My 2024 Marketing and Sales Strategy Predictions That I Believe Are No Longer Working As Well Anymore

INTRO: After generating over a million dollars in sales and selling one of her businesses with a single email, your host, Kathryn Thompson, takes an unconventional approach to marketing and sales. So if you're ready to tap into a more powerful way to be seen, heard, and a sought after entrepreneur in your industry, without having to spend endless hours marketing your business and chasing clients, you're in the right place. Be The Sought After Entrepreneur Podcast is here to help you ditch the cookie cutter, one size fits all approach to marketing and use your unique energy to effortlessly attract the most aligned clients. When you do this, you can spend less time marketing your business and more time doing your soul work and enjoying the richness of your life. Welcome to Be The Sought After Entrepreneur Podcast. And here's your host, Kathryn Thompson.

Kathryn Thompson: Hey, hey, super stoked that you're tuning in this week's episode. I cannot wait to dive in today's topic [00:01:00] because I always love at the end of a year or early New Year. To sort of lay out my predictions of where I see industries going, what I see working and maybe not working so well anymore.

And at the end of last year, I had a prediction, something that I had been feeling for a really long time, actually, it was probably six months prior to the end of the year, where I had this feeling that what sort of seemed to be working in the online coaching space, specifically, um, would not maybe work as well as it used to.

And I recorded a podcast episode, I'm sure, in early 2022. I can't remember the name of it. Or in 2021, where I talked about like market saturation and the sophistication of buyers in a saturated market. And by sophisticated, I mean Buyers like you and I who go out and want to buy a product or a service and maybe we have tried a few things and [00:02:00] maybe that what we have tried maybe didn't really work the way we wanted it to or wasn't what we expected or whatever that might be and so we become more sophisticated in our buying and we're seeing that in the online coaching space and so at the end of 2022 a lot of the things that I said then Bye.

Bye. I'm not a surprise for why people all throughout 2023 were like things that used to work for me are not working anymore. Strategies I used to use don't work, or they're not producing the same sort of results, or there's a lot more skepticism in the industry, or, you know, my master class is no longer converting, or my funnel is no longer converting the way that I wanted it to.

We hear a lot of that, and we've also seen a lot of bigger names, you know, decide to sell or close their business or whatever it might be, and some more recently, like in the last couple of weeks, than not. And so what's [00:03:00] interesting is, is that. My perception of what isn't working and has kind of not worked as well anymore is a lot of that like bro marketing, that FOMO, the big launch style with deadlines, and if you don't buy now, you can't buy for a year sort of perspective, like a lot of that type of marketing I knew in the end of 2022 was no longer really going to work, that people were sort of waking up to this idea of like, so wait a minute, like I've come across your work.

And if I come across your work in one of the weeks leading up to your launch, and I just learn about you for the first time, like you're telling me I can only come into your world and get the support I need in a four day window, like no other companies. in the world operate like that, you know, Amazon doesn't shut their doors.

And I've said this before, like many companies, most companies don't shut their doors. And so people started to question like, but I don't get it, or I don't want to be rushed to [00:04:00] make a decision, or I feel pressured to make a decision, or I've made rash decisions or impulsive decisions in the past, and they never really panned out.

And so people would, were more hesitant. And then you've got the market and the industry and the economy, right? So interest rates skyrocketed, you know, lots of things were costing more money. Like there's all these factors that play a factor in why things don't work as well as maybe they used to. And with any industry and any business, things are constantly changing.

And so. The goal of any business owner is to be nimble and flexible and to be able to like navigate the ebbs and flows of what business is going to present you, right, is having that, what I call that experiment or hat on where you're constantly looking for, okay, this isn't working as well as it used to, like, how do I tweak this?

How do I shift this? What my view was at the end of 2022 was, like I said, these big launch styles, um, these like [00:05:00] quick deadlines, these making people, uh, feel FOMO and false scarcity and urgency. Like all of this was going to start to sort of not work as well as potentially it used to. The other thing is, is like nonstop.

emails, like constantly emailing your list, like three times a week, telling them that they need to buy your thing because they're making all of these mistakes. Like this type of rhetoric and email strategy was going to stop sort of working as well, uh, as potentially it had in the past. What I'm seeing for 2024 is an extension of that in a lot of ways.

But what I'm seeing for 2024 that's going to be more important than not, is personalization and an actual human connection, like bringing ourselves back to sort of the grassroots in a lot of ways. And a lot of businesses either aren't set up for that, or they don't want to do it because it takes more work.

[00:06:00] And what we're seeing is, is that, Consumers want that like personal connection and that personal touch, whether that is like a, a real conversation with a real human. Um, and in the world of AI where we can basically automate almost anything, people are craving that even more. I recently just saw an ad on.

social media on Facebook. And it was a woman who was advertising that she could support spiritual entrepreneurs in growing their business. But what was really interesting was, is that this woman was sitting in this picture and she only had four fingers. And someone was like, that hand looks really weird, and it was AI generated, and she came out after and was like, I'm sorry, kind of thing, like, you know, we're testing a few different things out, but that was completely missed in the marketing editing of things, and people were like, yeah, I'm kind of more skeptical than not now, because like, is this person even real, you know, like, who is this person, [00:07:00] and I want to know this person, and that's something you're going to see more and more in 2024 and beyond, that it's like, I actually want to talk to the person or at least a representative of the company.

Cause not every company can obviously talk to the CEO or whatnot, but that people are looking for that personal connection and touch. Like are you a real person and can I trust you in a lot of ways? And so the more you can bring that out into your marketing connection, which is huge, genuine, genuine conversations.

Huge. The more touchpoints that you can bring out, the more you can actually show yourself. Right? Because this is another one that you see a lot of AI generated, um, videos now where people are on the video and they're, it's AI generated and so. People are going to be looking for less perfect polished poise more than ever now, because they're going to be looking for the flaws, they're going to be looking for the like, you know, is this a real person or is this an AI bot talking as that person?

I've seen it, I've [00:08:00] seen people creating ads where they're standing there. with a fake background, and they've plugged into this AI machine what they wanted to say, which could be something that they came up with themselves, or ChatGPT did, right? You can't really fake the podcast, like what I'm doing right now, you can't fake this medium.

So again, it's like, how can we bring these personalized touch points, these ways in which our audience can see the real us on video. our faces, that sort of thing, especially in the light of of AI, is going to be huge for 2024. You're also going to see the death of the one size fits all strategy and proven process and step by step method.

Because more and more people are looking for coaches, mentors, consultants that are, and have the skills to navigate the nuances of business of life of people and [00:09:00] who can offer more variety in terms of the strategy because more and more people are looking for aligned strategies for them. Therefore they're looking for coaches and mentors that can offer that.

Because they have invested in a lot of programs that were cookie cutter, one size fits all, follow this process and you'll be successful, and it never worked for them. And the reason it never worked for them was because the person that was running it wasn't them. Right? So the person teaching it, from their perspective, their life experiences, their level of expertise wasn't them, obviously, and didn't align with them, and so they got into those programs and then realized very quickly that it wasn't the right fit, and so We're gonna see a lot more people wanting to see from coaches, mentors, consultants.

They want to see that you can adapt to them as a person and that you're able to offer a variety of [00:10:00] different ways of working with you. And so this one signature program, this one signature offer perspective is starting to really sort of die away and more and more people are not really investing in that which is that big program, transformational promise, that grandiose promise, I will help you go from blank to blank in X amount of days, is no longer going to entice people to want to work with you, which is why if you listen to last week's episode, I share a very unique way in which I support my clients.

In not fitting themselves into that one big grandiose promise, but how to create what I call enrollment igniters that really reflect and showcase the uniqueness of your work. Which brings me to my other point for 2024 and beyond is that you mastering and being a master of the work that you do is going to be vital because people are looking for somebody that has the depth and the level of mastery in the work.

[00:11:00] that they do. They're no longer buying into like the grandiose promise or some people still will, but I'm just saying that the industry is shifting, right? You're seeing this. And so if you're sitting in a place where you're like, things just aren't working the way that they were, or you're hearing that rumbling out into the world and you're like, do masterclasses even work anymore to enroll people or do funnels even work or whatever.

My whole perspective on that is, is that the masterclasses. For some people aren't working anymore because the strategies and the tactics that were used in that masterclass are In my opinion either manipulative or they're not fully transparent, right? So they don't showcase the price They leave the price is like I'm not gonna tell you the price because I want to get you on a call and then when I get you on a call be able to sell you into my program like people are seeing through this BS Right.

They're like just tell me the price. I don't understand you know, just give it to me. So these tactics that are designed to, [00:12:00] you know, not fully showcase the full picture or, you know, or get someone to just get on a call, people are waking up to that, right? And they, and they're not buying into it anymore.

And so the more transparent, the more authentic and the more like raw and real you can be about. Your work and what it means to work with you and the ups and the downs and the sideways and the whatnot the more I don't want it's trustworthy the more trustworthy you'll become because people will see the real you they're not seeing this perfectly polished and poised perspective of who you are And so there's that, that's shifting, right, is like the transparency, the authenticity.

So when it comes to masterclasses or funnels or whatever, like, they all still work. It's just the tactics within the, in the system that you've created might not work the way that they used to. Like heavy agitation of pain points, [00:13:00] right? People are becoming aware of like, okay, you're just picking apart all of my pain points and that's how you're getting me to like.

Get Into Your World. Um, again, false scarcity, urgency, deadlines, those sorts of things. People are a little bit more maybe cautious or patient with their investment. So that's why the big launches, right? Um, so 2024 and beyond, in my opinion, like I said, is deep connection, like real, real connection, especially in the face of AI, and especially in the face of AI being able to do a lot of things and automation ramping up, right, with things like ManyChat and bots and different things like that.

People are craving that personal connection, genuine conversation. And then the other thing that they are craving in a lot of ways is The transparency, the authenticity, the realness, they want to really hear what it's like to achieve the thing that they want. And so if you're painting this one big grandiose promise, they're [00:14:00] probably going to see through it, or it's not really going to intrigue them because they're like, I bought into that, like, Three or four times already, and it never really worked out for me.

And so getting granular and nuanced with the work that you do and being able to communicate it in that way, which I shared on last week's episode. And then the other piece of it is the level of mastery and the work in which you do, and being able to showcase that. because what we've seen to date is we see a lot of surface level marketing and that's that pain point agitation of like, if you're struggling with blank, then this is your problem.

And you need my thing, you know? And people are like, cool. But like, what is your thing and show me that you know what you're talking about. And so content and um, ways in which you share your content and the depth of which you share is going to be something that people are looking for in 2024. So for example, if you think of this podcast, my podcast, I had a client recently say to me, literally your podcast is [00:15:00] like a course in and of itself, and it's free.

Because I just come on here and I riff and I share from a place of authenticity, I share from a place of knowing. I don't share from a place of like regurgitated knowledge that someone taught me. Like it's my lived experience, my experience 20 plus years in marketing and sales, which is constantly evolving and deepening and growing and all of that, right?

And I showcase that on this particular, um, medium. You can do that on social media as well, like on Instagram with like carousel posts, you can get more in depth. But what people are sort of waking up to and what's not gonna work anymore, which is what I saw in 2023 with people that said like, my masterclass isn't converting anymore, my content doesn't seem to convert, it's surface level.

And I can see straight away when I go to someone's profile that it's surface level, that it's, and maybe not deliberately, but Probably done based on what was being taught [00:16:00] right? Because don't give too much away for free or nobody will buy was a message that people got hit with lots. And we're seeing the shift in 2024 and beyond.

People were like, give me more. I don't want just like one little PDF where you highlight all the mistakes I'm making, and then invite me to book a sales call. Like I need to know that beyond the mistakes that you've listed that you could easily Google or Ask Chat GPT or whatever, right? again with AI.

where you can literally prompt bot or whatever to give you insight and information. People are going to want to know that you bring the level of mastery to your work. That doesn't mean that you need to go out and get a hundred more certifications, not even remotely. That just means that we need to dig deep in terms of what it is that you're sharing.

So, you know, why somebody might be feeling a certain way or navigating through something in life a certain way. why they might be doing that. And then from your perspective, some ways in which you can shift [00:17:00] out of it, because that's just one example. But the reason I say that is because most people need the support in implementing.

Information is a dime a dozen. You can, you can go and search anywhere. You could literally go on chat GPT now and ask any questions you want to ask and it'll spit out stuff to you. You can do all of that. People aren't looking for more information. They're looking for somebody that can support them.

through the implementation, execution, the integration, the navigation of things, right? That's what they're looking for. And so, and that's what they pay for. They're not paying for you to tell them the five mistakes that they made, and here's a proven process on how to overcome these five mistakes. They're looking for somebody to like, Walk alongside them in a lot of ways and to support them in taking the steps they need.

It's the implementation execution, and it's all the shit in between that comes up when we are trying to [00:18:00] integrate a new identity into our life when we're trying to integrate a new level of. Business when we're trying to integrate a new level of motherhood, whatever it might be, when we're trying to integrate these things into our lives, we need accountability.

We need somebody to support us through the implementation. We need somebody to tell us that our thoughts and our ideas that are coming up that are critical and negative and all the things are just. Thoughts and things moving through us and that we're more than that. You know what I mean? Like we need somebody to support us in that journey.

And so it's not about the information, and that's another big thing that people are gonna look for when it comes to mentors and coaches and consultants and who they wanna hire. Like, can this person hold the space for me? One of the things I'll often hear, which is. So amazing from people on sales calls, people in my programs, they'll say to me, thank you for holding such a calm space.

And it's interesting because it's something that's being reflected back to me, but it's not something that I I've recognized [00:19:00] within myself, so to speak, but it's just the energy that I bring. It's an energy, right? Um, thank you for the calmness that you hold, like everything just seems calm. And I have people in Spellbound that are like, I just feel this calmness in my business.

Um, and that's something that's been expressed many, many times to me. And that's just an essence of what I bring to the table. You have your own essence. You have your own. You know, unique essence that you bring as well to your, your experiences. And that's what people want in a lot of ways is calmness, right?

Well, in business in general, I would say, but in other areas of your life, like if you're helping someone cultivate inner peace, you have to be able to show up and hold space and have that level of grounded calmness. Because if you're operating sort of a chaotic, scattered energy and you're helping someone navigate inner peace, they're going to feel that, right?

And so that's the other thing that you want to [00:20:00] consider, like, in level of mastery. Again, you don't need to go consume a bunch more information certifications, but it's like, Who are you and how are you showing up to your client's experiences? Like, how are you showing up in the world and what does that look like?

I stepped off the frantic energy. A year and a half ago, it was like a, I was like, I can't, I can't ride this frantic energy, which, which again, in business can sometimes consume you. But it was my. way of deepening my ability to hold space and coach was I needed in myself was to create inner peace, calm, stability, and this nimbleness, right?

This, I can, I can navigate the ebbs and flows of business and life. And that therefore that will elevate my level of coaching and mentorship. It's not that I went and studied a bunch more marketing stuff or copywriting stuff or anything like that. It was that I, [00:21:00] I worked on myself because I was like, if I'm better within myself, then that's only going to come forth in my, um, coaching and mentorship, which brings me to the next one is really walking the talk.

So people, Again, are looking for a coach or mentor that's in integrity with their word, their actions, their way of being. So, one of the things I often hear is, you know, I, I want simplicity in my business, I don't want to rely on social media, and I'm deciding between maybe you and somebody else, and, and I don't know which way to go, da da da, all the things.

And they often, I'll often say back in responses, take your time with this, go and just observe from an observation perspective, not what somebody is saying, but observe what they're doing. And by that I mean, this comes back to the integrity piece, but by that I mean, You know, if somebody's saying, I'm going to help you stuff off the [00:22:00] content, hustle, factory, whatever it might be, and, and attract clients consistently.

And yet they're posting every single day on social media. They're emailing you three times a week. They're showing up on stories all the time. And then you have another coach that's like, I'm going to help you attract clients consistently. And there's something more grounded and calm about their energy.

It's not as like frantic or cause to me, emailing somebody nonstop, telling them that they need to buy your thing in a, even though it's not a, you need to buy my thing, but it's an email. It's like, here, this is what's wrong, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like that to me is this frantic energy of like, I need to make sales.

And I'm, I'm striving really, really hard to make sales. That's just my perspective. Or there's a coach that's like. not showing up with that energy. Like they're posting, but it's like, you know, not every single day. They're not on stories every day. There are some days where they're not even on stories.

Like [00:23:00] that's what I would do if I was looking at somebody, right? So for example, if you're wanting to hire somebody that's going to help you regulate your nervous system, let's just say restore your nervous system. And they are have this frantic energy on social media and then there's this other person that's like, I'm going to help you restore your nervous system and they've got this very like calming presence.

That's what people are going to start to sort of observe. Like, are you walking the talk? Are you selling something that you're also fully embodying? Which to me is Huge. And that is what's gonna, you're gonna start to see more and more of people investing in coaches that are walking the talk and that they are fully embodied in what they're selling.

So again, somebody that is supporting you on restoring your nervous system, that they actually do the work themselves as well. Um. is, is key. So, [00:24:00] that level of mastery. And that, to me, is gonna be some of the big shifts that we see in 2024 and beyond, right? Which is kind of a full circle moment in a lot of ways.

We're kind of coming back to that grassroots. We're coming back to like, deep, genuine connection. We're coming back to like, deeper authenticity and truth. Integrity, right? Integrity in the word and the way of being. We're moving away from these big grandiose right or wrong, black or white, best or worst case scenarios, this very polarized pendulum of like, this is the best way to do it, this is, you're doing things horribly wrong if you go this way, this is the only way to do it, versus any other way, like, that type of messaging is no longer gonna really resonate with people, because people want not to fit into some pre, like, prescribed protocol.

They want to be able to navigate their life in their own way [00:25:00] and find solutions that are going to support them in doing that. AKA mentors, consultants, coaches, healers, practitioners that can support them in navigating their own unique path. We're going to see more and more of that. And so the more. that you can, um, cultivate your practice and your way of being to be able to support people in that capacity is going to be phenomenal.

So with that, I always, like I said, I always love sort of sharing my prediction or what I sort of see happening as I observe the industry, but also having my sort of ear to the ground, let's just say with what people have been saying for the last year and how things. Haven't been working or haven't been working the same.

And again, every industry, every business always is shifting and changing and what used to work may no longer work. And to me, the coaches, the mentors, the healers, the practitioners, the service based business owners that continue to thrive. Beyond 2024 [00:26:00] and beyond will be nimble to the shifts and changes, but for many of you listening, you know, that authenticity, that integrity is something that y'all have been leaning into for a very long time and probably so much so and looking at the way in which things were done and like, I can't do it that way and never really kind of fit into that prescription of grandiose promises, quick, fast results, quick fixes.

you're the problem and I'm here to save you type of messaging, then I want to share this with you because this is like, hallelujah, we're shifting out of that. And more and more people are shifting out of that perspective. And, and More and more people who are looking to buy and invest want what y'all have probably been for many, many, many, many, many years and are now, you know, now it's sort of the time, the shift is, is happening and it's happening rapidly.

So with that, I [00:27:00] wish y'all a phenomenal 2024. Um, I'm not somebody who resolutions or anything like that. Again, I think it's because I live in this sort of like nuanced world that yes, I understand calendar years and all of those sorts of things, but I've just never been somebody that's put this big grandiose thing around New Year's and resolutions or anything like that.

I've never really kind of bought into that. If I'm going to go big. That could be in October, that could be in June, that could be in March for all that matters is it just really does depend on my burst of energy and what I've got, um, but I will say that 2024 for me feels like a really big growth year for whatever reason, I don't know why, um, so we'll see what happens and I wish you all a fab year and I want to Bye.

Obviously express my gratitude for each and every one of you who continue to listen to my [00:28:00] podcast every week, because without you listening, um, I wouldn't be doing what I do. So I really appreciate each and every one of you. And if you found this episode helpful, I'd love for you to pop over on Instagram and shoot me a message and let me know because it really means the world to me.

So with that, I wish you well and be sure to subscribe to the show so you don't miss when another episode drops. Cheers. Thanks for listening. We'll see you right back here next time. You can also find us on social media at CreativelyOwned and online at CreativelyOwned. com. Until next time, keep showing up as your authentic self.