The Future of Shopping? AI + Actual Humans.
AI has changed how consumers shop, but people still drive decisions. Levanta’s research shows affiliate and creator content continues to influence conversions, plus it now shapes the product recommendations AI delivers. Affiliate marketing isn’t being replaced by AI, it’s being amplified.
DEEP DIVE
I had a session with a client - b2b fintech last week that stuck with me.
They've got a churn problem. A real one: people actively avoid their booth at trade shows. Old customers tell their peers to stay away.
But the thing is - the product isn't bad anymore.
It was - 5 years ago. They know it. They fixed it. Rebuilt the whole thing, actually…
But the market doesn't care.
Here's what happened: they lost a bunch of customers back then. Those customers left angry. And they did what most companies do - fixed the product and assumed people would notice.
They didn't.
Those churned customers are still walking around with a five-year-old story in their heads. Still telling people "don't use them."
Imagine - they’ve been facing “Never again” out loud at those booth stands. FOR YEARS.
And what did they do?
They've been trying to outmarket the problem: better ads, lower prices… More trade shows in countries where nobody knows them yet.
None of it worked. Because the problem was never the product.
The problem is: they never closed the loop.
They fixed the thing but they never said "you were right."
No acknowledgment. No "we heard you."
They just continued fixing the product and having more sales calls with new customers hoping people would forget.
People don't forget. They remember how you made them feel.
So here's what I told them:
Stop running from the old customers. Run toward them.
Build a campaign around it. "We fixed it because of YOU."
Invite the churned customers to private events. Not to sell them - to say the thing out loud:
We heard you. We screwed up. We're sorry. And here's what we did about it.
It's not a marketing trick. It's emotional repair.
Because a grudge isn't about features. It's about feeling ignored.
And you can't outship a grudge.
So my question for you this week is: do you have something similar and you’ve been ignoring it? Think about it and talk to you next week.
That’s a wrap✨
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