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Use the Ick to Create Better Marketing

Uncategorized
December 2, 2025/by
Use the Ick to Create Better Marketing Our expert this week has a few hot takes.  Here's one: "Any marketer that says they've never felt the ick from marketing isn't a true marketer. You do feel the ick." While that doesn't sound like the best lesson to open a marketing newsletter, stay with me. I swear this isn't a I'm-quitting-my-job-to-work-on-a-goat-farm hail mary.  It actually has more to do with foundational marketing than you think.  Meet the Master Cristina Jerome Creative Strategist and Founder, Off Worque Claim to fame: Leading social for Topical's infamous Faded Eye mask campaign. Fun fact: She was the voiceover for the Topical's brand campaign video. Lesson one: Feel the ick. And use it to create better marketing.  Cristina Jerome has had a whole host of jobs most marketers would kill for.  She's worked on content and social strategy for Jada Pinkett Smith's show Red Table Talk, plus Issa Rae's Rap Sh!t on HBOMax. She directed social content at Topicals, Sephora's fastest growing Black-owned skincare brand.  She's also dabbled in marketing for Adidas and Lobos 1707, a luxury tequila brand.  And, most recently, she launched her own non-profit social club, Off Worque, which emphasizes mental health and work-life balance. Phew. I'm exhausted just typing that up.  So my first question to Jerome was an easy one: How did building her own brand shift her approach to marketing? "It didn't change logically," she told me. "It changed spiritually. When you're working for...
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Forget B2B or B2C: It’s time for B2H

Uncategorized
November 26, 2025/by
Forget B2B or B2C: It’s time for B2H This pains me greatly to say, but: That typo in your last campaign may have made your audience more engaged. That’s because in a world where you don’t always know what’s real and what’s AI — and trust in general is in rapid decline — a little tyop indicates that a real human wrote it (see what I did there?). “We’ve been taught to think about B2B or B2C,” says today’s marketing master, “but I’m actually interested in B2H — there’s a human on the other side.” Meet the Master Bryetta Calloway Founder and CEO, Stories Seen Claim to fame: Calloway isn’t anti-AI by any means — her company has just produced the MVP of IDA, an AI tool that helps people tell their stories within systems that may have been built without them in mind. “AI is a really great tool to scale your strategy,” she says. “Not replace it.” Lesson 1: Emotion + Logic = Engagement. “I always say to start with emotional resonance,” Calloway tells me. “Literally, if you’re building a four-sentence story, start with emotion.” To find that point of connection, ask yourself: “What did you feel? What did you see? What did you hear?” And don’t underestimate humor — “if you can get your audience to laugh, you have already bypassed the part of the brain that‘s like, ‘I don’t trust this.’” Now you want to support that emotion with something...
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Loop marketing examples from companies we love

Loop Marketing
November 26, 2025/by
Loop marketing examples from companies we love Loop marketing represents a fundamental shift from traditional linear funnels to a continuous growth engine, where every customer interaction creates expansion opportunities. Companies practicing loop marketing — whether through growth marketing strategies, behavioral marketing triggers, or integrated offline marketing touchpoints — transform one-time buyers into active participants who fuel sustainable business growth. Loop Marketing is HubSpot’s four-stage framework for compounding growth through connected customer experiences that generate momentum at each stage. Unlike closed-loop marketing, which tracks attribution, proper Loop Marketing creates self-reinforcing cycles where satisfied customers naturally drive online word-of-mouth marketing, product adoption spreads organically, and each completed loop strengthens the next. For companies ready to implement these strategies, HubSpot’s Loop Marketing Playbook provides the tactical framework to identify, build, and optimize growth loops that transform customer success into sustainable business expansion. Moreover, this article will break down real-world Loop examples and demonstrate how to replicate their success using HubSpot’s Smart CRM. Table of Contents: Loop marketing examples from companies we love What is Loop Marketing? Loop Marketing Examples From Companies We Love Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Loop Marketing What is Loop Marketing? Loop Marketing is HubSpot’s four-stage, AI-enabled framework that creates compounding growth through continuous customer engagement cycles rather than one-way funnel progression. Unlike traditional marketing funnels, where customers exit after purchase, loop marketing transforms every interaction into fuel for the next cycle, building momentum that accelerates with each completion. The...
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“You need to be an event business”

Uncategorized
November 14, 2025/by
"You need to be an event business" “It's not enough to be a hospitality business anymore,” small-business owner Shelley Pippin says. “You need to be an event business.” Here’s why Brewnuts has been so successful at using events to carve out a niche for themselves, and what small- and medium-sized business marketers can learn from “Ohio’s first and only doughnut bar,” regardless of your industry. Meet the Master Shelley Pippin Founder and co-owner, Brewnuts When you think of bar food, you probably think of things like burgers and sandwiches. But Cleveland-based Brewnuts has a different vision: As Brewnuts’ “Ohio's first and only doughnut bar,” as co-owner and founder Shelley Pippin puts it, the business pairs a carefully curated selection of beer and coffee drinks with a rotating selection of homemade doughnuts. For Brewnuts, their menu is just the (sweet) start, however. “It's not enough to be a hospitality business anymore,” Pippin says. “You need to be an event business.” In addition to a menu of brews and dones, Brewnuts books weekends celebrating holidays (Halloween), pop culture (Twilight) and fandom lore (an annual December toast to Taylor Swift’s birthday called “Taylor Fest”). These special events often come with unique coffee drinks or theme-specific doughnuts; for example, a “Boston Scream!” for spooky season. Photo credit: Emily Drapp “I love creating things, and I see my job as being responsible for surprising and delighting people,” Pippin says. “That's why I love the hospitality industry. It’s a place where you...
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Generative AI tools every marketing team should use

ai-hidden, Artificial Intelligence
November 10, 2025/by
Generative AI tools every marketing team should use When I first started at HubSpot, I needed a new headshot fast. So, I turned to generative AI tools — and no one had any idea, at least not initially. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, generative AI tools are impressive. From text and data analysis to uncanny photos and celebrity videos, AI’s ability to imitate human voices and forms has improved dramatically in the past year. While they raise a lot of ethical questions, they can also help increase productivity and amplify marketing results when used strategically. Manufacturer Cold Jet, for instance, cut lead response time by 66% using HubSpot’s Smart CRM and Breeze. But what generative AI tools should your team use? In this article, we’ll discuss: Table of Contents What are generative AI tools for marketing? How to Evaluate Generative AI Tools for Your Team Where Generative AI Tools Deliver the Most Value in Marketing How to Select the Right Gen AI Tools The Best Generative AI Tools How to Integrate AI Tools with Your CRM and Automation Stack Frequently Asked Questions About Generative AI Tools for Marketing TL;DR Generative AI tools for marketing are software solutions that create content (i.e. videos, images, text, graphs), campaigns, and insights using artificial intelligence. Marketers use these tools to speed up content creation, personalize messaging, and improve campaign results across email, ads, social, SEO, and analytics. To choose the right tools, look for...
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Loop marketing for B2B: Building your first B2B loop marketing strategy

Loop Marketing
November 6, 2025/by
Loop marketing for B2B: Building your first B2B loop marketing strategy Building a B2B Loop Marketing strategy represents more than adopting new tactics — it’s about architecting a self-reinforcing system that transforms every customer interaction into compound growth, from initial B2B lead generation through long-term customer expansion. The challenge? B2B organizations must: Orchestrate complex buying committees, navigate multi-stakeholder decisions Manage extended sales cycles spanning months Deliver hyper-personalized experiences through B2B marketing automation at scale Optimize for AI-driven discovery platforms, and continuously learn from post-purchase behaviors tracked by B2B marketing analytics That’s where Loop Marketing becomes transformational. Loop Marketing differs from traditional funnels by enabling continuous learning and optimization through four interconnected stages: Express (defining your unique perspective) Tailor (personalizing at scale with B2B marketing automation) Amplify (distributing across all buyer channels) Evolve (learning and improving in real-time using B2B marketing KPIs) In this article, you’ll learn how to build your first B2B loop marketing strategy with practical frameworks, real-world examples, and step-by-step implementation guidance for each stage. Let’s jump in. Table of Contents What is loop marketing for B2B? How B2B Loop Marketing is Different From the B2B Funnel Loop Marketing Strategies for B2B B2B Loop Marketing Examples Frequently Asked Questions About Loop Marketing for B2B What is loop marketing for B2B? Loop marketing represents a fundamental shift from the traditional linear sales funnel to a continuous, self-reinforcing...
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The tactical shift that led to 35,000% higher visibility on LinkedIn

Uncategorized
November 6, 2025/by
The tactical shift that led to 35,000% higher visibility on LinkedIn Sam Meller is the Head of Social for The Hustle, but we briefly got to borrow her for Masters in Marketing, because she makes everything she touches better. That’s how I got a chance to hear about a tactical content shift that led to a startling 35,000% increase in visibility on LinkedIn. When I heard this story, y’all, I threw an Asana card on our editorial calendar so fast I nearly broke my clickin’ finger. In short, it’s the cautionary tale of how even good content may not be the right content for your audience. And how, even in this data-soaked paradigm, sometimes you still need good ol’ human instinct. A Tale of Two Targets When Sam first stepped into her role at The Hustle, she started with an audit of all its various social media channels. “I wanted to really get a sense of what was working, what wasn’t working, and where we had opportunities to grow.” She quickly noticed a disconnect: The Hustle was killing it on Instagram, but on LinkedIn? They weren’t feeling the love. At the time, both channels were using the same content strategy: Daily recap videos where the host of The Hustle Daily Show would do a rundown of the headlines of the day. But while these videos were popular on Instagram, they just didn’t seem to land with The Hustle’s LinkedIn audience. This is where a lot of marketers...
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6 brands that brilliantly differentiated from the competition, and how you can, too

Branding Examples
November 3, 2025/by
6 brands that brilliantly differentiated from the competition, and how you can, too There has never been a bigger moment in history when brand differentiation was more important. The channels we relied on for growth are saturated and increasingly less effective. And with AI changing how people search and make buying decisions, the race to stand out has never been more brutal. The brands at the top of the food chain are those we associate with a specific problem. For example, if I want running shoes, I go to Hoka. For skincare, I’m a Byoma girlie, and if I’m craving apple juice, Innocent cures my thirst. But how do these brands differentiate in a crowded market space? What makes them so memorable? In this article, I’ll share my favorite examples of companies smashing brand differentiation and give you actionable tips on how to stand out from the crowd. Table of Contents What is brand differentiation? Brand Differentiation Examples: 6 Powerful Ways to Differentiate Your Brand The 8 Steps to Brand Differentiation What is brand differentiation? Brand differentiation is how you carve out mental real estate in a market where everyone‘s screaming for attention. It’s not just your logo, your tagline, or your mission statement. It's the specific reason someone chooses you over a competitor when both products could technically solve their problem. Brand Differentiation Examples: 6 Powerful Ways to Differentiate Your Brand 1. Revolut: Build a product people can’t shut up about. Differentiator:...
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