19 Things I Learned at the Inbound Marketing Summit : Best Practices in B2B Demand Generation

by Jason Stewart

Wrapping up a thwirlwind (if you're on Twitter or saw Tim Ferriss's presentation, you'll get it) two days of the Inbound Marketing Summit. Holy cow! What a great conference! Chris Brogan, president of New Marketing Labs organized a breakneck-paced non-stop buffet of new marketing information and best practices and general "deep thoughts." Easily one of the most informative and exhilarating conferences ever. Even the sponsor presentations were worth watching! Here are some highlights, followed by today's best tweets and a list of really cool links I heard about at the show...

Build detailed buyer personas for your social marketing efforts, then decide on appropriate messaging for those personas.Speak to them in their language, not yours.
Nobody cares about your product except you. They care about their problems. Don't worry about what your product does, worry about how it can help your buyers solve those problems.
Don't be afraid to relinquish control of your content or message. Think about how it helped The Grateful Dead.
The overwhelming fear regarding starting a community is: if I build it, will they come?
When you are building a community, focus on small groups and then expand outward.
Anybody can complain, but if the complaint is backed by constructive suggestions on how to make things better don't you want to hear them?
Make sure the things you measure match the goals you set.
Regarding your website...how do people find it, and how do they find what they are looking for when they get there?
My landing pages have too much "friction"
Outbound Marketing is not dead, it just needs to be really, really, really targeted and specific.
TweetDeck is not all that different from my Outlook inbox, when you think about it.
If you "suck" then people tell everyone. If you don't they will tell two people. You need to be there and be aware of people who say you "suck."
Simple recipe for driving organic web traffic: create unique content, make sure it is valuable, create it often, and make it available to people for free
Listen to your customers and feature requests, but always keep a few product innovations up your sleeve to be a "surprise"
Chris Brogan enjoys beer, scotch and Canadian Club.He also knows a TON about inbound marketing.
Not the end of the world if a blogger or user posts something negative, it's an opportunity!
The first step in building a social marketing strategy is deciding who you are as a company. Businesses need to find their humanity if they want to do social media properly.
Social media is big on tactics, short on strategy.
Jeans and a jacket are the official uniform of inbound marketing.

Cool links, viral videos and more:

Tweets:

RT @eperry: "We're not really addicted to Facebook or Twitter, we're addicted to our friends." (In reference to GenY) @timyoung

RT @ShaRayRay: RT @WineDiverGirl Twitter: "Even normal ppl use it now"

@dharmesh says Digg is feast or famine, StumbleUpon has a truer, more consistent rate of return...

@TimeTradeBlog, @michaelpearsun IMHO a mediocre blog - not updated at least 1 per week, more pitch than "share", no clear goal

I like to hear from the non-profits, because they are often forced to find very creative solutions to common business problems

a mediocre blog is more of a liability than no blog

if you have a community, give your community the chance to defend you against detractors before you step in.

people need to trust the messenger before they trust the message

your marketing is only as good as your measurement. so true, Mr. Ferriss!

RT @eperry: Social Media is long on tactics, short on strategy – no method to the madness (S. Rice-Lincoln)

RT @ssblog: Listening is not the first step in creating a social media strategy - understanding yourself/your company is.

RT @GreenSmith: You don't need a million people to have a powerful movement, just a few passionate people that can make things move

LOL! Great one! I wish I wasn't guilty of this one... RT @LucidContent: I vote for a new 'gobbledygook' term. "Driving" business.

so true of any campaign, not just "new mktg" ones RT @smc90: (panel ims09) most effective campaigns are integrated, especially content ones

all marketers now need to be publishers

if you build a RELATIONSHIP (an actual relationship) with the influencers BEFORE you need them it will pay dividends later

leads come from being there before they need you and building a relationship

@chrisbrogan, new lead gen turn marketing into business conversations, storytelling not ads.

Comments

Great summary and commentary Jason. I agree the event was terrific...I learned that no matter how much we know about marketing through tools such as Twitter and other online platforms, we're still just beginning. There is still much to learn...Measuring results is important but measuring the impact of the intangible on the tangible is also important...Too many seem to be concerned with failure. Small failures are good so long as you learn how to turn the failure into a victory...Win through relationships, not campaigns. Though campaigns that are built on relationships produce measurable results.

Posted by: Bernie Borges | April 29, 2009 at 05:25 PM

Jason - Great summary and layout!

It would be good to have a post event summary format to fill out as a way for Chris Brogan to have input on the conference. I felt that the experience was worth while because in addition to your mentions there were great progressive thinkers and fun people to meet. Best, Tim

Posted by: Tim Reha | April 30, 2009 at 02:55 PM

@Jason --

Great notes! These 19 takeaways apply to virtually any business and these are applicable to _everyone_, no matter what line of work their business is in. It was great to meet you. Your service appears to be really compelling. ;)

@Bernie -- I agree that many folks are afraid of failure. It's healthy to fail and succeed. I've found that when companies are too afraid to react, they default in the conversation and lose. If a company is present, very rarely do they ever lose.

~Joseph
@JoeManna on Twitter

Posted by: Joseph Manna, Infusionsoft | April 30, 2009 at 04:46 PM

This is a six apart test

Posted by: Yann | May 20, 2009 at 03:58 PM