Top Takeaways from the 2024 State of HubSpot Encore Webinar

The 2024 State of HubSpot Encore Webinar brought together some of the brightest minds in marketing, sales, and operations to dive deep into the challenges, trends, and opportunities shaping the HubSpot ecosystem and beyond. If you missed it—or need a refresher—this post captures the most impactful insights shared by our expert panel.

From adapting to evolving buyer behavior to unlocking the potential of AI and data, these actionable takeaways will help your business thrive in 2025 and beyond.

1. Go-to-Market Strategies Are Evolving

Inbound Is Not Dead—It’s Evolving

While only 10% of organizations surveyed identified inbound marketing as their primary strategy, 96% affirmed that HubSpot supports their go-to-market needs. Today, inbound acts as a complementary strategy, often combined with outbound and ABM (account-based marketing) approaches to drive better results.

Pro Tip: Ask critical questions like, How do buyers want to learn? How do they want to engage and purchase? Aligning your strategy with buyer preferences will help your teams achieve better go-to-market fit.

2. Focus on Buying Groups, Not Individual Leads

The Group Is the New Buyer

Research presented by Kerry Cunningham revealed a key insight: B2B buying decisions are made by groups of people, not individuals. On average, 11 stakeholders are involved in large buying decisions, with even smaller deals involving 3–5 people.

• Buyers engage with vendors only 70% of the way through their decision-making process, often after reaching internal consensus.
• Single-lead behavior is nearly random. The presence of multiple stakeholders from the same account engaging with your content signals an active buying process.

Action Step: De-anonymize website traffic and identify when multiple individuals from the same organization engage with your brand. This is your buying signal.

3. Keep Pace With Rapid Technological Change

The Challenge: Technology Changes Faster Than Organizations Can Adapt

As Scott Brinker highlighted, the pace of technological change continues to outstrip most organizations’ ability to adapt. This phenomenon, called Martech’s Law, underscores the importance of agility and adaptability.

Strategies to Keep Up:

1. Adopt Flexible Tech Stacks: Invest in open systems like HubSpot that integrate seamlessly with third-party tools.
2. Embrace Agile Processes: Shorten feedback loops and prioritize experimentation over rigid long-term plans.
3. Invest in Training: Upskill your team through continuous learning and experimentation with new tools.

4. AI Is Transforming Business Processes

AI’s Dual Role: Efficiency & Innovation

AI is embedded into platforms like HubSpot and is also accessible through standalone tools. As businesses increasingly integrate AI, they see both efficiency gains and new opportunities for innovation.

Key Use Cases:

• Efficiency Gains: Automating content creation, customer service, and data analysis.
• Innovation Opportunities: Tools like HubSpot’s Copilot or AI-driven customer service bots enable entirely new ways of engaging with customers.

Pro Tip: Experiment with AI tools to enhance both operational efficiency and customer engagement. Focus on how AI can help you achieve things that weren’t previously possible.

5. Data Is Your Competitive Edge

Clean, Integrated, and Purposeful Data Is Non-Negotiable

To unlock the potential of AI and make better business decisions, your data infrastructure must be rock solid. As Olivia Perek-Clark emphasized, great data starts with alignment.

How to Build an AI-Ready Data Infrastructure:

• Clean Your Data: Standardize formats, minimize duplicates, and address missing information.
• Integrate Your Systems: Use tools like HubSpot’s Data Sync for seamless data flow between platforms.
• Define Your Data Strategy: Structure your data in alignment with key business goals.

6. Maximize HubSpot’s Capabilities

Adoption Drives ROI

The best-performing organizations are more likely to maximize the full capabilities of HubSpot. However, challenges like time constraints and skill gaps often hold teams back.

Tips for Maximizing Adoption:

1. Use Workspaces: Tools like HubSpot’s Prospecting Workspace allow users to focus on what matters most.
2. Invest in Enablement: Consider in-app enablement tools like Super to guide users through processes.
3. Partner for Training: Collaborate with HubSpot solutions partners to roll out training programs and drive platform adoption.

7. Shift Toward Durable Growth

Retention > Acquisition

The highest-performing organizations prioritize retention, expansion, and profitability alongside new customer acquisition. Investments in customer marketing are also on the rise, reflecting a broader industry shift toward sustainable growth models.

Action Step: Use HubSpot’s customer success tools to focus on retention and expansion, ensuring a seamless experience for existing customers.

8. Align Around Metrics That Matter

Organizational Alignment Is Key

High-performing companies excel at aligning marketing, sales, and customer success around shared metrics like retention, expansion, and profitability. However, the research revealed that marketing teams still prioritize MQLs, creating a misalignment with other departments.

How to Fix This:

• Shift your focus to engagement metrics that track buying group activity instead of individual leads.
• Use tools like HubSpot and 6sense to identify multi-stakeholder buying groups and track their behavior.

Final Thoughts: Thriving in 2025

The webinar left us with one key takeaway: adaptability is the most critical skill in today’s fast-changing business environment. Whether it’s leveraging AI, streamlining your tech stack, or aligning your team, success in 2025 will come from a willingness to evolve. Ready to explore these insights further?  Go here to receive a recording of the webinar and also check out New Breed's State of HubSpot Report.