It’s that time of year again! Each year HubSpot collects and reviews data from thousands of marketers and salespeople across a variety of industries, and extracts the highest impact trends for the year.
In 2023, HubSpot surveyed 1,400+ global B2B + B2C marketers across 14 countries and 23 industries for their 2024 annual report. In this article we will be covering 7 key takeaways from HubSpot's invaluable 2024 State of Marketing Report.
Who is HubSpot?
HubSpot is a digital marketing company that provides tools and software for customer relationship management (CRM), marketing, sales, and customer service. Their primary focus is inbound marketing—attracting customers through valuable content rather than traditional advertising.
Founded in 2006, HubSpot offers a range of products including a free CRM, Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, and CMS Hub, catering to businesses of all sizes to help them manage customer interactions, automate tasks, and optimize their marketing and sales strategies.
HubSpot’s State of Inbound Marketing Report 2024: 7 Key Takeaways
1. We have shifted from the Age of Information to the Age of Intelligence
This is no secret, the marketing landscape is evolving at an unprecedented rate. AI and automation have driven more transformation in the past three years than in the previous fifty.
In marketing, we have moved from the Age of Information to the Age of Intelligence. Information is more accessible to us than it has ever been. Having the information is no longer enough—marketers must act on intelligence and lean on critical thinking in order to succeed.
HubSpot has identified five areas where this shift in methodology will impact marketers and present new challenges:
- Awareness
- Engagement
- Personalization
- Efficiency
- Growth
2. Awareness: Social media and video play a key role in building your brand awareness.
The majority of buyers that marketers aim to target have grown up online and continue to live there. According to HubSpot, 74% of marketers surveyed are focused on reaching millennials, 67% are interested in engaging Gen X, while only 27% are targeting Baby Boomers.
A strong inbound strategy hinges on understanding your buyer, including knowing the best platforms to reach them.
For millennials, a social media presence is crucial, as it's the top product discovery channel for both them and Gen Z. In 2023, 87% of social sellers reported greater sales success compared to 2022.
Looking ahead to 2024, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok present abundant opportunities with strong ROI potential making them great places for marketing teams to invest.
One of the ways we, at New Perspective have been branching out on social media is through the podcast Green New Perspective. We highlight innovators in the cleantech industry, focusing on sustainable solutions and growth marketing strategies. Listen here.
3. Engagement: Get chatty! Personalized messaging in social platforms are an active part of online commerce.
In 2024, HubSpot identified that 87% of marketers have a plan to maintain or even increase their investment in mobile message activity through applications like SMS, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp.
Currently, around 20% of marketers worldwide use mobile messaging, with 10% identifying it as a major driver of ROI, and 12% planned to invest in mobile for the first time in 2024. Early adopters, such as France and Singapore, have already integrated mobile strategies, with nearly 25% of marketers in these regions reporting usage.
As with any strategy, it is important to factor in a level of flexibility and adaptability. HubSpot recommends planning a few months out, allowing your team to pivot or adjust their plans and priorities as necessary.
Is planning out your strategy feeling like a daunting task? We are here to help!
4. Personalization: First-party data, over cookies for content personalization
Marketers are shifting towards first-party data collection due to growing privacy concerns, especially with Google's move to phase out third-party cookies.
This approach not only enhances data security but also improves data quality, though only 65% of marketers currently report having high-quality audience insights.
Email marketing is gaining popularity as a method for collecting first-party data, allowing users to self-report preferences. Despite this, only 24% of email programs are integrated with other channels, presenting an opportunity for businesses to centralize insights and optimize marketing efforts.
Here are some tips that we put together for successful email marketing in 2024.
5. Efficiency: Smooth operations + AI augmentation = infinite possibilities
Marketers are typically spending four hours a day on manual tasks, but with the rise and adoption of AI tools the burden of these tasks have been significantly reduced, saving the implementer 3 hours per piece of content and 2.5 hours daily overall.
AI powered tools have been known to enhance efficiency, with 84% of AI-using marketers producing content faster, 82% creating more, and 77% personalizing content more effectively.
While AI's potential is vast—helping with ideation, content repurposing, and more—60% of marketers worry about its risks, including brand reputation issues. Addressing these concerns is crucial for successful AI integration.
At New Perspective we are committed to the responsible use of AI, you can learn more about our perspective and policy here.
How HubSpot can help you with the adoption of AI.
HubSpot's AI tools are designed to help you tackle these challenges. From generating websites to creating engaging content, these tools integrate seamlessly into your marketing workflow to save you time.
- ChatSpot combines ChatGPT with HubSpot CRM data to offer powerful assistance, helping you work more efficiently.
- Features like the AI Content Writer, Social Caption Generator, and AI Website Builder, help you to create engaging content for your brand quickly and easily.
6. Growth: Effective sales and content marketing collaboration leads to engaging, data-driven campaigns.
The alignment of sales and marketing teams (also known as ‘Smarketing’, begins with centralized data. However, based on the data, HubSpot reports that only 35% of marketers claim to have strong alignment in these areas.
This disconnect often stems from a lack of shared tools and data, leading to inefficiencies like wasted budgets and poor customer experiences.
Marketers that are working with a unified data source are more likely to achieve effective strategies and results.
The use of a CRM and AI tools have proven to be crucial in the process of enabling stronger team performance and collaboration. Resulting more effective and aligned marketing efforts.
Interested in how we helped Lambda Research get the most out of their web presence and CRM? Get the scoop here.
7. Use the combination of AI and first-party data to step up your B2B marketing game.
Due to the previously-mentioned obsoletions of third-party cookies, B2B marketers face new challenges in effectively engaging their audiences.
To adapt, they are increasingly relying on first-party data and generative AI to enhance content creation.
The use of AI, giving the user more time to be creative when they are not bogged down with the weight of tedious manual tasks.
AI is proving transformative, with 85% of marketers noting improvements in content quality and 84% reporting greater efficiency in the content creation process.
However, the integration of AI presents challenges, as marketers navigate concerns over biases and maintain brand integrity, while also addressing the significant impact of evolving data privacy regulations on their strategies.
Reflecting the shift in modern marketing, 40% of companies have proactively hired AI specialists to enhance their marketing teams.
That's a Wrap!
We hope you enjoyed our 7 key takeaways from HubSpot’s 2024 State of Marketing Report. There are so many more insights and inspirational takeaways, that it was hard to boil it down to 7.
We encourage you to download the full report here and find out for yourself!
