What do you get when you mix 400 marketers with twelve of the best marketing speakers in the country?
Bringing together a room full of marketers no doubt creates incredible energy and opportunities, but add in some of the best marketing thought leaders and you can be assured that you'll walk away with a valuable list of actionable takeaways.
Experience Inbound did just that. And we didn’t want the momentum to stop there so we reached out to 20 marketing and business pros that attended the event and asked them one simple question:
WHAT ARE YOUR TOP MARKETING TAKEAWAYS FROM EXPERIENCE INBOUND '17?
Their contributions are astounding! Whether you attended the event or not, go ahead and grab some new marketing tactics - compliments of our participants:
[GET FREE ACCESS TO THE VIDEOS AND SLIDES FROM EXPERIENCE INBOUND]
#1 Justen Preiss
Marketing Coordinator
L J Design & Manufacturing | Concept Seating
Divisions of Laacke & Joys Company, LLC
"Companies that best solve customer problems and answer customers’ questions will endure by out-helping their targets; not by outselling their competition."
Sam Mallikarjunan, HubSpot
How to Survive the Future
The key to a company’s survival in this time of mass business extinction is to compete in the Research buying stage.
As a stickler for efficiency, I’ve never been a fan of casting a wide net with the hope of capturing a few leads. The idea of drawing a greater percentage of high-quality leads via targeted, relevant content is much more appealing than simply increasing traffic.
"Video SHOULD be used as a storytelling tool to affect customer emotions; to generate feelings, trust, and confidence about your company. Video SHOULD NOT be utilized as an alternative medium for delivering data and facts."
Tony Gnau, T60 Productions
Baiting the Hook: Using Video Storytelling to Build Trust and Help Make Sales
"I’ve been hearing, “video is king” for a while now, but I don’t often hear, “quality video is king.” In a marketing climate where many companies are clamoring to generate video content, I mostly see an over-abundance of low-quality DIY productions which could arguably be detrimental to an organization.
Fearing those consequences, and being unsure how video content could be anything but boring in an industrial setting, I’ve been hesitant to incorporate any into our marketing efforts.
Tony made it clear that video content must tell a story to be compelling, and even went on to describe where to find stories in any company. I left Tony’s session with several ideas and an eagerness to generate quality video content for my organization."
#2 Steve Thielke
Marketing Specialist
Bradley Corporation
"Evidence is needed for unsupported marketing claims on your website."
Andy Crestodina, Orbit Media
Building Better Mousetraps: How Content Inspires Your Visitors to Act
I really liked this point because as a consumer on the web, you really know if what you are reading is marketing claim or actual facts. Majority of us can smell it a mile away so why do we continue to put it out there as marketers. If you have actual facts to back up those claims then it becomes trustworthy. If you don't have evidence to support those claims is really just shows that you can't stand behind what you are saying.
This really made me think about our own website and how much of what we say on our webpages is unsupported marketing claims with no evidence to back it up. Overall I really enjoyed Andy's presentation and everything he was saying resonated.
"People are truly emotional beings. Decisions are made when there is an emotional attachment to something."
Jeff Coon, Stream Creative
How to Close More Leads with Science-Based Sales Pages
It really hit home to understand that people are truly emotional beings and that really decisions are made when there is an emotional attachment to something. If a person has zero emotions about something they will be less likely to be able to make a decision on it.
Therefore as a marketer, we need to utilize those emotions to our advantage of helping us get this done. Knowing your customer/clients likes could help you increase the sales cycle or even make business happen.
Overall I really enjoyed Jeff's presentation, it really got you thinking of how you could apply some of those tactics and strategies into your own space.
Source: When Emotions Make Better Decisions - Antonio Damasio
[WATCH THE VIDEO NOW]
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#3 Sherri Darby
Marketing/Communications
WiscoLift
"Target your audience based on their questions."
Britney Muller, Moz
The Future of Search
Since SEO is critical in all marketing mediums, I attended Britney Muller’s presentation. She is the SEO & Content Architect at Moz. Her strategic tips about the upside down funnel and targeting your audience based on their questions was very insightful. Since our business assists companies in finding manufacturing solutions, it makes sense for us to use SEO as a tool to assist customers in finding answers to their manufacturing questions.
"Every business has a unique story. It is that story that makes your business stand out from your competitors."
Tony Gnau, T60 Productions
Baiting the Hook: Using Video Storytelling to Build Trust and Help Make Sales
We have been using video to assist in our online training programs for daily/shift hoist and sling inspections. Tony Gnau from T60 Productions provided valuable tips and examples of using video to connect emotionally with your audience and gain their trust.
In addition, he explained how every business has a unique story. It is that story that makes your business stand out from your competitors.
#4 John Hudak
President
HydroCorp
"Compete in the Research Phase – Educate/Own the Conversation.”
Sam Mallikarjunan, HubSpot
How to Survive the Future
Inbound marketing creates an extendable core that insulates you from disruption. “You want to do more than survive disruption, you want to create it.”
After seeing Sam display a graphic of $14,099 that represented Starbucks’ Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV), I realized that I needed to perform this same calculation for our organization. This information provided me with data that I could share with our CFO/Owners to help make better decisions as it related to sales revenue, marketing expenses and the importance of customer retention.
Greg Linnemanstons from Weidert Group expanded on this CLTV message in his presentation and provided a framework and essential tools to develop an Inbound Marketing Plan.
"Start small..focus on one thing…hire resource partners to assist in the Inbound Marketing process."
Jeff Coon - Stream Creative, Mike Schoonover - Lakeland Industries
Greg Linnemanstons - Weidert Group, Connie Dettman - Gordon Flesch Company
Inbound Users & Experts Unfiltered - Panel Discussion
Start small..focus on one thing…hire resource partners to assist in the Inbound Marketing process.
One of the panelists mentioned that they had trouble getting executive leaders to write articles..thus, they utilized marketing department to develop the content and create the articles/blog posts and the leader just had to review it and basically sign off on the content. Jeff Coon from Stream Creative suggested interviewing sales people.
I had our VP Industrial Division meet with our Marketing firm and they interviewed him for over two hours asking him about our clients, why they do business with us, buyer pain points, how our company solves their problems-solutions, etc…
Outome of the interview, we were able to develop content that we could use to create white papers, Linkedin posts, etc...I couldn't get this off the ground on my own, but with our outside agency assistance and off site meeting - mission accomplished.
#5 Katie Felten
Co-founder and Marketing Strategist
Strategy House
"There are two types of site visitors, transactional and informational. Spend more time figuring out what questions people are asking, then create content that people are actually searching for."
Andy Crestodina, Orbit Media
Building Better Mousetraps: How Content Inspires Your Visitors to Act
Andy gave some great insight on how to improve our website for the two types of site visitors, transactional and informational. He pointed out that in order to increase findability, it’s imperative to create content that people are actually searching for.
Our big takeaway was that we should be spending more time figuring out what questions people are asking before making a purchasing decision, and how we can we ensure that it’s our answer they find?
A couple quick actionable tips Andy gave were:
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Use short paragraphs only and write no more than 3 lines. People skim and will skip over bulky paragraphs.
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To speak more directly to readers, write in second person throughout the website but first person in any call to actions.
"When things are going really well in business, that’s when we should be worried. Becoming comfortable is a huge detriment to any business’ success, instead we need to be constantly innovating."
Sam Mallikarjunan, HubSpot
How to Survive the Future
Strategy House has grown pretty rapidly, so this was a healthy reminder to ensure that we’re continuing to deliver the same caliber of service to our customers, and stay focused on providing relevant content and services targeted to our niche.
"The company that best solves the problem for the customer wins."
Sam Mallikarjunan, HubSpot
How to Survive the Future
This was a key takeaway for us to bring back to our clients. We often work with organizations who have a reputation for excellent customer service, but are struggling to communicate that digitally. This validated that inbound marketing is just another way to help your customer.
#6 Valerie Ortiz, CSM
Agile Marketing Project Leader'
Marketing Automation Technical Liaison
National Insurance Services of Wisconsin, Inc.
"When what you are doing isn’t working, you tend to do more of the same and with greater intensity."
Sam Mallikarjunan, HubSpot
How to Survive the Future
Sam talked about his favorite quote “When what you are doing isn’t working, you tend to do more of the same and with greater intensity” that really stayed with me. How often do each of us do this? In order to survive we NEED to change what we are doing to have success. I printed this quote and have it on my desk to remind me of this. Thank you Sam for sharing!
"We NEED to optimize our pages."
Britney Muller, Moz
The Future of Search
Britney talked about “On Page Optimization” – great reminder to what we must do to optimize our page. We think it does not make a difference, that it will be okay if we skip a few items on the checklist, BUT it’s not okay, we NEED to optimize our page! 
"Inbound marketing isn't a set it and forget it, you need to be committed to the process to make it successful!"
Jeff Coon - Stream Creative, Mike Schoonover - Lakeland Industries
Greg Linnemanstons - Weidert Group, Connie Dettman - Gordon Flesch Company
Inbound Users & Experts Unfiltered - Panel Discussion
WOW great session! It was extremely helpful listening to how they incorporated Inbound and that it is an ongoing process. We just became part of the Hubspot family and it can be overwhelming.
Listening to what they went through and are still going through made us feel as we are not alone. It’s not a set it and forget it, you need to be committed to the process to make it successful! By the way I loved that Jeff Coon was wearing a Spiderman T-shirt under his jacket – classic!
#7 Robyn Adair, MA
Director of Marketing
Sensia Wellness
"There's a continuous mindset of evolution; there's a continuous mindset of learning."
Sam Mallikarjunan, HubSpot
How to Survive the Future
We have to be agile—in life and in business—in order to grow. Too often, we get into the rut of doing the same old thing, day in and day out, even when that same old thing is no longer working. But it's comfortable—it's what we know.
However, everything around us is continually changing. If we want our businesses—and ourselves as individuals—to grow, we have to continue learning. We have to continue being curious. Sam's keynote addressed this and when I looked around the room, I saw a very engaged audience nodding in agreement. The beauty of Sam's presentation was it applied to life as well as business.
"Sometimes, the simplest of questions can lead to a story."
Tony Gnau, T60 Productions
Baiting the Hook: Using Video Storytelling to Build Trust and Help Make Sales
This is a tool you learn as a journalist but it also ties in with my previous point of always being curious. If you are curious enough about something or someone, you ask questions—and then, if you are a good listener, you take the time to fully listen to the answer.
In business, people get caught up in facts and figures and then they present those facts and figures as just that: facts and figures. Eyes begin to glaze over. However, those facts and figures can tell a story. The challenge is making finding the story within the statistics. The story is there. But you have to be curious enough to ask questions to make the connection.
#8 Eric Rupnow
Regional Sales Director – West
Inpro Corporation
"If a salesperson can’t add value beyond the info the buyer can find on their own, there is no reason to talk to a salesperson."
Nicole Mertes, Weidert Group
Aligning Sales & Marketing by Mapping the Buyer's Journey
Nicole Mertes’ session was particularly relevant to me. My role is in Sales and I was able to attend this session with our Digital Marketing director, which was hugely beneficial. The quote that stuck with me was “If a salesperson can’t add value beyond the info the buyer can find on their own, there is no reason to talk to a salesperson.“
I think by mapping the buyer journey, but also making that a collaborative activity with Marketing and Sales, we can make our sales team more consistent, credible, and relevant to the buyer. We can also provide materials for the sales team for the specific buyer type and buying stage they are working in.
Marketing needs to have a solid understanding of our sales process and sales needs to understand how we are communicating with and providing content to users in the early stages of their journey. The old methodology of Marketing working in a silo to generate leads and then handing them to Sales to close in their own silo are over. None of this will be successful if we don’t align sales and marketing with the buyer.
#9 Mai J. Lo Lee
Interim Diversity Director
Experienced Student Affairs Professional
American Intercultural Center | UW – Green Bay
"Understand your buyer's journey: Awareness - Consideration - Decision."
Jen Spencer, Allbound
Take Your Startup From $0 to $2M In One Year With Nothing But Inbound
Jen Spencer was an informational speaker. I took a lot from her. I took away content accessibility, consideration for a video blog series, and using the buyer journey (student journey) within higher education.
"Understand the cost of customer acquisition."
Sam Mallikarjunan, HubSpot
How to Survive the Future
The lasting knowledge from Sam Mallikarjunan is the rate of knowledge depreciation and a truer understanding of cost of customer acquisition and customer lifetime value.
My overall experience is always great because it allows me to incorporate inbound marketing into higher education. I am consistently considering all stages of the inbound marketing methodology from lead attractions to conversion from meeting college student needs to delighting them.
#10 Nellie Vance
Graphic Designer & Marketing Coord.
ShoreTrips
"Adding Facebook ads to your marketing strategy can bring you amazing success."
Steve James, Stream Creative
How To Amplify Your Inbound Strategy with Facebook Ads
A big takeaway for me was the use of social media, especially Facebook, in marketing. I work for a small company where social media marketing is almost nonexistent and learning about all that Facebook ads can do for your business was really enlightening. Steve James, from Stream Creative, went really in depth about all the tools Facebook offers for businesses, as well as a basic strategy to take when starting to create ads and choose audiences.
"The #1 issue customers have with business websites is "findability". We all search online to either get information or to make a purchase. Websites should easily let the customer do that, and in a clean controlled way."
Andy Crestodina, Orbit Media
Building Better Mousetraps: How Content Inspires Your Visitors to Act
Another takeaway I had was to realize that we are all consumers and customers, so we know what we want to see. Andy Crestodina from Orbit Media, touched on that and about how the #1 issue customers have with business websites is "findability". We all search online to either get information or to make a purchase, he said. Websites should easily let the customer do that, and in a clean controlled way.
I chose these takeaways to share because they are both easy ways, even at very basic levels, to improve your business's website and widen your reach to customers online. I brought these back to share with ShoreTrips owners.
#11 Ryan Sweeney
Marketing Assistant
Workwise Software
"Simple changes to a landing page can drastically increase conversion rates."
Andy Crestodina, Orbit Media
Building Better Mousetraps: How Content Inspires Your Visitors to Act
For example, changing a button with third-person language to first-person can help CTR. Andy provided numerous research-proven website changes and suggestions that can be easily implemented. The knowledge received from Andy’s presentation can immediately impact my business and help enhance our website, which is exactly what you hope for when attending a sales and marketing-centric conference.
"Use Optimizilla to quickly compressing multiple images."
Britney Muller, Moz
The Future of Search
Britney provided a number of helpful resources and ideas for improving our website’s SEO, such as using Optimizilla for quickly compressing multiple images and utilizing Google’s featured snippets to evaluate the differences between the featured page and your own.
Since the conference, Optimizilla has helped me quickly and easily compress images for website publication, and I’ve been able to convince others on my team to use it as well. The featured snippet suggestion has given our team yet another tool for enhancing our landing pages and improving our SEO efforts.
#12 Pamela Pierson
Multimedia Manager
Goodwill Center for Work and Training
"Website Content:
- Call To Action: 1st person
- Rest of Website: 2nd person"
Andy Crestodina, Orbit Media
Building Better Mousetraps: How Content Inspires Your Visitors to Act
I thought this was a great tip and one that is easy to do!
"Continually seek out knowledge so we won’t be left behind."
Sam Mallikarjunan, HubSpot
How to Survive the Future
I found it astounding how quickly things are changing and how important that we continually seek out knowledge so we won’t be left behind. Marketers have to provide customers with something that they love and trust is the key!
#13 Brittani Mattke
Marketer
Living As A Leader
"The Three P’s for web pages/forms – 1. Prominence 2. Promise 3. Proof"
Andy Crestodina, Orbit Media
Building Better Mousetraps: How Content Inspires Your Visitors to Act
The biggest “aha” from this concept is to have the “proof” on the page of the product or service you are promoting.
"Having a “testimonials page” is not as impactful as having the testimonial right next to the thing you are promoting."
"Video is NOT about facts and figures! It’s about emotion!"
Tony Gnau, T60 Productions
Baiting the Hook: Using Video Storytelling to Build Trust and Help Make Sales
Not having done a lot of video projects, this was a big takeaway for me! Even though we are in business, good video has to tell an impactful story that the viewer can connect with.
#14 Bill Wagner
Director, Product Marketing
ARI Network Services, Inc
"The average American has access to the collected content of all of human existence… in their pocket… and they don’t even have to type to access it."
Sam Mallikarjunan, HubSpot
How to Survive the Future
It’s a scary time for marketers but our move to an information-centric economy can provide great opportunity if you use the tools available to get closer to your customers and help them solve their toughest challenges.
We try to focus on the end of the typical user story… “so that I can…” We’ve never been in a better position to use technology to help people achieve and be more. And, if you’re helping people overcome challenges, they’ll self-actualize through their relationship with you and you’ll have created more than a customer for life, you’ll create a partnership.
#15 Lisa Zilinsky
Marketing Communication Specialist
RMM Solutions
"As an “X”, I want to “Y”, so that we can “Z”."
Sam Mallikarjunan, HubSpot
How to Survive the Future
Very inspiring and was a fantastic speaker. Some takeaways I took from his speech was, Love that concept and should be a way of thinking when implementing these tactics. “Successful Internal Disruption” – stuck a good point that some disruptions are good as it can lead to good change and discover new methods you didn’t or couldn’t see before.
"Number one video always have an “About Us” Video."
Tony Gnau, T60 Productions
Baiting the Hook: Using Video Storytelling to Build Trust and Help Make Sales
Great speaker! He implemented a lot of great videos that kept the juices flowing. Number one video always have an “About Us” Video. Number two always have a “Testimonial “ Video and number three always have a “Products and Services” Video. Make the connection and emotion before anything else in a video. Then, PROMOTE IT! Don’t let it die.
The connection and how we can relate it back to our current position and career is very important when attending these types of events. I was able to make a connection in every session that I attended and was great to hear other people’s problems, questions and success.
#16 Julie T. Ewald
CEO & Creative Director
Impressa Solutions
"Create interactive sales proposals by including video."
Jeff Coon, Stream Creative
How to Close More Leads with Science-Based Sales Pages
Jeffrey Coon's session on science-based sales pages was absolutely fantastic. My key takeaway from his session was a roadmap for an interesting, interactive, multi-modal way to present proposals by including video.
I head up a small agency, and we are always looking for ways to add more value for those we work with and differentiate ourselves further. These kinds of sales pages with easy custom videos would be an excellent tool for us. The example shown in the session also gave me some great ideas for putting together killer landing and sales pages for our own clients to help them reach their objectives.
[WATCH THE VIDEO NOW]
#17 Katie Gnau
Realtor
Shorewest
"Post that video, share something on social media, publish the blog post - even if they’re not perfect."
Andy Crestodina, Orbit Media
Building Better Mousetraps: How Content Inspires Your Visitors to Act
This is such an important takeaway for me. The nature of my business (Real Estate) is that my time is not always within my control. I may have plans to work on marketing and instead I’m negotiating a deal or writing an offer or serving my clients in another time sensitive way that trumps my business plans for the day.
When the hours slip away, it’s tempting to let marketing slip away with them. Although Andy was focused on video when he said this, I think it’s a good reminder to me for everything. Post that video, share something on social media, publish the blog post - even if they’re not perfect.
Imperfect efforts that keep me connected are better than doing nothing while I wait for the mythical empty hours to fill with a perfectly produced marketing message.
"An easy way to make sure our videos are getting out there is to put a link to them in our email signature."
Tony Gnau, T60 Productions
Baiting the Hook: Using Video Storytelling to Build Trust and Help Make Sales
Is it tacky to say that one of my most actionable takeaways came from my hunky husband’s session?? Tony Gnau suggested during his presentation that an easy way to make sure our videos are getting out there is to put a link to them in our email signature.
I have great video that I love sharing (one of the many benefits of being married to the fabulous Tony Gnau) but hadn’t thought of sharing it in this way. I send dozen’s to hundreds of emails a day… I can’t believe I was missing this opportunity and am working on fixing that right now.
#18 Erik Bergstrom
Director of Digital and Brand Marketing
Dental Associates
Our team attended Experience Inbound for two reasons. First, we always want to validate that the inbound marketing tactics we’re using still have relevance. (Fortunately, we learned that they do!) Second, and more importantly, we wanted to learn from others in our space. To see if there are new concepts to employ or changes that need to be made to existing campaigns. Experience Inbound provided ample thought-starters for our team.
Andy Crestodina’s great presentation on landing pages gave us several ideas to implement on existing landing pages.
And Jeff Coon’s presentation on Sales Pages provided a new way to think about more effective communication between our sales team and B-to-B prospects, or our recruiting team and prospective dentists. These ideas will help our business continue to evolve well into the future.
#19 Jeremy Hengst
Division Leader / Key Accounts Manager
Gannett
"Consumers and buyers have 70-80% of the information they need to make a decision now."
Nicole Mertes, Weidert Group
Aligning Sales & Marketing By Mapping The Buyer's Journey
I enjoyed Nicole Mertes session about the effect researched decision makers are having on sales. In many sales cycles now the consumers and buyers have 70-80% of the information they need to make a decision now. I am in sales and thus this makes it even more difficult to assist a customer through their entire process. By the time I am considered or involved is nearly when they are ready to evaluate their options. This is valuable in terms of qualifying a lead but it is very inhibitive to being a trusted consultant or educational source to their buying journey.
I was very intrigued about the future and what is coming to our industry. Many presenters touched on this. But for me it was both the Weidert Group Leader and Britany from MOZ that touched on Artificial Intelligence and it's influence on Digital Products, Services and how they are Marketed.
I am newer to the industry and just in the past year I have learned many things that are now already outdated. I appreciated the fact that now I can look a little ahead and do some research on what to look out for from the competition, and more importantly how I can learn from it...
#20 Brian Artka
Principal, Filmmaker
Size 43
"Storytelling: People want real connections and a good (and true) story, can help make those connections."
Experience Inbound: Sales & Marketing Conference
My takeaway from the event is that storytelling is huge, specifically video storytelling. I am a filmmaker that works with others to tell their stories on video and I went to this event to see where I would fit in with helping people... it seems, what I offer fits very well.
Every speaker I listened to mentioned storytelling and how it is integral to keeping potential customers interested throughout your process. That is huge. People want real connections and a good (and true) story, can help make those connections.
So there you have it!
Do you have a favorite takeaway? Were you at Experience Inbound and have your own takeaways to share? Send them my way - this blog is open for your insights!
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