If you are involved in or even interested in demand generation you know it’s easy to “geek out” on the topic with so many innovations and case studies in B2B. If you’re like us, one of the best places to “geek out” and truly make your head explode is HubSpot’s Inbound! We’ve attended Inbound for a handful of years now and it’s safe to say it just keeps getting better. It was a week of inspirational spotlights, educational breakout sessions and networking opportunities.
We’re excited to implement some of the best-practices and strategies discussed with our clients, and will be sharing various tips on the blog and social media too! Here's our best of the best recap with actionable (and EASY) steps you can literally start today including tips on blogs, podcasts, social and how to increase conversions!
Content Marketing:
With 6 million blog posts and a 1/2 billion tweets published daily, it’s no surprise that many of the sessions focused on unique ways to create and promote content in today’s noisy digital landscape. According to Kelsey Raymond, CoFounder of Influence & Co, there are a number of steps that must be taken when developing a killer content marketing strategy. The first of course is to profile your audience personas. From there, set specific goals, content guidelines, team roles and specific KPIs, and make sure your process is well documented from beginning to end. Additionally, marketing teams should work harder to truly understand sales: what questions are they asked? What are the 3 most common challenges they hear about from prospects?
We also heard from Dan Gingess who recommended creating experiences through content using “The WISER approach,” where the goal of content marketing is to be witty, immersive, shareable, extraordinary or responsible. Similarly, David Meerman Scott presented research into ‘fandom culture’ and talked about how companies focused on fandom can create new experiences by turning customers into like-minded, enthusiastic fans.
Blog Writing and Website Conversions:
Hubspot’s own AJ Beltis shared his secrets for increasing blog conversion rates using the ‘pillar cluster model.’ Start by doing an audit of your blog and website to see what topics or keywords your most popular or visited blogs and landing pages talk about. Then, based on those topic clusters, create a piece of downloadable ‘pillar content’ - an ebook, whitepaper, etc. that's packed full of helpful advice and resources. From there, write several shorter supporting blog posts or ‘cluster content’ to explain sub-topics based on your pillar content and generate internal links to the pillar page.
Another big theme was growing organic traffic to your blog and website. Did you know that 89% of Hubspot blogs monthly organic page views come from content that was created more than 6 months ago. Content should engage, attract and delight, and it’s best to structure your content and link between posts so Google can categorize them together.
Social Selling and LinkedIn Thought Leadership:
At Channel Maven, we promote social selling and encourage clients to use LinkedIn to position themselves as industry thought leaders on a daily basis, so it was great to hear about other’s strategies and success stories. In the past, Vendors had all of the information and the customers had none. These days, prospects not only have access to information, they’re often bombarded by Vendor messaging. It’s time to stop spamming audiences and start having real conversations. As marketers it’s critical to be top of mind and visible early on, and social selling is a fantastic way to do so.
Public Speaking and Presentations:
Being audience-centric is the name of the game when it comes to public speaking. Bridgett McGowen offered some easy-to-implement ideas for presentations that will help you gain and keep your audience’s attention, and ensure you get your message across. According to Bridgett, presentations should incorporate these four components:
Podcasting:
Although not some groundbreaking new technology, Inbound 2019 made it clear that podcasting isn’t going away anytime soon, with 87% of listeners tuning into all or most of every podcast they listen to. A great way to extend brand reach and thought leadership, begin by researching other podcasts in your industry to see what topics are being talked about and how you can set yourself apart. Once you’re ready to record yourself, focus on current industry trends, news or solutions, and start each episode with a thought provoking question to answer.
“On the road” podcasts at conferences or events are a great opportunity as well. Look up potential guests to invite through the expo’s attendee portal or using the event hashtag on social media. Remember the goal should always be engagement, so focus on delivering quality information over perfect audio.
In Summary:
This recap is just the tip of the iceberg! Don’t miss our own Akilah Murrell’s recap video, and look forward to more highlights in our conversations with you and throughout our content. If you have any questions or would like to chat more about any of these topics, contact us anytime! We’d love to hear from you.