INBOUND 2022 Recap: Top Takeaways

The LeadG2 team set aside a few days to learn and grow in our areas of expertise (virtually) at HubSpot's INBOUND 2022 conference. From email marketing tips and learning about the current and future state of marketing, here are some big takeaways our team shared after the sessions were over.

Recap and Takeaways From Day 1 of INBOUND 

On the first day of INBOUND, our team attended sessions related to sales, marketing, SEO, leadership, business growth, and more. It goes without saying that each and every session left a lasting impact with a lot of takeaways. Here's what our team learned on day one.

I think it’s worth mentioning the kick-off spotlight with HubSpot CEO, Yamini Rangan. She put to words what I think we have all been seeing, pointing it out in such a concise way – digital fatigue and the disconnects that are harming business growth.

I hadn’t heard it described that way yet, but once I did a lightbulb went off. A lot has changed even since INBOUND 2021, and I’m excited to soak up as much knowledge as possible the rest of the week about the current state of marketing and trying some new things!

- Carly Quirk, Inbound Marketing Specialist 

The “Future of Customer Privacy with Google” session should be watched by both seasoned and novice marketers.

Measurement is key to improving performance, yet most current measurement technology depends on third-party cookies (such as Google’s Universal Analytics). Parish Aggarwal shared the solutions that Google has taken to fill in the data gap that will be left as third-party cookies disappear. These includes using first party data collected from CRMs or Google Analytics 4. As an interesting aside on measurement, if a visitor doesn’t interact with the “consent tag” and indicate their preference, measurement does not occur.

- Ross Raffin, Content Strategist 

I enjoyed today’s session: What’s Next: Connecting with Future Buyers: Winning Mindshare to Grow Market Share. 

My key takeaway from this session was that the battle for eye space and mind space is more competitive, and consumers having more content to wade through is a challenge for marketers.   

What future buyers want is content that has provocative ideas and challenges their assumptions, helping them see around new corners and think differently.  

Our job as content marketers is to be a compass and a navigating partner to establish and maintain connections between the brand and the consumer. 

-Audrey Johnson, Content Strategist 

In “Virtual Selling: 5 Sales Techniques You Need to Change Now,” Kim Orlesky highlighted the need for salespeople to connect with targeted audiences in ways that are asynchronous, social and ultimately meaningful to the prospect.

I found it particularly helpful from a sales enablement standpoint that she highlighted the need to engage with junior decision makers in addition to engaging with the directors and decision-makers you’re looking for directly.

One thing that felt like an “obvious” solution that she mentioned that I hadn’t thought of was encouraging our prospects to put their meeting link in their LinkedIn profile, but not necessarily including it right off the bat in their approach. 

-Sandra Sepaniak, Inbound Marketing & Sales Consultant 

My favorite takeaway was from today’s session Marketing Rules of Thumb: “Trust It” or “Bust It.” The speakers debated focusing on benefits, which is something we always do as marketers. However, one speaker said that focusing on loss aversion over benefits could be much more beneficial!  

-Kristen Zanoni, Content Strategist 

 I attended many great sessions on day 1 of INBOUND 2022, but the ones that stood out to me the most revolved around sales and how to navigate moving forward as consumer trends change.

First this morning, I attended ‘Virtual Selling: 5 Sales Techniques You Need to Change Now’ with Kim Orlesky and I thoroughly enjoyed the very specific tips that she shared around connecting with prospects one on one. Her tips for getting a meeting on the calendar and connecting were very interesting, and I can’t wait to pass them along to my clients.

- Carly Bandy, Inbound Marketing & Sales Consultant 

Finally, what seemed like a favorite session for all, was What's Next: The "Seller Free Economy" - And the Future of Sales and Marketing as We Know It presented by Marcus Sheridan. In this session, Sheridan addressed two important questions:

• What is the future of sales teams?

• What must marketing teams do to be more responsible for "sales" than they've ever been?
  

Here are a few comments and takeaways from our team on its particular session.

Marcus Sheridan did a great job stepping through some real-life examples and tactical takeaways. I learned about incorporating self-scheduling, self-service, and self-pricing on websites. His take on where sales is going and how marketing changes that was passionate and powerful! 

- Maryanne McWhirter, Senior Inbound Marketing & Sales Consultant 

I left with tons of ideas for ways that I can help my clients better empower their website visitors to act on their own. I was fascinated (and not totally surprised) by the statistic that 33% of people would prefer to have a seller-free sales experience (and even more with Millennials). The more we can give prospective buyers in their sales journey, the better. 

- Emily Hartzell, Senior Inbound Marketing & Sales Consultant

I was totally blown away by Marcus Sheridan’s session on The Seller Free Economy. I was not expecting him to come in with a mind-blowing B2B strategy shift to replicate the sales process on the website to garner more leads!

The buyer is in control, and by taking the prospect through pretty much the entire sales process on your website gives transparency that is not so popular in most industries. “Make self-service a major part of your customer experience...(Faster, easier, more friction-free...think eCommerce.)” I’m excited to see this applied to B2B.

- Isha Bell, Inbound Marketing & Sales Consultant 

Marcus Sheridan had a great session around a ‘Seller Free Economy’ and what to expect in the future. The topics and insight that he shared around consumer habits within the sales process are all something that we feel as consumers but often might not think to consider when implementing sales and marketing strategies. How prospects are turning into consumers is ever-evolving and I’m excited to put this to use for clients soon!

- Carly Bandy, Inbound Marketing & Sales Consultant 

Recap and Takeaways From Day 2 of INBOUND 

Day two of INBOUND was jam-packed with educational sessions touching on everything from business trends, the logic of emotions, content, and advertising. Two sessions that really stood out to our team were:

• How it Started & How it's Going: How Failure & Pivoting Can Create Massive Opportunity presented by Jay Schwedelson

• What’s Next: How to Navigate Marketing Around Search and Social Algorithms presented by Neil Patel

In Schwedelson's session, he discussed the true path of failure, success, and lessons he learned along the way in his own career. 

Jay Schwedelson is a favorite of mine every year and this is my fourth INBOUND conference.  Two big takeaways tfrom his session were to stay authentic and to not lead with everything- be known for one thing then expand capabilities. 

- Maryanne McWhirter, Senior Inbound Marketing & Sales Consultant 

There’s a reason why Jay Schwedelson is such a mainstay at INBOUND—just as in my previous year with the conference, he balanced humor and bombastic delivery with some genuine insights.

One of his greatest, however, was that it’s often better to be a master of one trade than to try being a master at all of them. I liked in particular how he exemplified his own business as a model for that—even though his subject line ratings are free and ungated, they still make money on their other services because they’re established within that skill.

Also, when it comes to finding free resources, case studies should not be your first choice to give out to website visitors. 

-Sandra Sepaniak, Inbound Marketing & Sales Consultant 

In Patel's session, he broke down how you can beat search and social platforms, as well as how you can leverage unconventional marketing techniques to beat your competition. 

Neil Patel’s “What’s Next: How to Navigate Marketing Around Search and Social Algorithms?” exhaustively covered known ranking factors for Google search as well as social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Tiktok, and Instagram.

He laid out his own formula for success: algorithm signals * (learning + what people can’t ignore). You need to be relevant so that people can’t ignore you. That may mean releasing free tools, winning awards, or building your own audience and community. Eventually, focus should be on building a brand that is trusted by Google.

- Ross Raffin, Content Strategist 

I thoroughly enjoyed Neil Patel’s session What’s Next: How to Navigate Marketing Around Search and Social Algorithms. He gave practical advice on what’s working on each social platform – which I’m excited to test out on my clients.

Biggest takeaway from that was remembering the Rule of 7 – If someone sees you seven times, they are more likely to engage with you. Knowing what’s working now on all platforms helps with increasing engagement. 

- Isha Bell, Inbound Marketing & Sales Consultant 

Other takeaways from the various sessions during day two were:

I watched a few sessions throughout the day, but one stood out to me — “The Logic of Emotion: How to Make Inaction Possible.” The message caught me off-guard with how applicable it is to what we do.

The speaker brought up the struggle we all face whenever we try and sell someone on something — whether it’s a product, idea, etc. Specifically, about how the advantages/perks that come with our (or our clients’) products and messages is a no-brainer.

The benefits are plain-as-day to us because of our familiarity with the ins-and-outs of the product/message. She went on to emphasize the fact that we can get so caught-up in our approach and outreach strategies that we can sometimes forget that our targets are NOT as familiar as we are— and no matter how passionately, and logically, we present our case— if they aren’t made to make the connections for themselves, it’s much harder for them to fully appreciate the value and big picture.

It hearkens back to that important part of the inbound process of focusing on the problems that are solved by the product rather than the features of the product itself. When our approach/messaging makes prospects think about us when they’re reminded of their specific problems and challenges, and how we can solve them, we’ll see higher conversions from prospects that otherwise would’ve been harder to hook. 

- Paul Kallen, Inbound Marketing Specialist 

My takeaway for today comes from Category Entry Points in a B2B World: Buying Situations to Brand Sales. I love that the speaker talked about moving from awareness to situational awareness. (I say this to my boys all the time!) This helps marketers understand which messages to invest in and commit to so you can be really intentional about where to allocate your messaging capital. I love this quote, “Win the mind so you can win the market.” 

- Audrey Johnson, Content Strategist 

My two favorite sessions on Day 2 were ‘Getting Smart About Smart Content’ and the education session from MNTN about ‘What Ryan Reynolds Taught Us About Advertising’. 

The session around smart content gave me a lot of great ideas that I can put into action with my clients. Mike did a great job showing examples visually, but also giving different ideas based on different industries and goals  

Lastly, the educational session with Ali from MNTN was very interesting. Every time I see a commercial with Ryan Reynolds, I’m always drawn in and want to see if play out, whether It's relevant to me or not. So it was cool to see some of the behind the scenes of that and ideas from the team. 

- Carly Bandy, Inbound Marketing & Sales Consultant 

Recap and Takeaways From Day 3 of INBOUND 

There were plenty of amazing sessions to bring home INBOUND 2022. The one session that really stood out to our team was "Email Marketing Tips: Do This, Not That” by Jay Schwedelson.

There were a ton of fantastic sessions to bring home INBOUND 2022, but I particularly enjoyed seeing how Jay Schwedelson’s recommendations have shifted from last year to this year in Email Marketing Tips: Do This, Not That.

Some recommendations from last year weren’t mentioned at all this year, while others (such as using emojis) remained on the board. His recommendations also highlighted the power of solid word choice in subject lines, and I also thought he made some compelling points about landing page layout that I’ll be interested to discuss with the group. 

-Sandra Sepaniak, Inbound Marketing & Sales Consultant 

The session that stood out the most to me today was “Email Marketing Tips: Do This, Not That” by Jay Schwedelson. I saw the name “Jay Schwedelson," so I knew going in that this was going to have some useful takeaways.

One of the points he raised was how pairing CTAs with user-generated content— something as simple as a single review or star-rating, is enough to give click-through-rates a huge boost. The psychology behind it is simple— people are predisposed to be more confident and less wary of products and services that are stamped with someone’s testimony (even if they’re a stranger).

Furthermore, using similar language in Subject Lines has significantly more open rates. “See what people are saying about…” or “This is best best X according to Y.” He also cited a stat that I thought was interesting, which was that your emails are 85% more likely to stay in someone’s inbox if you get them to at least open your first email— ways to ensure it’s opened include Subject Lines like: “Get your exclusive coupon inside” or “Your Promo Code is inside.”

The other tip I thought was worth noting is how reengagement campaigns should never wait longer than 30 days— afterwards it’s a steep slope of low success rates.

Finally, he provided stats on the effectiveness of using emojis in Subject Lines, specifically at the start of the Subject Line. I’m stubborn about not using emojis in professional emails, but I think I’m outvoted. Maybe I’ll come around one day. 

- Paul Kallen, Inbound Marketing Specialist 

A few other takeaways from day three were:

I was blown away by this stat from What’s Next: The Power of Creativity in B2B Marketing: Brands with emotional connections have 198% more success. WOW! The session went on to break down the Principles for Remarkable Brand Marketing. Make sure your messaging is:  

Clear - Would my mom understand this? 

Persuasive - Do I know why this brand/product is better? 

Engaging - Does it give me goosebumps or giggles? 

Actionable - Do I know where I can go from here? 

I love that a lot of sessions I’ve joined in on have focused on creativity and thinking outside the box and this framework lays it out in such a clear and concise way.  

- Audrey Johnson, Content Strategist 

I really enjoyed the session about smart content. It was interesting to hear about the different ways you can use AI in your favor to customize marketing assets to the buyer’s journey.  

- Carly Bandy, Inbound Marketing & Sales Consultant

As you can see, our team took this virtual conference head-on and is excited to share what we learned and how we’re going to use this new information to better serve our clients. Stay tuned for new content post-INBOUND as we digest these new trends, research, and best practices and share them with you here on our blog. And be sure to connect with us and join the conversation on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!