Are empathy, sympathy and humanity bad now? That’s what I hear from some thought leaders and government officials who say we can’t afford to be so soft anymore. I couldn’t disagree more, and I urge my fellow marketers not to abandon these values. The COVID-19 pandemic showed us how important they are. With the turmoil …
Read more “We need more humanity in email, especially at unsubscribe”
The most significant advertising moment of 2026 happened on the second Sunday in February. It wasn’t the most popular Super Bowl spot or the most cinematic brand anthem. It was a pointed message embedded in one of the game’s most self-aware ads. In attempting to position itself against a rival, Claude revealed a line the …
Read more “Advertising in AI is a trust experiment marketers can’t ignore”
HubSpot is doubling down on its media strategy. On Monday, HubSpot Media, the in-house media arm of the CRM and marketing automation company, acquired creator-led entrepreneurship brand Starter Story. Financial terms were not disclosed. Starter Story, founded in 2017 by software engineer Pat Walls, has quietly become a video-first powerhouse in the founder economy. The …
Read more “HubSpot supercharges its media engine by buying Starter Story”
When Gmail rolled out a new “Manage Subscriptions” feature last summer, we knew it would make an impact, particularly for brands that didn’t lean into segmentation and automated journeys and instead peppered users with frequent messaging that lacked personalization. Six months in, the impact is deeper than we expected. Unsubscribe rates are up an average …
Read more “Email retention after Gmail’s ‘Manage Subscriptions’ rollout”
In MarTech’s “MarTechBot explains it all” feature, we pose a marketing question to our very own MarTechBot, which is trained on the MarTech website archives and has access to the broader internet. Question: How should B2B organizations architect data governance and consent models to support full‑funnel AI applications across marketing and sales systems? MarTechBot’s answer: …
Read more “How to future-proof your AI stack with data governance”
A client I’ve been creating online content for recently asked me to shift priorities. Instead of writing for traditional SEO first, they want me to focus on AEO first, with SEO as a secondary consideration. I understand the logic. Discovery is changing. Content isn’t just competing for blue links anymore. It’s competing to be cited …
Read more “Writing for GEO feels like early SEO all over again”
Marketing operations should be the engine of growth, not a source of burnout. We know the pressure of being caught between “move faster” demands and the reality of manual reporting and approval loops that eat your afternoon. It’s a common hurdle in this role, but it doesn’t have to be your permanent reality. At the …
Read more “Say goodbye to busywork: Rethinking marketing workflows for a smarter future”
If you think content marketing is still about writing blog posts and filling an editorial calendar, the job market says otherwise. A Semrush analysis of 8,000 U.S. content marketing job listings shows a profession in the middle of a structural shift. Companies are no longer hiring content marketers just to produce assets. They want them …
The most impactful HubSpot updates from January 2026 focus on removing friction from everyday HubSpot work. Here’s what stood out to us. HubSpot kicked off 2026 with a batch of updates that feel intentionally practical. January’s releases focused on smoothing out the parts of HubSpot teams touch every day: workflows, lifecycle stages, segmentation, reporting and …
Read more “The HubSpot updates you don’t want to miss from January 2026”
Customers don’t see your internal departments; they see one brand. Whether they are chatting with support, browsing your site or speaking with a sales rep, they expect you to remember their history and respect their time. When that doesn’t happen, it isn’t just a technical glitch — it feels like a broken promise. We know …