HubSpot: 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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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