We ate, enjoyed some of the finest East Coast microbrews available, pretended to be cool when Shonda Rhimes came on stage, cheered for our very own Tony Eades during the #AgencyUnfiltered panel session, and met up with some incredible marketing leaders, business owners, and technology partners.
Sure, it all sounds like fun and games, but after PR Team Lead Paige Sander took her 2,000th photo of the "Boston Tea Party" re-enactment, we got down to business and wound up learning quite a lot.
Below, you'll find a few of our takeaways, aggregated over 4 days of expert-led discussions and keynote addresses. These are largely predicated around two central themes that emerged throughout the week:
becoming a more human-centric marketer, and delivering a frictionless/seamless customer journey.
Become feedback obsessed. "Identifying friction points across your entire customer experience is not an easy task. Developing an approach to help diagnose and eliminate those issues which cause resistance is, arguably, even harder. Still, we must pay attention to them. Word-of-mouth is, and always has been, the best form of advertising there is.
Solve consumer anxieties - don't create new ones. "When the CEO of Cora (a mission-driven feminine hygiene brand that has experienced 500% YOY growth!) candidly shared best practices for sustainable scaling, nearly all of them came back to one central tenant: you should be innovating constantly for your customers and making their lives easier. She recommended that marketers avoid the encouragement of Compensatory Consumer Behavior. Or, a mode of consumption that serves "as a reaction to, and as an attempt to make up for, a general lack of esteem or self-actualization." Start by highlighting the purpose of your brand's existence, be open about and work to earn trust."
Do good. "I've seen so many organizations rally around community-centric, philanthropic events and activities. Most importantly, this does wonders for company culture and provides meaningful ways to impact local change. But it also makes business sense. There's no denying that the days of garnering positive press for your brand or organization by 'pitching to journalists' alone is totally over. If you do awesome things for the sake of doing them, it will increase your chances of attracting media attention and good will."
Be yourself. "I attended a session about 'Authenticity-Based Marketing', which encourages the expression of courage and empathy through business communications and processes. It's so simple, and it's so true... we need to
Respect your reader's time. "There was a lot of talk about content "remixing" and recycling this year. At face value, these conversations didn't necessarily tell us anything new. They did tell us something important, though: most brands really need to slow the heck down on high-volume content production. There's so much noise out there that doesn't serve the consumer's need, desires, or professional development/education.
SaaS Content Creator Brittany Berger recommends updating old blog posts (polish & republish), creating email sequences and social fodder from old content, and turning old content into video, slides, and other
Alright, enough business talk! Now, enjoy some squinting Salties, and keep sharing your favorite #INBOUND18 takeaways and memories.