If you’ve been watching your website traffic drop, your social media engagement plummet, or your Google Ads become less effective over the past 18 months, you’re not imagining things. The brutal truth? Your current SEO, PPC, and social media strategies are probably offering diminishing returns. And it’s not a fluke.
Search and social as we’ve known them for the past twenty years are fundamentally changing right now, but it’s not time to panic. It is time to act.
The same tactics that worked in 2020 won’t work for most small businesses as we move into 2026. But that’s okay. What matters is adapting to what’s happening in your market and understanding that the businesses thriving in this new landscape aren’t doing more of the same. Instead, they’re willing to experiment, take calculated risks, and realign their tactics.
The Reality Check: What's Not Working Anymore
Let’s start with a hard truth assessment: If you’re already producing stellar content that gets tons of feedback from your audience every week, you can stop reading now. Everyone else (aka almost all of us) needs to take strategic action.
Here are two critical questions to evaluate what’s working (and what isn’t):
- When was the last time a potential client told you they found you through an online search? If it's been more than six months, your SEO strategy isn't connecting with how people actually discover businesses anymore.
- Are people actively engaging with your content? Not just liking it, but commenting, sharing, or reaching out directly? If your posts are getting crickets, you're likely caught in the algorithm shuffle that's affecting most small businesses.
The typical channels for how people discover small businesses online have fundamentally changed. The good news? There are still effective ways to be discoverable in this new landscape. It just requires thinking differently about how your ideal clients find and choose to work with you.
Below, you’ll find six actionable steps you can take to realign your branding, digital marketing, and relationship-building activities to stay discoverable in an AI-driven world.
Realign Your Brand Strategy
Realign Your Digital Marketing
Realign With Your Community
Your Brand Strategy: Standing Out in the Sea of AI-Generated Sameness
In the age of AI, your brand’s distinctiveness is your superpower.
Distinctiveness isn’t about being completely unique or reinventing the wheel. It’s about being consistently recognizable as you. Brand cohesiveness has always been important, but in a world where search is dominated by LLMs and social is dominated by AI-generated video, a tight and deeply connected brand voice is more critically important than ever.
When your potential clients are scrolling through endless AI-generated content, your brand needs to cut through the noise immediately. That means every touchpoint, from your website to your social posts to your email signature, needs to feel unmistakably like you.
Too many small business owners think brand strategy is just about picking pretty colors and fonts. But discoverability in the age of AI requires something much deeper.
Here are two ways to realign your brand strategy for an AI world:
Discoverability Action Tip #1: Get Disciplined About Your Visual Elements
A comprehensive and effective brand strategy goes beyond logos, colors, and icons. Your visual elements that need highly disciplined alignment include:
- Photography style and quality
- Lighting for videos
- Social media graphic templates
- What you wear (if you're on camera)
- General visual feel of all your content
If you're not sure how aligned your visual elements are, conduct this quick test:
Create a Pinterest board with a few dozen of your recent images, blog posts, social posts, etc., all laid out in one place. If it doesn't look as tightly aligned as a Marvel movie ad campaign, there's work to be done. In the overwhelming noise of the moment, breaking through the clutter takes constant visual reinforcement with your brand's distinctive look.
Discoverability Action Tip #2: Dive Deeper Into Your Brand Framework
Beyond visuals, the specific language you use to talk about your way of working matters. Too many marketers have been so trained by twenty years of SEO-driven keyword strategies that they’ve forgotten (or never learned) how powerful distinctive brand frameworks can be.
Standing out from the “sea of sameness” requires more distinct language: names, processes, and proprietary terms that are uniquely yours. Your brand framework should include specific terminology that immediately communicates your unique approach and methodology to anyone who encounters your content.
Sample Brand Framework:
Do Better Business™, Do Better Digital™, and The Alignment Trinity™ are all terms that our community associates with our values-driven approach to business strategy. This distinctive language doesn't just describe what we do—it signals to our current and potential clients that we think differently about business growth.
When you realign your brand strategy to improve discoverability, the goal isn't to be seen. It’s to be remembered.
Adapting your brand strategy for this new landscape requires greater alignment with who you are. When someone encounters your content, they should know it’s from you before they even see your name. That’s how you stay discoverable when algorithms change and AI floods the market.
Looking for some direction? Check out our brand refresh services here.
Digital Marketing: Breaking Free from the Same Old Playbook
Here’s a key mindset shift that small and micro businesses must make with their digital marketing efforts: Doing more of the same (but faster) won’t save your marketing strategy.
I’m seeing this everywhere: businesses trying to solve their discoverability problems by doing more of what they’ve always done, just with AI assistance. They’re cranking out more content, running the same ad campaigns, and hoping that efficiency will save them.
But here’s the reality: If your strategy was already showing diminishing returns, doing it faster isn’t going to fix the problem.
It’s time to break out of the “business as usual” mindset and shift into tinker mode. Here are two ways to realign your digital marketing tactics for the AI era:
Discoverability Action Tip #3: Lean Into Your Most Creative Medium
Surprisingly, I’ve been having the conversation about opting out of content production a lot more lately. Many people think AI tools can help cover for a lack of creativity or affinity for video, writing, or design. But that’s not the case.
AI tools are at their best when we use them to augment an area where we already have deep knowledge and have put in the reps to build up strength. Mediocre input will only produce mediocre output.
So, take a hard look at where you’re at your best (or have a world-class team at their best) and lean harder into that, forsaking other mediums. If you’re a writer, write more and better. Leave the video to someone else (or vice versa).
Discoverability Action Tip #4: Diversify Your Ad Spend Strategically
If Google PPC, Meta, YouTube, or LinkedIn ads are your largest lead drivers, it’s time to put meaningful money and effort into diversifying your strategy. That means at least 25-30% of your resources need to shift now.
Here’s the reality: Those of us with smaller budgets must be more creative about how we use our resources. As the share of eyeballs on big-platform ads gets tighter, large corporations will hit the easiest button first, funneling more dollars into these platforms.
As a small or micro business, you can’t compete with that. Instead, it’s time to get creative and diversify.
This is where the Trinity Principle™ becomes your strategic advantage.
Remember, the Trinity Principle™ states that you only need three platforms, executed well, to get all the leads and sales your business needs to prosper. And, one of your three platforms should be a “loon shot” platform that gives you room to test and experiment.
Rather than spreading that 25-30% across multiple new places, consider putting it all into one alternative platform where you can really focus and learn. Successful alternative advertising platforms include:
- Eventbrite: Target people actively looking for local events and experiences.
- Local community websites: Reach neighbors who are already engaged in your area.
- Spotify: Use audio ads to reach people during their daily routines.
- Niche industry publications: Connect with people already interested in your field.
What you can (and should) do better than the big guys is diversifying ad spend. The goal isn’t to work harder. It’s to work smarter in places your competition isn’t looking.
The Game Changer: TRA-Digital Marketing for Community-Based Businesses
I’ve talked about the importance of TRA-digital marketing before. That’s what I call combining the best traditional, in-person networking strategies with today’s digital tools to create a powerfully sustainable referral-based marketing foundation.
Since 2009, I’ve advocated for community and small businesses to put greater emphasis on their digital marketing efforts as the most efficient, effective, and sustainable way to market their businesses. In 2025, I’m making a radical shift.
For community-based businesses to remain discoverable, they must focus on offline tactics first, digital second.
The algorithms have changed. The platforms have changed. And, most importantly, how people connect and build trust has changed. For community-based businesses, the most powerful marketing strategy isn’t about reaching more people online—it’s about going deeper with the people in your physical community.
Here’s what’s happening: National corporations and big small businesses are funneling massive budgets into the same zero-sum digital ad platforms we’ve been relying on. We simply can’t compete dollar-for-dollar on these platforms anymore:
- Large corporations can outspend us on Google PPC and Meta ads.
- Algorithm changes favor accounts with bigger budgets.
- The cost-per-click continues to rise as competition increases.
- Smaller businesses get pushed out of prime advertising real estate.
It’s time to move to alternatives. Fortunately, real relationships beat chasing digital metrics every time.
The community-based businesses that will thrive in this new landscape aren’t the ones with the most followers or the highest engagement rates. They’re the ones building genuine connections with people who live, work, and spend money in their community.
Going back to more traditional, in-person marketing can feel scary. It’s easier to sit there, tap away on our phones or computers, and feel like we’re “doing marketing.”
But that’s precisely why traditional methods are more powerful than ever: Your competition is avoiding them too.
Digital second doesn't mean digital isn't important.
Reviews platforms and Google Business are still critically important for reinforcement. But they can't be first in line for your marketing dollars anymore.
Here are two ways to lean into TRA-digital community marketing right now:
Discoverability Action Tip #5: Get Involved in Local Event Marketing
One of the best and most affordable ways for community-based businesses to find their customers is through “old-fashioned” community-event-based marketing. But simply sponsoring a Chamber breakfast or a local baseball team is not enough.
Get more out of community events with this quick local event marketing checklist:
- Show up in person. Don't just write a check. Work the room or the sidelines.
- Talk to people. Have genuine conversations about your brand and services.
- Create memorable setups. Stand out with unique displays, branded vehicles, or fun elements.
- Pair with local media. Maximize your investment with additional coverage opportunities.
The key is active participation, not passive sponsorship. For example, our client, Mrs. Grout, has long used their cars and bubble machines as an affordable and effective way to stand out at local events.
Discoverability Action Tip #6: Use Online Groups to Create Real-Life Meetups
Instead of treating your social media accounts as an end unto themselves, try using your engagement in Facebook groups, local forums, and subreddits to create group meetups, coffee dates (in a public place), and connection moments.
The most powerful (and affordable) use case for social media and local businesses right now is moving relationships into real life. These location and interest-based subgroups are great ways to do that.
For example, try hosting a meetup for DIY home improvement folks at your local maker studio or a book club at a local coffee shop. Or, attend someone else’s when you see it advertised. Bonus points if you get out in real life for a coffee with someone you talk to often online.
The best marketing has always been about connecting with your people. TRA-digital thinking just gives us the roadmap.
The digital tools are still important, but they’re most powerful when they reinforce the real relationships you’re building with people in your community. When someone meets you at a local event, then sees your Google reviews or finds your social media, magic happens.
Need some guidance to get started? Grab our free relationship-building self-assessment here.
Your Next Steps for Sustainable Discoverability in the Age of AI
We’ve discussed six discoverability action tips to help your business stand out in an increasingly AI-dominated market:
- Action Tip #1: Audit your visual brand alignment across all platforms.
- Action Tip #2: Develop distinctive language and frameworks for your business.
- Action Tip #3: Focus your content creation on your strongest medium.
- Action Tip #4: Move 25-30% of your ad budget to alternative platforms.
- Action Tip #5: Show up actively at local events, don't just sponsor them.
- Action Tip #6: Use online communities to facilitate real-world connections.
Pick one action tip to implement this week, then gradually layer in the others. The businesses that act now—while their competition is still hoping the old ways will magically start working again—will be the ones thriving in 2026 and beyond.
Realign your strategy
Turn These Action Tips Into Your Complete AI-Era Discoverability Roadmap
The six action tips in this guide are just the beginning. Get personalized guidance to build a comprehensive strategy that helps your brand cut through AI-generated noise and connect with your ideal clients. Our Do Better Business™ Strategy Retreats give you dedicated time away from your day-to-day operations and create a sustainable discoverability roadmap tailored specifically to your business.