I just got back from drinking the Kool Aid at the Inbound 2015 Conference.
The focus at #INBOUND15 was on Inbound marketing. Pretty much how to not annoy people but actually find the people who are interested in what you have by providing great content.
Here are three nuggets I picked up that can be helpful for church plants or churches that want to reach people:
1. Do not be boring. This conference was exciting and engaging from start to finish. They had a club/lounge and a cool welcome reception with a dj. Besides that the speakers were top notch. Seth Godin, Brene Brown, Aziz Ansari=not boring
2. Follow up is essential. Most of the time we focus on the initial contact and never follow up. Inbound marketing is all about developing a relationship. That means engagement from beginning to end. Develop systems to follow up with people who are new; folks who have been coming for a while and even folks who are leaving (this could actually be the most valuable)
3. Strategy is more important than tactics. So many times throughout the conference I heard it’s not about the different hacks you have for email and the timing of your content and magic keywords for SEO. It’s about the strategy. How are you going to get people from point A to Z? Churches can learn from this. Instead of thinking about the latest fad or trend it’s better to defining your measure of success and how you are going to get there.
I know I said 3 but here’s number 4. I attended a breakout session called the Neuroscience of Memorable Content. My mind was blown when I learned we forget 90% of what is shared with us. For those who have a message to share we must focus on the 10% we want people to remember (that goes for you 21 point sermon pastor).
Churches need to think about marketing and if you have a message then you are a marketer. The question is are you doing it the old school way or getting your message to the relevant people using Inbound marketing.
