An Interview with HubSpots’s Conversational Marketing Manager, Connor Cirillo


We recently sat down for a Q&A session with Connor Cirillo to get his thoughts on how to get started with chatbots and conversational marketing. Connor will be presenting at the HubSpot User Group Milwaukee meetup on March 22. Our team has been digging in to different tools like HubSpot, Drift and Chatfuel to integrate within inbound strategies. Starting with some of the tips Connor provided in the below video is a great place to start.

Paul Klebanov of SEMrush acquired more entrepreneurial experience and success before 30 years old than most people attain in a lifetime. As an ambitious youth, Paul got a job right out of high school as a web admin, which later progressed into a web developer position where he learned converting interest to sales is the ultimate gateway. He continued to learn everything about marketing he possibly could including inbound marketing, SEO, sales psychology, paid traffic, content marketing, social media and more. Paul’s experience and knowledge obtained as a web developer gave him the confidence to put his true entrepreneur heart forward and soon become one of the youngest people to build a leading American e-commerce retail business.

The HubSpot CRM Has Changed How We Do Business

We were early adopters and one of the very first customers and partners to use the HubSpot CRM back in 2014. As a HubSpot certified partner, we were fortunate to have early beta access to test it out and we haven’t looked back since. Prior to the HubSpot CRM, we tested a few other systems and almost pulled the trigger on SalesForce.

There have been many reports published over the years claiming to know the answer to manufacturers’ most burning marketing question: What content channel is most effective for my business? The challenge with deciphering these reports is that the data is inconsistent. Some reports claim direct email is the most effective channel for manufacturers, others say LinkedIn and even more recommend sticking to in-person events like trade shows. The inconsistencies can make a B2B marketer’s head spin. In actuality, just like B2C businesses, manufacturing customers and prospects are very different from company to company. Here are a few important steps to take to identify your most effective channels and produce the best content for each.

Online articles with images every 75-100 words get double the amount of shares as articles with fewer images, according to Buzz Sumo. Even more interesting, Buffer revealed that images get 567% more inbound links than text-only content.

Two years ago, HubSpot unveiled their CRM software at the annual Inbound conference in Boston, MA. It forever changed sales and marketing alignment for businesses using HubSpot software for inbound marketing strategy. HubSpot’s CRM was an incredible offering for our clients in need of an integrated CRM system, and we were happy to see consistent improvements made since its launch. This week at Inbound 2016, it was announced that HubSpot’s product connection between sales and marketing is going to get even deeper. Here is a list of the 12 new and improved product features being talked about at Inbound this week.

How many times have you hit “send” on an email and questioned if it would actually be opened? Writing good subject lines can be a daunting task for even the best writer. In this week’s flashback post, you’ll want to check out “17 Tips & Best Practices” to help you with writing catchy subject lines that will get your emails opened. This week’s posts also include tips for using Facebook demographics to connect with your community, how to analyze web elements that may be handicapping your conversion rate and all about how to use Facebook live videos for business. Take a look at my favorite posts from this past week: 

Are you an expert LinkedIn user or someone who simply clicks “accept” when you receive a connection notice? If you’d like to boost your LinkedIn knowledge and learn how others are networking and building their businesses, you’ll want to read “Are You Curious What Others Are Doing on LinkedIn” by Wayne Breitbarth and “21 Hidden LinkedIn Hacks” – both on this week’s Weekly Flashback list. Additionally, this week’s posts include tips to improve your presence on Google, increasing Facebook Live video reach, and when to stop worrying about conversion rate. Take a look at my favorite posts from this past week:

Have you noticed the prominent role live streaming has taken in the media during the past few weeks? If so, you’ll want to read “The Evolution of Live Streaming Could Change the Way You Consume Media” on this week’s Weekly Flashback list. Additionally, this week’s posts include tips to create efficiencies for busy social media marketers, acronyms every marketer should know, why automation is the future of content creation and a cheat sheet for internal linking strategy. Take a look at my favorite posts from this past week:

Are you looking to freshen up your marketing podcast list to find more thought leaders who can help grow your business? If so, you’ll definitely want to check out “103 Genuine Marketing Thought Leaders To Follow” on this week’s Weekly Flashback list. Additionally, this week’s posts include tips on discovering new Facebook groups, how to write attention-grabbing search ad copy, everything you need to know about beacons, and social media SEO strategy. Take a look at my favorite posts from this past week: