8 Things I Learned at InboundCon
It’s 5:30 AM, and I can’t sleep!
I’m on a train from Kingston to Toronto to attend InboundCon 2016, a yearly digital marketing conference put on by Powered by Search — a full-service digital marketing agency.
This is my second time attending InboundCon because I LOVE learning! Spending a whole day with other, like-minded industry professionals soaking up every ounce of knowledge I can is just the best feeling in the whole world.
The half hour structure of each talk meant that there was a lot of energy and lots to learn in the timeframe. The conference passed quickly and by the time I hit the train to return home — I was exhausted.
I’m not one to keep knowledge to myself, so here are 8 things I learned attending InboundCon:
- On the 5:30 AM train? Bring a charger.
If you are anything like me, the 2.5 hour train trip can be used to “catch-up” on work. Too bad my laptop battery only lasted for the first 1.5 hours.
Conference rule #1: always bring backup batteries and chargers.
2. We’ve fallen more in love with ourselves than those that we serve — Dev Basu
As marketers, we’ve forgotten our true value. We’ve become hyper-focused on pushing our product, our conversions, our next “sell.” Instead, we need to take a moment to remember that we are here to serve our customers/clients and not sell to them.
3. Emotions in B2B marketing matter even more than logic and reason — Kimbe Macmaster
This was context of video as a medium, but the lesson is still very powerful. Appealing to the emotional side of an individual can help the sale of a product.
4. Companies need to invest more in digital — Matthew Hunt
Our spend in the print medium, compared to digital is surprising. Even though digital generally costs less organizations are still apprehensive to place more of their marketing budget in digital mediums (even though it’s easier to prove success). What are we waiting for?
5. Personalize everything! — Every Speaker
From videos to email subject lines, everything the marketing department does should be personalized.
6. Consumers expect great experience online* and don’t have patience for crappy ones — Cara Harshman
*great experiences are personal ones.
7. Create meaningful reports — Mark Sullivan
One of the most powerful presentations (owing to the use of a personal analogy), reinforced the importance of creating reports that have the right data, presented in a way that explains the story and includes an additional information that reinforces the information in context.
8. Bring your phone charger (because tweeting, note-taking, answering emails etc. will drain your phone battery).
This is in reference to point #1 — and just a good reminder — always, always bring chargers to conferences.
Benefits by Design (BBD) values continued education for all our employees. Every year BBD provides employees with Professional Development dollars that can be used towards college/university credit courses, continuing education courses, certification tests, conferences and other workshop opportunities.
