Couldn’t make it to INBOUND this year? No worries – we took notes.
Our time at The Moscone Center delivered bold ideas, future-forward strategies, and a few mic-drop moments. Here are the top takeaways that got us thinking, and how we’re using them better to serve our clients in financial services and beyond.
Field Note 1: "Win by learning."
Session highlight: Opening Keynote – INBOUND 2025
Session quote:
“You still need content. You still need to search. But now, you also need to be part of the answer.”
Why it stuck with us:
The keynote introduced a powerful new framework for marketers navigating the AI era: The Loop – a continuous cycle of Express, Tailor, Amplify, and Evolve. But what really landed for us was the call to learn fast and build with intent.
Gone are the days of one-and-done campaigns. Growth today isn’t linear; it’s iterative. That means testing, listening, and learning in real time. To stand out, brands need more than automation. They need style guides for their AI, content that’s clear, concise, and human, and strategies that aren’t chasing clicks, but building trust at scale.
This mindset shift mirrors the most successful financial brands we work with: they don’t just market to their customers, they learn from them.
How we’re applying it:
We’re going to start weaving The Loop into how we build and optimize client strategies, especially for those in highly regulated, trust-first industries like financial services.
Here are some strategies for achieving this:
- Enhancing targeting by integrating intent signals and first-party data. The goal? Create messaging that feels personal, not just personalized, and drives deeper emotional connection.
- Guiding clients to show up where their audience is already searching for answers, not just on websites, but on Reddit threads, YouTube videos, podcasts, and inside large language models (LLMs). That means developing smarter AEO strategies (Answer Engine Optimization) alongside traditional SEO.
- Setting up closed-loop measurement systems that don’t just track clicks and conversions, but also velocity, engagement, and how content performs inside AI ecosystems. If your content doesn’t show up in the answers, it doesn’t matter how beautiful it looks on your site.
Tactic we’re building on:
We’ll be doing an AEO-focused brand audit to help clients understand where (and how) they’re showing up in AI-driven search. Because in today’s marketing landscape, you don’t just need to be in the conversation, you need to be part of the answer.
Field Note 2: Brand isn’t a department, it’s the experience.
Session highlight: “The Leadership Gap is Costing You – Here’s How to Fix It” – Jen Spencer
Why it matters:
Jen Spencer’s session didn’t just challenge how we think about leadership. It reframed how we think about building experiences that scale. One standout question she asked was:
“Are you building forward, or just rebuilding the past?”
That hit home for us, not just in terms of internal leadership, but how the brand shows up across every touchpoint: marketing, sales, service, hiring, product. Your brand isn’t just your logo, tagline, or ad campaign. It’s how people experience your business from the inside out.
The cost of homogeneity, whether in leadership, creative teams, or customer journeys, is missed outcomes, blind spots, and disconnected experiences. The most successful brands are designing for the full picture and making sure the right voices are not only in the room but empowered to lead.
How we’re applying it:
We’re leaning into this message by helping our clients align across departments, especially in financial services, where trust, inclusion, and clarity can’t be siloed.
We’ve seen firsthand how a lack of cross-functional alignment creates fragmented experiences: one team sends a marketing message, another handles support with no context, and the brand voice disappears in the handoff. That’s not just inefficient, it’s a trust-breaker!
So, we’re building a knowledge base that doesn’t just guide the marketing team; it gives CX, sales, product, and even compliance teams the tools to communicate with a unified, purposeful voice. This alignment helps ensure every part of the customer journey is delivering not only value but also consistency, context, and trust.
Tactic we’re building on:
We're helping teams operationalize brand experience by integrating systems that connect the dots, bringing marketing, sales, service, and support into one shared view of the customer. With platforms like HubSpot, we’re not just building messaging frameworks; we’re embedding them directly into workflows and CRMs so every department is working from the same insights. This makes it easier to align on tone, timing, and intent—ensuring that what your brand says in an email matches what it delivers in a support chat or sales follow-up. When everyone sees the full picture, trust isn’t just promised, it’s practiced.
Field Note 3: AI is a co-pilot, not a shortcut.
Session highlight: “Confessions of an AI Imposter: How to Trust Your Data Story” – Mark Debenham
Session quote:
"AI tools give you speed and they give you numbers, but they don’t give you context or story."
The shift we noticed:
In a session that had us nodding (and laughing) at the painfully familiar chaos of “Final_final_USE_THIS_v3_2_31am(1).xlsx,” Mark Debenham laid out what many of us are already feeling: AI is giving us speed, but not clarity. It’s giving us more data, but not always better answers.
That chaos, disjointed files, disconnected funnels, and data silos across teams, isn’t just annoying. It erodes trust. As Mark put it, “When the story breaks, trust breaks with it.”
What stood out most was the reminder that while AI can surface numbers quickly, it’s still up to humans to make meaning of them. The story still matters. And in regulated, high-trust industries like financial services, context isn’t optional; it’s everything.
How we’re applying it:
We’re helping clients approach AI not as a silver bullet, but as a strategic co-pilot, one that amplifies human intelligence rather than replaces it. That starts with asking better questions, aligning teams around shared truths, and ensuring that every piece of AI-assisted output still tells a clear, brand-aligned story.
In practical terms, we’re piloting AI tools that help financial brands personalize messaging without losing regulatory alignment or brand integrity. We’re also coaching teams on how to stress-test AI outputs against brand voice, compliance frameworks, and customer trust signals.
Because speed without context is noise. And in financial services, trust is the real ROI.
Tactic we're building on:
AI-assisted content strategies that balance efficiency with empathy, automating intelligently, but always with a human hand on the narrative.
Field Note 4: Sustainable growth > viral growth
Session highlight (Partner Day): “Becoming the Blueprint: The Rise of the AI-First Partner” – Katie Lambert, Helen Russell, Eve Sangenito, Kevin Raheja
Why it resonates:
The rise of AI in marketing and operations has triggered a wave of urgency: move fast, automate everything, keep up or fall behind. But Partner Day reminded us that sustainable transformation doesn’t come from speed alone; it comes from clarity, purpose, and alignment.
One standout insight:
“Humans lead. AI accelerates. Clearly define the role of each.”
That message flipped the script. It’s not about using AI to churn out more content or automate every process. It’s about scaling intelligently and building systems that evolve, learn, and last. And that’s exactly what sustainable growth looks like.
The presenters laid out a practical framework:
- Start with vision: Why does AI matter to your business?
- Build a learning culture, not a perfection culture
- Use AI to amplify your value, not just replicate tasks
- Shift from repeatable services to productized, scalable IP
Rather than chasing short-term demand spikes, AI-first companies are investing in better service design, clearer positioning, and more strategic growth models. That’s the kind of shift that creates staying power, not just spikes in traffic or leads.
How we’re applying it:
At GreenHouse, we’re helping our financial services clients move beyond automation for automation’s sake. Instead, we’re working with them to:
- Design smarter revenue systems, not just plug-in tools.
- Build internal fluency, so teams aren’t reliant on one AI tool or trend.
It’s not about a quick win. It’s about compound momentum, putting strategies in place now that create outsized returns down the road.
Tactic we’re building on:
We’re shifting from one-off campaigns to long-term, AI-enabled brand ecosystems. That includes:
- Modular content programs that evolve with real-time insights
- AI-enhanced onboarding experiences that reduce friction and increase retention
- Reusable, scalable service frameworks that can grow with our clients' needs
Because growth that lasts isn’t about hacking the algorithm, it’s about designing systems that get smarter, more human, and more effective over time.
Field Note 5: Make space for curiosity.
Inspired by: The Havana Nights Party, our FinServ Executive Dinner, and serendipitous brainstorms in hotel lobbies.
Why it inspired us:
Innovation doesn’t just spark in session rooms; it blooms in moments of genuine connection. At INBOUND, some of our most creative breakthroughs happened long after the keynote ended: during the Havana Nights Party, over mojitos and laughter, when someone tossed out an off-the-cuff idea about AI-powered onboarding. At the FinServ Executive Dinner, amidst elegant conversation and shared challenges, we started talking through new growth strategies.
Not all breakthroughs happen in breakout rooms.
Some of our most energizing moments at INBOUND didn’t come from a mainstage speaker or polished deck; they came from each other. Over team dinners. In the quiet moments between sessions. Or when someone said, “Wait, hear me out…” while we were crossing the street.
We didn’t just attend INBOUND, we made space for the kind of curiosity that doesn't fit neatly. Whether we were unpacking takeaways or riffing on how AI might change onboarding flows for a credit union, one thing became clear: when you make room for curiosity, bold thinking follows.
How we’re applying it:
We’re bringing that same spirit back home.
Starting this quarter, we’re carving out dedicated creative sprints in our project timelines, mini incubators to explore, test, and stretch ideas beyond the brief. These sprints won’t be tied to KPIs right away, and that’s the point. They’re designed to help us, and our clients, think more expansively.
Because we believe innovation isn’t just something you deliver. It’s something you cultivate.
Final Takeaway: What It All Means for You
Between bold keynotes and serendipitous brainstorms in the halls of the Moscone Center, one recurring theme stood out: HubSpot isn’t just a marketing tool anymore, it’s becoming the central nervous system for growth-minded teams.
From Marketing Hub to Data Hub, and the introduction of powerful new capabilities inside Marketing Studio, HubSpot is reimagining what unified marketing actually looks like. With tools like Smart CRM, Data Hub, and Data Studio, the platform is becoming less about individual features and more about connected ecosystems, giving teams a complete picture of the customer journey across channels and teams.
We saw this firsthand during INBOUND sponsor activations and hands-on demos, where INBOUND attendees explored new workflows, tackled alignment challenges, and even got early looks at generative AI integrations built to streamline everything from segmentation to service delivery.
As Karen Ng noted in one of the more tactical sessions we attended, "HubSpot’s product strategy is no longer about adding features, it’s about reducing friction." That’s a message we’re taking seriously as we help our clients simplify, align, and scale.
INBOUND 2025 reminded us that the future of marketing isn’t louder, it’s smarter, more human, and relentlessly aligned with your audience’s evolving needs. At GreenHouse, we’re not just watching trends, we’re translating them into actionable strategies for your brand.
Want a personalized take on how these insights apply to your brand? Let’s chat.
October 2, 2025
