lot of really good, um, honest, um, growth-seeking, truth-seeking marketers. And just when you find one of those, make them a good friend. Because um not to shine the light on us, but there has been so many good and impactful things that have come when we do this work together with companies that are doing good things. So that is why we are here every Monday. We'll be back here every other Monday. And uh just wanted to say thank you for this past year of letting uh us do this with you. What you are doing is important. We believe it's important. We're here to help you do more of it with less stress, less chaos, more peace, and more clarity. And we'll be back in 2026 to do that. Yeah, we are. Uh, there's one more episode next week. It's about a resolution that Caleb and I are making. We're gonna hold each other to it. We might make a game out of it.

Caleb Agee:

Uh I uh practiced it already. I did today. This morning.

Brandon Welch:

Brennan.

Caleb Agee:

Nathan.

Brandon Welch:

That's your that's your clue. So happy, happy, happy new year, Merry Christmas. I hope you are safe. I hope you are celebrating uh the birth of Jesus together and uh you were finding so much peace. And we will be back very soon and every Monday answering real life marketing questions because marketers who cannot teach you why are just a fancy lie. Talk to you soon.