Key Learnings From HubSpot’s INBOUND 22 Conference

HubSpot’s annual INBOUND conference wrapped up last week and, as usual, it was full of amazing keynote speakers, breakout sessions, and lots of other excitement.

This blog post will highlight some of our key learnings and takeaways from INBOUND 22.

Consolidating Your Marketing Strategy

Marketing teams often fall into the trap of biting off more than they can chew. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of possibilities and decide to “do it all” in an attempt to cover your bases. 

I was glad to see this problem addressed at INBOUND. Even though a clear solution wasn’t identified, we were able to nail down some best practices for building a marketing campaign:

• Your key focus needs to be on your audience. Know your customer. Define your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and focus tactics and messaging on that persona.
• Be channel focused. Know what channels are important to your ICP and deploy marketing tactics that are key to getting the message to the right place.
• Create resources that you can leverage with key decision makers AND those who are influential in the buying decision. Identify the key differentiators in your product or service and make sure that messaging is specific to those roles.

There is also a lot we can do as marketers to make the sales process easier and enable sales teams to have better conversations. Clearly articulating the value propositions and differentiators, along with packaging proof points such as customer testimonials and success stories in a way that is easy for sales teams to utilize is great low-hanging fruit.

– Andrew Copeland, Content Strategist

Tackling Change Management

Another topic that I was glad to see come up was change management. Not enough marketers talk about the challenges they face in getting teams to adopt new software and processes. In fact, failure to adopt is one of the most common reasons why so many CRM programs fail. Once again, I can’t say that a clear solution was identified, but it was nice to hear this problem is being acknowledged and discussed in the community.

– Andrew Copeland, Content Strategist

Prioritizing Clarity and Authenticity

A big theme I took away from this year’s sessions is the importance of building a clear, authentic brand for your business. As marketers, we’re always looking for what’s next: new strategies, new channels, new tech, you name it. It’s tempting to constantly adapt your brand to follow these trends – but in the long term, this approach will cost you customer trust. 

To be clear, I don’t think brands should stagnate; innovation is the key to staying relevant. But the brands that win are those that stick to their core values and strengths as they grow. Here are two quotes from the week that really stood out to me on this topic:

“When you lead with everything, nobody cares.” – Jay Schwedelson, Founder SubjectLine.com & President and CEO Outcome Media

I love this quote because it drives home how important it is to follow your north star as a brand. Your business is likely dynamic and multi-faceted; as it grows, this will only become more true. Your brand identity should remain clear and simple from day one. If you try to present yourself as everything to everyone, you won’t actually attract anyone. 

“Empowerment over interruptions.” Jeff Rosenblum, Founding Partner, Questus

The human brain is the world’s most powerful spam filter. And yet, most marketing tactics rely on interruptions that quickly get filtered out (think mid-roll ads, pop-ups and paywalls). The most successful brands go beyond interruptions. They empower their audience with compounding experiences that improve their lives little by little. The three keys to building an empowering brand according to Jeff: embracing transparency, communicating clearly and communicating consistently.

– Sophia Hadeka, Brand Strategist

Marketing is Constantly Evolving. We’re Here to Help

Marketing trends are constantly changing and evolving over time. What worked 6 months ago might not work today. HubSpot’s Inbound Conference is great because it gives marketers like us a place to discuss our challenges and come up with innovative solutions. This year was no exception.

As a Platinum-level HubSpot Partner, we are here to help you with your marketing strategy and technology adoption. Contact us today or download your free HubSpot Onboarding Checklist to learn more.