The 2017 State of Inbound report is here, and it delivers some insights that may change the way organizations align sales and marketing.

The report, which surveyed over 6,000 organizations across a variety of industries and throughout the world, highlights not only the biggest marketing and sales challenges facing companies of varying sizes, but which strategies are performing best.

To stay relevant, companies need to know not just what is working now, but what's up and coming, and this report offers a look at the future of inbound marketing—what's trendy versus what has staying power and can't be ignored.

Sales and marketing alignment

One of the most discussed topics recently in the progression of inbound marketing is a better alignment of sales and marketing activities. The survey shows that while marketing respondents who report a close alignment between sales and marketing are 3x more likely to say their strategy is effective, only 22% characterized their company's sales and marketing relationship as tightly aligned.

There was a disparity between how senior levels of organizations saw their sales and marketing alignment versus the perspective of individual contributors, who weren't quite as confident that everyone was on the same page and working towards common goals.

Keeping up with digital marketing trends

The way consumers make purchase decisions has not only changed drastically in the past several years, but continues to evolve at a rapid pace.

Get the 2017 State of Inbound Marketing report to keep up with what's working now and to plan your future marketing and sales strategies.