7 best CRMs for restaurant businesses in 2025

Managing a restaurant is tough work. Between juggling tables, staff, and endless orders, keeping track of customer relationships can feel impossible. That's where restaurant CRM software becomes your secret weapon.

According to the Pareto Principle, 80% of restaurant sales come from just 20% of repeat customers. So, you'll need a good CRM that helps you turn first-time visitors into loyal regulars by tracking preferences, automating marketing, and creating personalized dining experiences.

Let's look at the best restaurant CRM solutions available in 2025. We‘ll compare features, pricing, and show you how each system can help your restaurant grow. Plus, you’ll discover how Italian food brand Galbani Professionale sold over 20 tons of products by implementing HubSpot's CRM. 

Table of Contents

• What is a CRM for restaurants?
• Best CRM Software for Restaurant Businesses
• Benefits of CRM Software for Restaurants
• 6 Important Features for a Restaurant CRM
• How to Choose a CRM for Restaurants (Step-by-Step)
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Meet HubSpot, the Top CRM Choice for Restaurant Companies

What is a CRM for restaurants?

A restaurant CRM is specialized software that helps you manage customer relationships and dining experiences. It collects guest data like contact details, order history, and preferences to create personalized service.

For example, HubSpot CRM unifies guest data and enables personalized dining experiences across sales, marketing, and service teams.

Best CRMs for Restaurants at a Glance

Best CRM Software for Restaurant Businesses

Finding the right CRM can transform how you connect with customers and grow your business. Here are our top solutions for restaurants in 2025:

1. HubSpot

Best For: HubSpot works best for growing restaurants that need marketing automation and customer relationship tools

HubSpot's Smart CRM offers enterprise CRM functionality to help you unify your data, teams, and tech stacks on one platform. What makes HubSpot perfect for restaurants is its combination of powerful CRM features with marketing automation, all starting completely free.

Businesses like Amadori, a leading company in the food sector, have turned their websites into central hubs for all customer interactions and leverage a service management system that boosts customer experience by using HubSpot's CRM.

Key HubSpot Features:

• HubSpot's contact management offers storage for unlimited customer profiles with dining preferences, order history, and special dates like birthdays and anniversaries
• HubSpot's email marketing tools send targeted campaigns based on customer behavior, with up to 2,000 free emails monthly
• HubSpot's automation workflows follow up with guests, send birthday offers, and nurture customer relationships without manual work

HubSpot Pricing:

• Free: Unlimited contacts, basic CRM, limited forms, and email marketing (up to 2,000 emails/month)
• Starter: $15/month per user - Remove branding, advanced features
• Professional: Starts at $890/month - Marketing automation, custom reporting
• Enterprise: $3,600/month - Advanced AI, customer journey analytics

2. SevenRooms

Source

Best For: Upscale restaurants focused on premium guest experiences

This popular reservation and CRM solution is designed to give operators and their teams insight into the guest journey. The platform is known for creating detailed guest profiles and personalized experiences.

Key Features:

• Actionable Guest Profiles – Track detailed preferences, spending patterns, and visit history across a wide range of touchpoints
• Marketing Automation – Automated email campaigns with advanced segmentation and personalization
• Multi-location Management – Centralized guest data across multiple restaurant locations

Pricing: Contact the CRM for a quote, but a free trial is available.

3. OpenTable

Source

Best For: Restaurants prioritizing reservation management and diner discovery

This CRM's main offering is its reservation system that includes a comprehensive diner network designed to help fill seats. With its large consumer base, OpenTable is known for boosting discoverabiltiy.  

Key Features:

• Diner Network – Access to a vast array of diners actively searching for restaurants
• Guest Profiles – Collect preferences, spending data, and visit frequency
• Email Marketing – Send targeted campaigns before and after dining experiences

Pricing: 3 tiers—Basic starting at $149 a month, Core at $299/month, and Pro at $499 per month

4. Toast

Source

Best For: Restaurants wanting integrated Point Of Sale (POS) and CRM functionality

The CRM is primarily recognized as a POS system with reservation and table management features. The CRM capabilities are built into their comprehensive restaurant management platform.

Key Features:

• Integrated POS Data – Automatically capture order history and preferences from point-of-sale transactions
• Email Segmentation – Create targeted campaigns based on detailed purchase data
• Loyalty Programs – Built-in credit card-linked rewards system

Pricing: Free Starter Kit (great for single-location restaurants); Point of Sale plan starts at $69/month; Custom pricing for Build Your Own plan.

5. Resy

Source

Best For: Fine dining restaurants seeking premium reservation experiences

As a reservation platform with an impressive consumer diner network, it's designed for upscale establishments that want to maintain their brand while attracting quality diners.

Key Features:

• Premium Diner Network – Attracts higher-spending diners in major metropolitan areas
• Guest Information Collection – Captures contact details, special occasions, and dietary restrictions
• Survey Integration – Automated post-dining feedback collection

Pricing: Pricing typically starts at $249/month, which includes core features

6. Tock

Source

Best For: Restaurants with events, special experiences, or prepaid dining

This CRM is appreciated for it's avility to give users more ownership over guest data, making it great for restaurants that want greater control over customer relationships.

Key Features:

• Prepaid Reservations – dvanced payment options
• Event Management – Cam mange special dinners, wine tastings, and unique experiences
• Data Ownership – Extensive control over guest information and marketing

Pricing: Basic: $79/month; Essential: $199/month; Premium: $399/month; Premium Unlimited: $769/month

7. EatApp

Source

Best For: Budget-conscious restaurants needing basic CRM functionality

This cloud-based reservation management system also functions as a CRM and offers white-label solutions that let you maintain your brand identity.

Key Features:

• White-Label Solution – Customize the platform with your restaurant's branding
• Multi-Location Support – Manage several restaurants from one dashboard
• Basic Automation – Automated SMS and email marketing capabilities

Pricing: Free tier providing up to 30 covers/month. It also has three paid plan options: Starter ($49/month), Essential ($129/month), and Pro ($229/month)

Benefits of CRM Software for Restaurants

Restaurant CRM systems like HubSpot deliver measurable benefits that directly impact your bottom line. Here's how:

Increased Customer Retention: The hospitality industry, which includes restaurants, has a lower average retention rate of about 55%. HubSpot helps you beat this average by tracking customer preferences and automating follow-up communications. 

Higher Revenue Per Customer: Repeat customers spend 67% more than new customers. HubSpot CRM helps identify your best customers and create targeted offers that increase their spending by using features like Custom Properties and Standard Contact Scoring.  

Reduced Marketing Costs: Retaining existing customers is also five times more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. Instead of spending heavily on advertising, you can focus on nurturing existing relationships with HubSpot Breeze AI, email marketing tools, or Marketing Hub.

Better Staff Efficiency: CRMs automate routine tasks like birthday reminders, follow-up emails, and reservation confirmations, freeing your staff to focus on delivering exceptional service. With HubSpot, these tasks are even easier with features like HubSpot's marketing automation tools.

Data-Driven Decisions: With HubSpot's advanced analytics capabilities, you can see which menu items are most popular, when your busiest times are, and which marketing campaigns work best.

6 Important Features for a Restaurant CRM

When choosing a restaurant CRM, focus on features that directly impact your daily operations and customer relationships:

• Guest Profiles and Preferences - Store detailed information about dietary restrictions, favorite dishes, seating preferences, and special occasions like anniversaries. HubSpot's detailed customer profiles are an excellent example of this feature. 

• Reservation Management – Integrated booking system that captures guest data and reduces no-shows through automated confirmations. HubSpot's free scheduling tool makes booking appointments easier by empowering customers to book appointments that align with their busy schedules. 

• Email Marketing and Automation – Send targeted campaigns based on visit frequency, spending patterns, and customer preferences using HubSpot email automation tools. 

• POS Integration – Automatically sync transaction data to build comprehensive guest profiles without manual data entry. HubSpot boasts many native POS integrations. 

• Multi-Location Management – Centralized dashboard for restaurant groups managing multiple locations and shared customer databases. HubSpot's Reporting Dashboard centralizes your data and gathers actionable information on your restaurant's marketing, sales, and customer service performance. 

How to Choose a CRM for Restaurants (Step-by-Step)

Finding the right CRM doesn't have to be overwhelming. Follow these steps to make the best choice for your restaurant:

Step 1: Map Your Workflows. Start by documenting how customers interact with your restaurant. Do they mostly make reservations online? Order takeout? Walk in?

Understanding these touchpoints helps you choose a CRM that captures data from all customer interactions.

Step 2: Identify Must-Have Features. List the features you absolutely need versus nice-to-have options.

For example, a casual dining spot might prioritize email marketing over complex reservation management, while fine-dining restaurants might need advanced guest profiling more than loyalty programs.

Step 3: Compare Ease of Use and Team Fit. Most restaurant operators name staffing and training as top challenges to success. Choose a system that's intuitive enough for your team to learn quickly without extensive training.

Step 4: Check Cost at Scale. Consider both current and future costs. A free system might work now, but will the pricing still make sense when you have 5,000 customers instead of 500? Factor in per-user fees, contact limits, and feature restrictions.

Step 5: Choose a Flexible Platform — Like HubSpot. The best restaurant CRMs grow with your business. HubSpot's Smart CRM offers enterprise CRM functionality to help you unify your data, teams, and tech stacks on one platform. Furthermore, businesses like Amadori consolidated lead generation, email marketing, social media marketing, and CRM tools into a single hub

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best CRM for restaurants?

HubSpot stands out as the best overall CRM for restaurants because it combines powerful customer management with marketing automation at an excellent price point.

Starting completely free, it grows with your business and offers services from basic contact management to advanced email campaigns and workflow automation.

What features should I look for in a CRM for restaurants?

Focus on guest profile management, POS integration, email marketing capabilities, reservation management, and automated follow-up systems, all of which are features found in HubSpot's tools. 

The most important feature is the ability to track customer preferences and dining history to create personalized experiences that encourage repeat visits.

Is HubSpot good for restaurants?

Yes, HubSpot is excellent for restaurants. Its free CRM tier provides basic marketing tools, while paid plans offer advanced automation perfect for restaurant marketing.

The platform's flexibility lets you start simple and add features as your restaurant grows, making it ideal for businesses of all sizes.

How much does a CRM for restaurants cost?

Restaurant CRM pricing varies widely. HubSpot offers a free option with unlimited contacts, while premium solutions from other CRMs cost thousands of dollars annually.

Most restaurants find good value in the $50-300 monthly range, depending on the features needed and restaurant size.

Meet HubSpot, the Top CRM Choice for Restaurant Companies

HubSpot has become the go-to CRM solution for smart restaurant operators who want to grow their business without breaking the bank. It's no wonder Amadori achieved cost savings by transitioning from multiple disjointed systems to a unified HubSpot solution.

Here's why thousands more restaurants and food-related businesses trust HubSpot:

• Free Forever Plan – Start with unlimited contacts, basic CRM features, and email marketing without any upfront costs or hidden fees

• Marketing Automation Built-In – Automatically send birthday offers, follow up with first-time diners, and nurture customer relationships without manual work

• Scales With Your Success – Begin free and upgrade only when you need advanced features, ensuring you never pay for capabilities you don't use

HubSpot gives you complete ownership of your customer information while providing the tools to act on it effectively. Ready to see how HubSpot can work for your restaurant business? 

Get started with HubSpot today and discover why it's the CRM choice that grows with your success.

from Marketing https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/7-best-crms-for-restaurant-businesses-in-2025

Managing a restaurant is tough work. Between juggling tables, staff, and endless orders, keeping track of customer relationships can feel impossible. That's where restaurant CRM software becomes your secret weapon.

According to the Pareto Principle, 80% of restaurant sales come from just 20% of repeat customers. So, you'll need a good CRM that helps you turn first-time visitors into loyal regulars by tracking preferences, automating marketing, and creating personalized dining experiences.

Let's look at the best restaurant CRM solutions available in 2025. We‘ll compare features, pricing, and show you how each system can help your restaurant grow. Plus, you’ll discover how Italian food brand Galbani Professionale sold over 20 tons of products by implementing HubSpot's CRM. 

Table of Contents

• What is a CRM for restaurants?
• Best CRM Software for Restaurant Businesses
• Benefits of CRM Software for Restaurants
• 6 Important Features for a Restaurant CRM
• How to Choose a CRM for Restaurants (Step-by-Step)
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Meet HubSpot, the Top CRM Choice for Restaurant Companies

What is a CRM for restaurants?

A restaurant CRM is specialized software that helps you manage customer relationships and dining experiences. It collects guest data like contact details, order history, and preferences to create personalized service.

For example, HubSpot CRM unifies guest data and enables personalized dining experiences across sales, marketing, and service teams.

Best CRMs for Restaurants at a Glance

Best CRM Software for Restaurant Businesses

Finding the right CRM can transform how you connect with customers and grow your business. Here are our top solutions for restaurants in 2025:

1. HubSpot

Best For: HubSpot works best for growing restaurants that need marketing automation and customer relationship tools

HubSpot's Smart CRM offers enterprise CRM functionality to help you unify your data, teams, and tech stacks on one platform. What makes HubSpot perfect for restaurants is its combination of powerful CRM features with marketing automation, all starting completely free.

Businesses like Amadori, a leading company in the food sector, have turned their websites into central hubs for all customer interactions and leverage a service management system that boosts customer experience by using HubSpot's CRM.

Key HubSpot Features:

• HubSpot's contact management offers storage for unlimited customer profiles with dining preferences, order history, and special dates like birthdays and anniversaries
• HubSpot's email marketing tools send targeted campaigns based on customer behavior, with up to 2,000 free emails monthly
• HubSpot's automation workflows follow up with guests, send birthday offers, and nurture customer relationships without manual work

HubSpot Pricing:

• Free: Unlimited contacts, basic CRM, limited forms, and email marketing (up to 2,000 emails/month)
• Starter: $15/month per user - Remove branding, advanced features
• Professional: Starts at $890/month - Marketing automation, custom reporting
• Enterprise: $3,600/month - Advanced AI, customer journey analytics

2. SevenRooms

Source

Best For: Upscale restaurants focused on premium guest experiences

This popular reservation and CRM solution is designed to give operators and their teams insight into the guest journey. The platform is known for creating detailed guest profiles and personalized experiences.

Key Features:

• Actionable Guest Profiles – Track detailed preferences, spending patterns, and visit history across a wide range of touchpoints
• Marketing Automation – Automated email campaigns with advanced segmentation and personalization
• Multi-location Management – Centralized guest data across multiple restaurant locations

Pricing: Contact the CRM for a quote, but a free trial is available.

3. OpenTable

Source

Best For: Restaurants prioritizing reservation management and diner discovery

This CRM's main offering is its reservation system that includes a comprehensive diner network designed to help fill seats. With its large consumer base, OpenTable is known for boosting discoverabiltiy.  

Key Features:

• Diner Network – Access to a vast array of diners actively searching for restaurants
• Guest Profiles – Collect preferences, spending data, and visit frequency
• Email Marketing – Send targeted campaigns before and after dining experiences

Pricing: 3 tiers—Basic starting at $149 a month, Core at $299/month, and Pro at $499 per month

4. Toast

Source

Best For: Restaurants wanting integrated Point Of Sale (POS) and CRM functionality

The CRM is primarily recognized as a POS system with reservation and table management features. The CRM capabilities are built into their comprehensive restaurant management platform.

Key Features:

• Integrated POS Data – Automatically capture order history and preferences from point-of-sale transactions
• Email Segmentation – Create targeted campaigns based on detailed purchase data
• Loyalty Programs – Built-in credit card-linked rewards system

Pricing: Free Starter Kit (great for single-location restaurants); Point of Sale plan starts at $69/month; Custom pricing for Build Your Own plan.

5. Resy

Source

Best For: Fine dining restaurants seeking premium reservation experiences

As a reservation platform with an impressive consumer diner network, it's designed for upscale establishments that want to maintain their brand while attracting quality diners.

Key Features:

• Premium Diner Network – Attracts higher-spending diners in major metropolitan areas
• Guest Information Collection – Captures contact details, special occasions, and dietary restrictions
• Survey Integration – Automated post-dining feedback collection

Pricing: Pricing typically starts at $249/month, which includes core features

6. Tock

Source

Best For: Restaurants with events, special experiences, or prepaid dining

This CRM is appreciated for it's avility to give users more ownership over guest data, making it great for restaurants that want greater control over customer relationships.

Key Features:

• Prepaid Reservations – dvanced payment options
• Event Management – Cam mange special dinners, wine tastings, and unique experiences
• Data Ownership – Extensive control over guest information and marketing

Pricing: Basic: $79/month; Essential: $199/month; Premium: $399/month; Premium Unlimited: $769/month

7. EatApp

Source

Best For: Budget-conscious restaurants needing basic CRM functionality

This cloud-based reservation management system also functions as a CRM and offers white-label solutions that let you maintain your brand identity.

Key Features:

• White-Label Solution – Customize the platform with your restaurant's branding
• Multi-Location Support – Manage several restaurants from one dashboard
• Basic Automation – Automated SMS and email marketing capabilities

Pricing: Free tier providing up to 30 covers/month. It also has three paid plan options: Starter ($49/month), Essential ($129/month), and Pro ($229/month)

Benefits of CRM Software for Restaurants

Restaurant CRM systems like HubSpot deliver measurable benefits that directly impact your bottom line. Here's how:

Increased Customer Retention: The hospitality industry, which includes restaurants, has a lower average retention rate of about 55%. HubSpot helps you beat this average by tracking customer preferences and automating follow-up communications. 

Higher Revenue Per Customer: Repeat customers spend 67% more than new customers. HubSpot CRM helps identify your best customers and create targeted offers that increase their spending by using features like Custom Properties and Standard Contact Scoring.  

Reduced Marketing Costs: Retaining existing customers is also five times more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. Instead of spending heavily on advertising, you can focus on nurturing existing relationships with HubSpot Breeze AI, email marketing tools, or Marketing Hub.

Better Staff Efficiency: CRMs automate routine tasks like birthday reminders, follow-up emails, and reservation confirmations, freeing your staff to focus on delivering exceptional service. With HubSpot, these tasks are even easier with features like HubSpot's marketing automation tools.

Data-Driven Decisions: With HubSpot's advanced analytics capabilities, you can see which menu items are most popular, when your busiest times are, and which marketing campaigns work best.

6 Important Features for a Restaurant CRM

When choosing a restaurant CRM, focus on features that directly impact your daily operations and customer relationships:

• Guest Profiles and Preferences - Store detailed information about dietary restrictions, favorite dishes, seating preferences, and special occasions like anniversaries. HubSpot's detailed customer profiles are an excellent example of this feature. 

• Reservation Management – Integrated booking system that captures guest data and reduces no-shows through automated confirmations. HubSpot's free scheduling tool makes booking appointments easier by empowering customers to book appointments that align with their busy schedules. 

• Email Marketing and Automation – Send targeted campaigns based on visit frequency, spending patterns, and customer preferences using HubSpot email automation tools. 

• POS Integration – Automatically sync transaction data to build comprehensive guest profiles without manual data entry. HubSpot boasts many native POS integrations. 

• Multi-Location Management – Centralized dashboard for restaurant groups managing multiple locations and shared customer databases. HubSpot's Reporting Dashboard centralizes your data and gathers actionable information on your restaurant's marketing, sales, and customer service performance. 

How to Choose a CRM for Restaurants (Step-by-Step)

Finding the right CRM doesn't have to be overwhelming. Follow these steps to make the best choice for your restaurant:

Step 1: Map Your Workflows. Start by documenting how customers interact with your restaurant. Do they mostly make reservations online? Order takeout? Walk in?

Understanding these touchpoints helps you choose a CRM that captures data from all customer interactions.

Step 2: Identify Must-Have Features. List the features you absolutely need versus nice-to-have options.

For example, a casual dining spot might prioritize email marketing over complex reservation management, while fine-dining restaurants might need advanced guest profiling more than loyalty programs.

Step 3: Compare Ease of Use and Team Fit. Most restaurant operators name staffing and training as top challenges to success. Choose a system that's intuitive enough for your team to learn quickly without extensive training.

Step 4: Check Cost at Scale. Consider both current and future costs. A free system might work now, but will the pricing still make sense when you have 5,000 customers instead of 500? Factor in per-user fees, contact limits, and feature restrictions.

Step 5: Choose a Flexible Platform — Like HubSpot. The best restaurant CRMs grow with your business. HubSpot's Smart CRM offers enterprise CRM functionality to help you unify your data, teams, and tech stacks on one platform. Furthermore, businesses like Amadori consolidated lead generation, email marketing, social media marketing, and CRM tools into a single hub

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best CRM for restaurants?

HubSpot stands out as the best overall CRM for restaurants because it combines powerful customer management with marketing automation at an excellent price point.

Starting completely free, it grows with your business and offers services from basic contact management to advanced email campaigns and workflow automation.

What features should I look for in a CRM for restaurants?

Focus on guest profile management, POS integration, email marketing capabilities, reservation management, and automated follow-up systems, all of which are features found in HubSpot's tools. 

The most important feature is the ability to track customer preferences and dining history to create personalized experiences that encourage repeat visits.

Is HubSpot good for restaurants?

Yes, HubSpot is excellent for restaurants. Its free CRM tier provides basic marketing tools, while paid plans offer advanced automation perfect for restaurant marketing.

The platform's flexibility lets you start simple and add features as your restaurant grows, making it ideal for businesses of all sizes.

How much does a CRM for restaurants cost?

Restaurant CRM pricing varies widely. HubSpot offers a free option with unlimited contacts, while premium solutions from other CRMs cost thousands of dollars annually.

Most restaurants find good value in the $50-300 monthly range, depending on the features needed and restaurant size.

Meet HubSpot, the Top CRM Choice for Restaurant Companies

HubSpot has become the go-to CRM solution for smart restaurant operators who want to grow their business without breaking the bank. It's no wonder Amadori achieved cost savings by transitioning from multiple disjointed systems to a unified HubSpot solution.

Here's why thousands more restaurants and food-related businesses trust HubSpot:

• Free Forever Plan – Start with unlimited contacts, basic CRM features, and email marketing without any upfront costs or hidden fees

• Marketing Automation Built-In – Automatically send birthday offers, follow up with first-time diners, and nurture customer relationships without manual work

• Scales With Your Success – Begin free and upgrade only when you need advanced features, ensuring you never pay for capabilities you don't use

HubSpot gives you complete ownership of your customer information while providing the tools to act on it effectively. Ready to see how HubSpot can work for your restaurant business? 

Get started with HubSpot today and discover why it's the CRM choice that grows with your success.

via Perfecte news Non connection

239% growth from... print mail?! Why you shouldn't sleep on direct mail.

If I told you about a local business that’s seen 239% growth since the pandemic, what channel would you guess they were leading with? Paid ads? TikTok? Blood magic?

If I said “print mail,” you’d probably think blood magic was more likely. But last year, 84% of marketers said direct mail had the highest ROI of channel they use. 🤯

When I heard that stat, I knew I had to find an expert who could explain it. What I found was a master who not only knows direct mail — she used it to build her own 9-figure business.

Joy Gendusa

Founder and CEO, PostcardMania

Fun fact: Joy has an 8 ft. hydroponic tower in her office so that she and her staff can regularly harvest a healthy lunch. (“It’s been such a hit, I hired someone to grow food on PostcardMania’s property. We have a bunch of huge grow boxes with herbs, lettuces, and tomatoes.”)

Claim to fame: Created a business that’s grown to almost 400 employees and $100 million annually — without any investors or angels — simply because she couldn’t find a postcard company she liked.

Lesson 1: Primp and preen for the mail gaze.

“ People have so much digital advertising fatigue,” says Joy Gendusa. “Just the popups and the zillion emails. I don't know about you, but I bulk-delete emails in the morning. I just go, ‘Brrrrrrrr,’” she gestures with a finger going down the list.

And the stats back her up, with 73% of desktop users citing online ads as their number one frustration in a recent survey by The Harris Poll. And almost 1 in 3 internet users use an ad blocker.

But that doesn’t mean a full return to the days of the Pony Express. Gendusa shares some tips for making mailers more modern:

• Add a QR code that sends recipients to the same landing page as your digital ads to create a cohesive experience.
• Use a custom URL just for your mailer. That way you can track what traffic comes from your print ads just like any digital channel.
• On the back end, you can even integrate your direct mail service with your CRM to automate personalized print campaigns.

“We’ve integrated with a number of CRMs, so a salesperson can do a one-off postcard without leaving their keyboard,” she says. “They just go in there, type a message, and the card is pre-designed.”

That means you can do lookalike campaigns, retargeting groups, and any number of fancy shenanigans you usually associate with digital marketing.

Lesson 2: Can the spam.

It’s time for some inward reflection, marketers. That digital ad fatigue? We did that. So it’s critically important not to fall back into spammy habits with your mailers.

So I asked Gendusa how marketers should think about a quality piece of mail.

“Your headline should instantly communicate what the product or service is, or what problem it solves, without the person having to think at all,” she says. Clarity > cleverness.

“And the graphic should back that up.” So, say you’re a dentist: The headline might mention clean, healthy teeth, and you’d use an image of a beaming, beautiful smile.

“You also want to have a bright, non-matching color for your CTA.” A non-matching color will draw the reader’s eye to the CTA — whether they want to look or not.

“Designers hate this rule,” she laughs. “They hate it so much. But we insist.”

Finally, don’t forget the web address or QR code.

After our chat, Gendusa shared with me the 12 tips she sends her own customers.

Lesson 3: Never cut marketing budget during difficult times.

You may want to pause here and forward this email to your favorite CFO.

“I cut marketing in 2008 during the mortgage crisis. Bad move.” It took almost two years for their performance numbers to return to pre-crisis levels.

During unpredictable economic times (ahem), it can be tempting to trim the budget where you can. But if you slash your marketing spend, you’re cutting off the top of your funnel, reducing your new business.

“We've had a couple of times in our history where I cut it a little bit on the advice of others, and I regret it every single time.”

“I’m not scared to lose money on marketing,” she adds. “When I first started, I spent more on marketing than I paid myself. And I do the same thing now.”

And what advice does she have for those executives or business owners thinking about making a trim?

“Come on. You’re a business person. You’ll figure out how to make money.”

from Marketing https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/239-growth-from-print-mail

If I told you about a local business that’s seen 239% growth since the pandemic, what channel would you guess they were leading with? Paid ads? TikTok? Blood magic?

If I said “print mail,” you’d probably think blood magic was more likely. But last year, 84% of marketers said direct mail had the highest ROI of channel they use. 🤯

When I heard that stat, I knew I had to find an expert who could explain it. What I found was a master who not only knows direct mail — she used it to build her own 9-figure business.

Joy Gendusa

Founder and CEO, PostcardMania

Fun fact: Joy has an 8 ft. hydroponic tower in her office so that she and her staff can regularly harvest a healthy lunch. (“It’s been such a hit, I hired someone to grow food on PostcardMania’s property. We have a bunch of huge grow boxes with herbs, lettuces, and tomatoes.”)

Claim to fame: Created a business that’s grown to almost 400 employees and $100 million annually — without any investors or angels — simply because she couldn’t find a postcard company she liked.

Lesson 1: Primp and preen for the mail gaze.

“ People have so much digital advertising fatigue,” says Joy Gendusa. “Just the popups and the zillion emails. I don't know about you, but I bulk-delete emails in the morning. I just go, ‘Brrrrrrrr,’” she gestures with a finger going down the list.

And the stats back her up, with 73% of desktop users citing online ads as their number one frustration in a recent survey by The Harris Poll. And almost 1 in 3 internet users use an ad blocker.

But that doesn’t mean a full return to the days of the Pony Express. Gendusa shares some tips for making mailers more modern:

• Add a QR code that sends recipients to the same landing page as your digital ads to create a cohesive experience.
• Use a custom URL just for your mailer. That way you can track what traffic comes from your print ads just like any digital channel.
• On the back end, you can even integrate your direct mail service with your CRM to automate personalized print campaigns.

“We’ve integrated with a number of CRMs, so a salesperson can do a one-off postcard without leaving their keyboard,” she says. “They just go in there, type a message, and the card is pre-designed.”

That means you can do lookalike campaigns, retargeting groups, and any number of fancy shenanigans you usually associate with digital marketing.

Lesson 2: Can the spam.

It’s time for some inward reflection, marketers. That digital ad fatigue? We did that. So it’s critically important not to fall back into spammy habits with your mailers.

So I asked Gendusa how marketers should think about a quality piece of mail.

“Your headline should instantly communicate what the product or service is, or what problem it solves, without the person having to think at all,” she says. Clarity > cleverness.

“And the graphic should back that up.” So, say you’re a dentist: The headline might mention clean, healthy teeth, and you’d use an image of a beaming, beautiful smile.

“You also want to have a bright, non-matching color for your CTA.” A non-matching color will draw the reader’s eye to the CTA — whether they want to look or not.

“Designers hate this rule,” she laughs. “They hate it so much. But we insist.”

Finally, don’t forget the web address or QR code.

After our chat, Gendusa shared with me the 12 tips she sends her own customers.

Lesson 3: Never cut marketing budget during difficult times.

You may want to pause here and forward this email to your favorite CFO.

“I cut marketing in 2008 during the mortgage crisis. Bad move.” It took almost two years for their performance numbers to return to pre-crisis levels.

During unpredictable economic times (ahem), it can be tempting to trim the budget where you can. But if you slash your marketing spend, you’re cutting off the top of your funnel, reducing your new business.

“We've had a couple of times in our history where I cut it a little bit on the advice of others, and I regret it every single time.”

“I’m not scared to lose money on marketing,” she adds. “When I first started, I spent more on marketing than I paid myself. And I do the same thing now.”

And what advice does she have for those executives or business owners thinking about making a trim?

“Come on. You’re a business person. You’ll figure out how to make money.”

via Perfecte news Non connection

How to go from marketer to CMO — 5 tactics that actually catapulted my career progression

I went from marketing manager to CMO in four years. It was fast. It was exciting. And, honestly, it was a little painful. I lost sleep. I lost hair. I made a lot of mistakes and learned most of what I know now the hard way.

What I quickly realized is this: Being a great marketer is not the same as being a great marketing leader. Especially in a high-growth environment. The skills that got me promoted — the hands-on stuff, the campaigns, the creative — weren’t the same ones I needed to lead a team, align with cross-functional departments, or report to a CEO.

That gap hits you fast once you’re in the hot seat.

So if you‘re on that path, whether you’re newly promoted, leading a team for the first time, or aiming for the CMO role, this post is for you. These are five mindset shifts that helped me make that leap and that still shape how I lead today.

How to Go from Marketer to CMO

1. Lead with the story, not the strategy.

One of the biggest mindset shifts I had to make as a marketing leader was learning to lead with the story, not the tactical plan.

Early on, it’s tempting to drive straight to strategy: Which campaigns should we run? Which channels should we optimize? But over time, I started to notice a pattern. The companies that broke through didn’t start with tactics or even traditional strategy. They started with a story: a clear explanation of what was changing in the market, and why their product existed because of it.

At Drift, that story was “conversational marketing.” It reflected a real shift in how people wanted to buy. No one wanted to fill out a form and wait. They wanted to get answers in real time. That phrase gave our customers language to explain why we mattered. And, it gave our team clarity about what we were building, why it mattered, and how to talk about it.

Your job as a marketing leader is to define that kind of narrative, and then continuously reinforce it. What’s changing for your customer? What shift are they trying to navigate? And how does your product help them respond?

When the story is clear, repeatable, and grounded in something real, everything else — positioning, messaging, roadmapping — gets easier and more aligned.

Drift wasn’t the only company to build its strategy around a story. HubSpot did it with “inbound marketing,” and Gainsight did it with “customer success.” In both cases, the story came first, and the strategy followed.

2. Learn how to communicate with your CEO.

I used to think the way to show impact was to list everything the team was working on. I’d put together long status updates, filled with detail about campaigns, performance, and team activity. I thought it would show how productive we were.

But, I quickly learned that leadership doesn’t have the context (or time) to follow the tactical details. They’re focused on two things: revenue and narrative. They want to know:

• How is marketing helping us hit our goals?
• And are we telling the right story to the market?

Once I understood that, I changed how I communicated with my CEO. I stopped listing updates and started offering a point of view. I shared what we were seeing in the market, what was working or not, and what might need to change. I also started thinking more about what the CEO was responsible for, and how marketing could support that.

So much of leadership is learning to communicate. That doesn’t mean over-explaining. It means knowing what your executive team cares about and helping them see clearly how marketing connects to those priorities.

3. Test before you team-build.

When you’re growing a marketing team, it’s tempting to solve every problem by hiring. Need PR? Bring in an agency. Want to expand into events? Post a job. But I learned the hard way that hiring without clarity usually backfires.

Early in my career, I made a few hires where I couldn’t quite articulate what success looked like. I just knew we needed “help.” But without a clear sense of the role or the outcomes, it was hard to guide, support, or evaluate the work. And in some cases, it created more complexity than momentum.

What worked better was trying to solve the problem internally first. Sometimes that meant taking it on myself. Other times, I’d ask someone on the team to run a small pilot. Could we test a webinar program in-house? Try a basic PR outreach round? Put together a few partner co-marketing campaigns?

These experiments always taught us something. They gave us a clearer view of what the role should actually involve, how to measure success, and what kind of person we’d need to own it long-term. When it came time to hire, we were sharper, faster, and far more confident in the decision.

Pro tip: Not sure how to start? Run a scrappy version of the function in-house for 3-4 months. That short sprint is usually enough to test demand, clarify the scope, and decide if this should become a full-time role, a freelance contract, or something to revisit later.

4. Think beyond your function and make friends.

Something I didn’t expect when I stepped into a marketing leadership role was just how much of my job would be about building relationships outside of marketing.

As an individual contributor, you’re often focused on a single channel or set of programs. But as a leader, you need to operate more like a general manager. You’re still thinking about performance and pipeline, but also about headcount, budget, cross-functional alignment, even internal morale.

Early on, I tried to do everything myself. I’d open up Salesforce reports, build forecast models, and stress over budget spreadsheets. I thought being a good leader meant owning it all. But over time, I realized that wasn’t sustainable or strategic. I didn’t need to “be” finance or sales. I needed to figure out how to closely partner and align with them.

That meant regular check-ins, not just to update each other but to really collaborate and build trust. What are we all trying to achieve this quarter? Where do our workstreams overlap? What do they need from marketing, and what do we need from them?

When those relationships are strong, marketing becomes more than a function. It becomes a multiplier for the business.

5. Engineer your own momentum.

At a certain point, every team hits a lull. Maybe you’re waiting on a product launch. Or your budget hasn’t been approved. Or leadership is rethinking the roadmap.

When that happens, it’s easy to feel stuck. But one of the most valuable lessons I learned at Drift was that marketing doesn’t have to wait. You can create your own momentum to work your way towards success.

We started doing monthly launches every first Tuesday of the month, no matter what. Sometimes, it was a big product release. Other times, it was a new report, a customer story, or a podcast series. What mattered wasn’t the size of the launch, but the consistency.

Those launches gave the team a sense of rhythm. They kept us visible in the market. And, they created internal urgency that actually helped drive execution across other teams.

You don’t need to wait for a “big moment” to make noise. Just commit to showing up. The motion you create now can set the tone for how the rest of the org operates.

Make the Shift From a Marketer to Leader

The leap to marketing leadership isn’t about doing more. It’s about thinking differently. From tactics to narrative. From activity to impact. From running campaigns to building trust across the business.

It means learning to communicate like an owner, aligning your team around a bigger story, and making decisions that drive the business forward — even if there’s no momentum to give you a push. The sooner you start making that shift, the more ready you’ll be when the opportunity comes.

from Marketing https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/marketer-cmo-journey

I went from marketing manager to CMO in four years. It was fast. It was exciting. And, honestly, it was a little painful. I lost sleep. I lost hair. I made a lot of mistakes and learned most of what I know now the hard way.

What I quickly realized is this: Being a great marketer is not the same as being a great marketing leader. Especially in a high-growth environment. The skills that got me promoted — the hands-on stuff, the campaigns, the creative — weren’t the same ones I needed to lead a team, align with cross-functional departments, or report to a CEO.

That gap hits you fast once you’re in the hot seat.

So if you‘re on that path, whether you’re newly promoted, leading a team for the first time, or aiming for the CMO role, this post is for you. These are five mindset shifts that helped me make that leap and that still shape how I lead today.

How to Go from Marketer to CMO

1. Lead with the story, not the strategy.

One of the biggest mindset shifts I had to make as a marketing leader was learning to lead with the story, not the tactical plan.

Early on, it’s tempting to drive straight to strategy: Which campaigns should we run? Which channels should we optimize? But over time, I started to notice a pattern. The companies that broke through didn’t start with tactics or even traditional strategy. They started with a story: a clear explanation of what was changing in the market, and why their product existed because of it.

At Drift, that story was “conversational marketing.” It reflected a real shift in how people wanted to buy. No one wanted to fill out a form and wait. They wanted to get answers in real time. That phrase gave our customers language to explain why we mattered. And, it gave our team clarity about what we were building, why it mattered, and how to talk about it.

Your job as a marketing leader is to define that kind of narrative, and then continuously reinforce it. What’s changing for your customer? What shift are they trying to navigate? And how does your product help them respond?

When the story is clear, repeatable, and grounded in something real, everything else — positioning, messaging, roadmapping — gets easier and more aligned.

Drift wasn’t the only company to build its strategy around a story. HubSpot did it with “inbound marketing,” and Gainsight did it with “customer success.” In both cases, the story came first, and the strategy followed.

2. Learn how to communicate with your CEO.

I used to think the way to show impact was to list everything the team was working on. I’d put together long status updates, filled with detail about campaigns, performance, and team activity. I thought it would show how productive we were.

But, I quickly learned that leadership doesn’t have the context (or time) to follow the tactical details. They’re focused on two things: revenue and narrative. They want to know:

• How is marketing helping us hit our goals?
• And are we telling the right story to the market?

Once I understood that, I changed how I communicated with my CEO. I stopped listing updates and started offering a point of view. I shared what we were seeing in the market, what was working or not, and what might need to change. I also started thinking more about what the CEO was responsible for, and how marketing could support that.

So much of leadership is learning to communicate. That doesn’t mean over-explaining. It means knowing what your executive team cares about and helping them see clearly how marketing connects to those priorities.

3. Test before you team-build.

When you’re growing a marketing team, it’s tempting to solve every problem by hiring. Need PR? Bring in an agency. Want to expand into events? Post a job. But I learned the hard way that hiring without clarity usually backfires.

Early in my career, I made a few hires where I couldn’t quite articulate what success looked like. I just knew we needed “help.” But without a clear sense of the role or the outcomes, it was hard to guide, support, or evaluate the work. And in some cases, it created more complexity than momentum.

What worked better was trying to solve the problem internally first. Sometimes that meant taking it on myself. Other times, I’d ask someone on the team to run a small pilot. Could we test a webinar program in-house? Try a basic PR outreach round? Put together a few partner co-marketing campaigns?

These experiments always taught us something. They gave us a clearer view of what the role should actually involve, how to measure success, and what kind of person we’d need to own it long-term. When it came time to hire, we were sharper, faster, and far more confident in the decision.

Pro tip: Not sure how to start? Run a scrappy version of the function in-house for 3-4 months. That short sprint is usually enough to test demand, clarify the scope, and decide if this should become a full-time role, a freelance contract, or something to revisit later.

4. Think beyond your function and make friends.

Something I didn’t expect when I stepped into a marketing leadership role was just how much of my job would be about building relationships outside of marketing.

As an individual contributor, you’re often focused on a single channel or set of programs. But as a leader, you need to operate more like a general manager. You’re still thinking about performance and pipeline, but also about headcount, budget, cross-functional alignment, even internal morale.

Early on, I tried to do everything myself. I’d open up Salesforce reports, build forecast models, and stress over budget spreadsheets. I thought being a good leader meant owning it all. But over time, I realized that wasn’t sustainable or strategic. I didn’t need to “be” finance or sales. I needed to figure out how to closely partner and align with them.

That meant regular check-ins, not just to update each other but to really collaborate and build trust. What are we all trying to achieve this quarter? Where do our workstreams overlap? What do they need from marketing, and what do we need from them?

When those relationships are strong, marketing becomes more than a function. It becomes a multiplier for the business.

5. Engineer your own momentum.

At a certain point, every team hits a lull. Maybe you’re waiting on a product launch. Or your budget hasn’t been approved. Or leadership is rethinking the roadmap.

When that happens, it’s easy to feel stuck. But one of the most valuable lessons I learned at Drift was that marketing doesn’t have to wait. You can create your own momentum to work your way towards success.

We started doing monthly launches every first Tuesday of the month, no matter what. Sometimes, it was a big product release. Other times, it was a new report, a customer story, or a podcast series. What mattered wasn’t the size of the launch, but the consistency.

Those launches gave the team a sense of rhythm. They kept us visible in the market. And, they created internal urgency that actually helped drive execution across other teams.

You don’t need to wait for a “big moment” to make noise. Just commit to showing up. The motion you create now can set the tone for how the rest of the org operates.

Make the Shift From a Marketer to Leader

The leap to marketing leadership isn’t about doing more. It’s about thinking differently. From tactics to narrative. From activity to impact. From running campaigns to building trust across the business.

It means learning to communicate like an owner, aligning your team around a bigger story, and making decisions that drive the business forward — even if there’s no momentum to give you a push. The sooner you start making that shift, the more ready you’ll be when the opportunity comes.

via Perfecte news Non connection

How I used ChatGPT-o3 to plan an entire marketing campaign during one plane ride

In an hour, ChatGPT-o3 can make you dozens of high-level marketing graphics — the kinds of campaigns that would take some teams weeks to complete. And the graphics aren’t just a first draft starting point. They’re final assets ready to run.

I tested this out on a recent flight and managed to create an entire 2025 marketing campaign in about an hour. Brainstorming. Prompt writing. Graphics generation and iteration. ChatGPT has evolved from a simple productivity tool into a high-level creative and strategic partner.

The new ChatGPT equation for AI-savvy marketers is this: deep research + your brand standards + o3-generated prompt + in-app editing = full graphics pipeline. I’m going to show you exactly how that looks and offer tips that I found make this process much more effective.

Why ChatGPT-o3 Is a Game Changer

ChatGPT-o3 was released at the end of 2024, and OpenAI has shared big upgrades in 2025. To me, o3 feels very human, and I’m having a ton of fun with the leap forward in image generation. There’s a tangible magic for marketers.

Let’s look at the under-the-radar features of ChatGPT-o3 that should be common knowledge, plus some use cases for 4o image generation.

Improved Prompting

You’ve probably heard many times that AI is only as good as the prompts you give it. Focus on these two things with o3: self-prompting and context.

I think o3 is a fantastic prompt writer, and I’ve gotten in the habit of asking for prompts as a part of every output. They still need to be massaged sometimes, but it’s a big boost, and the output is more unique when compared to generic copy-pasted prompts.

But be warned, this only reaches its potential with enough context. The more context you provide in your chats, the more tailored the output will be. This is an important shift for marketers.

Originally, AI was just aggregating existing ideas from the internet and giving you the average best practice. But now, if you actually work with it, ChatGPT comes up with very unique, specific ideas that are contextual to your needs.

In my case study below, you’ll see exactly how I’m engaging o3 in prompt engineering. This podcast episode also shares tips for improving your output with better prompting:

Library

Welcome to the most under-the-radar feature that ChatGPT added in the last year: The image library. This allows you to store, edit, and iterate images visually. Once you’ve created a graphic, you can go back to any of those threads to edit and iterate further (tips on this in a minute).

There's so much you can do from this one pane in the ChatGPT interface:

• Basic editing and reiteration.
• Get a high level of consistency.
• Single image creation, all the way to generating entire campaigns.

The library is a game changer for quick edits of your graphics, giving you a beautiful visual display of everything you've generated. The thumbnails in my library below look like digital assets that a skilled team has worked diligently on:

Pro tip: Click on the library tab to create your images instead of prompting in a normal chat. Not only will this generate image variations faster, but it also creates better assets overall. ChatGPT-o3 instructed me to use the library tab for this reason, and through testing, I saw a noticeable improvement.

Source

Deep Research

I prompted ChatGPT to do deep research on our customer agent, and it generated an entire creative brief that covered features, value propositioning, messaging, style guide — everything.

Don’t skip this step: I promise you that success with o3 starts here. We share deep research help in our AI prompt library, under the “deep research” tab:

Source

Memory

Another underappreciated aspect of o3 is the memory feature. In a nutshell, these features include:

• Automatic updates, proactively remembering content to provide personalized information.
• User-controlled memory. You add to the memory through your chats, but did you know that you can also manually remove from the memory? This can be done through Settings > Personalization > Memory (example: removing outdated branding preferences).
• Continuity, which lets output be guided by context from past chats, building on your previous work.

What this brings to your campaign generation (once again) is context. Context is the single word that summarizes the leap forward in output alignment.

Memory doesn’t retain every single detail by default, though. ChatGPT doesn’t remember information from your PDF style guide unless you specifically ask it to. When specifically asked to retain branding information, the memory feature retains brand standards to incorporate this into your designs.

What you can do: When prompting ChatGPT, tell it to “do this in the [company name] style like you’ve done before.”

Here’s an example of a marketing graphic generated from a single ChatGPT prompt.

Source

With an aligned AI tool, you can enter the era of rapid-fire “one of one” marketing.

“One of One” Potential

The phrase “one of one” refers to the ability to personalize everything for a single target — in my example, a single company.

This is a massive leap forward in campaign creation. Previously, we focused on creating ads personalized for unique segments: Companies were grouped together based on their characteristics, and then ads were created targeting all of them.

Now, with the cost of creative down to near zero, assets can be created targeting only a single audience. An entire marketing plan can be personalized at a company level. This is a task that would’ve previously taken teams days to complete.

In terms of AI and marketers’ productivity, this is night and day. AI has evolved so far beyond the world of creating and tailoring generic templates. The campaigns resulting from this strategy are unique, personalized, and almost instantaneous to create.

And thanks to the memory capacity, one idea builds upon the other, and you’re able to iterate in rapid succession. A task that used to be incredibly time-consuming and expensive to achieve now only takes a few minutes.

Trying rapid-fire campaign generation can be a great gateway into leveraging ChatGPT in your campaigns. Here’s an example below for the company Ramp.

Let’s look at the exact prompt I used and the campaigns it generated for HubSpot in under an hour.

Use Case: Creating a Campaign in One Hour

I love OpenAI's 4.0 model for image generation, and I wanted to find unique ways to use it. Sitting on my flight with some WiFi and good music, I gave ChatGPT this prompt:

• Give me five creative, non-obvious ways to use OpenAI's 4.0 image generation model for marketing. Can you give me five ideas and the prompts for each to try?

Source

These are the five ideas that it gave me.

1. Hyperlocal, Geo-targeted Ad Images

What ChatGPT suggested: Hyper-hyperlocal cultural mashups for less than 10-mile geo-targeted ads. People click faster on ads that feel made for their neighborhood. Instead of generic skyline shots, generate up-to-the-minute scenes that merge your brand with overlooked local landmarks, slang, and street art — even the weather.

What I love: Marketers know that the local angle is effective, especially for ads, so that wasn’t a particularly unique angle. What was special was the idea of doubling down on both hyper-local (overlooked landmarks) and hyper-current conditions (weather).

2. Future-state Visuals for Sales Decks

What ChatGPT suggested: Prospect-specific future state visuals for enterprise sales decks. Why that's interesting: Enterprise buyers often struggle to picture life after adoption. Generate a hero slide that literally shows their logo in the future state of success.

What I love: This is a great product marketing idea with an emphasis on the dream state. It hits on the pain point and delivers a really simple message that works for a sales deck or ads.

Source

3. “What If” Concept Posters

What ChatGPT suggested: “What if” concept posters for rapid-fire positioning tests. Before you spend a bunch of money on doing a full video shoot, actually generate movie-style posters. Drop them into Slack or UserTesting and see which one sparks the most excitement.

What I love: This is a fun twist on the future state idea, and I love the added value of testing these concept posters before releasing them. The images are bold and catchy, nailing the movie poster brief.

4. Historical Era TikTok Frames

What ChatGPT suggested: “Product in historical era” TikTok frames. Context-switching from present to past stops the scrolls. Produce stills that place your SaaS product inside widely anachronistic scenes, subtly highlighting how painfully slow old workflows were. Instead of having a generic video hook, make one of your TikTok hooks or mid frames in your short-form video a “product in a historical era.”

What I love: It was previously very time-consuming and expensive to create custom visuals for short-form video. These can be pieced together as B-roll or even animated with AI (though this still needs development). Watch the podcast episode on YouTube to see the Sora video creation go awry (it’ll get there, though).

5. Choose-your-own-demo Carousels

What ChatGPT suggested: “Choose your own demo” carousel assets. For lead-gen ads or email nurtures, create a mini saga: Panel one asks a problem question, panels two through four branch visually based on the reader's click. The entire carousel can be generated on-demand with consistent styles, so it feels like one coherent comic.

What I love: The storytelling idea is genius, especially at a moment when carousels are performing really well on platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and even TikTok. The screenshot below is a one-shot image (there was no editing involved). You’re seeing the impact of context and deep research.

Getting Started

Still unsure where to start with these new models? Do what I did. Open up o3. Tell it about your business. Ask it to give you ideas. You’ll have a lot of fun playing with the prompts that o3 gives you. See this model as a strategic partner and give it as much context as you have.

When trained properly, ChatGPT-o3 can help you with everything from creative inspiration to acting as your marketing assistant. Enjoy learning about its capabilities and watching your library populate with dozens of graphics variations.

I know some marketers still fear AI. But the more you use AI at this level, the more you’ll want to use it. If your experience is anything like mine, you’ll be repeatedly impressed by what ChatGPT can create for you. The amount of quality work that you can generate in an hour was unfathomable in the past. You’re living in an era that marketers of the past only dreamt of.

To learn more about how ChatGPT can level up your campaigns, check out the full episode of Marketing Against the Grain below:

from Marketing https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/chatgpt-o3-marketing-campaigns

In an hour, ChatGPT-o3 can make you dozens of high-level marketing graphics — the kinds of campaigns that would take some teams weeks to complete. And the graphics aren’t just a first draft starting point. They’re final assets ready to run.

I tested this out on a recent flight and managed to create an entire 2025 marketing campaign in about an hour. Brainstorming. Prompt writing. Graphics generation and iteration. ChatGPT has evolved from a simple productivity tool into a high-level creative and strategic partner.

The new ChatGPT equation for AI-savvy marketers is this: deep research + your brand standards + o3-generated prompt + in-app editing = full graphics pipeline. I’m going to show you exactly how that looks and offer tips that I found make this process much more effective.

Why ChatGPT-o3 Is a Game Changer

ChatGPT-o3 was released at the end of 2024, and OpenAI has shared big upgrades in 2025. To me, o3 feels very human, and I’m having a ton of fun with the leap forward in image generation. There’s a tangible magic for marketers.

Let’s look at the under-the-radar features of ChatGPT-o3 that should be common knowledge, plus some use cases for 4o image generation.

Improved Prompting

You’ve probably heard many times that AI is only as good as the prompts you give it. Focus on these two things with o3: self-prompting and context.

I think o3 is a fantastic prompt writer, and I’ve gotten in the habit of asking for prompts as a part of every output. They still need to be massaged sometimes, but it’s a big boost, and the output is more unique when compared to generic copy-pasted prompts.

But be warned, this only reaches its potential with enough context. The more context you provide in your chats, the more tailored the output will be. This is an important shift for marketers.

Originally, AI was just aggregating existing ideas from the internet and giving you the average best practice. But now, if you actually work with it, ChatGPT comes up with very unique, specific ideas that are contextual to your needs.

In my case study below, you’ll see exactly how I’m engaging o3 in prompt engineering. This podcast episode also shares tips for improving your output with better prompting:

Library

Welcome to the most under-the-radar feature that ChatGPT added in the last year: The image library. This allows you to store, edit, and iterate images visually. Once you’ve created a graphic, you can go back to any of those threads to edit and iterate further (tips on this in a minute).

There's so much you can do from this one pane in the ChatGPT interface:

• Basic editing and reiteration.
• Get a high level of consistency.
• Single image creation, all the way to generating entire campaigns.

The library is a game changer for quick edits of your graphics, giving you a beautiful visual display of everything you've generated. The thumbnails in my library below look like digital assets that a skilled team has worked diligently on:

Pro tip: Click on the library tab to create your images instead of prompting in a normal chat. Not only will this generate image variations faster, but it also creates better assets overall. ChatGPT-o3 instructed me to use the library tab for this reason, and through testing, I saw a noticeable improvement.

Source

Deep Research

I prompted ChatGPT to do deep research on our customer agent, and it generated an entire creative brief that covered features, value propositioning, messaging, style guide — everything.

Don’t skip this step: I promise you that success with o3 starts here. We share deep research help in our AI prompt library, under the “deep research” tab:

Source

Memory

Another underappreciated aspect of o3 is the memory feature. In a nutshell, these features include:

• Automatic updates, proactively remembering content to provide personalized information.
• User-controlled memory. You add to the memory through your chats, but did you know that you can also manually remove from the memory? This can be done through Settings > Personalization > Memory (example: removing outdated branding preferences).
• Continuity, which lets output be guided by context from past chats, building on your previous work.

What this brings to your campaign generation (once again) is context. Context is the single word that summarizes the leap forward in output alignment.

Memory doesn’t retain every single detail by default, though. ChatGPT doesn’t remember information from your PDF style guide unless you specifically ask it to. When specifically asked to retain branding information, the memory feature retains brand standards to incorporate this into your designs.

What you can do: When prompting ChatGPT, tell it to “do this in the [company name] style like you’ve done before.”

Here’s an example of a marketing graphic generated from a single ChatGPT prompt.

Source

With an aligned AI tool, you can enter the era of rapid-fire “one of one” marketing.

“One of One” Potential

The phrase “one of one” refers to the ability to personalize everything for a single target — in my example, a single company.

This is a massive leap forward in campaign creation. Previously, we focused on creating ads personalized for unique segments: Companies were grouped together based on their characteristics, and then ads were created targeting all of them.

Now, with the cost of creative down to near zero, assets can be created targeting only a single audience. An entire marketing plan can be personalized at a company level. This is a task that would’ve previously taken teams days to complete.

In terms of AI and marketers’ productivity, this is night and day. AI has evolved so far beyond the world of creating and tailoring generic templates. The campaigns resulting from this strategy are unique, personalized, and almost instantaneous to create.

And thanks to the memory capacity, one idea builds upon the other, and you’re able to iterate in rapid succession. A task that used to be incredibly time-consuming and expensive to achieve now only takes a few minutes.

Trying rapid-fire campaign generation can be a great gateway into leveraging ChatGPT in your campaigns. Here’s an example below for the company Ramp.

Let’s look at the exact prompt I used and the campaigns it generated for HubSpot in under an hour.

Use Case: Creating a Campaign in One Hour

I love OpenAI's 4.0 model for image generation, and I wanted to find unique ways to use it. Sitting on my flight with some WiFi and good music, I gave ChatGPT this prompt:

• Give me five creative, non-obvious ways to use OpenAI's 4.0 image generation model for marketing. Can you give me five ideas and the prompts for each to try?

Source

These are the five ideas that it gave me.

1. Hyperlocal, Geo-targeted Ad Images

What ChatGPT suggested: Hyper-hyperlocal cultural mashups for less than 10-mile geo-targeted ads. People click faster on ads that feel made for their neighborhood. Instead of generic skyline shots, generate up-to-the-minute scenes that merge your brand with overlooked local landmarks, slang, and street art — even the weather.

What I love: Marketers know that the local angle is effective, especially for ads, so that wasn’t a particularly unique angle. What was special was the idea of doubling down on both hyper-local (overlooked landmarks) and hyper-current conditions (weather).

2. Future-state Visuals for Sales Decks

What ChatGPT suggested: Prospect-specific future state visuals for enterprise sales decks. Why that's interesting: Enterprise buyers often struggle to picture life after adoption. Generate a hero slide that literally shows their logo in the future state of success.

What I love: This is a great product marketing idea with an emphasis on the dream state. It hits on the pain point and delivers a really simple message that works for a sales deck or ads.

Source

3. “What If” Concept Posters

What ChatGPT suggested: “What if” concept posters for rapid-fire positioning tests. Before you spend a bunch of money on doing a full video shoot, actually generate movie-style posters. Drop them into Slack or UserTesting and see which one sparks the most excitement.

What I love: This is a fun twist on the future state idea, and I love the added value of testing these concept posters before releasing them. The images are bold and catchy, nailing the movie poster brief.

4. Historical Era TikTok Frames

What ChatGPT suggested: “Product in historical era” TikTok frames. Context-switching from present to past stops the scrolls. Produce stills that place your SaaS product inside widely anachronistic scenes, subtly highlighting how painfully slow old workflows were. Instead of having a generic video hook, make one of your TikTok hooks or mid frames in your short-form video a “product in a historical era.”

What I love: It was previously very time-consuming and expensive to create custom visuals for short-form video. These can be pieced together as B-roll or even animated with AI (though this still needs development). Watch the podcast episode on YouTube to see the Sora video creation go awry (it’ll get there, though).

5. Choose-your-own-demo Carousels

What ChatGPT suggested: “Choose your own demo” carousel assets. For lead-gen ads or email nurtures, create a mini saga: Panel one asks a problem question, panels two through four branch visually based on the reader's click. The entire carousel can be generated on-demand with consistent styles, so it feels like one coherent comic.

What I love: The storytelling idea is genius, especially at a moment when carousels are performing really well on platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and even TikTok. The screenshot below is a one-shot image (there was no editing involved). You’re seeing the impact of context and deep research.

Getting Started

Still unsure where to start with these new models? Do what I did. Open up o3. Tell it about your business. Ask it to give you ideas. You’ll have a lot of fun playing with the prompts that o3 gives you. See this model as a strategic partner and give it as much context as you have.

When trained properly, ChatGPT-o3 can help you with everything from creative inspiration to acting as your marketing assistant. Enjoy learning about its capabilities and watching your library populate with dozens of graphics variations.

I know some marketers still fear AI. But the more you use AI at this level, the more you’ll want to use it. If your experience is anything like mine, you’ll be repeatedly impressed by what ChatGPT can create for you. The amount of quality work that you can generate in an hour was unfathomable in the past. You’re living in an era that marketers of the past only dreamt of.

To learn more about how ChatGPT can level up your campaigns, check out the full episode of Marketing Against the Grain below:

via Perfecte news Non connection