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Here's THE LATEST from the marketing, business, and tech world...

Facebook's New Clear History Feature Could Make Ads Complicated, Creating Your Company Content Mission Statement, & Is the HubSpot CRM Really Free? ...This Is THE LATEST! So, I have two major announcements to make today. First, my beloved murder face, Pumpkin, fell asleep sitting up during our biweekly team meeting today -- and IMPACT Director of Audience Engagement and Community Stephanie Baiocchi happened to catch it: Fun fact: Cats snore. 😴 Second, our digital sales and marketing scorecard has been live for a little over a month. In that time, almost 100 different companies have gotten their scorecard results and recommendations. I'm a data nerd, so I decided to dive a little deeper into the numbers!  No organization received a perfect score. Only 5.2% scored between 81 and 99. Only 10.5% scored between 61 and 80. Then 33.6% scored between 41 and 60... ...and 33.6% (again) scored between 21 and 40!  Finally, 16.8% scored between 0 and 20.  And here's a little fun fact -- HubSpot apparently scored an 86, according to HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan: (Of course, each digital sales and marketing scorecard result comes with a personalized set of recommendations. We don't just say, "You scored two out of 100 possible points. Ouch. Good luck to you!" That would be awful.) Anyway, it's been interesting (for me, at least) to see what trends are already presenting themselves -- even though we've only had the scorecard live for such a short amount of time. I think I'm most surprised by how few companies have ranked in the top two scoring tiers. Then again, we've been in the inbound and content marketing game for awhile at IMPACT, and we're still always discovering new opportunities for us to improve, grow, and become better teachers for our audience.  But isn't that the way it should be? ✍️ If Your People Don't "Get" Why They Need to Create Content, You Need a Content Mission Statement You know what one of the hardest parts of content marketing is? Getting your people to understand why they should bother setting aside their "more important" tasks to create content (blog articles, videos, etc.) for your company. If that sounds familiar, there's one thing you can do immediately to get buy-in from your team and make content a culture at your company. You need to create a content mission statement, and here is exactly how you do it. (By yours truly. 😘) 💰 "So, When You Say the HubSpot CRM Is Free, Is It Actually Free or...?" I don't know about you all, but when someone says something is "free," I'm immediately waiting for them to tell me what the catch is. The same holds true for the HubSpot CRM -- it's advertised as a free CRM for sales teams with tons of features, but is there a catch? IMPACT Account Coordinator Lexie Ward spills the beans on whether or not you can get what you need from the HubSpot CRM for free (really).  ⚠️ If You Pay for Ads on Facebook, You Need to Know About Its New "Clear History" Feature It's no secret that Facebook has been in... let's say some "hot water" recently over data privacy issues. To combat that, it's adding a "clear history" option. This new feature is something consumers will love, but it's going to create some challenges -- or "complexifiers" as Jeff Bezos would say -- for businesses that advertise on Facebook. So, here is what all of you Facebook Ads buyers out there need to know about what the "clear history" feature is and how it will impact your future Facebook Ads campaigns. 👀 ... When You're All Ears (& Eyes)  "Podcast Promotion" (Inbound Success, Ep. 91) "I'm Giving You Permission to Sound Like Yourself" [Content Lab, Ep. 31] Funnel Health Over Time Reports, Self-Selection Marketing, & Updates to HubSpot Campaigns [Hubcast 226] How Opportunities Can Arise in Big & Small Ways [MarketHer Ep. 53] 🚨 Save Your Seat ATTENTION CONNECTICUT! In June, you'll have two different chances to get your learn on with IMPACT...  JUNE 11, HARTFORD: Want to learn from HubSpot's "Choose Your Own Adventure" lead nurturing strategy? HubSpot ninja Carina Duffy will spill all of her HubSpot secrets, and you should be there. JUNE 25, NEW HAVEN: The New Haven HUG will be hosting totally live website throwdowns! How does a website throwdown work? Our panel of experts will be critiquing websites from our audience and offering valuable tips and tricks to improve your site right away. Make sure to register -- and, if you dare, throw your site into the ring! ⏰ Throwback Thursday Last week, I got to be a fangirl by sitting in as a guest host on IMPACT's MarketHer podcast -- which I just love as a fan.  As you can see, we had a little bit of fun.  Aside from getting to live out one of my dreams as a MarketHer host, IMPACT Client Accountability Partner Kate Fodera and I had an incredible discussion about how we all need to think about opportunity differently and embrace the discomfort that comes along with it.  🗞️ What I'm Reading Without preamble or context, here what's inspiring me this week from around the web: HubSpot's Justin Champion talks about what it takes to create effective content in 2019 on Moz. (If you've ever listened to the Content Lab, you know Justin is one of my favorite humans and fellow content nerds.) The New York Times is bringing back their summer newsletter and shared lessons learned from their last "pop-up" newsletter with NiemanLab. I was today-years-old when I learned of a "pop-up" newsletter, and now I am utterly fascinated by what IMPACT can learn from their experiment. MarketingLand is blowing my mind with the fact that smart speaker sales are way up (not a surprise) and smartphone sales are in "freefall" (mind is blown). I'm still processing this information, but is this a blip or a sign of the times? That's all, folks! 🐷 P.S. Something is happening in IMPACT Elite on June 4. We'll tell you what it is soon, but if things like... oh, I don't know, Google Ads interest you, you're going to want to become a member now if you aren't already.  Liz Murphy Director, Web & Interactive Content @naptownpint I'm not interested at this time Sent by IMPACT, 470 James Street, Suite 10, New Haven, CT