Event Attendee Experience, CRM Implementation, Tips For HubSpot Developers (The IMPACT Show Ep. 53)

In this week's episode of The IMPACT Show, Stephanie is back and brought in special guest Jen Barrell! She's IMPACT's new director of event marketing. 

Just in case you missed us live (or if you want to relive the magic), you’ll find the episode’s show notes below as well as the recording.

Enjoy and make sure to share! 

Like what you saw? Make sure to subscribe to email reminders and give us a review on iTunes.

Have feedback or questions? We’d love to hear it. Comment on this blog or email us at show@impactplus.com

IMPACT Updates

Welcome Jen Barrell!

Jen Barrell, IMPACT's Director of Event Marekting, joined me live for the IMPACT Show this week! We talked about IMPACT Live, which is a big focus of Jen's, and why we're so excited about it. 

Not only are there great speakers but Jen shared how IMPACT Live's single track means everyone gets to see all the speakers and there's no lines, fighting to get in, or sign up required. You just have to register to attend! 

Will we see you at IMPACT Live this August? Let us know in Elite! If there’s anything keeping you from going, let us know! We’ll help. We want you there!

Julia Kortberg's visit to IMPACT HQ

Bob shared a link in IMPACT Elite this week to a piece about IMPACT from Julia Kortberg's visit to IMPACT's HQ office. Her series is called Touring with Purpose and talks about companies who care. This post is called "How IMPACT Turned Its Company Culture Around With a People-First Approach." Check it out for an inside look at the IMPACT office! 

What Marketers Be Talkin' 'Bout

Where we go over what you're saying in IMPACT Elite.

IMPACT Elite crossed 3,100 members! Know someone who would like IMPACT Elite? Invite them to join.

Our Fourth Community Hangout

We had our fourth community hangout last Friday where we talked about what to do when you fall behind in your marketing. It was a great talk! In addition, I asked everyone in Elite, if you haven't been to a community hangout - why? If you have, what did you like about it?

To clear up some confusion that came up - community hangouts are our twice per month video chats that are open to the community. It's a chance to talk face to face with Elite members and IMPACTers. We pick one topic to focus on and we come together to share lessons and learn from each other. 

Next week's topic is still TBD but I'd love to know in Elite what you'd like us to talk about. 

What's Crackin' in Elite

Elite Member: Jacki Miskimins posted “Has anyone here been involved in moving a company into a CRM, from not using one previously? What did you find important or surprising about the process? What type of concerns did you have to overcome?” Check out her post in Elite.

We talked about Jen's experience with change management. Change is scary. There is a lot to overcome when making changes to anything you're doing - especially implementing a new tool. Training is obviously important, but there’s a crucial people element to this.

Speaking of "people first" you have to find your people. Know who is on your team and define, together, what you want to get out of this new tool. 

You also need to make sure your voice is heard. Speak up and share your thoughts, concerns, challenges and ideas. Creating an open space for going through this change together will help avoid surprises along the way or issues that may arise later and will be much harder to change by that point. If you notice someone being quiet, invite them to speak up and share their thoughts. 

Finally, make time for some celebrations. Celebrate the little wins along the way and set your vision for the big celebration - the end goal. If you want something new, you have to try something new! You have to be ready to leave your comfort zone. 

We'd love to hear in the comments about how you’ve weathered the storm of starting in with a new CRM and how you and your teams handled the change.

Inbound in the Trenches

This is where we talk about what we’re doing and what we’ve learned lately right here in the trenches. 

Chicago HubSpot User Group Developer Meetup!

Since Jen is with me here in the Chicagoland area she was able to join me at the Chicago HUG meetup this past Wednesday. It was our first ever developer-focused HUG and we were lucky enough to have HubSpot Senior Software Engineer, Matt Coley, to present on building fast pages and building pages fast (quickly). While a lot of the information washed over me and Jen, our developer community soaked it all up and definitely enjoyed  the content! We'll be posting a recap blog on Monday which we'll share in IMPACT Elite. 

A HUG member also shared an open source Chrome extension for HubSpot developers to test things like page load speed! 

Be sure to check out the New Haven HUG and Hartford HUG if you're in the Connecticut area - we have meetups planned for next week! 

Event Planning - Attendee Experiences, Sponsors and More

From the moment you hear about an event to purchasing the ticket, to attending the event, to getting follow up content - we want this entire experience to be great. 

Jen and I discussed how we decide what questions to ask attendees leading up to our event, why, and how we chose these questions. While some, like t-shirt size, may seem obvious, others are less clear. For instance, we ask some info to help us choose great sponsors (and help sponsors choose us) who will fit well with our audience and be something that our audience will genuinely need or consider using. 

Finally, we talked about making sure our team is set up to give all attendees the "Disney experience" at our event. That wrapped up this episode! 

We would love your comments. What did you think of the show? Let us know in Elite. Make sure you never miss a show or update by subscribing at impactplus.com/show. 

Join Us Next Time! 

Next week, we’ll see you on the fifth community hangout on FRIDAY, June 29th, at noon eastern! 

Then we're taking a break for the 4th of July week. 

We’ll be back in three weeks for the IMPACT Show live on Friday, July 13th.

Until next time...we'll see you in Elite!