Welcome to the Raka Weekly Roundup, where we cover the week’s news and trends and tell you exactly what you need to know. This week, we’re weighing in on our favorite new HubSpot products and trends announced at INBOUND 2018.
New reporting toys for data nerds and ROI enthusiasts
The thing about reporting metrics is that everyone loves to see them, but no one actually wants to seek them out. Unless you have a full-time data analyst on your team, it can be hard to sift through the noise in any reporting platform. So pageviews and pages-per-session are up this month, bounce rates are down, and social media engagement is through the roof—but how the hell does that relate to the dollars and cents of running a business?
Well, some new toys are coming down the pike for HubSpot users based on what we heard at INBOUND last week. In one particular breakout session, Aligning Your Goals and Data Using HubSpot Reporting Tools given by Anna Perko, Senior Product Manager, Reporting & Analytics for HubSpot, we learned about cross-object reporting being incorporated in the Enterprise Growth Suite.
What is cross-object reporting you dare say? Basically, it will give users the ability to run reports across HubSpot’s three record types (contact, company, and deal), which is huuuuuuge for marketers attempting to prove the ROI of their efforts.
So if you need us, we’ll be setting up a million custom reports to test the new features. Stay tuned.
~ Kelly Glista, Senior Marketing Strategist
One-stop shop for video
We know video is one of the hottest things in inbound marketing. Duh! And HubSpot is capitalizing on this fact by introducing HubSpot Video—video hosting, in-video calls-to-action and forms, a simple video creation tool, and more. Essentially, they’re creating a one-stop shop for all of your video marketing needs.
Why is this a good thing? It allows marketers to use video to generate leads, send targeted videos to segmented audiences, and track them throughout the buyer’s journey all from one convenient location—HubSpot’s CRM.
However, HubSpot Video isn’t just for marketers, it’s also for salespeople and customer service departments. Salespeople can send personalized video messages to potential customers to provide them with information that will hopefully seal the deal while customer service departments can send explainer videos or product related videos for those seeking information or support.
HubSpot Video is powered by Vidyard, a HubSpot Connect partner, and was made available to Professional and Enterprise-level customers on September 5, the first day of INBOUND.
Raka can’t wait to incorporate videos using HubSpot Videos in our inbound marketing efforts—the topic of a future compelling blog post, I’m sure.
~ Kathy Mahoney, Content Marketing Coordinator
Conversion Rate Optimization is indeed necessary
The way we’re generating leads is changing, and that means turning traffic into conversions is both more vital and more difficult than it was before. At INBOUND, HubSpot Principal Marketing Manager for Web Strategy, Pamela Vaughan, talked about CRO as an ever-evolving discipline that should be a part of every marketing team’s skill set in the years ahead.
If you have the time and bandwidth, Vaughan suggested frequently auditing your web conversions to make sure they’re doing what you need them to do, using software like Validately, UsabilityHub, and even SurveyMonkey to make things easier. The net result should be better e-commerce conversions or increased lead flow.
~ Dave Choate, Senior Marketing Strategist
Customers still always come first
It’s not a huge surprise that HubSpot believes the customer always comes first when you’re running a business, but this year they wanted to convey that it should be the primary focus of everything we do.
This belief stems from the main tenets of inbound marketing: knowing your customer, giving them what they want, when they want it, in the places they’re looking for it, and delighting them every step of the way. HubSpot’s topic cluster approach to SEO is proof of this. When Google changed their algorithm in August, companies using HubSpot’s topic cluster approach when creating content saw a big upward shift in organic traffic, including yours truly.
To make it even easier for marketing and sales teams to get it right when it comes to the customer, HubSpot is centralizing the marketing, sales, and service components of an organization so there’s clarity across departments making it easy to follow prospective customers along every step of the buyer’s journey. HubSpot is no longer marketing software, it’s business software. That’s a change that benefits all of us.
~ Brian DeKoning, Partner
Cross-departmental collaboration is key
The responsibility of brands to their consumers has never been greater, and this means more than just selling smarter or building better feedback mechanisms. Brands who integrate their sales, marketing, support, and product teams are going to see the greatest successes in the years to come, and those who know how to speak to customers on their own terms and listen to what they have to say will see even more success.
As the traditional sales funnel becomes less and less reliable a reference for marketers and salespeople, seeking out opportunities to engage with audiences will help brands to truly rise above their competition.
What does this mean for marketers? It means that working smarter by reducing meetings and increasing cross-departmental collaboration should be a priority—not next year, not next month, not even next week. There are brands out there already excelling with this new model, and in order for your company to do the same, you’ll need to get started immediately.
~ Ryan Durling, Director of Digital Advertising
As a HubSpot Partner, we’re excited about these product updates and trends because we know they’ll benefit not only us but, more importantly, our clients.
If you’d like to talk about these trends, or need help getting any of your marketing initiatives off the ground, reach out to us!
