Pack up your bags and meet me in Boston! Outside of the fact that the INBOUND conference is awesome simply because it’s hosted in the great city of Boston, INBOUND is also a great place to grow and sharpen your marketing skills, even those that go beyond inbound marketing, and you get to be inspired and network with some really bright people including some of the SmartBug team. Holla!
To help you finalize your agenda for the conference, I've outlined the top 10 speakers to see this year. See you there!
Disclosure statement: This list may be a bit biased due to my personal preferences, but being an early adopter of inbound marketing and long-time HubSpot user, I'd say it’s a pretty solid list from someone who’s not only been there and done that but also working in the trenches every day.
1. Larry Kim, Mobile Monkey
THE TOP TEN SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING HACKS OF ALL TIME
Wednesday, September 9 11:45 AM - 12:30 PM
With social media having a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing, you should be allocating at least some of your marketing budget to social media advertising (State of Inbound Marketing, 2012). In this session, you are likely to get some quick wins in social media advertising through the hacks shared by Larry Kim, Founder and CEO of Mobile Monkey and the 20-minute PPC work week. Inbound marketing coupled with paid social has the potential to generate high returns so don't miss this one!
2. Tim Ash, RelationShift
MOBILE CONVERSION STRATEGIES
Wednesday, September 9 | 12:45 PM - 1:30 PM
Using the same conversion paths on mobile that you always have with desktop is something you are likely guilty of, but this isn’t going to be effective as more and more users are mobile. As a relationship expert, Tim Ash has been analyzing and implementing what works to grow conversions when users are mobile. This is a must-see speaker for any marketer, designer or developer looking to improve the mobile experience and conversions.
3. Shawn Pfunder, GoDaddy
LIVE TO TELL THE TALE
Thursday, September 10 | 1:30 PM - 2:15 PM
Two sentences into the description of this session on Inbound.com, and you’ll be sold. Of course, growing your industry knowledge of SEO or SEM is a must at INBOUND 2015, but the SEO tactics, tricks, tips and hacks that worked yesterday aren’t going to cut it in the Internet’s sea of content today. Shawn Pfunder, Editor in Chief of GoDaddy, speaks on building sustainable content that will surpass the test of time. Learn how to tell a tale that stands the test of time by attending this session.
4. Scott Kirsner, Boston Globe / BetaBoston
GETTING INK: INBOUND STRATEGIES FOR BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WITH TRADITIONAL MEDIA OUTLETS & BLOGGERS
Thursday, September 10 | 3:45 PM - 4:30 PM
A veteran columnist at the Boston Globe, Scott Kirsner is no stranger to traditional media. In this session, Kirsner will give strategies and use audience examples that demonstrate how to build your company’s authority through key blogging opportunities and publications. Get your voice heard by the journalists and bloggers you want with the strategies you gain in this session.
5. Sahil Jain, AdStage Inc.
HOW TO LEVERAGE MARKETING AUTOMATION WITH PAID SOCIAL ADS FOR B2B
Friday, September 11 1:30 PM - 2:15 PM
In all the hype of inbound marketing, it seems that many of us have forgotten the value of paid social, which is why there are two speakers on this list that discuss paid social; however, the session highlighted here is geared towards a B2B audience. Thus, you are sure to get some nitty gritty tips from Sahil Jain, CEO and Co-founder of AdStage, Inc., that will help to propel inbound marketing using paid social in the B2B landscape.
6. Christine Perkett, SeeDepth, Inc.
PR ANALYTICS & MEASUREMENT: A NEW DATA FRONTIER
Wednesday, September 9 | 10:30 AM - 11:15 AM
Today’s data-driven world calls for new tactics and ways of gathering and measuring outcomes of PR. In this presentation, you’ll learn about the Barcelono Principles, analytics that matter in PR, and how to use these insights to improve your story. Let’s face it, we could all improve our PR reporting, so this is a must-see presentation by Christine Perkett, CEO of SeeDepth, Inc.
7. Zack Wolfson | Senior Sales Engineer, HubSpot
LEVERAGING THE SALESFORCE INTEGRATION
Wednesday, September 9 | 11:45 AM - 12:30 PM
Of course, I wouldn’t leave out a session on HubSpot utilization, especially one that focuses on the Salesforce integration. One of HubSpot’s Senior Sales Engineer’s, Zach Wolfson, will run through some of the most complex aspects of the integration, as well as reporting from information that in both systems. If you've ever worked with the Salesforce and HubSpot integration, you know that you can't miss this speaker.
8. DAVE DELANEY, Futureforth
IMPROVE WITH IMPROV
Thursday, September 10 | 11:45 AM - 12:30 PM
What would a conference be if it didn’t include self-growth? But, you can get a lot of that at INBOUND with the Bold Talks. So, what’s the top speaker to see to help you grow yourself in your career and personal life? Check out Dave Delaney, Founder of Futureforth, who will give you ways to use improvisation to be more successful in your career and life.
9. Tiffani Bova, Gartner
THE FUTURE OF SALES: THE CUSTOMER NOW LEADS THE SALES PROCESS
Wednesday, September 9 | 12:45 PM - 1:30 PM
As an inbound marketer, you know that how we treat prospects and customers needs to change in the digital era. As you begin to generate lead growth from inbound marketing, you likely have or will experience a conflict between how you and your sales team treat the customer. In this executive track, you can learn more about how to build a customer-centric sales organization from Gartner VP and Distinguished Analyst, Tiffani Bova. It’s definitely a session that will add value to your company’s sales strategy, but it will also help to improve marketing results.
10. Daniel Pink, Best-Selling Author
KEYNOTE
Friday, September 11 | 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM
If you’ve read my blogs before, you likely know that I’m a psychology nerd, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the top speaker pick out of all keynotes to me would be Daniel Pink, best-selling author of Drive and To Sell Is Human. While Pink’s emphasis on psychological principles is a bonus for me, Pink’s TED Talk presentations on motivation give you a glimpse into how valuable this keynote will be for marketers, managers, and anyone in the workplace looking to get inspired and inspire others.
See you at INBOUND 2015!
