Your Digital Marketing Has Changed. Your Strategy Should Too.

2026 Privileged
Digital Marketing Update

Search is no longer just about rankings. The Core 4 combines SEO, GEO/AI SEO, social media, and video to build visibility, trust, authority, and growth.

This is a personal message and invitation:

From: Me (Nathan Hawkes – President of Arcane Marketing)

To: You

The only people who can see this page are those who saw the link from the email I personally sent you.

TL;DR - The purpose of this information and this page:

*TL;DR – this means “too long; didn’t read”

In a big way, we’ve cracked the code for winning in digital marketing. This has been tested across quite a few different websites, including our own, website. Yeah – we’re proud to now set the example of what to do and not just “talk about it.” It’s not a little thing, this is a really big deal. It’s verified and is actively working.
Digital marketing has changed. We worked really hard and figured out what changed and what moves the needle. No need to waste time to figure it out any longer.
We want to help educate you, specifically, on what we’ve found, how it works, and what this looks like for your business.
To invite you to watch the video (below) to the end.
The information is FREE and does not obligate you to anything. It’s simply important that you are aware of what’s happening so that you can make better decisions about what to do in the future to help your business grow moving forward.
We want to schedule a separate and fast call with either your account manager, or with Nathan directly (or both) to talk about this with you.

I Ran an Experiment on My Own Website. ArcaneMarketing.com.
...And, Here's What Happened.

Before I get into the numbers, I want to tell you why you’re the one reading this and not everybody else.

I didn’t post this publicly. I built it, then sent the link to a short list of people I actually want in the room for this conversation. You’re on that list.

Here’s what I need you to notice as you read: everything below happened without a single ad dollar. Not one.

If you’re the type who catches a detail like that and keeps reading anyway, you’re exactly who I built this page for.

So keep going. What you’re about to read changed how I run this entire company, and I have a hunch it’s going to change a few things for you, too.

I want to tell you something, and I’m going to tell it to you straight instead of dressing it up like a press release.

This video helps to explain it all. Watch to the end.

I put together a 4:55 video that goes through this important message in more depth than I can fit here. It’s worth the watch, I promise.

How I Actually Got Here

This didn’t start as a slide deck. It started as an itch I couldn’t shake back in the spring of 2025.

That’s when Google finally admitted something out loud that it had danced around for years (which is a really big deal): social media posts were being indexed and cataloged, and yes, they counted for search and for AI results. This is officially the first time Google had ever officially said social media posts were a real and active ranking/visibility factor. Not a hint. A confirmation.

Spring 2025

Google Confirmed Social Media Was Part of Search Visibility

Google officially acknowledged that social media content was being indexed and *would* influence search and AI results. What had been a theory was now a confirmation: social content mattered. Social media content is not just “social” any longer.

Spring 2025

Summer 2025

AI Moved to Center Stage

Google I/O Conference happened, and the entire keynote was AI Overviews, Gemini, and NotebookLM (now called Gemini Notebook).

Around that same stretch, we started noticing something else: Google search traffic softening while paid subscriptions to ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity kept climbing.

People weren’t just poking around with AI search anymore.

They were paying for it monthly. This trend has continued with strong growth that isn’t slowing down.

Summer 2025

Late 2025

Then We Started Watching Video

Google started dropping more and more hints, specifically about video and how important it is for both search and human attention.

The unofficial (and yet official) standard became something like at least one relevant video per page, with Google and AI Engines rewarding pages that had it.

We watched those pages start pulling more traffic and getting cited by AI engines more often than pages without it.

Late 2025

Spring 2026

Search Started Moving Beyond Google

A number of important batch of surveys came out that surprised everyone in the industry, even me.

A real depending on the generation you belong to, a major segment of people said they preferred the results they got searching on a social platform over what Google gave them. Yeah, search on platforms like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, X, etc…)

The social platforms noticed too. They started building their own search experiences, quietly pulling search traffic away from both Google and AI engines.

The TikTok-as-search-engine numbers alone are enough to make you sit up. 49% of people actively use TikTok as a search engine presently! *mind blown*

Spring 2026

Fall 2026

We’d Seen Enough

We started running a real experiment.

Sharper content (much more specific and less broad in general). Real technical SEO as close to perfection as possible. The specific business citations and structure GEO actually rewards. Consistent posting across the top 7 social networks. And video that was informative instead of just existing to check a box.

We chose a couple of clients and started this “Core 4” process with them. If you’re reading this, you know who you are.

The Core 4 is: SEO, GEO, Social Media (organic), and Video. All working together at the same time, done consistently every day.

Put those 4 pieces together and the visibility jump was immediate. Revenue followed and has continued to rise.

Fall 2026

Spring 2026

We Stopped Being the Exception

Here’s the part I’ll admit outright.

Arcane Marketing has always been a little like the plumber with the leaky toilet.

We spend all of our efforts working on and fixing everyone else’s marketing and somehow never get around to our own.

So at the start of April, I decided it was time to stop being the exception to our own advice. We needed to be a shining example.

We went all in on the Core 4, on our own website, and decided to actually show our work instead of just talking about it.

(Read about the results we achieved

for ourselves down below)

Spring 2026

The Next 90 Days

That’s What Led to the Experiment

Digital marketing didn’t get harder over the last 18 months.

It simply changed.

Nobody sent a memo.

Nobody rang a bell. It just quietly rearranged itself while the rest of the industry kept doing what worked back in 2024.

Here’s what actually happened, and why I’ve spent the better part of a year obsessing over it.

Also, this is the reason for you getting the email and reading this message. Pay attention :)

The Next 90 Days

People stopped asking Google and started asking AI - Consistently

As a perfect example of this – 38% of patients use AI, specifically, to research or compare providers. 29% of these people say AI directly influenced who they picked. That number is closing in on referrals from a patient’s own primary care doctor, which sits at 28%.

Think about that for a moment. AI is now more influential than a doctor telling a patient “go see this person.” When someone asks ChatGPT or Gemini who to call, the AI hands them a short [vetted] list. If you’re not on that list…, you don’t exist. It doesn’t matter how good of a provider you are.

Visibility is the singly most important goal of digital marketing.

The Core 4 is designed for visibility.

So we designed & built something and tested it on ourselves first...

For the last 10 to 11 months, we’ve been building and refining a strategy for this exact shift.

I call it the Core 4, and I’m not going to pitch it to you like it’s a rebrand of the same 4 services you’ve always bought.

The truth is that it’s not.

I’ve found myself spending a large portion of my time educating people so that they are armed with the right knowledge and how to win with digital marketing in 2026 and beyond.

SEO - Search Engine Optimization

SEO gets you found when someone searches Google for what you do.

Learn about our SEO services

GEO

Generative Engine Optimization gets you named when someone asks AI instead. Here's the number that made me sit up: traffic from AI recommendations converts at an average of 26%, compared to 1% to 2% from almost everything else. That's not a typo, I checked it twice.

Learn about our GEO and AI SEO services

Social Media

Social Media builds the trust people expect before they ever pick up the phone. It's also quietly become one of the biggest signals Google and AI engines use to decide who's worth recommending.

Learn about our Social Media services

Video

Video content lets people see and hear an actual human before that first conversation. 9 out of 10 people polled in February 2026 said they wished the brands they follow posted more video. About 1% of businesses actually do it. I'll let you do the math on how big that gap is.

Learn about our Video Content services

Here's the part I need you to actually hear and understand:

These are not 4 separate services anymore.

They’re 4 wheels on the same car. You can run 1 or 2 of them and still roll forward, technically.

You’ll also spend a lot of time wondering why revenue isn’t following.

I don't want to sell you on a theory, so I tested it on my own website first. And guess what?! It works.

Before I said a word of this to a single client, I ran the full Core 4 on arcanemarketing.com for the last 90 days, in arguably the most competitive, oversaturated categories on the internet. Period:

digital marketing itself.

If it couldn’t work there, I wasn’t going to bring it to you.

From April through July 2026:

Traffic Increase

0 %

Leads Increase

0 %

AI Search Visibility

0 %

Ad Spend

$ 0

I’ll say that last part again because it’s the one people don’t believe. Zero dollars in ads.

Then I studied what's happening with clients already doing this

Every client who has consistently run the full Core 4 for at least 6 months has seen revenue growth. Every. Single. One of them. Average growth across that group is sitting above 320% right now.

One of my favorites and maybe one of the best case-studies for Arcane Marketing, ever: a 4-provider medical practice in East Tennessee came to us as agency number 6. There were 5 agencies before us over about 15 years. That’s an uncomfortable number of “exes” to have in a marketing relationship. Historically, they grew 2% to 4% a year.

After running the Core 4 every single day for 11 months, revenue is up more than 700%. Yeah… hard to believe, but it’s true.

I know how that sounds. I’ve read it back 3 times myself. The clients are excited and almost besides themselves with the success.

If you’re curious where you’d land on a curve like that, that conversation takes about 20 minutes and costs you nothing. Talk to your account manager whenever you’re ready, no need to finish the rest of this page first.

Here's what I actually want from you

I didn’t build this page to make anyone feel behind. I built it because a good chunk of you reading this are already running 1 or 2 pieces of the Core 4, and closing that gap is the fastest revenue move available to you right now. Nothing else on your plate this quarter moves the needle like this does.

I’ll also be straight with you: my team and I can only run so many of these evaluations personally each month, and I’d rather do 10 of them well than 50 of them badly. If this got your attention, don’t sit on it.

Talk to your account manager, or grab 20 minutes with me directly. I’ll show you exactly where you stand, what’s missing, and what it actually takes to get all 4 wheels turning for you. No pitch, no pressure, just the same straight numbers you just read, applied to your organization.

Your Digital Marketing Has Changed. Your Strategy Should Too.

2026 Privileged
Digital Marketing Update

This is a personal message and invitation:

TL;DR - The purpose of this information and this page:

I Ran an Experiment on My Own Website. ArcaneMarketing.com.
...And, Here's What Happened.

This video helps to explain it all. Watch to the end.

Schedule a Quick Call - Core 4 Clients

How I Actually Got Here