My Blog My Blog

7 Meeting Agenda Examples For Productive and Efficient Meetings

Business Tools
December 14, 2024/by
7 Meeting Agenda Examples For Productive and Efficient Meetings In the early days of my career as a content marketer, I wish I had access to the meeting agenda examples to have today. Back then, I was managing a team that was fairly new to me, and I hated the idea of conducting meetings. The questions flew around randomly, the objective changed every minute, and we couldn’t come to helpful conclusions. As essential as they were, these meetings did not get anything done. Research reveals I was not alone: even in 2024 71% of professionals feel meetings are unproductive and inefficient. Enter: meeting agendas. Having a solid meeting agenda revolutionized how I conduct my meetings. In this post, I will explain the importance of a meeting agenda and its key components. I’ll also share some of the top meeting agenda examples and templates that I have personally used to transform how my team collaborates. Table of Contents Why a Meeting Agenda is Essential (Even for Short Meetings) Meeting Agenda Format Meeting Agenda Sample 7 Meeting Agenda Examples 7 Meeting Agenda Templates Why a Meeting Agenda is Essential (Even for Short Meetings) In my opinion, the purpose of the meeting agenda is not limited to achieving KPIs or assigning tasks. It is to balance the fundamental crisis of how people behave in hierarchical groups. Accomplishing tasks as a group is a complicated process, and each member has a different idea of...
Read Full Story

It’s Like Marketing, But Made for Humans: Lessons from Oatly’s EVP

Uncategorized
December 10, 2024/by
It’s Like Marketing, But Made for Humans: Lessons from Oatly’s EVP If you're sipping an oat milk latte as you read this, you're in luck. Keep reading to learn the secret sauce (er–milk?) to Oatly's killer guerilla marketing strategy. Find out why global chief creative officer fired the entire marketing department, why Oatly is a big fan of posting their lawsuits online, and Brendan Lewis' belief that growth marketing needs to be "neutered, if not totally destroyed."  Lesson 1: Put creatives at the forefront. Brendan Lewis, Oatly’s EVP of global communications and public affairs, says it all started when global chief creative officer John Schoolcraft was tasked with turning a small Swedish milk company into a global sensation. His first step towards world domination? Firing the entire marketing department. Then he took the creative department and put them at the center of the business. The creative team is involved in everything, from sales meetings to supply chain meetings. Lewis says this allows his team at Oatly to ignore traditional marketing tactics in favor of feeding off the moment, and allows them to be more transparent with people. A prime (and hilarious) example: When the Spanish dairy lobby sued Oatly over its ad proclaiming, ‘It’s like milk, but made for humans‘ ad, Oatly didn’t get defensive. It just posted the entire lawsuit online. Or, my personal favorite: FckOatly.com — Oatly’s website dedicated to gathering all their bad press and negative comments in one place. It’s like if Yelp one-star...
Read Full Story

Navigating the Future of SEO: 5 Tips From HubSpot’s Senior Director of Global Growth

SEO
December 9, 2024/by
Navigating the Future of SEO: 5 Tips From HubSpot's Senior Director of Global Growth The SEO landscape has been a rollercoaster lately, and many marketers and SEO specialists are doing their best to hold on. However, HubSpot's Senior Director of Global Growth, Aja Frost, remains optimistic about the future of SEO as new competitors enter the arena. “In fact, I think the arrival of new competitors is one of the most exciting developments in the last two years,” she says. “For so long, we have all just been oriented toward Google and reverse-engineering the Google algorithm in many ways that have stifled innovation in content marketing and SEO.” If you‘re unsure how to change your approach to keep up with the ride of SEO marketing, I’ve got you covered with five tips from Aja Frost on navigating the future of SEO. AI is your tool, not your replacement. I‘ve repeated this so many times in previous blog posts, and you might be sick of hearing it, but I promise it’s true— marketers must see AI as a tool or a marketer's best friend and not as a replacement. And Aja agrees. “AI tools excel in research, organizing ideas, outlining, and providing the scaffolding for a great piece of content,” she says. And she's not just talking about written content like blog posts or emails; AI can also lay the groundwork for top-notch videos and images. But here‘s why they can’t replace you, according to Aja. “AI tools are...
Read Full Story

AI Predictions that Could Impact Marketers in 2025 [Trending Data & Expert Insights]

Artificial Intelligence
December 9, 2024/by
AI Predictions that Could Impact Marketers in 2025 AI has gone mainstream.  Although the technology is still evolving, it’s already changing how we work. With the help of AI-powered tools, us workers can automate a variety of tasks, from drafting email subject lines to understanding search performance.  If you're curious about where AI is going — and how you can leverage it — I've listed 7 of my AI predictions for 2025. 1. Efficient and specific use of AI will give companies a competitive edge. Our 2024 AI Trends Report found that 53% of respondents think fully implementing AI/automation at their company will bring unprecedented growth.  I agree with this opinion, but to take it a step further, companies that will achieve this growth in 2025 will be the most strategic and efficient implementors of AI. The AI-powered processes and tools they use will be specific to their business needs, which is a stark contrast to when the proverbial AI boom started, and many were using it in any way they could (which made sense because it was so new).  How to Stay Current There are so many AI tools out there, so how do you narrow your focus and choose what works best for you? Here’s my advice:  Catalog the processes that help your business run and identify areas that can be streamlined and improved with AI, and areas where implementing AI will give your employees time back to focus on critical parts of...
Read Full Story

Real or AI-Generated? You Guess [Quiz]

Artificial Intelligence
December 6, 2024/by
Real or AI-Generated? You Guess Of all the real or AI-generated rounds so far, this one’s the toughest yet — I challenge you again to spot AI-generated content and select human-made pieces. From text and images to videos and music, I’m throwing examples that will make you question everything. Let’s see how many you can get right. The answers are at the bottom. But, no cheating, please. 1. Is this photo real or AI? 2. Was this said by a real person?   3. Is this audio story narrated by a human or AI?   4. Is this bird image AI-generated or a National Geographic shot? 5. Is this painting AI-generated? 6. Is this passage human-written or AI? They picked a way among the trees, and their ponies plodded along, carefully avoiding the many writhing and interlacing roots. There was no undergrowth. The ground was rising steadily, and as they went forward, it seemed that the trees became taller, darker, and thicker. There was no sound, except an occasional drip of moisture falling through the still leaves. For the moment, there was no whispering or movement among the branches; but they all got an uncomfortable feeling that they were being watched with disapproval, deepening to dislike and even enmity. The feeling steadily grew, until they found themselves looking up quickly, or glancing back over their shoulders, as if they expected a sudden blow. 7. Is this ad AI-generated or real? 8. Is...
Read Full Story

Consumers Care About Brand Values: How To Communicate Them in a Way That Wins

Branding
December 6, 2024/by
Consumers Care About Brand Values: How To Communicate Them in a Way That Wins Welcome to Creator Columns, where we bring expert HubSpot Creator voices to the Blogs that inspire and help you grow better. As an inclusive marketing strategist and consultant, one of the things I talk about consistently with my clients is brand values. Many of them want to win over a bigger and more diverse customer base, but I have to make it clear that those efforts won’t be successful or sustainable if they don’t practice what they preach since brand values are now an important part of consumers' purchase decision strategy. In fact, HubSpot's Consumer Trends Report found that 82% of consumers want to engage with and buy from brands that share their values. I’ve even found that I use my credit card as a form of activism and intentionally buy from brands whose values are ones I believe in and want to reward. My hot take is that, despite its importance, most brands don’t do a very good job of showcasing their values, but those that do it well do it well. Read on to find some high-quality examples from brands that stand out. How Smart Brands Demonstrate Their Values to Consumers Brand values are usually developed when leaders are building a brand and determining a mission, vision, and or purpose. When I work with clients on this, we often do it in the context of revisiting and revising their mission, vision, and brand values, to make...
Read Full Story

Implementing AI in Your Marketing Tech Stack — Tips and Tricks You Need to Know

Marketing Strategy
December 2, 2024/by
Implementing AI in Your Marketing Tech Stack — Tips and Tricks You Need to Know Long before ChatGPT, I worked with clients who used AI and machine learning to speed up data analysis at scale. Their enthusiasm about AI's ability to improve everything from business operations to AI marketing funnels piqued my interest. So when ChatGPT took over the news cycle, after my initial skepticism, I haven’t looked back. While it’s always important to take AI with a grain of salt, it provides companies of all sizes opportunities to personalize marketing, deepen customer intimacy, and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing programs. More importantly, it lowers the barrier to entry for sophisticated marketing efforts, improving the way we can interact with and build on customer relationships. So let’s get into how you can incorporate AI into your marketing funnel. Table of Contents AI and the Marketing Funnel Understanding The Buyer Journey How to Build a Marketing Funnel With AI Tips for Making the Most of AI in Your Marketing Funnel and MarTech Operations AI and the Marketing Funnel Before you and I have any conversation about how AI can improve the marketing funnel, let’s make sure we’re on the same page about what marketing funnels are and how they work. Why? I strongly feel that before you can automate something, you need a solid understanding of how it works so you know...
Read Full Story

How Internal Marketing Helps You Build a Strong Brand From the Inside Out [Experts Weigh In]

Marketing Strategy
November 28, 2024/by
How Internal Marketing Helps You Build a Strong Brand From the Inside Out As an ‘external’ marketer, I have to say that I hadn’t given much thought to internal marketing until I started writing this article. My first thought was … that’s not my job. But the more I dug into the subject, I realized that’s not entirely true. Anytime I share a new content series or blog campaign across our internal channels and encourage my colleagues to help promote it, that’s internal marketing. When I lead onboarding sessions for new hires or recognize my teammates for their great work as part of our performance review process, that counts too. *quietly adds internal marketing to resume* Here’s everything else I learned about internal marketing — the benefits, the strategies that experts recommend, and a few more examples of what it looks like in practice. Table of Contents What is internal marketing? Who is responsible for internal marketing? Why is internal marketing important? Benefits of Internal Marketing Internal Marketing Strategies Internal Marketing Examples A happy workforce is the key to a successful internal marketing strategy, so employee experience is a big factor here. Every connection point that an employee has with the company — from onboarding to the exit interview — should be represented accordingly. Internal Marketing vs Internal Communication When I was a baby marketer, I couldn’t...
Read Full Story

Building a B2B Video Marketing Strategy With Impact — Here’s Everything I Learned

B2B marketing
November 22, 2024/by
Building a B2B Video Marketing Strategy With Impact — Here's Everything I Learned I remember once sitting in a quarterly marketing review meeting, watching competitors‘ video campaigns flash across the screen. My initial skepticism turned to curiosity as I saw how they were connecting with audiences in ways our traditional content never had. Each campaign told a story that spoke directly to a decision-maker’s challenges and needs. That‘s when it hit me: B2B video marketing isn’t just another checkbox in our marketing strategy — it's a fundamental shift in how we engage with our audience. Think about it: An engaging explainer video can transform a confused prospect into an interested lead while a well-crafted customer story can turn a hesitant decision-maker into a confident buyer. In this guide, I'll walk you through the evolution of B2B video marketing. You'll discover how to craft a strategy that resonates with decision-makers at every stage of their journey, find the sweet spot between engagement and professionalism, and build a video presence that drives real business results. No more guessing games or following the crowd — just clear, actionable insights to help you create videos that actually work. Table of Contents What is B2B video marketing? Benefits of B2B Video Marketing B2B vs. B2C Video Marketing Building a B2B Video Marketing Strategy That Delivers Results B2B videos aren't just ‘nice to have’ anymore. Pull up...
Read Full Story