Posted by Roman Kniahynyckyj on Tue, Feb 09, 2010 @ 06:51 AM
"Inbound marketing? Huh??"
That is the response I received when speaking with my friend Ed, a very sharp investment banker from Seattle, about his desire to increase his company's brand awareness. I had discussed inbound marketing as one approach to doing this.
Many concise descriptions and definitions of inbound marketing are available. Keith Parnell breaks it down here. Rick Burns, of HubSpot, gives an inbound marketing tour de force here. We offer the ABC's here. And, of course, there is always Wikipedia.
In speaking with executives like Ed, however, I found the need for an inbound marketing "elevator speech." Most executives aren't interested in details like inbound links and long tail keywords - they want to know what's in it for them, and more importantly, how the companies they lead will benefit. The elevator speech is the classic executive summary that can crystallize a concept for someone in a few minutes.
And that's not easy to do, mind you.
For me, the inbound marketing elevator speech goes a little bit like this - inbound marketing is simply about having a conversation with your customer or potential customer. It's an incredibly open and honest conversation that may take place through blogs, emails, Facebook, Twitter and webinars. There is nothing about this conversation that is interruptive or unidirectional.
Perhaps Chris Brogan captured it best when, during his visit to Cleveland, he identified Vanilla Ice as the world's first social media/inbound marketing expert - Stop, Collaborate, and Listen - Mr. Ice opined. It's certainly legit - customers (and humans) have an incredible desire to be heard.
What's your inbound marketing elevator speech?
Posted by John McTigue on Thu, Sep 24, 2009 @ 01:41 PM
I found this great video by Marty Clarke from a couple of years ago, and I wanted to share it first, then throw in my 2 cents. The basic premise, managing by committee sucks. Nothing gets accomplished. You want to make progress, be a leader and make the decision yourself.
I'm going to roll this ahead to current day and talk about "crowdsourcing". That's the new buzz word for focus groups, design by the public, and yes, managing by committee. The key point of the video is that it's fine to collect everybody's opinion or create a poll, but the decision needs to be made by the senior stakeholder and noone else. There is only one "say" in the decision and that's the boss' say. Without this, there is anarchy and indecision. Not that I admire dictators, but you have to admit, they get the job done. Crowdsourcing is great for collecting data, but it's no substitute for leadership.
So when you're sitting down with your team and going around the room, listen to their advice, but don't tip your hand. They will be more likely to give it to you straight if they know it's up to you to decide. Thank them for their opinions and usher them out of the room. They can wait for you to decide.