The death of info business?

I woke up to a worrying lack of notifications.

This was just after the recent promo for the Automated Growth cohort I was planning to run.

In the past, when running similar offers, I'd wake up mid-launch to the same three things every morning...

... Stripe notifications (the best thing to wake up to. Don't tell my wife I said that.)
.. A couple of booked calls from people who wanted a little last-minute reassurance
... A handful of emails asking about the final things stopping them from buying

But this time... way too quiet.

So quiet, in fact, that I decided not to run the cohort at all. I didn't hit my minimum sales number to justify it, so it's gone back on the shelf... maybe to never return.

And that got me digging.

All through last week I've been trying to work out if it's just me, this offer, or a sign of something bigger. So I spent the week speaking to agency owners, solopreneurs, info product sellers, and even a couple of app founders.

They all said the same thing.

It's insanely hard out there right now.

I'd love to know if you're seeing the same in your corner of the internet. Hit reply and let me know what you're seeing.

Anyway, here's the pattern from those convos.

Info products are suffering.

People don't want the educational stuff they used to get from courses, cause AI gives them a reasonable answer in seconds.

As a heavy AI user who's also spent a tonne of cash on courses over the years, I can tell you AI is about as good as the crap courses out there.

The good ones are still miles ahead on detail and expertise, but that doesn't really matter though.

The market seems to have decided AI is good enough.

And the middle of the market is getting squeezed out.

Agency owners I know have either downsized drastically or closed up shop completely.

A 1-2 combo of a flagging economy and AI output has made it hard for them.

Clients are cutting spend, trying to get AI to do the agency's job for them, and taking longer to convert cause they're out comparison shopping.

If you sell a service, I know you've also seen an increase in the "well, these guys over here will do it for less".

The real high-ticket players are gonna be OK in my opinion.

Big brand recognition, mega-bucks pricing, and enough cash in reserve to wait out the longer sales cycles will see them through. And honestly, the brand recognition is doing a lot of the heavy lifting here.

It's the folk in the middle, the solopreneurs, consultants, and growing agencies, who are getting hit hardest.

AI has commoditised a lot of what they do. And with tighter margins, smaller deals, and longer sales cycles, they don't have the reserves to weather that storm.

So what's actually working?

Low ticket, for one.

Yes, ad costs are up and all of that. But when people are scared to spend the big bucks, a compelling, insanely cheap offer still gets them opening their wallets.

And AI makes the creation and delivery side cheap enough to make the numbers work (if you know what you're doing).

Here's the bit that's got me excited though.

A lot of my competitors have stopped their ads and quietly wrapped up the offers they were running. There's a drastic reduction in the number of competing ads out there now as they were all relying on info courses or mid market services to make up the cash.

BUt, I've noticed a few sly folk have been running ads to the same offers for 8-9 months straight, even in this economy. Nobody keeps paying for ads that long unless something's working.

They're taking the tried-and-tested methods you probably already know, adding one little twist, and getting it to work while everyone else struggles.

I'll break down their exact process tomorrow, cause this email is already running long. And later in the week, I'll show you what I'm building off the back of it.

See you then,

Pete "cliffhanger" Boyle