Three meditations: something to think about, a “how-to” resource, and a marketing deep dive. Ommmmmm.
Something to Think About
I love how Jessica Apotheker framed the AI disruption of marketing as an opportunity. Fortune favors the bold, my friends.
“How-To”
Carousels and videos still dominate on LinkedIn.
I used to use Taplio for carousels. They had a great free tool for converting Twitter/X threads into carousels.
It was free and awesome…
…and doesn’t work anymore. ☹️
The paid version of Taplio is pretty impressive and worth checking out.
But I needed a low-cost, Canva-easy, tool.
So I recently tried AI Carousels, and it’s pretty great
. I know this section is called “how-to,” but you really don’t need any more instruction to make this work.
The free version limits you to 10 pages. I’m digging the tool so far.
Marketing Deep Dive
2025 Half-Year Predictions
Annual predictions feel quaint now.
Tech and AI move too fast. A six-month pulse-check feels more honest, don’t you think?
Here’s where I’m seeing shifts for marketers mid‑2025.
1. AI Is the New Dark Social
#AI is the new #DarkSocial
Just as we were adjusting to the idea of Dark Social (adapting to live in a world where large parts of the customer journey were invisible), another shift comes along.
Customers have been pulling away.
Not necessarily from products, but from marketing. And who could blame them? We wrung every last drop of performance from our high-friction nurture paths that often depended on the thinnest of trust.
So customers went where they felt safe—Slack, Discord, Reddit, FB groups. Social spaces where real people, not marketers, gave real answers. Brand-created content became the info source of last resort.
Customers still wanted what we were selling, they just didn’t want to talk to our sales team, no matter how “consultative.”
Our PLG path wasn’t giving them what they needed, either.
Instead, it was all about unfettered social proof. Not brand-produced testimonials or case studies, but the kind of proof that flows peer to peer, frictionless, unbranded.
The “Dark” in Dark Social wasn’t just invisibility—it was insulation. A deliberate move away from the ulterior motives of brand-controlled narrative.
And here’s the deal.
Now they’re not even asking their friends.
They’re asking ChatGPT. Or Perplexity. Or Claude.
AI is the new Dark Social.
Despite hallucinations. Despite rough UX. People are trusting AI—more than they trust your marketing. And in many cases, more than they trust their own network.
2. The Mid-Funnel Ghost Town
Buyers aren’t lingering in the middle anymore.
They’re researching fast, deciding faster, and disappearing before you ever knew they were looking.
The old “consideration phase” is getting hollowed out. That long, nurturing stretch we used to rely on? It’s collapsing into a binary moment: either they’re ready to act, or the timing isn’t right.
We’ve seen sales cycles actually lengthen over the past 2 years. I predict we may still see that for logistical and operational reasons. The decision process should speed up.
This doesn’t mean mid-funnel content is useless. But it’s no longer the place to convert in-market buyers. It’s where you educate the 95% who aren’t ready—so when they are, they drop fast.
3. Bottom-Funnel Pressure
It’s tempting to start at the top.
The traditional approach is familiar: build awareness at the top of the funnel (TOFU), guide consideration in the middle (MOFU), and convert intent at the bottom (BOFU). In a lead-driven culture, this still feels like progress.
However, I’ve often started with BOFU, and here’s why.
When I take on a new client or step into a new role, I focus first on the buyers already close to a decision. If the funnel is a supply chain, each step down represents greater investment—more time, more resources, higher CAC. The bottom holds the buyers most likely to convert and most expensive to lose.
There’s going to be more pressure for all of us to do the same in H2 2025.
With less visibility into the top and middle of the funnel, we need to adapt to in-market tactics at the bottom. That includes tighter alignment with sales and feeding the darker parts of the funnel with the right content—especially as more buyers rely on AI to educate themselves.
4. GEO = AI-First SEO
(AI Making Choices Image)
AI isn’t surfacing options—it’s making choices.
LLMs don’t return pages of links. They serve one answer—concise, context-rich, and often pulled from sources beyond Google’s top rankings.
Solid SEO doesn’t guarantee good GEO. You can rank on page one of Google and still never appear in ChatGPT or Gemini results. In fact, over half of AI-generated citations come from sources outside Google’s first page.
However, good GEO tends to include solid SEO. Structuring content for AI—for clarity, context, credibility—usually covers traditional SEO fundamentals too.
HubSpot’s Marketing Against the Grain podcast confirmed that AI-search visitors convert 4.4× higher than organic Google traffic. They also emphasized that early-stage content must shift from high-level TOFU to hyper-specific BOFU, and that brand mentions—especially on platforms like Reddit and Quora—are becoming AI primer signals.
That insight lines up: GEO-first content positions you for both AI and traditional SEO, while SEO alone may leave you out of AI’s shortlist.
For H2 2025, this is the strategic play. Optimize for GEO to future-proof your visibility.
5. Authority Signals Are Changing
(Blue Cracking Foundation image here)
The old rules for credibility are starting to crack.
In the traditional SEO world, authority came from your domain. High-ranking sites with strong backlink profiles win by default. But AI tools don’t think in domains. They think in context.
What’s emerging in H2 2025 is a new kind of authority signal—one rooted in specificity, clarity, and individual voice. AI tools are prioritizing sources that demonstrate understanding, not just optimization. That means small companies, solo creators, and niche experts are ranking for queries once reserved for brands with big infrastructure.
Why? Because people query AI with context. Industry. Stage. Pain points. Goals. AI responds to content that reflects that same specificity—not just what’s been linked the most.
You don’t need a mountain of backlinks. You need to sound like you know what you’re talking about, for someone who knows what they need.
Authority isn’t dead. But it’s more personal now.
6. Niche Players Have a Shot
Smaller brands and specialists are finally in the conversation.
In the Google-dominated era, the first page often belonged to incumbents. It was hard to outrank a category leader—no matter how useful your product or how sharp your content.
But AI has shifted the field. The way people phrase prompts opens space for companies to solve specific problems. AI answers with nuance. That’s where niche players win.
If your solution addresses a clear, well-articulated need, AI is more likely to include you in its shortlist. The volume might be lower than traditional SEO, but the intent is stronger—and conversions are higher.
This is where clear messaging, structured content, and being cited in the right places start to matter more than a #1 Google rank.
In H2 2025, the middle of the market is wide open. You don’t need to be the biggest name. You just need to be the best answer.
Final Thought
(The Invisible Dark Funnel Image)
The funnel hasn’t vanished—but it’s harder to see, and harder to shape. AI is pulling more of the buying journey underground, from awareness through decision. That’s forcing a shift in how we earn attention, build trust, and show up when it counts.
In the second half of 2025, marketers who thrive won’t be the loudest. They’ll be the clearest. The most context-aware. The most relevant at the moment of decision—whether that moment happens on your site, in a Slack thread, or in a ChatGPT prompt.
The rules are changing. But the work is still the same: earn trust, create clarity, and meet buyers where they are.
Namaste,
Chad Jardine, CEO at CMO Zen
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