Jim Connolly Marketing

Why your audience isn’t growing in 2026

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Build your list, marketing, subscribers

Dylan Thomas 1937: Photo by Nora Summer

If you feel like you’re being ignored. If your subscriber count is flatlining despite following every best practice the AI marketing gurus are recommending. I want to offer you some reassurance. It isn’t your SEO, GEO, the freshness of your content or your publishing frequency.

The problem is much simpler, and a lot more human than that.

The rise of perfectly okay content

In 2016, we were worried about content creation fatigue. In 2026 we are drowning in a vast, automated ocean of content. Anyone can now generate a mountain of ‘okay quality’ marketing content with an AI prompt.

And that’s exactly what millions are doing. Leaving us swimming in an ocean of automated text.

Further reading: The anti creative ‘AI slop’ problem.

The content experts are telling you to use AI to scale-up your production. They give you prompts, templates and frameworks. But these frameworks make your writing indistinguishable from everyone else’s. They focus on getting the mechanics right.

Here’s the thing.

No one ever felt a connection with the mechanics of AI content. They connect with the person behind the words. And increasingly, there’s no person there. Just a chunk of automated content.

The Real Solution: How to build an audience in 2026

Building an audience today isn’t about out-producing the machines. It’s about out-thinking them. It boils down to three things that no algorithm can fake.

Here they are.

  • Have a point of view worth sharing. Don’t just report the news. Tell us why it matters. Don’t just give us a tip, tell us why the standard advice is no longer effective.
  • Say it with soul. Write in a way that sounds like a conversation over a good cup of coffee. Be brave enough to be imperfect and real. Be yourself.
  • Respect the reader’s time. Whether it’s 200 words or 2,000, make sure every sentence carries value.

    If you do this, something magical happens. You might start with only five readers. That’s fine. Because those five people will feel something. They will feel seen, helped or inspired by your words. And because they felt a connection with you and your thoughts, that can inspire some of them to tell their friends.

    A subset of their friends feel that same connection… repeat.

    The Dylan Thomas test: So rich. So strange. So new

    I’m reminded of the introduction given to the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas before a performance in New York. The MC described his work as: “So rich. So strange. So new.”

    In a world of soulless, mechanical, AI-generated sameness, being strange or different is maybe your greatest competitive advantage. I call this the Dylan Thomas Test: if your work isn’t rich with insight, strange (different) enough to be human, and new enough to challenge the consensus, it will be largely ignored.

    Dylan Thomas didn’t become a legend because he optimised his poetry using H2 headings and bullet-points correctly. He didn’t become a household name because he published on the right day of the week. His work isn’t recognisable because he was a mechanically perfect writer.

    He succeeded because his poetic voice was unmistakably his. It was too rich to ignore. It was too human to be replaced.

    In 2026, the world doesn’t need more content. It needs more of you. And it needs you more than ever.

    Stop: Don’t hide the bad stuff

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    marketing tips, small print, fine print

    Photo by Francisco De Legarreta C.

    You’re reading about a product or service.

    It sounds amazing.

    Then you spot it!

    You spot the dreaded *asterisk. And your heart sinks.

    You know you’re about to be disappointed. You’re about to discover the exclusions, restrictions, omissions and conditions, which means that offer isn’t as good as they said it was.

    They could have told you the truth without hiding it behind the asterisk. However, they deliberately chose not to. They intentionally concealed it from you, hoping you wouldn’t dig deeper. And in a split second, they’ve totally changed how you feel about them.

    You wonder what else they’re hiding from you.

    Your guard is up.

    Your trust is diminished. Perhaps totally diminished.

    The asterisk risk

    If a business owner feels they need to hide something behind an asterisk, there are always better alternatives.

    The most effective alternative, is to make the product or service as good as you said. This eliminates the need for an asterisk. Plus, it simultaneously pumps more value into your offering, making it more attractive and giving you a huge competitive advantage.

    Another powerful alternative is to openly state, in honest and clear language, exactly what you’re offering. And include whatever would have been behind the asterisk, out in the open. Here’s an example of what that could look like.

    Imagine it’s an introductory deal, offering your service at a reduced price for the first 3 months. Rather than quote the introductory price (and hide the fact it increases after 3 months, behind an asterisk), tell them up front. Let people know that you’re so confident they’ll love your service, you’re offering it at a super-low discount, so they can discover for themselves, why it’s outstanding value at the regular price.

    There’s another reason for adopting a transparent approach to your marketing.

    And it’s a biggie, too.

    Social networks give your prospects a powerful voice. That voice can either be used to tell everyone how great you are, or how disappointed they are. Thankfully, you get to choose the kind of experience that’s being shared.

    Not only does transparency start to work immediately, it’s also a proven way to build an outstanding reputation in the long-term.

    Grab. Focus. Urgency: How to vastly increase your sales

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    marketing motivation, deadlines, sales

    When it comes to making sales or getting clients, deadlines are extremely effective. That’s because deadlines tap into one of the strongest motivators in business. The principle of scarcity.

    Here’s what makes deadlines such a powerful marketing tool.

    • They grab attention.
    • They focus the mind.
    • They create urgency.

    Attention grabbing

    It’s no wonder deadlines grab our attention. People hate to miss out. The fear of missing out, or FOMO, is activated the moment we see a deadline attached to something we have an interest in. FOMO grabs a prospect’s attention in a way that isn’t possible, when you don’t attach a deadline to your offer.

    Focused

    Our mind is then immediately focused on the actual date or time of the deadline. We start to work out the amount of time between now, and the cut-off point. Within reason, the shorter the deadline, the greater the motivation. However, too short a deadline will actually result in fewer sales/enquiries. There’s a balance required. For example, when marketing an event, 1 month is usually too short. But for a flash sale, 48 hours is often too long.

    Urgent

    The deadline presents us with a limited amount of time to make our decision. This sense of urgency will immediately inspire some people to take rapid action. Others will find the urgency grow and grow as the deadline approaches. Either way, the deadline creates a level of urgency that just isn’t there, when the prospect thinks they have all the time in the world.

    So, look for opportunities to add a deadline date or time to your marketing. Then see how all that increased attention, focus and urgency improves your response rates.

    Photo by Justin Veenema

    Does your business pass the coffee shop test?

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    marketing tip, coffee shop marketing, feelings over logic

    Almost all small business marketing relies too much on logic. If your business is one of them, that logic is already hurting your sales results. Let’s fix that right now!

    Here’s an example of how to get it right, which you already know extremely well. I’m talking about coffee shops. Consider the following.

    • People don’t visit coffee shops for the coffee.
    • They already have their favourite coffee at home.
    • They pay between 300% and 750% more for coffee at the coffee shop, because of how the experience makes them feel.

    Logically, they’d save a ton of money by drinking their coffee at home, sitting in their own super-comfortable chair.

    But people, including your prospective clients or customers, don’t make purchasing decisions based on logic. We largely make them based on feelings. I explain how emotions drive decisions, here.

    If your marketing message is based around facts, numbers, graphs, percentages… that’s way too logical. And it’s losing you sales. Your service or product may be less expensive, more premium, faster, or better designed. All those things are valid reasons why you should gain a huge chunk of your marketplace.

    However, unless you’re also, clearly explaining how your service or product will make them feel you’re leaving money on the table!

    Think of it like this: logic tells. Feeling sells.

    In his book “How Customers Think“, Harvard Business School professor, Gerald Zaltman, confirms that emotions/feelings contribute far more to decision making than conscious, rational thought.

    The switch from logic-based marketing to feelings-based marketing can be a massive win for you and your business. Here’s a suggestion: give it a try. Then, measure your results and see for yourself.

    Photo by Jon Tyson

    Marketing 101: Vigorous, written marketing

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    vigorous written marketing, marketing copywriting, content marketing

    Most of the marketing copy I see is at least 75% too long. Overlong copy lacks impact. It also lacks clarity and fails to motivate prospective customers or clients.

    I want to help you avoid this expensive mistake, which is why I wrote this for you.

    Vigorous, written marketing

    And it starts with one of the best-known quotes on the subject.

    “Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that he make every word tell“.

    Professor William Strunk Jr. – The Elements of Style.

    The vigorous writing referred to here, is writing that is strong and full of energy. That’s the kind of writing that moves people to take action; to contact you, buy from you or hire you. It’s the kind of writing that gets the results you need.

    How can you and your business benefit from the power of vigorous, written marketing?

    The answer comes from understanding why the problem exists.

    Google usually gets the blame

    That’s because Google’s search algorithm rewards overlong, written content. It prefers 2500 words to 250. So, for over 20 years, online marketing writers have been rewarded for high word counts. That’s certainly not what’s needed for vigorous, written marketing.

    But Google isn’t responsible for the wider problem.

    Email marketing and off-line media is just as ruined by overlong content. Neither of those formats have ever required the writer to dance the Google dance.

    The problem exists because most written marketing is created by people who lack sufficient training. It’s either written by business owners who ‘dabble’ or by below-par copywriters.

    The solution?

    The business owner wishing to switch to vigorous, written marketing has two options.

    1. Learn how to do it effectively.
    2. Pay someone who already knows.

    How to decide?

    • The cost (in time) of learning is considerable. It takes years of practice. However, you’ll start seeing improvements relatively quickly.
    • The cost of hiring an expert is lower. And it’s a lot faster.

    The price you pay for starving your business of vigorous, written marketing is far higher than either of those options. So pick one of them and run with it.

    Photo by Cherrydeck on Unsplash

    Finish strong

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    Finish strong. That’s solid advice for most things. But when writing persuasive marketing copy, the advice becomes explosive.

    Most written marketing makes a powerful point, or a number of powerful points, but then fizzles out. The prospect is inspired to read past the powerful points. But when they reach the, fizzling-out copy, the impact on them is weakened. They go from hot to cold.

    The key is to finish strong.

    As Poynter’s  Roy Peter Clark said: “Shakespeare did not write ‘The Queen is dead, my lord’. He wrote ‘The Queen, my lord, is dead'”.

    marketing, finish strong

    By placing the emphatic word at the end of the sentence, the power of the overall message is greatly increased. It ends with a bang. That’s exactly the impact your marketing needs, in order to motivate your prospect, and compel them to take the next step; buy from you, call you, visit your store, make an enquiry, subscribe, etc.

    Not just sentences

    Finishing strong applies not only to your sentences. It equally applies to finishing the overall written marketing piece strong. This means making the last sentence in each paragraph as emphatic as possible, and the last paragraph itself, as emphatic as possible.

    Think of it like this: You’re aiming for your words to build a crescendo of motivation, which inspires your prospect to take the next step.

    What next?

    Take a look at your written marketing and see if it finishes strong. Check the sentences, the paragraphs and the overall piece. If it doesn’t create a growing wave of desire, fix it. Otherwise you’ll continue to miss out on new sales or new clients. And none of us can afford that.