The Death of Easy Leads

The Problem

Traffic and Attention are the driving factors in Business Development. But what happens when the Economy forces the market to hibernate? No longer are personal referrals a viable source of consistent business. What used to be a 30-minute introductory conversation has now turned into an hour-long prospect therapy session, aimed at alleviating the anxiety behind the status of current housing volatility. 

From 2022 to 2025, building a digital audience has gone from hard to hell. 

Data from 2022 shows a sub-10% population share of AI-generated content. Going back specifically, ChatGPT was released in late 2022, when widespread corporate adoption of AI tools to generate online content was not as common. 

Data from 2025 shows that over 50% of new online articles were produced by AI, with reports on new web pages indicating that the number increases to 74% in regards to containing AI-generated content.

The era of content slop is upon us. And yet attention spans are further diminishing, as VTRs (View-Through-Rate) have been dwindling from year to year. Regardless of the further transition into a video-first consumer base, only 41% of 18–30 year olds in the U.S. view digital news at least once a week.

The overall desensitization of socio-economic connection, corporate to consumer relatability, and influx of half-quality double-volume non-human content and video on the internet, has exacerbated the difficulties Housing Professionals do and will continue to face in light of this new age. 

How to Navigate the Problem

The organic acquisition of digital human attention is no longer a viable route. A couple of years ago, TikTok forced its Conglomerate Competitors to rethink how people consume content. 

Even back in 2020, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn had feed algorithms that heavily relied on creator and community-based data sets. While interest data sets were still active, they were much less heavily reliant on them at the time. 

This is clear from the IOS 11 fiasco, where Social Media based firms and advertisers were almost solely reliant on Custom List Targeting instead of Interest Based Targeting. 

To go full circle, AI is now bringing about a similar conflict as the previously mentioned issue. But instead of advertising targeting troubles, now the problem has become droughted organic reach. 

There is too much low-quality content feeding into the algorithm. And we aren’t talking about low production value, but a low emotional strategy. 

This at first may seem as if there could be open water for higher quality user-generated content; however, with the current operating behavior of today's recommendation algorithms. In 2025, it has made budget-less digital media almost inherently and absolutely ineffective. 

The Solution

If we are to structure the aforementioned data and opinion, know this. Nothing is impossible. And business really hasn’t changed in 200 years. Sure, Industry and Technology have. But at the end of the day, and probably for the next century. 

The best road to further acquisition of business is putting your face in front of as many people as possible. 

But due to the year to year increased difficulty of capturing said attention. The Client/Prospect Ecosystem  has never been more vital. Now, when someone looks your way, you'd better make sure they keep looking your way. 

No, it is not just about having a solid text sequence, an email drip, or some “disruptive” mailers. And posting on Social Media once a day is also no longer enough. 

That is the reality of this state of the housing business. 

In the face of all this technological disruption, the solution to the problem is to build a Private Community Ecosystem through Manual Outbound or Digital Media Spend. 

Every connection on LinkedIn, every follow on Instagram, needs to be a measured addition to the Community Bubble you are trying to create. Consumers don’t really care about facts; what matters to them is how they can relate, and if you truly understand their situation. 

Manual outbound or media spend funneling into an open-loop platform, where trust is built over time, will not only do wonders for the consistent inflow of contacts funneling into your Ecosystem. But it will subconsciously handle prospect objections early on in your sales process. 

All in all, it goes like this: funnel people into your bubble, strategically plan out the substance of your content to handle any objections that may come up on their side, prior to ever talking to you. And then methodically place calls to action under videos or writing, funneling towards an information capture. 

Organically, this will take a while, but it’s possible. But with Media Spend, it’s instant, and the only way to get ahead in this state of the industry.