Attending conferences might be challenging given the grind of daily work, but staying current with trends is essential in a fast-paced field like marketing. I recently participated in HyperGrowth in Boston, a marketing event organized by Drift, a software startup specializing in bots and conversational marketing. A nice blend of inspirational, strategic, and tactical concepts and insights about achievement and business expansion were presented.
The presentations were recorded, and I summarised the main points in this piece. The presenters throughout the day discussed eight progressive corporate growth ideas, which are listed below. Customer experience was the overarching focus of HyperGrowth and Inbound, an adjacent marketing conference.
Work it Out
- Professional rock climber Alex Honnold
I was curious when Alex entered the room since I had just heard him speak on NPR or another news program I follow. He is the first person to successfully climb El Capitan without using a rope in Yosemite National Park. I decline. Wow. He possesses steely resolve. I was thinking throughout the lecture, “What is this related to the expansion of businesses? This is peculiar.” Even if his speech wasn’t about marketing, it was nonetheless motivational! Here are the topics he discussed:
Work hard to develop the physical stamina needed to complete the ascent. Correlation: Our minds are the muscle that business executives need to exercise. We must constantly develop new skills.
Practice until you are completely at ease and it is no longer frightening. Correlation: Activities for business growth are challenging, but you may improve over time. Until you reach a level of expertise that produces results, keep honing your new skills.
Be still and relaxed. Before the climb, Alex cut off social media, stopped replying to emails for two months, and spent himself alone in his travel van. He needed some quiet time to fully process what he was learning to concentrate on the task at hand. My husband also frequently discusses this idea. Many people desire to complete 10,000 functions in 10 minutes, yet none of it is of high quality. Correlation: Turn off the electronics, take it easy, and give your brain a rest. Less is often more.
- Performance is 49%, and customer satisfaction is 51%.
- CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group and creator of Shake Shack is Danny Meyer.
- Danny talked about how his renowned father, an entrepreneur, had grown two significant firms before going bankrupt, and as a result, he was terrified to expand. Danny needed a very long time to develop his restaurant chain. But he discovered a winning recipe and decided to use it.
- 49% of growth is attributed to job performance or providing consumers with the correct service at the right time.
- 51% of growth is attributed to customer experience, or how you make customers feel.
- Connect with the C-Suite and other departments
Survey Monkey’s CMO, Leela Srinivasan
Leela frequently discussed her tight collaboration with the product and sales teams. She didn’t interact with the CEO at LinkedIn very often, but she developed a much stronger connection with the C-suite at Survey Monkey. Her ability to collaborate and communicate effectively with internal teams has enabled her to produce much better results for the business.
- The lesson learned: Align sales and marketing for improved accountability, cooperation, and communication.
- Modify how the game is played.
- The Harvard Business School’s Anita Elberse
- My favorite presentation was by Anita. She was intelligent, amusing, and clever. She researches famous athletes and performers to discover how they differ from the competition.
- Here are some of the details I noted:
- Don’t be afraid to take it all the way. Try it out!
- Be prepared to double down and place large bets.
- Don’t be reluctant to assume command.
You’re deluding yourself if you think staying safe would make you stand out from the pack.
Accept that failure, even spectacular failure, is possible. Recognize that it will occur and that it will hurt. Magnificently fail. Clean up, then try once more. If you have faith in what you’re doing, failure is worthwhile. Going all in is less dangerous since your enthusiasm and passion inspire others to support your cause.
Have faith in your worth. Regard your contributions to the table with confidence.
Help people by utilizing your talents. Ensure others’ success. Join forces with others and hang out with resilient people.
Search for your multihyphenate. Keep your diversification in mind.
You can succeed if you step outside your comfort zone, keep picking up new talents, and surround yourself with positive people.
Ryan was fascinating. He entered the stage with a slight air of self-pity about being a marketer. He initially gave off the impression of being your standard fast-talking sales or marketer, but he had some insightful things to say.
Your most significant reader is Google. However, Google also considers the quality of your material when determining how easy it is to crawl and index. Therefore, content for SEO must be not only technically correct but also valuable enough for users to find it and benefit from it.
It’s about engaging a steady supply of prospects, not expanding an audience. Generating content to help candidates through the buyer’s journey is more important than writing material to keep current readers interested over time. I discussed this idea in my post, Email Attrition Happens, but It’s Not All Bad. Prospects go through stages, and your content is for options. Depending on where they are in the buying process, they will come and go from your company’s readership.
You must complete every task. You must excel in various marketing areas to achieve the best outcomes and returns on investment. It would help if you adopted a holistic strategy.
Pay-to-play exists on social media. Social media content viewing has dropped from 26% to less than 0.5%. You must pay to be found.
People use social media for entertainment. They use it when they have free time to pass the time. They are not searching for technical articles to read. They are looking for scroll-worthy articles and fascinating facts.
Yes, he said it: increase your email usage. Everyone owns one, and they all use it. However, the goal is not to bombard individuals with sales pitches. It involves investing in an email strategy that improves the daily experiences of your prospects and customers.
Educate the Client
- Presentation Drift
Naturally, Drift gave a presentation regarding their business. Their main talking points focused on the loss of salespeople’s influence in the buyer-seller dynamic. Customers no longer require information from salespeople because they can learn whatever they need online without ever speaking to anyone.
We must give potential clients and customers various opportunities to get in touch with us and interact when they’re ready. With the help of bots, customers can direct the dialogue. As customers move along the buyer’s journey, they can ask questions whenever and wherever they want. Additionally, well-built bots can capture leads far earlier in the sales cycle.