- The Retention Edge by MobiLoud
- Posts
- Durable Advantages
In 2025, the walls that once kept smaller brands out are falling fast.
AI has made some of the hardest parts of marketing — content, creative, copy — cheap and fast.
Need 20 ad variations? Ready in minutes.
Buying guides and SEO content? Hours.
Video spots with actors, voiceovers, and edits? Days, not months.
What used to take budget, headcount, or agencies is now accessible to anyone with a laptop and a few tool subscriptions.
It’s a gift and a curse, because the second something gets easy, it gets crowded.
When anyone can churn out “good enough” content, the moat disappears. A YouTube channel, TikTok ads, or a 50-page guide aren’t special anymore if every competitor can ship them at scale.
That creates a tension every operator is feeling:
Do you lean into the easy wins AI unlocks; cranking out creatives, scaling SEO, automating personalization?
Or do you double down on the hard stuff; original research, real community, owned channels, unique IP?
The truth is, it’s not binary. Easy isn’t “bad,” and hard isn’t automatically “good.” For lean teams, the “easy” path may be the only way to compete. And that’s a huge opportunity.
“Good Enough” vs Standing Out
Here’s the pattern I’m seeing:
Low barrier = high saturation. The easier it is to ship, the harder it is to stand out.
Commoditization creep. Things that were differentiators — video, strong design — are not commodities.
Once production is easy, the real moat moves to story, distribution, community, and data.
We’ve felt this in our business. Organic channels like SEO, and now YouTube, are now easy for anyone to scale using AI tools.
That’s for SaaS — but the same dynamic is hitting DTC:
Creative production: AI makes it trivial to generate hundreds of ad variants.
Personalization: Tools like Klaviyo and Dotdigital auto-segment and predict churn in real time.
CX: AI agents resolve tickets, upsell, and manage subscriptions without human bandwidth.
What was once a moat is now just table stakes.
Are “Easy Channels” Worthless?
This is where the debate comes in.
We were looking at the kind of content some brands are pumping out at scale now, like faceless YouTube channels. Has the value of any kind of content that’s scalable with AI dropped to zero?
My take is no.
Just because AI has lowered the bar doesn’t necessarily mean this kind of thing is worthless.
“Good enough” content can still hold value. And for lean teams with few resources, the ability to crank out 100s of ad angles, pages and pages of SEO content, or a faceless YouTube channel could be a game-changer.
Be sure, I’m not talking AI slop. A decent bar for quality is still important.
But while this kind of content doesn’t necessarily stand out, it can still be worth the ROI.
Before & After AI: What’s Changed vs What Hasn’t
AI feels like a shock to the system, but it’s really just the latest step in a long pattern:
Shopify lowered the bar for launching stores.
Canva lowered the bar for design.
Social lowered the bar for reach.
Now AI is doing the same for content, creative, and personalization, just at a much faster clip.
What Changed:
Production speed & cost → Decent videos, images, and copy can be spun up instantly.
Editing & repurposing → Resizing, polishing, and cross-channel formatting are one-click.
Testing scale → Hundreds of ad variations in days, not months.
What Didn’t:
Taste & narrative → Most AI output sounds the same; brand voice still cuts through.
Distribution access → Platforms gate reach; relationships and media still unlock opportunity.
Trust & equity → Customers stick because of delivery and brand promise, not AI polish.
Owned reach → Email, SMS, apps, and communities are still the only defensible channels.
AI makes the basics cheap and fast.
But more difficult plays are still out there, which will set apart the brands who are willing to do the work.
These plays are what I like to call “Durable Advantages”. The kind of things that aren’t easy to replicate, and aren’t likely to become table stakes in the near future.
True authority in SEO. Video content with high production value and human (real human) faces. Content with real depth and expert POVs. Brand affinity.
You ask yourself: is this still likely to matter in a year’s time from now?
For mass-produced AI content, the answer is probably no.
Balancing Durable Advantages with Quick Wins
While I’m a proponent of doing things that have a longer shelf life, it doesn’t mean you should ignore the quick wins that are out there with AI.
Think of it like a barbell strategy — mixing quick, scalable channels with a core anchor that’s harder to replicate.
Like mixing high-volume creative testing and AI-generated UGC with a serialized creator-led series. Or using AI to provide product recommendations and PDP copy variations at scale, while you build a personalized, guided funnel that comes from real knowledge you have about your customers.
It’s the same thing with CS — you can use AI to automate the easy tickets, while providing exceptional human service for more valuable customers or more difficult situations.
The key: don’t ignore the speed advantage of AI. It’s a gamechanger in many facets.
But if you go all-in on things that anyone can replicate, there’ll be nothing separating your brand from the competition.
Quick Hits
Here’s your roundup of everything important from the world of ecom in the last week.
90 Day Extension for China Tariffs
The deadline for new tariffs on goods from China has been pushed back again. Trump just announced a fresh 90 day extension, pushing it to mid-November.
Texas SMS Compliance
New regulations come in place for SMS marketing to Texas residents from September 1st. Most brands will need to register as a seller under Texas Business & Commerce Code 302, and pay an annual filing fee.
Assuming you’re marketing to people in Texas (brands selling in the US almost certainly will be), it will pay to check in with legal and make sure you’re doing everything you need to by September 1.
Direct to Consumer IPOs Go from Boom to Bust
The DTC market was on fire just a few years ago, with brands like Allbirds and Warby Parker making waves in the stock market.
Now? The hype around DTC has fallen away. At least when it comes to big-money investments.
That’s not to say DTC is struggling. Far from it. The game has just changed. Chasing VC money and IPOs is no longer the play. Instead, lean brands that don’t shoot for the moon are winning.
What to Know About Selling Your Business
If you’re at the stage where you’re considering offers, or just planning for the future, this writeup from Jason Panzer (President, HexClad) is a super-valuable read.
Your Product Packaging is Now Your Landing Page
I found this fascinating. AEO is really starting to change the game, and it’s even reaching shelves — with major brands like Cetaphil now writing product descriptions on their packaging with LLM optimization in mind.
Friction Words
I’m always interested in the science of copywriting. And this tip got my attention.
You may be using words in your copy that makes your CTAs feel like too much work. A small shift to frictionless alternatives could make a big difference.
Worth testing?
That’s all for now.
I’ll be back in touch next week, with more on how successful brands are doing CX and retention right.
If there’s any topic you’d like to see us dive into, for either the newsletter or the podcast, just shoot me a message here.
Until next time,
Pietro and The Retention Edge Team
PS: want to boost retention, revenue and profitability? If so, launching your own app could be the best move you make this year.
See how: go to our website to get a preview of your app for free, or shoot me a DM on LinkedIn to talk about it.