Boston, MA-based Hubspot held its twelfth annual marketing megaconference in September, and LP sent four members of our leadership team to learn about the latest industry happenings. Our VP of Marketing, Emmy Luciano, compiled some notes and takeaways to share.
What is INBOUND?
Not your typical corporate affair, the three-day event featured hundreds of presenters and over 200 sessions. Headlined by big names like Serena Williams and Ryan Reynolds, it intersected culture and commerce with various topics and formats, including product demos, keynote presentations, and ample networking opportunities.
The event was heavily focused on the future of AI-driven data and its impact on not just marketing, but everything else. Many thought leaders countered this increasing dependence on AI by taming it with intentional personalization.
3 Key Takeaways and Insights
Humanize your AI (and Content in General)
There’s no doubt about AI’s massive power in content creation, but it still leaves something to be desired. While these tools are new and changing quickly, we can improve upon them now by adding slang colloquialisms and social relevance to bring back the human element.
Here are a few notes to consider from email marketing guru, Jay Schwedelson:
Negative is a Positive
Use negativity in your Subject lines to create urgency and increase open rates. This can be jarring for many brands, but it works. Example: “Register For This” vs. “Why You Can’t Afford NOT to Miss This.”
Variate
Capitalize the non-first word in a subject line to stand out and grab attention.
Personalize
Make your messaging about the consumer rather than your own brand. Pro tip: One way of doing this is to insert the user inside the call-to-action button.
Including a person’s name behind a newsletter and addressing it with a personality, rather than strictly from the business, makes it easier for consumers to connect with the content and draw in readership.
Make More Video, Make Raw Video
As evidenced by TikTok life hacks and the recipes made easy phenomena, video is the medium of the future, and participation is paramount to success. Low-production user-generated content (UGC) style videos lend authenticity and gain trust with viewers who consume the content often on the same device the video is produced on.
The head of Wistia, Sam Balter, had an excellent presentation with some critical insights:
- Quantity over quality is the new standard, and moving quickly is a must.
- Repetitions are essential, and participation is vital. It’s low stakes, high frequency.
- Fail forward to get started. Test internally by sending out videos to your team members.
Believe in Your Story
Brands often fail to connect because they try to be the hero for their customers when they need to be the guide. Let clients tell their stories and convert ardent supporters into a UGC powerhouse.
Incorporate a Hook, Problem, Solution, and Success into your story. One way to do this is by viewing customer pain points as an opportunity to differentiate your business from competitors. Advertisers can do this by addressing complaints directly with empathy rather than shying away from conflict. Conveying how your brand makes a situation right is a great opportunity to share your story with personalization and authenticity.
The Head of Disney Experiences, Josh Damaro, shared his philosophy of storytelling: The belief in your story influences how you share your message: “It influences the words that you decide to use, the little details to include, the images conjured for the audience.” Your audience can sense your belief in your story and can more easily jump on board as they feel the story come to life.
While the three themes merely scratch the surface of the insights shared at Inbound 2024, they all have one thing in common, and that’s to focus on your consumer. Listen and learn from your audience, create for and with your audience, and make your audience the main character of your marketing efforts.
As Ryan Renolds shared in the final session of the conference:
“If you listen to the projects you’re working on they will speak to you”
– Ryan Reynolds
Hats off to our friends at HubSpot for hosting our team at such an incredible event. We’re already looking forward to INBOUND 2025 in San Francisco.
