3 things you can do tomorrow to help your business grow better.
The INBOUND conference is an annual event hosted by HubSpot, a leading marketing and sales software company. INBOUND is one of the largest marketing and sales conferences in the world, bringing together industry professionals, marketers, salespeople, and entrepreneurs from various fields. The conference focuses on the latest trends, best practices, and strategies in inbound marketing, sales, and customer success.
I’ve distilled the learnings from day one into three actionable items you can implement for your small business tomorrow:
Leverage AI Responsibly
I don’t think there’s a speaker at the event today that didn’t mention artificial intelligence at least once. Generative AI, specifically, snuck its way into the subject matter of many of the educational sessions throughout the day. Generative AI is a subset of artificial intelligence that focuses on generating new content, such as images, videos, music, or text, that is similar to or based on existing data. Instead of following explicit instructions, generative AI systems learn from large datasets to create new and original outputs. Some of the more popular generative AI tools that exist include ChatGPT by OpenAI, Bard by Google, and Jasper AI.
To what extent AI can help your marketing efforts depends on your business, your market, your team, etc. but one thing is certain: it can help. In the opening session, HubSpot CEO Yamini Rangan demonstrated how AI is shifting our world from the age of information to the age of intelligence. The mass adoption of the Internet transformed our ability to access information, and now AI will transform the way we use it. As a business owner or marketer, it is imperative that you begin to explore how AI can help you save time, understand your customers, and grow your business faster than ever.
Action Item: Start by outlining all of the various use cases for AI in marketing and figure out which are most important to your business right now. Use cases include: copywriting, data analysis, keyword assessment, strategy development, image generation, live web chat, and much more. Many of these features are available in HubSpot today.
Connect Better, Grow Better
Another big theme of day one was the importance of community building and connecting with customers along every step of the customer journey. Connection in this case means much more than sending an automated email or having a salesperson call the prospect. Connecting with customers on a meaningful level requires internal teams to be on the same page about buyers as they move through each phase of their buying journey. It requires teams to do things that don’t always scale, e.g., calling a new customer to make sure they’re enjoying your product before they reach out to you with an issue (although AI will certainly make these activities more scalable). It requires brands to be omnipresent and meet buyers where they are.
The HubSpot team shared data from their own customer base that helps illustrate the importance of investing in deep customer connections. According to HubSpot, businesses that develop strong customer connections using HubSpot’s software grow five times faster than average businesses in terms of new deals won. Having a CRM tool like HubSpot makes building and managing customer relationships a lot easier. HubSpot is especially useful in providing marketing, sales, and customer service teams, who all might work in different hubs, access to the same data in a format that makes sense for their respective roles.
Action Item: If this is something you want to work on for your business, my recommendation is to start with an internal audit. See if you can figure out how well you really know your customers and think critically about the data you collect about your customers as they interact with your brand. Are there things you aren’t capturing that you should be? Is there information you’re asking customer for that you don’t need and that’s causing unnecessary friction in the sales process? Are there channels you should be marketing on that you aren’t currently?
Trust is Everything
One of my last sessions of the day was led by Marcus Sheridan, author of They Ask You Answer, keynote speaker, and partner at IMPACT, a sales and marketing coaching company. He gave a passionate talk on Winning Trust in the AI Era. Many of the ideas Sheridan shared were especially applicable to small and mid-sized businesses, who often rely on word-of-mouth and customers who advocate for their brands. Many business owners build incredible successful businesses on the relationships they have in the market. To build truly influential relationships requires trust, and Sheridan provided some great examples of how marketers can cultivate trust.
Sheridan challenged audience members to do what others in their markets won’t do. He shared the story of a successful pool company he managed, and how creating content that competitors wouldn’t dare publish elevated his brand and helped his company become an authority in the market. For example, if your business manufactures and installs fiberglass pools, it may seem counterintuitive to publish an article called, “What Can Go Wrong with Fiberglass Pools.” However, Sheridan knew that buyers in the market for fiberglass pools were going to Google things like that, and this ended up being an incredibly valuable way for customers to find his business and ultimately make a purchase.
Buyers appreciate transparency and they will reward the firms that offer a sales process with minimal friction. This can be as simple as openly displaying pricing on your website, or creating a pricing calculator so that potential buyers can get a quote immediately rather than calling your office or waiting for a salesperson to reach out. It could be a series of blog posts that help establish your company as the expert in your field. The way people buy is changing faster than ever, so the way we sell needs to change drastically.
Action Item: Think about what it would take to cultivate real trust with your customers. What information are they looking for when they come to your website or open your social media page? Document this, and develop your content strategy around these items.
Unlock the Power of HubSpot for Your Business
INBOUND serves as a great reminder of everything that’s possible when you fully deploy HubSpot’s software. It’s not always easy, but it’s a worthwhile investment to make in your business. If you need some help along the way, you can book a free consultation with me using the form below:
