HubSpot or Marketo? What to Use in 2026

Pick the right platform, clean your CRM, ship human-first content, adapt to Instagram’s hashtag cap, double down on LinkedIn video, and get ready for Gemini-powered voice search.

Hey there, Digital Marketing Rockstars! 🎸

Manmeet here, this week is all about choosing the right growth engine—and then squeezing more performance out of every channel. From picking between HubSpot and Marketo, to cleaner HubSpot ops, human-first content for 2026, Instagram’s evolving hashtag reality, LinkedIn video wins, and Gemini-powered voice search, there’s plenty you can put into motion before year-end.

A quick heads-up: Code & Peddle will be on holidays next week, so there won’t be a newsletter during that time. We’ll be back on 6th Jan 2026, refreshed and ready to dive straight into what’s next in marketing and growth.

Until then, wishing you and your teams a very Happy Holidays—enjoy the break, recharge, and we’ll see you in the new year with fresh ideas and sharper strategies.🎄✨

In today's email:

1. HubSpot vs. Marketo: which platform fits your growth play. 📈
2. 2026 B2B content trends: human, helpful, and truly original. 🤖
3. Instagram’s new five-hashtag rule and what it really means.💡
4. LinkedIn video ads as your 2026 funnel fuel. 👀
5. Gemini’s next-gen voice search experience in Google. 🌐

Marketing Automation

HubSpot vs. Marketo: Which Fits Your Growth Play?

Choosing between HubSpot and Marketo is really about your growth model and operating reality. HubSpot shines for SMBs and mid-market teams that want an intuitive, all-in-one CRM and marketing hub, with fast onboarding, drag-and-drop automation, and AI that speeds up campaign execution without heavy technical overhead. Marketo, by contrast, is built for technically mature, global organizations with complex lead lifecycles, advanced ABM, and deep Adobe integrations for real-time, multi-channel personalization and strict governance. Both are powerful—but the wrong fit can stall adoption, frustrate teams, and waste budget

Our Hot Take:
Start with your constraints: team size, technical depth, CRM landscape, and how complex your funnels truly are. If you want rapid time-to-value and a single stack for CRM + marketing, HubSpot usually wins. If you’re orchestrating multi-region ABM with Adobe at the core and a dedicated RevOps function, Marketo’s control and depth can pay off. Document your “must-haves” and “deal-breakers” before you even look at features.

Content Marketing

B2B marketing in 2026 is moving away from high-volume, generic output and toward human-first, insight-rich ecosystems that audiences genuinely trust. Winning brands will treat AI as a creative assistant, not a replacement—using it to draft and repurpose while doubling down on interactive, product-led experiences and real expert voices. The goal: content that feels lived-in, practical, and consistent across interconnected channels.

Our Hot Take:
Audit your 2025 content and flag what actually drove conversations, pipeline, or product usage. Build 2026 around fewer, stronger “hero” pieces that show real expertise, then spin them into interactive demos, tools, workshops, and narrative social content. Let AI handle the grunt work—your team’s stories, opinions, and hands-on experience are what make the difference.

Social Media Marketing / PPC

Instagram’s New Hashtag Rule: 5 Tags, Zero Spam

Instagram is capping captions at five hashtags per post or Reel, explicitly pushing creators to use targeted, relevant tags instead of long, spammy lists. With AI-driven recommendations now doing most of the discovery work, performance will rely more on strong visuals, clear keywords, and genuine engagement signals than on hashtag volume.

Our Hot Take:
Treat hashtags like precision tools, not decoration. Define core tag sets by niche, intent, and campaign, then pair them with scroll-stopping creative and keyword-rich captions. Monitor saves, shares, and watch time more than raw reach. The brands that embrace quality over quantity in tagging will ride the recommendation engine instead of fighting it.

LinkedIn Video Ads: High-Impact Fuel For Your 2026 B2B Funnel

Video continues to be LinkedIn’s engagement engine, driving up to 20x more shares and significantly higher interaction rates than other post formats. Sponsored video ads can deliver substantially higher click-through rates, making them a powerful format for building awareness, educating buyers, and moving high-intent prospects deeper into your B2B funnel.

Our Hot Take:
Design video ads as mini episodes, not lifted webinar clips. Lead with the problem, show the outcome, and keep a single clear CTA. Build a simple sequence: short explainer → deeper demo → customer proof, and map each to specific stages of your funnel. Track view completion, CTR, and assisted opportunities—not just impressions.

SEO

Gemini Supercharges Google’s Voice-First Search Experience

Google’s latest update brings Gemini 2.5 Flash Native Audio into Search Live, turning voice search into a more natural, conversational assistant. Users can now ask complex, multi-step questions, follow up in real time, and benefit from slower instructional modes for learning or step-by-step guidance, plus live speech-to-speech translation across languages. Search is becoming less about typing queries and more about talking through tasks.

Our Hot Take:
Future-proof content for voice and conversation. Structure pages with clear questions and answers, step-by-step instructions, and concise summaries that can be read aloud easily. Think in tasks (“how do I…”, “what’s the best way to…”) and make sure your best how-to and explainer content is accurate, current, and easy for AI assistants to quote.

Recommended Readings

Claim Your Platform Audit

Ensure Precision: Secure Your MA Platform Audit Now!

Here’s what you can expect:

  • Lead Generation and Conversion

  • Email Marketing Performance

  • Website and Content Analytics

  • Lead Management and Nurturing

  • Customer Relationship Management

Tip of the Week

Document your “2026 stack choices” in one page: which platform you’ll lean on for automation, what your primary content formats will be, and one big bet each on social, PPC, and SEO. Align the team now so experiments feel focused, not random.💡

Summary:

Here’s your quick recap:

  • Marketing Automation: Choose HubSpot for speed and simplicity; Marketo for complex, Adobe-centric ABM and governance. 📈

  • Content: 2026 belongs to human, helpful, original content supported by AI—not generated by it. 🤖

  • Social: On Instagram, five sharp hashtags plus strong creative and engagement beat 25 noisy ones every time. 💡

  • PPC: Invest in LinkedIn video ads as a structured funnel asset, not just a one-off awareness play. 👀

  • SEO: Optimize for conversational, voice-led queries as Gemini reshapes how users search and learn. 🌐

Meme of the Week