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Read the Delve case study.

WHAT DOES “AUTHENTICITY” MEAN IN THE AGE OF AI?

62% of consumers say they would trust brands more if those brands were transparent about their use of AI. As generative tools become central to the creative process, the meaning of authenticity is shifting from an emphasis on human authorship to the quality and emotional impact of the final output. Designers are adjusting by using AI as a collaborative tool and focusing on crafting work that aligns with brand values and audience expectations.

PEOPLE ARE SEARCHING MORE, BUT NOT JUST ON GOOGLE

APRILYNNE ALTER REVEALS HOW TO MAKE A KILLER YOUTUBE INTRO

Aprilynne Alter's approach to creating YouTube intros focuses on meeting audience expectations within the first 30 seconds by delivering both the “plot promise” (what the video is about) and the “format promise” (the video type). She recommends establishing a clear Unique Service Proposition early, such as showcasing expertise or proof of effort, to set the video apart. Intros should be concise, no longer than 40 seconds, and provide just enough context to engage viewers.

NEWSLETTER GROWTH TIPS

To grow a newsletter with Meta ads on just $20 per day, start by creating a website lead campaign to control the signup experience and improve engagement. Set up one campaign with two ad sets using broad targeting, splitting your budget evenly. Use 3 images and 3 videos across both ad sets, then let them run for 5-7 days. Keep the best-performing creatives in the main ad set and test 3–6 new ones weekly in the second. Monetize by using paid recommendations like Beehiiv Boosts or SparkLoop Upscribe to earn about $0.50 per subscriber and offset ad spend.

WHY “AI SHARE BUTTONS” MIGHT BE THE SMARTEST GROWTH HACK: THE CITEMET METHOD

Google-driven traffic is declining. AI engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude are emerging as new discovery layers. AI share buttons on websites can help users interact with content through LLMs, which can lead to citations, increased brand memory, and passive traffic growth. These buttons pass specific prompts and URLs directly to AI platforms, making it easier for content to be summarized, remembered, and referenced. The method, called CiteMET (Cited, Memorable, Effective, and Trackable), is part of a broader strategy to future-proof visibility by influencing how AI engines process and cite content. While technical SEO is still essential, this approach builds a new form of audience engagement through AI prompt interaction.

HOW MILLENNIALS USE SOCIAL MEDIA: WHAT MARKETERS NEED TO KNOW

Millennials are reemerging in cultural relevance and remain a dominant force on social media, with 31% planning to increase usage in 2025. They value emotional connection, authenticity, and originality, using platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok for entertainment, shopping, and staying connected. Over half make impulse purchases monthly from social media, and 35% are more likely to buy products discovered there during economic uncertainty. They favor brand content that feels personal and avoid anything that sounds overly polished or sales-focused. To win them over, brands should prioritize storytelling, community engagement, and a consistent, relatable voice.

MARKETING IS BROKEN: WHY YOU'RE SO BUSY AND STILL NOT GETTING ANYTHING DONE

Marketing teams lose 7.5 hours each week to performative tasks and another 4.6 hours to poor communication. Over 55% say constant notifications disrupt their focus. To reclaim time, block at least 2 hours per day for deep work and replace status meetings with async updates. Although 86% use AI tools, only 5% feel fluent, missing a major opportunity. Use AI to handle briefs, meeting summaries, and internal updates. Create templates for repeatable tasks and shift focus to execution that is high-impact.

SHOULD YOUR BRAND OPEN A COFFEE SHOP?

Brands from luxury fashion to banks are opening coffee shops to expand their reach beyond traditional buyers. These cafés create “third places” where people can spend time, increasing dwell time and chances of purchases. Coffee shops like Uniqlo's Fifth Avenue location and Dior's Blue Box Café generate social media buzz through Instagrammable spaces and UGC. While costly and requiring quality service, partnering with established coffee roasters can reduce risks.

THE NEED FOR A NEW TRIO: PM, PMM, AND GROWTH

Product development has become faster and more accessible with AI, but that shift increases the pressure on teams to get positioning, messaging, and distribution right. A modern product team needs three core roles working in sync with the Product Manager defining and building the product, the Product Marketing Manager connecting it to market needs, and the Growth Owner optimizing reach and impact. This trio expands the influence of product beyond technical teams and ensures that customer insights and business goals stay connected throughout the entire product lifecycle.

MUSIC DRIVES RESULTS, BUT BRANDS NEGLECT IT

New research finds that music can drive tangible business impact for ads, but is rarely given the level of consideration afforded to other components of the creative process.

FAST VS SLOW BRANDS

A quadrant mapping how fast brands move and what informs their content decisions.

‘WE'RE EXPERIMENTING WITH LESS UNHINGED CONTENT'

An interview with Duolingo's international marketing director about mascot fatigue, their North-Star metrics, and experimenting with “less unhinged” content.

CREATORS AS STRATEGISTS: THE NEW POWER PLAYERS IN BRAND MARKETING

Creators have become strategic partners who now shape campaigns. Many outperform traditional strategists by engaging directly with their communities and offering real-time feedback. While platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram now receive more ad spend than traditional media, agencies often overlook creators' role. Brands that involve them early see more authentic results, as shown by India's Tira, which co-developed voice and formats with creators.

HOW EMERGING TRENDS IMPACT CONSUMER ELECTRONICS

Easier online purchasing drives 83% of consumers to buy more electronics, while 92% say all-in-one online shopping encourages frequent purchases. Social media is a key discovery channel for 78% of shoppers, who are 3X more likely to buy electronics through these platforms. Creator recommendations are trusted by 75%, with 81% following creators for advice. Augmented reality enhances engagement, capturing attention for 72% and helping 75% visualize products, which boosts confidence and reduces returns.

HOW FUTURE PACING DOUBLED DEMOS FOR A SAAS COMPANY

SFG20 increased demo requests and boosted conversions by 105% by simplifying its lead generation page and using future pacing with a blurred image of its app interface. The test replaced dense copy with a streamlined form and highlighted a low-pressure demo experience, helping prospects visualize themselves using the product. This shows how even subtle psychological cues like future pacing can increase motivation and reduce friction.

5 BRANDS THAT GOT CULTURAL PARTNERSHIPS RIGHT

Successful cultural partnerships go beyond surface-level collaborations. Brands like Duolingo, Dior, Nike, Gentle Monster, and LVMH invite communities to shape their work. Duolingo's Eid content connects with Muslim users, Dior honors Indian artisanship, Nike collaborates with Indigenous designers, Gentle Monster gives Jennie Kim creative control, and LVMH blends French luxury with Japanese artistry. These partnerships honor traditions, build genuine connections, and make culture central to their marketing strategies.

THE NEW SEARCH CONSOLE INSIGHTS REPORT IS HERE

Google has released a new version of Search Console Insights, integrated directly into the main Search Console interface. The new report is designed to provide an accessible way for content creators, bloggers, and site owners to understand their website's performance without needing to be data experts.

SEO TIP: UNCOVER HIDDEN CHATGPT TRAFFIC WITH LOG FILE INSIGHTS

GA4 misses how your content appears in real user conversations on ChatGPT, since these aren't traditional page views. To uncover this hidden activity, check your server log files for the ChatGPT-User agent using tools like Screaming Frog. This shows which URLs are being accessed, what questions your site is helping answer, and how often your content is used by ChatGPT. These visits often convert at much higher rates, so reviewing your logs is a valuable way to understand your true visibility and influence.

DIARY OF A BRAND: A24

A24 has built a cult following through auteur-led films and low-cost, viral marketing that champions creative freedom. It's evolving into a platform brand by expanding into TV, music, merchandise, memberships, and cosmetics, all while staying true to its indie roots. Its marketing team shares the same creative autonomy as its filmmakers, helping A24 grow an Instagram following 3X larger than Paramount Pictures. The brand is building a media empire centered on offbeat storytelling.

HOW TARGET IS TACKLING BACK-TO-SCHOOL MARKETING WITH DUAL CAMPAIGNS

Target is running two back-to-school campaigns using influencer marketing and value messaging to connect with college students and parents of younger children. The “Hey Mom, I'm at Target” campaign features college content creators highlighting dorm essentials and Circle 360 perks, while “All of the Above” targets parents with budget-friendly style and teacher influencers. Both campaigns focus on delivering an on-trend product mix and reinforcing Target's commitment to value during its second-largest sales season.

MICROSOFT ADS GETS NEW GRANULAR ASSET-LEVEL REVIEWS

Microsoft Ads will now review assets individually, letting approved parts run even if one asset is not approved.

STARTUPS ARE DITCHING LINKEDIN FOR TIKTOK TO ANNOUNCE FUNDING ROUNDS

Young founders are using viral TikToks and short videos to attract investors.

VECTOR'S MARKETING BUDGET BREAKDOWN

A breakdown of how Vector is spending its $45K ad budget in Q3.

THE ECONOMY IS SO OFF THE RAILS THAT THEY'RE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE ADS SPECIFICALLY TARGETED AT AI BOTS

Google is shifting its advertising model to target AI agents instead of humans. Its new protocol, Agent2Agent, enables bots to communicate and perform tasks like financial transactions. This reflects a broader trend where consumers delegate purchases to AI, forcing advertisers into a confusing and unstable new system.

THE RISE OF SONIC BRANDING: HOW SMART COMPANIES ARE CRAFTING THEIR AUDIO IDENTITY

Brands now invest in sonic logos, custom voice identities, and UX sound design to communicate values and personality. Advancements in AI tools like voice cloning and text-to-speech make high-quality audio branding accessible even to smaller businesses. As screenless technology expands, sound is positioned to become a core element of brand identity.

EMPTY SCREENS MAKE MORE MONEY THAN BUSY ONES

"Word of Sight" is a strategy where products market themselves by being seen. Shazam's large on-screen logo turns user behavior into passive promotion, especially in places like concerts and cafes. Readwise does this on social media by requiring users to tag @readwise to save tweets, turning each save into a visible promotion. To apply this, use bold visuals, embed branding into shared content, and make public actions central to functionality.

THE SECRET PSYCHOLOGY BEHIND GIVEAWAYS THAT ACTUALLY CONVERT

The most successful giveaways focus on psychology, identity, and connection rather than high price tags. Death Wish Coffee gained national attention through a contest that offered a life-changing reward. The most impactful prizes feel exclusive yet achievable and appeal to what people deeply want but would not buy for themselves. Giveaways that offer access, align with identity, and feel like gifts create stronger bonds. Smart brands use them to attract the right audience and build lasting community and loyalty.

recommendations given by AI assistants. See the full findings

GOOGLE'S NEW APP ‘DOPPL' LETS YOU VIRTUALLY TRY ON OUTFITS USING AI

Doppl allows users to visualize how clothes would look and move on their own bodies using just one image. The app extends Google Shopping's previous try-on features into a standalone experience that includes personalized avatars, outfit animations, and digital closets. It serves as both a consumer tool and a testbed for styling data that may shape Google's future retail strategy.

TIKTOK LAUNCHES BULLETIN BOARDS FOR BROADCAST MESSAGING FROM CREATOR AND BRAND PROFILES

Bulletin Boards is a one-to-many messaging feature that lets creators and brands share updates through text, images, and videos. Fans can react but not reply. Similar to Instagram's Broadcast Channels, this tool supports up to 20 posts per day, each capped at 1,000 characters. While still in limited testing, some high-profile accounts already have large followings.

THE RISE OF THE AI-NATIVE EMPLOYEE

Lovable hit $80M ARR in just 7 months with only 35 employees by building a culture around AI-native employees who default to AI for execution. These employees skip traditional workflows, use AI to build directly, and own end-to-end execution without coordination bottlenecks. This speed lowers the cost of failure, encourages experimentation, and eliminates roles that only exist to manage process. Velocity, not process, is now the competitive moat.

SNHU'S $5M+ HIGH EEAT STRATEGY TO RE-ENGAGE “SOME COLLEGE, NO CREDENTIAL” STUDENTS

Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) targets the 43M Americans with some college but no credentials by focusing on flexible, transfer-friendly programs. Over 66% of its students bring in prior credits. Its website drives nearly 950K monthly organic visits, worth $5.8M in paid traffic, with most traffic coming from informative subfolders like /about-us/ and /online-degrees/. SNHU ranks well by following EEAT principles, using faculty quotes, employment data, and student testimonials. Its embedded YouTube content further engages users and helps retain SCNC learners who prefer video over text.

NAMING EXPERT SHARES THE PROCESS BEHIND CREATING BILLION-DOLLAR BRAND NAMES

Many now-iconic names were initially questioned for their relevance or clarity but succeeded by standing out. The naming process involves generating many options, deferring judgment, and using linguistic research to find sounds that evoke traits like trust or innovation. A well-crafted name builds long-term brand equity by embedding itself in search, conversation, and product use.

8 TINY EXPERIMENTS THAT LED TO HUGE GROWTH WINS

8 small growth experiments that make a big impact.

6 SIMPLE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE TIPS TO IMPROVE ANY MARKETING MESSAGE

These behavioral science principles include the Pratfall Effect, Generation Effect, and Endowment Effect.

Read the Delve case study.

THE EFFECTIVENESS EQUATION

Many companies struggle to measure the full impact of marketing. Only 40% of senior marketers say their organization has a clear effectiveness goal and just 20% report alignment on how to measure it. This gap often leads to underinvestment, even though long-term marketing returns (months 5-24) match short-term gains. Strong brands can charge up to 2X more than weaker ones, and using first-party data can shift 10-26% of customer preference toward challenger brands. Cutting marketing may save money initially, but recovery typically costs $1.85 for every $1 saved.

VIBE MARKETING IS NOT AS EASY AS IT SOUNDS

While vibe marketing offers speed and scale, it requires a well-structured system with clear workflows, prompt training, and tool integration to avoid off-brand results. Tools can generate campaign frameworks in minutes, such as launching a TikTok and Instagram plan under ten thousand dollars, but building the underlying infrastructure demands considerable upfront effort. Marketers remain responsible for curating, refining, and aligning outputs with brand strategy to transform AI into a productive engine.

7 RULES TO BUILD MESSAGING THAT ACTUALLY INFLUENCES YOUR BUYERS

Many B2B brands fail to communicate value because they skip positioning and jump straight to content. Effective messaging is built on clear positioning, focuses on fewer messages, and repeats them often since buyers now need to see a message at least 30 times before it sticks. Messaging should lead with customer problems, use familiar language, and present a clear enemy to sharpen differentiation. Strong brand ideology helps messaging become more memorable and emotionally resonant.

18+ TIPS TO USE TODAY FROM MAU

JustFit uses win-back offers triggered at key points like cancellations or expirations to re-engage users. Offering another free trial helps users who cannot fully test the app initially. Multi-page and creative animated paywalls, as seen in tests by CoinStats, improve conversion rates. Early hard paywalls strengthen monetization, while soft paywalls may help grow a free user base. Simplifying plans and focusing paywall messaging on benefits rather than features leads to better results. GOHUNT improved growth by redesigning onboarding with a clear welcome screen, better benefit communication, and by asking users to start a trial immediately.

HOOTSUITE'S OWLYGPT

OwlyGPT offers real-time insights drawn from current social conversations instead of outdated web data. It uses Talkwalker's advanced social listening technology to understand cultural trends, audience sentiment, and industry shifts as they happen. Social teams can quickly create on-brand content, generate fresh ideas, and fill content calendars with captions and images tailored to each platform. It adapts to your brand voice, offers personalized strategic advice, and streamlines workflows by acting as a researcher, copywriter, and strategist within the Hootsuite dashboard. A 30-day trial is available.

CHATGPT SEARCH QUERY EXTRACTOR

This bookmarklet lets you extract and view all search queries used by ChatGPT in any web-grounded conversation (those that use Bing for real-time info). When clicked, it opens a new browser tab that displays these queries in a clean, organized format, complete with a “Copy All” button for quick export to tools like Google Sheets. It's useful for those who want to analyze how ChatGPT sources information or repurpose those search strategies.

HOW TO WRITE (MUCH) BETTER AI PROMPTS

Treat AI like a collaborator, giving it clear, specific prompts that include context, audience, tone, format, and constraints. Common mistakes include being too vague, omitting audience or brand voice, overloading prompts, and skipping revisions. Frameworks like RACE, DREAM, and PASTA offer structured ways to write prompts.

ADVANCED MESSAGING STRATEGY: MAKING YOUR PRODUCT A MUST HAVE

People do not buy products because of who they are but because of what they need done at a specific moment. Understanding the buyer's timeline helps marketers create messaging that aligns with real triggers such as urgency, frustration, or a desire for progress. The Jobs to Be Done framework uncovers these moments by shifting the focus away from static personas and toward the situations that cause people to seek change. Marketers need to identify indirect competitors that solve the same problem in different ways, such as medications replacing fitness routines or AI tools replacing online courses, to ensure their product is positioned clearly in the buyer's mind.

DON'T BE A ROADBLOCK, SEO NEEDS TO SAY YES

Many SEO teams earn a reputation as blockers by enforcing best practices at the expense of company momentum. This creates organizational friction, causing product and marketing teams to launch initiatives without SEO input and reducing SEO's role to post-launch cleanup. Shift to a mindset that starts with alignment and explores the business need first positions SEO as a strategic partner rather than a gatekeeper.

7 POSTING TIPS TO GET MENTIONS ON CHATGPT

A playbook for driving leads on Reddit, Google, and LLMs.

WHY MARKETING MUST RECLAIM GTM DESIGN IN THE AGE OF AI

79% of consumers are likely to switch brands that rely heavily on AI for communication, showing a growing rejection of automated volume-based tactics.