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HOW CLEAR POSITIONING CREATES A NATURAL “FLOW STATE” INSIDE YOUR BUSINESS

Clear brand positioning creates internal alignment and acts as a constraint that boosts creativity and focus.

BEST 15 AI APPS HOOKS

A curated list of 15 viral hooks from consumer AI apps, distilled from 1.8K videos over the past 30 days.

MY CONTENT CONVERSION STRATEGY

A content framework that blends personal career stories, educational content, and soft sales content.

GOING ‘AI FIRST' APPEARS TO BE BACKFIRING ON KLARNA AND DUOLINGO

Klarna and Duolingo's AI-first strategies are drawing criticism, with Klarna backpedaling to rehire support staff after admitting quality suffered from excessive automation. Duolingo has faced public outrage on TikTok, where users are accusing it of prioritizing efficiency over human-led education. While both companies defend their use of AI as a tool, user sentiment reveals discomfort with automation replacing people.

MARKETING BUDGETS REMAIN CONSTRAINED AMID ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY

Marketing budgets are expected to stay flat at 7.7% of company revenue in 2025. This is well below the 11.3% average from 2015 to 2019. Only 30% of chief marketing officers believe they have enough funding to carry out their strategies, and 79% report pressure to achieve more with fewer resources. Paid media now takes up 31% of marketing budgets, but rising ad costs mean returns often fall short, with 55% of leaders saying their campaigns fail to drive enough sales. To cope, 39% plan to cut spending on staff and agencies.

STRUCTURED OR UNSTRUCTURED?

Structured designs with clean lines led to 39% more clicks for “effective” product messaging. Playful, unstructured visuals performed better for “fun” positioning. The findings suggest consumers subconsciously look for design cues that validate brand claims. Visual-message alignment matters most before brand familiarity sets in, shaping how new customers interpret value.

BRINGING EQ AND IQ TO MARKETING

To build deeper brand connections, companies should blend EQ with data-driven insights. Start by uncovering emotional needs through qualitative methods, then validate those insights with data. Craft campaigns that reflect empathy and authenticity, while using data to fine-tune messaging and delivery across channels. Backed by research on experiential trends, Airbnb spotlighted belonging and inclusivity using guest data on travel preferences, while Café Bustelo engaged culturally Hispanic millennials through pop-ups rooted in community and heritage.

GOOGLE I/O: MAY 20 - 21 (EVENT)

This year's Google I/O will focus heavily on AI, with major updates expected across Google's products. The Gemini model family and DeepMind's Project Astra will likely take center stage. Keynotes will highlight how AI is reshaping Search, Android, Cloud, and even Waymo's self-driving tech. CEO Sundar Pichai, DeepMind's Demis Hassabis, and other execs will lead sessions, including a talk on AI's role in revolutionizing Search. Android updates will debut separately during "The Android Show" a week earlier.

THE 40K LINKEDIN FOLLOWERS TECH STACK

This LinkedIn tech stack includes 10 tools used across the entire content workflow. For ideation, Taplio surfaces viral posts, Kleo analyzes top-performing content from specific creators, and Claude helps break down why certain posts take off while generating new angles. For writing and editing, Grammarly polishes content and Notion serves as a content hub. Canva, Figma, and Ezgif handle visuals, from beginner-friendly carousels to high-reach GIFs. OpusClip and Screen Studio are used for creating polished video content, while Taplio and Notion also help with scheduling and keeping publishing consistent. This system helped generate over 1.2K inbound meetings and scaled a business to more than $4.5M in annual revenue.

TARIFF UNCERTAINTY CLOUDS OUTLOOK FOR US TELEVISION'S ANNUAL AD-SELLING BONANZA

The US television industry's annual upfront ad-selling season is underway amid economic uncertainty tied to potential tariffs. Analysts warn it could trigger a recession and depress ad spending. While NBCUniversal and Fox report stable demand, firms like eMarketer forecast a $4B drop in traditional TV ad revenue. Brands are cautious but wary of cutting budgets too sharply, recalling losses from past downturns. Digital ad spend may stay flat unless tariffs ease, in which case it could grow.

THE GROWTH HACK ERA IS ENDING, ACCORDING TO DIGIDAY'S FORMER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Digital marketing is shifting away from low-quality, high-volume tactics driven by performance marketing and AI-generated content, which is like “peeing in the pool.” The focus must return to having a great product and earning distribution through word-of-mouth. While marketers shouldn't abandon effective channels, there is a need to prepare for declining SEO and build strategies for the next 5 years. Individuals' power is growing over institutions. Brands should highlight authentic human voices rather than relying on impersonal messaging.

THE RISE, FALL, AND RECOVERY OF FORBES ADVISOR

Google penalized Forbes Advisor for site reputation abuse in September 2024. This caused traffic to collapse from 24M to near 0 and triggered layoffs of digital PR, editorial, and SEO staff. By May 2025, traffic had recovered to around 4M monthly visits, with recovery tied more to category-level link authority than individual pages. The site's digital PR strategy, which included statistics pages, surveys, and city indexes, built over 70K referring domains and significantly contributed to its topical authority. Recovery also involved shifting toward more user-focused, “Helpful” content and reinforcing the Forbes brand identity.

GOOGLE JUST CHANGED ITS ‘G' LOGO

Google has updated its colorful “G” logo for the first time in almost a decade.

WHY YOU SHOULDN'T TAKE A ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL APPROACH WHEN ADVERTISING ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Study how people behave on each social platform and meet them in that context.

FORGET ROAS (7 METRICS TO TRACK INSTEAD)

Aside from ROAS, businesses should track POAS, MER, contribution margin, and the LTV:CAC ratio.

Register for free to take part →

COMPANIES ARE TURNING TRUMP'S TARIFFS INTO A MARKETING OPPORTUNITY

Consumers are looking for pre-tariff deals. Brands are using looming tariffs as a sales trigger, launching “pre-tariff” deals and urgent promotions to drive purchases before potential price hikes. From cheeky discount codes to transparent pricing breakdowns, they're using humor and urgency to connect with anxious consumers. While some highlight American-made products, others rush to offload inventory or secure short-term revenue to prepare for supply chain disruptions.

INFLUENCER REVEALS 88% OF CREATORS STILL OPERATE AS SIDE HUSTLERS DESPITE INDUSTRY GROWTH

While 72% of creators are optimistic about their platforms, 88% still treat content creation as a side hustle. Only 25% of top-tier creators do it full-time. Tension with brands often stems from mismatched expectations around creativity, deadlines, and revisions. Although 58% of creators prefer having brand guidelines, many want more collaboration and clarity. Brands should share broader marketing objectives, not just campaign-specific goals. Creators care whether a brand is not just looking for story clicks, brand uplifts, or saves.

THE "EVIL GENIUS" WAY TO STEAL CUSTOMERS FROM COMPETITORS

Companies are using SEO to target people searching for competitor discounts by creating fake coupon pages or "how to pay less" pages. These pages rank for keywords like “[Competitor] discount” and redirect high-intent buyers to their own products. Brands like Speechify, BlueNotary, and Splashtop use this tactic to poach customers who are ready to buy. To defend against this, companies should create their own discount pages to rank higher than both competitors and coupon sites.

AD STRENGTH IN GOOGLE ADS: WHY AVERAGE IS BETTER THAN EXCELLENT

Ad strength in Google Ads is not a reliable performance metric and should not be blindly optimized for. While ads rated Excellent by Google can lead to a 12% increase in conversions, real-world data shows that both Poor and Excellent rated ads often perform worse than Average or Good ones. Completely unpinned headlines, which Google requires for Excellent ratings, tend to lower ad relevance and increase CPCs. Advertisers like Nike and Best Buy pin keyword-rich headlines to improve performance, even if it means settling for lower ad strength scores.

OPTIMIZELY: WHERE TODAY'S TEST DRIVES TOMORROW'S REVENUE (VIRTUAL EVENT)

Optimizely is hosting a free online event, Test + Learn, where experts will discuss how they turn experimentation into a revenue-driving function with AI and unified analytics as their co-pilots. The event takes place on May 21 at 10 am ET.

GOOGLE DISCOVER ON DESKTOP

Google is expanding Google Discover to desktop. It's offering businesses new ways to reach users with curated, interest-based content without requiring search queries. Discover currently drives 25.7% of referral traffic, up from 22.8%. Its users spend 8 seconds more on content compared to traditional search. News publishers dominate the platform with 99% of clicks, while ecommerce and B2C brands also see strong results through product pages and visual content. B2B brands have struggled so far, earning only 1% of traffic, but the desktop rollout could help.

EVENT AMBUSHING: HOW SMART BRANDS WIN BIG WITHOUT SPONSORSHIPS

Event ambushing allows brands to insert themselves into major cultural moments without paying for official sponsorship. Puma paid Pele $120K to tie his shoes on camera at the 1970 World Cup, Nike outfitted 400 athletes and launched a parallel campaign during the 2012 Olympics, and Rihanna promoted Fenty Beauty during her 2023 Super Bowl performance. These moments worked because they felt natural, aligned with the brand, and captured massive attention. While not for every brand, it's a bold way to gain visibility without the sponsorship price tag.

SEO LEADERS ARE PRODUCT MANAGERS

SEO performance is often restricted by organizational structure, especially when it reports through traditional marketing channels with no direct access to technical resources. Treating SEO as a product function gives it ownership over planning, engineering alignment, and long-term investment. By shifting the SEO manager role into product management, companies can integrate SEO into the core of the digital strategy roadmap.

8 THINGS TO ADD TO YOUR WELCOME SERIES

A before-and-after showing 8 key improvements to Smyle's welcome email.

PERSONALIZATION VS. SEGMENTATION

A look into how Loblaw Digital builds its campaigns for one person at a time in real time.

A DAY IN THE LIFE AS A MARKETER IN 2025

Today's marketer focuses less on manual tasks and more on building AI-driven systems and scalable workflows.

GOOGLE BUSINESS SUMMIT REVIEW: AI & SEO SHIFTS

The 2025 Google Business Summit revealed how Google is prioritizing helpful, reader-focused content over keyword-heavy posts. It's confirmed that recent algorithm changes have unintentionally favored larger sites, though efforts to fix this are underway. Creators are encouraged to diversify traffic sources beyond Google by using platforms like Pinterest, YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and email. Video and personal connection now impact search visibility, as social content increasingly appears in search results. SEO now centers on user satisfaction, clarity, and trust signals rather than length or backlinks. Google has urged creators to stop writing for algorithms and focus on truly meeting user intent.

INSIDE DISNEY'S AD PLAYBOOK AS STREAMING BECOMES ‘CORE GROWTH PLATFORM'

Disney's direct-to-consumer operating income grew from $47 million to $336 million year over year, indicating stronger monetization across Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. Streaming has become Disney's core growth platform, with bundled offerings and premium tiers helping reduce churn and drive engagement. Advertisers like Lysol, Amex, and Poppi are buying into integrated ad formats, including in-show placements and contextual activations across Disney's entertainment properties.

DAVID PROTEIN'S TIKTOK SHOP PLAYBOOK

David Protein reached over 60 million TikTok impressions and sold more than 50,000 products by leaning into affiliate content, TikTok-exclusive bundles, and live streams hosted by employees. Despite concerns around brand control and limited customer data, David used TikTok Shop to fuel organic retail demand, embed live selling into employee onboarding, test variety packs as discovery tools, and generate inbound interest from bodegas driven by “as seen on TikTok” signs and word-of-mouth momentum.

3 OUT-OF-THE-BOX PPC TARGETING STRATEGIES THAT HELP YOU DRIVE BETTER RESULTS

This article outlines three PPC strategies beyond traditional keyword targeting: use-based targeting, problem-solution framing, and competitor replacement. These tactics are illustrated with examples like noise-canceling headphones for “travel essentials” and social media platforms replacing virtual assistants. To implement these strategies effectively, marketers will need matching audience segments, custom landing pages, and ongoing A/B testing to refine performance.

THE LINKEDIN PLAYBOOK EVERY B2B MARKETER SHOULD STEAL

Start by defining a single word you want to be known for and create content pillars around it to guide what you post. Prioritize text posts, aim to post 3-7 times a week, and engage with others daily. Track meaningful signals like inbound leads, recognition at events, and comments from prospects to measure success. If posting for a teammate, use interviews to capture tone and build internal excitement by sharing wins.

MAKE ADS THAT CONVERT (VIRTUAL EVENT)

This free virtual event runs from May 27 to June 4. It's designed to help DTC brands and performance advertisers adapt proven ad principles to AI-powered workflows. Across 5 sessions, experts will cover topics like AI-driven market research, ad ideation, visual prompting, persuasive messaging, UGC scaling, and building lean creative teams.

CHATGPT PROMPT FOR INTERNAL LINKING

The ChatGPT prompt provided in this Reddit post finds internal link opportunities on websites. It requires a paid ChatGPT plan as it uses Deep research mode.

HOW TRUST BANK WENT FROM ZERO TO A MILLION CUSTOMERS IN LESS THAN THREE YEARS

Trust Bank, a digital-only bank in Singapore, reached one million customers despite operating in a highly banked market where 98% of adults already have accounts. It achieved rapid growth through a mix of fast onboarding, instant rewards, and partnerships with FairPrice, which helped it attract a broad customer base. About 70% of its customer base came through a referral program that provided immediate incentives, keeping acquisition costs to around one-seventh of the industry norm. Trust focused on authentic influencer partnerships and unique campaigns like a live cash grab event to build brand visibility and loyalty. It continues to use data and AI to drive personalisation and aims to grow by deepening emotional connections with its users.

YOUR META ADS A/B TESTS ARE MISLEADING

A/B tests on Meta often give misleading results because its algorithm shows different ad versions to different audiences, such as skewing based on gender. In one study, audience gender mix varied by up to 57%, which biased outcomes when audience response differed by gender. These tests are only reliable for optimizing campaigns within Meta, not for broader marketing decisions or other platforms. To validate strategy or messaging, marketers should use different methods like surveys or run separate tests on each platform.

WHY RETAINING MORE CUSTOMERS MIGHT BE HURTING YOUR GROWTH

In a recent ecommerce study, brands with higher retention but declining spend per customer saw revenue drops, while those with lower retention but increased spend among retained customers experienced up to 130 percent growth. The strongest performance came from brands that focused on building emotional connection through customer service, which was found to be the top driver of increased spend, outperforming loyalty programs and advertising in long-term impact.

INSTAGRAM LAUNCHES FIRST OFFICIAL USE OF UNLOCKABLE REELS

Instagram has launched its first official use of lockable Reels, which enable creators to share Reels that are only viewable with a code.

WHAT I LEARNED AT THE NEWSLETTER CONFERENCE THIS YEAR

Optimizing the post-sign-up flow was a core theme, and tactics like gated lead magnets, distraction-free landing pages, and repurposing content into email courses remain effective.

APPLE TO ADD AI SEARCH PARTNERS TO SAFARI AS GOOGLE USAGE FALLS

Apple will soon include AI search engines like Perplexity and Anthropic in Safari, though they will not replace Google as the default for now. This comes as Safari searches declined for the first time ever in April, signaling a user shift toward AI-driven tools for information retrieval.

NETFLIX: UNVEILING OUR INNOVATIVE NEW TV EXPERIENCE

Netflix is rolling out a new AI-powered search experience that uses ChatGPT to offer conversational, natural-language recommendations based on user preferences. Currently in beta for iOS users, the tool lets users request content in casual phrases like “funny but not too scary,” aiming to simplify content discovery. Gen AI will be used to update title cards in users' preferred languages.

A BEHIND THE SCENES LOOK AT MKT1'S CONTENT STRATEGY

MKT1's lean content strategy treats content like a product, built on guiding principles such as adding value, staying relevant, and being willing to fail. Its foundation includes systems for ideation, content pillars, layered resources, and a clear editorial voice, all maintained by a minimal team. The strategy is designed to drive three core perceptions: MKT1 as the most trusted B2B marketing guide, marketing as a strategic function equal to product, and ecosystem marketing plus account-driven GTM as key trends. MKT1 reinforces these through consistent messaging across newsletters, podcasts, templates, and events. Each piece of content fits into a broader plan that balances topic breadth and depth while avoiding “random acts of marketing.”

HOW SUPPORTLOGIC BUILT A 90-SECOND ACCOUNT INTELLIGENCE SYSTEM THAT'S TRANSFORMING THEIR GTM MOTION

SupportLogic built an internal AI-powered research workflow that cut account research time from 45 minutes to under 90 seconds and reduced costs from $12 to $0.30-$0.80 per run. The system integrates Zapier, Perplexity, OpenAI, and Salesforce to create structured briefs with business insights, messaging ideas, and buying signals. It started as a BDR tool but now supports campaigns, enablement, and outbound strategies across the GTM organization. Adoption increased because outputs align with existing account planning formats, and results are consistent regardless of who runs it. The system is fueling new experiments in outbound messaging, buyer engagement, and CRM-driven personalization.

INSIDE A HIGH VELOCITY SALES-ASSISTED GTM MOTION

Pylon, a B2B support platform that competes with Zendesk, built a lean, inbound-only sales model where each account executive runs the full cycles without SDR support. Its strategy combines demo-on-first-call scheduling, shared Slack channels with prospects, and week-long trials into a streamlined experience that aims to close deals in under six weeks. LinkedIn has become its top pipeline source, fueled by founder-led “build in public” posts that drive demos and create credibility in the B2B customer support market.

FIGMA RELEASES NEW AI-POWERED TOOLS FOR CREATING SITES, APP PROTOTYPES, AND MARKETING ASSETS

Figma has launched several AI-powered tools to directly challenge platforms like Canva, Adobe, Wix, and Replit. The new features include Figma Sites for live website creation with responsive design and built-in CMS, and Figma Make for collaborative app prototyping with editable code and AI assistance. Marketers got Figma Buzz, which allows branded asset generation in bulk using templates and spreadsheet data, and Figma Draw, which enhances vector editing with advanced illustration tools.

VECTOR'S FUNNEL VISION

Vector is a contact-based marketing platform that helps B2B SaaS teams identify and engage real people within target accounts. Its new feature, Funnel Vision, gives users visibility into each contact's intent and engagement stage, enabling precise, timely outreach. With 26 built-in playbooks, dynamic funnel filters, and contact-level insights, users can take action at every stage of the buyer's journey.

EMPOWERING THE CREATOR ECONOMY: A TACTICAL GUIDE FROM SUPERCELL'S PLAYBOOK

Supercell scaled its creator program by embedding community managers into game teams, launching a free 8-week Creator Academy with tactical training and templates, and gamifying participation through tiered rewards and content challenges. It used player feedback, sentiment analysis, and first-party data to guide strategy and track impact, linking creator activity to player retention and sentiment. This approach grew its creator base from 1.2K to 300K and drove a 199% YoY increase in engaged views.

THE FUTURE OF EDUCATIONAL BLOG CONTENT

Over the next decade, LLMs will eliminate the need for educational blog content by delivering personalized, frictionless answers directly within everyday tools. As basic informational queries become instantly resolved, the era of content-driven SEO and information arbitrage will end. Marketing will shift back to timeless strategies like branding, events, and advertising. The key will be adaptability.

ZALANDO USES AI TO SPEED UP MARKETING CAMPAIGNS, CUT COSTS

Zalando has reduced the time to produce marketing image assets from up to eight weeks to just three or four days using gen AI, cutting production costs by 90 percent.