I don’t know too many business professionals that are avid hip-hop fans. I happen to be a connoisseur of what we hip-hop evangelists like to call the “old school.” Those are the rap artists from the 80’s and 90’s that a lot of our parents told us we couldn’t or shouldn’t listen to. Most of these artists started off young and have grown to be pretty business savvy today. These old school artists have also seen the rise of the internet and felt its effect on their careers both positively and negatively. It is these hip-hop lessons learned that provide us valuable inbound marketing insight.
One of my favorite hip-hop groups is Cleveland’s own Bone Thugs N Harmony who got their start in 1994 and was signed and promoted by Eazy-E. I remember rocking out to their music in my college dorm room! Only on the weekends though because I was soooo busy studying (yeah right!). One of the members of Bone Thugs N Harmony calls himself Bizzy Bone. Here’s what Bizzy Bone tells us about inbound marketing:
"The Internet is where your ‘bread’ is."
The Internet IS where the money is. It is where the leads are too. If this is not yet the case for your business - it soon will be. Otherwise, you'll be facing extinction. So, if you haven’t embraced inbound marketing yet I recommend listening to Bizzy Bone, because “The Internet is where your bread is.”
"Go all over the world.
Don’t just focus on the United States."
The Internet removes many of the traditional marketing barriers to entry associated with international promotion. If it is prudent for your business, then by all means, use inbound marketing to grow your business overseas.
"Market and promote yourself.
Make sure your brand is tight."
Don’t just build your company’s brand. Build your personal brand too. With social media becoming such a big part of people’s lives and an almost required tactic for successful inbound marketing, building your personal brand has never been more important. The old cliché, “people buy from people,” is so true. With the internet being the place where people go to solve their problems, shouldn’t you have a robust personal brand when engaging these people in social media? In social media people trust people they have relationships with more then they trust company brands.
Bizzy Bone's got it right - "The Internet is where your 'bread' is." That's why inbound marketing should be the foundation of your company's sales and marketing. So, I guess my mother was wrong when she told me hip-hop music was going to rot my brain. And yes, I will be emailing this post to her. . . as soon as I'm done listening to Ice Cube. . .
Thursday, January 13, 2011 @ 1PM EST, 10AM PST
Join our guest Kyle Lacy, Author of Twitter Marketing for Dummies, and the Kuno Creative Inbound Marketing team to learn how to build leads using Twitter during this free webinar.
We will be presenting some of the tactical aspects of Twitter that can positively impact your Inbound Marketing.
