Bill Wallsgrove

My annual post recommending digital marketing trends to watch is now live, covering the new techniques and opportunities to look forward to in the year ahead. ✨ 🔮 📈 🚀 https://lnkd.in/ejh6s5GZ Of course AI is the main game in town, but which aspects of AI should you be taking a look at from a strategic POV? I cover 5 top-level use-cases of using AI to support marketing. But AI isn't the only game in town and I also look at the latest Gartner hype cycle, our updated Martech tools wheel and other opportunities to improve marketing across our RACE framework. Please take a look and let me know the new techniques and trends which you think will be important for you in the year ahead.

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You’re not alone I’ve worked with agencies across the UK, US, and Australia. Different structures, specialisms, and markets. But the same five challenges show up again and again. They’re not caused by a lack of ambition. They stem from systems that haven’t evolved to support the pace, complexity, or commercial demands of agency life today. Here’s what I see most often, and where to focus if it sounds familiar. 1. Success is defined differently across the business Creative wants standout work. Client service focuses on delivery, margin, and retention. Strategy wants to challenge the thinking. Ops manages risk and resource. Everyone is working hard, but in different directions. That friction drains energy and slows decisions. Start with shared clarity at the top. Define the kind of clients, work, and growth you want more of and make sure every team understands how that translates into priorities and decisions. 2. Leadership becomes a bottleneck when the conditions for leadership are missing Founders try to step back. SLTs carry delivery. Teams look up for answers because they don’t have the tools or confidence to lead. Most people are capable of more. But they need commercial visibility, clear decision rights, structured coaching, and feedback that builds judgement over time. Without that, progress flows back to the top. 3. Account management is asked to do more, without being shown how to lead The role has expanded, but support hasn’t. AMs are expected to grow accounts, protect margin and shape client experience, but few are taught how to influence outcomes or lead conversations. That changes when agencies redefine the function, make commercial expectations clear, and build confidence in strategic decision-making. 4. Teams are sometimes not burnt out, but emotionally flat Workloads are stable. The chaos has eased. But energy is low, and momentum is missing. This is what happens when autonomy increases but clarity and feedback disappear. What teams need is alignment on priorities, meaningful one-to-ones, and regular input on how they’re tracking. 5. The positioning looks credible, but doesn’t convert You have strong work and solid creds. But conversion is slow, and too much relies on individuals selling the story. The issue is often relevance. Most propositions are shaped internally, without testing against what clients are actually trying to buy. You can’t mark your own homework. If the brand isn’t doing the heavy lifting, your team will always have to. So where do you start? Clarify what kind of growth you’re building toward. Strengthen your leadership layer with clear roles, commercial context, and coaching. Build habits that connect ambition to action. If you’re unsure where to focus, I’m happy to share the questions I use with new clients to uncover what matters most. I'm here to help.

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One of the most useful lessons I’ve learnt in performance creative? You don’t need to be right on the first try. You just need a system that gets smarter every time you test. I’ve seen again and again that strong creative isn’t born from guesswork, it’s built from structured iteration. Here’s the framework we use to turn creative into a lever for scale: Phase 1: Isolate and test We launch controlled variations, testing one element at a time (hook, format, visual cue). The goal is to learn, not scale. Phase 2: Identify performance signals We don’t stop at CTR or CPC. We dig into hold rates, thumbstop %, conversion efficiency — whatever ties directly to the real outcome: purchases. Phase 3: Scale what works Top performers are refined and rolled out more widely, often adapted across channels. Nothing scales unless it proves itself first. Phase 4: Feed the loop Insights become briefs. Patterns become templates. Winners inform the next batch turning testing into strategy, not just trial and error. The result? Better performance. Less waste. Creative that doesn’t just look good, but works hard for the brand. Most brands say they need “more” creative. What they actually need is a better process. Because the real edge isn’t in making ads… It’s in making them smarter every time.

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Most businesses are stuck thinking about AI as purely a cost-cutting tool. Jim Lecinski thinks this is exactly why marketing teams, in particular, are getting sidelined whilst CEOs prioritise growth. Jim is a Clinical Professor at Northwestern's Kellogg School and former Google VP who saw the AI revolution coming years before ChatGPT launched. His strategic framework cuts through the noise: map AI applications across two dimensions - internal vs external impact, and efficiency vs transformation. Jim argues the magic happens when you move beyond the obvious productivity plays. Take IKEA's AI interior designer - it doesn't just save costs, it gives every customer access to professional design expertise that was physically and economically impossible before. That's transformational growth, not just incremental efficiency. The companies winning aren't just doing things faster and cheaper. They're doing things that were never possible. In our latest podcast episode, Greta Thomas and I had a brilliant conversation with Jim covering his framework and real examples from Coca-Cola, Starbucks, and others that are actually driving growth with AI. Worth a listen, particularly if you're thinking about doing more than just being more efficient - search 'Don't Stop Us Now AI Edition' on your favourite podcast platform or grab the link from the comments.

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When chima mmeje🏳️‍🌈 moved to the UK in 2022 and launched the Freelance Coalition for Developing Countries, she quickly noticed something surprising: 90% of people signing up for the Tech #SEO training thought it meant “SEO for tech companies”. This was a simple misunderstanding caused by a lack of awareness and she knew she needed to do something about that. She realised many people from developing countries had historically gravitated toward content work, as it’s often the easiest entry point into the industry. Chima shares how she herself first got into SEO through content, simply because it was something she could teach herself without formal training. Chima also shares how instrumental Aleyda Solís was in getting the FCC off the ground in its early days - and how she didn’t hesitate for a second to offer her help. Watch the full episode here https://lnkd.in/eyaWT7Ks

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📢 Google’s AI Mode is here in the UK - and it’s changing everything. Google has launched their most powerful AI search experience yet. Unlike traditional search, AI Mode introduces a conversational, context aware experience powered by Gemini. It’s not just surfacing links, it’s generating answers. For brands, this marks a major shift in how digital visibility is earned. To win in this new landscape, here’s what you need to focus on: ✅ Be reference-worthy - your content needs to be clear, trusted, and well-structured so Google cites you in AI responses ✅ Double down on EEAT - expertise, experience, authority, and trustworthiness are critical to appearing in generative results ✅ Optimise for entity recognition - make it easy for Google to understand who you are and what you do at a semantic level ✅ Create for context, not just keywords - content must answer broader intent, not just rank for specific terms ✅ Embrace structured data - schema, FAQs, how-tos, and product markup are foundational to being picked up by AI systems ✅ Rethink your performance mix – this is key, it's never been more important for paid and organic to work together to own more of the AI-influenced customer journey. A siloed strategy is a big no no. Hello Everysearch™ It’s never been more important to seriously rethink how your brand shows up in search. #GoogleAIMode #FutureOfSearch #SEO #ContentStrategy #DigitalMarketing #FoundEverysearch Found.

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