In this blog, our team shares what they believe to be the best marketing resources around at the moment - as well as why they're so great. Check them out.
Inbound Marketing has revolutionised the marketing and sales industry over the past decade and fundamentally changed the day-to-day activities of how marketers and businesses achieve success through online marketing methods.
Done properly, Inbound Marketing can increase lead generation and client acquisition, as well as improve customer engagement. But as a methodology built around customers, Inbound Marketing is constantly changing and therefore inherently difficult to master. While much of it will seem familiar to traditional marketers, it requires a complete shift in perspective.
Fortunately, for the keen and budding Inbound Marketing Managers amongst you, there are a lot of resources out there to help you achieve success and get to grips with Inbound Marketing.
To provide you with a comprehensive list of those resources, we cornered our team at Huble Digital and asked them to provide the top resources that they use on daily basis to keep up to date with Inbound news, techniques and best practices.
This is the list that they shared with us, in no particular order as they are all great!
Blogs and websites
Jeff Bullas' blog
Thought leader and one of the top digital marketing experts in the world, if you're serious about Inbound Marketing and achieving success in the future, having a read of Jeff Bullas' writings is certainly worth considering.
The blog covers a wide range of marketing topics, from current industry trends to actual practices and strategies. Content writing, influencer marketing, search engine optimisation, and the list goes on. If it's digital marketing, you'll find it here!
Square2Marketing's Cyclonic Buyers Journey
Square2Marketing's blog is a great resource for any Inbound Marketer and has loads of topics to choose from. You can expect multiple, high-quality blogs a week so rest assured that their information is up to date. After HubSpot's flywheel announcement, they put together a pillar page on what they call the 'Cyclonic Buyer Journey' - and it's an incredible piece of content.
Seth Godin
Seth Godin is an American author, former dot com business executive, entrepreneur and all-around digital marketing expert. If you haven't visited Seth Godin's blog - now's as good a time as any!
Featuring short snippets of powerful messages, Godin takes the ordinary and makes it special. His blog is full of useful takeaways and he regularly posts valuable content. Check him out!
Also, you should check out Seth Godin's book This is Marketing. It will transform the way you think about marketing your business!
Web Designer Depot
Web Designer Depot is one of the most popular website design blogs online. It includes the latest in website development trends, strategies, news and announcements, tutorials and much more.
BrightEdge blog
Whether you're new to search engine optimisation (SEO), a seasoned expert or just looking for more information - make sure to stop by the BrightEdge blog.
Featuring topics on website management, content creation, SEO, the latest search engine updates, algorithm changes, local search, keyword research and even public relations (PR), there's a lot of information that shouldn't be missed!
Moz blog
A vital resource for any Inbound Marketer serious about SEO (which you all should be!). The Moz blog provides best practice advice for improving your website and your search, social, content and brand marketing.
Content Marketing Institute Blog
The content marketing institute blog is a valuable Inbound Marketing resource for any marketer looking to optimise their content strategy. This blog has advice and guidance on how to use Twitter data to improve your marketing, to make the most of buyer personas.
No More PR & Marketing Bollox!
No More PR & Marketing Bollox is a weekly video blogging platform, dedicated to providing the SME and start-up community with no-nonsense, straight-talking advice on PR and Marketing.
The blog is in its third year and this year the team are putting together a series of high-quality videos on PR and marketing topics.
The author and curator, Bob Dearsley, is interviewed on a weekly basis, providing tips and tricks to help marketers and PR professionals dispel jargon and succeed in the modern, digital-first era.
Iliyana Stareva's blog
Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you've most likely heard of the term 'Inbound PR'.
Inbound PR is a methodology that combines the best of public relations - writing content - and digital marketing - measurement and analytics to provide bottom-line results.
Made popular by Iliyana Stareva, for anyone looking to learn more about Inbound PR - her blog is a must-read!
Impact Brand Blog
Us Diamond HubSpot Partners stick together… Impact Branding & Design is a HubSpot Diamond partner across the pond. Like The B2B Marketing Lab, Impact focuses on helping small to medium-sized businesses tackle their biggest marketing challenges and optimise their online presence.
HubSpot Blog
As the pioneers of Inbound Marketing, it would be insane to consider any kind of top resources blog post without the HubSpot blog.
Covering both marketing, sales agency and customer success, the HubSpot blog has expanded considerably over the years. It's now truly a repository for all kinds of business information related to digital marketing, Inbound Marketing and business growth.
On the HubSpot blog, you'll find a never-ending supply of topics to fuel your next campaign or make your business work better. You'll even find content that tackles things outside of marketing and sales!
HubSpot’s Medium
Launched in 2012, Medium is a social publishing platform that hosts a diverse collection of stories, ideas and perspectives.
Delivered straight to your mobile device, Medium gives its writers the power to share their stories, and the reader the chance to tailor what they see based on their interests.
With 96,000 followers at the point of updating this blog, HubSpot's Medium account is certainly worth following. Compared to HubSpot's business blog which covers a wide range of topics, its Medium account is more HubSpot-focused and provides a lot of detailed insight into certain products, HubSpot strategies and approaches, and much more.
In general, we find that Medium is a platform built for storytelling, and HubSpot’s account has some great stories to tell!
Books
Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point
Malcolm Gladwell is a Canadian journalist, author, and public speaker - and a bit of a hero among marketers.
His book, The Tipping Point, is a "wonderful page-turner" about when ideas, trends and social behaviours cross a threshold and spread like wildfire. All of which can be applied to marketing.
Geoffrey Moore's Crossing the Chasm
A must-read for any owner of a new business, Geoffrey Moore's Crossing the Chasm outlines the mistake many start-ups and new businesses make in the initial stages: not developing a long-term sales strategy.
In Crossing the Chasm, Moore explains just what the "Chasm" is, and how start-ups and over small businesses can overcome it in order to generate interest and, most importantly, sales opportunities.
Marcus Sheridan's They Ask, You Answer
According to our Group Head of Marketing, Matthew Creswick, this is by far the best Inbound Marketing book he's read to date - and he's read a few!
They Ask, You Answer, can be best summarised as a book about providing value in order to build trust with your target audience and generate customers who love your business.
Videos
Gary Vee Show
Gary Who?
Gary Vaynerchuk (or ‘Vee’ for ease) is the CEO and co-founder of Vayner Media, a social media-focused digital agency with over 600 employees, and a serial entrepreneur who has previously invested in Facebook, Twitter, Uber, as well as dozens more!
Gary runs a hugely popular YouTube channel called #AskGaryVee’, an energetic, inspiring and motivational marketing and social media Q&A series. It's also branched out into a podcast series, allowing you to listen on the go.
Ted Talks
We're all no doubt familiar with Ted Talks but the value they provide cannot be understated. With influential speakers and subject matter experts covering a variety of topics (including marketing), there's a lot to be found on the Ted Talks website for the aspiring business professional - or even a successful business professional!
With the vast array of content available on the Internet, it’s imperative that your business creates a range of content that is targeted towards its buyer personas. These Inbound Marketing resources should refine your understanding of the type of engaging content that is required to stand out from the competition, whilst ensuring that your content assets are SEO optimised in line with best practices and can be easily found by your audience.
The resources available in this post are all great, but make sure you don’t just read and watch what others have to say, has your business got insight it can share too? Whether it’s in written format, or video and audio format, make sure you’re connecting with your audience! To find out more about how Huble Digital can help your business to develop itself as an industry leader, click here.
