All this and more in this week’s edition of The Hypha Wire, from Hypha HubSpot Development.
Hi all! Welcome back to The Hypha Wire.
We have a jam-packed newsletter today, and I’m sure everyone is eager to jump into the holiday weekend, so I’m going to keep it short and sweet today.
The summer season is (un)officially kicking off. That means vacation and summer Fridays will begin in earnest. The sun is shining, and it’ll look like the perfect time for an afternoon head-clearing walk.
This means meeting windows between colleagues and clients grow smaller. Schedules have to be managed a little tighter.
My advice: stay proactive. Keep on top of your calendar. Communicate often.
These are simple practices that I’ve definitely covered before—usually around holidays and likely the summer—but bear repeating. Often, we can get wrapped up in the here and now and forget to forecast ahead.
After all, we want to make the most of our warm weather season, during both work and play.
-Sage Levene, VP of Marketing, Hypha HubSpot Development
Open Mic
Google’s New AI Mode: What You Need to Know (For Now)
By Rebecca Albright, Senior Inbound Content Developer, Hypha HubSpot Development
Google’s latest move in search is here一and it’s a pretty big one. The company is rolling out a new AI Mode, which lives in its own tab within the search results.
Instead of the classic wall of blue links, users see a conversational, AI-generated answer powered by Google’s Gemini model一complete with citations, context, and follow-up prompts. (If you appear in the results, Google’s AI mode places relevant links in a sidebar, so your page and brand are still visible.)
What About Site Traffic?
Early signals are raising some eyebrows: When AI answers appear, fewer users click through to actual websites. According to data from Similarweb, organic clicks dropped by 18% to 64% on queries where AI Overviews appeared in search results. And while AI Mode is a new, separate experience, these early Overviews trends highlight the potential visibility challenges ahead一especially since it’s still unclear how Google selects which sources to cite in AI Mode.
Fewer Clicks一But Better Leads?
There is potential upside: Visitors who do click through from AI Mode tend to be more qualified and more engaged. Some marketers are seeing modest boosts in click-through rates when their content is featured in the AI response, possibly because users trust what the AI highlights. So while volume may drop, conversion potential could rise.
What You Can Do Right Now
Here are some early moves to stay visible and valuable in this evolving search landscape:
Create authoritative content that answers real questions in depth.
Focus on long-tail, conversational keywords一the kind AI is likely to surface.
Keep your site fast and mobile-friendly so users don’t bounce.
Tighten up your CTAs and conversion flows. Every visit counts more now.
What’s Coming Next
Google’s just getting started. Soon, AI Mode will support shopping with product cards, prices, and live ratings baked into the results. It’s also on track to become more assistant-like, remembering previous queries so users can continue tasks across sessions.
The takeaway? AI Mode is still in its early days, and there’s a lot we don’t know. But forward-thinking businesses that start experimenting now could get ahead of the curve and better position themselves for success in this new chapter of search.
We talk about the benefits of AI a lot in this newsletter, so it’s only fair to report on the cautionary tales as well.
“Some newspapers around the country, including the Chicago Sun-Times and at least one edition of The Philadelphia Inquirerhave published a syndicated summer book list that includes made-up books by famous authors.
“Only five of the 15 titles on the list are real.”
And on the flip side, some positive AI indicators.
“Google’s AI Overviews and large language models (LLMs) have severely eroded clicks, click-through rates, and organic traffic to websites. But a new Siege Media report may have found a silver lining: even if your sitewide traffic is down, your homepage may be increasing.
“By the numbers. For the websites examined in this study, homepage clicks increased:
Overall: 10.7%
B2C: 8%
B2B: 15%
“Why we care. As the report put it: ‘The sky isn’t falling. It’s shifting.’ Because homepage traffic tends to convert better, brands with strong visibility in AI Overviews and LLM-generated results can reap the rewards.”
Hypha Highlights
Are you using an e-commerce platform like Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, or Magento? If you’re running a Shopify store and leveraging HubSpot for your marketing and CRM needs, you’re positioned to take advantage of one of the most powerful integrations in the e-commerce ecosystem.
Since HubSpot first launched its Shopify integration in 2018, the capabilities have expanded dramatically.
The integration now provides comprehensive visibility into your entire customer journey—from first website visit through purchase and beyond—meaning, you can create highly targeted marketing campaigns based on detailed purchase behavior. The same goes for customer lifetime value and shopping patterns.
Let’s dive into how to implement this powerful integration and leverage its full capabilities.
Private equity (PE) firms are increasingly weaving artificial intelligence (AI) into various areas of their investment business.
What began as tentative experimentation has quickly evolved into widespread adoption一by late 2024, 82% of PE/VC firms were actively using AI, up from just 47% a year earlier.
AI has shifted from a “nice-to-have” tool to a critical component of competitive strategy, helping firms source better deals, create value in portfolio companies, and manage risks more efficiently.
In this piece we explore how AI is influencing PE portfolio strategies in four core areas: Deal Sourcing & Investment Decision-Making, Portfolio Company Operational Improvements, Portfolio Monitoring & Risk Management and Valuation & Exit Timing.
We’re excited to launch a new series in The Hypha Wire Newsletter highlighting powerful yet often overlooked HubSpot features that can transform your marketing, sales, and service operations.
Our first spotlight shines on HubSpot’s Sync Properties—a game-changer for teams struggling to maintain consistent information across different HubSpot objects.
This feature automatically displays information from one object (like a Contact or Company) directly on associated records (like Deals or Tickets) without requiring manual updates or complex workflows.
Imagine having customer details, account IDs, or service preferences automatically visible and current across your entire CRM—eliminating tedious copying, reducing errors, and ensuring your team always works with the most current information.
In coming issues, we’ll explore more hidden HubSpot gems all designed to help you maximize your HubSpot investment with minimum effort.
Claude Opus 4 is positioned as their most capable model, particularly strong in coding tasks, while Claude Sonnet 4 offers a solid upgrade from the previous version with better instruction-following. The standout feature is their ability to use tools like web search while reasoning through problems, which is a meaningful step forward.
GitHub is already planning to integrate Sonnet 4 into Copilot, and early feedback from development teams suggests these models handle complex, multi-step tasks more reliably than previous versions.
For our HubSpot-focused work, developments like these signal where automation and AI-assisted workflows are heading. Not revolutionary overnight, but steady progress that’ll likely influence how we approach platform optimization and custom integrations.
“Unbox essential HubSpot Academy insights on key topics, delivered directly to you.”
How can we help you?
Industry: Clean Energy
Among the top 100 residential solar companies in the United States and the premier solar provider in Delaware, Clean Energy USA (CEUSA) customizes solar energy solutions for a broad range of clients.
The partnership between CEUSA and Hypha HubSpot Development aimed to elevate the solar company’s digital footprint and engage users more effectively.
Hypha’s Solution
Logo Design/Branding
Corporate Messaging
Website Redesign
Website Migration
User Journey Mapping
Core Site Content
Lead Generation
SEO
Content Creation
Collateral & Graphic Design
Tech Stack
CMS Hub
Marketing Hub
This digital transformation redefined Clean Energy USA’s online presence and substantially boosted its customer interaction, sales leads, and overall market positioning. Hypha’s targeted initiatives propelled the company forward, solidifying its status as an authoritative source of solar energy solutions and services.
