What Is an “Agent,” Anyway? (And Why Your Marketing Team Should Know)

By Sumit Bhagchandani Every leadership meeting I’ve sat in over the past year has featured some version of the same sentence: “We’re going agentic.” It’s said with total confidence, usually right before the slide changes and nobody explains what it actually means. I’ve started calling this the Boardroom Buzzword Test: say “AI agent” out loud…

You’ve Got the Degree. Now What?

The degree got you to the starting line. Everything else is up to you.

Marketing in 2026: From Channel Experts to Growth Partners

By Stacy Sutton Marketing teams have always evolved alongside technology, platforms, and buyer behavior. But the most meaningful shift happening right now isn’t tied to any one tool or trend. It’s about how marketing teams operate inside the business. I’ve experienced this shift firsthand. Even five or ten years ago, marketing was responsible for, well,…

Why Ideal Client Profiles (ICPs) Are Strategic Infrastructure

By Rachelle Kuramoto Over two decades directing brand and communications strategy across PR, digital marketing, and nonprofit engagements, I’ve seen many organizations initially undervalue the importance of an Ideal Client Profile (ICP). Too often, it is included as a useful detail for a GTM push or a paid social campaign, but not considered part of…

Where Data Meets Heart: The New Recipe for Guest Loyalty

By Annica Conrad How Fast Casual and QSR Brands Are Moving Beyond Discounts to Build Emotional Loyalty Through Smarter Data and Real Hospitality As restaurant marketers, we’ve long been told that loyalty lives in the numbers: points earned, redemptions made, offers clicked. Yet despite an explosion of loyalty programs and the adoption of sophisticated CRM…

Informed Storytelling: Marketing’s Brightest Idea

by Robert Rivenbark As corporate creative professionals, we must navigate shifting customer tastes, economic fluctuations, competitive pressures, technological advancements, leaner teams operating across multiple time zones, and frequent corporate restructurings. It’s all too easy in this atmosphere for creatives to dilute what’s essential to marketing success: informed storytelling. Informed storytelling bridges the gap between internal…

Marketing Leaders Must Keep Learning—Or Become Irrelevant

By William Koleszar, Chief Marketing Officer at American Family Care and Senior Research Fellow at The CMO Institute When the Playbook Falls Behind the Pace of Change The marketing function is undergoing its most rapid transformation in history. Artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, hyper-personalization, and automation are reshaping not only how we reach customers but how…

Navigating the Customer Journey

By Kevin Maufer The Customer Journey is a challenge and an opportunity!  Customer Success must be attuned to the intricate paths customers traverse in their journey. Every milestone shapes their experience, impacts their satisfaction, and ultimately, their retention. Yet, amidst the successes, critical pain points demand attention and innovation. Bad Handoffs: The First Impression The…

Top 5 B2B Marketing Myths Busted

By Colleen Betsill Introduction B2B marketing often gets a bad rap, plagued by myths and misconceptions that can obscure the truth about the vibrancy and impact of good marketing. These myths can hold companies back from fully enabling their marketing teams so they can make a positive impact within the organization. Today, I’m here to…

50 Tips to Improve Your LinkedIn Profile

By Rachel Simon When preparing to meet with someone, do you look them up on LinkedIn? There is a high probability that you said, “Yes.” So flip that around. Do you think people are looking you up? If the thought of that makes you cringe a little because of the state of your profile, there…