INBOUND 2023: 3 Key Learnings

The dust has finally settled, the conference swag has found its way to our desks, and our brains are still buzzing with inspiration from INBOUND 2023. That's right, we're talking about HubSpot's annual INBOUND conference, the digital marketing event of the year!

Our team embarked on an exciting journey to Boston this year to soak up the latest trends, strategies, and insights in the ever-evolving world of marketing. And boy, was it a whirlwind of knowledge, innovation, and a whole lot of coffee.

In this blog, we're sharing the key takeaways from INBOUND 2023 that we believe will help you supercharge your marketing efforts and empower you to stay ahead of the curve in this fast-paced industry.

So, grab your favorite caffeinated beverage and get ready to dive into our key learnings from INBOUND 2023. 

AI Is Here To Stay

Don’t roll your eyes yet! AI has been a hot topic in the marketing world for a while now, but this year’s conference saw the launch of some pretty exciting AI-powered tools within the HubSpot platform. We couldn’t possibly list them all here, but some of our top picks include:

• AI-powered sales forecasting
• AI Chatbots for Service Hub
• Native AI image generation 
• ChatSpot (specifically for generating quick reports)

Of course, this year’s sessions covered plenty of tips and best practices to help you actually make the most of AI. For marketers, AI can lighten the load of content production, reporting, and distribution. All of this frees up time for high-level strategy, optimization, and experimentation. AKA, you might finally have time to launch that in-depth industry report or get started with video marketing — hooray!

For sales, it’s all about using AI to work smarter; ChatSpot can help you research prospects, Content Assistant can help you write personalized follow-up emails, and predictive Deal Health scores can help you prioritize your tasks. For sales leaders, AI can also remove the mystery around sales forecasting by providing highly accurate pipeline forecasts.

HubSpot Is a Customer Platform

The HubSpot vs. Salesforce debate might be over — but not for the reasons you think. During the opening Product Spotlight session, HubSpot founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah unveiled HubSpot’s new positioning as a “customer platform”, having transcended the definition of a traditional CRM or marketing automation platform in recent years.

With the ability to accept payments, manage your website, handle customer tickets, create campaigns, and prospect new leads all in one place, HubSpot is truly blowing away the competition and creating a category of its own. We wouldn’t be surprised to see more and more enterprise companies like Lendlease making the jump to HubSpot and slashing their total cost of ownership by more than 50% thanks to all of HubSpot’s native features. 

Strategy > Everything

Here’s the unfortunate truth about all of these new tools and capabilities: they might save you time on some of your daily tasks, but they also make it easier than ever to waste effort on tactics that won't really move the needle.

To come out on top, revenue leaders need to get hyperfocused on strategy. Do you really need to cross-post on every social media platform (looking at you, Threads), or would you be better off doubling down on LinkedIn? Do you actually need to prospect twice as many leads per day or should you focus on improving your win rate with sales training and collateral?

These kinds of decisions are only going to be more important as new tools and channels continue to pop up and vie for a spot in your strategy (and budget). Think about what your business actually needs to grow and scale your efforts in those areas. When in doubt, follow the data.

Stay a Step Ahead With WEBITMD

More than anything, INBOUND23 taught us that marketing trends and best practices are constantly evolving. What worked for your business last year might not work today. The real key to success lies in how you adapt your strategies and technology to meet these changing demands.

As a Platinum-level HubSpot Partner, WEBITMD is here to help you optimize your marketing, sales, and technology to deliver maximum growth. Contact us today to learn more or download our free Growth Stack Guide to explore our complete range of services.