The Inbound Marketer's Creed - Emulating Military Tradition

The military can provide many valuable lessons and examples worth emulating for today's business and marketing professionals. Inbound marketing is no exception. Whether the lessons come from Sun Tzu's Art of War over 2,300 years ago, Civil War Generals like Lee, Longstreet, Buford or Meade, WWII heroes like General Patton, or modern-day leaders like retired General Petraeus; their experiences provide us with a virtual field manual of how to build systems, doctrine and traditions that lay out particular methodologies for identifying goals and achieving them tactically. The process of leading, whether in business or the battlefield, starts with clearly defining goals and making sure everyone from the top down understands these goals. So, in military tradition, below is the Inbound Marketing Mission and The Inbound Marketer's Creed.

The Inbound Marketing Mission

Inbound marketing fulfills the 21st century marketer’s obligation to empower people to find the appropriate content which allows them to solve their problems and/or be entertained where, when and how they choose while establishing conditions that lead to non-obtrusive brand engagement resulting in increased leads and sales revenue for said brand.

The Inbound Marketer's Creed

I am an Inbound Marketer.

I am a professional and a member of an online community.

I serve people who consume content while simultaneously serving brands.

I will always place content first.

I will never accept poor content.

I will never quit.

I will never spam.

I am disciplined, mentally tough and proficient in my Inbound Marketing tasks.

I always maintain my brand, online and offline.

I am an expert.

I stand ready to engage, deploy, test and refine Inbound Marketing strategies and tactics.

I am a creator, distributor and curator of content.

I am an Inbound Marketer.

So, there you have it - the first inbound marketing doctrine. If you're new to inbound marketing use the above as your guiding principles moving forward and you won't go wrong. If you're a veteran the above can serve as a reaffirmation of your inbound marketing prowess and skill.

Image: West Point