Stay informed about the latest developments in inbound marketing and HubSpot with our comprehensive recap of INBOUND 2022. Discover key strategies for connecting with customers in the digital age, overcoming data challenges, and navigating search and social algorithms. We'll also introduce you to the most recent and useful updates to HubSpot's product offerings.
INBOUND is an annual conference powered by HubSpot that brings together thought leaders from around the world to discuss all things inbound marketing, HubSpot, and beyond.
Key strategic takeaways from INBOUND 2022
Traditionally, companies have relied on legacy CRMs to manage customer relationships. However, according to Yamini Rangan, the CEO of HubSpot, this approach is no longer effective. The future of successful companies lies in focusing on customer connection rather than customer management.
In the age of connected customers, the ability to connect data between and within systems is crucial for companies to effectively engage with customers and provide tailored solutions. Unfortunately, many companies struggle with disconnected systems, leading to time-consuming data cleaning instead of meaningful customer interactions. Additionally, teams working in silos without a unified view of the customer journey further hinder the customer experience.
So, how can we solve the connectivity issue? Yamini Rangan suggests implementing a connected customer growth strategy, which includes six suggestions divided into three phases: Attract, Engage, and Delight.
- During the Attract phase, businesses should focus on earning first-party data and diversifying their distribution channels, including platforms like TikTok.
- In the Engage phase, the goal is to achieve high email open rates and provide valuable context for sales and service conversations.
- Lastly, in the Delight phase, the emphasis is on making the buying process effortless and offering customers multiple communication channels. B2B companies can learn a lot from B2C companies in this phase.
What self-service buyers mean for B2B
A Gartner study revealed that 33% of buyers prefer a seller-free sales experience, and 75% of buyers and sellers prefer digital self-serve and remote interactions. Marcus Sheridan, the author of the inbound marketing book "They Ask You Answer," also highlighted the increasing preference for self-service among buyers.
Sheridan agrees with Rangan that B2B success relies on connecting people with the right content at the right time. He suggests three solutions to cater to self-service buyers:
- Self-scheduling: Give visitors the ability to schedule time with your sales team without having to talk to you first.
- Self-selection: Guide visitors virtually to make decisions by providing them with the necessary information.
- Self-pricing: Enable visitors to access pricing information independently or at least get a price range for your products or services.
By making self-service a significant part of your customer experience, you can enhance the buying process and improve overall customer satisfaction.
HubSpot product updates and new features
At INBOUND 2022, HubSpot unveiled several exciting updates and new features designed to enhance the "connected customer" experience. Here are some of the most important updates and features:
- Tie spend to growth with updated Marketing Campaigns: HubSpot has transformed the Marketing Campaigns feature into a comprehensive command center for your entire marketing team. You can now seamlessly connect all your campaign data, enabling you to tie spend to growth. The new view consolidates every asset and channel across campaigns, providing a complete overview of campaign performance.
- Gain deeper insights with updated Custom Reports: HubSpot now offers "rich drilldown reports" that facilitate attribution reports based on nine different attribution models. You can slice, dice, and explore the entire buyer's journey, gaining deeper insights into the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
- All touchpoints on one timeline with Customer Journey Mapping: Customer Journey Mapping is a powerful new feature that visualizes all marketing touchpoints on a single timeline. This tool provides an overview of your leads' buyer's journey in real-time, allowing you to optimize and refine your strategies.
- Cleaner data in your CRM with Crafted Data Management: HubSpot's Crafted Data Management offers a data model overview that allows you to visualize your data quickly and easily. It includes a custom object builder, property validation, setting rules for missing data, and a data quality command center to clean your data and provide optimization suggestions.
- Customize the CRM to your needs: HubSpot now offers the ability to customize CRM views based on defined sections and integrations. The new custom integration tab allows you to build integrations directly into the CRM, enabling seamless data flow. This update provides the flexibility to create different views for each team, empowering marketing, sales, and service teams to work more efficiently within the CRM.
In conclusion, INBOUND 2022 provided valuable insights into the future of inbound marketing and HubSpot. By focusing on customer connection, implementing self-service strategies, and leveraging the latest HubSpot product updates, businesses can stay ahead in the digital age and deliver exceptional customer experiences.
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This blog post draws insights from our Nordics SaaS HubSpot User Group (HUG) event. Through HUG events, we inspire HubSpot users with proven inbound business cases, and share best practices, all while connecting with like-minded professionals facing similar challenges.
