Happy Friday, folks!

This is a packed edition with lots of great content, so all you’ll hear from me today is this: if you’re thinking of attending the INBOUND conference, grab your tickets now before it’s too late!

We have a few team members attending, so if you’re planning to be there, let’s get some meetings on the books. The Hypha team would love to spend some time with you! (Grab time with our President, Jon or our Senior Platform Specialist, Kevin.)

-Sage Levene, VP of Marketing, Hypha HubSpot Development

Open Mic 🎤

Ranking for AI Search

By Phil Stott, Head of Client Success, Hypha HubSpot Development

In case you were in any doubt that AI is the future of search, HubSpot served us a biiiiiig reminder this week with the launch of a new AI Search Grader tool.

Those of us old enough to remember when HubSpot was just a scrappy startup may recall its original website grader—one of the better lead generation tactics I’ve ever seen. 

In just a couple of minutes, you could enter your web address, provide enough personal details to ensure you’ll never be free of marketing emails again, and in return get…a sort of accurate picture of how well your site performed on a number of different metrics, such as load speed, search visibility, and the like. 

It was simple, compelling (who doesn’t want to know if their site is performing well?), and played no small part in getting the HubSpot rocketship off the landing pad and into orbit.

It’s no surprise, then, that they’re looking to repeat the trick, but with a twist: the AI Search Grader specifically looks at how your site is being viewed by AI tools like ChatGPT.

Or, as HubSpot put it: “AI Search Grader analyzes brand awareness and sentiment across AI chatbots as more customers turn to tools like ChatGPT for search.”

One major difference from the first website grader: this tool doesn’t need your web address. It’s not scanning your pages, indexing keywords, or assessing your page load times. Instead, the interface simply asks for a few key details: company name and type, location, and a description of your key product or services. Armed with this, it runs a search and provides a results page that details things like:

• How your brand is being discussed by AI search engines
• Strengths (a summary of the positive things being said in all corners of the internet)
• Weaknesses (same, but the opposite)
• Share of voice

At the moment, the grader only leverages GPT-4, so I’m loath to read too much into its results. It may well turn out to be a fantastic tool for marketers as we think about how to ensure that our brands are as well represented to (and therefore by) AI readers as they are to Google’s bots and humans. Or it may not.

What I can say for sure, however, is that in addition to being yet another great lead capture engine for HubSpot (I had to give away a lot of information to be able to generate a report), it’s yet another sign that we all need to expand our concept of who/what we’re creating for—and where.

The days of creating for two audiences—Google, and humans—are already gone. At a minimum, we’re now dealing with a third, in the form of an AI reader. And, if we consider all of the different places where AI can pull data from—your site, competitors, social accounts, review sites like G2, all the way to…well, anywhere that doesn’t specifically block it—then we’re really dealing with a dizzying array of content types and audience preferences.

While the future of AI-driven search promises a simpler future for users, the story is not so easy for brands hoping to be recognized (and recommended) by it. Content strategies will have to extend and expand across as many platforms as is feasible, and account for everything from native blog content to user manuals to review campaigns. While that may seem daunting, it’s also an opportunity: those who focus on positioning their sites for AI now will be ahead of the curve, and poised to accelerate as this revolution continues to take shape.

Second Hand News 📰

Search Engine Roundtable: Google August 2024 Core Update Rolling Out - Will Small Sites Rank Again? ↠

This is officially the permanent Google corner. This update looks to be pretty positive, so I’m excited to track results over the next few weeks.

Buffer: YouTube is My Business’s Biggest Source of Organic Traffic — Here’s How I’ve Streamlined and Monetized It ↠

Buffer consistently puts out really great, actionable content. This piece focuses on SEO consultant Mariah Liszewski, who uses YouTube to grow their business. The piece walks through how to make the daunting task of recording video interesting and engaging, how to streamline editing, and optimize for SEO.

“I also like to remind myself that each of these videos is an asset I can use across my business. I send them to clients during my workflow, link them out in my newsletters, and repost them on Instagram — generally squeezing as much juice out of each video as possible.”

Hypha Highlights 🖊️

At Hypha, we adopted a guiding content principle called “publish everywhere”—something we use on behalf of our clients and our own marketing efforts. While it sounds straightforward, putting it into practice can pose some challenges; not the least of these is developing a firm understanding of where our desired audience actually spends their time online, and then producing content that will resonate within each of those places.

For us, “publish everywhere” serves two key purposes:

• It’s a practical response to the ever-shifting landscape of user behavior.
• It is a consistent reminder to explore new avenues across relevant platforms.

This philosophy aligns nicely with the popular and effective practice of repurposing content.

By repurposing content across various platforms such as audio, infographics, and videos, you can reach a wider audience and potentially improve user engagement. The key lies in creating valuable and engaging content that resonates with your target audience. So, embrace the endless possibilities of repurposing content and continue to experiment with new ways to maximize the impact of your message.

Read: The Power of Repurposing Content ↠

5 Star Review ⭐

We have been working with Katherine and Amy to implement the HubSpot CRM into our business. They have both been very helpful and have been giving very thorough Sales and Marketing focused trainings to ensure success. Jon has been building a very robust and complex Quote Tool for our business, so customers will be able to generate a custom quote on our website. He has been great, creating this monster of a Quote Tool is not an easy task, and he has been doing a great job tackling it. The Hypha team listens to what we need and are quick to make adjustments when needed. -K. Eggert

Industry: Transportation & Storage

Services provided: CRM Implementation, Custom API Integrations, and HubSpot Onboarding

HubSpot launches the first free tool for AI discovery

“HubSpot’s AI Search Grader eliminates the need for AI expertise, and takes the guesswork out of how a brand is showing up in AI search. It does prompt engineering for marketers and contextualizes their brand’s performance to make LMO simple. 

“AI Search Grader includes four key components: overall grade, brand sentiment score, share of voice score, and personalized analysis.”

1x Speed 🎧

The podcasts Team Hypha has queued up.

Marketing Against the Grain Podcast

“Kipp Bodnar (HubSpot’s CMO) and Kieran Flanagan (Zapier’s CMO), lead you down the rabbit hole of marketing trends, growth tactics and innovation. On the way you’ll pick up undiscovered strategies to give you that slight edge for success. These are not your typical twitter thread regurgitated marketing tactics that everyone is doing. These are new methods, with unfiltered examination of successful fresh ideas.”

How can we help you?

Industry Spotlight: IT Services

Managed Service Provider LincolnIT offers comprehensive IT services and support.

LincolnIT engaged Hypha HubSpot Development with clear objectives to broaden its market reach and enhance its digital footprint: To redesign the LincolnIT website, reposition them for a national audience, orchestrate a comprehensive digital marketing strategy and develop branded assets.

Hypha’s Solution

• Logo Design/Branding
• Core Site Content
• Website Design
• Lead Generation
• SEO
• Content Creation
• Collateral & Graphic Design

Tech Stack

• CMS Hub
• Marketing Hub

Thanks for reading! We’ll catch you in next week’s edition.

-Team Hypha