Notes from the Helix team

Field notes.

Practical notes on AI GTM operations, audits, signals, and content systems. We run Helix on Helix first - what works ends up here.

LatestApr 22, 20264 min readMatt Merrill

Best AI Marketing Tools We Use in 2026

The AI marketing tools actually delivering ROI in 2026: sentiment analysis, competitor tracking, and content automation that replaces your manual workflows.

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Apr 21, 20264 min readJenna Maroney

Building AI Agents for Marketing Workflows: What Reddit Operators Actually Use

Reddit marketers share how they're using AI agents for segmentation, email drafting, and campaigns. Here's what's working in the wild.

Apr 21, 20265 min readJustin Henriksen

AI Marketing Automation Benefits Worth Tracking

Machine learning finds patterns in customer data that humans miss. Here's what SMBs should measure when deploying AI-powered GTM automation.

Apr 21, 20264 min readJustin Henriksen

Canva Grow 2.0 Closes the Creative-to-Performance Gap for SMBs

Canva's new Grow 2.0 platform unifies ad creation and optimization in one workflow. For SMBs without dedicated creative and performance teams, this consolidation matters.

Apr 19, 20265 min readMatt Merrill

Why We Stopped Recommending HubSpot to SMB Clients

Zapier, Make, and n8n give you actual workflow flexibility. HubSpot gives you a walled garden. Here's when to use which.

Apr 19, 20263 min readJustin Henriksen

Bad CRM Data Will Break Your AI Marketing

AI amplifies your CRM problems instead of fixing them. Here is what to clean before you automate.

Apr 19, 20265 min readMatt Merrill

Agentic AI Email Beats Rules-Based Workflows

Rule-based email workflows fire when conditions match. Agentic AI decides who, what, and when based on live behavior. Here's why that distinction matters for SMBs running outbound.

Apr 18, 20264 min readAda Mendez

Canva Grow 2.0 Finally Bridges Your Creative and Performance Teams

Canva's new Grow 2.0 platform unifies ad creation and optimization in one tool, giving SMBs a practical path from design to performance without the usual handoff chaos.

Apr 17, 20264 min readJustin Henriksen

What to Automate First in Marketing AI

Most guides say automate everything. Wrong. Start with the boring stuff that breaks when humans forget, like follow-ups and scheduling.

Apr 17, 20264 min readJustin Henriksen

Shopify's Campaign Autopilot and What SMBs Should Actually Automate First

Shopify's new Campaign Autopilot handles multi-channel execution, but most SMBs waste time automating creative before fixing their plumbing. Here's what to automate first.

Apr 17, 20264 min readMatt Merrill

HubSpot Isn't Enough Anymore: What We Use Instead

SMBs are hitting HubSpot's AI ceiling. Here's the stack we actually run for revenue-share clients who need more than basic drip campaigns.

Apr 17, 20264 min readMatt Merrill

Shopify's New AI Tool Means You Need Fewer Apps

Campaign Autopilot consolidates multi-channel marketing into one dashboard. Here's what SMBs should actually do about it.

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