Episode 25: Local Marketing Predictions for 2026 | AI will hurt you more than it will help you

In this episode of the Hometown Advantage Podcast, I’m sharing part three of my 2026 local marketing predictions — and it’s one a lot of local business owners need to hear.

In an AI-saturated world, faceless marketing is no longer converting. Polished graphics, stock photos, generic copy, and AI-written captions might look “professional,” but they’re quietly killing your results.

People trust people. And trust is the real currency behind ads that actually convert into clients.

I break down:

• Why visibility alone doesn’t equal sales
• What’s really happening when your ads look good but don’t convert
• Why real humans in your ads matter more than perfect branding
• How to choose a spokesperson for your business (even if it’s not you)
• How to use video to build familiarity and trust — without overthinking it
• Why AI should support your marketing, not replace you

I also share real client examples, mindset shifts, and practical ways to start showing up more authentically in your ads so you can stand out, build trust faster, and stop getting scrolled past.

If you want to learn exactly what to say in your ads, what to record, and how to create local ads that convert in 2026 — I’m covering all of that inside my free Local Ads Strategy Session.

👉 Register here: www.nicoleeldridgemedia.com/localads

This is for local business owners and marketers who are ready to stop hiding behind graphics and start running ads that actually bring in clients.

Transcript

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Welcome back to the Hometown Advantage Podcast, where we talk all things advertising, local marketing, paid ads, scaling a business, being a mom. All of my favorite things basically. And we are diving right into part three of my 2026 local marketing predictions. And that is where in an AI saturated world, faceless marketing won't convert. So here's the lowdown. People trust people and trust is your real currency. Okay, so a problem. I see a ton of local business owners who come to me wanting help with their ads. Is that their ads and their content look super polished, but it's not actually converting to local clients. So what might be happening is you might be using stock images if you're a painter, maybe there's stock images from the colors of paint that you use showing a beautiful room painted a beautiful color. You might be a home designer using stock images of homes. I keep going to the home reference because I've seen a lot of home based businesses use these. Okay. Another thing is you might be using AI or chat GPT to write your copy. So then your copy ends up sounding super vague and super similar to what everyone else is writing.'cause they're also using chat GPT to write their copy so they. Ads in your ads are getting scrolled right on buy by your ideal customer who's ready to buy from you today because what you're saying isn't relevant to them or isn't clear to them. And when they're on social media, they are only engaging with things that are so clear and seems so relevant to them. We're inundated with so many posts and ads that we have to be really selective over what we actually engage with and what we actually read. Another thing that could be happening is that you don't like using photos of yourself or you don't like getting on video, so that's why there's no people in your ads. Or maybe you are not in the day-to-day of the business. So you think you're not able to go take video content. And then the last thing I see happening is that a lot of business owners are really trying to go for a quote unquote professional look over a human look. Okay, so I get it. Sometimes it just feels easier to hide behind graphics. Or your perfectionist tendencies are coming in and you're overthinking the aesthetics of it all. Now, a lot of times in these episodes, I like to talk about my own story and how I can totally relate with you because I've been there. But the truth of the matter is I have always seen social media for what it is, which is a way to connect with other humans, human to human. I actually got my start in social media by starting a blog when I moved to Raleigh from Michigan. I was a teacher. I didn't know anybody, but I loved the city that I lived in. I loved Raleigh. It was such a new experience for me coming from a couple of small towns in Michigan to have all these bustling businesses and communities. And breweries and shops and all these fun things that I loved going to. So I started a blog sharing about those businesses and sharing with others so that people who were coming to Raleigh or who lived in Raleigh knew about the businesses they should visit. And then also just giving those businesses a platform to continue to grow. And another reason I started it was'cause I just wanted to connect with other people in Raleigh and I wanted to connect with the business owners and I wanted to connect with other creators and just people in general. So at that time it was, let's see, what year was that? It was obviously pre pandemic, so probably like 2018 is when I started. And all my content was photos, mostly photos of me at the business or with the product or the food or the business owner or what have you, because reels didn't really blow up till more like 2020. So I've always been in the photos. I don't overthink that because no one else is thinking about it. No one else is thinking about how you look or anything like that. And then even when reels came around and when I got more heavily involved in actual advertising for businesses, I have always shown up on camera. Because I knew as a marketer, if I wanted to stand out from other marketers, I had to come in and show me. This is even before AI became such a big thing, that this was important. But now that AI is here, it's 10 times more important. Okay, so if you're running ads and you're not using real people in your ads, there's no amount of money or branding or offers or platforms that are going to help you get better results. Visibility creates trust, and trust is what creates conversions. Okay, so I've got three tips for you to start implementing, putting real people in your marketing if you don't already, and even if you already do, some of these might help. Tip number one, choose a spokesperson. So the spokesperson of your marketing does not necessarily have to be you. Now, if you're a solopreneur, then yes it does. But if you are a busy leader of a company, it's great if it's you. But it can be anyone or any group of people. So I'm thinking of a couple examples. One, this is so random, but there is a heating and cooling company on TikTok. The wife is in charge of the TikTok content, but it's just four guys. There's the owner and then his three. Guys that help with the heating and cooling things, I don't know what the frick they do. And they are all the spokespeople. They do funny dances. They do funny skits. Of course, the wife is the one coming up with the ideas and telling them exactly what to do, but now their tiktoks have gone so viral. And anytime I see them, I know it's for this heating and cooling company and. Iowa or something random like that, and they have so many comments on their posts of people who now recognize them, love their stuff, and they're booked out for months because of it. Okay. So that's not having one real spokesperson, it's having a group of people who are just becoming known for being fun and out there and having personality. That's what works for them. Okay. You don't have to be that. I'm also thinking of my client, Rebecca, she and her brother own City Farmers Plant nursery in San Diego. She's a done for you client of ours. She actually started in Hometown Advantage, but now she pays us to just run her ads for her and she is like the marketing and the operations person, but her brother is the spokesperson of the company and he shows up in videos. And we use his photos and all of these things, and people recognize him and they see him as a trustworthy advisor in the gardening space. Okay. I think of my client, Danielle, who owns a cleaning company and she really is like the owner and operator of the company. She does some cleaning, but she has cleaners who go out and take the jobs, but she still shows up in the videos. She has B roll of her cleaning. Before we went on Christmas break, I'm recording this on Christmas Eve. She was saying she's gonna test some face to camera videos, even though it's not something she's super excited about. And she's not the one who's always in people's homes doing the actual cleaning. She is the spokesperson, she is the face of the company and she acts like it. And she shows that in her marketing, so that when people call the company, they're like, Hey, I saw this lady. She seems legit. She seems trustworthy. Your reviews are great. I'm in, Okay, so you've gotta decide who your spokesperson's gonna be, and it's likely if you're listening to this podcast that it's gonna be you. But if you are in like a marketing role at a company, then maybe it's not you, maybe it's someone else, or maybe it's a team of people. Maybe you talk to your founder about doing some founder stories like face to camera type content that you record. There's a lot of options for you here, but you do need a person. You want a person who represents the company across all of the social media marketing, and then of course you can have the supporting roles, right? Tip number two, we're using video for familiarity and trust not to show perfection. People actually like when they see some flaws. I will leave bloopers in some of my face to camera videos, and it's so relatable for people. Okay, so you don't need a professional camera company to come in and record you. You can literally click record on your camera, prop it up against a wall or a window, and then go do your thing. That's literally what I do and my ads pop off. Okay. Now do I think that means you shouldn't use professional quality video if you're able to? No. I do think you should utilize that. If that is in your wheelhouse, that's in your budget, all of these things, but you just don't need it. You can still see great results. It's like driving the car you have, right? Would everyone love to drive their dream car? I literally know nothing about cars, so this isn't a good analogy for me to use. Like I'm picturing like a soup up white SUV as like my dream mom car. Would I love to drive that car? Of course, but am I just not going to drive places because I don't have that car? No, because my car, A GMC, Acadia will still get me to where I need to go. Just fine. And then my last suggestion for you is to just be open, honest, and own it with your clients and customers. Ask your clients and customers if you can, set up your phone and record while you're doing your service. Ask your clients and customers if they will, quickly to your camera. Talk about their experience of doing business with you, and you can make a joke out of it. You can be like, ah, I have to market my silly business to make sure I can make a silly income, and you can. Make light of it and be like, oh, unfortunately I have to record some things for my business in order for it to grow. So do you mind being on camera? And you can obviously say no. Almost everyone will say yes. They want to help you. They don't care as much as you think they do about being on camera or any of that. Okay, so my client, Robert, was a really good example of this. He had so many reels on his page of his group fitness, so studio members talking to the camera being like, I love Solstice Fitness. It's such a good community. The workout's amazing, all of these things. And I was like, how do you get all these people to talk on camera? Because I used to think that nobody else wanted to be on camera just like me. He's I literally ask them, Hey, do you mind if I record you really quick? Can you just give a quick shout out about what your experience was like in our class today? He's nine outta 10 people say yes, even though they might feel a little uncomfy or they're nervous, I just tell them, you can't mess it up. This helps me and helps the gym so much. So thank you. And then he hits record and says, say whatever you want. And then he makes what he can outta that. It really comes down to asking for what you need and you can get it. Clothes malice don't get fed right. So if you hate being on camera or dread being on camera, I want you to think about why. And I want you to think about being on camera, just being a means to an end in your business, right? And it's one of those things where the more you do it. But less visceral. It feels this feels like nothing to me, just showing up now and chatting to the camera. I do remember when I started, especially with reels feeling so weird and somewhat cringe, but I just didn't care because I knew it was what it takes to show trust, authority, expertise, all of the things in my marketing, and that was my ultimate goal. If you're someone who thinks my industry is just more visual, and things need to look perfect, it's not true at all. It is not human nature to be attracted to what's exactly perfect and done up and pinned up. People want to see real, they like to see behind the scenes. They wanna see what makes you unique. And in the world of ai now they want to know that you're a real trustworthy person in business and not just this brand with a logo and a graphic up saying. Do business with me. It's just not enough anymore. And if you're someone that's using Che GPT to write all your captions, we need to come up with some ways that you can easily write your own, or at least tweak what AI is writing for you to make sure that your copy is so clear. One of my messaging coaches that I hired this year called it Fluffy stop using fluffy language. Fluffy doesn't convert. Actually, I didn't have plans to talk about this, but this all reminds me that I actually did have a student in Hometown Advantage reach out to me and say she's been playing with. Creating AI clones or AI twins using some sort of AI video software to do her advertising for her. And she reached out to me saying that she now is like enjoying this process of creating AI clones and twins and is wondering if I would want her to make one of me to do my ads, say what I would normally say in my own ads. And I had to be so honest with her and say, I absolutely could never get away with doing that in my industry. And I think that almost everyone cannot, unfortunately right now. Because as realistic as it looks, it still looks like ai and it's still obviously ai, right? And the second you throw up an AI clone or a twin of yourself, I feel like it's the second you lose credibility with potential clients and customers. Who haven't heard of you or who have never seen you before, and they're like, okay, that's fake. And instantly people who see my content are gonna think, okay, that's fake. She can't even show up and come up with her own things to say she just uses ai. Like why would I trust her? I think same thing goes for all businesses, but being in the marketing world, especially like there's a lot of trust I have to build. And I recognize that and I'm actively showing up to do that. So to recap, in a world full of bots, humans still win. Okay? So if you wanna come, learn what you should say in your ads, what types of things you should be recording, how you can create ads. Utilizing AI so that it speeds up your process but doesn't lose your credibility. I am gonna be speaking to that at my 2026 local ads strategy session. The link to sign up is www.nicoleeldridgemedia.com/local ads. I will put it in the description, or you can go to my Instagram or my Facebook, which is Nicole Aldridge ads. You can comment the word strategy on any of my posts and my lovely AI bot speaking of AI will get you all signed up. I can't wait to see you there.