Energy, motivation and a true unjaded perspective on marketing and business. That sums up the vibe at Hubspot’s recent conference that brought 2,800 inbound marketers from around the world to rally together, accelerating the new content marketing movement. Taking place at the Hynes Convention Centre, just across the river from HubSpot’s head office, attendees were dazzled with inspirational keynotes and practical breakouts from the industry’s best and brightest. Amongst the key notes, included challenging thoughts from best-selling author, David Meerman Scott, striking stats and comedy from Rand Fishkin, calm and soothing perspective on introverts from Susan Cain and endless inspiration and obscenity from Gary Vaynercuk – all tied together with a big fat product announcement from Hubspot co-founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah (oh — did I mention Cyndi Lauper did a show? Yes — Cyndi Lauper). While there was an endless wealth of knoewledge shared at Inbound 2012, I’d like to disseminate it down into 5 key strategic notes from the 5 key notes, plus one more closing thought from Cyndi Lauper. In summary, these points are:

  1. Lose the campaign – via @dmscott
  2. Forget most of the things you think you know – via @randfish
  3. Equip your team with the right tools – via @bhalligan @dharmesh
  4. Inspire your team with the freedom of creativity – via @susancain
  5. Really, really, truly care – via @garyvee

1.Lose the campaign


Best selling author, David Meerman Scott,kicked off the keynotes with a compelling talk, starting off looking at where we were before Inbound Marketing – stating that we used to have to Buy, Beg or Bug – which I think is a great way to sum up Outbound Marketing. Following that, he brought the audience through 4 types of content including, Broad & Horizontal, Specific & Deep, Location Based and perhaps the most interesting, Real-Time Content. Marketers need to stop thinking in terms of campaigns and start thinking in terms of ongoing continuous conversations rather than short outbursts that come and go. Those that take advantage of what is happening right NOW, will be worlds ahead of those that don’t. This ‘campaign’ mentality will be a very difficult one to shake as most agency’s are accustomed to and set-up in a way to execute in short bursts, versus ongoing continuous activity. The client and agency that can learn to work togther for the long term will ultimately be the teams driving significant business results in the future.

2. Forget most of the things you think you know


CEO of seoMOZ, Rand Fishkin entertained and challenged the audience with insightful biases of SEO. Kicking it off talking about how women who search for men on online dating sites select, in general, drastically ‘less’ good looking men than men do women. This is NOT because women don’t like ‘hot’ men – rather it is because of a selection bias that is eliminating many of the good looking dudes. This bias is that most women search ONLY for men that are above 5’9″! YES – there are good looking men under 5’9″ – and women are unknowingly preventing themselves from even having the chance with these men.

How does this apply to SEO? Often we assume search results are a cause and effect due to certain very speciic criteria, when in fact we are misinterpreting the causal nature of the data. In a world where there is never-ending data, we need to use that data to remove irrational biases. Some examples of this from Rand’s talk included:

3. Equip your team with the right tools


Co-founders of HubSpot, Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah started day two off with a bang, with the unveiling of HubSpot 3. From a technical point of view, pretty much everything has been upgraded. But not only have things been tweaked they’ve been made ‘magical’ as Dharmesh put it. This ‘magical’ element was that of context. Now with HubSpot 3, all of the applications are MUCH better at talking to each other, with perhaps the most exciting element being the updated contacts application that shows every interaction that has occurred with a particular lead, including on social, email page views, all nicely packaged in a Facebook-ish timeline. This provides context for the marketer to better understand prospects. To push the idea of ‘context’ even further, marketers can now customize the Call To Actions that users see on the site, depending on their past experience. Ultimately, this should facilitate giving visitors more of what they might actually want versus overly intrusive advertising. Learn more about HubSpot 3 and its roll out here.

4. Inspire your team with the freedom of creativity


Author Susan Cain, mixed things up on Day Two with a talk that dove into the inner sanctum of what makes introverts tick. While the concept of introverts and how society is not structured in a way to help them succeed is a fascinating one- this was perhaps the least compelling and relevant of all the key notes. That being said, one very relevant point should still be drawn from it. That is, give people space to create. In a world with far too many tools, and as good as HubSpot 3 might be- I am personally worried about the proliferation of mindless marketing. A marketing that is too much based on science and data and not enough on insight and art. While Sarah didn’t really dive into this specifically, I think it is crucial that we provide our teams, whether they be introverts or extroverts– the space to create. Marketing is an exciting collision between art and science and PLEASE don’t forget that there is not (and never will be) a tried and true formula for rock solid creative ideas.

5. Really, really, truly care


Finally, the one and only GaryVee took the audience by storm with his usual energetic and obscene spiel. Gary stressed the importance of truly caring for your customers and that those that can figure out how to scale effort, will be the ones that truly succeed from both a business and personal point of view. Gary toted that we need to stop thinking only with our heads and start to bring a little bit more heart into it. Before any of these tools and data were around, business owners had no choice but to care ridiculously for their customers. Social media has allowed the world to go full circle, exposing every business for who they really are. So you have no choice but to be transparent and real.

6. Have fun… that’s all they really wannnnnnt


While Cyndi Lauper wasn’t a keynote per se, business owners, marketing managers and employees alike, should take a page out of her book. Regardless if you are a girl, boy, man or woman…. just have fun. It is easy to get caught up in the day to day grind, but if you’re not having fun along the way, then why are you doing it?

*JB personal sidebar – I made a promise to myself in highschool that I would ALWAYS leave the dance floor if ‘girls just wanna have fun’ ever came on, because I never, ever wanted to be that guy that was jumping up and down singing this. Go girl power – but… the line has to be drawn somewhere).

In short, Inbound 2012 was a phenomenal succcess and is what I think to be only the tip of the iceberg in what will is turing into a true movement in new marketing and media. Hang on to your seats, because this is only the beginning.