HubSpot’s Inbound 2017 First Timer? 4 Reasons It’s Worth It

HubSpot’s sales and marketing conference, Inbound, is something I look forward to each year. 2017 will be my 4th year attending and the conference seems to get better and (bigger) each year.

My marketing team and I take Inbound seriously as a way to learn, network and be inspired. We spend time to review the sessions and map out a schedule where we are all attending different ones to maximize our learning opportunities.

This month, each of us will be blogging about the Inbound experience, from our perspective. This week, I’ll be sharing some insights into what you can expect from Inbound 2017 if you’ve never been before.

It’s Not Just Marketing – It’s Sales

As a platform, HubSpot has exploded over the past two years, with a focus on making the sales process easier through their CRM (which is free) and their Sales Pro tool (which is $50 a month, per user). The launch of HubSpot Marketing was centered around the Inbound methodology and the same holds true for their CRM. In the age where buyers have control over the sales process, organizations must have a solid process in place where marketing and sales work together to understand and nurture prospects from site visitor, to lead, to marketing qualified lead, to sales qualified lead.

Inbound provides numerous sessions on the sales side of the equation, and they are not just how to use the CRM or Sales Pro tool. They are about process, playbooks, and how to close more customers using behavior styles and science. So, all of you salespeople out there, this conference is for you, too!

57% of salespeople believe buyers are less dependent on salespeople during the buying process.Source: Hubspot Marketing Statistics

Marketing Tactics Galore

Let’s face it, as marketers, we have lots of tools in our toolbox to get the results we are trying to achieve. These tactics should be developed as part of an overarching digital marketing strategy, but to learn more about these tactics, there really is no better conference than Inbound, as the options are endless.

Want to learn more about video strategy? Yes, there are sessions on that topic. How about how to improve your content? Yes, there are sessions on that topic. Need some SEO hacks to grow your website traffic? Yes, there are sessions on that topic. Want to expand your knowledge on marketing analytics? Yes, there are sessions on that topic. Social media success your pain point? Yes, there are sessions on that.

Okay, I think you get my point on this. Inbound 2017 is the BEST overall marketing conference out there that offers education on a majority of relevant marketing tactics.

Women in Business

A focus that I’m very passionate about is how can we, in our industry, offer leadership development opportunities and growth opportunities for women? While the number of women in management positions has grown over the past decade, we are still under-represented in the C-Suite. In the US, women currently hold 29 (or 5.8%) CEO positions at S&P 500 companies. (Source: Catalyst.org). Plus, the generally accepted rule of thumb is that women earn 80 cents for every dollar than men earn.

The gap is even more for specialty occupations and executives. This topic is not only relevant to me as a woman in upper management, but as a mom with a daughter. I’m extremely happy that HubSpot is focused on this issue as well, both with an internal program, but also as a topic of Inbound. In fact, you can build your entire Inbound session track around the Women in Business topic.

Women in professional specialty occupations earn 72.7% of what men in the same position earn. Women in upper level executive, administrative and managerial occupations earn even less at 72.3%.Source: Census.gov

Boston

It’s not easy to get budget approval to attend Inbound 2017 based on location alone, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about the location of the conference as a bonus perk of attending. Since the conference is packed with sessions and keynote speakers (Michelle Obama this year!) it can be difficult to fit in some sightseeing. HubSpot typically will offer events after the conference has ended each day, in various locations around Boston, so you can take advantage of the nightlife in addition to having an opportunity to network. If you can, fly in early, or stay an extra day to enjoy all of the historical sites that Boston has to offer.

Have you been to Inbound before? We’d love to hear about your experiences and favorite parts of the conference in the comments below? Attending this year? Let us know in the comments and we’ll set a time to meet up!