Hinge finds and selects influencers through social listening, internal recommendations, and creator referrals to build a curated partnership network. The brand adopts an open-ended briefing process, giving influencers clear guidelines while allowing creative freedom to enhance authenticity. Success is measured beyond cost-per-metric performance, with a focus on audience demographics, engagement quality, and comment sentiment to drive long-term brand impact.
Marketing teams should be built based on a company's market, audience, and stage, making hiring a complex, ongoing process. Structuring a team involves three main functions: content & brand ("Fuel"), growth & demand generation ("Engine"), and product marketing ("Foundation"), with pi-shaped marketers—those with expertise in two areas—being ideal hires in early stages. Hiring frameworks like AORs (Areas of Responsibility), scorecards, and structured assignments improve team organization, hiring effectiveness, and clarity for the rest of the company. Interview processes should assess adaptability, problem-solving, and strategic thinking, with a mix of live and written assignments to ensure candidates can execute real-world tasks.
Maven is offering a free lineup of expert-led growth courses focused on sustainable scaling, AI-driven strategies, and product-led growth. The sessions cover topics like leveraging AI for marketing and automation, optimizing pricing, and integrating sales with growth strategies. Speakers include Andrew Chen (a16z), Kate Syuma (ex-Miro), and Archie Abrams (Shopify).
This virtual summit on March 13 will share strategies to turn one-time buyers into lifelong customers. Top DTC retention experts will cover post-purchase email sequences that boosted repeat purchases by 47%, SMS marketing that outperforms email by 3.5X, and subscription models with 85%+ retention rates. Attendees will also learn how to tailor retention tactics to their product category, price point, and purchase frequency, along with email deliverability secrets for better inbox placement.
Over 60% of Vanta's top-ranking keywords come from its Collection subfolders, a strategy that drives 13.9K monthly visits. By structuring compliance content into subfolder clusters, Vanta builds topical authority while funneling users toward high-intent pages. Its systematic use of internal linking, keyword saturation, and structured navigation strengthens its SEO moat, making it difficult for competitors to simply copy.
Tiny offers are low-ticket digital products priced between $7 and $47. They convert passive leads into paying customers by solving a specific selection problem upfront. Unlike free content that often attracts disengaged subscribers, these offers create immediate value, accelerating trust and positioning buyers for higher-ticket purchases. A well-structured tiny offer funnel, including order bumps and upsells, covers acquisition costs while generating profit, making it a sustainable strategy for growth, especially for smaller companies.
Effective marketing is based on understanding psychological triggers that influence buying decisions. The IHE method—Interviews, Hypotheses, and Experiments—helps identify and validate these triggers systematically. Key psychological principles like the Halo Effect, Loss Aversion, Social Proof, and Scarcity Effect can significantly impact conversion rates. Implementing strategies like showcasing testimonials, emphasizing the risks of inaction, and leveraging authority bias can build trust and drive sales. Applying psychology strategically removes guesswork and makes marketing more effective.
Neon's $18M marketing campaign for Anora leveraged Gen Z engagement, viral merchandise, and unconventional screenings to secure an Oscar win and strong box office performance.
Tesla's brand value has dropped 26% in a year, from $58.3 billion to $43 billion, as trust in the company has declined. Tesla is losing market share due to leadership controversies rather than product competition. Elon Musk's association with Tesla has shifted from an asset to a liability, with his political endorsements and unpredictable actions alienating core customer segments. Sales have declined across large European markets, including a 60% drop in both Germany and France.
Google is testing a new search mode that eliminates traditional links and relies entirely on responses generated by its Gemini 2.0 model. This new AI Mode, currently available to Google One AI Premium subscribers, provides conversational answers with web summaries, Knowledge Graph content, and shopping data instead of displaying organic search results.
Despite controlling nearly half of U.S. household wealth, baby boomers are less likely to respond to ads, preferring organic marketing channels like email, social media, and blogs. Use SEO-driven content, informative emails, and video storytelling to reach them rather than relying on paid media or rapid conversion tactics. Additionally, since 84% of baby boomers prefer in-store shopping, companies must integrate digital strategies with retail experiences and create marketing sequences that focus on long-term engagement.
After running a sponsored LinkedIn post, repurpose it as a thought leadership ad to maximize reach and impact. In one example, this approach led to a 4X ROAS, six opportunities, and two new clients from a $5,000 ad spend in just one month. If you're investing in sponsored posts, set aside a budget to promote them further with thought-leadership ads for better results.
The Marketing Benchmark Alliance will walk through the results of surveying more than 200 marketing leaders at diverse companies about pipeline metrics, attribution models by growth stage, marketing KPIs, and budget. The panel includes Bill Macitis (former CMO of Slack and Zendesk), Carilu Dietrich (former Head of Marketing at Atlassian), and Jon Miller (founder of Marketo). Attendees will receive the Marketing Benchmark report, which includes an interactive widget to customize the data. The webinar will take place on March 11 at 1 PM ET/10 AM PT.
Gumloop enables AI-powered workflow automation through a no-code, drag-and-drop interface. It integrates with various services for tasks like web scraping, SEO marketing, and document processing. A Chrome extension also records browser actions and turns them into repeatable automations.
This event on March 19 brings together 15 top B2B marketing experts for live teardowns of real emails. Experts will critique newsletters, lead nurture sequences, and more, offering brutally honest but constructive feedback to help marketers improve their email strategies for 2025. Each session features three experts who will break down what makes an email effective, ensuring it gets read and drives results. Attendees can submit their emails for review.
AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude are changing how people find information, but monetizing them is challenging. Google earns about $54 billion per quarter from search ads, which works because they target user intent at minimal cost per query. However, AI chatbots are expensive to run—each response costs several cents, while Google searches cost fractions of a cent. Traditional ad models don't fit well in chatbots, leading companies like OpenAI to rely on subscriptions, API sales, and enterprise solutions. Despite millions of paying users, AI firms like OpenAI and Anthropic are still losing billions annually, making profitability uncertain without major cost reductions or new monetization strategies.
Mozilla's MDN Web Docs became the leading web development documentation resource by maintaining neutrality, covering all major browsers and platforms instead of favoring Firefox. It democratized contributions with a structured GitHub workflow, attracting 45,000+ contributors and 11,000+ pages of technical content. MDN prioritized user journeys by structuring content for beginners, intermediate developers, and experts, which ensures relevance for all experience levels. Its strategy made it the industry's trusted, shared knowledge base, even as competitors like Microsoft and Google contributed to it instead of replacing it.
Even in B2B, it's critical that every piece of marketing oozes emotional appeal because you aren't really selling to businesses, you are appealing to the people who work at those businesses.
Users are clicking through to websites less often as AI-generated summaries are delivering answers directly on results pages. Brands should optimize content for AI crawlability by prioritizing semantic search and high-intent, long-tail terms while avoiding PDFs and gated content to maintain visibility. Expanding content formats to include video and interactive media can further enhance visibility. The measure of success should shift from clicks to search impressions and AI reach.
Influencer marketing spending hit a record $24 billion in 2024, with 70% of U.S. brands investing or planning to invest in creators. Short-form video dominated, and social media became the world's largest advertising channel, surpassing paid search with $247.3 billion in global ad spend. Agencies played a crucial role, with 42% of creator managers securing over $500K in brand deals and 47% of agencies relying on 25 or fewer brand partners for their revenue. AI and automation are reshaping talent management, while brands are shifting focus from vanity metrics to engagement and brand alignment. The creator economy is growing rapidly and M&A is accelerating as agencies and brands scale their operations.
Lovable, an AI tool for no-code app creation, uses a UX trick to boost sign-ups by making users feel the product is ungated. A prominent chat box on the homepage invites visitors to enter a prompt, building emotional investment. However, when they hit enter, a signup pop-up appears, converting casual visitors into high-intent users. While effective for increasing conversions, this tactic should be tested before full implementation.
Longer ranked lists (e.g., Top 20 instead of Top 5) make products appear more desirable, leading to higher ratings, increased sales, and willingness to pay more. In a study with 1,172 participants, people were willing to pay 10.9% more for a top-ranked catering service on a Top 20 list than on a Top 5 list. Eye-tracking showed people spent 40.9% more time looking at the top-ranked items in longer lists. Products ranked highly in longer lists seem better because they appear to have outperformed more competitors. This effect weakens when other factors like cost, availability, or customization needs influence decision-making.
The head of growth at Default launched a $17,900 campaign that sent 100 champagne bottles to customers, prospects, partners, and influencers - this generated an 11x ROI. The gift was thoughtfully selected to match the brand, follow a clear theme, and create a “wow” factor. Logistics were streamlined with a form that captured addresses and synced with Salesforce. Recipients were contacted three times before and after launch, resulting in 40+ demos and influencing over $225K in open pipeline.
Readers spend an average of only 8.97 seconds on an email, making accessible language critical for engagement. Best practices include using concise copy, active voice, plain language, and structured content to enhance readability for all audiences, including those with cognitive disabilities or non-native speakers. Accessibility tools, such as readability tests and screen reader previews, can help marketers test emails to ensure they are clear, inclusive, and easy to navigate.
Meta is piloting Business AI, an AI-powered tool that interacts with users through voice or text to answer their questions. Designed like a chatbot, it helps small businesses access AI without significant investment. Business AI can handle inquiries about best-selling products, available promotional codes, and more. It can be trained using a brand's existing content, product catalog, and guidelines while also being programmed to avoid certain topics.
Netflix is expanding its 'Moments' feature, which lets users clip and share parts of shows, potentially integrating it more deeply into the platform. A new job listing suggests it may develop more social-sharing tools to boost engagement and brand loyalty. Experts speculate Netflix could leverage user-generated content and fandoms to create an internal social ecosystem, similar to platforms like TikTok. With its recent success in advertising and password-sharing crackdowns, Netflix may see social engagement as its next major growth strategy.
There are several issues with OpenAI's Deep Research in terms of accuracy and reliability. While it promises to streamline research, the tool struggles with data retrieval. It uses unreliable sources like Statcounter and Statista, leading to incorrect and inconsistent results. The lack of precision in answering complex, probabilistic questions makes it difficult to trust the output. It is unknown whether AI systems will ever be accurate enough for dependable research.
Porsche's brand strategy focuses on maintaining its sports car heritage while scaling and expanding into broader segments, including electric vehicles. Unlike traditional luxury brands like Ferrari, Porsche operates at a higher production volume which requires a fine balance between exclusivity and accessibility. Its recent “Track Your Dream” initiative where customers have real-time visibility into production represents a shift towards direct consumer engagement to reduce dependency on dealerships and control the brand narrative.
Egg prices have surged 40% this year. This has challenged consumer brand loyalty and purchasing habits. Specialty egg brands like Consider Pastures have struggled, as most consumers now prioritize affordability over premium attributes. The American Egg Board has shifted its messaging from promoting eggs as a healthy choice to emphasizing their affordability and safety amid the bird flu crisis. Just Egg, a plant-based alternative, is capitalizing on shortages, seeing a 70% YOY sales increase and positioning itself as a stable option in an unstable market.
Consumers are more likely to try new brands when product choices conflict with their active goals. Studies found that gym-goers, focused on health, were more likely to choose an unfamiliar candy bar over a familiar one, while those in a dining hall stuck with known brands. Similar patterns emerged with cookies and trash bags, showing that ambiguity helps justify new choices. This shows the importance of positioning novel brands in contexts where they challenge consumer goals, making them more appealing.
Most B2B marketers rely on content funnels, but content flows are more effective. Funnels assume a linear path: ad, landing page, download, email nurture, and purchase. However, B2B buyers jump between channels and expect a seamless experience. Content flows meet them where they are and guide them naturally. Create interconnected content, where each piece leads to the next, such as linking a YouTube video to a blog or encouraging email sign-ups through blog content. Break down silos by having SEO, social, and email teams collaborate to ensure all channels align with a shared goal.
Marketing works best when built on strong operations. Clear roles, accountability, and real-time data keep teams aligned, while agile processes ensure adaptability. Customer experience should drive every marketing decision, as no campaign can fix a broken operation. When The Joint Chiropractic saw low conversions despite strong digital campaigns, the issue was slow response times, not marketing. Conversion rates jumped 15% by improving follow-ups. The best marketing leaders think like operators.
Marketing cost and opportunity calculations depend on whether the focus is efficiency or cost. The marketing customer acquisition cost ratio is a better efficiency metric than total marketing cost per opportunity because it is standardized, widely used, and has more benchmark data. When focusing merely on cost, avoid using the average total marketing cost per opportunity as it leads to overestimation. Instead, use the incremental cost per opportunity.
To level up your content in one hour, open your content calendar and transfer ideas into a tool like Google Sheets or Notion. Next, evaluate each idea with 4 key questions, including how it relates to your audience, what you aim to achieve, how you can add more brand perspective, and what related content you have in your archives. Finally, refine the ideas based on your evaluation to ensure they are impactful.
Samyang built brand love by engaging directly with fans and turning viral moments into real-world activations. When a TikTok video showed a young girl overjoyed by a Buldak ramen gift, the brand responded with a personalized Buldak-themed party. Its agile US marketing team leverages digital, experiential, and omnichannel strategies to deepen connections and expand its retail presence. From in-person activations like “sauce exchange” pop-ups to creative responses like Denmark's “Buldak Spicy Ferry,” Samyang consistently celebrates consumer enthusiasm.
Experiential marketing is shifting from one-time activations into living, self-optimizing systems. AI-powered experiences react and adapt in real time based on participant inputs, blurring the lines between physical and digital spaces. Emotionally responsive environments, generative AI-driven storytelling, and spatial computing will reshape how companies engage with customers. Experiences will become more than just immersive - they will be sentient, learning from each interaction and continuously adapting to individuals.
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