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HubSpot's State of Inbound Report Recap

By Nate Riggs on September 14, 2016 |

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"In five years, marketing and sales will no longer exist."

This statement was the focal point of this year's State of Inbound Report, which argued that with the progression of technology and how customers are getting their information, marketing and sales positions will become obsolete.

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This is a two-fold problem in the fact that most modern buyers use salespeople as a last resort, meanwhile  marketers don't seem to be producing the kind of content that buyers want to see.

And sadly, the stats confirm it.

This blog will review the key points of The State of Inbound 2016 Report by including the key benchmark data of today and future predictions in the areas of sales, marketing, and business. 

So let's dig in!


Download the full version of The State of Inbound 2016 Report and follow along!


Who was interviewed?

Hubspot, the agency who produces this report, gathered statistics from more than 4,500 respondents in more than 132 countries, the majority of which were non-Hubspot customers making under $1 million each year. Majority also showed that the respondents were mostly marketing professionals specializing in B2B, B2C, small and mid-sized businesses. 

Current State of Marketing

When asked to think specifically about inbound marketing projects, company's listed their top three priorities as growing SEO, blog content creation, and content distribution.

This has changed from previous years.

In 2014, the top three priorities were blog content creation, growing SEO, and content distribution. Additionally, we see that webinars, once ranked number four in 2014 and number seven in 2015, now no longer rank in the top nine priorities for marketers in 2016.

One thing that hasn't changed through the years is the view on what is the most overrated marketing tactic. Can you guess it? If you guessed outbound marketing (paid advertisement), you'd be right. Paid advertisement ranked as the most overrated marketing tactic by both outbound and inbound marketing agencies who were surveyed, coming in at 31 and 33 percent between the two. This is more than two times the amount of the next highest overrated tactic---online paid advertising. 

Future of Marketing

state-of-inbound-2016.pngMarketers are starting to look towards decentralized content (essentially using new channels for content besides one's own web page). Few have mastered this ability, but many are working to improve.

As video content popularity continues to rise among the modern buyer, the future looks as if it will have a lot of video marketing in it as well.

According to the survey, 48 percent of marketers are planning on utilizing Youtube and 39 percent are planning to use Facebook video. Instagram, Snapchat, messaging apps and podcasts are also among the top contenders for future marketing plans.

Current State of Sales

When asked to think specifically about what their company's top sales priorities were for the next year, salespeople responded accordingly: closing more deals.

With that response garnering 70 percent in 2016 and 72 percent in 2015, it is clear that closing more deals is always going to be a top priority for salespeople.

Interestingly enough, the data also showed that improving the efficiency of the sales funnel is a very important factor for salespeople as it has ranked for the last two years at 47 percent. 

state-of-inbound-2016.pngThere has been a significant jump over the last year to the type of software tools or systems that are used to store lead and customer data. 45 percent of surveyors said that their company uses CRM software, and 40 percent said they use informal means such as Microsoft Excel or Outlook.

Both systems show significant growth from the previous year, whereas significant drops can be seen from those who previously used Google Docs and physical files in 2015.

Future of Sales

Next year, we will see a giant shift of power from the salesperson to the buyer. This is also known as the Inbound Sales Methodology. For salespeople to remain relevant to the modern buyer they must make seven strategic changes to their methods:

  1. Invest in social selling
    • 42 percent of buyers said they communicated through social media networks such as Twitter or LinkedIn. This makes social media a valuable connection method for customers.
  2. Overhaul the prospecting process
    • Align your efforts with how buyers want to purchase things by paying attention to their interests and working with the marketing department.
  3. Stop cold calling
    • "Stop patching broken processes, and start future-proofing". There are plenty of statistics out there that warn against cold-calling. Although there might be some issues in the beginning, the process will smooth itself out and begin to generate leads.
  4. Commit to better Sales and Marketing alignment
    • Clearly define a "qualified" lead with your marketing team so they can in turn bring you the best clients. After all, only 24 percent of leads from the sales team are considered good leads by the marketing team, and only 22 percent of leads from the marketing team are considered good leads to the sales team.
  5. Determine how your buyers want to communicate, and meet them where they are
    • Diversify your channels based on your prospect's preferences. Although the survey found that email was the preferred method of contact, that might not be the case for the potential client.
  6. Adopt CRM with an eye to integration capabilities
    • Going back to aligning your sales and marketing teams... there is no better way to do that than through a CRM system. CRM systems ensure that everyone in the organization knows exactly when and how to communicate with a potential lead, or customer.
  7. Train your sales team
    • Proper training is everything. If you implement the mentioned changes, it is so important that you equip your sales team with the necessary skills otherwise the entire implementation will be for naught. 

Download the full report

Overall we see a significant change for the future of marketing and sales. If your goal is to stay in the game, you're just going to have to adapt. 

Additional Online Events

In addition to the report, Hubspot is hosting five online webinar events this week that gain insights and predictions from industry leaders such as Joanna Lord of ClassPass, Larry Kim of WordStream, and Rob Go of NextView Ventures. Below is the schedule:

  • Monday, September 12 | State of Marketing | Facebook Live at 1 p.m. EDT
  • Tuesday, September 13 | Future of Marketing | YouTube Live at 11 a.m. EDT
  • Wednesday, September 14 | State of Sales | Tune in live for #InboundSalesDay
  • Thursday, September 15 | Future of Sales | YouTube Live at 11 a.m. EDT
  • Friday, September 16 | Future of Business | Facebook Live at 1 p.m. EDT

 

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Marketing

Nate Riggs

Written by Nate Riggs

Nate Riggs is the Founder and CEO of NR Media Group, a Certified HubSpot Partner and inbound consulting firm. He leads a team of experienced strategists, content marketers, creatives and technologists that help organizations deploy and use HubSpot’s marketing, sales, and service software to operate more efficiently and accelerate growth. Nate regularly presents keynotes and workshops at top industry conferences like INBOUND, Content Marketing World and Oracle’s Modern CX. In 2017, Nate was recognized by HubSpot for his contributions to the development of the HubSpot Education Partner Program. Nate regularly presents keynotes and workshops at top industry conferences like INBOUND, Content Marketing World and Oracle’s Modern CX. In 2017, Nate was recognized by HubSpot for his contributions to the development of the HubSpot Education Partner Program.
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