My company Adstra has worked with over 100+ appointment-based businesses and we have generated over 50,000 leads in the last 12 months.

Over that period, I’ve noticed a surprising trend.

In just the last 6 months, I’ve been hearing whispers of a ‘trust recession’. More specifically, in the business world, the phrase “Why should I listen to you” is murmured at an all-time high.

Now, why is this the case?

Various reasons, but let’s start at the top.

1. The ability to contact anyone in the world is the easiest it’s ever been.
2. Contacting frequency is the highest and easiest it’s ever been due to automation tools.
3. Knowledge about scam businesses and ‘get rich quick schemes’ are running amuck.
4. AI outbound messaging often tricks people into thinking that the messenger is a human and people are catching on.

Unlucky for you my dear reader, if you’re relying on outbound to grow your customer base, you have a feeble leg to stand on.

My prediction for the next half-decade is that outbound will be fizzled out entirely.

Now, before I go into why I believe this is and how to prepare for it, let’s assess the current outbound state.

Email platforms are currently fighting against AI scams, with billions of users prone to spoofing risk. Thus, these email companies must have a game plan to protect their users. If not, there will be private competitors that emerge that focus on maintaining email privacy as it’s abundantly clear users care about avoiding spam, scams, and similar issues.

Cold calling is on the brink of death as the FTC is cracking down on AI telemarketing scams. This, in turn, will make it harder for the average Joe cold caller as I foresee service providers creating privacy features that block and limit unsolicited calls.

Cold messaging on social platforms has gotten out of hand. Gone are the days of growing your customer base. Users we surveyed how often they get spam messages on social and these numbers are steadily increasing. Since, the rise of these technologies has enabled even the most sour, untrusted businesses to be able to raid inboxes.

Now that we know the facts, what do we do with this knowledge? How can we be prepared for the future?

Keep reading to learn how to build trust and reputation, in a sustainable way in today’s spam-happy environment.

Attract, Don’t Attack

The most powerful method of marketing that has been around for ages and the one that’s here to stay.

Attraction.

Inbound marketing will always be the most viable method to attracting the right attention in the most leveraged way.

Although, there are many ways to do this, here’s the best way I’d suggest any headstrong business owner should.

Invest in content.

Investment into content takes time. But, this time compounds as you build a library.

Ideally, you should look at content as a nurturing mechanism for your audience. Looking at it as a way to attract new customers is somewhat damaging.

That is because it’s very rare to see content work immediately out of the gate. You must build an arsenal of expert-level content before you can assume people will start buying from it.

Here’s how to do it the right way:

1. Build a two-sided spreadsheet. One side has “problems” and the other has “solutions”. List all the problems your ICP faces and all the solutions to those problems that you can provide through content.
2. Now that you have the basis of your content strategy, pick one channel and go all in. Post daily, twice daily, really… as often as you can.
3. Discover what posts get the most impressions, throughput, opt-ins, etc., and double down on those problems.

Content is all about saying the same thing in 1000 different ways.

You will get tired of what you’re saying before your audience does.

They need to be reminded of the solutions to their problems more than they need to be told. 

Never stop reminding them.

Drive performance with your top ideas

Once you have a solid foundation of what big ideas hit the mark, throw some fuel on that fire.

Consider repurposing words into video or vice versa.

Then, here’s where the magic happens.

Take those hot topics and push them into advertising. If they were already proven through organic, it’s likely when you force more impressions on those content pieces through advertising dollars you’ll win.

Let’s look at a real-world example.

I’ve been chatting about value-first marketing/advertising for over a year now on Medium.

I’ve had several articles rack up tens of thousands of views. Now, I’m not special, I just sat at this desk for hours on end and never quit. Neither should you.

Anyway, I had tons of data on what my audience wanted to see, read, and listen to, and what drove them mad.

Thus, I knew exactly what advertising campaigns would yield results for me.

Upon review, here are the ads that are doing particularly well for us:

You don’t have to overthink this, nor do you have to be an expert designer.

Take your best stuff, put ad dollars behind it, and give someone a reason to opt in for something.

It’s really that simple.

Afterward, send them emails that break down more of how you help people without asking for the sale early.

Now, this is a crucial step. Let’s break down how to do this properly.

Give while everyone is asking

Remember, we are in a trust recession. Your LinkedIn inbox is probably littered with scammers trying to book a call with you.

Here’s how you can be different and book way more calls than your competitors who are still trying to bombard people in the inbox.

Firstly, run these ads to something of extreme value but give it away for free.

Here’s what I do with our “SaaS Report”

I give away everything business owners need to build their inbound, AI growth funnel.

If they dive into this report and watch the video with it, it’s likely, with time, they can do it themselves.

However, most people would rather just pay us to do it.

Either way, my audience is winning.

Now, after they download this report, I have many emails that go out to them.

Not all sales emails.

In the first 5 emails in the sequence, I ask for nothing and give away everything.

1. Videos breaking down the process
2. Blogs to simplify the process
3. Guides, templates, cheatsheets, you name it

I bombard my prospects with value.

Check it out:

Here’s a glimpse at the emails:

Only after these valuable tips do I politely ask if they’d like to chat.

And since I’ve launched this campaign, I’ve had no problem getting 50+ booked calls a month.

It’s truly a wonderful sight.

What’s even more wonderful is that we’re getting an 85% show rate and people get on these calls happy to chat about their business.

A dramatic shift as compared to outbound leads.

Give this a go and let me know how you get on.

Thanks for reading.

If you want to meet with my team to discuss if this same funnel would work for your business, book here.