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15 Innovative Email Marketing Ideas (And When And How To Use Them)

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Sourced from Forbes

Most people’s inboxes are graveyards of unopened promotions and cookie-cutter corporate newsletters. To truly grab and keep consumers’ attention, brands need more than clever email subject lines—originality, authenticity and a spark of delight and surprise are among the elements that drive a successful email marketing campaign.

From interactive “community mosaics” to personalized AI-powered storytelling that unfolds like a bingeworthy series, email marketing is being reinvented in bold new ways. Here, Forbes Agency Council members share innovative and unique ideas for email campaigns that recipients will actually look forward to engaging with.

1. One-Question Emails

Send a simple one-question email. Instead of a newsletter or a promo that they’ve learned to expect, send one short question your audience actually wants to answer. Let them vent. For example, “What’s your biggest challenge right now?” It works perfectly for service and B2B brands because it starts conversations and gives you insights that may drive business and help fuel future campaigns, too. – Rafael Romis, Weberous Web Design

2. Post-Purchase Emails

The post-purchase email is totally underappreciated and underleveraged. The vast majority of brands miss the opportunity to tell their customers how to get the most out of the product they just bought, how to care for it or what makes it better than the rest. Most brands go straight for asking customers for a review or to buy something else. Few see it as the educational and brand-building opportunity it really is. – Stratton Cherouny, The Office of Experience

3. Thank-You Emails

Find unexpected ways to thank anyone and everyone—employees, customers, partners and colleagues. Done in meaningful, memorable and surprising ways, the perfect experience of appreciation and gratitude pays off immediately and over time in terms of building trust and loyalty. – Abigail Hirschhorn, Human Intelligence | H.I.

4. Recipient-Focused Emails

Send information that is useful to the recipient. This shouldn’t be innovative, but it is, as almost all email campaigns are self-serving and help the sender, not the recipient. Give useful information that will help your audience do their jobs better, build a relationship, and only then, consider (occasional) promotional emails. – Mike Maynard, Napier Partnership Limited

5. ‘Choose Your Path’ Emails

Consider how you could leverage an interactive “Choose Your Path” email program that invites subscribers to select their top challenge or goal, instantly unlocking content tailored to their choice. For a SaaS company, this could guide prospects to relevant case studies, product demos or ROI insights, turning a standard campaign into a personalized experience that drives engagement and conversion. – Elyse Flynn Meyer, Prism Global Marketing Solutions

6. Micro-Story Drip Sequences

One innovative email marketing idea is to create micro-story drip sequences by breaking a larger story into a series of tiny, compelling chapters sent out over several emails. Ideal for creators, personal brands or niche audience education, this builds anticipation and emotional investment, so by the time you reveal an offer, the audience is already engaged, trusting and ready to act. – Sun Yi, Night Owls

7. ‘Community Mosaic’ Campaigns

If you have a community-driven brand or non-profit, try a “community mosaic.” Each subscriber contributes a small response: a word, a quote or a photo. Selected responses are featured in a mosaic or word cloud in future emails. The mosaic evolves, visually representing the community’s shared mission. In the process, you’ll gamify email marketing and transform passive readers into active participants. – Dennis Consorte, Consorte Marketing

8. Adaptive Emails

An innovative approach is using AI-generated micro-segments that adapt in real time based on user behaviour. Instead of static lists, emails evolve—content, timing and tone shift dynamically as engagement data changes. This works best for e-commerce and lifestyle brands where personalization drives conversions and timing and emotional relevance matter more than frequency. – Boris Dzhingarov, ESBO Ltd

9. Nine-Word Emails

One great email marketing trend to reengage old leads is the nine-word email. This simple email starts with the person’s name in the subject, followed by three dots. The body of the email is short and sweet. It greets them by their name, followed by, “Are you still interested in more leads?” for example. You obviously can customize the product or service accordingly, but it works great! – Adrian Falk, Believe Advertising & PR

10. Behaviour-Driven Storytelling Emails

I love it when email becomes a living story. When fashion, travel or lifestyle brands use behaviour-driven storytelling, each message feels like a personal chapter written just for the recipient. Done right, email becomes less of a marketing tool and more of a relationship that can deepen with every interaction. – Jacquelyn LaMar Berney, VI Marketing and Branding

11. Emails With Interactive Visuals

It’s not a new idea, but it’s often overlooked: Make email visuals interactive. A subtle, well-designed animated GIF can bring life to dense text and guide the reader’s attention naturally. It works especially well for lifestyle, fashion or product-driven brands where motion can showcase texture, form or use. This turns a simple email into a small experience worth engaging with. – Goran Paun, ArtVersion

12. Hyperlocal ‘Two-Hour Solve’ Emails

Run a hyperlocal “two-hour solve” email: Each send assembles in-stock kits from the subscriber’s nearest store, tuned to weekend plans, weather and local events, with a one-tap add-to-cart function, curbside time slots and a 90-minute hold. This is best for home improvement, grocery and party goods. Use geofenced catalogues and store-match controls to prove lift on pickup orders when timing and distance matter most. – Vaibhav Kakkar, Digital Web Solutions

13. Quick-Insight Emails

Use emails to share quick insights from real client results, such as, “One change that improved site speed by 40%.” Add a short video or link to let recipients see how it was done. This approach works well for agencies or B2B services because it builds credibility, shows proof of value and opens the door to follow-up conversations. – Meeky Hwang, Ndevr, Inc

14. Cold Emails With Free Offers

Using cold email to get clients still works well, and the things that work best are counterintuitive. Everyone thinks the more personalized the better, but this has become so easy to do that it doesn’t stand out anymore. For any B2B, what will work and provide the best results are short, informal emails (subject not even capitalized) with a free or complimentary offer that’s hard to say “no” to. – Landon Murie, Goodjuju Marketing

15. GenAI-Automated Campaigns

With generative AI for marketing automation, A/B testing, optimizing and segmenting are transitioning from remedial tasks into automated gold mines. The value here spans across all campaigns, audiences and industries, making it a true game-changer for email marketing efficiency. – Bernard May, National Positions

Feature image credit: Getty

Sourced from Forbes

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Most Strategy Work Isn’t Strategy At All

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By Alex Brueckmann

Every year, millions of leadership hours are poured into what companies call “strategy.” Yet months later, those same organizations often find themselves no closer to clarity or competitive edge. The uncomfortable truth: What passes for strategy is actually often nothing more than management theatre. It looks important, it feels productive, but it changes nothing.

In two decades of watching executive teams wrestle with direction, I’ve noticed recurring patterns that lead to strategy failure. They’re seductive because they look like progress. But in reality, they trap organizations in cycles of motion without momentum. Here’s how to spot them and what to do instead.

Planning Replaces Direction

Does your company have an “Annual Strategic Plan” with dozens of initiatives, metrics and milestones? It feels structured. It feels disciplined. It’s also not strategy.

Real strategy doesn’t fit into fiscal years. It answers existential questions: “Where will we play? How will we win? What must we become to do that?” If your “strategy” process starts with budget spreadsheets, you’re managing activity. Planning—as in “who does what by when, and how do we pay for it”—is not direction. Separate the two. Design strategy to clarify direction. Let planning follow, not lead.

Big Goals Replace Coherent Choices

Ambitious goals sound inspiring: “Double our market share.” “Triple our revenue.” “Be the leader in our space.” But without an underlying logic for how that’s achieved, these ambitions are empty calories. They create hype instead of focus. Strategy isn’t about how much you’ll grow but about how you’ll win. The question every leadership team should wrestle with isn’t “How big can we get?” It’s “What position can we own that others can’t easily copy?”

Agility Becomes An Excuse For Drift

In volatile markets, “being agile” has become a mantra. But agility can easily become addiction. Constant pivoting may look dynamic, but it’s often a symptom of strategic drift. A truly strategic organization knows when not to move. It operates from clear principles that define what’s worth responding to and what’s just noise.

Take Nvidia: Before they became a $4 trillion company, they almost went bankrupt in the mid-1990s. Instead of pivoting away from chips, they stayed the course, learned, improved and broke through with GPUs.

Alignment Exists Only On Slides

Ask 10 executives in the same company to describe the strategy, and you’ll often hear 10 different stories. Yet those same leaders proudly declare they’re “aligned.” Misalignment doesn’t always show up as disagreement. Sometimes it hides in language, the subtle differences in what “innovation,” “growth” or “value” mean to different people. Those gaps compound as decisions cascade through the organization. You can’t execute what you can’t articulate.

If your team can’t explain the strategy in plain language, consistently, you’re confusing those around you. Define what you mean in your business when you use certain terms, instead of leaving it to everyone’s interpretation. There is a reason companies like Roche have terminology experts who define key terms. It avoids confusion by making sure they use the appropriate terms in the right situation, ensuring everyone has the same understanding.

Customers Set The Strategy

Being customer-focused sounds noble, and it often is. But it’s not the same as being strategic. Customers can tell you what they want today. They can’t tell you what will create value tomorrow. When leaders over-index on current customer feedback, they risk becoming a mirror of today’s demands instead of an architect of tomorrow’s advantage.

The real art lies in balancing insight and foresight. Listen deeply to your customers, and also scan the horizon: emerging technologies, cultural shifts and regulatory trends that could reshape your playing field. Strategy lives in that intersection between what customers value now and what they’ll need next.

Execution Is Treated As Someone Else’s Job

One of the most persistent myths in strategy is that executives design it and managers execute it. That’s pretty much nonsense and guarantees disappointment. Strategy lives or dies in the daily choices of everyone. It’s in these everyday situations that you recognize whether your ideas were ever viable.

You can’t design strategy at the top and implement it “down there.” Strategy needs to become everyone’s job, every day. Help everyone understand how their daily work needs to evolve and how that supports strategy and success.

Assess the capabilities, structures and systems, and ask where they need to be updated, tweaked or replaced by something new to support everyone in driving the strategy into action and results.

Updating Replaces Rethinking

When a strategy loses relevance, many companies don’t rebuild it. They take what’s already there and update it. A few new initiatives here, a KPI adjustment there, maybe a new buzzword about AI or “transformation.” It’s the corporate equivalent of a coat of paint on a collapsing wall. Refreshing feels responsible. Reinvention feels dangerous. So, many play it safe. Every few years, you need to ask: “If we were starting from scratch today, would we design the same strategy?” Because the answer is most likely no, it’s time for reinvention.

Allow yourself to clean the slate and reimagine your business. Shape a new ambition, and detail it in a vision statement that makes your teams go, “I want to be a part of bringing this to life.” Then make the choices that will get you there. It’s a great opportunity to let go of things that were right in the past but don’t serve you anymore.

The Courage To Lead Strategically

None of these patterns comes from incompetence. They come from good intentions, discipline, ambition, responsiveness, customer care. But together, they create a fog that obscures what strategy actually is: the discipline of making choices, sometimes painful ones, about the future you’re willing to build.

Real strategy forces trade-offs. It demands saying “no” more than “yes.” It replaces wishful goals with coherent choices, not plans and budget numbers. If you find yourself leading a team that’s somehow lost, you’re likely stuck in the loop of false strategy. Breaking that loop starts with reframing what “strategic” really means.

Feature image credit: Getty

By Alex Brueckmann

Alex Brueckmann is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of “The Strategy Legacy” and CEO of Brueckmann Strategy Consultants Ltd. Read Alex Brueckmann’s full executive profile here. Find Alex Brueckmann on LinkedIn. Visit Alex’s website.

Sourced from Forbes

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Move over Instagram, consumers are turning to each other for shopping advice

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By Jeena Sharma

New Trustpilot data shows Americans want real world feedback before buying.

Forget influencers and glossy magazines—this holiday season, Americans are turning to each other for shopping advice.

New data from Trustpilot’s National Write a Review Week campaign shows a 76% YoY spike in consumer reviews. The initiative, which ran October 20–24, attracted ~4 million visitors nationwide—a 63% jump from the same period in 2024—signalling how heavily shoppers are relying on feedback from real buyers.

Trustpilot’s AI and Black Friday shopping analysis reinforced the trend as 86% of shoppers checked reviews before making a holiday purchase. And in the lead-up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, 40% of respondents said they waited for others to post reviews before deciding what to buy.

Even as AI-driven content and influencer campaigns grow, shoppers are still prioritizing “genuine human experiences,” according to Trustpilot’s report. Top consumer complaints this season included delivery delays, technical issues, and subpar customer service.

“[Consumers] are making purchasing decisions based on delivery reliability, product quality, and customer service,” Alicia Skubick, chief customer officer at Trustpilot, said in a statement. “The data also reveals what consumers need to know to make their holiday shopping experience the best one yet. The bottom line is simple—when people share their experiences, everyone shops smarter.”

The findings arrive as new government data shows US retail sales saw only modest growth in September, and consumer confidence continues to soften amid ongoing economic pressure.

That dip is reflected in holiday spending behaviors. A joint survey from Rocket Mortgage and Redfin found that 28% of Americans plan to spend less on decorations, and 26% expect to cut back on gifts compared to last year.

Feature image credit: Francis Scialabba

By Jeena Sharma

Sourced from Retail Brew

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Beyond The Great Ad: The New Role Of The Creative

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By Monica Alvarez-Mitchell

When I first started in marketing, my observation was that often, a breath-taking ad was the hallmark of a successful brand launch. But in my experience, nowadays, that’s changed—that ad, that hook, that viral clip—they’re just moments.

Good ideas are a dime a dozen. Talk to a social media creator, and chances are, they can generate a good idea for a brand. As a result, I believe that recreating the “great ad” model is a high-cost gamble, especially in an age where many people say they’re dealing with information overload. Moreover, I’ve observed that the old metrics we marketers celebrated often don’t deliver predictable results, and more and more clients are looking beyond fleeting numbers and demanding something more durable: sustainable results.

The way I see it, the old model overvalued the spark when the real worth was in the strategy.

A viral moment doesn’t fix a broken purchase path; an optimized funnel does. A clever ad campaign doesn’t solve a talent acquisition crisis; a long-term recruitment strategy paired with a good campaign does. For us marketers, the goal should be to create an overarching plan of attack, not just a billboard that advertises hype that may or may not be able to be backed up. Marketing initiatives can successfully deliver business outcomes when there’s a strong strategic foundation behind them.

Collaborate, Create, Connect

So, what does this all mean for marketers?

In my experience, the old creative model of the “big idea” is eroding—it was a process filled with risks, because so much of its success arguably depended on a hunt for a single viral moment. In marketing, it’s paramount to rely on the intersection of good ideas and good data and to align what we do with the goals of the business we’re serving.

I see the most successful marketing campaigns of the modern age as following a three-phase framework. The first phase is to collaborate: to align business goals with audience news and authentic brand DNA. This flows into the create phase, which is the building of the permanent solution or operational asset. Finally, there’s the connect phase, which is the launch of that solution to build a loyal, measurable community.

If you’re a creative in this day and age, my advice to you is: Don’t just rely on your instincts, aesthetics or a single “big idea” to carry a campaign. Modern creatives should shift from being purely creative playmakers to being strategic problem-solvers. That means designing with data, grounding concepts in business objectives and building assets that can be measured, iterated and scaled. Whether you’re a graphic designer or a content strategist, you should understand concepts such as the definition of a customer funnel and UX best practices.

Instead of chasing ideas and rolling the dice, build a system where your designers can thrive. The pipeline from business alignment to decision-making to launching is, I’ve found, straightforward but effective. Turn creativity into a disciplined, repeatable system, aligning the client’s mission with the creative strategy of the agency. Ensure that every campaign outcome is traceable to business intent and customer insight rather than fleeting virality.

Additionally, think in systems, not one-offs. Think of solutions that can evolve with the brand you’re working with instead of peaking in a moment of virality. You should collaborate earlier, validate assumptions with real audience insight and treat every design as part of a repeatable framework.

As a modern creative, you shouldn’t just be an artist. You should be an architect of outcomes.

Strategic Design Ethos

Now, this is where we come to the new role of the modern creative. It goes beyond a new process or a different way to track success. This is a “strategy design and execute ethos” that redefines the creative director from a peripheral artist who is there to “make things look attractive” to an essential partner who is at the table every step of the way.

In my view, the creatives who thrive in this new landscape will be the ones who transcend their “art” to their clients’ success. They’ll have the courage to ask the hard questions before they start creating, and they’ll have the business acumen to understand the answers.

We must be as fluent in business as we are in aesthetics. To be anything less is, in my view, to misunderstand the job entirely. We are not just artists; we are strategic creative partners.

Feature image credit: Getty

By Monica Alvarez-Mitchell

Founder and CEO, Pulse Creative. Read Monica Alvarez-Mitchell’s full executive profile here. Find Monica Alvarez-Mitchell on LinkedIn. Visit Monica’s website.

Sourced from Forbes

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How to Market Your Business Without Spending a Dime

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By Deedra Determan Edited by Micah Zimmerman 

Marketing doesn’t have to drain your budget. With creativity and consistency, you can build momentum and attract customers for free.

Key Takeaways

  • Partnerships beat ad spend when you collaborate with people who serve the same audience.
  • Consistent, repurposed content builds visibility faster than polished, expensive marketing.
  • Real relationships and referrals outperform paid campaigns — momentum is the real marketing engine.

 

When I first launched my business, I didn’t have a marketing budget. But what I did have was creativity, time and a sense of urgency to get my name out there. You don’t need thousands of dollars to make a big marketing impact. You just need consistency, connections and a willingness to get a little scrappy. Some of the best marketing strategies don’t cost a lot of money — they just require a high level of intention and effort.

Here are five ways to market your business without spending money (or spending very little).

1. Build partnerships

Partnerships are one of the most cost-effective ways to grow your audience. Look for businesses that serve the same type of customer as you, but don’t compete with you.

If you’re a fitness coach, you can partner with a nutritionist or a local smoothie shop. If you’re a photographer, team up with a florist or wedding planner. Host a workshop together, share each other’s email lists (with permission) or collaborate on a giveaway.

When two businesses with similar audiences join forces, both brands win. You expand your reach and build community, all without paying for ads!

2. Use the power of free platforms

Social media is the great equalizer for small businesses. Currently, TikTok and YouTube Shorts offer the most organic reach and allow you to get in front of thousands of people without spending any money.

Don’t overthink your content. Film short videos sharing tips, behind-the-scenes moments with your team or what you’re up to in the community. Remember that authenticity often outperforms polished content.

One thing that has been helpful in my business is repurposing content. A 30-second video we make for a TikTok gets reposted on Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and LinkedIn. One idea can work four times harder for you!

3. Grow and nurture your email list

Your email list is the most valuable marketing asset because it’s all yours. Social media platforms can change their algorithms overnight, but your list gives you direct access to your audience through their inboxes.

Start collecting email addresses as soon as possible. Add a signup form to your website and social media bios, and offer something in return, such as a discount code, a free e-book or a mini course.

Once people are on your email list, stay consistent. Send regular updates, tips or insights that make them look forward to hearing from you.

4. Share your voice

Visibility builds credibility, and there are so many ways to share your expertise.

Start by pitching yourself as a guest on podcasts that reach your target audience. You’ll get exposure to new listeners and position yourself as an authority. Or, start your own show. There are free and low-cost hosting platforms to help you publish your podcast for under $100 a month.

If you prefer writing, contribute articles to local publications or industry blogs. If you’re more comfortable speaking, offer to speak at community events, meetups or conferences. These opportunities give you a captive audience and can drive new clients to your business. (Pro tip: end your presentation with a QR code that links directly to your email signup or freebie.)

5. Engage your community and encourage word of mouth

The most powerful marketing tool still comes down to relationships. Get involved in your community, whether that’s through volunteering, joining a local business group or partnering with a non-profit. When people know and trust you, they’ll naturally want to support you.

And don’t be shy about asking for referrals and reviews. Most happy clients are glad to share your name; they just need a little nudging. Send a quick follow-up email or text asking for a Google review or testimonial. Those words from real customers are more persuasive than any ad you could run!

You can even start a small referral program. Offer a discount or bonus for every new client someone sends your way. It doesn’t have to cost much, but it creates a ripple effect that builds loyal advocates for your brand.

At the end of the day, great marketing doesn’t always come from money–it comes from momentum. Every video you post, email you send and relationship you build compounds over time. Keep showing up in your community, keep adding value and soon you’ll realize you don’t need a big budget to make a big impact.

By Deedra Determan 

Deedra Determan is the Founder & CEO of D2 Branding, a top digital marketing agency recognized by Entrepreneur magazine. A business coach, speaker, and author, she helps female CEOs build personal brands for financial and time freedom. She also hosts the Do It My Way podcast.

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Edited by Micah Zimmerman 

Sourced from Entrepreneur

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How To Choose The Right Creative Formats To Cut Through Content Overload

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Sourced from Forbes

With reels, stories, livestreams and immersive experiences competing for consumers’ attention, brands have to decide not just what content to make, but where to show up. Every platform promises reach and every format claims to be the next breakthrough, so deciding where to invest your creative energy can feel overwhelming.

To generate real ROI, marketing leaders must understand where their audience actually engages, which formats align with their message and how each channel contributes to broader brand goals. Below, Forbes Communications Council members explain how they evaluate emerging formats and determine which creative investments are truly worth the effort.

1. Start With The Outcome You Want

Chase outcomes, not formats. Start with the job to be done—awareness, consideration or conversion—and invest where your audience already spends time. We see the best ROI from content that is discoverable and allows for meaningful engagement. – Yael Klass, Similarweb Ltd.

2. Match Formats To Your Audience Behaviour And Message

Brands should focus on the formats that match their audience behaviour and message rather than chasing every trend. Short-form video continues to show strong ROI because it drives engagement and sharing. However, immersive or interactive content works best when it deepens brand storytelling and creates an emotional connection that leads to loyalty. – Maria Alonso, Fortune 206

3. Run Small, Concurrent Experiments And Follow The Data

With the pace of change, the process is the strategy. Apply agile methodology and run small, concurrent content experiments. Don’t follow trends; follow your data. The highest ROI comes not from a specific format, but from the speed at which you can pivot creative energy to meet customers where they are now. – Reyne Quackenbush, Thoughtworks

4. Deeply Understand Your Ideal Customer Persona

It starts with deeply understanding your ICP—their interests, pain points and motivations. People engage with content that reflects their world. When brands build creative around what their audience already cares about instead of what they want to sell, every format becomes more effective, authentic and worth the attention. – Cody Gillund, Grounded Growth Studio

5. Develop A Centralized Content Strategy With Clear Ownership And Analytics

The most effective brands today balance reach with engagement, using reels for discovery and stories for trust-building. The winning formula is simple: Test, analyse, optimize, repeat. A centralized content strategy with clear ownership and analytics ensures consistency. Long-form content builds depth while short-form video delivers impact. Voice-of-customer, contextual insights should guide format selection. – Anshuman Dutta, Cognizant

6. Balance Innovation With Consistency

New social media tools may be flashy, but proven methods can still drive lasting results. Focus your creative energy on balancing innovation with consistency, exploring brand-new tools while continuing to invest in those that you know already perform well. A strong strategy paired with ongoing performance analysis can help you pivot quickly and efficiently while maximizing your ROI. – Victoria Zelefsky, Anne Arundel Economic Development Corporation

7. Know How Your Offering Fits Into Your Audience’s Journey

When you become obsessed with how, when and where your audience seeks information and how your product or service fits into that journey, the formats reveal themselves. Reels, stories, immersive experiences or long-form content are just the vessel. ROI comes from meeting people where their intent lives, regardless of format. – Stephanie Bunnell, Local Language

8. Go Where Attention Is High And Friction Is Low

It’s not “reels versus stories versus VR”—it’s under priced attention. If your buyer watches 300 stories a day, what are the odds your two get noticed? Near zero. Go where attention is high and friction and competition are low: TikTok Live (real-time Q&A and conversion); YouTube Shorts around how-to searches; LinkedIn carousels for B2B; and triggered email and SMS. Test fast, kill losers and scale winners. – Sanel Mezbur, Juice Ai

9. Build One ‘Big Idea’ And Atomize It

Start with the audience and job-to-be-done. Map goals (awareness to conversion), run two-week tests and double down on winners. Short video for reach, search-led articles for intent, email and SMS for conversion and customer stories and webinars for high-consideration are paying now. Build one “big idea,” atomize into formats and kill low performers fast. – Heather Stickler, Tidal Basin Group

10. Address Human Wants And Needs Over Product Features

Our focus is on creating standout content and moments that escape the sea of sameness and address human needs and wants, versus a laundry list of product features. Custom, real stories, audio and imagery work best because no one else can tell your unique story. We’ve included our own team members in content. Those deliverables tend to generate the most engagement. Because remember: No one is you. – Melanie Draheim, Fox Communities Credit Union

11. Go Where Emotion Meets Attention

Great creative energy doesn’t chase every format; it follows where emotion meets attention. ROI comes from depth, not novelty. A reel that evokes feeling will outperform an AR gimmick that wows but fades. Choose platforms that amplify your story, not just your visibility. – Anand Sankara Narayanan, Finance House Group

12. Measure Performance With A Social Analytics Platform

If your team has heavily invested time and resources into a social media strategy, it is crucial to use a social analytics platform (which there is no shortage of in 2025) to measure. Actively monitoring social performance will provide key insights into which types of posts and channels are the highest performers. This data will guide you to getting the maximum ROI from your social efforts. – Alexi Lambert Leimbach, Xcellimark

13. Invest In What Moves Your Audience Closer To Action

The best format to invest in is the one that moves your audience closer to action. When you measure everything in one place, you see what truly works and stop solving for tactics or even individual channels—you start solving for a holistic experience. Connecting insight with measurement turns creative energy into a growth engine. – Paula Mantle, Branch

14. Focus On The Intersection Of Attention And Intent

Brands should focus creative energy where audience attention and intent intersect. Test formats—reels, stories, immersive—based on engagement data and conversion metrics. Short-form drives reach, and immersive builds depth. Real ROI comes from formats that move audiences from awareness to action while strengthening brand recall and emotional connection. – Namita Tiwari, Persistent

15. Ask Yourself If The Format Deepens Connections

We choose formats where emotion lasts, not just where attention spikes. ROI comes from resonance—when people feel something, they remember. We test new spaces, but always ask: Does this deepen the connection or just add noise? The best format is the one that turns a scroll into a pause and a viewer into a believer. – Barbara Puszkiewicz-Cimino, SUMMIT One Vanderbilt

16. Follow Consumers, Not Channels

Creative energy follows the consumer, not the channel. Content and medium choice must reflect brand architecture and the dimensions that build emotional, functional and experiential connection and identity within the product category. Coca-Cola’s 3D hologram wall with the Cincinnati Reds evokes joy. BMW’s live driving experiences channel performance and luxury identity. This is how brands drive equity. – Toby Wong, Toby Wong Consulting

17. Understand What Your Audience Is Doing When They See Your Content

Format follows context. The best use of creative energy starts with understanding what your audience is doing when they come across your content. Are they in browse mode, research mode or decision mode? Short-form video often works well for discovery, while carousels or long-form build depth. What matters is how well the format supports the behaviour it’s interrupting. – Christina Mendel, ChristinaMendel.com

18. Pick Formats That Let Your Essence Shine

Place your brand where its heart meets consumers’ heads—the “Heartbeat ROI.” Pick formats that let your essence shine where your people already live. Obsess over them—solve real needs or surprise them with needs they didn’t know they had. That sweet spot (Heart plus Head equals Heartbeat ROI) drives real attention and measurable returns. – Natalia Kowalczyk, The CXOnsiglieri Company

19. Mix Formats Intentionally

Focus creative energy where your audience actually engages, not on every trend. Short-form video (reels, TikTok) drives awareness and quick wins, while longer or immersive formats deepen storytelling and loyalty. Mix intentionally: Spark interest with quick hits, then guide audiences to richer experiences that convert. Test, measure, repeat. – Kurt Allen, Notre Dame de Namur University

Feature image credit: Getty

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Will AI Search Make You Throw Away Your SEO Playbooks?

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By Zak Ali

Okay, let me clarify: Your SEO playbook isn’t wrong…it’s just incomplete.

I’ve been working in organic search since 2016. I remember the golden age when a well-optimized page with decent backlinks could print traffic. I remember watching our rankings and traffic drop after the Helpful Content Update (HCU), and scrambling to follow Google’s guidance for recovery. And I still remember the process of coming to terms with the fact that search traffic wouldn’t be returning to pre-HCU levels.

Now, as we enter the LLM age, I’m seeing consultants and influencers pawn off ranking theories as fact and repackaging tired “SEO best practices” with buzzwords. Every week there’s a new silver bullet: “Chunk optimization!” “Schema markup is the answer!” “Bullets help you rank in ChatGPT!”

But beneath the noise, something fundamental has shifted. Instead of following every “hack of the week,” let’s acknowledge that no one has this figured out and shift to a longer-term strategy.

The Computational Realities Of LLMs

LLM-generated answers need to be trustworthy and valuable. But there’s a problem that every AI company faces and few SEOs acknowledge.

Running deep content analysis on every webpage on the internet for every query isn’t feasible. The computational cost and time required would be astronomical. So instead, LLMs use heuristics: educated shortcuts.

Take ChatGPT’s citations for instance. When it doesn’t use training data alone, it searches the web using existing search engines. What ranks on page one is what it scans to determine citations.

This is why people say good AI SEO is just good SEO. The distinction, however, is that where you rank in Google is seen more as a signal of your credibility for LLMs, not as the end game.

What Actually Drives Visibility

What really matters are authority and relevance, and how those definitions have evolved ever so slightly.

Authority

Traditional authority signals like getting cited by credible sites, demonstrating editorial standards and displaying trust signals like third-party reviews still work. Likewise, so do the entity connections between your business, authors and recognized authorities in your niche.

But what LLMs are doing is making authority become more real-time and contextual.

A site that published definitive content three years ago but hasn’t updated it? Less authoritative than a site actively engaging with current developments. An author with no digital footprint beyond their company blog? Less credible than one who shows up in industry discussions, podcasts and peer publications.

LLMs are pattern-matching machines. They’re looking for signals that you’re not just about a topic, you’re of it. Your brand should be woven into the conversations in your space.

This is where I feel SEO playbooks are falling short. People are still focused on optimizing for algorithms rather than optimizing for being genuinely known.

Relevance

In keyword-based search, relevance is straightforward. Does your page match the query terms?

In conversational search, relevance is contextual and cumulative. Consider the difference between these queries: “best credit cards” and “I have a 720 credit score, travel internationally twice a year for work, and want to consolidate my spending. What credit card should I get?”

The second query is specific, nuanced and assumes a back-and-forth dialogue. The user might follow up with: “What if I don’t want an annual fee?” or “How does that compare to others?”

So if search is becoming more conversational and less keyword-dependent, where does that leave keyword research? You still need to know what people are searching for. But keyword volume data won’t reveal the nuanced, long-tail conversational queries people ask LLMs.

Despite every chat-based search being unique and every answer personalized, your customers’ underlying needs remain constant. So if you need keyword data to tell you what those needs are, you have work to do.

No More Hacks

The problem with most “AI SEO” advice is that it’s trying to reverse-engineer LLM behaviour the same way we reverse-engineered Google’s. Find the pattern, exploit it, scale it.

But LLMs aren’t ranking algorithms in the traditional sense. They’re synthesis engines. They’re aggregating, weighing credibility signals, and constructing answers from multiple sources.

You can’t hack synthesis the way you could hack PageRank.

This is why chunking advice, schema recommendations, and formatting tips are marginal gains at best. They might help a little, but they won’t save a fundamentally weak content strategy.

The best strategy for SEO today is probably what we should’ve been doing all along.

A New SEO Playbook (That Isn’t Really New)

Get to know your customer on a deeper level. This is harder than plugging keywords into Ahrefs. It requires actually understanding your audience.

• Talk to your customers. Actually talk to them. What questions do they ask? What confuses them? What do they wish they knew before buying?

• Monitor communities. Places like Reddit, industry forums and comments sections can show you how real people articulate problems in their own words, not in “keywords.”

• Focus on intent, not keywords. Create content that addresses the full spectrum of questions someone might have around a topic, not just the highest-volume search term.

Then, start building up your authority.

• Build genuine authority. Not through link schemes, but through consistently showing up as a credible voice in your industry. Publish on platforms beyond your blog. Engage with industry conversations. Develop real subject matter experts, not just “content writers.”

• Create comprehensively useful content. Not 500-word keyword-stuffed blog posts, but resources that actually answer the full scope of what someone needs to know. Content that gets naturally referenced because it’s the best explanation available.

• Use first-party data. Use actual customer insights, from sales calls, support tickets and user research to understand what they’re trying to accomplish. Then turn those insights actionable in your content.

• Stay relevant and current. Plainly said, stale, outdated content is actively harmful to your authority.

Final Thoughts

The new SEO is anti-SEO. Stop trying to hack your way to the top. Start trying to be genuinely helpful to the people who are looking for a solution to their problems. The advantage will increasingly go to companies that do the hard work of building real expertise and communicating it clearly.

Feature image credit: Getty

By Zak Ali

Zak Ali is General Manager for Finder.com, a global financial comparison platform helping millions make better financial decisions. Read Zak Ali’s full executive profile here. Find Zak Ali on LinkedIn and X. Visit Zak’s website.

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How to build customer loyalty and relationships that drive repeat business

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Many e-commerce businesses adopt complex loyalty programs to keep customers around, but these strategies don’t always perform as well in today’s market. Instead, making authentic connections is now the best way to create true customer loyalty.

E-commerce businesses must shift their focus from driving transactions to fostering relationships based on positive interactions. This new approach should stretch across your entire organization—from operations and fulfilment to delivery and post-purchase communications. Establish and maintain meaningful relationships with customers, and their loyalty will follow.

ShipStation highlights five powerful ways to build loyalty and turn one-time buyers into long-time customers.

1. Start with product excellence, not programs

The first and most essential aspect of customer retention is the quality of your product or service. No amount of advertising can convince a first-time customer to keep buying if your product doesn’t deliver on its promise.

“The best way to develop loyalty is by delivering a remarkable product in a remarkable way to the right audience. If that’s done, you’ll see customers come back on a regular basis,” said Eric Bandholz, the founder of Beardbrand during ShipStation’s recent Innovation Delivered summit.

The decline of loyalty apps and points systems
Many businesses still launch loyalty programs that reward customers for coming back. However, these aren’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Email marketing, automation, and other more recent marketing strategies have taken over much of the marketing space. As time goes by, customers lose interest in loyalty programs. The systems become less impactful or cost-effective, potentially hurting your organization more than helping it.

Effective loyalty apps and points systems should support your operational foundation. This way, your organization can deliver rewards and savings to customers without disrupting operations, inventory, or revenue.

For example, some online rewards programs offer customers free items with their next order. This encourages customers to make additional purchases, saving you the cost of packaging and shipping the extra items separately.

A new focus on automation
Automation has revolutionized online shopping, letting you retain customers with seamless repurchases rather than extra incentives. Now, shoppers can essentially subscribe to specific products—from pet supplies to home essentials—often at lower prices.

Beyond simplifying customer experiences, automation can also streamline your organization’s operations. For instance, based on how many automated “subscribe and save” orders you have, you can easily estimate how much inventory you’ll need each month for your regular customers.

That said, most first-time customers won’t subscribe or choose an automated delivery option, at least without significant savings. So, even with today’s best retention strategies, the quality of your product is the first place to focus.

“Your next step after that is achieved is to think about, ‘How do I automate the buying process? How do I make it so seamless that people have no friction points to coming back?’” said Bandholz.

2. Treat customers like family, not numbers

Customers are real people who want genuine relationships with companies. When it comes to retention, you shouldn’t just look at transactions as order numbers and revenue. Instead, consider the customer’s needs, motivations, and expectations, so you can meet them on their level.

“Make it about the client. All we’re trying to do is keep promises to people and make bigger promises to more people,” said Robert Metcalf, COO and co-founder of May Lindstrom Skin. “If you always stay focused on that, loyalty takes care of itself because you’re loyal to the customer, and they don’t need to protect themselves from you because it’s your job to serve them.”

Fostering strong relationships and trust with clients can motivate them to not only return, but to refer friends, family, and colleagues. One satisfied customer quickly becomes many. This trust should extend through all of your operations, not just your friendly customer service team.

Consider what you would expect if you were one of your customers. How would you feel if a delivery was late compared to how you’d feel if the package arrived early? What would you expect when purchasing your product? What obstacles could discourage you from completing your purchase?

How to foster genuine relationships over transactional exchanges
Trust isn’t developed overnight. It takes several transactions to nurture the connection and inspire customer confidence every time they consider buying from you again. Ultimately, you want customers to feel reassured when they see your company logo, making that “purchase” button even more enticing.

Establishing trust with customers doesn’t mean your organization needs to have a perfect record. That’s unrealistic. Shipping delays, manufacturer shortages, and other setbacks may be out of your control and can all impact your customers’ experiences, but they don’t have to define the customer’s final impression.

Setbacks offer excellent opportunities to increase trust. It all depends on how you respond. If a customer’s delivery is delayed, for example, you can strengthen the relationship and earn trust by notifying them as soon as the delivery runs behind schedule. Or, take it one step further and refund their shipping costs.

Similarly, if an item is out of stock, you can respond by proactively offering the customer multiple options, like alternate colour choices or a backorder at a discounted price.

Turn a negative transactional experience into a way to impress your customer with great service that maintains—or even bolsters—their loyalty.

3. Authentic brand storytelling that builds brand affinity and customer loyalty

Consistent brand storytelling lets you reach customers on a more meaningful level. When customers have emotional or personal ties with your brand, they’re more likely to trust you and share your story with others.

The right stories elevate you from “just another brand name” to one that customers remember.

“The initial hook is an accurate description of the brand value and the outcomes you’re selling,” said Michael Scholz, vice president of product marketing at BigCommerce. “If that content isn’t accurate, you face a lot of returns. It’s really important to tell a great story upfront.”

Being open and honest is a major component of authenticity, especially early in the buying process.

“It’s all about the transparency you have throughout the shopper journey,” said Scholz. “If you have multiple shipping vendors and shipping options, highlight those options and different prices during the checkout process. At the end of the day, it’s the shopper’s decision to pursue a specific choice.”

Framing an authentic brand narrative
Like any good story, your brand narrative requires a few key elements to build deep connections, and it all starts with the right framing device. Understanding the best ways to frame your brand storytelling helps you deliver your story in a way that captures customers’ attention and encourages them to act.

The most successful types of brand narratives include the following.

  • Founder stories: Share the story of your organization’s founding and key players. Discuss their inspirations for starting the business and the backgrounds that brought them to where they are today. Giving your brand a face can make it feel more personable, relatable, and approachable, which reinforces that your business is about more than making money.
  • Social missions: Discuss your brand’s goals and mission. For instance, did your organization begin as a way to serve the local community, fulfil a need, or carry on a legacy?
  • Case studies and success stories: Use positive quotes, reviews, and customer examples to add third-party credibility and validation to your message. The voice of the customer is an impactful way to share how your business and solutions have benefited real-life people and organizations.

4. How Fulfilment Operations Drive Customer Loyalty

Like the wrapping around a great gift, your fulfilment processes can seal the deal on customers’ experiences. Satisfaction can hinge on the customer receiving on-time deliveries rather than late deliveries, ones with missing parts, or other issues that harm the experience.

Seemingly small problems, like a third-party provider not being informed about a promotion and the expected increase in sales, can result in backorders and customers not getting their products on time.

Logistics providers, carriers, and other partners are often the ones behind the scenes making sure your package is delivered successfully.

“The experience starts from when they click on your website to when they receive the product,” said Matthew Carpentieri, strategic partnership manager at DHL Express. “We’re really supporting the merchant from behind the veil, and it’s really important for us to drive conversion for retention and not being the source of something that goes wrong.”

The 4 pillars of fulfilment excellence
Fulfilment excellence prevents customer service issues before they start by minimizing the risks of setbacks.

Is your fulfilment process up to the task? Here are some of the most crucial aspects of successful fulfilment.

  • Proactive communication: Be upfront with customers about shipping timelines and potential delays. Likewise, communicate with providers when anticipating sales spikes or creating promotions to align inventory with demand.
  • Thorough inventory processes: Accurate inventory bookkeeping gives you the best possible insight into your fulfilment operations and prevents customers from ordering out-of-stock products.
  • Strategic alignment: Make sure your loyalty programs, sales, and promotions align with your fulfilment operations’ needs and capabilities. For example, consider running clearance-style sales on overstock items, and avoid launching promotions on products you can only offer in limited quantities.
  • Return and exchange processes: Customers may be more willing to buy products they’re unsure about if they know they won’t have to jump through hoops to return them. A simple return and exchange process, such as at-home pickups or box less drop-offs, puts less burden on customers.

5. Post-purchase and personalized customer experience strategies

Post-purchase communication plays a vital role in turning a one-time buyer into a repeat customer. This might mean shifting your primary call to action away from simply buying products. Instead, you can encourage customers to subscribe to repeat purchases or sign up for notifications about deals. The best post-purchase customer experience strategy ultimately depends on what you’re selling and your unique audience base.

Whatever marketing strategies you choose, keep your focus on doing everything in your power to cultivate your relationship with customers.

Include personal touches in communication
Tailored messages directed to individuals show them you remember them and value them as customers when they return. Great real-life examples of a personalized customer experience include coffee shops that write customers’ names on their cups and pet stores that send birthday mail to pets.

“It’s actually people placing these orders,” said Bandholz. “They have lives and purpose, and realizing that is not only beneficial in the sense of loyalty, but you become a better business that serves them in better ways.”

Build community around shared interests
Beyond customers’ relationships with your organization, consider how you can empower relationships among customers. Social media or “refer a friend” programs can create a sense of community and keep people talking about your product.

“Ask yourself how you can facilitate those relationships. How can you create a community in ways that consider them more than just a number?” said Bandholz.

Follow up authentically after purchases
Reaching out to customers by asking about their purchase or requesting feedback shows you listen, care about their experience, and want to improve. However, it can annoy customers if overdone. The best approach depends on your specific offerings and audiences. For example, a home renovation will need an extensive feedback process covering different stages of the process, while a small, one-time purchase needs just a short and simple product review request.

Driving repeat purchases and customer loyalty in e-commerce

You can’t build a strong relationship with customers with a single transaction. Customer loyalty best practices should be incorporated in all areas of your organization—from the way you interact with customers to the product itself.

“I don’t ever wanna try to sell anything to anyone. I just wanna match what they want with what we have and prove them right the whole time,” said Metcalf.

This story was produced by ShipStation and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.

Feature image credit:  PeopleImages // Shutterstock

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How BMW drives success with emotional branding

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The brand sells heart over horsepower.

Emotion sells, and few carmakers have leaned into that truth (sometimes gracefully, sometimes aggressively) quite like BMW. Sliding into a BMW isn’t meant to feel like entering a machine; it’s meant to feel like slipping on an identity, an emotion, a story.

From its iconic car designs to its slick campaigns, BMW has spent decades engineering not just vehicles but vibes. Over time, it has perfected what many premium carmakers attempt but rarely sustain: an emotional brand world where the product is less about horsepower and more about aspiration, belonging, and that intangible spark known simply as “joy.”

BMW i4

(Image credit: BMW)

This festive season, BMW pushed that idea harder than ever. You may have seen the campaign insisting, “We didn’t invent the car… We created a feeling,” for the brand’s all-electric BMW iX3 – to a world increasingly defined by silent motors and software screens. It’s BMW trying to humanise the algorithmic future of driving, a future where “The Ultimate Driving Machine” risks being reduced to just another rolling gadget.

Of course, emotional storytelling isn’t new territory for BMW. Long before the tech-luxury wars, the brand was selling Freude am Fahren (joy of driving). Even the 1974 tagline “The Ultimate Driving Machine,” which at first sounds like a performance flex, was really a coded identity pitch: buy a BMW, and you become the kind of person who values mastery, confidence, the feel of the road.

The First of a New Era | Introducing the New BMW iX3. – YouTube

But that narrative has had to evolve. In recent years, BMW’s marketing has shifted gears from taking the driver-as-hero route to the softer sideroad of lifestyle-as-feeling. The brand no longer just sells torque curves; it sells a sense of freedom, empowerment, and success. From cinematic social shorts to immersive, multisensory showrooms, BMW engineers every touchpoint to reinforce the idea that owning its vehicles is an experience on a very human level, not a mere transaction.

This is the classic playbook of emotional branding, which connects with people’s desires, anxieties, and self-image. Customers buy the feeling they hope the product will unlock. And BMW has doubled down on this playbook, threading emotion through everything from its design language to its retail choreography.

But here’s the tension: in a market where EVs are quiet, digital, and increasingly similar under the skin, can a brand still sell emotion as a differentiator? When the visceral growl of a straight-six becomes an algorithmically tuned sound profile, does “joy” hit the same? It’s a contradiction BMW is actively wrestling with.

BMW advert

(Image credit: BMW)

Designing Emotion in Every BMW

Each new model is crafted to elicit a reaction, sometimes delight, sometimes debate. From sculpted lines to wraparound cockpits, BMW treats design not as ornamentation but as emotional triggers. The brand knows customers aren’t buying A-to-B transportation. They’re buying confidence, pride, and a little theatre.

This also explains the polarising design decisions in recent years, the giant kidney grille, for example, which sparked a miniature design civil war. But even that controversy shows BMW’s intent: emotional impact beats universal approval. BMW would rather make you feel something than nothing.

And when hardware isn’t enough, BMW turns to narrative. A 2023 electric-i4 campaign, “Father & Son. Freude Forever,” shows a father passing the joy of driving to his son. The nostalgia is dialled up deliberately: driving becomes family, freedom, legacy. Likewise, this year’s holiday film uses a child and a grandmother reconnecting through a BMW to argue that the joy of driving can bridge generations, even in an era of range anxiety and touchscreen fatigue.

It’s emotionally effective. It’s also a bit of a gamble. BMW is selling joy at a time when driving, especially urban driving, has never felt less joyful. Congestion, cameras, automation, and rising insurance costs all threaten the fantasy. The brand is essentially promising a feeling that the real world increasingly refuses to deliver.

A gif of the colour changing BMW

(Image credit: BMW)

What Designers Can Learn

For designers and brand strategists, BMW offers a compelling blueprint: build products that earn trust at a functional level, then build stories that elevate them to something people can feel. But the blueprint comes with caveats. Emotional branding only works when the product experience supports the claim. BMW’s engineering heritage gives it leeway here, but not infinite leeway.

Because if emotion becomes a veneer over a commodity product, people notice. And the EV era, flattening performance differences, muting mechanical character, makes this risk more acute than ever.

In that sense, BMW’s evolving strategy isn’t a departure but a recalibration. The machines are changing; the promise can’t. The brand seems determined to argue that even if the future is quieter and more digital, the feeling of driving doesn’t have to be, whether consumers believe that is the next chapter.

Feature image credit: BMW

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Simon is a writer specialising in sustainability, design, and technology. Passionate about the interplay of innovation and human development, he explores how cutting-edge solutions can drive positive change and better lives.

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4 ChatGPT Prompts To Turn Your Business Idea Into Reality In 2026

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By Sarah Hernholm

MBO Partners’ State of Independence 2025 research estimates that more than 72.9 million Americans are freelancing in some capacity, accounting for roughly 36 percent of the workforce. That shift has people of all ages looking for faster, more innovative ways to test ideas without wasting time or resources. ChatGPT has quickly become one of the most effective tools for doing exactly that. It speeds up the early thinking, reveals blind spots, and helps refine ideas long before money goes out the door.

The four prompts below can help anyone, whether a teen launching a first project or an adult building a side hustle, pressure test and position an idea for success in 2026.

1. Use ChatGPT To Pressure Test Your Idea Before You Spend A Dollar

Ideas tend to feel brilliant in your head. They tend to feel less brilliant when they meet customer expectations, pricing realities, or existing competitors. Most early-stage entrepreneurs do not run enough pre-launch analysis. Teen entrepreneurs often skip it because they are unsure what to look for. Adults might ignore it because time is limited.

ChatGPT can step in and ask the hard questions you may not think to ask yourself.

Prompt: Act as a sceptical investor. Challenge my business idea from every angle. Identify the five most significant risks, the costliest assumptions, potential red flags, and anything that would make you pass on this idea. Then give me strategies to mitigate each one. Here is my idea: [insert idea].

Action steps after running this prompt:

  1. Take the risks ChatGPT flags and sort them into broad groups like customer, financial, operational, and competitive. It makes everything easier to see at a glance.
  2. Choose the one or two risks that feel most important and come up with small, simple tests that can show whether they are real concerns.
  3. Use what you learn to tweak your idea, then rerun the prompt to get a fresh read on where things stand.

This process forces clarity early on, when adjustments are still cheap, and momentum is easier to build.

2. Use ChatGPT To Unearth A Positioning Angle No Competitor Is Using

A business with unclear positioning is one that customers overlook. That is even more true now, when AI-powered solutions crowd nearly every category. People want to know why your product deserves their attention, their money, and their trust.

ChatGPT can help you identify the whitespace most new founders miss.

Prompt: Act as a brand strategist. Analyse competitors in my industry and identify gaps in messaging, pricing, target audience, and value proposition. Then create three differentiated positioning angles I could own in 2026, angles competitors are not currently using. My idea: [insert idea]. My competitors: [list competitors].

Action steps after running this prompt:

  1. Look at the three positioning angles ChatGPT gives you and see how they stack up against what you are already thinking.
  2. Pick the angle that feels the most realistic for your skills, your time, and the resources you actually have.
  3. Try folding that angle into your website headline, your pitch language, or even your social media bio so it becomes part of how you talk about the idea.
  4. Share the updated message with a handful of potential customers or peers and pay attention to what they react to or remember.

Clear positioning is not only about standing out. It is about helping customers instantly understand why you are the right fit for them.

3. Use ChatGPT To Build A 90 Day Launch Plan You Can Actually Execute

A lot of ideas never come to fruition because they stay abstract. A concrete plan changes that. It turns a vague desire to launch into something you can move on week by week.

ChatGPT is surprisingly effective at mapping out a realistic 90-day plan, especially for people who feel overwhelmed or unsure where to begin.

Prompt: Act as my operations and accountability coach. Turn my business idea into a realistic 90-day launch plan divided into weekly goals. Include market research tasks, product development milestones, an MVP plan, pricing tests, audience building actions, two marketing experiments, and metrics to track. End with a non-negotiable list for me as the founder. Here is the idea: [insert idea].

Action steps after running this prompt:

  1. Input the weekly plan into your calendar so each task has an actual place to live. Real dates make it harder to ignore.
  2. Look for the first few actions that will give you momentum, whether that is talking to potential customers or putting up a simple landing page.
  3. Check in with the plan each week and make small adjustments based on what is moving you forward and what is not.

Momentum builds when you know exactly what to do next, not when you are still thinking about where to start.

4. Use ChatGPT To Craft The Pitch That Gets People On Board

Whether you are pitching investors, potential collaborators, early customers, or your own family, the success of your idea often comes down to how well you communicate it. Many pitches fail because they bury the most compelling part of the story.

ChatGPT can help refine your narrative into something punchy, simple, and memorable.

Prompt: Be my business pitch coach. Turn my idea into a 90-second pitch that is clear, compelling, and memorable. Include the problem I’m solving, why existing solutions fall short, my unique approach, early evidence or insights that validate the opportunity, and the call to action. Then write versions for investors, customers, and social media. My idea: [insert idea].

Action steps after running this prompt:

  1. Read each version of your pitch out loud. You will quickly hear which one feels the most natural to say.
  2. Share that version with a few people you trust and ask them what they remembered or what caught their attention. Their reactions will tell you what to adjust.
  3. Spend a little time with your opening line. Once that first sentence feels solid, the rest of the pitch usually comes together more easily.

Clarity builds confidence, and the higher your confidence, the better your chances of follow-through.

Why These ChatGPT Prompts Work For All Ages, All Stages, And All Ambitions

Shifting work patterns and the rise of side hustles have created a moment where people are more open than ever to building something of their own. These ChatGPT prompts do more than spark ideas. The prompts can help you identify gaps you might have missed and sort out what you need to do right now. Once you have that, taking the next step feels a lot less overwhelming.

Feature image credit: Getty

By Sarah Hernholm

Find Sarah Hernholm on LinkedIn.

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