Observations from Inbound18

I'm thrilled to be attending HubSpot's Inbound 2018. When I worked with Marketo, I wanted to go to their annual conference - The Marketing Nation Conference, but maternity leave put that on hold at the time. So, I feel like at long last, I finally arrived and it has not disappointed.

I have been to TONS of conferences throughout my tenure as a marketer - many in the capacity of trying to reach prospects and customers and fewer focused on my own trade. It's energizing to go to session after session speaking to my daily needs and struggles.

Today, throughout the keynote speeches and the smaller informational sessions, I heard 3 things repeated by all:

1) This is the time of disruption. I'm actually incredibly tired of hearing this. I have heard this since I began my college education. This is NOT the age of disruption. The speed of change has just changed and continues to get faster, but we are all still hurtling toward the same things and the evolutions are not unexpected. Or maybe I'm just tired of the word "disruption," but I am completely numb to the fact that something is MORE different this year than last.

2) Customer experience is The best marketing tool. Now, this I do strongly believe is a marked difference in marketing. Today, in most of the sessions I went to, plus the two keynotes from HubSpot cofounders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, all stressed the key role your current customers play in your marketing. They provide word of mouth; they give testimonials; they make repeat buys. Your customers are the strongest engine marketing has to leverage. And yet, in my experience, most of the bosses I've worked for have asked me to focus on brand new prospects, cold leads. I suppose they think once I've uncovered a name, Sales will take it from there. But marketing should never stop reaching individuals - at any stage, and marketing should connect datapoints within your org, so your Sales team knows what a prospect has responded to and your customer service team knows what information a customer has responded to.

3) Everyone wants everything in 3s. Sounds so simple - just like this post. Every presentation today presented everything - every set of findings, every set of recommendations, every set of examples in 3s. Beth Comstock even point blank said that things should come in 3s. I get it, though after a full 8-hour day, things came across as contrived. Surely not all good advice comes in 3s. Surely, sometimes one great example works. Surely, there could be 5 steps to follow. I began to see holes where I could see that presenters wanted things in 3s, so they would truncate big concepts to fit into 3. This being said, these really were my main observations today - 3 things I saw more than 3 times.

Great day! Looking forward to more learning tomorrow.