Happy Sunday, Everyone! Q1 is officially in the books, and Q2 is off to one of the most volatile starts in recent memory. Welcome to the Whiplash Economy On April 2, 2025, President Trump announced a sweeping series of "reciprocal tariffs" targeting every country - including key U.S. trade partners like China, Mexico, Vietnam, Japan and South Korea. As one of the many people watching both the announcement (on X, where else) and the markets, the impact was near-instant: every major index...
20 days ago • 16 min read
Happy Sunday, Everyone! I’ve spent the last few weeks visiting with clients & speaking at several fantastic events (if you’re looking for conferences to add to your agenda for 2026, I can’t recommend SMX Munich, SMX Paris & Friends of Search enough - each one is absolutely fantastic. You are guaranteed to learn something new at each one). One of the major topics discussed at each of these three events was the evolution of marketing - and, in particular, how that evolution will impact what we...
27 days ago • 23 min read
Happy Sunday, Everyone! I’m writing this issue while flying back (for three whole days) from Friends of Search & SMX Munich. Both were absolutely fantastic events with fantastic speakers and even-better networking/conversations around content, SEO, PPC & analytics. Amidst all of the talks and conversations, there was one topic that kept coming up: what else can we do to improve the performance of our Meta + YouTube ads? How do we counter the rising CPMs (and declining outbound CTRs) that are...
about 1 month ago • 13 min read
Happy Sunday, Everyone! I hope you’re all enjoying the first glimmers of Spring (at least, in the Northern Hemisphere), along with the start of daylight savings time (for most of the people in the US). It’s difficult to believe, but Q2 is only a few weeks away, Memorial Day, Graduation & 4th of July events are well into the planning phase, and a few of our clients are even scheduling calls for back to school planning. Put another way: 2025 is off to a rolling start. As we get into all of...
about 2 months ago • 13 min read
Happy Sunday (+ Happy March), Everyone! We’ve officially survived the shortest month of 2025 - and while it isn’t officially Spring (in the northern hemisphere) yet, things are looking up if you like warm weather, golf & more sunshine. Speaking of things looking up – after the incredible response to last week’s issue, we’re back with Part 2 of the “2025 Hot or Not: Marketing Edition.” If you didn’t get a chance to read last week’s edition on the stuff that is NOT working, I’d highly recommend...
about 2 months ago • 16 min read
Happy Sunday, Everyone! As both 2025 budgets and conference season have kicked into high gear, there’s been one question I’ve heard more than anything else: what should we be doing and what should we be avoiding in order to hit our growth/profitability goals for 2025? It’s a question I spend a significant amount of time thinking about, both for our agency and our portfolio companies, as well as for our clients. And, over time, I’ve developed a running list of things to avoid (the “Nots”) and...
2 months ago • 11 min read
Happy Sunday, Everyone! As a marketer, today is one of my favorite days of the year: it’s the Big Game™. In a few short hours, a total of ~$650M will be spent on ~100 0:30 ad spots: ~60 in-game commercials (at a reported price of $7M to $8M per spot), and ~40 commercials before and after the event (at a reported price of $3M to $5M per spot, depending on placement). And that’s just the actual cost of the spot – it doesn’t include the production cost, other channel deployments (like social,...
3 months ago • 13 min read
Happy Sunday, Everyone! With January (thankfully) in the rear-view mirror, I’ve found myself thinking about Valentine’s Day – not because I particularly care for it as a holiday (it’s kind of lame), but because it marks the first major “marketing moment” of 2025 – New Year’s feels like it shares custody with 2024, and the other federal holidays (President’s Day, MLK Day, Inauguration Day) aren’t real moments (unless you’re selling furniture or mattresses). Valentine’s Day - like it, love it...
3 months ago • 11 min read
Happy Sunday, Everyone! I hope you’re all doing well, staying warm, and enjoying the weekend. This week’s issue marks number 100 – a milestone I was unsure this little newsletter would reach when I pressed “send” way back in 2023. Since that first send, the newsletter has grown from just 152 subscribers (for Issue #1) to 6,164 (and counting). Along the way, this has sparked more conversations than I thought possible, led to awesome opportunities with dozens of incredible brands, and - most...
3 months ago • 21 min read