If you didn’t have a chance to attend this year’s inbound marketing summit, you missed an incredible event with world class speakers. Be sure to mark it on your calendar for next year as a must attend event. Among the talks I found most interesting was that of HubSpot CEO – Brian Halligan (who, by the way, was taller in person than I thought he would be). I thought I’d share a few key inbound marketing points that Brian made as they really resonated with me and I feel they’re spot on:
- The Segment of 1 – the trajectory of moving your business presence to the web started with simple brochureware – perhaps marketing collateral that was .pdf-ed and placed on a web server and functioned as your website for a few years. After that, your site was rebuilt on a content management system with a bit more intelligence and lead nuturing capabality. The future of your business presence on the web, however, involves rapid and continued personalization – creating a segment of 1 and making your B2B site smarter about return visitors and enhancing the value of your site for visitors every time they return. Much like Netflix offers you movie suggestions after each rental and just as Amazon recommends books and products for you after purchases, your business site should become smarter about your returning visitors and leads.
- MOFU – Middle of the Funnel is where it’s at. Initially, you need to expand your reach and get found at the TOFU (Top of the Funnel). But there is unbelievable value and insight to be gained from lead activity and behavior at the middle of the funnel. As you build your segment of 1, and learn about your potential customers with their visits and revisits to your site, you will be able to offer them valuable and targeted content. If a lead has spent all of her time perusing your inbound marketing services section, you may want to offer them a video on your inbound marketing successes, or share with them a testimonial of a client that you worked with in their specific vertical. Per Brian’s first point, increase the value of your site every time a visitor returns to it through extreme personalization.
- Buyers Have the Control – old school selling involved salesfolks controlling the information and driving the sales process. Today, buyers don’t have to talk to salespeople, they can search for company or product information, sit in on a webinar, or download an e-book or other resources from your site. A salesperson might leave you a voicemail – but that triggers a visit to a company’s website, not a call back. As buyers have more and more control – creating that personalized segment of 1 in the B2B world is more important than ever.
Thanks Brian, for taking the time to share your future state vision with us.
Did you see Brian’s talk? What key points did you take away from it? Will future B2B sites look like Amazon and Netflix?