Hi, I’m Craig Bailey and this is my personal blog where I write about technology, business systems, HubSpot and general life experiences. You can read my posts here.

(If you are looking for the Content is King post by Bill Gates it is here)

I’m involved with three agencies in Sydney:

  • The first is XEN Systems. We help government departments and mid-large B2B technology companies with their sales and marketing strategy, including implementation and training in HubSpot 
  • The second is XEN Create. We provide premium graphic design services to companies, with a focus on using the latest AI tools, including Midjourney
  • The third is XEN Solar, where we help high quality solar companies (dealers, installers) with their sales and marketing processes.

I also co-host HubShots, the podcast and YouTube show focussed on getting the most out of HubSpot. We are the creators of the HubShots Framework.

Craig Bailey presenting

Latest stories

Terrible cold outreach email from major software company

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Received this terrible outreach email from a major software company: I get lots of spam, but it’s usually from low quality companies I’ve never heard of. This is from a major software player – which is probably why it managed to avoid the spam filter make it into my inbox. Everything about this is bad, from the missing data (ie they didn’t even bother to search for my...

I am a thought leader

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This parody doing the rounds is spot on: It seems as though the disdain we had for self-proclaimed social media experts (#SMEGs) is transferring to so-called thought leaders. And rightly so. Everyone wants to be a thought leader these days. And it’s just getting ridiculous. In the race to be seen as thought leaders it seems that actually having any critical thinking is considered a hurdle...

Why Facebook Messenger matters for B2B marketers

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Mary Meeker’s latest report highlighted the rise of messenger app usage (and the Facebook gap). This slide was particularly telling: Notice the results: a 20x increase in messages received by Hyatt. This is significant, and important. People are extremely comfortable using Facebook Messenger to engage with companies. A few other items to notice: Hyatt only started offering this in November...

Website engagement and Google rankings

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Thought provoking article by Larry Kim about how Google may (or may not) use web site dwell time as an indirect ranking signal. Summary: there’s some correlation items, and personal viewpoints added, but nothing is concrete. That’s not to say it isn’t actionable – just thinking about how to improve your site engagement, and then implementing improvements, can only be a...

The Facebook Gap

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Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends Report is always fascinating reading/viewing. There’s tons to go through, but here’s 3 quick notes about Facebook. 1. The Gap The Facebook logo has to be on the left because the dot is right at the end of the axis. Facebook owns Instagram (as you know) and thus the gap between Facebook dominance and anything else is massive. (As Ben Thompson noted...

David Kadavy spills gems

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If you ever doubted whether Quora could be useful then have a read through this list of answers by David Kadavy. Gold.
Some of the best time management and productivity thinking I’ve read in a long time.
Make sure you click through on all his links, especially his posts on Medium. They’re all gems.

Instagram is a news source apparently

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Fascinating insights (as always) from Pew Research with this piece covering how social network users get their news. If I were to ask you which social media platforms you thought most people got their news from what would you say? Facebook – yes, of course Twitter – you’d suspect so LinkedIn – absolutely That would be my three. Here’s what the Pew Research survey...

Public transport

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Every time I see a bus packed with people, I say a silent thank you to all of the passengers. I can’t help but think of this comparison: (via: Going Car Free) Taking public transport, even when it’s crowded, or rainy, or hot is a valuable contribution to society. If only more people did it when possible (I totally get that it’s often not feasible). We don’t need more...

What’s the Australian Federal Election Date?

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Answer: The Australian Federal Election date is Saturday 02 July 2016.
Interesting that as I write this on 25 May 2016, right in the middle of election campaign mayhem and just over 5 weeks until the next Australian Federal Election, that neither Bing nor Google give me the answer I was wanting when I searched:

And Bing:

Thankfully DuckDuckGo has something more helpful:

Apple Pay is really new and amazing for some people

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I used Apple Pay this morning in a shop and the girl behind the counter was amazed by it. She wanted to know all about it and how it worked. She was young and tech savvy and yet this was an entirely new (and massively cool) concept for her. If you have an AMEX and have had Apple Pay for a while you’ll likely find this strange – to you paying with Apple Pay is probably so routine...

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