Perspectives on marketing and management in the age of AI.https://chrishiggins.me/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/humans-buy-the-package-agents-need-proof/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/humans-buy-the-package-agents-need-proof/Your website sells by implication: imagery, fonts, language, the whole package. An AI agent researching your product can't see any of it. Keep the crafted page, and ship a second explicit surface with proof attached to every claim.Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/start-where-failure-is-loud/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/start-where-failure-is-loud/Marketing teams start AI with content generation, and the rollout quietly dies because nobody can see it failing. The fix is aimed at management: do content quickly, then pick a project where failure is loud.Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/what-breaks-when-marketing-gets-unblocked/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/what-breaks-when-marketing-gets-unblocked/Marketing's production ceiling was set by somebody else's capacity. AI is removing it, and the work nobody had to be good at is segmentation, reporting and retirement.Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/2023-exploring-nrr/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/2023-exploring-nrr/Some ideas on how to test different variants of NRR to uncover SaaS insightsThu, 19 Oct 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/why-we-love-chatgpt/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/why-we-love-chatgpt/Being able to ask questions without fear of judgement is powerful. So what happens to answer sites that used human generated content?Sun, 13 Aug 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/telling-completing-business-stories/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/telling-completing-business-stories/A great example of storytelling from a D2C founderSun, 21 May 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/2013-trust-b2b-buying-process/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/2013-trust-b2b-buying-process/The SVB collapse stirred up discussion on the nature of trust in banking. How does this relate to b2b purchases?Tue, 21 Mar 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/2023-mediabrief-interview-netcore-new-identity/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/2023-mediabrief-interview-netcore-new-identity/My recent interview with Mediabrief on the launch of Netcore's new brand identity.Sun, 19 Mar 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/3-most-common-push-notification-mistakes-that-brands-make/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/3-most-common-push-notification-mistakes-that-brands-make/many brands struggle to unlock the full potential of their notifications, failing to develop a comprehensive strategy for the channel that includes planning, creative and technical approaches.Wed, 22 Jun 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/customers-should-love-unboxing-your-product/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/customers-should-love-unboxing-your-product/Apple turned opening a box into part of the product. Most companies still ship brown cardboard and cable ties.Mon, 13 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/matching-search-ads-with-consumer-journey/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/matching-search-ads-with-consumer-journey/What a buyer needs to know changes at every stage. Most search ad copy is written as though it doesn't.Sat, 11 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/searches-for-your-old-products-are-valuable/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/searches-for-your-old-products-are-valuable/I went looking for a laptop and found a mess of retailer pages for products nobody sells any more. That traffic is worth something.Thu, 09 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/why-your-website-shouldnt-have-faqs/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/why-your-website-shouldnt-have-faqs/The UK Government style guide argues against FAQs. Once you read the reasoning it is hard to justify keeping them.Wed, 04 Dec 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/why-video-games-are-making-beautiful-ads/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/why-video-games-are-making-beautiful-ads/Video games outsell the global box office several times over. The advertising budgets have started to show it.Fri, 15 Nov 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/how-spiders-fly-fascinating-science/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/how-spiders-fly-fascinating-science/Spiders can fly, and the science of how is stranger than expected. A reminder of how much is still undiscovered.Tue, 12 Nov 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/should-sme-e-commerce-offer-coupons-a-step-by-step-guide/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/should-sme-e-commerce-offer-coupons-a-step-by-step-guide/Coupons went from newspaper cutouts to email codes. A step-by-step look at whether a small e-commerce business should use them.Sun, 10 Nov 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/do-companies-need-a-cmo/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/do-companies-need-a-cmo/Only 70% of Fortune 500 companies have a CMO, and the number keeps falling. Where does the work go instead?Wed, 23 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/losing-pitches-to-boring-work/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/losing-pitches-to-boring-work/Why do mediocre ads keep getting made? Sometimes the boring pitch is the one that wins.Tue, 22 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/getting-started-with-ai-in-marketing/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/getting-started-with-ai-in-marketing/We keep hearing AI will transform marketing. The people who could build it are being hired to do more interesting things.Mon, 21 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/the-war-on-fake-social-media-accounts/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/the-war-on-fake-social-media-accounts/A long game of cat and mouse is starting between social networks and the governments running fake accounts on them.Wed, 16 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/digital-ad-fraud-is-huge-and-it-doesnt-matter-to-advertisers/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/digital-ad-fraud-is-huge-and-it-doesnt-matter-to-advertisers/Ad fraud still takes a huge share of the ad economy. The strange part is how little advertisers seem to mind.Mon, 14 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/deepfakes-and-the-race-to-detect-them/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/deepfakes-and-the-race-to-detect-them/Fake text already did plenty of damage. What happens when the fake news is a video of someone you trust?Fri, 27 Sep 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/what-is-your-b2b-digital-marketing-attribution-model/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/what-is-your-b2b-digital-marketing-attribution-model/Survey data on the attribution models B2B marketing managers actually use, and what the spread says about the discipline.Wed, 25 Sep 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/what-does-a-data-scientist-do-not-just-math/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/what-does-a-data-scientist-do-not-just-math/India has plenty of people strong at math and coding. The shortage in data science is problem solving.Tue, 24 Sep 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/when-should-you-start-marketing/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/when-should-you-start-marketing/The best time to start marketing is before you have anything to sell. Real estate developers understand this.Tue, 27 Aug 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/amazon-vs-swiggy-customers-vs-merchants/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/amazon-vs-swiggy-customers-vs-merchants/Amazon polices merchant pricing while Swiggy courts restaurants. Whose side is a platform really on?Mon, 26 Aug 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/how-2014-was-supposed-to-be/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/how-2014-was-supposed-to-be/A 2014 whitepaper promised the end of spreadsheets for lead management. In 2019 I still meet companies emailing them back and forth.Fri, 23 Aug 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/what-3-words-whats-your-unique-address/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/what-3-words-whats-your-unique-address/What3Words gives every 3m square on earth a three word address. Worth a look, and worth asking why addresses fail.Wed, 21 Aug 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/how-we-remember-genius/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/how-we-remember-genius/Newton did alchemy and Jobs washed his feet in the office toilets. We remember genius selectively.Mon, 11 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/nostalgia-and-marketing/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/nostalgia-and-marketing/Vinyl was supposed to disappear and instead grew every year for a decade. Nostalgia is a product category.Sun, 03 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/making-scared-people-feel-respected/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/making-scared-people-feel-respected/The best speaker at a conference I nearly skipped ran a mall in a small Indian town. His catchment numbers explain a lot.Wed, 30 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/why-most-content-marketing-fails/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/why-most-content-marketing-fails/Most content marketing fails for an unglamorous reason. It gets stopped before it had a chance to work.Sat, 29 Dec 2018 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/do-you-have-a-whatsapp-phone/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/do-you-have-a-whatsapp-phone/In rural India, an internet phone is just a WhatsApp phone. There is a lesson there about explaining products.Tue, 18 Dec 2018 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/what-the-placebo-effect-can-teach-marketing/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/what-the-placebo-effect-can-teach-marketing/The placebo effect is real and still poorly understood. Naming and packaging change how well a thing works.Fri, 07 Dec 2018 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/digital-marketers-need-to-understand-statistical-significance/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/digital-marketers-need-to-understand-statistical-significance/Marketers are using more data, which is good. Most conclusions drawn from PPC tests are not statistically significant.Thu, 06 Dec 2018 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/lose-the-marketing-excuses/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/lose-the-marketing-excuses/It is easy to list what you don't have that others do. The dice were thrown long ago, so the complaining is wasted energy.Wed, 05 Dec 2018 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/why-in-housing-digital-marketing-often-fails/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/why-in-housing-digital-marketing-often-fails/In-housing promises control, savings and focus. The arguments for it are mostly about agencies rather than capability.Fri, 23 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/the-basics-of-management/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/the-basics-of-management/The basics of management are simple to write down. That is not the same as easy to do.Tue, 13 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/kids-and-technology-the-digital-divide/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/kids-and-technology-the-digital-divide/We worried that poor kids would get less technology. The divide turned out to be about something else.Mon, 12 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/be-inspired-by-marketing-systems-not-ad-campaigns/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/be-inspired-by-marketing-systems-not-ad-campaigns/Campaigns are easy to copy, which is why copying them rarely works. Look at the system behind them instead.Mon, 05 Feb 2018 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/how-to-use-analytics-to-check-whether-your-seo-efforts-are-working/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/how-to-use-analytics-to-check-whether-your-seo-efforts-are-working/SEO produces a maze of metrics, rankings and results. Which of them actually tell you it is working?Tue, 05 Dec 2017 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/who-is-not-your-ideal-customer/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/who-is-not-your-ideal-customer/A cold caller asked how likely I would be to invest. The phrasing was clever and the question was still useless.Mon, 13 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/what-are-we-improving-this-week/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/what-are-we-improving-this-week/Get excited about AI and chatbots and the redesign. The question that actually moves numbers is what you improve this week.Tue, 31 Oct 2017 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/how-to-stop-doing-low-value-work/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/how-to-stop-doing-low-value-work/Early in your career someone else sets your priorities. After that, choosing what to ignore becomes the hard part.Wed, 11 Oct 2017 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/other-people-have-it-easy/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/other-people-have-it-easy/When it goes well it was our skill. When it doesn't, it was someone else. A note on how we account for our own work.Fri, 15 Sep 2017 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/fear-of-failure-doesnt-feel-like-a-fear/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/fear-of-failure-doesnt-feel-like-a-fear/Real fears make you scream. Fear of failure is quieter, which is exactly why it goes unnoticed.Tue, 29 Aug 2017 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/useless-metrics/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/useless-metrics/Digital marketing makes it very easy to measure things that cannot change a single decision.Mon, 24 Jul 2017 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/being-great-at-what-you-do/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/being-great-at-what-you-do/A great marketer grows brands and sells things. A great programmer ships. What does great look like in your job?Fri, 23 Jun 2017 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/constructive-vs-negative-conflict/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/constructive-vs-negative-conflict/Conflict is useful when everyone wants the same outcome and disagrees on the route. It stops being useful when the outcome itself is up for grabs.Mon, 12 Jun 2017 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/are-you-getting-better-on-average/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/are-you-getting-better-on-average/Sport is obsessed with averages, and most of them are objective. The useful ones for your team probably aren't.Mon, 29 May 2017 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/choosing-for-or-against/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/choosing-for-or-against/Every choice feels like picking something. Usually it is really about what you are giving up.Fri, 26 May 2017 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/the-right-obsession/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/the-right-obsession/Companies pour enormous energy into watching competitors. That attention has a better use.Fri, 12 May 2017 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/will-it-be-different-this-time/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/will-it-be-different-this-time/A complaint about machines replacing labour, written in the early 1800s. Every automation wave sounds the same.Tue, 21 Mar 2017 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/the-power-of-asking-why-do-we-do-it-this-way/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/the-power-of-asking-why-do-we-do-it-this-way/Our agency is changing a few small things. Most of them came from asking why we did it the old way at all.Fri, 13 May 2016 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/levis-documentary-on-the-501-discover-the-story-of-the-legendary-jeans/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/levis-documentary-on-the-501-discover-the-story-of-the-legendary-jeans/The story of the 501, and how a piece of clothing we take for granted began as a collision of engineering and tailoring.Mon, 21 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMThttps://chrishiggins.me/posts/ge-helps-a-snowball-to-survive-hell-and-captures-lightning-in-a-bottle/https://chrishiggins.me/posts/ge-helps-a-snowball-to-survive-hell-and-captures-lightning-in-a-bottle/GE's Unimpossible Missions is what happens when a brand treats its own technology as the story.Mon, 15 Feb 2016 00:00:00 GMT