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5 Remarkable Speakers at INBOUND17 You Cannot Afford to Miss

By Ritesh Singh
September 18, 2017

INBOUND is an event which is different from all other conventional inbound or industry events. It aims to celebrate the human side of marketing and provides a platform where marketers and sales professionals from different industries can gather together and learn something from each other, inspire each other to improve their inbound skills and – ultimately – grow their connections with marketers from every industry possible. It also gives them an opportunity to attend the sessions of many remarkable speakers who are experts in their fields and helps in inspiring the inbound movement. Here, we provide you with a list of five amazing speakers which every inbound marketer should gain inspiration from to add a fresh perspective to execute their goals and leverage their inbound strategy:

#1 Steward Butterfield (CEO & Co-Founder, Slack)

Steward Butterfield is the CEO and co-founder of Slack, an enterprise software platform that connects teams with apps, services and resources for seamless communication between them. Steward has had a gratifying career as a designer, entrepreneur, and a technologist in his nearly two decade-career of working on the web. Time Magazine recognized him as one of the 100 Most Influential People in The World, and he has been ranked among BusinessWeek’s Top 50 Leaders. He was also recognized as the 2015 Technological Innovator of the Year by the Wall Street Journal, and also featured in the Vanity Fair’s New Establishment List. By attending his session at the event, marketing and sales professionals from businesses of any size and/or industry can get inspiration and obtain new ideas about the tools that can be used to administer Slack and the various marketing circumstances through which Slack can be used to scale-up their business.

#2 Rand Fishkin (Founder and Former CEO of Moz)

Rand Fishkin has been given the rather ostentatious title of “WIzard of Moz”. He’s the founder and former CEO of SEO software startup Moz, host of Whiteboard Friday and co-founder of Inbound.org. He – along with his wife Geraldine – is small investors in Backstage Capital and TechStars Seattle. Moz has grown to be one of the most popular SaaS startups that provides its users with a host of SEO tools, such as Moz Keyword Explorer, On Site Explorer, etc. What makes Rand’s sessions a must-attend for every marketing and sales professional is that they would get to know about the latest tools and trends of SEO as well.

#3 Bozoma Saint John (Chief Brand Officer, Uber)

Bozoma Saint John is the Chief Brand Officer at Uber, where her job is to make sure that people love Uber’s brand as much they like Uber’s service. During her illustrious career span, she has earned a formidable reputation as a trailblazing marketing and advertising executive. Most recently, she was the Head of Global Consumer Marketing for Apple Music and iTunes. In this role, she spearheaded campaigns geared towards growing consumer brand recognition, loyalty and equity around the world. She was very successful at the Apple’s keynote World Wide Developers Conference, where she introduced the new interface for Apple Music. Before Apple, she headed the Music and Entertainment Marketing Group at Pepsi-Cola North America, where she drove breakthrough consumer engagement plans for brands across the soda giant’s beverages portfolio by engaging tastemakers - consumers. Before working with Pepsi, she served as the VP of marketing for Ashley Stewart (a women’s fashion brand) as well as managed accounts at advertising agencies Arnold Worldwide and Spike Lee’s SpikeDDB. Inbound marketers can learn a lot from her about the importance of branding, and tips and tricks on how to build their brand’s image to gain quick recognition among their customers and earn their trust.

#4 Christopher O'Donnell (VP of Product, HubSpot)

Christopher O'Donnell is the VP of Product at HubSpot, where he drives product management, design, and user experience for HubSpot’s suite of products. Previously, he has led the product team building for the HubSpot CRM and the HubSpot Sales Pro. Upon joining HubSpot, he led the rewrite for the HubSpot Marketing product, culminating in HubSpot contacts and the release of HubSpot 3 in 2012. He has also been a startup founder, advisor, and product/UX leader. The session of Christopher O'Donnell can be beneficial for industry professionals from all walks of life, since he can inspire and guide them on various aspects of marketing and sales and also inspire CXO’S of startups from all walks of the industry.

#5 Billie Jean King (Sports Icon and Social Justice Pioneer)

Billie Jean King is a legendary tennis player and an advocate for equality and inclusiveness in the world of sports and far beyond. Throughout her career, she has been a powerful advocate for equal opportunity and equal pay for all. She has also been named one of the “100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century” by Life magazine and a 2009 recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She is also the founder of the Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative and has long been a pioneer for social justice. Since the tech and the business grapple with the same issues she fights for, professionals from every realm of the corporate industry should take inspiration from her to become better champions of diversity, inclusiveness and equality. These are some of the most distinguished speakers whom you can expect at INBOUND’17. Through their powerful speeches, they will not only inspire you to reach great heights with your inbound strategy but also grow as an individual.

Meet up with us at Inbound

Our team will be at Inbound and we would love to meet up with you to talk about getting results for your brand or for the brands your agency works with. Fill out this form so that we can arrange a time to meet up. We’re looking forward to an inspiring week and spending time with like-minded people, see you there!

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Lessons Which Every Marketer Can Learn From John Cena

By Anushree Bose
September 14, 2017

John Cena has gained such popularity and recognition for himself that he needs no introduction. Having carved a space for himself in the world of professional wrestling throughout his career, his other feats include being a successful actor, host and entrepreneur. Having gained massive success as a WWE superstar and an actor, Cena leveraged his position to be a marketing powerhouse and a cultural icon. Cena has used his privilege and fame for good causes and has actively participated for socially relevant causes that are close to his heart. Here are some of the major initiatives taken up by him :

He is Make-A-Wish's most requested wish granter, and the only celebrity to grant 500 wishes.
He has also partnered with Susan G. Komen and raised more than $1.6 million for breast cancer research and awareness.
He is a vehement supporter of the U.S. military and was recently recognized by the USA Metro as the recipient of their 2016 Legacy of Achievement Award.
He also starred in Ad Council’s Love Has No Labels campaign “We Are America” to further the message of acceptance and love for all communities in America.

With his athleticism, charismatic personality, strong work ethic, compassion for social causes and a genuine personality, Cena sets the perfect example for modern day marketers and is perhaps one of the most awaited speakers at INBOUND’17.

Schedule a time to meet with #ARM Worldwide at INBOUND 2017

Here are some awesome reasons that make Cena the ultimate marketing powerhouse, which can reveal some insightful lessons for the marketers:

#1. Invest in Building a Strong Image For Your Brand

Over the years, Cena has emerged as the face of the WWE and has won their championship six times. This catapulted his popularity to unimaginable heights among the masses, and he quickly became the youth and cultural icon he is today. He further pushed his efforts to build a strong brand image by being a part of many notable campaigns and initiatives. He is the part of Crocs’ “Come As You Are” campaign that celebrates the uniqueness of individuals of all ages. He is the voice of “Ernie the Elephant” for Wonderful Pistachios’ biggest advertisement ever, and last year he became the ambassador for Cricket Wireless. His video, “The Unexpected John Cena Prank”, garnered more than 17 million views. These are just some of his ventures in his brand building exercise that has remained immensely popular and have instantly resonated with the audience. Marketers can take a lot of valuable lessons from Cena to invest in a robust brand building strategy. In today’s online age, where there is already a lot of tussle between brands, marketers execute every creative stunt possible to gain maximum recognition among the masses. In such a situation, it is very important for businesses to invest in a proper branding strategy to gain an instant recall value for their brands in a short period of time, and also build a relationship of trust and affinity with their customers.

#2. Strategic Use of Social Media to Optimize Content Distribution

Apart from his commitment to social causes, Cena is also a social media powerhouse. He has about 44 million fans on Facebook, making him one of the most active athletes from the U.S. on Facebook. His participation in other social media platforms is also just as impressive, with 9.5 followers on Twitter and 6.8 followers on Instagram. That makes him one of the most followed athletes in these channels. In today’s mobile and content-driven age, almost every business has cashed in on unmatched and result-driven benefits that they receive by having a robust social media presence. Cena strategically uses various social media channels and different content formats such as videos, posts and images to regularly keep his audience updated about his matches, social cause initiatives, or even his life and opinions. Inbound marketers can also leverage their social media strategy to build a strong personality for their brand, and tap into the power of content to keep their audience engaged and build a lasting relationship with them.

#3. Experimenting and Innovating With Your Work Enables Growth

Apart from wrestling, Cena has also devoted his time for many things such as supporting social causes that are close to his heart, making a mark at films by acting in many movies, hosting many shows, experimenting with rapping and much more such eventful activities. Engaging in these diverse activities has only propelled his stardom, and earned him more fans from diverse walks of life. Marketers can learn a valuable lesson here, and should not hesitate to experiment with their product offers, website design, or any other variable which would lead their business to increase their satisfaction and bring more leads. Innovation is the key to keep growing in any aspect of life, and this holds true for businesses as well. A periodical audit of all the key performance indicators (KPI’s) of your organization is critical to gauge its overall health and improve the variables which are not performing optimally. Conducting experiments such as A/B test with either one variable, or multiple variables, can be incredibly useful to gauge the taste of your audience and what works best for them.

#4. Master the Art of Storytelling

Identifying and building a character for your public image and role-playing it by weaving a story around it to keep your audience engaged is no mean feat, and it has been mastered by Cena. Be it penning his trademark rap “You Can’t See Me”, which has become synonymous with his name, his quotes – the most popular being “Hustle, Loyalty, Respect” – or his different personas as a wrestler in WWE, such as a white rapper known as the “Doctor of Thugonomics”, he has always managed to command attention from his audience by trying to tell his stories through these efforts. This has revealed the different shades of the personality of this wrestler to his audience and enabled him to gain a status of being more than just a star wrestler. In fact, this is the major secret to his success and the reason why he still continues to remain in the mind of the masses even today, more than any other WWE champion. Like Cena, inbound marketers should realise the importance of the art of storytelling, and hone it to keep their audience engaged and keep coming back for more by having something new to offer each time. The best part of storytelling lies in its versatility, and marketers have the creative freedom to package their content in a manner which can bring the maximum qualified traffic to their websites, or their various other owned channels. Indeed, Cena is a great inspiration no matter how you look at it. He is a bonafide youth and cultural icon for the masses, and it is praiseworthy how he has been able to maintain it even today. These are some of the key takeaways which inbound marketers can imbibe from the life of Cena, and implement them to make the most out of their inbound strategy and take their business to greater heights.