How Google AI-powered search updates will impact your SEO, our updated ultimate HubSpot pros and cons list, and sales or marketing — which should you hire? ...this is THE LATEST!

🗞️ Extra, extra! Read all about it!

• Big SEO news: How Google's new AI-powered search updates will impact your SEO strategy
• Let's get real, y'all: Here is our completely updated, no-stone-unturned ultimate list of HubSpot pros and cons
• Attention business leaders: Who should you be hiring first for your company, sales or marketing?

💪 The Content Creation Bootcamp (with yours truly) is going down on November 10! Check out the full agenda and register using code CONTENTFITNESS to get your ticket for just $250! Not sure if the bootcamp is right for you? Check out this article: Content Creation Bootcamp: Who should really be attending?

As I laid in bed this morning counting the dots on my ceiling and passively pondering the inevitable heat death of the universe, I realized something. Much like Carina's most recent article on HubSpot pros and cons, my days are almost entirely governed by weighing pros and cons.

I'll show you what I mean... 

Decision 1: I should get out of bed

Con: Out of bed is the bad place, it is cold and devoid of fuzzy blankets.

Pro: Being employed is a good thing. 

Decision 2: I should get in the shower

Con: Shower is the cold, wet, dark place, and there's a lot of effort involved.

Pro: Not smelling is a good thing. 

Decision 3: I should get out of the shower

Con: Beyond the shower is dangerous. Here, I am cleansed, free, safe.

Pro: Ew, pruned fingers are gross.

Decision 4: I should put on real clothing

Con: Mmmm, pajamas. Nature's hug.

Pro: I will likely not be taken seriously during a meeting in a penguin onesie.

And on, and on. 

Now, should you read THE LATEST?

Con: Eh, it's Saturday and napping is awesome.

Pro: It'll take you less than five minutes to get through it, and afterward you'll be able to make smarter decisions faster — you can't lose.

I'll leave you to make your choice.

💡 Learn how your SEO strategy will be impacted by Google's new AI-powered search updates, with examples (4-minute read)

As the buying behaviors for consumers continue to evolve, Google has implemented new search updates that reflect those changes. More specifically, Google users will be able to become more educated around the topic, product, or service they’re searching for with these updates. And in this article from IMPACT Talent and Office Manager Carolyn Edgecomb, let’s dig into the new updates being released for search and see if they will have any impact on your brand’s SEO efforts.

🔎 Related resources:

• Google image search removes 'labeled for reuse' badge

• How to completely optimize your Google My Business listing

🤔 Buckle in for our completely overhauled ultimate list of HubSpot pros and cons for 2021 (20-minute read)

Is HubSpot right for your business? If you asked this question in 2010, when HubSpot was just a simple marketing software for small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs), the answer would be much more straightforward. In 2020, however, HubSpot is not only a robust digital marketing tool, but an entire platform of tools for your marketing, sales, and customer service teams. Luck for you, IMPACT Director of HubSpot Training Carina Duffy is here to save the day with this no-stone-unturned ultimate list of HubSpot pros and cons.

🔎 Related resources:

• Read our ultimate guide to HubSpot marketing for businesses
• IMPACT+ course: Marketing automation mastery with HubSpot workflows

📈 As a business leader, should you focus your initial hiring efforts on sales or marketing? (4-minute read)

When a business is growing and scaling up, hiring becomes an ever more pressing issue. You want to be able to get the right people on board, and into the right seats, as quickly as possible — while making sure company culture stays intact. You don’t want under-staffing to be a hindrance that holds back your growth. But when it comes to sales and marketing, which do you hire first? In this candid analysis from Marcus Sheridan, learn precisely how you should be hiring in sales and marketing for rapid growth.

🔎 Related resources:

• Ultimate list of company culture fit interview questions
• Ultimate list of marketing interview questions
• 18 questions for interviewing sales reps so you hire the right people

🏋️ Strengthen your content muscles on November 10

Check out the full agenda and register using code CONTENTFITNESS to get your ticket for just $250! (The regular price is $599, so woohoo!) Not sure if the bootcamp is right for you? Check out this article: Content Creation Bootcamp: Who should really be attending?

❤️ Get to know my work family (new feature alert✨)

I'm so lucky. I get to wake up every morning and work with the most passionate, focused, inspiring people in our industry.

So, even though we're living in a time when it's a little harder to forge new human connections, I thought it might be fun to introduce you to a new member from my IMPACT work family each week! 

Meet Melanie Collins

I've had the pleasure of working with IMPACT VP of Revenue Melanie Collins for a few years now, and we had an absolute blast rolling up our sleeves together as we (and others) helped build IMPACT's first revenue team this summer.

In addition to being a rockstar sales leader, what makes Melanie so wonderful to work with is her heart and how much she genuinely cares about people on her team. I've experienced this first-hand myself, but this story from fellow IMPACTer Genna Lepore sums it up:

"This week has been a doozy. Starting last Friday, my son was very sick and then I got pneumonia. Even though as a manager, it's her job to support me, Melanie has gone above and beyond and taken deals I was working on and knocked the work out of the park.I am so grateful for the support in what's been one crazy week. You go, Mel! #dreamteam" 

Here are a few of Melanie's greatest hits:

• Do we need a website redesign or a facelift?
• 6 top questions about jumping into virtual selling in the age of COVID-19
• 18 interview questions for sales reps so you hire the right people

⚠️ Free virtual event for businesses looking ahead to 2021

IMPACT is proud to be sponsoring the Better Business Summit hosted by BBB Serving Connecticut, November 17-19!

This is a free virtual event created to help business owners not just survive 2021 but THRIVE. Join IMPACT’s own Marcus Sheridan, Zach Basner, and Carina Duffy. They're ready to help you to set up your business for success as we close out 2020 and head full-steam ahead into 2021.

Join us by registering for free at betterbusinesssummit.com.

👀 In case you missed it... 

Here are a few of my favorites from the archives:

• Google Web Stories plugin now available for WordPress
• How to use Trello for your written business content strategy
• 11 signs you really desperately need a website redesign in 2021

🌶️ Hot topics in Elite

IMPACT Elite is our exclusive Facebook group for the brightest minds in digital sales and marketing. Here's a recent discussion that caught my eye:

• What tools or companies do you work with to create dynamic virtual presentations?

😍 Weeklong nonsense

With everything going on in the world, you now get nonsense in every single issue of THE LATEST...

That noise you hear in the distance is me awww-ing FOREVER.

Later, squares!