What We Learned About Marketing From Hubspot Inbound 2013

What is Inbound Marketing? 

In today’s interactive web-based society, inbound marketing is creating and sharing content with the world. And it’s made up of a ton of things. From building relationships and blogging to public speaking, videos and community building, the list can go on and on. Really, the main thing it boils down to is the idea that people in both aspects of the marketing relationship are just that… people. So why not treat both parties like people?

Recently, the SSP team attended an inbound marketing conference hosted by Hubspot in Boston, MA. We spent four days in Boston learning and growing our inbound marketing techniques. Our team attended many sessions on all different aspects of marketing, bringing both our customers and ourselves the most brilliant and effective marketing insights. We interviewed our two in-house Account Executives, Brittany and Kyley, about their key takeaways on marketing, specifically the importance of humanizing a brand from the conference.

Brittany

What are some things you learned from the conference?

“First, I attended a session on dominating the big three social media channels- Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  It’s crucial to integrate the three, rather than treat them separate.  A lot of the tips were common sense, but really useful in attracting and engaging potential and current clients.  For example, remember to keep your tweets shorter on Twitter. Using 120 characters instead of the max 140 makes it more likely that your keywords and content will not be edited out or shortened when someone replies or retweets you. With Facebook, optimizing and using images is really important. We received some great tips on adjusting your settings to make sure that your photos don’t get cropped strangely and to really draw someone in. Social media is such an important part of today’s inbound marketing effort. It really allows for a channel of two-way communication between the company and the client.”

Brittany has an extensive educational background in Public Relations, having received both her Bachelor’s and Master’s in PR. She talked about today’s inbound tactics and humanizing, and how she was able to parallel them to her skill and knowledge set.

“Public Relations is all about building and maintaining relationships with key people: publics, stakeholders, target markets…  Today’s marketing tactics really pull from PR – it’s so important to treat your clients like people. It’s everyone’s job to delight customers. Loyal customers are worth much, much more than their original buy-in and negative experiences spread like wildfire. Communicate with your clients. Finding that common ground or strong need from a client is what makes your marketing efforts efficient.”

Kyley

What are some things you learned from the conference?

“I learned a lot about the value of the relationship between us (the business) and the client.  It’s important that there be a “good fit.” Making sure that your services fit with your client’s needs is critical. As crass as it may be, you don’t ALWAYS have to take on a client. If the services you provide don’t fit to a tee, you may be shorting that customer. Make sure your services offer optimal value. This really allows for a strong business-client relationship, and ultimately, happy customers. It’s okay to be selective… after all, your reputation for being a stellar business is on the line, too. If you have a current customer that things aren’t going well with, take the time to talk to them and discuss their needs and short-comings in their expectations. It might be an easy problem to solve. Hubspot takes on clients that they are confident will be a good fit with their business. We’re aiming to do the same.”

Kyley’s background is in marketing, having recently graduated from the University of Houston with her BS. She is using and improving her skills on a daily basis, working with monthly content marketing clients. Kyley exercises Hubspot’s inbound marketing techniques by using optimized blogs, social media posts, and humanizing to maintain client accounts.

The main takeaway that SSP gained from the conference is this: To remember that at the end of the day, there is always a human face behind every brand or company and that that truth is a two-way street that applies to every type of relationship, including an agency/client one. We returned back from Boston feeling more confident with sharing what services we offer as a full-service digital marketing agency and, most importantly, who we are as people. And we realize that realizing this can bring both ourselves and our clients far.

Stay turned for Thursday’s post where we’ll share another nugget of insight we discovered at Hubspot Inbound 2013! 

If you’re looking to learn more about Hubspot and the services we offer as a Hubspot-certified partner, contact us or click below to learn more: 

About Small Screen Producer

Small Screen Producer is a full service, marketing firm located in Houston, Texas that specializes in online digital media marketing through a 4-step process. Step 1: WE PLAN a custom web presence strategy for your business through website design and development, mobile development, social media account creation and branding. STEP 2: We then POSITION your brand through Pay-Per-Click advertising and search engine optimize tactics that include on-page and off-page SEO that are Google and Bing approved. STEP 3: We then PROMOTE your brand using an Inbound marketing strategy or a content marketing strategy to help you accomplish your marketing goals. We do this through blogging, video production, infographics, call-to-actions, landing pages, and free educational offers. We help you build trust and rapport with your customer base. STEP 4: We then PROTECT your brand’s web presence with a reputation management program that monitors social media and on line reviews. Get started today with a free online marketing assessment of your company’s web presence. Your company deserves it.