The #inbound13 Week That Was…

It started with a retweet by Brian Halligan, CEO of Hubspot – and ended with a returned personal email from Arianna Huffington, CEO of the Huffington Post. And somewhere in the middle I was carrying 40 lb. water jugs for Charity:Water and dancing to OneRepublic. Needless to say, it has been a week. One that has definitely altered my perspective on marketing, reminded me of its humanity and true purpose, and one that I hope has a ripple effect on all of TRIO and the way we have – and always will – strive to interact with our clients and each of their respective audiences. To start, you’re probably asking, “what is inbound marketing?“.

Hubspot defines it as ‘marketing people can love’, or more elaborately: “Sharing is caring and inbound marketing is about creating and sharing content with the world. By creating content specifically designed to appeal to your dream customers, inbound marketing attracts qualified prospects to your business and keeps them coming back for more.”

I define it as “hippy marketing”. The words “delight”, “love”, and “humanity” were used more this week than I’ve heard in the past 10 years combined. Especially when it comes to discussing marketing. It was refreshing – and after the hugs, kum-ba-yas and incense burning were done (I kid), there was a lot to learn and digest amidst the many keynote and break-out sessions in Boston’s Hynes Convention Center.

The keynote speakers ranged from Seth Godin to Arianna Huffington to the two founders of Hubspot – and covered topics from the importance of rest and time to refresh – to a Steve Jobs-esque launch of new product offerings to help inbound marketers be more efficient and successful. I sat in on breakout sessions such as “6 steps to optimize your emails” by Sarah Golinger and “how to make a killer landing page” by Lucy Orloski. The week was packed to the brim, as an over-capacity convention center buzzed with caffeinated individuals from all around the world – bumping around from session to session, stopping only briefly to share bistro box lunches and charge devices.

If you want to chat with me about inbound marketing, I’d love for you to reach out to me. I’m in the ‘discovery/ digging-in’ process, but I look forward to sharing more with you all as we go. In true hippie marketing spirit, I wish you all a truly delightful week ahead, full of meaningful marketing experiences.