AI Is Killing Marketing Agencies (Use This $15,000 Trick To Survive)

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While every marketing agency on the planet is scrambling to bolt AI onto their businesses so they don't get left behind, a small group of local marketers, including myself, quietly doing the exact opposite. And we're pulling in an extra $5 to $10,000 a month consistently. Some of us even 15 to $20,000 extra dollars per month with something so boring and so old school that our competitors would honestly laugh at it. But it's working shockingly well right now. So, let me paint the picture real quick because if you sell marketing in any form, you're probably already feeling this right now.

copywriting, paid ads, basic SEO, the stuff that used to be your bread and butter. Now your clients can do a big chunk of that themselves with chatbt or claude for like 20 bucks a month. And you're probably already nodding your head right now. You're probably past the denial phase where you denied that was actually the case. Now you're feeling it for real.

I mean, in a survey conducted this year on the current state of digital agencies, they found that 53% of agency owners now say that AI is a serious threat to their business. You probably feel the same way. And here's the part that really stinks. Your clients are using the exact tools that you are and they're staring at our invoice going, "Wait, why am I paying agency prices for something that AI spits out for me in two minutes?" That's the squeeze we're feeling.

You're getting hit from both sides at once. And it's not just about the chatbot. If any part of what you sell touches SEO or content, it's even rougher. Google rolled out AI overviews, that little summary at the top of the Google search that answers the question so nobody even clicks on websites anymore. Those show up on more than 50% of all searches now.

And the number one website spot, which is the position that everybody fights tooth and nail for, is losing over half of its clicks when the AI overview pops up above it. Small sites have lost roughly 60% of their search traffic in the past 2 years. 60%. And don't even get me started on paid ads. I'm sure you felt this one.

If you run ads for your clients and you work with small businesses, I'm sure you know that the Facebook Andromeda update is destroying small businesses right now with massive volatility for any account spending under $1,000 a day. Your clients results are likely slipping while the gurus online keep telling you add more creatives. You need creative diversity. But let's be real, you're working with small businesses and you can't test a h 100red creatives a day because your client's budget is literally $100 a day. And it's not your fault that you're in this situation, but at the end of the day, you're the one getting fired for diminishing results.

And you're the one losing the income that you rely on to put food on the table. The old services that you offer are slowly becoming less and less valuable and simultaneously easier and easier for your client to do on their own. This is the reality. Your breadandbut services are slipping out from under you. And I'm not telling you this to depress you.

I'm telling you this because I think most marketers right now are already staring at the wrong problem. They're asking, "How do I out AI the AI?" And in my opinion, that's the wrong question because we can't. Now, real quick, I'm Mitch Tibo and I've helped a few thousand people start doing exactly what I'm about to show you. And I personally scaled $15,000 per month within my first three months by implementing what I'm about to show you.

And I didn't even have all the existing skills and client relationships that you already have. So, here's the thing. While everybody's zigging harder into AI, trying to beat the robots at their own game, which they're not going to be able to, the actual opportunity is to zag. Cuz you know what AI cannot do and never will? It can't reach into somebody's physical mailbox.

It can't fold up a postcard and stick it on somebody's fridge for a month. Direct mail is the one channel that's been around forever and has literally never been redundant. And the more that AI slop floods everybody's inbox with spam and fake garbage, the more that people will actually trust the thing that's sitting in their mailbox. The numbers actually support this loud and clear. Direct mail is pulling response rates 30 to 40 times higher than email right now.

Open rates are up around 80 to 90% because people physically pick it up and take a look at it. And in one survey, 84% of marketers said that mail gave them the best return of any channel they've ever used. 84%. So, while everything digital is getting commoditized into dust, physical mail is quietly dominating. And almost nobody in the marketing world is even looking at it right now.

So, let me actually show you the secret trick that takes things one step further because you're probably wondering what the heck I'm even talking about and what the heck you just saw. So, this right here is a 9x12 in postcard. It's massive. Basically, the biggest thing anybody gets in their mailbox, so it's impossible to ignore. And the business model behind it is stupid simple.

You take this card and you sell ad spots on it to local businesses. There's typically 16 spots on the card. You usually charge around $500 per slot and 16 spots times $500, that's $8,000 in revenue in your pocket up front. Then you print it and mail it to 5,000 homes in a specific area, probably in your town through the post office. You use their every door direct mail system, which will allow you to just select the mailing routes rather than actually needing a list of addresses.

I told you it's stupid simple. So printing and mailing all of that runs you somewhere around $3,000. So, you're clearing roughly $5,000 in profit every single time you fill one of these cars. And here's the best part that makes it a no-brainer to at least try. You collect all the money from these businesses upfront before you pay for a single thing.

So, your out of pocket to start is literally zero. And it's super casual because you don't need to be some expert. There isn't some huge learning curve like there is for Meta or Google Ads. You're just the person bringing together a bunch of local businesses to split the cost of one giant mailer. So, they all reach the entire town for a much lower price because they're splitting the cost.

And to be clear, these are non-competing businesses. There's only one realtor, one roofer. So, it's very valuable for them compared to like a newspaper. So, you're just a community connector. And now, here's where it gets really good for you specifically because you're likely not some random beginner.

Although, if you are, that's fine. So was I when I first started, but most likely, if you're watching this, you already sell marketing of some form. So, I call this card a Trojan horse. I mean, think about it. When you call a local business owner and go, "Hey, I do SEO," or, "Hey, I run Facebook ads."

What happens to you? Their eyes glaze over. They've been pitched that 400 times. They probably hang up. A lot of them just use AI now, either through software or directly to do a lot of these things.

So the doors basically been shut when you even knock. But when you call and say, "Hey, I'm putting together this big community postcard going out to 5,000 homes in town, and I'm looking for you to be the featured roofer on the card." That's a completely different conversation. They've never heard of it before. It's like a unicorn.

It's new. It's cheap. It's 500 bucks. Not a $2,000 a month retainer that they have to actually risk it all for. So they actually listen.

They take the meeting. And now you're in with them. This is not all you have to sell. This is just how you get in the door. Now you've delivered something real.

They've got your card literally in their hands. They trust you now. And that once you've earned it, the trust is the moment that you can actually go, "Hey, by the way, I noticed your website's looking a little dated." And now they're actually going to listen to you because you're the person who already helped them. It's not some cold pitch anymore.

So the postcard gets you through the door that AI slammed shut and the card itself is not going anywhere because no chatbot's going to fold itself into an envelope. Okay, so real quick before I show you exactly how to run one of these from start to finish, if you want to see what one of these 9x12 cards actually looks like fully laid out, the slots, the sizing, the induces right here, all of it, I'll just give you the template. I'll I'll give it to you for free. It's the template that I use just so you don't have to design it from scratch. So just comment the word template down below and I'll send over the 9x12 postcard template right over to you for free.

No strings attached. And while you're down there, please tap that like button because it genuinely tells me that I should keep making free content just like this. And as a thank you, here's a picture of a hermit crab wearing a top hat. You're welcome. Now, let me walk you through how you'd actually run one of these cards from start to finish because by the end of this, I want you to actually be able to go start today.

So, step one, you need to pick your area. You want a decent sized town, but not a dense mega city. You want a place with somewhere between 15,000 to 100,000 people. That's been the sweet spot from what I've seen. But don't overthink it because you can literally do this anywhere.

People do it in towns of like 3,000 people. Then, you're going to go to eddddm.usps.com, which is a free mapping tool where you literally just click on the mailing routes on a map. You just search for your zip code and then you can plan where you'll actually mail the cards to.

Each route is usually a few hundred homes. You just keep picking routes until you've got around 5,000 homes total. And I recommend you lean towards the nicer higher income neighborhoods with single family homes because those are typically the exact people that your advertisers are going to want to reach. So this EDDDM tool gives you the average income and some other stats that will help guide you on that decision. So that's just going to take you about 10 minutes.

And now you have the exact map of where your cards are actually getting mailed just so you're ready in case any of the advertisers ask you during your outreach. Now, step two, you need to build your list of businesses to pitch to. And here's the thing, you want businesses that make real money per customer. Like higher ticket businesses are best, like roofers, HVAC companies, dentists, chiropractors, realtors, landscapers, med spas, auto shops, that kind of thing. Probably the same businesses you're already targeting as a marketing agency.

Anyway, a roofer makes like $10,000 or more on a single job. So, $500 to get inside of 5,000 homes in town is nothing to them. It's a no-brainer for that kind of business. So, you can find these businesses on Google Maps in about 10 minutes. just go to their websites and collect their contact information.

Or you can use my Google Maps scraper called Lead Scout, which searches Google Maps for local businesses in your area, collects all of their contact info, owner names, social media links, all of it done automatically. The link is in the description if you're interested in checking out Lead Scout, but honestly, you probably already know a bunch of businesses that would be interested in this, and you may already work with some, which is your unfair advantage here. Step number three is the pitch. And listen, you're not selling in this case, okay? You're just connecting local businesses to split the cost of marketing.

You're just an organizer. You're not some expert. You're just an organizer. At least that's the way you should frame it in your head. It makes it really low pressure on you and makes it sound to them like you're not really selling them.

You should say something like, "Hey, I'm putting together a community postcard. I'm getting a group of local non-competing businesses together to split the cost of one big mailer going to 5,000 doors right here in town. It's literally just one business per category. So, if you're in, your competitors are locked out. Okay, that's the beginning pitch.

And you should stick to three selling points here. That's it. You don't want to over complicate this. The simplicity of our offer is what makes it so easy to sell. So, selling point number one, you get to reach every single home in your area for a fraction of the price because you're actually splitting the cost with non-competing businesses.

Selling point number two, it is actually more likely to stay in people's homes for longer than a solo postcard because it has numerous offers for multiple local businesses in town. So, sometimes it'll even end up going on the fridge because people want to save all of those offers. And then selling point number three, you own your industry. Nobody else in your industry gets on the card. So, if you're a roofer and you join, no other roofer, none of your competitors get to be on the card.

Those three points typically seal the deal. So, just don't over complicate it. Step number four is about pricing and money. I usually recommend charging $500 for a standard slot. That way, you can say it's just 10 cents per door.

It's the perfect middle ground to allow you to make a pretty hefty profit of $5,000 while still being within the monthly advertising budget of most small businesses. And like I said, there's usually 16 spots, although you can sell double slots. Like two of these slots would be just one ad just like this for about $900. That way, they get a little bit of a discount because otherwise it would typically be $1,000. And then this is the golden rule.

This is what's most important. You collect the money upfront. Don't be afraid to do that. Before a single thing gets printed, you collect all of the money up front. Nobody should be on the card until they've paid you.

So don't hold slots for everybody. That's how you ensure that you're never at risk. Plus, if you don't follow that rule, it's going to be a nightmare chasing down everybody's money when the time comes to print. Okay, step number five. Let's talk about how you actually reach these businesses.

And you already know how to do most of it better than most people do, most likely. Email works great, especially if you're an introvert like me. You just keep it short. no attachments, no hard sell or anything. Just ask if they would want to be on the card.

But to be clear, email is a numbers game. Response rate is not great, obviously, but because this is a unicorn, people tend to respond openly to inquiries about this as long as you frame it as a community spotlight car. But the number one channel across our entire community that I've seen, hands down, is Facebook groups, like those local neighborhood Facebook groups, not necessarily the business owner ones. You simply post that you're putting a card together and featuring local businesses, and the business owners will literally come to you. Cold calling also works.

Doortodoor works great, especially in compact towns where there's not much driving. You literally just bring a sample card and it kind of sells itself because it's huge and it's kind of a unicorn. But for those of you with existing clients or at least connections, start with your warm list, the people you already know, the people who already know you, even the people that you're already working with, those are by far your easiest yeses, and they'll build your momentum. And the rest gets way easier because now you can tell everyone like, "Yeah, Bill's Burgers and Molly's milkshakes are both already committed." And the one thing that I beg you not to forget, do not forget to follow up.

Very few people will respond to the first message, especially if you're sending cold email. So, the sale usually happens on the second, third, or fourth touch. And if they expressed interest, do not stop following up until they give you an explicit yes or no. A member in our community named Robert actually emailed a bunch of HVAC companies on Friday, but he only made the sale when he followed up with them again on Saturday. So, the fortune's in the follow-up, I promise.

So, put all of your leads into a simple CRM or even just a spreadsheet and just keep circling back. And I do have a CRM that I built specifically for this business. link is in the description if you're interested in that, but you can really use any CRM or a spreadsheet. And then this last part, and this is the part that most people get worked up about, even though it's literally the simplest part. Once your card is full and everybody's paid you, now you just send it off to a printer.

And now, if you use the wrong printer, this could be complex for you. But luckily, if you go with us at print.99x12method.com, like in the description, not only will you get some of the most competitive rates for 9x12 postcards, but we also handle everything for you. That means we can print the cards.

We can bundle them up by mailing route and we can ship it to your post office directly with the EDDDM order already taking place. Most printing companies would make you handle that part. They ship the 5,000 cards to your house and just say good luck. So you'd have to bundle them, put them in the EDDDM order, then set up the facing slips, and then lug them over to the post office yourself. But as you know, time is money.

So with us, we take that completely off your plate. So you don't have to handle the cards at all. You can just focus on making the sales. And that's it. That's the whole thing from start to finish.

And I teach this method to a lot of complete beginners, like stay-at-home parents, people working a 9 to5 who have never sold a thing in their life. And so many of them are absolutely crushing it. Seriously. Somebody in our group named Shireena is doing this all while being a busy homeschooling mom. She homeschools three boys, I'm pretty sure.

And she closed six sales in 3 days by using Facebook alone. And she did it before her kids even woke up in the morning. That's literally $3,000 in revenue. And another one of our group members named Michelle got seven yeses in 48 hours. But keep in mind, these are people who did not have pre-existing relationships with local businesses.

They're just doing cold outreach. And a member named Fernando actually sold the whole side of his card to one roofer. Now, that's not going to happen every time, but these are opportunities that just open up when you run this business. So, if people with zero marketing background can pull that off, what do you think happens when somebody like you does it? Somebody who already knows how to sell, who already has a rolodex of local business owners who pick up when you call.

You are the ideal person for this. And it's it's almost unfair, honestly. And this isn't a oneanddone thing either. One card a month is around five grand. Two or three cards a month is 10 to $15,000 a month in profit, completely separate from your existing services.

And none of it depends on Google's algorithm or whatever AI decides to do next quarter. And once a business is on your card and you frame it well, a lot of them actually reup for the next card. So you start stacking recurring advertisers on top of the clients you already have. And I know what a few of you are thinking. Mitch, if this is so good, why are you out here telling everybody?

Well, there's a few reasons, and I'll be transparent about this. The first reason is because you're not my competition. It's highly unlikely you live in my small town of 15,000 people. So, we probably won't be doing this in the same location. The second reason is because this business literally saved me financially and I know there's so many people out there from all walks of lives that need something like this way more than I did.

So, I'm passionate about teaching them and reaching them and it's been amazing. And thirdly, to be honest, I also have something to sell you. I mean, I'm not a charity, but it's not like you absolutely need it. I've honestly already given you everything that you need to be successful in this. But here's the deal.

I do have a community of about 2900 9 by1 12ers all doing this around the country. It's got the full step-by-step course laid out for you, the exact scripts that I use to sell the spots, pre-made ad templates so you don't have to waste time with designing. You can post and ask questions in there like a Facebook group almost. And we do live group calls every single week. And you also get access to a little bit of free software as well.

So the link is in the description to check that out if you want to join our community and basically have the road map laid out in front of you because time is money, baby. And when you are ready, especially as somebody who already sells marketing for a living, I think you're going to move way faster than you would expect. So, while the rest of the industry is bracing for AI to eat their lunch, you've now got a play that AI literally cannot touch. And it gets you into doors that are otherwise completely closed at this point. And it pays you up front before you even spend a dime.

Now, don't forget to comment template if you want the postcard template so you don't have to design it. Don't waste your time with that. And go check out the community down below if this resonates with you. But if you're not ready to join yet, that's fine. Just watch this video here, which breaks this business model down on an even more granular level with absolutely no stones left unturned.

It's literally my full master class. As always, I'm rooting for you. Love you.