12 Things I Learned at the Inbound Marketing Summit

When people ask me what is the most effective form of marketing, I have no hesitation in saying it's valuable content. Whether that be in the form of comments and dialogue, or blog posts, slides, and images, content that will help us do our job better, learn something useful, and be entertained wins our attention.

That's why participating to the Inbound Marketing Summit was a tremendous experience. In addition to the many case studies - Southwest, Kodak, Humana, and more - I got to talk about Italian football in the House of Brady. I was touched by Chris Brogan's kind introduction and the many conversations that my presentation prompted with other practitioners.

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A few other things I learned during the conference:

1. Everyone is a blogger – what happens offline is just as important as what happens online – Tim Hayden (@GamePlanHayden)

2. Every business is reactionary – brands talk about two-way conversations, but they don’t really engage – Gary Vaynerchuk (@GaryVee)

3. What will work in the future is what worked in the past – strategy trumps tactics – Rich Ullman (Ripple6)

4. We’re in social media because we do crave contact with other people – we’re inherently social John Jantsch (@DuctTape)

5. Your Web site is not a brochure anymore; it’s a living and breathing thing, refresh it frequently and people will come back – Jason Falls (@JasonFalls)

6. The function of social is bottom up, it’s not about top down control, so there is a natural tension – Greg Matthews (Humana)

7. Trust in mainstream media is eroding – the media organization that survives will be much smaller than what we used to have as a model. This is becoming a market of small, engaged, and trusted entities and communities. Paul Gillin (@PGillin)

8. Social media was made for Southwest Airlines – the company has always focused on customer communications – Paula Berg (@PaulaBerg). Southwest handpicked 30 employees, uses the blog as the anchor of their social media activities.

9. Every industry has a difficult time justifying ROI. There’s a lot of fear about doing social media and so people are using ROI to push back – Brian Solis (@briansolis)

10. We need to get over what we were taught in school. Look at Google, everything is always in beta – Paul Gillin (@PGillin)

11. Businesses that are in a multi people sale and complex industries still love content that will make them smarter – Chris Brogan (@ChrisBrogan)

12. Give your community something to do – a company that has already 150,000 fans on Facebook, for example, needs either educational or entertaining (ask them) content – C.C. Chapman (@CC_Chapman)

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Some unstructured thoughts

Know your stuff – that is what is going to take the fear out of not being in control. When you socialize content, you have a tremendous opportunity to educate customers about what you do and why you do it in a certain way. This is especially true in B2B. We call that thought leadership and it’s very powerful – if you can find a way to "talk with" (hint: it includes lots of listening) instead of talking at. Language needs to change, too. 

Putting together a killer content strategy is very important. However, the devil is in the details. Sweat every detail – the online form, the layout and design, the content organization. Think like a host; don’t walk away after you’ve put the content out. You're part of the engagement.

Do stop and think about the most vital part of all of this – the organization and the people inside it.  

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[image of the Awareness panel - from left to right Jason Falls, Paul Gillin, C.C. Chapman, Chris Brogan, Brian Solis]

Comments

[Michael Zipursky]

Thanks for sharing this Valeria. Some really food for thought in those points.

Cheers,
Michael

[Brian Driggs]

Some thoughts on your thoughts (I thought).

1. I liked Tim Hayden's comment on online/offline happenings. It's important to be active away from the blog. Without being active in the analog world, what is there to talk about in the digital?

2. Gary Vaynerchuk points out that the "2-way conversation" is often just lip service these days. It's a 2-way street, but jeez. Roll your windows down guys. Make eye contact. Smile. Wave. Let someone else go ahead of you at the intersection. Stop and help someone with a flat tire.

3. Rich Ullman made a good point about strategy trumping tactics. Instead of resisting SM through belligerent ROI demands, try recognizing that SM is merely the new way to build relationships with prospects. What is the ROI on that "business lunch" with so and so from Milwaulkee?

4. John Jantsch nailed it with the inherently social nature of man. We'd rather starve than eat alone. This is nothing new.

5. Kudos to Jason Falls for suggesting the death of brochure websites. You wouldn't expect a huge return on stapling a flyer to a telephone pole. Why staple a flyer to the internet?

6. There is no top-down control of SM. Those who fear it likely find it amplifies their own feelings of inadequacy. Thing is, they don't realize that it's an opportunity for them to be real, like everyone else, and raise the bar.

7. The mainstream media can DIAF. Anyone with an IQ above that of a boot can see that all they do these days is use sex and sensationalism to sell advertising (that we're all skipping with TiVo).

8. If you don't love Southwest Airlines, try flying somewhere on US Airways. When you arrive in Indianapolis, but your luggage spends the weekend in Philly, you'll miss the big orange planes.

9. ROI might need to be redefined as "Resistance Of Internet." The sky is not falling. How can you lead a department (or even corporation) with your head in the sand?

10. Sad that Paul Gillin was so dead-on about forgetting what we learned in school. The bulk of the information we learned was obsolete before we graduated. I think there needs to be a serious focus on streamlining the education system and instilling more social skills - tolerance, communication, reading comprehension and intelligent writing, dump the broad math courses for relevant themes like personal finance, business statistic and whatnot.

Oh yeah, and EVERYTHING is in BETA because NOTHING is ever DONE.

11. Mr. Brogan's comment above got me thinking, corporations spend a great deal of money on continuing education. Why not foster a culture of learning through independent sources? Keep ties to consistently valuable training, but encourage the team to set out on knowledge expeditions on their own, returning home with fresh ideas and information which might be relevant.

12. And go C. C. Chapman for suggesting that maybe, just maybe, there might be more to SM than suggesting people become a fan on Facebook. If you've got that sort of audience, DO SOMETHING WITH IT.

Good stuff, Valeria. Thanks for sharing. Some really good ideas in there. I'm inspired as always. Trackbacks in your future! ;)

[Don Lafferty]

Validation feels good (even when it's outside of therapy).

Lot's to think about and plenty of wind for our sails.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Michael - thank you for stopping by.

@Brian - doing something with what we know was the mantra I've been holding close all year. I'm not sure I've done enough to honor it myself, and it deserves its own series. Glad the quotes inspired you.

@Don - you gave me a good chuckle on the therapy bit.

[steve cunningham]

Valeria - great takeaways. I thought Brogan's comment about the number of man parts on stage was a good one too :)

You are so right about the content strategy - it is #1. But #1.5 is taking care of the details like you said. I think Vaynerchuk hits the nail on the head when he says that he spends only about 10% of his time on content creation, and the other 90% interacting. I think that is where the details live - in the interactions.

[Ari Herzog]

The website *can* be a brochure--if the goal is to have someone remember something and if you don't want them to come back. For instance, reading a story at CNN.com accomplishes this.

[amymengel]

I enjoyed meeting you last week, finally! It was great to have you as one of the (few) female speakers at IMS.

You definitely captured some of the best nuggets here from the sessions. I'm still working through my copious notes!

[Simon Mainwaring]

Valeria,

Thanks so much for posting these. I'm finding the 1st and 5th points to be truer and truer. Consistently updating one's website is the only way to gain more readers, as well as maintain the current ones.

[Rich Ullman]

Valeria,
Thanks for this great summary... and the citation. Sorry that I couldn't have stayed for more than the first day, but this helps. Also wish we could have met to chat.
Rich Ullman
Ripple6

[Adam Needles]

Valeria, your call-out on content is very sage advice -- and an area where I think we as marketers needs to spend a lot more time. It's something that I've been thinking a lot about recently.

But I think that it's not just a gap or need, it's really a symptom of a marketing org that has it's focus off (and many organizations have this problem, so that's why it is a widespread issue).

If we're truly focused on the buyer, then we think in terms of our interactions with that buyer and the buyer's experience. When we do this, and we have a sense of critical paths and personas, mapping content to the 'dialogue' we're having is easy. It just flows.

http://www.silverpop.com/blogs/demand-generation/b2b-marketing-strategy/keeping-your-b2b-marketing-con.html

Yet when we don't think this way and think in a one-way batch/blast context, that's when we stand around wondering what to write. But, again, I think it's b/c the fundamental focus is off, rather than us just having a hard time coming up with what to write.

Isn't marketing 'writers block' really just marketing lack of focus?

Something to think about, and glad that the inbound movement is raising this issue in a new light.

Good stuff to be thinking about.