Today's Marketing Pulse
McKinsey predicts agentic AI will power two‑thirds of marketing activities
McKinsey’s new report forecasts that agentic AI could drive up to two‑thirds of all marketing functions, shifting AI from a productivity add‑on to a core strategic engine. The analysis notes early adopters are using generative tools, while the next wave will involve autonomous agents that orchestrate decisions across workflows, guided by a five‑step implementation roadmap.
What Does Revenue Generation Mean for Ecommerce? (2026) – Shopify
Shopify argues that ecommerce revenue is no longer a pure marketing outcome but a technical and operational challenge, with global conversion rates stuck at roughly 1.6 %. Speed, checkout architecture, and data automation are identified as the biggest friction points that cause shoppers to abandon carts. The guide outlines five practical tactics—accelerated checkout, architecture choices, unified commerce, AI‑driven agentic commerce, and structured pricing—to lift conversion toward 2‑3 % and increase average order value. Real‑world case studies from Everlane, NZXT, and Staples illustrate measurable cost savings and faster time‑to‑value.
Referral Programs Outperform Ads: Let Customers Bring New Ones
Referral programs beat ads on cost and conversions. Your best customers drive growth when you give them a reason to share. Offer rewards for both sides like Dropbox and Uber do. Add simple links in emails, bios, and your site, then track referrals...
Google Allows Whole‑TLD Disavowals, But It’s Overkill
News on the disavow front. It ends up you CAN disavow an entire TLD (like xyz, biz, info, etc.) This was never documented by Google, but John Mueller explained you can actually do that. He also said that Google probably...
Schlotzsky's Is Betting On A New Store Model | Fast Five Shorts
The episode examines Schlotzsky's new, smaller‑footprint store prototype that re‑emphasizes its deli identity and cuts operating costs by 20‑25% through self‑order kiosks, digital pickup zones, and a lean back‑of‑house layout. Chief Brand Officer Donna Varner explains the rebranding back to...
Claude Surpasses ChatGPT with Over One Million Daily Signups
Claude's on fire -> Claude hits one million daily signups, passing ChatGPT in Google Play Store "Claude is gaining significant traction, with a new report stating that the company is seeing in excess of one million user signups on a daily...
AI Slashes Development Cycles From Years to Months
AI is truly transformational: - 2020-2022: We built the initial concept of a “keyword universe” at Shopfiy - Feb 24: wrote about it publicly - June 25: republished with a Claude Artifact - March 26: built a full web app in Next.JS for my...
If They Knew…
Marketing strategies diverge on whether to inform or exploit consumers. Seth Godin argues that organizations either educate prospects, fostering informed decisions, or rely on confusion to close sales. The piece challenges marketers to consider if fully informed prospects would still...
Marketing Spend Drives E‑commerce SERP Dominance
eCom is a low opex game. He who can spend the most on marketing wins the SERP. The 25>15>10% evolution is underway. https://t.co/MP1L7T7MZ5
Perfection Delays Profit; Imperfect Action Wins Clients
Too many people are waiting for: • The perfect offer • The perfect funnel • The perfect moment • The perfect message Meanwhile: Their imperfect competitor is closing clients with a Google Doc and conviction. "Perfect" is the enemy of "profitable"
They Quit an Influencer Marketing Startup and Built Their Own. Now They’re Projecting to Make $3M
Storytime, founded by former Lefty employees Aris Yeager and Philip Davis, is building a city‑by‑city influencer marketplace for local brick‑and‑mortar businesses. The platform leverages Yeager’s 3 million‑follower social presence to automate creator outreach, contracts, and performance tracking. It targets the inefficiencies...
Modern Retail Podcast: The New Rules of Product Pricing
In a Modern Retail Podcast episode, Newell Brands’ learning and development chief Kris Malkoski explains how Graco is reshaping its pricing playbook amid AI‑driven insights, tariff volatility, and price‑sensitive shoppers. The discussion reveals Graco’s use of artificial intelligence to fine‑tune...
Half the CAC, Double the Market Share
Two identical companies. One difference: Your CAC = $1 My CAC = $2 We both spend $2 on marketing. You acquire 2 customers. I acquire 1. Over time, you dominate the market. CAC isn’t just a metric. It’s a strategic advantage. #CAC #CustomerAcquisition #BusinessStrategy #GrowthStrategy #Marketing
Larger Retailers Are Launching Their Own Beauty Brands, While the Luxury Fashion Market Gap Widens
Listrak’s 2026 Beauty and Fashion Benchmarks report, analyzing 130 billion emails and SMS messages from 1,000 e‑commerce clients, forecasts major shifts in retail. Larger retailers such as Gap and Old Navy are launching proprietary beauty brands to capture growth, while AI‑enabled...
Nike Teamed Up With IRAK To Drop An Air Force 1 “City Hero”
Nike has teamed with renowned graffiti artist Kunle Martins, known as IRAK, to release an all‑black Air Force 1 "City Hero" featuring a scratch‑away heel emblazoned with his hand‑style lettering. The sneaker is being sold exclusively through a SNKRS Stash...
What Social Listening Research Really Reveals About Your Customers (That Dashboards Miss)
Social listening research adds a question‑led, qualitative layer to standard dashboards, revealing why metrics move. It distinguishes monitoring, analytics, and research, focusing on emotion, language, and context hidden in raw conversations. The guide outlines a lightweight process—50 to 200 comments,...
AI Empowers Solo Entrepreneurs to Build End‑to‑End Businesses
We are seeing the rise of the full stack entrepreneur. AI is expanding the scope of what an individual entrepreneur can do. She can have the idea. She can test it using a virtual customer panel constructed with LLMs. She...
Great AI Won’t Save Poor Customer Journeys
Today's reminder that, even in the age of AI, marketing still matters. In my exuberance over the launch of ChatGPT 5.4 yesterday, I hit a usage limit. But instead of using this as an upsell opportunity, I got the below...
How the Best Brands Are Winning by Moving Faster
Brands that can activate creators within hours are out‑pacing competitors, not out‑spending them. The article outlines a speed‑to‑culture framework built on pre‑vetted creator rosters, master contracts, and a single decision owner, enabling rapid response to viral trends. Influencer‑marketing teams can...
How Brands Are Leveraging Live Commerce to Move Excess Inventory
Brands are turning to live commerce to liquidate excess inventory, gaining real‑time pricing, product visibility, and storytelling that traditional bulk liquidation lacks. Platforms such as Whatnot, eBay Live, and Poshmark Live let sellers showcase condition and price instantly, targeting niche...
Ep. 190 - The SaaS Founder Bottleneck: Why Founder-Led Sales Stops Scaling
In this episode, fractional CMO Javier Lozano explains why founder‑led sales can’t sustain growth and how to transition to a repeatable, data‑driven go‑to‑market engine. He emphasizes extracting the founder’s successful sales insights, building positioning and a "blue ocean" narrative, and...
Inside ADON, the Elusive London Brand with Timothée Chalamet on Speed Dial
London‑based label ADON, a largely secretive label, burst into the spotlight when Timothée Chalamet wore multiple pieces during London Fashion Week. The actor’s back‑to‑back appearances turned the brand into a viral talking point across fashion blogs and social platforms. ADON’s...
Founders Brag Revenue, Ignore Churn; I Expose the Full Picture
AI company founders: Love sharing monthly revenue Love multiplying it by 12 for an annual run rate Hate talking about churn I contribute to this culture by building Senja in public But I’ve tried to paint a more complete picture by talking about the challenges...
Social Media Intelligence Gathering Tools: Clearly See What Your Audience Won’t Say Out Loud
Social media intelligence gathering transforms public conversations into actionable business decisions, moving beyond basic analytics and listening. By extracting objections, trust signals, and emerging desires from comments, forums, and creator content, teams can refine messaging, creator partnerships, and product priorities...
Does Your Marketing Calendar Miss the Travel Planning Window?
Travelboom’s 2026 Leisure Travel Study shows most travelers now plan and book trips within a 1‑3 month window, with 59% planning and 56% booking in that period and 15% deciding within two weeks. This condensed timeline challenges traditional hotel marketing...
Incentives Drive 2026 Riviera Cruises Across Europe
Riviera Travel launched a March‑April 2026 incentive program for North American agents booking European river cruises through 2027. The scheme offers a $75 gift card per reservation and a $3,000 grand prize for the top booker, measured by passenger count...
Pod Digital Media Expands Growth Audience Marketplace for Brands in 30+ Markets
Pod Digital Media (PDM) has entered a multi‑year partnership with One Venture Group to launch a growth audience marketplace spanning more than 30 U.S. markets and 72 live events. The platform matches brands with high‑value cultural audiences—such as jazz fans,...
Podscribe Launches AI Chatbot and Introduces YouTube SmartModeling to Improve Podcast & Video Ad Measurement
Podscribe unveiled two major product upgrades: an AI‑powered chatbot that lets advertisers query the platform’s podcast data in natural language, and YouTube SmartModeling, a new attribution framework for simulcast ads. SmartModeling replaces the old practice of mirroring podcast conversion rates...
Stray Kids’ Hyunjin Named Global Brand Ambassador For Iconic Denim Company
Hyunjin, a vocalist and dancer from K‑pop group Stray Kids, has been appointed as GUESS’s global brand ambassador. The partnership was unveiled on March 6 with a teaser that hid his face, followed by a full‑length Instagram campaign showcasing modern‑heritage denim...
Microsoft Tests AI‑personalized Copilot Discover Feed
Like ChatGPT Pulse... and it takes a while to build -> Microsoft tests AI-generated Discover feed on Copilot web "Microsoft is testing a new Copilot Discover page that generates AI-personalized content feeds based on user history, moving away from MSN...
Google Contacts Advertisers with a Mandatory EU Political Ads Deadline
Google is emailing all advertisers to certify whether their active campaigns contain EU political ads, with a non‑negotiable deadline of March 31 2026. The new EU regulation forces Google to verify political‑ad status across every campaign, and failure to comply could result...
Albertsons Launches ‘Stock Up’ Sale in Bid to Improve Price Image
Albertsons has launched a month‑long “Stock Up” sale from March 6 to April 2 across its Safeway, Vons, Pavilions, Jewel‑Osco, Shaw’s, Tom Thumb, Randalls and Acme banners. The promotion features “hottest prices” on national brands, four‑times reward points for Free for U loyalty members,...
AI Marketing Is Reactive; Brands Need Proactive Awareness
There is still a big brand marketing gap in the industry and the massive push to use AI isn't solving it. Most of what's being done to attract business with AI right now is reactive marketing - showing up in...
☕🤖Tutorial: Replace Your $3K/Month PR Agency with AI
The post walks founders through building an AI‑powered PR engine that replaces a $2K‑$10K‑per‑month agency. Using three tailored prompts, users generate newsworthy story angles, craft AP‑style press releases, and compile targeted journalist lists with follow‑up sequences. The system also delivers...
Affirm Pursues Affluent Consumers
Affirm is pivoting its buy‑now‑pay‑later offering toward affluent, high‑credit consumers by expanding 0% interest promotions. The company says interest‑free loans drive an 80% probability of repeat usage and currently account for about 16% of its transaction volume, with 80% of...
Why Your Nonprofit Hospital System Is Spending Millions on Marketing
Jefferson Health reported a $201 million operating loss and cut roughly 650 jobs, then announced a multi‑million‑dollar naming‑rights deal with the Philadelphia Eagles. The move sparked outrage among clinicians who see the branding spend as contradictory to the nonprofit mission. The...
How Schools Can Keep up as AI Changes College Search
Nearly 80% of prospective students now rely on Google’s AI-generated overviews for degree information, often bypassing university websites entirely. This shift forces colleges to rethink digital visibility, ensuring that AI tools surface accurate, institution‑specific data. Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and...
Introducing London: The AI Agent Rebuilding Influencer Marketing
Creator.co unveiled London, an AI‑powered influencer marketing agent built directly into its platform. The tool automates three core execution steps—brief generation, creator matching, and personalized outreach—using a database of over 400 million influencer profiles and a community of 270 k creators. By...
Flannels Goes 'Local' For a Spring Campaign that 'Anchors British Community Life'
Flannels has launched its spring 2026 campaign, “The Local,” celebrating British community hubs such as bakeries and cafés. The campaign pairs structured tailoring and statement accessories with everyday settings, featuring luxury houses including Prada, Gucci, Burberry and Vivienne Westwood. It runs across Flannels’...
Start at the Funnel Bottom for Rapid Pipeline Results
If paid media is set up correctly, you should start seeing a qualified pipeline within 30–45 days. Here's how we achieve that for our clients: Many B2B teams end up running paid media backwards. They start with awareness, build an...
Google Warns Disavow Tool Is More Harmful than Helpful
From Barry: "As a reminder, John Mueller of Google often says that disavowing links is a waste of time. Heck, like Bing, Google may remove the disavow tool at some point. In fact, Google said the disavow tools hurts many...
When SEO Webinars Turn Into Weekend Exit Signals
Someone just sent me a high-profile webinar about “SEO vs AEO” where the AEO part apparently focused on “adding FAQ schema to product pages” Ok. That’s my sign that it’s officially time to log off for the weekend 👋🏽👋🏽👋🏽 https://t.co/zWCUoVLqIw
Legacy Brand Stories Go Digital with Perfion PIM
We transition 50-year-old brand stories from paper catalogs to digital channels. Boyum's Perfion PIM maintains heritage as our single source of truth. Manage brand data with accuracy across all platforms. https://t.co/ZsEwnG4p2n https://t.co/jDz62lUBNZ
AI and Data Personalize Hospitality, Boosting Loyalty and Profits
Data, AI, and loyalty are converging to create truly individualized restaurant and hospitality guest experiences that drive measurable business impact. https://t.co/Z6AVdpOTbF https://t.co/6wO8l57slU
Tracking Organic Visibility in Public AI Search Cases
It’s always a fun ride checking organic visibility for the public AI search case studies 😂
Make Your Ads Bold, Iconic, and Unapologetically Cool
Who said watching an ad has to be boing? Your ads can be bold, truly iconic, and unapologetically cool, just like this one we did for Zenni 😎. Want your ads to stand out? Work with me! https://t.co/X6hPr0FQwZ
Category Fame Outperforms Household Fame in B2B
Why “Category Fame” Beats Household Fame in B2B Marketing - B2B Marketing Blog | Webbiquity - https://t.co/Xac64vxxFo Research from @LinkedIn
Discounting Won’t Drive Growth; Disney+ Needs New Content
Discounting is NOT a growth strategy @DisneyPlus and @hulu are starved for fresh content $DIS https://t.co/gVtGO3UCZZ
Build Fast, Promote Faster: Get Featured on Our Platform
You build it. I promote it. Building has never been easier. Getting customers has never been harder. So I’m picking 2 products to promote to our 1,000,000+ entrepreneurs for our 16-year anniversary next Tuesday. Drop your product below. Don’t have one? Build it...
Master Offer Testing to Scale Beyond Seven Figures
Scaling your brand past 7 figures in revenue requires mastering offer testing. Retweet and Comment "OFFER" and I'll send you my new guide for how to structure and properly test offers. *** Must be following for me to DM ***...
Google Ads Customer Match Uploads Change April 1, API Breaks
Google Ads customer match data uploads changing April 1st - it won't work in the normal Google Ads API https://t.co/rKOAaBt49Q https://t.co/pOAyxWy3bX