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...

Starting a new business? Here are the AI tools I would use when building from scratch Building a business has never been easier, but the landscape is also more competitive. The difference between success and failure often comes down to how quickly you can execute. You need to understand your market and know how to scale your operations. AI tools can help you get off the ground. If I had to rebuild my business from scratch today, I'd lean heavily into AI tools to make the process faster, smarter, and more efficient than ever before. Here‘s exactly how I’d approach rebuilding from zero, and the specific AI tools that would make it possible. Table of Contents Two Approaches to AI Business Building Essential AI Tools for Modern Business Building Two Approaches to AI Business Building Approach 1: Use LLMs to flesh out your ideas. Every entrepreneur needs to know their niche. If you don’t have a unique angle, you’ll never stand out in the crowded market. So, you need to be specific. I'd approach it like a research sprint using AI tools to cut through the noise and find real opportunities. AI tools allow you to organize and vet your ideas. You can start a conversation with ChatGPT or OpenAI’s advanced voice mode and flesh out all your different ideas through the discussion. I would ask things like: What are the pros and cons of this idea? Do you see...

AI email subject lines that drive 3x more revenue and actually convert Email subject lines determine whether your carefully crafted campaigns ever see the light of day — yet most marketers still rely on gut instinct and basic A/B testing to choose them. What if you could predict which subject lines will resonate with your audience before hitting send? AI email subject line optimization makes this possible by analyzing millions of data points from your actual subscribers’ behavior, automatically testing variations, and continuously learning what drives engagement. But here’s what most articles won’t tell you: there’s a massive difference between using a basic AI generator to brainstorm subject lines and implementing true AI optimization. When this optimization occurs in HubSpot’s Marketing Hub with Breeze AI, you are not only testing subject lines but also creating a smart system that understands your audience and adapts to their behaviors. This guide shows you how to use AI to create subject lines that increase revenue, not just open rates. You’ll learn how to: Set up governed workflows that maintain your brand voice Create testing frameworks that go beyond simple A/B splits Measure real business impact rather than vanity metrics Whether you’re sending 1,000 emails a month or 10 million, these strategies will help you turn your weakest subject lines into your strongest revenue driver, whether you send 1,000 emails a month or 10 million. Let’s dive in. Table of Contents What is AI...

Enterprise generative AI tools that actually work TL;DR: Enterprise generative AI tools are advanced software platforms designed to automate and enhance marketing, sales, and customer service at scale. The best tools integrate with your CRM, unify customer data, and support secure, governed workflows. To choose the right solution, focus on proven use cases, integration depth, governance controls, and measurable ROI. Start with a clear rollout plan, align teams, and use a selection matrix to compare vendors. Generative AI tools like ChatGPT have changed individual work, but using them in a company causes many challenges. Teams copy-paste customer data into external interfaces, but the outputs lack context from your CRM, and there's no audit trail when something goes wrong. Security teams raise red flags, compliance officers demand answers, and leadership questions whether the technology is ready for production use. The gap between consumer AI and enterprise AI isn‘t just about features. It’s about integration, governance, data sovereignty, and the ability to prove measurable business outcomes. Enterprise generative AI tools help by integrating AI into your workflows and systems, allowing safe large-scale AI deployment. This guide provides production-proven use cases, a vendor evaluation matrix, a practical rollout plan, and a governance checklist. We‘ll even show how platforms like HubSpot’s Breeze AI integrate these capabilities into marketing, sales, and service workflows. Table of Contents Best Generative AI Tools for Enterprise Enterprise Gen AI Use Cases How to Choose the Right Enterprise Gen...

Best practices for answer engine optimization (AEO) marketing teams can't ignore A few months back, I was having a bit of a professional identity crisis. And it’s all thanks to answer engine optimization (AEO) and AEO best practices. Before 2024, I spent the better part of a decade focused on topping search engine result pages — and, frankly, I was great at it. I knew the ins and outs of keywords, schema, and even technical SEO aspects like site speed. But with the rise of AI, those skills were slowly becoming less urgent, for lack of a better word. (Cue marketer existential panic.) Search and consumer behavior have changed dramatically. While traditional search engines still dominate, people increasingly turn to AI tools like ChatGPT to answer their questions. Heck, with 79% of those who already use AI for search believing it offers a better experience than traditional search engines, even Google has introduced AI overviews to stay competitive. But what about all my SEO glory? This shift demands a new approach. Unfortunately, AEO is generally a mystery to businesses and marketers alike. HubSpot is no exception, but we’re finding our way. We’ve been researching and experimenting with how we produce and format content for AI and loop marketing for almost a year. In this article, I’ll share some of the most critical AEO best practices we’ve uncovered. Table of Contents TLDR What is answer engine optimization (AEO)? Why Answer Engine Optimization Matters Now More...

AI email marketing analytics: 5 performance metrics every marketer should track for revenue growth Email marketing analytics have evolved far beyond open rates and click-throughs. Today’s AI-powered analytics can predict which subscribers are most likely to convert, optimize send times for maximum engagement, and track every dollar of revenue back to specific campaigns. The difference between good and great email marketing often comes down to which metrics you track (and, more importantly, how you act on them). AI email marketing analytics transforms raw data into actionable insights, helping you understand what happened, why it happened, and what’s likely to happen next. Tools like HubSpot Marketing Hub have made this sophisticated analysis accessible through native dashboards and reporting features that automatically surface patterns human analysts might miss. Whether analyzing predictive engagement scores or tracking complex revenue attribution paths, these AI-driven insights help you make smarter decisions faster. In this guide, I’ll explore five essential AI-powered metrics directly impacting your bottom line. Plus, you’ll learn what AI email marketing analytics tools to use and, most importantly, how to use these insights to create email campaigns that consistently drive revenue growth. Table of Contents What is AI email marketing analytics? Pricing Comparison of AI Tools for Social Media Marketing AI Email Marketing Analytics Tools AI Email Marketing Metrics to Track How to Build AI Email Analytics Dashboards Your Team Will Actually Use Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About AI Email Analytics What is...

How to create AI prompts that eliminate bias and increase conversions AI usage is on the rise, especially in marketing. Data from HubSpot’s AI Trends in Marketing report showed that 74% of marketing professionals use AI for their work. With so many marketers using AI, it is important to acknowledge and solve for its known limitations, particularly the biases that are baked into it. As an inclusive marketing strategist and consultant, I am trained to recognize bias when I encounter it. Whenever I review materials and campaigns for clients, I evaluate whether bias, cultural insensitivity, or inappropriate messages have crept into the communications. But, most of the marketers I’ve come across either don’t yet have this skillset or are actively working on developing it. Many often don’t pick up on biases AI produces, which could prove detrimental to marketing efforts and brand reputation if published in the market. To help you use AI more responsibly and effectively, I’ve created some prompts to help you cut out bias. Let’s dive in. The Fundamental Question for Converting More Customers Before we get into actual prompts, it's useful to ensure you are grounded in the fundamental question consumers (especially those from underrepresented and underserved communities) are asking. As consumers evaluate whether or not your brand is right for them, they are seeking to answer this question, either consciously or subconsciously: Is this product for someone like me? Every part of your customer journey serves as an input to producing an answer...

B2C vs. B2B marketing with AI: The industry trends every marketer should know The beauty of freelancing for most of my decade-long career is that I’ve worked on both sides of the B2B and B2C marketing coin. One week, I’m helping a B2B SaaS brand rewrite a whitepaper. The next, I’m deep in campaign planning for a B2C real estate brand. It’s a front-row seat to how marketing works across different verticals. Now, with AI, everything has changed. I’ve heard it in interviews with marketing leads, seen it in the tools people reach for, and felt it in the way teams are organizing their workflows. In this article, I’ll share what I’ve observed, backed by insights from our State of AI in Marketing 2025 report, to compare how B2C and B2B marketers are each leveraging AI and where they’re headed next. Table of Contents How B2C vs B2B Brands Use AI for Content Creation Top AI Tools Leveraged by B2C vs B2B Brands How B2C vs. B2B Leaders Feel About AI Is B2C or B2B embracing AI more quickly?  How B2C vs B2B Brands Use AI for Content Creation Although the use cases of AI are as varied as they come, one thing is clear: AI has become nearly synonymous with content creation. But the way it shows up in B2C versus B2B contexts reveals both strong similarities and subtle differences. And the data from our report makes this very clear. 1. Content...

AI avatars are already here, and these are the trends I’m most bullish on As the founder of AI newsletter Mindstream, I'm constantly thinking about scale, especially when it comes to content. For me, video was the bottleneck. I wanted to show up consistently, but I didn’t want to spend hours filming, editing, or setting up gear. That’s what led me to explore AI avatars. At first, avatars were just an experimental shortcut for businesses. But over time, they became something more: a flexible way to keep things personal without needing to be physically present. Today, savvy teams are already leveraging avatars. Here are six high-impact ways I’ve seen businesses leverage avatars, along with tools that make it easy to get started. 6 Ways Businesses Are Leveraging AI Avatars 1. Short-form Content Creation at Scale Creating video used to be slow and frustrating, especially for small businesses with cash-strapped teams. It took forever to film, edit, subtitle, and polish something enough to actually post it. Now, AI avatars are changing the game. Now, you can write a script and let the tools do the rest. I’ve tested Argil, which is specifically built for short-form creators. Once the avatar is in place, it adds captions automatically and even suggests relevant B-roll based on the topic. I noticed the tool still needed reviewing and tweaking, but I didn’t need to start from scratch. I believe this shift will make daily video publishing possible for teams of any size. What used to...