Last October, following our inaugural HubSpot User Group Summit, we polled all of the attendees and asked them to give us feedback on the event. What did they like? What could have been better? We knew we were throwing the same event again in a year, and we wanted to make sure it was bigger and better than ever.
When the results from the surveys came in, the number one most overwhelmingly positive aspect of the event for all attendees was the 1:1 sessions with Inbound Marketing Consultants (IMC). As one of the IMCs who met with customers, I was thrilled to hear that this aspect of the event got such a great response.
This year, I am part of the team organizing the HUG Summit, and so I will unfortunately be absent from the 1:1 session room. But we've doubled-down on our IMC talent at HubSpot, so there will still be a massive amount of inbound marketing expertise on deck! Here are the three main things I think customers can expect from these popular, hands-on, live training sessions:
You'll Be Able to Put What You Learn Into Practice Fast
One customer who wandered over to my table last year had just sat through two different small business panels talks, listening to how others in his position had used inbound marketing to achieve staggering business growth. His head was swimming with possibilities, but he didn't know where to start. He laid out his notes on the table and together, we made sense of the scribbles and put together a master plan. HUGS will be an intense day that delivers lots of content, and you're sure to be taking copious notes. But know that the IMCs down the hall will be on hand to help you bring order out of the chaos. You will leave your 1:1 session with wheels in motion, or at least a well laid-out plan. It's what we do!
Learn and Implement New Features Fast
HubSpot's product team is smart, and the people who monitor ideas.hubspot.com (where users submit feature requests) are just as smart. We build all the tools in our product with the needs of our customer base in mind. Last year, our Email Manager application was brand new, and so our customers were eager to have an IMC walk them through it and discuss how they might improve their inbound strategies. It was a terrific opportunity for IMCs, because instead of sending a video to our cutomers about how something in HubSpot works, we were able to sit down face to face with HubSpot customers, do a live demo, and then dig into each person's specific portal to get it all live and in place! We also introduced a ton of customers to the relatively new List Manager tool, by building lists, creating dedicated sends, duplicating landing pages for testing purposes, and building tracking URLs… and all while our afternoon coffee was still hot!
Get a Fresh Perspective from an Expert
When I was a HubSpot IMC, my consulting calls with each customer were typically scheduled one week apart. If a customer and I were working on something, I had time to dig in between meetings. I had extensive notes on their businesses and inbound strategies, as well, which I would usually pull up on a second monitor for quick reference during our calls. I was always prepared. But this was different. This was HUGS. People I had never met before, from businesses I had never heard of, were walking up to my table and asking for immediate feedback and guidance. As a consultant, it was thrilling to be asking questions, brainstorming, and problem-solving on the fly. And for the folks I met with, I could tell that there was mutual benefit. IMCs have a tremendous amount of inbound marketing experience and have each been involved in the creation of hundreds of inbound strategies and experiments. Customers provided overviews of their strategies, and details around what wasn't working as well as they hoped. We offered them fresh perspective, examples from other worlds, and hands-on guidance for when it came time to change one piece or another.
