The Inbounder: What does the DNA of a Modern Day Marketer look like?
Events

The Inbounder: What does the DNA of a Modern Day Marketer look like?

17th March 2015

This Friday in Valencia a new event sees it’s first daylight. Organised by no other than our very own Gianluca Fiorelli, the conference ‘Inbounder‘ will look at what digital marketing these days really is all about. And next to himself Gianluca managed to get some great speakers: Rand Fishkin, Aleyda, Solis, Fernando Maciá Domene, Lisa Myers and yours truly, Bas van den Beld.

The-Inbounder

The conference is called ‘The Inbounder’, which made me think: what really is ‘the inbounder’, and I don’t mean the conference itself, but what it stands for: the modern day marketer. So I decided to ask the speakers of the conference: what is ‘the inbounder’, what does a modern day marketer look like? What does the DNA of the modern marketer look like? Here are the answers:

Rand Fishkin

“In my opinion, a great digital marketer today can see the big picture and understands how web marketing channels fit strategically into an organization’s broad goals, yet also has deep specialization in a particular field that gives them an edge over most everyone else using that set of tactics. This was my theory behind the T-Shaped marketer, and it’s something I’ve observed working well over and over and companies of all shapes, sizes, and foci. A great web marketer doesn’t let their specialization blind them to other opportunities or narrow their thinking, but they do use their unique edge to produce outsized returns on investment.”

Fernando Maciá Domene

“I think inbound marketing is all about aligning an organisation’s goals with those of their target audiences. We must understand that customers are getting more and more armoured against advertising. They want to make responsible and informed buying decisions and are eager to buy from companies which are able to understand and meet their needs and demands exactly when and how they wish. As digital marketers, we must understand that promotion is becoming less about advertising and more about communications.”

Lisa Myers

“Today’s marketer needs to be problem solvers and highly adaptable. Analytical AND creative, but most of all they have to be able to problem solvers. I like to talk about modern marketers as “professional labyrinth walkers’, you come to a dead end, you find another way, you DO NOT stop until you find the way out. That is the thinking that is needed, if something doesn’t work, you have to think of another way. And you can’t be afraid of change, digital marketing today changes all the time. You have to adapt fast, ideally you should love the change – embrace it! An inbounder also need to be able to push themselves, like an athlete they should always be pushing to beat their personal best. The way we think changes the ability of what we are able to do; an inbounder is not afraid of the limits, but pushes them.”

Aleyda Solis

“Meet today’s digital marketing McGiver! The “inbounder” is the evolved digital marketer who leads or coordinate the non-disruptive & organic actions to attract, grow & optimize online conversions. This is a multi-disciplinary person -with SEO, Social, email marketing, analytics, content marketing and technical understanding- who effectively aligns owned, earned & also non-disruptive paid online marketing actions from a strategic stand-point, advising & making decisions based on data in order to effectively achieve the organization digital marketing goals in these channels.” 

Bas van den Beld

“To me, the DNA of a modern day marketer is very diverse. You need to know a little bit about everything. But most important to me is the capability of a marketer to understand those who he or she is targeting. Not just sending messages that broadcast the message of the client, but send messages that speak to the exact target audience. Understand them and act on that. The marketer that can do that, stands out.”

Gianluca Fiorelli

And finally I asked Gianluca, who of course has a bit more to say on the topic, being the organiser of the event:

“It is since few years that I am trying to educate both clients and fellow marketers that Inbound Marketing is that strategic thinking that can help us doing better digital marketing.

I did it writing posts, like this one on State of Digital back in the days or talking in conferences or simply discussing with friends online and face to face.

The Inbounder, somehow, is the ideal conclusion of all those actions.

Thinking Inbound, IMO, means being able to establish a common strategy that will guide the efforts of disciplines and channels that, on the contrary, risk to act by themselves, often stepping on each other’s feet and surely not leading to what could be the best results for the client.

Inbound Marketing, meant in the more generic sense of having SEO, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Social Media, PPC and Analytics collaborating around a common strategy, is also what the evolution itself of how people relates to brands is asking us to do.

People, in fact, is not using anymore just one channel for being informed about something, but travel and use them all at the same time. For this reason, if we really are true to a user-centric vision of marketing, we cannot do just one thing even if we are mastering it, because that won’t be enough for conquering the increasingly more competitive scenario of Internet.

In the specific of SEO, then, thinking broadly and be open to work shoulder to shoulder with other disciplines is simply a necessity of life or death because of the evolution (and related updates) of Google.

Before I said that The Inbounder somehow signs the end of many years I spent promoting these ideas. 

However it can also be considered as the beginning, maybe, of something new: creating an event in Spain that will be open to every web marketer in Europe and beyond, breaking that sort of UK/USA-centric monopoly when talking about web marketing conferences, and offering the opportunity to the great marketers of South Europe too to have a place where their voices can be heard beyond their national borders.”

See you in Valencia?

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Bas van den Beld is an award winning Digital Marketing consultant, trainer and speaker. He is the founder of State of Digital and helps companies develop solid marketing strategies.
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