Inbound Marketing Summit Takeaways – Day 2

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Inbound Marketing Summit 2011The second day I spent at Inbound Marketing Summit did not disappoint – the day started out with a bang and ended on a high note. The biggest takeaways for me yesterday were based on the themes of relationships, relevancy, and change.

Enchantment to Create and Strengthen Long Lasting Relationships

First off, let me start by saying that Guy Kawasaki is awesome. He’s been in the business for a while, he’s super smart, he publishes great content, and I learned yesterday, he’s also great speaker. Yesterday he introduced the audience to “The Art of Enchantment;” also a book he has just recently written. Guy describes the idea of “enchantment” as “creating a relationship that is long lasting, mutually beneficial, and voluntary.” This sounds like the kind of relationship we desire; whether it be with a friend, a family member, your co workers, and even your vendors and clients. He explains that you can apply this idea of enchantment to starting a business, making decisions,  and creating long-lasting relationships. The three pillars of enchantment, as Guy defines are: to achieve likability, trustworthiness, and quality. This talk was great because it reminds us to shift our thinking from getting what we want and take the extra time to create a change that is mutually beneficial.

Takeaway: By becoming more enchanting, you will deepen your relationships.

Relevancy in the Context of Mobile

I had been looking forward to the panel discussing mobile marketing all day. I had seen Tim Hayden speak before and knew that this was a “must-see” session. Along with Tim, of 44Doors, were Rich Miner, a Partner with Google Ventures, and John Puterbaugh of Nellymoser, Inc. This panel did a great job touching on different aspects of mobile and insights into how it effects how we market to our customers.

The theme that I noticed right away was the idea of relevancy. During this session it was suggested that the mobile handheld device is the most intimate device that humans have ever had. I agree; I wake up and the first thing I look at is my cell phone, during quiet times or waiting in lines I look at my cell phone, I use my phone to connect with people, I use my phone to keep my calendar and my notes, and my alarm clock, my cell phone is the last thing I look at before I go to bed. So what does this mean for us marketers?

Mobile marketing offers us a huge opportunity; however, the gentlemen of this panel remind us, we will still market the way that we have been, but we can use the mobile medium to reach our customer base in an easier, faster, and more simpler manner. Our message, however, needs to be relevant to the mobile medium.

Best Buy was used as an example to describe this rule. Best Buy has QR codes on the little signs with the product details in their store. After scanning the QR code the mobile user is taken to a page that shows them the same exact information that can read on the product detail sign. What’s the point, right? However, below the product detail information is buyer feedback – now, this what we want when we’re shopping! Best Buy could do this better if they move the buyer feedback to be one of the first things a mobile user sees when the scan the code.

Takeaway: Keep relevancy top of mind when offering a mobile user experience.

Driving Change

Dan Heath, of BrightSight Group and author of “Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard” ended our time at Inbound Marketing Summit. I was skeptical at first, wondering how this session would apply to my job and the services we offer our clients. But the more Dan spoke, the more I started understanding that this idea of change could effect the roots of, not only business, but life choices in general, the more intrigued I was.  Dan acknowledged that as marketers our jobs are changing so fast and we need to keep up. But sometimes change is hard and we are resistant.

One of the things that stuck out to me was that many times when things aren’t working we pick it apart and dissect it and anaylze it without really changing what we’re doing. Dan suggests that instead of focusing on what is wrong, focus on what’s working and then try to clone that. I really like that idea; it shifts the way we solve problems. His session left me with a breath of fresh air and I look forward to digging into his book to learn more.

Takeaway: Switch the way you think about problem solving or making a change; approach it from a positive angle.

Thanks for letting me share and digest what I have learned the past few days. I am sure more inisghts will come up as I go through notes and if you have any questions about anything else that was presented at Inbound Marketing Summit 2011 please tweet me!

Inbound Marketing Summit Takeaways – Day 1

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Greetings from Inbound Marketing Summit 2011!

Inbound Marketing Summit 2011My brain is already crammed with lots of great takeaways from this conference and I still have one more day to go! I thought the best place to start digesting some of what I am learning and hearing is right here on this blog – to share with you!

The biggest takeaways from yesterday are things that we talk about on this blog and in our webinars; what I believe is the future of online marketing. The first is the idea of differentiating yourself from your competition by embracing the uniqueness of your company and the second is offering a personalized online experience with your audience in all the stages of the buying and customer cycles.

Being Different is Hard

Yesterday morning, Youngme Moon started the conference off with one of the most thought provoking sessions of the day. Youngme is the Senior Associate Dean at Harvard Business School and author of “Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd“. She presented the importance of differentiating yourself from your competition. She explains that as we try to keep up with the competition, we end up conforming and becoming more like them. The way to do this, she told us, is to embrace what is different about your brand and don’t be afraid to say “no” when everyone else is saying “yes”.

Youngme talked about Ikea; a huge brand that people LOVE. We all know that Ikea is different, it has a unique shopping experience, the store offers a restaurant, and childcare; what other furniture store does that? People LOVE this store and they tell Ikea how much they LOVE the store but they also offer feedback telling them if they could be a little bit more like XYZ Furniture Store they would love it even more. Youngme explains that by offering something less, Ikea is giving customers more. Ikea is really creating a loyal fan base where they see Ikea as irreplaceable; there is no substitute.

Similar case studies were shared that described different companies’ visions to really stand apart from the competition, be proud and profitable while being different. Although it’s hard and sometimes uncomfortable, Youngme reminded us that in order to get some traction, it requires some friction. Differentiation comes from lopsidedness and from resisting the temptation to “over-listen” to customers. The hardest part of being different, however, is having an idea on how to be different.

Presenting Your Unique Qualities

The idea of presenting uniqueness also came up during a breakout session presented by Bret Peters, a Partner at Fig Leaf Software. He spoke of some case studies where the brand had a unique offer but chose a creative way to present that content to reach their individual marketing goals. One case study that really stuck out to me is how the American Association of Museums changed the way they presented their premium-only content. Previously, the user had no access to see what the premium content was unless they logged in first. To try an increase memberships, American Association of Museums created an internal Google Search and allowed all of their content to be searchable. However, if one of the results was distinguished as premium content, the user would navigate to a log in page. By making this change they saw an 8% increase in membership in the first month!

What makes your brand unique? Are you taking advantage of it and presenting it to your audience in a creative and captivating way? How are you differentiating yourself from your competition without conforming?

Personalization is the Future of Web

One of the sessions yesterday was “Inbound Marketing 2.0″ presented by Brian Halligan, CEO & Founder of Hubspot. He explained the idea behind Inbound Marketing 2.0 is really about creating a “Segment of 1″ as a web experience for each individual user.

At Hall, we talk a lot about developing unique content for all your different audience types. Once you are able to identify who you are talking to, you can speak more intimately to their needs and specific challenges, which, in result, can lead to improved conversion rates. Think about your website and what you know about the audience that visits it. Some people are researching, some are buying, some are even your current customers.

Brian used examples like Netflix and Pandora; where, once you’re logged in, you are given suggested music to listen to or movies to watch based on what you already like. These websites adapt to your own personal preferences. The experience offered makes the user more likely to continue to use these services because they make it easy to consume information that you like.

The idea of “personal experience” also reminds me of when I worked at Walt Disney and helped kicked off the “Year of a Million Dreams.” Throughout the year, cast members sought out a guest and gave them a “dream” or something special. Though it might have been something small like a free cast member pin, the experience was something unique to a single person or family, but made a memorable impact. This is what encourages word of mouth marketing and customer loyalty.

In all your marketing mediums; website, social networks, email, mobile, direct mail, don’t send one broad message. Segment your audience – get as granular as your data allows – be direct and speak to the individual needs of each segment. Think of your website as your “personalization engine” is how Brian Halligan put it. Not only will this likely improve conversions, this will also strengthen relationships between your brand and the customer. From brochureware to interactive experiences, personalization on the web is what we’re moving towards in the future.

What are some ways you can personalize the experience you are offering your audience? Are your sending targeted messages to the right audience?

Lots of good food for thought and I’m sure I’ll be thinking and blogging about these topics more in the future!

Stock Image BINGO

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Stock image Bingo

Conference season seems to be here. I know my calendar is filling up quickly. One thing I love about conferences is seeing all kinds of businesses that I never knew existed. One of my guilty pleasures is then taking note of how many use the same stock imagery for their website, booth and other marketing materials.

To spice up your conference a little bit, feel free to print out this Stock Image Bingo card for you and your co-attendees and have a little stock image fun. As you see an image on the card either grab it (if it is a handout) or take a photo of the image you need. At the end of each day, tally up with your group and see who comes out the winner!

Block Descriptions

Starting from the top of each letter column, I will give a brief description of acceptable versions of each space:

B

  • The Dude – This is my favorite stock image guy. He can be found in just about every industry in a variety of different settings. This square can only be marked off if he is looking directly at the camera. Glasses on or off do not matter.
  • Magnifying Glass – A magnifying glass square can be marked off whether it is a photo, illustration or being held by a person.
  • Macaroni People – These little asexual illustrations can be found in hundreds of different scenarios. The one highlighted here is a trust fall but any macaroni person action can count to mark off this square. They are called macaroni people because they look like they could be made from instant macaroni and cheese.
  • The Guy – Not to be mistaken for ‘The Dude’ this is ‘The Guy’. I feel like he and the Dude could be cousins. He can be found in a variety of industries, usually with a group of people.
  • Money graph with no values – Any type of chart or graph with no values but that magically promises lots more money for your company can count here. All that is important to mark this square off is the lack of values in the chart.

I

  • Handshake – This is an easy one. Any handshake image of any kind can count for this space.
  • Arms crossed/multicultural group/Random foreground person – This square can be marked off in a variety of different ways. The first is a group of people with their arms crossed, second is a multicultural group wearing complimenting outfits and lastly, a group with one person randomly in the foreground. With these three variations, this square should be pretty easily marked off.
  • Fortune cookie – Fortune cookies are one of the most popular of the stock image food groups. This square can also be marked off if an exhibitor’s booth is handing out fortune cookies as the SWAG (Stuff We All Get).
  • Puzzle pieces – Huge in the B2B space, puzzle pieces are the iconic way to show that your solutions fits your customers complex need. Puzzle pieces can be any size or color. The puzzle pieces can also be attached or unattached.
  • Track stars in suits – A visual example of how your staff rises to the top, beats out the competition or can take your business to new heights is by showing people in business suits doing track activities. Shown here is sprinting but also acceptable is high jump, crossing the finish line, hurdles etc.

N

  • Happy computer person – Nothing screams success like high fives and arms in the air while using a computer. This square can be marked off whether or not the celebrator is male or female but a computer must be present.
  • Unrelenting stack of papers – Another key B2B stock image is to appeal to the customer’s day to day pain points and illustrate that their solution will get all the paper off of your desk. This stack of papers can come in many forms and may or may not involve a desk to count for a mark.
  • FREE SPACE – Everyone gets this space.
  • Frustrated computer person – The contradictory image to the top of this column, to get a mark for this square you need a man or a woman to be over exaggerating their computer frustrations. The same person can be used for this square and the top square but they must have different exaggerated expressions.
  • Light bulb – Much like the magnifying glass, a light bulb can be found in a variety of ways – above one’s head, with a macaroni person, ON, OFF, attached to a string in the dark, light etc. Any variety can be counted, but it cannot be combined with another square (for example if a macaroni person is holding a light bulb, you can count it either for macaroni person or light bulb but not both.

G

  • Attractive and happy headset wearer – Male or female counts for this space. All you need is a gleaming smile and a headset to mark this square.
  • Stacked Rocks – Big in spas, salons or businesses that are in the healing industry. The stacked rocks can be marked off as long as the stacks are over 3 rocks high. Stone massage stock images do not count for this square.
  • Air strategist – This square can be marked off whether the individual is male or female and the air strategy has words or not. Biggest hang-up here is that the individual must be magically writing in the air and not on a whiteboard or chalkboard.
  • Dollar bills – Dollar bills can be squeezed, in a trash can, floating in the air, stacked or in any form. Dollar bill signs do not count for this square.
  • Lack of time – Importance of features can often be shown visually by a Twilight Zone type clock or hour glass. What is important for this square is the eluding anxiousness of not having enough time.

O

  • Growing seedling – Huge in the startup conferences is the just sprouting sapling. This square can be marked if the sapling is in the ground, on a nondescript white surface our coming out of a hand. If there is a tie, winner will go to the card with the sapling growing out of a human hand.
  • Dice – Taking chances and luck are often visually represented by dice. The dice can be rolling or still but must be regular dotted dice. Letter blocks and custom dice do not count. This square can also be filled if a trade show booth is handing out dice to attendees.
  • Older people can use computers too – This square can be marked if the computer users are single or a couple, male or female but they must appear to be over 65 years old and must be happy. If your Senior Discount member appears frustrated, consider using them for the Frustrated User in the N column.
  • Globes – Globes can be used for any industry to represent how far reaching a business is. Globes can count in any form or shape.
  • The Dude, profile – Since he is my favorite, I have to add The Dude twice. This time to mark the square, it must be a profile image.

Amanda and The DudeExtra points – It may be hard to tally cards in real time while at a conference so in the case of a tie, I have a few suggestions on tie breakers:

    • As noted before with the sapling image, the sapling in the hand is worth extra points.
    • Tradeshow booth handouts are worth more than images like the fortune cookie, dice, clock etc.
    • The larger the image, the better. Life size images or larger than life will beat out an image on a handout (see right).

There you go! That is all I think you need to know for Stock Image BINGO!

Conferences can be wearing on you so what better way to spice things up than to make a competitive game out of them! Good prizes for winner’s are dinners at hotel restaurants, cheesy hotel gift shop items, embarrassing losing participants by making them wear something silly the rest of the conference or just good old bragging rights work too!

Good luck and have fun!

Top 5 Presentations from Inbound Marketing Summit 2010

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Well I am back and my brain is full. This week was the Inbound Marketing Summit at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. More than 50 presentations and a few hundred really smart people in the same room. Energy was great, conversations in the hallway were inspiring, food was good and Jenika and I have lots of ideas and notes to shuffle through.

What I want to do here is tell you about MY top 5 presentations that we saw over the last few days. These are in no particular order and I am sure other attendees had their own favorites, but these were mine. The ones I took the most notes at, was inspired by and ones that gave me some pieces of information I want to learn more about.

Top 5 #IMS10 Presentations

  1. Battlefield PR – How the US Air Force Empowers Communicators, Captain Nathan Broshear

    We here at Hall work primarily in the B2B space. It is a protected space and one of the biggest concerns with letting employees participate in social media is the fear that they will in some way tarnish the brand’s reputation.

    Few people have more concern on privacy and reputation than the US Military. Captain Nathan Broshear delivered a powerful presentation on how the US Air Force is using social media to tell their story. He told us how even the best PR team in the world cannot convey the message of the work the US Air Force does better than those that are on the front lines.

    Military personnel have access to their Facebook accounts while they serve. When met with opposition Captain Broshear responded with “You trust a 20 year old kid with a $50 million airplane but you don’t trust him with a Facebook page?!?” Point taken. The best defense you can have against a PR nightmare online is to diligently train anyone who is going to use a social networking site on best practices and how and why you are conveying your message the way you are.

    Broshear also talked about the importance of relationships. Most businesses only reach out to press and PR when they are pimping themselves out or when something has gone wrong. We should focus more on cultivating relationships day-to-day and not just when we need something.

    For more about how the US Air Force is using social media you should check out some of their powerful videos on YouTube, check out their Facebook page, follow them on Twitter (@usairforce) and check out some cool information David Meerman Scott has posted about them.

  2. The Science of Search Engine Rankings, Rand Fishkin

    Rand FishkinAny of you who know me and my work know that I LOVE numbers and data – Rand Fishkin (@randfish) did NOT disappoint! I don’t know if it was because SEO is a off shoot of Social Media but Rand’s presentation was one of the most talked about in the hallways. Everyone seemed to learn something from him in this presentation. You may know Rand better as the SEOmoz guy and those folks do data! Our in-house “search nerds” are big SEOmoz fans.

    Some interesting points I got from him:

    • Only 9% of users are using Firefox (or any other) Google toolbar. That means over 90% of users go to Google.com when they want to search something.
    • Google Instant caused quite a stir when it was launched but it really has done little to effect anyone’s searches.
    • SEO isn’t quite rocket science – but it is pretty close.

    There is also a list of SEO resources he mentioned during his presentation here.

  3. The Real Business of Community, Amber Naslund

    Amber Naslund, of Radian6, seems to be the pioneer of the title ‘Community Manager’. She takes her work seriously. She isn’t fluffy about it. She takes an analytical approach to managing a company’s community and it is refreshing.

    Some key takeaways from Amber’s presentation:

    • Community management, if done well, should be a part of everyone’s job inside an organization.
    • You community manager should NOT be plopped down behind a computer. They should be meeting people in person, going to conferences, making phone calls etc.
    • Personal and professional lines are getting blurry online and we need to get used to it.
    • Being a community manager does not mean being a ‘social media rock star’.
    • Amber does not spend all day on Twitter (see image to right).
    • Community managers are a tool for sales people. They need to build a system sales and customer service can build from.
    • Spend more time cultivating your existing community, they will spread your message for you to new people.

    For more information about community management check out Radian6′s Community Management Playbook [PDF]. Also, you should read Amber’s own recap of her IMS presentation. Another great takeaway about being ourselves and standing for things in business.

  4. How to Calculate the ROI of Social Marketing, Paul Gillin

    Paul Gillin (@pgillin) had the tough job of closing the Inbound Marketing Summit. Again, as a numbers nerd, he did not disappoint. One of the biggest trends this year has been attempting to calculate the ROI of social media. Many are afraid to try, primarily because it takes a little work but Paul Gillin broke it down for us. To avoid doing any damage to his presentation, I have decided just to embed the presentation below.

    Social Marketing ROI – Yes, You Can!
    View more presentations from Paul Gillin.
  5. Engagement 2.0, Scott Stratten

    Scott Stratten UnMarketingScott Stratten of UnMarketing (@unmarketing) closed out the first day at IMS. If this whole marketing thing doesn’t work out, he has a pretty good shot at a stand-up comedian gig. His presentation was real, funny and smart. The whole conference paused when he spoke. Exhibitors left their booths, everyone stopped side conversations and even event employees stopped what they were doing to listen.

    Scott also has a new book out, UnMarketing. I know it is on my list to pick up next week.

    Here are some of the most ‘tweetable’ moments of Scott’s presentation:

    • Social media tools do not change that relationships take time. We can’t jump right in with ‘the ask’ first.
    • When we are met with social media opposition that we ‘always have done marketing this way’, remind them that this is because that is all we had. Now we have new, free tools to connect with people. Why are we so scared to use them?
    • Social media is not a new way to do your crappy outbound marketing. It is a new way to form relationships and connect with people who may be interested in you or your products and services.
    • We need to be remarkable if we want people to share our message for us. People don’t spread ‘meh’ or ‘just ok’ they spread unique, helpful content.
    • When you find yourself facing an internet troll, think before you respond. Who will win if you publicly fight back? Sometimes it is best to just ignore.
    • Scott can’t keep his 90′s boy bands straight.

    Thanks to the Pulse Network, Scott’s whole presentation is available for you to view. I really think it will be worth your time!

Honorable Mention

Greg Cangialosi of Blue Sky Factory is always a great presentation to check out. I have seen him a few times and each time I get a few little actionable items I want to try when I get back. Greg talked about hyper-listening to your audience to find peak times to send out email newsletters, being very clear with people what they will get when they subscribe to your newsletter and how to make your newsletter content ready for social sharing features.

Valeria Maltoni from Conversation Agent and Powered is a powerful, energetic female speaker. Her ideas are refreshing and I always have a few ‘a ha’ moments when she takes the stage. She said her slides will be on slideshare soon. When they are, I will update this post with them.

Dharmesh Shaw of Hubspot and co-author of Inbound Marketing is a smart guy. He is a developer at heart that just ‘gets’ this social media piece too. The biggest takeaway I got from him was on content creation for your company. We need to feed our readers and consumers information that will make them better at what they do. His example was if you make cameras, you don’t put out content about cameras, you put out information that will make your subscribers better photographers.

For More Information on Inbound Marketing Summit

Check out the Inbound Marketing Summit website
Scroll through the hashtag of the event (#IMS10)
The Pulse network has lots of footage from the two day event

Thank you Justin Levy, Chris Brogan and the team at New Marketing Labs for a great event.