Building a Marketing Team

Last week, I shared how Gen AI is moving us from the age of information to the age of intelligence. Technology is changing rapidly and the way customers shop and buy is changing, too. We need to understand how the customer journey is evolving in order to drive customer connection today. That is our bread and butter at HubSpot - we’re deeply curious about customer behavior! So I want to share one important shift we’re seeing and what go-to-market teams can do to adapt. Traditionally, when a customer wants to learn more about your product or service, what have they done? They go to your website and explore. They click on different pages, filter for information that’s relevant to them, and sort through pages to find what they need. But today, even if your website is user-friendly and beautiful, all that clicking is becoming too much work. We now live in the era of ChatGPT, where customers can find exactly what they need without ever having to leave a simple chat box. Plus, they can use natural language to easily have a conversation. It's no surprise that 55% of businesses predict that by 2024, most people will turn to chatbots over search engines for answers (HubSpot Research). That’s why now, when customers land on your website, they don’t want to click, filter, and sort. They want to have an easy, 1:1, helpful conversation. That means as customers consider new products they are moving from clicks to conversations. So, what should you do? It's time to embrace bots. To get started, experiment with a marketing bot for your website. Train your bot on all of your website content and whitepapers so it can quickly answer questions about products, pricing, and case studies—specific to your customer's needs. At HubSpot, we introduced a Gen AI-powered chatbot to our website earlier this year and the results have been promising: 78% of chatters' questions have been fully answered by our bot, and these customers have higher satisfaction scores. Once you have your marketing bot in place, consider adding a support bot. The goal is to answer repetitive questions and connect customers with knowledge base content automatically. A bot will not only free up your support reps to focus on more complex problems, but it will delight your customers to get fast, personalized help. In the age of AI, customers don’t want to convert on your website, they want to converse with you. How has your GTM team experimented with chatbots? What are you learning? #ConversationalAI #HubSpot #HubSpotAI

I've run organic content strategy for DTC brands doing $1M–$100M+ in revenue. Here's everything I know: Most brands are great at buying ads. Very few are great at building the content that makes those ads work. Framework we battle-tested at Fresh Chile, a top 1% Shopify brand, and now deploy across our agency clients. We call it the Shop Operating System. Step 1: Start with your product page Most brands start with a blank calendar and a vague brief. That's why they run out of ideas in two weeks. Your PDP already has the playbook. Reviews become social proof posts. How-to content becomes tutorial stories. Shipping and returns become objection-handling stories. Price becomes value framing. 10 SKUs worked through every PDP element. That's 30 days of content minimum. Step 2: Stop obsessing over the grid The grid is not where your customers live. They're in stories. They're watching reels. My biggest viral video at Fresh Chile was an ugly burrito thumbnail. Genuinely unappetizing. It sold a lot of salsa. Post the thing. The community will tell you what works. Step 3: Build the system visually first Most content strategies fall apart because they live in someone's head. We run everything through a Figma board built 45 days out. Every day has a post, stories, an email, and ads launching. When a brand owner can see one day and know exactly what's going out across every channel, something clicks. Organic complements email. Email complements paid. None of it operates in a silo. Step 4: Volume is not the enemy of quality. Paralysis is. In the last 28 days at Fresh Chile, we distributed over 500 pieces of content. I benchmarked follower growth against Heinz, French's, Tostitos, Tabasco, Cholula. Net negative for all of them. We were the only brand positive, and by a significant margin. 500 pieces of content also means 500 assets your ad account can pull from. That's the design. Step 5: Organic is the creative layer that makes paid more efficient Every media buyer I've talked to says the same thing: "My job is so much easier when the brand has organic dialed in." When you're running organic at volume, the market tells you what's working before you put a dollar behind it. The content getting the most saves and shares is your next ad. You already know it converts. That's the real unlock. Step 6: The channel most DTC brands are sleeping on YouTube Shorts. Disney, Hulu, Peacock, Netflix every major streaming platform combined does not match YouTube's monthly viewership. I've been running a weekly cooking show on Fresh Chile's YouTube for a year. The compounding is starting to show. If you're already creating for Instagram and TikTok, the repurpose to YouTube takes ten minutes. The summary Start with your PDP. Build the calendar visually. Post with volume and strategy. Let organic tell you what to put money behind. Repurpose everything to YouTube. That's what we've been building. And the results are showing up. That's SHOP OS.

“Our budget was slashed again,” exclaimed a frustrated CMO from a $75mil SaaS company. “The remaining staff is depressed, and those who can are jumping ship--anyone have any ideas for me?” the CMO asked. And so began another CMO Huddle in the “hidden recession” of 2024. Before breaking down the potential solutions to this common challenge for many B2B CMOs, let’s reflect on the economic realities our recent research revealed: ⚡ 69% of B2B marketing leaders believe their industry is in a recession ⚡ 50% noted their company experienced layoffs ⚡ 69% were asked to do more with less budget ⚡ 76% are experiencing more pressure to deliver pipeline results [Note: The complete report will be released on 6/18/24. Ping me for a copy.] Now let’s tackle this CMO’s leadership challenge after layoffs and budget cuts. Most of the time, layoffs do not end up with the optimal mix of talent based on the reduced budget. Sure, you eliminated some weak performers. That’s always helpful. But the critical question is, given your new budget, do you have the right mix of talent? If you had started from scratch, is this the team you would have put in place? Rather than fretting about staffers jumping ship, think of that as an opportunity to right-size and rebuild with a team unburdened by what happened before. Look for “utility players” eager to tackle multiple roles and “Impact Players” as outlined in Liz Wiseman’s great book. These more flexible individuals will be invaluable as you look to stretch every penny. Now, on to allocating your smaller budget. The biggest mistake you can make is to cut each area equally. Instead, take a step back. Restart your strategic process. The budget will follow. A smaller budget requires more focus. First, your smaller staff won’t be able to cover the same ground they did before. Second, your overall reach is likely to drop or your dollars will be spread too thin to make an impact. But again, you need to tackle your go-to-market strategy before deciding on budget allocation. Here are some questions to help drive a more focused strategy: 🐧 Can you eliminate one or more products/services in your portfolio?   🐧 Can you drop a vertical market or two or refine your ICP? 🐧 Can you fixate on one vulnerable competitor and win more of those deals? 🐧 Can you reposition your product/service to make it more appealing to a specific target? 🐧 Can we adopt a more distinctive personality to help us cut through?  This exercise is about differentiation. Narrowing the target and finding your unique position, your most compelling point of difference. Once you have this, allocating your reduced marketing budget will almost be fun. Ultimately, a budget cut is a leadership opportunity for CMOs. Force the big-picture discussion. Remind your leadership team, “We can’t keep doing what we did before with fewer resources and expect better results.”  You can also promise them that a tighter strategy is the fastest path to innovation. 

ABM tech. It's tempting to chase the latest shiny tool, right? But I've learned that features alone don't win. Integration does. Think of it like building a kitchen. You could have the best oven, fridge, and stove. But if they don't work together, you'll have a mess. I've seen companies with many ABM tools, but the data doesn't connect, and the teams can't collaborate, resulting in not so good ABM results. The key is a unified platform. I mean one that connects your CRM, marketing automation, intent data, and personalization tools. Imagine this... Your intent data shows a target account is researching your solution, and your CRM automatically picks that up and updates this account's profile. Then, your marketing automation triggers a personalized email while your sales team gets real time alerts. That's what I mean by integration. And that's power. It's like having a GPS for your #ABM strategy. You know exactly where you are and where you're going. Of course, this requires careful planning. Start with your data. 👉🏾Where does it live?  👉🏾How does it flow?  👉🏾Which systems need to talk to each other? Tools like Zapier or Workato can help with these integrations. They can connect disparate systems and automate workflows. But don't forget the human element. Your teams need to be aligned. They need to understand how the tech stack works. They need to use it effectively. #b2bmarketing #marketingstrategy

Most marketing teams do not have a performance problem. They have a learning problem. In one case, a team sat in a review meeting surrounded by dashboards that looked impressive. More tools, more reports, more automation. But growth stayed flat. Execution was faster, yet nothing was compounding. The issue was clear. The workflows were digitized, but the system was not learning. That is where AI-native marketing systems come in. This shift is not about adding AI to existing campaigns. It is about redesigning how the system works. The focus moves to real-time adaptation, improving efficiency over time, and ensuring that every investment strengthens the next decision. Growth becomes continuous instead of campaign-based. The key metric also changes. It is no longer just cost per lead. It is how quickly the system learns, how effectively it adapts, and how well it turns feedback into better creative and smarter spend. That is what defines scalable growth now. This week’s newsletter breaks down the frameworks, insights, and practical steps to build a system that learns as it grows. For teams rethinking how marketing should scale, it is worth a read.

More traffic means nothing if you can’t turn visitors into customers. We helped an eCommerce client grow revenue by 72% and 3X’d their organic traffic along the way. Turns out, when you give users a better experience and convert them, Google will naturally send you more free traffic. Here’s exactly how we did it, and how you can too. 👇 1️⃣ Your blog should actively drive sales, not just rank. Find your top-selling products in Google Analytics. Go to Reports → Monetization → Ecommerce purchases. Sort by revenue or units sold. These are your “money” pages. Next, add contextual internal links from relevant blog posts. Link naturally within sentences using descriptive, keyword-rich anchor text. 2️⃣ Add product widgets at strategic points in your content: Place widgets in 3 key areas: - Within articles when discussing related items - Sidebar for consistent visibility - Bottom of posts for subtle promotion Try these proven widget types: - Popular/bestselling products  - Recently viewed items  - New arrivals  - Special offers/discounts  - "People also buy" recommendations Make sure your widgets have:  - Clear, clickable images  - Direct "Add to Cart" buttons when possible  - Quick view functionality 3️⃣ Keep visitors engaged with related posts sections at the end of each article. Not all your visitors will buy right away. Extract SEO value from them using related posts. WordPress users can try Contextual Related Posts plugin, while Shopify stores can use Related Blog Posts Pro. Longer site visits mean more product discovery opportunities. 4️⃣ Never use generic product descriptions. Create unique descriptions at scale with ChatGPT’s (free) Ecommerce SEO Product Description Writer. Feed in your product name, features, and what makes it different. Then enhance the output with customer-focused benefits, clear features, and FAQs. 5️⃣ Structure descriptions into scannable sections: - Brief overview for busy shoppers - Detailed info for researchers - Feature lists with practical benefits - Clean technical specs - How-to sections for complex products The key here is to give Google exactly what it wants - unique content that satisfies user intent AND converts. The result of these tweaks? • 204% increase in organic traffic (9,107 → 27,699 monthly sessions) • 72% increase in monthly revenue • 1.75x more keywords in top 10 positions (2K → 3.5K)

Marketers don’t need another AI tool. They need a strategy that protects their #uniqueness in a world busy cloning itself to death. *** Last week, we held a special #CMO panel as part of an exclusive gathering for marketing leaders, hosted at WiseStamp’s offices in collaboration with the English Speaking Networking community. We talked about addiction. Not to caffeine, to AI ☕🤖 While AI helps us move faster, it’s also spreading into every professional discipline, quietly threatening one of marketing’s most essential principles: 📌 To stand out 📌 To disrupt 📌 To challenge the status quo The question of whether to use AI is no longer on the table. That debate is over. The real question is #how to integrate it wisely, in a way that truly benefits the organization. *** Here are 5 key points I shared during the panel: 1️⃣ Set clear KPIs Implementing AI without defined KPIs is like putting on a Band-Aid. An expensive one. Define success metrics for each marketing discipline to make sure the impact is real, not cosmetic. 2️⃣ Allocate a learning budget Upskilling and reskilling aren’t “nice to have”. They’re the only way to make marketing change management fast, structured, and effective. 3️⃣ Track the traffic It’s no secret the search landscape is shifting. Google is losing ground, while ChatGPT and friends are rapidly taking over. The transition from #SEO to #GEO accelerated throughout 2025, shaping new best practices. Traditional traffic metrics are turning red and that can easily panic leadership. Marketing leaders must not only adapt but also educate their executives about this change and its implications for content strategy, community building, and PR. 4️⃣ Set boundaries Define where AI begins and ends, and identify the critical points in your marketing value chain where the human team steps in. That’s the essence of “human-in-the-loop”, a term that’s gaining traction as #AI_Agents enter our workflows. Automation should amplify creativity, not erase it. 5️⃣ Stay curious, not complacent Experiment. Break things. Rebuild. Curiosity is what keeps your marketing alive. Everyone’s busy adding more and more AI tools into marketing, but the real smart move is learning how to create #human_bubbles inside the automation machine - spaces where we challenge paradigms, sharpen our unique voice, and talk about ethics and people. That’s where #differentiation, and real brand power, still live. *** Huge thanks to my brilliant fellow panelists Emmanuel Cohen, Michael Yehoshua, and Angie Geffen, for the insights, the laughs, and that pre-panel brainstorm that could have been a masterclass of its own…💪😎 A special thank-you to Shira Levy Barkan, for brilliantly leading and moderating the discussion! 👑 And to Helena Baker and the WiseStamp team - thank you for hosting an evening that reminded us all that the best marketing still starts with human energy 😌🙏 Photos credit: Bar Cohen • בר כהן *** Tomer Zuker - Pave Your Way

an underrated marketing strategy for cash-strapped startups? turn your entire team into your marketing engine. here's the thing: while you're stressing about growth channels, your employees are already using dozens of saas tools every day. CRM, customer support software, project management tool, HRIS/ATS. each of these relationships is a marketing opportunity waiting to be activated. three ways to leverage your team for free marketing (that actually drives pipeline): 𝟭/ 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝘄𝗮𝗹𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝘀  get your hr manager to reach out to your hris vendor about becoming a video case study. your sales ops person? perfect candidate to showcase how your crm integration works. your finance team using that new expense tool? boom, another case study opportunity. here's the kicker: prioritise becoming case studies for tools in adjacent industries where your target audience also hangs out. if you're selling to marketing leaders, become a case study for your marketing automation platform. selling to hr teams? showcase how you use your people analytics tool internally. 𝟮/ 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗿𝘀 offer to speak at your vendors' events, webinars, and user conferences. you get free brand exposure to their audience, they get a happy customer story. win-win. 𝟯/ 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 "𝗳𝗮𝘃𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿" 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁 when you're actively promoting your vendors and being their biggest advocate, you become their favourite customer. first access to beta features, priority support, co-marketing opportunities, better pricing negotiations. 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝗻: 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆: ✅ 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 - exposure to your vendors' established audiences for your brand and for your team ✅ 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀 - seo/LLM juice from case studies and event pages ✅ 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘇 - people who are already in-market for solutions will see your brand and product on your vendor’s case study page + at conference and events that your vendors sponsor --- the beauty? your vendors already have the audience you want to reach. instead of building from zero, you're tapping into established communities. what you can do now: get one vendor relationship you could activate for marketing this quarter.

After many in-depth conversations with fashion leaders about implementing 3D technology and addressing the challenges that come with it, here are ten critical insights to consider before you take the plunge:👇🏾 1️⃣ 𝘾𝙡𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙛𝙮 𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙤𝙗𝙟𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙨: What specific goals do you aim to achieve with 3D technology? 2️⃣ 𝘼𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙛𝙡𝙤𝙬 𝙄𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙘𝙩: How will integrating 3D affect your current processes and operations? 3️⃣ 𝙀𝙫𝙖𝙡𝙪𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙄𝙣-𝙃𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙎𝙠𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙨: Do you have the necessary expertise within your team, or will you need to invest in training or hiring? 4️⃣ 𝙐𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙄𝙣𝙫𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩: Have you fully calculated the initial costs and ongoing expenses associated with 3D implementation? 5️⃣ 𝘿𝙚𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙚 𝙎𝙪𝙘𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙈𝙚𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙨: How will you measure the success of your 3D initiatives? What benchmarks will you set? 6️⃣ 𝙄𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙛𝙮 𝙇𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙥: Who will be responsible for driving the 3D initiative and ensuring its successful adoption? 7️⃣ 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝘾𝙧𝙤𝙨𝙨-𝘿𝙚𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙡 𝘾𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣: How will 3D technology impact collaboration between different teams, such as design, product development, and marketing? 8️⃣ 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙣 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙄𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙀𝙭𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙏𝙤𝙤𝙡𝙨: How will 3D technology integrate with the tools and systems you currently use? Are there compatibility issues to address? 9️⃣ 𝙋𝙧𝙚𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝘾𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙡 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚:  How will you manage the cultural shift that comes with adopting new technology? Are your teams ready for the change? 🔟 𝘼𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙥𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙇𝙤𝙣𝙜-𝙏𝙚𝙧𝙢 𝙎𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙖𝙗𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙮: How will your 3D strategy scale as your business grows? Are you building a flexible foundation that can evolve with future demands? Which of these considerations resonates most with your organisation’s current challenges? 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘄𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽? At INHOUSE, we understand that adopting 3D technology can feel overwhelming, and you may not have all the answers right now—but that's where we come in. We work with you to navigate the complexities of 3D integration; from strategy to design and training. Whether you're just starting out or looking to scale, we will guide you through every step! ☎️ Book a call

Personalisation is talked a lot about in commerce, yet I am seeing very few SMB's walk the talk. Personalisation with purpose is key to investing time and resources which are finite in any SMB retailer and I suspect why it is rarely implemented. Segmeting your customers into four key groups is a crucial first step: Loyal customers - repeat, full price shoppers Discount customers - repeat, discount shoppers First time customers - single purchase shoppers At risk customers - haven't purchased in 6 months (adjust time frame to your average repurchase rate time period) Now build a strategy accordingly: Loyal customers - exclusive first to know when new product drops (don't scream sale to them) Discount customers - first to know when you go on sale First time customers - serve them the products second time customers purchase At risk customers - send them a really hot offer to see if you can entice them back, maybe even ask them why they haven't shopped again with you? How does a retailer "one up this", look at patterns in what your customer groups buy. A great example of this is a strategy we rolled out with a footwear brand which I shared with the Klaviyo team in Sydney this week... Before going on sale, segment your slow moving or end of season products into sizes. Build custom landing pages (this can be down using search filters as well) showing the styles and products in that customer groups size. You may just be blown away too that you end up selling through all your slow moving or end of season products at full price. A simple strategy targeting niche customer size groups with styles in their size will not just drive revenue and profit, but loyalty too. These customers likely struggle to find their size more often than not! How often have you gone to a store and found what you wanted was not available in your size... 🙄 What's your top tip for tackling personalisation?