Today's Digital Marketing Pulse
Updated 2h agoSpeed-to-Culture: Brands Win by Activating Creators in Hours
Brands that can activate creators within hours outpace competitors, relying on speed rather than larger spend. The article outlines a speed‑to‑culture framework built on pre‑vetted creator rosters, master contracts, and a single decision owner, which can be established in 30 days to enable real‑time engagement.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Levitate raises $16M in growth-stage funding
News•Jan 8, 2026
David’s Bridal Debuts Ambassador Program for Creators, Customers and Associates
David’s Bridal has launched the David’s Style Squad, an ambassador program that enlists creators, frontline associates, and loyal customers to produce shoppable user‑generated content. Participants earn commissions ranging from 5% to 20% on net sales, with top performers receiving early‑access perks. The initiative is a core element of the retailer’s “Aisle to Algorithm” strategy, linking creator‑driven storytelling to its Pearl Planner platform and Pearl Media Network. By turning real wedding moments into scalable digital assets, the program aims to bridge physical stores and online commerce.
By Retail TouchPoints
News•Jan 8, 2026
Acquiring Customers via Google Ads
Google Ads introduces a New Customer Acquisition feature that lets advertisers assign incremental conversion values to first‑time buyers, influencing bid strategies. By inputting a target ROAS and using average order value, the platform can suggest a higher value—e.g., $46.27 versus...
By Practical Ecommerce
News•Jan 8, 2026
18 Best Content Marketing Tools to Use in 2026
The guide lists the 18 best content‑marketing tools for 2026, spanning research, planning, creation, distribution and analytics, with pricing details for each. It highlights how solo marketers, small teams, and large operations can tailor a stack of four to six...
By Semrush Blog
Podcast•Jan 8, 2026•32 min
How a Party Side Hustle Became a Six-Figure Brand
In this episode, Bashify founder Bre Giglio explains how she transformed a modest party‑planning side hustle into a $600,000 balloon brand by launching small, leveraging social media, and prioritizing trust, transparency, and exceptional customer experience. She details the strategic use...
By Shopify Masters
News•Jan 8, 2026
e.l.f Beauty Launches Roblox Game
Cosmetics brand e.l.f Beauty has launched a new makeup game Glow Up! On Roblox
By Retail Technology (Magazine)
Podcast•Jan 7, 2026•43 min
#485 - Amazon PPC Extreme Makeover Workshop
Bradley and Amazon PPC specialist Vincenzo Toscano audit Helium 10's Project X ad account, revealing that its testing‑focused setup leaves many modern levers untapped. They walk through rule‑based bid adjustments, minimum click thresholds, and disciplined keyword harvesting, emphasizing tight campaigns...
By AM/PM Podcast
News•Jan 6, 2026
Albertsons Media Collective Launches Store-Level Measurement to Gauge Ads’ True Impact
Albertsons Media Collective has launched a store‑level incrementality measurement system that isolates the true sales lift generated by in‑store ads. The solution pits test stores exposed to media against rigorously matched control stores, creating a statistically validated counterfactual. In a...
By Retail TouchPoints
News•Jan 6, 2026
5 Roadblocks Slowing Commerce Media…and How to Clear Them
Commerce media is projected to exceed $100 billion, but retailers face five key implementation roadblocks. First‑party data often remains siloed, limiting precise audience segmentation. Manual audience creation, fragmented channel activation, lack of self‑service tools, and slow, opaque measurement further hinder growth....
By Retail TouchPoints
Podcast•Jan 6, 2026•30 min
How to Show up in AI Results in 2026 with Elizaveta Shutova (NEWBIE)
Elizaveta Shutova explains that in 2026 SEO must target both traditional rankings and AI-generated search snippets, as AI overviews now appear in over 23% of queries and pull data from a wide range of sources like Reddit, Wikipedia, and YouTube....
By The Recipe for SEO Success
Blog•Jan 6, 2026
How to Use Instagram Collaborative Posts
Instagram’s collaborative post feature lets two or more accounts co‑author a single piece of content that appears on each profile and shares all engagement metrics. Users can invite up to five collaborators (six accounts total) for feed posts, carousels, or...
By Neal Schaffer’s Blog
News•Jan 6, 2026
5 Content Marketing Ideas for February 2026
The article outlines five timely content‑marketing ideas for February 2025, using cultural milestones such as Charles Schulz’s death anniversary, the Pet Rock fad, Global Movie Day, Cinderella’s 75th anniversary, and a monthly shopper update. It recommends specific formats—blog posts, nostalgic...
By Practical Ecommerce
Podcast•Jan 6, 2026•33 min
Stop Competing on Features: Reimagine Your Entire Product Category Instead
In this episode, Dr. Julie Chung explains how T3 transformed hair tools from mere appliances into luxury beauty products by redefining their category. She details the strategic shifts in product placement, design aesthetics, messaging, and retail approach that created a...
By Shopify Masters
News•Jan 6, 2026
Fyffes Campaign Goes Bananas
Banana distributor Fyffes announced that its newly launched consumer brand, Trudi’s, has delivered strong market performance following a coordinated video advertising and digital signage campaign. The initiative drove a double‑digit increase in sales and lifted brand awareness across key retail...
By Retail Technology (Magazine)
Blog•Jan 5, 2026
The Psychology-Driven Formula for High-Converting Giveaways
The episode breaks down a psychology‑driven formula for turning giveaways into revenue generators, emphasizing that the prize should be the brand’s own product, clearly anchored with a specific dollar value, and presented as a complete, lifestyle‑rich bundle. It highlights how...
By Smart Marketer
News•Jan 5, 2026
Yes, 404 Status Codes Hurt SEO
A 404 status code signals a missing page but does not act as a direct ranking penalty in Google’s algorithm. Google actually prefers 404 or 410 responses for removed content, treating them as normal web signals. However, when deleted pages...
By Practical Ecommerce
Blog•Jan 5, 2026
Does Facebook Advertising Still Work? What the Data Actually Shows
Facebook’s ad platform reaches 3.07 billion users and generates $122 billion in revenue, but effectiveness hinges on strategic targeting and continuous optimization. Data from WordStream and industry reports show an average click‑through rate of about 1.7% and CPC ranging from $0.34 to...
By Neal Schaffer’s Blog
News•Jan 5, 2026
Forget Follower Count: What Actually Drives Sales, According to a TikTok Marketing Expert
TikTok strategist Jemma Wu argues that follower counts are misleading and that authentic, engaged communities drive sales. She cites a livestream where a 500k‑follower creator generated $350k, dwarfing a 1M‑follower influencer who sold only $5K. Wu’s own brand experience shows...
By HubSpot Marketing Blog
News•Jan 5, 2026
XML Sitemap: What It Is And How To Generate One
An XML sitemap is a structured file that lists the URLs a site wants search engines to crawl and index, often including metadata such as last‑mod dates, change frequency, and priority. It boosts crawl efficiency, especially for large or complex...
By Semrush Blog
News•Jan 5, 2026
How to Optimize Your Website for SEO (Beginner’s Guide)
Search engines now surface AI‑generated overviews alongside traditional listings, making structured, authoritative content essential. The guide stresses targeting low‑volume, low‑difficulty keywords to capture both organic clicks and AI‑summary citations. It outlines high‑impact steps for new, stagnant, or declining sites, from...
By Semrush Blog
Blog•Jan 4, 2026
Why We’re All Digitally Exhausted With Paul Leonardi – This Week’s Thinking With Mitch Joel Conversation
In this episode, Mitch Joel and digital transformation scholar Paul Leonardi explore why modern workers feel "digitally exhausted," pinpointing constant task‑switching, data overload, and the pressure to stay perpetually reachable as core drivers. Leonardi explains how capitalist incentives and addictive...
By Six Pixels of Separation
News•Jan 2, 2026
What Main Street Can Teach Silicon Valley About Building Loyalty
Andrew Helms, SumUp’s U.S. CEO, argues that Silicon Valley’s focus on rapid growth overlooks the loyalty built through personal trust on Main Street. He highlights how small‑business owners create lasting relationships by remembering customers, offering fair pricing, and showing genuine...
By Retail Customer Experience
News•Dec 31, 2025
New Ecommerce Tools: December 31, 2025
The end‑of‑year roundup spotlights a wave of AI‑enhanced ecommerce solutions, from MobiLoud’s real‑time mobile‑app analytics dashboard to Hosted.com’s upgraded WordPress infrastructure. CPGIO expands its accelerator reach by adding more than 40 retail channels through partnerships with Nordstrom, Chewy, Lowe’s, Faire...
By Practical Ecommerce
Blog•Dec 31, 2025
Backlinks in SEO Explained: Why They Matter and How to Build Them
Neal Schaffer explains that backlinks are essential SEO votes of credibility that can dramatically boost rankings, authority, and referral traffic. He distinguishes high‑quality links—dofollow, editorial, relevant, well‑placed, with natural anchor text—from low‑quality or toxic links that can harm rankings, and...
By Neal Schaffer’s Blog
Podcast•Dec 31, 2025•34 min
#483 - TikTok Shop Advertising & Promotion Guide
In this episode, host Bradley Sutton and TikTok Shop specialist Tamara Žeravljev break down how to build a sustainable TikTok Shop presence in 2026, emphasizing brand‑building over quick virality. They cover the essential first steps—optimizing your profile, testing content hooks,...
By AM/PM Podcast
News•Dec 30, 2025
3 SEO Predictions for 2026
Ann Smarty forecasts three seismic shifts for SEO in 2026: zero‑click discovery via generative AI will siphon organic clicks as chat‑based platforms deliver product recommendations without page visits; monetization of large‑language‑model services will spawn paid add‑ons and new performance metrics;...
By Practical Ecommerce
News•Dec 30, 2025
Entity-Based SEO: An Explainer for SEOs and Content Marketers
Entity‑based SEO reframes optimization around concepts, relationships and context rather than isolated keyword strings. Search engines use the Knowledge Graph to identify entities—people, places, things—and map how they interconnect, influencing rankings and AI‑generated answers. The guide explains how to discover...
By HubSpot Marketing Blog
Blog•Dec 30, 2025
Effective Email Marketing for Real Estate Agents
Real estate agents are missing out by neglecting email marketing, despite its proven 4,200% ROI across industries. The guide outlines how systematic segmentation, targeted campaigns, and automation can turn cold leads into warm prospects and past clients into referral engines....
By Neal Schaffer’s Blog
News•Dec 29, 2025
What We Learned Building SalesBot — HubSpot’s AI-Powered Chatbot Selling Assistant
HubSpot’s Conversational Marketing team replaced its 100‑plus live chat agents with SalesBot, an AI‑powered chatbot that now handles the bulk of inbound website conversations. The bot first focused on deflecting low‑intent queries, achieving over 80% deflection, then added a real‑time...
By HubSpot Marketing Blog
News•Dec 29, 2025
The Psychology of AI SERPs and Shopping
AI-generated search overviews are reshaping how consumers find information and products. A Pew survey in March 2025 found 58% of U.S. adults saw an AI Overview, and only 8% of them clicked a traditional link, compared with 15% click‑through when...
By Practical Ecommerce
News•Dec 26, 2025
New Books: Swiftynomics, UX Skills, More
The newest business titles spotlight a shift toward people‑centric strategies, from Misty L. Heggeness’s *Swiftynomics* highlighting women’s economic power to B. Joseph Pine II’s *The Transformation Economy* urging firms to align with consumer aspirations. Other releases focus on UX‑business alignment, emotional drivers...
By Practical Ecommerce
Social•Dec 24, 2025
Make Your Bio Searchable, Not Fancy
Most bios fail because they sound fancy, not searchable. Your bio should tell humans and the algorithm exactly who you are. Use keywords like: • What you do • Who you help • Where you’re based This is how your profile gets found, not just followed. Save...
By Sorav Jain
Podcast•Dec 24, 2025•44 min
#481 - How to Stay Profitable on Amazon in 2026
The episode explores how Amazon sellers can maintain profitability in 2026 by treating their operations like both a finance and marketing function, emphasizing disciplined pricing, smarter PPC, and careful inventory management. Guests Ryan Cramer, Leo Sgovio, and Sharona Ozeri share...
By AM/PM Podcast
Blog•Dec 23, 2025
From Spark To Signal: How Strong Content Travels A Modern Marketing Ecosystem
Strong content begins as a core asset—research, guide, or case study—and serves as the seed for a multi‑channel marketing ecosystem. It first populates owned properties like websites and newsletters, where SEO and email nurture discovery and authority. The same material...
By Lilach Bullock’s Blog
Podcast•Dec 23, 2025•0 min
Inside Smart Marketer’s Black Friday Strategy – Wins, Curveballs and Campaign Secrets
In this episode, Smart Marketer’s Director of Advertising Denis Paskalev breaks down the team’s Black Friday/Cyber Week 2025 tactics, from leveraging evergreen creative and early promotion to navigating Meta’s budget‑control changes and a Shopify outage. He explains how first‑click attribution,...
By Smart Marketer
Podcast•Dec 23, 2025•52 min
Paid Ads, AI, and Organic Social Content — What Actually Works Now
In this fireside chat Gary Vaynerchuk breaks down the current marketing mix, explaining how paid ads, AI tools, and organic social content each play a distinct role in a platform‑first strategy. He demystifies algorithm mechanics, stresses that AI is now...
By The GaryVee Audio Experience
News•Dec 23, 2025
GSC Groups Keywords as AI Queries Expand
Google Search Console’s Insights now aggregates click data into keyword groups, retiring individual keyword trends. The feature, once limited to high‑traffic sites, automatically opens the Performance report with a regex filter applied. Marketers see this shift as a response to...
By Practical Ecommerce
![Intentional Marketing for Podcasters With Sam Brake Guia [Mics to Millions Podcast]](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/7/7/8/d/778d93b0da4d6d88e5bbc093207a2619/Mindful_Marketing_Podcast-compressed.jpg)
Podcast•Dec 23, 2025•31 min
Intentional Marketing for Podcasters With Sam Brake Guia [Mics to Millions Podcast]
In this episode, Andréa Jones contrasts the unsustainable "be everywhere" tactics of traditional marketing with her mindful, intentional approach that prioritizes a single signature piece—her podcast—and supporting content that drives listeners back to it. She shares practical tactics such as...
By The Mindful Marketing Podcast
Blog•Dec 22, 2025
Black Friday 2025 Was Different (And That’s the Point)
The episode explains that Black Friday 2025 felt calmer but more revealing because demand was driven by year‑long brand work rather than the sale itself. Key takeaways include the effectiveness of longer promotions, evergreen campaign structures, diversified creative built months...
By Smart Marketer
News•Dec 22, 2025
Why Calls Still Matter in Retail
Retail businesses increasingly rely on phone calls to convert leads and gather actionable data. Implementing IVR, AI call agents, call‑tracking analytics, and predictive modeling creates a data‑driven, omnichannel experience that shortens queues, personalizes interactions, and filters low‑quality calls. Coordinating these...
By Retail Customer Experience
Social•Dec 20, 2025
Humanize Your Scripts, Stop AI Scroll‑Away
If your content sounds AI-written, people scroll. Humanize your scripts and watch engagement explode. Want the exact step-by-step process I used? Comment “FIX” and I’ll DM it to you. [Content Creation, Reels Growth, Instagram Reels, AI Generated Content, Content Tips, Creator Growth, Viral Reels,...
By Sorav Jain
Podcast•Dec 19, 2025•59 min
THIS Will Help You Become Better at Making Content
In this 4‑hour 4Ds session, GaryVee tackles the biggest hurdles creators face and offers a practical roadmap for improving content. He stresses delivering real value, leveraging AI tools without losing authenticity, and using TikTok, LinkedIn, and Instagram ads strategically while...
By The GaryVee Audio Experience
News•Dec 19, 2025
Building Systems of Trust in the Age of AI While Staying Human at Heart
HubSpot overhauled its customer reference program, collapsing an 18‑step manual process into a five‑phase workflow powered by HubSpot automation, Slack, and AI copilots. The rebuild introduced a Trust Readiness Model that scores relationship maturity, product adoption, and growth signals, turning...
By HubSpot Marketing Blog
Podcast•Dec 19, 2025•1h
Knowledge Workers Freak Out Over AI (511)
Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose dissect two Wall Street Journal stories: the surge in demand for "storytellers"—a rebranding of long‑standing content work—and the growing anxiety among knowledge workers facing layoffs and AI disruption, emphasizing that adaptability and a fluid professional...
By This Old Marketing
Blog•Dec 18, 2025
How Caption Strategy Can Triple Your Video Views
A well‑crafted caption strategy can boost video views up to three times by turning scroll‑stoppers into engaged viewers. The article outlines how short hooks, clear benefits, story‑based lines, and direct calls‑to‑action guide emotions and prompt interaction. It stresses systematic testing...
By Lilach Bullock’s Blog
Blog•Dec 18, 2025
How to Diagnose and Fix Google Maps Ranking Drops
The guide outlines a step‑by‑step framework for diagnosing sudden drops in Google Maps visibility for a Google Business Profile. It teaches marketers how to confirm a real ranking decline using Insights, GA4, Search Console, and local rank‑tracking tools. Once verified,...
By Moz