Encore360 President Jim Gilbride and I spent a few days in Boston last week to attend INBOUND, the elite content marketing conference developed by HubSpot. It was a great trip filled with fun conversations and insightful lessons learned about the dynamic world of content and marketing and business.
Perhaps you saw me gushing about it on LinkedIn.
Here are five simple but powerful takeaways from the sessions we attended:
- The prevailing theme at INBOUND was the power of shortform video for B2B businesses. Your blog is not the most part of your content marketing strategy; in fact, it’s often taking up way too much time and energy only to leave you in an absurdly competitive SEO environment that provides no meaningful return. Video is where you can thrive.
- So, what does that look like? To thrive with shortform video, consider this two-step process: Talk with your customers and actively listen to their pain points. Then, develop short, personal video clips of your team actually addressing those pain points. Boom. You’re done. You just produced short, helpful, actionable content that can live on your website, your YouTube channel, your newsletter… And better yet: You already know your audience wants this. You’re not chasing keywords, you’re addressing the people you seek to serve.
- On that note: YouTube is the second-most popular search engine, according to Neil Patel. That’s right: search engine. It’s a discovery tool for your audience. Think of how you use the internet; you’re searching on Google, yes, but you’re probably also searching for targeted information on YouTube. Your audience is no different. Lean into this fact.
- LinkedIn likes video, too, and increasingly B2B businesses and small marketing teams are seeing incredible results on LinkedIn. (Hey, we are, too!) When developing your LinkedIn network, understand that you’re building a content marketing audience for the long haul. Offer real value, and resist the urge to promote only your own content or products. Be generous. Be self-aware. LinkedIn is a powerful social media platform, but you must be both emotive and relatable (like a human, not a brand). “When you think content marketing on LinkedIn, play the long game and not the short game,” Tyrona Heath said at INBOUND. “The relationships you build now will lead to earning customers’ business in the future.”
- To expound on that last point: People buy from people. Your network is a reflection of yourself, so highlight your own personal style on LinkedIn. Spend a few minutes each day growing your network, engaging with your industry, and sharing content with others. This simple LinkedIn practice is actually the same sort of advice you may already be following in other areas of your professional life. It might feel strange or novel to do this out in the open on social, but it’s important.
There’s a lot of noise in the content marketing world, so it was nice to find some of these themes reappearing throughout the week at INBOUND. When you start to hear the same message from people you trust, you realize that they’re onto something. Content marketing isn’t a trick. It’s simply a new way of looking at the same best practices that probably got your business where it is today.