I attended the fantastic Inbound Marketing Conference in Liverpool last week, organised by PH Creative as part of the International Festival of Business. Here are my notes from the event:
Dom Burch (ASDA) @domburch
- The old rules don’t apply anymore
- We’re a media owner
- We’re a connector not a collector
- Listen first, engage second, influence third
- Customers expect instant response on all social channels
- Pay to play
- Engaging content will continue to be rewarded
- We are living through the age of advocacy
- Millenials are fuelling ever more video sharing
- Key influencers are content creators & can now monetise their position
- Marketing in 2014 – you need a blended approach, people follow people. Need to find the key influencers in your niche and pay them to product place, mention their videos on your YouTube channel.
- Vlogger phenomenon: It’s PR on steroids
Video content is a tsunami on its way
Andy Barke (Google) @Barkie13
The internet population is 3 bn (7 bn in the world). There is a big global opportunity for businesses online.
Tools for global expansion research:
- Google Global Market Finder
- Google Consumer Barometer
- Google Think Insights
Kieran Flanagan (Hubspot) @searchbrat
- 27 million pieces of content are shared everyday.
- Photos massively affect shares of blog posts
- Downloads (e.g. ebook) – added the tweet of someone who liked it, resulted in 27% increase in CTR
- People feel safe in numbers
Tracy Chong (Muse) @MusewithTracy
Presented wearable technology brainwave tracker called Muse – a brain fitness tool with exercises to build focused attention, self-assessment, helps autism and early detection of alzheimers, detecting when focus reduces, detecting music mood etc.
See more at: http://www.choosemuse.com
John Watton (Adobe) @jwatton
In the digital space no-one can hear you scream
- We are marketing into a gaping void. No-one cares about your marketing as much as you do.
- There are 30,000 marketing messages a day that the average consumer is exposed to.
- A social post only has an 18-minute half life.
- In the time it takes you to read this sentence 20 million emails have been sent.
- Segmentation is dead, now behaviour-based marketing
- Conversation marketing doesn’t need big budgets
To be heard you need Maths
Digital = Data
4 Actionable Things:
1) Buy wearable technology
2) Write a blog
3) Share like hell
4) Do the opposite
Dave Hazlehurst (PH Creative) @googledave
The Chimp Paradox:
• The emotional drivers of action i.e. happy, sad, fear, anger and anticipation.
• When we feel fear we have a desire to bond.
• When we tell stories our brains are programmed to want to connect
• Be memorable
I’m going to become a Jedi Knight at last
Stuart Fowkes (Oxfam) @stuartfowkes
- 24% of people would engage with or follow a charity on social media.
- But people find it vulgar to share donations on social media
- The more directive a social post, the less it works. What works is emotional, intellectual, usefulness, news or social good.
- The half a second mobile post test – do you understand, are you moved and do you want to share within half a second
Ask yourself:
- Is it memorable?
- Is it unique?
- Does it sound from a real person?
- Does it reassure or fill a need?
Steven Woodgate (Microsoft) @StevenWoodgate
- Be customer-obsessed
- 60% of the workforce are millenials i.e. not motivated by money and want to make a difference
We’ll be known for our opinions but remembered for our joy
Bryan Adams (PH Creative) @bryan_phc
- It’s getting harder to be contagious and controversial
- We are competing against anything that takes your eyeballs (e.g. films on your mobile)
- The six great stories:
- The Executive
- The Wannabe
- The liar
- The fish out of water
- The run for love
Is it good enough to give me goosebumps?
Gary Vaynerchuk (VaynerMedia) @garyvee
- We don’t have the time, patience and attention to be interrupted
- Nobody has time anymore – so it’s dictating my marketing, how I sell (e.g. Uber app)
- We now live in a 24/7, 365 days a year world
- Everyone is obsessed by width, but depth is how you win
- The culture shift – when we become creators not consumers we experience a paradigm shift.
- There is no entitlement to customers, you have to earn every single one
- Are you proud of what you’re selling?
- There is ROI in anything you pay attention to
- B2B marketing – you need to build affinity with your potential customers
- Tactitional surgical marketing – the craft of storytelling contextually
- EQ is so important – self-awareness and empathy are the skills he looks for when recruiting.
- Are we marketing for 2014 / today?
I spend my whole time reverse engineering the context of the room that I’m in
If you’re interested to see and hear more, check out the videos on IMUK’s website: http://www.inbounduk.org/history/imuk14-highlights/
