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HOW TO MAKE LINKEDIN CAROUSELS THAT CONVERT

An 8-step framework to build a repeatable Canva system.

HOW TO CATEGORIZE YOUR CONTENT LIBRARY

Organize content into 3 buckets: 1) Keep & optimize 2) Consolidate 3) Kill.

purchases. See Lenovo's Reddit strategy.

→ SAMSUNG drove a 10PT INCREASE in purchase intent and brand

favorability. See Samsung's Reddit strategy.

→ IBM increased awareness among software engineers by 4-7PT with a

co-created AMA campaign. See IBM's Reddit strategy.

*New accounts only, limit 1 per account, additional terms apply [8].

INFLUENCE HAPPENS EVERYWHERE, AN ANALYSIS OF THE 5,000 MOST-VISITED SITES ON MOBILE AND DESKTOP WEB

Influence is spread across many channels, with search and social making up nearly half of all visits. Google dominates, drawing as much traffic as the next 13 sites combined, while AI tools account for only about 0.1% of usage. The data suggests most influence happens across fragmented platforms, and search mainly captures and converts demand rather than creating it.

PERFORMANCE MARKETING IN 2026: THE TOP 6 TRENDS SHAPING HOW BRANDS GROW

AI campaign tools like Performance Max and Advantage+ are now baseline, but teams that defer entirely to algorithms risk optimizing for the wrong signals, such as hitting CPA targets while flooding CRMs with low-quality leads. Creative has become the main differentiator on paid social since targeting capabilities have converged across advertisers. Meanwhile, retail media is growing rapidly through first-party transaction data, AEO is restructuring organic search as AI Overviews cover 55% of queries, and B2B marketers are shifting toward demand generation as buyers complete most of their journey independently.

HOW AN ALARM APP GOT 25 MILLION VIEWS AND 100K DOWNLOADS IN 30 DAYS

Wayk, a morning alarm app that forces users to complete tasks like pushups or photos before it turns off, reached 100K downloads and the #15 spot on the App Store within 30 days. The growth came almost entirely from TikTok, where the team adapted proven short-form formats from adjacent productivity apps instead of inventing new content styles. Each video followed a repeatable structure of a relatable caption paired with a raw, unpolished reaction to the product. Reddit and X failed to generate traction, reinforcing that for small consumer app teams, short-form video is currently the dominant distribution channel.

TIKTOK AD CREATIVE HAS A SHORTER SHELF LIFE

TikTok ads experience creative fatigue faster than other platforms due to the algorithm's preference for high-velocity novelty and entertainment-focused consumption patterns. Advertisers should treat creative development like a supply chain with modular components, filming multiple hooks, body segments, and CTAs that can generate 60 ad permutations from one hour of shooting. The hook fatigues fastest and should be swapped when thumb-stop rates drop below benchmarks for three consecutive days, while keeping successful body and CTA elements intact.

YOUR HEAD OF GROWTH TOOLKIT (WITH CONTEXT, PROMPTS, AND AGENTS)

A structured AI agent system can replace inconsistent growth work by running weekly audits, experiments, and prioritization in under an hour. The toolkit includes instant prompts that generate a full audit in 60 seconds and a 3 month roadmap in minutes, which replicates work that normally takes 2 to 3 hours. Small gains compound over time, since a 2% improvement in conversion can decide whether a company misses its annual target by 20%. AI-driven teams already see 42% more content output and 27% higher conversion rates, and this system increases testing velocity from about 1 experiment per month to 3 to 5 per week. The system is designed to help founders focus on decisions while maintaining consistent growth execution.

KLAVIYO JUST SHIPPED ITS BIGGEST AI RELEASE YET

Klaviyo released a major AI update headlined by Composer, an agent that builds full campaigns from a single plain-language prompt. It determines audience, messaging, timing, channel, and sequence based on performance data from over 193,000 brands. The release also expanded Customer Agent with retail-specific skills across chat, SMS, email, and WhatsApp, plus new features like RCS messaging, personalized send times that showed a 35% lift in click rate, and audience optimization that scores unsubscribe risk before a campaign is sent.

MKT1 BUILDATHON: MARKETING STRATEGY SKILL IN CLAUDE CODE (WEBINAR)

A free 1 hour live session where Emily Kramer teaches you how to build a custom marketing strategy skill using Claude Code. It's hands-on, so you'll create your own working skill and get live support. The session also introduces MKT1's MCP Server, which helps you build these skills more efficiently.

WHY I LOVE THE CONSTRAINTS OF EMAIL

Email's power comes from its constraints. A narrow 600px layout, outdated HTML, and unpredictable rendering force focus on clarity, strong copy, and intentional design instead of flashy features. These limits reduce decision fatigue and spark creativity, pushing marketers to prioritize the most important message. With fewer distractions and a defined structure, emails deliver higher ROI and conversions than more technically capable channels.

RAGEBAIT ME, PLS

Ragebait dominates online culture by provoking outrage for clicks, turning extreme emotions into entertainment and social currency. It thrives on polarisation and contradiction, letting people love-to-hate and hate-to-love the same content. For younger audiences, it becomes a hyper-literate, playful way to explore culture and subvert norms, but widespread exposure breeds numbness as emotions are flattened and gamified by algorithms. The cycle rewards provocation and clarity over nuance, embedding performative outrage into everyday interaction.

10 WAYS TO ASK FOR BUDGET

Tactful prompts to ask for budget without being awkward.

A FLOOD OF PRODUCT RECOMMENDATIONS ON INSTAGRAM AND FACEBOOK

On Instagram, creators can now add up to 30 items per Reel through affiliate links or brand catalogs, while Facebook displays clickable purchase banners on posts and videos.

OPENAI'S SORA WAS THE CREEPIEST APP ON YOUR PHONE–NOW IT'S SHUTTING DOWN

Designed as a TikTok-style feed powered by its Sora 2 model, it drew early hype but quickly lost traction as downloads declined.

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HOW AI-GENERATED CONTENT PERFORMS IN GOOGLE SEARCH: A 16-MONTH EXPERIMENT

AI content can get indexed and gain early traffic fast, but it'll fail to sustain the rankings without SEO fundamentals. In this experiment, 71% of pages were indexed in 36 days and generated 122,000+ impressions, then grew to 526,000+ impressions by month 3, but only 3% of pages remained in the top 100 after that point. Around 70% of total traffic came in the first 2.5 months, then growth slowed, and visibility dropped sharply due to weak authority, lack of unique insights, and missing trust signals. Adding new AI content later increased impressions by up to 17x to 19x for older pages, but gains were short-term and did not fix the long-term ranking issues.

UX WORKS THROUGH SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS. AI TOOLS ARE ERASING THEM

AI is eroding the social relationships that make design valuable, which leaves designers stuck cleaning up stakeholder-generated output instead of shaping strategy. Design has always balanced complexity and regularization, but AI pushes teams toward over-reliance on templates and patterns, which reduces original thinking and turns design into repetitive output. This shift replaces collective “meaning-making” with isolated production, which increases noise and slows work. The core problem is not tooling but the breakdown of relationships, since real value comes from sharing ideas, getting feedback, and discovering what is wrong early. Improving AI skills does not fix this issue because it strengthens a system that avoids listening, which leads to generic solutions and weaker outcomes.

THE EXACT TITLE TAG FORMULAS BEHIND TOP-RANKING PAGES

Title tags now impact visibility across search, AI tools, and link previews, not just Google. Unclear or overly creative titles reduce clicks and limit how content is surfaced by AI. Clear, intent-driven titles perform best. Focus on one keyword, stay under 60 characters, and match the page's H1.

STACKED (VS SINGLE) DISCOUNTS WORK BETTER

Stacked discounts drive higher purchase intent and engagement than a single discount of the same total value. Splitting a 25% discount into multiple parts increased shopping intent by up to 15.8% and drove 66.3% more views, 52.7% more upvotes, and 52.3% more comments across 9,000+ deals. People see stacked offers as 33.1% more unique and feel 20.7% smarter when using them. The effect is stronger when the total discount is smaller and weaker when stacking feels complex or requires too much effort. Clear and simple stacking improves results and makes customers more likely to act.

SURREAL: A MASTERCLASS IN UNHINGED MARKETING

Surreal broke into the saturated cereal market by positioning itself between sugary kids' cereals and bland health options, offering high-protein, low-sugar products wrapped in chaotic humor. The brand built a cult following on LinkedIn by targeting marketers as an amplification channel, knowing they'd share clever campaigns organically. Its paid media leans on fake celebrity billboards, absurd brand collaborations like "Dild-Os" with Lovehoney, and anti-marketing aesthetics that interrupt the patterns consumers expect from advertising.

WHY SMALL BRANDS MUST USE TV (WEBINAR)

This webinar, on March 25, will explain why TV is a powerful growth channel for smaller brands that have hit a plateau, showing how it can drive up to 35% more sales even with limited budgets. It covers why social media alone often fails to build awareness, how big brands benefit from scale in ways smaller brands cannot replicate, and how adding TV can unlock reach and credibility. It also explores how to combine TV with channels like CTV, podcasts, and OOH.

I BUILT 5 MARKETING TOOLS WITH AHREFS FIREHOSE API PART 1

This guide shows how to use Ahrefs Firehose API to build tools that monitor the web in real time and trigger actions. Using lightweight scripts and daily scheduled jobs, you can track brand mentions, competitors, and keywords with precise filters like page type or domain. One example sends a daily Slack digest of mentions using custom rules. The system follows a clear pattern where Firehose captures signals, scripts process them, and results are delivered where teams work.

YOUR WRITER DOESN'T WANT TO BE YOUR CONTENT STRATEGIST

Content strategy often fails when companies ask writers to own it. Writing and strategy require different skills. Writers focus on execution, while strategy defines audience and ties content to revenue. Confusing job titles lead to underqualified hires. Teams often expect one person to do everything, which creates output without direction. Companies should separate roles. Hire a strategist to build the foundation, then bring in marketers or managers to execute.

CHATGPT ADS PILOT LEAVES ADVERTISERS WITHOUT PROOF OF ROI

Early advertisers testing ChatGPT ads say the product isn't ready for performance marketing. There is no programmatic buying, minimal targeting, and almost no data to evaluate outcomes. Two agency executives confirmed they couldn't demonstrate measurable business results from their spend. OpenAI plans to roll out ads to all free and low-cost US users soon, but without proper measurement tools, the channel remains a blind bet for now.

SEO TIP: IF YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND HOW SEARCH REALLY WORKS, READ ENGINEERING WRITE-UPS

The way retrieval systems work explains why phrase structure, passage structure, internal context, and semantic proximity matter so much for content visibility.

THE REVERSE JOB SEARCH METHOD

Steps in searching for the people behind job posts on LinkedIn.

INSTAGRAM NOW LETS YOU REARRANGE PHOTOS IN A CAROUSEL AFTER POSTING

The feature works by tapping Edit on a post, then holding and dragging images into a new order.

→ See your AI visibility

AI IS SQUEEZING MARKETING AGENCIES FROM BOTH SIDES

Clients expect AI-driven cost savings to reduce their retainers, while agencies that refuse to adopt AI risk falling behind competitors and in-house teams. 53% of agency owners now see AI as a significant threat, and 66% worry that junior team members will have fewer career opportunities as AI automates the foundational tasks that once served as training grounds. Larger and more specialized agencies are faring better, while generalist shops struggle most.

BIG TECH'S STRATEGY FOR SELLING AI: DOGFOODING

Big Tech is using AI internally to sell it externally, making executives and employees the first users to signal value. At Meta, Nvidia, and Salesforce, leaders tie performance to AI usage while marketing presents this as proof that it works. Spending on AI is rising, yet productivity gains remain modest, with about 40% of adults using AI at work and saving only 2% of hours, and 9% of roles fully replaced. Companies adopt norms set by industry leaders, increasing demand, while massive investments in data centers, chips, and power push firms to justify usage and accelerate adoption.

HOW HUBSPOT SOLVED THE TWO-DATE PROBLEM

Showing both publish and updated dates can hurt CTR if Google surfaces the older one in search results. HubSpot avoids this by displaying only the updated date in standard format while listing the original publish timing as plain text, which Google ignores. This keeps search listings looking fresh while still giving readers context, helping maintain SEO performance.

THE BACKSTORY BEHIND CLAY'S NEW PRICING MODEL

Clay updated its pricing to reflect platform use beyond data, adding an “actions” metric alongside data credits and reducing tiers from 5 to 4. The team spent a year testing with agencies and customer segments to ensure fairness. Actions remain invisible for most users while guiding power users to upgrade. Transparent communication included videos, memos, and grandfathering legacy customers. Short-term revenue may drop 10%, but long-term upgrades are expected as action usage grows.

VECTOR'S ORGANIC CONTENT STRATEGY BREAKDOWN

Vector drives growth with a system that turns founder insights into high-volume content. The team runs biweekly interviews and uses AI trained on each founder's voice to create LinkedIn posts. Founders stay active and post consistently. Engagement is the main lever, with 58% of follower growth coming from daily comments on relevant posts. The company page focuses on employee content. A podcast built on real internal discussions fuels the strategy, influencing 80% of open opportunities and serving as source material for posts

primary inbox. Reach prospects. Not spam.

Spoiler: not many! 1 in 5 emails never hits the inbox. Warmy.io

improves deliverability automatically, so your emails reach the

THE SCIENCE OF HOW AI PICKS ITS SOURCES

AI citations are concentrated among a few domains, with content breadth and structure outweighing rankings. About 30 domains capture 67% of citations, and top Google results are cited only 43.2% of the time. ChatGPT retrieves many sources but cites few, with 85% of pages never cited and 67% of cited URLs appearing only once. Longer, structured content covering multiple queries performs best, and placing key information in the first 30% of a page maximizes attention.

SEARCH CONSOLE'S AVERAGE POSITION, EXPLAINED

Average position in GSC is an aggregated metric that often misleads and offers little actionable insight, so it is usually best ignored. An overall average position of 25 means a site ranks around page 3, since Google shows about 10 organic results per page. Query-level average position is more useful because it reflects how a specific URL ranks across users, such as averaging 1.5 if it appears in position 1 for one search and 2 for another. Special elements like image packs and AI Overviews count as positions, and appearing in them can raise a URL to position 1 even if its organic ranking is lower. Reported positions can vary due to personalization, device differences, and limited visibility of features like “People also ask,” which makes exact rankings harder to verify.

GOODBYE TWO BY TWO. HELLO TWO BY NOTHING. A FRAMEWORK FOR BUILDING DISTINCTIVE BRANDS

The “two by nothing” framework shows competitors fighting over dimensions like price or quality, while the brand creates a new plane where it stands alone. Airbnb illustrates this by shifting from a place to stay to a way to experience a destination or travel together, which enables more distinctive campaigns and positioning. The approach requires mapping competitors, uncovering brand and audience insights, and reframing industry assumptions into something people care about. It works even if the product is similar, since differentiation can come from values and identity rather than features.

THIS REDDIT WATCHDOG CHANGED EVERYTHING BRANDS THOUGHT THEY KNEW ABOUT THE PLATFORM

The subreddit r/companiesthatspam appeared in February to call out brands astroturfing on Reddit, quickly ranking in Google search. It was removed within a month, but the risk remains. Reddit is the top-cited domain on major AI platforms at 3.11%, ahead of YouTube and Wikipedia, so bot-driven backlash can appear in AI searches. Brands like Mint Mobile that maintain genuine community engagement outperform those using agency-run manipulation.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A BRAND FAILS TO DELIVER ON ITS BASIC PROMISE

FedEx's slogan, "The World on Time," sets high expectations, so any delivery failure feels like a breach. Despite a 95.3% on-time rate, PwC found 1 in 3 consumers will leave a brand after one bad experience. A recent 45-hour delay on a priority shipment shows how gaps like drivers missing store hours and poor customer service cause more reputational damage than the delay itself. Brands with high expectations need recovery processes to match.

6 AI SEARCH RESOURCES FOR CMOS/MARKETING LEADERS

WHEN YOUR CULTURE BECOMES A MEME: THE ‘JARRING' EFFECT OF CHINAMAXXING

Chinamaxxing made snippets of Chinese life go viral, with non-Chinese creators copying habits like slippers and hot water.