Thinking about the illusion of growth

Thanks to generative AI, you can now:

Publish eight blog posts a month instead of two
Expand from one or two marketing channels to six or more
Increase posting frequency across all social platforms
Automate email campaigns, landing page variations, and ads

Traffic skyrockets because there are more entry points, and impressions increase as distribution widens. You see more leads coming in simply because there are more opportunities for someone to opt in.

On paper, this looks like progress. Unfortunately, for your long-term marketing strategy, this isn't strategic growth because your marketing system isn’t becoming more effective. You simply feed it more than you used to.

And you’re not the only one. It’s an industry-wide issue.

When one company pushes more content, others follow. So, your audience constantly receives new content from:

Other brands
Influencers in unrelated industries
Media publishers
Creators monetising attention
Platforms optimising feeds for their own engagement goals

Every piece of content you publish from now on is a literal needle in an always-growing haystack. So, is there still a chance for brands to stand out?

Thinking about attention spans

A common explanation for declining content performance is that people ‘have shorter attention spans’. That framing is convenient, as it shifts responsibility away from marketing quality and toward audience behaviour.

But it’s not accurate. People still pay attention to content that reflects their current priorities and to the brands that have built credibility. What happens is that when you produce more, you dilute your message and stop being relevant, leading to a growing disconnect between what your brand says and what people actually need.

In the push to produce more with less, quantity starts to matter more than quality. Teams cannot review and assess content at the same speed AI generates it, which means that as output increases, thoughtfulness is likely to decrease. Decisions move from “Is this meaningful?” to “Is this done yet?” and that subtle change compounds over time.

Brands speak more often, but say less that resonates. And no amount of additional output can close that gap, because the missing elements, meaning and relevance, cannot be AI-generated.

This is the paradox of modern marketing. The tools designed to increase impact often reduce it when they are used without a relevance filter.

So, before even considering a campaign, ask the difficult questions:

Who is this for, specifically, right now?
What need or decision does this connect to?
What belief does this challenge or reinforce?
Why would someone choose to spend time on this instead of the next ten things in their feed?

If you don’t have clear answers for these questions, your audience will continue to scroll.

Thinking about relevance-driven marketing

Instead of trying to do more with less, the focus shifts to doing things better, for maximum impact. That means investing in fewer initiatives that are more tightly aligned with real buyer needs, real sales conversations, and real business priorities.

You do not need to speak louder to be heard. You need to say the right things, in the right places, at the right moments. When relevance is high, even a small amount of content can outperform a massive volume of generic output.

In practice, this shift comes down to optimising three key areas:

#1 Fewer assets and higher intent

Topics your audience truly cares about
Sales-aligned narratives
Content that supports buying conversations
Thought leadership grounded in real workflows, implemented solutions, and rev ops reality

#2 Channel selection

Where buyers actually think, research, and compare
Channels that allow for depth, not just visibility
Formats that match your offer

#3 Messaging for decision enablement

Campaigns for every buying stage
Marketing messages that consider objection patterns
Content that supports buyers win internal approval
Positioning that lowers the emotional and professional risk of saying yes to your offer

Thinking about dashboards and KPIs

With this shift, traditional dashboards will no longer reflect real marketing ROI because exposure is cheaper than ever and doesn’t necessarily lead to sales - a thousand impressions that generate polite scrolling doesn’t create momentum.

As relevance becomes the real multiplier, you need to update those dashboards to include new KPIs.

Here’s what to look for:

Content-influenced sales conversations: Are prospects referencing your content in sales calls? Are reps using specific content to move deals forward?
Sales cycle compression: Are deals closing faster when buyers consume your content?
Changes in the buyers’ journey: Are opportunities moving through pipeline stages more quickly?
Win-rate shifts after content exposure: Do prospects who see certain assets close at a higher rate?

These indicators track whether marketing is changing behaviour, not just generating impressions and activity. They help you identify the marketing efforts that strengthen brand memory, reduce friction, and improve referral likelihood.

This way, you ‘measure’ relevance and act on the metrics that matter. Over time, these efforts help you to know what to say, when to say it, and whom to say it to.

HAS THIS GOT YOU THINKING ABOUT how your marketing actually performs? If you’re tired of watching KPIs rise while real impact stays flat, it might be time to rethink what ROI looks like for your business.

At DXDMedia, we focus on relevance-first strategies and practical marketing that earns attention, supports sales, and builds long-term credibility. If you want to move beyond volume-driven marketing and start seeing returns that compound, we’d love to hear from you.

Message us at info@dxdmedia.co.uk, and let’s talk about how to make your marketing more relevant in 2026.

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Thinking about ... Marketing in 2026: Relevance Is the New ROI