AI 🔗apps.

Google is ignoring the watchdogs, businesses can now integrate apps with AI, and more. January 18, 2023 [Read in browser]( [logo] [sponsor]( Good morning, you’re halfway through the week. This may sound like a personal question, but it’s actually marketing-related… What are you doing for Valentine’s Day? If you’d like $99 worth of holiday marketing insights for $0, we’d love to give it. You’ll find the details at the bottom of today’s stack. GOOGLE Not to bring up the topic of Topic API, but… [article-image] While the world is bracing for a cookieless future, Google keeps adding sand to the hourglass. It seems the tech giant is intent on [ignoring calls to rethink its Privacy Sandbox’s Topics API](, even though the ad-targeting system has raised concerns among privacy watchdogs. Head in the… sandbox: World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)—the global institution working on development of web standards—claims that Google’s proposed Topics API “fails to protect users and maintains status quo of inappropriate surveillance on the web.” Other browser engine developers including Mozilla joined the criticism, saying that Topics are “more likely to reduce usefulness of information than provide meaningful protection.” Not giving up: Google doesn’t seem ready to quit on Topics, especially since it scrapped FLoC, its original cookieless future solution. However, there also doesn’t seem to be much effort from Google to even discuss the issue, let alone resolve it… at least not in the near future. Why we care: For now, the future of the privacy-first and cookieless era may depend on how Google handles the transition, since they seem to be calling the shots. So far, it’s a game of poker between big tech and privacy regulators, and there are fears that law enforcers won’t be resolute enough to take big action against systematic breaches of privacy. Long story short, things are status quo. At least for the time being. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AI systems, please meet apps Good news: writers' block may soon fall into oblivion. … Because there may soon be dozens of AI writing assistants to help you. Now is that bad news… or better news? Microsoft wants to bridge the g-app: The company [launched Azure Open AI service](, allowing businesses to integrate Open AI’s tools with their own cloud apps. Businesses can now use DALL-E, ChatGPT3, and other AI systems for various apps and processes like support tickets, content matching, and countless more. … And this just days after rumors that Microsoft was looking to integrate OpenAI’s language models with Bing Search Engine, Word, PowerPoint, and other popular tools, too. Surf’s up: Meanwhile, [ChatGPT is launching an API]( that could unleash a wave of new marketing startups building around the technology. And if that sounds crazy, OpenAI-related queries [amount to 15 million visits per day]( – about 35% of Bing Search Engine volume. Tells you a lot about its magnitude and potential. Competition everywhere: Also, an Israeli startup has announced an AI text generating system that [cites sources](—a big issue with current AI language models. Sound familiar? [That’s because we already reported Google doing the same](. The race is on. Why we care: AI is finding its way to ordinary humans, and with big companies releasing APIs and integrations, the tech landscape could shift dramatically. And if that happens, you’ll want to sit in the front row. SPONSORED BY STORYBLOCKS Creating video just got easier and more affordable with Storyblocks [article-image]( So you need to create more video. But you’re feeling overwhelmed.—how do you make high-quality video content when you’re short on resources and time? [Storyblocks can help.]( Storyblocks is the subscription-based rapid video creation platform creators use to produce enough video to keep up with the demands of their audience. Their flexible budget-friendly subscriptions give you downloads of over a million 4K/HD footage clips, templates, music, sound effects, and more, making [producing high-quality creative content easy and fast](. Plus, you get built-in, easy-to-use tools like Maker, their in-platform video editor, and the Storyblocks Plugin for Premiere Pro, saving you time, stress, and money. Who says you have to sacrifice your vision just because you're on a limited budget? [Get started at just $30 a month with Storyblocks.]( MARKETING Doing outbound? Zig when everyone zags [article-image] Cold emails, outreach, sliding into LinkedIn DMs… When you’re slogging through an outbound campaign, the replies—or the silence—might make you feel like Tantalus, the mythological king punished by the Greek gods to remain forever hungry. So what can you do to earn the curiosity of potential clients? Well, Sam Bond recently [shared an interesting story](, describing how wit and newfangleness led a post-launch startup to its most successful outbound campaign. Let’s jump out of the proverbial box for a second… When fintech startup Brex launched in 2018 as the first corporate card for startups, it had $0 revenue and less than 30 employees. Brex needed early adopters… fast. Did the Brex team rely on cold emails? Or ask LinkedIn connections to “grab a coffee sometime?” Not really. They did the good ol’ zig while everyone was zagging. First, they scouted for the hottest prospects by running a Pitchbook report to determine which Series B startups raised a round in the last half year. That helped them find close to 300 companies. Then, they purchased 300 bottles of Veuve Clicquot champagne and delivered the bottles to the CEOs of those companies, along with a handwritten note of congratulations from Brex founder. From there, the Brex CEO followed up with an email asking if they’d be open to a demo. 75% accepted. Out of those, 75% of demos converted to first customers. Sam says this amounted to 169 new customers for a total spend of around $19k to buy the champagne, and prepare and deliver notes. Today, Brex is valued $12.3B, with more than 1100 employees and 50k customers. The unconventional champagne spree was definitely worth it. It was a unique method to pinpoint good leads and warm them up before initiating contact. A cool story, no? We hope it inspires you to do something similar. Like buying cookies. We love those… SPONSORED BY STACKED MARKETER PRO You asked, “What do high-converting landing pages have in common?” We analyzed 3,000+ pages. Here’s what we found… [article-image]( If you want to consistently write high converting pages with "grab ‘em by the eyeballs" copy… You need to study what works. Luckily for you, we already did. You’ll find our insights in [this deep-dive report](, including how to apply the 31 copywriting principles we found, and 151 examples of great landing page copy. This report, along with more than 20 others, is yours with a Stacked Marketer Pro membership. [Join Stacked Marketer Pro for $7 and start converting like crazy.]( THE CREW’S INSIGHTS Why you should be working with “impeccable agreements” [article-image] Ever heard of Alex MacCaw? He founded Clearbit, a company that’s done relatively well for itself to say the least. [Well, Alex wrote a handbook]( that describes how he manages his team. Our favorite concept in the handbook? Impeccable agreements. Here’s the premise: At work, we make agreements all the time. But, sometimes, people don’t keep agreements. This is a problem. As Alex writes, “imagine what would happen if we only kept 80% of our agreements. You could safely assume that two out of ten agreements wouldn’t be kept, but which two?” It’s easier said than done. So, an impeccable agreement relies on four pillars to work: - It’s recorded. In writing, somewhere. - It is precisely defined. So defined that a third party could know if it was finished. - It has a specific due date. - It has one directly responsible individual. Others can be involved, but there’s one person that the core responsibility falls onto. Most agreements fail because they’re missing at least one of the four elements above. The Crew’s insight: We tend to operate this way, though we don’t call it impeccable agreements, and it works remarkably well. If you use impeccable agreements and something fails, you can point to a specific problem. There’s never nebulous blame as to why the project didn’t succeed. How to use these: Now, you might not be a founder. But if you feel that agreements aren’t going as they should with your clients or managers, try introducing this concept to them. It’s hard to say “no” to. ROUNDING UP THE STACK [INFLUENCER MARKETING:]( Fact—most marketers don't know how to negotiate payment with influencers. Impact.com's free guide reveals the true cost of running influencer campaigns, and the top seven ways to pay influencers fairly and effectively. [Find out now.](* [TWITTER:]( Too big to fail? Although some advertisers fled the platform amid Elon Musk’s controversial takeover, dozens of media companies—including major sports publishers and news outlets—plan to run content deals on Twitter. Yes, that’s a lot of revenue. [GOOGLE:]( Don’t be surprised if you see a location override feature at the top of your results page. Looks like Google Search has been testing it for months and now there’s some more confirmation here. Could be useful! [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE:]( It’s snowballing. After the first lawsuits against text-to-image generators, a big player has now entered the chat. Getty Image is suing Stable Diffusion AI art tool for “unlawfully scrapping millions of images from their website.” Uh-oh. [SEO:]( Keep a clean head – or . Google’s John Mueller says you should avoid making the section of your html “brittle,” because if something’s broken, search engines will have to guess – not what you want if you’re an SEO. Noted. *This is a sponsored post BRAIN TEASER I welcome the day with a show of light, I stealthily came here in the night. I bathe the earthy stuff at dawn, But by noon, alas! I'm gone. What am I? You can find [the answer here](. [poolside-logo] POOLSIDE CHAT Cold photos that warm the heart [article-image] We’re not worried about the future of human photography. … Not as long as people can capture images that can suck you right into cold Nordic vistas, snow-covered hills, and spectral, otherworldly polar lights. [Like the work of this talented Finnish artist, for example.]( Seriously, how majestic are these photos? Maybe embedding an actual shivery experience into the image is what will make new, human art distinctive from AI-generated work… Some meditative thoughts while you scroll through this photo album… SHARING IS CARING Valentine’s Day is coming. How about getting holiday marketing tips worth $99 for $0? It’s easy: all you have to do is get four people to subscribe to our newsletter. That’s literally it. Just share the link below with other smart marketers, CEOs, and entrepreneurs, and you’ll earn access to The Ultimate Holiday Marketing Deep Dive. Takes 30 seconds! 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