INBOUND, HubSpot’s annual community-centric conference, is the pinnacle event for professionals across marketing, sales, and customer experience. This year, GROWL had the pleasure of attending INBOUND—in-person and virtually—as a HubSpot Solutions Partner. The event was full of profound insights, networking with experts, meeting HubSpot Academy celebrities, and generating new business ideas to help GROWL and our clients grow better together. Keep reading for GROWL’s top INBOUND takeaways.
1 “BEST IN CLASS” TO “BEST IN CONNECTION”
It’s no secret that customers (people in general) are digitally drained. From migrating entirely online to doom scrolling social media, people feel more disconnected today than ever. For businesses, the disconnection between brand messaging and customers is detrimental to growth. To curb this lack of connection, business leaders must shift focus from being the best in their industry to being the best in clear communication and relational connection.
2 DREAM BIG—ITERATE SMALL
As businesses scale, it’s easy to think of long-term goals. However, small and overlooked milestones lead to unattained goals. To drive success within our organizations, it’s time for business leaders to strategize at scale—dream the biggest business dreams but execute and iterate on one objective at a time. Iterating smaller will allow businesses to evaluate, adjust, and scale to those big dreams more effectively.
3 EVOLVE YOUR DATA
With numerous touchpoints and spending sources, businesses need to connect the dots back to click-through rates (CTR). Rather than reporting on general metrics, marketing leaders need to display the value of their efforts by tying analytics back to the customer journey. By instituting a streamlined data architecture aligned to the customer journey, improved insights will enable agility and empower your company to pivot in real-time.
4 HUMANIZE YOUR TECH STACK
In an age of disconnection, companies with a humanized tech stack will see the greatest connection with their customers. Brand communities are evolving as the key channel to meet customers where they are without continually fueling digital burnout. Systems automation, conversational marketing, and advanced integrations are impactful ways organizations can leverage their tech stack while infusing a personalized, human touch.
5 YOUR GREATEST STRENGTH IS OFTEN YOUR GREATEST WEAKNESS
Many companies stimulate growth in the wrong areas to “scale faster.” This is often seen as adding people instead of tightening processes or spreading your brand thinly across numerous verticals. While these are common mistakes in business, they are often reasons why companies fail rather than scale. If your company is ready to level up, ask yourself: 1) is your organization’s greatest strength helpful or hindering growth? And 2) Is it time we cannibalize a vertical? These are scary decisions to make and risks to take, but that leap is the difference between businesses that scale and businesses that fail.
6 FIND YOUR “WHITESPACE” IN YOUR GO-TO MARKETING STRATEGY
Your go-to-market strategy (GTM) is critical to your organization’s revenue infrastructure, product-market fit, and scalability. Throughout the GTM process of audits, discovery, brainstorming, etc., businesses also need to consider how they’re creating a thoughtfully connected brand experience that aligns brand ethos, product marketing, and the customer journey. A huge factor in this process is identifying what makes your company stand out against the crowd—what are your customers’ unmet needs, do competitors solve for these needs, and what is the one thing your brand does best? When you can produce that statement, your brand has found its “whitespace.”
7 REVOPS IS THE NEW BLACK
RevOps isn’t just a buzzword; it’s the operating system that powers delightful, lasting customer experiences. RevOps fuels the flywheel and empowers companies and their customers to grow better together. However, organizations must embrace horizontal alignment across planning, strategy, and enablement to break linear growth. This systematic organization delivers impact only when the following “three Cs” are in place:
Clarity—Focus on the people and build a flexible organization around them.
Consistency—Be intentional about opportunity assessment and the mechanisms used to unify the approach. Remember to stay nimble throughout the year.
Capabilities— Evolved tech stacks, systems automation, and centralized data turn insights into action, enabling RevOps to pull the thread through Ops leaders, company pillars, and the overall GTM.
8 SHARE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN WITH CUSTOMERS
It’s no secret that in order to keep consumers coming back, you need to provide a memorable experience. Share your company experience with your audience by providing access to your products or service as efficiently and easily as possible. Instead of gating content or hiding prices, give your audience the information they’re searching for when they need it, without having to jump through hoops. By doing this, you’re not only practicing transparency and building trust but also reducing friction in their journey by taking away barriers.
9 CREATE AN AUDIENCE PLAYGROUND
Once you have gained the trust of your audience, brand champions start to come into play. Brand champions are people who believe in your product or service and promote your brand to their network. Whether it’s Facebook Groups or Google Reviews, give your audience the space to interact with each other to create communities and better connections, developing advocates along the way. These brand champions then go on to defend the brand reputation and build the community, attracting a larger audience.
10 WHEN THE WORLD ZIGS, ZAG
Testing new ideas or going against the social norm can be scary, but growth doesn’t happen in your comfort zone. Sometimes it takes being right when everyone else thinks you’re wrong before your success pays off. In order to scale, test new initiatives, and challenge industry standards to create a unique experience. If you’re not seeing the results you want from your marketing campaign, yet you’re doing every best practice, consider reassessing. What works for your company might not work for another company, and vice versa. Be agile enough to shift your strategy and stand out from the crowd.
Throughout the deep dives, keynotes, and partner conversations, it’s clear that the desired customer experience is shifting. If your organization is ready to take a risk and leap from “best in class” to “best in connection,” give GROWL a shout. Schedule a FREE growth marketing consultation.