MAgNIFIER O M NTHLY JANUARY 2026
ISSUE 37
The Innovation The Innovation Issue Issue Marketing Trends and Inspiration for 2026
CONTENTs 1
FEATURES LETTER FROM THE EDITOR................................. 3 Just Call Us The Innovation Station
INNOVATION BOARD............................................ 7 Macro Trends in 2026
USEFUL BUSINESS GADGETS.............................. 9 Target Audience Analysis
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DIY SOLUTIONS MONTHLY PUZZLE................................................... 12 Riddle
DIGITAL TRENDS...................................................... 14 Gender Bias, Algorithm, Short-Form Content
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CURRENT EVENTS
PROJECT PORTFOLIO........................................... 15 LOCAL & SOCIAL..................................................... 17 Client Event Calendar
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laughs MEME OF THE MONTH.......................................... 19
Cover image by Magic Media
JUST CALL US THE INNOVATION STATION This is typically the time of year when we all get really inspired to set some goals and get our butts in gear with that ‘new year new me’ mindset. But 2026 really came out swinging in terms of absolutely bananas news stories (and by bananas I mean equal parts devastating, disturbing, depressing, etc.), and I don’t know about you but I feel like I’m fighting for my life sometimes when it comes to stepping into my girlboss mindset. In those moments, it helps to take a step back and let myself escape the crass news cycle for a bit with more pleasant things like gay hockey smut, closet organization (and thus The Container Store), a new Agatha Christie adaptation, and in a few weeks, Bridgerton season 4 part 1. Above all, however, I’ve been feeling really inspired lately by small business owners. To say it’s difficult to run a business would be an understatement, and in this economy?? These people are truly my heroes; they’re forging ahead despite a business landscape that keeps trying to push them backwards off a cliff. One of my favorite stories is that of
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Cassie Abel, the founder of Wild Rye, a women’s outdoor apparel brand. Like many companies, her supply chain relies heavily on manufacturing in other countries, meaning that tariffs could literally wipe out the business that she's worked to build for 10 years. When the tariff war began last year, she mobilized like the industrious entrepreneur she is. She wrote to her state senators and launched a Wefunder campaign to open up ownership of her company and offset the devastating costs of the tariffs. Just a few months ago, in spite of all the forces working against her, she was able to launch their first Outwear line. Riddle me inspired! Now I want to share that inspiration with you in the form of this carefully curated issue of Magnifier Monthly and offer up some creative ideas for mapping your professional ventures and getting a strategic kickstart on your new year of business. I’m embracing innovation as the official energy of 2026; if Cassie’s story is anything to go by, creative pivots can lead to some pretty astonishing outcomes, and thinking on our feet is going to be an increasingly valuable skill.
A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Madelyn Veith
To write this issue, I spent some time researching the predicted trends of 2026 and surprise surprise, all signs point towards AI. Whether you use it or not, there’s no doubt that AI is transforming the digital landscape, especially when it comes to discoverability.
They’ve essentially become the internet’s bouncers, crawling through options and making selections on behalf of consumers. It’s a change that requires us to rethink how to reach audiences who may never conduct a manual search or visit a product page.
Discoverability—how people find your business—has long been about SEO optimization and crafting your web pages so that when people searched for your business, it would show up at the top of the results. But now, people aren’t the ones conducting the search. AI agents are.
In other words, it’s time to get innovative. And now for the issue at hand… Dive into this special issue to gain insights into the digital landscape of the year ahead and get inspired to meet the moment.
Getting inspired with my WIFS PDX crew at our monthly Board-Meeting-turnedTea-Party
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UPCOMING EVENT ALERT!
UPCOMING EVENT! X
Marove Agency is teaming up with WIFS PDX to present a workshop on social media. Official event details below. Women in Insurance and Financial Services (WIFS) was founded in 1936 and is an association of financial services professionals working together to attract, develop & advance women in an underrepresented profession. No other financial services organization provides programming designed for women, by women. Kick off your new year with a social media plan that grows your book of business. Madelyn Veith, digital marketing strategist and founder of Marove Agency, gives us the rundown on social media optimization and shares industry secrets for curating content to beat the everchanging algorithm. In this workshop, you'll learn how to craft a social media strategy around your professional brand and get hands-on experience with creating a piece of content for maximum visibility.
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n o 6 i 2 t 0 a 2 v d o r n a o n I B
Big picture ideas for your upcoming year of marketing based on macro trends.
Ai Discovery AI is here to stay in one way or another, and it’s on its way to replacing traditional internet search behavior. Internet searches are increasingly mediated by AI chatbots, meaning more customers are using chatbots to research services rather than a simple Google search. Now is a good time to get ahead of the curve and reimagine the path to purchase to accommodate AI-driven selection, and optimize your content for conversational AI interfaces.
Personalized Assistants
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If you’ve been curious about leveraging AI in your business but overwhelmed about where to start, fear not—platforms are taking care of implementation for you. Most platforms now have an AI agent/companion built into their interface, making it easy for users to take advantage of AIpowered functionality as a new platform feature. For instance, Zapier (the automation platform) now has a query box where you can ask it to build an automated workflow for you, rather than spending hours doing it manually. This is what running a business in the 21st century should be —you get to spend more time on your craft while a personalized robot does all of your laborious tasks.
Niche Markets It’s always a good practice to narrow your target audience as much as possible (see: Business Gadgets), but it might be time to take things a step further and get even quirkier with your messaging. Case-in-point: Heated Rivalry on HBO. This show, which lives arguably in the nichest of all niches as a gay-hockey-romance story, went completely viral in December and continues to inspire even more viral content on social media. People love a niche, and it might be time to match their freak with some creative content that leans into what people love. (This is not an ad for gay hockey content; just an observation that pop culture makes for good trends and that the age of Boomer proprietary on the internet might be officially over.)
Physical Engagement Trends are indicating that consumers may be feeling digitally saturated. Consumers— especially younger generations who have grown up with digital apps—are becoming more interested in real-life brand experiences and view physical experiences as a novelty. In-person brand exposures will look different from business to business but any live connection you can make with people will go a long way in our digital age. If you’re a brick-and-mortar business, you might elevate your window display or upgrade your interior decor. If you’re a service, maybe you set up a table at a pop-up or small business market, or maybe you simply upgrade your business cards and hand them out to connections you make at a networking event.
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USEFUL BUSIN
TARGET AUDI ABOUT Nothing bookends a marketing strategy quite like a target audience analysis. That’s because your audience (customer) is one of the most—if not the most—influential factors when it comes to the success of your business cycles. You can make as many products/services as you want, but it won’t mean much (and won’t make money) if no one purchases them. Using a target audience analysis to identify and understand your audience is the first step to laying a clear purchasing path to your product/service. You need to know who might be interested in what you have to offer and why, what they value and how they make decisions. This information can be used to create more thoughtful campaigns that resonate better with the people you’re trying to reach. In other words, it’s a more efficient marketing strategy.
...IN ACTION!
“The beginning AND the end...”
Imagine you’re a florist launching a new product of custom flower arches. These are costly and time-consuming, so you’re going to set a very high price point. That rules out your typical customer—the average person looking to send a bouquet in a rush to someone they’re thinking about—so you know you can’t use the same website copy. You know you’ll have to find customers who are 1) hosting a special occasion, 2) value a hand-crafted aesthetic, and 3) are willing to pay a pretty penny for it. You brainstorm for a bit and come up with some potential customers that match that profile: weddings, ceremonies, corporate events, luxury parties, etc. For each category, you research their key demographics, values, and preferences, and where they spend their time. Once you have all the research, you create their buyer persona: The Aesthetic Host. Mostly women with high disposable income or a big event budget from affluent areas who are highly attuned to aesthetics. Now, you can set about writing website copy about being the person that creates a ‘wow’ moment for guests and an absolutely unforgettable event.
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NESS GADgETS
IENCE ANALYSIS INSTRUCTION MANUAL 1. Establish your target customer’s demographics. Age range Gender Location of residence Education level Income range etc...
2. Collect engagement metrics on your audience to gauge their online behavior. Website traffic Google Analytics Facebook Audience Insights Instagram Insights etc...
3. Segment your audience into more useful groups that will help you hone your messaging. Purchasing behavior Pain points Industry Interests/values
4. Survey your audience and get direct input about their pain points and preferences. Email surveys Social media polls
5. Assemble all the information into a profile of your audience (AKA the buyer persona). E.g. The Financial Optimizer
6. Calibrate your strategy around the persona: copy adjustments, targeted ads to behavior, personalized emails, prioritized features, etc.
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T H N L O Y M
Puzzle Solution on next page...
RIDDLE Solve the riddle to reveal a key concept in marketing strategies.
Born from data and honed with intention, This foundational piece is a strategy engine It’s a marketing guide for your words, art, and tone, What to offer and how to be shown. The concept of ‘many’ distilled to one owner, It’s the sketch of a customer you hope to win over. It won’t make a purchase but it says nonetheless Who in the world will give you a yes.
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FINAL
SOLUTION Buyer Persona A buyer persona is a somewhat made up profile that represents your ideal customer. By putting a name to the face, it helps you categorize the hundreds (thousands, millions) of people who might be potential purchasers as a single personality, which in turn drives decisions about how you market to them. Examples are The Enthusiastic Soccer Fan, The Discerning Grocery Shopper, The Industrious Part-Time Worker, and so on.
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1. You can get more impressions if you just be a man. A recent article in the Washington Post (based on this free Substack post) explored the phenomenon that changing the language or gender markers on a LinkedIn profile can significantly impact visibility and reach. The subject of the article had asked ChatGPT to make her content more “male coded” and immediately noticed a change in reach (a 415% increase from the week before). 2. You can now DIY your IG algorithm. Instagram users now have the option to manually control their algorithm by tapping the top right slider icon in their Reels feed and choosing the content they want to see. AIrecommended Reels drive gains in user engagement, so allowing people to dictate what shows up in their feed might reduce overall Reels usage. Time will tell—users may ignore the feature all together. 3. Short content is the long game. Short-form video seems to be the medium of the future. If your social strategy needs honing, it’s worth thinking about incorporating it in some way/shape/form. There are stats to back this up: Reels now account for 50% of all time spent on Instagram, YouTube shorts get over 200 billion views per day, and Reels is now the primary engagement channel on Facebook.
Digital
TRENDS
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SOCIAL MEDIA Volunteer work with WIFS PDX as a co-chair on the marketing committee.
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EVENT
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Hyperlinked events are open for attendance/registration.
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4 Oregon Sports Angels Pitch Day
3 WIFS PDX Bridge and Bloom
CALENDAR
WIFS PDX Book Club
WIFS PDX Bridge to Happy Hour
WIFS PDX Book Club
MARCH
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FEBRUARY
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Social Media Workshop
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O F T M ON HE
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E M E M
trying to step into your CEO mindset and embrace creativity and innovation when the first few weeks of 2026 have been the most chaotic in living memory
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S IS A THI
PUB LICATION
, k r o w Get to hs! sleut