The Top 5 Marketing Trends You Can’t Ignore in 2026

0:0010 years ago, I made the decision to build my personal brand that was elevated, yet approachable, and reflected who I was, not just what I did. I created my website with ShowIt because it's true drag and drop freedom so you can easily build and update your site. Plus, their real human support team, game changer. Want to try it for yourself? Head to jasminestar.com forward slash show it for a 14-day free trial and first month free when you subscribe. Long-term thinking beats short-term wins every single time. And the most successful business owners, they play the long game and I want you to do the same.

0:32So when things feel slow or tough, I want you to remind yourself this is so worth it. If you want to know the top five marketing trends in 2026, you're in the right place. I'll be walking you through the best marketing to pursue for the greatest amount of sales, connecting with perfect people who are primed to buy and effective ways to stick out from traditional marketing and AI slop. That's better left in 2025. Welcome to the Jasmine Star Show. I'm Jasmine Star and marketing is my jam. I was a marketer before I knew marketing was a thing. I used to record fake commercials as a kid for my favorite sports teams.

1:05If you're not a Dodgers fan, we might not be friends. You can just stop watching right now. I wrote jingles for radio promos. My favorite was the song I wrote for Double Mint Gum that I made with my twin sister, and then I made her sing it with me. And then when I was nine years old, I created so much buzz for a garage sale I hosted with neighborhood kids that it was too successful. Yes, as in the kids sold too much. Here's what I didn't know. Most of the kids in the neighborhood took toys from their bedrooms without asking their parents and sold them without permission. And then it was so embarrassing when all the kids in the neighborhood had to ask people for refunds.

1:41What can I say? I was a born marketer. Today, as a CEO of Jasmine Star Brands, a holding company where I outright own, have equity in, or invest in a portfolio of companies, I've become known in the industry as somebody who built something out of nothing by knowing how to create effective, organic, and powerful marketing campaigns. This is my favorite time of the year because it's when I get to unveil where I'm going to be spending most of my marketing time and energy. And I want you to do the same. And since I can't help but market everything, yes, including this very episode, today's show is brought to you by the letter R.

2:20That's right. All top five marketing trends begin with the letter R. So let's dive in. As a side note, good marketing is memorable. So how can we get people to remember something? The easiest way to do this is to create a repeating pattern of the same letter. I want you remembering these trends so each one begins with the letter R. This is your first lesson in effective marketing. So get ready to take more notes. We are diving in. Okay, top five marketing trend in 2026 is royalty. Marketing your empire. Okay, one thing is for sure. Influencers have had the greatest impact on marketing in the last decade.

2:59They have changed the way Fortune 500 companies market, as well as mom and pop local shops market their businesses. However, the biggest change we will see a lot more will be the difference between an influencer and an entrepreneur with influence. And don't worry, if you're not an influencer or you don't work with influencers, I have good news. Stick with me for a second. About a decade or so ago, influencers were able to make anywhere from$50 ,000 to$100 ,000 per year talking about products or services they loved. That was a huge deal. People could stop working at their nine to five job that they hated and get paid to talk about things they were already talking about.

3:38But a few years ago, we saw a big move for influencers to not just talk about products or services, but to have actual ownership in the products or services. They weren't just getting paid to talk about the businesses. They were getting a piece of all of the profits. That was a game changer. Now, Kim Kardashian was one of the first pioneers of this concept with Skims, and now a ton of other businesses that she owns. But now she's just one of many. Mr. Beast with his Beastables chocolate, Rihanna with Fenty, Logan Paul and Prime Energy drink, the Kelsey brothers with garage beer, Charli D 'Amelio with her popcorn.

4:13Okay, you might be sitting here and you're thinking, okay, but I'm not an influencer, so what does this have to do with my business? My answer is everything. You have the opportunity to build your personal brand with your content and that in turn grows your business. And I'm just not talking about creating content for a business you have. It could even be for a business you want to have. You can use a platform like Instagram to post and get people to like, know, and follow you. Then you can get people to pay to get more content from you. You can set up Patreon or a sub stack or a third party to host your content.

4:50This is leveraging your free content into more paid content. But here's the thing. This is one thing I'm gonna caution everybody here. I want you to remember that those platforms like Substack and Patreon, they take a percentage of your revenue. And this is why I'm a big believer in building your own offer. It could be a product like Jeanette Aranda. She is, actually, she lives somewhat close here in Orange County, I would say loosely my neighbor. And she launched a fragrance line called Elliott Coal. And it was named after her two sons. And it was like an essential, kind of like an oil or a perfume.

5:22And I'd been following her on Instagram for her lifestyle content. She debuted this fragrance. And when she debuted it, I bought it. And shortly thereafter, that fragrance was posted on revolve.com on page one. It sold out. Her story is so inspiring because she had a small group of early buyers and they created so much excitement and goodwill that she has since expanded her product line and she's the outright owner of it. So she used to talk about other products as an influencer, as an advocate, and then she created her own. I love that because she has complete ownership in her own product. But it's not just physical products.

6:06You can create a digital offer like online coaching or a course or a membership where you own the entirety of the business and do user social media content for that paid offer. So let's get into an example. I'm the founder of the Consistent 10K, a 90-day coaching program that teaches people how to build an online business that brings in $10 ,000 months consistently. One of our students is Angie McPherson. She's a branding photographer. So that means that she takes photos for other business owners to use as their marketing and branding content. She has a successful service-based business, but wanted to add an additional revenue stream from an online offer.

6:43She went through our program and created a digital program teaching people how to build their own branding photography businesses. She's well on her way to six figures in 2026, and that's in addition to her service-based business. And then there's Laurieann, who helps Christian women in midlife navigate life after divorce. And there's Katie Harvey, who teaches women how to eat intuitively and exercise in a healthy way. There's Alyssa who owns a doula agency in Arizona who has an incredible service-based business with a team of doulas, but she wanted to add a digital offer to help train and empower doulas around the world.

7:19She has now added an additional revenue stream to her service-based businesses. No, everybody I just mentioned, they're not influencers. They're entrepreneurs who are building and using influence. They are queens building a kingdom all of their own in their own way, and they own all of it. They are using personal content to market their own empire. And this marketing is going to be at an all-time high in 2026. Like them, you're going to see me doubling down on personal content that builds my businesses. That was the first marketing trend, which we call royalty. Top five marketing trend in 2026 is going to be, secondly, responsiveness.

8:02This is direct message marketing. Okay, so before we jump into exactly how we work magic in the DMs, I want to remind you that every single day, we should be posting free content on social media. So I want you to think of this as casting a wide net. That content is out there catching attention, building trust, starting to attract people who are curious and interested. I want you to think about your audience as like a crowd at a concert. Some people are already there at the front of the stage, pumped, and they're ready to join right away. Others, well, other people there at the concert, they're kind of hanging back, watching at a distance, warming up to the idea.

8:39Every single day, a few of those people are going to be ready to step forward and take action. And others, well, maybe they need a little bit more time to feel the vibe. And that's exactly where your free content comes in. It keeps the energy going. It keeps people excited. It draws the ones who are a little bit curious, but not quite ready. That's what your free content does. So here's the thing. When you do your free content well, it will grow your audience. But, okay, and this is a very big but, it's also unpredictable. And what we're all about is creating as much predictability as possible when it comes to marketing your business in 2026, which is why we just will not stop at free content.

9:18We wanna weave in personal outreach that resonates with your followers. And here's why. At the end of the day, it's literally just a numbers game. So let's ask the question. How many leads or conversations can we expect from our free content every day? Well, here's the problem. We really don't know. Some days you post a reel or a carousel and you get some leads. Then other days you post something and then you get absolutely nothing. So while your free content will generate leads, it's not something that you could fully rely on day to day. So then we need to ask, how many leads can we expect from outreach each day?

9:56Us reaching out to people. And the answer is crystal clear, 70. That's right. We can kickstart 70 conversations every single day. So let's make sure that we're on the same page here. If you're trusting on free content alone, your monthly lead count is a big question mark. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. There's no real way to know how many leads it's going to bring in. But if you combine free content plus direct message outreach, okay, now you've got at least 2 ,100 leads a month. That's 70 conversations a day times 30 days plus whatever your free content brings in on top of that. So often when people start out, they pour all of their energy into building up their Instagram through free content.

10:42That's great. And honestly, it's great and also can be frustrating. It's like hitting a brick wall some days. You're dealing with the algorithm. You're learning hooks. You're figuring out what is really working with my audience. And all of that takes a lot of time and a lot of practice. Keep doing it. But when you are creating responsiveness with direct message and outreach, that bridges the gap immediately. It puts you in control of generating 2 ,100 leads every single month, even if you're just starting out with zero followers. That's why my top two marketing trends in 2026 is royalty, content marketing your empire, and responsiveness, direct message marketing.

11:22And oh, okay, by the way, if you're wondering why 70 is the magic number, Instagram and Facebook have daily limits on how many DMs you can send. If you go over, they're actually going to restrict your account. So 70 messages it is. But I want you to really see how powerful this strategy is. Most people are relying on free content, and that's why the results are all over the place. Some people get traction right away, while other people kind of feel stuck forever. But this strategy, reaching out to people, it gives you a real shot at success no matter how your free content is performing. And then over time, your content's going to get better, and you're gonna start pulling in more leads naturally.

12:00But right from the start, you've got a system of bringing in 2 ,100 leads a month. And that's huge, especially if you're launching a brand new business. So let's pivot now and talk about some big picture rules of the DM game before we get into the nitty gritty. So first, the more messages you send each day, the more consistent you are, the more people are going to be talking about your business. It's really just simple math. So your focus, your focus needs to be sending those messages every single day. And I know it can be so tempting, especially if this is like new for you. Like you wanna like avoid stuff that feels salesy, But here's the thing.

12:37If we're not sending messages, we can't expect people to discover our business. Period. If you're struggling to get people to pay attention to your free content, then it's time to take your content to them. Personalize it. Show them you're willing to engage one-on-one to see if your offer will be a fit for them. This has to be a top priority every single day, connecting with new people, starting those conversations, because that's what actually grows your business. Number two, in the short term, direct message outreach is the fastest way to market your business. But here's the bonus. It compounds over time.

13:12The more consistent you are, the bigger your rewards get. So maybe on day one, you send your messages and some people reply and some people don't. You might get crickets. Totally fine. I send messages and a lot of people don't respond. Totally fine. Over time though, people circle back. Maybe they didn't open your message right away. Maybe they weren't really ready, but later they remember, or they tell a friend who's a perfect fit. That's the magic of the compound effect. I want you to remember long-term thinking beats short-term wins every single time. And the most successful business owners, they play the long game, and I want you to do the same.

13:46So when things feel slow or tough, I want you to remind yourself this is so worth it. This is powerful 2026 marketing, and it might not pay off instantly, but it will pay off. And here's the thing. If you start today, imagine where you're gonna be a year from now. Even if you start with no audience, sending 70 messages a day gets you 2 ,100 leads a month and you do that for 12 months? Oh, y 'all, that is more leads than most people will ever get, just like fingers crossed hoping their content goes viral. This strategy, not a hope, gets your business off to an amazing start. And like I said, those results compound.

14:22The more you show up, the more momentum you build. And one last thing before we move on. I've heard people say that direct message marketing works for low ticket offers. And I totally disagree. I have booked a$25 ,000 speaking contract via direct message. I host a mastermind for seven figure founders and I've closed new members on it via DM. And that costs$30 ,000 for eight months. I am not the only person who's doing it, but I can say I have a lot of practice. I personally respond to DMs. If you ever want to test me, let's go. send me a DM on Instagram at Jasmine Star and let me know that you're listening to the show.

14:56And hopefully, fingers crossed, I can send a personal, not hopefully, I'm not going to say I hope, I will. I will send you a personal voice note back to say thank you. Okay, now let's move on to the next top five marketing trend in 2026. And that is random. So the first one was royalty. The second one was responsiveness. And now R for random. Interest versus social marketing. So a lot has changed in social media marketing 2025, and it's going to skew even more in the new direction in 2026. Social media used to be about getting more followers. The more followers you had, the more people would see your post.

15:32There was a time on Instagram where about 10 % of your followers would see your post organically. So let's just do basic math. If you had 1 ,000 followers, that meant about 100 people would see your post. And if they engaged with it, like they liked, commented, shared it, the algorithm would show it to more of your followers organically. In 2026, the algorithm works completely differently. How many followers you have means very little. It means very less nowadays, which is great news because even if you have less followers than you'd like, there's never been a better time for you to get discovered by new followers based on interest, not social.

16:07So what does this mean? Social algorithms are showing people what they're interested in, not necessarily who they follow. Let's break this down in the easiest way possible. Take a look at my Instagram profile. Most people will follow me for motivational marketing and business tips. But what if I posted something random, like a cooking tutorial or a hairstyling video or a home organizing video? The way that the algorithms work in 2026 is that when I post a cooking tutorial and I think these ingredients are the best or the all-time, my most favorite pans or the best knife that I like to use. Okay, this post will reach people who have a high interest in cooking content.

16:44Basically, the algorithm is showing content to people who are most likely to engage, not necessarily followers. So why is this important? If you posted content that you're interested in in relation to your business or in a business you want to start, it increases exposure to people with similar interests to get engaged. So to be clear, you don't need to make content about your business, but if you're genuinely interested in something, talk about it. And then you could relate it back to your business. Like if you can do that, awesome. But even if it's not related, this content can help you get exposed to new audiences like never before.

17:23Here's an example. I could make a cooking tutorial and then I could relate it back to my business. It's like something like here's three secret ingredients to make the best tacos. And then at the end, I'll also explain the three secret ingredients that I learned in starting a business. When you can show people your random curiosities and be okay showing this interest, even if you're just barely new to it, it could highlight your business in new and unexpected ways. Major companies know how valuable this is. In fact, it's common for me to share Instagram stories about my love for post-it notes.

17:57Well, a major office supply retailer reached out and they asked if I could create an Instagram campaign for their business shopping for post-it notes at their store. They get it. And now so do you. And I want to be very clear. I didn't do that marketing campaign because I know just how powerful social media marketing is. So if I'm creating marketing, I want to do it for my businesses where I don't get paid for the post. I get all of the profit when my marketing post does well towards my offer. Okay. So there's going to be one last thing to mention. I help people start and grow their businesses.

18:34Like tens of thousands of people. I spend my days studying trends and campaigns and building strategies, but nothing kills me more than seeing an Instagram bio where I have no idea what you sell. Okay. So let's optimize your bio in four simple steps. Number one, what do you sell, do, or provide? And I want you to keep it simple. Weight loss, business coaching, therapy, software for realtors. Number two, tell me who it's for. And this is where we get very specific. women in menopause, single dads of toddlers, people applying to law school. Number three, your contact info. Help me get a hold of you.

19:10You can add an email address or a phone number. And lastly, number four, be sure that your exit link directs to your website or a specific sales page. And like, listen, I know you're proud of that Forbes feature or that you were named Inc. 5000, but good marketing is about facilitating a sale, not showing people how cool you are. Ooh, did I come in sideways? Yes, but I speak my truth. Okay, next up for my top five marketing trend in 2026, relevance. This is what I'm going to be calling pinned post marketing. Okay, let's talk about pinned posts, what they are and why they actually matter for your business.

19:46Anytime you pin a post on social, whether it's Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, you're choosing a piece of content to stay right at the very top of your profile, front and center. That's what people first see when they land on your page. So now that we have this in mind, we've gotta be intentional, right? If that's the first impression somebody's getting, let's make sure it's working for us. Let's make sure that that post is gonna do some heavy lifting. Now, some good news. I've got a little framework to help you do exactly that. If you're on Instagram, you've probably noticed that you get to pin three posts and those specific three ones, oh man, they're golden.

20:22So I'm gonna walk you through how to use those top three to really serve your business and your audience. Okay, so here's the first one, the quick win freebie. So now, okay, let's visually look at this. We're on Instagram. We see the top three posts that are there. The first one is what I call like the freebie. This one is all about showing off your dream outcome that your ideal client is craving and then giving them something free that helps them take that step forward. So for example, let's say you run a home organization business. You could post a photo of a beautifully organized closet showing the before chaos and then the after calm.

20:58And then right in the caption, you could link to a free printable checklist for organizing their closet. It's simple, but it works. It's got to be something your audience would actually want to click on. Because remember, these pin posts are basically like your storefront window. So that visual, that pin post, that cover photo, it matters. But here's what happens if I don't give it much thought. Maybe I just throw a blurry kitchen photo and then even if the content is really gold on that inside, no one's going to click. That's why the thumbnail to that pin post, like that first image I see, it's so important.

21:36We want it to mirror the outcome that they're dreaming of. So what's the goal here? You wanna show your followers the result of what they want and then give them a quick way to move forward with it. For example, you'll see one of my pin posts and it's gonna be highlighting a free training to help them get a result they want. Okay. So now we're in the pinned post marketing strategy. The first one was a freebie. Now to that second pin post, this is where you're going to show a how-to pin post. So we're talking about giving value, but this time you're going to be walking them through something step-by-step.

22:09You're naming a goal your audience really wants and then actually showing them how to start working on it. So let's just stay, we're going to stick with that home organization. Like you're a home organizer and this is your niche. So this post that you can be posting, the second pin post might be something like, how to organize your kitchen in 15 minutes. Super simple. In your caption, you're going to walk them through a few quick steps. Maybe share a little routine that helps clear the clutter fast. And then you're going to invite them to drop the word, let's say kitchen, in the comments. And then you'll DM them a five-day declutter plan or one that you use for your clients to totally transform their space.

22:46And here again, I don't have to mention it, don't skip a beautiful cover photo. That visual is really key. We want to keep it clear. You want to show the end result. You could literally write on that image, organize your kitchen in 15 minutes. Done. Let's make it clear. So when you go to my Instagram profile at Jasmine Star, you'll see a post all about building a business that earns consistent 10k months. When somebody drops the word listed in the caption, it'll prompt a direct message and then I could start a conversation with him. Y 'all, this is powerful. But I'm going to get to that in a little bit.

23:18Before I do, I want to get to that third post so that we all stay on the same page. That third post of that pin post, this is one that I call the POP post. And it's an acronym. P-O-P. Problem. Opportunity. Practical Steps. And Promise. Okay. So P-O-P-P. This one is your moneymaker. It's going to be the one that you're going to point directly to your offer. So if you You have a membership, your business, whatever it is you're selling. So start by calling out a real struggle your audience is having. Okay, so let's say that you are a home organizer. Let's say it's feel like your living room is always a mess no matter how much you clean.

23:57Do this. It's kind of like the headline. Then in your caption or your video, you could lead them to the idea that your business is how they solve that struggle. So when somebody lands on your profile and those are the first three posts they see, something that gives them a quick win. a how-to, and then a post that directly addresses their biggest pain point, they're way more likely to engage, to DM you, to start that conversation, to leave a comment on a post. And having a conversation is the best and most effective marketing. You're literally talking to your lead, like right here in your hands, on your phone.