All this and more in this weekâs edition of The Hypha Wire, from Hypha HubSpot Development.
Welcome back to The Hypha Wire! Glad to have you.
Iâm not sure if anyone else noticed...but a lot is happeningâall the time. And not just in the âoutside worldâ either. Professionally, every time you check your watch, something new has dropped. It can be overwhelming, daunting, exhaustingâall the words. Plus, sometimes the hardest thing is knowing where to look so that you can learn.
Because of this newsletter, I keep an eye on the headlines pretty closely. Iâm subscribed to a bunch of newsletters (used to be a bunch+ but Iâve culled it down to the most impactful and insightful).
If you check in here often, youâre likely aware of my usual sources, as youâll see them linked throughout the editions. But today, as I was flipping through for topic inspiration, I decided, why not just throw them out here in a list! My personal ethos is to employ a democratization of information. No gatekeeping allowed.
So without further ramble ado, here are my go-to resources when Iâm preparing the newsletterâor just trying to stay on top of whatâs what in the greater industry.
Marketing Dive provides great stories about brand campaigns, trends MarTech and more.
Morning Brew is a modern classic, and I feel truly ushered in the renaissance of the newsletter. The Brew gives you an overview of general news from global politics to stocks to technology and beyond. Bonus points for their marketing-focused edition, Marketing Brew.
POCIT is a great source because they write about things many others are (sadly) not writing about. As they describe it, theyâre telling stories of the underrepresented.
Podnews has all the information youâll ever need on whatâs happening in the world of podcasting. If it didnât appear in Podnews, it didnât happen.
Search Engine Land is my go-to for SEO, AEOâany EO, really. From the biggest algorithm shift to the smallest SERP tweak, they cover it. Additionally, Backlinko (now owned by Semrush) publishes incredible SEO content. Less on the news front like SEL, but deep guides and how-tos.
Social Media Today gives you all you need to know about platform updates, tips and tricks and social recommendations. A separate shout out for the Buffer blog, which publishes great guides on how to excel across the different platforms.
Superhuman is my favorite AI newsletter. It contains industry updates, new tool recommendations, prompt examples and more. A daily read for me.
TechCrunch, I mean the content is in the name! Here you can find your general tech, startup and VC news (plus plenty more).
Techmeme is, yes, another tech platform. Itâs hard for me to pick an overall favorite, but if I had to, this might be the one. Techmeme sends a daily roundup of (tech) news covering top news, IPOs, funding, AI, M&A, personnel changes and beyond. Another daily read for me.
The Verge I love because of its true journalismânot to say that any of the other sources arenât journalistic. But the Verge has beautiful cover stories on tech news (sometimes tech scandals), plus entertainment, reviews, science and more.
And there you have it. Sageâs guide to the world. Or at least, this little faction of the world (send me a message if you want my deep dives on the best Taylor Swift or craft beer news sources.)
One last thing! My go-to for all things HubSpot? The Hypha blog, of course. If youâre reading this, youâre already doing something right, as this is the best place to get notified of new Hypha content. If you know someone whoâd love to get notified of our content sans commentary, send them over here to sign up for our monthly blog digest.
Happy reading, everyone!
-Sage Levene, VP of Marketing, Hypha HubSpot Development
Open Mic
The Smart Senderâs Checklist
By Amy Dodge, HubSpot Platform Specialist, Hypha HubSpot Development
Moving to a new marketing platform? Donât let your email deliverability suffer.
When companies switch from one marketing email sending platform to another, they often neglect to take into account the following list below. This, in turn, can lead to a very high bounce rate, unsubscribes and low open rate on the first send. A slight lowering of your open rate is to be expected, stemming from the fact that you have changed your usual sending IPs. This will compound if you also change your sending domain, too, so I recommend not doing both at once. Donât let your inbox placement suffer. Hereâs the essential checklist:
đ Pre-Migration Setup
Connect Your Email Sending Domain in HubSpot: Connect your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records for your new sending platform so your emails have proper authentication right out of the gate.
Import Opt-Outs First: Upload unsubscribes, hard bounces, and old unengaged email addresses so you donât accidentally try to send to them in the future.
𧚠Contact List Hygiene
Prune Inactive Contacts: Remove anyone who hasnât opened or clicked in 12+ months.
Segment Before Import: Tag contacts by engagement level (recent openers, older leads, dormant). Keep track of the original create date, original lead source, most recent open or click date and bring that legacy data into your new platform so you can make the best sending decisions without being in the dark.
Validate Addresses: Catch typos and invalid emails to avoid hard bounces (>1% hurts domain reputation). We call this âcleaning your list.â Use a common email verification tool to make sure your contacts still have a valid address before you add them to your new marketing platform.
đ Sending Strategy
Warm Up Gradually: Start with your most engaged segment, then expand volume steadily. In general, never send out an email âblast.â Always curate your message to the correct audience at the right time.
Monitor Engagement Metrics: Open rate, click rate, unsubscribes, and complaints are early warning signs.
Avoid Frequency Spikes: Keep cadence consistent to avoid appearing âspammyâ to Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
đ§ Domain & Reputation Factors
Leverage your existing domain: Older, well-used domains carry more trust. A brand-new domain requires extra patience. If you need to repair it, it may be worth the work to start sending emails correctly.
Repair Reputation If Needed: Suppress unengaged contacts until performance stabilizes. All the ISPs are watching your sends and creating a sending score for you, send thoughtfully and carefully.
đ Data & Testing
Use Real Recipient Data: Seed lists only confirm delivery, not inbox placement. Rely on actual engagement signals.
Bottom line: Successful ESP migration isnât just about moving data. Itâs about proving to mailbox providers that your domain deserves trustâthrough clean lists, gradual ramp-up, strong authentication, and careful monitoring.
Itâs never good to idolize a company (or anything really), but Ben & Jerryâs may be the outlier for me. Theyâre the ultimate example showing that you can be successful and stand up for what is right. While theyâve had some ebbs and flows in their history, they always find their way back. (If youâre interested in learning more about their history, I highly recommend the book Ice Cream Social.)
âBefore it was fashionable, Cohen and Greenfield believed in the âdouble bottom line.â That it was possible to make money and do good. They did so not just by writing checks â a portion of Ben & Jerryâs profits have long gone to promoting peace, saving the rainforest, and other causes â but also speaking up as a company.â
This will be an interesting partnership to watch. Reddit strategy is constantly being promoted in SEO/AI forums so it only makes sense that they would look to sweeten the deal for themselves if everyone else is already benefitting.
âReddit, more than a year and a half after its first data-sharing deal with Google for a reported $60 million, is in talks for deeper integration with Googleâs AI products, according to executives familiar with the discussions. Itâs proposing a new kind of partnership that would encourage users to become active contributors to Redditâs popular online forums, so Google traffic could help the company grow and generate content for future training.
âReddit remains among the most cited sources across AI platforms, according to analytics company Profound AI. However, Reddit executives have noticed that traffic coming from Google has limited value, as users seeking answers to a specific question often donât convert into becoming active Redditors, the people said.â
Hypha Highlights
Most HubSpot sites âwork.â They capture leads, integrate with your CRM, and support content publishing. But working isnât the same as driving growth. The real gap lies between a functional website and a transformational one.
If your site loads slowly, converts at only 2â3%, or struggles to turn traffic into pipeline, youâre leaving revenue on the table.
Great HubSpot CMS sites fix these problems. They load in under 2.5 seconds, achieve conversion rates well above the industry average of 2â3% (with 4â5% considered excellent for most verticals), and personalize every visitor journey through data-driven automation.
The difference comes down to HubSpot CMS development. With the right partner, your website becomes a revenue engine that scales with your business.
The former provides a much needed breakdown of which HubSpot Breeze tools do what, and the latter is an interesting conversation between HubSpot CEO Yamini Rangan and Anthropic CEO and co-founder, Dario Amodei, that gives you a peek behind the curtain of how one of the leading AI companies is thinking about the future.
AI in Action
News, updates and tools from the AI industry.
Checking in on AI world:
Google DeepMind and OpenAIâs AI models achieved gold medal performance at the International Collegiate Programming Contest World Finals, with OpenAIâs GPT-5 solving all 12 problems and DeepMindâs Gemini 2.5 Deep Think solving 10. While neither company was an official competitor in the âcoding Olympics,â it demonstrates AIâs advancing capabilities in complex problem-solving (though experts note that excelling in speed-focused competitions doesnât necessarily translate to real-world software development skills.)
YouTube announced new generative AI tools for Shorts creators at its Made on YouTube event, including a custom version of Googleâs Veo 3 model called âVeo 3 Fastâ that can generate video clips with sound for the first time. The platform is also introducing an âEdit with AIâ feature that turns raw footage into first drafts with music and transitions, plus a remixing tool that uses Googleâs Lyria 2 AI music model to transform dialogue from videos into soundtracks.
OpenAI will implement age-verification technology to restrict ChatGPT responses for users suspected of being under 18, following a lawsuit from the family of 16-year-old Adam Raine who died by suicide after extensive conversations with the chatbot. CEO Sam Altman announced the system will default to under-18 protections when in doubt and will block graphic content, prevent flirtatious responses, and contact parents or authorities if users express suicidal thoughts, stating the company is âprioritising safety ahead of privacy and freedom for teens.â
Google launched the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), an open standard designed to secure AI agent transactions, with support from over 60 companies including American Express, PayPal, Mastercard, and Coinbase. The protocol uses âcryptographically signed digital contractsâ called âMandatesâ to verify user authorization and ensure accountability when AI agents make purchases on behalf of users.
âSam Parr and Shaan Puri talk to Dharmesh Shah about the early days of SEO and how to jack the algorithm today to show up in ChatGPT responses.â
How can we help you?
Case Study: Custom Coded Workflows in HubSpot
A leading manufacturer of spun metal and fabrication components faced a critical operational challenge: their existing systems couldnât provide the real-time visibility needed to track parts production and meet growing demand. With multiple external APIs, third-party platforms, and complex manufacturing workflows, HubSpotâs standard automation tools werenât sophisticated enough to handle their integration requirements, leaving them struggling with delayed updates, manual processes, and potential production bottlenecks that threatened customer satisfaction.
Through custom-coded HubSpot workflow actions and strategic platform integration, Hypha delivered a comprehensive manufacturing management solution that automatically tracks work orders, syncs real-time parts availability, and triggers instant status updates across their entire production ecosystem. The implementation featured custom âWork Ordersâ and âPartsâ objects, automated field monitoring that checks availability multiple times daily, and seamless third-party API connections that eliminated manual data entry and provided complete manufacturing visibility.
Managing complex processes with disconnected systems that canât keep pace with demands? Contact Hypha to discover how custom HubSpot workflow actions can automate your operations, integrate your platforms, and deliver the real-time insights needed to scale efficiently.
