Google processes 9.1 billion searches daily, and if you’ve searched for anything recently, you’ve probably noticed that AI Overview box sitting right at the top. You know, the one that answers your question without you having to click anywhere else.
That little box is appearing on roughly 21% of all searches now. And it’s absolutely destroying website traffic.
Between July 2024 and July 2025, 88% of major U.S. news sites watched their traffic evaporate. The average drop was nearly 25%. Forbes got hammered the worst, losing half its visitors and watching referral traffic tank by 40%. This isn’t some minor algorithmic hiccup. This is a fundamental shift in how people consume information online.
But here’s the weird part. While everyone else was bleeding traffic, PostcardMania somehow managed to generate 149,028 leads last year. A new all-time high. So what gives?
Stop Writing Content for Humans First
This sounds backwards, but hear me out. AI doesn’t create answers out of thin air. It scrapes them from existing content. The websites winning AI citations are the ones feeding it exactly what it needs.
Those fluffy, broad blog posts everyone’s been writing for years? They’re dead weight now. What works is hyper-specific content answering actual questions your prospects type into search bars or ask ChatGPT directly.
Think questions like “How long does it take to see results from direct mail?” or “What’s the average response rate for postcard campaigns?” Not generic garbage like “The Ultimate Guide to Marketing Success.”
The trick is structuring your content so AI can easily lift answers straight from your pages. Use headlines that mirror real questions. Break information into scannable chunks. Make yourself quotable. The goal isn’t just ranking anymore. It’s becoming the source AI cites when someone asks about your industry.
Sure, you might not get the click. But you’re building authority in a world where business visibility matters more than vanity metrics.
The One Channel AI Can’t Touch
Here’s where things get interesting. While everyone’s panicking about digital traffic, there’s one marketing channel still pulling a 5% response rate that exists completely outside AI’s reach.
Direct mail.
Yeah, I know. It sounds ancient. But think about it. AI summaries live on screens. Algorithms control what you see online. Ad blockers strip out digital ads. But a physical postcard? That lands in someone’s hands regardless of what Google’s AI decides to show them.
Direct mail creates a tangible touchpoint before prospects ever search online. It builds familiarity in the real world, which means when they do eventually Google your business or ask AI for recommendations, your name already registers in their brain.
Starting with direct mail isn’t complicated. Pull a list of your best customers, work with a provider to find lookalikes in your area, then commit to repeated mailings. Not one-offs. Repetition is what builds recognition. Track responses with unique phone numbers or URLs so you can see what’s actually working.
Once you’ve got traditional prospecting mail down, you can get fancy with automation. Direct mail retargeting works just like online retargeting, except instead of showing banner ads to website visitors who bounce, you automatically send them physical mail. Target anyone who spends more than 30 seconds on your site, include an offer, and watch them come back to convert.
The beauty is that this channel operates in a parallel universe to everything happening with AI search. It’s diversification that actually matters.
Reviews Are Your New SEO
People might start their buying journey asking ChatGPT or browsing AI summaries, but they’re not whipping out their credit cards based solely on what an algorithm tells them. They’re checking reviews.
Google reviews specifically remain one of the most powerful trust signals that exist. Businesses with consistent, authentic reviews show up better in search results, close more sales, and generally crush competitors who neglect this.
In an AI-driven world, reviews are the one form of social proof that can’t be faked or summarized away. When a prospect lands on your Google Business Profile and sees hundreds of real people vouching for you, that outweighs any sterile AI-generated answer.
The problem is most businesses wait around hoping customers remember to leave reviews. Build a system instead. Ask at the exact right moment, right after a win or positive interaction. Make it simple. Make it repeatable.
Technology might be changing how people discover businesses, but human psychology around trust hasn’t evolved nearly as fast.
The Real Lesson Nobody Wants to Hear
AI isn’t actually killing marketing. It’s just exposing the businesses that were relying too heavily on a single traffic source or strategy. If your entire lead generation depends on organic search traffic, yeah, you’re going to feel this shift hard.
But if you diversify, stay visible across multiple channels both digital and physical, and focus on building genuine authority instead of gaming algorithms, you’ll be fine. Better than fine, actually.
The businesses winning right now are the ones who stopped waiting for traffic to come to them and started meeting prospects where they actually are. Sometimes that’s in an AI summary. Sometimes it’s in their mailbox. Sometimes it’s in review sections they browse at 11pm while deciding whether to trust you with their money.
Maybe the question isn’t how to survive AI eating search traffic, but why you were so dependent on search traffic in the first place.
