The excitement is still buzzing following the groundbreaking Inbound 2023 event that unfolded last week. HubSpot's annual extravaganza offered us a glimpse into the future of customer interactions and delivering unforgettable experiences.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) were the main talking points from the event, and HubSpot unveiled an array of new modules and AI-driven features, solidifying its position as the undisputed CRM platform.

In this article, we'll dive headfirst into the key takeaways that’ll supercharge our clients’ success shared by our Axon Garside Insiders, Head of Inbound Rob Samuels and CRM specialist Becky Jamieson.

HubSpot Inbound 2023 Key Takeaways

Early Adoption Of AI Is Vital

In IBM's 2022 report, the global AI adoption rate stood at 35%, marking a 4% increase from the previous year. This statistic reveals why companies ought to embrace AI to get a head start against the competition.

Early adoption of AI, coupled with transparency, will be crucial in demonstrating authority and achieving a competitive edge. As Becky suggested, AI is poised to dramatically transform our work.

"At Inbound 2023, a prediction was shared that by 2030, AI literacy will improve, and the way we perform our jobs may change by up to 30%. I find this exceptionally exciting," Becky remarked.

"AI isn’t here to replace anyone; instead, it provides us with a fantastic opportunity to experiment, discern what works, and what doesn't. It’ll aid businesses in their growth journey and empower us to assist our clients in doing the same."

The new Sales Hub platform is packed with a host of AI tools designed to streamline administrative tasks for account managers, allowing them to spend more time with their customers.

"These innovative AI tools will empower customer-facing teams to invest more in building connections. Moreover, I believe they’ll significantly boost productivity and contribute to greater overall job satisfaction, because who doesn't appreciate a reduction in administrative tasks?" Becky expressed.

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Smart CRM Is A Game Changer

Historically, businesses viewed their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform as a place to store customer information. But over time, many B2B company’s CRM became increasingly complex, hindering the ability to extract actionable insights, as pointed out by Rob:

"In the past 12 to 18 months, I've encountered several client projects where there was a lack of alignment between CRM data and the company's core objectives. This created real challenges, as we lacked a central source of truth to assess the performance of marketing and sales.".

The launch of HubSpot's new Smart CRM promises to revolutionise how businesses engage with their customers. Becky, our CRM expert, eagerly anticipates working with Smart CRM.

"I'm genuinely thrilled about Smart CRM. It's the geek in me that's excited. It’ll give us so much scope to help our customers in new ways.,"

Smart CRM will unify data across sales, marketing, and customer service teams, eradicating data silos, fostering collaboration among different departments, and delivering a more seamless customer experience. Additionally, it provides greater flexibility for CRM customisation.

Attain Customer Intelligence

Another remarkable advantage of the Smart CRM is its ability to automatically analyse data and generate actionable insights, or as HubSpot put it, “customer intelligence”. However, as explained by Becky, this does mean putting aside some time to determine the type of data necessary for deriving this intelligence.

"When we consider intelligent data analysis within the Smart CRM, our primary focus should be on inputting the most relevant data into the platform. After all, a CRM's effectiveness is directly proportional to the quality of data it contains.”

Becky also added that the specific data to be entered into the system can vary from one business to another.

Hence, it's crucial to collaborate with a partner who can provide guidance through this process. When your CRM is enriched with the right information, it becomes an indispensable tool for delivering personalised content campaigns.

Effective Account-Based Marketing

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a type of strategy that focuses on targeting specific businesses within a sector or industry. It’s widely adopted by the B2B sector, and HubSpot and the new Smart CRM plays a pivotal role in simplifying and enhancing this strategy.

"The Smart CRM empowers you to craft personas, establish target accounts, and monitor essential data from the businesses you aim to collaborate with.

By leveraging this invaluable information, you can formulate a comprehensive strategy designed to send precisely targeted campaigns, drawing in ABM leads, and conducting nurturing campaigns to guide them through the sales funnel."

Building Community Will Be Key To Generating Sales

During Inbound, a captivating session titled "Build a $100m Community" was delivered by Sam Parr of Hampton and Neville Medhora of CopywritingCourse.com. This presentation placed a strong emphasis on creating a social space to complement your brand.

Communities serve as catalysts for boosting engagement, and the Smart CRM will play a vital role in helping brands initiate discussion, as Becky explains:

“Smart CRM will likely provide the data that we need to better understand our customers and our prospects.

Armed with this knowledge, we can begin to pinpoint the primary social platforms they’re primarily using and then maintain an active presence in those spaces to help drive engagement.”

Interestingly, what we’ve observed is that there’s a collaborative relationship between HubSpot and LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator. By funnelling data from Sales Navigator into the Smart CRM, we gain a more comprehensive understanding of potential prospects, enabling us to deliver tailor-made messaging.

Learn how HubSpot’s product updates could enhance your performance from our comprehensive webinar packed with exclusive insights from Inbound 2023 - sign up now.

AI Will Impact SEO and Content Creation

Since the launch of ChatGPT 3 back in November 2022, content creation has experienced unprecedented change. AI can now help you create “how do I” content by scanning what’s already on the web, and producing well-written text.

As these AI writing tools extract information from online sources, they’re also reshaping the way people seek solutions to their daily challenges.

“Previously, individuals would typically turn to Google to find answers to their problems. The search results would yield a handful of articles, and you would sift through each one until you find the answer you want" explains Rob.

"With AI tools like ChatGPT, the process of finding the answer is so much easier. By simply typing your question into ChatGPT, it can formulate a response for you, giving you control and saving you a lot of time.”

The Role of Content Creators Is Changing

With AI's ability to generate text on virtually any subject or prompt, the key question every content creator should ponder is: What can humans write that AI can’t?

According to Rob, the answer is original thought leadership.

“Content creators should now start to reposition themselves as editors and storytellers, with strong emphasis on classic journalistic skills. They must uncover unique angles and delve deeply into subjects, conducting interviews to craft the kind of content that remains perpetually valuable, as bots lack the capability to replicate it,”

Rob further added that AI will remove the need for copywriters to churn out listicles. Instead, they can redirect their focus towards crafting more captivating articles supported by extensive research.

Google's SERPs Will Evolve Thanks To AI

With one in six UK companies using AI in their workflow, it’s widely expected that there will be an influx of AI-generated content on websites. Naturally, Google is inclined to prioritise content enriched with personal insights and expertise over generic pieces, which are more likely to be produced by AI. As Rob explains:

"There's bound to be a significant proliferation of AI-generated content on the internet. Obviously, Google doesn't really want to show this type of content on their search engine result pages (SERPs).”

To address this, Google is gearing up to showcase AI-generated results with the assistance of their proprietary Large Language Model (LLM) known as Bard. For marketers, this means they’ll have less of an influence over their SERPs.

While organic links will still have a presence, they’ll likely occupy a less prominent position. In light of Google's recent Helpful Content update, content creators will need to exert more effort in crafting original content.

Notably, there’s another avenue to secure a spot on Google SERPs, and that’s through user-generated content. As Rob predicts, influencer marketing will play a vital role in the future for SEO.

"B2B companies may find themselves increasingly contemplating influencer marketing strategies. However, this raises significant questions regarding how B2B brands can effectively collaborate with influencers."

Your Website Will No Longer Be Focal Point Of Your Business

While Hubspot has introduced new integrations with Jasper GPT and Webflow at Inbound to speed up web development and website copywriting, this final takeaway should encourage marketers to explore online channel diversification.

Given that the average online user now spends roughly two-and-a-half hours daily on social media, B2B brands should no longer rely solely on their website to generate new leads.

"You should contemplate generating digital marketing leads through a variety of channels, whether through organic methods or paid advertisements. It's imperative to make a concerted effort to direct people to your webpage," advised Rob.

"This isn't to say that websites are obsolete, but rather, you should explore alternative avenues for generating new leads."

Inbound 2023 Was A Landmark Event

Our insiders have shared their top insights from Inbound 2023, highlighting the pivotal role of AI in reshaping customer interactions, campaign delivery, and streamlining internal processes. Early AI adoption emerges as a critical theme, alongside an awareness of the forthcoming changes to Google's SERP driven by AI.

This event provided an exciting preview into how businesses will cater to their customers in the coming years, harnessing AI as a transformative tool to enhance productivity.