Category Archives: Conferences

I was lucky enough to have some time to attend a number of the sessions at the Inbound Marketing Summit run by Chris Brogan . I did not get to every session due to some client commitments but I was impressed by the sessions I did attend.

Here are my key takeaways organized into several themes:

Content Marketing: David Guarnaccia from Sitecore presented on persuasion in content marketing, my takeaways were:

1. The website is part of your sales force and should be treated that way (we can do some more work on that…)
2. A reason for advertising ineffectiveness is a lack of consistency and continuity – there is a disconnect with what’s offered and the reality of what people get from a business
3. There are some advanced techniques that allow you to use rules based on web behavior to provide a more customized web experience for users, one example is Tom’s hardware which can direct users to useful content based on how they arrived at the site.

The Changing Marketing Landscape: Brian Halligan from Hubspot gave a interesting presentation on why outbound marketing is dead. Key takeways:

1. Outbound marketing is dead..well not completely but certainly the mass media model is far less effective for marketers than ever before
2. Being found is more critical than ever
3. Drawing customers in by providing valuable content that addressed their pain points – be “remark” able to coin Seth Godin

Online Product Launch: Loic Le Meur from Seesmic presented on his learning’s from launch many online products over the years (the link is his story on funded Seesmic worth reading). Key Takeaways:

1. Get to market as fast as possible – launch, listen and watch behavior then move forward fast
2. Look especially for negative feedback as this can drive improvements and highlight weak spots
3. If you are not being talked about (good or bad) there is a problem…

New ways to develop customer insight: Justin Levy led a great panel discussion on how social media can provide companies with deeper customer insights, my takeaways:

1. Millions of conversations are happening that relate to you or what you offer, that is a source of information you cannot risk not working out how to harvest
2. It really is a marketers dream, most marketers are sitting in their offices wondering what customers are thinking or how they will behave, the social media landscape provides the answers. A simple ROI is the cost savings in market research…..
3. Insights are being used across the business not just marketing and PR but also to deal with customer service issues (think Frank at comcast) as well as internal collaboration and networking

The Changing Media Landscape: Paul Gillin gave a great presentation on how the print and TV media are continuing to lose control, my takeaways:

1. Daily Newspaper reader demographics in the US – ave age 57yrs
2. Media does not control the message anymore and looks to the web for story ideas and sources, journalists google rather than go to their blackbooks
3. Customers need be listened to and allowed to shape strategy – Is twitter the new newspaper?

• Implications – media is in the hands of individuals, customers will speak up, companies will be forced to listen