In my research, two landing page platforms were recommended more than any others: LeadPages and ClickFunnels. Now that I’ve tried them both, let me get straight to the results. (Spoiler alert: LeadPages wins.)

(NOTE: I’m talking about LeadPages.net, not LeadPages.com; They are not the same thing.)

Getting Started

Both platforms offer tutorials to help you get started. You can build a squeeze page or funnel—complete with integrations into your email provider—in a very short time. If you are very new, they both provide videos to watch. And they both offer great support.

The biggest difference here is the ease of use. LeadPages is a more turnkey product. ClickFunnels takes a little more doing to get it done. The point goes to LeadPages.

Templates

Both Leadpages and ClickFunnels offer tons of good-looking, professional templates to choose from. The ClickFunnels templates tend to be a bit more visually dramatic, while the LeadPages templates are more straightforward.

When selecting a template, LeadPages offers an option to sort templates based on their typical conversion rate. Let’s say you are building a landing page for a webinar. You can filter the templates so that you are only looking at landing page templates for webinars and then sort them so the highest-converting templates are at the top.

LeadPages sorts templates by type AND conversion rate, and so the point goes to LeadPages.

Customization Options

In this area, ClickFunnels gives more options. LeadPages seems to have traded customization for simplicity and ease of use. For an uber-professional (or a real control freak) this could be an issue.

So the point for amount of customization options goes to ClickFunnels. I also love the graphics and icons that come with ClickFunnels. They are professional, good-looking, and easy to find with a simple search.

Price

This is a no-brainer. ClickFunnels costs about four times more than LeadPages. LeadPages also offers more subscription options. Point goes to LeadPages.

Reporting

No point awarded at this time, as both platforms seem to have issues with accuracy. Neither set of numbers matches the numbers I am seeing in Facebook ads reporting. However, LeadPages does appear to be a bit more accurate.

The Winner

In summary, LeadPages has earned my nod. Though I would have preferred more options for customization and a little more flair from its template offerings, it works well right out of the box and takes a straightforward approach that makes it especially easy to use, even for beginners. Besides that, the price is hard to beat and gives LeadPages its biggest advantage over its closest competitor. It’s what I am using, and a product I’ll definitely be recommending for my clients going forward.

This article originally appeared on KellyCoulter.com.

The post LeadPages vs. ClickFunnels: A Landing Page Showdown appeared first on Relevance.

Marketing automation tool was not a dominant component of digital marketing until recently. The boom started around 2017 when marketers and organizations began realizing the immense power and capabilities of marketing automation tools.

Today, automated marketing is a multi-billion dollar market with business slated to reach a mammoth $6 billion by 2025. So what are these tools used for?

Marketing Automation tools are powered by technologies that make marketing more effective and result-driven. This is achieved through the use of various types of online media resources such as email, websites, social media, etc. If email is a core channel for you, see our roundup of the best email marketing platforms. The repetitive tasks associated with marketing efforts are fully automated by these tools. Marketers can choose specific criteria for automating tasks with the aim of boosting efficiency and minimize human error. The software executes the various tasks assigned to it with clockwork precision and absolute perfection.

Automated marketing tools are primarily deployed for:

• Enhancing the efficiency of sales processes
• Automating repetitive and time-consuming manual tasks
• Enhancing alignment of sales and marketing goals
• Boosting lead conversions
• Achieving better ROI

Marketing automation platforms are either web-based or hosted. Customers need not carry out any software installation at their end.

Not surprisingly, with the growing demand for automation tools, the number of players in this domain are also increasing. There is a glut of choices for marketers and companies. And this poses challenges of a different kind.

This is where we make your job easy. We bring to you a detailed comparison of two of the most popular, in-demand, and widely used market automation tools that have been put through the grind by reviewers many times. HubSpot and Marketo are the top brands in the cloud-based industry and boast of strong customer bases. They have a lot of features in common too. But they both are not the same on several counts.

Introduction

HubSpot

HubSpot was also launched in 2006 to help businesses adapt to the changing lifestyles, needs, and demands of customers. HubSpot has a powerful, user-friendly, and integrated set of applications. The software system can be used by businesses to draw, customers, keep them engaged, and provide a great experience by creating unique and personalized inbound experiences. The mission is to make the world more inbound and transform businesses.

Marketo

Marketo was launched in 2006 with the aim of changing the collaboration processes between the sales and marketing teams of an enterprise. The lead management and marketing software solutions from Marketo can help marketing and sales teams work in tandem at every stage of the process from demand generation and lead management to ensuring revenue flow and gaining customer loyalty. Marketo is being used by over 2,000 customers and has over 22,000 user subscribers in B2B industries such as financial services, business services, software technology, communications, and, healthcare services.

Usability

HubSpot

Ease of use is among the core features of the HubSpot platform and also a key reason for its growing demand. The learning curve is short and smooth. HubSpot offers an intuitive user interface that’s simple to understand and easy to use. Customers love the hassle-free transition process of the system. HubSpot’s all-in-one platform spans the whole gamut of activities including marketing, sales, and services. That’s the reason why it offers such an effortless and integrated rollout across the board. Besides, the focus is always on delivering the best experience to users.

Marketo

Marketo integrates well with a couple of popular CRMs but that’s precisely why its utility becomes limited. Deploying and integration experiences are not as smooth as HubSpot. Customization is evidently the biggest USP of Marketo but here too you spend a lot of time decoding the learning processes.

If you are looking for a marketing automation system that offers full-funnel experiences to all the customers, then HubSpot is a clear choice.

Versatility and Tools

HubSpot

This comprehensive inbound marketing platform can help create optimized content according to customer data. You can create content for blogs, web pages, emails, and more. You can also create reports and check analytics and more from one convenient place.  HubSpot offers all the features in the Professional and above packages. SMEs find HubSpot a more attractive option for this reason. HubSpot is specialized for content production. You can use the platform to create dynamic content and manage blogs efficiently.

Marketo

Marketo offers customized solutions for specific industries. If you are looking to create an automated platform for your marketing needs, you can buy the suite of marketing modules that include email, customer base, mobile, consumer, and lead management. You can buy these individually or in bundles. While this ensures more detailed coverage of a specific module that you are focused on, you will end up paying more if you are looking for a fully integrated platform with all the modules. Marketo does not offer content production.

Get started with FREE HubSpot tools, and upgrade as you grow.

Functionality

HubSpot and Marketo have come up with recent upgrades that address the gaps in functionality effectively.

When it comes to partitioning, Marketo is not really up to the mark. Separating crucial data is cumbersome with Marketo. There is a real risk of duplication as synchronizing is done across specific data boundaries but those data must also be maintained. HubSpot has addressed the problem in its new release. As scalability is an inherent part of its design, the platform expands to accommodate all your data automatically. You don’t have to spend time and money on system administration.

Content Creation

HubSpot

HubSpot content tools are an integral part of its Marketing Hub. You can create content easily using the platform’s tools and technology. The asset marketplace offers thousands of free templates for marketers. Also, the drag-and-drop feature allows for easy customization. The CMS hub makes website management easy. The flexible themes allow easy edits to the content. HubSpot provides the added convenience of a 24/7 security team and features such as firewalls, SSL, global CDN, SSO, and others.

Marketo

Marketo offers the ability to create landing pages. However, you can customize only if you have some knowledge of CSS and HTML. You may also need other tools for hosting the main website or blogs.

CRM Integration

Businesses prefer using marketing automation systems that can be easily integrated with their CRM as both are closely connected.

HubSpot

HubSpot offers a built-in CRM and can integrate with popular platforms such as MS Dynamics, SugarCRM, Salesforce, and Zoho. HubSpot is easier to use than other similar tools and is hence ideal for SMEs and marketers not well conversant with automated platforms and CRM tools. Over the years, HubSpot tools have undergone massive improvements recently, making it useful for all types of businesses.

Marketo

Marketo does not offer an in-built CRM module but as the product was built using the Salesforce platform, they offer Salesforce which ranks among the best in the industry. Native integrations are also available for Microsoft Dynamics and SAP.

Analytics

HubSpot

With HubSpot, you can achieve a closed-loop integration with your CRM. It offers hassle-free access to customer data for analysis. The revenue reporting feature is a standard offering with the Enterprise tier.

However, HubSpot pulls ahead because of a few critical reasons. It allows you to analyze website performance based on key metrics. You can also track your marketing funnel from start to finish. The best part is that all the data can be accessed from one dashboard, allowing you to make the right decisions faster.

There is another feature in HubSpot analytics that other automation tools probably don’t have and that is the Multi-Touch Revenue Attribution. It allows you to measure the impact of your marketing activities meticulously. The bonus part is that you can get all these without having to invest in additional software.

Marketers looking to create a powerful marketing strategy need access to accurate data. This includes information about customers, prospects, leads, and other related aspects. That’s why you need a marketing automation tool that can provide data analytics in a practical manner. Both Marketo and HubSpot offers a set of high-value analytics tools designed to help track campaign programs and deliver detailed reports.

Marketo

Marketo analytics tools can be used to make predictive analytics on the basis of content preferences, digital behavior patterns, CRM data, and firmographics.

Performance Measure

HubSpot

HubSpot comes with features such as company scoring and ABM reporting dashboard templates. It is seen that most ABM practitioners make use of CRM for reporting. HubSpot has a built-in CRM allowing users to build, manage, and report on their ABM strategies conveniently and from one location.

Marketo

Marketo offers some key reporting features such as an ABM dashboard, weekly sales report, and an account dimensions tool. Customers can utilize these features to measure the ROI of specific marketing programs.

Pricing

HubSpot

HubSpot offers the whole range of features within a single system. The sales and CRM integrations are available as free or can be add-on options. You can use all the features even at the entry-level. You are required to upgrade the subscription when your database increases. However, you can upgrade the whole package and need not upgrade the individual module.

The three product levels of HubSpot are available at the following prices:

• Starter from £42 a month.
• Professional from £655 a month.
• Enterprise from £2,624 a month.

Marketo

Marketo offers five key modules. They are consumer marketing, customer-based marketing, email marketing, lead marketing, and mobile marketing. You can buy these modules separately or as bundles, or as one comprehensive package based on your business requirements. The modules are priced according to the tiers based on the scale. The packages available are Basic, Pro, Elite, and Enterprise.

HubSpot is a more affordable option for small businesses. The HubSpot Starter package is priced lower than the Basic Tier from Marketo. However, the HubSpot Professional and Enterprise tiers are priced higher.

Please note that Marketo pricing is not given even on their website. You can get the pricing details from their sales team directly.

Marketo pricing is based on the modules you require while HubSpot pricing is based around contacts rather than the individual products. When your contacts grow, you pay more.

HubSpot also offers free versions of their software, unlike Marketo.

Conclusion

Based on the unbiased comparison of both the marketing automation tools it is clear that there are reasons why you should consider investing in both Marketo and HubSpot. Both have some unique features including a few which overlap. When marketers choose a marketing automation tool, they look for ease of use of all the features.

HubSpot’s Marketing Hubs are specifically designed to deliver exceptional user experience. Marketo falls a bit short of effort on this count despite the availability of powerful tools. User experience is not at the core of their tool creation entailing the need for hiring technology experts.

HubSpot scores on most aspects and is the best-fit for SMEs looking to expand operations and nurture leads. Marketo is a good choice for larger B2B organizations looking for personalized automation solutions.

Start Free 14-Day HubSpot Trial Today!

The post Hubspot vs Marketo: A Features-To-Features Comparison appeared first on Relevance.

It’s important to find a web host and development team (https://www.bairesdev.com/expertise/custom-software-development/) you trust to keep everything running smoothly. That means staying up to date with the latest trends in the industry. Just what do they look like in 2026? Here’s what’s new and emerging in web hosting.

Web Hosting Market in 2026: The global web hosting market is projected to reach $149.30 billion in 2026 and $527 billion by 2032 at 19.7% CAGR (Hostinger). The “Big Three” cloud providers (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) hold 80% of the market, powering over 182 million websites. Shared hosting is set to reach $70.6 billion by 2026, while the VPS market grows to $6.4 billion. Serverless edge computing is emerging as a key trend for low-latency processing (Fortune Business Insights).

1. Green web hosting

Powering a typical website produces around 4,500 pounds of carbon dioxide per year, which is equivalent to driving your car for more than 10,000 miles, according to Web Neutral Project founder Jack Amend. Because of the environmental impact of the internet and technology, many web hosting providers are looking to find more energy-efficient solutions.

Green web hosting will not only reduce your carbon footprint but also improve your reputation by demonstrating to consumers that you care about the environment and are doing your part to help it. Green hosting means you’re powering your enterprise with environmentally-sound resources, such as renewable energy.

You can earn carbon offset certificates (VER), demonstrating that you’ve participated in reducing greenhouse gases, and renewable energy certificates (REC), which indicate that you’ve helped fund eco-friendly initiatives.

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2. Heightened security

Keeping your website and any data it generates or stores private is pivotal to protecting your customers and your reputation. Risk Based Security reported 5,183 data breaches in just the first nine months of 2019, projecting that it would be the “worst year on record” for breaches. That means that 2026 is a year for ramping up security efforts.

Many web hosts are embracing two-step authentication, a process by which users must verify their login information twice for extra security. For example, you might be texted a code to enter on top of logging in with your credentials.

Another important security measure is obtaining an SSL certificate — indicated by HTTPS — which encrypts data exchanged between the web browser and server. In fact, as of 2018, Google Chrome began marking all websites that use HTTP instead of HTTPS as “not secure.”

3. Cloud-based hosting

The cloud is becoming increasingly popular for a variety of purposes, and web hosting is one of them. There are numerous benefits to cloud-based hosting: it offers greater security, it’s cost-effective, it’s scalable, and it’s highly efficient. Unlike traditional hosting platforms, cloud hosting uses virtual resources from a network of servers. It doesn’t depend on a single physical server and allows your data and materials to be migrated to the cloud.

4. Website builders

While many businesses still hire professional web developers to make their vision a reality, it’s easier than ever before to create your site on your own. That’s why many web hosting platforms offer website builders as part of their package deals.

These easy-to-use tools enable you to customize your website and make it visually appealing according to your preferences. In many cases, you can simply drag and drop the components to create your layout — no coding knowledge necessary.

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5. Added services and value

Because of the competitive market of web hosting, many platforms are offering additional features and servers to entice customers to choose them. Some common add-ons include:

• SSL
• E-commerce support
• Free domain
• Marketing
• SEO tools
• Enhanced security, such as anti-phishing protection and frequent backups
• Training
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Unlimited storage
• DIY features, such as the website builders described above

From environmental awareness to heightened security, cloud-based hosting to added value, there are many features and changes that will define web hosting in 2026. And with so many choices, it’s important to be cognizant of the top current trends.

Make sure to research any web-hosting platform you’re considering and compare and contrast the value you’ll get with each service. After all, you want the best for your website — it can make or break your entire business.

The post 5 Key Web Hosting Trends for 2026 appeared first on Relevance.

How does the planning work? Below, we’ll explain how to perfect a content marketing plan for 2026, with seven steps including how to set your targets, delegate tasks, and measure your success.

Planning Your 2026 Content Strategy: Over 54% of businesses plan to increase content marketing budgets, with 31% spending $15,000-$45,000/month (DemandSage). The top challenges include lack of resources (58%), scaling production (48%), and adapting to SEO changes (64%). Blog/SEO remains the #1 ROI channel, while 52% of content marketers are shifting toward video and multimedia (Siege Media).

Ready, Set, Goals

For any plan to be successful, you need to set achievable, measurable targets to help you stay on track. Setting goals and KPIs (key performance indicators) is like planning a realistic destination of your journey, allowing you to plan the most effective routes there.

You can have monetary-based goals which may include improving revenue, generating more sales, or driving more traffic to your website. On the other hand, you can have authority-related targets like shifting public perceptions of your brand, creating more social engagement, or becoming an industry leader.

 Once you’ve settled on your goals, you need to establish some KPIs to ensure that you can easily measure your success. Some typical content marketing KPIs include things like gaining X new subscribers, hitting a specific revenue target, improving your ranking on search engines by X, or receiving X invitations to collaborate by influencers.

Analyze Your Audience

How can you make sure your content doesn’t fall on deaf ears? You need to research your audience and create tailored content that they will respond to. Just think, you won’t get very far by using slang to engage with your 40yr+ audience.

You can use a number of tools like Google Analytics, or the built-in social media analytics features to find out who’s reading, liking, and sharing your content. These tools can provide information like age, gender, and location, but also other insightful data like cultural interests, spending history, and spoken languages.

Requesting customer feedback should help give you an understanding of what your audience is looking for from your industry, and then you should run some test social adverts to gauge the user engagement.

Choose Your Content Type and Channels

Now you understand who your main followers, customers, and online visitors are, you need to think about which types of content they’ll engage with.

Again, you can use tools like Google Analytics to see which channels or content types your audience has been sharing from your brand, whether it’s Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, or LinkedIN.

It’s important to pick the right channel in order to get the best responses – there’s no point running snapchat campaigns to reach your 40yr+ audience that loves Facebook, is there? In terms of content types, you should prioritize whichever your audience loves whether it’s videos, quizzes, vlogs, podcasts, infographics, or emails.

Regardless of which content type you choose to deliver, we would always recommend using a blog as part of your content marketing plan. Not only are blogs brilliant for sharing information, they’re superb SEO tools for SEO – websites with blogs have on average over 400% more indexed pages than those without.

Review Resources and Delegate Tasks

Now you have your journey, destination, and most effective routes planned out, it’s time to decide on who’s driving, and which vehicle you need. In other words, you need to decide which tools or resources you might need, who’s creating content, and who is managing the overarching plan.

Of course, no two businesses are truly the same. But to give you an idea of how the delegation could work, the CMO would develop and approve strategies, a content manager would oversee the calendar, while individual creatives – like writers or graphic designers –  would craft the content.

This framework may not suit your business, but there are other options out there. For example, if you own a small business and don’t have the resources in-house to create a content marketing strategy, you can hire freelance specialists to help out, or you can use a digital marketing agency who can draft, design, and deliver a whole content plan for you, letting you focus on other tasks in the business.

Craft a Content Calendar

As we all know, failing to prepare is preparing to fail, and creating a content calendar is one of the most important steps you can take to avoid a KPI-related defeat. After all, they’re the who, what, and when of your content marketing plan.

Think of your well-planned content calendar as fuel-efficient driving – it will ensure that you reach your target on time, while utilising the perfect amount of resources. But how do you actually create one?

You have a few options. If you’re strapped for time, then a quick Google search will show you a wide selection of content calendar templates. If your content plan is reasonably light, then you can use Google Calendar to schedule and assign tasks, and if you want total control over your calendar, then you can use a number of tools like Trello, Evernote, or CoSchedule.

Lastly, if you hire a digital marketing agency, then you don’t need to worry about any planning on your end.

Create the Content

This step may seem quite self explanatory, but there are some key things to consider when it comes to pouring those creative juices. You’ve spent so much hard work on planning your strategy, so why stop now? To make things easier, we’ve got three tips to help you create some killer content.

Firstly, do some research to see which types of content are becoming saturated online, find out whether there is a gap in the content market, and evaluate how your content will benefit your readers. This can be done by simply Google searching your industry and taking note of what comes up.

Secondly, stick to your brand’s guidelines and tone of voice. Consistency is key with content, as it helps to build brand trust and enforces your identity within the industry.

Lastly, supercharge your content with SEO strategies to make sure your work gets found by as many people as possible. Use tools like SEMrush to research popular search terms, and Google Analytics to review how your content is performing in terms of ranking on search engines.

Once a piece of content is ready – send it out and spread the word! If you run a newsletter, remember to direct your audience to your shiny, new content, and encourage users to share, share, share, whenever you deem necessary.

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Measure Your Results

It’s results day. Nervous much? Well with such a well-thought out content marketing plan, you shouldn’t be!

It’s time to revisit those KPIs to see how your content has performed against its targets. Use our old friend Google Analytics to view things like CTR (click through rate), revenue per page, and the total number of sessions per page.

Sign up to Hootsuite or Buzzsumo to analyse your content’s performance on social media, and use SEMrush to assess how your content is ranking on search engines. Of course, there are many analytics tools out there, but these are the most popular on the market.

In a perfect business world, we’d all hit our KPIs every single time. But it’s not always like that – sometimes a campaign will fall short, and that’s when you need to assess where, how, and why it happened in order to overcome that hurdle with your next campaign.

However, if you follow these steps, guidelines and tips, then you should find your content marketing plans in 2026 to be smooth, seamless, and successful journeys.

The post How to Create a Content Marketing Plan for 2026 appeared first on Relevance.

LinkedIn is the best platform to generate leads and sales. But becoming the media marketing expert in LinkedIn will be hard without the help of these tools.

Social Media Automation in 2026: 83% of marketing departments now automate social media posting, and 70% of marketing leaders plan to increase AI and automation investments (Sprout Social). The social media automation tools market was $4.5 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $12.8 billion by 2033. AI-generated content will account for 25% of branded social posts by 2026. Brands using AI-powered personalization see engagement rates increase by up to 35% (Templated).

LinkedIn Small Business

As mentioned, LinkedIn is a platform for professionals. With this LinkedIn tool, you can maximize your sales, leads, as well as your brand awareness. The LinkedIn tool helps your business in three ways: brand establishment, target audience reach, content marketing engagement. With this tool, you will be able to engage your audience directly and convert them into sales.

Crystal

Crystal tool allows you to access tp personality profiles and give you the best advice in communicating with the profiles you meet online. The tool can review the profiles and provide the feedback and insight into LinkedIn files. With such information, it can help you to decide to respond and reach out to your audience.

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Linkedin Sales Navigator

It is the official tool offered by the LinkedIn platform. The main purpose of this tool is to connect the business and people, or buyers and sellers. It hosts the advanced algorithm that can help you to find the right prospects through the platform.

LinkedIn plugins

The tool allows you to add LinkedIn functions on your website. the plugins allow you to connect with your visitors through the platform. If your website visitors have a LinkedIn account, it is only one step ahead to share, follow, or connect with you.

LeadFuze

With this LinkedIn automation, you will be able to retrieve important information (email, phone, address, etc) from your leads list. Besides this important information, you can also automatically send personalized emails and follow-ups.

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Linked Helper

Linked Helper is one of the most prominent LinkedIn automation tools you cannot overlook. It is preferable to many users because of its marvelous functions. The core perk of Linked Helper is to help the users automating various LinkedIn processes like inviting, messaging, connecting, joining, and so on. The good thing about this app is that it is associated with other LinkedIn automation tools like Recruiter, Sales Navigator, Recruiter, and Recruiter Lite. transfer all your manual tasks to Linked Helper and you won’t waste your time again.

eLink Pro

The eLink Pro will help you to generate visits to your Linkedin Profile if you visit theirs first. It helps you to automate the process of visits. 800 profiles are reachable on a daily basis. Imagine how many profiles you can visit in a month.

Discoverly

Discoverly shares in-depth social networking sites information once you visit the Linkedin Profile. It will share any mutual Facebook friends and other in-depth information.

Guru

Once you use Guru in your Linkedin, you will know the important information such as prospect competitors, the customers who are working in the same industry, sales information, and so on.

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SalesLoft Prospector

The LinkedIn tool helps you to integrate Linkedin sales tools. It is a perfect choice for those who are using multiple LinkedIn tools to improve their business. You can see the list of tools that the SalesLoft Prospector can help integrating for you in its official site.

Outro

Sometimes it is hard to spot the top prospects within your LinkedIn network. The Outro tool can help you with that.

It can help you to locate the qualified leads inside and outside your network. Outro can save you a lot of time in searching for the best leads.

The post Top 10 Best Social Media Automation Tools for 2026 appeared first on Relevance.

While the video “Humans need not apply” really brings home the impact of technology on economy and employment, there has been a lot of debate around it. Academicians like Jerry Kaplan have argued that while increased productivity made possible through tools reduces the “ absolute number of people” required and therefore existing job prospects in the short term, the increased prosperity creates new jobs and opportunities for gainful employment in the times to come.

2026 Marketing Job Market: Nearly 65% of marketing leaders plan to expand permanent headcount in their departments in 2026, with 376,200 marketing jobs posted in 2025 (Robert Half). Top skills leaders are paying premiums for: digital marketing strategy (44%), AI and machine learning (37%), marketing automation (33%), and analytics (32%). Professionals with AI and data skills command 20-30% higher compensation (Addison Group).

Great. So it WILL work out in the end. I mean, somebody has to be around to buy all the cheap food and stuff these machines are going to help make so that does kind of intuitively make sense, doesn’t it?

But what about those of us caught in the middle?

But a time lag there will be and let’s take a moment to think of the people at the BRINK of the transition who are out-skilled by a machine in a job that they had prepared for their ENTIRE life. Think doctors, software engineers, classroom teachers, recruiters AND MARKETERS !!! And hey, it’s not just about the bricklayers, link builders and drivers anymore. Even if only 30% of your job tasks that can be automated, there will be a significant impact anyway as companies will need to hire fewer people to do the same job. 

30% less marketers anyone?

We study / practice for hours, take out loans to pay tuition at colleges and then rack up years of experience in one niche field so that our promotion or raises can outpace inflation. What happens if this entire learning curve becomes redundant at age 46?

Source : MIT Technology Review

And even if you do find out that the jobs in the social media copywriting field are booming, how many of us really want to or are even capable of starting again from the very bottom? Because that will the logical entry point for a new profession. right?

There is an alternative.

It’s called planning ahead. 

As we all know, the least differentiated and most routine jobs are impacted first  across industries and functions so lets’s start by looking at some of the skills necessary for our junior digital marketing executives at the very bottom of the food chain.

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Competitive analysis, on page analysis, keyword ranking data, directory submissions and report creation are the ones that come to mind.And  almost all of these can be accomplished by one person team armed with a subscription to SEMRush, Ahref, MOZ and a hundred others. BETTER and FASTER. So yes, this is definitely not something you want to continue trying to get better and /or faster at.

There are also several social media dashboards, posting tools as well as apps that once employed can increase productivity massively so take a good hard look at what you do and see what technology exists to do it better.

Advanced Research

In addition to the competitive and other user information that toolkits can pull out in a click, he likes of  Lucy by Equal3 are capable of processing massive amounts of data. Cost appears to be the only constraint and once made affordable, it seems likely that this task will be automated further.

Not looking too promising either!

Content Creation

Simple summaries, fact based reports and already being produced routinely by AI tools as are short copy for social media, headlines and email responders. Even advanced content is being generated by programs like Wordsmith, Articoolo and Quill.

I would suggest that you monitor and compare the quality and type of content being generated by these tools and even if you see a comfortable gap today, it is important to know that technology grows exponentially faster than your ability to improve  so evaluate your risk accordingly.

User In-sighting and journey mapping

It is a fact that software is better able to analyze user behavior, purchase trends and deep learning to create more granular user personas and journey cycles that it can then adjust in real time basis ongoing behavior. Humans simply DO NOT have the processing power to make the necessary cross connections between millions of users across multiple platforms and the resulting permutations of opportunities and their prioritization by ROI.

But this level of data and insights never existed in the past and the opportunity it presents is immense. Companies will need people to analyze this output, connect the dots and come up with strategic insights! Seems like to be a good place to be.

Lead Generation

Given the number of channels and sub -strategies ( SEO, SEM, EMAIL, Affiliates..etc.) at our disposal, cross leveraging and optimizing the many lead campaigns is often no more than a tangled web tripping up the best of us. I really think we NEED Martech to give us a helping hand here.

I truly believe that Marketing Automation tools like Hubspot, Adobe and Marketo will supplement more than substitute human skills.  Let’s be honest, aren’t we all struggling?

Campaign Management

Marketing automation tools from Adobe, Salesforce, Oracle and Hubspot allow you to deeply examine customer data, past trends to create user relevant personalized campaigns that you can measure progress for in real time. It is a fact that “ inside sales” has changed the way companies engage thanks to a ever strong pipeline of leads created by digital marketing.

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So again, I’m seeing more jobs than before! ( Maybe some at the cost of sales personnel though)

Ok.. enough about the possible losses..lets look at some of opportunities.

1. Data Analytics

Faster and better the tool, the more data it churns out and data can paralyze without due analysis. In the future we will continue to need people who can make sense of Big Data, draw actionable insights and even identify needs for future data requirements.

2. Content Strategy

Next, even if you have reams of data AND analysis which is both accurate and fast, it is fair to assume that you WILL have more time for creative and adaptive strategy – another skill that will be a default expectation from marketing professionals in times to come.

3. Martech Specialists

Given that all this human labour is being replaced by smart tools, marketing will continue to need and invest in people who can understand and leverage these MARTECH tools optimally to get traction on point 1 and 2.

4. Cross Functional Marketing

With most companies understanding the value of “ experience management” and “ human centric processes” the need for a marketing mindset will cut across functional silos. Companies will need market their brand for the best talent, investors in addition to prospective customers. We will need marketing capability across functions.

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Which are all great opportunities for us. Especially marketing jobs that involve social, emotional, technological and higher cognitive skills as against physical, manual and/ or only basic cognitive skills.

Or in other words, more the uncertainty / unpredictability of the role like emotional counseling or managing a team of people or visualizing a new way to colonize Mars, safer you are.

Repetitive, monotonous problems like posting the same message across multiple media, creating directory listings with the same information or checking keyword position or backlinks authority – all jobs that an algorithm can predict solutions to, will and should be automated, leaving us time to do the cooler stuff!!

Source : https://www.skynettoday.com/editorials/ai-automation-job-loss

To summarize, I believe that marketing as a role and function is going to become even more important and on the whole jobs will multiply many times over. But there are some niches within that set which look better positioned than the others. But given the break neck evolution that we are seeing of the role itself it’s rather pointless to get boxed in using current designations as a reference point for future opportunities. The role of SEO executive will still exist but it may require understanding and operating a tool more than manual effort.

Also, in a commoditized market of marketing technology tools cheap enough to be at everyone’s disposal, it will be ultimately be their application through  human creativity and skill that will be the biggest differentiator.

We should therefore focus on specific marketing skills that we want to build and the problems they can solve for better clarity.

In fact the biggest winners will be those than can quickly understand the fast changing landscape of user expectations, starter strategies to leverage digital technology within a given environment as well as educating internal and external customers on the need for using digital content across functions for better stakeholder engagement. 

The post Skills You Need If You Want To Keep Your Marketing Job In 2026 appeared first on Relevance.

The Real Problem: Visibility, Not Quality

A persistent challenge in content marketing is that great content often goes unnoticed. According to recent data, 83 percent of marketers agree it’s more effective to focus on quality over quantity. Yet only 28 percent of enterprise marketers say their content strategy is extremely or very effective. The gap between creating good content and actually seeing results from it comes down to one thing: distribution.

Over 53 percent of website traffic still comes from organic search, making SEO a critical channel. But with AI-powered search results from Google’s AI Overviews and platforms like ChatGPT reshaping how users discover content, relying solely on traditional SEO is no longer enough. Brands need a multi-channel distribution strategy that meets audiences wherever they are.

The Multi-Channel Imperative

Successful content distribution in 2026 requires a blend of owned, earned, and paid channels working together. Here’s how the landscape breaks down:

Organic social media remains the most popular distribution channel, with 89 percent of B2B marketers using it. However, simply posting and hoping for engagement is a losing strategy. The brands seeing results are tailoring content formats to each platform — short-form video on Instagram and TikTok, thought leadership on LinkedIn (where video watch time grew 36 percent year-over-year), and community-driven discussions on platforms like Reddit and Discord.

Paid distribution has become essential for cutting through the noise. Research shows that 72 percent of very successful companies use paid channels for content distribution, compared to just 51 percent of minimally successful ones. This includes search engine marketing, sponsored social posts, and partnerships with creators and influencers. U.S. influencer marketing spending alone is projected to grow 15.7 percent in 2026, surpassing $10 billion.

Email marketing continues to deliver strong results, with 52 percent of successful companies using it to promote content compared to 43.5 percent of less successful ones. The key is segmentation and personalization — sending the right content to the right subscriber at the right time.

AI-Powered Distribution

Artificial intelligence has transformed how marketers approach content distribution. Sixty-seven percent of brands now use AI for content marketing, with applications ranging from audience targeting and content optimization to automated distribution scheduling and performance prediction.

AI tools can analyze engagement patterns, identify optimal posting times across channels, and even generate platform-specific variations of content. This means a single piece of cornerstone content can be efficiently adapted and distributed across dozens of touchpoints — from blog posts and social snippets to email sequences and podcast talking points.

Video: The Distribution Multiplier

Video has become the most effective format for content distribution. Over 90 percent of businesses now use video as a marketing tool, and short-form video delivers the highest ROI among all video formats. YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook remain the top three platforms for video content distribution.

Global podcast listenership has reached roughly 584 million and continues to grow. Interestingly, 81 percent of listeners say they pay more attention to podcast ads than to ads on radio, TV, or social media — yet marketers allocate just 3.8 percent of digital budgets to the channel. This represents a significant opportunity for brands willing to invest in audio content distribution.

Earned Media Still Matters

Despite the rise of paid and AI-driven distribution, earned media remains one of the most valuable distribution channels. Getting your content featured by journalists, industry publications, and influencers provides third-party credibility that paid placement simply cannot replicate.

The approach has evolved, though. Rather than blasting press releases, effective earned media strategies in 2026 involve building genuine relationships with key voices in your industry, contributing original data and research that journalists want to reference, and creating content that naturally earns links and mentions because it provides unique value.

Building Your Distribution Strategy

If your content marketing results are falling short, don’t assume the problem is your content quality. Before investing in more production, audit your distribution approach. The most effective brands follow a simple framework: for every hour spent creating content, spend at least an equal amount of time on distribution and promotion.

Start by documenting your distribution strategy — only 37 percent of B2B marketers have one in writing, and those who do consistently outperform those who don’t. Identify your highest-performing channels, allocate budget for paid amplification, and use AI tools to optimize timing and targeting.

Content may still be king, but without a strong distribution strategy behind it, even the best content will struggle to reach its full potential.

The post Content Is King, But Distribution Is Queen And She Wears The Pants appeared first on Relevance.

Here are eight factors that keep you grounded in outcomes, not opinions, when you design or redesign an interface. (And yes, they matter even when you are “just tweaking the layout”.)

1. User intent and the job they hired your UI to do

Start with the user’s job to be done, not your sitemap. When someone lands on a screen, they are trying to make progress: compare plans, find a file, book a slot, finish checkout, get an answer, feel confident. If you cannot say what “progress” looks like, your UI will default to pleasing internal stakeholders and confusing real people. In practice, the fastest wins come from mapping one screen to one primary action, then measuring it like a funnel step (view → interact → complete). If the screen serves multiple audiences, be honest and separate flows instead of forcing one “universal” layout that satisfies no one.

2. Information hierarchy that respects how people scan

Most interfaces fail at the same boring place: everything screams at once. Establish a clear visual hierarchy so users can answer three questions in seconds: Where am I? What can I do here? What happens if I click that? Steve Krug (author of “Don’t Make Me Think”) built a whole career on this because it keeps proving true. Your hierarchy is not just typography. It is spacing, grouping, contrast, and when you choose to not show something yet.

A useful gut check: if you blur the screen or zoom out, the “next best action” should still be obvious.

3. Friction budget and interaction cost

Every product has a friction budget: how much effort a user will spend before they bounce or defer. Your job is to spend that budget on the steps that create real value (verification, safety, thoughtful choices) and cut it everywhere else. This is where teams accidentally sabotage themselves with “nice to have” fields and modal chains. One example from a B2B onboarding flow: collapsing optional fields behind “Add details (optional)” and moving terms acceptance closer to submit lifted completion by 12% in a week, with no new features, just better sequencing. The principle is simple: ask only what you will use immediately, and earn the right to ask for more later.

4. Feedback, system status, and confidence cues

Users do not rage quit because something is slow. They rage quit because they do not know what is happening. Strong UI design makes state visible: loading, saving, success, failure, progress, and what happens next. Jakob Nielsen (Nielsen Norman Group) has long emphasized visibility of system status for a reason: it is a trust mechanic, not a flourish. Use plain language microcopy, show progress when waits are non-trivial, and confirm actions that have consequences. If you want to reduce support tickets, churn, and duplicate submissions, invest here. It is one of the rare UI improvements that helps every cohort.

5. Consistency that enables speed (for users and your team)

Consistency is not about aesthetics. It is about predictability. When buttons behave the same, forms validate the same way, and navigation patterns repeat, users stop relearning your product on every screen. You also ship faster because your team is not reinventing components. This is where a lightweight design system pays for itself: fewer one-off decisions, fewer QA bugs, and cleaner experimentation because you can isolate variables. If you are resource-constrained, start small: define your core components (button, input, modal, toast, table states) and document “when to use” rules. You will feel the velocity improvement within a sprint or two.

6. Accessibility as a conversion multiplier, not a compliance chore

Accessibility is often treated like a checkbox at the end. That is backwards. When you design for contrast, readable type, keyboard navigation, clear focus states, and error messaging that does not rely on color alone, you make the UI easier for everyone, including tired users on bad screens in bad lighting. It also makes your product more resilient across devices, browsers, and real-world conditions. The growth angle is straightforward: clearer interfaces reduce misclicks, reduce form abandonment, and improve task completion. If you track drops by device type or demographic proxies, accessibility work frequently shows up as “mysterious” lifts in segments that were quietly struggling.

7. Performance and perceived speed

Performance is UX. Users experience latency as uncertainty, and uncertainty kills action. You can do a lot even when backend work is hard: prioritize above-the-fold content, avoid layout shifts, use skeletons for predictable loading, and keep interactions responsive even if the final result takes longer. This is also where UI design connects directly to acquisition and retention: a faster, calmer interface improves activation and reduces the “first session regret” that shows up later as churn. The same principle shows up in growth work more broadly: when teams invest in technical optimization and user experience, they often change the trajectory of a channel, not just a screen. One of our clients, Nurx paired technical optimization with trust-building content and grew organic traffic 49.7% year over year, while organic acquisition share jumped from 4.8% to 28.7%.

8. Error prevention and recovery paths that treat users like humans

Errors are inevitable. The design question is whether your UI punishes people for being human. Prevent errors where you can (constraints, sensible defaults, inline validation), but also design graceful recovery: clear messages, specific fixes, and “undo” when possible. Avoid vague copy like “Something went wrong” unless you also offer a next step that actually helps. If you care about conversion, this is non-negotiable. A surprising amount of funnel loss sits in edge cases: password rules, address formatting, payment declines, expired sessions, and timeouts. Fixing recovery UX often lifts completion without touching traffic or pricing, which is exactly the kind of win lean teams need.

Closing thoughts

UI design gets easier when you stop treating it like taste and start treating it like throughput: reduce confusion, reduce effort, increase confidence, and measure the result. Pick one critical flow, instrument it (Mixpanel, GA4, Amplitude, whatever you have), watch real sessions, and ship the smallest change that removes a known point of friction. Then iterate. That is how sustainable products improve, even with limited time and headcount.

The post 8 factors your team needs to consider in UI design appeared first on Relevance.

By using the marketing techniques of influencers, you can boost your engagement, build trust, and attract more loyal buyers.

Learn seven marketing tips from top influencer marketers for engaging and converting your buyers through content marketing.

Key Takeaways:

• Influencers attract consumers by being authentic and personable.
• Consumers want content tailored to their needs and focused on their benefits.
• Engaging content inspires, educates, and connects.

Influencer Marketing Trends

How much more popular are influencers than brands? 

According to one survey, 61% of consumers trust influencer recommendations over the 38% who trust brand content. Consumers also engage more with influencer marketing content.

So, what is their secret? Can brands generate the same response?

A 2021 research study examined why consumers follow influencers on Instagram and identified four primary reasons:

• Authenticity
• Consumerism
• Creative inspiration
• Envy

Brands can generate a similar response by tapping into these four pillars.

7 Marketing Tips from Influencer Marketing Trends

Use these seven content marketing strategies based on how influencers create content and why consumers follow it. These marketing tips can increase your content marketing engagement and conversions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1XHzcnH6J4

1. Be Authentic

Businesses generate trust by being authentic with their followers and subscribers. As you create social media posts, blog content, and website copy, be transparent and real with your followers to generate similar trust.

Authenticity begins by having set values, beliefs, and motives. Then, stay consistent with these values.

Influencers remain authentic by giving their followers a glimpse of their lives behind the camera, such as their morning routine, lunch break, or a short clip of them at work. These snapshots of ordinary life make them more believable and transparent, helping consumers connect with them better.

Brands can give similar transparency by sharing behind-the-scenes content, showing the people behind their work, and sharing their mission and values.

2. Promote Consumer-Focused Benefits

Customers follow influencers and brands in search of new items to purchase. This consumerism comes from customers’ belief that purchasing goods improves their personal gratification.

A brand can cater to this by promoting products based on their benefits to customers looking for products that will benefit them and increase their happiness. Keeping content marketing customer-centric tells customers what benefits come from the products rather than just listing features.

For example, a smartwatch company that understands current healthcare trends could promote its watch by highlighting its telehealth tracking benefits rather than just listing its features.

3. Provide Creative Inspiration

Most brands understand the importance of educating customers so they know the full benefits of their products and services. However, content marketing should also inspire.

For example, Target uses its social media to inspire customers by showing creative ways to use products and promoting causes through the brand.

Even B2B businesses should aim to inspire buyers. For instance, showing use cases or templates could spark your buyers’ creativity when using your software.

4. Motivate Others

While envy motivates consumers to follow influencers, does it also work with brands? Envy marketing produces mixed results. When used correctly, it can motivate buyers to respond. However, it can backfire if employed through unpopular celebrities or seemingly unfair circumstances.

Instead, focus on motivational marketing to ensure your envy marketing elicits a positive response. Influencers use motivational marketing not just to make followers envious of their looks, possessions, and life but share tips on how others are deserving and can achieve the same lifestyle as well.

Motivational marketing builds a bridge rather than dangling unattainable goals to increase purchasing behavior. B2B motivational marketing includes sharing realistic expectations for business growth and revenue, as well as steps for achieving these goals, rather than making extreme marketing claims.

5. Connect with Your Audience

Influencers engage personally with their audience, creating close connections. They respond to comments, give shoutouts to followers and loyal fans, and engage through live video. All these strategies also work in brand marketing.

Image from Influencer Marketing Hub

B2B brands can offer similar engagement. However, instead of focusing on social media channels like Instagram and Facebook, they might encourage engagement through LinkedIn posts, live webinars, and shareable blog posts.

Collecting and analyzing audience data can help you know what your audience responds to most so you can create audience-centric content they’re most likely to respond to.

6. Create a Consistent Voice

The key to marketing success is a consistent brand voice. Your voice defines who you are, and that’s who your customers will connect with. Customers will have an easier time connecting with a brand that constantly sounds and looks the same because they can get to know the brand and the people behind it.

A consistent voice also helps influencers and brands become more recognizable. For example, MrBeast, a famous YouTuber with 154 million subscribers, consistently goes viral and attracts a large audience by sticking to a consistent format, voice, and structure that generate the most engagement.

Build your voice based on your audience and a formula you tested and know works. A B2B SaaS company will have a formal voice with a hint of personality. But if you’re a B2C ecommerce brand, use more humor and a casual voice to connect and build relationships.

7. Regularly Create Quality Content

Could you build a close relationship with someone you only saw four times a year? It would be challenging. The same is true for brands. The more often you share content on your website, social media, and third-party platforms, the more opportunities your audience has to get to know you and connect.

Regularly posting fresh, quality content also improves your visibility. It boosts your rankings in search engines, keeps you at the top of social media news feeds, and increases customer touchpoints, making them more likely to interact with your content.

Influencers recommend posting anywhere from several times a day to several times a week. While each influencer has a different schedule, consistency is key to building relationships.

Turn Your Brand into an Influencer

An influencer is more than an individual with a strong following. Brands can also become influencers by building an engaged community through consistent, quality content. You’ll see greater brand loyalty and conversions by transforming your marketing into brand influencer marketing.

The post 7 Marketing Tips Brands Can Learn from Influencers appeared first on Relevance.