Craig Bailey

Use HubSpot Better

Hi, I’m Craig Bailey and this is my personal blog where I write about technology, business systems, HubSpot, marketing strategy and general life experiences. You can read my posts here.

I’m involved with two agencies in Sydney:

  • The first is XEN Systems. We help government departments and mid-large B2B technology companies with their sales and marketing strategy, including implementation and training in HubSpot 
  • The second is XEN Create. We provide premium graphic design services to companies, with a focus on using the latest AI tools, including Midjourney

I also co-host HubShots, the podcast and YouTube show focussed on getting the most out of HubSpot. We are the creators of the HubShots Framework.

Latest stories

Australia to create a special branch of the ACCC to scrutinise how Facebook and Google use algorithms to match ads to viewers

By Craig Bailey
In Facebook, Google
1 Min read
A

Sorry for the long headline, but it’s required in order to actually explain what is happening. Otherwise, from other sources (like Reuters and Fast Company), you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Australian Government was going to force Google to hand over their search algorithm (Spoiler alert: that is never, ever going to happen). Instead, the real story is they want to check how...

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Alexa, Siri, Google allow opt out of human listening

By Craig Bailey
In Amazon, Apple, Google
1 Min read
A

Not before time (via Bloomberg): Amazon.com Inc. will let Alexa users opt out of human review of their voice recordings, a move that follows criticism that the program violated customers’ privacy. emphasis mine Apple has actioned this just recently, and Google has (in EU at least) as well. Still not right that people can opt out (ie they need to take the initiative) – this should be an...

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Instagram by Facebook and WhatsApp by Facebook

By Craig Bailey
In Facebook
1 Min read
I

Some branding changes ahead by Facebook, as discovered by The Information (via TechRadar) with Instagram being rebadged ‘Instagram by Facebook’ in the AppStore, and WhatsApp as ‘WhatsApp by Facebook’. Seems odd at first, but The Information links this with anti-trust scrutiny. Personally I like it – makes it a lot clearer for people who may not have otherwise...

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AI copywriting beats human

By Craig Bailey
In Marketing
1 Min read
A

Interesting, although probably not surprising, that AI written ads performed better than human written ads, in a test by Chase (the Bank) using an AI platform from Persado. Chase says that ads created by Persado’s machine learning performed better than ads written by humans, with a higher percent of consumers clicking on them—more than twice as many in some cases. The difference can be as...

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Better marketing forms

By Craig Bailey
In Marketing
1 Min read
B

I really like this form on the Merkle Digital Marketing Report landing page: Which when selected in the form appears like this: This is a better user experience for everyone – the people downloading the report and for Merkle. I’m only interested in the report, so it saves them, and me, time. There’s no use them trying to follow me up if I’m not interested. Instead all...

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Brave Marketing

By Craig Bailey
In Marketing
1 Min read
B

Interesting analysis via Effie Worldwide on a study of 6000 marketing campaigns: Finally, we graded every winning submission from the past 50 years on bravery. Very conservative campaigns were given a score of 1, while very risky campaigns that put everything on the line were given a 5. The results were fascinating: It turns out that brands and agencies are better off being conservative than a...

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Chrome 76 blocks Flash by default

By Craig Bailey
In Technology
1 Min read
C

Well this was a surprise to me.

Google today launched Chrome 76 for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS. The release includes Adobe Flash blocked by default, Incognito mode detection disabled, multiple PWA improvements, and more developer features.

I had no idea people were still using Flash.

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Marketing skills for the future

By Craig Bailey
In Marketing
1 Min read
M

From a guest author on Marketing Mag: A successful marketer of the future understands the importance of data and insights in the context of consumer demands, but also recognises the limits of the team and embraces the technology available to them to solve these challenges with speed and efficiency.Marketing Mag Putting aside that the author works for an AI Martech tool, their following assertion...

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Craig Bailey

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