5 Key Takeaways from INBOUND 2017

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1. Artificial Intelligence is going to revolutionize marketing.

I’ll be honest: I’m not much of a tech geek. I don’t often get excited about fancy features and functionality. However, listening to the folks at HubSpot talk about what they’re doing with AI right now, even I got excited about how we’re going to be able to reach our clients’ target market where they are. We’re going to be able to deliver the information they need in the way that they expect it — AI is going to open up completely new avenues of communication. It’s going to be really cool to see how things shake out over the next couple of years.

2. Search engines value intent over keywords.

This is something that’s been in the wind for a couple of months now, but it means some significant changes in the way that we market. It isn’t 2007 anymore and the days of obsessing over keywords are officially over. In order to sell a product or service, we have to be creating content clusters centered around targeted topics. If you don’t understand what this means, well, don’t worry. We do. It means a lot of work for us in order to keep you on the cutting edge and ahead of your competitors, so if you start seeing your strategies and services shift and evolve, don’t worry. It means we are doing our job as your marketing partner.

3. Better content is better than more content.

Here is another thing that HubSpot hit a number of times during the week: better content is better than more content. This is related to the new trend in search engine algorithms. Content marketing is still important, as the search engines still value keeping your site updated, but the emphasis is shifting toward better, stronger content… and to some degree, less of it. 

This makes sense to me. We’ve talked on our blog about the struggle to stand out to users who are constantly inundated with marketing material all day long. It makes sense to use your resources of time and energy to create more targeted content in more pleasing, easier-to-digest formats rather than simply churning out a high volume of blog content. 

4. Great customer experiences are durable.

Simon Sinek defined ‘loyalty’ as “when people are willing to turn down a better product or price to continue doing business with you.” During his keynote, Brian Halligan talked a great deal about the importance of creating a great customer experience, and I couldn’t agree more. He said that consistent success in sales depends much more heavily on how you sell rather than what you sell. Waypost is dedicated to giving a great customer experience, and it was great to have our values validated in front of 21,000 of our closest friends.

5. HubSpot listens.

The most important thing that I took away from INBOUND17 came from Partner Day, and that was that HubSpot really listens. They truly value the feedback of their partner agencies, and every new product and feature they announced on Partner Day is in direct response to that feedback. From the new development platform to advanced reporting capabilities to exciting new innovation in the AI space, HubSpot is demonstrating that they are genuinely dedicated to helping us transform our clients’ businesses.