The B2B software review and comparison landscape changed dramatically this week when G2 announced it acquired Software Advice, Capterra and GetApp from tech industry analyst firm Gartner. Gartner acquired Software Advice in 2014 as part of its efforts to build out what it called its Digital Markets business. At the time, it seemed like a …
Read more “B2B software marketing takes a turn with consolidation of review sites”
I spent years believing that being reasonable was a virtue. I thought that if someone I cared about — a partner, a colleague, a close friend — kept pushing after I said no, the burden was on me to be clearer. I believed that if I could find the right metaphor, stay calm enough or …
Read more “No means no, even when the system refuses to listen”
Customer expectations are rising fast. AI acceleration has reset what fast, personal and relevant mean. Economic pressure has made customers more selective about where they spend their time and money. The sheer volume of channels has made poor experiences easier to notice — and harder to forgive. Customer experience (CX) is one of the most …
Read more “Why customer experience is the ultimate growth strategy in 2026”
Imagine a world where the day when executives review marketing dashboards isn’t fraught with tension. Where deviations from planned results don’t mean failure — either failure to predict correctly or failure to adequately control marketing people, processes and technology. Where the model for marketing management is something other than a mechanistic factory, with objectives of …
Read more “How smart leaders use marketing metrics to navigate uncertainty”
If you’re like me, you’re probably just getting around to writing out your content calendar for 2026. You’re also likely using AI for at least part of that process. In fact, a 2025 CoSchedule survey found that 85% of marketers use AI for some content creation and planning tasks, including building their content calendars. When …
Read more “How to humanize an AI-generated content calendar for 2026”
Across industries, agentic AI is rapidly moving beyond basic customer service roles to assume frontline marketing responsibilities. In the U.S. — where the market for agentic AI is projected to grow from $2.43 billion in 2025 to $65.25 billion by 2034 — agents are adding value across the marketing funnel, attracting, nurturing and converting leads …
Read more “Why agentic AI is different from traditional marketing automation”
U.S. Google searchers are searching far less than a year ago, according to a new Datos/SparkToro report. The data suggests Google isn’t losing users — it’s losing repeat searches. While Google still dominates search, it’s changing in significant ways. Fewer searches per user means fewer opportunities for clicks, ads and traffic — even if total …
Customer experience teams aren’t failing because they lack passion, tools, or data. They are failing because, when improvement stalls, they ask the wrong questions. Not bad questions. Not lazy questions. Familiar questions. Comfortable questions. Questions that keep CX safely in analysis mode while the real issues, i.e., power, priorities, incentives and behavior, go untouched. If …
Read more “10 signs your CX strategy is broken and how to fix it”
Measurement poses a challenge for many marketers, thanks to the explosion in marketing channels, the overwhelming amount of data in marketing today and the complicated relationships between marketing leaders and other C-suite executives. But how do marketers feel about their ability to measure their activities? Research says many marketers are happy with their measurement, but …
Read more “Struggling with marketing measurement? You’re not alone.”
Email and SMS didn’t undergo a seismic shift in 2025, but they did change in ways that materially affected performance and strategy. Three updates, in particular, reshaped how messages are delivered, displayed and engaged with across email and SMS campaigns: Apple’s iOS 18.2 rollout. Gmail’s “Manage subscriptions” feature. Apple’s iOS 26 update introduced an “unknown sender” …
Read more “What Apple and Google’s 2025 updates mean for email and SMS in 2026”