r/growmybusiness

i’ll start.

i used to think more traffic automatically meant more growth.

now i’m not even sure traffic is the main problem for a lot of businesses anymore.

i’ve seen brands with:

1. huge social reach
2. strong seo traffic
3. good engagement
4. thousands of followers

still struggle to convert consistently. then smaller brands with way less visibility somehow build stronger communities and close more customers.

one thing that changed my perspective was watching how people research now. they do not just trust websites anymore.

they check:
reddit threads.
ai answers.
reviews.
founder posts.
youtube comments.
linkedin discussions.

basically the entire internet becomes your reputation now.

feels like marketing quietly shifted from “who gets seen most” to “who feels most believable.”

curious what changed your mind recently.

what marketing advice feels outdated to you in 2026?

I started a new fashion brand with a webshop and everything, but I’m struggling to get sales because nobody knows the brand yet. What’s the best way to build a community around it?

I was thinking about posting edits that match my target audience on TikTok and Instagram so people see it on their For You Page and become aware of the brand. But the hard part is getting videos of people actually wearing the products, since I haven’t done any collaborations yet.

Do you guys have any ideas on what I should focus on to start seeing results? And maybe some other viral content ideas besides edits?

been noticing more clients asking about showing up in AI generated answers and i'm still trying to wrap my head around how to approach it as a service. SEO i get, we have a solid process around that, but the AEO side feels like it's moving fast and i don't want to be the agency that's still catching up six months from now.

started looking at AEO software specifically and i'm not sure what actually separates the good options from the ones that are just repackaging existing SEO tools with different terminology. feels like a space where a lot of products are going to pop up in the next year and it's hard to know what's actually built for this versus what's just riding the trend.

curious if anyone running an agency has started incorporating this into their stack or pitching it to clients yet. is it still too early to build a real offering around it or is this something that's already becoming a client expectation

over the last year i noticed something strange. there is more marketing advice available than ever.

more tools.

more ai workflows.

more “growth hacks.”

more content explaining content.

yet a lot of marketers and small business owners seem more confused, not less.

one week people say seo is dead. next week everyone says linkedin is the answer. then it becomes short form video.

then community building. then ai search optimization. then cold email again.

feels like people are jumping between tactics faster than they can test anything properly.

the funny part is that some of the best performing businesses i’ve seen lately are doing very simple things consistently:

- clear offer

- fast follow up

- useful content

- strong customer trust

- patience

meanwhile other brands are running 12 tools, automating everything, posting everywhere, and still struggling to convert traffic into customers.

curious what others here think.

has marketing genuinely become harder in 2026 or are people just overcomplicating it now?

one thing i keep noticing lately is that people are researching products very differently now compared to even a year ago.

before, a lot of the journey looked like:
google search → website → comparison blogs → reviews → maybe a demo or signup.

now it feels more like:
chatgpt/perplexity → reddit discussions → youtube reviews → direct visit to shortlisted brands.

which creates a weird problem.

some brands still have strong seo traffic but barely get mentioned inside ai answers or community discussions.
other smaller brands with less traditional visibility keep showing up everywhere people ask for recommendations.

feels like “brand presence across the internet” matters more now than just ranking pages.

i’ve even seen cases where prospects quoted ai summaries during calls instead of information from the actual website.

curious how other marketers are adapting to this shift.

are you changing content strategy at all for ai driven discovery or still treating it mostly like normal seo?

I’ve been thinking about how a lot of growth advice focuses on doing more, more content, more outreach, more platforms, more tracking.

But lately I’ve been wondering whether growth sometimes comes more from removing repetitive work than adding new work.

Things like inbox management, scheduling, recurring follow ups, research, admin work, reporting, or other small tasks that quietly eat time every week.

For people growing a business:

What’s one thing you stopped doing manually that gave you the biggest return?

Was it automation, delegation, changing process, simplifying offers, or something else?

something i’ve been noticing recently across marketing accounts and brand pages:

a lot of content gets engagement now.
likes.
shares.
comments.
views.

but much less of it seems to create actual buying intent.

i’ve seen posts with huge reach generate almost no qualified leads.
then smaller posts with lower engagement bring in better conversations and actual customers.

starting to feel like social platforms trained everyone to chase visibility metrics while businesses quietly care about trust and conversion quality instead.

one thing that stood out recently was how much better “specific” content performed compared to broad viral style posts.

things like:

1. showing real customer problems
2. explaining one small lesson clearly
3. sharing mistakes or failed tests
4. answering niche questions directly

usually brought fewer views but much stronger inbound interest.

meanwhile generic motivational or trend chasing content often created attention with very little business impact.

curious if others are seeing this too.

are engagement metrics becoming a weaker signal for actual marketing performance now?

The most profitable thing I did for my smallish home decor and furniture store was offer classes.

I did 2 things:

1. Offered a variety of topics from what I knew well like decorating, floral arrangements and holiday decor, to things I didn’t know well so I asked reps to come and talk about choosing a sofa (8 way, hand tied…) or choosing a rug (which they pre-ordered).

2. Other stores charged for the classes. I didn’t. I required a gift card purchase and they could use it to shop after the class (or whenever).

EVERY TIME, 90% of shoppers spent 3 to 4 times the gift card amount. Very few only spent the gift card amount while others spent $1k or more.

No matter the type of business, people want your expertise and they want something to do. Just make sure your classes lead to bigger purchases.

Things are pretty bad right and you need to try new things. Start now and OFFER CLASSES!

genuine question because im at that point and keep going back and forth on it. been building a tool for shopify store owners for about 9 months. small team. i still answer a lot of the support myself because i tell myself i learn from it. and thats true. i do learn from it. but i also spend about 3 hours a week on questions that are almost identical to ones i answered the week before. the thing that keeps me doing it manually is that i feel like the moment i hand it off or automate it ill lose the signal. i wont know what people are actually confused about. so at what point did you make the call? and how did you make sure you kept the learning without keeping the bottleneck?

Hey everyone 👋

I’ve been thinking a lot about how small businesses are approaching growth in 2026, and it feels like the landscape has shifted quite a bit in the last few years.

Paid ads are more expensive, organic reach is less predictable, and a lot of traditional channels don’t seem as consistent as they used to be.

From what I’m seeing, a few things are still working (depending on the business):

• niche communities and partnerships
• SEO/content in very specific verticals
• email-based retention strategies
• referral-driven growth loops
• founder-led distribution on social platforms

But it feels like there’s no “standard playbook” anymore it’s more about stacking a few smaller channels together.

Curious what others here are seeing:

• What’s been your most reliable growth channel recently?
• Are referrals/word-of-mouth still strong in your experience?
• Have you found any channel surprisingly effective that most people overlook?

Would love to hear real-world examples from small business owners here.

I'm tired of MCAs and want to get into something that I can truly use a tool to scale my business. I've heard all types of stories but what is actually the best program?

I’ve been trying to grow an Instagram page for a while, and honestly the hardest part is making the profile look active enough for people to take it seriously. I’m posting regularly, testing better reels, and trying to improve the content, but the growth is still slow.

I’m thinking about buying Instagram followers, likes and views just for social proof, not to fake some massive overnight blowup. Ideally, I’d want something gradual that looks natural and doesn’t leave the page with weird ratios, like lots of followers but no likes or views.

Has anyone here tried this before? Did it help the page look more trusted, or did it just make the account look fake? Also curious what red flags I should watch for before testing any site.

So I’ve been running my web agency for about 4 years now, and honestly, the beginning was rough. I was doing everything manually, chasing clients nonstop, and every month felt like starting from zero again. It took me way too long to realize that the real money was in building systems instead of constantly grinding for one off projects.

Once I figured that out, things changed fast. I started getting paid monthly instead of only when I closed a new client, and eventually the income became pretty predictable.

If this sounds interesting, I’ll probably save you 3 of the 4 years it took me to figure this out.

The first thing that changed everything was targeting businesses with outdated websites. This works insanely well because these businesses already understand the value of having a website. You’re not convincing them they need one, you’re just showing them why their current one is hurting them.

Step one, what I started doing was using Swokei. I upload lists of company leads and it automatically analyzes each business website for problems like outdated design, weak SEO, slow loading speed, and bad mobile optimization. Then it turns all those flaws into personalized ready to send emails automatically.

So instead of manually checking websites one by one, I was analyzing thousands of websites and sending thousands of highly personalized emails at scale.

The crazy part is that businesses thought I actually spent time reviewing their website personally because the emails were so specific to their problems. That alone brought in a huge amount of interested replies compared to generic cold emails.

Step two is where most people overcomplicate things. Once your inbox starts filling with replies, call them and tell them you already made a free draft or preview of their new website. Then invite them to a Google Meet or Teams call to walk them through it.

You can build the draft manually or use AI tools to speed things up. The important part is getting them on a call and showing them something visual. Most business owners can’t imagine what “better” looks like until they actually see it.

During the meeting, present the website, explain how it improves their business, and close them right there on the call. Depending on where you live, you can either send a payment link immediately or get them to sign digitally.

The biggest lesson though is this:

Always charge an upfront payment AND a monthly retainer.

The upfront payment gives you immediate cash flow, but the retainer is what changes your life long term. Hosting, maintenance, SEO, edits, support, whatever makes sense for the client. Once you start closing multiple clients every month, that recurring revenue stacks up fast.

After a while it stops feeling like chasing money and starts feeling like building an actual income machine.

Then you just repeat the process.

Honestly, it’s never been easier to start a web agency than it is right now.

I have been handling the social media for 3 brands for almost 2 years now and to be honest, proving results still feels confusing sometimes. There are months where posts get good reach and lots of interaction but it doesn’t seem to turn into anything meaningful then there are random some posts that don’t perform well publicly but somehow bring inquiries or customers later That’s why I’m curious how other people are doing it. Are you tracking sales, leads, website visits, bookings, conversions or something completely different? Do you use tools and dashboards or are you keeping it simple with spreadsheets and basic reports?

I am also wondering if measuring ROI changes depending on what you do. I’d imagine agencies, freelancers, local businesses, SaaS companies and creators probably all look at different metrics What’s one thing that made you realize your social strategy was actually working? And what’s one mistake you made while tracking performance that changed the way you report results now?

Would genuinely like to hear real experiences because I feel like many of us are still trying to figure this out. Share your process, opinions, or even things that didn’t work it might help someone else too

Not the usual “post consistently” advice, I mean something that genuinely moved traffic, leads, or conversions.

Feels like a lot of channels are getting saturated now:

• SEO is changing fast
• paid ads are expensive
• social reach is unpredictable
• AI content is everywhere

Curious what people are doubling down on in 2026 that’s still giving strong results?