If you’re older than I—and let's face it, that’s pretty much most business people—then you probably view Inbound Marketing with at least some historical perspective.
You remember the '80s & '90s—the heyday of television and radio, the golden age of traditional outbound techniques. You probably can still trace how marketing grew into its current form by remembering the rise of the Internet, the evolution of social media, and the growth of pay-per-click advertising.
These changes in how we disperse information emerged because people decided that humanity needed better ways to communicate. Where would blogging be without LiveJournal? How would we search without Google? Just imagine how different the world would be today without basic email? No spam!
Each of these innovations came to be because a movement of innovators made them happen. The “social media revolution” was comprised of inventors, coders, and creatives that all believed that the Web should be a more social, collaborative space. Out of that movement burst not just one, but many, social platforms, creating what is today a major technology industry with the likes of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Today, I’d argue that Inbound Marketing is a movement with just as lofty of aims as the web movements that came before it. Inbound Marketing is about transforming business communication to be more helpful to business leads, more educational to uninformed prospects, and better focused for targeted industries. The simple belief that abrupt interruption is not a practical (or respectful) way of interacting with customers is a radical change from traditional marketing. On a broader scale, the inbound marketing movement is based on altruistic sharing and open education. Among HubSpot partners alone, Weidert Group benefits from the gracious co-sharing and selfless promotion of other agencies, which has created a movement of competitive allies rather than adversaries.
As you can imagine, all of this makes Inbound Marketers a very excited group to be a part of (for both agency marketers and corporate leaders). There’s a sense about us—both online and in person—that we’re not just doing marketing for profit, but we actually believe that the inbound marketing helps make businesses better oriented to assist their customers, creating a more helpful, informational world.
This contagious spirit is the major reason so many inbound marketing professionals are flocking to Inbound 2014 next month in Boston. Put on by HubSpot, INBOUND 2014 promises to be the largest inbound marketing event ever put together, drawing visitors from around the world.
A time for learning and engaging, Weidert Group plans to take full advantage of what the event has to offer—connecting with our friends in marketing across the U.S. and learning the best practices in achieving our goals. We will be listening to excellent speakers talk about their success, participating in workshops that promise to improve our daily workflow, and creating new connections that could change our business altogether.
The speaker list is killer, with the likes of Martha Stewart, Simon Sinek, and Malcolm Gladwell, so there will be no lack of inspiration. The energy in every room will be on high, as Inbound Marketers love to network and talk strategy. And personally, I can’t wait to see the featured act at Inbound Rocks! Janelle Monae will highlight the week’s entertainment.
To learn more about our key INBOUND 2014 takeways, check out "Our 4 Impactful Takeways from INBOUND 2014."
Topics: Inbound Marketing, Weidert Group Events
