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Chatbot vs. Virtual Assistant

JUNE 24, 2026

Do you need a chatbot, a virtual assistant, or both?

While the terms are often used interchangeably, they solve different problems.

Chatbots excel at handling high-volume, repetitive interactions, while virtual assistants are designed for more complex, context-aware support. The right choice depends less on the tech itself and more on the experience you’re trying to create.

Chatbots are best for:

Answering FAQs
Order tracking and account inquiries
Lead qualification
Customer support triage
High-volume, low-complexity conversations
24/7 frontline support

Virtual assistants are best for:

Managing schedules and appointments
Handling multi-step workflows
Personalized customer interactions
Context-aware conversations
Cross-platform task execution
Voice-enabled experiences

The tradeoff is pretty straightforward. Chatbots are typically more affordable, easier to scale, and can manage thousands of conversations simultaneously. Virtual assistants offer deeper personalization, stronger natural language understanding, and the ability to complete tasks across multiple systems, but they often require greater investment and maintenance.

Dig deeper at Entrepreneur.

Reddit’s Role in The Buyer’s Journey

JUNE 22, 2026

Reddit’s latest research suggests that consumers increasingly turn to human conversations to sense-check purchases before they commit.

77% of Redditors say they visit two or more communities to validate a purchase decision, while 63% say they’re more confident in decisions informed by Reddit discussions than those influenced by other social platforms.

Even more telling: 58% say seeing a brand answer customer questions directly in a thread increases their trust in that brand.

Reddit calls this shift the “mission mindset,” or the moment when consumers actively investigate options rather than passively consume marketing messages.

That’s why brands need to participate in conversations, answer questions, and help buyers evaluate their options.

Consider this:

Buyers increasingly trust peer conversations over polished brand messaging.
Validation is becoming a distinct stage in the customer journey.
Community discussions can accelerate purchase confidence and decision-making.
Brand participation in relevant conversations can increase trust.
Consumers are more receptive when brands engage where research is already happening.

Check out Reddit’s full report for more.

When Not to Use AI

JUNE 21, 2026

Don’t use AI for emotional communication.

New research finds that people react significantly more negatively when they learn an emotional message was written by AI rather than a human.

Across six experiments involving more 2,200+ participants, AI-authored emotional messages consistently triggered feelings of inauthenticity and even moral disgust. The result?

That means less trust, less advocacy, and fewer positive brand interactions.

Check it out:

People were 24.6% less likely to recommend a brand after receiving an AI-written emotional message.
AI-authored messages generated 58.4% more moral disgust in certain customer communication scenarios.
Sympathy messages written by AI led to 23.6% less word-of-mouth sharing.
When a message was written by AI but signed by a person, participants reported 140.9% more moral disgust than when both the writing and signature came from a human.
Emotional messages were penalized far more heavily than factual ones.

So… write that apology, tribute, or heartfelt customer note yourself.

Hack AI Search with YouTube

JUNE 17, 2026

Software buyers increasingly ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews for recos instead of clicking through search results.

So, we need to start thinking beyond blog posts and start creating video content designed to answer the questions buyers are already asking.

Why? Because AI tools love structured, educational content. YouTube videos come with titles, descriptions, chapters, and transcripts that AI systems can easily parse, summarize, and cite.

Recent analyses found that YouTube is cited far more frequently than other video platforms and appears in a significant share of AI-generated search results.

For B2B SaaS, marketers should focus on content that directly answers buyer questions, demos products, and explains concepts clearly. Highly specific tutorials and comparison videos are particularly effective because AI systems can pull relevant sections directly from transcripts and timestamps.

A few video formats worth prioritizing:

Product comparison videos
Step-by-step tutorials
Feature walkthroughs
“Best software for…” listicles
Customer use cases and case studies
FAQ videos

Check out more on this insight from Videodeck.

The Half-Life of a LinkedIn Post

JUNE 15, 2026

We tend to treat LinkedIn like a 24-hour platform. Publish a post, collect engagement for a day, and move on to the next one.

But new data suggests that might be an outdated approach.

The average LinkedIn post now has a half-life of roughly 23 hours, and high-performing content can continue resurfacing in feeds for two to three weeks.

That means a single post has the potential to generate meaningful visibility long after the initial publishing window.

What does that mean for brands?

Prioritize quality over quantity.
Create content people want to save and reference later.
Lean into frameworks, checklists, and practical how-to content.
Stay focused on a few core topics to build authority.
Engage heavily during the first hour after publishing.
Measure performance over weeks, not just days.

Head to State of Brand for more.

How to Help Ad Platforms Find Your Best Customers

JUNE 14, 2026

As Google PMax and Meta Advantage+ automate more of the campaign management process, we have fewer manual controls than ever before.

The algorithm is doing the targeting, placement, and bidding. But we still control the signal we’re telling those platforms to optimize toward.

The problem is that we often choose conversion events based on what was easiest to set up rather than what actually predicts business success.

A form submission, newsletter signup, or trial start might be easy to track, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it represents a valuable customer.

Treat conversion events as a strategic business decision, not a tracking task. Some key recos:

Optimize for outcomes that reflect real customer value.
Consider backend or CRM events, not just website actions.
Use predictive proxy events if your true conversion takes too long.
Pass conversion values so platforms can prioritize quality over volume.
Implement server-side tracking to improve signal quality.
Send hashed email and phone data when appropriate.
Capture click IDs (like gclid and fbclid) for stronger attribution.
Deduplicate events across client-side and server-side sources.
Revisit conversion events regularly as your business evolves.

Check out the insight from Barbara Galiza.

How to Refresh Your Brand Without Alienating Your Audience

JUNE 10, 2026

Refreshing a brand is delicate.

You’ve got to stay relevant, but preserving customer trust is important, too.

It’s more about evolution than reinvention. Companies that dramatically change their identity risk confusing loyal customers, while those that refuse to adapt can appear outdated and disconnected from expectations.

The middle ground: modernized image, messaging, and customer experience that retains the core elements that your audience already recognizes and values.

So, start with customers, not design. Before updating logos, colors, or messaging, make sure you understand what your audience associates with your brand and which elements drive trust and loyalty.

Customer feedback, surveys, and social listening can reveal what should be preserved and what needs improvement. And clear communication is equally important. Customers are more likely to embrace change when they understand why it is happening and how it benefits them.

Here’s how to do it right:

1. Audit current brand perception and customer feedback.
2. Identify the brand elements that should remain unchanged.
3. Define clear objectives for the refresh.
4. Update visuals and messaging gradually rather than dramatically.
5. Test proposed changes with customers and stakeholders.
6. Communicate the reasons behind the refresh openly.
7. Roll out updates consistently across all channels and touchpoints.
8. Monitor customer reactions and adjust where needed.

Check out MarTech for more on how to refresh.

Zero-click searches hit 68% in early 2026

JUNE 9, 2026

As we’ve discussed recently, traditional SEO model continues to weaken as Google increasingly answers questions directly within search results.

A recent report shows the growing majority of searches (68%!) now end without a click to an external website, driven by AI Overviews, featured snippets, knowledge panels, and other on-SERP experiences.

Which means that visibility matters more than traffic alone. Users might still discover brands through search, but they are increasingly consuming information without ever visiting the source website.

Here are the key takeaways:

More than half of Google searches now end without an external click.
AI Overviews are accelerating the trend by answering informational queries directly on the results page.
Organic click-through rates decline significantly when AI-generated answers appear.
Brand visibility within AI answers may become as important as traditional rankings.
Original research, proprietary data, expert opinions, and first-hand experience are becoming more valuable because AI systems need authoritative sources to cite.
SEO strategies are evolving from “winning the click” to “winning the answer.”

Head over to Search Engine Land to learn more.

Agentic Commerce Is Coming for the Customer Journey

JUNE 8, 2026

For years, online shopping has followed a familiar path: consumers search for products, compare options, read reviews, and ultimately decide what to buy. But a new trend known as agentic commerce could reshape that entire process.

Instead of doing the research themselves, consumers may increasingly rely on AI agents to find products, compare prices, evaluate reviews, and even complete purchases on their behalf. Rather than browsing multiple websites, shoppers can simply define their needs, preferences, and budget while AI handles the heavy lifting.

This shift has major implications for marketers. If AI becomes a trusted decision-maker in the purchasing process, brands may need to think beyond attracting human attention. Product information, trust signals, pricing transparency, and structured data could become just as important as creative campaigns and website experiences. In other words, brands may soon be competing not only for consumer preference, but also for AI recommendation.

Here’s what to know:

AI agents may soon handle product research, comparison, and purchasing tasks.
Consumers could spend less time browsing websites and more time delegating decisions.
Product data quality and accuracy may become increasingly important.
Brands will need information that is easily interpreted by both humans and machines.
Trust signals, reviews, pricing transparency, and product details could carry greater weight.
Traditional SEO may evolve to include optimization for AI-powered recommendation systems.
Customer journeys may become shorter as AI removes friction from the buying process.
Marketers should begin evaluating how their products and content appear across AI platforms.

The takeaway: For decades, marketers focused on influencing consumer decisions. In the future, they may also need to influence the systems helping consumers make those decisions. Agentic commerce is changing who does the shopping.

Head to Yoast to learn more.

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