For the last eight years, HubSpot surveyed thousands of marketers and salespeople around the globe about their challenges, priorities, and strategies in marketing and sales. The result is a testament to the trends and growth of inbound, something you’re unlikely to find anywhere else.
When HubSpot first started looking at inbound, it mostly applied to finding out how to turn complete strangers into visitors of your website. Shortly thereafter, it became about how you turn that visitor into a qualified lead. As time went on, people began applying inbound from a qualified lead to a delighted customer. And it was this step that changed everything.
Inbound means transforming how we do business to be more helpful, more human, more empathetic. It focuses on the whole process of turning a stranger into a delighted customer. Inbound is about matching the way you market and sell with the way people actually want to shop and buy.
We’ve seen a global movement grow around this philosophy of inbound -- one you may very well already be a part of. This community of like-minded marketers and salespeople constantly elevates one another, both personally and professionally, by sharing their expertise and insights.
The majority of HubSpot's over 4,500 respondents are non-HubSpot customers hailing from marketing backgrounds in B2B small and mid-sized businesses. Half of the companies represented here generate under $1 million each year. With data collected from all corners of the map, this document represents over 132 countries. A truly global community.
But where is that movement headed? What’s not only on the horizon, but miles beyond it? We’ve always used the State of Inbound report as a barometer for current trends and where inbound is headed directionally.
This year, we’re taking it one step further.
HubSpot has taken these incredibly diverse insights to provide the state and to then predict the future of inbound. So along with the benchmark data you’ve come to expect, HubSpot also looked at new trends and new technologies this year, too.
HubSpot may not have a crystal ball but their money’s on quality data. The 2016 State (and Future) of Inbound holds some of the most informed predictions for the future of marketing and sales you’re likely to find.
The world is becoming more inbound. It’s growing more authentic, less interruptive. And with the findings of this year’s report, I think it’s safe to say that over the next ten years we’re going to see an even more inbound world.
