INBOUND 16 Reflection: Video Marketing, Social Media Advertising, and Sales Enablement

Video marketing, social media advertising, sales enablement practices, oh my! For inbound marketers across the globe, INBOUND16 was the true kick-off to the holiday season this year. Rather than taking place in September as it normally does, this year INBOUND was held the first week of November. This year was particularly special as it marked the 10 year anniversary for HubSpot, as well as the five year anniversary for INBOUND.

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Reflecting back on the week, the top three takeaways from INBOUND16 were video marketing, social media advertising, and sales enablement.

Video Marketing

By this point, I am sure most online consumers have begun to notice the large presence video has on the internet. Video is quickly becoming the most highly desired form of content by consumers. Therefore, it is quickly becoming a popular medium for marketers as they seek to find the best ways to reach and satisfy their potential customers. During his keynote address at INBOUND16, HubSpot Founder and CEO Brian Halligan projected that 50% of content will be video in 2017.

"Stop looking for that blogger.  Start looking for that videographer.  50% of your content next year shouldn't be text.  It should be video." - Brian Halligan

How are inbound marketers supposed to best take advantage of this video trend? By using tools like Wistia that have available HubSpot integrations. As well as their own analytics, inbound marketers can begin creating videos and tracking their success just as they have always been able to do with other inbound marketing content endeavours.

Social Media Advertising

As any good inbound marketer would do, I am sure you have been using social media to push out content messages and offerings. Maybe you have even boosted the occasional post to expand your reach. But what about social media advertising? Another key lesson from INBOUND16 was the importance of social media advertising, particularly Facebook advertising. Facebook Carousel Ads are integrated right into Facebook Users’ newsfeed. This means they are integrated into the browsing experience and lend well to both initial lead capturing and further nurturing of existing leads. And the best part? Right now, this form of advertising is very inexpensive.

Users spend roughly an hour of their day scrolling through social media. Start implementing Facebook Ads into your next inbound marketing campaign. To track the success and ROI of these ads, you can now integrate them with the HubSpot Ads Add On. This allows you to have an even more comprehensive inbound marketing campaign, all managed within the familiar HubSpot interface.

Sales Enablement

With the growth in the field of inbound marketing, the ability to capture leads and nurture them through their Buyer’s Journey is stronger than ever. The problem is, the resources and education on how to interact with these more sophisticated leads from a sale prospective has not been communicated to sales people, until now. One of the largest movements of the end of 2016, moving swiftly into 2017 for inbound marketers is sales enablement. Sales enablement is the practice of aligning your sales and marketing teams so there is a common understanding of the types of leads that are needed, what a qualified lead looks like, and how to best interact with these leads to close them into customers. To accomplish complete sales enablement, marketers need to work closely with sales people to educate them on the Inbound Methodology for both sales and marketing. Understanding inbound as a strategy for marketing and sales will lead to higher close rates in the future as your teams continue to work together to create success.