What Is a Promotional Mix? (And How to Build One That Actually Works Today)

Editor’s Note: If you’re rethinking your promotional mix, Endless Customers is a great place to start. The book outlines how to plan and execute a modern promotional strategy built for how today’s buyers actually make decisions.

For years, many businesses poured the majority of their marketing energy into a single channel: Google. The thinking was simple. If you created enough high-quality blog content, optimized it for search, and followed SEO best practices, you could attract steady, qualified traffic and build brand authority.

That strategy worked—for a while.

But today, things have changed.

Google’s algorithm updates, AI-generated summaries, featured snippets, and zero-click search experiences are making it harder for brands to capture meaningful traffic. Even when your content ranks, you may not get the click. The search engine might provide the answer directly on the page, with no mention of your company at all.

This isn’t a small shift. It’s a full-blown disruption.

We’re now seeing businesses that used to generate steady, predictable traffic from organic search suddenly hit a wall. Traffic that once drove leads, pipeline, and revenue is disappearing. Not because they’re doing anything wrong. Not because their content quality has dropped. But because Google is sending fewer and fewer people off of Google to actual business websites.

Entire marketing strategies that were built around SEO-first, inbound content are unraveling. The blog posts, pillar pages, and comparison articles that once brought in thousands of visits per month are now being surfaced by AI snippets that answer the question directly—without the user needing to leave the search results. No click means no visit. No visit means no lead.

And what makes it more frustrating is that in many cases, it’s your content being scraped and summarized in those zero-click results. You’re doing the work. Google is taking the value.

If it feels like you’re invisible—even when you’re doing everything right—you’re not alone. This is one of the most significant challenges businesses face today when it comes to attracting attention online.

The rules have changed. And your promotional mix needs to change with them.

So how do you build a promotional mix that works in this new landscape?

This is where the Endless Customers philosophy comes in.

What Is a Promotional Mix?

A promotional mix is the combination of channels and tactics a business uses to promote its products, services, or brand. Traditionally, this might include PR, events, direct mail, advertising, and sales promotions.

Today, a successful promotional mix also includes organic search, paid ads, video, social media, self-service tools, and more. But the balance has shifted.

Are You Still Building Your House on Google?

If most of your promotional strategy still relies on organic traffic, it’s time to reassess.

Between 2015 and 2020, many companies embraced the inbound marketing philosophy promoted by HubSpot. They created keyword-focused content, published educational articles, and used blog traffic to generate leads. The model was clear: drive organic search visitors to the website, direct them toward calls to action, convert them into leads through forms, nurture them with email, and eventually hand them off to sales.

It worked. For a while.

But that approach is rapidly drying up.

We’ve seen it firsthand at IMPACT. At one point, our website was attracting more than 700,000 visitors each month. Today, that number is closer to 30,000. And it’s not just us.

HubSpot—the very company that championed this strategy—has seen a dramatic drop in organic traffic. Based on publicly available data, HubSpot’s blog traffic has plummeted from over 10 million monthly visits at its peak to under 2.5 million as of January 2025.

That’s a 75%+ drop.

And the blog hasn’t changed dramatically. What’s changed is how Google works.

What Should Be in Your Promotional Mix Now?

The most successful brands today spread their efforts across a more diverse mix of digital and offline tactics. Here’s how to start shaping a modern promotional mix that builds trust, drives visibility, and leads to Endless Customers.

1. Paid Search Is Likely No Longer Optional

If you want to show up in Google search results today, paid ads are still the most prominent placement—and that’s by design. Ads remain Google’s primary revenue stream, which is why they continue to dominate the top of the results page.

Go back seven or eight years, and most users would scroll right past the ads. They looked like ads. We knew what they were. And we trusted the organic results more.

That’s no longer the case.

Google has made subtle, intentional changes to how ads appear. Today, the difference between an ad and an organic listing is harder to spot. In many cases, with AI summaries, featured snippets, and dropdown menus crowding the top of the page, it’s actually a relief to see a clean blue link you can click. But those blue links? They’re often ads.

Where it used to be common advice to skip Google Ads entirely and focus on organic search, that advice no longer holds. If your business wants visibility in search today, paid media is a key part of the mix.

Question to consider: Is our reluctance to invest in paid media costing us visibility at the most important moment??

If you’re ready to explore what’s possible with paid media, our team at IMPACT can help. We specialize in running Google Ads that support the Endless Customers System™ and drive real results.

2. Video Should Be a Core Channel

Video builds trust faster than any other medium.

It’s about showing buyers what they actually want to see—answers, transparency, and proof. Buyers today don’t just want to read about what makes you different. They want to see it for themselves.

More and more, people are turning to video when researching a product, service, or company. Whether it’s a walkthrough, an explanation, or a side-by-side comparison, video helps buyers feel like they’ve experienced your business before they’ve ever talked to anyone on your team.

And yet, many companies still hesitate.

They don’t know how to get started. They’re unsure what to film. Or they’re worried the videos won’t be perfect. That hesitation is your advantage.

Most of your competitors still haven’t committed to video. Which means right now, it’s one of the most powerful opportunities you have to stand out—to show what others in your space aren’t willing to show.

Start with the basics:

• Show what your process actually looks like

• Introduce your team

• Walk through pricing and what affects it

• Answer the questions your sales team hears every day

The best videos aren’t always flashy. They’re helpful, honest, and human. And buyers are demanding them across every stage of the journey—from research to decision.

Pro Tip: Hire or bring on an in-house videographer.

Having someone on your team to capture video regularly is one of the smartest long-term moves you can make. These videos can live across your website, be used in sales conversations, and serve as evergreen content that builds trust 24/7.

3. YouTube Must Be In Your Promotional Mix

If you’re aiming to enhance your organic search visibility, you need to prioritize YouTube.

As a Google-owned platform, YouTube videos often receive favorable positioning in search results. In fact, videos are 50 times more likely to achieve high organic page ranks on Google compared to plain text content . This preference underscores the importance of integrating video into your content strategy.

On top of that, video search results boast a 41% higher click-through rate (CTR) than their text-based counterparts . This means users are significantly more inclined to engage with video links when presented alongside traditional blue text links.

Let’s break it down with simple math:

If a traditional blog post earns 1,000 impressions in search and gets 50 clicks at a 5% CTR.

However, if a YouTube video for that same keyword may get 50,000 impressions and 3,500 clicks with increased visibility and a higher average CTR.

That’s nearly 70 times the engagement from the same keyword opportunity!

Now multiply that across dozens, or hundreds, of videos optimized around different keywords. The scale of missed opportunity is massive.

If you have an in-house videographer, they'll own your YouTube strategy. They’ll produce at least two to three videos per week, optimizing each one for search, writing strong titles and descriptions, designing eye-catching thumbnails, and driving channel growth through consistent publishing. They’ll monitor performance, learn what works, and make sure your brand shows up again and again for the searches your buyers are making.

Question to consider: Is our YouTube strategy helping us get discovered?

4. Short-Form Social Video Is Driving Brand Discovery

Even if you’re not the type of person who spends hours scrolling through short-form videos, chances are you know someone who does. It’s become part of everyday life. Whether it’s your kids on TikTok, your friends watching Reels, or your colleagues sending around a funny or insightful YouTube Short—short-form video is now how people discover, learn, and connect.

And the numbers back it up.

• The average user spends 95 minutes per day consuming short-form video content across platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels.

• 91% of consumers say they want to see more online video content from brands.

• 64% of buyers say watching a video on social media has influenced a purchase decision in the last month—both in B2C and B2B.

• Younger audiences aren’t the only ones watching. Viewership of short-form video has surged among 35–54 year-olds, making it one of the fastest-growing age segments engaging with this type of content.

Buyers today—whether they’re shopping for software, financial services, home improvement, or anything in between—are consuming short-form video. They’re using it to discover new brands, learn about problems they’re trying to solve, and build relationships with the people they trust most: content creators, business owners, and experts who show up consistently in their feed.

Short-form video builds familiarity fast. It’s not overly produced. It feels authentic. And it creates the sense of I know this person—before a buyer ever visits your website or speaks with sales.

Which is exactly why short-form video must be part of your promotional mix.

Right now, the opportunity is wide open. Most businesses still haven’t committed to showing up consistently with short-form content. They’re worried about looking awkward on camera. They don’t know what to say. Or they’re treating it like a trend that will pass.

It won’t.

Short-form video is now one of the most influential forces shaping brand perception and driving buying decisions across every industry.

If your business isn’t visible here, you’re missing the chance to meet your buyers in the one place they’re spending more time than anywhere else—on their phones, watching short, compelling videos.

Question to consider: Are we meeting our audience where they scroll?

5. Offline Still Has a Role

As you rethink your promotional mix, it’s easy to go all-in on digital. And for good reason—more businesses are investing in digital channels than ever before. But that increased investment has also created more noise and more competition. Standing out online is harder, not easier.

This is where offline tactics still hold power.

Direct mail, trade shows, print, local events, and speaking opportunities haven’t disappeared. In fact, they’re becoming more valuable—precisely because fewer businesses are using them creatively. When executed well, these channels offer a moment of surprise and memorability that can be hard to replicate in a crowded inbox or noisy feed.

And they don’t have to operate in a silo.

The most effective offline efforts are connected to your digital strategy. A QR code on a direct mail piece can lead to a personalized video. A handout at a trade show can drive someone to an interactive pricing calculator. A live speaking engagement can point people to a short assessment or self-service tool that continues the conversation online.

Think of offline not as separate from digital, but as fuel for it.

Question to consider: Are we exploring creative ways to connect our offline efforts to our digital strategy?

Your Promotional Mix Should Reflect How Today’s Buyers Buy

Most of your buyers are 80% through their buying journey before they talk to sales. They’re watching videos, comparing options, researching pricing, and checking reviews—all without you knowing it.

That’s why your promotional mix needs to meet them before they’re ready to raise their hand.

Let your mix reflect the Endless Customers System™—a strategy built around trust, transparency, and meeting buyers where they are