Funnel 2011: 5 Key Takeaways
I’m sat on a busy train at Paddington Station, with the sound and smells of a woman eating cheese and onion crisps to my right – the perfect time to reflect on my day at Funnel 2011.
I’ve spent all day at the Lancaster Hotel in London for eConsultancy’s inaugural Funnel 2011 event – a B2B demand generation and inbound marketing bonanza attracting over 500 of the greatest B2B marketing minds (and me of course).
The agenda was packed with content from companies such as HubSpot, Marketo, Eloqua and Cisco organized into four tracks – Attract, Engage, Nurture and Convert. Here were some of the key takeaways:
- Process must meet creativity – Good demand generation practice should blend the methodical development of end-to-end, transparent sales and marketing processes with the colour of a creative, engaging content strategy to bring it to life.
- Content is emperor – Content is no longer king. It’s now the emperor. It must be remarkable and intelligently map to your target market’s buying cycle. No more than three assets per buying cycle stage was one assessment.
- Technology is no longer a barrier – Once upon a time, smaller companies were hindered by the lack of affordable technology to support a smart marketing effort. The rise of powerful, but affordable marketing technologies such as HubSpot and Marketo has levelled the playing field – allowing small, agile companies to compete with the big boys, regardless of marketing budget size.
- Inbound marketing rules – It’s official. Inbound marketing is the way forward. Why waste money buying cold lists and running expensive outbound interruption campaigns just to irritate and annoy prospective customers?
- Sales and marketing alignment is not a pipe dream – There are no more excuses for not joining the dots between sales and marketing. The technology is there and the knowledge is there to run end-to-end sales and marketing processes. They should be working as one.
In summary, Funnel 2011 was well organized, the food was pretty good and the company was excellent. The content of the presentations could have had a little more focus on their respective tracks (the lines were a little fuzzy at times), but I’m not complaining.
As my train rolls into Swindon, I’m ready for the last leg of my journey home (hopefully in time to see my baby daughter before she goes to bed). Thanks to Funnel 2011, I have lots to reflect on about my own business and the business of my clients. It was a day well spent!
Some really interesting points you have written. Aided me a lot, just what I was looking for : D.