"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...

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...

Is marketing tuberculosis? You might know him as the author of YA bestsellers like The Fault in Our Stars, but John Green's most recent book is a nonfiction defense of its own title: In Everything is Tuberculosis, he argues that tuberculosis has shaped everything around us. For instance: When a hatmaker in the 1850s started coughing up blood, his doctor told him to head West, where the dry air would heal him. The hats in the West, Green writes, “sucked” — they were either “bug-infested, brimless coonskin caps” or “wide-brimmed straw hats that … leaked in the rain.” So the consumptive hatmaker — one John B. Stetson — designed the cowboy hat. Upon finishing the book, I fired off an interview request to try to get an answer to my burning question: Could John Green make a connection between marketing and tuberculosis? John Green Author, YouTuber, TB fighter On brand deals When Green got invited to discuss a possible partnership with Dr Pepper, he was over the moon, so to speak. (He showed up 10 minutes early. To Zoom. Dude really likes Dr Pepper.) He had a modest proposal: that Dr Pepper sponsor humanity’s relationship with the moon. (Pause for impact.) Green would make videos about humanity’s relationship with the moon, sponsored by Dr Pepper. “I‘ve always thought this was a funny idea — that you can’t sponsor a heavenly body, but you can sponsor humanity's relationship with a heavenly body.” He didn’t get a follow-up...

Why SurveyMonkey's Marketing Leader Says Your Foundation Is Broken The way most marketing teams approach AI is probably the way I approach my inbox at 4:59 PM on a Friday. With reckless optimism and zero follow-through. But Katie Miserany, SurveyMonkey's Chief Communication Officer and SVP of Marketing, thinks the real problem isn't AI — it's that most marketers have forgotten a fundamental truth: Just because you can talk about something doesn't mean you should. Katie Miserany Chief Communications Officer and SVP, Marketing at SurveyMonkey Claim to fame: Miserany's proud accomplishment isn't a single launch or campaign... It's the people. She's felt fortunate to meet, hire, and mentor incredibly talented people who've chosen to follow Katie from team to team and company to company. Miserany told me, "Building workplaces people want to join again and again tells me I’m creating environments where people can grow, do their best work, and feel genuinely supported. That’s the kind of legacy that makes me proud." Lesson one: Stop doing random acts of marketing. Remember the TikTok ban?  SurveyMonkey's team was excited. Almost immediately, they knew they needed to hop on the trend by conducting a survey on how people were feeling about TikTok. (I can relate. I remember sitting in an airport lounge writing a panic-induced blog post on the TikTok ban because HubSpot felt we should cover it, too.)  And just as Miserany's team prepared to launch their findings… TikTok released its own study. "Guess what the...

Loop Marketing strategy: A framework for stellar AI-era growth Something’s been throwing marketers for a loop lately. (Eye-roll level pun very much intended.) Instead of turning to Google for the answers to all their curiosities and questions, consumers are increasingly watching YouTube reviews, asking ChatGPT for recommendations, scrolling through social feeds, and messaging influencers instead. Meanwhile, AI search engines are serving up “summarized” direct answers to them instead of sending them to your website. What are we to do? A Loop Marketing strategy can help you navigate this new era of AI and audience behavior. This guide will explain Loop Marketing, introduce you to the playbook, and detail how to create a Loop Marketing strategy that meets modern buyers where they are. Table of Contents Summary What is Loop Marketing? Loop vs Funnel vs Closed-Loop Marketing Why Loop Marketing Matters Now How to Build a Loop Marketing Strategy How Humans and AI Collaborate in a Loop Marketing Strategy How to Implement Loop Marketing in HubSpot What to Measure at Each Loop Marketing Stage Common Mistakes with Loop Marketing (And How to Avoid Them) Frequently Asked Questions About Loop Marketing Strategy Summary Loop Marketing is a cyclical, four-stage strategy — Express, Tailor, Amplify, Evolve — where teams learn from every customer interaction to improve their campaigns and combine human creativity with AI and unified data. Unlike linear funnel approaches to marketing, which are typically static, Loop...

It's all about you It’s a marketer’s dream: Hosting a sold-out event for 10k attendees. That brands are begging to be a part of. Oh, and that was headlined this year by none other than Taraji P. Henson, Kerry Washington, and Jennifer Hudson. That’s Shareese Bembury-Coakley’s reality as one of the driving forces behind CultureCon, the world’s largest festival for Black creatives and entrepreneurs. Here’s how she makes the magic happen. Meet the Master Shareese Bembury-Coakley Vice President, Business development and partnerships at CultureCon Claim to fame: Successfully sold a partnership between the TV show Killing Eve and buy-now-pay-later service Klarna; deliverables included an in-app experience that sourced pieces from Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh’s (truly incredible) wardrobes. (Lesson 0: Look for audience behavior that you can amplify. Bembury-Coakley had noted that viewers were asking questions on social media about designers.) Lesson 1: It’s not “Why this?”, it’s “Why you?”. At CultureCon, Bembury-Coakley tells me, people make a run for Activation Alley as soon as it opens. It’s not just that the activations are amazing or that a particular brand is there — it’s that CultureCon’s attendees have high expectations, because they trust that this year’s activations will be as good as the last. (More on this in a minute.) With events and experiential spaces becoming ever more saturated, I ask Bembury-Coakley how she stands out in a crowd. Her answer is deceptively simple: Instead of answering the question, “Why do this idea?” answer the question, “Why...

Why you should build relationships backward (and how) Today’s master has things kinda backward. But she shared with me one of the most clever strategies for collaborative content and brand awareness that I’ve ever heard. (And I talk to a lot of marketers, so that’s saying something.) And whether you’re working on brand partnerships, influencer marketing, or creator campaigns, you just might start doing it backward, too. Deesha Laxsav Senior Manager of Brand Marketing, Clutch Fun fact: Deesha started a (now abandoned) foodie TikTok exploring elite eats in the DC Metro area. (“Turns out, eating was easier than editing videos.”) Claim to fame: Built Clutch’s first influencer marketing program, setting the stage for long-term partnerships with top voices in marketing and tech. Lesson 1: Social marketing has a trust problem. A stinging 53% of consumers outright distrust paid endorsements, according to a recent survey by the global service marketplace Clutch. And the better polished the content was, the more suspicious it looked. What’s more, 41% of consumers weren’t sure whether they trusted influencers more than brands. Which is really awkward because… wasn’t influencer marketing supposed to be the silver bullet against brand backlash? “Our survey makes it clear that consumer trust in influencer marketing has taken a hit,” Laxsav says, but she isn’t deterred. “When we got the data, we didn’t think, ‘We shouldn’t be doing influencer marketing.’ Instead, it was, ‘How do we do it better?’” She believes that the...

Why creative teams need the safety to fail Whatever terrible thing you’ve pivoted a campaign around — a delayed launch, maybe customer backlash — I bet it didn’t involve a multi-hundred-thousand dollar burglary. This week’s master can put that on her bingo card. But, more importantly, her bingo card also includes working with a list of brands too long to say in one breath: Special Olympics, Coca-Cola, Nike, Google, Coors Light, Les Schwab, and the legendary Seattle radio station KEXP are just a few. Today, she heads up the creative team behind the marketing art for the popular trading card game Magic: The Gathering. She sat down for one of my favorite interviews yet, not least because I learned that her grandpa was a Chicago bootlegger whose house was raided by Eliot Ness of The Untouchables. But also for the great advice she shares about facing adversity and working with creatives. Alicia Mickes Senior Creative Director, Wizards of the Coast (publishing company of Magic: The Gathering) Fun fact: Alicia loves to collect random certifications. She’s got certs for tattooing, personal training, TRX, cake decorating, ceramic restoration, and even bloodborne pathogens training. Claim to fame: If you’ve seen the MOD Pizza logo, you’ve seen something Mickes has designed! Lesson 1: Take ownership, but don’t take it personally. Mere weeks before Hasbro was set to release a version of Magic: The Gathering based on Wild West outlaws, the worst happened: Images of unreleased...

HubSpot's Transactional Email Pricing Guide — Essential Business Communication Add-On HubSpot‘s Transactional Email add-on is a specialized email delivery solution that helps businesses send automated, relationship-based communications like order confirmations, password resets, and account updates through a dedicated IP address. With seamless CRM integration and unlimited sends that don’t affect your marketing contact limits, Transactional Email ensures reliable delivery of critical customer communications. Here‘s what you need to know about HubSpot’s Transactional Email add-on as of 2025. HubSpot Transactional Email Add-On Pricing Overview HubSpot Transactional Email is available exclusively as a premium add-on for Marketing Hub Professional and Enterprise customers: Component Monthly Cost Requirements What's Included Transactional Email Add-On $600/month Marketing Hub Pro/Enterprise + Dedicated IP Unlimited transactional sends, dedicated IP, SMTP/API integration Additional Dedicated IPs Contact Sales Per additional domain Extra IP addresses for multiple domains Note: Transactional email requires the purchase of both add-ons and is only available with Marketing Hub Professional ($800/month) or Enterprise ($3,600/month) subscriptions. What Is HubSpot's Transactional Email Add-On? Price:...

Why creator marketing works for any business It’s time to drop the baggage around the word “influencer.” If you’re a maw-and-paw restaurant, and a local foodie with 300 followers agrees to rave about how bangin’ your pot pie is? Mazel tov! You’re doing influencer marketing. “‘Influencer’ is just a general category for anyone that is able to get an audience to take an action,” says creator economy expert Lindsey Gamble. And whether that action is starting your first creator campaign or signing a viral TikToker with 2 million followers, today’s master is gonna influence the crap outta you. In a good way. Lindsey Gamble Creator economy consultant, Creator of the Lindsey Gamble newsletter Fun fact: Growing up, Lindsey’s dream was to play in the NFL. After playing Division 1 for Bryant University, he got a chance to work out with his favorite players at pro day. Claim to fame: Worked as a brand ambassador and lifestyle creator for L.L. Bean, Every Man Jack, and Allagash Brewing. His self-titled newsletter was named one of the best marketing newsletters by Buffer. Lesson 1: Everyone is a creator. “In today’s day and age, everyone is a creator. Even if you don’t call yourself that,” says Lindsey Gamble. Whenever you’re makin’ a Bluesky post or TikTok short on something you care about, you’re creating content. And when that content finds someone else who cares, it creates a community. And, even if that group is small...