Philip Easley-Bosley
Philip Easley-Bosley is the founder of Tactical Marketing and a thirty-year expert marketing consultant. His path to founding the firm ran through sales and marketing leadership, years inside Act-On Software consulting with thousands of clients as Lead Marketing Automation Strategist, and a consistent priority on training and team building that a linear career could not have produced. He sets strategy, owns the architectural calls on every engagement, and writes about marketing operations, automation, and the discipline of building systems that hold up on Monday morning.
Posts by Philip Easley-Bosley (75)
Marketing automation agency vs. in-house marketing hire: the real tradeoff
One hire gives you deep attention with big gaps. An agency gives you full coverage with less attention. A plain-language guide to which failure you can afford.
July 10, 2026 · 2 min readShould You Hire a CRM Administrator or Outsource Marketing Operations?
The question compares two things that are not the same size: a CRM administrator is a role, marketing operations is a function. Which parts must stay in-house whatever you decide, the honest case for each answer, and a one-week log that settles it with your own evidence.
July 9, 2026 · 4 min readHubSpot: trust isn't an optional feature
HubSpot's July 2026 opt-out data default told customers about a decision after it was already made. A HubSpot partner and shareholder walks through the Contact Discovery controversy, the 652-day paper trail behind it, and what every HubSpot customer should do with their CRM data now.
July 8, 2026 · 8 min readMarketing automation services: what's included and what it costs
Every provider means something different by the phrase. Here is the honest scope of a full service catalog, what each piece is for, and how the pricing actually works.
July 7, 2026 · 3 min readWhat does a marketing automation consultant actually do?
The job title gets used for everything from campaign builders to systems architects. Here is what the senior version of the role actually covers, and how to tell whether you need one.
July 2, 2026 · 3 min readThe Hidden Cost of Hiring a Marketing Automation Specialist
The salary is the most honest number in the equation - and the smallest. Recruiting and vacancy months, the ramp, the disciplines the hire does not cover, and the single-point-of-failure premium: the full math on the specialist req, priced the way finance never sees it.
July 1, 2026 · 4 min readAfter the tactical marketing plan ships: 13 weeks of execution (part 5 of 5)
The plan is written, the calendar is set, the automations are specified. Here is what the first quarter of execution actually looks like, including the parts where the plan turns out to be wrong.
June 30, 2026 · 4 min readWhy our Act-On audit is free
Most Act-On instances I open are running at a fraction of what the platform can do. Our free 27-point audit reads the real instance, scores it, and hands the team a prioritized list of what to fix. Here is what it covers, and why we do not charge for it.
June 26, 2026 · 4 min readOpenAI sold me on ChatGPT Ads with an email
OpenAI launched a paid advertising platform inside ChatGPT and used email to invite advertisers. Not an in-app notification. Not a sponsored post. An email. The data on why that choice made sense has not changed in ten years.
June 24, 2026 · 5 min readThe Deliver phase of a tactical marketing plan: write it so someone else can execute it (part 4 of 5)
The third phase of a tactical marketing plan is what makes it tactical: automation programs specified as contracts, data feeds defined field by field, and reports named before launch instead of after.
June 23, 2026 · 3 min readDo You Need a Marketing Operations Manager or a Fractional Marketing Team?
One approved salary line, two ways to spend it. The full-time ops manager wins when the gap is deep; the fractional team wins when the gap is wide - and at most mid-size companies it is wide. An honest decision framework, including the cases where the hire is the right call.
June 19, 2026 · 4 min readThe Develop phase of a tactical marketing plan: decide what gets built, and show your reasoning (part 3 of 5)
The second phase of a tactical marketing plan turns audit findings into decisions: platforms chosen with documented reasoning, content built around a quarterly pillar, and the discipline of starting with one audience instead of all of them.
June 16, 2026 · 4 min readWhy Most HubSpot Job Descriptions Ask One Person to Do Six Jobs
Read ten HubSpot Administrator postings and the same anatomy shows up: platform admin, automation architecture, campaign production, copywriting, design, and analytics - six professions under one title. Nobody decides this on purpose. Here is the structure that produces the composite req, and what it selects for.
June 12, 2026 · 4 min readThe Design phase of a tactical marketing plan: audit before you recommend (part 2 of 5)
The first phase of a tactical marketing plan produces an assessment, not a plan. Nine audit lenses, one repeating structure, and the discipline of separating what you found from what you think should change.
June 9, 2026 · 4 min readBefore You Hire a HubSpot Administrator, Read This First
The req is approved and the job description is half-written. Before you post it, sort the bullet points by discipline: most HubSpot Administrator reqs quietly describe six professions on one salary line. What the market will actually send you, what the first year really looks like, and the question worth asking before the hire.
June 5, 2026 · 7 min readWhat a tactical marketing plan is, and why strategy decks fail without one (series part 1 of 5)
A strategy deck tells people what to believe. A tactical marketing plan tells them what to do on Tuesday. Here is the difference, and the three-phase method for producing one that a team can actually execute.
June 2, 2026 · 4 min readWhat is an AI harness
The dogs provide the power. The musher provides the direction. The harness is the structured system that makes them work together. Most marketing teams have the first two. Almost none have built the third.
May 19, 2026 · 4 min readAI is your accelerant, not your driver
Most "AI marketing" failures are not AI failures. They are operating-discipline failures that an LLM amplified at scale, and the cleanup costs more than the work it replaced.
April 22, 2026 · 4 min readThe cost of a vibe‑coded automation
A workflow generated in twenty minutes by a confident LLM and a marketer in a hurry will eventually meet a quarterly review. The cleanup is almost always more expensive than the original build would have been.
April 15, 2026 · 4 min readReal‑time marketing in an AI‑saturated market
When everyone can generate a campaign in twenty minutes, the differentiator is no longer the campaign. It is the response time on the things the campaign produces.
April 8, 2026 · 5 min readWhy your AI workflow needs an editor
The cheapest, highest-leverage role you can add to an AI-heavy marketing team is not another generator. It is a senior editor with the authority to delete.
April 1, 2026 · 4 min readWhen to trust AI in your marketing ops, and when not to
There is no single right answer for whether to put AI inside a marketing operation. The right answer depends on whether the work is reversible, observable, and bounded.
March 25, 2026 · 5 min readDiscipline is the product
In a market where every agency is selling AI capabilities, the firms that will still be standing in five years are the ones that sold operating discipline the whole time.
March 18, 2026 · 5 min readWhat “AI‑native” actually means in a marketing ops stack
Most stacks calling themselves “AI‑native” are the same stacks they were eighteen months ago with a chat box bolted on. The label is doing more work than the architecture is.
March 11, 2026 · 4 min readThe audit we run before recommending any new tool
Before we recommend buying anything, we run the same short audit on what the team already owns. More often than not the new tool is not the answer, and the audit pays for itself before the renewal.
March 4, 2026 · 4 min readThe extra mile: why the leads you gave up on are still deciding
Most sales follow-up stops at 60 days. Roughly half of all closed B2B business comes from leads that took 3–6 months to decide. The lifecycle stage that spans this window is never crowded, because everyone else gave up at the same time you did.
February 25, 2026 · 5 min readWhy your CRM is your real product
Whatever the company sells, the CRM is the system the company actually runs on. Treating it like a long‑lived product instead of a back‑office tool is the difference between a marketing operation that compounds and one that resets every two years.
February 18, 2026 · 5 min readSub‑Domain Isolation Won’t Save You – Gmail Still Sees Everything
False Hope from the AI Hype Machine Over the last few months I’ve fielded a steady stream of questions that start the same way: “Phil, I read an article that said we can protect our domain by sending…
July 28, 2025 · 3 min readBitly’s “Big Game” Email: A Play-by-Play Breakdown of Marketing Brilliance
This month, one great piece of marketing truly stood out. Shortly before the “big game,” I received an email from Bitly with a subject line that read: “Why we decided not to run a SB ad this year”…
February 13, 2025 · 5 min readDid I invent it, or did AI?
Did I invent it, or did AI? I love AI – plain and simple. It is a common practice for me to put ChatGPT into “Conversation” mode on my drives home from work. For those who don’t know, this mode…
May 22, 2024 · 2 min readHope: The Fuel that Drives the Buyer’s Journey
Hope: The Fuel that Drives the Buyer’s Journey In the data-driven, analytical world of B2B marketing, it is easy to overlook the fundamental emotional drivers that underpin decision-making processes.…
April 19, 2024 · 3 min readThe Broken Promise of Content Marketing
The Broken Promise of Content Marketing In the complicated world of digital marketing, content marketing has been hailed as the golden strategy to connect with customers and drive engagement. Praised…
April 18, 2024 · 4 min readThe strategic copywriting guide
The formulas we use to write copy that maps to where the buyer actually is, not where you wish they were.
April 5, 2024 · 1 min readThe personalized marketing automation methodology
A practical guide to building marketing automation that fits the customer you actually have, not the one your platform vendor wishes you had.
April 5, 2024 · 1 min readDownload our complete marketing process guide
A free, no-form diagram of the end-to-end marketing process we run for clients. Strategy through reporting, with the operational connections most teams skip.
February 28, 2024 · 1 min readHow do you read a DMARC report?
What is DMARC for – why is this so complicated? DMARC tells mailbox providers (like Google and Yahoo) what you want them to do with messages that don’t pass authentication checks. Unless you’re me,…
February 21, 2024 · 5 min readAI and Human Ingenuity (Enhancing Creativity and Efficiency)
AI and Human Ingenuity (Enhancing Creativity and Efficiency) AI is revolutionizing human productivity, creativity, and efficiency. It streamlines tasks and generates new ideas; these tools offer…
January 26, 2024 · 4 min readStart 2024 Right (Don't Miss These 4 Fundamentals)
Start 2024 Right (Don’t Miss These 4 Fundamentals) Our CEO, Philip Easley-Bosley’s advice for 2024 is, “In the buzz of what’s new, you might overlook the easy wins you’ve already missed. Don’t skip…
January 19, 2024 · 4 min readWhat is DMARC and How Do I set It Up?
DMARC just stopped being a “Best Practice” Now it’s “Do it or else.” Download Now: Tactical MA DMARC Setup step-by-step guide. By February 2024, Google and Yahoo will be implementing strict email…
October 20, 2023 · 4 min readWhy Is Attribution Reporting So [censored] Hard?
Data-Driven Marketers You know, I don’t remember ever being told, “I’m an intuition-driven marketer.” I don’t remember ever meeting with a CEO who said, “I don’t really care about the data, as long…
May 9, 2023 · 5 min readHow Do Act-On List Maintenance Programs Handle Duplicates?
Act-On List Maintenance Programs are Cool! Act-On Software is hands down one of my favorite software applications. It’s a tool I have worked in for more than 10 years, and I regard it as the most…
May 10, 2022 · 5 min readGmail Hates You: What are you doing about it?
G-mail Hates You What are you doing about it? In 2020, many marketers battled with (and lost to) Gmail’s spam filter. As a consultant, I had the experience of fighting with Gmail’s algorithm in about…
January 28, 2021 · 5 min read6 Steps for Developing a Tactical Marketing Plan
6 Steps for Developing a Tactical Marketing Plan Learn more about the psychology of our marketing plansby downloading our infographic here. I read an article this week titled “Why 67 Percent of…
November 2, 2020 · 8 min readSelling With Act-On
Does your sales team need training on using Act-On without a CRM? In this quick video, CEO Philip Bosley demonstrates how your sales team can utilize Act-On Contact Lists to prioritize your marketing…
October 30, 2020 · 1 min readBest Foot Forward - 3 Ways to Get a Great Start in 2021
2020 has been quite a year. The world around us has changed how we go about day-to-day life. Holidays and other celebrations, too. So, what can we do to secure a fresh start in 2021? 1. Share the…
October 26, 2020 · 2 min readWhat Are The Benefits of Marketing Automation?
What are the Benefits of Marketing Automation? Understanding your customers’ needs is the basis of an effective and comprehensive marketing automation strategy. Marketing automation is more than…
October 26, 2020 · 3 min readMinimalist Content Creation
Minimalist Content Creation No one on the internet is searching for second-rate content. People want content that answers their questions directly, thoroughly, and concisely. Quality content fulfills…
September 29, 2020 · 2 min readTop 4 Email Marketing KPI’s
Top 4 Email Marketing KPI’s Many people have many different opinions when it comes to the best email marketing practices, from length, to CTA’s, to color palette, but what’s the point of optimization…
September 22, 2020 · 2 min readAct-On Tracking Beacon: Technical Audit
Act-On Tracking Beacon: Technical Audit Download a PDF of all the information in this article here. What exactly is the Act-On Beacon? What does it do? The Act-On Beacon is the primary retargeting…
September 3, 2020 · 3 min readDark Mode, A Dark Hole?
Dark Mode, A Dark Hole? *(data-ogsc) (data-ogsb) only partially works for Outlook.com If you are building emails, I am sure that you’re well versed in designing for various clients. I am also fairly…
August 24, 2020 · 3 min readThe Art of Process Analysis: Seeing is Not Believing
The Art of Process Analysis: Seeing is Not Believing “This is amazing. It’s so obvious now that you’ve pointed it out. We’ve been struggling with this for months, and now it just makes sense.” These…
August 12, 2020 · 5 min readDriving Traffic by Targeting Personas
Driving Traffic by Targeting Personas When we talk about driving website traffic, we mean attracting relevant visitors to our site, with the aim of capturing their information. Ideally, the goal is…
August 3, 2020 · 4 min readWhat Is Lead Scoring?
What is Lead Scoring? In marketing, a lead is a potential client. Sometimes that means a first-time visitor to your website who looked into all the right topics, and sometimes it means a person in…
July 1, 2020 · 2 min readCorrecting Your Lack of Processes
Correcting Your Lack of Processes Symptoms of Lacking Processes: • Last-Minute Campaign Changes• Overwhelming Manual Activity• Missed Deadlines Understanding the Problem Marketing has the highest…
May 20, 2020 · 1 min readSolving for Poorly Defined Audience Personas
Solving for Poorly Defined Audience Personas Symptoms of Poorly Defined Audience Personas: • Poor Conversion Rates• Difficulty Defining the Buyer’s Journey• Content that is All About Your Product or…
May 20, 2020 · 1 min readFixing Unpredictable Lead Gen
Fixing Unpredictable Lead Gen Symptoms of Unpredictable Lead Gen: • No Automated Lead Nurture• Unknown Conversion Metrics• Undefined Marketing Funnel Stages Understanding the Problem No matter how…
May 20, 2020 · 1 min readCookies & Chrome: Google's Third-Party Restrictions
Cookies & Chrome: Google’s Third-Party Restrictions Google makes updates to Chrome’s policies on third-party cookies. What’s the Hype? Google has announced its intent to phase out support for…
March 2, 2020 · 1 min readOptimizing Lead Nurture: The Marriage of Automation, Segmentation, and Personalization
Optimizing Lead Nurture: The Marriage of Automation, Segmentation, and Personaliation Most marketers agree that segmenting audiences is an intuitive practice that yields undeniable results. Commonly…
February 28, 2020 · 4 min readWhy Isn’t My Marketing Working?
Why Isn’t My Marketing Working? “We just aren’t seeing results from our marketing.” An overwhelming majority of our new clients open our very first conversation with this as the force that urged them…
January 6, 2020 · 3 min readSharing Our Holiday Cheer
Sharing Our Holiday Cheer As we approach the New Year, and many popular winter holidays, we at Tactical MA want to take a moment to talk about what the Holidays mean to us. It’s been a crazy year…
December 6, 2019 · 2 min readDo You Know Who You’re Talking To?
Do You Know Who You’re Talking To? Learn more about customer personas by downloading our guide here. An Easy Guide to Buyer Personas For 20 years, I have been a leader in business development,…
November 26, 2019 · 7 min readYour Buttons Are Broken: How to Fix Default Act-On Buttons for Outlook
Your Buttons Are Broken: How to Fix Default Act-On Buttons for Outlook Email development can be one of the most frustrating parts of a marketer’s day-to-day life. Let me make it easier by solving one…
October 23, 2019 · 4 min read3 Keys to Align Marketing to Your Business
3 Keys to Align Marketing to Your Business It’s been 7 years since the Fournaise Group published a survey stating that “80% of CEOS admit they do not really trust and are not very impressed by the…
May 22, 2019 · 3 min read3 Attributes Of An Honest Agency
3 Attributes of an Honest Agency The Problem with Marketing Agencies I have spent the last 5 years in the marketing automation space because I feel that it is a must-have for any company in this day…
May 20, 2019 · 3 min read3 Act-On Automated Programs You Didn’t Know You Needed
3 Act-On Automated Programs You Didn’t Know You Needed From time to time I like to geek out on tactical marketing topics, and this is an uber-nerd topic relating to my favorite Marketing Automation…
May 1, 2019 · 4 min readMarketing Misaligned: Your Buzzwords Aren’t Helping
Marketing Misaligned: Your Buzzwords Aren’t Helping You probably already know this, but there is a problem in marketing. Specifically, marketers are not getting the job done. They are not getting the…
April 23, 2019 · 6 min readChoosing the Right Charts for Your Custom Marketing Reporting
Choosing the Right Charts for Your Custom Marketing Reporting Data Visualization is the creative side of reporting. It’s the pretty charts and graphs that your colleagues “ooo” and “aww” over in team…
October 1, 2018 · 2 min read6 Simple (Yet Powerful) Everyday Marketing Tools
6 Simple (Yet Powerful) Everyday Marketing Tools Marketing as a field is made up of about 85 different disciplines all rolled up under one title. Other departments think of marketers as wizards…
September 28, 2018 · 3 min read3 Things Act-On Support Can’t Help With (But an Agency Can)
3 Things Act-On Support Can’t Help With (But an Agency Can) As a former Technical Solutions Engineer at Act-On, I loved how much our customers loved us. It was normal for a TSE to help 20 customers…
March 7, 2018 · 5 min readThe Top 3 Technical Problems I Saw as an Act-On TSE and How to Solve Them
The Top 3 Technical Problems I Saw as an Act-On TSE and How to Solve Them Before starting at Tactical, I worked as a Technical Solutions Engineer at Act-On. When I worked there, the TSEs were the…
February 12, 2018 · 6 min readMake Your Marketing Memorable: Why We Forget and How to Make Things Stick
Make Your Marketing Memorable: Why We Forget and How to Make Things Stick Your Brain Builds Blind Spots Every day we are surrounded by sights and noise, however, we are not necessarily aware of all…
January 18, 2018 · 3 min readYou don’t know what you don’t know – Run Towards your Fear!
You don’t know what you don’t know – Run Towards your Fear! It’s estimated that greater than 80% of digital marketers don’t have formal training. According to IBM’s, “Stepping up to the challenge:…
October 18, 2017 · 2 min readInbound vs Outbound: When did the world become Black and White?
Inbound vs Outbound: When did the world become Black and White? “Should I use an inbound or an outbound strategy?” This is a question that is asked often, and inside my head I always have the same…
July 10, 2017 · 4 min read3 Tips to Evaluate your Marketing Strategy
3 Tips to Evaluate Your Marketing Strategy We all know the saying, “Don’t throw good money after bad.” Businesses live by the rule and are constantly challenging their expenses, looking for ways to…
April 2, 2017 · 3 min readNo Content, No Leads: 5 Ways to Jump Start Your Content Engine
No Content, No Leads: 5 Ways to Jump Start Your Content Engine Lao Tzu teaches that, The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. So what are you doing to kick-start your customer’s…
January 15, 2017 · 4 min read
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If something isn't behaving the way it should, that's where we start. Phil reads every inbound personally and responds within one business day.