🎁 Hypha Wrapped, AI Tools for Content and HubSpot for Finance Companies

Hi all! Welcome back to The Hypha Wire.

December is here, and that means... 2024 roundups! Spotify set a real trend with Wrapped (though this year was met with mixed reviews).

I thought, in the spirit of the streaming platform’s interactive year-in-review feature, let’s imagine the 2024 Hypha Wrapped!

The Top 5 Hypha Moments in 2024 (In No Particular Order)

• Our design team launched a brand-new website
• We said hello to some new team members
• Our team attended INBOUND 2024 and had a great time
• We earned new HubSpot Accreditations
• The entire Hypha team continued to up skill, implement new tools and master our existing tech stack

It was hard to stop at just five! Team Hypha had a great year, and we’re looking forward to delighting our clients in 2025. 

- Sage Levene , VP of Marketing, Hypha HubSpot Development

Poll: The Pantone Color of the Year has been announced. Will you use the color as design inspiration in 2025? Let us know in the comments.

1. Yes
2. No

Last Week’s Poll Results: Are you currently utilizing AI in your day-to-day?

Yes: 25%, No: 75%

🎤 Open Mic

How AI Tools Are Reshaping My Content Development Process

By Jeffrey Howard , Senior Inbound Content Developer, Hypha HubSpot Development

Picture me last Thursday afternoon, bleary-eyed from staring at my 2,000-word piece. Something wasn’t clicking. Sure, the information was solid—I’d spent days researching industry trends. And I’ve written about the subject for over three years.

But would the blog actually resonate with my target audience? That’s when I turned to one of my most valuable tools—AI-powered content analysis, which offers brutally honest feedback in the most helpful way possible.

You see, I’ve developed this habit of running certain drafts through AI for readability and SEO performance feedback. The interaction often reminds me of when my old writing professor returned essays covered in red ink—except these AI tools are considerably more diplomatic.

(Quick disclaimer: While AI helps polish my content, the typos you might find are still proudly human-made. Some traditions are worth keeping, right?)

Here’s where things got interesting. Instead of the usual and generic “add more keywords” advice, I was provided insights I could immediately implement.

“Your article has strong technical depth,” it noted, “but let’s make it more digestible and SEO-friendly.” What followed was a flurry of strategic suggestions I could run with to get this draft where I really wanted it to be. It also suggested transforming headers into more search-intent-focused phrases—a fair observation.

For those of you who are writers at heart, it makes sense that the copy-generation process often becomes all-consuming, potentially causing you to overlook strategic aspects. While not a cure-all, there are occasions when generative AI can be useful in filling in the gaps, such as noting opportunities for so-called information gain or converting a section into bullet points. Of course, there are scenarios in which these tools are completely off-base—and we’ve already discovered that reflexively following its suggestions can not only easily become a time suck, but potentially derail your piece.

At the end of the day, you know your clients better than anyone. You’ve established a professional relationship, determined what works and what doesn’t, and developed a plan to execute these strategies. That information has been internalized and integrated into all aspects of content creation, making it second nature. That can’t be replicated with prompts.

Still, there are moments when an objective, data-driven perspective can complement our expertise and client knowledge.

Perhaps the most valuable feedback I recently received was about the closing section of a blog I developed. “Your call-to-action is hidden,” the analysis noted. “Consider creating a dedicated ‘Next Steps’ section that guides readers toward consultation services while maintaining the educational tone.”

All in all, the experience reminded me that even when we think we’ve mastered our craft—or our writing juices are dominating our creativity—having AI tools that can analyze content with both technical precision and reader empathy is invaluable. It’s not about replacing human expertise; it’s about enhancing it with insights we might miss while deep in the writing zone.

📰 Second Hand News

Marketing Dive : Cameo welcomes over 31,000 self-enrolled creators with CameoX by Aaron Baar ➜

This is an interesting, and in my opinion, very smart development from Cameo . It gives micro-influencers a chance to engage with their fan base. I could see brands engaging in a very similar way one day. Imagine getting a Cameo from the Scrub Daddy sponge or Duolingo owl.

“According to Cameo, the ‘vast majority’ of creators cannot sustain themselves on the revenue they make from platforms such as Instagram, TikTok or Twitch, and Cameo can provide an alternate revenue source. In addition, opening up the platform to more talent opportunities gives Cameo a chance to reach potential A-listers before they become stars.”

Adobe : Cyber Monday Hits Record $13.3 Billion in Online Spending with Majority of Sales Driven by Mobile ➜

That’s a lot of money!

“Consumers spent a total of $13.3 billion on Cyber Monday, up 7.3% YoY, and surpassing Adobe’s initial projection of $13.2 billion. In the peak hours of 8 pm to 10 pm, consumers spent $15.8 million every minute. Cyber Monday remains the biggest online shopping day of all time, as shoppers took advantage of bigger-than-expected discounts in categories such as electronics (peaking at 30.1% off listed price), toys (26.1%), apparel (23.2%), televisions (21.8%), and computers (21.5%).”

🖊️ Hypha Highlights

Typography is one of the most important design factors when building a website that’s accessible to all users, regardless of abilities. 

Accessible typeface helps ensure those experiencing disabilities or impairments can easily and equally access online content. This guide explains why typography is such a critical component of universal design and provides best practices for you to utilize throughout the process.

Read: The Role of Typography in Designing for Accessibility ➜

⭐ 5 Star Review

“A+++++++”

Hypha is more than a creative agency, they’re a team of dedicated partners supporting the marketing efforts for our family of brands. For marketing strategy and creativity this team is second to none. Whether it is a quick photo change, an urgent email blast, SEO, or a new e-commerce website design and build we are made to feel like their #1 client. -Fritz, S.

Industry: Consumer Goods

Services provided: Content Creation, Email Marketing, Website Development, Website Migration, and Search Engine Optimization

🟠 HubSpot Hacks

HubSpot: I Tested the 10 Best AI Tools for Reaching Your Sales Goals in 2024 — Here’s What I Found ➜

Check out this great roundup from the HubSpot blog highlighting AI tools that will help make your sales processes smoother.

✨ AI in Action

News, updates and tools from the AI industry.

TechCrunch : Key leaders behind Google’s viral NotebookLM are leaving to create their own startup by Charles Rollet t ➜

It's always interesting to watch talent shakeups like this play out. NotebookLM is making more and more noise lately. The platform, which calls itself, “Your personalized AI research assistant,” has a number of powerful features, like document summarization and audio generation.

The audio tool made waves recently as more and more NotebookLM-generated podcasts were spotted in podcasts apps. (Podcast executive Brianna Ansaldo noted that there were 1700+ uploaded in early November.)

Just this week, the audio generation tool made headlines again, after being featured prominently in Spotify's 2024 Wrapped. From Chrome Unboxed, “Two AI hosts from NotebookLM will guide you through your Wrapped experience, discussing your favorite tracks, artists, and how your taste evolved over the past 12 months.”

All this to say, the NotebookLM team has made some pretty substantial innovations in the AI space, and I'm eager to see what the departed team members will do with their experience.

From TechCrunch:

“On LinkedIn, ex-team lead Raiza Martin said she and her two other co-founders, designer Jason Spielman and engineer Stephen Hughes, ‘couldn’t shake the feeling that there’s a massive opportunity to build something transformative in this space. 

“The startup is in full stealth mode with only a bare-bones website that gives no details about its purpose or even its name. It’s not clear if the startup will focus on things that NotebookLM went viral for, such as AI-generated podcasts and AI-assisted note-taking, or if it will do something totally different.”

🎧 1x Speed

The podcasts Team Hypha has queued up.

In Depth: How Figma taps into taste, simplicity, and storytelling

“ Yuhki Yamashita is the Chief Product Officer at Figma , leading the product and design teams. Previously, he was a product and design leader at Uber, where he orchestrated the redesign of the rider and driver apps.

“In today’s episode, we discuss: How Figma approaches new products, prioritization, and storytelling, product culture at Uber, Microsoft, Google, the difference between ‘good’ and ‘extraordinary’ PMs, tactical advice for storytelling and the ‘un-learning’ required in new jobs and industries.”

How can we help you?

Industry: Finance and Fintech

Today’s financial firms are quite familiar with market turbulence and ever-changing landscapes. The tech revolution has compelled these and other highly regulated firms to accelerate digital transformations while maintaining strict compliance standards.

Navigating this complex terrain is simpler when your digital marketing, data security, and tech stack align seamlessly with compliance standards and customer demands. 

To emphasize the contemporary challenges faced by financial firms:

• A notable 54% of executives cite data silos as one of the major barriers to innovation.
• Almost half, or 46%, have plans to enhance regulatory compliance efforts.

The bottom line: With consumers increasingly relying on digital platforms for their financial needs, the demand for robust and compliant digital marketing solutions has never been more critical.  

Stay proactive and improve your chances of conquering these challenges while maintaining compliance with HubSpot’s all-in-one marketing platform ➜

Thanks for reading! We’ll catch you in next week’s edition. -Team Hypha

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