Inbound 2018: Day 1

The first day of Inbound: 2018 was amazing but we're so braindead zzzzzzzz ...

I must say, I haven't been to a conference that packed this much rich content into one day. Usually you go to a couple decent sessions, get a couple duds, leave early and go work in your hotel room. With wine.

Not Inbound. The conference was rich from sunup from sundown. Which is why we're now catatonic. But we can't retire without sharing our key takeaways from day one.

Polly's 3 key takeways:

The importance of long-term value: Very few clients have a good idea of their customer's long-term value. They almost always make key marketing decisions based off of a client's first purchase only, which leads to inaccurate choices and parameters as best and dangerous decision making at worst. Most clients have multiple purchases or can upsell additional services to clients. So, the value of a new customer is far more than their initial purchase. Which means that it may be very ROI friendly to spend more to acquire them. Don't cut yourself off from potential customers unnecessarily.
Use AI to use your time more valuably: How many of us could add up our time for the year and find ourselves with hours, or days lost to meeting scheduling (and rescheduling), setting up calls, and a myriad of other mindless tasks? All of us need to think about our time as a much more valuable resource - we steal our own time by taking on these mindless tasks and rob our jobs of the valuable brainpower we could be using for more valuable tasks. Take advantage of AI or automation to assist with tasks that are repeatable and that you know you shouldn't be spending time doing. Did some tasks just spring to mind? Yes, those ones.
Use video to improve nurture/conversion pathways: We all know video is the new face of marketing. If you're not doing it this minute, it's likely in your plans. Most of us think of video as helpful in digital media, or in content. But including video in key moments in your buyer's journey can have a big impact. One study found that including video in sales emails increased clickthrough 50%. Look for places that video can provide an authentic, human face to your sales process. It doesn't have to be fancy or formal: get your iPhone, find a clean and cool background, and get chatting.
BONUS - Email subject lines: A recent study found that FOUR WORDS is the sweet spot for email subject lines and engagement. Dust off those haiku skills folks. We write subject lines with an average of 7 words, so time to cut 3. Open this email now.

Josh's 3 key takeaways:

SEO is about mobile today, AI tomorrow: Anyone who tells you that search is just about ranking for specific keywords today is wrong. Certainly this is a factor to consider, but it’s not enough . What does that mean for you? You need to focus on three things.
- Mobile first indexing. As of July of this year Google is ranking sites based on their mobile experience. It’s time to ensure that experience is as seamless on a mobile device as on a desktop. Going responsive isn’t enough. Everything needs to work seamlessly.
- Site speed. If your site doesn’t load quickly on mobile you are in trouble. Over 82% of pages on your site have mobile speed issues. They need to be fixed now. One of the best ways to get started is by implementing AMP pages on your site (if you're using Hubspot you can flip a switch to turn these pages on).
- Intent based search. Google’s RankBrain is now the third highest ranking signal. This is all about machine learning and artificial intelligence. On a very basic level this means that you need to focus on three things: talking like a human, feature snippets, and making sure you’re structuring your content using schemas that RankBrain will understand.
Medium as a content recycling option: We’ve long been excited about Medium as an opportunity to expand your audience. Hubspot’s medium publication audience, for example, only has a 10% overlap with their database. That’s huge. One of the most practical ways to get started is to choose old content that is valuable and republish it on medium to give it new life.
Tools don’t trump message: There are hundreds of tools out there, but tools still don’t outweigh a compelling message. People still respond to story. Allen Martinez from Noble Digital did a great job of explaining how a story that taps into our emotions is what will motivate someone to take action, especially as they’re getting to know you. The medium doesn’t matter as much (although video content consumption is skyrocketing and should be considered), but you need to spend time on ideation. Who is your audience and what will make them really care? Without that you have nothing, even if you’re using all the right channels.