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- What Is Salesforce Cooking Up For Spring? ๐งโ๐ณ Will Marketing Budgets Increase Or Decrease in 2025? ๐ฐ Meta's Community Notes Won't Apply To Paid Ads ๐ง
What Is Salesforce Cooking Up For Spring? ๐งโ๐ณ Will Marketing Budgets Increase Or Decrease in 2025? ๐ฐ Meta's Community Notes Won't Apply To Paid Ads ๐ง
Also: Google Begins Requiring JavaScript for Search
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What Is Salesforce Cooking Up For Spring? ๐งโ๐ณ Will Marketing Budgets Increase Or Decrease in 2025? ๐ฐ Meta's Community Notes Won't Apply To Paid Ads ๐ง
Also: Google Begins Requiring JavaScript for Search
Happy Friday Marketing Engineers!
Today:
๐ค World's First Chatbot Is Resurrected
๐ฃ Coming Soon: PhD Level Super Agents
๐ฅณ Marketing Pros Give Top Tips On How To Thrive In 2025
โ๏ธ The #1 Thing To Do In A New Job
๐ What Is A Slug? And Why They Matter For SEO
๐ MIT Spinout Wants To Spool Hair-Thin Fibers Into Patient's Brains
๐ Ada{m}
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๐ Marketing News
The updates center on three key areas, with the first being an expanded integration of AI capabilities through Agentforce, including new features for campaign content generation and multilanguage support. The second focus is on streamlining data management and workflows, introducing automated processes for tasks like CMS asset copying and data stream creation that were previously done manually. Finally, the platform is enhancing control and visibility for marketers through improved flow oversight, a new marketing calendar, and more detailed email delivery analytics.
The global digital marketing landscape is poised for significant growth in 2025, with ad spend expected to increase by 5.9%, driven primarily by social media, online video, and retail media, which now collectively represent over two-thirds of global ad spending. This growth is backed by strong CMO optimism, with 89% planning budget increases, though B2B marketers remain more cautious than their counterparts in other sectors. Marketing teams are focusing their allocations on martech strategy development, brand awareness, and customer acquisition, while continuing to prioritize spending on the established "big three" channels of Meta Ads, Google Ads, and SEO.
Meta's Community Notes Wont Apply To Paid Ads [3 min read]
Meta has announced that while it's replacing its fact-checking system with Community Notes, paid advertisements will be exempt from this community-driven fact-checking feature, allowing only organic content to be subject to verification. This decision appears financially motivated, as Meta seeks to avoid the significant advertising revenue losses that X experienced when it allowed community fact-checking on paid advertisements. The policy change is part of a larger series of controversial shifts at Meta, including the removal of fact-checkers, loosening of hate speech restrictions, elimination of DEI initiatives, and removal of trans-inclusive features, which critics argue prioritizes profit over user protection and may be politically motivated.
Google Begins Requiring JavaScript For Google Search [2 min read]
JavaScript is now mandatory for using Google Search. This change will help protect against bots and spam while improving the overall search experience, though many features won't work properly without it enabled. The requirement raises both accessibility concerns, as some users rely on tools that may have difficulties with JavaScript, and security concerns, with Datadog reporting that about 70% of JavaScript services have critical or high-severity vulnerabilities. While Google states that less than 0.1% of searches are done with JavaScript disabled, this still affects millions of users given Google's scale of 8.5 billion searches per day, and some speculate this change may also be aimed at limiting third-party tools that track Google Search trends and rankings, as these tools began experiencing issues when the requirement was implemented.
๏ปฟ๐ค๏ปฟ AI
Researchers discovered its original 420-line code in MIT archives and restored it to working order. The chatbot, designed by MIT professor Joseph Weizenbaum to act as a psychotherapist and named after the protagonist of "Pygmalion," was programmed in the now-defunct MAD-SLIP language and demonstrated remarkable effectiveness in maintaining conversations. While primitive compared to modern AI like ChatGPT, ELIZA possessed a unique strength in its ability to "listen" and maintain conversation flow by prompting users to continue talking rather than trying to complete their sentences, which researchers argue is more akin to natural conversation.
Coming Soon: PhD Level Super Agents [4 min read]
A major AI breakthrough is expected soon, likely from OpenAI, which promises to introduce "Ph.D.-level super-agents" capable of handling complex human tasks, as evidenced by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's scheduled closed-door briefing with U.S. government officials and reports of progress exceeding projections. These super-agents would represent a significant evolution from current AI capabilities, being able to handle complex, multi-step tasks autonomously - from building software to conducting financial analysis to managing logistics - potentially replacing human workers rather than just serving as supplementary tools. The development faces significant challenges and concerns, including reliability issues and AI hallucinations, political implications coinciding with leadership changes, and potential job displacement fears, particularly for entry-level and managerial positions.
DeepSeek, a Chinese AI lab, has released DeepSeek-R1, a "reasoning" model that reportedly matches or exceeds OpenAI's o1 on specific benchmarks. While R1 demonstrates impressive capabilities, it operates under Chinese regulations requiring conformity to "core socialist values" and restricts discussion of sensitive topics. The release comes amid heightened US-China AI competition, with new US export controls being proposed and OpenAI warning about Chinese AI advancement, as DeepSeek joins Alibaba and Kimi as the third Chinese lab claiming to have developed models rivaling o1.
๐ง Hacks & Tactics
Marketers should focus on creating authentic, human-centric content that distinguishes their brand from AI-generated material. Also, diversifying marketing channels and empowering internal influencers can enhance engagement and expand reach across various platforms. Leveraging customer insights to build a unique marketing moat will enable targeted, problem-solving strategies that foster long-term relationships and set the brand apart from competitors.
Media agencies support brands by precisely identifying and segmenting target audiences through comprehensive analysis of consumer behavior and uncovering untapped market opportunities. They optimize the customer journey and marketing funnels by mapping diverse touchpoints and conducting funnel analyses to enhance conversion rates and maximize return on investment. Also, media agencies leverage creative testing, personalized content, and advanced analytics to deliver strategic insights and drive sustained business growth.
The #1 Thing To Do In a New Job [2 min read]
Creating a dedicated #marketing-ideas channel on Slack or Teams and involving colleagues from all departments fosters cross-functional collaboration. Encouraging an open environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing any marketing ideas without judgment, supported by examples and regular prompts, ensures continuous engagement. This approach enhances teamwork, generates a diverse pool of ideas, and establishes you as a proactive and valued team member.
โ๏ธ Machine Shop
AI is increasingly utilized in technical SEO, with applications in improving internal linking, generating schema tags, and analyzing log files to enhance website performance. Practical examples from SEO professionals demonstrate how AI tools streamline tasks like automating alt text creation and visualizing Google Search Console data. However, itโs important to maintain human oversight, as AI should only be adopted when it adds clear value, ensuring that human expertise remains essential in the field.
What is the product? Who is it for? What does it replace? Why is it better? Companies can choose between category-based positioning, which situates the product within an existing category, or use case-based positioning, which highlights specific scenarios where the product solves problems, depending on the product's nature and target audience.
A URL slug is the last part of a URL that uniquely identifies a page and can influence user experience as well as SEO rankings. Best practices for creating effective URL slugs include being descriptive, concise, and easy to read, using hyphens for word separation, and avoiding special characters. Content management systems like WordPress allow for customizable URL slugs, making it important to maintain user-friendly formats and implement redirects when changes are made to prevent broken links and traffic loss.
๐ฎ The Future
NeuroBionics is developing hair-thin bioelectric fibers that can be inserted through blood vessels in the brain to deliver neuromodulation therapy, offering a less invasive alternative to traditional deep brain stimulation which requires skull drilling. The technology innovates by using carbon nanotubes instead of traditional metals like platinum or iridium oxide, making it potentially cheaper, longer-lasting, and more MRI-friendly, with the fibers powered by a standard implantable battery shaped like an AirPod case that lasts 5-10 years. While the company has ambitious goals to treat conditions like depression, epilepsy, and Parkinson's disease, they are still in early stages with just $5 million in recent funding to complete their clinical device, and they face several steps including pig testing and FDA approval before their targeted market launch around 2030.
The Future Of Marketing Is Inclusive, Not Because It's Current, But Because It's Necessary [7 min read]
Despite recent corporate DEI rollbacks at major companies, inclusive marketing continues to demonstrate strong business value, with research showing progressive advertising drives a 16% sales uplift and companies like Sephora seeing significant revenue growth through their DEI commitments. The industry is evolving from surface-level representation to more authentic and nuanced approaches, as demonstrated by campaigns like Vanish's "Me, My Autism and I" and Nike's "FlyEase," which involve working directly with communities to create meaningful content and products. Technological advances like the Female Quotient's "Representation Index" are helping brands measure inclusion in their ads, while a new generation of socially conscious marketers is fostering a culture of openness and collaboration that's driving positive change in inclusive marketing.
AI Produces Better SEO Content [7 min read]
Research shows that combining AI-generated content with human editing significantly outperforms traditional SEO content, achieving an average of 17 pages in top rankings compared to just 2 pages for content written by SEO experts. This hybrid approach delivers remarkable efficiency gains, reducing labor costs by 91% while maintaining the same levels of perceived quality and credibility among readers. The success stems from AI's ability to analyze and learn from high-ranking content while still producing unique material, though human editors remain essential for maintaining tone, ensuring accuracy, and eliminating AI hallucinations, creating an effective balance between automation and human expertise.
DeepMind's spinoff company Isomorphic Labs plans to begin clinical trials of AI-designed drugs by the end of 2025, aiming to drastically reduce drug discovery time from years to months or weeks. While AI shows promise in drug development, pharmaceutical companies have been cautious in adopting this technology, though partnerships between tech and pharma companies are increasing, as evidenced by Isomorphic Labs' collaborations with Eli Lilly and Novartis.
๐ฉโ๐ซ Vocab
Lead Generation: The process of attracting and converting potential customers into people interested in your product or service. It focuses on capturing interest through various marketing channels to create a pipeline of potential buyers. Lead generation is crucial for growing your customer base.
Example: A software company offers a free ebook in exchange for email addresses, turning website visitors into potential customers.
Marketing Automation: Technology that automatically manages marketing processes and campaigns across multiple channels. It streamlines repetitive tasks and delivers personalized content to prospects at the right time. Marketing automation helps scale your marketing efforts while maintaining personal connections with customers.
Example: HubSpot automatically sends welcome emails, follow-up messages, and targeted content based on how visitors interact with a website.
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