This year's Inbound conference reinforced what we all have been experiencing during COVID-19 marketing and communication the last 6 months...it's all about making the right connections, at the right time, and now more than ever breaking through the inbox to get your story heard is important. Our team went to a variety of breakout sessions covering things like Google Ad ROI hacks, Content creation Tips + Tricks, Kick-ass commerce social strategies, and of course-what's new with the HubSpot platform. We highlight some takeaways below.
It's no surprise during the pandemic social media platform usage increased significantly with over 340 Million new users entering the space since March 2020. With brick and mortar businesses closed, this forced all industries to re-think the way they are connecting with potential customers and clients and social media presence plays a big part in communication.
The speaker talked first about: The Law of Reciprocity – and it basically says that when someone does something nice for you, you will have a deep-rooted psychological urge to do something nice in return. As a matter of fact, you may even reciprocate with a gesture far more generous than their original good deed.
Keeping the basis of this in mind for all marketing activities he further broke down actionable tips that can help businesses create this dynamic when sharing content, and driving engagement.
1. CONTENT: as we know-offering the right piece, to your target persona, at the right stage in the buyer journey is easier said than done. Ensuring you have multiple content offers, videos, valuable information, and downloadable assets to make their decision making process easy-no matter what stage they are in is important. Creating a content calendar will help ensure you are producing enough, often enough to have an impact on your business.
2. ENGAGEMENT: These tips will help you increase and execute:
Create videos-stop telling and selling-start showing how to, what to do, where to go, and then it'll sell your product for you-the average person reads on 3rd grade level-use regular words to make connections when creating content
Social tagging and research put it in your content -keywords, all emojis matter and people like them
Emojis change emotion-simple graphic makes all the difference -when posting on social if the first 3 characters are emojis instead of text it increases by 50% (twitter, Facebook, insta, etc) this helps stop the scroll
Size matters-short and quick OR long and descriptive work for text-mix up both to offer types for every reader
Optimize the URL -put content keywords in -single use URL’s are great for campaigns
Curate content-share/recycle and backlink-summarize it for your audience and then source it
3. ACTION: process of doing something on your website-the point of all your efforts
Once you build reciprocity-you then ASK them to do something -be smart about the action you make/ask them What’s the next action-what do you think they are looking for next-give them something then ASK, keep that cycle going Use action words that convertLanding pages are preferred-websites for main service area-keep this in mind when creating pages for conversion optimizationButtons matter-use CLICK HERE, GET STARTED, etc-action oriented wordsAlways ask them something on the page 4. GATHER DATA: Reporting and information gathering is the key to continuously optimizing your campaigns
Get info on customers but in a loving wayLook for those that are raising their handsAs always, Inbound product and service update announcements don't disappoint. This year there have been many updates to the CMS platform, but now the product team has added tons of features and functionality in the Enterprise level that makes this platform unmatched in the market for companies. We highlight some key improvements all customers will see (retroactively) starting October 1, 2020.
1. UNLIMITED CRM CONTACT TIER: This is a change we have long awaited and finally it's here! You no longer have to worry about how many contacts are in your CRM when using Marketing hub tools! HOORAY! You are only billed for contacts you are actively marketing too. #Finally
2. CUSTOM OBJECTS: This is a huge deal that the platform has been lacking for a while. This customization will allow businesses to grow better. Stop working to store your data — store your data so it works for you. With custom objects, you can structure your data exactly how you need to-then trigger workflows, and more off these new objects.
3. ACCOUNT BASED MARKETING TOOLS: Selling is tough these days and everyone needs more leads. HubSpot's new ABM tools help marketing and sales teams work together to prioritize the right accounts, personalize outreach, coordinate engagement, and easily measure performance.
These are just a few of our favorites. Read the full report on what's new HERE.
This was a fun session that our team got a lot of value out of. We summarize our top takeaways on how to drive B2B blog engagement and get the most out of the content you are creating. If doing 2 posts a week @3 hours/blog=300 hours/year to blogging, so you need ROI from all this effort. Here's some ways how to get it:
Need to brainstorm 35 titles for highest priority posts-blog title must be: seo friendly, catchy, short and sweet, on brand Need to tap into emotions during your blog-it can't be boring-even if the b2b topic is boring/products not riveting-if you readers aren't emotionally vested-they can't make a decision. Find a way to make it engagingBe sure to use a heat mapping tool. It's important to see digital body language on your website-do you need to change layout, eliminate friction, etc? Blogging is bigger than page views-(capture video recordings of blog readers)Embed videos into blog-when you embedded videos, engagement goes up 5x or moreWe hope you found some of these takeaways helpful as you craft your 2021 marketing strategy. If you need help planning a road map for success we are happy to help. Contact us here to learn more.
