One Question That Will Reinvigorate Your Approach to Marketing The 2023 We❤️NYC campaign was intended to encourage New Yorkers, still pessimistic in a post-pandemic world, to show love for their city. And boy, did it ever. Last year, Maryam Banikarim royally pissed off the Olsen twins and the Jonas Brothers with her We❤️NYC campaign. But that same campaign earned twice the impressions of a Super Bowl ad … in 48 hours.           View this post on Instagram ...

How An Obsession With Quality Led Emily Kramer to 48k Newsletter Subscribers and Counting "An obsession with quality" is what I wish 12-year-old me had… but alas, I ended up with boatloads of Forever 21 T-shirts.  As it turns out, quality really does matter. Our master today — Emily Kramer, a marketer, investor, and advisor for B2B growth-stage startups (and MKT1 newsletter creator) — told me her "obsession with quality" is the reason she's been so successful in the newsletter space. (With 48k subscribers and growing.) Want to learn more? Keep reading to learn how the MKT1 newsletter creator "never misses", and her advice for any marketers who are the "first-ish" marketing leaders at their companies.  Why the creator of the MKT1 newsletter "never misses". 1. Be ready to tell leaders what you'll stop, start, and continue.  Kramer has been the "first-ish” marketer four times at companies ranging from 10 to 300 employees, so my first question was an easy one: If you're the first marketer at a company, where the heck should you start?  Kramer told me whether you're a team of one or leading a 200-person marketing department, the answer is the same: Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize.  "First, you need to figure out where you can win. Where can you stand out? Where do you have the biggest advantage over competitors? What channels make the most sense for your business?"  This translates to: Stop doomscrolling through TikTok for "inspiration" or convincing yourself a snazzy newsletter giveaway will...

How HubSpot Media's Head of Audience Development & Distribution Breaks the Marketing Mold It's been an interesting year in the marketing world. Advancements in AI and constant changes in Google's algorithm have all but turned the industry on its head. And as the marketing industry continues to evolve rapidly, marketers like HubSpot's Head of Audience Development and Distribution, Dréa Hudson, are not only keeping up with the changing tides but also thinking far enough outside the box to be on the next wave. So today, we're going to pick Hudson's brain to learn how marketers can win and stand out in the ever-shifting marketing world. We'll explore why keeping calm is her superpower, how she ensures AI works for her, and why good ideas should always be broken down in favor of better ones.  What Marketers Can Learn from HubSpot's Head of Audience Development and Distribution 1. Leverage YouTube in your strategy. According to Nielsen, YouTube topped the list for streaming time for 17 consecutive months in July. YouTube is also the biggest video-sharing platform in the world and the second largest social media platform in the world, with over 2.7 billion users. So it's no wonder Hudson says marketers should look to YouTube to increase visibility for their brands, especially since formerly tried-and-true channels like Google have become more volatile over the last year. "Marketers should really be looking to sharpen their skillsets on YouTube," she says. "It doesn't always have to be keyword and search-based, either....

How An NBA Marketer Brought the Brooklyn Nets to Paris (& What Marketers Can Learn from Him) In our first edition of Masters in Marketing, a brand-new HubSpot Media newsletter designed to bring you tips from the top marketers each week, I spoke with Ron Goldenberg, VP of International Marketing & Innovation at BSE Global — who runs international marketing for the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center. Goldenberg has plenty of impressive accolades, including bringing the Brooklyn Nets to Paris and launching the #ThankYouVince campaign to honor former NBA superstar Vince Carter.  Keep reading to hear why you need to take big swings in marketing, how Goldenberg matches insights with instinct, and his fascination with global brands like Oatly.  Lesson 1: If you're not risking your career on a bold marketing move, you're not thinking big enough. Goldenberg got plenty of pushback when he pitched a Brooklyn Nets activation — in Paris, complete with an orchestral tribute to The Notorious B.I.G. and Brooklyn Nets-inspired pizzeria. One colleague even said to him, “You really think Parisians are going to show up to a Brooklyn Nets pizzeria?” (I get the hesitation — don't they live off of escargot and croissants?) He knew there could be major ramifications if the event flopped. But he believed in the concept enough to risk it all. “If I'm going to get fired for anything, it's worth for an orchestral tribute to Biggie in Paris,” Goldenberg told me last week. “When your ideas are big...

5 CMO Communication Strategies to Secure CEO Buy-in As I‘ve moved up in my marketing career, I’ve realized how important it is to be on the same page as the CEO. In this recent episode of Marketing Against the Grain, we explore this topic and offer tips for enhancing your communications with executive leadership. Here are five actionable insights that CMOs and marketing leaders can use to improve their communication with executive leadership and secure buy-in to transform their marketing results. Why CEO-CMO Communication Is Critical for Success The relationship between a company’s Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is pivotal for steering marketing strategy, staying in tune with customer needs, and ensuring business longevity. A report by McKinsey & Company underscores the significance of this alignment, revealing that CEOs who prioritize marketing integration as part of their growth strategy see their companies twice as likely to achieve more than 5% annual growth. As Kieran and I discuss, however, the CEO-CMO dynamic in many companies is often riddled with communication challenges. For example, one frustration I often hear from founders is that they feel like their marketing lacks differentiation from competitors and that their marketing teams aren’t being creative enough. At the same time, I also receive feedback from marketing leaders about how their CEOs don’t understand marketing, and how they struggle to defend their creative vision because the executive team doesn’t know what ‘good’ marketing looks like. This disconnect leads to fragmented communication, diminished...

5 Concerns Marketers Have About AI & How Leadership Can Address Them Though generative AI is everywhere, the fear around the state of AI is real. From our survey of 1350+ business professionals in the US, including marketers, we found that 63% of marketers not already using generative AI are not looking to start. Yet, there are vast amounts of data and use cases to support AI as a productive and efficient tool to support marketing efforts. In this article, we’re looking at the top fears surrounding AI in marketing and sharing tips from experts to help leadership address them. The Top Concerns for Using AI Tips for Addressing AI Fears Should AI fears stop you? The Top Concerns for Using AI Our survey results identified the top five fears around using AI and the potential rationale. Find out what they are so you can better support your team. 1. Threat to Jobs AI’s supposed threat to marketers' jobs is a justified fear. But, our survey suggests that employees are overly concerned about this. We found that marketers using generative AI believe that it can help create marketing content more efficiently (77%) and improve the quality of their marketing content (79%). From an employee's perspective, these stats might sound scary! However, leadership surveyed said AI/automation tools make employees more productive (30%), and AI/automation tools make employees more effective at their jobs (32%). Even better, 66% of business leaders have hired new employees specifically to help with leveraging/implementing...

SEO For Plumbers — How to Show Up in Google Results Did you know that roughly 800,000+ people search “plumbers near me” on Google a month? That’s a lot of demand for plumbing services. If you don’t target the correct keywords for SEO (Search Engine Optimization), you may miss out on a lot of business. Starting a business website is never easy, especially if you are a one-man-band. You’re likely an expert on fixing water heaters or replacing broken pipes. However, you might not know how to market your business so customers can find you correctly. When I started a website for my small business, I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information surrounding SEO. Here is the strategy I implemented for my business and top tips for improving your SEO in an easy and approachable way. Let’s dive in. How SEO Benefits Plumbing Businesses Local SEO Strategy How to Build an SEO Strategy for Your Plumbing Business Five Tips for Building an SEO Strategy How SEO Benefits Plumbing Businesses SEO is the process of optimizing your website. Hence, it’s easy for search engines to read, trustworthy enough for them to recommend you, and a great way to grow your business without paying for advertising. So essentially, SEO can help your plumbing business by ensuring your website is shared with potential customers who wouldn’t know about you otherwise. Local SEO Strategy Local SEO strategy is likely the best way for...

A Guide to Integrating AI Tools in Your Marketing Processes As I sit here wrapping up this blog post, I've gotten stuck trying to come up with a snazzy, but concise, title.  So I turned to HubSpot’s AI Blog Writer for suggestions, prompting it with the command to generate headline ideas for a blog post about integrating AI tools into marketing processes. This is just one way to leverage AI tools into your day-to-day workflow as a blog writer. Outside of blogging, AI plays a sizable role in marketing, from product management to SEO. In this blog post, we'll go over: How Marketers are Using AI How to Implement AI in Your Marketing Processes How Marketers are Using AI Understanding Complex Topics Marketers, such as Martina Bretous, editor of our Next in AI Blog, use AI to better understand complex topics. “I will often go to ChatGPT and ask, ‘Explain X to me in layman's terms,’ or ‘as if I were 5 years old.’ Usually when you read something online, you can't always reach out to the author and get clarity. ChatGPT's like my friend who helps me make sense of information in a language I can understand,” she said. Tools like ChatGPT can provide explanations in simple terms, supporting marketers in comprehending information. Automating Tasks AI has the potential to streamline the way marketers work by automating tedious tasks, allowing them to focus on strategy and action. The automation of...

Navigating the AI Revolution: 7 Essential Insights for Marketers in 2024 From weekly stand-ups to spammy emails, chatter about artificial intelligence (AI) has saturated the marketing space over the last year. With all the information out there, it can be difficult to even know how to understand and implement AI. In my role on the AI Marketing Solutions (AIMS) team at HubSpot, I’ve seen first-hand how integrating AI can directly improve campaign metrics. My proudest moment so far was when I launched an AI-personalized email writing workflow that saw a 38% lift in overall CTR (click-through-rate) compared to our traditional campaigns. Now, you might be wondering, how can you get similar results, or better? Here’s the seven must-know AI tips you need to start off 2024 strong, with resources, examples, and advice from experts. 7 Essential AI Insights for Marketers in 2024 1. Become a prompt master. “With where AI is currently at, knowing how to craft winning prompts that get the results you need is really valuable,” says Matt Wolfe, an AI reporter and analyst whose YouTube channel has nearly half-a-million subscribers. Let me give you a concrete illustration of what Wolfe means and how to apply it. Here’s how to upgrade your AI prompts: Be specific and goal-oriented: Define your intentions clearly. Consider your context and persona: How should the AI model approach the problem? As an experienced email marketer or a creative copywriter? Let's...

Top Behavioral Targeting Tools Marketers Should Know About Like many others, I get dozens of emails a day.  If the subject line's irrelevant to my interests, I’m scrolling by and ignoring it. Or, worse, I might click on an email and hit the unsubscribe button after deciding it wasn’t worth my time. If you’re a marketer, you want to avoid scrolling and unsubscribes at all costs. If your email goes unopened because your messaging missed your target, was the content you created within it even worth it? To effectively engage and convert potential customers, you need to leverage behavioral targeting tools that enable you to deliver personalized and relevant messaging to your unique audience segments.  Fortunately, there's a wide range of tools available that can help you meet your audiences where they are. Below, we'll explore some of the top behavioral targeting tools that can level up your marketing strategy. Top Behavioral Targeting Tools HubSpot Behavioral Targeting Get started with HubSpot Behavioral Targeting With HubSpot Behavioral Targeting, you’ll be able to meet prospects where they are by learning about how they engage with your website and content.  As a content marketer, my team and I use it to create segmented lists based on persona and level of engagement with our brand or site. These lists often help us determine how to personalize site content, tailor our marketing emails, and run automated campaigns. Beyond this, the tool helps our broader team identify, learn from, and respond to high-intent behaviors...