I received an email this morning that perfectly illustrated why so many marketers are struggling right now. The subject line promised something valuable, but when I opened it, I was confronted with an offer that included 21 bonuses.
Twenty-one.
For those of us who’ve been watching online marketing evolve over the past few years, this feels like a throwback to strategies that simply don’t work anymore. The internet has changed, customer expectations have shifted, and yet some marketers are still operating like it’s 2024.
The Rise and Fall of Bonus Culture
For a while there, it seemed like every product launch followed the same formula: decent core product, then pile on as many bonuses as possible to inflate the perceived value. The sales pages would scream about thousands of dollars worth of free extras, most of which were PLR products that had been circulating for years.
Customers caught on quickly. They recognised those recycled bonuses. They realised that claiming $500 value for a basic PDF guide wasn’t realistic. They understood that 15 bonuses often meant 15 distractions from the main solution they actually needed.
The smart buyers stopped bonus shopping and started solution shopping instead.
What Actually Happens Now
When I see an offer with excessive bonuses these days, several red flags go up immediately. If a marketer needs 21 bonuses to make their core product appealing, what does that say about the core product itself?
More concerning is the bait-and-switch approach that’s become common. You buy a product based on clear promises, only to discover those features are actually part of some premium version you haven’t purchased. That’s not value creation, that’s deception, and it results in immediate refund requests.
The customers who stick around in 2026 and beyond are those who value transparency and genuine solutions over inflated bonus packages.
The New Rules for Sustainable Marketing
Successful offers in today’s market share some common characteristics. The core product must stand alone and deliver exactly what’s promised. No upsells required to access basic functionality. No bait-and-switch tactics. Just honest value.
If you’re going to include bonuses, make them genuinely complementary to the main product. One or two carefully chosen extras that enhance the primary solution work far better than a dozen random additions.
Most importantly, your product must solve a real problem your customers actually have. This seems obvious, but it’s surprising how often this fundamental requirement gets overlooked in favour of clever marketing tactics.
Finding What Your Customers Actually Want
The key to creating products people want to buy isn’t mastering complex copywriting formulas or psychological triggers. It’s understanding what problems your audience faces and creating genuine solutions for those problems.
This requires research. Real research into what keeps your potential customers awake at night, what frustrates them, what they’re actively looking for solutions to. Not what you think they should want, but what they actually want.
When you nail this understanding, selling becomes straightforward. You’re not trying to convince people they need something; you’re showing them how your solution addresses a problem they already know they have.
The Simple Path Forward
Successful marketing in 2026 comes down to three elements: acknowledge the problem your customer has, present your solution clearly, and deliver what you promise. That’s it.
You don’t need to be a copywriting genius. You don’t need 21 bonuses. You don’t need complex funnels with multiple one-time offers. You need to solve problems for people who want those problems solved.
The marketers who understand this are building sustainable businesses based on genuine value creation. The ones still trying to win with bonus stacking and inflated claims are fighting yesterday’s battle with yesterday’s weapons.
The internet has moved on. Customer expectations have evolved. The question is: have you?
This is how I find what to create for those customers.
