November 21, 2025 • 18 mins
A fast breakdown of the 10 digital marketing mistakes businesses will make in 2026. Clear explanations, real-world examples, and practical fixes you can implement right away. If you want your marketing to actually work next year, start here.
Book a consultation at integrisdesign.com and discover marketing strategies that can help move your business forward. Real strategy. Real results.
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Over The Bull is brought to you by IntegrisDesign.com. All rights reserved.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:02):
You're listening to Over the Bull, where we cut
through marketing noise.
Here's your host, Ken Carroll.
SPEAKER_01 (00:09):
Nine digital mistakes businesses will make in
marketing in 2026 and how yourbusiness can avoid the issues.
Welcome back to Over the Bull.
Thank you so much for attending.
We've recently expanded ouroffice space, and so hopefully
there's not a real bad reverb aswe're getting oriented to our
(00:30):
expanded locations.
If so, my apologies in advanceto post-production.
So here's kind of the deal,guys.
Digital marketing, as we've beentalking about, is shifting
faster than most businessesreally understand it.
And the sad reality is a lot ofdigital marketing agencies are
(00:53):
adopting bad practices andthey're ignoring good practices
because the bad practices usingartificial intelligence is easy.
And easy is not going to bewhere you want to be.
Now, many businesses, in mynotes here, I've wrote from um
are using strategies from 2018to 2022 without understanding
(01:17):
how search ads and consumerbehavior have changed.
Now, here's the deal (01:21):
we're not talking 2022.
We're talking bad practices fromMarch 2025.
And so that should give you anidea how bad things are changing
and how quickly they'rechanging.
And this is why we're seeing alarge influx of people
abandoning their digitalmarketing solutions and seeking
(01:44):
some help from us because thereality is it's a lot of work.
So here's kind of the thing.
What I want to do is talk to youabout nine mistakes that can
drag your business down and whatyou can do to kind of avoid it.
Now, this top nine list ispredicated largely on things
(02:05):
that we are seeing within ouragency.
And so as an owner, you've gotto be careful because those
proven or those things you thinkare proven that have helped your
business in the past may not beso good as we move forward.
So let's talk about number one: mistaking content volume for (02:24):
undefined
content quality.
So businesses will continue topublish large amounts of AI
generated content with nostrategy, no structure, and no
authority signals.
This is what everybody is doing.
(02:45):
And if you or your digitalmarketing firm or your blog
person or whomever is generatingvast amounts of AI-generated
content, this is a big mistakeand it will bite you.
Um, it can absolutely destroyyour domain authority for your
business.
Um, so here's the thing (03:06):
AI search systems favor expertise
and depth, not volume.
Okay, so we're back to the oldadage of quantity is not as
important as quality.
Kind of like when you buy food,you know, cheap food that's
really bad for you.
Uh you can get in mass amounts,but the good stuff you cannot.
(03:30):
So here's what you want to beable to do with that: create
fewer pieces with actualresearch data and structured
topical depth.
Use clustering, one pillartopic, several supporting pages,
and internal linking.
Number two, running ads withoutconversion tracking.
(03:50):
And yes, this is happening a lotstill.
I'm surprised by this.
Uh, I'm working with a uh groupright now, and believe it or
not, a very large group wasrunning ads for this
organization and never seeminglybrought to their attention the
fact that conversions need to betracked.
(04:11):
And so companies will pour moneyinto Google and Meta while not
tracking things like phonecalls, form submissions,
high-value events, and bookedappointments.
Now, why this fails isalgorithms can't optimize toward
revenue without the signals.
Simply said, if you can plugeverything in to places like
(04:35):
Google and Meta and otherplaces, and you can train their
system on meaningful actions,you'll get more meaningful
actions.
If you don't do that accurately,you will not.
So obviously the fix is getproper call tracking, event
tracking, and conversion taggingin place before launching any ad
spend.
(04:55):
Notice before launching any adspend.
So if you're tracking thingslike how long people are
watching videos or how manypeople click or impressions, but
you're not tracking meaningfulactions, all those marketing
dollars are going to nothing.
Now, what I mean by that is ofcourse you're getting
(05:16):
visibility.
Of course there's somethingthere, but you're not training
these systems to get youmeaningful actions that add to
your bottom line.
Okay, the next one is treatingAI search like traditional SEO.
Now, the mistake is assumingAI-driven SERPs will behave like
classic keyword lists andrankings.
(05:39):
Okay, so SERPs are search engineresults.
That's pretty much uh what thatacronym stands for.
So you go and you type somethingin Google and you hit the search
button, that's a SERP page.
Now, why is this failing?
AI surfaces surfacing depends onauthority, clarity, and
structured data, not keywordstuffing.
(06:00):
Now, of course, this is one ofthe things that a lot of SEO
guys do.
They're still hyper focused onthings like keyword density and
trying to trick the system.
The systems are getting smarter.
Not only are they using AI toassist the person on the
internet looking for differentthings, but they're also using
(06:21):
it to weed out a lot of thesepractices that were kind of hard
to track historically.
And so a lot of the old SEOtactics in which you once
trusted are falling to thewayside.
So the fix is to build yourbrand authority, use clear,
structured content, andreinforce entities with strong
(06:42):
off-site signals.
So basically, what this means isbuild your reputation.
Now, I've been talking for aboutthe last six months that your
reputation and credibility isthe new currency of the
internet.
This is becoming more and moretrue.
So not only does your digitalmarketing person need to help
you do all the things like bringyou valuable traffic, but they
(07:05):
also need to help you build yourreputation.
Now, if people are trying togain the system, these two
things do not live together.
So it's time to make somedecisions.
And with AI becoming more andmore ingrained in everything
that we do, and the competitionkicking up between places like
Google and OpenAI, which is ChatGPT, what you're going to see is
(07:32):
more determination to make surethe best results come up on the
top of search engines.
And that junk AI content is notgoing to cut it.
All right, so the next thing isignoring local search
fundamentals.
So the mistake is businesseswill keep treating Google
Business profiles like a set itonce and forget it.
(07:54):
I don't know if you're doingthis where you go to
business.google.com, you set upyour business, you put in your
address, add some photos, put acouple categories in it, and
then launch it and never look atit again.
This this actually died prettymuch in around, well, for a
while now, but it really becamecompletely unacceptable in 2025.
(08:17):
And so Google Business Profiledrives up to 70% of local
conversions in many industries.
Okay, so 70%.
And so the fix of this is tomaintain consistent directory
data, add postweekly, uploadgeotag, relevant photos, and
monitor your NAP shift, name,address, phone number, drift.
(08:39):
Excuse me, I believe I saidshift.
I meant drift, which actually Ithink those both would be
relevant in that um in that uhpoint.
Uh number five, overrelying oncheap freelancers or SEO
packages.
Okay, this is a pain point forme.
The mistake hiring low-costproviders who deliver no
(09:00):
measurable output.
Just mail with a company alittle over a week ago, and they
said that their person was inquote doing SEO.
I said, what does that mean?
They had no idea.
So literally, uh, after lookingat it, it appears that this
person was selling a conceptwith no measurable metrics, no
(09:22):
goal, just saying we're doingSEO.
Now, why does this fell?
The industry is filled withpeople selling these nebulous
SEO services with no evidence,no reporting, and no strategy.
They're building things that areinconsistent with your branding.
So here's the fix.
Require verifiable work, guys.
(09:44):
I mean, we've just expanded ouroffices here, and part of the
reason we're doing that isbecause we want to bring people
in, have them sit with us faceto face if they're local, if not
in Zooms.
And let's have those real hardtalks where we work through and
build a system together.
Um, you want to make sure youidentify things like keyword
(10:05):
targets, content outlines, uh,backlinks that are earned,
technical fixes that werecompleted, and monthly
measurable key performanceindicators or KPI, as you may
know that as.
And once you get those things inplace, then it's kind of hard to
hide in the weeds with uhgeneral terms.
(10:26):
And by the way, this is a largereason we're seeing a large
influx to our organization.
Um, using social media without afunnel.
Now, um there's two things here.
There's something called a salesfunnel and a sales ecosystem.
I won't get in the weeds withthat, but basically just think
of uh a funnel.
What do you try to do?
(10:46):
Take take a big opening to asmall opening and you try to
guide people through that.
That's exactly what this is.
So the mistake is postingwithout an offer, a nurture
path, retargeting a call toaction or clear KPI goals.
Now, why this fails?
Social is a traffic source, nota conversion engine.
(11:07):
Fix, define the funnel,awareness, engagement, lead
magnet, conversion offer, andretargeting.
And so it's important tounderstand if your digital
marketing person is notdescribing to you accurately how
social media marketingdramatically differs from, say,
(11:28):
Google Ads, then uh they'redoing you an injustice because
these are apples and oranges interms of how you approach them.
Both of them can be effective.
And depending upon what you doin your business, one could be
more effective than others.
All right, number seven,treating websites like digital
brochures.
Here's the mistake (11:48):
businesses build static sites with no
experimentation, no heatmapping, no usability
improvements.
Now, why does this fail?
The web in 2026 is about userbehavior, not aesthetics.
So the fix is use heat mapping,session recording, and A-B
testing to continually optimizeuser flows.
(12:11):
This is why we're moving awayfrom anything a la carte in 2026
because it's dying.
It doesn't work.
You've got to have a completesystem and you've got to have
people on your side.
This is why our team isdedicated to working with
clients within uh differentbusiness sectors in order to be
(12:33):
able to optimize these flows.
It's very common for us toadjust our campaigns.
Very common.
And uh so it's this is justneeded.
Uh ignoring first party data,number eight.
This one's big because I heard aguy three or four weeks ago
who's developing an app and hesaid that things like EML
marketing was dead.
(12:55):
Wrong.
The mistake relying exclusivelyon Google, Meta, and third-party
platforms for analytics andtargeting.
Why this is failing, privacychanges continue to tighten,
reducing tracking precision.
And so you want to be able tocollect your own data, first
person means you own it.
(13:16):
And you can do that throughthings like email, SMS, website
behavior, CRM insights, andcustomer segmentation.
This is going to be a big one.
Uh, number nine, treatingmarketing as an expense instead
of a system.
Man, this is going on forever.
The old joke is uh businessstarts going the wrong
(13:37):
direction.
What do they do?
They cut out their marketing.
That's like you have an uhinfected uh toenail and you cut
your heart out.
Marketing is essential, butyou've got to treat it as a
system moving forward and not asan expense.
Show the short-term thinking issomething like we tried this for
30 days and it didn't work.
(13:57):
Why fails?
Marketing is cumulative, notinstant.
Trust requires six to ten touchpoints before conversion,
sometimes more.
So the fix is thinking systems,research content, traffic data
optimization, and long-termretention.
This is absolutely phenomenallyhuge, which means a person
(14:18):
that's driving your digitalmarketing space, um, they can no
longer cheat.
It's got to be comprehensive,and it's got to all build up
into this nice crescendo whereyou're the most credible
business within your servicearea, and that's going to take
time.
Um, and so uh that's kind ofwhere we're at.
(14:39):
Now, I want to throw number 10out because 10 is probably the
most overlooked thing that youcould possibly uh ignore today.
And it's easy to do so, andthat's because artificial
intelligence makes you thinkthat the gap is being filled.
This is a concept called EEAT.
(15:02):
Become very familiar with that.
So, EEAT is basicallyhuman-touched, authoritative,
experienced, uh-driven content.
I mean, if you want to bowl itdown.
And so the idea is we're workingheavily with businesses where
we're using artificialintelligence to create the right
(15:23):
uh ground so that uh content canbe created, but we're having to
go back and lean on the ownersof businesses to help us mold
that content and make it moregeared toward them.
So think about stockphotography, think about stock
content, think about AI content,and think about how that's not
(15:46):
as relevant as things that arepersonalized to your business.
People are sensing these thingsnow, and it's garnering
distrust.
This is why we have uh a wholephotography department where we
also do videography and we'recertified drone pilots.
Uh, we don't do this because,you know, it just sounds like
(16:06):
something that uh we just mightwant to do.
It's something that we do inorder to build a proper
experience for businesses.
And so what you're going to findare digital marketing agencies
are going to cheat.
They're going to start usingmore and more artificial
intelligence and not think aboutyour business.
This is a huge mistakeeverywhere, every place.
(16:28):
Now, of course, there's still aplace for stock photography, and
there's a place where you can dothings as long as you stay
within your branding.
We do it and everybody does it.
But it's like putting a littlebit of salt into soup.
You dump the whole container ofsalt into soup, you've ruined
the soup.
So it's kind of like that.
I just came up with thatanalogy.
Hopefully, it wasn't too bad ofone.
(16:49):
Um, so here's the thing in 2026,um, they're not going to reward
businesses who do more.
Period.
More is not better.
It will reward businesses who dothe right things with clarity,
strategy, and measurable outputsand following the best practices
as deemed by these companies.
(17:10):
Now, the best practices will notbe followed by a lot of digital
marketing agencies andbusinesses because there's too
many toys out there and too manytemptations to cut corners.
Um, the uh path to destructionis very wide in this case.
And to be successful, it's goingto require digging in deep.
(17:32):
Uh, so remove the noise, fix thefundamentals, and build systems
that compound your business'scredibility.
Okay, guys, I think I'm going touh end it here for this week.
We've been busy moving into ournew office locations and adding
a lot of interactivity and doinga lot of different things in
(17:52):
order to ramp up for 2026 andcomplete our transition in our
offerings and getting everythinglined up.
And uh, but anyway, I really doappreciate you tuning in.
I hope these points do help youout.
Stay diligent, you know, trustbut verify.
That's the biggest thing that Ican tell you to do.
And if you do want to reach outto us, you can go to
(18:14):
integristdesign.com and uh feelfree to reach out.
Maybe we can do a consultationand find some holes and figure
out how to get them filled foryou and your business.
Until next time, this is Overthe Bull.
SPEAKER_00 (18:27):
Thanks for tuning in to Over the Bull, brought to you
by Integrist Design, a fullservice design and marketing
agency out of Asheville, NorthCarolina.
Until next time.
You're listening to Over the Bull, where we cut
through marketing noise.
Here's your host, Ken Carroll.
SPEAKER_01 (00:09):
Nine digital mistakes businesses will make in
marketing in 2026 and how yourbusiness can avoid the issues.
Welcome back to Over the Bull.
Thank you so much for attending.
We've recently expanded ouroffice space, and so hopefully
there's not a real bad reverb aswe're getting oriented to our
(00:30):
expanded locations.
If so, my apologies in advanceto post-production.
So here's kind of the deal,guys.
Digital marketing, as we've beentalking about, is shifting
faster than most businessesreally understand it.
And the sad reality is a lot ofdigital marketing agencies are
(00:53):
adopting bad practices andthey're ignoring good practices
because the bad practices usingartificial intelligence is easy.
And easy is not going to bewhere you want to be.
Now, many businesses, in mynotes here, I've wrote from um
are using strategies from 2018to 2022 without understanding
(01:17):
how search ads and consumerbehavior have changed.
Now, here's the deal (01:21):
we're not talking 2022.
We're talking bad practices fromMarch 2025.
And so that should give you anidea how bad things are changing
and how quickly they'rechanging.
And this is why we're seeing alarge influx of people
abandoning their digitalmarketing solutions and seeking
(01:44):
some help from us because thereality is it's a lot of work.
So here's kind of the thing.
What I want to do is talk to youabout nine mistakes that can
drag your business down and whatyou can do to kind of avoid it.
Now, this top nine list ispredicated largely on things
(02:05):
that we are seeing within ouragency.
And so as an owner, you've gotto be careful because those
proven or those things you thinkare proven that have helped your
business in the past may not beso good as we move forward.
So let's talk about number one: mistaking content volume for (02:24):
undefined
content quality.
So businesses will continue topublish large amounts of AI
generated content with nostrategy, no structure, and no
authority signals.
This is what everybody is doing.
(02:45):
And if you or your digitalmarketing firm or your blog
person or whomever is generatingvast amounts of AI-generated
content, this is a big mistakeand it will bite you.
Um, it can absolutely destroyyour domain authority for your
business.
Um, so here's the thing (03:06):
AI search systems favor expertise
and depth, not volume.
Okay, so we're back to the oldadage of quantity is not as
important as quality.
Kind of like when you buy food,you know, cheap food that's
really bad for you.
Uh you can get in mass amounts,but the good stuff you cannot.
(03:30):
So here's what you want to beable to do with that: create
fewer pieces with actualresearch data and structured
topical depth.
Use clustering, one pillartopic, several supporting pages,
and internal linking.
Number two, running ads withoutconversion tracking.
(03:50):
And yes, this is happening a lotstill.
I'm surprised by this.
Uh, I'm working with a uh groupright now, and believe it or
not, a very large group wasrunning ads for this
organization and never seeminglybrought to their attention the
fact that conversions need to betracked.
(04:11):
And so companies will pour moneyinto Google and Meta while not
tracking things like phonecalls, form submissions,
high-value events, and bookedappointments.
Now, why this fails isalgorithms can't optimize toward
revenue without the signals.
Simply said, if you can plugeverything in to places like
(04:35):
Google and Meta and otherplaces, and you can train their
system on meaningful actions,you'll get more meaningful
actions.
If you don't do that accurately,you will not.
So obviously the fix is getproper call tracking, event
tracking, and conversion taggingin place before launching any ad
spend.
(04:55):
Notice before launching any adspend.
So if you're tracking thingslike how long people are
watching videos or how manypeople click or impressions, but
you're not tracking meaningfulactions, all those marketing
dollars are going to nothing.
Now, what I mean by that is ofcourse you're getting
(05:16):
visibility.
Of course there's somethingthere, but you're not training
these systems to get youmeaningful actions that add to
your bottom line.
Okay, the next one is treatingAI search like traditional SEO.
Now, the mistake is assumingAI-driven SERPs will behave like
classic keyword lists andrankings.
(05:39):
Okay, so SERPs are search engineresults.
That's pretty much uh what thatacronym stands for.
So you go and you type somethingin Google and you hit the search
button, that's a SERP page.
Now, why is this failing?
AI surfaces surfacing depends onauthority, clarity, and
structured data, not keywordstuffing.
(06:00):
Now, of course, this is one ofthe things that a lot of SEO
guys do.
They're still hyper focused onthings like keyword density and
trying to trick the system.
The systems are getting smarter.
Not only are they using AI toassist the person on the
internet looking for differentthings, but they're also using
(06:21):
it to weed out a lot of thesepractices that were kind of hard
to track historically.
And so a lot of the old SEOtactics in which you once
trusted are falling to thewayside.
So the fix is to build yourbrand authority, use clear,
structured content, andreinforce entities with strong
(06:42):
off-site signals.
So basically, what this means isbuild your reputation.
Now, I've been talking for aboutthe last six months that your
reputation and credibility isthe new currency of the
internet.
This is becoming more and moretrue.
So not only does your digitalmarketing person need to help
you do all the things like bringyou valuable traffic, but they
(07:05):
also need to help you build yourreputation.
Now, if people are trying togain the system, these two
things do not live together.
So it's time to make somedecisions.
And with AI becoming more andmore ingrained in everything
that we do, and the competitionkicking up between places like
Google and OpenAI, which is ChatGPT, what you're going to see is
(07:32):
more determination to make surethe best results come up on the
top of search engines.
And that junk AI content is notgoing to cut it.
All right, so the next thing isignoring local search
fundamentals.
So the mistake is businesseswill keep treating Google
Business profiles like a set itonce and forget it.
(07:54):
I don't know if you're doingthis where you go to
business.google.com, you set upyour business, you put in your
address, add some photos, put acouple categories in it, and
then launch it and never look atit again.
This this actually died prettymuch in around, well, for a
while now, but it really becamecompletely unacceptable in 2025.
(08:17):
And so Google Business Profiledrives up to 70% of local
conversions in many industries.
Okay, so 70%.
And so the fix of this is tomaintain consistent directory
data, add postweekly, uploadgeotag, relevant photos, and
monitor your NAP shift, name,address, phone number, drift.
(08:39):
Excuse me, I believe I saidshift.
I meant drift, which actually Ithink those both would be
relevant in that um in that uhpoint.
Uh number five, overrelying oncheap freelancers or SEO
packages.
Okay, this is a pain point forme.
The mistake hiring low-costproviders who deliver no
(09:00):
measurable output.
Just mail with a company alittle over a week ago, and they
said that their person was inquote doing SEO.
I said, what does that mean?
They had no idea.
So literally, uh, after lookingat it, it appears that this
person was selling a conceptwith no measurable metrics, no
(09:22):
goal, just saying we're doingSEO.
Now, why does this fell?
The industry is filled withpeople selling these nebulous
SEO services with no evidence,no reporting, and no strategy.
They're building things that areinconsistent with your branding.
So here's the fix.
Require verifiable work, guys.
(09:44):
I mean, we've just expanded ouroffices here, and part of the
reason we're doing that isbecause we want to bring people
in, have them sit with us faceto face if they're local, if not
in Zooms.
And let's have those real hardtalks where we work through and
build a system together.
Um, you want to make sure youidentify things like keyword
(10:05):
targets, content outlines, uh,backlinks that are earned,
technical fixes that werecompleted, and monthly
measurable key performanceindicators or KPI, as you may
know that as.
And once you get those things inplace, then it's kind of hard to
hide in the weeds with uhgeneral terms.
(10:26):
And by the way, this is a largereason we're seeing a large
influx to our organization.
Um, using social media without afunnel.
Now, um there's two things here.
There's something called a salesfunnel and a sales ecosystem.
I won't get in the weeds withthat, but basically just think
of uh a funnel.
What do you try to do?
(10:46):
Take take a big opening to asmall opening and you try to
guide people through that.
That's exactly what this is.
So the mistake is postingwithout an offer, a nurture
path, retargeting a call toaction or clear KPI goals.
Now, why this fails?
Social is a traffic source, nota conversion engine.
(11:07):
Fix, define the funnel,awareness, engagement, lead
magnet, conversion offer, andretargeting.
And so it's important tounderstand if your digital
marketing person is notdescribing to you accurately how
social media marketingdramatically differs from, say,
(11:28):
Google Ads, then uh they'redoing you an injustice because
these are apples and oranges interms of how you approach them.
Both of them can be effective.
And depending upon what you doin your business, one could be
more effective than others.
All right, number seven,treating websites like digital
brochures.
Here's the mistake (11:48):
businesses build static sites with no
experimentation, no heatmapping, no usability
improvements.
Now, why does this fail?
The web in 2026 is about userbehavior, not aesthetics.
So the fix is use heat mapping,session recording, and A-B
testing to continually optimizeuser flows.
(12:11):
This is why we're moving awayfrom anything a la carte in 2026
because it's dying.
It doesn't work.
You've got to have a completesystem and you've got to have
people on your side.
This is why our team isdedicated to working with
clients within uh differentbusiness sectors in order to be
(12:33):
able to optimize these flows.
It's very common for us toadjust our campaigns.
Very common.
And uh so it's this is justneeded.
Uh ignoring first party data,number eight.
This one's big because I heard aguy three or four weeks ago
who's developing an app and hesaid that things like EML
marketing was dead.
(12:55):
Wrong.
The mistake relying exclusivelyon Google, Meta, and third-party
platforms for analytics andtargeting.
Why this is failing, privacychanges continue to tighten,
reducing tracking precision.
And so you want to be able tocollect your own data, first
person means you own it.
(13:16):
And you can do that throughthings like email, SMS, website
behavior, CRM insights, andcustomer segmentation.
This is going to be a big one.
Uh, number nine, treatingmarketing as an expense instead
of a system.
Man, this is going on forever.
The old joke is uh businessstarts going the wrong
(13:37):
direction.
What do they do?
They cut out their marketing.
That's like you have an uhinfected uh toenail and you cut
your heart out.
Marketing is essential, butyou've got to treat it as a
system moving forward and not asan expense.
Show the short-term thinking issomething like we tried this for
30 days and it didn't work.
(13:57):
Why fails?
Marketing is cumulative, notinstant.
Trust requires six to ten touchpoints before conversion,
sometimes more.
So the fix is thinking systems,research content, traffic data
optimization, and long-termretention.
This is absolutely phenomenallyhuge, which means a person
(14:18):
that's driving your digitalmarketing space, um, they can no
longer cheat.
It's got to be comprehensive,and it's got to all build up
into this nice crescendo whereyou're the most credible
business within your servicearea, and that's going to take
time.
Um, and so uh that's kind ofwhere we're at.
(14:39):
Now, I want to throw number 10out because 10 is probably the
most overlooked thing that youcould possibly uh ignore today.
And it's easy to do so, andthat's because artificial
intelligence makes you thinkthat the gap is being filled.
This is a concept called EEAT.
(15:02):
Become very familiar with that.
So, EEAT is basicallyhuman-touched, authoritative,
experienced, uh-driven content.
I mean, if you want to bowl itdown.
And so the idea is we're workingheavily with businesses where
we're using artificialintelligence to create the right
(15:23):
uh ground so that uh content canbe created, but we're having to
go back and lean on the ownersof businesses to help us mold
that content and make it moregeared toward them.
So think about stockphotography, think about stock
content, think about AI content,and think about how that's not
(15:46):
as relevant as things that arepersonalized to your business.
People are sensing these thingsnow, and it's garnering
distrust.
This is why we have uh a wholephotography department where we
also do videography and we'recertified drone pilots.
Uh, we don't do this because,you know, it just sounds like
(16:06):
something that uh we just mightwant to do.
It's something that we do inorder to build a proper
experience for businesses.
And so what you're going to findare digital marketing agencies
are going to cheat.
They're going to start usingmore and more artificial
intelligence and not think aboutyour business.
This is a huge mistakeeverywhere, every place.
(16:28):
Now, of course, there's still aplace for stock photography, and
there's a place where you can dothings as long as you stay
within your branding.
We do it and everybody does it.
But it's like putting a littlebit of salt into soup.
You dump the whole container ofsalt into soup, you've ruined
the soup.
So it's kind of like that.
I just came up with thatanalogy.
Hopefully, it wasn't too bad ofone.
(16:49):
Um, so here's the thing in 2026,um, they're not going to reward
businesses who do more.
Period.
More is not better.
It will reward businesses who dothe right things with clarity,
strategy, and measurable outputsand following the best practices
as deemed by these companies.
(17:10):
Now, the best practices will notbe followed by a lot of digital
marketing agencies andbusinesses because there's too
many toys out there and too manytemptations to cut corners.
Um, the uh path to destructionis very wide in this case.
And to be successful, it's goingto require digging in deep.
(17:32):
Uh, so remove the noise, fix thefundamentals, and build systems
that compound your business'scredibility.
Okay, guys, I think I'm going touh end it here for this week.
We've been busy moving into ournew office locations and adding
a lot of interactivity and doinga lot of different things in
(17:52):
order to ramp up for 2026 andcomplete our transition in our
offerings and getting everythinglined up.
And uh, but anyway, I really doappreciate you tuning in.
I hope these points do help youout.
Stay diligent, you know, trustbut verify.
That's the biggest thing that Ican tell you to do.
And if you do want to reach outto us, you can go to
(18:14):
integristdesign.com and uh feelfree to reach out.
Maybe we can do a consultationand find some holes and figure
out how to get them filled foryou and your business.
Until next time, this is Overthe Bull.
SPEAKER_00 (18:27):
Thanks for tuning in to Over the Bull, brought to you
by Integrist Design, a fullservice design and marketing
agency out of Asheville, NorthCarolina.
Until next time.
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