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As the year continues to bring complex challenges to the marketing industry, many marketers continue to ask themselves, “can 2020 end already!?” It wouldn’t be much of an exaggeration to say that 2020 has been perhaps one of the most difficult years for marketing in the past few decades. In the midst of this global pandemic, we were surprised and delighted to see that HubSpot would continue to hold its annual Inbound conference—this time entirely virtual. We had the opportunity to attend a few sessions during the event. These are our 3 highlights from Inbound 2020!

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Marketers have dozens of unique metrics to keep track of in order to ensure their marketing goals are being properly met. This can include lead conversions, content downloads, and organic traffic from search engines, among others. However, not all of these metrics hold the same value in your marketing strategy. In between the metrics that help prove your company’s return on investment (ROI), there are vanity metrics. In this post, we will be defining vanity metrics and their role in your marketing strategy.

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Late last year, Pantone revealed that Classic Blue was their choice for the 2020 color of the year. This color was meant to reflect human spirit, resilience, and a warm sensation. Though some felt it was a safe pick, there's no denying the appealing, soothing nature of Classic Blue! We even shared our insights into this color choice back in January. In this post, we’re taking a look at how Pantone’s 2020 color of the year affects digital marketing.

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One of the top challenges B2B marketers face is developing a strong brand strategy to make their brand stand out among competitors. After all, a brand with a clearly-defined purpose and value can help you stand out among others in your industry. Recently, we explored some of the top questions companies should be asking about their brand. In this simple guide, you will learn how to effectively grow your B2B brand.

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Have you ever visited a company’s website for the first time and immediately felt put off by its design and layout? Maybe too many contrasting colors were jarring to look at or the home page had complex scrolling—shifting from horizontal to vertical with seemingly little purpose. If you made it through this experience with a vow never to return to that website, you likely have an idea of what led to such a poor user experience; the website wasn’t embracing simplicity. Let’s discuss why simplicity is the key to great website design.

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We’re nearing the end of the summer months, and it’s around the time most marketing companies are beginning to plan ahead for next year’s goals. Your company may even have its own objectives and strategies on the drawing boards already. However, alongside your marketing efforts—such as generating more leads or developing a new content calendar—there is one key aspect of your company that must shine through: your brand! In this branding guide, we’ll give you five questions that you should be asking yourself about your company’s current brand.

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Contextual marketing is a more personalized approach to marketing; it is a strategy that centers around the users coming to your website and what they are looking for. Essentially, it helps ensure that the content you are delivering is relevant to a user based on their stage in the buyer’s journey and any pain points they have. When working alongside personalization, contextual marketing is an effective strategy to meet a user’s needs, habits, and goals. In this post, we will be further defining contextual marketing and what a proper strategy looks like.

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Ever since the 2018 HubSpot Inbound event dropped a major game changer with its inbound flywheel, many marketers have had time to rethink their existing marketing strategies. Whether in the B2B or B2C space, customers used to be more of an afterthought in the grand scheme of the sales funnel. Now, more marketers are shifting to an inbound approach and integrating the inbound flywheel—a model that encourages customer engagement and interaction across the full sales cycle.

In this post, we’ll be defining the 3 stages of the inbound flywheel.

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Brand equity is a critical component in developing a quality branding strategy. If you’ve followed our previous posts around brand equity, we’ve drawn a few comparisons to the value of a brand as well. However, while brand equity is certainly related to value, the two aren’t quite the same. Both play a critical role in shaping your audience’s perception of your brand, how it stands out among competitors, and its longevity in your target market. In this post, we’ll share the key differences between brand equality and brand value that marketers should know.

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A website’s design can say a lot about a company as a whole—regarding their tone, values, and how much you can trust them. If a prospect is researching for the right solution to fit their needs, they may just end up finding their way to your marketing website. When they get there, it can be disappointing to see confusing navigation, inconsistent colors and fonts, and a lack of valuable offers. As a follow-up to a previous blog post we published last year, here’s how your marketing website acts as a reflection of your company’s branding.