4 Key Takeaways From Inbound 2023

People to the power of AI

The human element

The content strategy revolution

What's new from HubSpot

1. People to the power of AI

AI has come a long way from a buzzword to an integral part of marketing and sales strategies. At Inbound, HubSpot Co-founder Dharmesh Shah emphasized that AI is not a fleeting trend. "This is not a once-in-a-lifetime thing," he says, "This is once in many lifetimes" transformative force that provides "cognition at scale." AI is not just about automating tasks; it's about augmenting human capabilities.

Fall in love with your AI-powered future

There's a lot of anxiety surrounding AI, especially for creatives and agencies swimming in a hyper-competitive pond. But Dharmesh's refreshing take resonated with us. We all need to embrace AI as a partner, not a replacement, and envision a future version of ourselves that's AI-powered.

What's next?

AI is poised to become an integral part of everything we do as marketers. It's not just about content creation. So, how can marketers harness the power of AI? try these on for size:

Go beyond text and imagery - While AI has been extensively used for creating content for humans (like text and images), it's also incredibly proficient at generating code. This opens up new possibilities for all marketing and sales professionals, not just developers. Imagine AI automating repetitive coding tasks, freeing up time for creative and strategic endeavors.

Reclaiming lost time -  Let AI handle repetitive tasks, giving you more time to focus on a valuable strategy. Finding new ways to integrate AI into workflows can streamline aspects of your business across the board. Pro tip: Keep a folder of templated briefs to streamline the prompts you need most and brainstorm with your team to continue building this library. 

In essence, AI is a game-changer that will continue to evolve and shape the marketing landscape.

2. The human element

While AI takes center stage, it's essential not to forget the human element in marketing. In a privacy-first world, connecting with audiences in a meaningful way requires a deep understanding of human behavior and intent. Here's what we learned at Inbound 2023:

Get smart with behavioral science - Understanding behavioral science helps marketers craft messaging that resonates with their audience and inspires desired actions. It's not just about what you say but how you say it that matters.

Intent and engagement - Technology has brought us closer to customers, but it's still challenging to truly see them through screens. Intent and engagement metrics are becoming more critical than ever. Understanding what your audience wants and how they interact with your content is key to success.

Team collaboration - As technology and automation advance, bridging the gaps between marketing, sales, service, and other teams is crucial. Collaboration fosters synergy and ensures a seamless customer experience (and not to mention fewer headaches) throughout their journey.

Self-care matters - In a post-pandemic world, taking care of your team's well-being is paramount. Experts like neurobiology professor Andrew Huberman brought their research to the stage, highlighting the importance of maximizing productivity and creativity by prioritizing the health and well-being of your team members.

In essence, the boundaries between the workplace and home, between marketer and persona, sales executive and customer are disappearing. The key to navigating this change: remembering we're all human. 

3. The content strategy revolution 

Content strategy is undergoing a seismic shift. With the implementation of AI search results and the search landscape becoming an increasingly pay-to-play game, organic search reach and real estate are shrinking. And, as we all know, with new businesses and new sites coming online every day, even niche industries are facing oversaturation.

So, how are we ever going to reach our audiences? Especially since it seems the days of technical SEO and keyword optimization are gone. Here's what you need to know: 

Effort over optimization - Marketers are realizing that content created with care and authenticity has a greater impact on their target audience. Simply put, less is quite often more. Instead of using your time and energy to create blog after blog - take the time to get to know your customers. What is the human being on the other side of the screen going through and how, where, and in what form can your content help them most? It seems easy, but so many marketers are missing the mark. 

Organic search is changing - Did you know there have been over 42 Google algorithm updates in the last 2 years? If you haven't kept up with all of them, don't feel bad. It's becoming nearly impossible to win the SEO game through optimization tactics alone. In fact, the amount of real estate on SERPs has decreased significantly, so even top-ranking organic results just don't have the impact they used to. So what do we do? Abandon the SEO ship? Hardly. We just need to reframe the way we're thinking about the core E-A-T (Expertise - Authority - Trustworthiness) to create content that matters to our personas. 

Engagement over traffic - For too long, content marketers have had their noses glued to their keyword research tools and traffic analytics. But it's time to start looking at our KPIs differently. We mentioned using an E-A-T strategy for SEO - but how do we measure how impactful our content is? Simple, look beyond page views and sessions and start looking at engagement and conversion metrics. Bounce rate. Circulation rate. Click-through.  

Hopefully, the new direction content strategy is taking is a breath of fresh air. 

4. What's new from HubSpot

In true Inbound fashion, HubSpot unveiled exciting updates that will revolutionize how users work. Here's a sneak peek at what we're most excited about:

ChatSpot | AI for businesses

ChatSpot is an AI assistant designed to help users interact with their HubSpot CRM and other SaaS tools. Its main features include real-time chat integration, automated data entry, and intelligent insights. By streamlining communication, automating tasks, and providing valuable insights, ChatSpot enhances productivity, improves customer engagement, and enables users to make data-driven decisions.

 

Content Assistant | A wizard at your fingertips 

Sales Hub | New & improved

HubSpot's all-new Sales Hub is set to give SalesForce a run for its money. With customizable UX elements and powerful new tools, it's designed to supercharge your sales efforts. Here's what we can't wait to get our hands on:

• A new prospecting workplace and deal inspection view for sales team members to manage leads and deals, however works best for them. 
• A new leads tool that unifies lead management across the HubSpot ecosystem. 
• Lead form routing, booking on behalf of others, and more to simplify handoff. 
• A handful of exciting forecasting and reporting tools to help accurately predict, measure, and analyze revenue. 
• An improved LinkedIn Sales Navigator integration (coming soon). 
  
  

Campaign Assistant | Supercharge your marketing

Missed the conference? We're here with insights. 

Inbound 2023 has been a whirlwind, highlighting the transformative power of AI, the enduring importance of the human element, the evolving content strategy landscape, and HubSpot's game-changing updates. We're thrilled about the future of marketing and the endless possibilities it holds for our clients.

Are you ready to revolutionize your marketing and sales efforts? Let's connect and explore how these insights and innovations can work for you. Together, we'll shape the future of your success. Start by downloading our free Ultimate Marketing Planning Kit full of downloadable templates to set your team up for success.