What's New in Marketing This Week - June 17th
This post contains all the source links and expanded details from Edition #54 of our weekly Marketing Roundup newsletter.
We keep external links out of the emails to ensure it lands in your inbox (not spam). Here’s where you can dig deeper into each story.
This week we talked about:
- Sales Strategies: Dan Martell breaks down why the best salespeople don’t pitch. They ask questions.
- Advertising Updates: Meta is expanding how it uses your off-platform data to personalize the feed, and Google added two new Smart Bidding options.
- SEO News: A study of 3.4 million articles found that headline format matters far less than who’s publishing — your own data is the only benchmark worth following.
- AI Advancements: Anthropic released its most capable model ever… but shut it down due 4 days later, and Google connected Gemini to your Google Business Profile.
Note: This is just the news and links.
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Dan Martell on Why the Best Salespeople Don’t Pitch
Dan Martell on Why the
Best Salespeople Don’t Pitch
In a recent post, Martell breaks down his nine-step Rocket Selling System — a framework built around asking questions rather than pitching. The core idea: your job on a sales call is to walk the prospect from where they are now to where they want to be, using questions that get them to articulate their own pain, their own vision, and their own reasons for buying. By the time you present your offer, you’re mirroring back exactly what they told you they needed.
Meta Expands How It Uses Your Off-Platform Data
Meta Expands How It Uses
Your Off-Platform Data
Meta announced it will start using data that businesses share with it — like purchases you make on other websites — to personalize your Feed and Meta AI responses, not just ads. Previously this data was only used for ad targeting. Meta is also simplifying its privacy controls from two settings down to one. Rolling out in the U.S. next month.
Google Expands Smart Bidding Options
Google Expands Smart
Bidding Options
Google rolled out two notable bidding updates. Smart Bidding Exploration now lets advertisers set a tolerance for how far Google can push beyond their current ROAS target to find new converting search queries. Promotion Mode is a new beta that lets advertisers temporarily loosen their ROAS targets and increase daily budgets during seasonal events or product launches without restructuring campaigns. Both are expanding to Performance Max.
A Study on Google Discover Headline Format
A Study on Google Discover
Headline Format
A study of 3.4 million articles found that quote-led headlines appear to outperform plain statements by 37% on Google Discover — but when you control for which publishers are actually using quotes, that advantage shrinks to 3-5%. The reason: publishers that use quote-led headlines tend to be high-engagement outlets that perform well regardless of format. The headline style is a symptom of the publisher type, not the cause of the performance.
Anthropic Released and Recalled Claude Fable 5 in Four Days
Anthropic Released and
Recalled Claude Fable 5
in Four Days
Anthropic launched Claude Fable 5 on June 9, 2026 — and by Friday June 12th, it was completely offline for every user on the planet. A U.S. government export control directive suspended access worldwide, citing national security concerns over the model’s advanced capabilities.
Google Connects Gemini to Your Business Profile
Google Connects Gemini to
Your Business Profile
Google is rolling out two new Gemini features for small business owners. The first lets you connect your Google Business Profile directly to Gemini, giving it access to your reviews, customer questions, search performance, and profile data. You can then ask it to respond to reviews in your brand voice, analyze your monthly performance, or update your business hours. The second is Business Notebooks — a centralized workspace where Gemini stores your business context and proactively surfaces action items like unanswered customer questions or missing holiday hours. Both are rolling out globally this month.
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